SHHOOM
Sebastian warps inside the recently vacated training room. He was starting to unfasten his jacket to take it off for some exercise and experimentations when he heard the sound of a stomach rumbling. His stomach. The "breakfast" he had which consisted mainly of a cup of coffee apparently didn't cut it.
SHHOOM
He warps back in the pantry to get something to eat and arrives to find Rina who had a plate of pancakes in front of her, having breakfast as well.
"Hey," greets Rina.
"Did you just get here?" he asks the unusually late-arriving Rina.
"YOU'RE seriously asking ME that?" she points out the irony in his judgement disguised as a question.
Checkmate. He proceeds rummaging around the room looking for something.
"So what happened?" asks Rina, taking a slice of syrup-covered pancake.
"Eh, old man wasn't mad," Sebastian approaches the small table to take a seat across the dining Rina, fork in hand.
"I have to take trash missions for a week, though," he takes a slice off Rina's plate.
Rina smiles. "Well, I'm sorry."
"For what?" asks Sebastian, eyebrows raised and mouth full of food.
"Ben told me what happened and it's pretty much my fault that you're being punished," she explains.
"What, no," he takes another slice. "It's those useless scrubs at the top's fault. The old man was fine with it."
"Are you going to do contracts with Harley?"
"I did but dumbass said no, can you believe it?"
Rina laughs. There was nothing but silence and sounds of chewing for a few seconds.
"Hey," she breaks the ice. "Do you want to have a talk? An ACTUAL talk. Not, you know… this," says Rina, referring to their occasional, casual small talk.
The two haven't talked about their sudden "cool off" caused by Sebastian's unannounced departure since he got back. Although there was some residing awkwardness, their friendship didn't seem to take that much of a hit as the two were still occasionally engaging in casual conversation. But this doesn't take away from the fact that there is presently a rift between them. The two were simply mature enough to handle it well and without drama.
Rina gets a call before Sebastian could answer.
"Speaking. Yeah. Alright. On my way."
Duty calls.
"I… have to go," she gets up but isn't leaving yet, perhaps waiting for Sebastian to say something.
"Good luck," not the response that she was waiting for. Even so, she leaves with a smile.
He stares at the plate of leftover pancakes on the table for a couple of seconds before Eva walked in on him.
"You EAT food, you don't stare at it, you idiot," Eva's comment snaps him back to reality.
"I bumped into Rina, you guys back together?" asks Eva, looking inside the fridge.
No answer.
"You said 'sorry' yet?"
No answer again.
"WILL you say 'sorry'?"
"WILL YOU and Ben ever stop pestering me about my personal life?" he retorts.
"I don't know. Will YOU ever stop sabotaging your own personal life?" she grabs a bottle of juice and takes a seat across Sebastian.
"Weren't you just here like, 10 minutes ago?" Sebastian is deflecting.
"No wonder there's never any food in here. I'm telling Ben he's basically paying you to just get fat," says Sebastian before getting up to leave.
"I'm not fat, I'm thicc"
"FFATT-UH," says Sebastian, enunciating every letter of his insult before teleporting out of the room.
SHHOOM
Eva rolls her eyes at her childish, teleporting co-worker.
SHHOOM
Sebastian warps in the lobby where Sean and Chen were lounging at.
"Yo."
"The hell happened to you last night?" asks Sean.
"You guys know about that already? News travels fast around here. Jesus."
"'Know about it'? I was there, I came with the second unit," Sean explains. "And we went there for nothing. Just people crying and screaming."
The incident caused by Crowe's monster didn't cause a lot of casualties. The village only had a population of less than 300. But there were also a handful of tourists who were at the village at the time of the incident. Fourteen of the locals were unfortunate victims of the monster while there were four tourists.
Additionally, this was a case of massive exposure. Although it was just to a tiny village, but it was still public exposure nonetheless. As Eden could not be linked to such incidents, the agents that handled the damage control simply introduced themselves as part of the government body. No names, no specifics. Eden was to handle the reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure. Furthermore, a generous amount of compensation was to be given to the families of the victims for a long but undisclosed amount of time in exchange for keeping the incident behind closed doors.
This was a very rare occasion and one that Eden desperately avoids as it usually ends up being more troublesome than getting rid of the actual monsters themselves.
"Hey, I told Ben to send you guys back," Sebastian reasons out. "Blame him."
Sebastian notices Chen. Another agent who was recruited during his brief retirement.
"Hey, kid," he calls onto him. "Wanna make a contract?"
"You sound like a pimp," Sean comments.
"What's a 'contract'," asks Chen to both men in the room. "Am I being sent to some island"
"Do I look like my name is Jeffrey, no."
"Basically, this guy goes to missions with you and does all of the work," Sean explains for the person who offered said contract.
"What's the catch?"
"You pay him."
"Yikes. I'll pass."
"Cheap, am I right," Sebastian looks over to Sean for approval.
"Why are you doing contracts again?" asks Sean. "You get demoted or something?"
"Kinda. I'm only limited to A's for an entire week."
"I could do YOUR missions for you," Chen chimes in.
"Are you reverse contracting me?"
"Maybe."
"Mm-mm," the contractor declines. "Note happening, kid."
SHHOOM
"Why does he keep calling me 'kid'?" Chen asks Sean.
"Aren't you"
"No, I'm 18 and he looks like he's two years older than me."
"Eh, you're all kids in my eyes," says Sean.