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 [i]“Eh.”[/i]

“Oh, hiiii! You’re Leila, right?” Est instantly swiveled around to face the girl, a sunny but somewhat mild smile on his face as he sized her up. What was she carrying? It looked like those ugly canvas things the cargo haulers used back in the backwater factories… “Yeah, got that. Nice to meet you, Leila Noelle. I like your name, it’s very… fluid. There are just some names that really have no sort of poetic grace to them, right? Like mine! Berit Rinaldi! It sounds so choppy!” The private shook his head and then straightened his back as he pondered the girl’s inquiry. Almost instantly a strange fire lit up his eyes and then Est was gesturing animatedly as if he was drawing blueprints with his hands. 

“Yes, yes! Keyne’s motor! It was developed just a few cycles back by this scholar dude named Fuzzy Keynes. I think he used to be a rapper once, but anyway! He came from a family of inventors- his mother invented a smokeless synthetic wood, I think, which is pretty much being used for lighting dark caves or mines underground- and he just, wham! Entered the Intercity Invention Expo with this brand new design nobody’s ever heard of and he won first place!” The soldier paused to take a deep breath, then promptly rambled on, “I haven’t seen his motor in the flesh, but apparently it’s a complete remake of the Old Age layout we’ve been using since before. I’m sure you’ve seen it, most of the things in this city run on the Old Age layout. You know, lots of gears, cogs, mostly brass turnings. Keyne’s was made out of thin, dual-layered mithrilium-steel alloy, which is pretty much why I haven’t seen it yet since it’s hella expensive.”

The girl in front of him, surprisingly enough, didn’t look bored by his lecture. She actually seemed to like listening about the subject matter!

"T-the energy source? Oh yeah, coral fuel. We get it from the coastal area. However, the city’s much for using steam rather than that, since coral fuel is basically mermaid property. Sure, they don’t use oil underwater, but there hasn’t been extensive drilling to show how much coral fuel there is. Without knowing that, we can’t change the city’s energy source in case we run outta juice, you got what I’m talking about, right?” Est smiled at the girl and then reached over to take the parachute from Leila. He tossed it over her shoulder like it was nothing and was about to add more to the science talk if it wasn’t for the appearance of a familiar doctor.

“Hey! I don’t get injured [i]that[/i] often! And what’s not reassuring, the pesky hobbit girl and her friends or that you’ll be a lab rat? Don’t worry, Doc’s things don’t zap. They just… make you feel really weird,” Est walked over to Harper with Leila in tow. Lesley’s wonderful pink hair had turned pitch black due to some freak accident with Doc’s equally freaky potions, and the poor human was now sobbing at his friend’s shoulder. “Whoa, don’t fuss over it! Think of the new color as an eye-opener! You’ll look steamier and sexier! Or at least that’s what the other soldiers say when they imagine Lieutenant Falkner with black hair. I still think you look great! Oh yeah, CL-2! Get this too, okay?” He told Lesley, and dumped the parachute on the cleaning robot as it scurried out of the room. The poor thing was practically buried but it moved on nonetheless. Poor little baby. 

“You almost turned me into a girl once too, Doc,” Est quipped in a tone that was much less cheerful and more worried as Inadi sat down on the stool for his treatment.