Rio jumped when she heard one of her fellow scientists mutter something beside her. She opened her mouth to say something about his rather rude word choice, but froze instead. Though the two of them spent the majority of their time in the same lab, Prof. Glasgow wasn't the most… inviting personality. Quite frankly, he was intimidating. Rio didn't think they'd ever had a conversation not centered around kaiju tissue samples, and she doubted the older man would want to start now. 

Eventually the group of mercenaries split off, heading in the direction of the barracks. They… weren't going to the briefing? Oh well, that was probably for the best, Rio decided. The colonel probably wouldn't appreciate an audience of drunken soldiers. 

Thus, Rio found herself alone in the hall with Prof. Glasgow and another scientist. He worked in the IT lab, so Rio didn't see much of him, but he already seemed friendlier option… or at least the less scary option. If Rio was honest with herself, she felt like something of an outsider at the base. She was one of the youngest, one of the only women, one of the only Asians… all of that coupled with her shy nature meant she didn't have any idea how to connect with those around her. Not to mention she was still dealing with the loss of both her parents and her legs. She wasn't sure if she was actually [i]ready[/i] to start opening up to people again. But the IT scientist seemed like a good place to start. He was closer to her age and the only other Asian she'd seen at the base. It wouldn't hurt to try, right?

"Umm…" Off to a great start. "You work in engineering, right?" she asked in English. That seemed to be the de facto language here, and she didn't actually know where he was from (or even what his name was). Plus, maybe Prof. Glasgow would like to join in. "We work mostly in the bio lab. Are you developing something in particular or just general research?"