Tillie had had many adjectives attributed to her over the years. Quiet, dorky, boring, pasty, pretty—once, by college boy who stopped talking to her after she’d won the grant they’d both applied for. More recently things had taken a positive tilt; they called her diligent, dependable, antsy, which she chose to interpret as a good thing. But for everything she’d been called, never, not once in her life, had she ever been accused of being ‘[i]sturdy[/i]’.

So, when Quinn barreled into her at the closest human’s could reach to mach-speed, despite the girl’s meager stature, she sent both of them sprawling to the floor. Tillie let out a yelp not unlike a small dog, but was too concerned with her immediate fate to be embarrassed. 

Her first thought was: [color=f26522][i]Shoot, I’ve upset her somehow and now I’m going to die.[/i][/color] After all, everyone she’d ever spoken to about it had told her that pilots were fickle. That the weight of heroism caused them such mental strain they could be given to fits of violence at even the most minor of provocations. However, as she realized that Quinn’s grip around her was not, in fact, an attempt at snapped her spine in half, she considered the idea that she was not in trouble. 

“[color=ffe63d]Tillie Tillie are you--are you okay—are you okay—[/color]”

[color=f26522][i]Huh?[/i][/color]

She felt rather silly then. How could she think Quinn would try to kill her—[i]Quinnlash Loughvein![/i] Yet, somehow just as unlikely in her mind was the idea that the girl would be [i]hugging[/i] her so tightly, either. When that reality made itself apparent as well, she felt like her mind might just stop working. 

“[color=f26522]Eeee—[/color]” she said—or squealed, really, as it was not [i]words[/i] she produced. Unsure of what to do with her hands, they flittered around like hummingbirds, too afraid to actually touch her and hug back. 

Blessedly, her composure did eventually return and she managed to wrestle back her grasp of language. “[color=f26522]O-okay? Uhm! Oh gosh, I’m [i]so much more than okay[/i]! Wow![/color]” She pulled herself upright, momentarily mortified by the look her supervisor shot her, before they walked off. “[color=f26522]I was just, uhm! I was just testing [i]Ablaze[/i]’s assimilative functions. I’ve never gotten to perform it myself, it’s exhilarating! Oh—uhm! I’m sorry, were you going to do it yourself? We can totally run it again if you want![/color]”