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Breakroom
Claremont SDN
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[center][color=gray]((ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴꜱ:[@Aku the Samurai] [@SonnetNSunbeam] | ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴꜱ: [@Pragia12] [@FourtyTwo]))[/color][/center]

She'd just about made her mind up to go ahead and start some small talk with Lightning Girl when Phenomaman walked into the breakroom. 

Alaine immediately felt herself shrink into the corner, as if the meager shadow and her own dark suit would camouflage her. [i]She'd seen Phenomaman before[/i], and it had been after she'd... done something she wasn't proud of. He hadn't been coming after her at the time -- maybe? -- but it had scared her bad enough to leave an impression. Like the heart attack of speeding a bit and seeing a cop behind you all of the sudden... only a hundred times worse.

But, on closer inspection, she wasn't so sure this one [i]was[/i] Phenomaman. He looked... off. Somehow. She wished she'd kept herself more informed on these things but alas, the last couple of years she'd really only learned whatever she happened to catch in others' conversations or the occasional news station playing in random lobbies.

In any case, the giant man wasn't paying her even a smidgen of attention. That made her shoulders relax a bit, but she decided to relocate and put some distance between them all the same. As she casually scooted down the wall a bit she noticed someone else entering; it looked like an actual minor, but there was something adult about the tiredness he seemed to display.

Whoever he was he didn't seem too enthusiastic about Not-Phenomaman either, but that meant his attention then fell on her. 

[quote][colour=61DE2A]“I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Tyler, dispatch.”[/colour][/quote]
Dispatch? He had to be an adult, then, right? Blackstar bobbed her head slightly in return, noting someone else coming in as she replied, [color=gray][b]"Al--"[/b][/color] [i]Oops.[/i] [color=gray][b]"--uh, Blackstar. Nice to meet you."[/b][/color]

Yikes, that was close. She'd blame him for introducing himself with a normal name and making her instinctually want to do the same. Hopefully he wouldn't think too much of it. 

She did [i]not[/i] envy him the role of dispatch. Him or James, for that matter. Not that she planned on being a pain or anything, she would just hate having to coordinate everything like that and not be there in person to help if anyone was in trouble. 

Oh God. She hadn't thought about that. What if she started liking these people? She'd been away from her younger siblings for so long that her big sister instincts were starting to claw at her ribs like some kind of animal trapped inside her. She needed something to actively [i]care[/i] about and, now that she thought about it, working with a group she might very well be put into some dangerous situations with would probably trigger that protective instinct.

...These people had better not be likeable. For the sake of her mental health.

[quote][color=mediumpurple]"Wow, they're really staffing Claremont up, I thought they'd leave us high and dry for awhile in moving people to the other branch."[/color][/quote]
That was the other newcomer. She glanced over as he took a seat in a nearby chair -- backwards, of course, as cool people did. His attention shifted to her too then, but she supposed that was her own fault for moving out of her little corner.

[quote][color=mediumpurple]"The black on black there is slick- I'm Asteroid, nice to meetcha."[/color][/quote]
The wink earned a small grin under her mask and melted away a little more tension from her shoulders. Dang it, that was pretty likeable. Now she was really 50/50 on that lower half of her mask, because she realized being non-verbal would look very a-holey without the help of friendly facial expressions. In place of said friendly expression, she tilted her head in a similar fashion and replied, [color=gray][b]"Blackstar. Nice to meet you, too."[/b][/color]

She paused, then grinned again as she nodded down at his boots. She'd seen the red soles when he sat down. [color=gray][b]"I like the Louboutins."[/b][/color] Hopefully the friendly teasing note came through in her voice.

This was the one Lightning Girl had called her doppleganger, right? Interesting. Alaine spared a glance in the direction of said electric woman, as well as the Not-Phenomaman Man, then looked back to Tyler and Asteroid as the latter mentioned needing fish food. For a fish named [i]Ducky.[/i] Dang, that was cute. 

[i]Hm[/i]. A fish... She got distracted for a second mentally as the others' conversation turned to Mamaki, whatever that was, considering the idea of getting herself a scaly little roommate. That'd be low-maintenance-ish, right? In the sense she wouldn't have to walk it or play with it or anything... though that [i]was[/i] a large part of the joy of owning a pet. Not that she could really give a cat or dog the attention it would deserve, given her new occupation. Or could she...? 

That apartment was just so small and quiet and -- well, [i]lonely[/i]. Anything would help. Even a fish.

Maybe that would solve the other problem. Get a fish and let herself be protective over [i]that[/i], not her teammates.

Wow, that sounded bad. Thank goodness nobody in there was a mind-reader... As far as she knew, anyway.