[Fin] Knowing when to shut up

[TawnyAngel]

Sometimes it was difficult to be vegetarian at TRHQ as in 'strictly not eating anything that once talked'. Sometimes - often - it was hard to tell what had gone into pies and pasta dishes and so on which tended to make of peculiar dinners. This evening Aulus had roast potatoes, carrots, and cabbage from the hot food along with mixed beans, lettuce, and yesterday's fried rice from the salad-type area.

Dessert was a bit more promising; Aulus acquired a rather large portion of treacle sponge with custard by dint of glowering dangerously at the grunt doing the portioning. With that and a large glass of water Aulus turned to look for somewhere to sit, spotted an empty space, and headed over to it.

To be completely honest much though the sub-par options for food had annoyed him his mind was currently elsewhere, down in the labs as it happened. That Sharpeado.... Ugh, he just wanted to know what had happened to it that was all; the mystery was niggling at him like an itch he couldn't scratch, a frequent frustration before he'd got his new arm. It was kind of hard to scratch something that wasn't even there after all.  

[Gwennythe]

Clancy was not a vegetarian and his meal showed as much. Some kind of steak pie with a good smattering of what definitely wasn't vegetable stock gravy, plus some deliciously unhealthy chips made up his meal. For a 'healthy' option, and slightly more vegetarian friendly, he had a mess of chopped onions.
Dessert was treacle tart, like Aulus, but it was a rather cream-laden affair.

The redhead happened to make for the same table Aulus had chosen, finding a seat rather close to the agent.
He recognized him, though it had been a while, despite the new addition of a metal arm.

He didn't bother asking if 'the seat was taken' or if Aulus minded; the grunt simply put down his tray and used a walking stick to lever himself into the seat with a slight thud and an 'oof!'.

"Ah, bloody 'ell, that's better... Nice sit down... How's it goin' Sykes?" He addressed Aulus with a grin.  

[TawnyAngel]

What?

Aulus' red eyes sharpened and hardened and his grip on his cutlery tightened slightly as he raised his gaze to meet Clancy's. "What?" he repeated the question that had flickered across his mind with a hint of razor edge to his clipped tones. What did this little tit want, and what was with the Oliver reference?  

[Gwennythe]

"Eh? Asked you 'ow you was..." Clancy explained, tilting his head, then shoveling a forkful of steak and onion into his mouth, doing half a job of chewing before speaking again, before he'd swallowed all of it.

"Y' bit zonked out 'r summat? Dunno what kinda work they got ya 'igher lots doin'. Ain't you lot s'posed to be able to take it a bit bloody easier once ya get up there? Ain't no grunt work cuz, ya know, ya ain't a bloody grunt no more..."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Why did you call me Sykes? It's not my name, or anything close to it even. If it was supposed to be funny I missed the joke." Aulus clarified, still glowering darkly. "And if you think being an Agent is an easy ride you're seriously deluded; we might not have to scrub things and file things but we're just as busy as grunts, only we actually have to engage our brains and show initiative. By the way, have you considered not talking with you mouth full as a life option for you? Because if you haven't, you should."  

[Gwennythe]

"Naaah. Me ma used to say the same kinda thing 'bout talkin' wi' me bloody mouthful. Ain't seen nay bloomin' point in doin' so or not, t' be honest." He gave an easy, languid, shrug, and then winced slightly; still hurt a little. Well, that would pass.
"If ya say so. And," He waved a fork toward Aulus' metal arm "ya got one arm. 'S profitetic or wotever... Like Sykes, ya know; Fugitive!"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh. That Sykes." Aulus sneered dismissively and then, quite casually, bent his fork around his first finger using his middle finger and his thumb. "Mine's better than his," he informed Clancy with a show of teeth that was as much a smile as a Sharpeado's usual expression is. "And you really should eat with your damn mouth shut, I don't want to see your half masticated dinner Grunt." Aulus didn't often think the world 'pleb' but he was thinking it right now along with 'moron' and a couple of other things that were even less complimentary.  

[Gwennythe]

"Aye... That, uh, Sykes. That's bloody impressive!" Clancy exclaimed, watching as Aulus twisted up his fork. "Ain't sure the cookery lot are gonna be much too 'appy wi' you doin' Yuri Gellar impressions..." Then he looked puzzled.
"Me 'alf what dinner?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus raised an eyebrow and bent the fork back into shape. "Metal is marvellously malleable," he drawled, "and I said masticated, which means chewed and not what you were probably thinking." Though he had now fixed his fork Aulus set it down and instead opted to extend the claw in his forefinger to spear a single broad bean which he then transferred to his mouth, chewed, and swallowed all with his mouth closed. "Like that, see? Good tables manners cost nothing, but bad ones might." It wasn't very much of a threat, more of a suggestion that threats existed in the same universe as the comment and might start to drift towards it should speaking with the mouth full continue.  

[Gwennythe]

Clancy watched, apparently not absorbing the threats or hostility, as Aulus bent his fork back into shape, and then used a claw instead of a fork.

"Eh? What 'ave bad table manners e'er cost? Ain't like you get no bloody fine f'r it or owt..." Clancy seemed confused, but still impressed.
"So, any 'ow; ain't you gettin' no steak?" He'd focused on the fact it was a broad bean that Aulus had impaled rather than a good healthy chunck of meat...  

[TawnyAngel]

Okay, fine, so subtlety didn't work. Aulus scowled deeper. "You might get fined in a smack around the face, got it? Just don't do it again. And I don't eat meat, seen as you ask." What was this guy's problem anyway? He was about as bright and articulate as an artichoke.  

[Gwennythe]

"Not from that gurt ol' club 'f an arm I 'ope!" Clancy didn't seem to take the threat seriously, chuckling as he waved his fork (another chunk of meat attached) in the metal arm's direction. "That'd bloody well 'urt!" Then he refocused on the meat/no meat issue.
"Ey? 'Ow come? Ya ain't one o' these bloody 'ippy types are ya, big ol' scarred lug like you? Can't be!"  

[TawnyAngel]

"I am not a lug," Aulus growled, the muscles in his shoulders starting to tense up as his annoyance built. "And no I am not a hippy, it's a personal choice made a) for health reasons and b) because I decided that it wasn't great to go around eating things that can talk. Oh, and you're heading for a smack with the left hand right now but keep this up and I might swap to the right. Did that much get through to you or do you need a hole drilled for a cochlear implant?"  

[Gwennythe]

"A what implant?! Hey, man, I ain't into that kind o' bloody thing..." Clancy put his fork down and held up his hands defensively. "Any'ow. I see. 'Ealth and such... Ain't really put much stock in the whole 'talkin' business', m'self; only met a bloody fancy worm thingy that c'n do it so far... Ain't thinkin' it'd make good eatin' either... Sides, was kinda like an eel; weren't too bloody shabby, just flamin' odd... Ya know, you're missin' out. 'S bloody good steak!"  

[TawnyAngel]

Okay, okay, calm. There was really no point in letting himself get really angry, eloquently annoyed was very much the way to go he felt. Aulus lent forward a little, his eyes narrowed. "Listen here you addle-brained home-county pillock, I don't know what you think I meant but it was actually a perfectly innocent reference to a hearing aid. I really don't care what you might or might not be into so there's no need to get defensive about that, alright? I'm sure you're completely a man's man who is only into the ladies."

Aulus shook his head and sat back again. "And you should put stock in it, you might learn something," he continued in more normal tones. "Fancy worm thing... Milotic or Dragonaire?" Now why did he suspect that he wasn't going to get a proper answer to that question?