"Nice to meet ya! I'm Oscar Breindel." He introduced, extending a hand towards me.

Not fully paying attention; partly because of my anticipation for the cinnamon twists Molly bribed me with to come here; I took it, but for the most part I was concerned with a bunch of questions. The one at the forefront being, 'What's with this guy?'

A weird question to ask after just meeting someone, sure, but bear with me for a second, yeah? For the most part, everything out in the shit is populated by Amalgamations as far as the eye can see, and the closer you get to the Storm, the more dense their concentration gets, and thus the more dangerous.

The problem with that comes with the fact that Amalgamations are essentially Lovecraftian horrors; most of them being spawned from disfigured and rotting bodies pieced together with whatever was around it before it transformed, and encapsulated in a substance that's constantly shifting and squirming in. Hanging around them for any amount of time would be enough to siphon the joy and wonder from someone, unless they're a total psychopath like 90% of the people in the Order.

But, then there was this guy; heterochromatic red and gold eyes gleaming with an almost childlike wonder, and lips turned as far upwards as possible in a wide smile, and considering how easy it is to differentiate a forced smile from a real one nowadays, it was plain to see that, as far as things go, he may as well be having the time of his life.

'So, call it. Innocent ray of sunshine or absolute lunatic? My credits are on the latter...'

Not that he'd be all that different from half the people in the Saber, so it's not like it really matters either way. But regardless, seeing as introductions were done with, Molly started talking again, leaning over the table with her usual set of over-exaggerated enthusiasm, "Alright, so, the only way I could get him over here was to bribe him with food, so we'll have to wait for that, but afterwards, there won't be a single corner of this place that you don't know!"

Unfortunately for me, her enthusiasm seemed to be pretty influential in the case of newbies, and Oscar wasn't any exception... I could only hope that nothing went awry with her powers this time around.

"Good evening, Mr. Amani~" a voice that I knew very well sang, as the robotic waitress that it belonged to approached. "You as well, Ms. Noemi."

"Hi, Maia!"

"Jeez, I told you, just call me Mira." This was Maia; or "Service Unit M414" as far as her Synthesis ID was concerned; but considering how inconvenient that is to say over and over again, most of the Saber's members take to just calling her and her "siblings" by whatever name everyone agrees on. Maia was one of the older models, but was almost just as sophisticated as the newer ones, and was certainly a big reason for the Cafeteria being my third favorite room in the base.

"Right, right, force of programming, I'm afraid." She chuckled, "But I'm sure you're less interested in how I refer to you as you are to these."

A smile forced itself onto my face once she mentioned that, all the while, reaching to the lid of the tray she was carrying. I could already smell it when she started walking over, but it was still way more exciting once she actually brought it up.

"And here is your special-made serving of cinnamon twists with a side of chocolate sauce, courtesy of Mr. Alda, as thanks for your help with the food shipment from Paradise." Just looking at the dish in front of me was enough to make me drool, so taking a bite of it was the only natural reaction.

And goddamn was it good! Between the pleasantly bitter flavor of the chocolate, the sweet, woody and slightly citrusy taste of the cinnamon, and the softness of the pastry itself, it was like biting into a piece of heaven. Definitely some of Boa's best work. "Maia, tell Boa this is the greatest thing I've ever tasted..."

"I'll be sure to pass that along~" She said with a slight bow. With that said, I turned my full attention to my plate, completely ignoring whatever else was said. "Now then, kindly forgive my rudeness." Maia apologized as she turned her attention to Oscar, "I should have introduced myself sooner. I am Service Unit M414, however a majority of the Sanguine Saber's members have grown fond of referring to me as "Maia". And you are?"

"Oscar Breindel, great to meet you!"

"Quite the enthusiastic one, aren't we? It is great to meet you as well. Though, for Mr. Amani's sake, I hope you aren't as... spirited as Ms. Noemi~"

"Hey!" The Ms. Noemi in question jumped to her feet at that, pouting as if she were offended by the automaton's accusatory tone, "I'm not that bad! Right, Mira?"

Barely paying attention, and more concerned with the pastries in front of him, Mira raised his head for a second with a barely audible "Hm?", but dismissed her with another low "Mm..." the second he lost interest in whatever the conversation was about.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"See? He agrees. I'm awesome!" She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest with a proud smirk. Maia gave a small chuckle in response. "Yes, yes, he made that very clear."

Before Molly could comment on Maia's obvious teasing, a contented sigh drew her attention, along with Mira slumping onto the bench, laying his head on his crossed arms with a satisfied look on his face, idly licking chocolate residue from the side of his mouth. "This is what I live for..."

With that, Maia bowed to both Molly and Oscar, "I suppose that is my cue to take my leave and let you all attend to your business." She cleared up the plate that sat empty and scraped clean beside the half-conscious Mira.

"It's also your cue to get moving, Mr. Amani." she cooed, her sweet voice not making the sharp pinch she gave to Mira's neck any less painful, which was more than enough to get him out of his food-induced drowsiness.

Meanwhile, Oscar and Molly whispered amongst themselves, leaning towards each other as if that would make it any harder for the subject of their conversation to hear.

"So, hey, I don't know much about Mira, but I feel like if anyone else tried that they'd lose their hand..."

"He's nicer after he eats. Sometimes."

"Huh... Neat."

Having been reluctantly pulled from the clutches of sleep by the powerful mechanical fingertips of the robotic waitress, Mira groggily stood from his seat with a grunt, "Alright, let's get this tour over with..." Not seeing any reason to object, the two stood up as well and followed after him, idly chatting amongst themselves, and the group finally started on the newbie's tour around the base.

Running ahead of the two once the group left the cafeteria, Molly started the explanation with her usual brand of enthusiasm before turning back to them and clapping her hands. In that same instance, the two of them suddenly found themselves sitting in what looked like a school setting.

"Uhm...?" Oscar hummed confusedly.

"You get used to it. Unfortunately..."

"No talking in my class!" Molly interrupted as what looked like a meter ruler smacked against the surface of the desk Mira was seated at. Ignoring the glare that the gesture had earned her, Molly stood beside a large whiteboard with some scribbled on illustrations drawn on it. "Alright, listen up. Welcome to Ms. Noemi's class of "Cool Underground Military Bases 101, Sanguine Saber Edition✩"! And, no, this class is not likely to receive a "102", sadly..."

Though it was clear that Oscar was confused, he seemed excited by the display nonetheless, sitting attentively in his seat like an eager student. Mira, however, didn't share his enthusiasm as he laid down on his desk with his eyes closed. Of course, Ms. Noemi's ruler came down in front of him again.

"For starters, here at this lovely little hole in the ground, we have fifteen floors available to us. Well... There's more or less depending on how you wanna look at it, but I digress..." Once again ignoring the annoyed gaze of Mira, she pointed her ruler to the crude drawing on the whiteboard.

"We're here, on the fifth floor, where we've got the cafeteria/mess hall, food storage, and all that other sustenance related junk. In other words, if you're hungry this is the floor to be on! The four floors above us are pretty self-explanatory. There's the entrance on Floor One, which includes the vehicle bay, the control room on Floor Two, and the medical bay on Floor Three. The fourth floor is pretty fun, though! We call it the "Green Room". The name makes sense once you take a look for yourself."

She then pointed her ruler down to the levels below the fifth floor. "Under that, we have the barracks, which takes up like four floors worth of space, the armory, the science department, and my personal favorite!" But she then enthusiastically snaps her ruler against a particular floor on her doodled depiction of the base, somewhat-literal stars shining in her eyes.

"The Common Rooms! A wonderful land of terrible, fun, horrible decisions!" As she exclaimed excitedly, the classroom setting around them began to fade, almost immediately making way for a casino setting, their school uniforms being replaced by fancy, sparkly outfits, with Molly in particular sporting a sparkly red dress.

Oscar looked down at himself with childish splendor, looking himself over in the suit, "Oooh~ Can I keep this??"

"Nah, Molly's stuff doesn't stick around for long..." Mira explains tiredly.

"Aw, man..."

Meanwhile, as Oscar pouted in disappointment, the scenery around them seemed to crumble, with the three of them finding themselves back at the hallway outside the cafeteria, with Molly exclaiming in her usual cheery tone, "And that's all there is to it! Welcome to the SS party, gangalang!"

"Oh, glad to be invited."

With her explanation and introduction to the Sanguine Saber over with, Molly stepped over to Oscar, an excited gleam in her eyes. "So, now that that's done with, what's say I introduce you to the wonderful world of gambling down in the Common Room??"

"I... don't actually have any money..."

"That's no prob, Bob, it's just to show you the ropes! We can get to bettin' when you're better." Before Oscar could refuse any more, Molly stood behind him, pushing him towards the elevator, looking back to Mira briefly. "Hey, Mira, you comin'?"

"Only cause the elevator's in that direction... I'm going to sleep..."

Molly gave a disgruntled whined at his refusal, continuing to push Oscar towards the elevator, though Mira followed after them sluggishly.

"Awww, come on, it'll be fun─" However, Molly stopped her prodding once she felt something land on her shoulder. "What the...?"

At her confused muttering, both Oscar and Mira turned their attention to her, curious about the sudden interruption in her typical behavior. "What's up?" Oscar asked, looking at her over his shoulder.

Taking her hands away from Oscar's back and turning to her shoulder, she took note of the substance, realizing the familiarity of it. "...Oh..."

"...Please don't tell me..." And it seemed Mira was quick to catch on as well.

As another glob of the substance splattered against the floor in front of them, the three of them looked up towards the ceiling.

"Uh-oh spaghetti o's!" Despite the strange exclamation from Molly, it didn't serve to take away from the surprise from the three of them, as they saw the form of an Amalgamation slowly seeping through the metal of the fifth floor's ceiling...