[Madam Gao's, San Francisco]
Volinna slid across the back seat, scissoring her long green legs to manoeuvre them through the taxi door, while placing a hand in Malik's so he could help her out. It was not exactly a suggestion, nor or a request, more a basic assumption that he would obey, like how the sun would rise tomorrow. Her every motion was graceful and elegant, designed to look good from any angle. 'I know I'm all kinds of hungry.'
Mavrik had done the same, hurrying around the taxi and opening the door for s'Metra, though she put considerably less effort into looking effortless as she climbed out. The Orions stopped to regard the curious fire-breathing reptilian creature. 'Oh, a dragon! They're a mythical Earth creature, a bit like planet-killers and crystalline entities, but not real. They're supposed to hoard and sleep on vast piles of gold.' Though following Jada's advice, s'Metra wasn't too sure exactly how to show off her wits for Mavrik, and instead resorted to this kind of trivia-based small-talk, showing off what she knew. It was as much as flirting as anything Volinna was doing. Of course, s'Metra had already shown her flars in going after Red Squad. She had nothing to prove.
'That can't be very comfortable.' Mavrik chuckled. 'Or good business.' The Orions laughed; it seemed to be a culture-specific joke.
Inside, once they were seated and had perused their menus, s'Metra ordered honey chicken, Mavrik the Mongolian beef, and Volinna something with noodles, naturally. 'I think we can swap our dishes around, take what we want and put them in these little bowls. That way we can try a bit of everything.' s'Metra proposed. 'We can make it like a proper Orion banquet.'
'Yeah, that sounds good. We could get some rice and spring rolls too.'
'I love a good spring roll.'
s'Metra whispered an admonishment to Volinna behind a menu, but her defence was that they couldn't all be zingers.