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With a packed schedule, including his own, his mother's across the city, and his brother's which he shouldn't be keeping track of several state's away, Jason has missed breakfast and already had a mouth full of food as they sat down. Eyes going wide at the question, he chewed slowly despite the vaguely panicked look in his eyes.

Should he not have?

He had been careful about identities tied to Ad Astra, out of general respect of course, but also because they were really cautious, even paranoid, about it, even among other Order people. But Tilly had never seemed like that? But maybe she was? Maybe he didn't actually know anything about her after all this time and he'd messed this all up? Or maybe, yeah, he should have asked first. Even if he was pretty sure she would agree. As just a matter of respect.

Finally swallowing, he apologized, "Uh...yeah, sorry. I should have asked you. We were kind of in the moment planning things. He's a..." He tapped his ring. "We're working on a project I thought you might be interested in."

The very idea of Blarney with inappropriate intentions completely stunlocked Jason. Blarney? No, it put him into a full factory reset. It took a full minute to remember that he was in the middle of chewing and needed to finish that. Clearing his throat, he gave Tilly a look between confused guilt and utter bafflement.

"He's um, really nice. Enthusiastic about doing good and helping people, kinda overly so." Relaxing into the words once he had them flowing, Jason began to function with a lot more normalcy.

"I'm having do a lot of the running around because he...I think he's the sort to need to do as much as possible within his limits." True, he was much the same, but Jason felt he had a lot more moderation where, despite being older, Blarney ran around with a puppyish energy that needed external direction. Which was useful. "So it's just give him more to do, and he's a people person."

A pause, and then, "Like a side shave? I think you could pull it off." He tried picturing her as some sort of, styled-for-television viking and couldn't help a small flush. She'd definitely pull it off.

Scrutinizing the top of her head, looking for any odd lumps or divots, Jason shook his head, "You'd still look good. And there's always wigs." He was, perhaps, a little too practical and not nearly sentimental enough about her hair.

"I'm still settling in, and one of my profs is..." he grimaced, "...there's just some sorts of people I don't really don't know how to handle. But the work ahead is looking really interesting! And Mom is handling things...pretty okay." He'd done a welfare check the past weekend. The empty nest of it all was creeping in fast, and his Steam library had...changed, since he'd last been on his PC.

There were a lot of empty energy drink cans in the trash.

"I don't think I'll manage any extra curricular stuff for awhile though, maybe next semester." He was missing the seasonal changing of sports focus, working within a team, and what it meant to fight for something that didn't have to involve actual lives. But it wasn't like he came here on a sports scholarship.

"You've helped a lot, too. It's made it a lot easier."

Sadly nodding mid-bite, Jason sorrowfully chewed. It wasn't even the really harsh part that had him tilted, it was when it was accompanied by the ultra-niceness. There was a perpetual aura of impending I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed that the prof exuded that had already given him several naked and late nightmares.

The sorrowful look briefly intensified at the label of simp, but as he swallowed, he nodded again, expression turning wry. "Well, you're a really great person." He was that obvious, huh? Jason really was always putting his worst foot forward with Tilly. At least she seemed to find it amusing, rather than obnoxious. But he should probably be a bit more careful, that sort of thing can become a pretty awful joke if the people around them picked up on it.

"I don't need sports," he sighed and looked down, briefly startled at how empty his tray had become. "I've got so much going on already, and that sort of thing is the least important right now." But maybe next semester.

Guilt, embarrassment, longing, and then yet more guilt kept mixing together, and he found himself standing up, tray in one hand and reaching down to pick up his drink with the other. "Actually, I better cut lunch short. There's some suggested reading I managed to get dibs on at the library." He had time to walk over and picked them up, then figure out where they'd best fit into his reading schedule.

"There's a really good note-taking system I've been wanting to try, so uh..." he looked up and smiled at Tilly. "He really is a good person, I think you'll like him."

He exhaled and some of the tension left him, smile turning soft and fond. "Of course, I'd love to." Maybe he won't mess it up this time by acting too...supportive? No that wasn't right. More like act less pathetic. Sure, he could do that. Next time he'd definitely be at least 20% less pathetic.