[ gideon should probably have figured out a long while ago that nobody here is from where she's from, and yet she keeps galloping into conversations like this. ]

's the piece that protects your neck. Although I can't blame you for not having one, I'd rather have full range of motion myself. Armor's great, mobility is better.

[ gideon has no choice but to wait it out, and she nods likes the advice he's giving is helpful until she can finally speak again. obviously this is why steve was lapping at his, the slower method is the proper way to eat it safely. ] Agh. Geez. It's like a... delicious trap.

Oh, it's Gideon. [ and, as a distracted afterthought, ] Of the Ninth.

[ harrow had lectured her endlessly on the need to introduce herself like a proper ninth cavalier, but also harrow had forbidden her to speak, so! gideon will just use the version most likely to irritate harrow, who isn't here in any case. ]

Nice to meet you, Steve. [ she already knows the answer to this, but she tries gamely anyway, ] Are you... maybe from the Fifth House?

[ fifth house is just a stab in the dark, he seems like a nice non-weirdo and the last nice people she'd met had been from fifth. ]