Regis Burgodal, "Reggie-Burger"'s page

Regis laughs bitterly, and starts pacing around the car. "So, putting an intact monster brain in a HUNTER suit, giving it control over the suit, AND letting it influence the pilot's mind...all turned out to be bad ideas? Who could have POSSIBLY seen that coming?!"

"If I were distrustful and paranoid I would assume this is actually a scheme for them to test their new experiment against a group of real pilots but of course they would never do such a horrible thing and this is all coincidence, HA HA HA!

"Oh, don't be so negative, Yoshimitsu! It could be that Seraphim finally realized how stupid they are, and have reluctantly allowed people with actual monster expertise to handle the situation!"

"And even though they're planning to replace it with a 'safer' model, I'm sure there's a very good reason they need it alive. Like maybe they're going to have the brain think of ways to cure terminal diseases!"

He starts pacing faster, now visibly upset. "Someone please tell me they serve drinks on this tram..."

Regis cocks an eyebrow. "So we're chasing down a monster that Seraphim let slip out of captivity? For a weapons and medicine R&D company, that seems very careless of them. But it shouldn't be too difficult to clean up this mess for them."

He signs the NDA without delay. Then he starts browsing the hunter message boards, looking for reliable methods of taking down monsters nonlethally.

Regis lurches out of bed, then drags himself to the bathroom and splashes cold water on his face. After taking a brief second to check the mirror and slick his hair back, he sprints into the living area and slides down the pole. He retrieves his hardsuit from his locker, testing its stealth function before he slips it on. Last but not least, he slings an ornate sniper rifle over his back, and holsters a nanocarbon shortsword at his hip.

He makes his way to the tram, glancing briefly at Undaunted as it's loaded in, before he steps into the passenger car.

"I wonder why we're in a rush all of a sudden..." he says as he takes a seat.

"We're Team Sirocco Bolero." Eleanor states with ironclad determination that tolerates no arguement.

If anyone looks at her, she looks back with her arms crossed.

"What? I dance. What of it?" She says snappishly.

Damn, that's actually a good name.

Regis shrugs at her with a placid smile. "It's just not a hobby I would've expected you to have. It seems too...oh, what's the word...Gentle? Peaceful? Reasonable?"

He spends most of his remaining time down in the hangar, working with the engineers to ensure that his HUNTER suit is properly equipped and polished to a mirror shine. "And make sure the cockpit insulation is in good shape. I don't want to be fried by whatever electric beast we're up against!" If they complain about him being in the way, he'll back off. But even so, he will insist on his suit's cloak being placed in a way that covers its left pauldron until deployment.

Regis clasps his hands. "Then it's unanimous! Hopefully some other hunters will handle the Dodogama problem before the garbage starts piling up."

He begins the process of signing the team up for the "Something outside the walls" job. It's slightly more frustrating than it needs to be - clearly this job board was not designed to be intuitive for touchscreen interfaces.

A pity I don't have the use of my optic anymore. Best to keep acting like I'm using this archaic smartphone as a fashion statement.

"Plus Burgodal, don't lie to the poor thing. I have it on good authority that many people find me scary." She says with a laugh.

Regis laughs back. "Perhaps when you're in a HUNTER suit, but that's hardly unique in this group, darling."

"Still, my vote's also for the wall mission. It does seem more urgent, and dealing with this mysterious threat will be a good look for us. Especially if we can find and rescue the scout."

Regis catches on to Hive's discouragement, and starts exaggerating his own enthusiasm.

"No, these are fun jobs! Look..." He points to the Dodogama job. "For this one, we'd be stopping a bully from hurting those cute Dodogamas at the city dump." Then he scrolls to the "Outside the walls" job. "And this one is a mystery! We'd look for clues to find a monster that's been causing trouble on the outskirts of town."

Regis stands in stunned silence for a moment, but then calmly carries Hive toward the couch while speaking to it in a comforting tone.

"Hey, don't worry...I know she might seem scary, but she won't hurt you. We're a team now, remember? That means we all have to look out for each other, including you and your..." Owner? Partner? Master? Creator? Mother? "...and Ms. Bones."

With the drone in his lap, he picks up his phone again. "Now, why don't you help us pick our first job?"

Regis chuckles and holds out an arm for Hive to land on.

"I believe she ran off to set up her lab. I heard her tell this drone to keep her posted on our conversation. Not sure whether that means it's recording us for her to watch later, or it actually has enough intelligence to understand us. I admit I'm not an expert on that sort of thing..."

He looks at the drone with curiosity and amusement. "So out with it, little bee - are you smarter than you let on?"

While Tyson is talking, Regis takes off his suit jacket and puts it on a desk chair in one of the unclaimed rooms.

And I thought Burger Royals was an annoying sponsor...

He smirks. "Well, if you need to stay clean, then I guess I'll be the one getting my hands dirty. I'll prioritize melee and CQB weapons, and bring some mines and deployable cover. That should be enough to stop most things from getting past me. Yoshimitsu should be able to lock down anything I can't stop, which will leave the rest of you free to do your respective things."

He looks down the hole into the locker room. "You got all that, Eleanor?" he shouts.

Regis sets the phone down with feigned reluctance. "Very well. The Undaunted is a bulky suit that I've reinforced with Barroth plates, making it quite useful for shielding allies. When it detects an opponent within point-blank range, the plating spreads outward, granting modest protection at a larger radius. I'm equally adept with ranged and melee weaponry, so I will choose my loadout based on what benefits the team."

"So - long-range artillery, close-quarters stalker, and..." He flinches, apparently only just now noticing the drone behind him. "...aerial support. That means my position on the battlefield will mostly depend on yours, Mister Gandy. Where do you like to be?"

"If my actions bring dishonor to my family name I will be killed and made an example to the others."

Regis looks shocked when Yoshimitsu says that, but doesn't say anything. When Yoshimitsu asks him why he is here, he becomes lost in thought for a moment.

"Because there's nowhere else to go..." he mumbles, then catches himself. "That is...nowhere else that calls to me like this place does! Like you, I have been trained in the noble art of the HUNTER suit from a young age. Using those skills in friendly spars and showy duels was all well and good, but such things don't concern me anymore. Suffice it to say, though my life isn't on the line the way yours is, I still feel like...this is where I need to be."

After they've both signed, he reaches out to shake Yoshimitsu's hand. "Best of luck out there! I hope we both find what we're looking for."

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Regis takes in the living quarters with a magnanimous grin.

"Wonderful! It's so cozy! So homely!" He orders a beer from the vending machine, and sits on the couch. "No questions from me right now, Ms. Sinclair. Thanks for being so welcoming!"

Despite Amanda's suggestion to settle in, he immediately pulls up the job board on his phone and starts scrolling through available requests. All without dropping that grin for a moment.

"Make yourselves at home, everyone! I'll sift through these to pick out some good ones for us, and then we can vote on the ones we like!"

They really don't trust us at all, do they? Can't say I blame them. Lucky for them, my family's status doesn't benefit me at all...

After a cursory glance through the paperwork, Regis signs with little hesitation.

Then he notices Eleanor glaring at him, and sighs. He leans over toward her, and lowers his voice. "Look - I'm even less thrilled about us teaming up than you are. But I'm going to do my best to put that aside when we're out in the field. I'm sure you can find it within yourself to do the same."

Then he promptly moves away from her - obviously hoping to prevent her from getting in the last word - and turns to Yoshimitsu with a bemused smile.

"Well! You're certainly jumping into this with full gusto. Been looking forward to becoming a hunter for a while, I take it?"

"But enough about me! Where did you disappear off to? I found it most peculiar that you or your family didn't come biting at my heels after...well, you know. The Academy was such a bore afterwards." Although hard to tell in the general tone of the conversation, Eleanor does seem genuinely curious.

Regis chews on his apceros steak for a while before responding. This serves two purposes: To give himself time to come up with an explanation, and to annoy Eleanor.

"Well, you needn't worry about any of my relatives cutting you to ribbons. In fact, my family expects me to atone for my own mistakes. To that end, I've been...taking a sabbatical these last few months. I've cast aside all the comforts and luxuries that were distracting me from training. That's also why I'm here - as you said, there is no training more intense than what's out in the field. It's the perfect place for me to reach my full potential."

He cuts another piece of steak and winks at her. "I do hope you'll be able to keep up out there."

Regis's perfectly placid smile falters, just for a moment, when Eleanor speaks to him. He had successfully ignored her in the lobby, but now it seemd like he wouldn't be able to avoid her. What is she doing here, of all places? Did she sign up just to taunt me? Hasn't she humiliated me enough already?

He looks up from his perfectly balanced plate of meat and veggies (not the sort of cuisine he was raised with, but he would gladly take it over the ramen and eggs he had been living on the last few months) and gives her the biggest, least sincere grin he can manage.

"Eleanor! I thought I smelled your overbearing perfume in the lobby. What brings a lady like you to a place like this? Was brutalizing your fellow students not enough to satisfy your bloodlust?"

Regis strode into the building with all the quiet dignity he could muster. Despite his crisp suit and immaculate smile, there was just a hint of resignation in his eyes. He had spent months searching desperately for a sponsor, contacting every noteworthy figure that would still give him the time of day, calling in every favor he was still owed. But losing that duel, his first loss ever, the first loss his family had suffered in decades, had stripped him of almost all his social standing.

In the end, the only person that would hear him out was the CEO of a struggling fast food enterprise. Their only stipulation was that Regis be given a callsign that would help influence people into thinking about burgers. Thus Regis became...Reggie-Burger. He still couldn't believe he'd sunk this low, but it was better than starving to death in the streets.

Besides, he had the advantage of bringing his own HUNTER suit. Regis was surprised that he had been allowed to take one with him when he was expelled from the family - granted, it was a large, unwieldy defender-style suit, which his younger siblings had probably arranged as one final insult. No matter - that suit was now the majority of his wealth and assets, and he would utilize it to the fullest.

Regis's life as a prodigal duelist, heir to the Burgodal estate, was over. Perhaps he could make a new name for himself as Reggie-Burger, monster hunter. Or, at the very least, he could die with some dignity on the battlefield.