A group of very slightly drunk soldiers approaches him after about ten minutes. Would he like to play cards? This guy over here will buy him in, apparently for the bragging rights of having brought an interesting person to the table, though he doesn't actually say as much.

"Sure, why not. You'll have to teach me the game, though."

It'll be fun, they promise. The first two hands of poker are a warmup, nothing actually wagered, to be fair to the new guy.

It does indeed seem to be fun! He picks up on the basics pretty quickly.

And then actual wagers.

People bet things as varied as a compass, 'L' tickets, a knife, biscuits, and actual cash, with vigorous debate on the relative worth of each thing.

These are tough customers, and they know this game.

Tiro has pretty much no resources of his own to bet. He plays fairly conservatively, not wanting to end up in debt.

No, he won't end up in debt- Corporal Hasel gave him a pack of cigarettes to bet with. If he runs out, he's out and that's that. No debt here.

As soon as that part is solidly clarified, he starts taking more risks.

Well, whether he'll come out ahead or behind depends largely on how good he is at reading other people.

Extremely.

And his luck runs about even, too, so by the time the soldiers break up for the night he has turned his pack of cigarettes into four 'L' tickets, two shillings four pence, and a quarter of a bar of chocolate.

Although this was not strictly part of the arrangement, he offers to pay Corporal Hasel back for the pack of cigarettes that got him started.

Corporal Hasel will accept the chocolate as repayment. Can't get that with tickets.

This seems reasonable to Tiro. All right.

It's late. He finds his tent and sleeps. In the morning he seeks out breakfast at the mess hall and does not spend any of his luxury tickets.

Is it the same mess hall as he went to yesterday?

Yes? Should it not be?

Then the staff will recognize him and not question his authorization to be there and receive food. Would he like dry pancakes (syrup is an L), mashed potatoes, Mystery Stew (hearty, if unidentifiable), or oatmeal?

He is feeling adventurous and will try the Mystery Stew.

The Mystery Stew tastes like it probably contains meat of some kind. And beans. It could really use some seasoning, though.

Meh, could be worse. Time for a productive day of learning any language spoken in his presence!

...a productive half-morning of learning any language spoken in his presence, then he gets bored and goes looking for Gren to see if she has suggestions about how to use his time more productively than that!

If he looks in the hanger he can find the redheaded one working on her flying machine with some of the maintenance crew.

She sprints up to him. "Hi again I never introduced myself properly I'm called Knight! I really like working on the Steelwings and talking about them and I almost never get to explain things to anyone new and you're new so do you want to learn about them?"

"Yes, that sounds perfect. I'm Tiro, I forget if I told you that already."

"I knew that Gren told us. So the thing about Steelwings is they turn Witches' mana into physical force. We don't know why it does this, how it works, but we know how it looks, and how to change how it looks, and that means experiments are the entire basis of Steelwing technological advancement! For fighter-style 'wings like these the most important thing is..."

She's very energetic, isn't she?

She is. And it's very energizing. Tiro is energized. He's going to learn so much about Steelwings.

Yup! Apparently they come in a bunch of different varieties. Fighter designs are a constant tradeoff between maneuverability, speed, reliability, and armament. The dive-bomber model behaves a lot like the fighter model and is just a bit bulkier and better at, well, diving. There are 'courier' models that are capable of immense speed in straight lines, almost sound-breaking. Heavy models that can allow a Witch to efficiently lift huge loads without exhausting themselves as quickly as other 'wings would. Every aspect of them is steadily improving, though of course producing and repairing and maintaining them on a large scale is a gigantic task. But since airpower is the centerpoint of the Neuroi War, they've gotten very, very good at it.

The reason she knows so much about Steelwings is because she's kind of obsessed with pushing hers to ever-better limits. She trades her 'L' tickets for requisitions of special new parts, and similar tradeoffs. She doesn't want to talk about anything but flying.