"You did well, Yuna. Nearly had me convinced."

"No. Never, ever." 

She smiles at the new mage. "I'm Yuna. And this is Andrew. What's your name?"

She watches to see if the other mage sits in a seat or kneels on the floor of the car or whatever recombination, and copies him.

And - it's not a particular surprise that a mage being taken along to buy a field mage is a field mage. "That was too much. Far too much" or whatever subset of it makes an odd field cover trigger, but he's got the body language change, and that sentence he says, so field cover trigger it apparently was.

('Why do you want your mage in field cover when you are alone in the car with another mage and he's still in uniform and collar anyway' is also an open question, but obviously she doesn't currently have any idea how their operations work. Or what they are, for that matter.)

And no one said any of her field cover triggers, or told her she was to have a new one, so she keeps her eyes down and her hands in their walking chain visible and herself quiet and at-your-disposal.

She has no idea why the human is smiling at her, or introducing herself (though she supposes if the other mage is in field cover it fits in to introduce him the same way too). Or asking her name, given that she said Elvira's end-number and also bought her and therefore presumably knows her name or can go check it. Well. Not-hers-to-question where anyone will notice her doing it.

"Elvira, ma'am." She recites her designation.

“Do you like that name? You can pick another if you like.”

“Awww, can we? Should’ve told me that,” Andrew says playfully, nudging Yuna’s leg with his shoe. 

Yuna pokes him back, grinning. 

Flinch. Well, can't be surprised that the first thing the human wants to do with her new field mage is testing. 'Is the field mage getting above herself, does she think she gets to have preferences or something'.

Might be the reason for the field cover - can't have him helping, or her looking to him for it, if the test proceeds to something where she could use that.

(One doesn't, of course, look to a mage in field cover like one could look to a mage out of it. Doesn't try for support any more than one does for acknowledgement, when one is the one in field cover. ...Might be its own test, for that matter, that. For her and maybe for Andrew.)

Looking down. "At your disposal, ma'am."

Yuna is saddened by Elvira's reaction. She has to remind herself that Andrew was much the same before he grew comfortable with her. She tries not to let it dampen her spirit. 

"Elvira it is. Are you comfortable? It's a little ways back to my father's house. Are you hungry?"

"Please say yes, I'm starving. Not that that's a change from normal."

She attempts to figure out if she's supposed to promptly obey Andrew given that he's obviously in field cover, or not given that aside from her knowing he's a mage, he's still dressed like one, and no one else is actually here.

Well - she has no idea in context so she'll be guessing and finding out by punishment or lack thereof either way. Maybe it's a test to see if she'll act as though he's giving her information about the food situation like she would if he said that out of cover.

She goes with obeying the actual human, which is to say actually responding to the question.

"I will be able to work, ma'am. I have been on standard rations and last ate a few hours ago."

"Oh. Okay. I hope you don't mind if we eat? Generally we have lunch about now, and Andrew gets grumpy when he's hungry." Yuna keeps her voice light, trying to hide her worry for the new mage. 

They pull through a drive-in, Yuna's driver ordering for them all.

Andrew is careful to keep his head down and look as oppressed as possible. 

Well, either she got it right or Yuna is waiting until they've arrived to have her told otherwise and punished.

"At your disposal, ma'am." And whatever she can put into radiating with every nonverbal she has that she knows her place, doesn't think she gets to 'mind' things or have opinions on what humans do... (She has no idea what the part about Andrew is supposed to mean or be testing.)

If she was the one buying blackmarket mages she'd probably not go showing them off to random fast food employees first thing, even if they're behind the driver partition. But on the other hand even if the employee can see them it's not as though humans are generally going to identify one someone-else's-mage from another so much. Maybe a 'look like you have nothing to hide' approach can work pretty fine. (As always with her playing-agent-in-her-head, such thoughts stay in her head away from anything inviting torturing them out of her.)

Andrew watches Elvira out of the corner of his eye, feeling concerned. He hasn't been like that for a while, but he remembers the feeling well. The idea that every nice gesture was a trap. Yuna is the only master he's had that hasn't a bad bone in her body.

The driver hands Yuna the food, and then closes the partition again. "Mmmm, that smells so good." 

She hands Andrew (who has brightened) a few things, and leaves a packet of fries for Elvira. "If you feel hungry, you're welcome to those."

She notices the other mage watching her, but has no way to know what he's thinking.

She has no idea what to do with Yuna's instructions. (Or why she's talking like that; that wasn't even a question at her...). Well, if humans put food in front of her it's more likely they want her to eat it than not to eat it. And if she interprets the question literally that does represent a true answer.

She eats. 

Yuna beams.

Andrew relaxes seeing her take the food, and takes that as a cue to rip into his.

She has no idea why the human is suddenly smiling, which is rather unnerving. Maybe she's lucky and the car just happened to pass something that caused it just now, or Yuna thought of something unrelated and pleasing to her.

She notices Andrew relax. Isn't sure if he's back in field cover yet, or how strict the discipline he's under is, and thus if she can take that as a sign that she did guess right.

Andrew watches her eat for a moment, and then he grows curious. “Were you a field mage?”

Yuna knows she was, but doesn’t want to answer for Elvira. She stays quiet.

She still doesn't know if he's back in field cover yet. Obviously he was supposed to drop out of it when - someone else was watching, or whatever condition the fast food place met. But could be he's supposed to go right back, and could be he's supposed to wait on Yuna's trigger again.

Body language isn't being clear enough. But Yuna hasn't said they're allowed to talk, and hasn't done anything him to for starting anyway. So probably field cover, unless he has some sort of standing permission to talk sometimes and for some reason didn't think to tell her first. Standing permissions to talk don't exactly grow on trees, let alone for field mages.

"Yes," she says anyway, because if she's wrong in one direction and should have said sir that's probably a reprimand, and if she's wrong in the other direction and sirs a mage out of field cover that'll be hell to pay and then some. And for him too, lest he get ideas and all that.

“It’s okay, Elvira. You can speak freely. Andrew hasn’t ever been a field mage and he’s incorrigibly curious.”

“That’s code for sticks his nose in where it doesn’t belong,” Andrew laughs. 

...alright, definitely in field cover.

She attempts to decode Yuna's directions. (She is also developing the potential theory that Yuna is not actually good at this (the way she'd interacted with the kidnappers in evidence. And if she's buying mages off the black market no one would have made her go through certification-for-private-mage-owners and all that, would they have). Not a safe theory to go rely on, obviously. But she can keep it in mind.)

There's countries where doing the gentleness thing at their mages is a thing they go for; some kind of psychology effect they're into. She thought it was mostly for after punishment but it wouldn't be odd if she was off on that. 'Speak freely' sounds close enough to a 'you can talk' variation, though why she's being told she can do that right now when the only other mage here is in field cover is anyone's guess.

And Andrew - well, if you're buying blackmarket anyway she supposes there's nothing stopping you from making a mage not already trained as field mage play field mage. Sounds about entirely horrific for Andrew, which, not something she can be trying to express at him right now. Maybe the human will want her doing instruction at him.

Continued looking down. "Yes, ma'am."