Sabella spends a few minutes savoring the feel of time, flowing past her, pulsing from the Eye, thrumming throughout the Academy. There's so much moment in these moments. She soaks it up, lets out a satisfied breath, and then looks around her at her classmates — soon-to-be coworkers. Ah, this one over here seems to be brimming with thoughts about what's to come.

"I'm sure they could've picked a louder gathering spot, but I can't think of many in the Academy."

She's tall and stout and brown, her academy robes showing off the firmness of her build and the deep brown of her hair. A mess of metal with reluctantly tucked away wires burbles gently at on her arm. 

"I like to think that it's a sign of respect - can't give us too much peace and quiet or else we'll start ~plotting~, perhaps?" 

She giggles. "Plotting? Us? Perish the thought. What could we even be plotting about? It's not like all of time and space is soon to be at our fingertips or anything like that, right?"

"You'd think." 

She shakes her head in place a little. 

"I think they just like feeling like they have the better of us, for as long as we're still students. Even if all it amounts to us just giving us a few pauses and a dampening field on the door." 

She clicks her tongue, and turns her hand over in place, a wry sigh on her lips. 

Sabella tilts her head. "Don't they know you can listen past a dampening field almost easier than without if you do it right?"

She shakes her head. "Of course they do. It's a test."

"Who even knows at this point... You're probably right, though. Would be just like them."  

She lets out a little beleaguered sigh. 

"Looking forward to being done with this nonsense almost more then the ride, to be honest." 

"Definitely looking forward to getting to see the world beyond. There's so much to do and see. But I wouldn't say this has been all that bad... Who'm I kidding, it totally was. Learned a lot but don't think I'll miss this place."

"Hah. I think I'll miss the labs, at least. You can fit a whole lot of tech into a TARDIS, and fab a whole lot more, but well." 

She brushes back her hair a little. 

"I'm looking forward to it too. It's so different to see these places without a chaperone hovering over your shoulder, or viewscreen in the way." 

"You're right about the labs, yeah. I think we'll make do, though. Any idea where they're gonna assign you?"

"I've always been the most comfortable doing tech work, if that's what you mean. Hole me up somewhere I can make cool little gadgets and the chance to use them and they'll make me a happy customer, that's for sure. I think the usual routine is to get our vortex legs steadied up at first, though, and well..." 

She glances down at her hip for a moment. 

"There is the war." 

She nods, looks off into the distance. "Ideal place to put me would be disappearing enemy assets, but I'm decent in a fight, and we have an awful lot of fights to win. I'll probably be doing a little of the one and more than I'd like of the other."

"Decent chance you'll be in the awkward middle most of the time, honestly - getting intel for a mission, waiting for the moment to strike... It sucks in the exercises, even with a time machine on hand." 

A grimace slips across her face for a moment. 

"Even time ladies have to hurry up and wait."

And then something catches her eye. "Is that a sonic bracer? Are you filtering the chatter out or something?"

"True, true, true..." 

She grins slyly. 

"Something like that~"

She digresses for a moment, that smile still on her face. "I can beam you in if you want, even if it works best precalibrated and with the right nanoinfection in your ear. Thrown in a few more tools of the trade as well - no reason to keep these things single mechanism when they're like this." 

She claps her hand self-satisfiedly atop the sizable stock of metal. 

Her eyes widen and she grins, eyeing the bracer closely. "Ooooh. Very fun. I'd love a look at your specs after, if you don't mind sharing. I don't mind the noise, though. Helps me keep track of thi—"

Her head tilts for a moment, just as the sound of the chatter shifts slightly.

"Lawreto of Brightshore's about to show off some toy he bought with his House's money, and it's not going to go well."

She does a little performative "Ooo." at that, complete with an exaggerated wince. 

"It's an eavesdropper's tool too, you know. Got a mode rigged up to filter the sound itself for my delicate little ears and just pipe the words in through the telepathic circuit into my short and/or long term memory, or Rassilon forbid save them in a digital file like a caveman. It's a bit much to keep on, though." 

Sure enough, one of the other trainees says something mocking to another, and then the one who was mocked pulls out a gilded implement that he points at the first's tools, seemingly intending to disable them.

Nothing happens.

And then mocking laughter spreads.

"And that's one thing I definitely won't miss about this place."

She shakes her head. "Definitely impressed with your eavesdropper assist mode, though. Trade you my notes-in-progress on single-sonic breaches of deadlocks for a look at your specs later?"

"Deal."

This might sound like a bad deal for Sabella, at first glance. Consider however that the insight that led to her initial deadlock seal breakthrough was based on the results of a similar trade, and further that while she's been waiting for the class outing to begin she's been brainstorming more progress that isn't in her notes yet. She only agreed to trade what's already written down.

Both sides are definitely gaining here.

She mentally pokes her screwdriver, tossing a rather dense notes file at her classmate.

There's a silenced little hum from her device, and there's a bundle of her own notes sent back. 

"Pleasure doing business with you~"