Huh, you look different [Asami, Lerna]

Lerna nodded lightly at that, and smiled. She noticed that the woman clued in on what a conundrum such a thing was. "Thank you. You certainly are helping. You and these pancakes." She chuckled, finishing her own slightly messy jam topped pancake, a hint of it residing on her lip before she pushed the plate away and sighed. Seeming to be full as her eyes then shifted up and she smiled at Asami, as if knowingly.

"But, at the very least, I've learned a lot over the years. And it's been interesting to think about these things. What the hell AM I? I'm a mod soul. But like , I was derived from a living soul originally, so I'm not artificial. I was carved off and built up using only a piece of my original body. So, my consciousness. What is it? Where did it come from? Is the real me still locked away in some corner of the Research Bureau? Did my consciousness abandon my body? Did it split? If the real me is back in there, what does that make ME me? Am I something new? Or was I made? A mod soul is programmed with varying levels of ....personality or just attributes. sometimes, a base personality is simply modified slightly. Other times, entire sections are rewritten or replaced. For all I know, I'm just as artificial and designed as the other mod souls. Maybe my 'original body' isn't even me at all. MAybe the original me hates what a piece of itself's been all fucked up and twisted into. Aint that something to think about? What if I'm a fake...hated by my original?" She chuckled.

A moment of pause was given when she felt the woman's hand gently taking her own. Her attention shifting down before she glanced back up and offered... a sheepish smile to the teacher. There was some small part of her that thought that this was perhaps a lot. Something felt a bit different about this situation. But she ignored it. Gently taking the hand and squeezing it back as she let her eyes drift to a close and a great sigh escaped her chest, her free hand reaching up and gently rubbing those fair features of hers.

And then she smiled, glancing up at Asami and offering a gentle expression of mirth. "Thank you...... for saying that." She noted quietly, honestly the ...URGE to say more welled up. But she honestly couldn't think of anything else to say. That Asami considered her ...special. Something she liked. That was certainly more than she'd expected to learn from this little pancake escapade. So she just held the other woman's hand, lightly running her thumb along the border of Asami's wrist. A soft, silent conveying of accepted comfort, before letting out a soft WHEW.

"Alrighty, that was.... a lot more than I expected! But hey. I'm full. Was there anything else you want- uh....oh uh. You don't like have anywhere you need to be today....do you? I don't know if you have like classes or something." She suddenly interrupted herself. As, briefly, she considered asking the woman to spend a bit more time with her. But of course, she also realized she had no idea what sort of obligations the woman had to do. Either to the Academy or the school as a whole. Did she WANT to just like....go hang out, maybe invite her teacher to her place so she could decompress? Absolutely, but she also knew that this woman had other shit she potentially had to be doing.

Lerna let out a sheepish smile, chuckling just a bit as it turned out, that her Teacher DID indeed have things she had to do. [color=orchid]"Well you can't blame me for giving it a go right? But yea I figured I wouldn't get to have you to myself for the day." She hummed, sighing ever so slightly before she idly stuck her tongue out in an impish little manner.

She had to admit she HAD taken up more time than she had figured and ...yea. Well. Breakdown was ....kinda an iffy word. She had hardly broken down and started like, crying or any of that shit. She had simply let out some of her.....curiosities. If she ever found out that Asami called that a BREAKDOWN, well fuck she sure would be bummed at it being called that! Insulted? Possibly. Slighted? eh. Anywho.

"Sounds like a plan to me, Sensei." She noted warmly, rising to her feet and offering a pleased smile to the woman. "Till then~"