Mech Pilot who says it like "My deepest apologies" but means it because they were just raised a little fancy and not just being pretentious.
"It's a fucking callsign. You can't just call anyone any old thing right in front of people at a black tie whatever with the brass and civilians and—"
"You love your callsign, Bea," her mechanic says in a patient not-really-listening way, from under the part-disassembled hip flexor assembly, busy with a ratchet spanner.
"Doesn't mean I wanna be called Bitchless in front of General de Winter!"
"You love excuses to be crude in front of General de Winter, Bea."
"Do you know what the bitch did?"
"She sincerely apologised, Bea, like the last five times you told me."
"She fucking apologised! And she fucking meant every word!"
"Oh no."
"She was deeply, sincerely horrified that she'd misjudged what I'd find acceptable!"
"What an asshole."
"I hate her. I hate her so much. I hate her stupid posh voice and her stupid expensive manners and her stupid dress uniform with the stupid rapier and I hate her stupid face, I hate it I hate it I hate it—"
Bea's best friend in the whole world slaps the spanner down flat on the catwalk like a metallic crack of doom. "You want to ride her stupid posh face like you're biking the Tour d'Olympus downhill both ways," she suggests, with the serrated sweetness of someone who's really trying to get some work done.
