[EdgeyReyes]

"thank you. I'm Akel, full name is Akeldama Blood-Heart" the silver-haired girl mumbled. Quickly sitting up at the smell of food, she thought that the fish was actually going to be cooked, but judging by the time it took it meant that it was probably prepared beforehand. Nevertheless, she took a bite out of it, enjoying the food with a quiet hum.

"So if I best him in some honor duel or something. He'll respect me? Or will he just scoff and look the other way?

[Siuwa]

Ah. So we misunderstood. Cat thought as he opened his mouth wide and put a piece of salmon into his mouth and tasted it carefully. Mmm. Isn't as good as raw salmon, but tasty in its own right.
Hopefully. And I bet we need to beat him by a much larger margin than I just did.

[Kingnoname1]

'Dust trade right? I remember hearing the Royale name before in the news. I can't really talk critically about another's arrogance but I understand your distaste of your charge Miss Silica.' Calen smiled awkwardly, he was uncomfortable discussing someone who wasn't present but understood that Reginald had caused quite the stir.

'So I'm Mistrali, is anyone else from overseas? I must say I've been really enjoying Vale for my time here but I'm sure I haven't seen everything.' Calen began trying to drag to topic away from, in his view, unpolite gossip.

Calen was happy about how the meal was going down though. A few other run ins with students around school had made him wary about fish dishes but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Only after everyone else had started did Calen start eating himself, slowly and clearly savouring each bite.

[Walter]

"Well... it's hard to say. That bastard has weird standards for  who he respects. I've never seen him respect someone who just beat him. He doesn't actually respect me, and I come from a pretty well-off family myself. He sees me as an underling, even though I regularly kick his ass." She explained, then took another bite of salmon. She was quite a big fan of fish, actually.

She then turned to Calen, somewhat glad the topic of conversation had finally shifted from Reginald. "I'm originally from Atlas, yeah. Been all over, though. Every place has it's own charm."

[EdgeyReyes]

"Oh, he's truly weird." Akel took another bite as Calen's question was asked, swalling the piece of potato that was in her mouth before answering.

"I'm Valian, born and raised here. While I don't know the city off the back of my hand I do know a fair bit. What's Mistral like, I've always wanted to go there but never had the chance. Is it really beautiful as I've heard. Oh, just remembered!" Akel said quickly, the thought of food earlier had distracted her, but she still had her throwing knifes and sword on the ground. She quickly placed her plate down and went to retrieve her gear that was previously used in the sparring session.

[Siuwa]

"Yeah yeah, we've just experienced that." Commented Catalina as he scooped a bunch of salad into his mouth and started chewing on it.

"I'm Valish too. The commenter of Vytal festival tournament says Mountain Glenn settlement is destroyed like a decade ago, but my entire life disproves it. Like, where does he even get his information?" Cat peeked at Akel as she went collecting her weapons. He wasn't really thinking anything, he just sort of... Watched.

[Kingnoname1]

'Well I've actually never been to Mistral itself, the city I mean, only around to south and east coasts of the continent. But it is beautiful, similar to Vale's Forever Fall forest with lots of red, yellows and even some blues all contrasting against the usual forest green. It's a place you could get lost for years in.' Calen replied, struggling to contain a burst of laughter during the last sentence. 'I'd help you Miss Blood-Heart but I don't think I can move my legs at the moment, just leave my knives on the ground. I'll collect them later.'

The Mountain Glenn comment caught Calen off guard. Few people talked about the catastrophe and although he had heard about missions to the surrounding areas he had never managed to get much of the the students who returned. 'Well people always like putting things into neat categories, if something lingers it makes it harder to remember. So instead we often just think that when times started to get worse making that where they all ended. Forgetting that people have a very tenacious grip on what they call their own.' Calen continued giving a small shrug before quickly adding. 'But don't feel like you have to go into much detail, losing ones home is never easy'

Calen laughed when he heard Silica's reply. 'I would have never guessed that there were so many Atleasians were in Beacon, I guess no one likes the cold. If you have been all over then surely you must have some stories, I'm sure we would all like to hear them if you are willing to tell them.'

[Walter]

"You're... From Mountain Glenn?" Silica asked, genuinely surprised by this. She briefly looked towards Calen again, though, shrugging. "Well, most of it really ain't worth telling. Lots of good people in the world, lots of assholes. The one exciting thing to really happen would've been during my stay in Mistral. 's where I met Reginald's father. Dude was awesome."

[EdgeyReyes]

Akel had picked up most of her knifes and sword relatively quickly. She placed all of the ones that she had collected onto her belt, all except one. It was at the corner of the arena, sliding over during the battle and laid there, abondoned and unseen through the eyes of the mostly monochrome visiom of Akel.

It's colour on a black to white scale matched that of the floor, which was what made it exceedingly difficult for her to spot while it was fairly obvious in the eyes of her company. She stood near the centre of the arena, trying to spot it but failing with the limitations of her monochrome vision.

[Siuwa]

Cat noticed that Akel haven't picked the last knife up in a long time. He looked at Akel and pointed in the direction of the last knife.

"Well, no one really knows what caused the first grimm invasion. And my family have a base that's much more secure than the city but it's slowly being overran too. I plan to go back there one day if it's still standing."

[Kingnoname1]

''No one knows' is kinda the whole thing with Grimm. You go to places like this to learn only to find out it's almost all religious or philosophical posturing. But do you remember what your parents were studying over there Master Catalina? I have only heard scant details about the expansion attempt. Mistral has had a few but none ended so suddenly.' Calen continued, he was curious but knew pushing too hard would get him nowhere if his read was correct.

'Feeling a bit dazed Miss Blood-Heart?' Calen asked slowly getting to his feet in case Akel was actually unwell.

[Walter]

"Vicious cycle with the grimm, isn't it? They get attracted by negative emotions, destroy the place, causing more negative emotions. " Silica comments, then chomps on another piece of fish.

"I do think the whole expansion thing is stupid. It seems like pointlessly risking peoples' lives."

[EdgeyReyes]

"Not dazed, just a bit... ah, there it is!" Akel was finally able to spot the last missing knife. She should really just do the entire handle red. That'd be this problem solved. Picking up the last knife and placing it on the final spot on her belt. The 25 throwing knifes seating neatly, evenly spaced between and looking like decorations on the belt.

"Well our population is growing, the more humans and faunas there are will mean the more total humanoid people live on Remnant. That would eventually call for expansion, but I do think they should build the defences before actually expanding the buildings." Akel let the blade of her sword fold into its shortened form and placing it back into her scythe.

[Siuwa]

Cat turned back to his food once he saw the girl went to her weapon. After he is finished with the salad he responded.

Yep that's the reason. But you need to house the defense personnel too. Or they could choose a better place to colonize... Actually why Don't we expand the Valish cities instead?

[Kingnoname1]

'Well you can't feasibly build everywhere and we need resources from outside the cities and homes to house those who harvest that and their families.' Calen pointed out. This isn't the topic he would choose but I suppose it would do. 'Like most of our missions will be outside the city walls even if most of the people are inside. Of course settlements need defences but those need time to be built and people to build them who intern need housing and defending while they a building the defences for the housing...' Calen is quiet for a moment as he could feel himself blathering on. 'In one of the management courses we discussed the concept of 'Wicked Problems,' issues which are nigh impossible to solve as we simply don't know the requirements meaning we don't know; how much defences are enough, how effective natural boundaries are, how efficient or protect-able supply routes are until they come under attack which is often too late.

Now on his feet and with some food in his belly Calen was feeling a bit better so he set his half-eaten plate down and started doing stretches to stop too much lactic acid building up. He still had a lot planned today, including finding something knew for his team for lunch.