They had wanted to keep Ber up and moving instead of languishing in bed, so they sent him to the mess hall for dinner instead of delivering his food to him in the infirmary. Needless to say, he was not pleased.

Although he was still more tired than usual and his energy tended to fade more noticeably as the sky darkened, it wasn’t the exercise that had him antsy. Similarly, light and noise no longer bothered him as much as they had before. While he still found himself more sensitive to excessive amounts of each, especially as his low-grade headache worsened each night, the likelihood of encountering both in the mess hall also wasn’t what he objected to the most.

The mess hall at this hour, he knew, would be packed full of soldiers getting their meals. They would be packed shoulder to shoulder, rows and rows of bodies seated at the long tables or standing in line or milling about as they talked with their friends. Half of them would be witches, with some portion of them undoubtedly having been paired. Much of the other half would be young men around his age. Werewolf age.

At least Ber had managed to snag himself a seat at the end of a table in a corner relatively close to the door. Casting a glance around the mess hall but not noticing anyone in particular, he sat down with every intention of inhaling his food and leaving as soon as he could.

Kasper was hungry and even as he passed through the line he was eating from his wooden tray and piling it full at the same time. He wasn't with Faylin which wasn't really common but they couldn't be together all the time, it wasn't healthy right? Was it still kind of empty feeling for him? Yes. He would be fine. He was still Kasper. Or better yet Sergeant Kasper Van Zant. Pulling away from the line he observed the mess hall and overheard Regan Lassiter which earned a glance towards her direction, it wasn't anything for him to bother with if they just kept their space the better. It was never good to mix Van Zant with Lassiter and he himself had a new position that he wasn't ready to tarnish. Plus she had just been thrashed at the ball, she needed the break from poking.

When he heard @raff call out Van Zant he thought he meant him, but Kasper beelined for the man's table a quick scan and Kasper also saw his sister. Also waving her over Kasper plopped down across from Raff, "I'm joining too."

Just perfect. Why was it that whenever Regan wanted to make someone tear someone to pieces, Kat made herself so annoyingly available? Regan turned with her plate in hand, eyes fixing on @katerina as she slowly walked by.

“Seems like I’m not alone in that, am I?” Regan hissed, words meant for Kat alone, “Any other observations you’d like to share with the group, or are you ready to mind your own fucking business?”

Regan wouldn't wait to hear the answer. She'd finish her thought with a sneer and start to walk away.

Perhaps it was the new rank she now held that compelled Faylin to spend more time among her fellow soldiers. Or perhaps Kasper had been right about the spiked drinks and whatever had been put in them had melted away some of her sense, but she found herself following Kasper to the mess hall after a long, grueling day of training.

Her nose wrinkled in distaste at what was dropped onto her tray, she lifted her head to scan the room as she stepped away from the line. She noted Kasper Van Zant, always the social one between them, had already found a spot in the middle of the chaos. Chaos that included @katerina griping at the King's Huntsman and already causing a scene.

Rolling her eyes at the dramatics, and wanting not a single part of it, she continued to look around the room until her eyes fell on @berengar at the end of a different table, the soldier who had been injured at the ball. A quick decision had her striding towards him, claiming the seat next to him before anyone else could. "Is it always like this in here?" she asked to open the conversation.

"Thanks Raff," Kasper smiled and bit into a his first piece of meat, he wasn't upset about the promotion just like Faylin he wished their promotion came from different circumstances but all they could do was move on and do better. Kasper continued to munch his eyes not missing the little interaction between Kat his twin and Regan though he didn't hear anything said he did jokingly roll his eyes at Raff, he knew if those two wanted to go at it they would which meant Kasper would have to step in and he would too even with Kat. For Regan he'd just follow chain of command let the higher ups deal with her, should be easy enough their all of age for Regan to smoulder under.

Tearing his bread Kasper nodded toward the drama, "she's not into petty loudness, those two bring that on pretty thick so....she's probably eating in the back somewhere," he didn't know how much got around about Cambria about them but Kasper did his best to not poke the bear, in due time when Faylin was ready to go more public he'd brag all day about her. Still he couldn't hide that goofy smirk thinking about her, "she'll be a long though, pulling me by my ear as we go off to keep everyone in line."

The mess hall was loud and getting louder. Ber soon realized that his position relatively close to the door meant that he kept catching glimpses of people entering and exiting out of the corner of his eye. He kept having to look up to reassure himself that everything was fine, even though he knew that it was, and that in turn thwarted his attempts at eating as fast as possible and leaving.

The lieutenant who just slid into the open seat beside him didn’t help.

Ber glanced to the side as @faylin addressed him. Although he recognized her as one of the officers of the witch-paired soldiers - great, exactly the kind of person I want sitting next to me - he didn’t immediately remember her name or realize that she’d been recently promoted. A little awkward, he nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” Ber swirled his spoon through his soup and glanced around again. “Mess hall’s always the first stop after shift ends because everyone’s hungry. It’ll quiet down in a bit.” Probably. Hopefully. He looked back at her. “I take it you don’t eat here a lot?”

Regan imagined how easy it would be to reach out and sink her claws into @katerina’s throat. She imagined the crunch as her windpipe collapsed and the rip as it was torn from her body. Obviously, she did not intend to do any of those things, but it was still soothing to imagine her bleeding in a heap on the floor.

But, after Lady Winters walked away, it turns out she wasn’t entirely wrong. Regan stood alone, still searching, looking for Grant Delaney or Octavius Wulfbrand, knowing she wouldn’t find either. For a moment, she considered @berengar, but then remembered that they weren’t exactly speaking. Not anymore.

So, Regan slunk to an empty table in a quiet part of the hall, somewhere that she could still watch the now enviably pretty face of @katerina.