[ Claude can count the number of times he's been back to the barracks since he was summoned on one hand. As in: basically just this trip. He'd caught wind of there being more arrivals to the Free Cities and curiosity won out when it came to making the trip out. Mostly he'd just surveyed things from a distance to note the new faces anyone he doesn't recognize but didn't necessarily stop to talk to anyone unless they looked truly lost. That turns out to be more people than he'd thought because he remembers struggling with that sudden change all too well since it was just a couple of months ago for him. Eventually it dawns on him that it's around a mealtime and he's starving, so why not take advantage of the mess hall?

Fortunately, whoever's on duty that day either doesn't know that he's not new here himself or doesn't care, so Claude's seated at a table with a number of dishes himself on his tray. A book he picked up from the bookshelves is opened before him, mostly just to give him something to focus on rather than continue people watching, but when someone speaks up he looks up with a quick smile. ]

Not at all, go right ahead.

[ Claude's quick to clear the book out of the way, closing it to set on the seat next to him and corralling some of his food back into his own side of the table to be a considerate tablemate. It's while doing so that he realizes her tray is just as loaded up, and that smile grows just a bit wider. ]

You're after my own heart with that amount of food. Not all of it out here at the barracks is great, but it's pretty much all worth trying once. Are you new here?