If you're ever on your own, I've found most of the military recruits won't say no to leftovers. Just look for whoever just came in from a long bout of training.

[ Setting his mug down, he'll pick up his fork to resume eating some gratin he'd temporarily forgotten about while reading. Fortunately, what with it being on the warmer side out here in the desert - it's not like food cools off too quickly even when plated for a while. He'll hum a note of agreement in response to her comment about this not being the most hospitable of places. ]

I don't know about you but I was just relieved to have clothes instead of a blanket, honestly, after getting dragged out of the water. It's certainly one way to make our first impression of this place... well, something.

[ There's a lot he could add to that, but. He'll keep his opinions to himself for now, mostly because it would be unfair to cloud someone else's judgment before they get to experience Cadens and the Free Cities for themselves. Not that he won't share information if asked point blank, which is why Claude's gaze shifts back to her after it'd drifted to watch some potentially other new Summoned sit down with trays a few tables over. ]

I don't know the exact number, no. Someone else who's been here for lots longer than I have said possibly around a hundred and fifty or so but I'm not sure if that's here or for all of Abraxas. It's probably hard to know since both Thorne and Solvunn - the other two nations here - are summoning their own people. Unless that information gets shared over the network or in the Horizon, we have no way of knowing what's going on there just like they won't know what's happening here in the Free Cities.

[ Claude's about to take another bite of food but he pauses with his fork over his plate to study the woman across from him for a moment. ]

Has anyone told you about those things? The network and the horizon, and told to you by other Summoned, I mean.