Joseph snapped back to reality as he heard the scolding voice behind him. "Oh, right," he said, turning back to see who'd spoken. "Sorry about that." The boy walked forward, closing in the gap between him and the person in front of him. After a short few seconds, he picked up his tray and started walking in front of the man distributing the food. He gave the man a brief smile and looked down at the wood between the two, eyeing the bowls and bread. He noted that the man had smiled as well. That was weird. Someone working in a place like that, glad? It just didn't make sense. Though it didn't have to. With one last glance at the man, the scarred boy lifted the tray and walked over to an empty table in a corner, sitting down.

"Rude."

That was the first thought that came across Jay's and Noelle's minds when the man starting roaring some stuff. While the two were inherently different (Jay taking after his mother and Noelle taking after her father), the two still had some similarities; their distaste of mean people. Especially Jay, once the man mentioned the 'lowly' Scouting Legion. He burned in fury whilst the sister quietly watched on. When the speech was finally over, Jay was writhing, eager to get his hands on the man. How dare he call the Scouting legion lowly? They were the freedom fighters!

---

Jay stood in line, waited, got his food, and looked around the crowded mess hall. He was looking for a certain person with a certain scar in a certain place. Ah, there. His lips pulled up in a smile as he spotted the familiar-looking face. Without another moments hesitation, he walked over to Joseph and sat next to him. With a sigh, he grabbed his spoon and dipped it into the stew.

"That guy is pretty interesting," he thoughtfully murmured. "A total jack-ass..."

---

Noelle gave the tray to the smiling man. Her eyes were wide as she stared at him. He was.. smiling whilst artfully filling up multiple bowls. "Strange..." she thought as she walked away. "I would like him as a teacher..." she wondered as she looked around. Now, it was time to find Scarlet and Mika.

If there were one thing that could make Isra lighten up, it was food. Isra impatiently moved up the line to get their meals, his mouth watering openly. Isra was practically jumping up and down over the prospect of food, he'd forgotten to grab a bite to eat before he'd left his father's. As the line finally shortened and Isra was at the head, he let out a loud woop and presented his tray. The smiling man and the smell of savory stew plastered a smile onto Isra's face, too. When his tray was pushed back to him filled with stew and bread, Isra resisted for a moment and thrust his hand out towards the chef, as to shake his hand. This is a man that he'd like to know better! With the smile still spread across his features, Isra began to speak.

"Hi! Isra Aceline, nice to meet you! Thank you for the food, it looks delicious!"

Though Isra wasn't fond of all of the noble pleasantries that he had learned from his childhood, there was no reason not to be polite. Definitely to the man giving out the food! As Isra turned with his tray now laden with food, he peered across the room for a place to sit. Spotting an open seat, Isra quickly made his way over to where Joseph and Jay were sitting and sat down. Plopping down his tray, Isra smiled at the two and introduced himself. "Hi there, I'm Isra!" Without really waiting for a response, he'd continue, "So what part of the military are you two looking to join? I'm gonna be in the Surve-...Mm!". Unconsciously, Isra's hand had moved down towards the soup, and as he was speaking he had gulped down a nice spoonful of it. His prior conversation abandoned, Isra seemingly forgot about the two he had sat by and focused all his attention on the soup, beginning to gulp it down greedily.

"Jack ass or not, he's the chief of the trainee corps, you know," Joseph said, dipping his spoon into the bowl. "We'll just have to bear with him until we graduate."

Right as he finished talking, a well dressed young man came to the table, introducing himself as Isra. He'd asked a pretty common question which would be a great conversation starter, except he got cut off by a short mumbling sound in order to express his love for the dish in front of him. Joseph looked at him rather strangely for a moment, seeing how the boy was enjoying -if that wasn't an understatement- his dinner before he spoke. "Er... Nice to meet you, Isra. I'm Joseph." Another one aiming for the Survey Corps? Though this one seemed a little... different. Joseph took another sip from the soup on his spoon.

Alexander had finally gotten his food from the waiting line and stood in the middle of the Mess Hall, looking at all the different people. "Man...all these tables are crowded and I don't know anyone here..." He whispered to himself quietly, gripping onto the food tray. Sighing out, he sat down on one of the tables and stared down at his food. His facial expression to the sight of it was a mixture of wanting to eat, but also slight disgust at some of the food. Inhaling and exhaling, he took a teaspoon of some soup and swallowed it, shivering at the taste. Although it wasn't bad, it wasn't something he was used to.

"This is what people eat here...!?" He whispered again, shutting his mouth and dropping his spoon on the table. However, it was something, so he decided to keep the pace at eating. Every one and a while his eyes would linger at the other trainee's in the Mess Hall, since he was curious to know how everyone reacted. It was quite obvious that he wanted to know more about people from the different Districts, for curiosity's sake.

Viktor smiled at each face as they passed by, noting certain features. Until an unusually bright young man approached him, and as Viktor filled his bowl, the young man thrust his hand forward, "Hi! Isra Aceline, nice to meet you! Thank you for the food, it looks delicious!". Viktor blinked for a moment, without losing his smile he merely returned the tray in the boy's outstretched hand, "Thank you mister Aceline, I'm glad that you think so." Viktor smile grew softerat the boy's kind worlds. He bowed his head allowing the boy to move on.
Viktor couldn't help but smile to himself. It was such a minor thing, but it was nice to be complimented directly.

He continued to serve the trainees for a while until another officer came up to him. It was the inspector again, his face was a little red and his hair was a tad rustled. "Vice chief, sir..." The inspector took a moment to catch his breath, Viktor merely kept filling bowls without looking, "May I help you inspector?" Viktor was a bit curious why the young officer had come to him at this moment. Catching his breath, the officer finally spoke, " Vice chief, I wanted to formally apologize for today, and-" Viktor handed the officer a bowl, cutting him off, "Oh there's no need inspector, it was not your fault and you shouldn't feel guilty in the slightest." Viktor smiled warmly at the officer, who stared dumbfounded, jaw hanging slightly open. Viktor went back to serving trainees for a moment before the young man started again, "B-but I do feel responsible in some aspect, at least let me do something for you so we can call it even." Viktor shook his head, feeling a little annoyed. "I'm saying that we were never uneven. You don't need to do anything to make up for nothing." Viktor was getting a tad irritated at the boy's persistence but remained composed. "But I don't feel even! Please sir, at least... at least let me serve so you may take a break!" The young officer shoved the bowl Viktor had gave him back into his hands and drove Viktor out from behind the serving station. Viktor blinked for a moment, and sighed, "You're lucky I'm a pushover, inspector." Viktor smiled and walked away, while the young officer took over where he had left off.

Viktor wouldn't rest of course, instead he would keep watch over the mess hall, he needed to do something to keep from going mad from boredom. He took a sip from the bowl, carefully tilting it so not to get any stew on his mustache. Viktor's eyes lazily scanned the room, watching over the new cadets peacefully chatting or eating to their heart's content. It was enough to make Viktor reminisce of his trainee days, of his friends that he studied with, his rivals that he challenged... These three years were to be memorable. Memorable in a good way; not what Zachary Smith had in mind. Viktor would have to make sure there were some who left this place with a good memory.

"Guess so," Jay replied as he began to eat. Before he could bring the spoonful of stew into his mouth, another boy, quite well-dressed, came up to the pair. He introduced himself as Isra and Survey Corps. Ah, so he was aiming for the Survey Corps? He was honestly glad to know that there were more people out there willing to fight for freedom. However, Isra seemed a bit daft, but Jay told himself not to judge a book by its cover. Maybe he had some secret skill up his sleeve. After Joseph spoke, Jay took his chance. "Jay," he simply said as he continued to eat.

Alexander watched the group interact from a distance, about a table behind them. "Maybe I should talk to them..." He thought quietly to himself, when suddenly, he had a hilarious idea. Picking up some vegetables with his spoon, he bend it backwards, then launched it at the back of Isra's head. He smirked and put his hand to his mouth, leaning back and laughing. He didn't intend to be mean, but to rather just mess with the others.

Joseph saw the vegetable move towards the friendly boy across him. He tilted his head to see who had thrown the food. He shot a death glare with the features of the look made scarier by the scars on his face. He simply looked at the boy for a few moments in annoyance before turning back to his food. Heaving a sigh, he lifted the spoon. "Have either of you ever seen a 3DMG be used before?" He asked, trying to start a conversation. "It's pretty easy to use if you're good at calibrating yourself quickly and smoothly." The moment he finished speaking, he put the spoon into his mouth and froze for a moment, thinking on what he'd just said. After putting the spoon down once more, he went on. "Well... I guess that's an obvious speculation but..." His voice trailed off as he leaned his head on his hand. Letting out another sigh, he rolled his eyes up at them.

Mika Smyth

Finally! The boy moved and thus, Mika was able to get her share of food. Looking at it, she wasn't really eager for it. Not that she could or was picky, but it reminded her of the food of the orphanage. Something that caused her to think to the place she wanted to avoid. With her plate filled with some food, Mika sighed. She could now find a place where she could sit down and relax a bit. Though she wasn't sure if she could really relax. With so many people, she couldn't find a place where she could sit down and enjoy the food. It caused her to almost look a bit sour, wanting a place of her own to eat.

With almost no free table, Mika sighed again. Just her luck. No place to sit down and enjoy some peace and calm. If she could find one of those two girls from earlier, maybe she could try to start bonding. That could be useful for later. And to prevent some stranger to sit next to and requiring her to be nice. With the prospect that it could either be in vain, not seeing the person that much, or result in backfire, if she would be more rude with a stranger. Such a problem. Such a drag and pain. Walking to a place, Mika felt something. She had a bad feeling somehow. Looking at the food, she though about it. Probably the food, yes. Probably just the food...

"Well, nice to meet both of you!" Isra said through a mouthful of bread, evidently too hungry to care much about being polite. He didn't seem to have much regard for the clothing he wore, either allowing or just not noticing the drops of soup dripping down onto his shirt. It was in the midst of Isra's eating frenzy that the glob of vegetables hit him in the back of the head, catching in his messy red hair. Turning , Isra stared quizzically towards the direction where it had come from, putting his hand up to feel what had hit him. Pulling the vegetables out of his hair that had caused the offence. Finally spotting the person that had catapulted the vegetables into him, Isra stared him down. If it was a food fight he wanted, it was a food fight he would get.

Smiling deviously, Isra dipped his spoon into his remaining amount of soup and pulled out a portion of different items contained within. Isra would then follow suit to that the other boy had done, using his spoon to catapult the objects towards him.

"Mhmm," he murmured. Jay stared at Isra as he hungrily tore into his food. It almost made him lose his appetite, but he just shrugged it off. However, he couldn't help but chuckle when Isra got hit by a spoonful of veggies. He began eating, only stopping to answer Joseph's question. "Yeah, I have. It's pretty fun," he said, dipping his spoon back into the stew. Before he could lift the spoon, Isra had turned around to launch a counter attack. He paused and glance at Joseph, his lips pulled up in a smile. Was that a food fight he was smelling right now? "Can't wait till we get our 3DMG," he stated before going back to his food.

Joseph nodded, smiling warmly at Jay. "Me too," he said. "I wonder what kind of a test they'll have." He glanced around and then looked back at Jay. "You know, some people here don't really seem too physically fit. I guess everyone came thinking it'd be super easy to get into the capital, huh...?" He gave Isra a short glance after he said this and leaned on his hands, his palms sticking to the table. "I'm sure we'll all do well, though," he added. "Though three years with that Zachary Smith as our Chief.... That's not going to be very easy."

As Alexander continued laughing, food was suddenly hit on his face. He sat there, wiping it off, and gritted his teeth with a sort of twisted smile. "Alright, you...you wanna play like that? FOOD FIGHT!" He yelled out, scooping up a bit of the side-dishes on his plate and threw it as hard as he could at the man who'm had engaged him in 'combat'. Quickly, he hopped on top of the table and continued to assault the fellow recruit with as much 'ammunition' that was available.

Viktor moved stealthily, weaving between tables and the backs of young cadets, he barely brushed against either thanks to his lanky build. He was given the short end of his genetics. His brother blessed with strength and size, his sister blessed with beauty and health and generous "proportions", and Viktor... was apparently unlucky. All he had was his personality, his skills, and his height; but it wasn't that bad. The hand that was dealt to him by the dealer of life was built up, not given.
Viktor took a step forward but quickly retracted it as some blurry object whizzed by not to far from his path. His eyes didn't catch the action, but he definitely caught the after effects. A young cadet was laughing, clearly pleased with what he had done. Viktor traced the projectile to a bright red head, with a vegetable chunk embedded in the tangled mess. "Isra..." He recalled the cheery young man's name. Viktor sighed, disappointed in the level of maturity that these recruits had was below the usual average. As he turned to confront the troublesome cadet, a blurry mass whizzed through the air, audibly splashing onto the instigator's laughing face. Viktor laughed internally before turning to see that Isra had retaliated, brandishing a smile equal to that of his attacker.
Viktor stood back, he wanted to see where this went. Although he was a little offended and saddened that his cooking was used as cannon fodder, he wanted to test cadets. Although he could already tell that they didn't know their place. The cadet that started the battle-- whom Viktor knew not his name-- murmured something, clearly plotting revenge, especially with a smile like that. This was a mistake, thought Viktor.

"Food Fight!"

By the grace of the three walls, he can't be serious.
But he was.
And heis.
Viktor slid into position as the cadet grabbed fistfuls of stew and catapulted them towards his initial victim. By now other recruits began to notice the commotion and got excited. This isn't the kind of surprise Viktor wanted; he supposed he should have been more careful about what he wished for.
With near impossible precision and speed, Viktor stretched out his arms to catch the globs of projectile stew into empty bowls he picked up; each impact spilling the previous contents onto the floor.

"ATTENTION!" Viktor roared tossing the bowls aside; his sharp eyes dead set on the troublemaker. He waited for silence to sink in, nice and slow-like, before he began, "May I remind you recruits, that you're still here on condition. Reckless, disrespectful and immature behavior will not be tolerated under any circumstance." Viktor paced the messhall, closing the gap between him and the cadet, one step at a time. He wasn't yelling but his voice was loud and it rumbled like thunder; his face wasn't red, nor did it show emotion, but it did reflect authority and discipline. Viktor continued, scanning the sea of faces, "If you think you can do as you please here, you will learn swiftly that we of the Training Corps do not close our doors for reasons other than shortage in troops." He stopped behind the cadet, without even turning around or looking at him Viktor scowled "Know your place cadets. You all stepped into the belly of the beast long before you thought you would." Viktor let the words sink in before walking away. This could have gone better, he thought to himself.

The trainees who had followed the initial two had frozen when they'd heard the officer yell. Their faces cut red, the recruits sat back down.

Joseph let out a small sigh of relief, glad that the "food fight" was stopped before it began. His real worry was that Zachary would come to the mess hall and punish them for the noise. It probably would've been much worse than what this officer had done, which was practically scolding them and nothing else. He dipped his spoon into the stew once more and stuffed it into his mouth.

---

The rest of the night had passed quietly. The trainees were sent to their cabins promptly. Joseph walked into the building, looking around and examining the beds. It looked like the bunks were unusually large but when you looked closer, you could see a small void dividing the mattresses. The beds on the lower parts were all full so he climbed up the ladder and sat on the far side of the bed, waiting to see who would be the one sleeping next to him before he would fall into sweet unconscious.

"H-holy!" Jay shivered in his seat when the officer yelled. He gaze curiously at the guy; just moments before he was smiling and dishing out strew without a care in the world. Now? Well, at least the food fight was over. It would have been a real pain in the butt trying to clean himself off (if he was hit). Jay honestly expected the jack-ass to come in, screaming his head off at the recruits for making a fuss. However, he didn't, and that was alright with Jay. He tore off a piece of his bread, munching at it as his thoughts wandered to his sister.

The time dragged on, and soon enough everyone was sent back to the barracks to catch some shut-eye. Jay walked into the cabin, rather bored and tired. His head wandered on a bed, pushing down to test the softness of it. Meh, decent enough. Before long, he climbed on a ladder, half-expecting to see a new person. Except he came eye to eye with a very familiar looking face. "Heya," he greeted, grinning at Joseph as he sat.

Alexander sat on his own bed, his legs dangling off the side as he rested his hands behind his head. He thought to himself quietly, chewing on a piece of grass that he had picked up prior to entering the bunkers. The officers around here scared him, but he wasn't too upset from the ordeal. In fact, he thought it was kinda funny, entertaining even when the officer came in to yell. Either way, he was enjoying himself greatly here. "I love this place..."

Joseph was laying on the bed when Jay stuck his head out of the edge of the bed. He shot a quick glance at him as if he was looking out for danger. He sighed lightly and sat up, smiling, almost relieved. "Hey," he greeted him. "Dinner was quite a surprise, hm? I didn't actually think anyone would pull something like that." He leaned back, planting his palms into the bed to support his weight. "The stew was nice though." His smile widened as he spoke. He was quite glad to have gained a sincere friend on the first day. It had been a while since he had had a proper social interaction.

Stepping into the sleeping quarters, Samuel looked around for an empty bunk. His initial hopes of finding a single cot by itself were dashed as he realized that all of the beds were paired together. Cursing inwardly, Samuel headed towards the bunk that was closest to the corner. So far only the lowest two cots had been taken, which left the top two free. Climbing the ladder quickly, Samuel avoided making eye contact with the inhabitants of the lower bunk. He reached the top and quickly took the spot closest to the wall. Turning his back to face the corner, Samuel laid on his side, his eyes scanning the room. All he could hope for was that nobody would take the second cot next to him so that he could at least have a little privacy...

Earlier that day...

Entering the training camp, his pack slung over his shoulder, Samuel hoped that he had made the right decision. Scanning the crowd of new trainees, he made his way towards the cabin that the other boys were being directed. Upon entering the cabin, Samuel was handed a uniform in his size. Heading somewhere he could change, Samuel donned the uniform. It felt strange on him, but he shook the feeling off and headed back out into the training compound. There was still some time until they had to meet in the field for the announcement, and so Samuel took that time to explore the compound, taking care to avoid anyone he came across.

---

After the announcement, Samuel changed back into his older clothes before heading into the mess hall for food. He arrived a little later than most of the new 'recruits' and found, to his displeasure, that there were no empty tables. Sighing inwardly, Samuel got his food and then looked around the room. Moving to the corner of the room across from the entrance, Samuel sat on the floor, placing his tray in front of him. He kept his back against the corner so that he could see the whole room as he ate. He earned a few curious looks from people for sitting on the floor, but he didn't care. Samuel was always more comfortable by himself, and this way he could keep an eye out for trouble.

Midway through eating, he noticed a minor food fight break out. Shaking his head sadly, Samuel turned his attention back to his dinner. It didn't take long before an officer came in and put a stop to the fight, and soon after the trainee's began filing back towards the cabins. Finishing up his meal and making sure that he left nothing behind, Samuel waited for the room to clear a little before he made his way towards the cabins as well...