Knap can hardly contain his excitement at the cornucopia of foods on display. He makes his way to the beginning of the hungry line and collects tray, plate and silverware. He moves along asking for a sturdy but humble amount of foods, particularly vegetables, insects, cake and fruit juice. "Thank you...Thank you... and some of that please...Thank you." 

Knap returns to the section of table his newfound friends have planted themselves. He takes a seat and waits patiently for the others to collect their grub. 

As Mae and Knap leaves the table and heads over towards the kitchen, the purple-skinned tiefling realizes they are supposed to collect their own meal. It made perfect sense of course, the university would not have servants enough for waiting on it's students, and although being a magical place of higher learning even he didn't expect magical servants at the students call.

Malvyn then seems pleased, or rather relieved, to see Mei accept the seat next to him, he wasn't quite sure anyone would but he found himself feeling more and more safe now with his floor mates. He's about to explain to the energetic girl that there apparently were no service at the tables and that they would need to collect their meals y the litchen but he decides it could wait a moment to not be impolite, he was not particularly hungry after all. As the purple-skinned tiefling hears Mei's voice whispering in his ear he turns to look down at her with curiosity before responding. It felt sweet that she would even bother to ask him. Everything felt quite okay though he thought. Admittedly he had been worried he would be late for dinner and not found a seat with the others and he had looked forward to that, sitting with them like this. "Thank you for asking Mei, everything is okay...now." The purple-haired girl hears Malvyn's voice in her mind. "Don't be afraid, it is nothing sinister, just...a kind of magic." The voice continues while Malvyn offers the girl next to him a brief smile, hoping it would turn out friendly and comforting. It is unfortunately not a completely pleasant feeling for Mei. It is definitely Malvyn's voice, but it does in fact sound slightly sinister and distorted in her mind. The purple-skinned tiefling then seems to regret flaunting his powers like this, did he think he would impress her, someone who clearly were a wizard herself. "Should we get our meals?" He finally asks Mei and the others still at the table to break the awkward silence.

As soon as Malvyn arrives, Guardok greets him and then decides that formality has been adhered to and also disappears from the table to appear in the food queue next to Knap and Mae, although with his small stature they may not notice. He keeps an eye out to see if there are separate serving stations set lower down, or steps to help him reach the food easily. He also wonders at this time whether those much larger have their own stations.

Mei is suddenly very, very awake, her eyes widening at the strange Malvyn-but-not-Malvyn voice in her mind. She's familiar to some extent with voices in her head for as often her grandmother casts Sendings and how her Dreams communicate, but Malvyn's magic is from a source that is entirely foreign to her. And the distortion leaves a trail of goosebumps down her arms and thighs in its wake. She can't help the obvious curiosity that dwells in her expression as she blinks up at him. Whatever that was, it's certainly useful.

Shaking off her surprise, Mei pipes up, "Y-Yes! Lets!" before making her way towards the queue, Malvyn's voice still lingering in the corners of her mind. Surprise and any trepidation is, however, quickly eclipsed by relief to know that he is, in fact, okay. "Stars above, I'm going to need to loosen my belt! I've just spotted the dessert station." 

Mellori saw food with a single purpose - fuel. She did not understand people getting excited over flavours and textures. Heading to join the queue, she craned her neck to see what was on offer. Fuel or not, her food choice was always limited - chicken or fish, blandly cooked potatoes and vegetables. She was relieved to see that the vast array of food on offer covered her preferred (or more accurately only ) choices and she collects her tray, plate and napkin - notably eschewing cutlery - before remembering her parents' advice and picking up a knife and fork to add to her tray.

As they queued, she called to Mei, again pointing to her own cheek. "The other side!"

A bit to his surprise, Guardok finds that the path along the serving line rises up to allow him to see easily.  It happens seamlessly, as though nothing changes and it was always the proper height for you. 

Glancing around, there's no sign of any larger creatures to see what happens with them. 

Guardok is astonished that the floor raises him up to be able to serve himself, and spends a little bit of time walking back and forth along the serving stations, getting in the way of others in the queue trying to trick the magic floor.

"Hey, get a load of this", he says rather loudly to his fellow fourth floor residents, as he demonstrates the magic.

He then realises he is blocking others from getting to the food, or worse, causing them to suffer little earthquakes of rising floor. "Oh, sorry", he says and loads up his plate with all manner of food.

Mae walked through the line slowly, collecting a modest plateful of this and that, bit of meat, some vegetables and fruit, piece of bread, all in all a fairly well balanced type of meal. She did find one dessert she thought looked intriguing, as it seemed to wobble quite a bit yet never fall over. A translucent red color gave it an interesting hue and when she took a small taste it tasted like cherries. She gathered her things and returned to the table, pulling out a hair tie from her bag and wrapping her hair up in a loose knot with the tie and then settled in to begin eating, watching the others come and go. She was admittedly rather hungry at the moment so she spent the first few minutes back at the table without comment, but eagerly listened to others as the spoke.

Malvyn is quick on his feet to pull out Mei's chair as she gets up, then following her and the others over to the serving line. His fiery red eyes scans the food on display, hoping to find something he recognizes and feels safe with tasting. He would certainly try to expand his repertoire of acceptable dishes but coming to Strixhaven and processing the new places and faces was quite enough for him to absorb before taking on the challenge of accepting new styles of food, and out of what he saw insects would most likely be the last thing he ever tried.

As Mellori calls out to Mei, Malvyn realizes the sigil on her cheek was not an intentional facial art item that Mei put on for dinner. He smiles to himself over the misunderstanding, actually thinking it was probably fashionable where she came from. Like with the girl with all the piercings he had met outside the Biblioplex. The purple-skinned tiefling then can't help but chuckle slightly as Guardok explores the arcane fascilities created for people of all lengths to feel at home in Dresar Hall. Eventually Malvyn ends up with a plate sparsely filled with some raw red meat and potatoes, devoid of anything resembling a vegetable. For drink he collects a glass of water and a cup of black coffee to complete the conservative meal on his tray before returning to floor four table.

Chara heaps her plate with a variety of food items... she wants to try everything! Sadly, she knows that it is not physically possible for her to do so, in spite of her best efforts. Hopefully she doesn't regret this meal too much later...

She fills her cup with a randomly-selected beverage and returns to the table with a kind of bewildered grin... everything is just so new and different...

Her gaze falls on the purple tiefling again.

"Hey, um... Malvyn," she says to him. "I don't want you to feel like I'm invading your privacy... but... I would really like to know a bit about you. I've never actually met another devil-spawn... though unfortunately I have met more real devils than I care to think about."

Malvyn almost drops his tray as he hears the winged tiefling say his name, but he recovers quickly, feeling much less uncomfortable with speaking to people he doesn't know now than when he arrived to Strixhaven this afternoon. He makes a face to himself as she uses the word devil-spawn. He always thought it was a derogatory term for their kind, but it was perhaps better to adopt it as their own to take away the negative connotation. Malvyn then turns and tries to smile politely at Chara, his fiery red eyes expressing both curiosity and some doubt as Chara mentions having met many devils.  "Ask away Chara, what would you like to know? But first, how did you happen to meet devils, that seems quite dangerous even for those like us." He asks with sincere curiosity.

With a soft chime of laughter at Guardok's changing elevation and then a squeak of surprise as Mellori calls after her, Mei scrubs at her other cheek. The friction only adds to the color already there. Hoping she got it all this time, the wizard proceeds to collect a number of vegetarian options on her plate. By the time she reaches the dessert station, her mouth is watering in anticipation of them, though she pauses with a frown just before taking any. 

'If the mind is our altar, then the body is our temple. Do not defile yours with unhealthy food, child.'

She takes a deep breath and expels a crestfallen sigh through her lips as she looks longingly at them all, then heads back to their table.

"Well... you can thank my father for that," she says after a brief moment of hesitation. "I think it would be quicker to list the fiends he didn't have dealings with than the ones he did... that's probably why I was born the way I am... thanks, Dad."

She sighs. 

"Anyway... I guess I just wondered what your life has been like being... well... like us. Like I said, I never met anyone like me before... I honestly assumed that I was just another devil that my father summoned until a travelling holy hermit guy explained that there are others like me called 'tieflings.'"

Mellori stays true to form and chooses precisely what she had planned. Plain chicken, boiled potatoes and broccoli and carrots. Small portions of each and plenty of space between each item on her plate - careful to be sure they didn’t touch. She adds a glass of water and doesn’t even take any notice of the desserts.

Sitting down, she looks at her knife and fork but leaves them on the tray. Slowly she began to eat, starting with all of her carrots - picking them up with her fingers.

Malvyn did not consider himself an expert on things infernal but he knew the number of devils in the nine hells were near infinite, only outnumbered by the demons of the abyss in the eternal blood war, yet, the winged tiefling girl seemed sincere in her claims and he reasoned she simply meant her father had dealings with a fair amount of devils where one would have been too many for her liking. In the end he decides to not ask her for a list of all devils her father didn't have dealings with. Walking with Chara back to their table he tries to answer the best he can. "I'm not sure my life necessarily have been defined by being born a tiefling, I have read of others like us that has reached respectable positions in their societies, but there is no doubt in my mind that being born like us is generally a great handicap in most places. I grew up in a city called Baldur's Gate in a world called Toril. I have lived all my life there so I admit I have no experiences to compare with but I still know Baldur's Gate is a place rife with corruption and injustices. My first memories was from an orphanage where tieflings were nothing more than spawns of devils and hence were inherently evil." Malvyn explains, pausing briefly to find his seat back at the table. "As soon as I was old enough I ran away from that place, surviving in the streets until fate finally smiled upon me and an old scholar took me in as his assistant. With him I had a place where my heritage did not matter. Admittedly I have neither travelled nor ever had anyone I could call a friend, but if this is because I am born a tiefling I do not know." He finishes with a weak smile. "I have the sense though that this place, Strixhaven, is a place where you and I will be judged by our actions and not our heritage." He adds with what he hopes is a reassuring smile now.

Guardok heads back to the table with a plate piled high with all manner of meats and vegetables, and sets about demolishing it. He listens to the conversation that the tieflings are having, and interjects between mouthfuls, "That is the beauty of the circus, it doesn't matter who or what you are, you become family".

Her heart aches to hear of the tieflings’ tales. What a privileged and cozy life she's led by comparison. Worried it was meant to be a private conversation, Mei can’t help but add in her own quiet agreement and reassurance. “You won’t find any such superstitious prejudice here, nor in the Vastlands. I.. I’m sorry you were both put through that on your home planes.” A rare sight on the wizard’s face, Mei frowns as she angrily tears into some cauliflower, upset on their behalf.

She’s briefly distracted from her vegetable carnage by the sight of Mellori eating carrots with her fingers. Deciding that looks far more fun than the convoluted meal etiquette she was brought up with, Mei smiles and joins her, picking up a floret with her fingers. She glances around as though her grandmother might manifest from the ether and scold her.

“I‘ve never been to one, but the circus life sounds so exciting. And to be accepted and encouraged to be who you are is...” her gaze drops to her plate, distant for a moment, until she blinks and reaffixes her smile. “What sort of acts does your troupe do?”

Guardok looks up at Mei and smiles. "It is exciting, but it is also hard work. Everyone has to pitch in with whatever needs doing, whether it is erecting the tent, serving snacks or tidying up after the show. And of course we have acts to perform as well as all that".

"The acts change from season to season, as new people join us, but we have wonderful aerial acrobats, gymnasts and jugglers. Right now we have an expert marksman who can shoot a grape out of your teeth with an arrow! And we are starting a menagerie of exotic animals too. The stars of that is an adolescent griffon! I myself perform acrobatics and sword dances. If I can learn some powerful illusions, we can take the circus to the next level, and be invited to castles rather than villages though. That is why I am here", he says, excited by the thought of what could be.

Knap brought his own spoon. A tidy carve of Blackheart Sassafras etched with geometrics at the handle. Hot food with the spoon and what a relief, he eats the raw vegetables with his hands too. He ate in quiet curiosity, ears and eyes following the stories. He never knew a tiefling's anguish but reckons Chara and Melvyn are already way more interesting than any whispers heard about so-called ‘devil spawn’. Knap regrets some things he said to his roomie earlier. 

‘We all need to find our tribes’ he whispers softly to himself. 

…

“OOO the Circus”

Mellori, as ever, listens and commits everything she hears to memory. You never know when a seemingly abstract fact might become useful. She listens with the dispassionate ear of a researcher however, rather than joining in with comforting words or reassuring nods. She continues to eat, slowly and methodically. Once all of her carrots have gone, she starts on the broccoli, popping a whole floret into her mouth and eating it before repeating the process.