[@Liberator] [@Apollosarcher] [@Mr Allen J]

Jing had to wonder why the principal had bothered to gather them all here today at all. His speech lasted but a few fleeting moments and gave them no information they did not already possess. It was as though this entire gathering was an act of formality, as if they felt compelled to give a passing opening to their festival. At the very least, Jing was comforted by the fact they were spared a long, drafty speech about some tedious topic or whatever else might have been intended. They were now free to spend the day as they saw fit. Of course, it was more than likely that Jing would have to spend it in the company of the collection of people that now made up her team at this academy.

Fortunately for Jing, their team's leader, Bran Bass, was a perfectly polite young man. It appeared that he had some experience with high society in spite of being from no prominent household that she was aware of. While she hardly needed every person she met to speak to her with aristocratic level courtesy, it was certainly better than having to deal with some crude, obnoxious individual. If nothing else, he made for tolerable company as far as Jing was concerned.

Then there was Amber Echo. To speak with Amber Echo was akin to having someone forcibly inject sugar into one's veins. Jing had the feeling that if she spent too long listening to the saccharine nonsense that came out of her mouth, she would end up diagnosed with diabetes. In fact, just looking at her was like having your eyes soaked in sugar; the clothes she wore almost made her own extravagant garbs look like common clothing. When speaking with Amber, Jing tended to simply nod along and pretend she was entirely on board with whatever she was talking about, but she was more than often having her patience tested.

Last, and most definitely least, they had Jaden Raldo. Where Amber was made of sugar, Jaden was comprised solely of his own ego. A cocksure male who wasn't afraid to let the entire world know just how much he thought of himself. The worst part was that he managed to be both willing to blather about his own greatness but also loud enough to function as his own personal loudspeaker. Hearing him was enough to give Jing a headache. Just like with Amber, she would usually make an effort to entertain his nonsense and leave him to his delusions of grandeur, but she was always tempted to simply drive a spike through her skull...or his.

When the lot of them had exited the hall, Amber was the first to bring up their plans. Jing only found this festival half as exciting as the prospect of getting back to slaying Grimm, but she supposed she ought to make the most of it. [b]"Food is fine."[/b] She replied to her suggestion. [b]"But a more pertinent questions is where we shall get food, I believe."[/b] Given it was festival time, Jing imagined there was a whole slew of food vendors taking advantage of the opportunity. Jing had no idea where they would go, and she wasn't particularly fussed either way; she was still rather new to the city life, and trying all the quirky foods was quite a quaint experience. Wherever they wanted to go, Jing would just nod along and see where it took her.