As the conversations took a turn for the more serious Tristan busied himself with eating as much as he could as fast as he could and listening carefully instead of talking. He set down the fork, licked his teeth, glanced at Lucy and clasped his hands under his chin before looking Devon right in the eye.

"If they can't make it here," he began in a quiet tone, "then they won't make it out there. Frankly we don't know how much longer any of us will make it out there. That's Eagle Claw, that's the wasteland and that's life. It isn't easy, it isn't pretty, it isn't 'fun,' and it sure as hell isn't fair. It's just sad fact. So you can either enjoy what you've got left or bitch and whine and be miserable. Nobody's gonna stop you." 

"But!" Tristan straightened up and smiled at the newcomers, "Bad dinner conversation! Congrats on 'graduating,' we're glad to have you two in the family, enjoy the free booze and all that."