Ri'vashi continued to hesitate in her answer. She looked straight ahead, with growing frustration in her expression. Gallus was correct in that she had gone through this argument with Dro'cahi many, many times before, but he had not asked these questions. Gallus was asking her to quickly come up with a solution to a long-standing problem within the clan, but her mind was coming up empty. 

"Ri'vashi...doesn't know." She answered, almost growling in her tone. "We have gone over a year without an answer to that question; at least not one that will not sacrifice our defense. Ri'vashi has tried making the purpose of the drills more clear, she has tried making public reports on how much extra time our food stores would give us during an attack, but that only seemed to make them more discontented. The way they think does not make sense. It is like the war itself is unacceptable to them, but you know as well as Rivashi that we cannot choose to be uninvolved in this war. There is nothing Ri'vashi can do. Would you really think it worthwhile to stop training our people, or stop rationing as diligently, just out of convenience?" She said, as if it was obvious that those measures were necessary. To Meesei, it seemed as if she did not understand that her clan was over-prepared. 

---

La'khay's expression appeared to be almost genuinely confused at Sabone's question. "Well, of course not." She answered confidently. "Why would she be? It's just another way to enjoy yourself, like kissing your mate. It can be very romantic between two people that share genuine love for one another, but La'khay doesn't see it as any different from any other kind of affection. Back when she worked at the brothel, La'khay would sometimes mate with many people at once; it was just part of her job. La'khay might understand being nervous around strangers, but you would be nervous in front of friends too?"

Meanwhile, Peiter was simply obverving La'khay at work with Sabine's hair. He had not watched her at work before, back in Pelletine, so he was curious to see how she had made Sabine look so exquisite. This time, she did not have any special alchemical concoction to aid her, but La'khay could still do quite a lot with just some water, her claws, and a knife. Peiter was impressed with how quickly she was able to straighten out Sabine's hair to be near perfectly even and elegantly styled. Soon enough, La'khay was able to finish with the hair on her head, and move to trimming down her body hair. As for the conversation, Peiter found La'khay's opinions on the matter to be...interesting, to say the least. He had never met anyone who treated it so casually.