[Not the break from Silent Hill that she had wished for. Yeah, James hasn't even been in Etraya that long, but he's already starting to get the same feeling. They never asked to be here; what good can really come from any of that?

Well. That of some decent company, at least. Maybe he can allow himself even that much.]

That sounds like a fair deal to me.

[He reaches out his hand to complete the handshake, still smiling, though faint.]

Please. Don't worry about the soup. It doesn't even register in the top ten worst things I've seen. Maybe once all this stupid "cook-off" winds down, we can find something actually edible later down the line.