Lunch with a Lecture [Private with Pericles]

[Al Ciendra]

That time of the day again, her (almost) favorite time of the day, lunch time!
The dining hall was filled with students, all rushing and shuffling around the tables back and forth from their seats to the counter were the staff worked tirelessly to provide the hundreds of students with food.

Al, was one of the first as usual she had raced down the halls from her class and gotten her usual order, by now some of the staff knew the masked menace and could easily guess what she'd want...considering her order was usually the same, that being a big pile of meat, schnitzel topped by a mirrored egg in this case which Al was currently eagerly squeezing a lemon slice over.
Taking a whiff of her meal, Al smiled, as she pulled up her mask just a little to start eating.
While other students may be prim and proper raised with manners, etiquette and most importantly human standards, the village raised wolf faunus had no qualms about literally wolfing down her food, eradicating most of her plate in a few seconds, pausing only to take a big gulp of her fizzy drink before scarfing down the last piece on her plate...then she proceeded to get seconds.

It was only at her sixth piece of schnitzel that Al slowed down a little, but still eating with gusto not leaving a scrap despite her unrefined way of eating.

[Pericles Herodotus Ozymandias]

Stepping into the the dining hall, Pericles scrunched his eyes tiredly, his body full of aches as he made his way over to the food line. Grabbing a tray in each hand, Pericles quickly went down the line, piling his trays with pressed mojo pork sandwiches, lox bagels topped with hollandaise, and finally three country fried steaks with sausage gravy. A glass or water and a glass or milk sat on each tray respectively as Pericles made his way towards a table.

Being one of the last to arrive, Pericles found that most of the spots were empty, save a place that most seemed to be avoiding to stay out of the splash zone. Figuring the worst that could come would be a sour lemon slice ballistic projectile, Pericles set one tray down in order to free the hand so that he could gently rap his knuckles against the wooden table, "Pardon, my intrusion, honorable stranger, but perhaps I could join you for this meal?"

[Al Ciendra]

Al looked up from her meal lips currently drenched in sauce as she briefly wiped her mouth with her glove and looked at the guy who addressed her words she barely understood, not because of bad hearing of course, but because there were a few levels of IQ between what was between Al's ears and the sound waves entering them.
She stared at him for a second, but then scooted to the side, which was free for some reason people usually gave her a lot of space...was she that scary?
Hell yeah!
Anyway, she allowed Pericles to sit by her side.
"Yeah sure, have a seat."
Al said before returning to her meal, then something did come to mind regarding the person next to her, she recognized the voice, he was that guy that held history courses next door from her math home room.
"Wait, aren't you that one history nerd? What does Beacon pay you to talk that much?"
She asked tilting her head before tearing into another piece of meat.

[Pericles Herodotus Ozymandias]

Pericles bowed his head gratefully, "You have my thanks, honorable stranger."

Stepping around the bench, Pericles deposited his other tray and after saying a small prayer under his breath, began to dine. Napkin folded in his lap and knife guided by his index, Pericles was halfway into his first steak when Al spoke up.

"I suppose history nerd is an apt description for my anthropology degree, so yes that is I. Beacon does not fund my efforts in imparting additional tutelage to those who either struggle in larger classroom settings or merely wish to know more, but the efforts do not go unnoticed and I can count myself ever grateful for the guidance I am able to request and is on some occasions freely offered by the professors as thanks for my actions and discipline towards my fellow students." Pericles explained very insuccinctly, "After all, one should always beware of old men in a profession where men die young."

"Of course," Pericles tacked on after a moment, "I do also provide private lessons which are at charge should the student be capable of affording them, and the academy does provide a stipend in order to fund the private lessons for those who cannot afford them. Do you inquire with idle curiosity, or for more active reasons? Perhaps you will finally be the one to express interest in my wargame services for team leaders."

The last part was clearly said in what would approximate a joking manner for the expressively stoic individual, though clearly not a very amusing one.

[Al Ciendra]

Al did not know what to fully make of this response, there was no actual emotional response to her little tease but instead she got what was best described as...an advertisement?
He did pride himself on his knowledge, which Al could somewhat understand, pride at least, she herself was more than a little prideful of her power, the thing that would actually allow her to survive where others would fall and as such flexed it when ever possible but something a niche as historical knowledge, something useless on the battlefield?

Al did not know or care much about the people of old, sure she owed them her existence and the very world she lived in and did respect them for the deeds done to build remnant as it is, respect deep enough that she herself would fight to protect it, but that's where her curiosity ended, so for someone to boast about his knowledge of dead peoples deeds was a little strange to her but to make money of just spreading knowledge?
Huh....that was actually not so bad, Al couldn't boast with her historical knowledge but maybe she could offer fighting lessons?
...no, her fighting style was way too specific to replicate for anyone else that didn't have a semblance like hers.
Eh, she'd think about it, anything to boost her allowance.

As she was thinking this through, Al was mostly just staring silently at Pericles.
"No, thanks."
She finally spoke up, with her final steak still halfway in her mouth, before swallowing it.
"That sounds cool and all, making money by reading books to other people, good on you for figuring that out, Pericles...even though it's weird you're only paid for the private lessons not the extra classes. Also, while the war games could be fun, I'm no team leader, so not the target audience."
Al shrugged a little, she could very much use the experience of how to fight as a team, considering her issue with friendly fire, but she'd feel like a fraud taking a course not meant for her.

[Pericles Herodotus Ozymandias]

Having Al staring at him for a while, Pericles cautiously glanced behind him, curious if there was something else she was focusing on, but saw nothing remarkable there other than the other students. Her words brought him out of his reverie, "Ah, that is fine, not many actually proposition for tutoring and most are emphatically recommended to do so by one of the professors."

Pericles did not react to Al's poor table manners as she spoke around the steak partway into her gullet, "It is more of a whiteboard and connecting broader concepts curriculum, but I suppose I do occasionally orate the literary works of other historians. Usually my efforts consist of showcasing how several factors came into play in facilitating a period of economic instability which in turn was but one cause for a certain war as used to distract from troubles on the home-front."

"The public lessons are good practice for myself for future academic endeavors. After all, it is said that the hardest aspect of knowing a topic is knowing how to teach someone else to understand it as well. Ergo, I don't feel the need to charge for the efforts and I am sure that it may help in advocating for special programs I may one day wish to apply to." Pericles explained before taking a long drag of his glass of milk. Gently wiping his lips with a napkin, Pericles would continue, "As for the war games, while I advertise them for team leaders, there is only benefit for anyone to participate in them, regardless of their status within their team. Understanding how to handle a larger force, and one that you may be unfamiliar with, can be incredibly helpful in the future. Should you perchance be tasked with facilitating the guarded evacuation of a town overrun by Grimm, you could find yourself in charge of dispensing instruction to the local militia. Alternatively, raids on larger Grimm nests will often require multiple Hunter teams, and while practices conducive for intra-team execution of objectives are taught to team leaders, I don't believe it would be presumptive of me to believe that inter-team logistics aren't covered to the same degree, since the topic has yet to have been broached in courses so far."

Taking a moment to dine, Pericles continued, "Befuddlingly, I can't help but catch that despite your earlier words of questioning as to my identity, you do in fact appear to know my name." There would be no accusation or anything negative in his words, as Pericles seemed genuinely curious on the matter.