Grey ignored Veri's comment about tardiness for the most part - there was still time to eat, after all. Still, her comment about leaving the party behind got him both worried and kind of irritated. By the time he had gotten his eggs, french toast, and coffee, though, he had cooled off quite a bit. He could handle this. It was just one teammate. The other two seemed levelheaded and calm enough.<br/><br/>Then Veri started talking.<br/><br/>Grey attempted to focus on the positives first. Which was easy, as Veri's relentless stream of questions were positive enough to begin with. She wanted to know who he had been before joining Beacon, and about his family. Before he could answer, though, she launched into a short list of speculations.<br/><br/>To be fair, Veri had hit the mark with two of her three guesses, to a degree. Grey wasn't royalty, though his ancestors on his father's side had supposedly served as royal guard for a royal family in a bygone era, prior to the discovery of Dust. So, though Grey himself wasn't royalty, his shield had served royalty in the past. His mother's ancestors, on the other hand, had been noble warrior-vagabonds, including some of the first Hunters, and the naginata was that side of the family's signature weapon. And, his father cared A LOT about justice. Protecting was a second nature for both him and Grey, really. Guess number two, on the other hand, was completely spot on. Both of his parents' lineages had been influential in several battles against the Grimm, and they had gone on adventures of their own. Grey felt he owed it to them to follow in their footsteps.<br/><br/>But then came guess number three, and the start of the negatives. Sham. Grey had never thought of himself as that word, but hearing Veri say it put a slight thread of doubt in his mind. It was true that he wasn't completely devoted to the idea of being a Hunter, and that he felt like seeking his own destiny, but that didn't make him a sham. Did it? And what was that about a pointy stick and a chunk of metal? Was she... talking about the family heirlooms? Granted, Grey had his doubts about the Hunter lifestyle, but he still respected his legacy a great deal. There's no way he'd slide down a hill on the shield, and the weapon's traditional name was "naginata," and now she was asking him about his semblance but now she was moving on to his fighting style and<br/><br/>Grey waited three seconds to be completely certain that Veri had finished talking - it was hard to tell with her - before responding. He spoke a bit more slowly, calmly, but with a slight edge to his voice when discussing the topics that had slightly peeved him off. "First off. My dad's side of the family is all bodyguards and protectors. My mom's side is all career Hunters. Both sides have had plenty of children go to Beacon, including my mom. So, I guess I owe it to them to follow in their footsteps. It's a pride thing. They're well-off, but not royal, and a bit too tradition-focused. My "spear" is actually an ō-naginata (note the bladed end), my shield is not a "chunk of metal," and they're family heirlooms, so please try not to be TOO informal about them. The shield is for defending, not sliding, my semblance boosts my physical strength exceptionally in a crisis, and my fighting style is less about keeping all the attention for myself and more about luring attention away from others, so that you can make your bomb traps or that Quinn and Ed can close in for the kill or that civilians can evacuate. I could deal with hordes if I chose - the ō-naginata isn't just for show, after all - but I prefer to leave that to the faster, less armored fighters."<br/><br/>Grey took a sip of his coffee, swishing the bitter drink around in his mouth in hopes of getting a sour taste out of his mouth. That "sham" comment had stung harder than he had originally thought; but he refused to show it. When he next spoke, his tone was slightly lighter, though still with a miniscule hint of distaste towards some of the things that Veri had said.<br/><br/>"What about you? I know that you work with bombs..." Grey couldn't help but flash back to Veri's ruthless slaughter of her bed last night. "... But what of your semblance? And I still don't know about your family, and why you're pursuing Hunting."