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"That three hundred hours did take over a year to rack up," Crispin said, hurriedly. He did have a life! Really. It was just mostly classes and homework, when it wasn't gaming or whatever...

He sighed a bit at the mention of hobbies. "Trying to figure s**t out, mostly. I mean - monsters! Fantasy is real! At first, it was like a dream come true. Okay, it still kind of is," he said, with a wry grin. "But the dream has teeth, turns out. And so do the monsters. Mostly I'm trying to whip myself into better shape, and meet people, I guess. And try to stay out of the way."

"Er..." Crispin looked down at what had been deemed noodle arms by the jocks in high school. "Not so much with sports, no. Running sounds ok, though - maybe, uh, weights too. Heh, I never would've done that for anything, but I guess being Humanity's Last Defense changes things." His grin was bright and eager - it was easy to see that even if he had lost his beloved video game consoles (among other things), Crispin had a lot of enthusiasm for the idea of being a Hunter, if nothing else.

"Where'd you come from? Before this, I mean. I'm from Seattle, myself."

"Oh, just college, pretty much... hadn't picked out what I wanted to do, though. Guess it doesn't matter now." Crispin shook his head. Sometimes he wondered what had happened after his 'disappearance', but those thoughts led to really, really uncomfortable places. "Army, though - you're gonna be good at this stuff." He offered Tuck a wry grin. "Is this better or worse?"

"Oh, yeah..." Crispin grinned and ducked his head a bit. "Actually, that's my favorite part. Magical weapons and things - happens all the time in books and games, but I never thought it'd be real... I'm glad it is, though. For lots of reasons."

The grin faded a bit. "For one thing, it meant I wasn't actually losing my mind when I saw the shadows."

"Yeah. My mom, my dad, my little sister." He sighed and took his glasses off, rubbing at the lenses with the edge of his scarf before putting them back on. "I, um. Try not to think about that too much. It doesn't... doesn't help. To think about that, I mean." Because thinking too much lead to missing them lead to wondering what they were going through lead to guilt lead to regret.

"Yeah..." Crispin didn't sound convinced, but then once those doubts took hold a simple phrase wasn't going to get rid of them, no matter who said it. It was just the way of things. Still, he gave Tuck a wry smile. "Thanks, man."

His meal had long since been reduced to crumbs. "Running, huh? Want to set up some time to meet up? Otherwise it's too easy to go 'someday' and never do it - at least, too easy for me. I'm used to avoiding jocks." He said that last in a lighter tone, paired with a somewhat brighter grin.

"Four in the morning? Er..." Crispin was grateful for the out Tuck offered. "Yeah, I think that'd do better. I generally saw four in the morning only when staying up that late, not waking up. Y'know, college time..."

Shaiming was starting to make noises in his head. He sighed. "My sensei says it's about time for my morning training. Sheesh." Crispin flexed and made a face. "Still noodle-arms, but I guess having a spear will fix that up in time. Catch you some morning soon?"

Crispin grinned widely. "Hell yeah, it does. Catch you around, bro."

And with that, he headed out of the dining hall and - obeying Shaiming's prompting - to the training area. Funny... he felt better after that one conversation than he had in a long time.