[He lifts an eyebrow, his expression indicating that he's fairly certain he'll never be able to grow facial hair even if he tries. A hand comes up to subconsciously pat his own face, a little frown of disappointment before it's back to food. Here we have a wild, human teenage boy in his natural habitat, a bottomless pit that will probably have to have things physically taken from him or wait it out until he decides he's full.

But his eyes light up as soon as Loki speaks because...yes. Yes, that is exactly the conclusion he'd drawn himself. It takes him a few tries to swallow the amount of food in his mouth before he sets the plate aside, digging in his backpack for a stack of papers.]

We cannot lose Redgate. And we're not gonna. That's one of the things I was hoping Graves could talk to the dwarves about as soon as he figures out a proposal for them. Redgate's their first line of defense and it's ruled by our guys. Wouldn't it make more sense to make nice with us and teach us their secrets so that we could better protect Troichean Beinn? After all, if the Seelie decided they wanted to overthrow us and control Redgate, it'd be a battle and enacting a battle would mean getting them involved and who wants to do that? [There's a crooked smile following, a slight lift of his eyebrows as he thumbs through his notes at an alarming rate.]

The dwarves will do whatever it takes to protect themselves. Don't you think that means aligning with their true allies instead? That's why Graves sent me out there. We needed some insider info so that we can formulate a new strategy to rebuild an alliance with them. [A hand comes up to run through his hair as he reads.] You'd be surprised what you can learn from the dwarves over some drinks and a few rounds of poker.

[A beat.] By the way, if you know anybody who could teach me to be a better poker player I'd appreciate it. I kinda lost some of my gold.