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Huh. Max expected more from that. Maybe not Eris demanding an explanation but at least a snide comment or two. He just... conceded. Max must've put the leech in check more skillfully than he thought. Sure, he was abrasive and hardly proactive at the chickenshit political games vampires play at all the time, but Eris had to have known from the moment he stepped in the door in a hoodie that Max fully intended to topple Eris' entire house of cards that day. The mischief didn't just end the moment Eris was out of sight and Max was alone with the favorite pet. 

This guy was definitely not as crafty as he thought he was, in any case.

[color=8585AD]"That sounds awful. You have fun,"[/color] Max dismissively muttered as he paced back to his room. Even Eris' taste in bad TV was quintessentially [i]Eris[/i]. Instructional manuals on mage rearing were more Max's speed - especially the ones written by well-meaning but ultimately patronizing 'activists' who hadn't yet managed to differentiate mages from poodles. Then again, Eris probably ranked his dog and his mages on the same level anyway, so he wouldn't get the humor. Nobody got the humor around here. He didn't talk to anyone enough to even know if they'd get it except Aaron. What the fuck, was the Retriever really his best friend now? He didn't even like that guy.

Max flopped face down on his bed with a groan, letting the muffled sounds of Lady Anabelle's unconvincing acting from the other room drown out his thoughts. It didn't work. Was this how workaholics like Ismene formed? High society was so insufferable and full of backstabbers that a mage had to simply bury themselves in their work to distract from the boredom? He'd assumed the tedium of secretarial work was just as bad, but he wasn't even out of school yet and Eris already had him wrapped up in the nobility's literal mind game. Explained why the leech took his loss so gracefully back there; he was probably weighing the benefits of bossing around an uncooperative asshole that had some drive against some easily-managed basket case and decided it was easier to trick a wolf to serve than train a sheep to hunt. Now he'd even spoiled his own victory. Great.

[hr][@Hero]