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Okay, fine, Benji had decent taste. He was ambitious, too--he knew more than one person dying to get an invitation to one of Duchess Perez' parties, so the fact that he would be bold enough to present the little one in one of them was saying something. Eris would have to keep an ear out for that, if only to once again ruin the night with his presence. He absentmindedly swirled the blood in his cup, mind at work as the count kept talking about things Eris did not care about. Hm, he was going to have to try a little harder in participating in the conversation before he ended up falling asleep, Benson seemed prepared for every question asked.

Deciding he had played around with it enough and trying to hide his expression of boredom, Eris lifted the cup to his lips before the Eve count decided to reveal a [i]very[/i] interesting tidbit: his mage was an albino! The revelation and shock actually managed to get through to Eris before anything, his eyebrows shooting up as he put his cup back down with his mouth actually open. 

The princess had decided that the defining mage for the Eve house was an [i]albino[/i]. That couldn't be true, could it? Of course it was, why hadn't he noticed sooner? Well, no, he knew why, he couldn't care enough to possibly look at her for more than a few seconds. But now that he thought about it, he did find it weird that her eyebrows had been white, too. Her eyelashes were darker, too--she must use mascara. If her hair really was naturally white, then it meant she had oculocutaneous albinism. As far as he was aware, it was practically unheard of and very rare, except in probably the worst way possible.

All his analytical thinking then gave way to one of the greatest ironies: the Sinnenodel heir was gifted a Starag, [i]the[/i] top-of-the-line mage lineage, while the Eve representatives were tossed the literal bottom of the barrel. And Max wondered why Eris bothered coming! This was amazing! This was some of the best news he had received since he had been here! It was even better than hearing that Benson was stuck with some peasant from the middle of nowhere, no, this had to have been deliberate!

The corners of Eris' mouth turned into an open grin of disbelief, lips quickly closing as he remembered where he was. Honestly, if he was anywhere else he would have burst out laughing, but he controlled himself, even if he couldn't quite stop smiling. But any sense of recovering any more than that went flying out the window when the countess decided to turn quite icy towards the count. Eris had to stop himself from rolling his eyes--she was so full of shit, there was no way she compared a defective mage to a [i]diamond[/i]. He supposed the Marivaldi way had to be upheld by someone, but apparently that was in exchange for vampiric pride. 

[color=ccff99]"A cracked bottle is considered unique compared to the rest in the case, that doesn't mean it's of any use,"[/color] Eris said with a half scoff, half laugh. Ugh, he couldn't believe he actually had to defend Benson, but being hidden away from society must have done a number on her head. [color=ccff99]"You can't be serious. You bring something looking like [i]that[/i] to any place in high society and you'd be a laughingstock! Even an heiress like you couldn't get away with something like that without losing your dignity. Aside from the fact that the look is [i]completely[/i] garish and much too eye-catching, ridding her of that awful hair would be doing the little one a favor. I argue that Count Eve is right in his decision to strip that white away. Anything less would be a disservice..."[/color]

But tearing down the Marivaldi countess wasn't what he was here for; he needed to focus on the task at hand. Shaking his head, he looked at Ben for a moment, trying to come up with the right words in false concern. [color=ccff99]"...Unless these are simply short term plans. Even so, however, all that work for something that'll never get you anywhere or anything...you'll have to explain your line of thinking, I don't understand,"[/color] He finally got the words out slowly without a hint of laughter. [color=ccff99]"I'll admit there is talent, but even if you managed to get anyone's interest, the moment her genetics are revealed, you've essentially doomed both you and her to a failed transaction and word would definitely get out faster than you could control it. I suppose you'd have to wait until graduation if you wanted to sell her to someone who collects baroque pearls, but I doubt she'd fetch a high price...unless that's why you're cultivating her talents?"[/color] No, the Eve count was too soft for that sort of thing. But watching him squirm for a response would do nicely, especially since Miss High Horse over there was apparently the authority on deeming mages worthy.

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