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Lilie’s professor did [i]what?![/i] Aaron’s brow shot up at the very mention, shock written all over his face. How did one [i]forget[/i] their clothes, exactly? Max’s professor attacked him, Lilie’s was a nudist, Maddie’s had her singing like a toddler—where on earth did Ryner [i]find[/i] these people? Was this another one of her ways of having fun at her students’ expense? Good lord, maybe there was some credence to Max’s little jab; Ryner of all people would know that his upbringing didn’t lend itself well to dealing with… whatever flavour of unprofessionalism every other professor seemed to practice. 

Oh, and speaking of Ryner having fun at her students’ expense, Aaron supposed he should have known it was only a matter of time until the matter of the practical came up. He nearly groaned; the whole thing was an exhausting web of nonsense he’d been chasing his tail over far longer than he’d like to admit, and while it was some comfort to hear he and Max weren’t the only groups to have a harrowing time with it, it was a topic he would very much have preferred to avoid. 

Fate would not be so kind, however, and any semblance of comfort was dashed when Max opened his mouth. He’d been to see one of the Mental professors about the practical, then? Well, either Eris’ little fact-finding mission hadn’t ended with him or Max had been just as dishonest as he was at their little meeting. The thought was almost comforting, if only to ease his conscience a touch about lying to Max’s face about keeping his own mouth shut, but the timeline didn’t favour it; even with his connections, Aaron himself could scarcely expect to organize and conclude a meeting with a participating member of the Mental faculty within less than a night of the practical. 

Besides, comforting himself with the hope that everyone else was as scummy as he was was tangential to the task at hand: Eris was digging again, and Varis would definitely want to hear about it. As far from amused as he was about Max just casually throwing that out there—he sure seemed to have loosened his lips a bit since they last spoke on the issue—Aaron snapped up every word, filing it all away to report later. He wasn’t sure why Max even offered that much, but until Varis told him they could write the whole thing off and move past it, every little scrap of information was important. 

[color=f0d705]“Yes, Her Highness certainly has an eclectic idea of teamwork,”[/color] Aaron added pointedly, shooting Max a subtle look from behind his pleasant facade. As much as the metal mage seemed to neglect the fact that blabbing things like that all over the place was a risk to more than just himself, Aaron knew better to think that he could get much more out of him with an audience. Frankly, the practical was a garbled mess he was tired of thinking about, but his better judgement told him it would be smart to get some information on the other groups’ experiences, and unfortunately that meant offering something of his own. 

[color=f0d705]“My version had me fighting Max. The illusions they implemented were incredible, weren’t they?”[/color] he offered more cheerfully, mostly to Maddie. He definitely also had a “strange” time in the practical, but unlike Max he wasn’t keen on drawing attention to it. [color=f0d705]“I don’t know how they did it, but my Master and I did another one that turned me completely intangible as we searched for a token. I fell right through a tree.”[/color] He punctuated the remark with a well-placed chuckle, artfully omitting the amusing details of Varis shrieking in terror as he tried to dig a medallion out of a hole as it tried to buck him off into the abyss. 
[right][sub][@Achronum] [@Scribe of Thoth] but yknow basically everyone[/sub][/right]