The silence was killing her.
To be fair, this had never happened before. Their study group consisted of Salem, Maxwell, and herself. All three of them were pretty on point with their work, getting things done efficiently. Of course, Lilie was pretty sure nothing she ever wrote was good enough for Count Sinnenodel--the highest she had ever gotten from him was a B+ and that had been the only paper not filled with a million remarks--but she actually liked working together with her group. She had opted not to use Aaron’s notes for their studies, but she did read them before and after to make sure she was well informed, and together their group assignments did well.
But that was all three of them together, and right now, it was just the two of them. Salem had urged them to study together today, and at first Lilie actually saw it as a good thing. They had known each other for almost three months, but she could count the number of conversations she had with Maxwell alone on one hand. Actually, that was generous--they had half a conversation when they first met and that was basically it. And Max was either willing to keep up the trend or unwilling to make conversation with her.
Lilie tried to think of something to talk about, lightly rolling her pen between her fingers. Deciding she may as well give it a shot, she sat up and gave him a smile. “So...how’s your affinity class going?” That was a pretty typical question people gave, right?
Max was seriously reconsidering why he even bothered showing up today. If Flower Boy was too good to be here, he didn’t see why he wouldn’t have an excuse to ditch too. Wasn’t like he gave a fuck about Treaty Law in the first place, and if he wasn’t halfway convinced Varis would physically show up at his doorstep to chide him for it, Max probably wouldn’t even turn in half the assignments they were given anyway.
And now this girl was forcing small talk. Great.
”Fine, I guess.” Didn’t help that his magic basically worked the opposite of everyone else’s, and even then he still wasn’t doing much besides drilling movement patterns for easier levitation. ”My expertise is apparently in room-shattering displays and not the kind of delicate crap they have us doing for control exercises.”
“Oh, wow, that’s--” Just as scary as he was! “--kinda cool. Already ahead of the curve!” Lilie replied, trying to ignore the slowly sinking feeling in her chest. Room-shattering? He was exaggerating, right? Or was he really that much ahead? Maybe he was lacking in the control department. That much she could actually relate to.
Fueled by the thought, she finished writing down a date before continuing. “I’m just starting to get a hang of doing shapes and stuff, too,” She told him, deciding to keep the conversation in that direction. “It’s okay, but I wanna try some fun stunts, like this one mage I saw on TV that could ride down a waterfall.”
Shapes? Fuck, he hadn’t even considered that. He was focusing too much on actually getting to the point where he could do what Feliks had done that he didn’t think about what came after. A water mage would probably know how to manipulate liquid, at the very least. Maybe she’d have a tip or two.
”I’m not even at shapes yet, I’ve only worked with solids. This one metal mage I saw could make bronze change state effortlessly, so I figure a head start on that couldn’t hurt, now that you mention it,” Max muttered thoughtfully, “There a trick to it?”
He’d pretty much given up on Treaty Law in favor of the much more useful topic at this point, and was now spinning his pen above his hand effortlessly.
It must have been different for each element. Then again, bending metal seemed difficult, though at least she could say she was impressed with his pen spinning more than their actual work. She wasn’t sure if she could do anything too impressive without getting overly excited and dropping water everywhere, but she had been practicing little tricks here and there.
As to his question, Lilie decided to demonstrate. She uncapped her water bottle, dipping her finger in, and once she pulled it out a stream of water followed her movements. “Esi says our affinities are just another part of us, that we can be one with them if we put enough magic into it,” She explained, tracing a circle into the air. The water followed dutifully, detaching from her finger and spinning with her movement. So long as she kept it moving, it’d stay that way.
“I’m hoping by the end of the semester I can do more complicated stuff, but every time I think I have it, I get too excited,” She admitted, gently breaking the circle and guiding the water back to the bottle. “I think it’s pretty cool that you can get stuff to levitate already. Is it hard?”
Max followed the circle with his eyes as she spun it. That didn’t look too complex, it was basically just levitating a solid with less rigidity. Maybe he could talk one of the alchemists into giving him some mercury to play with.
”What, like this?” The pen floated upward and swayed side to side as Max raised a finger and wagged it back and forth. “Easy enough. Harder when I have a couple different objects unless they’re all moving in the same direction. First time I ever used magic, I ripped a classroom full of chairs apart on accident.” Okay, it wasn’t entirely an accident. He didn’t mean to do it, but he definitely wanted to skewer that vampire somehow.
“You project energy into the water and then shape it, right? Well apparently I’m always projecting.”
Lilie watched with complete fascination, eyebrows raised as her eyes followed the pen. He made it look so easy. It took her way longer to get that much precision! At the mention of projection, Lilie placed a finger on her chin as she thought. Now that Max asked, she actually wasn’t sure. Would it be too weird to admit she didn’t think too much?
“So you’re like...constantly using your magic?” That much she could get, though. “I think I get it. Although wrecking a classroom isn’t too bad! No public property damage, at least.” And if it was here, then she was sure that the school was used to students doing things like that.
Huh, Max never really thought of it as using his magic. It just sat there. Come to think of it, how much energy was he actually wasting on every passing loser with a nipple piercing? It was bad enough he noticed it, let alone using what might as well have been a precious resource on that gross revelation.
“The teacher fixed the classroom with a single incantation. It was kinda impressive,” Max huffed with a dismissive wave, “But it’s not like I’m actively using magic. It just flows out and kinda… sits there. Okay, the easiest way I can think to explain it is imagine having a million arms, but your body only thinks it has two. Normally those arms don’t do anything and just feel everything in the room up or whatever,” The mage drew his fingers in toward his fist, causing Lilie’s pen to gently vibrate in her hand, along with a scraping noise from the plating on his chest and a jiggle from his phone on the desk, as if he’d just gotten a text.
“So you reach out to try and pick something up, and five hundred other arms also pick up whatever they’re holding onto too, and now half the room is floating. Picking things up isn’t the issue, it’s telling all the other hands to not pick something up in the meantime.” The vibration stopped with a downward gesture of Max’s hand on every object but his phone, which then floated about an inch upward off the table.
Lilie looked down at her pen as it moved. Huh, that was actually pretty amazing. The way he put it did make her feel like it was a little much to properly wrap her head around, but as long as he understood it, she supposed it didn’t matter.
“I guess that’s the difference between primaries and tertiaries,” She admitted with a small shrug. “At least it’s not affected by emotion or anything. Apparently primaries have to watch their emotions, too, since you have to feel the magic.” Ben would have a field day if he knew she was looking for ways to control her emotions better, her face souring slightly.
“I’m sure you’ll get it in no time, it’ll probably just take some getting used to, like...instead of letting all the magic flow, you’ll learn to use just enough that you only have as many hands as you need. Or something.”
Honestly, a primary sounded great to Max. Get mad, blow things up, great time all around. Then again, it was probably a pain in the ass when one wanted to blow things up while they were calm, or vice versa.
“Sorta. I make stuff vibrate when I get too pissy. Eris definitely noticed because I see him kinda glance at the nearest metal object when he tries to poke at me too hard.” Max shrugged. It wasn’t quite like the explosions he’d heard, say, pyromancers doing when they lost their cool, but there was a link somewhere. Or maybe his first instinct when he got mad was just to throw things.
“If you just relax you’ll probably do fine. Flow like water or whatever that corny magic fighting movie guy used to say.” It made sense, energetic water was frothing rapids, there wasn’t any structure or control to it besides the current. Calm water was easily managed and predictable. Except when it did that bullshit where it’d flow down the side of the cup weird when you tilted it. Damn, Lilie probably never had to deal with that. He wondered how impure water had to be to still be considered water; could she start making soda float too?
Lilie smiled at Max, nodding enthusiastically. She appreciated his words, though she couldn't help but smile to herself as she looked back down at her textbook. Well, at least they managed to have one nice conversation! She couldn't really ask for more, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to leave things quiet again. Contemplating the next subject, she watched Max for a moment.
"Um, this is probably coming out of nowhere, but...you remind me a lot of my older brother," She admitted. "It sounds weird, but...I mean, it's a good thing. He's kind of rough around the edges, though, but otherwise he's a good person."
What the fuck. Where did that come from?
Max didn’t have it in him to do anything but stare for a couple seconds, face scrunched into a mixture of disgust, discomfort, and pure befuddlement. Did he just get… brotherzoned? He felt like Aaron there for a second.
“Uh,” He started delicately. This one was fragile, he didn’t need her to start crying or whatever, because that’d probably piss him off more. “Yeah, that definitely sounded weird.” He didn’t particularly think of himself as a good person either, but that was beside the point.
Wrong direction, apparently. Lilie's face flushed with color as she shook her head, eyes darting down. Too weird, why did she say that? The look on his face was not a good one. She should've just kept talking about magic. Would it be too obvious if she shifted gears? Oh, she could just ask about his family and potentially rescue the conversation and take it away from her embarrassing statement.
"U-Um...I'm sorry, I guess I just miss him," She tried to laugh it off. ”Do you have any siblings?"
“If you’re hoping I have a little sister to project on you, no,” Max replied flatly. That was her best attempt at floundering for another topic? Really? There really was no good deed he could do that would be left unpunished around here. Did Ryner have some kind of fate magic weaved into this school designed to discipline anyone who wasn’t a cutthroat asshole?
He needed to get off this topic. What else did they have in common? He was pretty sure Eris somehow roped her into walking the dog for him, but he didn’t particularly have anything to say about the rat. Though it was an impressive feat, given Max was pretty sure Eris and her vampire subtextually hated each other. They both knew the same people, but he didn’t really wanna talk about them either. Pale girl didn’t seem like she even knew how to talk shit, let alone work up the balls to actually do it.
”So. Got an arcane major yet?” Given how much Aaron was talking about it, he could only assume the rest of the mages considered this a big deal. Max was content with just his affinity for now, but he wasn’t entirely certain what half the options even did if he was being honest.
"No, I…" Lilie's expression fell hard, though she tried not to look too disappointed. That wasn't why she was asking at all. Well, at least now she knew how other people felt when Ren got snippy with them. Oh well, that's what she got for floundering one silly question. She figured she'd just go back to the assignment at hand, though to her surprise, Max ended up asking about her major. She frowned to herself as she considered the question.
"I'm debating between protection and evocation," Lilie said with a small shrug. "I like the idea of offensive spells, but you need protection in order to duel properly, and I've been fencing for years so it seems like the next logical step." She looked at him curiously. "How about you? Have anything in mind?"
Huh. Max figured she’d be the type to go for something boring like charms or whatever. At least she wasn’t going for mental magic too. If he had to interact with any more of those, he’d probably end up in Ryner’s office getting scolded once a week. She was probably too busy and important to actually discipline people like a school principal, but it was a funny thought.
”I thought I did, but I’m having second thoughts,” He confessed, ”Transmutation seemed like the obvious pick for my affinity, but everytime I analyze that, it seems like a waste of time. Plus, chemistry classes. Ew.” The mage’s nose wrinkled in distaste. Even the stuff he’d gleaned from the internet on how metal works and all the complicated crap that went along with that was pushing the limits of his attention span, let alone if he was going to be tested on it.
Transmutation? Oh, to turn more things into metal! That was actually pretty clever. That said, it wasn’t what she had expected him to say, even if it made the most sense. She was still flip flopping between her two decisions, but if he wasn’t doing transmutation, then she wondered what he’d end up going for. If she had to guess…
“That’d probably get more tedious than helpful,” She voiced her thoughts. “Hmm...metal and…? I guess your affinity can do a lot of things, so if you aren’t trying to match anything, then...maybe evocation is more up your alley.”
She imagined it in her head: Max fashioning several blades as they hovered all around them, charging them with electricity before shooting them forth. Aw man, metal was an awesome affinity, too. It was everywhere! But if he was ever in a pinch, then maybe she could see him leaning towards other spells. “On weekdays, I watch some of the seniors spar--the spells they use are pretty neat. I can see you doing some of them.”
“Mhmm,” He hummed affirmatively, “I was thinking that too. Might be overkill, but whatever. Not like there’s anything I particularly need from arcane magic.” Protection was another contender, on the off-chance someone started flinging spells back at him, but he figured with the amount of armor he was toting around, the basic warding spells they taught to everyone would be sufficient.
“Is that your plan too? Smacking a guy with a pressure washer doesn’t sound too reliable.” Well it did, but not if they were a mage too.
Lilie laughed nervously, unsure how to take the comment. Well, at least the conversation had picked up again, so that was good. She scratched her cheek thoughtfully. “That’s pretty much why I wanted to go into evocation. I feel like water isn’t really useful as an affinity. It’s okay as something to use, I guess, but...I don’t think it would be very useful against vampires.” She sighed. “I don’t think vampires could drown, or even be very affected by a ‘pressure washer’ or anything like that.”
Max raised a brow at her comment. She’d never seen one of those videos? Damn, he needed to fix that. And the part about the vampires was curious too. Did she plan on going around and hurling energy bolts at - what the fuck did Eris call her leech? Benson? - Benson’s opponents? Or the count himself, maybe? There’s no way she’d admit that so casually if she did.
He picked up his phone and idly tapped at it while responding, “Nah, water at a high enough pressure is scary. Hang on.” Max turned the phone around to show her a video with an all-caps clickbait title. He skipped ahead past some obnoxious guy talking to an iron rod getting literally sawed in half by a jet of pressurized water. “Dunno how much pressure - or energy, for that matter - this takes, but it’ll at least hurt somebody. The evocation method definitely sounds easier, though.”
She gasped at the video, although the shock quickly turned into awe. Could she end up doing that? Granted, it was a human in the video, but if she could put that much pressure into something, then maybe her affinity wasn’t so useless after all. Her fingers tapped the table, her mind racing at the possibilities.
“At least my affinity is good for something if I can cut a vampire in half,” She muttered mostly to herself, letting out another sigh. “Whatever it takes to defend myself best is what I’ll go for. Either protection to protect myself, or evocation so at least I can do some damage.”
Max flashed a mischievous grin as he leaned in conspiratorially. “Oh? You planning on overthrowing the government or something? I don’t think mage-on-vampire violence is exactly encouraged in polite society.” She was probably just paranoid and didn’t want to feel helpless, but it was always nice to have mage friends that also didn’t like vampires. Talking to Aaron felt like he was trying to convince a fish to walk.
He had no idea what Benny’s deal was, either. If Flower Boy was bringing this up, Max would totally understand - that Astorio would probably have him hunting people for sport his first day out of the academy, but an Eve? What the hell did they even do? Aside from slowly waste away, if the rumors were to be believed. Maybe there was a concern the other houses would declare open season on them in the near future and she wanted to be ready for that.
Lilie blinked for a few seconds, only then realizing that what she said could have been taken the wrong way. She waved his words away, shaking head head. “As if I could,” She denied it, though she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t wish she could. “Vampires can’t be trusted. They’re petty, they’re liars, they only look for their own interests...and all they care about is what they want, everyone else be damned.”
She let out a huff, placing her chin on the palm of her hand. Hm, she did remember Aaron telling her that it was bad to talk about her own house. “I guess the vampire I have now is...fine. He’s stiff but kind. But every other one...for all I know, all I have to do is say the wrong thing or look at them when they’re in a bad mood, and they’ll snap me in half. Or worse,” Her disdain was crystal clear, speaking with a dim, but obvious hatred. “You saw how the Astorio approached me. And...yeah, he apologized, but what if he decides to do it again? And that Marivaldi one tried to talk to me, acting like she cared. I hate them.”
Max had to stop himself from laughing. That was unexpected; maybe he misjudged her. Even so, he couldn’t very well disagree with her. Most of them wouldn’t try making a move against her publicly, but unless she carried an escort around everywhere as a witness, accidents did happen.
“You know you’re like the first person at this school I’ve talked to with any sense on that matter.” Salem was alright on that level, he guessed, but he was still a shut-in from a mage family. Reform was a poor substitute for staking them all and being done with it. “These mages get into a fun little partnership with their roommate and forget the reality of the situation until Count Stick-Up-His-Ass snaps at them,” Max grumbled, “Or they were whipped from the start, but I can’t tell if that’s better or worse.”
Not to mention the mages he’d seen sucking face with their vampire on some bench for everyone to see. A leech using their mage for sex was no surprise, and showing a particularly attractive mage off like a trophy had to be a status symbol, but for the mage to be into it? Have some shame. Some of them were genuine too, and he couldn’t imagine their arrangement was as cozy as the viscountess Feliks had wrapped around his little finger either.
Lilie crossed her arms, letting out another huff of annoyance. “It’s because we’re raised to think that we should be grateful that we have such ‘honorable guidance’ and get on our hands and knees to thank them,” She said. “It’s not even real gratitude, people are being brainwashed!”
Feeling herself getting riled up, she noticed the water in the bottle stirring slightly. Carefully placing a cap on it, she rolled her eyes. “I’m from a small farming town, we don’t even see any vampires, honestly. Once in a while one shows up, but otherwise, it was good never having to bow or think about how I act or any of that dumb etiquette stuff,” She tightened the cap, placing the bottle on the table again. “I didn’t ask to come here. I had my own plans after high school, my own dreams...and now none of it matters because now I have the ‘honor’ of serving a vampire. It’s like...we’re just meant to be sacrifices so the rest of humanity can be in peace. But I still...I don’t like it. If vampires were different, maybe, but...they’re so cruel. I can’t possibly be happy about being bound to serve one for the rest of my life.”
Oh, jeez, Max couldn’t imagine having big plans only to get tossed in this dump instead. His own adulthood plans were… less than thought out by the time he awakened, and it wasn’t like he was enthusiastic about anything he came up with anyway. Floating along without a leech lording over him was preferable to doing it with one, but it was still just aimless existing. Not too much of a change, aside from the annoyance he was forced into living with.
“Well, you can embrace the stupid martyr ideal until you believe it if you wanna feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself,” Or whatever the fuck those career counsellors in high school used to say, anyway. “Otherwise, make the most of it, I guess. You can’t just be miserable forever.”
He really hoped she wouldn’t point out that the pot was calling the kettle black here. Since when was he an optimist? It was better than having to throw sympathy at her, in any case, that was just uncomfortable.
Why are you like this, Maxwell?
“That, or just be such a pain in the ass that they seal your magic and throw you back into the civilian workforce.” Or the mines, but he was an optimist today. Apparently.
There was no hiding the small smile on her face--she’d be lying if she said the thought of having her magic sealed never crossed her mind. But now that she had it, it felt so good to have. It was hard to explain, but it was like discovering an entirely new side to her. Max did have a point though: she couldn’t stay miserable forever. He really was a lot like her brother, but she would keep that to herself.
“You’re right. Thank you,” She said sincerely, straightening up in her seat. “For now I’ll just embrace the magic part of being a mage. It’s the best part, anyway.”
She paused. Anytime a thought came to mind, it always seemed to ruin the conversation, but she couldn’t help her curiosity. “Are you going to make the most of who you’re paired with, too?” She asked him slowly. “I mean, it’s probably a hassle to be paired with a celebrity, but Eris Samael seems okay whenever we interact. Or is he totally different from all the tabloids?”
That question might’ve been easier to answer if Max knew what the tabloids actually said. He had an idea, sure. And, honestly, it probably fit. Still, there was a fakeness to him whenever Max saw him interact with fans.
”Fuck, I dunno. Maybe? I don’t know how to read him. He’s got a bunch of other mages, so I can’t imagine he’ll work me too hard, but the guy gets his kicks from annoying people.” Max let out a slow exhale. The celebrity aspect was a solid negative; extra attention wasn’t something he was looking for. That being said, most of the eyes were still on Eris and not him. Eris himself somehow managed to be both a puzzle and remarkably simple at the same time. Ismene didn’t seem to mind him, in any case, and she was the one that did all the work around there.
”Right now, I think he’s in politicking mode, and he’s dragging me into it. That’s annoying.” This girl was still in Aaron’s pocket, which meant she was essentially in Varis’ pocket by association. Still, he could probably get by telling her the bare minimum. He didn’t think his little agreement with Aaron covered things the light mage learned secondhand from others, so he wasn’t keen on risking anything here until he knew Pale Girl was trustworthy.
Lilie was a little surprised by that, but after giving it some thought, she realized it actually wasn’t. “Hmm...he must have learned from his father,” She mused out loud. “Vincent Samael is a really savvy business man who gets involved in things like that, so hearing that Eris does it too isn’t that weird now that I think about it. His mom is the one with the name, but his dad was the one that knew how to make profits and deals.”
After a few seconds, she gave him a sympathetic smile. “He always has this image of this clean-cut, mysterious bachelor, so I wondered if it was the same behind closed doors,” She admitted that much. “If he’s dragging you into something, maybe it’s because he trusts you.” Not that she’d know anything about that sort of thing--Ben never really told her about things like that and had specifically forbidden her to go near his safe and desk. “It’s kinda optimistic, but I don’t know, it’s a nice thought. At the very least he’s good to look at.”
Max let out a ‘pfft’ sound. ”Eris is letting me in on it because I’m the only tool he’s got here, let’s not fool ourselves. Besides, he does enough looking at himself for the both of us. The amount of time that guy spends in front of the mirror every mor- evening is shocking.”
Now was probably not the time to mention the image of Eris between his legs was forever associated with being used as a food source and pretty much soured any sort of middle school celebrity crush fantasies he could’ve possibly cooked up anyway. If she knew about Eris’ dad, then she was probably one of his least favorite types of people at the moment - a big Eris fan. It made sense, she looked starstruck around him all the time, but he could’ve written that off as the simple novelty of meeting a celebrity.
“You’re in the know, what’s up with him and Harmonica?” Max asked, knowingly butchering the leech’s sister’s name but not quite sure what the real one actually was. Of all the people in his family, Eris probably mentioned her the most. Not that it really meant anything, given how mundane the instances he spoke of his family were to begin with.
Her hand flew up to her mouth as she tried not to laugh too hard. Imagining Eris in front of a mirror admiring himself was definitely something she could imagine, and it was too funny. She recovered when he asked about...Harmonica? He meant Harmonia, right? It had to be, she didn’t know anyone that associated with Eris named Harmonica. How silly.
“You mean his sister Harmonia?” She asked, trying not to laugh again. “Um...well, they aren’t on the best of terms. She’s kind of...bad. I mean, she’s almost always causing drama and picking fights with people, and last I heard she got in a lot of trouble from...something. Apparently the two worked together on...what was the name of it…?” She paused to think for a second. “...it was a movie about a duke that was disowned by his family...yeah, they actually worked together in it. The one and only movie that had both Samael siblings in it--oh! I remember! It was For You, and there was a huge scandal that came out right before the movie was released where Harmonia had fed off someone else’s mage. It was a pretty big deal when it happened.” She grimaced, shuddering slightly. “She’s crazy. Or at least, she looks like she is. I mean, she’s pretty, but it’s never good news whenever her name pops up.”
Great. Another psychopath was just what he needed in his life. At least Eris apparently avoided her, if only to spare his own reputation. And if she was feeding off other people’s mages, his neck was probably going to be her meal at some point. Hopefully the sheer displeasure of meeting her would sour him up enough that she’d only make that mistake once, at least.
“I have no idea why they don’t get along, that sounds like Eris’ type of party,” Max groaned dryly. She probably had too much fun at his expense; Eris lost his touch quick if he was the one being annoyed and not the other way around.
“You think so?” Lilie was a little confused by that. “Well...they’re siblings after all, I’m sure they get on each other’s nerves a lot. That’s just a regular brother-sister dynamic, but maybe with vampirism and all that fame makes it like...a million times worse.” That was her best guess, anyway.
As she looked over at her water bottle, Lilie seemed to realize something. “I guess you aren’t into that kind of stuff, huh?” She guessed. “It’s silly, but he starred in my mom’s favorite movie, so I ended up being a fan of his from a young age. But you know, you could always look up stuff--the bad thing about being a celebrity is that anytime anything happens, everyone ends up finding out sooner or later. Since you’re his mage now, you might end up showing up in some of his pictures, too.”
”Oh, they’ve definitely caught wind of me by now. Maybe not by name, but they know I exist,” Max lamented, remembering that chucklefuck back home and how he was apparently the subject of gossip for the whole neighborhood.
”Let’s just say I’m putting off learning what the internet thinks about me for as long as I possibly can and leave it at that.” So many horny people. And some of them weren’t afraid to admit it. If Eris ever decided to take him as an escort in public, he needed to inform the leech very seriously that there could be a lawsuit on his hands by the end of the day.
Come to think of it, he really should watch an Eris movie sometime, but he had no idea when and where he could get away with doing it. He certainly wasn’t going to do it in the dorm where the leech might walk in on him - that conversation would be torture. Someone else’s dorm wasn’t much better, given that, A, he’d have to sit through an Eris Samael movie with other people forming their grubby opinions about why he wanted to watch his vampire’s movie; and B, it still might get back to Eris that he’d been watching it if the resident vampire of that dorm walked in and saw it. He couldn’t win.
Lilie nodded in understanding, pulling out her own phone as it gave out a small beep. She looked to see a voicemail--probably Ben letting her know they were going to go through etiquette lessons again. Being paired with a noble was just the absolute worst.
"Probably a good idea. The internet can get weird," She admitted, quickly sending Ben a message that she knew he wouldn't reply to anytime soon. Her eyes flickered to the time, and she realized a lot more time had passed than she had anticipated. Look at that, they managed to have a real conversation! Amazing! Swelling with pride, she tried not to look too silly as she smiled at her phone.
"At least you don't have hours of manners lessons," She told Max. "I think I'll pop in The Blood Wars on the DVD player in my--our dorm and hope it distracts the count." It probably wouldn't work, but she was still going to try. She'd do anything to avoid having to learn what each tiny fork did despite every fork serving the exact purpose. "Aaron apparently found the movie 'hilarious', but I think it's Eris' prime role for a good reason. It's an older movie, but it still holds up!" She never did ask him why he said that, did she? What a weirdo.
"I think we're almost done with our time, Salem never showed up, either," She said. "Oh well."
What the hell, maybe she didn’t need to major in mental magic, she was reading his mind just fine. Well, he guessed it was fair, they were talking about Eris. The leeching trying to put him through manners lessons of all things was a funny thought, though. Even moreso if putting a movie on was enough to get out of it.
”Didn’t peg your leech as an Eris fan. Anytime I see them talking, Eris has that ‘I want to gouge out your eyes’ smile on his face.” Blood War was the Landar movie, right? Aaron was probably losing his shit over his great-great-whatever the fuck being played by some campy drama queen. Max’s own opinion of Landar was precarious and he wasn’t sure associating him with Eris wouldn’t be the final push that tipped the man into Max’s disfavor. At least until the image of Eris lighting Nox on fire crossed his mind.
Lilie gave Max a slightly mischievous smile, lightly fiddling with her phone. True, putting Eris' face in front of Ben was a bad idea, but she couldn't help it. "He isn't," She admitted that much. "But maybe seeing Eris would launch him into another one of his lectures. Anything to get out of learning about how to 'properly place utensils on a plate' because...I really, really can't stand it." She really didn't mean to come off so catty, but between the extra etiquette stuff and the additional voice coaching lessons, she was very quickly finding herself dragging her feet on the way back to the dorm these days-nights.
"They're non-negotiable, though, so maybe it's not worth it," She sighed, organizing her notes and making sure she didn't mix them with Aaron's. "Oh well. I'll probably watch it on my own time, it's been a while since I've seen it."
Once she had everything in its place, she gathered up her books and folders, placing everything neatly into her bag. "I'll text Salem and tell him to write up his part. Sound good?" She asked.
As far as Max knew, utensil etiquette was pretty simple. Unless it got super elaborate at noble tables. Three forks was his cutoff, honestly. Then again there were probably a million rules on how to put things in one’s mouth and whatever. If she was going to watch a movie, that’d be an innocent enough way for him to watch it, right? Ugh, but then Lilie might think they were friends. Were they friends? He had no idea how to gauge that kind of thing anymore, ever since he got here.
”Sounds pointless. Especially since vampires don’t even fucking eat like people.” Seriously, did they really care if their pets ate with their hands or not, let alone with a specific type of plate? He hesitated a moment before continuing in a resigned tone, ”And tell me when you’re watching that movie, if your Count’s not around. I’ve never seen an Eris Samael movie and if I asked Eris to show it to me, I’d never hear the end of it.”
It wasn’t like this girl could stop him if he decided he’d seen enough and just left halfway through the second act, in any case.
Lilie stopped zipping up her bag, a little surprised at Max's request. Well, it wasn't so much a request as it was a statement. Her initial thought was to suggest making it a movie night, but considering he hadn't mentioned anyone else and she had already blundered once before and they were ending the conversation nicely, she opted to keep her suggestion to herself. Besides, a quiet movie night wasn't a bad idea.
"I'll let you know, then," She said, closing her bag.
Neziul
MaeB
Lemons
Altered Tundra
Raijinslayer
Xiro Zean
WXer
Taka
Achronum
