...Yeah, fair enough, Lu.

"All right." She stands to clear the trays away. "Meet you two by the stairs."

"Sounds good!" Daniella looks nothing but eager.

She makes sure to keep Daniella moving at a reasonable pace out of the cafeteria and towards the stairs. One that might lead to a bit of alone time towards the end. 

A quick pace helps disguise the wiggles.

"You have a pretty full table, huh?"

"People who recognize my greatness."

"Mostly underclassmen."

"People who recognize my greatness, and don't have the common sense to run away yet," she says, teasingly.

"Ah, everything becomes clear."

"Oh?"

"You're doing the cannibal thing on purpose."

"It'd be silly to eat people on accident..."

"No, I mean the- reputation."

"What makes you say that?" she asks, something dangerous in her tone. 

"You'd be eating the kids, if you were eating anyone."

"Maybe they don't have enough meat on their bones, yet."

"Saving up for graduation, then?"

- She should keep the joke going. Keep convincing this spoiled enclaver that Luthien is evil, not quite 'call a tribunal' bad, but definitely someone she doesn't want to be fucking with or even thinking about. But there's one rumor absolutely nothing in Luthien can stand, and so, even as she knows she shouldn't - 

"I'm not a fucking maleficer," she snaps.

Okay, yeah, that's actually anger. Probably too far.

"You don't feel like one," she says quietly.

"...Most people struggle to tell," she says, suspiciously. (Not Luthien, and not El, and not their mom - she thinks maybe it has something to do with being strict mana, Luthien so strict she's stuck hard and fast to veganism even when the school refuses to give her anything suitable to eat, but none of the Mumbai kids would talk to her so she couldn't exactly ask them about it.)

"Casting magic's a lot like burning something, in some ways. And I'm good at fire. Mana and malia... burn different."

"Doesn't feel like burning things to me. But - mana smells good. Malia doesn't." Not strictly true, but.

Shrug. "I don't think most people notice."

"...Being strict mana probably makes it easier," she says, almost testingly.

"Maybe? It's- I dunno, fire needs control more than anything and I've got a power sharer..."

Ugh that makes her feel like she should explain being strict mana. Nope. Not on. Instead, she cuts Daniella off with a grouchy: "'I don't cheat' should be one of the last things you need to explain the why of." Though power sharers are totally cheating.