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The only thing that sucks more than the Scholomance is not going to the Scholomance
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Yvette nods, too. "And if nothing else I can provide some translating assistance. More for the English end of things than knowing the implications of the original, but. I would be delighted to help."

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"Yeah. That would be useful."

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So they should add Liu's name next to theirs between the bathrooms. That's turning out to be Alexei's favourite tradition in this school.

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Yeah. Liu can add her name in Mandarin, too. And coach Alexei into choosing characters for his, since Yvette already has hers.

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Ooo! Oo! Yvette can help, she has Opinions about characters for Alexei, she just didn't want to decide for him, and didn't have enough cultural context to properly express what his choices were without weighing it too much in her preferred direction!

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...it's just a name.

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But it would be the absolute worst if he ended up with something he disliked!!!! Her priorities are reasonable and valid, okay.

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Sure, sure, he can pick a thing, yeah.

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Excellent! With that, they can get back to ruthlessly sharing resources. Little things this time, like old homework and stockpiled resources. Alexei gets most of the supplies that could be used for artificing, and Liu and Yvette can more casually trade spells in their shared languages without having to worry about payment. Yvette's spell list is both terrifying and not very interested in such petty things as 'proportional use of force,' but some fraction of those are useful for more things than just leveling armies.

They also cast various protection spells over each others' bedrooms, just before bed. The cheap ones, since they're collectively going to need to work to build up a lot of mana, but layered protection spells from different sources is better than just one set. Alexei's room defenses aren't quite so easily shared, being based around actual stuff he's made, but he turns out to be fully capable of carving old slavic sigils above their doorframes that are quite neat. And also pretty. Her boyfriend is so talented and she's so pleased about it. And then, yes, off to bed with all of them. Eeeee!!

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And now for something completely different: next morning, Jermaine Thomas and Chloe Rasmussen both want to sit at Yvette and Alexei's table.

"It's fine if not, though," says Jermaine, looking incredibly awkward.

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"We, um. Wanted to apologize. We've been kind of... garbage. To you."

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"You have been," agrees Yvette, sort of dryly, noting that the acknowledgement of wanting to apologize is not, in fact, an apology.

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Why is she so scary all of the time!!!!!

"So, um. Sorry. We. Made some assumptions about you and. Sort of." This sucks to admit to in a public cafeteria where she can be overheard, but, but. Damn it she means it!!! "... Almost got you killed with our carelessness. Almost, uh. Killed you."

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Jermaine winces when she says that out loud but doesn't contradict her. "Yeah. Sorry. We, we were scared and. That doesn't justify it. Um. Sorry."

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...who did what huh???

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Oh, that.

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Natalya looks between all of them. "You don't look surprised," she tells Alexei.

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"That is because I am not."

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"Mm. Apology accepted. Let's avoid any repeat incidents, yes? It's a waste of time and resources when the real enemies are downstairs." She looks away. "Sit wherever you like, no one's declared me queen of the table."

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Jermaine gives Chloe a mildly pleading look.

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"Oh, it's you," says an arriving Scorpius, setting his tray next to Alexei. "Have you apologized yet? You—" He interrupts himself with a huge yawn which he tries to cut short. "Excuse me. You should."

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"We did!!"

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"We, um. Just did that, yep. Um. I can't tell if we can sit down or not, this is confusing. Um. Nevermind, have a nice breakfast?"

With that, they can make their exit to flee back to the comfortable if sometimes strained familiarity of the New York table.

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"No, no, sit down, the two of you." Another yawn. "Let's have some nice human interactions in which you don't pay attention to social games and status and act normal for once in your lives, how about?"

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