“He is absolutely fine. He’s been telling me all about his new favorite book,” Teagan asides to Mercedes. “Sera and I are going to have to start a group read, really.” She has given over to just griiiiiinning, stopping only when she takes a drink of her soda.

Mercedes’s jaw hangs just slightly ajar as she stares ahead at Thomas, her eyes then dart from him to Seraphina then back again. Her face goes flushed, “If you say so,” she snorts out a laugh, “But I wanna know where you went shopping later,” she giggles softly behind her hand. She sinks into her seat and relaxes, a coy grin on her face.

Papers in hand, Thomas straightens. He glances down at them, a little uncomprehending, and then puts them aside. Going back to the front of the hall, he says, “So… like… the mind,” he explains. “It’s. It’s like right here.” He taps his head. “And like… if you think, you know?” he says. “That’s what that happens.” He pauses, brows furrowing, and then digs into his things for piece of candy, unwrapping it. “Like…” He gestures with it, some bright red lollipop. “There’s, you know, all kinds of stuff people can do, right? Like — Hi, Avalon!” Thomas cries out to Avalon. “Like Avalon can like totally turn into things, you know!” he says. “But like. Can he do it without his mind?”

“Nope,” Jasper answers with a small grin. “You can’t think about the form your want to turn into if you don’t have a mind.

Mercy sinks down into one of the available club chairs with either arm dangling off the sides. At first she seems to staring through Thomas and not fully present, but something he says, or.. how he’s saying it catches her attention enough to make a face. Brow furrowed, nose scrunched, she just stares. Perplexed. Maybe a little horrified.

“That you are,” Seraphina tells Thomas, encouragingly. She crunches as quietly as she can into her chip to not distract her himbo from his lecture. She hadn’t realized that Avalon and Mercy had come, and so when his name is mentioned, she turns about to look at him, her lips making a bit of a twist off to one side.

Mercedes can’t help but lean forward in her seat, crossing one leg over the other. She places her chin on her palm and tilts her head, fully enraptured in the lecture, giggling softly. “Like… Totes invigorating babes.”

Walking into the room without much of a greeting other than just lifting his hand, Avalon checks out the room and for once in his life he goes to sit where everyone is sat, instead of rest by a wall or something. He leans back into the club chair, resting too much of his weight on it. But as Thomas addresses him, he nods his head in response to the greeting and adds the comment “Yes, I can turn into things without my mind” And a side eye is given to Jasper, telling “It’s not always about thinking”

Jasper says “Oh… “

Dovie is just staring and giggling, not able to really formulate a commentary, but looking highly amused. “Totes!” she chirps after Mercedes.

Mercy sinks down into one of the available club chairs with either arm dangling off the sides. At first she seems to staring through Thomas and not fully present, but something he says, or.. how he’s saying it catches her attention enough to make a face. Brow furrowed, nose scrunched, she just stares. Perplexed. Maybe a little horrified. (forgot to announce soz)

Teagan starts to reach for a chip, but the further that Thomas goes in his, ah… lecture, the more difficult that becomes. She has to lean forward to set her drink on the ground, tucked by her chair out of the way. Because she just dissolves into giggles as she looks from Thomas toward Avalon. When the reply comes, the giggles just renew and she leans over into Seraphina as she catches her breath.

At Avalon’s response, Thomas’s face falls. “Oh,” he says. “Well, uh.” The lollipop goes between his lips, suckling on it for a moment as he thinks. “Well like. Other things take minds, right?” he says. “Like… um. Like, Teagie can do things with her mind,” he says, pointing to Teagan. “And like Miss Mercy!” he says, focusing on Mercy, oblivious to how horrified she looks. “Like, um. Why don’t you like illu-illo–why don’t you say what you do with your mind!?”

Falling silent, Jasper looks back at Thomas, his grin waning but remaining.

Dovie not so subtly holds up her smartphone, beginning to record.

Teagie? -Miss Mercy-? Now the redhead’s eyes are actually fully open, which for her is near the equivalent of wide with horror. The man even has a lollipop for god’s sake. “I, uh..” Mercy stammers, trying to disappear into her seat. “.. I use it to play Wordle, sometimes.” A solid contribution.

“Illusions?” Avalon pauses for a brief moment, tilting his head to look at Mercy and question “You don’t do illusions, do you?” His head tilts towards Thomas with a vaguely amused smile, before asking “Or do you mean messing with people’s heads?”

Mercedes giggles softly as she taps a finger to her bottom lip, her amber eyes gleam, “Like totes babes. My brain is like, supes powerful and stuff,” she says checking her nails, “Though… I’m so outta practice.”

Seraphina snuggles into Teagan when the woman leans in closer, wrapping a hand around her arm as they share in some mutual amusement. She also may look a bit smug, if one cares to look too close at her, but… she does try to mask it to make it look far more encouraging for Thomas.

There is a sort of sadistic glee in Teagan’s expression as she observes, but it shifts into something — oh, no, wait, it’s the same — as Thomas turns his attention on Mercy. She twists around to look at the younger redhead. “Yes,” she chirps. “Do tell what you do with your miiiiind. Surely it’s not just Wordle.”

Thomas says to Mercy, “I think we all play Wordles!” He turns again, going to look for a whiteboard. Taking off his jacket, he slings it on the back of a chair, going up on his toes to write, “WORDLES.” on the board. He seems to make a point of flexing a little as he does, the motion showing off his arms in the tight, pink turtleneck he wears and the lines of his legs. “Mind is a Wordle,” he says. “So is like… Thinking.” He writes ‘MIND’ and ‘THINKING’ underneath ‘WORDLES.’ Then he adds, “But like — there are wordles with power, too,” he says. “Do you know any wordles with power, Miss Mercy?” he asks Mercy.

“Oh yeah… umm… Totes?” Jasper murmurs, a glance around the people around him. Adjusting himself in his seat, he glances at his phone.

Dovie’s mouth is open in surprise as she watches and records the proceeding debate over the merits of Wordle.

Mercy inwardly worries some manner of Bekki bimbo disease is spreading between Thomas’ strange behavior and Mercedes basically embodying the stereotype. Grabbing the arm rests of her chair, she very not-discreetly nudges the seat farther away from the group. Just in case it’s contagious. Then her eyes are back on Thomas and the brain static takes over. “Uhhhhhh…” she drones on. Thinking. Hard. But now she’s staring at the pink turtleneck and all concentration is just gone. “.. Sorry what was that again?”

Mercedes tilts her head to look at Mercy before smiling warmly, “I always heard there was another Mercy. You can call me Mercedes, it’s more proper any-” and then her gaze snaps back to Thomas, “We should like… Make sure you get lots and lots of rewards and treats for a good job! I’m learning lots!”

“You are doing so -good-,” Seraphina tells Thomas, in a voice that suggests that she’s enjoying this far too much and hasn’t really considered the consequences. Worth it? Probably. She is watching every movement of the man in that tight turtleneck and tigher jeans, her eyes focused on the firmness of his rear. Is that a hint of pink poking out?

Thomas huffs. “Fine!” he says, stamping his foot. Man, those jeans are tight. He turns to face the crowd again. “Does anyone, who like, isn’t Miss Mercy know any wordles of power?” he says. “Like. I know you are like all super special people!” he says. There’s some moment; his breath catches, and then there’s a pink in his cheeks, looking from Seraphina to Avalon to Teagan for a moment.

With a bring smile towards Thomas, Avalon slowly crooks his neck to a side to glance at the retreating Mercy, quirking an eyebrow and asking “What are you doing over there? Just come and listen to all the man’s knowledge” He says clearly ironic for a moment, before focusing back on the lecture, laughing a bit to himself

Once she has recovered herself, Teagan flops back in her seat proper next to Seraphina’s. She breathes out at length, giggling. “You mean like…” She crosses one leg over another, smoothing her skirt over her thigh. “…abracadabra?” she offers to Thomas, completely teasing. And also not at all hiding it as she takes out her phone and starts taking photos of the man. And the whiteboard behind him.

Mercedes massages her temples like she is sincerely trying to recover her own mind from the vapid voice, “Words? Words…” she squints her eyes closed, “I swear my brain wasn’t so foggy when I walked in,” she huffs out a breath, “You know Latin Mercedes!” she whisper-shouts, likely at herself, “At least I think!”

“M’THE Mercy..” Mercy murmurs back to Mercedes, but that’s as far as the conversation goes. Now everybody is praising Thomas, promising him treats. This is the very definition of ‘Where am I and how did I get here?’ for her, and while she doesn’t move her chair back she does lean heavily over the arm to get somewhat within whisper-range to Avalon. “Knowledge ’bout what? I’m confused, man.. this a lecture on the mind or like, a demonstration on how to pull off skinny jeans?”

Another hitch in his step, as Thomas leaves the blackboard behind. Pulling a chair, he bends over to lean on it, stretching his back out, his ass in the air. “Like…” He arches his back a little. “Abracadabaabdra.” He giggles. “That’s a funny wordle, but like… is it really, you know, like, a magic wordle?” he says. “See!” he announces. “Magic wordles take, like, minds.”

“You are doing so -good-,” Seraphina tells Thomas, in a voice that suggests that she’s enjoying this far too much and hasn’t really considered the consequences. Worth it? Probably. She is watching every movement of the man in that tight turtleneck and tigher jeans, her eyes focused on the firmness of his rear. Is that a hint of pink poking out? (re because it was pointed out, crowd)

Dovie gapes again, now seeming unsure whether to laugh or stop recording. The inner turmoil is strong.

“When you add them to things? Or when you say them by themselves?” Avalon questions from Thomas with a tilt of his head, leaning back on his chair, and even lifting the front legs from the ground, testing his luck “Those are pretty different things”

Mercedes starts patting her cheeks like she’s trying to wake up, “Strength of will! Get it together! Don’t be a stupid bimbo!” She then sets her head atop her palm once more, chewing her bottom lip, pondering.

Thomas tries to make sense of Avalon’s question, mouthing the words over several times. “That’s a really good point!” he says, finally, clearly not understanding it. “Everyone, like… that’s really smart.” Lollipop goes back between his lips.

Mercy watches Thomas work it a little on that chair and slowly, quietly pulls a roll of loose $1 bills from her coat pocket. You never know what this might turn into.

Dovie licks her lips, her eyes fixed on Thomas’s lollipop before she looks around at the others, nodding in agreement with Thomas. “That’s like totes really really smart!”

“I bet,” Teagan stage whispers to Seraphina, “if he wiggled his ass a bit more, he’d be able to think better. Kinesthetics after all, the act of learning through motion.”

The smile fades from Seraphina’s features for a moment, as her gaze goes distant. She even scowls, just a little. It could be two-fold. But with a clearing of her throat, the raven-haired beauty puts on her smile again, rather than letting something dim her light. Which is not figurative. The woman has a constant white glow, with golden tendrils for her veins.

“True, I suppose,” Jasper snickers. “I was going to head out and set up something, but I might as well stay and see more of this.”

Gathering his thoughts, Thomas removes the lollipop. “Okay, so like… what have we learned?” he says. “Like. Minds matter,” he explains, solemnly. “So like. When you’ve got a mind, you matter,” he explains, as if it is some kind of deep revelation., “But you also can like do mind over matter.” He realizes he doesn’t know what that means. “Who knows what mind over matter means?” he asks.

Thomas says “Teagie? “

Thomas says, in a breathy, bubbly baritone, “Teagie?”

Seraphina considers Teagan’s words, and turns her attention to Thomas, “Would it help you think of your wordles if you wiggle your rear to help you think … I wonder?” She reaches in for a chip in that bag forgotten earlier.

Dovie rubs her head, as if she had a sudden headache, blinking and seeming a bit confused now.

Avalon sets his eyes on Teagan for a moment, as if thinking something, and at her stage-whisper he tells “Well, don’t start just start revealing secrets outloud or he’ll just catch onto the tricks…” With a faint nod towards Thomas, but it seems wiggling on the chair isn’t the best of choices, and with a loud thump, he goes backwards and meets the floor, slowly incorporating himself with a groan of more annoyance than pain

Now that the initial shock has worn off a little, Mercy calls out to their performative professor. “Usin’ one’s mind to fix physical problems, cause the mind an’ body intrinsically linked.”

Mercedes shoots a hand up into the air, her body leaning fully forward, “Professor! To have control over yourself and your surrounding! Rather than to let your surroundings control your mind,” she beams a smile until it fades into slight confusion, “Mind over matter. Mind over self…?” she blinks and runs her fingers through her hair, “I really need to figure out who dyed my hair while I was sleeping.”

“Well,” Teagan says with a glance over to Seraphina in thought and then back to Thomas. “If you were to do, say, a handstand… Your mind won’t be over your matter, will it? That’s why in your book-” there is a glance over toward Avalon and she scowls at him, though it slips into a grin when he falls off of his chair. Back to ‘teacher,’ and she continues. “The Sapphire Consort, she gets bent over a couch when she’s claimed, right? Because the stronger mind is over her matter.” It’s clearly not meant to make sense.

Seraphina looses a sudden mirthful chortle at Avalon’s bad luck, having not seen the man take the tumble, but certainly having heard it.

Thomas wiggles his ass, back still arched — it’s something unthinking, really, slow and sinuous. “I think mind and magic are like — they’re like the same,” he explains. “Does anyone know why?” he asks. He pauses for only a moment, brightly answering his own question. “They both start with M!” A beat. “What else starts with M?” he asks. “Oh, you’re right!” he says to Teagan. “Who has read the Sapphire Consort? It is like so amazing!”

Mercy casts a single glass over to Avalon at his misfortune, but she’s much too absorbed in what ever the fuck is going on with Thomas to look away for long.

Mercy casts a single glance over to Avalon at his misfortune, but she’s much too absorbed in what ever the fuck is going on with Thomas to look away for long. – (FIX, because she can totally spell)

Then, Avalon stands up front the ground with a huff, and of course, he lifts his leg and stomps it onto one of the legs of the chair, breaking it on the spot. Much better to take it against the furniture than learn from his mistakes. And instead, he slowly moves over towards the next closest chair, plopping back down on it and questioning Thomas “The one you were on about earlier today?”

Mercedes tilts her head and leans back slowly, “Sapphire consort? Is this lecture…” she really prepares for the next words with a deep breath, “A lesson on aristocratic hierarchies and monarchial customs professor?” she breathes out, like it took all of her mental fortitude to ask.

“Dang Hale, maybe you ought to be teachin’ dance classes on the side.” Mercy comments aloud, though she shakes her head to the question about the Sapphire Consort- that’s one she hasn’t gotten to. Yet.

“And here I thought you were going to point at yourself and claim ‘me’.” Seraphina says, disappointed. “As for the book, when you’re done, I’ll have a read. Good bubble bath reading, I think.” When there is more damage done to another one of her businesses, there is a dark look at Avalon, and within that earhen scowl, a flash of fire. She humphs, however, determined not to let him deter her learning.

Dovie chuckles, still rubbing her forehead as she tells Mercedes. “I thought it was about Wordle,” she chuckles, sheepishly.

Avalon replies to the look and the flash of fire with simply a middle finger. He’s a shapeshifter, he doesn’t have anything flashier without causing panic. But with a sigh, and a shake of his head, he asks Thomas “What is the book even about?”

“I think we should have a book club after we’ve all read it,” Teagan tells Seraphina. “I think it’d be very… enlightening to get the Professor’s full thoughts on it once we’ve all had a chance to read it in a week or so.” There is a grimace as Avalon breaks the chair and she looks his way again with a quizzical expression before gaze returns to the front. Back to the chips it is.

Mercy is too used to Avalon’s tendency to smash things, a habit they both share, to pay it any mind. She hardly seems to even notice beyond the obvious noise.

Mercedes giggles back at Dovie, “I-I think I just lost my… Words over five letters is a lot for me right now,” she fans herself with a hand, “Quack… Adieu…”

“Okay!” Thomas brightens with a shimmy. Turning away, he digs through his things, bending again with that flash of pink. “Here it is!” he emerges, triumphant, with the book in his hand. “So like… this book is AMAZING!” he says. His lecture topic seems forgotten. “Like… so the protagona…the pretegen…the girl, like the main girl, she is like the wife of the prince, right? But like. Not a wife,” he explains. “A CONSORT, which is like sexier.”

Dovie nods at Seraphina. “It certainly is,” she glances around, “Is there a review of this on BookTok?”

Mercedes massages her temples and squints, “A wife whose like… Not a wife? Does she at least wear a crown?” she asks, her eyes dart to the book with almost feverish curiosity.

“Ohhh, what a good idea,” Teagan says over her shoulder to Dovie. She recovers her phone again and leans forward in her seat, opening the camera app and swapping to video mode. “Thomas, why don’t you give us a review to upload for BookTok? That way we can make sure eeeeeeveryone knows how good it is, right?”

Mercy is lukewarm towards the book being waved around until she sees a particular word show up twice in the blurb. “HOL’ UP!! .. This got werewolves in it?!”

“So, like…” Thomas explains, gesturing now with the book. “She is like. Prince Stephen, right? She’s like his lover, and let me tell you,” he says, his voice awed. “This book is SPI-CY.” He pauses. “But like the Prince also has, like, Tyson, who is the captain of the royal guard, but like! THE WHOLE ROYAL GUARD IS WEREWOLVES!” he explains. “But like. So Stephen and Tyson are ALSO LOVERS, and like… Elira walks in on them!”

There’s a little tilt of his head when Avalon glances towards the displayed book with a perked up eyebrow, telling Teagan on the side “I don’t know, if people start reading that book, they might start acting like the lecturer over here…” With a nod towards Thomas. And then the plot is slowly explained and he lets out a little sigh, before telling “Nevermind, yeah, do a book… Whatever”

Mercedes squints at the the back of the book. It takes a full minute for her glassy eyes to light up suddenly with a thought, “W-wait… What does the evil sorcerer do to the prince?” she peers around, “I need to know.”

“Interesting,” Jasper mums while he listens to Thomas. “So gay wolves. Nice.”

Going back to the blackboard, Thomas wiggles his ass in those jeans. He starts to draw a triangle, helpfully filling it in, ‘ELIRA’, ‘STEPHEN (PRINCE)’, and ‘TYSON (HOT WWOLF)’. “So like. I’m getting there! Elira, like, totally gets Stephen to kick Tyson out of bed, and also like out of the castle…” he explains. “But like without the guards, this evil sorcerer casts a spell on the prince, making him really sick. And like — this is what’s so cool about the book.” He turns to the audience. “Like super cool: the author writes it so you can, like, read Elira’s mind! YOU SEE HER THOUGHTS!” he exclaims. “And she is totally into Tyson, too!”

Clearly, Teagan has already heard some of this synopsis. She just nods along as she takes the video of Thomas explaining the story. There is a brief moment the phone dips and she gives a slight shake of her head before balancing it again to bring the excited librarian back into frame.

Mercy listens now with rapt attention, mostly for the werewolf portions probably, while her thumbs swipe around on her phone screen. She’s definitely not looking for somewhere to pirate this book.

Dovie chews on her lip for a moment, clapping to the beat of Thomas’ wiggling. “Totally into Tyson too??? What a slut!”

“Elira sounds like she’s in the wrong,” Jasper tells Thomas. “Like, why would she make that guy kick out his lover? She’s a homewrecker!”

Mercedes stares ahead as if in awe, mouth ajar, “This is like… The bestest lecture ever,” she giggles.

Mercy gasps at Jasper’s bold accusations. “Maybe she worry they ain’ want her in the middle of that sandwich.”

“Like, Dovie, I’m not going to lie,” Thomas tells Dovie. “They all are kind of sluts.” He laughs, again close to a giggle. “But like who isn’t?” A smile. “Anyways. So the Prince gets a spell, and like… Elira has to go to Tyson.” He nods vigorously at Jasper. “It was wrong! I haven’t, liked, finished, but I saw the next book in the series, and I think like all three of them make up,” he says. “But like… Elira has to convince Tyson to help, but like. He’s a werewolf! So he’s angry, and he’s like the alpha of his pack, and…” His voice hushes. “He’s in -HEAT-.”

Dovie puts a hand to her mouth with a fake gasp followed by a thoughtless giggle. And then she gasps AGAIN when Thomas mentions someone being in heat. “Can’t he like… turn on the AC?”

“The solution is pretty easy, have three people going at it” Avalon replies with a pointed finger towards the cover. As if the book wouldn’t cover precisely that at some point. At least he’s listening to the conversation

Seraphina coughs as she tries to hold back a laugh.

“Whoo, a hot threesome,” Jasper starts to smile again while he speaks. “So does he bang both of them?”

“You KNOW she do.” Mercy murmurs to Jasper, like it should be obvious.

“Ah yes, mating season is a bitch” Avalon tells with a couple nods and an understanding expression. For once. At least he’s engaged to the topic “It’s not great, the start of the year is fucked for werewolves”

Oh. Now Mercy quiets again and sloooowly sinks back into her seat.

Mercedes asides to Jasper, clearing her throat, “That’s actually called a devil’s triangle,” she smiles brightly before looking forward again, “So how does a werewolf like… warm up? Hot yoga?”

Turning from the board, Thomas shifts a little bit. In tight jeans, it’s hard not to notice the professor adjusting himself, matched by some flash of pink in his cheeks. “Uh. Not like… the last, like, scene I read,” he says to Jasper. “It was just like Tyson and Elira. But like. It was -raw-,” he explains. “Like Oh. My. God.” He pauses. “Now, like, they’re on their way to the sorcerer’s tower. No one knows the magician’s name,” he explains. “Just… the Veiled!” he says. “Which is like, gives me chills!”

Dovie stares at Mercedes. “Uhhh microwave??? Like duh???”

“The Professor is very keen on the devil’s threesome,” Teagan informs Mercedes. “You can ask anyone who was at the Inkwell yesterday.” There is a glance back toward Mercy and a oft of brows, “I’m surprised you haven’t read this one.” And then it’s back to filming. Got to make sure she has pleeeeeenty of footage.

Mercedes cackles at Dovie blushing, “Oh! Totes!”

“Fightin’, usually. Competin’ fer- never mind.” Mercy starts to answer Mercedes, then thinks better of it.

“Definitely totes,” Jasper lets out a giggle as he leans back into his seat. “Raw during mating season? That’s spicy.”

Dovie turns her stare to Jasper, “That’s how you get salmon-brella!”

Mercedes pulls out a pen and starts making notes on her hand, “Okay so like… Mating season…”

“So, uh. Like. I can’t really, you know, do a full review, because, like… I haven’t finished it,” Thomas says to the crowd, going back to lean on the chair, his ass up in the air. The pose is, all things considered, rather suggestive. “So like. I guess that’s the end of my lecture?” he says. “Like…” A bright smile. “Thank you all for like — coming!”

Thomas goes back to sucking on his lollipop.

Dovie raises her hand at Thomas and goes ahead to ask, “uhh what happens to the sluts?”

It’s almost a disappointment to cut the video, but you have to leave something for the readers to go actually buy the book for, right? Teagan snaps another photo or three before leaning back to send off a text; still grinning.

“Not the salmon-brella!” Jasper gasps, his hand towards his chest like he’s clutching pearls. “This has been interesting and all with sluts and minds.”

Mercedes pokes her tongue out as she writes, “Sluts… What happened?” she whispers, drawing something like a triangle onto the back of her hand.

There is a side-glance given to Teagan, some thought having taken over, but whatever thought Seraphina may have had is overtaken. There is a clear shiver down the beauty’s spine. And a single, barest glance back at Avalon. Maybe just to make sure he’s not breaking more things. She rises when Thomas mentions the end of the evening, and she brings her hands together for her himbo. Moved even!

Mercy deflates with relief when the subject of mating season seems to get dropped and the focus is now on the fate of the sluts in the book.

“I don’t know!” Thomas tells Dovie. “I mean. So far like… there’s been a chapter where Stephen fucks Elira, and where Tyson fucks Stephen, and like now I just read Tyson fucking Elira, but like… I don’t know how it ends?” he says. “But I can tell you…” His breath is husky. “I’m hoping, like. It’s Tyson behind, and Stephen in front, and…. mmmm.”

Avalon nods his head a couple times, as he reaches to fish for the phone out of his pocket, taking a moment to unlock it before glancing at it and nodding his head to himself, seemingly texting with a hand holding the phone, and one single finger descending on the screen

“Bet the werewolf the better lover by a wide margin.” Mercy declares of this Elira and her sampling of both men.

“It ends with all three.” Seraphina mentions. “It has to, right?”

Dovie scratches her head, “Okay but like how do you fit them all in the like, microwave?” she asks Seraphina.

Mercy shakes her head. “Nah, she lets the werewolf turn her cause why be human when you can be somethin’ way cooler, an’ they run off to live wild an’ free in the woods. An’ fuck a lot I guess.”

Dovie shakes her head at Mercy. “That’s how you get salmon-brella!”

“I mean, should do… It’s the easiest solution” Avalon tells after Seraphina, before glancing over at Mercy and cackling just a tiny bit, commenting “You know, the werewolf doesn’t always need to be the best at everything”

“I wonder,” Teagan says without looking up from her phone, “if it ends with the magician being another woman and they have a foursome. Wouldn’t that be a twist… Perhaps she was just a jealous lover who wanted to be noticed.” She starts to flick back through the photos she took, but stops briefly and grimaces, putting her phone away as she reaches for the chips to gather them and her drink up.

Mercedes lifts her hands and gives classroom etiquette snaps for Thomas, “Bravo! Bravo prof! That was like sooooo informa… Infor… Smart.”

Giving Dovie a little confused look, Seraphina says, “Just like any threesome, I guess. You shove them in?”

“Just better than the human.” Mercy clarifies for Avalon before squinting over at Dovie. “Who the hell Salmon-Brella?!”

Dovie opens her mouth at surprise, her eyes wide at Seraphina.

Dovie frowns at Mercy, waving her hand in the air. “Like, you know. A Thing,” she insists, looking around for backup. For a squad.

Mercy calls out to anyone nearby who has read this book. “Does she get knocked up at the end?! Swear these things always get ruined by everybody settlin’ down an’ gettin’ pregart.”

Straightening, Thomas grabs his jacket, throwing it over his shoulder. “Well, like.” He looks for Seraphina. “I think, like, the lekshur went really good!”

Avalon points a finger towards Mercy and he tells “I mean, they are fucking… That’s normally how it ends- Specially during heat, people are less careful and all”

“Pregante.” Seraphina says, nodding, wrinkling her nose. “No thank you from me!” She approaches Thomas and isn’t shy about kissing him in front of everyone. Its not like she shoves her tongue down his throat afterall. It’s a peck! She takes his lollipop from his mouth, first, of course, then puts it in her own mouth. “It went very well. Ready to go home?”

Thomas presses himself to Seraphina with the kiss, clearly pleased. “Totes, cupcake,” he coos to her.

“Thas’ why you bag it up! Or use the- what ever the fuck magic herb they got in that universe!” Apparently Mercy feels very strongly about this because she’s already stood up, and is making hand gestures at Avalon for emphasis.

“I’m just saying it how it is… As someone in mating season, I can assure you, that there will not be a thought on that once there’s engagement” Avalon comments to Mercy with a shrug of his shoulders, definitely giving too much information, before tilting his head and asking “Would you give it much thought?”

Mercy just stares at Avalon coolly, running a hand back through her suspiciously messier than usual hair before turning away. “What ever lecture over we can bounce now. Learned TONS.”

“Ah, especially since Valentine’s in a few days,” Jasper speaks, glancing up with a slow nod.

finishing the chips and with her coat on, Teagan gets her things together. She even gathers up her drink, taking a long sip. “Thank you for the lecture, Professor. It was… just so enlightening. I got so much out of it.”

There is some amount of pleasure in Seraphina at being called such a cutesie pet name by Thomas. She reaches for the man’s hand and laces her fingers with his. To those in the Hall, she says, “Thank you for coming this evening. I hope that you all were able to get something out of it!”

“.. Think we all most certainly did.” Mercy tells Seraphina bluntly, hazarding another glance at Thomas and his pink turtleneck and tight as fuck jeans. “What that somethin’ is, I ain’ sure, but..”

Slowly, Avalon stands up from his chair, and for a moment, it seems like he’s debating whether or not to kick another leg off of the furniture, so much for respecting other people’s property. But after stretching his arms over his head, then his back, and then glancing at Mercy he tells “Well, this is the kind of lectures to expect from the college”

Mercedes rises from her own seat, beaming, “Yes professor that was like totes a bomb lecture! My mind is… bigger now.”

Mercy gives Mercedes a more proper once-over now that the woman is standing. “Maybe it’ll be big enough fer you to remember to shower before appearin’ in public next time.”

Thomas lets out a laugh, largely just a giggle, as he leans into Seraphina.

“I am also enlightened as well,” Jasper tells Thomas with a nod. “Thanks.

Dovie is distracted by watching TikToks on her phone.

Hand in hand, Seraphina walks out with a bouncy and frolicky Thomas.

Mercedes winces at Mercy’s glance, “I uh-ummm… Woke up in the alley. Apologies. I’m headed to the hospital next,” she eeks out a smile as she massages her temples, “Think I… fell out of a window.”