Chapter Text
9.
In the quiet hours after the café closed, Mydei sat under the bright lights at a table, proofreading Phainon’s papers, when he stumbled upon something rather…extraordinary.
“Deliverer,” he called as he stared down at the half-asleep individual opposite of him.
“...what,” came the rather reluctant reply, “let me sleep in peace.”
“No.”
Mydei reached over and held the other up by the scruff of his neck, “Not until you explain to me what this is about.”
Phainon blearily blinked his view back into clarity as he processed what the title of the paper Mydei was holding stated.
‘The Trojan War was a catering misunderstanding”
Phainon: Yeah? So?
Mydei: …
“So you really don’t see what’s wrong?”
“No?” came the innocent reply.
Phainon draws up a picture of the Trojan Horse on his phone, then points, “Obviously, the ‘Trojan Horse’ was just a kebab delivery cart-”
“ NO.”
“-and ‘Helen’ was just a recipe…”
Mydeimos stood up, rounded the table to behind Phainon, hoisted him up over his shoulder, walked out of the back door, and without hesitation dumped him with the trash.
Having listened to Anaxa’s trauma-inducing recount of the event about donut-black-holes over a triple shot espresso the other day, Mydei was determined to not also lose his mind.
10.
“Agy!”
Tribios walked into the boutique, arms full of various assortments of fabrics, “I got your message, what are you doing with all these?”
“Teacher,” Aglaea acknowledged as she finished up measuring and cutting cloth, walking over to take the heavy burden away from the red haired woman, “Cifera needed a replacement fit for her play. Allegedly, her old costume was too small so it tore.”
Tribios giggled as she relinquished her hold over the rolls of fabric, “I take it you don’t buy that?”
“No,” Aglaea admitted easily, “she’s very bad when it comes to lying to me.”
“You’re just a natural lie detector, no one can lie to you.”
As Aglaea resumed her work, Tribios took a good look at all the new outfits Aglaea had designed recently, and was violently attacked by the colour selection.
Tribios: Agy…
Aglaea: Yes, Teacher?
Tribios backed away from the mannequin, “Why are you working with yellow and purple?”
“...it’s Phainon’s birthday in a few days, I thought he might appreciate an outfit of yellow and purple.”
Tribios blinked.
“I thought you were against Snowy wearing these colours. Didn’t you incinerate his entire wardrobe?”
Aglaea reached over for the golden thread, ready to start embroidering, “I did, because that man has no fashion sense, that atrocious fit he wore to our first meeting was…very keen on attacking the eye.”
Shuddering, Tribios handed Aglaea what she was searching for, “It almost made me file a lawsuit against this colour combination.”
11.
“So what are we doing tonight, gang?”
Cipher practically waltzed into the girl dormitory, carrying snacks and drinks - sponsored by Mydei.
Castorice remained focused on her ‘work’, knee deep in writing, while Hyacine held up a box with a huge smile.
“Guess what I found! Who even bought this?”
Castorice looked over, “Cards Against Humanity: Titan Edition,” she swiveled to Cipher, who was putting down her haul on the dorm table, “I remember seeing this with Phainon, I think he had edited some of the cards.”
Cipher awkwardly laughed, “I kinda nicked it from him the other day, I don’t think he’s noticed though.”
Hyacine coughed, “Of course he hasn’t, but this sounds fun right? Perfect for a game night.”
The girls settled around the table as Hyacine dutifully dealt out the cards.
“Okay, prompt: The IPC’s most wanted criminal is guilty of ___?”
Castorice and Cipher slide their white card over.
“The Black Tide smoothie.”
“A legally questionable hug.”
Hyacine considered both answers, before smiling sweetly, pointing to the second card, “Sorry Cipher.”
Castorice took a new black card, “Aeons don’t fight over ___…or do they?”
She giggled when she read the first white card, given by Hyacine, “Anaxa’s knife collection. That’s definitely a Phainon edit.”
“For sure,” Hyacine nodded seriously, before cracking up.
“Ugh, mine is so…sane, compared to yours,” Cipher mock complained, sliding over her white card.
“A conspiracy theory about pigeons,” Castorice considered it, “to be fair, that might just be because we have to listen to Phainon’s crazy theories so often we’ve gotten used to them.”
Hyacine was back as the Card Czar, drawing a new black card, “The true reason Nanook abandoned Amphoreus was__.”
Cipher took one look at her white card, then delved into rambunctious laughter.
Hyacine and Castorice simultaneously leaned over to look at what Cipher had, and the dorm exploded with giggles.
Castorice was vaguely pink as she read, “Phainon’s search history. Now that’s an image.”
Cipher was rubbing tears away from her eyes from laughing so hard, “I think Mydei might have had a hand in editing this one.”
“This is a little difficult, “ Hyacine decided as she also read Castorice’s card ‘Aglaea’s anti-Caenis scarf’, “As much as the image of Lady Aglaea hatefully embroidering Caenis - or Canis - in morse code on various ugly fabric. Cipher’s prompt fits better in general, can you imagine Nanook being scared off by a scarf?”
Castorice nodded in agreement, but added, “Then how scary would Phainon’s search history be to scare off Nanook?”
Cipher looked at the card thoughtfully, then with a toothy smile and in a flash, she was at the open window, poised to leap out, “Welp, time to find out.”