[Ah, and Palamedes nearly offers to go get the drinks himself, but there he goes - and he seems amused enough at having to take two trips, and so Palamedes allows himself to be that much more endeared by the sight of Viktor casually passing by a pair about to start swinging without even a blink. That he can do, but janitors make him blush — it's sweet.

He picks up his new drink only after Viktor has settled, nodding in thanks before the first sip. Hmm, it's even Bluer, somehow, a great sign whether or not he's imagining it.]

A little darkblood smear would have done the trick, [he offers, a joke. The berry-juice darkblood stains could like a little light bruising, at a glance, which is obviously all that this gambit requires.

He does something stupid again with his eyebrows, though, because raunchy romance titles make Viktor laugh, a fact that is immediately both very amusing and filed away for revisiting later. Allow him to whip up a quick plot for the Flight of Fancy series... no. Maybe later.]

I'd say we've mastered the art of deception, actually. The better story isn't the theft of a chalkboard out of a window? That's excellent.