[Here's a fun game to play: ask a good friend about his trysts and then be surprised when the mind wanders directly to said trysts of the non-academic variety. Now that's mystique, if Palamedes has ever heard it. A corner of his mind snags on that - trysts - and stays there, all the while a groundswell of defensiveness rises in him at the thought of Viktor being called something like a "dirty trencher," in any circumstance. It has all the crassness of "unfinished inbred," but context, he's sure, is everything.]

The dean? [Hmhm, tidbits of Viktor's world - the stuffier half, anyway.] More like the academy here than the Sixth's boards and boards and more boards, then.

[There really aren't things to do in the Sixth besides become a Scholar or a soldier, so - add another point to the list of fun cultural differences. He takes a Blue swig, holding up a finger of his bandaged hand to convey a wait, he's working. He's thinking of a title right now, and since the concept of bar fights is relevant, the title is...]

Earworm Paradise: A Scholar's Quest for Love and Fortune (and Fights). [He tilts his head toward Viktor just so at the end, to signify the parentheses with a less serious tone - as if he were serious this whole time.] I'm thinking a triology— no; a quartet. An entire saga, with at least one chair thrown per installment.

What do you think? Marketable? I should be writing this down; did you see any pens on the way in? [He says this as he takes a pen out of his pocket, but of course he does; and without further deliberation he stands halfway to scrape his chair to the side, moving his seat closer to Viktor so they might collaborate on this effort.

Here is a paper napkin. It has a worm printed in the corner. Palamedes writes 'HEIST DRAMA' across the top in neat little letters.]