"WEEB. WEEB. YOU ARE A WEEB."

...Affectionate eyeroll. "What about you, what music do you like?"

"Mostly stuff Wilbur showed me, if I'm being honest. Like, before he went in, he showed me Mr. Brightside, have you heard it? Because I had never heard it, and it was like, holy shit, this is so good. And Hamilton, of course, and his songs. He wrote his own, did you know? He's-- he was gonna be famous one day, and I was gonna be his first stan."

There... isn't really anything to say to that. "Mm."

"What do we do now?"

"I mean, we've still got a ton of tokens left. Or we could work on homework or something? That's not really a party thing, though."

"Yeahhhhh, you're... you're not very good at parties, are you, Clay."

"To be fair, there isn't much to do in the Scholomance. It's not like we can play Mario Party in here."

"I guess. I miss--I miss my friends."

"Well. I'm your friend."

"...Yeah. Yeah.

Thanks for letting me keep my mana today. Kinda nice of you."

"You're welcome."

"I'm sorry it wasn't much of a party."

"Well, we got to hang out, it's not all bad."

"Yeah. Even if George isn't here. --Did you even invite George?"

"No. ...He... probably wouldn't have come."

"Too busy cheating on you with Nick?"

"I don't know how he could do that, 'cause they're my friends, but."

Eyebrow waggle and exaggerated wink. "Mm-hm. He's your friend."

Eyeroll. "He is my friend."

"I mean, even if you are just friends, they could always hang out without you."

"I mean, they do. It happens. --Holy shit, watch out!" Tommy is getting shoved behind Clay as Clay chants at a mal with fleshy tentacles and dripping... something. He throws up a shield (thank you George) and starts chanting a spell that should use the mal's own movement against it, amplify it until it's being ripped apart. If he needs it he has a reflex-enhancing potion in his pocket, but he doesn't think he will; it's the sort of thing going for Tommy because it thinks he's easy prey, not the sort of thing that actually thinks it can take Clay.

As if on cue, it thrashes itself into meaty shreds.

"Holy shit, that was sick! That could've, it could've been the end of me."

"You have to be careful, Tommy."

"...Maybe it should've been."