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Walking through the hallway, Vincenzo noticed how dimly lit the space was, only yellow light coming from the candles on the wall. It was quite old timey, he believed, how the school was adorned. He did not think it had been renovated since The Ninth House era, but some things about it resembled even Eclipsium. Largely, he found it comforting how the darkness embraced him, enveloping his figure he needn’t create shadows. They were all around him. Save for the flames of candles, those let him see the traces of design in the carpet beneath his feet, little lines crowded amongst each other like earthworms from the garden.
Away from the artificiality of the city, he felt like the place where he was gave his life a bit more meaning. There was something irreplicable about the way that magic adorned the academy walls. The golden trace of illusions crafted by the enigma stag swirled around in the air, cryptic messages written by the scarlet guild were tattooed and faded on the walls, the shadows of the umbra coven snuck around in the vents. It was something that could never be corrupted by the drabness of industry, like they lived in a sanctuary immune to time and the desires of meek vanity, where the true power of the human condition lay manifested into tangible, real magic. If you met a poet in the forest outside of the academy, wandering through the night, and they told you that they knew a place… they would take you here.
Vincenzo reached the kitchen, at last, and laid eyes on its display with the bit of illumination he was still receiving from the sconces in the hallway. From a few feet of distance was the freezer above the refrigerator, he walked around a small, circular table to reach it, and pulled the handle. Inside the cold, blue space, he quickly saw just what he needed, a bag of frozen peas, behind it another. Then, he turned around and took a seat at the quaint table, stretching his long legs out under it. The pain in his upper body radiated through his abdomen, a little bit in his shoulder, but the most of it was in his face. Around his eye he felt like his skin was swelling, and if he touched his eyebags with his fingers there would be a bump. His splitting lip finally parted, and he licked his lips, tasting iron. Tasting the blood, he finally raised the peas to his eye, feeling a short burn before relief, and then exhaled.
If the confines of Wyndham College were a capsule of time, where scientists were alchemists and students were apprentices, then Vincenzo would be a brute. Sitting slouched in a kitchen chair, shirt unbuttoned, shoes somewhere off in the Umbra suite, he looked like a tempered, cheap man who would often leave bar fights with the excuse that at least he won. But that wasn’t all he was. How he felt was frustrated, already tired of the pain he gave himself and sick of residing within his own skin. At least if Ren was there, then he would have someone to joke with.
He sat alone, taking hard and angry breaths for just a bit longer before a now-friendly giant entered the room. Now-friendly because he had clearly not been before, a black eye similar to Vincenzo’s marking his features. He was a very tall man, with medium brown hair and a happy expression marking his lean silhouette. The two men had missed each other, and a smile cracked on the side of Vincenzo’s lips as well.
“Ren,” He said, feeling a bit better now that he was less alone. “There’s more peas on the right side of the freezer, come take a seat.” Vincenzo turned his spine watching Renlin go behind him and retrieve the things from above the refrigerator, and then his eyes followed him once more as he sat down.
“Do you want to share first, or should I?” He said, a chuckle falling from his parted lips as he took in the irony of their situation. “Right now, it probably looks like we were fighting with each other,” he laughed.
@Madilfill Renlin
Side note:
yes i did just reply to myself, I wanted to give you a little push bc
my previous reply had no set-up and you been taking a minute,
love uuuuuu