Xaviers!

"If you need pointers, that's one field I'm an expert in." she shakes her head with slight amusement. "For starters, don't accept drinks from aristocratic and strangely ageless women." she adds with a glance at the umbrella and how it's carefully positioned to keep all of her in the shadow it casts.

"That's oddly specific," she says, "And sounds like a story."

"The short version is I appealed to her enough she wanted me to stick around for a very long time. She considered it a gift to condemn to to this." she says, flashing Laura a grin that shows the sharp points of her eye-teeth.

That actually makes Laura blink for a moment. Finally, she seems to properly take in the whole picture, "I guess that makes a bit of sense, looking at everything. I mean, it shouldn't, but I can look like anyone and everyone here can do all sorts of amazing things, so it isn't that far out of the bounds, I guess? Sorry, rambling."

"No, it's definitely unbelievably stupid that this is real. It has absolutely no right to be, yet here I am..." she sighs dramatically.

"Fair enough," Laura says, "So watch out for ageless aristocratic women. I'll have to remember that when I go back to London for shopping."

"I'm not even sure if she's still around. She left town and I drained her petty cash fund. I half expected her to come at me out of principle but that was months ago now, she might have decided it wasn't important enough to bother."

"One can hope, I suppose. Though who knows how ageless people think."

"If I kept worrying about all the women of... questionable morals I've ticked off throughout the school year I would never get anything done."

"Women of questionable morals, huh? Part of that 'wrong kinds of people' thing I suppose. Though I'd imagine that it can be occasionally fun."

"Oh it's very fun in the moment." Miriam smirks ever so slightly.

"Just not the next morning or a week after or whenever," Laura says with a chuckle followed by a sigh, "I should really find a partner. It's just a lot of work."

"I'm too toxic for anything resembling a normal, long-term relationship, but at least I've recognized that now."

"So just a series of short term flings then? Or work on the toxic thing?"

"Fuck if I know. The later I suppose, but I'm a literal vampire. How non-toxic could I even get?"

"I mean, there's the cliche of 'won't know until you try', but that's very cliche."

"You spend enough time in people's heads and you'll find that clichés, truisms, tropes and symbolisms really make up about eighty, ninety percent of human beings. They're comforting."

"Comforting for you or comforting for people in general?"

"People in general. I rarely find the average person's thoughts to be comforting."

"I can see how that might be the case," she nods.