#study budy

“wait, I never helped you study for this tho. When did you ever learn this??”

Yancy answers shyly, “you taught me, remember? All those times, when you spent on and on about artifacts and certain points in history when we would go adventuring.”

“You were actually listening?”

Yancy blushed and nods

Day 3/50

Today I was at a friend's place who has 3 kids. So I had some nice study budies. It was really nice and I did actually manage to get some studying done!

“Translate this.”

Laure set a book in front of Victor and relished his look of bemusement even as she stacked the rest of her books on the table and opened her laptop.

Her dissertation was so close to finished. It would be groundbreaking. She might even get a promotion at the museum.

Of course, that would depend on whether or not Victor would translate one of her primary sources for her. As it turned out, he was perfectly fluent in ancient Babylonian, and was occasionally willing to help out.

Much faster than trying to get one of the very few experts around to help. She hated playing phone tag with reclusive specialists.

“This is prayer for the dead, followed by the instructions on how to curse a tomb,” Victor said with a very curious eyebrow-quirk in her direction. “What are you planning to curse?”

“My senior review professor if he demands another primary source,” Laure muttered and flipped open her notebook aggressively. “I’ve got statements from every major expert in my field and more than half the minor experts have weighed in, and he’s still demanding more!”

He had kicked her dissertation back three times asking for more. She was starting to suspect foul play. It was hard being a woman in academia.

“I could eat him,” Victor suggested casually, and scribbled down the translation for her, complete with definitions of the words that translated poorly to English. “This one is an occult lore book in Thessalonian. Where did you get it?”

“A used bookstore in Morocco,” Laure said, and scrubbed a hand over her face. “I bought it on a whim. Turned out to be genuine. Came as a set with like six others.”

“These have been lost for centuries.”

“Well, they’ve been in my office for the last five years.”

“Can I have them?”

“Not until I’m done with my dissertation!”

Some people worried about vampire politics. Some people cared, and got involved. Some people didn’t have a museum archive to organize, and a dissertation to finish.

Victor considered that, tilted his head to the side, and huffs a put-upon sigh. “Will you finish faster with more books?”

“If they’re on topic, yes,” Laure said without looking up. She knew he had a stash somewhere, but getting him to share it was like pulling teeth from a chicken. “I may have to present them with the dissertation for review.”

He made a disagreeable noise, and flipped open another book. “This one is cursed in like, four different languages. Did you touch it with bare hands?”

That was more serious. Laure still wasn’t convinced that real magic was real, but Victor was. If he thought something was important, it probably was.

Fortunately, she preferred to handle old books with cotton gloves.

“No, why?”

“Oh, it would probably make your skin rot off,” he told her casually and flipped it open. “Yes, see, this rune circle anchors another on the underside of the cover’s leather. Very clever. Somewhat deadly.”

“Only somewhat?” Laure squawked loud enough to make the librarian glare at her across the vast museum archive. “How is your skin rotting off only someway deadly?! And why are you touching it?!”

“Oh, you have to be alive for it to work,” Victor shrugged cheerfully and paged through the book. “And if you’re quick, you can always cut off whatever got cursed. What are a few fingers or an arm to your life, yes?”

He had a point, but it want a very nice point and Laure did not plan to take the book back, thank you. He could keep that one.

“Why are you even here?” She asked as she got to work transcribing one of the other manuscripts, quoting liberally as she did. “Not that I’m not pleased, you’re faster than Wylkind.”

“You’re speaking with Wylkind?” Victor say bolt-uptight and glared at her. “You didn’t tell me that!”

“Well you were in Paris and I needed someone to translate for me!” Laure fired back and met his glee with the fearlessness of one who would be dead long ago if he meant any of his threats. “My deadline is in three weeks!”

“Wylkind will try and steal your soul!”

“He’s a scholar, not a demon.”

“He’s a scholar AND a demon!”

Laura muttered a curse she learned from Victor himself. “Fine. Then you stay here until my paper is done.”

“I’m starting to think it’s the only way to keep you alive,” Victor grumbled and dug through her books. “Very well. Until your dissertation is completed.

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Local Librarian:

Laure is an overworked doctorate student. Her best friend is living history, and thinks of her museum as his own personal vault.

Gift of a Rose 

Curse-Bound Leather

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More Stories!

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"You suddenly got really good at this subject."