Theo woke up, bleary but at least in his bed this time. The light was blinding, and his head was pounding once again, for the second morning in a row.

He tried to blink it away.

That having failed, he tried to go back to sleep. He jerked up in his bed (immediately regretting that course of action), remembering that today was in fact Sayday, and he had class to (unfortunately) get to.

Theo wasn’t sure if he regretted having such a full weekend, drinking so much on said weekend, or waking up more, but regardless he was muttering some choice curses.

He sent a prayer off to Gilth, and he wasn’t sure if he felt any better, but he did feel some mana leave his body. Good to get in that practice, at least.

Gingerly getting out of bed so as to not make his headache worse with any motion sickness, Theo made his way outside. Looking up at the sky without directly looking at the sun, he squinted in the early morning as he staggered towards the College of Song, one laboured step at a time.

---

Theo had a lot to think about on the walk (partially due to the…eventful weekend he had, partially just to have anything to focus on that wasn’t pain).

His thoughts first drifted to Jenny. She was…a character. But he had to admire how she took the backlash in stride, and even used it to her advantage.

It made him think she had the self-preservation instincts of an aggressive chihuahua, but he had to respect that. Theo still remembered the feeling of having backlash happen in his throat.

The pressure.

The noise.

The blood.

Theo realised he’d stopped moving, hands shaking. Taking a shuddering breath into his pounding breath, he ran his fingers through his hair as he closed his eyes.

He opened them again, re-orienting himself (halfway through the Commerce District, with a few passersby looking concerned) before resuming his march to the College District.

He examined the buildings as distraction, looking at the mismatched mix of buildings made of stone and clay and wood, as people milled about and around and between them.

Point is, as he looked at his white knuckles and felt his chest grow hollow, he knew he wouldn’t have the guts to do what Jenny had done, even if he had a guarantee that he’d be okay.

Theo consoled himself with the knowledge that with Striding Wind his mobility wasn’t too limited, but even if it would help him greatly, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to use backlash deliberately.

He turned his thoughts to the less-stressful thoughts about…how he felt leading or even being involved with changing the world.

Right.

Theo walked the rest of the way to the College of Song, thinking about nothing at all. He hummed a tune, accompanied by the beat of his own footsteps.

---

By the time he’d reached the College, the humming had put him in a better mood again (well, a better mood while still hungover and having a killer headache).

The park looked lovely, with sunlight gently filtering through the leaves, tinting the shade a glowing green as people goofed around. He spotted a few (smartly) napping under trees, hats pulled over their faces.

He heard an explosion, tensing up as Jenny rocketed past him, slightly more in control of her trajectory than she had been yesterday. He quietly re-evaluated the park as a clever napping spot.

As she landed and carved a channel into the grass, Jenny stumbled a little bit, before spotting him. She waved, and then with her waving hand, she shot off again, seemingly on a mission to deprive people of the opportunity to catch up on sleep.

Theo waved at her echo, too late to catch her actual figure. He smiled, quietly chuckling to himself (and trying to figure out how to stop himself shaking his head before it set everything off again).

Walking by the Arts Exchange, he raised a hand to everyone there in greeting, before trying to hide his wince as Ingrid played a particularly high note on her flute (which was beautiful and haunting, just a different kind of haunting at the current moment, echoing around his head).

Ingrid quickly finished what she was playing and started to powerwalk, as Astor and Jade (to Theo’s surprise) both got up to go to class.

Looking around at his classmates, at the peaceful park and hearing the sounds of a crooning singer slowly grow dimmer behind him, Theo smiled.

Even if he had all these questions, he had time to figure them out. For now, he had a class to focus on.

---

Theo tried to focus, he truly did. And the exercises that Fred had asked them to do in their Speech class were fun and engaging, but not enough to keep his mind from wandering.

Which didn’t go un-noticed.

“Oi.” Finn clicked his fingers in front of Theo’s nose as he came to, to see Finn’s almost pressed against his. “Focus.”

Theo slowly nodded, taking in a deep breath as he returned to watching Finn’s lips and trying to read the words that were only being whispered right now.

It didn’t go that well.

---

“You okay?” Finn was walking with him after class, along with Drew and Rowena as they exited the College and headed for the park.

Theo shrugged his shoulders. “Bad hangover.” He let them draw their own, regular conclusion.

As they made their way into the park, more and more people clumped up and came to join them, chatting to each other. Theo assumed they knew each other from the weekend audits, and he soon recognised Jenny and Bruce and Simo among the students joining in. He waved to them (and they waved back) as they all settled in the park (like a swarm of locusts).

Students from all Colleges sat together, eating lunch and chatting.

Theo smiled as he unpacked his own bread and cheese, and sat down with Finn, Rowena, and Drew.

He realised they’d been talking all the while he had been considering and perceiving things, Drew thinking about as much as the sum total from the Finn and Rowena combined.

Finn aggressively waved a chunk of bread at Rowena, jabbing it in her direction as punctuation. She responded in kind, slashing at him with a piece of cheese.

“Ugh, will you- can you- just stop it!” Rowena shouted, too loud for Theo’s tastes.

He winced, and continued to wince as Jenny, Bruce, Simo and Duncan all took this moment to come by to say hi and chat.

Rowena flushed.

Theo ignored that and pretended it hadn’t happened. “Hi! Drew, Finn, Rowena, meet Bruce, Duncan, Jenny, and Simo.” He pointed to everyone individually as he said their names, and felt them eye each other up slightly warily.

“Drew, Finn, and Rowena attend the College of Song with me. Bruce, Duncan, Jenny, and Simo all were at the Focus audit with me yesterday. Bruce, Jenny, and Simo attend the College of War, while Duncan is at the College of Prayer.” A smattering of waves and greetings were exchanged between the groups, before silence reigned.

There was nothing but the sound of chewing around him, and while Theo definitely appreciated the peace and quiet in this particular moment, it didn’t sit right with him.

He sighed, sitting the middle of both groups. Theo got up, grabbing Jenny’s hand (not noticing the faint blush on her cheeks) as he essentially led/dragged her next to Finn. He repeated this twice more to match Drew with Duncan, and Rowena with Bruce.

Job done, Theo sat next to Simo and settled down to eat food in silent company on the grass underneath an orange tree.

It didn’t take long for Finn to propose an arm wrestling competition to Jenny, (obviously) lose incredibly badly, and then offer up a series of increasingly outlandish rematches.

It was chaos to the onlookers, but everyone else shared knowing looks and cracked smiles and barely-restrained laughter, and soon the silence and walls surrounding them disappeared.

---

General knowledge went by (presumably faster and less comprehended than Thelonious would have liked). As much as Theo tried to focus, his head was still too full of other thoughts (and pain) to really parse what had been said about the geography around Union City.

On the walk back to his home, he knew he had a few hours he could spare before he had to go perform at The Pub.

And in that time, he intended to properly activate Tome of Memories.