Fenrir is people-watching. Rifter's off in class somewhere, and Fen has no interest in joining him. People-watching seems like an interesting solution, so he came to the food court.

Over there, a girl with red hair waves her arms and talks loudly to the slightly embarrassed, slightly bemused occupants of her table. To their left, a lone young man at a computer tries to pretend he can't hear their laughter. The two girls walking by look practically identical, in their pink and white outfits. Over there, aa young woman and young man sit, drinking milkshakes and playing footsies. A few tables away, a lrage group of large guys shout and toss pieces of paper around, racuously.

Fenrir watches it all, with eyes dark from corner to corner and an expression akin to the one most poeple wear when watching TV. The shadow servant is sitting at an empty table up against a wall in the food court. He's dressed, as usual, in dark clothing-- colour's harder to do. In the harsh fluroescents, he casts no shadow.

Max made his way into the food court, complaining to Harris about the test he felt he had just failed.

See, they'd made a bit of an agreement. Harris wouldn't say too much while he was in school, Max wouldn't have him exorcised.

Now, however, Harris had brought it up and Max was defending his honor.

"Now, I did not."

"Yes, you did. You looked at her paper and you cheated."

Max was stuck, considering Harris saw everything he did. "Shut up."

He was so busy arguing, Max didn't notice the table he sat down at was occupied.

Well, that was new. most humans talked to other people, rather than themselves. Out loud, anyways.

Most humans also didn't sit down with complete stranger. he must be at the guy's favourite table.

Oh, well. Fen's presence didn't alert itself to people like a normal human's would. Poeple are used to overlooking shadows.

"Hello."

"Hello," responded Harris. Max turned to look at the source of the voice, and was surprised. He hadn't noticed anyone.

"Oh, hello." He blinked. "Sorry, did I invade?"

"Well, duh. Either that, or this person's just creepy."

"Er."

Creepy is, actually, a good word to describe a living shadow, but that isn't what Fenrir is thinking. He peers at Max/harris with entirely black eyes and leans forwards a bit. No shadow follows him.

"You seem to have two people in there."

"Kind of." Max sounded apologetic, but Harris made up for it.

"You seem to have no shadow." Max looked, and whoever this was certainly didn't have one.

"Hey, he's right." He peered suspiciously at him. "You're not another god, are you?"

"If y'are, let me out."

"Eh heh."

Fenrir draws back and grins, unintentionally shadowing Max's apologeticness.

"Yeah, I don't have a shadow of my own... and no, I'm nod a god." He brow furrows at Max. "What are you?"

"I'm human."

"I'm not."

Max could never get the last word. "He's more like... dark me, or something. That little voice in your head that makes fun of everything." He figured that since this person had no shadow or much of a differentiated eye, it was safe to say he was innish.

"Not a god, huh? Well, can you get me out anyway?"

Fenrir leans on the table and stares at Max's mouth. It's the only thing the second voice, the 'dark' one, seems to control. only the voice and words change, not Max's face.

"No," he says, in a vaguely disappointed tone, "I can't. I'm not that powerful. I only ahve enough power to do what my master wants, really. The basics."

"Master? What're you, then?"

"I'm sorry, he just says whatever comes to mind. He doesn't have much in the way of a conscience."

Max ever-so-subtly made himself more comfortable in the seat.

"'m a shadow." Fenrir demonstrates, setting his hand down on the tabletop where it flattens and darkens as if someone were casting a shadow of their hand on the table. Just as he's had no shadow when solid, the shadow has no casting object.

He pulls his hand back up into solidity and grins, a big even white-toothed grin.

Max looked impressed and surprised, but Harris did not sound it.

"That's not so great. I saw this one guyy bring someone back to life, but only after they'd been inhabiting the body for a few months."

Fenrir frowns like a kicked puppy.

"Well, I'm just a shadow, okay? I can't bring stuff back to life. That's for gods and things to do."

He leans back, looking reproachful.

"That's what he was."

Max forcibly retook his mouth. "I'm sorry. He never knows when to shut up."

"Don't apologize for me!"

"If I don't, I'll end up getting killed because of you one of these days."

Fenrir seems to sidestep the issue of the argument, entirely.

"You met a god?" he asks, his black eyes alive with curiosity. He's leaning forwards, just a bit, over the table and towards the dynamic duo.

"Yes." Max seemed a bit disappointed. He didn't want to think about that.

"See, Max's friend here was dead, but Death needed a new suit and Jon was just his size. Max persuaded Death to give Jon life and that's how I saw someone brought back to life. Which is more than it seems you can do."

Fenrir shrugs. Unlike his caster, he's not particularly power-hungry.

"That's cool."

He pauses, leaning back and looking distracted.

He probably has no idea how inappropriate his words were.

Max was relieved, mostly because those words shut Harris up. He was shocked and surprised that someone would just ignore something like that with no kind of reaction. Harris was stunned into silence, for once.

"That's mostly what I thought," Max said. "I'm Max. How do you do?" He liked this person. Anyone who could shut Harris up was godly in his book.

"Didn't I introduce myself? I'm Fenrir. I'm good."

He turns back and offers Max a grin.

"I guess the other guy doesn't give you a lot of peace, does he?"

"If you did, I don't remember," Max said with a smile.

"No. It used to be internal only, but that god had to go and mess with things."

"Which I am very grateful for, by the way." Harris was over the shock now. Max sighed.

"You wouldn't happen to know how to exorcise the voice in the back of your head, would you?"

"Er. I dunno."

Fenrir shrugs, apologetically, spreading his empty hands.

"Gods do things their own way. It's hard to go by the book when dealing with them."

Max happened to glance at his watch and nearly cursed.

Harris did it for him. "Shit."

"I'm gonna be late for class," Max said, jumping up and dragging his stuff with him. He shouted a hasty goodbye over his shoulder and ran off.