Lionel gladly took Peony up on her tea offer, waving one of the cafe servers over so he could ask for an extra cup. He nodded in agreement as Peony spoke, his eyes widening as his mind went over the many benefits of a spell effect expander. He wasn’t someone who felt comfortable spending a lot of gil on material goods — he rarely had the gil to spare, for one — but that sounded like something that was definitely worth the money.
As his attention turned to Merri, Lionel’s gaze soon drifted down to the notecards the red mage was holding. And talk of calming potions — yep, Merrion was definitely nervous. It was unsurprising, of course, but Lionel was still worried. There was a part of him that was wary of bringing it up, but he didn’t see how ignoring it altogether would be helpful.
“I — well, Peony could explain that better than me, I only wanted to say that — well, you don’t have any reason to be nervous, Mer,” he said gently, his smile encouraging. “You’re going to do great later.” Lionel Baines was the eternal optimist — there was no better person to have on hand if you needed a morale boost.