king of potential

"...Okay, what about these ones then?"

"Wait... You're supposed t' peel these things??"

Till sulks. “What’s next on the list?”

He cranes his neck a little, glancing at Waver’s laptop over his shoulder.

“Jesus Christ-! How many ‘items’ ya got over there? There’s only two of us!”

Tipping his chair forward, Till plants both of his feet on the ground again.

“An’ can I just say… when I agreed t’ join this club, you didn’t tell me we’d be meeting in a FUCKING CLOSET!”

Till spreads his arms to gesture to the room, but the walls are so close that he smacks his hand against them.

"Part of our job is to clear your name, since students are making rumors about you." He clicks next on the slides, bringing up the first point of concern, since: "As you clearly have no other updates. Have you even slept today?" He clicks his tongue and taps the wall with the stick he found.

He started trailing after her at a safe distance. Not close enough to give an alert, but not far enough to lose sight. However, as he followed, he wondered if this was the best option. Approaching her immediately to offer her an escort on her way home sounded like a bad idea as well. He was in the middle of contemplating how to protect the other when he turned around.

He huffs, crossing his arm, clearly offended. "I'm tired of walking around this island and having to deal with powerful toddlers like you! I can barely convince a non-mage to look the other way with hypnosis, and meanwhile you just scared the absolute shit out of me!"

"I can't stand it! It's so annoying to know that even in a place like this where our powers are taken away, I barely feel a thing!" He clicks his tongue huffing again and turning away.

younger is the msot obvious first observation. next is the fact he doesn't look like he hasn't sleep in a week and there's a distinct lack of cigarette smoke clinging to his person. olga marie's knowledge of a world where her father casted her aside wasn't great, but enough to know that this....boy eventually becomes her teacher. something even like a parental figure, even. she never pried too much into that and ultimately felt it was for the better she didn't.

lastly, he wasn't a pseudo-servant. her observation of novum chaldea's journey those two years provided her with ample information and along with her father's plan and the manipulation of the fuyuki grail war, she can only wonder if he fell victim like the others.

there's no point in dwelling on it. steps come to a halt as she sighs, expression that of obvious dissatisfaction.

" And you were my teacher in that world? Hopefully not like this."

He has to stifle a scream. She was - okay, there's no way...But why did it feel like he was supposed to know her- but she had-

"H...horns?" He points at her horns, and the overwhelming power coming off of her, the stench of pure magic. "Olga-Marie Animusphere..." Is all he can manage without continuing to stutter, feeling both completely small under her clearly disappointed gaze, and also completely overwhelmed.

(What the hell can I possible teach her!? She's...she's some kind of...demon! Or- O-or...No way...)

"You're....a...." He feels like he's about to faint. "There's no way, in any world, I could be the teacher of a heroic spirit. That's...that's what you are now, right? " He probably should be more polite, rather than screaming at her, but...

Masa yelps about the same time he's grabbed, instinctively leaning away from the same direction as this student, Waver Velvet as he names himself, does. Hearbeat heavy from the surprise he slowly turns into the direction of the bushes.

" Alright... "

He too sees the movement and proceeds to first peel off the Waver's fingers off so that he can move closer. There's not much hesitation there, although his heart is still pit pattering a bit. In all honestly it's more shock from being grabbed rather than any movement in a bush.

With a long, few strides forward to grab the branches and move them aside in a single pull.

" .... hm? "

" Oh my... "

"I told you - I'm conducting an investigation, it's entirely plausible - no, probable that I'm being targeted!" Shaking the guy's shoulder as much as he's able to, he eyes the cat from behind him, pointing at it.

"I know you're hiding something." It may be the lack of sleep or multiple part time jobs getting to him, but there's certainly something erratic about him at this time of night.

Till looks at Waver, slightly baffled by his sudden ire.

“’Con artists’?” It certainly doesn’t help that he isn’t even sure what ‘con artists’ means…

Till takes a breath, wondering where to start, and Hanabi comes to mind.

"Well, I'm not from a mage family, not really. Just a bunch of idiots who used their abilities for parlor tricks. That's one of the issues - if you don't work on, repairing and strengthening, your magic circuits, building your crest, it goes to absolute hell. Mine is basically a wet piece of paper compared to other mages." So much so that while he understood people were fundamentally weakened here, he barely felt a thing.

"Magic circuits can be inherited, and transferred between people. Usually being related is best, because even in the process of transferring a crest, even your own child can technically reject yours. It's like...transferring an organ - your body can decide to fight it, and you can get sick, even die in the progress."

He snatches the cigarette back, taking a drag and having a coughing fit before continuing, "Technically, I shouldn't be telling you a thing - that's the other side of it. You don't need to be able to use magic to know how to handle it. There are assassins who are specifically trained to kill mages, and the Church is another body that tends to keep mages in line. They know enough about magic to be able to disarm mages, so despite having access to magic, it's not the end-all of being part of that world."

He looks up at a flickering light in the hallway. "And that isn't even talking about the Root, about the Throne of Heroes, the Holy Grail - ancient magics I haven't uncovered yet...And this place, where there are people who can use magic I can't even dream of."

Ash drops off the cigarette in his hand.

He understood their apprehension, but just because they wanted to stay out of trouble didn’t mean trouble wouldn’t find them. This city was strange like that, and the only way to stay safe was to know what was going on from the inside. 

“Hmm…yes! Gross!” His superior senses were telling him exactly where the smell was coming from. He was just formulating a plan when he noticed the police approaching. 

But before he could awkward-nice-guy his way out of their suspicion, the stranger seemed to have perfectly taken care of that themselves. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he can already sense the fading sense that slapdash alchemy was showing him.

"I'll make you a deal. I'll explain everything that happened here to you," luckily, he was already craning his neck to try and stop the nosebleed.