Check in on your local hermit mage

[ask_whydunit]

Who; Waver and Illyana
What; Just one friend dropping in (uninvited teleporting) to surprise another friend for a chat.
Where; His workshop in the harbor district because he exists in one of three places most of the time
When; Around Feb 24th
Warnings; None but we'll update if something comes up.



Contrary to popular belief, Waver did know how to relax. Not all of his time was devoted to work, research and dealing with whatever mess of the week some mage had made and requested the El-Melloi’s help to figure out before the Policy department got involved. Sure, none of it was what mages expected of a Lord of the clock tower, but he liked to think it still was proof that he wasn’t as much of a workaholic as he appeared to be. Of course, Waver also was a pro at lying to himself as much as he was at lying about other things, so there were probably people who disagreed.

He read a lot beyond the dusty old magical tombs he liked to study. His detective novel stash was unsurprisingly impressive, as was the collection of the classics and books on mythology. He had a record collection from his youth, one of the few things he hadn’t sold off to pay for his tuition at the clock tower as a teenager. Finally, there were video games. The most embarrassing hobby, if his sister and other mages were to say anything about it, but it was probably his largest indulgence and had been since Fuyuki. His consoles ranged from ‘retro’ to all the way up to a very fancy gaming computer he was quite proud of.

So the point stood. He knew how to relax and unwind like a normal human being.

That said, being here was a little different. His record collection and player were a world away, his book collection was very small here, and getting something new to read meant taking a walk to the historium (not ideal in this weather). There was, however, at least something he had taken care of. Sure, he couldn’t justify most of his video game systems and collection either, but he had wanted to test just how good Raimon really was at getting things from their own worlds… and his game boy advanced with a couple games had been a safe way to go. No risk to damage something of a magical nature if it went wrong, and electronics could be repaired far easier by comparison to say… a magic crest.

Regardless of concerns, it had worked out.

Which was why Waver was currently draped across the sofa in his workshop with his eyes focused on a small electronic screen (squinting slightly, there was no back light and the lamplight wasn’t quite cutting it), with electronic music blaring out of the machine’s tiny speakers. Is his hair unbrushed and looking vaguely like it was alive? Yes. Does he look like he hasn’t seen the sun in over a week? Also yes, but lots of people could probably say the same in February.

It was fine. He wasn’t expected at the academy right now, nor was he expecting company.

It was just him, his game, and the magic project bubbling on the counter till it was time for him to move on to the next stage of it.

Comments

[soulsword]

Illyana was rarely one to seek out others to share information with. Her life had been a series of doing exactly the opposite with determination and gusto. For the most part she just considered others to be both a risk and a determent to discovery and plans. It was easier to investigate herself than to invite someone else in to help. Someone else would be a distraction, someone else could ruin things, someone else might need protection, and so on endlessly. Though she was never foolish enough for her motivation to be the thought that she didn't need others now and then. Everyone needed to utilize tools here and there.

Her time in this place had softened that outlook to some degree. So much so in fact that she found herself wanting to discuss the memory and information the unfortunate Snowman had given her. The first person that came to mind with that was the individual that shared her interest in the Academy, after all the snowman had evidently been directly connected to that place and the events that had transpired there with that voidcryst. It seemed pertinent to share that information with someone for better or worse.

Not just that information either. She wanted to try to find the spirit again to see if it might offer anything else. Summoning spirits was a tricky business at the best of times though and she might need some degree of...assistance with that. Possibly because she felt just a tiny bit bad about how the initial altercation had gone. In her anger at having her memory messed with (something she was rather sensitive to) she had just killed the thing despite it's begging's and ramblings. Maybe she should have actually taken advantage of it being trapped in a snowman's body to get more information.

Oh well. Hindsight.

All roads eventually lead to seeking Waver out. She tried the logical places first in a vague effort to be polite. When that didn't work she used a simple tracking spell to find his location and then went.

Just went.

She teleported into his workshop wearing an oversized black sweater that hung off her shoulders and jeans, bringing with her the slight smell of sulfur. The music hit her first and she found herself both amused and intrigued that this was evidently what he listened to. Unexpected. She came up from behind him and leaned over to look at his game.

"What's the goal in the game?" They had goals of some kind right? In her right hand she conjured a brush and set it down on the sofa next to him. "Ever heard of these?"

[ask_whydunit]

Waver himself would be interested in learning about what Illyana had seen. The subject of the school was still bothering him since his search of the records room, and things had been at a bit of a standstill. That said, the minute the professor heard about the snowmen situation, he’d honestly been doing his best to stay well away from them. Hence, being inside far more than the average person and focusing on his own projects for a month. He knew what little good he would be if faced with magical snowmen with an intent to ambush, and situations like that tended to take a toll on him in inconvenient ways that he wasn’t keen to share with people.

He did mean to reach out to a few people and check on them, really. But he wasn’t known to be good at communicating when it meant expressing some kind of concern, and he was very easily sucked into focusing on something he was doing already… Then losing track of time... He really was a hermit when no one dragged him into things.

Waver didn’t react immediately when Illyana appeared. He was focused, after all, on getting the little knight on screen to the skull woods. He’s playing things a little out of order, but he knows some tricks to get in to certain areas. The question voiced over his shoulder is answered with a simple hum as he uses the magic hammer to hit some stakes to open a path. “The character was ordered to rescue the sealed seven sages-” His tone is casual as he began to speak, until finally that part of his brain connects that his door was locked and that Illyana had not, in fact, been there before. So the man jolts up in surprise, dropping the console on his lap. “When the hell did you-!? Do you ever knock??” He finally responds stupidly (Why would someone who could teleport knock? That’s stupid, Waver!), trying very hard to not look like his heart was trying to escape his chest.

Peering through his hair that had ended up in his face from the startled jump, he glanced at the brush on the sofa and the part of him that could be something of a petulant child bubbled up in relational to the question. “No, can’t say that I have. Some kind of a magical item in your world?” He responded dryly with a roll of his eyes as he pushed the hair back out of his face to try to look at least slightly less like he belonged in a movie about a cursed tape.

He did at least pick up the brush with the intent to use it after the fact, the ritualistic sarcasm out of the way.

[soulsword]

"Sometimes. I'm better at it than Kitty. She just phases through any wall she wants to when she wants to come see someone." She shrugged, still leaning against the back of the sofa casually as if she belonged there. "We all grew up in a dorm, giant shared living spaces," she explained in case he needed it. It was clearly done on purpose to go along with her brush gag. He worked at a school, he knew what dorms were. But this was somehow so much more fun than having a normal conversation. "One time she lost control of her powers while we were laughing and we both fell right threw the floor. Guess whose room was below us?" Her brother. Her brother who Kitty had a huge crush on. The memory brought a bitter sweet grin to Illyana's face. Those had been simpler times. Better times.

"Is the character the illustrious chosen one? That's how those go right? Kitty liked them." Kitty liked...all things technology. She'd been a huge nerd really. Waver kind of reminded her of a mix of Kitty and Doug actually, which might contribute to why she had a smidgen of fondness for him. Only a smidgen though! Nothing more certainly.
Waver didn’t react immediately when Illyana appeared. She leaned a bit closer to get a better look before pulling back to give him some space. After all, try as he might she could still tell he'd been startled by her sudden appearance.

Which only brought her more amusement. Amusement she didn't even make a vague attempt to hide from her face. This was precisely why she did things like this after all. As she'd said before, entertainment had to come from somewhere here, right? Today he had proven to be precisely the entertainment she'd been looking for. Ah, he really did never disappoint in that regard did he?

"You're welcome for introducing you to it! Seems like it's something you really need. How long have you been playing that for?" Clearly long enough to forget what a brush was. Or going outside.

[ask_whydunit]

“And that is why I don’t miss living in a dorm.” He responded with a light frown. Waver knew what they were like for more reasons than working at a school. He’d lived in the Clock Tower dorm for a few years between his enrollment there and the whole Grail War thing. “Not that anyone could phase through walls, at least.” He clarified, just so she didn’t get the vague idea that people popping in via teleporting or phasing were something people were used to where he was from. After all, that would make his being startled seem silly now. He didn’t like feeling sillier than he already did for letting her startle him in the first place. “If I’m supposed to actually guess who was in the room below, I would say someone one of you would have been embarrassed for that to happen in front of?”

Carefully scooping the gameboy back up with his free hand, he saves the game and shuts the machine down to set on the coffee table in front of the sofa. “Yeah, more or less. Last descendant of an order of knights.” He responded carefully. There is a slight rise of his brow as he tries to figure out if Illyana is actually interested or just making conversation. Generally, people were doing the latter and would sigh if he went on for too long, aside from his student Flat who was genuinely interested in games. Although the teen had weird ideas about what games the professor liked.

Finally, the man begins to try to tug the brush through his unruly hair while pointedly ignoring the amused expression on her face. “Truly a marvel. What a shame that I can’t bring it back to my world.” He responded, snagging on a tangle and frowning, vaguely regretting letting it get this bad again. Honestly, if keeping his hair like this wasn’t a useful trick when necessary, he probably would’ve decided he didn’t have the patience for it long ago.

Her question gets an awkward hum. “I don’t know, depends.” Like on what day it was now, oof. “A while, I guess, between stages on a project.” Waver ended with a casual shrug that, hopefully, would be enough to seem confident in his knowledge of the passage of time. Pressing on, and managing to slowly look less like a feral creature, he added. “That aside, to what do I owe this surprise visit?”

[soulsword]

"I dunno, it had it's own charms." Which was about as close as he might get to her saying she sometimes missed it. "It was definitely leagues better than Limbo." Even now under her rule Limbo wasn't exactly a great place to live. "You got it! It as my brother, who she had a massive crush on." Should Illyana have thought it was hilarious? No. Did that change that she did? Also no.

"Must be fun if you get lost in it this easily. Or you just really like to pretend to be a knight." Could be either. "I could make you one if you want." Since she was a ruler. That's how that worked right? Knight of Limbo, a true goal for everyone to strive towards.

"You'd make a fortune if you could. Maybe enough to pay off your debts." Maybe not though. At least she did listen to him now and then though. "You must go through a lot of conditioner." Clearly the important things here. Only the important things to comment on. The look on her face as she watches his hair get snagged could only be defined as the amusement a child gets when their prank succeeds. The best part was she hadn't needed to do anything for this prank at all, his hair was doing it for him.

"Right. To business then," she gave him a smile, still leaning on his couch like she belonged here. "The Snowman that attacked me showed me some sort of memory of it's time at the Academy."

[ask_whydunit]

“Hm… Depends on the person, I think.” It sounded like she had friends there during that time. None of the complications with Kitty and her brother that she had spoken of at the ball. So better times, perhaps. His own experience had been a bit spotty, given ‘Waver the Failure’ was a favourite title for his classmates to throw at him back then when they decided to gang up on him.

Though he supposed there were at least one or two people who weren’t terrible, and maybe Illyana’s story reminded him of that a little. “Was never fond of people barging into my space.” Some things never changed. “But… I guess some people aren’t always bad to have around.” He at least conceded that much. Camus and Melvin (as much as the second annoyed him), were at least nice enough. Sometimes he wondered what Camus was up to, and if she still had that camera of hers. Melvin was someone he didn’t have to wonder about. His self-proclaimed best friend still interrupted his day frequently.

“I wouldn’t play if I didn’t enjoy it, so yeah. It’s a fun way to relax, and sometimes the stories are compelling.” He added, even if it was probably a little of both of her guesses in some small way. The games with character customization were something he spent an excessive amount of time fussing about with on his computer back in his world. Continuing to tug the brush through his hair, he rolled his eyes at the mock offer. “As generous an offer as that is, your highness, I’m afraid I’ll have to pass.” His tone was sarcastic, but it was also kind of true. He was already the sworn retainer to someone else, for all that he didn’t talk about that.

Waver shook his head a little, a small huff escaping at the conditioner comment. “You wouldn’t be wrong.” Then again, it normally didn’t get this bad. Gray usually fussed at him about his hair to keep ahead of it, if not forcibly taking matters into her own hands. He happened to catch the amused smile on his current company’s face, though, and made a disgruntled sound. Clearly someone was at least having fun- but then Illyana got ‘to business’ and Waver’s attention shifted to focus with a thinly concealed concern. “You got attacked by one of those things?” Shit… He really had missed a lot. “I take it that with you being here now and seeing something like that means you came out on top.” Can Waver ask if someone’s okay without feeling awkward? No, so he goes about it in a stupid roundabout way that doesn’t sound like he is.

A memory concerning the Academy was intriguing. He couldn’t deny that much as he reached over to the table to grab a hair tie. “What did it show you?”

[soulsword]

Despite the complications that had come both with being mutants and with her time in Limbo, she had actually had good friends. "You get used to it to some degree. Or maybe we just all got used to each other. Our group was particularly...close." Being the first group of young mutants to form a team they'd had their own unique bonds that none of the other groups had quite compared to. In a lot of ways people could probably call them a little clique. Even when she'd come back they'd all been quick to jump to her defense even when they really shouldn't have. Much to the chagrin of the new set of younger mutants.

It was a comradery she would admit, at least to herself, that she missed it.

"Plenty of people do things they don't want to," she shrugged but got his point. She just happened to find herself to be someone who dramatically enjoyed being difficult. "Ill remember that you shunned my offer." Illyana will remember this moment. For a long time. Probably not actually.

"Yup, while you were refusing to engage in personal hyenine and getting lost in games, I had my memories stolen by a possessed snowman that wanted to take my energy to get a new body." Some people got to relax while others were tortured by this place. Completely unfair. Though she did catch a certain degree of...concern for her. She leaned her head to one side dramatically. "Is that concern I see? Well, you're right. I, of course," she dramatically put a hand to her chest. "came out on top of a snowman." Ignore that it weakened her, she'd needed help regaining her strength, and then she had to find it again. Just ignore that. He had no way of knowing.

"Something about a Council of One that studied scientific arts and magical theory at the Academy. Evidently that weird creature that's spoken to us before was a part of it. They were all arguing about a 'preposterous'" she made air-quotes, "suggestion someone was making. Someone with a hooded cloak suggested that their plan was the only way to understand the cycles of the Voidcryst. The snowman suggested that it could set off a chain reaction that destroyed the Academy or worse." She paused for a second. "I assume it actually did cause the Academy's destruction and worse because that thing was there and it spoke. She suggested that they could all come to some sort of understanding. That was where the memory ended."

[ask_whydunit]

“Sometimes circumstances and being in the same place does that, I suppose.” He responded with a thoughtful glance at Illyana. Her group sounded very close knit for specific reasons, based on what she said about mutants before. “I think that’s good, though, for one to forge bonds and be able to rely on each other a little more.” He admits with an earnest tone, he’d seen what could happen when people teamed together and supported each other towards a goal and it was better than someone struggling on their own if they didn’t have to. It was something he tried to encourage among his students, that they were stronger together regardless of the usual expectations.

“I’ve watched my students get fairly close. Well, eventually anyway. They all seem to have learned to work together well enough, even with their differences as well.” Even Caules, who was quite new to all of this, had been adopted fairly quickly by the group. Not everyone saw it as a good thing, though. The power balance at the clock tower was already a constant struggle. While Waver had no interest in being caught up in the politics more than he had to as a temporary lord, it would be stupid for the others to not see the threat he and his students posed if they ever got ambitious. “Of course, they don’t have the sense god gave geese most of the time, but I’m hoping that’ll come with experience.” He ended on a small performative gripe. He couldn’t sound too fond for once, could he?

“I wasn’t doing just that! There were also projects I’ve needed to give my attention to!” He snapped with that grouchy tone back in his voice and he pulled the brush through his hair a little too forcefully. Ouch. Bad move. He was his own worst enemy, really. That her memories had been stolen was an alarming idea, though, which made him more than a little sorry that he hadn’t really been going out at the time. Sure, he probably couldn’t have helped with any of that, but the thought counted for something. As she poked attention at his obviously poor attempt at concealing his concern, there was an embarrassed flush to his cheeks. “Just making sure I have the facts straight.” He lied with a grumble, “And of course you did, I’ve seen how capable you can be.” and hoped the relief at her confirmation that she’d bested the damn thing wasn’t too evident in his expression. It was there, though. He was glad she was okay. He just felt terribly awkward admitting things like that.

He blundered on, focused on the contents of what she’d seen. “So a council trying to make an important decision they couldn’t agree on. Sounds bloody familiar, if I’m being honest.” Standard council meeting, though it sounded a little closer to the ‘Grand Roll’ held very rarely in his world where the really important decisions were voted on. “Seems like you probably saw one of the last meetings before it all went up in smoke.” Quite literally, perhaps. Setting the brush down and pulling his hair back to tie it in place, he rested his chin in his palm. “Aside from our friend from the network, did anything else stand out to you? Were the other familiar voices or sights at all?” If she was present at the council meeting, it seemed like the headmaster would be given she'd said she worked with him.

[soulsword]

"Until something goes wrong," she shrugged but didn't offer anything more than that. Some of the hardest things she'd experienced outside of Limbo had been the lost of some of that team. They'd all been young and they'd never expected that one of them could be murdered, least of all right in front of them. Looking back at it, that was pretty dumb of them. After all they were being trained as soldiers, trained to fight in a way for their kind. Now that she understood war she knew death was inevitable. They never should have been treated like that. Used like that. That was neither here nor there though.

"At least they managed to get over their differences. Hasn't always happened." Even for her lot there were some differences that were too big for people to get over. That's what had created the divides between teams and sometimes even within them "Sometimes they get too close though, then there's all sorts of drama." She rolled her eyes overdramatically there, clearly trying to lighten the mood away from a topic she wasn't too interested in looking at more closely. "All of our teams are notorious for relationship drama." Nonstop relationship drama. Luckily she'd always avoided all of that personally. Not that she didn't have to face the repercussions of the drama from others though. "Age doesn't always bring wisdom. I've met some immortals that were dumber than an imp." Which said a lot. But hey, maybe his students will gain intelligent rather than lose it as they grew up.

"Oh? What's the project? Must be big and important." The smug look on her face said the reaction was clearly enjoyable and she was now poking the bear to get more. Maybe if she didn't at least vaguely like him she'd try to hide her amused look but she did, so she let herself wear it so he'd see her teasing as it was. Only vaguely malicious.

"Of course, just the facts." It was evident enough for her to look even more smug. He'd increased her smugness level by at least 10 in a few minutes alone. It was pretty impressive. "Doesn't it? I don't know what councils are for other than to not agree on anything." Even hell councils seemed to be like that. "Not particularly. The one was obviously the snowman. I wanted to ask him more about it, for details on who else was there but..." But...she'd gotten pissed off about what he'd taken from her and killed him. "Maybe I could resummon his spirit..." Probably not the most ethical thought to have since the poor guy had already been summoned once and into a snowman of all things. But Illyana had lost ethics a long time ago.

[ask_whydunit]

Things always had a way of going wrong, even with the best laid plans or most organized team. Waver hadn’t lost any of his students… Not yet, and he wouldn’t if he had a say in it. Didn’t mean there hadn’t been casualties through the progress of his cases outside the classroom. So he gets that, and he isn’t about to drag that unpleasantness to the surface when neither of them is inclined to get into something that would undoubtedly be emotional in nature. It was safer that way; he thinks. “No, I’m lucky in the case of a few… One still gets on the other’s nerves, but they usually put it aside.” At least they do when Waver intervenes and tells them in his best Mom voice authoritative tone to calm down and focus… The professor winces uncomfortably at the mention of relationship drama. “My lot is surprisingly lacking in that at the moment… Mostly…” There are two situations in his class that make things awkward and he either hasn’t figured out what to do, or his hands are tied and he can’t do anything. He wouldn’t call them relationship drama exactly, but they were near enough…

“If age and experience don’t, then I’m going to have a lot more work to do than I already do.” He responds with a small, tired sigh. The very idea that Flat Escardos might never gain an ounce of common sense is as believable as it is frightening… Waver doesn’t want to think about it, because he’d feel irresponsible graduating the kid out of his class before he did…

The question gets a slight rise of his brow, folding his arms slightly. “Depends on your definition of important.” For him, it was. For other people who had real power, or of better health, it might seem like nothing. “Trying to reverse engineer something I used to get from another department for one. Then there are a few ideas I’ve been working on to use around here since it’s clear this place is a little more chaotic in ways I’m not prepared for without help.” Seriously, he’s not good at combative magic. If he gets caught alone, he’s screwed. So he’d been trying to develop a few new tricks to keep on him in case that his mystic code wasn’t enough. It’s like the old days, when he was travelling before he became a teacher.

If her smugness had powered up by ten levels, his sourpuss frown had also increased about the same as he watched that smug expression on her face increase. He refuses to admit to anything, keep being smug! It affects him not! Actually it does, he’s so easy… “That’s what it feels like getting stuck in one, pretending they’re going to come to an agreement while politely sniping back and forth at each other.” He always felt so exhausted after a meeting. Reines attended more often these days, given she was older now, but that didn’t mean it ever got easier to sit there and listen to the lot of assholes. He lets that go, though, for the sake of the point of the conversation. So no familiar voices aside from the being from the network, and the snowman in question was very dead. The latter part wasn’t surprising, really…

If she expected him to question the ethics of summoning the dead, though, she would be surprised. Waver had technically been a student of the spiritual evocation department before everything happened… And he was on good terms with a necromancer to boot. So while he didn’t have the kind of power that could do something like that on his own (the grail and ley lines had done a lot of the work during the grail summoning), he didn’t doubt it could be done here if someone did the magical heavy lifting. “You might be able to, depending on a few things. Probably wouldn’t be easy since it’s body was ice and snow, and it was dead once before.” Usually someone would be brought in to call back the spirit of the recently deceased in the event that there was a mysterious death, but if something tampered with the connection or soul itself they’d get nothing.

[soulsword]

There was something relieving about the fact that he didn't try to go into it. There was no denying the fact that all of the New Mutants (and mutant students in general) needed to talk about the issues they had with death. There was also no denying the fact that few of them actually wanted to. It was a lot to process and processing things like that meant talking about feelings and problems and nobody wanted that one. Certainly not her. "Oh we always get on each other's nerves, but we manage to get over it eventually. Sometimes with a fight." Or with her just teleporting away in a tantrum. Not that she'd admit it was a tantrum. "I'm jealous. We could deal with less relationship drama."

She chuckled. "At least you won't be bored." That was her vague attempt at being slightly positive. Which was a twist for her, she wasn't usually positive.

"Something? How vague." Vague certainly made her extremely curious about what he might need here. Particularly what he might actually need. "Trying to learn some offensive spells?" That was all she could think of that he meant. Though it definitely also made her curious what he might be trying to do. He did have a point though that he clearly needed something to help him out a bit here and there.

Oh, his expression of sourness was worth absolutely everything here. Everything. This was by far worth everything. "I'm touched to know you care though." She had to throw one final thing back out there about it. It was too impossible to pass up. "That's a pretty good description of all council meetings." One thing to be grateful for here was the lack of having to participate in anything like that.

Her eyes widened ever so slightly with both curiosity and perhaps a strange bit of...excitement. "So, you know something about necromancy and contacting the dead? Good. Then maybe we could go about doing it together with it?" Work together to try to summon said dead spirit. "I wasn't entirely sure what could be used to connect to him though." Was she asking him for suggestions? Maybe...

[ask_whydunit]

“I try to avoid them fighting if I can help it, especially in the classroom.” It happened, though, and then other students would intervene for him, since he could do next to nothing to deal with two warring mage students. The helpful ones got extra credit or tutoring, though! So it wasn’t like they went without a reward for the good deed! “I’d offer advice, but I’m not particularly skilled when it comes to those things.” He offered back dryly with a shrug. “And sometimes I’m surprised it’s not worse, myself.” The follow up look he gave Illyana at her comment about boredom was one of utter exhaustion. “I haven’t been bored once in the last ten or so years. I would welcome boring.” And yet he continued to be a teacher, which was one of the few decisions he’d made in his life himself after returning to the clock tower… So that was his own fault, really.

Though not all his ‘excitement’ was generated by the classroom, either.

“Vague responses generally indicate the answer is of a personal nature.” He responded just as vaguely. It’s not some grand, mysterious thing, of course. Waver’s just being difficult for the sake of being difficult, even if he could always use help here and there. “Offensive? Hardly. I know one cursed shot and it’s better at pissing things off or slowing them down a bit from the sting than anything. If I relied on offensive magics, I’d have died a long time ago. It’s more like some tricks and the like that I can use to distract or confuse to get out of reach if I’m in a bad spot.”

The final words thrown back at him about caring gets a very awkward huff, attempting to maintain some semblance of ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ Waver gets to his feet and just starts rummaging around his materials and supplies for things that might be useful if they were going to do the whole ‘raising the souls of the dead’ thing. He does respond to her second comment, but it sounds grumbly. “Been to enough meetings to have a pretty good idea of how they should be described.”

He does glance over his shoulder at her tone, seeing the odd mixture of curiosity and excitement on her face. “You could say that. I have something of a history with dealing with summoned spirits of the dead…” He shrugged slightly. That was… very different from this, but that experience and his educational background at least gave him the knowledge. “So we could try. Can’t say if it will work or not.” The way she put the suggested team up sounded like some kind of bonding experience, but maybe this was how people like the two of them bonded? Probably, actually, considering how he met most of his closer acquaintances friends. But at least this was fairly harmless. The dead couldn’t really hurt you… Unless they had an anchor that gave them physical forms or were strong enough to effect the physical world or possess someone.

“That’s the big challenge, finding something that’s tied to them strong enough to act as a catalyst to call on the soul. Would I be correct in guessing that the snowman’s defeat involved total annihilation?” Part of a body would be the best bet, something that might still have their essence... They didn’t have a name so they can’t exactly go grave robbing. Which he would be slightly against, if only because he wasn’t keen on having to dig up a body (physical activities were horrid)… Or get arrested by city guard for doing so.

[soulsword]

“We were a combat school," she shrugged. "Trained for war." The war on them. Were someone to think too much on it, the entire school was pretty shit to begin with. It was there to train an army not to train kids to learn to function with their powers. His school sounded infinitely better and more structured. It sounded like an actual school, not just a place called a school that was really just a training ground. A tiny part of her almost wished she could have gone to a place more like that. "Neither am I. Never had one. A relationship." Never really been that overly interested either. Even her complicated feelings here for someone were just that, complicated feelings that she didn't completely understand and mostly just stumbled around with.

"You'll get boring when you're dead. Unless you're reanimated." Then he still wouldn't get peace or boring. You never really could tell, huh?

"Or that it's something sinister someone doesn't want others to find out," she added with a dramatic tilt to her tone. She always had to at least give him credit, and respect, his bluntness when it came to his own offensive abilities. A lot of people would just keep on pushing forward and trying and failing to learn to be offensive rather than trying to adapt. "Smart. You'll have to show me sometime."

The rarest of rarities: almost a compliment.

"Something of a history is better than zero." It was a start at least. "Yup. Nothing was left, not even a tiny coal eye. But if he was someone who spent a lot of time here maybe there's residual energy of him around?" That seemed like a long shot but she wasn't entirely sure. "I wish I had a name. That'd be more useful and more powerful." Names were always power.

[ask_whydunit]

“Ah, that would make sense. While mages do fight, and there are a few departments more specialized in that at the Clock Tower, they’re a quieter thing... Usually just between the mages pissed off at each other. If one doesn’t hire a mercenary to assassinate the other for them, anyway.” He shrugged, mercenary’s willing to take out other mages made decent money from what he knew. Though there were exceptions. “Except the ones who like to make a show of their power, then they don’t care how loud they get in another mage’s territory.” Like Galliasta, the pompous ass. Waver’s students had ended up getting mixed up in that one, and the fight following it. Though he’d also told the kids to not, he’d brought them to help with investigating not a battle between mages. But then they’d gone and done the opposite from the start… Not the first or last time, really.

“That makes two of us, then.” He responded with a shrug. He had too much to do, too much to focus on, goals that needed his attention... So he turned down interested parties more often than not. At least those were his usual excuses. So… yeah, Waver wasn’t the kind of person to expect good relationship advice from. The idea that he might get reanimated does get a roll of his eyes, but he’s oddly quiet on that subject.

“As if I have the inclination to put the effort into something like that.” He huffed at her dramatic tone. “It’s just some medication the botany department developed for me. They don’t give you the formulas to make it though, and well…” He’s stuck here, so it’s not like he can just go and get more. So he’d saved a sample from the bottle and been trying to reverse engineer it. He feels a little awkward about admitting it, but he doesn’t need people going around thinking he’s going to curse or poison the city for something stupid. The rare, almost compliment gets an even more awkward expression as he glanced over his shoulder with a questioning rise of his brow. “Thanks… I’m sure in a world like this it’ll happen at some point.”

His tone is resigned, “I figured as much. We’ll have to figure something else out without a body or a name.” He leaned against his counter, setting a few things aside and let his fingers drum thoughtfully against the surface. “The residual energy around the academy, hm?” That might be the best they got to work with, though they ran the risk of calling up a different soul attached to the place without something to narrow it down... Then he had a thought. “Do you think you’d recognize the room the council was held in if we found it?” Places where those were held tended to be reserved for those people. They might be able to narrow down what they got if they started there.

[soulsword]

"Humans don't give us much of a choice. Some have even attacked our schools before." Which said a lot more about them than it did the mutants in Illyana's opinion. Sure there were plenty of bad mutants, but that was the same for any person, wasn't it? In the end it was individuals that could be good or bad, not entire groups. After so much bad blood though it was hard for her to not have at least a tiny bias towards assuming humans would inevitably suck though. "Mages in your world really are just the demons of mine." The entire comparison really managed to be both funny and depressing at the same time. Then again, a lot of mages in her world ended up becoming demonic. "You really can't give humans power, can you?"

She rolled her shoulders in a shrug. "Who needs them anyway?" Not her that's for sure. "More trouble than they're worth. I've seen the stupid things my friends do because of them." Maybe that was her convincing herself that she didn't care that she didn't always quite get it. Maybe.

"What's this medicine for?" Her eyebrow shot upwards for a second at that. Was that concern? It could have been. She'd more than likely do exactly what he'd done and insist it wasn't. He was just imagining things, she wasn't concerned at all. The only thing she was concerned with was finding out what was wrong with him. That was it.

"What can I say, I'm thorough." And maybe she has something of a bad temper here and there. Ah, her eyes widened and she nodded. "Yeah, pretty sure I could if it's still here and at least somewhat in tact." That was a surprisingly good suggestion to go with. Well, at least she hadn't been completely wrong in thinking he was a good person to come to about this.

[ask_whydunit]

“I can’t deny that’s not a bad description.” He responded with a shrug of his shoulders. It was well established that they would sooner let go of their humanity for their craft than retain it. Not with how they treated the world and the pursuit of of their goals. He wasn’t sure he’d describe his kids like that, at least. They were all bright and forward thinking teenagers. He liked to think that they’d turn things in a better direction, secretly to himself. They’d all gone through a hell of a lot to get where they were, either by their family’s hand or the way the world had treated them, and they were still very earnest and noble in their own ways. Then again, his class was a very different environment from others. It was (as Svin described) a safe haven to learn and grow. Something Waver should be proud of himself for, if he bothered to realize it.

Waver hummed absentmindedly, “People put a lot of priority on it when there are plenty of other things in life one can be focusing on. Makes even the smartest person a damn fool.” He mumbled with a frown before shrugging. “But some people can make it work, I suppose… Just not everyone, and there are a lot of different kinds of love, so it’s not as though one lives without some form of it simply because they aren’t in a relationship.”

Frankly, he’d hoped that would be the end of her line of questioning. Most mages were keen to drop a person the minute they found out they had some form of ailment or weakness. Waver wasn’t that bad off as some people (like Melvin), but magecraft could be hard on the body and didn’t help with aggravating other conditions. “It’s for my stomach, been like this since I was a teenager. Not about to kill me or anything, but your concern is noted.” He added with a shrug and a curious expression at the slight concern he detected. It’s… Weird, okay. Reines usually jokes about having his stomach removed and replaced by some kind of entity, so he’d stop complaining about the pain and nausea he got all the time.

To be fair, Waver doesn’t have the greatest temper either. In her position, if he had the power? As much as he’d like to think otherwise, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have been thorough either if someone had taken an important memory from him. Illyana’s confirmation gets a nod, though, as he finally grabs a bag to put a few supplies in. “Then I think we have a rough plan, then. At least one worth trying… My recommendation is we do this sooner than later.”

[soulsword]

"Depressing to think about." But the truth was often very depressing. Not that she entirely minded. It was interesting in a way to think of just how similar their magical society was, at least in terms of the underlying nature of the people who used said magic.

Her expression took a slightly softer turn with his next statement. An uncharacteristically soft turn actually. "True enough. Like my brother." She loved him and he loved her. It wasn't an entirely healthy love, a part of her knew that, but she also missed him and did know that it was one of the only real loves she actually desired. Or at least it was the main one. There were some other more complicated thoughts and feelings around somewhere, but she tried very hard to ignore those.

"I wasn't concerned." Yes she was. "I've never been good with white magic but..." She let it linger there, an unspoken offer that if he wanted to tell her more maybe she could help him out. There was also another clear point to just letting it linger: he didn't want to talk about it. The depth of things she too didn't want to talk about was extensive enough that she could try to respect this at least.

She nodded. "Alright, then lets get going. Maybe we could just wander around until something looks familiar?" Seemed like a long shot, but it also seemed like about all they had.

[ask_whydunit]

It was definitely an uncharacteristic tone, one that wouldn’t easily be expected… But if Waver had learned one thing since he’d met Illyana, it was that her brother was important to her. That much, regardless of the complications in her life, seemed to be an immovable fact. “Exactly. The love of a family member is a different kind of love, but love nonethless.” So his point stands, even without the presence of a romantic relationship, people don’t necessarily live without some form of love. There was nothing wrong with not being in one, and plenty of people had reasons to not be.

“Must have been seeing things, then.” He responded with a little skeptical tone at her denial. The tables they turned… Which meant that it would eventually come around to him again. Both of them could probably stand to get better at these kinds of things, really. For a moment, her follow up comment gets silence in return. The man glancing back over his shoulder again with a complicated expression. The offer was, admittedly, a surprise. It would be a lie to say he didn’t need help with this, if he were back in his world and somehow stopped having access to his medication he’d probably get Flat to help him with the process… Because mucking about in the medical side of magecraft and making a mistake was a damn good way to cause a ghoul outbreak with yourself as patient zero. Finally he looked back at the bag he’d finished fussing with. “Maybe I could get you to look at what I’ve got sometime…” An uncertain maybe was better than a solid no, and about as much as he was comfortable with at the moment.

Waver was keen to move forward, focusing on something else. Something that seemed more important at the moment, because there was nothing more important to answers in this weird world they’d found themselves stuck in. At least he thinks so, given how puzzling everything was. “That’s about the most we can do, if you haven’t seen the room in question already. I’m guessing it’ll be harder to access, not something anyone could just walk into. So we can eliminate rooms near any of the classrooms. Maybe something closer to any private offices… Or something sublevel.” He made a face, slipping the bag over his shoulder after slipping his jacket on. This was going to be a lot of walking between getting to the school and the search itself… Sometimes he missed his car.