abraxaslogs | Now that you're actually not cool, I kinda like you better. (Open/Closed)

There's immediate laughter from Claude at that description of Garreg Mach, if not only because Abby's description formed after their visit at the very place in the Horizon is entirely apt and because it's a thought he'd had as a student plenty of times. "Hey, you're not going to get any arguments from me on what it was like. Fortunately, weird church-cult is likely to be something of the past since back home it's being rebuilt with new everything behind it."

If he sounds unfazed, it's because he is entirely. There's a lot of improvements to be made to the Academy, but having Teach behind them certainly helps. New directions all around, and all that.

The far more important part of that is that Abby doesn't plan on stopping in figuring out her magic, whether that's what she knows or adding wind spells to it after all, so he nods as he reaches for the door to hold it open for her. Only to furrow his brow briefly a second later in thought as he absorbs that last statement, because: "I- okay, you can't just say something like that and then expect me to not ask about how you'll be disappearing but you'll still be here. That's a little different than the Warp spell I know from home."

Abby rolled her eyes as she walked past him into the tea house... and she didn't vanish, exactly. Certainly anyone who looked up to the sound of the door opening was looking at Claude, not her. If Claude isn't paying attention, which is unlikely, he won't even see anyone move past him. Otherwise it's definitely shaped like a person... but determining anything about them is just about impossible. Hair color- do they have hair? Maybe. Probably has skin, but who can say what tone it is. Or their exact height. Certainly has to be wearing clothes.

But the cut? The style? How it fits? What color is it? Not something that can be told. They weave a zig zagging path through the tea house to a small empty table in the corner, weaving path making it even harder to keep track of them, especially as the cross paths with other patrons and servers.

Only for Abby to fall into one of the chairs entirely normal like she didn't just do something really fucking weird in broad daylight for the second time. With an ever so smug look on her face as she draws her legs up into the chair with her. Then waves at Claude.

Claude walks through the entry, though he means to keep Abby in the corner of his gaze the whole time after that somewhat foreboding statement, there's something - not quite right that happens.

Mostly in that when he turns to glance her way, she really isn't there. But when he looks back forward, she is. Or she's there enough he can kind of, sort of recognize there's someone there he should know but can't quite from this partial sight alone. Standing in the doorway for even this brief pause has someone behind him waiting to enter loudly clearing their throat, so Claude takes the hint and steps inside.

Only for in that same instant Abby to appear at a table as he pauses again, though this time with a large grin as he catches sight of her properly this time and heads towards the table when she waves.

"I don't know what I expected, but that was far better than whatever I'd imagined." A truth as he pulls out a chair to be seated, then hands her a menu placard before looking at the remaining one. "Something you also learned from studying magic?"

She's looking oh so pleased with herself and her antics and please don't feed her with praise, it'll just encourage more of this.

"The Singularity gave me that one. The power to be not worth noticing. My magic isn't that good." She's not sure where to begin with magic to create that. She isn't invisible, and she isn't sure how to visualize that. Too many chances it might just transform her into a weird transparent plastic human model with visible organs and shit. Cool but not a good look for having a dating life. "It isn't foolproof, and I have to be careful with it. As it works best when nobody knows what I can do."

"Besides, I thought it was my magic we'd be talking about. Not how I planned to ditch you if the law showed up." Abby just because that was your plan you don't have to say it like that.

"Ah, one of those things none of us had before coming here. I have one of those." That makes sense, and while Claude's been pretty pleased with it - saying it comes being anywhere near as useful as what Abby's just shown him wouldn't be accurate. There's a lot of ways to use that even if she claims it'd be to get away from him to let him take the blame for whatever'd happened which gets a snort of amusement from him.

"Look, it's always good to have an escape plan. Even better now that you've told me about it beyond just saying it'd be fine if you disappeared, considering if things had gone wrong that would've been more than a little concerning." The menu in his hands ends up being more of something for him to tap his fingers against than anything to consider in terms of what to order while he thinks about that. "I've talked to a few others who also found they had powers, abilities, whatever you want to call them that wouldn't have been possible at home.

"But alright, since it's not part of you've learned then we can focus on your magic instead. How long have you been studying with Julie?"

"Magic also is a new thing that I only have here, but that's a lot more- everywhere, in a city full of magic robots to sew dresses and wipe peoples asses." She assumes on that second one, she wouldn't be surprised. This was what they were here for, that and food. She'll use the menu to buy herself some time. Explaining herself is a lot of shit and some of it is stuff that isn't totally okay to say in public.

"It's been about two months? I practice harmless shit here, in my room or at Julie's. And dangerous magics on the Horizon." Abby decides to omit that her magic is wild, in public, right now. She figures it doesn't matter enough to make mention of here. She can tell him later. "She says the weird shit about my magic is- like, a mental block? But I dunno, fixing my head isn't really possible. I can't just- conjure things, it always comes out of something I touch? I think about what I want, gather that power, and it'll happen once I put my hand on something."

The other weird thing wasn't so weird, movement helped her focus. She never studied or did anything sitting perfectly still. She ran around, tapped, fiddled, and moved.

As he listens, Claude idly props his jaw on a fist while leaning that elbow against the table, mostly pretending to look at the menu as he listens to her explanations. Coming from somewhere without magic before here is something he's heard from other Summoned, and he feels like he vaguely remembers Julie saying as much about her world from their talk so long ago that'd left an impression both for its explanation of Abraxas and the difference in worlds.

"The Horizon's useful for that, what with being able to just... leave if it gets too chaotic." He's grinning slightly, having caused plenty of said chaos himself in both his domain and the monastery while experimenting with something, which is far preferable to having to deal with any of the reality of whatever mess it might leave behind. Also for not having to clean up any mess on top of the ones he leaves around in his day to day, but he nods slightly.

"Mental blocks happen for the magic learned in Fodlan, too. Some of it's because it's based in theories that can be difficult to understand - the reason I gave up on learning much past what I did - but also because of that visualizing problem in a different way. Conjuring things out of nothing is totally beyond me, so as someone with zero knowledge on that front, needing to draw something out of whatever it is makes complete sense. The same goes for why wind doesn't exactly fit into something like that neatly, considering we can't reach out and grab it unless one of our resident scientists comes up with something for that."

It's only near the end that becomes particularly relevant to Abby, if he had to guess, and there's more he was going to add, but. Hold that thought as a server comes over to their table and he puts in an order then gestures to Abby for hers, since though she might've voiced it before he's not one to order for someone else.

Abby order something as close to a burger as she can get here, with whatever she can get that passes for french fries. It's meat, bread, and potatoes and she'll take it.

"The damage is easier to clean up, and it's easier to just make a giant glass dome to put over a fire. Hypothetically." Which is to say she absolutely starved a fire with a giant airtight sealed glass dome before. Sure there were easier answers, but were there sillier answers? She didn't think so. "I don't like- leave the Horizon on fire after I fuck up."

"I don't know if the wind was that bad because I imagined it wrong, or because of my weird touching stuff thing." See, she could have just pictured a stronger wind than she needed. But it might also just be more wind created out of the side of a merchant stall, than would be created out of the side of a say a coffee table. Just the area it could come out of. "But I have to really feel what I'm doing for it to work at all, that's just how wild magic works."

The patrons at another table defiitely dropped a utensil and started a hushed conversation about leaving. It definitely had nothing to do with the term 'wild magic' and Abby definitely wasn't narrowing a glare over her shoulder at them.

"You could, like as an experiment," is his counteroffer of leaving mild chaos behind to Abby stating she's done no such thing, and he's only half-kidding while putting on a feigned thinking expression to keep from looking too amused. "Or just blink it out of existence, considering I might've done that a time or two with some concoctions I didn't mean to make."

No clarification on what those were (or are) since while he was pretending to be in Deep Thought earlier, now he's actually contemplating the rest of what she's said. It makes sense and especially in extrapolating another world's magic into a known form here.

From the corner of his eye, Claude gazes the alarm at the table over as well as their whispering. It's familiar enough to him, even if it being over magic and likely what they're talking about is a new component, but he doesn't bother sparing a glance at whoever it is or whatever they're doing. "Hey, ignore them," is what he says to Abby with a shrug of one shoulder. "People have that reaction to things they don't understand, and it's their loss."

Among other things, though - and mostly for their own entertainment, Claude does lean forward slightly and with a whisper that's really one at all and plenty of mischief to go with it he adds, "or you could always get some more practice in by clearing their table for them with another go at wind."

"Blink the fire out of existence," Abby holds up one hand, palm up, as if weighing her words, then brings up her other hand. "Dropping the world's largest marshmallow on it?"

Don't give a girl this chaotic the power to reshape reality on her whims, she will pick the silliest answer every time. Her hands shift to the weight clearly being on the fun marshmallow answer.

Which is why she's actually considering clearing the table of those around her, but she's kinda enjoying not being in trouble. And she still isn't sure how easily anyone can get her out of trouble here. This world's rules were still too different from home for her liking, "Nah, I don't know how well I can aim in here, should wait until after we eat."

"See, if you did that, I think you should save it for one of the parties next time someone hosts something in the Horizon. Free desserts then, right? It's practically a service to everyone and a magic experiment all in one at that point."

Or something like that, since he's fairly certain he remembers something involving marshmallows being offered at once of the celebrations. One of said party hosts would know better, but it's an idle thought best left for later.

As is terrifying any of the cafe's patrons, though Claude offers Abby a grin as he sits back up and back in his seat properly. "Further terror and wreaking havoc to come later, noted. If nothing else, you could always practice it by doing the," insert some vague miming here of a tablecloth being yanked out from beneath something, "trick, except with no cloth involved and just the wind with the dishes. Might be the fastest return of them back to the counter this place has ever seen, you know."

Abby honestly can't tell when his suggestions are serious (and a bad idea) or playful (and a great thing to think about). Nobody that clever, so aware of the world at the Fey ball is just a chaotic disaster.

...right?

She is smiling, considering the chaos she could do if she could manage wind that strong and that wide. Shattered plates everywhere. But that question of where the joke ended and actual chaos began kept creeping into her thoughts. It was an annoying itch that she just had to scratch, "Why are you like this?"

In the seconds go by where Abby contemplates this, the server drops off their order to which he offers a thanks, and he's mid-tea preparation when Abby asks an all important question. At that he can't help immediately laughing, even if it gets them a suspicious look from yet another nearby table. Worth it.

"My friends say I have a flair for the dramatic, but I just like keeping things interesting. Maybe in another life I would've been a scientist so I'd have an excuse for it or an outlet for a healthy amount of curiosity."

That's an explanation, right? Or something like one; Claude takes a moment to pour himself a cup of tea, followed by a cautious sip and then a small wince when it's still too hot to appreciate. That's coupled with some time to consider what he'd answered with, too. "Or there's always the standby of an active imagination. Take your pick."

Abby, meanwhile ignores the hot leaf water to attack her food. It made sense, magic was an effort, a personal expenditure of energy. So of course you would get hungry. Like after a dance party, or sincerely trying to do your homework. Abby was also mad enough at the patrons whispering she went out of her way to eat more like a wild animal with no table manners than normal.

And normally she was basically a gremlin pretending she was a girl.

Claude's response, 'answer' and 'explanation' feel like the wrong word for what he just gave, made her think of Max. A bottomless well of energy and drama capable of making sure things were 'interesting.' Which Abby realizes, if you gave Max actual magic there's a solid chance that she'd level a city block because she was too sad, or happy, or bored. And she'd definitely do that if she had someone like Claude to 'offer suggestions.' Which gives Abby a pleasant nostalgic smile (made sillier by all the food in her mouth).

Abby swallows more food than she should have tried to at once, with no real detriment to her, "So you're a theater kid who believes he's very charming, and that he can definitely talk his way out of whatever trouble he gets into?"

"Something like that. Though," with a life of one finger off his mug of tea like he's about to bring up a Very Important point, "if you mean 'believe' in the sense of someone being overly confident and 'definitely' as something like will probably get in over their head without knowing what to do next, I'll have to correct both of those. The whole running a country thing would've been difficult without actually having either skill."

And - this is something Claude knows he excels at from all that time spent studying how exactly people work, what sorts of things would get them to concede he was right or which would push them over a metaphorical edge when agreement wasn't what he wanted. All said matter-of-factly, since on this he doesn't see a reason to hide the truth, and as he takes another sip of tea he follows that up with a shrug.

"Useful for that keeping things interesting I've mentioned since some of that wouldn't have worked out quite so well without the dramatic alongside. I like to think of them as being complementary. But the trick to it is finding one part of that you're good at and working upwards from there - well, that and a lot of practice. No time like the present to start with whatever you think is a good idea, sort of like with magic."

"Yeah, keep trying to wrap my head around that and not seeing it." The hints of a smile at the edge of he mouth make it clear she's being a brat on purpose, teasing because she can see how he can lead a country. But also feels like feeding his ego is the opposite of useful here. Or... feeding his ego isn't the more fun option on hand.

This is what you get for feeding teenagers.

"So the show is as much a part of the plan as anything else?" Abby's question comes off sincere and serious. As she is trying to get her mind around how Claude gets away with being like this. That the dramatics and charm are a part of how he maneuvers through events. "It's like a huge grift, keeping control of what's going on?"

No judgments on if that's good or bad. Just trying to determine what he's playing at.

That merely gets a cheerful grin from him. If only she knew how much people back in Fodlan said the same thing, mostly because he refused to do all of the stuffy nobility things they'd insisted on doing for years. Or so he'd avoided as many of them as he could, anyway, aside from the ones truly required and none of which are (immediately) present here in Abraxas. This is more his speed in every way that sentiment can apply, and his grin just grows wider at her question.

"Something like that. It's helpful for keeping attention where you want it focused and not anywhere else, or to steer a conversation towards where you want it to go. The practice is the important part but it gets easier from there." A moment for him to take another drink of tea before he puts it back down on the table and leans back in his chair again, at ease. "Or it's all sincere and I'm making it up that it's an act. Just depends on what you think about it, really."

With the truth once again somewhere in the middle, but maybe that's a conversation for another time.

Now that you're actually not cool, I kinda like you better. (Open/Closed)

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