Practically a Beach Party

Tauri and Lucius walked up a quieter street in New York one day. It was a bit farther from "her" park than the mages usually tended to stray for conveniency's sake, but seeing as it was Lucius who was ultimately leading the excursion there was no doubt that he was planning something. Honestly he was just sick and tired of that Jeremy punk's borderline abusive way of forcing the girl into being a magician "helping" the poor blonde Mage discover her powers. Lucius, out of both pity and partially spite, was planning a very different approach; one he found much more effective. His mentor had helped him in a very similar way, and he had a feeling she would have done the same for the girl.

Tauri was feeling a little awkward due to the situation she was currently in. Jeremy had asked her about hanging out earlier (which she knew probably had something to do with either magic or going to the mall to pick up chicks) while Iruu, the energetic girl from the meeting who had just recently began attending Carlisle Academy's grade school program, had been introducing Tauri to this confounding younger mage named Lucius.

Lucius was apparently her age, but Tauri had a lot of problems believing it. He looked to be more like Iruu's age, and considering that they shared a surname Tauri had originally they were like cousins or something. She had been seriously shocked by his speech and mannerisms, though, which were far beyond the teenager age group and well into the "mature adult" group. She didn't know too much else about Lucius beyond that; they had only really chatted briefly. She felt kind of unnerved around him.

Tauri hadn't even had a chance to respond to that text from Jeremy yet, though, because towards the end of the introduction Lucius mentioned coffee and offered to bring Tauri along with him as some form of welcoming gesture. Honestly coffee just sounded so good to Tauri at that point, plus she figured it would give her a chance to get to hang out with another Mage besides Jeremy. Perhaps that would make him happy? She was still pretty uncomfortable, but she politely fought it back. Lucius had agreed to answer a few questions for her on the trip to the shop so that was also a bonus.

"If you don't mind me asking..." Tauri began to asking, breaking a mild awkward silence, "...Why do you and Iruu share a last name?"

"Ah, yes; I forgot," Lucius began in reply. "You see, I mentored under her older sister, also a mage. At the time that she took me on as her pupil, I had no family or relatives or home to speak of, so out of respect and gratitude I took on her last name.Very soon, though, I felt more like a part of her unorthodox yet close family than I had ever expected to..."

"Oh wow... that's not a story I was expecting..." Tauri mused in response. "Thank you for sharing!" she added to be considerate of how personal the information was.

"Oh, of course. I'm sorry for not explaining sooner." Lucius replied. The corners of his mouth fondly turned up into a hint of a sad little smile. "I honestly think it's a true shame my mentor isn't around right now; she might have helped you the most out of all of us..." he chuckled. "She could have at least handled that Jeremy brat, another more unfortunate torch that has seemingly fallen to you." Lucius suddenly became aware they were nearing the shop he had had in mind.

"You too, huh..." Tauri giggled sheepishly in response to Lucius's distaste for Jeremy. "But you know, I think both Jeremy and Iruu said something similar to what you said about your mentor... Were you three maybe about the same person?"

"Indeed." Lucius nodded in affirmation. He paused a moment to watch for a break in traffic that was sufficient enough to warrant safe passage across the street.

(Ooc: Breif summary of what's gone on so far: Jeremy dragged Tauri to the first organized gathering of mages (Claudia, Iruu, Aaron) since approximently Mia's death. The mages have mostly been laying low/in hiding in order to catch a break from the gale menace, and now that they've practically ceased appearing everyone's decided it's a good idea to start regrouping rather than push their luck. During this first meeting, a comet appears during the day that causes Tauri's powers to unconsciously start spiking randomly and become somewhat volatile, which leads to Wolf appearing at the meeting. He officially confirms Tauri's element to be Radiation, but the question of exactly what kind of Mage she is remains unanswered. Signs point to manipulator, but it's unconfirmed and something is bothering both Wolf and Lucius, who appears in the next chapter. That's the basic summary of chapters 1 and 2 X'D

Chapter three is basically Aim's first appearance, but not much of that is relevant currently. If it becomes relevant, I'll fill you in on the basics that I've come up with X'D)