video | un: big ben

[slightlytaller]

[Hi, Trench. It's been a while since this display name surfaced on the network. This time, there was accompanying video instead of just text-- And the dour man frowning into the screen, with dark bags under his stormy ocean green eyes and his cheekbones prominent in a manner that suggested recent illness, exuded nothing short of the stony sense of a man that was done with watching the madness of recent weeks.

--Or, perhaps, someone that had actually worried himself sick over the last month. Literally.]

... Not that anyone cares, but watching all these pompous assholes call themselves 'teacher' is making me want to pull my hair out.

[And, look. He had a lot of it. Heaving a sigh, Waver Velvet plucked the wire glasses he had been wearing off and set them aside. Pinching the bridge of his nose as if to ward off a headache-- or collect himself-- he continued.]

Some of you know me. Most of you don't.

That's fine, I'm only here to offer a different option for anyone feeling a tad... unanchored here.

I am Waver Velvet, sometimes called Lord El Melloi II-- but most of the people here just know me as Mackenzie. I'm not a combat instructor, like that trio that really wanted to play out a real-life Tournament Arc a few months ago-- like we were in one of my kids' anime shows. I'm also hardly worth even calling a mage. What I am, however, is someone that is willing to offer tutoring to anyone that feels they need it... In basically any subject matter.

[A shrug. He waved a hand.]

Don't worry about whether or not I'm an expert. One thing I've learned after teaching for the last decade is that no one is. If you need help with something that I don't already know, I'll learn it well enough to help.

--Also, if you need someone to just listen and help you resolve a problem... I can do that, too.

No, I won't ask you to call me Professor, Teacher, or even have you use my title. Just keep calling me Mackenzie, if you wish. I won't ask for payment, either. But, well... if you insist, bring along something to eat. Anything. I don't really care what.

Alternately, feel free to talk about whatever's currently interesting to you.

...I won't arrange 'classes' either. I know that you lot of teenagers are basically free-range, and that's fine. There's probably good reason for you to not trust adults. I know I didn't while I was in school.

[He sighed, satisfied that at least he was able to remove this much of his concerns from his shoulders, and seemed to be signing off before adding:]

Oh. One more thing. Does anyone have an open venue? I have a stack of rhythm and fighting games that I'm willling to share with people needing a distraction-- in a public forum, of course. If enough people are interested, we could work on making something official.

That's all.

Private--- to Palamedes Sextus

Palamedes... When you have a moment and are up to it, I'd like to talk.

Comments

text; un: carmilla

[yandhero]

woooow you're a lord? that's incredible sensei!

[ if she's aware of how inappropriate it is to call waver sensei after acknowledging his lordship - or how odd it is to call him sensei after he specifically said it wasn't necessary - she certainly doesn't acknowledge it. ]

anyway i can vouch for elmelloisensei!
he helped my gf when she was still young and inexperienced in the ways of love...
no nonsense!! straight 2 the point!! excellent rating would work with him again!!

Text

[slightlytaller]

[Oh no.

Oh no...

Waver felt part of his soul wilting, and he broke off video just in time to sate his own Vileblood instinct to Bite with a pencil he had scavenged from the market.

Quickly, he typed:]

Nii-sei. You forgot the II. I've heard my Japanese students use Nii-sei for such things.

If it's simpler: Niisei-sensei?

I'm not Japanese. I fear I don't know the grammar well.

... Is this Miss Himiko?

text; un: warden

[megatheorem]

Go ahead.

text; un: big ben

[slightlytaller]

Something with the powers that be this month has had me not acting as my normal self

That's no excuse

I apologize. Something happened, and I doubt I'll ever know the full story. The whims of gods are dangerous, and this is why I pointedly avoid them.

If there's anything you're needing help with, please feel free to ask.

... If you're willing, I'd like a chance to fix this.

un: ortus | text

[noniad]

[Long time no see, abrasive stranger.]

It seems you profess mastery of no particular skill in any subject.

Text

[slightlytaller]

No one cares about the details of alchemy, history, or logical deduction.

What happened to your stay with the pirates, Sir Bard?

[text] username: secondtolast

[icanhearscreams]

... You're a teacher?

What do you know about zoology?

[slightlytaller]

My omen is a house cat.

What, specifically, do you want to know? I've done my share of dissections and slaughters.

video: UN: 1stStrike

[strikefirster]

Hey fuck face.

I have a problem with you calling out my teaching style in public.

Or disrespecting my tournament.

Or trying to imply you have a big dick with your username.

Because that's real limp dick energy you're putting out there.

My advice. Stop trying to cause a problem if you're actually trying to solve them.

Video

[slightlytaller]

[... This is why he's just so damn Tired. ]

Big Ben is the name of a clock tower in London, [he explained briskly, with all of his cultivated Lordly pomp laid on thick.

Were Johnny more educated, by would be able to hear the roughened, working class edge to his tone, sharp as an old knife primed to give someone a case of tetanus. ]

Also the name of the school I teach in, you ass. Unlike you, I don't need to pit my students against their friends to show off the size of my dick.

[He leaned forward, eyebrow raised. He knew the shadows of the 1980s when he saw them-- even if he was only a child of the era.

In a low, deceptively soft tone, he added:]

Do you really want to embarrass yourself by having a dick waving contest with a pansy of a Brit that admitted to not even being a fighter out in the open like this? In front of your students?

Gosh. You Americans really are desperate for attention.

[He leaned back-- and pointedly sipped his tea.

Go ahead. Toss him and his Yorkshire into Trench Harbor we. He dares you. ]

un: shouto | video

[swellter]

What problem?

not here

[dohaeris]

[ok yeah maybe he is kind of fixated.]

video; un: endless

[manyone]

Hardly worth calling a mage? That must mean you have some talent with magic, mustn't it? Hmm?

[ She heard the one word about magic and is latching onto it, thanks. ]

Video

[slightlytaller]

I teach about the modern applications and theories of magecraft as they can be used in the 21st century.

[A shrug. ]

Practical magic is my particular niche. It's nothing flashy, but it gets the job done.

video; un: A.

[fabrications]

I think your sales pitch needs work.

As for the venue, you might try the Raccoon Room. It's primarily for music but they manager might appreciate something easy for slower days.

video

[slightlytaller]

... I don't have the patience for sales pitches.

[He's just glad he's feeling well enough to do even this much. ]

The Raccoon Room, you say? How do I get in touch with the manager.

Video; UN Lothrat

[ezra_of_lothal]

I guess I'm part of your target demographic, so...thanks for the offer? I'll think about it.[That's mostly sincere.]

For the record, there are other teachers around who don't get off on power trips and showing off. Some of them are even on the formal side. They just also tend towards quiet.

I wouldn't say I'm a teacher, exactly, not yet. I mean, I'm literally a leaner in my own traditions. But I do activities at the orphanage twice a week, unless I'm like, literally dead or something. Guided meditation and informal life skills stuff. Sometimes crafts and games with the younger kids.

Anyone is welcome to drop by, and long as they're non-violent and mostly polite. It'd be Roz who ultimately deals with anyone who's not.

[slightlytaller]

Those on the network are always the loudest and most obvious.

[But he smiled. This was a good kid.]

A free range teen? I was one myself, and it's why I became a teacher at all. I don't think I was much older than you when I made that decision, either.

[He had participated in that fateful war at only nineteen, after all. By the time he was twenty he was trying to barter for lecturing rights in the very classroom that had shamed and infuriated him. ]

A good teacher is also a student, you know. No one is ever really done learning.

... And, honestly? I don't ask my students to do anything I'm not currently working on as well. Sometimes having a level playing field helps.

video; un: lady

[dohaeris]

Would you like us to call you Mackenzie?

[sansa is not really in a place to make much about fake names. she smiles crookedly.]

My world wasn't much for formal education. I should like to learn how to research as you do. We have a library in the Sanctuary, now. It would be a good place for lessons. And we've been clearing out other rooms you could have games in; some of us have already been working on coming up with things the children here might like to do.

[slightlytaller]

... It'd be nice.

The people that are the closest I have to family have Mackenzie as their name. Even if we're worlds apart and I can't call them, at least it feels like they're still a part of me.

If that makes sense. I know it's foolish.

... I can help you learn whatever you need. No one's methods are the same. But, the least I can do is show you mine.

un: Oracle, video

[adaine]

I'm interested. I think.

So, you're not an expert, not a mage, but you're willing to teach anything?

[This feels like the blind leading the blind!]

I think you are underselling yourself a bit.

Video

[slightlytaller]

I'm just a man making good on the little ability to have any influence in any world.

[A sigh. He didn't want to get depressed and wax philosophical at a teenager. ]

If you really want to know, I've been a teacher of Modern Applications of Magecraft for the better part of the last decade, and I've been a student against my teachers' wishes for longer. Unfortunately, education alone isn't enough to bridge the gap between those with generationally inherited crests and those that have to build from the very foundations-- like myself.

However, I pride myself in teaching my students the practical, useful details that my own teachers refused to share with me.

--also, I'm something of an archivist. If I don't have the information on hand, I can and will find it.

video; un: lookingforshinsengumi

[tealeafs]

.. you can tutur people in.. any subject matter..?

[ Look, maybe Waver was exaggerating a little, who knows. But Chizuru sure seems to be taking him very seriously, and also very literally. It's totally why the girl sounds utterly stunned as she utters those words, completely in awe.

Maybe he was even more of an amazing power than she thought the last time they spoke. ]

I.. I can't even imagine what it's like to be that smart!

[ Seriously.

She can't. She feels like she's getting a headache just trying to imagine it. ]

[slightlytaller]

I'll admit that music theory and the maths give me trouble-- I don't consider myself exceptionally smart.

... I just didn't get out much when I was in school, because I was busy reading everything to try to fill in the gaps in my own education and catch up.

Because of that, I just retained a lot of information... And I like to think my experience as an archivist puts me in a good position to find what people need.

video; UN: seeingtheworld

[schoolingfish]

Anything we want?

...

Do you know much about space?

[Sure, he's learning a bunch from the giant library in the Gaze, but it's always fun to learn new things from new people.]

Video

[slightlytaller]

[This was... Unexpected. Waver regarded the child for a moment with clear interest-- he just needed to figure out what to say. ]

... There's a lot to know about space. What are you interested in?

text; un: violet

[virtuosital]

I do think I've heard that the saying goes "a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one".
What sort of things would you be interested in teaching? It's important to exchange things we enjoy, I think. Makes it more fun.

[slightlytaller]

Thank you.

Apparently many people here haven't heard that phrase. If they had, maybe less people would be questioning my skill.

Thank you for understanding. I've needed to learn aspects of multiple fields for the many hats I wear in my London. Teaching is what I chose, but my superiors have asked me to do everything from archival work to project management, acting as liason between parties, and even acting as a forensic scientist to get to the bottom of sketchy dealings and even murders.

...These are all useful and interesting. But, if I had to choose?

My interests have always been alchemy and its related chemical sciences. Recent years have also fostered an interest in ancient history and folklore.

text | un: boneadept

[necrosaint]

What do you know about obtaining houses.

text | un: big ben

[slightlytaller]

That if quiet is what you're looking for, you shouldn't live in Cellar Door.

The basement levels may be cheaper, but they're also not worth it. Water seeps in from below when it rains too hard.

... Frankly, real estate isn't something I've much experience in. Are you in the market for a house?

text | un: duty

[martyrofduty]

What do you know of this place's magic and history?

text

[slightlytaller]

only what everyone else does so far. I've had a few personal setbacks that made research difficult, but even I am getting the hang of the blood magic here.

The only frustrations are the impulses that come with Vileblood. I've been a smoker, but never a chewer before.

un: shouto | text

[swellter]

Do you know how to get rid of a curse?

text | private

[slightlytaller]

I've both endured and broken my share of curses.

What's happening, Shouto?