"If you wanna do that it's your money."

"Fiiiine, I won't use the research budget to make the dramatic ritual more dramatic. Jeez."

"Thank you for your restraint."

"I live to serve my benevolent overlord." Temple makes a very comical and exaggerated bow, it's a miracle that it doesn't cause him to topple face first in the concrete ground.

"Good, I haven't even done anything yet and already have my first servant, everything's going according to plan."

"I'm not taking the benevolent overlord that seriously, but I don't see any reason to oppose it yet?" Temple shrugs. "And it sounds better than me being the hero with all the responsibility of saving the world from my former friend that went dark and corrupt. Possibly as a result of some tragic accident involving me. I don't like that story, your premise is way more interesting."

"It is, I very much prefer it to all the bad romances."

"Oh, yeah, if we go to the traditional route they would pair me up with some girl that I have no chemistry with and then the fans would ship us anyway. Let's not be that poorly written canon, let's be the AU fic we truly deserve."

"...you started saying lots of words that I'm sure mean things but I have no idea what they are."

"Okay, so in our sadly hetero-normative society of ours, producers often fail to properly portray even straight relationships. This often leaves fans feeling frustrated because the actual-in-the-show romance tends to occupy too much screen-time or influence the show's plot negatively. Also, the others characters' interactions can end up having a better dynamic than the show's official romances, and a lot of those frustrated fans see this and think 'these two are a better pair than the insipid official couple, and I prefer these to the official couple'. That is called shipping. Also, fans often write literature called fanfiction based on their preferred shows with various premises, including 'the couple I prefer gets together'. AU stands for alternate universe. Fanfics that diverge from the original story too much would get the label of AU..."

"...What I am saying is that we shouldn't fall into a stupid show premise and just get it right the first time. For the sake of ours fans, of course."

"Well. This has been a ride. Yes, I agree we should do it right from the start. Do you think the audience would ship us, then?"

"Oh, the hero and the tragically lost friend that became a villain? The fans would be ridiculously emotionally invested, I am certain."

"I'm confused about which of us is supposed to be which."

"You're the villain. Since you want to rule the world through benevolence. Real heroes don't want to cause pro-social changes with their magical powers. Haven't you learned anything from Harry Potter?"

"I have learned that murder is a terrible way to become immortal, yes."

"Man, are you always this reasonable all the time?"

"I do my best."

So... No signs of magic? No? Okay.

"I think I should go home now, mom isn't coming for a while, but I should, like, make her dinner to put her in a good mood or something."

"Alright. I'll probably practice some more magic tonight."

They exchange contact information.

"It was fascinating meeting. Good luck and be careful with magic." They depart.

Temple goes home an tidies up the place and then starts working on the compass spell before his mother comes home.

The next day Sadde gets a message:

1) I have a working Compass spell. 2) I think using magic tires you. 3) Guess who fell asleep early and didn't tell his mom about magic?

I'm sorry. How do you know it works?

Tested with scrolls and got it to make it show the direction of magic things further away. It definitely picked something magical outside my house. No idea if it was you or something else.

Cool! Meet after school?

Of course! And they decide on a place. Temple will already be there and he squints when he sees Sadde.

"Okay... so the thing that I was detecting is definitely not you. Also, hello. How was your day?"