"Oh, cool. Self employed, I'm guessing?"

"Yeah."

(There's a number of things that could actually make her, doesn't she know about how being self employed with a web-based job frees someone up for other things? Cyrille's money is on 'witch,' over demon.)

"This is the part where I would ask some sort of leading question about her job, but I don't actually know a thing about keeping computers secure. Uh. Does she tell people to have a password with a capital letter, a symbol, and a number in it?"

"I think it might be too late at night for the secondhand computer security lecture," she says wryly.

Snort.

"Point. Asking for secondhand computer security lectures is probably indicative of how I am getting too tired to properly recover a cat. Luck with the date."

"Thanks! Luck with the cat!"

"I'll need it," she snorts, and then she departs.

And Liesel returns to the comforting arms of linear algebra.

Of course, she doesn't need to completely depart.

She has a hunch about this girl, and there's no real loss to finding a nice little nook from which to spy.

A breeze descends from the sky, out of sight of Liesel's well-lit park bench, and condenses into a person. He strolls out into the park, looking around with the air of someone who is here to meet a stranger for the first time and isn't completely sure he'll recognize them. But when he passes in front of the right bench, he stops and waits to be acknowledged.

She looks up and raises her eyebrows.

"Well, I'm impressed," she says. "...Which is going to be an awkward opener if you're not my blind date. Liesel. Hi." She shifts her textbook off her lap so she can more conveniently offer a handshake.

He takes her hand and kisses it. "Serafin. Enchanté. I've heard good things."

"And getting more impressed by the second!" she says, reclaiming her hand and efficiently collecting her textbook and notes back into her shoulder bag.

"Shall we take a walk?" he suggests, offering his arm.

"Where did she find you?" she wonders, resting her hand on his arm in the classic fashion. "You're like a walking romance novel and I am very into it."

"Some mysteries are best left unsolved, I find."

And away they go.

What the fuck is going on in this town.

Is she getting too paranoid? She really feels like she's not. Her sister disappears with some guy, the guy's brother is an excellent actor and allegedly is from the future, this girl with a mysterious aunt is on a date with Serafin the torture warlock that doesn't actually live near here...

This is weird. This is too weird. She thinks it's worth following them, but she takes care to be the absolute sneakiest.

"Okay, starting to legit wonder if my aunt conjured you up out of a romance novel," she says, smiling wryly up at him. "And has anyone ever told you that you're unfairly tall?"

"I like to think of myself as exactly tall enough," he says with a soft chuckle. "All right, how do I prove to you that I'm a real boy after all?"

"Proving you can talk like a modern human being was a good first step," she says. "Let's see. How about... tell me one embarrassing thing about yourself? I'll trade if you want."

"Hmmmmm. You first."

"I still wear the Captain America jammies my aunt bought me when I was twelve," she says promptly. "Your turn."

He bursts into giggles and has to stop walking.

"You're not supposed to laugh!" she says accusingly, giving him a playful shove that affects him not at all.

"I'm sorry, it's just—what an image—"