"Same old, same old. Went to class, learned science among other things, did gratuitous magic. Oh, Illia had a neat idea for her gemcrafting workshop and wants to know if you want a pair of practice gauntlets."

"Ooh, sure! I want to hear all about Illia's neat idea!"

"She's trying to see how complicated a set of interlocking plates she can do! Gauntlets are a good way of stress-testing it, hands are super fiddly."

"Excellent."

"She's taking a lot of inspiration from, you know, normal gauntlets, but she wants something with a bit more delicacy when she's done."

"I look forward to it."

"Well, the final version is several prototypes in the future."

"I think I'd still be interested in seeing the prototypes, it sounds fascinating."

"And this is why modeling for my sister is a good life choice!"

He laughs.

"So how was your day?"

"Pretty good! I talked to Professor Juspeczyk. We'll see if anything comes of it."

"Ooh, huh. Well, here's hoping. I assume from context you mean the thing that makes him give me unpleasant looks periodically?"

"Yes."

"Well, here's hoping something comes of it."

"Yeah."

"What prompted the conversation?"

"He wanted to talk about lab safety procedures, and then someone else dropped by for unrelated reasons and told him I wanted to be a Great Mage, apparently just to annoy him."

"...Huh. Kind of a dick move."

"Yeah."

"A lot of people don't like him for his politics but honestly, there are more productive things to do about it."

"Yes."

"Like ignore it, if you can't think of anything better! It's worked for me!"

"Yes!"

"He's a good teacher and he doesn't let his politics change that--I bet if I told him the looks were interfering with my education he'd cut it out--there's something disappointingly ironic about the fact that out of all the people giving him a hard time about it the only one with a reason to complain isn't one of them."