It was already starting to become night, there were a lot of people on the street. Either hurrying along with the last groceries to get dinner ready or hurrying along with a partner to a restaurant. Nastasya was mostly staring at those people, wondering. What would it be like to have a happy family or a partner you would do anything for. For a few minutes she was sentimental before she simply shrugged and turned to continue walking. She was on her way to Mabuz together with Victoire, even if she hated the man, he was still the shop that she could use items from. She had to find a rememdy for her blood thirst.

She entered, someone else was there too, by the looks of it and the whispered conversations, there had been jobs. She didn't want any, she could use the money and it was probably that Mabuz knew. She wouldn't have to wait long to get the vial that she had ordered. He held it up as she stood at the counter, he eyed her strangely and it wouldn't be a surprise if he had a good idea about what was happening to her. "You have time to do a job for me? With your friend?" She wondered why he mentioned her friend, she thought he would mean Odin, but he wasn't here right. She had maybe an idea where to find him.

"What kind of job?" She asked with a second question within this one, she still wasn't sure if she wanted to continue the progress of the White Claudia, "I finished the hexes, made some new ones." She eyed him and nodded, she left the vial with him first, although she made sure that she paid it before. She grabbed the papers from him and stared at the new hexes, she had seen them before, one had failed but the other one, she was curious.

There were some days where Odin couldn't wait for the night to appear, and today was one of those days. The Swineherd Pub had been almost empty throughout most of the day and, as with slow days, Odin felt the urge to do something instead. He had recently completed a Quest for Dr. Stephan Mabuz, one that had resulted in Odin feeling stronger than he did before, as well as him seemingly perfecting the 'Decrepify' hex that he had designed to ruin the use of a target's legs, which had been a total failure the first two times Odin had tried to help Mabuz. Finally, third time being the charm, it had worked, but the second hex given, as seemed to always happen, had not done what was desired. Instead of removing all strength from a target, it increased the strength of the user, being a buff instead of a hex and giving Odin strength on top of his usual payment. Of all the Quests Odin had done in Oak town, Mabuz seemed to be the one with the most work for someone to do, and Odin really wanted something to do. Dressed in his usual bar attire, and closing up the pub early as it was dead, Odin headed towards Mabuz's shop, aiming to get another shot at working for him, and potentially getting a chance to try the 'White Claudia', a strange drug the doctor was using on people. It had been used on Nastasya and had nearly caused her to kill the doctor by showing her her worst fears. Now that was an intriguing prospect, and one Odin severely wanted to try.

It took a few minutes for the dark mage to reach his location, and naturally he wasn't surprised to see Nastasya in the shop too, her back to him. She didn't seem to be there for the same reasons as Odin, at least she hadn't entered under that impression. She was collecting something from the doctor but he was asking for another quest. At this, Odin joined their conversation, hearing his existence mentioned.

"Mabuz, once we finish these hexes I want to know more about the White Claudia. Deal?"

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You wouldn't call it as if she flinced but she pulled up her shoulders and turned around to look at Odin, "Why am I not even surprised to see you here." She gave him a warm smile, out of all the Grimoire Heart people or actually all the people she met, she did only trust him. That reminded her that she still wanted to tell him something, something about herself. She thought that maybe Odin was the only one that could point out the positive things about being a vampire. There was no way to just sit and talk about it for the few minutes that they mostly spend together.

He demanded some explanation about White Claudia as they would return and Mabuz seemed to be rather satisfied about that idea. She had warned Odin but it was up to him and actually she was curious to what would happen to him, she didn't need the details but what he would thought about it. It wasn't the nightmares that she saw that were the problem, it was Mabuz seeing her reaction in her state of delusion. She shook her head lightly and held up the papers that Mabuz had given her, "Apparently decripify needs some extra modifications and he tried to fix Magna." She wondered for a few seconds if it was dangerous to speak out the names without actually wanting to use the incantation, since it was simply saying the name of the hex while focusing your eyes on the target with the intention of hexing them. She had no intention of hexing Odin and thus nothing happened, good to know. "Should we take the same approach as last time?" she suggested because it had worked rather well for the two of them, no real hunt was needed and it barely took a second to test the spells out.

It's useful to be in the right place at the right time. Seems we're making a habit of it.

Odin's streak of good luck was continuing, as the quest with Nastasya was about to begin. Even beyond that, Mabuz seemed to agree, although grudgingly, that he would 'consider' giving Odin some more knowledge on the White Claudia, as well as consider hiring him as the next test subject. That was all the dark mage had requested, and it had gone better than he had hoped. He had expected Mabuz to swear and scoff at him, pretending to know nothing to spark the ire of the dark mage, but Odin knew how much Mabuz loved his science, so it was no surprise he'd be happy to take any subject, especially one that was willing. Besides, the good doctor probably couldn't wait to see Odin writhing in the corner of his room in fear, he was a sick asshole that way.

As they accepted the quest, and began to walk outside the shop, Nastasya gave Odin the details of the whole thing. For one, the finally successful 'Decrepify' apparently needed a second attempt, perhaps to make sure that the first success was not a fluke and that the hex was a consistent one. Beyond that, Magna had been updated and Mabuz wanted to see if it would do as requested the first time, that being sap all the strength from the target. Hopefully, for the doctor's sake, it would all go as planned, but Odin would much prefer it to occur like the previous time, instead giving the user of the hex a buff to their strength indefinitely, and allowing the Grimoire Heart mage to once again call Mabuz out on his failures as a scientist.

"Word on the street is our last attempts worked relatively well, and there is a rumour going around that the other pub is cursed by some evil spirit that is haunting it and hexing the patrons. However, if left for too long, that rumour will cease. If both of these hexes work, hell if Decrepify works like it did last time, then the place will close down instantly, even if Magna doesn't work. This will be a simple enough mission, and afterwards I'll need to ask what you were doing in Mabuz's shop, you looked more like a customer than a employee."

With his words spoken, Odin began to head towards the other pub. He honestly didn't care much for why Nastasya visited the doctor, provided it didn't stop her from being useful and strong in the long run, but a hoarder of information, no matter how little, like himself, Odin was just curious. The rest of their walk was silent as they reached the pub, taking up the same stall that they did the first time, noting the people who seemed most on edge in the building. A waiter came over to take their orders, to which Odin, now once again Lucifer, smiled before speaking.

"Ah yes, I'll take a bottle of your finest sake please."

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She watched the whole situation between Mabuz and Odin, how he reluctantly agreed to do the White Claudia experience, she was sure it was an act. Mabuz would love to try it out on more people. She waited for the conversation to be over before she headed out and explained to Odin what was the plan.

He anticipated immediately, telling her about the rumours of the cafe that they entered before. She absolutely didn't mind to make sure that the pub would shut down. Her favourite, if she had to pick one was obviously the Swineherd. Not that she went to visit much lately. She had her reasons. She looked at him from the corner of her eye as he asked or more demanded her to give information about what she was doing in Mabuz his shop. She shrugged, as she had planned to tell Odin before but the moment never seemed to be right.

She entered the pub after Odin and followed him to the same spot as they sat last time. While he ordered a bottle of sake, she would try out the red wine. Which was nonsense for she didn't taste any flavour anymore, "You mean afterwards as after the job or you would like to know now?" That didn't imply she would answer, she would rather wait for his suggestion, "I wouldn't mind to tell you but the story is rather long and I don't really like to tell it in public like this. You don't know if these walls have ears or not." She found it a logical thing to say, maybe she should add something, to give him the idea, "Remember our meeting with those two girls and I gave you a napkin that I wanted to talk to you. Well that never happened now did it." She didn't say it in a sarcastic way, just pointing out facts, it wasn't his fault that he was busy. It was good, earning money.

She focused on her first target and muttered the Decrepify spell under her breath as she looked eyes with a person. The person fell down screaming that his legs didn't work and she stared with a blank face at the whole situation. "Since Magna didn't work last time, let's try it both." She whispered as her eyes went to scan for a new victim to use the other hex on, most were distracted anyway by the annoying man whose legs didn't work. She whispered, softly again Magna and again the spell didn't work as it should, bounced back against her with the opposite effect. Instead of feeling drained of power, she felt full of it. Yet it was a mistake made on the side of Mabuz. She couldn't wait for Odin to tell him.

She waited for the Decrepify spell to stop as well for the Magna, but the latter didn't do that. That's when she hoped off the chair back to Mabuz to get her money.

"You see, my good man, once again your experiments end in complete failure, and I get the benefits of it. Decrepify did the exact same thing as last time with no change, and Magna bounced back and made us stronger again. Are you even really a scientist."

Oh, Odin did love making Mabuz know how badly his quest had gone for him, and the look on his face as he handed Odin and Nastasya their pay was even more amusing. There was a brief look in his eye, one of warning for Odin. 'Just you wait for the White Claudia', Odin presumed he was silently stating, but that was a problem for another day. For now, Odin would go back to the Swineherd and get some sleep. Nastasya did indeed have something to tell the dark mage, and Odin wasn't quite sure what it was, so he'd need to be sure and check in with her at some point, when next they met outside of doing a quest. Their meetings were too quick, and very little had a chance to occur. If Odin wanted to know the truth, he would have to sit down and get it out of her. But again, a problem for another day.

-Exit-

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