While Lio Hebert was descending the stairs, his mind raced. His brief vacation was just long enough to allow him to relax and start another grandiose plan with a fresh mind, but his situation wasn't good by any means for now.
He was locked in a body of a teenager in a relatively ordinary family that existed in the world with pseudo-Beasts and where every second person born after the eighties could potentially blast you from existence with a flick of a finger. And where humanity might collapse in a matter of hours, if something went horribly amiss. Lack of mages and developed magecraft system was the other thing that made this whole ordeal much harder for him than was necessary if this was some kind of punishment. Lack of any predetermined system put Kirschtaria into a position when he possessed raw materials, but was devoid of any actual tools to work with it — except his personal knowledge and skills. And while the blonde was confident in his skills; creating and setting up a whole new system of magecraft remain an unbearable task and the only thing that even resembled the system was turned off together with Gaia and he was just leeching from it.
While Taylor believes in him and support where endearing, Kirschtaria was looking much more confident on the outside than on the inside. Definitely, he gathered a lot of information. Yes, he indeed spent some time trying to discover some capes identities, but ultimately he failed due to lack of any genuine useful information. He didn't have any kind of bullshit superpower like most here do, he can't deduce from minor slips persons age, sexual preference and how much they like a certain type of activity; he can't by just tasting blood knew person's future or the past; he also wasn't able to teleport or open dimensional doors to the person by just knowing their name or seeing them once.
He was hesitant to execute any major moves for a long time, preferring to carefully learn and prepare; while trying to still look like an average teenager and don't trigger any real alarms. Being a bit anti-social and generally not interested was something while not exactly normal, but sure as hell, not rare behavior for kids and teenagers alike.
He couldn't prepare better if he wanted to allow things to look natural to the outsiders. An average boy with an average sister in a very average family living in a not-so-ordinary city near the ocean. If he tried to overstep his boundaries, Lio Hebert would be instantly discovered. He allowed himself to slip only a few times because it was beyond necessary.
Now, that he decided to carve his own path on the monolith called "Destiny" and not blindly listening to stars above that whispered him in the ear the most convenient way to survive, he was making much more bold and severe strokes on the canvas that is the universe, slowly but surely changing the awaiting end of his journey. No… not his, their.
His future was intertwined with everyone's. His decisions affect their life equally as theirs affected his; such was a way of humanity; such was a way of the universe. Humanity becomes and remained the dominant species on the planet not because it was strong or necessary smart, but due to its unique aspect. Succession by will, not by blood that was set humanity apart from others. Its mortality and flaws forced them to find a way to gift their creation to the next-generation independent of humanities state.
There was a reason, why even despite his plan ridding humanity of mortality the flaws needed to remain. Being imperfect is what allowed humans to reach progress and civilization. And it will be it that allows them to reach even beyond the stars and conquer the sky. With their own hands and thoughts, humanity shapes the world to create something beautiful. Every human has the potential to create something, even from the destruction of other's work — especially from the remnants of the past. At the end of his journey as a Crypter, Kirschtaria finally understood Pepe's admiration of the myths connected to repeated creation and destruction. It was a beautiful side to witness and to grasp it.
His plan to take the easiest way out was — to his relieve — completely thrown out of the window thanks to some expected event with unexpected results. It was the last push for him, to finally choose his path to his goal and to start setting things into motion.
His sister's powers became the last piece of the puzzle to finish his picture. In their duo, he was the more useless one by his own belief. What Taylor lacked and he had was an actual battle experience. Even without him, after some time, she could figure out how to use and fight with her powers, but before she would have reached this point she would trip countless flags and burn herself to the point when only tragic conclusion could await her in the end.
It was arrogant of him to play with her path and even manipulate her, and he knew it. He wasn't deluded by the idea of warped "Greater Good" nor was he a psychopath with a Messiah Complex. He knew his limits and experienced the things that could easily kill him. His past death experience was beyond comical. A bomb and a stab wound. That what essentially extinguished his life. Details weren't really critical for him. When you die twice, you indeed start to comprehend your own mortality. Kirschtaria became paranoid and do his best to conceal it even from himself, but his wish of having control over other's actions while was rubbing him the wrong way nevertheless wasn't outright rejected in his mind.
As he finally reached the first floor in what was probably mentally the longest descend by the stairs in the world. It wasn't really a rare behavior for Astromancy mages to allow their mind to relax and slowly become one with the world; Olga Marie was a failure as an heir to Animusphere for multitude reasons, one of which was her inability to give up and just observe the world.
Sometimes the best course of action is doing nothing. Observe, analyze, and prepare. Simple words that were the foundation of any magecraft.
In the situation, with his Grandmother, he has done exactly that. He observed her behavior; he analyzed her presumed personality and he made important preparations. He made an artificial slip that allowed her to start forming her own answers and analysis. She already had her suspicions about them not being an ordinary teenager. Diane knew enough of capes and their ways to see through their "disguise". But she was hesitant — or better said, she was waiting until she could find something to solidify her own conclusion. Even with his life's stacked on top of each other Kirschtaria was younger than her and what allowed him to even play this little game of there was much more hellish experience in politics and innate talent, combined with mage's upbringing.
She was a beast that thorn out a countless amount of throats and he was a mage. They were even and now, in this house, they played in the same field. She had everything he and Taylor needs, but he didn't have anything that she would have wanted… for now.
He can't really catch her off guard and gain himself a good deal. It works only when you have an element of surprise and his was lost the moment their eyes met. The moment their eyes caught the other glance, they understood that they equal. They both were beasts, they both hunters that will try to use others for personal gain. They remained family so nothing much will happen, even if they would disagree and fail to use other's abilities. Diane was too scared to lose somebody and Wodime decided to help this family to meet a happy conclusion.
He moved to the living expecting to find her with a glass of wine and watching the news on the TV. His expectation was indeed met, and she was lying on the sofa with a bored expression. He couldn't really fault her for doing nothing and sitting here, really. Brockton Bay wasn't the most exciting city for someone who lived in France and nearly had a personal palace. He felt something climbing along his leg; he would have checked if he didn't know about her sister's abilities. While she felt reluctant, Taylor chose to watch and hear the conversation without actually being there. It was her favorite centipede that she lovingly called Jerry, which immensely confused Kirschtaria when he heard calling it so the first time. It was Taylor's best creation in terms of artificially created behavior. Normally it would behave the same way as a cat would, now it was very determent and too purposeful.
"Taylor shared her perspective with it." He could only muse about his sister's roundabout way of being part of the conversation. It also probably was a way to show her support. A slight chuckle escaped his mouth, grabbing Diane's attention.
"What so funny, pipsqueak?" Gram asked with an unamused expression. She carefully put her wine glass on the floor and directed her look at Lio.
He moved to grab a nearby chair and sit in front of her. The only thing between them was a cheap coffee table. She quickly fixed her messy hair and her expression rather neutral. Diane understood where this whole set-up was going. She started to mentally prepare and re-enact the plan of this talk in her head.
Wodime didn't really hurry to start this talk using precious time to add or remove something from his plan. From the result and terms that would remain after this talk he would be forced to change and adapt a lot of things. Moreover, he can't really have a second shot at this. If it was one-on-one, he could try and manipulate with her memory and repeat it until he gets a needed result, but they have an observer in the face of Taylor. The other reason was Wodime was interested in how well he could do against very experienced ordinary humans without resorting to magic.
Talk between mages always took into account their respective political and magical power. Mages do things very differently from normal people and knowing about his grandmother's involvement with parahumans he expected her to have something that could block his mental influence.
He closed his eyes and relaxed, giving her a small hint, that told her that break is over and its time for business. Both of them straighten their backs and wore a mask that hides their emotions. He needed to play a teenager, and she was forced to play a good grandma. To both of them those masks were foreign and that excited them. Being put in an uncomfortable situation and at a disadvantage, will allow them to experience something new and unique. Changing and adapting are an important thing to do if you want to remain relevant and have any influence.
Wodime's plan was easier to say than do. He was planning to brute-force and corner her into a position where her own guilt and wish to have a good relationship will force Diane to abide by his terms. It was a rather dirty way to play, but everything is fair in the war.
His eyes opened only to meet another pair of dark-blue one's watching.
Diane's goal was to either confirm her suspicions or refute it. She prepared to take the role of understanding adult that smile to inspire confidence in kids, so that says could rely upon them and talk about their problems. In politics, the skill of listening was important; to survive one needs to smile and nod, while simultaneously plan their next move.
A gentle smile appeared on her face. Wodime would have brought only if he didn't know better.
"So, what's the matter, dear? You look quite serious." She asked in a sweet voice, her hands slowly moved to rest on her knees. She "opened", and this way showed that she was ready to listen and accept. She cocked her head to the side.
"I wanted to talk to you, granny Diane. It's something important." With fake uncertainty, Lio answered. His eyes were darting along the floor. He leaned on his elbows using his knees as support to not fall and by this he lowered his body a little, showing him as someone who already lost this conflict and ready to be subjugated… but his head remained high.
This little detail allowed Diane to catch the fact that he is not entirely "lost" and still had some "pride".
"Lio, dear, you know that you can trust me! What's bothering you?" She asked in a concerned voice. Her smile dropped a little, but only a little.
And at this moment, Kirschtaria decided to drop the bomb and try to control the flow of the talk.
"Me and Taylor both parahumans." The moment he said it, he instantly straightened his back and shrugged his shoulders. His eyes now serious were burning with resolve, and he challenged his gram by looking her directly in the eyes. He could see that it threw her out of balance, but only a little.
It was a rather radical change of the tone and behavior, but as he suspected it only gained him a bit of ground in this mental duel.
A small smile appeared on his lips.
"I am so going to enjoy this little talk." A quick thought flew in his mind.