I really don't have much going on so far so I figure might as well? So yeah, see you then.
And she does indeed show up. Right on time, too. How many teenagers does Waver know who are punctual? Well, punctual when she doesn't fall asleep in the middle of a hallway, at least...
The door was left unlocked, to a simple and well-kept apartment in the university district. At a glance it was maybe a little impersonal in appearance, except for a small bookshelf or two holding a number of textbooks as well as a few on varying mythologies. Waver himself was in the kitchen, working on what looked and smelled remarkably like vegetable fried rice while a sparrow-sized wireframe bird circled around his head to rifle through cabinets.
"Hey. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable, I'll be done in a minute." Said like he was not using arcane magecraft as a third hand to finish cooking. "You want some tea, coffee, something else?"
Kinda plain and simple, but that honestly does track with her impression of Waver. He's always seemed a pretty pragmatic type, really.
"Tea sounds good."
Coffee would be fine, too, but that's more a breakfast and stimulant beverage, not a meal beverage. That said, Ritsuka's taking a moment to have a look at those books first while she waits, sheer curiosity getting the better of her.
Half that, and half the fact that anything personal would almost definitely have been relegated to his own room and out of sight. Fate forbid anyone know about his music collection or more recent Animal Crossing habit.
"Sure thing." The wire bird delicately took out a pair of teacups at a quick gesture, and while he was distracted there was plenty of time for Ritsuka to determine the collection was mostly college-level chemistry textbooks, a couple on alchemy that had likely come from Undertown, and a few on Egyptian, Greek, and Celtic myth.
The wire bird does admittedly remind her of someone else's magecraft she's seen... But honestly, Ritsuka has no idea how common or not that particular style is, and thus no way of knowing whether or not it's weird.
In any case that's definitely an interesting collection. And again, well, she definitely can't judge. Especially given how much more history and myth she's learned over her time in Chaldea. The chemistry and alchemy are both way over her head, for that matter, but Waver's smart, so of course he'd have something like that, right?
... It's entirely possible that if he finished up soon enough she'll still be looking when he comes out.
It was, in fact, incredibly weird. Weirder still for how small it was, and far less intricate in design compared to what it was ostensibly mimicking. But if Ritsuka didn't seem to recognize it enough to comment on the matter, he certainly wasn't going to go out of his way to point it out.
"...Having fun over there?" With said wire's assistance, eventually he set out two plates of surprisingly well-made fried rice along with two cups of tea.
Further proof of Ritsuka's general utter ignorance of the world of magecraft outside of what she's directly encounter through Chaldea. Poor thing is just clueless when it comes to this kind of stuff.
"Oh!" She does at least look a little sheepish being caught snooping. "Uh, yeah, actually..."
She really does like to get to know more about people she considers friends. Even if this particular case is a bit complicated. But in any case, she'll drop the poking around now that food's being served.
"I'm not exactly a professional, but I've picked up a few things through necessity." He shrugged as though it were no big deal, the sparrow unraveling itself and curling back into a loose coil of wire around his wrist.
"Okay, kid. I know it's proven fact that things don't always unfold the same way in every facet of the Kaleidoscope, so to speak." Waver sat down with his weaker right leg folded over his left, cane left leaning on the back of the chair. "And I've had a vague hypothesis of where the heart of the issue is. So where do we want to start?"
That's really a neat trick with the wire. If Ritsuka weren't already long convinced that any attempt to learn magecraft on her part would be far more effort than it could possibly be worth, she'd probably ask how it works.
That's a good question, though, and Ritsuka's a little surprised he's asking her. Waver was the one who'd wanted to talk about it, after all. But, since he asked...
"I suppose... Do you know anything about the version of you I met and why you--he--was at Chaldea?"
Since that might be a good place to start, given that there's timeline differences just between Chaldea and that version of Waver.
"Let's see...I know he's a Caster possessed by someone else, and I can't even begin to tell you how many ways that should be impossible given my own understanding of how the system works."
In terms of how Chaldea's system functioned, Waver was at best misinformed and at worst hilariously wrong.
"On top of that, given something you mentioned earlier, he and I are likely to have drastically different experiences with Fuyuki. But that's effectively all I know."
"He was a Psuedo-Servant possessed by Zhuge Liang."
A pause, as she realizes she should probably explain that.
"A Psuedo-Servant is where a Heroic Spirit can't manifest normally for some reason, so they possess a compatible person instead. Usually, the Servant's mind is in charge, though the personality is a mix of both. In his case though, he said apparently Zhuge Liang gave him his powers and then just left him alone."
Ritsuka's knowledge of a lot of other topics may be patchy at best, but when it comes to these kind of details about Servants, she's almost as expert as they come.
"He wasn't from the same world as Chaldea though. That version of you, I mean. In our world, there was only ever one Holy Grail War in Fuyuki, in 2004. Everyone in Chaldea was really surprised when the other you told us there'd been five there in his world."
As in literally how the hell is that city still standing levels of surprise, really.
Okay, but he knows I'm English, right, Waver didn't say. But he definitely thought it, given the baffled look on his face.
"I'm...just going to assume that's as normal for you as you're making it sound, because that's impossible from my perspective on several levels. There's no way a human body could contain a Servant's power, and sure as hell not mine at the very least."
If he thought about that for more than ten seconds, he was going to get a terrible headache.
"And...wait, I don't understand. The Fifth is the one taking place in 2004, the ritual was established some hundreds of years ago." And in complete fairness, Waver had wondered the same about Fuyuki several times. "Do you know what happened during it?"
"Right, that's what the other you said, that was when the fifth war happened. But in my world, that was the first and only one in Fuyuki. I don't know about the one in your--his world in 2004, but in mine, all I really know is that Marisbury won it."
Technically, that's a lie. She also knows the name of Marisbury's Servant and what said Servant wished for, but that's not really relevant right now on top of being a bit of a sensitive topic for her.
"But I do know about the fourth one from the other you's world. There was... well, there were seven singularities that Chaldea had to get rid of to save humanity, but sometimes small ones showed up. And even though those small ones usually are fine to leave alone, it was more risky not to do anything about them. So when one was detected in Fuyuki in 1994..."
Well, surely Waver can put together what the obvious next steps were here.
"Animusphere's nowhere near the Fifth War in my world-...at least, seriously doubt he is at this point. It's like I said--I've never even seen him in the Clock Tower, much less anywhere else."
But he listened as Ritsuka continued, with a look of dawning...realization? Horror? Probably both at once.
"...Oh." Because, unfortunately, he knew himself well. Did it really matter if there was a stark difference he hesitated to address? Given the chance to do the stupidest thing imaginable, paired with the opportunity to fix his own stupid mistakes and see someone again?
He wanted to say he knew better. Logically, he did--there was nothing he truly regretted enough to risk screwing up a timeline, but the latter point...well, that was another matter entirely.
"I...yeah. I'd probably be that fucking stupid, wouldn't I?"
"Well, you really were a great help, since you knew where to find people when, so we could get to the bottom of what was causing the singularity."
Tracking down all the more or less sane Masters to agree to ceasefires, ambushing and taking out the problem Servants, that all went a long way to clearing the way to dealing with the ultimate problem.
"But, uh, yeah. It seemed like you really wanted to change some things. Maybe not to win, but to save some people, at least."
Which honestly, she really can't hold it against him. Even knowing it's totally futile, it's such a hard urge to resist. Especially when the people in question are right in front of you.
"...I guess I would, yeah. A hell of a lot of people died in the war and the aftermath both. If I thought there was something I could do to prevent that, then..."
Waver scowled in annoyance--mostly at himself, though which of himself it was meant for was unclear.
"...well. Might have been nice to go back and knock Kayneth's teeth loose, but that's more childish and vindictive than anything useful."
"In the end there was at least one difference from how that version of you remembered it, which was why it had become a singularity. But since the rest was basically the same, that's why I know some things about it."
Like the Servants. And most of their Masters, to boot. Maybe even a couple of incidents, since they sure did interrupt a fight or two.
He took a slow breath, pinching the bridge of his nose to ward off the sensation of oncoming dread.
"...Okay. Let me take this from the beginning--I stole my teacher's catalyst and left the country. Not the best thing to do, but obnoxious rich people should get things stolen from them to knock them down a couple pegs sometimes."
Yes, he's serious.
"So that's how I met Lancer. I don't know a lot about what happened with the others--Irisviel told me a couple of things after the fact, but we were more caught up in my own stupid bullshit and my teacher perhaps justifiably trying to murder me. I know Kayneth summoned Lancelot as a Berserker, Archer--Gilgamesh was summoned by Kiritsugu Emiya, Rider was Tokiomi Tohsaka's, Saber--King Arthur was supposedly the Servant of an agent of the Church, Caster's..." He paled slightly and hid an uncomfortable look behind a cup of tea. "...I didn't exactly ask either of their names. And I only saw Assassin briefly, so I don't know anything about either."
This was already a subject he was clearly having difficulty navigating, shooting Ritsuka a look he hoped was as even as he was trying to be.
"And unless my current theory is very wrong somehow, that doesn't match up at all to what you know."
She doesn't continue right away, mostly because she needs a moment to organize her thoughts into something coherent and make sure she's remembering everything correctly. The Servants are easy, but the details of those Masters she briefly met is trickier.
"Archer was Gilgamesh, and his Master was Tohsaka Tokiomi. Assassin was Hassan of the Hundred Faces, and their Master was working with Tohsaka, but I don't really know anything else about who it was. Caster was Gilles de Rais, and his Master was a serial killer I don't know the name of. Berserker was Lancelot, and his Master was Matou Kariya. Saber was, yeah, King Arthur, whose Master was an assassin hired by the Einzberns with Irisviel von Einzbern pretending to be Master, but in the singularity the part that had changed was that she really was Saber's Master. Rider was Iskandar, and he was your Servant. Lancer was Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, and Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald was his Master."
Suffice it to say, she got a much better chance to learn that kind of information, seeing as Chaldea was interfering, not participating. And even if some of the Servants were ones she didn't recognize at the time, she's since long learned all their identities. So, she opted to just lay it all out at once before turning her attention back to her dinner.
(Which, honestly, she's getting through pretty quickly while Waver talks, apparently spending so much time in various potentially strenuous activities tends to work up one's metabolism. She should probably either cut back or start a solid exercise regimen here if she doesn't want to gain weight, but that's a whole other matter....)
Waver was very quiet at the explanation, but at the end there was a tense line to his jaw that implied he was grinding his teeth and a tremor to his hand as if he was trying very hard not to shatter the cup in his hand.
"I made extra if you want it." The anger in his voice wasn't directed at Ritsuka, of course, but it was present no matter how hard he tried to restrain it.
He knew, or at least had suspected. And he hated it, reviled the concept with every single part of who he was as a person. He'd been disgusted by the idea ever since the briefest thought of what would have happened if I hadn't stolen it passed his mind ten years ago.
"I had wondered why the Makiri didn't seem to have any presence, so that...makes sense. One of the two I never met would have had to have been Kariya. And what you're saying explains both Assassin's mutiple forms and Caster's-..."
He elected not to finish that sentence, setting down the half-finished cup of tea before he launched it out the window. It all seemed to click together in a way that was slightly-off center from Waver's perspective, and given what little he knew he was willing to guess Assassin had bene paired to the nameless serial killer. Caster's Master had been...no, the less he thought about that, the less nauseated he was.
"Irisviel was pretending to be Archer's Master as you say, but Kiritsugu--the assassin you mentioned--was the one actually holding the contract." Waver confirmed, hand moving idly to a pendant half-hidden under his collar. "I never met him back then, as evidenced by the fact that I'm still breathing."
One thing at a time. Unpack every single thing in a breath and he was going to walk out and start breaking things.
"I don't know exactly how things ended originally in the world the other you was from, even if we hadn't been interfering in the singularity, it probably would have been different, anyway. I just know that some of the Masters died, and the Holy Grail had been corrupted and caused some kind of disaster at the end."
After all, for there to be an El-Melloi II, then that would mean that the original El-Melloi was no longer around, so that much was a given. Ritsuka just isn't privy to how the mage was killed.
"...That much is definitely the same for me. There's a lot on that front I don't know, and doubtless you and I have a lot of the same questions about how things ended. I know the casualties of that night alone included Tokiomi Tohsaka, Kiritsugu Emiya, and Saber's Master as well."
At least, as far as he knew.
"Caster's Master--Kariya, I assume--died shortly before a monster appeared on the Mion River midway through the war, and Assassin's Master followed in short order that same night. Kayneth picked what should have been an easy fight and died anyway a couple nights after that. Which is sure as hell sounding ironic now."
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair at what seemed like a troubling recollection, hand falling away from a shard of ivory on a chain around his neck as he folded both on the table.
"When all the dust finally settled, it was just myself, Irisviel, and an associate of Kiritsugu's that were left. So for my part, it might be more accurate to say all the other Masters died whether from the disaster, poor circumstance, or their own stupidity."
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I don't really have any favorite foods, so whatever you think is best.
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text -> action
And she does indeed show up. Right on time, too. How many teenagers does Waver know who are punctual?
Well, punctual when she doesn't fall asleep in the middle of a hallway, at least...no subject
"Hey. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable, I'll be done in a minute." Said like he was not using arcane magecraft as a third hand to finish cooking. "You want some tea, coffee, something else?"
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"Tea sounds good."
Coffee would be fine, too, but that's more a breakfast and stimulant beverage, not a meal beverage. That said, Ritsuka's taking a moment to have a look at those books first while she waits, sheer curiosity getting the better of her.
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"Sure thing." The wire bird delicately took out a pair of teacups at a quick gesture, and while he was distracted there was plenty of time for Ritsuka to determine the collection was mostly college-level chemistry textbooks, a couple on alchemy that had likely come from Undertown, and a few on Egyptian, Greek, and Celtic myth.
Weird range, but okay.
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In any case that's definitely an interesting collection. And again, well, she definitely can't judge. Especially given how much more history and myth she's learned over her time in Chaldea. The chemistry and alchemy are both way over her head, for that matter, but Waver's smart, so of course he'd have something like that, right?
... It's entirely possible that if he finished up soon enough she'll still be looking when he comes out.
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"...Having fun over there?" With said wire's assistance, eventually he set out two plates of surprisingly well-made fried rice along with two cups of tea.
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"Oh!" She does at least look a little sheepish being caught snooping. "Uh, yeah, actually..."
She really does like to get to know more about people she considers friends. Even if this particular case is a bit complicated. But in any case, she'll drop the poking around now that food's being served.
"That looks really good."
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"Okay, kid. I know it's proven fact that things don't always unfold the same way in every facet of the Kaleidoscope, so to speak." Waver sat down with his weaker right leg folded over his left, cane left leaning on the back of the chair. "And I've had a vague hypothesis of where the heart of the issue is. So where do we want to start?"
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That's a good question, though, and Ritsuka's a little surprised he's asking her. Waver was the one who'd wanted to talk about it, after all. But, since he asked...
"I suppose... Do you know anything about the version of you I met and why you--he--was at Chaldea?"
Since that might be a good place to start, given that there's timeline differences just between Chaldea and that version of Waver.
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In terms of how Chaldea's system functioned, Waver was at best misinformed and at worst hilariously wrong.
"On top of that, given something you mentioned earlier, he and I are likely to have drastically different experiences with Fuyuki. But that's effectively all I know."
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A pause, as she realizes she should probably explain that.
"A Psuedo-Servant is where a Heroic Spirit can't manifest normally for some reason, so they possess a compatible person instead. Usually, the Servant's mind is in charge, though the personality is a mix of both. In his case though, he said apparently Zhuge Liang gave him his powers and then just left him alone."
Ritsuka's knowledge of a lot of other topics may be patchy at best, but when it comes to these kind of details about Servants, she's almost as expert as they come.
"He wasn't from the same world as Chaldea though. That version of you, I mean. In our world, there was only ever one Holy Grail War in Fuyuki, in 2004. Everyone in Chaldea was really surprised when the other you told us there'd been five there in his world."
As in literally how the hell is that city still standing levels of surprise, really.
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"I'm...just going to assume that's as normal for you as you're making it sound, because that's impossible from my perspective on several levels. There's no way a human body could contain a Servant's power, and sure as hell not mine at the very least."
If he thought about that for more than ten seconds, he was going to get a terrible headache.
"And...wait, I don't understand. The Fifth is the one taking place in 2004, the ritual was established some hundreds of years ago." And in complete fairness, Waver had wondered the same about Fuyuki several times. "Do you know what happened during it?"
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Technically, that's a lie. She also knows the name of Marisbury's Servant and what said Servant wished for, but that's not really relevant right now on top of being a bit of a sensitive topic for her.
"But I do know about the fourth one from the other you's world. There was... well, there were seven singularities that Chaldea had to get rid of to save humanity, but sometimes small ones showed up. And even though those small ones usually are fine to leave alone, it was more risky not to do anything about them. So when one was detected in Fuyuki in 1994..."
Well, surely Waver can put together what the obvious next steps were here.
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But he listened as Ritsuka continued, with a look of dawning...realization? Horror? Probably both at once.
"...Oh." Because, unfortunately, he knew himself well. Did it really matter if there was a stark difference he hesitated to address? Given the chance to do the stupidest thing imaginable, paired with the opportunity to fix his own stupid mistakes and see someone again?
He wanted to say he knew better. Logically, he did--there was nothing he truly regretted enough to risk screwing up a timeline, but the latter point...well, that was another matter entirely.
"I...yeah. I'd probably be that fucking stupid, wouldn't I?"
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Tracking down all the more or less sane Masters to agree to ceasefires, ambushing and taking out the problem Servants, that all went a long way to clearing the way to dealing with the ultimate problem.
"But, uh, yeah. It seemed like you really wanted to change some things. Maybe not to win, but to save some people, at least."
Which honestly, she really can't hold it against him. Even knowing it's totally futile, it's such a hard urge to resist. Especially when the people in question are right in front of you.
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Waver scowled in annoyance--mostly at himself, though which of himself it was meant for was unclear.
"...well. Might have been nice to go back and knock Kayneth's teeth loose, but that's more childish and vindictive than anything useful."
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Like the Servants. And most of their Masters, to boot. Maybe even a couple of incidents, since they sure did interrupt a fight or two.
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"...Okay. Let me take this from the beginning--I stole my teacher's catalyst and left the country. Not the best thing to do, but obnoxious rich people should get things stolen from them to knock them down a couple pegs sometimes."
Yes, he's serious.
"So that's how I met Lancer. I don't know a lot about what happened with the others--Irisviel told me a couple of things after the fact, but we were more caught up in my own stupid bullshit and my teacher perhaps justifiably trying to murder me. I know Kayneth summoned Lancelot as a Berserker, Archer--Gilgamesh was summoned by Kiritsugu Emiya, Rider was Tokiomi Tohsaka's, Saber--King Arthur was supposedly the Servant of an agent of the Church, Caster's..." He paled slightly and hid an uncomfortable look behind a cup of tea. "...I didn't exactly ask either of their names. And I only saw Assassin briefly, so I don't know anything about either."
This was already a subject he was clearly having difficulty navigating, shooting Ritsuka a look he hoped was as even as he was trying to be.
"And unless my current theory is very wrong somehow, that doesn't match up at all to what you know."
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She doesn't continue right away, mostly because she needs a moment to organize her thoughts into something coherent and make sure she's remembering everything correctly. The Servants are easy, but the details of those Masters she briefly met is trickier.
"Archer was Gilgamesh, and his Master was Tohsaka Tokiomi. Assassin was Hassan of the Hundred Faces, and their Master was working with Tohsaka, but I don't really know anything else about who it was. Caster was Gilles de Rais, and his Master was a serial killer I don't know the name of. Berserker was Lancelot, and his Master was Matou Kariya. Saber was, yeah, King Arthur, whose Master was an assassin hired by the Einzberns with Irisviel von Einzbern pretending to be Master, but in the singularity the part that had changed was that she really was Saber's Master. Rider was Iskandar, and he was your Servant. Lancer was Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, and Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald was his Master."
Suffice it to say, she got a much better chance to learn that kind of information, seeing as Chaldea was interfering, not participating. And even if some of the Servants were ones she didn't recognize at the time, she's since long learned all their identities. So, she opted to just lay it all out at once before turning her attention back to her dinner.
(Which, honestly, she's getting through pretty quickly while Waver talks, apparently spending so much time in various potentially strenuous activities tends to work up one's metabolism. She should probably either cut back or start a solid exercise regimen here if she doesn't want to gain weight, but that's a whole other matter....)
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"I made extra if you want it." The anger in his voice wasn't directed at Ritsuka, of course, but it was present no matter how hard he tried to restrain it.
He knew, or at least had suspected. And he hated it, reviled the concept with every single part of who he was as a person. He'd been disgusted by the idea ever since the briefest thought of what would have happened if I hadn't stolen it passed his mind ten years ago.
"I had wondered why the Makiri didn't seem to have any presence, so that...makes sense. One of the two I never met would have had to have been Kariya. And what you're saying explains both Assassin's mutiple forms and Caster's-..."
He elected not to finish that sentence, setting down the half-finished cup of tea before he launched it out the window. It all seemed to click together in a way that was slightly-off center from Waver's perspective, and given what little he knew he was willing to guess Assassin had bene paired to the nameless serial killer. Caster's Master had been...no, the less he thought about that, the less nauseated he was.
"Irisviel was pretending to be Archer's Master as you say, but Kiritsugu--the assassin you mentioned--was the one actually holding the contract." Waver confirmed, hand moving idly to a pendant half-hidden under his collar. "I never met him back then, as evidenced by the fact that I'm still breathing."
One thing at a time. Unpack every single thing in a breath and he was going to walk out and start breaking things.
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After all, for there to be an El-Melloi II, then that would mean that the original El-Melloi was no longer around, so that much was a given. Ritsuka just isn't privy to how the mage was killed.
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At least, as far as he knew.
"Caster's Master--Kariya, I assume--died shortly before a monster appeared on the Mion River midway through the war, and Assassin's Master followed in short order that same night. Kayneth picked what should have been an easy fight and died anyway a couple nights after that. Which is sure as hell sounding ironic now."
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair at what seemed like a troubling recollection, hand falling away from a shard of ivory on a chain around his neck as he folded both on the table.
"When all the dust finally settled, it was just myself, Irisviel, and an associate of Kiritsugu's that were left. So for my part, it might be more accurate to say all the other Masters died whether from the disaster, poor circumstance, or their own stupidity."
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Like the kings' little drinking party. Which, while amusing, isn't really terribly relevant or important here.
But, now that she's pretty much given all the info she has, and seeing as she is kinda still hungry...
"You said there's extra?" She'll just, y'know. Grab her plate and go to get seconds. And maybe be in no particular hurry about it.
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