"LEWIN!!"

"LEWIN!!"

Watch out, a nearby stick is flying right for his head.

"WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?"

He does not think to dodge because that sounds like Fujimoto but when he turns to face the man, Lewin takes a stick straight to the forehead.

He lands comically on the ground before quickly sitting up again.

"OW! What was that for?!" he yells back.

Wow, even before the braces? At least it had been when he was around Osceola, that time is complicated but Lewin knows it was also before he became a real handful. His pondering is interrupted however when there's suddenly arms around his head.

"Argh!" He immediately starts squirming to get his head free but finds Shiro's grip is expertly trained to keep him in place. The scarf only does so little to protect him and ultimately he has to surrender. "I'm grateful! Uncle! Uncle!" Lewin yells for mercy.

"No braces, and no glasses. But you kept bugging me about Osceola too, amazingly." Lewin was pretty young. Probably too young, but it could have been so much worse as well. The phase they had was tricky, but a blessing in itself.

Too bad the same can't be said for his adult-self.

"Of course I was worried!!" Shiro barks as he throws his arm around Lewin, trapping him in a tight, squeezing headlock. "You were just a little kid running around on your own! You should be grateful for everything I did for you this last week!"

Lewin nods about the farm. It was generally low level because mid level started to get difficult to control and it wasn't the smartest to raise demons like that inside the barrier.

At the mention of Rin's summon, Lightning perks up. Oh he had question about that but hadn't gotten a chance to ask before! "Did you chant anything?" he asks excitedly, temporarily setting the initial questioning aside.

This is going great! Dennis is getting a good grade in personal research, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve!

"So it's-- the farms, I mean-- they're mostly for low level kinda stuff." Which makes sense, especially now when he thinks about it more in hindsight. Familiars could be loaned out to people, but they would always answer to one tamer and one tamer only. And, as Lewin had put it in their previous conversation, they didn't double up on tamers either. It was a rare thing, which--

Dennis dismisses the thought with a shake of his head. He doesn't want to go there again.

"I'm.. not sure, actually." The teen admits slowly, rubbing his fingers together while he thinks for a moment. "I mean, I think I have a pretty good idea of what the rats want these days. Rongros hates being bored and likes to fight, Vorkith is always pretty hungry but otherwise chill, and Kulmeth is generally the most relaxed one of them all so he's just like, super easygoing. But I'm not really sure how I managed to summon Rin either, other than I used my blood to make my sigil and every powerful symbol I could think of within it because I wanted something strong to help get me out of trouble."

look at you getting a wife already!

His mouth is full and his confusion is deep. "m'ife?"

Friends? Oh, the Sylphs. Lewin watches them silently for a moment. "I'unno," he says. "They don't like when people touch me," he says casually. Osceola had to deal with that at the beginning too, but the Sylph learned to relax as Lewin did.

He's surpressing a yawn. "They'll get used to you." At some point. Lewin could also remove them entirely, but he doesn't want to.

Maybe is an odd answer to give to such a straight forward question. But then again, Lewin is an odd, special child. So, Shiro quietly decides that maybe means yes and begins to idly plan their meal in the back of his mind. Perhaps chicken katsu would be acceptable enough for the displaced, little, American boy...?

"Your friends seem to be upset." He casually observes, trying to make chit-chat while keeping more of an eye on the sylphs than Lewin. "Is there something I can do to help?"

Lewin wakes up in an odd place - underneath a bush in one of the parks, near some heating. While he can't remember getting here, he's warm and cozy, huddled in his poncho and scarf. Lightning stretches and yawns before rolling out from under the bush, startling a couple of early students.

He sits and starts picking out some leaves from his hair. He can't remember feeling this well rested in a while! Maybe he should start sleeping outside more. He can probably set up a camp in the Forest District...

Lightning jumps to his feet with a grin, ruffling the last few sticks and bugs out of his poncho before heading back towards his office.

While he isn't bothered by his apparent bout of sleep walking, he also most likely won't be bothered when he realizes he has lost a few days.

// FYI: Magic anon threads will be continued