Formula for Success
23st of January 2007 A.D.
Magazine Beach is hardly a grand and stately park, young trees, their branches spindly in the cold evening air reach out towards the sky blanketed grey by winter's touch, but it's a decent place to walk one's dogs without too many other pedestrians and no overabundance of curious kids. So there is nothing too unusual about the three of you catching up with Karl at a light jog and striking up a conversation, or so at least you thought. "Hi..." He takes one long look eyes darting between the three of you and says. "OK so this there is either a hidden camera somewhere or I'm having seeing things."
"Good things?" Olivia asks, her eyes smiling.
"Best hallucination I've ever experienced," he agrees with a dopey nod. The lab barks along like a champ.
"Alas it's not either of those," you interject, ready to run though the introductory speech for the Order of the Cauldron.
"Oh..." Karl thinks to himself for a moment. "Well my third guess is elaborate kidnapping scheme. 'Fraid I won't be able to put up much of a fight."
Lydia snorts and looks down at the husky, as if to say 'good thing you are watching up for this one boy' as she reaches out to let him sniff her hand. "I fear you are barking at the wrong tree in at least one regard sir. I am spoken for."
"Spoken for wha..." He stops, rather than correct her use of the expression like some guys might do blushes beat-red and stutters out. "Sorry I'm being stupid. Can we rewind here?"
"Well you won't have to rewind long, the tape is barely past hello," you interject. By now all of you had stopped and the dogs had decided that it was time to reconnoiter these strange new humans, though Lydia was obviously their favorite, the affinity of blood and oath will tell.
"It's always interesting to meet a fellow alchemist." you offer nonchalantly. "There are a few among the Order who could claim some some talent in the art of brewing, but it's fair to say I have the most expertise in that regard. I might be convinced to part with a recipe if your information proves helpful."
"Alchemy?" he frowns, openly bemused. "Turn base metals into gold, develop a universal panacea, make the philosopher's stone? That Harry Potter shit? No... I mean no? Really?"
With every question the German Shepherd bobs his head a little like he's about to answer.
"For the record starting to lean towards that hidden camera again," Karl finally says. After so long trying to read the faces of immortals and monsters, fanatics and madmen his face is child's play to read, though it is less reading and more becoming aware of the massive blank page where some
kind of knowledge should be.
"You don't know anything do you?" Olivia asks shaking her head.
"Hey, I know plenty of things, got into Harvard didn't I?" Though the words are a challenge, the tone can't quite sustain them. This is not where he had been expecting this conversation to go.
How on Earth could he know about the Well without knowing anything about magic? Heck how could he be using magic without knowing about magic?
"Did you encounter anything odd around campus?" Olivia plows on ahead. "Say last September?"
For the first time since you had come up to him Karl's awkward smile dies off entirely. "Wait you know something about that? Are you saying that was magic? That's... real interesting. Can you tell me more about that."
You get the feeling he was about to say something dismissive and turned a sharp curve. Props to him for that, but it still leaves so much unanswered.
"Welp it looks like we each know things the other would like to know, how about a trade?" you ask, reaching out to shake on it, a literal familiar anchor he reaches for as you knew he would. "Deal! Do you want to sit here in the park or go out for coffee or...?"
"Here's fine," Lydia answers in your place, before adding casually: "You know your dogs are magical too right?"
Karl as it turns out did not. He explains that he had been in the swim team at his high-school and chemistry and biology had always been his favorite subjects. It only takes a bit more prodding for him to confess to having... put together his passions. What had started with buying wierd suplements online had continued with mixing and matching them until he got results, 'really
really good results' by his own accounts, though he only ever managed to replicate any of them consistently on the dogs. He produces a bag of colorful doggy treats that smell pleasantly of herbs and spices.
"Lydia you got anything?" you ask, no bothering to hide it. White the particular nature of her arcane senses is unusual the existence of such senses at all is not.
She shakes her head. "Not magical enough."
"So Alchemy huh?" Karl doesn't seem to notice the byplay, or most likely he is too excited to care about it. "What's that about?"
[] Level up Alchemical Formulas
-[] Write in Three level 3 or lower formulas
-[] Write in Three level 4 or lower formulas
OOC: The reason the vote is structured like that is to make it clear you guys can take lower level formulas if you like, though I do not expect that to be voted. 
