It is night, about 60F(15C) degrees, and there are clear skies. Ankle high mist flows through the area. The mist is heaviest At Birch and Franklin
There is a waxing gibbous moon.

Mercy slides her dim half-lidded amber eyes onto Seraphina for a moment, giving only a curt nod in acknowledgement of her statements.

Matias is forced to reply again on his phone and shakes his head with a chuckle and a sigh. “Alright.” he puts the phone away again, turning it on silent. “I apologize bad timing.” his hand comes up to adjust his glasses as he spies Navessa and beckons the redhead over. “Instructor Navessa, this is Miss Matlock.” and then to the student. “This is our new Arts instructor.” and with those introductions made he dives right in. “I can do a remedial class on ritualism next week if you think you can find time to attend. Is tuesday at 1pm or thursday at 8pm better for you?”

Mercy perks up a little at the offer, some signs of life yet existing in the otherwise languid teen. “Thursday at eight’d be good, sure. ‘Preciate that. Think another student might be interested too, if you ain’ mind two of us.”

Mercy then turns to Navessa again to regard her more properly, an upnod thrown to the woman after introductions are offered on her behalf.

“It will be an open class.” Matias assures Mercy. “There have been a few classes on ritualism over the last few months but I have no issue doing a remedial course.” he explains to Mercy as those slate-grey eyes slant to Navessa after the exchange.

There’s a nod of greeting for Seraphina and another for Matias as she approaches after sending off another text and Navessa drops into one of the chairs. And then another nod for Mercy as well with the introductions. She pulls a hairband out of a pocket and works on tying her hair up into a rough sort of bun. She lapses into listening for now, though pulls her sketchbook into her lap, opening it to flip through to a blank page, laying a more loose sketch opposite as she starts working on something.

Always curious, and a little nosy, Seraphina leans in a little, as if this is even going to give her some indication of whatever Navessa is sketching. “What’re you working on, Navessa?” she asks, letting Matias and Mercy continue their conversation on remedial magic.

Mercy takes no issue with that, if anything there’s a subtle display of relief in the way her narrow shoulders lower a touch and she bobs her head appreciatively. “Heard, thas’ perfect then. Thanks teach, ain’ bother you or yer fellows any longer.”

Mercy had already started to pivot around but freezes mid-turn, eyes flicking between the faces of the present staff members prior to settling back on Matias. “The former, why?”

“Ritualism and magic can be challenging. While anyone can enact a ritual or perform magic. There is a certain bottleneck of natural talent. So knowing whether you have the innate affinity or not matters for everything but the basics.” Matias clarifies in a conversational baritone to Mercy

The sketch resting against the left side shows a rough design of a Chinese-inspired wall panel of a dragon design. Two dragons facing a central pattern. It seems Navessa is expanding on it, fleshing it out in more detail. She looks up to Seraphina. “Oh, a piece that Esme has commissioned for the auction house. It’ll go above the doors into the auction hall proper. She just approved-” a nod to the more loose sheet, “the concept sketch.” There is a glance toward Matias and Mercy as they discuss magic further.

Mercy reaches a hand up to run it back through her mess of auburn hair, brow knit slightly. “Makes sense. Ain’ sure I necessarily got the aptitude, but understandin’ it seems like a good firs’ step, yeah? Even if I don’t end up bein’ able to use it as well as others.”

“Of course. Knowledge is the key to power.” Matias recites to Mercy before making a ‘go on’ gesture. “Have a good evening Miss Matlock.”

Mercy dips her head again and this time she flicks Matias as well as the others a two-fingered salute before whirling around the rest of the way. “Later!” she calls out while scurrying off.

“Very cool!” Seraphina enthuses to Navessa. “How much do you charge for commissions, anyway? I might want to get something. “I don’t know how busy you already are.” She upnods to Mercy on Matias’s final dismissal.

“Depends on what you’re looking for,” Navessa says to Seraphina with a small shrug, giving the departing student just a wave of her pencil. She doesn’t look up from her work. “I just sold a marble statue to Esme for five hundred. About-” she holds out her hands, finally looking up, etching out something roughly a foot tall and a bit over a foot wide. “And she put a deposit of the same amount on this. But we’re going to try to find real jade for the centerpiece, so that’s going to drive up the cost.”

A few more lines etched out, something erased and then redone. “I sculpt and paint, though my painting isn’t quite as good. Oils, too. Sculpting… I prefer to work with wood, but I do stone, marble, cast things. I’m a little between setups though. I just bought an old church-” she points vaguely east-ish. “the next block over to convert into a gallery and studio. So it’ll be a bit before I can really work on anything. So I can’t do rush jobs right now.”

“You mentioned involving magic with your art. Have you been experimenting with anything you might be showing soon?” Matias asks Navessa in a conversational baritone of a voice as the only students in the room seem to busy studying for mid-terms to approach the Professor, Instructor, and Assistant.

Pulling out her phone to read a message, Navessa sends off a reply before tucking it away. “Not yet, no. The person I’ll be working with to study magical pigments and their use has been fairly busy, but hopefully soon we’ll be sitting down to work on it. I want to be able to make the pigments themselves myself as well as utilize them in some of my art. I have plans to learn tattooing, also, to help with those want ink imbued with power.” She tucks the pencil behind her ear, shifting to sit sideways in the chair with feet dangling over the arm. “But magic in art can be fairly dangerous, too. Considering the lasting nature of it, that it can be seen by anyone-” she gestures absently.

“I don’t think that matters much if your studio and showcases are here in New Haven, though,” Seraphina says to Navessa. “Sure, there are few who come to the city green as Kermit, but they don’t stay that way long. it is the very nature of New Haven.” She leans back and flicks her hair behind a shoulder, watching students wander about the space.

“I think she means, imbuing magic into something anyone can look at can be… disruptive in general.” Matias explains to Seraphina before launching into… a story! “There are some semi-famous pieces. They travel enshrouded and covered. When they are shown the viewers become overwhelmed with supernatural compulsion to possess the piece, to stare at is unendingly. They claim the beauty of the piece, whichever one it happens to be at the time is otherworldly.” he pauses and looks between Navessa and Seraphina. “Now whether the art is -that- good or whether it is just a ritual diagram with enchantment to make the viewer compelled to desire it. Who knows. But magic in art is potent.”

“Yeah it’s not necessarily a matter of someone being aware of magic or not. It’s the fact that done even slightly wrong…” Navessa gives a small shrug. “And some do it without realizing they are, which is the more dangerous ones. They might lay some working into their art, unknowing, and it doesn’t trigger until someone who is gifted comes along and the painting, just waiting for that bit of power…” She mimes an ‘explosion’ with her hands. “Doesn’t matter that I’d be doing it carefully, it’s still a risk.”

Seraphina listens to Navessa and Matias, letting the two speak on magic in art, having not a lot to bring to the table, as her magic is a bit different than what they speak of. She texts, and occasionally adds a thought. “I suppose there is that danger, spells do often have a way to go awry.”

“I saw you have a class next tuesday. Has anyone given you a tour of the campus. Shown you the art rooms?” Matias asks Navessa and then in an aside to Seraphina, “Waiting for the mist to clear to head over to the brownstone?”

“Its just fog. I could leave at any time,” Seraphina says, starting to rise, as if Matias was suggesting that the woman take her leave.

“It’s a city-wide one. I think the dangerous mist is still on the west side,” Navessa offers as an aside. She gives a shake of her head to Matias. “No, no official tour. I did some wandering on my own and found the art rooms the other day.”

As Seraphina begins to get up Matias checks his watch and looks around. “I am going to hang out another ten minutes incase anymore students show up. I do appreciate you coming though Sera. Tell Hale I said hi?”

“You know, you have a phone and you know where we are, you can always say hi, yourself.” Seraphina tells Matias, leaning in and down to smoosh him in a one armed hug. on her rise, she wiggles her fingers at Navessa. “Good luck on everything!”

“That is true, but when you are walking over right now it seems so impersonal to send a text.” Matias weathers the one-armed hug and then squints at Seraphina before waving to the departing southern belle and shifting his attention to Navessa. “Unfortunately a lot of school events have been low attendance of late.

“Mmmm.” Navessa lifts a hand to wave to Seraphina as the woman departs. “I was just about to say, glad to see everyone so excited to meet their new art teacher.” She does not seem especially bothered by it, but she does start packing up her sketchbook.