What is money?

Seven sat on the train, staring out the window. This was his third train ride, but it still was magnificent! The sites, the cushions, all of this was new to him. The blonde touched the cushions of the seats, poked them, they were so soft, but... What were they? He didn't know. All of the things he could recognize were...

"Chair... Table... Knife... Spoon..." These were the only things he could recognize. He had a fork in front of him as well, and on his plate was a steak. This, as he called it, "soup" was so hard to eat. Seven nearly choked when he tried to sip it and slurp it like normal soup, and someone had to go help.

"Bad... *cough* Soup..." He said between coughs. The person looked at him with a questionable look, and took his steak and replaced it with a bowl a soup.

After a bit, he was done with his food, and after a longer bit he ended up in Clover town. He stepped out, onto the deck, and stretched. Woo! Now I find 'fun.'"

Not knowing what "fun" meant, he was sent a note by his father again, with more weird pieces of paper, with just saying "Go have fun!" He still had no idea what these slips of paper entailled. He tried to sound out the words on it.

"Jeee.... Wwweeellls..."

Ryo smiled as he got off of the same train that the blonde boy was on. He hadn’t been in the same car so he got off further up the platform, but he was taking a bit of time to relax being that he was not busy doing a mission or something else of that nature. So as he rested he traveled, but truthfully he hated to travel because it was such a pain, and he was always out in the sun when he was doing it. He pulled his hat lower over his head in order to keep his face shielded from his new eternal enemy.

As he walked off of the train he was followed by his ever present partner the Dire Wolf Gora. The wolf and he had been in a baggage car being that he didn’t want to give anyone a heart attack, or scare them so as he stepped off he looked around. He couldn’t help but spot the Blonde who was also standing on the platform.

Ryo heard the boy cry out with his Woo, and this made him interested. He slowly walked closer to the boy with a friendly smile on his face, and his spurs clinking with each step he took as he drew up he heard the youth trying to sound out the word “Jewels” and this caught him off guard. The boy looked old enough to know such a word, but that he didn’t was interesting. He stopped next to the boy Gora a short distance behind and spoke “Well hello there. You seem to be in need of a guide.”

Seven was confronted by a man in red. The first thing that alerted him was the sound of the spurs on his boots. He looked up, looking the man in the eyes. Him saying that Seven needed a guide invoked the response of a cocked head from the man.

"Papa give these." He showed the slips of paper, 25,000 jewels. Seven didn't know what they were for. "Where I find 'fun'?" The blonde stores the pieces of paper in his pocket, and slightly adjusted his coat. He wanted to look around, however he realized he might actually need a guide. He'd never been in this area before, and he was tasked with finding 'fun' and somehow these slips of paper tied in with it. Who would give such an infernal task!? The anger growing couldn't be seen on his face, but his obvious cluelesness did.

Ryo listened intently and then he began to understand that not everything was as it seemed with this boy. He frowned and thought a moment about what he would do specifically. Finding fun was easy for him, but what he liked to do for fun, and what someone else liked to do for fun were very different.

Still, he decided that he would give it his best shot “Well, I may be able to help you find fun. If you follow me.” He said gesturing before he started to walk away. At this point Gora followed right after his master. Now moving if the blonde was following him Ryo looked to him with a smile “So you have some money. Do you like games or perhaps you like to eat food?” he really didn’t think there was much fun in Clover town, but he knew that he was the life of the party “Do you perhaps like magic?”

This man was gonna help him! Seven's face beamed with light as he followed the man in red, not being taught the whole "don't run off with strangers" thing the past year of his life. He looked at him with a cocked head of confusion when the second sentence came out.

"What those...? Mo... Nee? Gay... Muz? Eat Food? What food?" Suddenly a thought popped into his head. "Those soup? I eat soup! Papa make soup all time!"

His memories of the lab were far from great, but his memories of his father seemed clouded by his love for him. Seven was only fed soup his whole life, so instead of learning the term "food" for general things you eat, he learned the word "soup." So unlike a normal person, who knows soup is a type of food, he thought food was a type of soup. As for the other two things, he had no idea what they were. Money was something he had... Was it those papers? Or was "games" those papers? He was confused, but suddenly thought of magic.

"Papa say no magic! Magic bad!" He mocked slapping himself in the face, remembering what his father told him. If he ever tried magic he'd be in really big trouble. Big trouble meant a probable punishment in the form of a whipping, and Seven hated that. The one thing he didn't know was that he subconsciously knew magic. His body was made of it, he was forged from it. He had a dangerous magic, and his father didn't want Seven to learn his magic consciously until he was older by mindset... Until his blood gave him a bit more of an evil personality than his current childish one.

This made Ryo frown as he listened to the boy. He couldn’t understand why someone of this age not only had very laxed speaking skills, but also seemed not to know much at all. Still, he would do his best to help the little one learn. At present he watched the boy mock slap himself and shook his head “no need for that. I didn’t mean that kind of magic. I meant tricks. Just watch.” He reached into one of the many boxes on his belt and pulled out a card. The card being the Ace of spades “This is a card. I am going to make it disappear.” He said with a smile. Then with a quick flip of his wrist and an almost unnoticeable move of his fingers he made the card bend behind the back of his hand and from where Seven was standing it appeared as if the card had simply vanished. He then smiled a bit wider “Now watch it come back.” Again he flicked his wrist and made the card reappear in his hand and he held it “That’s what some call Tricks. They are used to have fun.”

He slipped the card into the sleeve of his coat and then looked at him “Now, to answer your questions.” He looked around and spotted a small little hill that was grassy and had a few trees around it. He moved over and sat in the shade of one of the trees pulling out a small folding table which he opened and placed on his lap. He fished out a jewel note that looked exactly like one of the ones he had seen Seven holding and smiled “This is called money. You use it to get things from people. That is called “Buying” something.” He set it on the table. Next he pulled out a deck of cards “These are cards. You use them to play games which is something people do for fun.” Now he reached in and pulled out an apple from his coat “This is an apple. It is a type of food. You don’t drink it like soup, you bite it and chew it.” Now he set this on the table and smiled “Do you understand?”

Seven nodded when the man in red said there was no need to hit himself. How was magic not magic though? Apparently he'd show Seven. Seven looked at the card with interest, but then paid attention to the word the red-clad man said.

"Dis.... Ah..-HUH?"

Seven was astounded when the card seemingly vanished. Once the card came back he was even more stunned. But the man was ready to answer him, so Seven followed.

That paper was called "Money."

You use money to "buy" stuff.

Cards are for games.

Apples are food.

He nodded, having took it in. He was a fast learner, but learned only the simple stuff first. Once the man finished, Seven pulled out his own "money."

"I... Buy card? I want play game." Seven didn't understand prices at the moment. He would spend his entire wallet on a deck of cards if he was told to, but he was determined to get the cards, because he wanted to... What was it? Make them... Disappear?
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OOC: sorry for slow post and short post. I'll make the next one longer, and I've been busy.

Ryo smiled widely as he watched the astonishment that went over the face of the mage. He lived for that look. He loved having that look given to him by those who would watch his petty tricks and then be delighted by them. At present the boy held out some of his money to buy a card.

This made Ryo smile as he shook his head softly “That’s very good. However, cards are cheap. They don’t cost a lot of money." He pulled his own out and held a small amount of jewels in his hand that was much less than what Seven had “This much is more than enough to buy cards. But, I’m going to give you cards.” He said as he tucked his money away instead pulling out a deck of playing cards still in their box and handed it over to him “This is a gift. It is something people give each other because they want to.” He said smiling as he held the cards out for Seven.

Seven stared blankly into the man in red's eyes, watching as he held out the deck of cards. He tried processing all of the information, trying to learn as quickly as possible. Sometimes this backfired on him, as it led him to just blankly stare into space. However, he got the general gist of what the man in red meant. You don't need a lot of money to buy cards. It was simple, however Seven didn't know how much a "lot" of money is, so he tucked his money away and lightly took the deck of cards from Ryo.

"Thank you!" The brightness on his face returned as he opened the box and took out a card, the Queen of Diamonds, and marveled it. He looked at the letter, the small woman and the motif on the card, and looked over the back. Then he put it back in the box. And looked back at Ryo.

"How I play game?" Seven held back the cards to give to Ryo, and crossed his legs as he sat on the ground, genuinely interested in the new concept of games. His father did want him to learn more about the world around him to make him more intelligent, albeit for a very different reason than what Seven is thinking at the moment. His view was to become an intelligent tyrant that would ravage the lands of those who disrespected him, but Seven was just learning about games because it was the interesting thing to do. In essence, his mission for the day was complete even though he didn't know it, Seven definitely was having fun.

Ryo smiled as he nodded his head and watched the boy marvel at the card that he pulled out. A deck of cards for himself pulling off his gloves with his teeth one at a time before he put the cards into his hands looking at Seven with a smile “You are most welcome. Now as for playing a game. There are a lot of games we can play with cards. Did you want me to teach you how to make a card disappear?”

He carefully pulled out one of the cards; the ace of spades and held it up “So to make a card disappear you take only one of them. Then you curl your middle and ring finger behind the card.” He said demonstrating the move making sure Seven can see exactly what is happening. Once there he smiles “Then at this point you are going to wave your hand to make it hard to see, and when you come up you will grip the edges of the card between your fingers, and use your curled fingers to push the card behind your hand.” Again he went slow explaining each step and letting Seven see each and every step to make sure he could understand what was being done. When the card was behind his hand he held it up to be seen “Now if you look from where you are sitting it looks like the card disappeared. But it is just behind your hand. Now all you need to do is flick your wrist while at the same time you let go of one of the card’s edges letting it spring up to make it look like it reappeared.”

The man in red spoke very fast, and used a lot of words that Seven didn't know. Therefore when he explained how to make a card disappear, Seven was absolutely lost. However, when he physically demonstrated, that's when Seven's cognative abilities kicked in. He was a very quick learner when it came to physically doing things. So, he followed the man in red's instruction to a T, only messing up twice however restarting afterwards, then perfecting the technique. The only thing was - the card was behind his hand, not gone.

"Card still here? I do game wrong?" Seven showed the card by turning his hand, as it clearly hadn't vanished, as he thought it did whilst at the train station. That was the bad part about teaching things like this to a child - in this case a child in a man's body - they couldn't comprehend that certain things, such as Santa Claus or simple card tricks, weren't real. This was especially the case here, as Seven lived in a world of actual magic, and there were probably people out there that DID make cards disappear, so he didn't know why the card rested behind his hand, and not in some other realm it disappeared to.

As Ryo watched Seven learn his little illusion he did his best not to laugh at him, and simply kept repeating the physical actions slow enough in order to allow seven to catch on. When he asked his question however Ryo shook his head slowly “No. You do game right. It is called an Illusion. Fake magic. It can be used to make children have fun, as well as have fun with other kinds of people. You said magic was bad so I taught you a game that is Illusion. Not actual magic. You didn’t know it hadn’t really gone when I showed you. Other people you show unless they know the game won’t know it either.” He said with a smile. He knew this boy wasn't normal, and in fact most likely was not playing with a full deck so he had to be careful with how he was speaking and handling things.

At present he began to shuffle his deck of cards with a smile on his face “We can play another game, and have more fun if you would like.” He said as he looked to Gora who was slumbering behind him his head on the right side of Ryo’s body.