A Story of Spare Parts and Something Else (Touko):

"I appreciate your help in the matter, Doctor Fiddleford. Is that the woman you were referring to earlier when I asked you to find someone intelligent and bright enough to assist me in the destruction of all demonic entities?" Telos said to a man inside a rather old antique bookshop, gesturing towards a red haired woman in a orange coat nearby. The man, Doctor James Fredrick Fiddleford, was an old acquaintance of Dr. Stein's, and was the owner of said bookshop.

"Yep. That's her. She comes here once in a while looking for whatever books she can on the occult. And not the small stuff either. I've seen her purchase some of the bigger tomes I have." Fiddleford responded. A few weeks ago, Telos had called him asking him to keep an eye out for people bright enough to help him in his little war against all the demons, which is why Telos was currently here: To persuade her to help him.

"Very well. I shall attempt to verify your claims, and if they are correct, persuade her. Thank you for your assistance thus far." Telos said to Fiddleford, then proceeded to walk up to the woman.

"Excuse me, miss. Pardon the sudden intrusion, but... how much do you know about the supernatural, particularly on the subject of demons?" He asked her.

It was just another day for Touko, but it was a momentary rare visit to the bookstore. She knew there wasn't going to be anything great that would catch her eye. In fact, the lady came here to kill some time that she had left over. There wasn't a lot of people occupying her time for what she had to offer. While flipping through some random text from the shelves, someone apparently tried to get her attention. She idly glanced over to the towering figure of an old man after pushing past another page.

"I am Telos Techne. And you are...?" he said, bowing slightly. As he did so, he subtly looked at the text she was reading.

It appeared to be a text on the history of Jungian psychology, and a rather large one at that.

Dr. Pierre, he remembered, had a P.H.D in Psychology, and specialized in Jungian psychology especially.
He remembered reading her thesis with her at one point back in the day...

"Wait. That line of text... it is incorrect." He said, pointing to a line of text on the page she was reading.

"Eugen Bleuler was not one of his influences. He was his doctoral advisor. That is a rather large error...." Telos said. "I find your choice of reading material interesting, by the way. Jungian psychology is certainly fascinating, at the very least, to me." He added, tone still the same as before, serious, but not in a threatening manner.

"Anyway... I have heard that you possess a significant amount of supernatural knowledge. Is this correct?" Telos asked her.

"Aono Touko," Touko raised an eyebrow at the robotic-looking man. She had just been scanning through a cooking manual for little breads and specific blends of coffee. The redhead wasn't sure what exactly this old man was on, but perhaps he was senile. Her interest shrunk even more so. "What do you want?"

OOC:

"What? Wait a- oh. This is rather unpleasant. James warned me about this..." Telos thought, recalling James's words about the occasional glitch in a system. He took a few seconds to reboot it, and decided to redouble his efforts towards accomplishing his intended goals.
At least he had been able to get a name out of her, thus far. Something to look up in the meantime.

"Hm? My apologies, Ms. Aono. My vision has been failing me at times. I was hoping to ask you a few questions concerning your apparent knowledge of the supernatural." He said to her.

Her disinterest was still apparent. But at least she'll hear him out a bit, considering he's some weird old man with robot parts on him. Normally Touko would be in the mood for some conversation with mostly anyone. The old codger tried to sound smart, most charlatans try to. The redheaded puppeteer usually kept her own knowledge to herself unless asked or warranted. Right now, depending on the type of questions this one asks, it might either pique her interest or cause her to run off because it was wasting her time in a spectacularly boring manner.

"Thank you. There's exactly one question that I want to start off with." Telos said, noting that probably whatever he did next would determine wether or not his redoubled efforts would ever pay off.

"What do you know about demons, particularly on their Modus operandi in general when on this mortal plane, left unchecked? I imagine that, judging from what the owner said about you purchasing several large tomes on the occult recently, I would think you possess quite a bit of knowledge on that subject." He said. He knew it might be a difficult question to start with, but he was confident she would be able to answer sufficiently.

As for why he didn't explain why he asked her, it was a conversational double-or-nothing type of thing in this case. It would either completely dissuade her, or, it would get her to stick around for long enough for him to ask her more questions.
A gambit, for sure, but in this situation, he had no choice but to gamble on whatever little of her attention she had left.

And there we go. She finally lost interest. If she hasn't put the book aside where it belonged, Touko has done so now. The woman walked past him and left.

[Exit]

"Well, i'm sorry that didn't work out. I'll get you better information, next time. Shame your optics glitched up though. Too bad it can't be helped..." James said, shaking his head sadly. He knew Telos needed better parts, but he couldn't afford them, even with Bismarck's help.

"You do that. It will not stop me from carrying out my plans. The fürchten shall assemble, or I shall forever remain in stasis. Säuberung der Dämonen." He said, referencing the name of his little anti-demon group, and it's motto. The name, translated into english, meant Dread, referring to how the demons instilled dread into the people... and how they would now do the same to the demons. The motto meant "Cleaning up the Demons." An apt summation of what they would do.
It would be only a matter of time...

Mission Complete. Grade: D. No more out of character.

Soundtrack:

Opening (Social Links): Team Telos, Assemble!

Telos's Theme (1): One-man War