"Eli's definitely the kind of person who's impressed by boldness, I bug him about magic theory all the time and he never gets tired of it."

Impressing Eldibius for real might be downright impossible, which is not going to stop Popp from trying. He's participated in impossible things before, and not trying wouldn't impress anyone at all, least of all himself.

"So you do know Gaia - and you'll talk to her for me? That'd be great! Even if she makes fun of me for asking, it's not as bad if it goes through someone else first."

It figures that the gloomy kids are already buddies. They're both kind of mean by Popp's reckoning but they're mean in slightly different ways that might cancel out?