"How did these items get made if there's no way to learn magic? Are the magicians homeschooling their children and not writing any books? How did you learn?"
"Half this stuff is antiques," says the shopkeep. "Look, asking me a dozen times isn't gonna make the answer more to your liking. I don't have Hogwarts in the basement, deal with it."
"But where do you get the stuff that isn't antique - who made the Avalon itself? - isn't anybody panicking about the medallion supply? -"
"Kid, nobody knows how to make medallions."
"But some people apparently know how to make luck charms and protection amulets!"
"I'm not going to give out my suppliers' personal information. I wouldn't do it even if you weren't annoying."
"There have to be books -"
"Does this look like a library to you?"
"I sort of get it? Restaurants in particular have brutal margins and it's hard to get investors. If they can't put together enough capital to be picky about buildings or refit them," shrug, "I mean, it's not like they're hedging me out for being Asian, if they were doing that a pox on the lot of them because it's strictly more effort. What's really enraging is when the elevators in train stations are broken. And stay that way for weeks. And the one thing that sets me off every time is when a total stranger sees me stand up and wants to know everything about my medical history, as though I didn't increase aggregate demand for wheelchairs and thus improve the market. It's like they think I stole it from a paraplegic."
"That's...most of the reason I was worried about being discourteous when I asked why you had it, to be honest."
"You were fine. The average case is someone I wasn't even talking to in the first place, who jumps straight to chiding me. Or yanking my chair away while I'm standing up. I don't even park in handicapped spots," snorts May, "which would almost earn a little suspicion over a scarce resource, if the people who take it on themselves to be the wheelchair police weren't such jerks."
He shrugs. "In my experience, when someone has to deal with something unpleasant frequently, even experiences that would otherwise be innocuous can become grating, if they're similar. It didn't turn out to be necessary, but I would prefer to be more curious rather than less. To the extent my curiosity allows, I suppose, or I would have refrained from bringing it up altogether."
"Believe me, I understand being curious. This is also the reason why I find a reason to mention that I'm Japanese early in an acquaintance if I can. Because it's not clear when people are supposed to ask, but it would be weird if someone knew me for four years and thought maybe I was Mongolian or something."
"Pfff. So anyone who doesn't know that is doomed to come to the right conclusion for completely the wrong reasons."
"Unless they know my middle name, yeah. Charlie - that's my dad - is completely assimilated, my last name is Swan, no help at all."
"The curry place doesn't close until late, so...sixish? Sevenish? And I don't think my car is equipped to hold a wheelchair, if that's relevant."
Which, characteristically, she writes down. "I guess if we spend long enough being total nerds that day I can just drive us there."
"That...would probably be useful for making sure my sister doesn't shove me in a tuxedo or something similarly ridiculous."
"I don't know if she would do that specifically, but, well--I've never been on a date before, and she's been known to get...enthusiastic about things."
"Oh, if I really don't want her to she won't. She'd only do that kind of thing if she thought we'd find it funny that she had. And I love her dearly. She can be trying at times, I do admit, but I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world."