"Yup."

"I suppose I'll find out at some point."

"Prima facie it seems unlikely. You can stop my using my magic but not stop me from having it... I guess you haven't tried suppressing a mod or costume change which is what I'd expect a swarm's shifting to be like."

"Naively I expect that if that's possible at all I would need to be much fancier."

"Yeah, that's my guess."

"I don't...like the idea of doing that, to another magical girl--I suppose perhaps unless I knew she was about to turn herself into a cryptid, but I'm dubious that I could know that with sufficient certainty beforehand. It feels like it would be violating something that shouldn't be violable."

"I think sometimes bits of swarms are caught for experimenting on. Or you might find one wild."

"That's fine, I don't mind doing whatever to swarms. I just think some people would be justifiably frightened of me if I could and the ability extended to magical girl starscapes and it got out."

"People would tell scary stories about you at campfires."

"Oi, you're right."

"I don't think it'd be a big deal if you had a rep for being scrupulous about voluntarism, though."

"Probably. I should probably cultivate one regardless."

"Yup. You're already a bit potentially scary."

"Well, scrupulousness about consent is a good thing to have in any case."

Nod nod.

"Maybe someday when young magical girls are looking for things to do for money one of the options will be, 'well, you can sign umpty waivers and consent forms and sit in a comfy room doing homework or reading or what have you while Katarzyna the Metamage plays with your magic'."

"It's much easier than making ebony!"

"It is! Although I do think it's marvelous that we have fully renewable sources of nigh-arbitrary non-edible organic materials."

"There's no reason you can't do edibles, there's just less money in it."

"Edibles can be done, but due to both the mass of edible organics consumed each day and the fact that some people are going to be squicked by eating something that used to be a person, we're not going to be able to replace killing animals for meat the way we've essentially replaced killing elephants for ivory."

"Plus it hurts more to remove in a way that leaves it existing to be eaten, yep. I think there's some people who are very animal rights and do seal meat and stuff so there's less reason to club seals but no way is it ever happening for chicken."

"I can respect someone who has the courage of their convictions to the point of having their flesh harvested to protect animals."

"I think it started as a publicity stunt but didn't stay that way or something? I read the first two thirds of an article on this six months ago, don't quote me."

"Reasonable. I think I'm glad that it's theoretically possible, even if I'm completely disinclined to do it--if I were ever trapped somewhere with a knife but no food source--it's one of those things where I don't ever expect it to come up but still find it soothing to have a contingency."

"If I were trapped with no food source I would grow plants. Remember we can also do plants! Which have no nerves!"