“I heard someone refer to you as spooky. Which—I wouldn’t have noticed.”

"Even mundies notice."

“Mundies didn’t grow up breathing spooky. You don’t feel any worse than, like, my papa.”

"Wonder what my mum'd think of him, then. I don't know if I'm just getting the being-her-daughter exemption."

“Exemption? For what? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

"For being spooky."

“Is she generally bad about that?”

"I don't know anyone else who's spooky just like I am. That's why I wonder what she'd think of your dad."

“Well. What she’d think of my papa and what she’d think of my dad are different questions. My papa is a good person doing the best he can. My dad is…well. I love him very much. But, uh. He doesn’t count as a good person.”

"- oh I see."

Hey Backchannel what exactly is it that she sees, is it just the gay dads thing or does she have relevant insight into the not counting as a good person bit?

Gay dads thing, it wasn't really on her radar. She knows gay people exist but it's uncommon for them to wind up with children in her experience.

“Yeah, that’s a thing. Anyway, my dad is not ongoingly causing problems but he also decidedly doesn’t count as a good person. For however your mum would take that.”

"Sometimes somebody'll want to quit maleficing and she'll let them sit in her circle for a year or two and they can get better that way."

“Is quitting maleficing more complicated than just not doing it anymore?”

"Well, if you're too far gone you can't use normal mana any more for one."

“Huh. Well, I’m glad they can be helped. Do you think what she does is something we could manage with the whole gobs of mana thing?”

"Dunno. There aren't really spells that assume you've got gobs of mana and also a malia habit, why would anyone have both."

“Well, it’s very weird, but in my experience weird things happen all the time. Just not, like, specific, predictable, or Heaven forbid convenient weird things.”

"I'd ask her but she's not, you know, here."

“Yeah. I wish I could share Dream Together. Just, like, because she’s your mum, not because I want to know this thing specifically.”

Nod. "We can send letters out with the graduating seniors, but, you know, only when they graduate, and you have to ask like five people to be sure."

…To make sure one survives, not to make sure one doesn’t go back on their word. Oof.

“I’m proper bullshit and I’ve got months and months to figure something out for the graduation hall.”

Nod nod.

“Oh, incidentally, when I said I expected to survive staying up all night killing mals in the gym, someone said something about a sports rivalry? Do you know anything about that?”