"I'm indestructible. Hell, you breathe fire. 'These critters are fluffy and weak' is not the reaction I worry about, honestly."
"...The alternative is not needing to. The alternative is no one having a motive to try to crush your society because they've got something to gain from trading."
Alli visibly attempts to put words together; it's not her strength. "I don't know how to explain either. You seem to have this one way this could go, in your head? I think it could go better, or it could go worse, or at least go badly differently. And you're usually all about research, and reading all the books, and looking at all the options, and I don't really get it."
"I don't know that it's going to go the way I expect, but deploying information about magic to the general population first and separately loses a card I might want later."
"...huh. That works, actually. My brain accepts this as valid May. Carry on." She pauses, considering her friend. "But hey, also? Maybe you should talk to more critters about this. I mean, Emma was almost totally unhelpful, but she's probably right about people having opinions." She grins. "Plus you've been to what, three Avalons? And been a critter for all of six minutes?"
"You'll delay us longer if you make it until Isabella's allowed to drink."
"Yeah." Pause. "I don't like how quickly you assumed the worst possible interpretation of what I said and stuck with it until I happened to find a justification you liked. I know we haven't been hanging out that long but still."
Alli squirms a little and shrugs uncomfortably. "I know. You're just. One of the most magic people on Earth? Planning to change the world? Probably going to succeed, at least for critters? More so if you succeed in coming out? It's a lot!"
"I'm panicking a little. It makes me freak out sometimes! ...Even if I misunderstood and have no reason to."
"I mean that - explains why you were upset after you came to the conclusion you drew..."
"I mean, I did say that if it was an explanation issue it wasn't a big deal...? I'm bad at thinking about things when I panic, dude. Maybe we just panic differently."
Before Alli can come up with a response, Jenny shows up. Where she's been for the start of break is presumably fetching the plastic bag she immediately offers to May. "Hey. Er- hey. This is for you."
There's a cake and a bag of cookies, and a folded card. "I'd like to send one to Isabella too, if you have her address," she says, mostly to the floor. "From me and Father O'Brien. I just- I'm really sorry. We. Both of us. We didn't mean- he said he actually tried to stop them, once he found out, but it was too late."
"I have her address." She writes it out on a notebook corner and hands it over. "It wasn't your doing."
Jenny tucks the note in her pocket. "You can probably get lifetime cookies out of it anyway," she admits.
"I'm not going to trade on your priest making a mistake to turn you into my cookie servant."
"Yeah, I... sorry," she mumbles again, then gives May a hug and flees. She doesn't want to be around when May reads her apology note. Yep, that's totally her reason. No crying here.