"… And I would never phrase it that way either," he says, "for that is an extremely horrifying way to put it."

He starts giggling.

"It's a good way to phrase it, though."

"It's horrifying," says Theo. "Kinda really horrifying."

"Why? It's, like, the most graceful thing ever!"

Theo shakes his head a bit and runs a hand through his hair.

"It's also true, did literally no one else notice in your previous school?"

"I don't know!" he says. "I don't think so, like, I was still good at basketball and stuff, but they didn't go 'oh my you look dashingly graceful today are you perhaps a demon' or anything."

"Not the demon part, but people here at Sunnydale High did notice you played very well, even without knowing about demons!"

"Yeah, they noticed I was good?" He sighs.

"Hmm. Muggles."

"Yeah," he says. "Muggles."

And then he looks back at his arm. The place Sadde punched definitely seems to look worse overall, despite having hit him less badly, but it still doesn't look particularly bad.

"So, conclusion, apparently magic is less bad on you?"

"Apparently?"

"You can't do science without softeners like that!"

"No, no, that was a 'yeah, apparently so?'" he says.

"Oh. Right, yes. Okay. So, what other tests? Real dye instead of magic dye, maybe? Though I expect that won't work, now."

"Yeah," he says. "Should possibly test that at some point anyway. Uh, could test if this messes with my ability to do magic, not that I necessarily want to get that over me."

"...have you ever done any?"

"No? I don't know how long it takes to do– anything, I was just saying."

"We could get you a book and teach you," he says dubiously.

"… Is there any particular reason you say it like that?"

"Magic is evil?"

"I mean, yes, but– yeah, okay, nevermind." Shrug. "I think it's basically now testing magic on me and seeing what I can get rid of more easily then."

"Like what?"