"Should I punch you to compare?"

Theo sighs and then looks at him. "Yeah, sure."

Punch! It is about as strong as the blast. A little bit less, maybe, and less concentrated.

"Ow," says Theo, smiling and-or gritting his teeth a bit. "That kinda hurt."

"You didn't complain about it last time," he says in a sweet tone laced with innuendo.

Theo laughs a bit.

Another kiss! "So, any differences?"

"That one felt a lot more like I was getting punched by you and not a bit of magic?" he says, raising an eyebrow. "For some reason it was– definitely different."

"...it shouldn't have been."

He thinks about how to phrase it and then says, "I think it might have been Sadde, in a totally mundane way."

"What do you mean?"

"… I would really rather not say it," he says. "It feels weird."

"...why?"

"Oh my god are you seriously going to make me tell you really why," he says.

"Yes!" he says in a tone that seems to imply he knows exactly why but still wants Theo to say it.

"It sounds like you already know," he says, sighing.

"But I don't!"

"You really– don't need to know," he says, then looks back at the arm that got magicked. "Doesn't seem to be getting much worse, which I'm pretty sure is weird for that strength a thing."

Norma gets back inside to look for a pair of nunchucks and raises an inquiring eyebrow at them.

"I'm being beaten up for science," explains Theo.

"...well, carry on, then," she says, and goes fetch the nunchucks.

"Yeah, okay, well, neither of these are hurting as much as I'd expect bruises to and they're not actually that bad. I mean, unless I used to get damaged really easily or something, I dunno."

"...well did you?"

"I don't think so," he says. "But again: managed to miss being a demon for seventeen years, or well, more like sixteen and a bit, but yeah, not the best person to ask here."