"Okay. So they retired and had kids..."

"They retired partly because Mom found out she was pregnant with us and had a hasty courthouse wedding," she snorts. "And Mom got a job at the University and Dad respecialized from the kind of shit his horrible teacher was force-feeding him into useful neighborhoody kind of stuff and had Art Baby and Social Malcontent Baby. I was apparently an adorable little monster when I was a little kid."

"Awww."

"My elementary school instituted like three new policy changes while I was there that were directly or indirectly because of me."

"What were they?"

"Well, the first time was in first grade when the gym teacher who was watching recess was horribly inadequate at preventing bullying so I decided to also take advantage of his negligence for a spot of light vigilanteism. Things sort of escalated and by the time the school stepped in it was quite clear that something had to be done. The second time was in second grade when I convinced my parents to make a fuss over the school doing something Christmas-themed but not Hanukkah-themed--uh, Christmas is a Christian holiday that's gone kind of secular, and Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that's heavy on tradition over theology. The third time I was in fifth grade and I read through the whole student handbook to find out what exactly I was not allowed to do to dissuade a certain classmate from bothering a certain other classmate and now there are more things in that category that people are not allowed to do."

Annie giggles.

"I've stuck with public schooling this long more because I suspect it can benefit from me than vice-versa."

"I mostly stuck with it because my mother teaches kindergarten and believes in it. I didn't stir things up that much, though."

"I'm probably going to the local university because my mother teaches there," she nods.

"Remind me what she teaches?"

"Genetics!"

"Cool. I bet this world's got the field more advanced than mine."

"Seems like a safe bet, I don't know how new all the technology is but I'd be really surprised if a chunk of it wasn't relevantly new."

"How'd you become magical girls?"

"I got--fed up. With people. In general and in particular. And I wanted to change things. And Emily wanted to be right there with me when I did."

"How's that work in general...?"

"Becoming a magical girl works by wanting power for nonselfish reasons, and if the source of the visions notices you doing it it gives you a vision."

"Huh. What constitutes nonselfishness?"

"It's hard to tell for sure."

"I wonder if I would've counted at some point if it hadn't been about you being in danger."

"Good question."

"Any way to find out?"

"If there is, it's not immediately transparent to me."

"Nobody gets duplicate visions or anything? I was a little too preoccupied to ask the whatever any questions."