"Full power, no control. We have to be locked down and unable to use magic, or stuck in virtual reality to fool our magic into acting on the virtual reality instead of actual reality till it comes under control."

"Oh dear."

"Used to be new eclipsed would go on starvation diets far away from everyone. ...Or just get killed. The invention of virtuality was a big deal."

"I can imagine. We don't have anything like that."

"That's good."

"Our powers kick in around puberty and you hear about accidents sometimes but on a scale of 'his mother's houseplant started growing uncontrollably' or 'she turned the cat purple,' not like what you describe."

"Oh, eclipses are major disasters. Precogs help but we don't catch everything."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"But hey, we can do all kinds of cool shit once we learn how."

"That's good."

"Yup. What kinda conversion rate do you get on -" handwave, "activities to magic?"

"...It's about inclinations, not activities."

"But you wanted to know how you find people?"

"Yes? If I were only a masochist I would need to know who was a sadist if I wanted anything done with plants."

"...mechanically speaking, why is that the case?"

"...I'm not sure I understand what you mean by mechanically speaking."

"What would prevent a masochist who was only that or a sadist who was only that from performing magic if they could not or did not locate an opposite number?"

"If I were only a masochist I could do all the magic I liked to animals. Animals are masochist magic, plants are sadist magic. And if I needed something destroyed I'd need someone who was neither."

"- okay, so the earrings are an advertisement of capacity all by themselves, no matching is involved, the sadism slash masochism on the object level doesn't enter into it? - I didn't interpret 'null magic' as 'destroys things', that's interesting."

"I mean, if you're looking for someone to hook up with, the earrings are useful for that too, but yes."

"Interesting. Psions and mages don't visibly advertise but we often have really disjoint skillsets - I do eidetic memory and precog and some basic conversational telepathy, but another psion might have sunk all their time into psychic combat and illusions."

"Oh, I see--but if most people aren't either, it wouldn't make sense to check passerby's clothing for signs anyway, I imagine."

"Yeah, we're hired through more formal channels."

"That makes sense. Yes, null magic destroys things, for a varyingly broad definition of things."

"Varyingly broad?"