She beams at him, delighted. "Oh, cool! So you're... uh, a graduate, or an undergrad, or...? I am not entirely clear on how it works here yet. Canada is a strange place, I have to stop and remind myself not to call myself a sophomore to avoid confusion."

"Graduate. Focusing on alchemy, but I've also studied computer science and enchantment—more people should combine those; the number of parallels is incredible."

"I bet! I was leaning natural alchemy in particular because my dad teaches chemical engineering, and has this habit of accidentally spewing really detailed lectures on the subject if someone sneezes. It got me thinking about... how much could be done if small changes were made to substances? And I have this helpful familial relation with a person who just might know where to poke, and there's a tantalizing hint of a potential of unique leverage that is kind of hard to resist. And I'm not sure I should try."

"Oh, interesting," he says. "Traditionally, chemistry and alchemy mostly stop interacting once they've learned how to avoid each other—natural alchemists have to know enough chemistry to avoid combining things that shouldn't combine, and chemists have to know enough alchemy to avoid accidentally doing any—there have been attempts to combine the two, but it's been an understudied area ever since humanity first realized they were different things to begin with. You could be onto something. Or you could be totally wasting your time; there's only one way to find out. Such is the way of science."

She giggles. "Such is the way of science," she agrees. "We'll see, I'm leaning majoring that way, anyway. Economics as a department has not won me over, for example."

"Oh, has it not? What has it done to earn your wrath?"

"It has not earned my wrath," she corrects, amused. "It has failed to earn my favor. There is a difference. It is a perfectly respectable and somewhat fascinating field, but it's sort of..." She trails off, looking for the right words. "Okay, so it's about creating models of things, and coming up with clever ideas, and then convincing other people that I'm right, except none of us really know until we try it? I think it's a useful sort of thing to take a couple of classes in, but I feel like I'd become frustrated if it were my whole world. Whereas in the science community, everyone is out to prove I'm wrong anyway and I know where I stand. I wouldn't be guilty of... Thinking I'm right and then turning out to being grievously wrong. With science it's different. Yeah, I might have been wrong, but I convinced other people to test something new, so it's still a net victory for science as a whole. Whereas if I mess up with an economic model, oh no now we're in a recession."

"Hm. Yeah, I see that."

"Also if I went into economics I'd have to smile pretty for so many people, it would be exhausting."

"Are smiles a required feature in an economist? I didn't know."

"Not precisely smiles, but since economics is entirely a subject based around other people, and then convincing people that I'm right... yeah a pretty smile is kind of required sometimes. Especially for a woman in a male dominated field based on social graces. Maybe not all the time, in all circumstances, but probably enough to outpace my inborn desire for professionalism and go right into 'augh, people, why.'"

"If I were you I think I'd be worried about the same problem in any other branch of science, but maybe that's just the cynicism talking."

"Well. Yes. The only way I could maybe avoid it would be to flee from the male dominated fields entirely and take up, uh, nursing or teaching or something coded feminine. But that seems..." She makes a face. "I'm smart and talented, and why should I not make it easier for other girls that are probably just as smart and talented in the future and might want more options?"

"Very reasonable!"

"I try to be!"

"You appear to succeed!"

"Thank you," she laughs. "Flatterer."

"Ah, so you belong to the school of thought that says it's still flattery if it's true?"

"I do! The word is based on the action done, not with what implement it's done with. Though I suppose admittedly here I could also describe it as 'flirting.' If I were feeling charitable."

"Charitable?"

"The rules of flirting are arcane and complicated and often unknown. Who knows how they work? I am not so arrogant as to proclaim that I can disentangle such things without assistance," she says, with mock seriousness.

He giggles.

"Flattery, though, is absolutely fair game. Completely different ruleset. Not entangled with flirting at all."

"I contest that assertion."

"It is admittedly wild and baseless and also blatantly false," she admits.