Terry and Margaret in Soulfire
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"My outfit isn't inherently more distracting than any other skirt. I'll definitely not talk about my personal life in class, but people I've told will still know regardless of what I'm wearing." She doesn't add that the rule against "distracting garments" is a euphemism for "you can't wear anything anybody else finds sexually attractive", or that determining the acceptability of an outfit based on other people's reactions is itself ridiculous.

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"Given the unit we covered last in this class, you should realize that context matters, Miss Perry. Even though it is not particularly extraordinary at the moment, in this context your current outfit carries a strong meaning and is a symbol of a very exciting and distracting topic. My classroom is for English, not magic. I'm afraid I will have to insist."

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"Since context matters, would you mind telling me if you would similarly require a student to change If they wore, for instance, a t-shirt with the American flag on it? The American flag carries a strong symbolic meaning and represents a distractingly controversial topic as well. Is this about a general ban on symbolism in English classes, or is it about magic in particular?"

She doesn't even care that much about the outfit in itself, but if this teacher is going to give her a hard time for being a magical girl it's going to be out in the open.

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"My job isn't to debate the dress code with students. You may change or you may go to the front office."

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She'll change. But after class she'll go talk to the principal.

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The principal can meet her after a few minutes. He's a middle aged guy who looks a bit frazzled.

"What seems to be the problem miss, ah... Perry?"

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She changed back in the hallway; now she gestures at her skirt. "First, can you confirm that this outfit is within the dress code?"

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"Well, I don't see any obvious dress code violations. There's some issue you're having with the dress code?"

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"Ms. White asserts that my clothes are inherently distracting because they're my spirit-bearer outfit. I can't stop people from thinking about me whether I'm wearing it or not."

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"-Ah. Spirit bearer outfit." He clears his throat. "I'd heard something about that. We do usually give the faculty some flexibility in interpreting the rules. Have any other teachers said something similar?"

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"No, nobody else has said anything. I'm fine with wearing different clothes in her class, but I'm worried she's planning to continue holding me responsible for other people's perceptions in ways I can't control."

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"Well, I don't know if it's other people's perceptions, exactly. Mrs. White cares very much about - mm - order. I think taking off the magic outfit for her class is a good compromise, and in return she can treat you the same as any other student. I'll have a talk with her. If she keeps fussing over you, or complains, say, about people gossiping about you or about magic, I'll back you up and we'll figure something out. If you need me to do something about students bothering you about magic please let me know too."

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"Thank you. None of the students have been a problem." Well, that seems to have been resolved with enough time left over for her to eat lunch.

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She's the center of attention at lunch once she's been noticed! They want to know all sorts of intrusive things, like whether she's fought a monster yet or what her codename might be.

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She will do her best to answer all the questions! She hasn't fought a monster yet, but she probably will eventually. She hasn't picked a codename because she doesn't know what her first spell is yet and doesn't want to just pick something fire-based without finding that out first. Doing magic feels like thus and so except for how words are totally inadequate for this purpose. She doesn't know if she can stick her hand in not-her-own fire and not get burned, but it's worth finding out, no not right now, what if the answer is no, she doesn't care if you do have a lighter. Her raiment does not have pockets but she hopes it will eventually. She taught a genie robotics. Et cetera et cetera. She does manage to get some food down during all this.

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The Phys Ed teacher also insists that gym means gym uniform.

Other than that, the rest of school isn't particularly challenging. Does she go to robotics club, or straight out to the SA?

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She's with the gym teacher on this one, actually, her mundane clothes are better for running in. And while magic is totally awesome, she's not skipping robotics club. She doesn't even have a personal robotics project in the works right now, how else is she going to get her fix? She'll probably leave after most of an hour instead of the more usual 90 minutes, though.

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"We can handle one day without you, you know. Maybe your next personal project will be something to help you with whatever magic you'll do?"

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"Of course you'll be fine without me.  The question is will *I* be fine without something to tinker with. Building stuff to help with my magic sounds awesome, as soon as I know more about how it works and what I might need."

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"I'm sure there's some stuff on high-temperature robotics out there, that might be interesting, if it needs to stand up to fire."

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"Yeah, something fire-related is a pretty good bet. Someone at lunch suggested I find out my fire resistance; maybe I'll make myself some armor or something."

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"Lots of interesting stuff for later. But for now - soccer robot."

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Soccer robot for just a a bit longer and then off to the spirit association!

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From the outside it looks like any other office building. Someone flew off from the roof while she was walking up, though.

There's a secretary doing paperwork in the lobby.

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She really hopes she'll be able to fly eventually.

"Hello! I'm a new spirit-bearer and I'd like to join, can I get a rundown on the paperwork I'm going to need to fill out?"

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