"Not necessarily have to, but it's easier? Like, the difference between trying to do a complicated math problem in your head versus writing it out stepwise."

"Huh. Does it help to do it in koizumr instead of drawing it with, like, a pencil?"

"Yeah, it's an inherently magical substance and that--empowers?--the ritual, like, a ritual is sort of a tool for getting more oomph out of a certain amount of mana than a spell would, and there are a bunch of factors there that trade off against each other, but koizumr's magical properties let me, uh, cheat? A little bit? Get more bang for the various axes of buck."

"...the way you described that left me with an image where it only helps for a complete ritual you're going to actually cast and not a draft but the context implies otherwise."

"Because the closer a draft is to something that would actually work, the better I can feel out the places where it doesn't work."

"Like... shooting blanks instead of shooting nothing at all?"

"I...don't know. I have never used a gun."

"Fair enough. Like, uh, making a draft garment in muslin instead of just drawing it."

"Yeah! Not, like, exactly the same, but pretty similar."

"What are you planing to do with your koizumr objects after, get Paula to sell them to R&D places?"

"I can use 'em for other stuff later, break 'em down or build up on them or whatever. I could fill them all in and then add corners and turn them into tabletops if I didn't have anything better to do with the stuff. Certainly R&D places can have some if they want 'em."

"You could have an Etsy store."

"That would be hilarious and I might do it but I think I want to let the R&D people poke at them first to make sure they won't blow up if the wrong esper pokes them or something first."

May theatrically takes a step back.

"They're not going to explode when you poke them. If they have a weird interaction it's going to be with an esper with a, uh, splashier, power."

She pokes it.

It does not explode. Or do anything else visible.