"Maybe I'll do a whole series of them! An Atlas of Underappreciated Wonders, Microbes In Their Native Environments, Scenes Rescued from History..."

"Ooooh! Do you have any regulatory problems with like - do you have to not go into offices where people might have had confidential paperwork or anything -"

"It's hard for countries to regulate individual powers that precisely, I think? But when I signed on with Pax Corps, one of the conditions was that I have to be able to say under truth-magic that I haven't to the best of my knowledge used magic to spy on people outside of a few specific cases — consenting subjects, official investigations, intelligence gathering against a wartime foe..."

Inventing spells is even more of a pain than reinventing them, but the symbol of truthtelling was totally worth the months of effort it took to develop in a way that made it work with permanency. Zones of truth just don't scale as well when there's only one caster on the planet. 

It is an official Pax Corps philosophy that societies should have ways to legibly verify that the people and groups with the most power are not abusing it. 

"Hoo boy, is that one likely to come up?"

"The wartime one? Not likely. There's a hard line between staff that are signed on for peacetime and wartime activities, and I'm in the first group for now. I'm not even allowed to talk to the branch that handles active conflicts unless I mark myself open to wartime assignments, and even then there's a mandatory delay. 

"...I probably will, though, in a couple years. People should be able to learn and grow in a place that's not actively on fire."

"Wow, you can't talk to them like on the clock or like if you meet them at the grocery store they have to confirm that you aren't a peacetime gal before they can warn you about the spill on aisle eleven?"

"I'm allowed to talk to their employees off-duty, we just can't talk about war-related things, and if I need to communicate something to the military branch I need to go through an intermediary that documents everything. It's not enforced by truth-magic the way the no-abuse policies are, but a lot of Pax Corps members really don't want to do war stuff or even be associated with the war stuff, and having the option to say 'sorry the official policy is that I can't talk to you' is important to them."

"Huh. I'm having a hard time imagining someone who feels that strongly about it and can't just enforce their own boundaries."

"So, I could have said, 'I don't want the strict civilian designation, but also I don't want to do any explicit work for the military branch right now,' and they'd handle assignments accordingly. I think most of the non-magical professionals take that route. But I'm a magical girl with spying powers and that would make me an obvious target even if all I did was send emails. I don't think I'm ready for that yet." 

"I guess if all the would-be targeters are really convinced about this policy being strictly held and also don't have, you know, unrelated reasons to want to target useful magical girls."

"Yeah, it's not a guarantee. I think there are any groups out there who buy the distinction, including many of the larger states with the scary spy networks. But I think it's mostly for the peace of mind of those who want to draw a bright line for themselves. Honestly, I get it. War is scary and feeling pressured to do something about it can be scary, too."

"I can see that."

"Anyway, yeah, I need consent to casually snapshot people. But I think it'd be cool to ask people for permission to snapshot their past selves doing something they hadn't managed to capture on film, like making a scientific discovery or founding a company." 

"It'll still come out a little 'artist's rendering of', right - or can you use your power and look at your starscape simultaneously -"

"I can use my power on myself and stuff I'm wearing or holding in starscape, which can go a surprisingly long way. For everything else, yeah, but with a few minutes I can sort of — flick between starscape and viewing and adjust an image until it looks right."

"Yeah, you could get really close if not exactly photographic, I'd expect."

"Mhm. Speaking of starscapes, your circle pattern is interesting, how'd you and Xander settle on it?" 

"He did my colors first, had me go through a bunch of different ones in a plain dress, and narrowed it down to the red and blue, and then he wanted a motif and I'm not actually sure how he settled on this one, he didn't have me try very many - did briefly attempt four pointed stars but I kept getting their geometry a little wonky."

"Huh, makes sense. I wonder if you could do patterns with tiny circles, like those paintings that are all made of little dots."

"Pointilism! I'm sure someone's doing it but I don't think it'd actually be part of the same motif I've got?"

"Yeah. I suppose you could do the same pattern in tiny dots."

"I think I'm benefiting from the smoothness of the edges matching in the fabric print and also in the jewelry."

"Oh well. No tiny dots for you."

"Not in this theme, no."