"Okay, that sounds - useful to know, although I do rather doubt I'll be any good in a physical altercation it probably couldn't hurt to have something holy on my person. Does this have, like, religious implications that I should know about or are 'demon' and 'angel' just more or less facetious names for some appropriately-shaped mystical creatures that don't like each other in loosely the manner of sphinxes and dragons such that 'holy' is a property you can nonspiritually apply to objects, the way you can make things 'nonstick' or 'laminated'...?"

"That was just a hypothesis, I don't know if actual holy things would even work. Never even seen a demon, I've just heard about them from my dad. I'd need to go be a magic nerd and study it. I have no idea what religious implications there are, though. There are probably some but I'm not particularly religious so I just kind of politely ignore them?"

"Well, I'm not particularly religious because I didn't think religion-y things existed in the world, but you've now issued fairly serious warnings about demons after demonstrating your ability to turn into a flying deer while I'm recovering from apparently being a sphinx, sooooo it might be time to reevaluate that."

"Fair point. I can ask dad about the specifics of demons, he's seen them and was extremely serious about staying far, far away from them, I thought I should pass it on. It's also possible that religion-y things existed in the world and humans saw them be super magic and decided to worship them. So, I continue to have no idea and would need to do lots of studying to get an opinion on the subject."

"Right. This is going to be interesting if I don't just wake up." She sighs. "If I wake up I'm going to regret not trying to fly but if this is actually my life now it's kind of important I don't worry Charlie."

"It's not a dream," promises Darren, again. "But yes, you shouldn't worry your dad. You can always fly later, this isn't going to go away. I can help with that, too, though Savannah's better at flying than I am."

"You keep saying that, but you realize that's not actually evidence? It's not really less likely that you'd say that if I'm dreaming."

He snickers, a little. "Okay, fine, want me to start spouting out facts you can't possibly know that you can look up when you get home? To prove my sentience and how I have my own knowledge base."

"Well, if I'm not dreaming, I will continue to be able to trade in human parts for sphinx ones at will even after taking a nap, and that's going to be more convincing than something I could have forgotten I knew."

"Right, which was why I wasn't trying that earlier and just saying, 'No this is not a dream.' I don't exactly have a way to prove that this isn't a dream other than to keep existing and not being a dream. So. Not a dream?"

"I don't expect you to singlehandedly prove to me that this isn't a dream. Look at me, operating in ways that will leave me safe and stable even if it is not instead of deciding to flap around for kicks. Just, be aware that I'm reserving judgment till I've woken up in bed and tried the tail thing."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure there exists a real Darren. I think I fell asleep sometime today, not two weeks ago or whatever. Although to be perfectly honest with you if the last two weeks were a dream that would be kind of great?"

"Yeah."

Hug.

"Um, sure, but the neck thing was an accident. I'm going to need to practice before school. Lucky it's a Friday and I already did the shopping."

"Yeah. I don't know of a way to check without chucking a medallion at him, though, so - it might be a mystery. Maybe there's a way to figure out through magic without disrupting the spell if he's a sphinx."