"I'm selfish in general. Everything is about what I want. It's just that I happen to want nice things for other people a lot of the time - the mental framing is still very self-centered."

"... I'm not sure I understand? You want selfless things for selfish reasons? Is that what you mean?"

"Something like that. I want, like, world peace, in roughly the same way that I might want a sandwich. 'Selfish' is descriptive, here, not a value judgment."

"That's... Quite different from how I think. But it's still rather nice," points out Darren.

"I am aware that I'm unusual in this respect."

Darren shrugs. "That's fine? I like you as you are. I mean, I came to the same general conclusion, so it's like - different variables adding up to the same sum."

"How charmingly mathematical."

He snorts with laughter. "Thanks. I have to keep my nerd reputation up, somehow."

"The Dungeons and Dragons and the notetaking could not possibly do by itself." She turns a page. "Gimme a rune."

"Makes sense." She takes diligent notes in the format she seems to be using. "I'm making a batch of flashcards when I get home. And when I have more of them down I'm making charts."

"I've got some flashcards, but when I tried to make a chart I needed bigger paper and couldn't manage it. Maybe if we get something like the huge rolls of colored paper at school, like the ones we use in projects. Or a really big chalkboard or something."

"Excel spreadsheet. I told Charlie I wanted my own laptop for my birthday, I will tell him I need it early for magic reasons."

"But then I can't draw the runes in Excel! I'd have to name them. Some of them I know the names of, but a lot of them I haven't bothered to name and just go with what they look like because I've been working solo. Also it would annoy me to meet another magic person and not have consistent names for them."

"There's probably a way to haul pictures into an Excel sheet."

"Probably, but then I have to have a scanner or try to draw in Paint or something. Which I can't do, because drawing with a mouse is annoying."

"I think I could manage approximations that were close enough for casual reference."

"Maybe you can, but I'm a perfectionist and them being too squiggly would really bother me."

"Okay, then you don't have to use my spreadsheet."

"I'll have to see how squiggly your runes are. Which, by the way, I will make you draw them, later, and correct handwriting. So that'll be fun."

"Thank goodness I have excellent handwriting."

"That's the spirit."

"What general class of problems results if a rune is drawn wrong? It's like it's not there, or you get an unpredictable subset of effects, or it just straight-up explodes, or what?"

"It's like it's not there, which... sounds innocuous enough, except if it's used in a spell and it's there to stop another rune's effects..." he trails off. "Bad things."

"I assure you I am never going to be asking what happens if I do something wrong so that I can then merrily go do something wrong."