"...Okay."

"I think most people call them 'union-y'. But usually, it's like five minutes of local magic-relevant news and then an hour of chatting and socializing."

Nod nod. "They'll know what I did is all."

"Good point... I'll defend you from rudeness, of course, and I do think it would be best... But if you want to skip, of course you may."

"I should probably at least try it. They're not going to forget if I skip."

"And the foster system might decide you're not socialized enough if you don't attend them."

"I'll be there."

"Sorry. I'm not saying that to scare you - just trying to present the facts as I see them. It's happened to other orphaned Spirit Bearers. There was more to the story, but... Yeah."

"Things don't have to be scary just to be scary to be scary."

"Yeah..."

Oh look, a discount clothes store. He parks.

Clothes!

...Anna-Seraphina has maybe never been clothes shopping before without a clear set of expectations from an outside source on what she was or was not supposed to get.

He has done this before! And has practical, reasonable suggestions, though specific desires are fine.

"You should meet my daughter some time. Not for a while though, she lives in Hong Kong now."

Anna-Seraphina's taste, insofar as it can be assumed to be displayed, seems to tend towards the intersection of cute and practical.

Then they will come away with about $300 of clothes after an hour or so, multiple full sets. He tells Anna-Seraphina about his daughter, Eliza Tower the mechanical engineer, during the process.

She will listen.

...A thought will occur to her!

"...Apropos of nothing, but my second spell came in while I was in jail and I think it might, um, maybe be helpful? With the animals?"

"Oh, do tell. What's it do?"

She describes it.

"Yeah, that's a good one for monitoring. It'd depend on how long it lasts... If you can spin of multiples later, so on. The Sprit Association has testing staff to help figure this stuff out. But I can see that being very useful for making sure animals don't wander off without us knowing about it."

Nod. "I don't know that I can't do two at once, I haven't tried..."

"Then let's try!"

"Yeah. ...When we get back to the house, I don't wanna. Spook anyone. In public."

"They're used to me sending glowing tigers and elephants around once in a while. But if you like."

Supermarket! "Pharmacy section is on the far right. And anything you want for your room, or I don't know hairbrush or something, we can get once I'm done getting food."

"You haven't given them reason to be afraid of you," she says quietly.

"Let's just shop, then."

Nod. Shopping.

There's a pretty clear pattern, if he cares to look; she'll pretty much invariably go for the cutest design of the cheapest or most utilitarian model of a thing available.