It's Thursday.

"Thursday."

What's the town look like?  In general?

It's a smallish, but bustling, port town! The island they're on is about two and a half miles west of the coast, which forms a rough Ω shape as it runs north to south. The land slopes upwards like an amphitheater into foothills, and massive statues of a sphinx and harpy mark the northernmost and southernmost points of the town, respectively.

There are docks lining the central bay and fancy rich-people houses along the west-facing beaches running up the north and south ends of town, with the regular housing being down in the "bowl" formed by the foothills. The cheese shop Su-Yeong mentioned is in an open-air market that's just east of the docks in the midpoint of the bay. The signs in the market and surrounding area proclaim it to be part of the San Carlucco neighborhood.

If Hali looks for the place Su-Yeong used to work, she'll find herself peering at the mansion nestled between the sphinx statue's legs. It's got a garden full of flowers, which a sixteen-year-old girl who matches the description Su-Yeong gave is merrily tending to. (There's a nervous armadillo investigating underneath some bushes a couple feet away.)

"That's her?  I'm kinda surprised that...there was much friction?  ...Is that her armadillo over there?"

"Yeah, that's her. It's not that she's - cruel, at least not on purpose."

"She's thoughtless," pipes up Morgan. "Her dad spoils and babies her like nobody's business, so she's basically in a mental bubble where there aren't any serious problems and everything is sunshine and rainbows. She has basically no understanding of the concept that most people aren't rich and pampered like her, because she basically doesn't talk to anyone except other rich people."

Su-Yeong nods. "I almost pity her, really, because her dad treats her like… well, a baby. He gives her everything she asks for and a lot of things she doesn't. Like…"

She starts laughing darkly. Morgan continues for her:

"So there's this competition going on right now, right? It's to select the new city representative, and it's extremely prestigious. There's people in the running who have been training specifically for this competition for more than half their lives. And Philomena's dad entered her, because she's his precious little girl who deserves only the best."

"Right," says Su-Yeong, "but the thing is? Her little armadillo is less than six months old, and she can barely lift him even when she's wearing a pile of emeralds. Tobi could probably do better than her, and he's just pretending to have magic!"

Morgan nods. "And she complains about this. Which, again, we get it. She doesn't want the job, she knows she'd suck at it, she isn't that stupid. And her dad doesn't respect her enough to not do things that she obviously doesn't want. But - to act like that's the worst thing in the world, in front of people who make about as much in a week mopping her floors as she's given by Daddy for just a fun day at the market…"

"Yeah.  I'm - probably not in the best position to empathize, because honestly I haven't exactly lead a life of privation, for all the danger it involved, but - damn.

"She needs freedom, and you need not having to deal with rich people bullshit."

Nod.

"Hear, hear. Well, the good news is, it looks like she's at home right now. She… might go down to the market later; I don't think she has lessons scheduled today, but…"

She taps her foot thoughtfully.

"She does have a lesson scheduled tomorrow. If we decide that we really shouldn't go to the market today, I'm… okay with sleeping here one more night, but I'd really rather not. I think what I'd like to do is borrow some of your clothes and go home. My boyfriend should get off work in a couple hours anyway; I think it'd be best if we showed up after he's already settled in. If you need a place to spend the night, I can't promise that he'd agree to it, but I'm pretty sure he would anyway. So… if there's any tests you want to do before you trust me to not ruin your spare clothing, I think now would be a good time for that."

"Worst comes to worst, I can just camp."

"And - I think y'all're doing well enough with control that I don't feel much need to worry?  So let me just..."

She has some spare clothes!  They're cut for someone who has a tail, and is probably rather taller than Su-Yeong, but they're still more clothes than Su-Yeong would otherwise have!

"Yeah, that's true."

She experimentally floats the blanket between herself and Hali as a screen while she changes. It's an interesting mental sensation, and she definitely has to consciously focus on keeping it up, but getting dressed is automatic enough that she doesn't drop it. Her magic looks like it's happy to be used, especially the magic that was pooling itchily around Morgan while Su-Yeong was idle.

When she steps out, her pant cuffs are rolled up and her shirt is untucked to cover the hole where the tail would go.

"Thanks for letting me borrow these. Now, how are we planning to get into town? I don't know how to teleport - I swam here, but I don't really want to repeat the journey the other way, y'know?"

It'd be kinda cool if Hali had, like, water-walking magic or something. But she'd also take a tree transformed into a raft or a straight teleport or whatever.

The blanket has a variety of things that are eager to soak up that magic, too; self-cleaning and self-repairing enchantments go on all Hali's stuff.

"Hmm.  Well, give me a second, I wasn't planning on needing a boat but I can whip up a floating disk or something.  Or just carry you across.  By the way, you should absolutely be trying to use magic pretty often; it still builds up.  ...Heck, throw yourself across the channel if you feel daring.  I put enough magic on my clothes that they won't get hurt by a dip or a telekinetic yank, even if I prefer to have multiple layers of protection from stabbing."

"Well, I guess that points me towards trying to find some sort of magic tutor sooner than later, since I really don't know what I'm doing yet. On the plus side, if I'm still producing crazy levels of magic, I bet I can knock their socks off with my raw strength."

She puts on a posh accent.

"My word, I've never seen someone who manifested so late with such raw power. Are you sure you're new to magic? Why, you ought to be studying at a fancy university… with a full scholarship, of course."

She laughs, flipping her hair.

"I don't mind how we get over, or waiting while you set something up. I just don't wanna get too wet."

She does experimentally try lifting various first-sized rocks off the ground with telekinesis, though, while she waits.

Hali can carry her across the water with judicious application of -kinesis!

She's lifting her boooooones.  She's still somewhat amused that this trick works.

wheeeeeeeee

(Su-Yeong carries Morgan, since he doesn't really have any bones. It's good telekinesis practice anyway, since he's heavy enough to be a little cumbersome.)

"What were you planning to do for your disguise, by the way? If you can swing it, I bet you could tell everyone you're doing a cat costume for fun? It'd get you some weird looks, probably, but you don't look like a cat husk, you look like… something else."

"Oh, right."  Illusion!  Human-looking Hali!  "You only have humans here?"

"Kind… of…? I mean - we've got regular animals, but those aren't people. And there's familiars, but those are part of a human, y'know? And then there's husks, which I'm pretty sure most people would say aren't human, but, y'know, you can't get a husk without a human. But no, we don't have, like… I dunno, dragons or elves?"

"Husks aren't a species, they don't reproduce.  ...Wow, that's really odd, though, that - only humans, and yet, well, magic like the sort that's built into - how husk physiology exists, exists?  I'm surprised some enterprising soul hasn't tried to give themself some useful animal trait ever."

"Well, you kind of can? You can make wings for yourself, or make a hard shell, or stuff like that. But they'd be magical constructs, not really part of your body, and they wouldn't last forever. I'm sure there's some kooky scientist out there who's trying to figure out how to do partial huskification, but you gotta be careful, right, because if there's an accident then your lab gets wrecked and you might get killed. Maybe there are ways your magic and our magic can usefully combine, though."

There's a moment where several half-formed thoughts fight to get out, and fail, but eventually Hali says "I hope so."

"I want more inherent traits, generally."

"Huh, really? Just 'cause they're useful, or you like how they look, or…?"

"They're useful, and they can't be taken."

A serious nod. She decides it'd be rude to pry.

"That makes sense, yeah."

"The more tools I cannot be deprived of, the less helpless I can be rendered when I - face whatever comes.

"And...I think I'm going to have to fight a god, someday.  One that knows all the tricks I had back home because her agents pushed me to make them, in service of the plots she wove.  But now - I'm outside of her range, because the things I know could topple her if I spoke where any of her kind could hear - and they would - so I can - orient, plan, grow beyond the tool she made, and come back prepared to kick her ass.  Because the Spider Queen is an asshole that needs kicking, posthaste."

"Wait, a god? Like in mythology? With the - with the living in a volcano, or getting your eyes plucked out and one's the sun and the other's the moon, or the weird incestuous family trees?"

"I can't say that that's known to be in-correct, though what I am given to understand based on their actions is that most of the interventionist gods just do - spy shit, or throw around armies or big explosions.  They have physical and temporal power, they play with us like pieces on a board - but I don't think they're fundamentally some different-from-us form of intelligence.

"Wow. Well, I don't think I'm really equipped to help, unfortunately, but - if you think that magic from our world will be useful, then that's good. As long as it doesn't… I dunno, draw her attention to here and bring down the spiderpocalypse."