Su-Yeong nods.

"Yeah. It turned Dr. Malliet into a husk, too, and he took it pretty poorly. Withdrew on himself, and kinda… let himself go, emotionally speaking. He was really rough on Lucy."

"Dr. Malliet? Is he still alive?"

"Yeah.  But - let's leave off on him; you'll have plenty of time later and Lucy really could use a space free of - reminders of the shit that happened."

(They're not tearing up that Su-Yeong and Hali are being so nice about it, about their feelings. If they turn their head away to wipe at their face that could be anything, really.)

"Thanks," they say with a quiet smile.

"It's no problem," says Su-Yeong easily. "Oh, Hali found out some cool magic stuff, d'you wanna hear?"

(A sad look at Lucy, but-)

"Sure!"

"...What was particularly cool of the things we figured out today?  I'm - regrettably lacking context to explain the cool stuff!"

Grin.

"That makes sense. Uh, I thought it was cool when you did that thing that let us see our sooooouls."

She wiggles her fingers ~spookliy~, making Tobi laugh.

"I did do that, didn't I?  I continue to remain more impressed by the soul animals."

"Huh, do those let us do things that your non-animal souls can't?"

"I mean...It's a sure thing for some values of 'souls', 'us', and 'do', but not really because it's all magic underneath?" she - mumbles embarrassedly?

"But the really interesting thing is that - everyone on this planet seems to naturally have a familiar!"

"Huh, really? What about people without magic? Are they… around and invisible, or something?"

He looks around himself, suddenly vaguely nervous of the possibility that there's some sort of unseen critter lurking in the apartment.

"They're sort of just...there, but sleeping?  Do you want to know what yours is, actually?"

She does have soul-sight running, still!  She was experimenting!

"… Sure!"

His would-be monkey is somewhat amorphous compared to the soul-imprint of an instantiated familiar, but it mostly resembles this kind! Most of his forest green not-magic is concentrated in it, though since his internal reservoir is only about a third of the way full, that's not a lot. As Hali said, it's currently dozing on his lap.

She can project his monkey for him, then!

Oh shit it's right there. His surprise bursts out of him in a small laugh.

"… Aww, a little monkey. I think I was kind of subconsciously expecting a rat like Tater. Or a cat."

Su-Yeong laughs and leans over to peck him on the cheek.

"Silly."

"'s kind of the same proportions as Tater," she muses.  "But I think you, Mr. Clever Tool-User, ought to have seen this coming, hmm?  ...That's a joke.  By the way.  I am not legitimately upset or surprised by your failure to predict your familiar's species."

A gentler laugh.

"Don't worry, I kinda figured."

He decides against trying to pet the projection, since - he's pretty sure it's just an illusion, even if it is possibly overlaid over the real (?) thing.

"… Do you think you'd be able to do something like what you did with Su-Yeong to help people who don't have their magic yet?"

"I'm not sure, but I asked her about - my thing - and she said she wanted to be extra careful to not husk me out the rest of the way. Why, did you want…?"

Headshake.

"I'm okay not having this li'l guy, cute as it may be, but… I think that Peony deserves the chance, if she wants it."

"I think pushing a natural awakening the rest of the way is probably a good test case, honestly.  You're about...a third of the way there?  I think.

"But also - I don't want to try it on Peony when I'm doing it for the first time.  I need better feedback.  So...do you have some objection to having a familiar?"

He nods along seriously.

"Oh, good point. Nah, I wouldn't object at all. Though it might cause awkwardness at work… hey, Su, do you remember if I ever actually told anyone that Tater was my familiar?"

(That last part being a joke, Su-Yeong rolls her eyes. Tobi grins, then turns back to Hali-)

"To be clear, that last part isn't a big deal at all."

"You could always be especially sneaky about it."  She quirks a grin.

"Alright, let me just..."

This is actually going to be practically routine, given how her 'spells' work!  Though doing it on a person, especially one that isn't her, is admittedly somewhat novel.

She just needs to aspect the mana she feeds through her mana-concentrating glyph like so, to get the color right.

("Try imagining you already have the magic," Su-Yeong whispers to him, "and you're trying to cast a spell.")