Tobi nods, squeezing her hand. He focuses on Su-Yeong's advice, and his magic production does indeed start to pick up to a pace faster than he's bleeding it off.

With the help of Hali's spell, the speed ramps up even more, and the illusory monkey's tail twitches. It also opens it eyes and - seems to look for Tobi, though it seems like it doesn't have a very precise sense of what its physical environment is like.

The pace of magic production hits a plateau after about a minute of smoothly ramping up, and then within five minutes or so Tobi's reserve is sufficiently full for his eyes to light up green. There's a shimmer of magic - Tobi's magic - and his familiar now exists.

"Congratulations; you did it.  I think you could have done it on your own if you just - gave that same thing you did, more time."

Tobi laughs - a bit shakily; the magic generation seemed to be causing some physical anxiety symptoms and he feels surprisingly fluttery from it.

"You're probably right. I dunno how much time, though."

This time he can scritch the monkey - he'll have to take some time to decide on a name.

"How're you feeling?"

"Excited!" she chirps. "I really like having a body. And being me! I used to be mostly you, which was okay, but now I'm me, which is even better! For me."

She scampers up onto Tobi's shoulders.

Hali laughs.  "Clever girl."

Monkey grin! Which, since she's a familiar and not a regular monkey, has the human meaning and not the monkey meaning.

"Thanks!"

She starts fiddling with Tobi's hair. Having hands is great!

"That was… surprisingly easy. Uh - I can get Pea and ask her, if you think that the process is good?"

"I think so, yeah."

"Okay."

The kids are playing outside; it's pretty easy to fetch Peony. (The monkey hops onto Su-Yeong's shoulder while he's out. One surprise at a time.)

Up the stairs goes Peony.

"Hey Susu, hey Susu's friend… hi Eyepatch!!"

She bounces at the sight of Lucy.

Surprised wave!

She looks at Hali.

"Tobi said that you wanted to ask me something?"

"Yeah.  Do you want me to do a thing that'd help you turn your magic on?"

Her eyes widen.

"You can do that? Um…"

(She looks at the ground and fidgets.)

"I think I want that, yeah. Do I hafta do anything?"

"Not really, but it'll help if you can imagine what having your magic would feel like; holding that feeling in your head makes it go faster.  Separately, you might feel a bit weird, like your heart's racing a bit; take some deep breaths, you'll be just fine.  I want you to tell me if something feels wrong while this is happening, though, okay?  Even if it's just that your heart is racing."

Nod!

She scurries over to the couch to sit between Su-Yeong and Tobi. The latter's monkey hops into her lap.

"Hey! You shouldn't worry, 'kay? The magic feels really good, and it doesn't hurt. Hali and Tobi tested this first so we could know it would be safe for you, and I'm what happened!"

This cheers Peony up! She nods again to Hali.

"Okay, I'm ready."

Hali smiles, and starts the infusion process, watching everything carefully.

The process is smoother than Tobi's was, mainly because when Peony first concentrates on what her magic might be like, the production hitches up faster than Tobi's did! (It also has been doing this when something makes her nervous, or excited, or…) This feeds into the spell much more easily.

"I think I can feel it!" chirps Peony, fluttering her hands. (Her native production tapers off slightly as she loses focus, but by now the spell's doing enough work that she doesn't lose any ground.)

In about half the time as Tobi's took, a weasel appears, flopped on her neck.

"You did it!  Yay!  And hello there, you!"

Peony bounces a little, then turns to Su-Yeong.

"Susu, what color am I?"

Indulgent smile as she peers into Peony's new eyes.

"Light purple, like a lilac! I'll go get you a mirror."

"Huh!"

She's not totally sure how to feel about the color, but… it's okay. They aren't here. She doesn't have to see them anymore.

"...Everything alright there, Peeps?"

...She has no idea whatsoever about why she just said that, but she is going to roll with the nickname and hope nothing explodes!

Peony seems to find it unobjectionable! The nickname, anyway.

"Um…"

This is something she hasn't told even Tobi and Su-Yeong yet. She feels braver than usual, enough to say it, maybe, but - she'd rather tell her new guardians first? Even though Hali is very nice. Maybe she can say something that's true but doesn't give it all away.

"There were some people who were mean to me before I met Tobi and Susu. And the meanest one had purple flower colored magic too."

Peony does not realize that Hali probably has enough information to make an educated guess about who "some people" might be, at least in relation to Peony.

"...Oh, honey.  I'm sorry to hear that.  Do you want me to see if I can change it, maybe?  I know I wouldn't like having magic that reminds me of the people who were mean to me all the time."

Unfortunately, she kind of does, fuck you Lolth,

That's an option?

"I don't think so," she decides after a moment of surprise. "But thank you for asking."

(Su-Yeong gets back with the mirror! Peony looks in it and nods again, apparently having firmed up her decision to keep the magic even if it reminds her a little of… before. It's hers, not theirs.)

"It was worth doing, and I'm glad I did it.  And - if you change your mind, later, offer's open then, too."

She's going to go and give Peony some space, she thinks.  Or rather, privacy.