He wants to wait until they're closer to the prospective next date before setting a specific day and maximise the probability he'll be a boy, but once that happens they can have another Successful Date.

That probability is a bit of a sticking point, yes.

(She might not have been the easiest person to explain it to, but was pretty strongly motivated to see Sadde's point of view.)

And after the date they can nerd about magic some more, right? ...that can even be part of the date, you just have to include some kissing!

That is the world's best verbed noun, so yes. Definitely. They do both have a pretty much infinite appetite for magic nerdery.

The topic wanders (he makes sure it does) and he wonders aloud about these light-based constructs, golems and weapons and such.

"They aren't made of light, exactly, just glowing. How brightly depends on how well the stars are aligned, so it helps eyeball whether it's about to fade."

"They're not? What're they made of?"

"Could say it's spirits? There isn't really a material substrate involved."

"Huh. Cool. They'd probably be super-effective against anything darkness-themed, yeah?"

"Maybe. Depends what you want to do with the darkness-themed thing. Yes if you're fighting it with a construct shield or weapon, no if you want to store it in a cup, and I don't think the sextant would have acted any differently."

"Now what would work if I wanted to store it in a cup...?"

She answers, and they're back to the nerdery. (It's the cup, of course; it'd just be less effective depending on what's being stored; also: distinctions between a cup as a storage mechanism and some other container that's mostly irrelevant because there's no box constellation, brief mention of the chalice as an implement...)

Oh has he mentioned he made his body into an implement?

He had not! Does that, like, work? She looks at him, presumably through her Sight and not for any non-magic-related reason to stare at his body.

He teases that she doesn't need this excuse to stare at his body, but explains that it did work and that he is not in fact nearsighted.

She glances away and is maybe slightly embarrassed, but then resumes the nerdery and starts questioning him about the effects.

He needs the glasses to see the mundane world, but he has a lot more control over his body, better reflexes, gets less tired, is stronger, faster, all that jazz.

She is on the whole happier with her spindle—it's more useful for complex workings—but that sounds several different varieties of really cool. Except maybe the glasses thing; protecting against nearsightedness is inconvenient enough when it's not life and death. She compliments him on the symbolism, with the absolute self-ownership and all. Too few practitioners would be able to do that one.

The spindle is cool, too, but he didn't really have access to anything like that, so.

Yeah; the spirits infusing it are some of the same ones behind the astrology setup. It would have been harder without an existing tradition making professional contacts, so to speak.

Tradition?

She's the successor to a not-very-long line of Astrologers. Sort of like having a recognizable family name, but less so.

How'd it get started? Is it always only one person?

Doesn't have to be; she wasn't the Astrologer at the time. Being part of or even just working alongside a group that's been doing the same thing for a while can make you more recognizable to the spirits they interact with.

This one started with someone a couple decades back with a whole lot of maps and lights on timers. Once the astrology analogy got going, their little "tradition" followed along.

What inspired them to start this particular way of doing magic?