[General reminder that transphobic comments will be deleted and the commenter will be banned.]

"I did not realize how much the spell meant to your family," Yoshi said.

"Oh, it doesn't," Teige replied offhandedly, picking up a bit of string that had been lying on the table. "The spell is dead simple, you've seen. It's the family tradition that's so damn important."

"Er, that's what I meant," Yoshi said uncertainly, watching as Teige looped the string around his fingers and passed it between them back and forth, forming different patterns as he went. "Your grandmother wouldn't be upset that you're teaching a total outsider this?"

"My grandmother doesn't speak to me anymore." Teige's tone was matter-of-fact, though he was looking at the string around his fingers rather than at Yoshi. "Me, or my mum. She disagreed enough with Ma divorcing my dad, but my being transgender was the last straw, as t'were. She expected Ma to disown me, but Ma didn't. So out we went."

Yoshi frowned a little. "...Disown...for being transgender?" she said, as though she didn't see the connection between the two. Teige had taken one loop of the string in his teeth and pulled it up gently, forming a sort of narrow triangle with a twist in the middle.

"Happens often enough," he said, keeping the string in his teeth. "Earth's a deadly place to be trans."