( Squints. There’s a small beat where Strange looks down at his crystal, and he’s ticking over the words and that dry-as-bones tone of voice and searching for the trap, the mockery; suspecting there is one, but he simply doesn’t know Isaac well enough to say. Hmmm.

Safer territory, then, sidling back to referencing the mage’s former student: )

If I start doing musical scales to practice my spellwork, I’ll give you the headsup, so you don’t have to be subjected to the horror.