"Two of those are variables we can vary easily! If not necessarily independently of each other."

"Yeah, for varying them were you thinking of having you or Myra try to teach me how to do something simple with it and seeing if that changes anything" if i don't just fail to learn it in the first place "or having me redo the last bit of magic I successfully pulled off, or something else?"

"Most witches, which I think you are- It's a learning style and tradition name, not necessarily a gendered one- Develop their magic on intuitive lines. They have a few narrow categories of things that they can do, and it's very idiosyncratic. They adapt spells and rituals they read or hear about to better suit themselves, experimenting and practicing until they can do things reliably. Things like reciting a short poem to light a campfire, or holding a feather charm to float in the air, or rituals to enchant things... Succubi have a standard curriculum because our magic is essentially identical and channeled through the succubus heart- It serves the same functions as a human one, but also is the, uhh, CPU of our magic?"

Shrug.

"It's up to you. We could try all three, and take readings as you progress... I will note, completely clinically, that I also wanted to get readings of what happens during succubus related activity, both the biomancy and other effects."

To Myra, Alex says "It's neat that succubi work like that, and also now I'm wondering if the categories of magic a given witch can do ever expand or change?"

And to Plasmatic he says "I'd just want to try the first two then, and I'm tentatively fine with having readings taken while engaging in succubus related activity, (at least if Myra is fine with it as well?)" That last part is directed a bit at Myra as well "though uh i'd kind of want some privacy during it as having devices taking readings during it would be okay, it'd feel weird if you were nearby while it was happening, sorry?"

"That is precisely the reason why I mentioned it in such an indirect manner. Privacy is important, after all. I'm loath to leave my precious devices in the hands of others for now, so perhaps something for later." Plasmatic shrugs. "My proposed test procedure is to continue with unstructured magic use, without any teaching, for a while. You would simply continue trying things, and I continue to take readings and observe how they change over time. After that, Myra trains you in a specific spell or technique, and we take readings throughout the learning process. Naturally, since you're expending a limited resource for my experiments, I am going to pay you. Would you prefer cash, gadget, or favor with miss Myra?"

"That proposed test procedure and leaving getting the succubi related readings for latter seems good to me! and for payment uh" It takes Alex a bit to think through which to ask for, as while getting and using the favor with Myra to pay for some biomancy would be preferable in the short term, he'd also expect that in the long term he could exhaust and pay for all the high-priority biomancy stuff he'd want within a few years just having sex with Myra/giving her essence every days, and probably opportunities for getting mad science gadgets would be alot hard to come across then that, so "I'd probably go with a gadget?"

"Excellent! I've been wanting field tests of some of the more minor things, anyway. Any ideas what, exactly? Think - consumer products. Flashlights, watches, alarm clocks, phone chargers?"

"A phone charger sounds good to me!"

"Oh, I think I have something like that already!"

He rummages around in one of the shelving units for a bit.

"Aha! Here. A wireless charging pad. The pad doesn't need to be plugged in- It just needs to be within twenty or so feet of an active electrical circuit. Please let me know how it performs and if it breaks."

"What kinda magic do you want to try learning, Alex?" Wonders Myra with a smirk.

Alex accepts the charging pad from Plasmatic and replies with "Thanks! and I will!" then says to Myra "Magic for cleaning uh stuff up and maybe illusions too? I was also tempted to say biomancy too but presumably that's as difficult to learn and do safely as non-magical medicine and surgery?"

"Yes. Also, I don't know how to teach it to witches as opposed to succubi. The metaphors, examples, and sensations we use to pass it down are the same between us- But witches and magical girls are all unique just by their nature. Cleaning magic, illusions- Okay, but what kind of cleaning magic? Animated brooms? Conjure soap? Or just vanishing unsightly things? How should the magic know what's dirty and what's not? Picture it in detail, what you want to accomplish, what needs to change about reality to make it so. Does it give you a spark in your soul? Does it make you feel like showing off or jumping in excitement? Is it cool? Does it feel right?"

"I was thinking more the just vanishing kind? Erasing gross and unpleasant and unsightly things from existence."  And as Alex tries to think on how to give a definition that encompasses all the things he'd want cleaning magic to get rid of, and not all the things he'd want it to not disintegrate, he eventually realizes that he's probably being too broad and should just pick a specific example and instance of something unclean that he'd want to disintegrate and imagine cleaning it with magic and switches to imagining a specific scenario.
Of having some food-stained plates and being able to just wave his hands at and speak some words of nonsense who's only meaning is 'i'm about to do a specific magic thing' and leaving them as spotless and unsullied as the day he first bought them, without damaging them.

"Most sorcerers have a hard time convincing their magic to do something new. It's almost as if it learns habits or is trained, like an animal, there's a slight degree of separation from yourself. And yet, an odd unity. Plasmatic's loves making stuff- Putting magic into things and leaving it there. A Magical Girl's loves athletics, responding smoothly to its wielder in a fairly narrow expression- They throw lasers around, or control ice, or operate telepathy, in a manner that is far more adaptable and smooth than the equivalent witch spells. A witch might chant up an ice wall, but they could never switch from making an ice wall to throwing spikes quickly like a Magical Girl can. A witch teaches it to do complicated things by laying out the steps, in poem or song or deed. Yours is still pretty new but it's worth thinking about what path to do. Witch is the easiest- You can mostly just make up your own spells."

Suppressing the urge to descend into paranoid indecision and worry about whether he might accidentally make terrible irreversible build decisions, but this time with real life magic, Alex responds "Thanks for mentioning that! and uh, how worried should I be about accidentally locking my magic into only being able to do a limited of things which i wouldn't actually care for, or taking too long to decide which stuff I'd want to try and teach my magic to do and not being able to do or teach it as many things with it as i would've been able to do if i had been quicker about figuring things out..."

"Oh, sorry, I'm terrible at explaining this... It's not... Like a game with irreversible choices? It's just a matter of which skills to practice and become familiar with? If you spend a lot of time playing sports, you get good at sports. You build up muscle memory. If you spend a lot of time reading books, you start to read faster and be more thoughtful about what you're reading. The slight separation between you and your magic doesn't really change that, that's just how learning things works... Sure, going to medical school is ideal preparation for becoming a doctor, but it doesn't prevent you from pivoting and learning carpentry instead."

"Ooh, sorry for misunderstanding, so it would more be that because it's not possible to learn and maintain every skill, I should probably put thought into which magical skills I'd want to learn and would be willing to put in the effort to maintain, and if I end up changing my mind on what I wanted to do with my magic, it wouldn't be impossible or take more time and effort to pivot into something else then it would've been to learn the something else in the first place? or would I be misunderstanding something again?"

"Yeah, it wouldn't be impossible. It might be a little harder if you have habits that don't work in the new method to break... But it just would mean starting over, more or less."

"Got it!" Alex responds, and after waiting a few moments to see if Myra wanted to add anything else, goes back to attempting to do cleaning magic for the first time.
And immediately realizes that his attempts will need something to clean if they're to have any hope of going anywhere and asks Plasmatic if he'd have any junk Alex can attempt to clean and which it wouldn't matter if it's damaged in the attempt?

"Oh, no, this is fascinating. Hmm, where was the, um... Aha!"

He looks in a particular drawer of a red toolbox and produces a bundle of tangled rubber-coated wires, plus a greasy ball-bearing ring.

"Something melted and dripped on these a while ago. I was going to throw them out. And this bearing, the grease inside is a component, not filth, hmm? But no big deal if you remove it. And stand in front of the detector, please?"

"Thanks and will do!" After tentatively accepting the wires and ring from Plasmatic, Alex moves to stand in front of the detector and starts trying to magic again, starting with the wires because the sticky yellow stuff that had dripped onto them is more offensive to his aesthetic sensibilities then the grease on the ring, and because trying to remove stuff from just the outside and not the inside of an object seems like a slightly more difficult task that should be attempted after first achieving some smaller success.

Alex starts to imagine and visualize what the wires might look like clear of the gunk that's currently stuck to them and without being damaged in the process, clean and spotless without any sign of what used to be on them, and starts trying to will his magic into making that reality.

This does not have any observable effects on the world.

"It helps if you have a little poem or ritual to go with it. Like... How you found me. Even if it's very silly, it helps."