Tycho may have been all smiles and hugs, but Ford wasn't sure this was a good idea. He probably should have said something to that effect the first time it had been brought up, but again, he'd never expected that Tycho was actually planning on going through with it. Being an animal sounded fine, Ford supposed, but there was a considerable gap between something being worth doing and worth dying for. Didn't animagus attempts often lead to people dying, or was Ford misremembering something? He definitely thought he'd heard stories about people getting stuck with mangled, half-animal limbs, at least. Not that either of these were likely to deter Tycho.

"Maybe you could try it at a hospital the first time," he suggested with a frown. "Just in case. I don't want anything to happen to you." Ford had said this without thinking, but on hearing it out loud it seemed too vulnerable an admission. He wasn't normally one to shy away from sincerity when the moment called for it, but it seemed like they were out of step on how serious this moment of the conversation was. Tycho was making sweeping gestures with his arms and emphasizing the word marvelous, while Ford was more or less admitting, through his tone if not necessarily in words, that he would be distraught if anything were to happen to Tycho.

"None of my other friends' dinner parties are half so interesting," he joked, a feeble attempt to match Tycho's levity and distract from what he'd said a beat earlier.

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