El Goonish ShIVe: Damn It, Dan, Stop Teasing Us!

[Calemyr]

Tara confirmed* that if Diane had magic it would be, like Susan, the ability to summon magical weapons, remember?

*Or at least implied, with "potential vampire hunter," followed up by the spider aberration saying she would be able to "summon the bane." Nothing related to her words becoming supernaturally compelling to mortals.

She's got the Raven inborn Talent for magical weapons (thus making her a natural vampire hunter). However, magic focuses on giving people abilities that suit their identity (as best as magic's big-picture perspective can recognize anyway). Magic marks, on the other hand, rely on Talent.

Use Sarah as an example. Two immortals used two means to offer her magic. Jerry offered her a gender flipping spell because her connection to Elliot (and Tedd and Grace) left an opening for magic in her identity - until she considered that aspect of herself and removed it through honest introspection. Pandora, however, identified a powerful but deeply buried Talent that she could tie a magic mark to. (I think it's also worth considering the possibility that her interning with Tedd was an intentional effort to create a new opening in her identity for magic. By happily, even eagerly, engaging in shapeshifting experiments she might be able to mold her identity into something that could be given magic.)

Susan's understanding of magic and a great deal of her identity comes from her Talent, since the twins gave her a mark tied to it and used her as a vampire hunter when she was way too young to deal with killing a monster in human form and then provided no emotional support afterwards when she really needed it. Those deep emotional scars, along with her love of the hammer cantrip, formed major bullet points in the Cliff Notes version of her identity. So her first spell is a freeform version of the hammer.

So what are the bullet points in the Cliff Notes version of Diane's identity? I don't see her Talent being among them. She's not a fighter in any way, and seemingly never touched a weapon. Instead, she's a cheerleader with a gift for manipulation and a desire for family that was warped by repeated disappointments into a game of playing "dumb boys" for their money. So, if she was given magic via mark, she would have a "summon item" spell of some sort. If, however, she was given magic via natural awakening, such as by living in a high magic environment and then being exposed to magical spells and beasts, her first spell would be social in nature. And Pandora said people have a natural tendency to use spells they have even if they don't know they have them.

Given how over the top the reaction to her speech was, how creeped out by their reaction Diane was, and how freely Dan admits it all doesn't make sense, something special is in play. Diane having awakened without realizing it seems the most reasonable answer to my mind, being in keeping with what we know of both the setting and Diane. We'll see the truth eventually (be it two weeks from now or ten years), but for the time being it's still fun to speculate.

Edit: Also worth noting - what is probably the single most influential spell Diane has witnessed? Tengu's "spike punch" spell, which hypnotized and shapeshifted everyone who drank it into easily influenced clones of either Nanase or Noriko (we haven't seen Noriko's face to know how different they are). Including at least two people Diane truly cares about, making the event deeply personal to her. Whatever effect is making the students act so oddly feels to me to be somewhat similar to the influence half of Tengu's spell. Just putting that out there.

Edit 2: This also would work as an effective bridge between her and Adrian. As far as we know, Adrian is the only well educated mage in the school. If he witnesses or hears about this event, he may feel obligated to give his daughter the arcane "welcome wagon" treatment. You know, the whole "Yer a wizard mage, Diane. Here, have a spellbook and here's a few people who've already gone through it and can be a support group" speech. I can't think of many better avenues to break the ice between the newfound father and daughter, and it would pull her deeper into the Elliot's circle of friends.