"Makes sense." 

"It's possible that going to the Dean's office all in a group will draw others to the conclusions that you--or one of the rest of us--have enslaved the others, and are bringing them to her for confirmation...I'm not saying we should encourage that viewpoint, we don't want to scare off any potential further allies, but if someone had enslaved this big a group all at once, probably their hold would be more tenuous than if they did it one at a time, and if the master is bringing us all to the Dean then, then that means they haven't done so before then, which means they might still be vulnerable to the being-caught clause. I think we should be ready to ambush any ambushes laid for us." 

"That is an excellent plan."

"What kind of ambush-readiness do you have in mind?"

"Well, I am going to have a large quantity of metal on my person, but that's normal."

"Emily has that, I have very good reflexes for stopping people in their tracks who are about to do stupid or hostile things, Lucy has her words-magic-thing, you have fire. I don't know what combat capabilities anyone else has." 

"I have a sword! And bow and arrows. And I'm physically stronger than a non-cultivator human, although who knows what else people might be, and a whole bunch of charms."

"Wind magic, mostly. My...biological father...was a wind elemental, and I haven't developed anything more complex for attacking people with. Yet." He doesn't look particularly happy with the last word.

"I know how to use a sword, and I have a few shielding spells." 

"I mean, yes, if we want to get into an outright brawl if anyone says hello to us in the hallway I suppose our proposed timing gives them twelve hours to be reconstructed in the infirmary before the next day's classes, but frankly apart from that one incident with the knife I expect most assaults here to be of a more mind control nature."

"The woman who Wei Wuxian rescued me from blew a powder into my face. I suspect that preventing them from taking physical actions towards us is not a fruitless measure." 

"He has a point, that one guy might not have been able to get Erek without his magic wand."

"Guess so. If I had more range I wouldn't need to use props, though, and there could be more like me."

"Sure. I'm like you. And I'll do what I can, and I can do a lot."

"Maybe...hm. Some kind of visual trap? For when they come in view...I could probably set something like that up, give everyone a jacket with magic that does things when you look at it and a pair of goggles that will block it out after lunch when we leave for the Dean's." 

"Ooh, that has potential."

"If we're going to wear matching jackets should I bother to make the communicators distinct?"

"We're only wearing matching jackets on the trip to the Dean's office, we don't want to be ambiently hazardous all the time."

"Communicators?"

"I'd been planning to spend overnight making our little assembly some devices to send messages to each other and alert each other in case of emergency."

"Ooh, neat!"

"Theoretically everyone's looks like a different piece of jewelry. Anyway, even if it's obvious that we're all a group, having the communicators be distinct makes it less likely that someone who's targeting will realize they're a thing to sabotage."

"Yeah. Do you two want some - Erek, will that start to stretch your materials or your time -"

"No and no."

"Sure! Hm, I don't wear that much jewelry--it would definitely be conspicuous if I was taking something out of my hair all the time to look at it--maybe a fan? I have no idea how this works."