Is she - yeah, okay, the Indian-looking girl is definitely coming towards Dasha. Looking like that it's a toss-up if the girl will have English or Mandarin or both, but her Mandarin's worse so better start with the English. She sits on the panic and catches the accent on her name before the first syllable is out.

"Hey. I'm Daria Chernova, Kiev."

Oh, an enclave kid after all, though Kiev's not a major one. "Annisa Marunduri, Surabaya. Who's here from Kiev this year?" How big is your enclave and what does it have to offer hangers-on, and also how much does it need them.

"Just me, the rest of my cluster's a year or two younger." Volunteering the size of the group next year looks too much like she has something to prove. (She thinks. Maybe it just makes her look weak? - and she's overthinking it and she can work out if she said something wrong later, when she doesn't need her face smooth and her voice steady). 

just me', resources on the outside but not really on the inside, only technically an enclaver. Maybe looking for allies rather than hangers-on, though freshman year is far too soon for real allies who'd stick out their neck for you because you're part of their long-term big picture plan to survive. 

(Annisa is tempted by a tangent about how clustering wouldn't work in Surabaya, because Indonesia as a whole gets a very limited allotment and if anything you space your kids so they aren't competing directly against each other for slots, but that's too self-pitying,)

"They'd better have some impressive care packages planned." That's a tough position you're in, but also one that suggests you're more useful after this year. If subtext even translates in a language that isn't the first for either of them. Annisa's good at this at home but she's not at home, anymore.

"We don't have everything nailed down yet but they're bringing me an extra power-sharer for sure." Eventually father gave up on trying to teach her the social graces most of her cousins soaked up like a sponge, but this hint isn't hard to miss.

"I do wards, focused on detection lately but the affinity's for most kinds."

"Well that's useful! I do weapons."

"Oh, that's very good too! A lot more offense than I've got, that's for sure."

"Well, I hear you need both. I have an enchanted dagger, and it's much cheaper to kill things with that than to fry them, but I'm risking my arm every time I get close enough to use it."

"I've got a couple poison darts but those are only good for a couple throws each unless you can find refills. But I've got my sleeves if I'm stabbing things," she gestures at the embroidery on her long-sleeved shirt, not quite holding it out for inspection.

Annisa looks a precisely polite amount, which isn't very much. Looking closely at anyone's defenses is looking at their enclaves's close-held secrets, in some ways, and is also mostly useful if you want a way around those defenses. "Refills, is that alchemy?"

"Yep. Enough to slow something down a bit isn't even that expensive, I've got that memorized in case I can find the materials for it."

"What materials? I'll be on the lookout, if you'll trade for some of the poison. Never hurt a knife to also be poison."

"The worst is joro venom, those aren't too rare but you have to kill them in a way that leaves the venom sacs under the head intact."

"I'll keep it in mind. What's your room number, I thought I caught sight of you coming in here."

"263A."

A little bit of a smile probably doesn't make her look like an idiot who thinks they're here to make friends. "I'm 255A. If you watch my back while I check my room after dinner, I'll watch while you check yours."

"Oh, we're right next door. Do you want to disassemble the drawers then too?"

"Yeah. What were they thinking giving us drawers??"

"Maybe the school materialized them so it didn't have to waste energy on anyone who didn't even bother to take them apart. - though there's a lot of mundies this year, I hope someone warns them."

The mundies aren't going to make it even if they get all the good advice in the world but she doesn't say that. "Chicago must've had a lot of slots. I think I've seen more Americans wandering around in street clothes than there were successful applicants in Indonesia." She rolls her eyes, so as to convey that she's not complaining that the system is unfair, not being the kind of person who is stupid enough to think systems might be fair or that other people might be moved by their unfairness. The Americans do stand a better chance, realistically, because they're richer; it makes sense for them to get most of the slots.

"Oh yeah. I guessed ten earlier but I think it must have been more than that, I've seen five at least and I haven't looked over nearly half the crowd yet. There was some girl in pajamas who was smart enough to go and hook a New Yorker first thing, I guess if he ends up sticking around she'll do all right."

"I saw that. Who knew that the best strategy for seducing New Yorkers was to come in in pajamas and give them tearful hugs. In two years everyone'll be doing it. I worry that even if he sticks around, she'll be out of her depths the first time something gets into her room. ...maybe he's in the market for an idiotproof dagger for her, I've got one of those."

She snorts. "If you end up asking let him know I've got some wards for trade, I've got one that'll even color-code the mals for her. Mostly useful for noticing psychics but it wasn't actually hard to build in some other details once I had that down." It probably isn't necessary to say she'll owe Annisa a favor if it goes through? God, she misses Sasha.

Daria presumably has just as much of an in with New York enclave boy with the mundie girlfriend as Annisa, ie none, and could ask herself, but if Annisa is giving off the impression that she's capable of passing along tips to New Yorkers then so much the better. "That's pretty cool. I assume you're artificing track?"

"Yeah, we thought languages until my affinity showed up, it's why I have Mandarin, but my wards usually need to be anchored to something. Same for you?"

"Yeah. We figured out my affinity pretty early - well, we thought it was just knives, but we knew I was artificing. Had my father working very hard to get me capable of doing swords - "they're just big knives, girl!!" and then one day I got a slingshot and had it holding a little shock-spell by the end of the day. Has to be a weapon I can use, turns out, and I was too small for my swords."

Aww, that's cute. She isn't oblivious enough to say that.

"Huh. Can you persuade it that your book's a weapon because you can wack people on the head with it or something?"

"That's one of the things I want to try in here - well, not books, giving a book the opinion it's also a weapon sounds like a great way for it to eat you once it gets sick of you, but - can I get shields if they've got a little bite, can I do something for detection or warding if it's also usable as a weapon - I never got it at home but we were saving for my induction, by then, and didn't have much play money on top of that." They were approximately penniless. Annisa's pretty sure her father was routinely going to the airport and robbing tourists with mind control; when he didn't additionally come home with fancy tourist food, they lived on rice. She's absolutely never in a million years going to admit that. 

"Yeah, a book was a bad example. I wonder if you can do needles or something, sewing is kind of attacking fabric? - probably not, that sounds stupid now that I've said it."

Annisa has a plan for graduation and it's for her and her allies to be equipped with JETPACKS that are a weapon in the sense where they burn every mal chasing them as they soar towards freedom. She does not say that, because you're not supposed to get that far ahead of yourself. "It's a much nicer position to be in, trying to think of utility applications of a combat disposition, than the other way around," she says. "The other Surabaya kid has 'wood' - we can sell him our desk scrap - and was very grouchy about figuring out ways to kill things with splinters and arrows when his affinity clearly wants to be building fancy furniture for a living."

"At least wood isn't a rare material, imagine having dirt or something in here. Mine stretches pretty far - I've gotten almost divination spells out of it, 'you're a good ward that tells me about danger even when it's far away, aren't you' and then I read something like ten books on special relativity and at the end of it I had something that'd ping me in advance. It's pretty stubborn about not being a weapon, though, wards-that-bite haven't worked great for me so far. That's what I want to work out in here." That's not a lie exactly but she doesn't think it's going to work, even the very obvious applications like wards that throw mals back into the nearest wall came out more expensive than she'd really expect them too, if they were properly in-affinity.

"Warn you in advance! That's convenient." She's tempted to say 'look, stick to what you're obviously good at and make us safe and I'll make you some fantastic throwing daggers' but that's way, way too much of an alliance for the first day and the fact she's even tempted suggests she forgot to pack all her good judgment. "Are you selling that?"

"It'll be expensive and I went materials-light and mana-light on this one so it'll take me a while and I don't want to start while we're settling in. Ask me again in a week. I can sell you one that makes the usual warning spells cheaper right now, though, you need to power it up but it's less than half the mana."

"What do you want for it?"

"I'm not sure what you have, I'll take a month and half's worth of mana for your ward spell if you don't have a better offer. The ward should last you at least the semester unless you're really careless with it." She'd gone to the bazaar with her father every Saturday when she eleven and bargained for vegetables and fresh fish and honey and eventually she stopped stammering and it was more of a waste of time than a benefit, but she's never been good at it and she's scared that it shows.

Not an awful offer, since with a good ward spell she'll never be woken at night and she's not all that likely to get eaten in the first month and a half, but she tries to look slightly disappointed. "Well, I'll be building the mana anyway so I'll give it some thought."

That means either yes or fuck off and she isn't sure which. "Well, let me know."

"Sure thing. Want to head back and sweep our rooms now? I'd like to have the furniture all disassembled before night and I have no idea how long it's going to take."

"Sounds good. I've got a multitool that should probably do the trick, are you good or do you want to borrow it?"

"I have a Swiss army knife but if you've got better I'll borrow it and spot you something next time it comes up; it's not really big enough to be ideal."

"I'll show you when we get there, we can see which one works best. Hopefully none of the screws get stuck, my cousin says that happens sometimes."

"Oh, that sounds not fun. All the more reason to start early, I guess?"

"Yeah." They're out of the cafeteria by now, so she shuts up and keeps watch for mals.

The first week of school there's supposed to be not that much lurking. Of course, it doesn't take all that much to kill you, if you're stupid. She holds her knife tightly and twitches at everything; there's a little sticky thing that looks like a sea urchin in the corner of the ceiling, but that's probably better avoided than dealt with.

She holds her left hand to the dart in her pocket and her multitool with the little knife out in her right. It was a gamble, but there'll be a chance to make a proper knife in her classes, and if not she'll trade an classmate for it. There's something moving behind a grate after the spiky ceiling mal, but other than that the walk to their rooms is uneventful.

They get to the rooms. Annisa has been spending all her spare thoughts trying to think of what to say once we get to the rooms. "If we clear out yours first," she says as soon as they reach them, as if just thinking of this, "you can ward it and we can set our stuff down before we do mine." It's the only obvious asymmetry between them, that wards are easy for Daria.

Should she specify that Annisa owes her a favor? Probably since they're neighbors it won't be worth the effort to negotiate every small thing, as long as the balance is about even? She wants her cluster here, which is the most useless thought she could be having. "Sure, makes sense." She opens her door a crack, stands well clear, and looks inside for any obvious mals once nothing jumps out at her.

Annisa will help. There shouldn't be anything, not only a few hours after the dorm rooms were created anew in the void, but you can't count on that.  She opens Daria's drawers with her dagger, pokes tentatively around inside them.

Dasha checks under the bed and around the drain. Her pack should light up if there's a mal in it but that's stupid to count on so she check that too. "All clear. Do you want to go grab your Swiss army knife, see if we can parallelize? I think we can do one side each."

"Sure." And she'll get her Swiss army knife, carefully combing through her pack for mals too.

They're only in here for a moment, so Dasha watches her back until they get back to her room instead of checking Annisa's drawers too. She does another spot-check in her room and sets to work. The screws are very, very old, and if she has to watch the wood for splinters, but it's not bad otherwise.

There's no reason for the screws to be old. These dorm rooms were - well, the matter was probably in a fashion reused from the vanished senior dorms, but those didn't have the same furniture; the furniture did not exist eight hours ago. Annisa wonders what would happen if every parent told their children to expect nice modern rooms with drawer-less desks. Maybe the expectations of the students inside would be controlling.

She doesn't say any of this aloud; it's easier to sound stupid than to sound smart. She disassembles Daria's furniture. The fact they're doing Daria's first leaves her vulnerable to Daria declining to do Annisa's afterwards, but that's a good thing to know about someone on the first day, if that's how it is. And maybe having done it once will make it easier to do a second time.

When she's about halfway through her side she stands up to rummage through her pack. "It'll be quicker if I start on the wards now, I can do almost all of it with the door closed. I assume you don't have Old Church Slavonic?"

"Sure don't! I do have earplugs, though." She puts them in. She does not confess that you could straight up assassinate her by saying something in Old Church Slavonic.

"All the chanting's at the end, mostly I work in physical materials. I'll let you know." She grabs a many-colored silk cord and start laying it around the boundaries of her room, threading an amber bead on at each corner.

Annisa keeps assembling desks. No point in being distracted by how someone else does magic, she's not at magic school because magic is cool and interesting, she's at magic school to not die.

She does a second pass with a needle and gold thread, working it into bit of the cord, and then wraps some thread around the legs of her bed with a tiny ruby bead on each. Those are for trade, eventually, but she'll use them while she has them. Then just two tiny complicated knots of thread on the vent, the more fiddly detail work she does here the less mana it'll cost and the more she'll have.

When she's done she fetches a paintbrush and a tiny jar of golden ink and tries to get Annisa's attention without tapping her on the shoulder.

Annisa is paying her a fair bit of attention as part of in general trying to pay her surroundings a fair bit of attention as part of trying to not die. "Now?" she says, and then starts humming to herself. 

She nods, and opens the door. She needs to stand up on tip-toes to be able to paint an arc over the door but does manage it without having to pull anything out to stand on, and then paints two careful lines down the side. Then she ducks back inside, closes the door, and starts chanting, slow and almost sing-song.

Annisa is not listening.

Annisa will have thirteen minutes of not listening, and then Dasha lifts up her hands above her head like she's conducting an orchestra and says "аминь" to each of the four corners of her room and then brings them down, sharply.

Then she staggers, catches herself, and sit down unsteadily on the bed.

Earbuds out. "That's the spell going right, I hope?"

"Yeah, I'll be all right in a moment."

Where Annisa was raised it's - practically intimacy, to be visibly at all tired or strained around another person. But people in other countries are different. Very different, in some cases. She will not read anything into it and also not acknowledge it - except she kind of did acknowledge it, and then Daria confirmed it?? Aaaah?? Maybe they get a pass because it's the first day of school? Maybe Daria likes her and wants to be friends this is literally the mistake she was repeatedly warned she'd be tempted to make and should not make, except she didn't believe she'd really be tempted to make it.

She acknowledges this with a tense head-gesture and goes back to vigorous disassembly. Vigorous enough to snap a horrible old screw as she pulls it out.

Ugh. She was hoping to use those and now she needs to make it clear that she wants something in exchange for the broken screw while also not coming across as an asshole, fuck, how do you do that. Oh, there's the obvious thing - "Trade you that one for one of yours?"

Which is completely fair so why does Annisa want to sink into the void floor and never return. "Yeah."

Her head's still spinning but she gets off the bed as soon as she's sure she can keep her feet underneath her to help with the last of the desk.

And soon it's a pile of lumber. Later it'll want to be a safer desk, and safer shelving, but that's a lot to expect to get done on the first day. "Shall we do mine next? Get you your screw?"

She finishes stacking the lumber carefully so it doesn't leave any shadowy crannies and then heads towards the door. "If your screws are smaller you owe me two," she says, and tries to smile to show that she's joking.

Annisa has no idea if she's joking, but she laughs. "You love screws that much you could probably get 'em off the mundies in exchange for disassembling their desks and saving them from getting eaten. Or I guess you could wait until they get eaten and then take their furniture but first way there's no risk of being beaten to it."

"I don't think any of them are close enough that it makes any sense to go screw-raiding. Maybe I'll find a particularly lucky agglo, get a screw delivery."

"You could leave out shinies in a little bowl for 'em, like people do for stray cats if they need stray cats for their kids to practice on. - I have no idea if that works, we didn't get a lot of agglos at home."

"Aww, now I almost want a pet agglo." ...stray cats? She busies herself checking the drawers rather than reacting to that.

One of Annisa's drawers has something fast-moving and small in it; it darts out of sight when the drawer is opened, wriggling back behind it.

"- ugh. I'm not going to be able to stab that, and I hate stuff I can't stab." But they've been working on desk disassembly for a while so she has the mana, and impressive prospective allies isn't a bad idea - "This is gonna be Surabayan Javanese," she warns Daria.

She puts her hands over her ears, though the chances of her actually picking anything up from even repeat exposure are pretty low.

And Annisa pumps a lot of mana into her father's spell for pest control, which tugs things out from whatever corners they're hiding in and mashes them into a paste in front of you. He'd do in in the mornings as Annisa got older, to show her - see, there's more coming, you're getting tastier. Though at home it'd also get a lot of fruit flies and mosquitos and cockroaches. Here the only thing it gets is the little fleeting thing behind the desk, which, mashed into paste, is barely recognizable; it looks like it had more than four legs and some beetlish wings?

And she's as drained as the moment she arrived here. She's going to have to get more efficient than that. "On the bright side," she says, "we can stop checking so closely, that gets the whole space when I do it."

"Well, that's useful. Let's make sure that they don't have anything to hide behind next time."

"Let's." And they can disassemble a second desk.

With the same size screws, even.

She hands one over. "We'll see who got the better end of that deal. I'm going to use the broken one as stray agglo bait."

"Well, if that works out for you I'll break one." She pokes it gently with the end of her screwdriver. "Shouldn't be hard, I'm not sure these are sturdy enough to hold up the reconstructed shelves I was planning on."

"Agglos only like authentically broken screws. They can taste the regret on them. Screws broken on purpose smell like a trap." Hopefully she's grinning broadly enough to be obviously kidding. "Shall we go to dinner?"

She nods and heads for the door. "I shall have to pass out my screws to particularly careless-looking freshmen and then ask for them back when they break." 

"Well, you only know one freshman with a demonstrated screw-breaking track record." And then she falls silent, even though this seems like camaraderie building, because in the hallways they should shut up and look for mals.

"Better tell that one you've got a fresh screw in your room," she says when they see an agglo scurrying away, but otherwise the trip back to the cafeteria is uneventful.