"Yeah. You were - in Chicago, near it -? Lot of that this year."

She rubs the back of her neck. "Yeah...I heard people talking about that. It sounds like I'm kind of lucky I actually had a bag with me?" She pats said bag, as if to reassure herself it's still there. "So...I guess this probably isn't like Lady Mage Academia? More like...whichever Harry Potter book had all those black cloak guys running around all the time."

"I... don't know what Lady Mage Academia is but Harry Potter's not right either. I don't think the Dampishach or whatever they're called in the English version actually killed anyone." El read all the books in Hindi as language practice and then totally failed to create any social connection based on having read them, and it wasn't because she said "Dampishach".

Sadly, Lissa didn't bring any of her manga with her and her phone has no episodes downloaded, so she will not be able to properly educate El. "I guess not, but that's the only book I think where there were a bunch of monster-like things running around the school?" She shrugs, in a "not really invested in defending this" kind of way. "I never read the whole thing myself but I saw some of the movies. Also I guess the monsters here are kind of more diverse in shape and size? And, um, they can all kill you? Even the tiny ones?" She gulps a bit, looking slightly nervous.

"Agglos are harmless, they're the little - decorator crab things with junk stuck to them. Everything else can kill you but some of it will have a harder time. There's fewer now than there will be later, the school toasts a lot of them between terms."

Okay, "cute little crab creatures that have things stick to them" definitely sounds like a critter from the type of magic school fiction she's used to. Although everything else sounds much more dangerous. She looks around a bit more, trying to figure out how the other confused-looking students have been getting along.

"I guess that's good...so, um, what's the best way to handle them? Is there an easy spell for that, or is it more like 'run and find a teacher'?" She peers around a bit more. Actually, where are all the teachers?

"Aren't any teachers. School gives you assignments, school grades them. You do them at least most of the time or school makes you regret it. Different kinds want to be handled different ways, you have a couple weeks before they're thick and fast to figure out the common kinds in maleficaria studies. If you can't do any magic at all yet you will probably die but running away works for a lot of kinds. Not if there's one in your room with you after curfew though."

...well, that's very automated, she supposes. Although the information about mals makes her sigh a bit. "Man, they can get into our rooms too?" From her childhood, she's thought of her room as a safe, private space, and having that belief challenged is not an enjoyable experience. At least the school will teach how to deal with them somehow, she supposes. "So, um, how does magic work here anyway? I'm pretty sure I've never done a spell before."

(She's actually wrong about that. She's managed to cast illusions for herself without realizing it, reinforcing the image she wants to project and making it easier, without her realizing, to hide everything going wrong from her parents.)

She's definitely going to die but probably not this week and El can afford to talk to basically anyone who will have a conversation with her. "There's magic stuff, magic potions, and magic spells. What languages do you know?"

She lifts her fingers to count, though she doesn't really need to. "Um, English and Chinese are my first languages, and I learned French on my own...that's it, I guess."

"Okay. That's fine, you don't need to start with that many, and having English and Chinese is good, those are the big ones. People specialize, I'm doing languages and you can too. We'll all have our schedules in the morning and swap intel on what classes there are to add so the school has to drop some over breakfast. You can try asking the void in your room for books of basic shield and mal-killing spells, and try to learn those fast. Unless otherwise specified a Chinese spell wants the Mandarin pronunciation."

"Oh, is that what it's for? I was wondering why the ceiling looked so weird," says Lissa, in the cheerful-ish tone of someone who's managed to snap a few more puzzle pieces of the situation together. "Will they just fall out, or do I need to touch it or something?" She pauses, curling her hair around her finger. "Oh yeah, thanks for the tips, by the way. And, um...does doing magic affect your hair or something?" She notices a few of the other confused-looking students have apparently gotten their hair cut for some reason, so maybe it's just cultural?

"Yeah, they'll fall out. If it gives you garbage you can fling it back but be kind of sparing about what's garbage. We cut our hair so we'd have more room to pack and because it's hard to get haircuts reliably in here and you don't want something a mal can grab flailing about your head like an eat-me sign. The twinsies in the matching clothes over there will buy yours off you, apparently."

Lissa glances over at the two twins, who are at least fairly distinct. Although she wouldn't really have pegged them for twins appearance-wise. "Oh...I guess that would be pretty dangerous, huh." She remembers having to tie it up for lab assignments, after all. "Thanks for telling me, I'll talk to them next. I'm Lissa, by the way!" She suddenly realizes she hasn't introduced herself yet and should probably do that quick.

Nice to have a name to put to the actuarial prediction. "I'm El."

Lissa nods. "Nice to meet you!" she says, having regained a bit of her initial chirpiness. "See you at scheduling tomorrow?"

"Sure, find me at breakfast."

She nods, and goes off to sell her hair, waving.