Theun is an enclave kid. This is, objectively, a very good thing for him, but he doesn't really see it that way. The whole enclave system pisses him off from the day he properly understands it. Philadelphia is not a major enclave - usually only a half-dozen students at a time. No one else is in his year, but there were two last year and two before that, so he won't be the only one. Not that this will help him much, since the only people who like him are his parents, his siblings, and a couple of the 'janitors' from last generation. Largely because the feeling is mutual; he cannot stand the way his fellow enclavers think of everyone else. Like it's a favor to let someone in at substantial risk to their life, and their right to make the new person do all the unpleasant work for life in exchange. Rather than common goddamn decency.

His parents have tried to get him to chill. He has legitimately tried to get himself to chill, as he does in fact want to survive the Scholomance and allies are important. He is, however, extraordinarily bad at it. If he makes it to sophomore year, he'll have an actual friend one year down - Surendra Marhe, whose father (Kumar) Philly deigned to allow to immigrate from Suriname, and who therefore both is less stuck-up, and appreciates that Theun doesn't treat his father like a servant. But unless the older kids have forgiven him in his absence (unlikely), he will not have anyone stronger making an effort to protect him. At least they'll basically have to share the good shield holders the enclave keeps in the school - it probably wouldn't weaken one much to not be used for a year, but it would be a stupid risk to take just to be petty and lending one out, rather than giving it to him, would be more direct aggression than they'd stomach. And hey, maybe other enclavers will suck less. Boston shares a library reading room with Philadelphia, and he hasn't spoken with them much, maybe they'll be alright. (He's not optimistic. New York sucks more.)

He knows English and Dutch, and Latin and Greek like most wizards manage early. He learned German quickly and found he was good at interpolating the language family, and so his other old languages are all Germanic, because it was efficient, unless you count Church Latin as separate, which he doesn't particularly. He meant to get fluent in Mandarin, and made good progress, but he liked Star Trek and neither he nor his parents realized that the aliens were speaking an actual conlang until he started recognizing patterns in it, so he had to delay Mandarin to become as fluent in Klingon as anyone anywhere is. (Which is not very, but he won't be completely screwed if it turns out someone wrote their spells in it some time in the last half-century and the void throws the book at him.) His Mandarin did not get up to snuff, but trading for help in Mandarin will be dead easy if he makes any friends at all.

He packs - a substantial packet of healing cookies, mana storage (not totally empty), clothes - importantly, a warded vest which also resists stains - his personal spellbook - hard for anyone else to open, and also enchanted not to run off, one of the first affinity spells he cast - and a family spellbook most of which he can't cast yet. One unfinished artifice, a riffle notebook; he can't manage the power to make it into a self-sorting index, yet, and it has to be finished by the user, so it has some groundwork spells cast and the instructions for the rest are written into it - hopefully he'll be able to manage to finish that later this year, with his affinity Mother thinks he will manage it.

Mother wanted to give him half the family heirlooms, which haven't gone to the Scholomance with anyone in three generations, but Father put his foot down. The reason he gave was crap, they all knew the real one - throwing good money after bad, and he has three younger siblings to think of. Mother cried a lot. Father didn't, but he came close, and didn't try to hide it much. The week before is packed full of their favorite family outings, and particularly Theun's, because they all know perfectly well that his chances of not coming home are... probably still lower than any independent, but not low enough.

When the day comes, he has fasted and stayed parched and gotten a crew cut and weighed himself carefully. He hugs everyone and jokes with his brother and promises not to do anything stupid, which he pretends he can keep and they pretend to believe. And then, yoink-

Theun is an enclave kid. This is, objectively, a very good thing for him, but he doesn't really see it that way. The whole enclave system pisses him off from the day he properly understands it. Philadelphia is not a major enclave - usually only a half-dozen students at a time. No one else is in his year, but there were two last year and two before that, so he won't be the only one. Not that this will help him much, since the only people who like him are his parents, his siblings, and a couple of the 'janitors' from last generation. Largely because the feeling is mutual; he cannot stand the way his fellow enclavers think of everyone else. Like it's a favor to let someone in at substantial risk to their life, and their right to make the new person do all the unpleasant work for life in exchange. Rather than common goddamn decency.

His parents have tried to get him to chill. He has legitimately tried to get himself to chill, as he does in fact want to survive the Scholomance and allies are important. He is, however, extraordinarily bad at it. If he makes it to sophomore year, he'll have an actual friend one year down - Surendra Marhe, whose father (Kumar) Philly deigned to allow to immigrate from Suriname, and who therefore both is less stuck-up, and appreciates that Theun doesn't treat his father like a servant. But unless the older kids have forgiven him in his absence (unlikely), he will not have anyone stronger making an effort to protect him. At least they'll basically have to share the good shield holders the enclave keeps in the school - it probably wouldn't weaken one much to not be used for a year, but it would be a stupid risk to take just to be petty and lending one out, rather than giving it to him, would be more direct offense than they'd stomach. (He won't get any use out of the function that lets them hand mana around more efficiently through the set of holders, which is their poor-man's-power-sink, but he has some decent storage of his own.) And hey, maybe other enclavers will suck less. Boston shares a library reading room with Philadelphia, and he hasn't spoken with them much, maybe they'll be alright. (He's not optimistic. New York sucks more.)

He knows English and Dutch, and Latin and Greek like most wizards manage early. He learned German quickly and found he was good at interpolating the language family, and so his other old languages are all Germanic, because it was efficient, unless you count Church Latin as separate, which he doesn't particularly. He meant to get fluent in Mandarin, and made good progress, but he liked Star Trek and neither he nor his parents realized that the aliens were speaking an actual conlang until he started recognizing patterns in it, so he had to delay Mandarin to become as fluent in Klingon as anyone anywhere is. (Which is not very, but he won't be completely screwed if it turns out someone wrote their spells in it some time in the last half-century and the void throws the book at him.) His Mandarin did not get up to snuff, but trading for help in Mandarin will be dead easy if he makes any friends at all.

He packs - a substantial packet of healing cookies, mana storage (not totally empty), clothes - importantly, a warded vest which also resists stains - his personal spellbook - hard for anyone else to open, and also enchanted not to run off, one of the first affinity spells he cast - and a family spellbook most of which he can't cast yet. One unfinished artifice, a riffle notebook; he can't manage the power to make it into a self-sorting index, yet, and it has to be finished by the user, so it has some groundwork spells cast and the instructions for the rest are written into it - hopefully he'll be able to manage to finish that later this year, with his affinity Mother thinks he will manage it.

Mother wanted to give him half the family heirlooms, which haven't gone to the Scholomance with anyone in three generations, but Father put his foot down. The reason he gave was crap, they all knew the real one - throwing good money after bad, and he has three younger siblings to think of. Mother cried a lot. Father didn't, but he came close, and didn't try to hide it much. The week before is packed full of their favorite family outings, and particularly Theun's, because they all know perfectly well that his chances of not coming home are... probably still lower than any independent, but not low enough.

When the day comes, he has fasted and stayed parched and gotten a crew cut and weighed himself carefully. He hugs everyone and jokes with his brother and promises not to do anything stupid, which he pretends he can keep and they pretend to believe. And then, yoink-

Theun is an enclave kid. This is, objectively, a very good thing for him, but he doesn't really see it that way. The whole enclave system pisses him off from the day he properly understands it. Philadelphia is not a major enclave - usually only a half-dozen students at a time. No one else is in his year, but there were two last year and two before that, so he won't be the only one. Not that this will help him much, since the only people who like him are his parents, his siblings, and a couple of the 'janitors' from last generation. Largely because the feeling is mutual; he cannot stand the way his fellow enclavers think of everyone else. Like it's a favor to let someone in at substantial risk to their life, and their right to make the new person do all the unpleasant work for life in exchange. Rather than common goddamn decency.

His parents have tried to get him to chill. He has legitimately tried to get himself to chill, as he does in fact want to survive the Scholomance and allies are important. He is, however, extraordinarily bad at it. If he makes it to sophomore year, he'll have an actual friend one year down - Surendra Marhe, whose father (Kumar) Philly deigned to allow to immigrate from Suriname, and who therefore both is less stuck-up, and appreciates that Theun doesn't treat his father like a servant. But unless the older kids have forgiven him in his absence (unlikely), he will not have anyone stronger making an effort to protect him. Philadelphia's power sink relies on a networked set of really good shield holders made for the tenth class of Scholomance students the enclave sent - they had two good artificers whose affinities were defenses and many-part tools, and the enclave has repaired and added to the set over time. The mana capacity is pretty small overall, and not using one of the set weakens the others and reduces the capacity, but that's usually not a problem. The upperclassmen could try to deny Theun his, but weakening the set would be a stupid risk to take just to be petty, and lending one out, rather than giving it to him, would be more direct offense than they'd stomach. And hey, maybe other enclavers will suck less. Boston shares a library reading room with Philadelphia, and he hasn't spoken with them much, maybe they'll be alright. (He's not optimistic. New York sucks more.)

He knows English and Dutch, and Latin and Greek like most wizards manage early. He learned German quickly and found he was good at interpolating the language family, and so his other old languages are all Germanic, because it was efficient, unless you count Church Latin as separate, which he doesn't particularly. He meant to get fluent in Mandarin, and made good progress, but he liked Star Trek and neither he nor his parents realized that the aliens were speaking an actual conlang until he started recognizing patterns in it, so he had to delay Mandarin to become as fluent in Klingon as anyone anywhere is. (Which is not very, but he won't be completely screwed if it turns out someone wrote their spells in it some time in the last half-century and the void throws the book at him.) His Mandarin did not get up to snuff, but trading for help in Mandarin will be dead easy if he makes any friends at all.

He packs - a substantial packet of healing cookies, mana storage (not totally empty), clothes - importantly, a warded vest which will fit all four years and also resists stains and tears. His personal spellbook - hard for anyone else to open, and also enchanted not to run off, some of the first affinity spells he cast - and a family spellbook, most of which he can't cast yet, even harder for anyone to open. One unfinished artifice, a riffle notebook; he can't manage the power to make it into a self-sorting index, yet, and it has to be finished by the user, so it has some groundwork spells cast and the instructions for the rest are written into it - hopefully he'll be able to manage to finish that later this year, with his affinity Mother thinks he will manage it.

Mother wanted to give him half the family heirlooms, which haven't gone to the Scholomance with anyone in three generations, but Father put his foot down. The reason he gave was crap, they all knew the real one - throwing good money after bad, and he has three younger siblings to think of. Mother cried a lot. Father didn't, but he came close, and didn't really try to hide it, which is as close as it gets for him. The week before is packed full of their favorite family outings, and particularly Theun's, because they all know perfectly well that his chances of not coming home are... probably still lower than any independent, but not low enough.

When the day comes, he has fasted and stayed parched and gotten a crew cut and weighed himself carefully. He hugs everyone and jokes with his brother and promises not to do anything stupid, which he pretends he can keep and they pretend to believe. And then, yoink-