People keep talking to her. This is good, and not objectively terrible. She will keep telling herself that until she begins to believe it.

...maybe this is not as much of a good thing as last time. Hmm. Well, the only thing worse than interacting with an obvious maleficer wearing rags is being rude to the obvious maleficer.

"Hello," she says politely. "My name is Sophie Hara, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"My name is Masozi. Pleased to meet you too." He clasps his hands behind his back, trying to look more sure of himself than he feels. "...I don't mean any offence but I noticed you seem aggressively boring - is that magic?" 

"Um."

She... has absolutely no cached response to this. She says the first thing that comes to mind instead even though that's a terrible idea. "I've never really needed help being boring. I just sort of. Am."

"I don't believe you," Masozi says, well before his brain has a chance to evaluate whether this is a good idea to say out loud. "- Sorry. I mean no offence." 

Up close, he - can maybe pick out more detail about what's boring? Hmm. Her shoes seem like a normal amount of interesting, for shoes, if he blocks out everything else. Her fingernails, ditto. Her chin - well, it's a very normal chin in most ways but he can notice the slight jarring-surprise at her pale skin, a rare sight back home. 

Her hat, though...

He lowers his voice to a near-whisper, in case this is a secret she doesn't want anyone else knowing. "- Is your hat magic?" 

"It - it is. My hat is magic, and my dress, and my stockings - I made them all myself. The hat makes me a little bit smarter and the dress and stockings protect me."

She takes the hat off and points to one of the sunbursts of crystals. The effect - is still subtle enough that it's not a massive contrast, but it dissipates once the hat is in her hands. "And these crystals store mana."

"That's really impressive! ...The hat makes you smarter? Um, what would you want to trade to make me one like it?" Being smarter sounds like one of the most important things, here! 

"It was a very difficult effect to achieve. I... it depends on what track you are planning to take, but I would accept a significant amount of stored mana plus materials and creative expenses from anyone, and if you plan on artifice or alchemy then we could talk about a direct trade."

She fiddles a little bit with her hat. "I... would also be willing to provide you with other clothing. At a discounted rate. If you wanted." Aaaaa. "I mean no offense."

"- I'm not offended? I know my clothes smell like garbage, I got them from the garbage dump. It...seems like most people have nicer clothes here and it'd be good to - blend in better." 

"It is. Clothing is - one of the most commonly overlooked areas of improvement, at the Scholomance. Many people think of clothes as something they can't afford to care about. But good clothing makes you look competent, which is almost as good as being competent. Good clothing can protect you, hold enchantments. If you have to sacrifice something... it shouldn't be something you need every day."

She blinks. "Sorry. Um. If I begin working tonight I would be able to get you a pair of trousers and a good shirt in two days. They would not be enchanted, but they would fit you well, and I would be willing to let them out to fit you in the future for a nominal fee - a few spells' worth of mana, most likely. A hat like mine will take longer - perhaps a month - and be significantly more expensive."

"That's all right." He's been getting along fine with his current brain for a while. "Thank you, I appreciate the offer." He says the phrase in a slightly rote tone. (It is, perhaps, possible that most of his English pleasantries have been memorized out of library books.)

And then he replays her words in his head and realizes the 'few spells worth of mana' was the price for refits, not the outfit itself. "....Um, what would you want to trade for the clothes?" 

"Oh. Sorry, I'm - not very good at sales, yet. Um - I would be dipping into my immediate supplies unless we made a supply run, so - you could fill two of the central crystals on my hat, or if you were willing to help me get to the workshop supply closet and keep me safe while I gathered materials I would agree to that as services rendered."

"Oh! I can definitely do that. I'm very good at spotting mals, it's...um, it's my affinity." That seems like the best story to go with for now. "I heard some other kids talking about doing a supply run tonight after dinner - maybe I can find them and suggest we all go?" 

"...yes. Yes, that would be fine. I doubt that there will be many people looking for my materials, and if I'm right there they are less likely to take them anyway and arbitrage them against me. Thank you, I doubt I would have heard about that supply run." That's maybe unstrategic to admit. Whatever.

- her stepmother's voice in her head. Upsell. "...I can't make you shoes in the same time frame but I can make them within the week, and two pair of socks, if you fill up one of the central crystals in addition?"

Nod. “- Can I get back to you on that tomorrow? I was talking to someone else earlier, um, I don’t know if you met the girl with the spider familiar who’s selling spider silk things and will trade for mal grubs?”

"The - oh, his sister, yes - I mostly spoke with her brother," she says. "If you already have an offer for footwear I wouldn't want to undercut them."

She really doesn't. You don't piss off someone you could collaborate fruitfully with.

“I’m not sure how long it’d take them.” Shrug. “Or how many mal grubs are about. So I’ll get back to you.”

"Of course. I imagine their offer will be more expensive but more durable as well, unless you want me to enchant the shoes."

“If it’d be a while maybe I’d want to get socks from Lucy and shoes from you.” Masozi has never worn socks in his entire life. “To be extra safe, you know.”

He’s no longer making eye contact with her because he’s gone back to checking the room for mals.

Eye contact is so deeply overrated.

"That would be a good idea," she agrees. "Practically and for the sake of fitting in better. - once you have clothes worth wearing you will want to wash them, speaking of fitting in. I can trade you a laundry spell if you like, or you can chance getting one from the school."

“Right, I guess you can’t just wash things in the river, here. And doing it in the bathrooms isn’t safe?” It’s probably less risky for him but it definitely sounds inconvenient; he needs to pace how often he’s burning through mana to search actively for hidden mals.

"It's as safe as going to the bathrooms ever is. A laundry spell, particularly my favored one, will usually be very mana-efficient and get out stains and odors you cannot remove with just water and hand soap. It is not a top priority, I suppose - and come to think of it, my laundry spell probably isn't in one of your languages, so it would be stupid to share it. Still, you should ask your room for one. Part of the point of getting good clothes is looking clean and healthy."

"- It doesn't seem like looking clean should be anyone's highest priority here?" 

"Perhaps it shouldn't be. But I think you underestimate how important it is to people that they be able to judge at a glance who you are presenting yourself as. Maybe you're good enough to get away with presenting yourself as someone who has bigger things to worry about than being clean. But it's more likely you will come off as someone who is too desperate to clean himself. As I say, laundry spells are cheap. People thinking you're not worth their time is expensive."

Sophie abruptly remembers that she's talking to a maleficer and that she should really be a lot more afraid of what he thinks of her. And stop giving him hygiene tips. 

He's listening attentively - well, while still looking around the room, but he's totally focused on her words - and nodding along, looking thoughtful and even impressed. "...That makes sense. I - guess maybe I was too desperate, before. But I'd better try to not be, here." 

"Um. Good. I - shouldn't be bossing you around, but. This stuff is important."

(Why is she suddenly unable to talk like a human being what is wrong with her.)

"- is there anything else you're, um, confused about," she asks before she can stop herself from extending this conversation.

...Masozi is aware that he really needs to get some additional data points on where exactly the boundaries of what counts as "maleficing" are, and how and why it's damaging or bad for you, and also why exactly people think it's so evil because it seemed like it wasn't just about the murdering people... 

"I, umm... Someone told me that maleficing is bad for you and also evil but I'm confused about what's evil if you're not doing it to people and also how exactly it's bad for you?" 

Jesus Christ. 

"Um. I... so, you know how maleficing works, right, you haven't - been doing it by accident or something -"

"It's - when you get mana from things that aren't you, right? But...I noticed if you get it from tiny bugs, or plants, then it doesn't hurt, and if it's from bigger things like rats then it sometimes hurts but only if I'm not - careful - and if it's from people it feels really bad so I only ever did when the person was trying to kill me or my family. - And it makes sense that that's evil, because hurting people is! But nobody goes around saying stepping on ants is evil, or that catching and eating rats is, so I can't see why getting mana from them would be any different." 

"- yes. When it doesn't hurt it's called 'cheating', not maleficing - nearly everyone does that. I don't, but I'm" stupid and going to die because she's uncomfortable with killing bugs "unusual. I didn't know you could be... careful... with rats, but it doesn't surprise me as much as it might. Everything is a spectrum. I think... the reason people don't like it when you take from rats on up is not that it's evil. Not until you're hurting people. But - people say that it makes you more willing to hurt people, just doing it to rats. And people say that it makes it easier to do it to people. And when you do things that lead up to something else like that - and the thing you're leading up to is as bad as draining someone - people want to stop you. Before you actually do it. Even if you say you never would. Because - if you put the fence far, far before the grass, nobody can poke their head through and take it anyway."

"....I don't think it'd make it feel less bad to hurt people. I don't really like doing with rats, even, they - sort of have feelings, you know? I guess...if I were going to have to kill someone anyway because they'd kill me otherwise then it - doesn't feel like it ought to be worse to get mana from it too? Unless it...did things to my head. If - the way it's bad for you is that it - makes you think hurting people doesn't matter and you shouldn't care, then that seems worth - having a fence before it. I guess. But it feels like it'd be really hard to, to change what I think matters." 

"I only know the stories," Sophie apologizes. "Maybe it's just that the fence is there to stop people who would already want to drain people, by making it harder to start. But I don't think it's so hard, for most people, to change what matters to them. I have my sisters, and I'd do anything for them - but I wouldn't malefice. Because if it made me into someone else, how do I know she'd still love them?"

“But…why does it change you into someone else? Most things that hurt you don’t do that!”

"Have you ever personally observed magic to make sense?"

She sighs. "I - I really don't know much about it. But if I had to guess? Pain is your body's way of telling you don't do it. Maybe your soul does the same thing."

"I think magic usually makes sense, if you look at it right!" Shrug. "S'not like I want to do it to people. Or rats, even, and there aren't any here. I brought dung beetles and - if pulling mana from them doesn't hurt then it's going to be safe, right?" 

"...don't tell people about it, not when people are already looking for an excuse not to trust you. And - well, I don't know. I'm pure mana, I don't even pull from bugs. Maybe it'd help with your... aura... if you abstained for a while. But maybe you can't afford the risk."

Exhale. "I - I'm not judging you. It was harder for you to get to this point than it was for me. So - you do what keeps you alive. Whether that's pulling from your beetles, or abstaining so you can make alliances." Small smile. "And maybe one of these days you'll have enough of whatever keeps you alive to get me to make you a hat."

That's very sweet of her but now Masozi is right back to being baffled! 

"- Do people need an excuse not to trust me? That's not– I mean, you don't know me, no one here knows me, they shouldn't trust me until I've - done something to show them that I'm trustworthy?" 

"They certainly don't need an excuse not to trust you. They need an excuse to hate you, to say 'we were right not to trust you', and they'll want one. Because - you feel dangerous. I mean. You probably are dangerous. You could probably hurt me very easily. But - it feels like you would hurt me. I don't think you actually would. But."

Masozi looks levelly at her for a long moment. He's thinking. 

"...Um, I - really don't mean any offence, just..." He shakes his head. "I think you'd be more likely to survive if you felt more dangerous. 'Cause you have to be dangerous, here, right? At least to mals. And - I mean, I'd help you no matter what, because people dying is bad, but - I wouldn't trust you to watch my back, right now." 

She... wasn't expecting that.

She laughs, a little weakly. "Maybe we should meet in the middle."

Masozi looks thoughtful. 

"I noticed I'm more - careful, that most of the people here. And I kept...being really scared that someone was going to die before they had a chance to learn, because everyone was saying it's dangerous here. But..." Shrug. "There were ten times as many mals when I was traveling, and I was on my own. So - you know, maybe it's actually safer here." 

"You are very careful. I wouldn't want you to stop being careful. But - dangerous can mean a lot of things, and if you're too dangerous in the wrong way then it's a liability. And... I'm not good at being - the kind of dangerous that makes people trust you. I'm alright at the kind of dangerous that kills mals. But my hope is to be valuable enough that I don't have to be something that I'm not."

Half-consciously, she adds "- and I only have to survive a year."

"...What's in a year?" 

"...oh. Next year my younger sister Lettie comes to school and I can give her the things I've made and collected and - keep doing it as long as I can, of course, the more I can give her and Martha the better chance they have -"

"- but I won't have it riding me anymore."

Wow. What are you even supposed to say to that. There might be some sort of expected pleasantry but if so it definitely wasn't in the English phrasebook he found at the library. 

"...Um, I - sorry, I don't want to– I don't mean you're ever - obligated to do anything, but... They're not going to stop needing you? And I, just - I think it'd be better if you graduated? And I - want to help, if there's any way I can. ...That's not going to risk me getting killed, but, you know." 

"Oh, it's not - I don't want to die. Or anything like that. I just - know it'll happen, sooner or later. You know? And I won't be making it harder on them, if it's after." She smiles wanly. "I know it'll still hurt. But... not the kind of hurt I can save them from."

This conversation has gotten EVEN MORE AWKWARD and Masozi is well out of his depth for social interaction! 

"I guess," he says, reluctantly. Change the subject change the subject– 

"...Um, if you're ever hard up for mana, I'd trade you some for your shit to feed my beetles, that shouldn't cost you too much." 

"...hmm."

She considers this question, even though she'd really rather not.

"I am going to be trading work for mana, I think, and I'm going to try not to spend it frivolously, and hopefully that'll be enough. I will consider your offer if I end up very desperate."

Masozi nods. "...Um, do you have a -" what's the English phrase again, "- a moral objection? To using mana from beetles even if you didn't pull it from them yourself?" He's still very confused about that but it seems important to understand. 

"It... is less of a moral objection and more. Discomfort, emotionally. It's not something you need to worry about."

....That's honestly even more confusing! What's even the point of not doing something because it's uncomfortable, let alone emotionally uncomfortable - whatever that even means, Masozi isn't sure he follows. Probably asking if she's considered, instead, not having emotional discomfort would be mean and rude. 

"Oh," he says, even more awkwardly. And now he's all out of further conversational ideas. "....Supply run after dinner, then?" 

"Yes. That sounds like an excellent idea."

"I'll come find you after dinner, then?" Masozi ducks his head. "And - good luck with things." 

"Good luck," she repeats softly. "With everything."