"What's lamb's blood in particular do, warding stuff? Angels of death pass you over?" asks Dennis, who does not realize that there is any kind of test, possibly because he is not looking at her because he's still constantly eyeing things and trying to decide whether there are mals behind them.

...well, yes, cool, Dennis passes, Annisa passes, everyone else fails by virtue of giving no indication they even noticed the test until Dennis went and blurted out the answer. Sigh. (This is OK, it's not like "can put two and two together to figure out what a stealth-affinity and lamb's blood adds up to" is the only metric on which she's evaluating people. For example, Dennis has just lost points on social awareness and gained points for his very thorough lookout job.)

"...Yeah, actually, that exactly. Your guess is as good as mine whether the one I've got was used in the exodus story or just inspired by it." She can make her hide-a-place-from-mals ward work without lamb's blood, obviously, or she wouldn't be selling it to people, but the blood does make it stronger and last longer.

"Huh, that's cool."

They reach the supply closet. Dennis spends a while checking corners and behind things, but there doesn't seem to be anything obviously hostile in here, and they do have the Lagos upperclassmen to blast anything that does show up. 

"At least there's still some stuff in here. ...about a third of it even labeled, looks like, but I guess we can't have everything."

Haha, that's it, the Biblical story. She still doesn't remember any details but now she at least knows where to look it up, and Malak thinks she's a clever person who catches references to Biblical stories.

(Annisa's family isn't religious. It's wise if you can swing it, of course, since if you have faith God is looking out for you then in some sense He definitely is, but Indonesian Muslim wizards don't send their daughters to the Scholomance and relatedly they have died out.)

This is fine. Ghassan will stick close to the Lagos enclave, trying to make small talk with Owoye: what's your affinity, what track are you thinking, etc. There's a limited list of topics, but they also have to find supplies and watch for mals. It won't do to get complacent, because the first day is easier than anything they'll face after.

He does try to take whatever alchemical supplies Dennis doesn't seem interested in.

There is not actually a vat of lamb's blood, and Malak doesn't expect to do any alchemy outside of assignments, so she mostly goes for tradable goods. She does find some mercury and call Anissa over to split it.

"It'd be a bit hostile to just take all of it before you noticed it when half the reason I want it is to trade with you." Subtext: This is not the last transaction I expect to do with you and am prioritizing goodwill over short-term advantage, but I'm doing this because I've calculated it to be in my best interests rather than because I don't understand what game we're playing. You cannot easily take advantage of me and it is not in your interests to try.

Annisa is not going to look too delighted about this, if she appears to be taking it as a friendship gesture then she'll come across as the kind of idiot who thinks people are here to make friends. It is some other gesture. A 'you seem valuable' gesture? Does she seem valuable? She has the good affinity, and she pretended to know the Biblical reference. 

She takes her half of the mercury. Is saying 'thank you' seeming too delighted, because it suggests she thinks she was randomly done a favor, or does not saying thank you suggest that she somehow failed to notice having been extended a gesture. 

Time for indirection. "I hear wenge finds its way to the generous." I was done a favor, on the assumption I'm competent enough to do you one back, and I will, if we see the thing that you mentioned wanting, and I did remember what that was.

"Perhaps! Though I have not found that God is always so immediately rewarding to the righteous." Message received, but I won't blame you if the school doesn't deliver us my favorite rare wood today.

Annisa is fun to talk to. Probably because Malak was taught to expect everyone at school to talk sideways, and nearly everyone else she's met so far has been bafflingly direct. (Or, conversely, so incredibly subtle that Malak has missed any trace of the subtlety.) She knows it's a bad idea to base any decisions about who to coordinate with on anything so insignificant as social compatibility, but it's a nice plus on top of someone who already has an incredibly useful and complementary skillset. (And hey! She's also planning to work with Naima, who is incredibly awkward.)

"Perhaps sometimes God's reward is that His anger is elsewhere." That's what happens in the Passover story, right. Annisa hopes that's what happens in the Passover story. It's right there in the name, isn't it? That God passes over the houses that put up lamb's blood? And it could also be taken to be a comment on this mal-free supply cabinet. But maybe it's offensive? Probably she should read the Bible if she plans on speaking in it. 

She takes an armful of stuff so this uncertainty isn't conspicuous.

Well those two are having an extremely baffling conversation, but you know what? They don't look like it's a stabby conversation, so that's fine.

At this point he's mostly taking vials of stuff of the shelves at high speeds, some of it labeled and some of it not, and passing like two thirds of it to Owoye while sticking the rest of it into his own pockets. The place hasn't been totally raided yet, but he sure doesn't want to bet on that being the case the next time he comes down here, especially since he is, like, an actual alchemist.

Occasionally he calls out about stuff that seems cool but that he's pretty sure that he, personally, has no particular use for. " - hey, I found an eye? I don't think it's a human eye. Anybody want a probably not human eye?"

"If you don't mind, I'd love one."

This doesn't really make him seem less sketchy, does it. Ghassan considers that a plus.

"Cool." He hands over the eye. "If anybody sees, like, dirt, just some totally normal looking dirt, I could use some dirt."

"I will keep that in mind."

Ghassan looks for more alchemical supplies, and also normal dirt. Who needs normal dirt? He really hopes he can get on Dennis' good side, even if the girls are performing some kind of impenetrable politicking; he would really like to have an alchemist in his back pocket. To that end...normal dirt.

What does that mean? Malak is pretty sure she was following Annisa before that comment - 'Thanks, I'll try to pay you back' pretty much - but now she's... offering to ward Malak's door against mals noticing it? That seems backwards. Malak is missing something. What is she missing. Is that... a threat? 'You did me a favor so now I won't kill you, I'll go kill someone else?' No, that doesn't make any sense, unless - Annisa is fun to talk to, is that what they mean when they say Maleficers can be weirdly charming? OK, no, hold on, if Annisa is a maleficer she's too smart to go around threatening people she's not even planning to kill on day one. Oh curses, this pause is getting awkwardly long, she's got to say something, something noncommittal -

"Indeed."

 - OK that was maybe too noncommital, Annisa probably knows that Malak has no idea what she's talking about anymore. Damn! Is it maybe just a straightforwardly theology? She knows Indonesia is Muslim but doesn't remember anything beyond that, maybe they're all Shia? Is Annisa even religious?

Wait, did Dennis just say he found an eye? She wants an eye!

...curses, he already gave it to Ghassan. OK Malak, have a bit more situational awareness so you don't miss the next eye being handed out.

Oh no! There has been a subtext miscommunication but Annisa is pretty sure Malak at least does not feel confident it was Annisa who messed up. One option: be more direct, hand her some stuff and say 'I just mean this closet's got no monsters in it and you should grab yourself some more stuff' - but that's dumb, there's a reason Annisa doesn't say things like that -

- aaaah - 

Better to say it and have Malak think Annisa isn't super cool than not say it and have Malak confused, probably???? Also she should still be watching her hands while reaching into corners, she still could lose one on the first day -

A desperate survey of the rest of the room and she finds some woodstain, which is vaguely relevant enough to Malak's interests that she make herself start the interaction up again. "I just meant that I have determined there aren't any mals in here and you should relax and grab yourself something," she says with a smile, like the misunderstanding was totally on Malak's part and not Annisa's fault at all even though it's totally the exact opposite she's pretty sure. "Here, wood polish."

 - OK yeah Annisa saw right through that. Obviously. Annisa is smart, she probably also knows not to decide who to work with based on social stuff. Which is good, because even though Malak has made a fool of herself Annisa will still want to work with her because their affinities complement each other well.

"Oh. Thanks. You're right, there aren't any mals here."

Oh wow she's just really determined to dig herself deeper. Time to CHANGE THE SUBJECT.

"Hey Dennis, you good here? Ready to hit the workshop?"

"Yeah, one second - " is that a shark tooth, he wants that, uh that's some kind of crystal and he'll grab it and figure out what that is later - "Okay, we're good. Artificing's probably actually more important in terms of having stuff that's useful for life in general, so - yeah, let's." 

OK cool they can go to the workshop then she'll be looking for cloth and wood and Annisa will be digging through the metals and they won't have any reason to talk until Malak's fuckup is less salient.

Oh no she meant to make Malak feel less worried but instead she made her MORE worried! Why is she so bad at this! - focus. Get stuff from the workshop. You're an artificer, act like it.

Cloth. OK what've we got. Uh. Weird crinkly reflective stuff, which is the exact opposite of what Malak wants in every way. Some bog-standard jersey-knit cotton which puts a floor on how bad things can get, and could be handy for mana-building craft projects even if she finds something better. Here's some light gauzy stuff, that'll probably be good for something even if she's not sure what yet. No velvet, which is what she was hoping to find. Nothing more exotic. She does get a sewing and embroidery kit, and thanks God for them.

For woods - no wenge, which is not surprising in the least. She does grab some nice smoothed softwood boards and a couple of knotty sticks and a chunk of walnut that is not a convenient shape at all and will be a huge pain to work but is plausibly worth the trouble.

Annisa works in metals, mostly, wood is less useful for weapons. Though it has the advantage that she can work it without magic; she's only ever done knives with her father doing practically all the work. She can take some of both? But she shouldn't look indecisive, ugh. Metal, ordered by how nice it looks, hopefully her instincts are good even though she doesn't think affinities work that way, some wood just in case, tools have mostly been picked over but there's a hammer, sure- 

Dennis is not actually incredibly interested in artificing but he's, like, kind of interested in artificing? Like, how can you not be interested in magic stuff. He picks up some nails and some glass beads and the scrap of reflective fabric that Malak passed over because it reminds him of SPACESHIPS. Hmmm, he should probably be thinking some about what he actually wants to make, maybe some - hey is that sealant? He wants sealant. Anyway. He's gonna want... plant pots, potentially? He's gonna grab some clay.

His collection of stuff is pretty eclectic, but he's not really bothering to think about how that comes off. The primary point of this is to get stuff, not to show off his stuff-getting skills.

Malak is at this point pretty laden down and should probably take some of this stuff back to her room which, tragically, presents its own challenge. In particular she needs to:

1. Go to her hallway safely and

2. Figure out which room is hers while

3. Appearing to be taking a sensible amount of precautions, i.e. not going alone and

4. Not further embarrassing herself by admitting to Annisa that she didn't get her room number and

5a. Not insulting Annisa by specifically requesting one of the useless boys for company instead of her and

5b. Not being alone with one of the useless boys (...Or Dennis who seems, like, a normal amount of competent)

It's quite a puzzle. She's not sure how to solve this and has a sinking suspicion that the conditions that have to give are (1) and (3). She is reasonably hydrated and capable of taking care of herself in the face of first-day mals.

Annisa will make this dilemma worse by saying "I'm 255A, anyone headed back in that direction?"

Well, the short-term good news and maybe long-term bad news is that that is on the opposite side of the school from Malak's best guess of where her room is.

"Sorry, I'm the other way."