This one is performing a scan of the ceiling and does not appear to be mid-conversation at this time. She has a Tianjin power sharer.

Excellent.

Tintin scurries over. "Hello! I am Tintin, from Singapore. Your sword looks very fine."

She bows. "Thank you. I am pleased to make your acquaintance. I am called Yushi Huang."

"I am pleased to make your acquaintance as well! What is your track, if I may ask?"

"I am expecting to do maintenance for the Tianjin students. My affinity is weather magic."

"An affinity for weather magic is a very powerful thing. Mine is much more narrow - I have an affinity for firearms, and so I am pursuing alchemy." Let's continue our track record of not commenting on the concept of maintenance.

"It is inconvenient for me that there is no weather here. Firearms are not an artifice?"

"If I wished to construct a firearm of my own, that would be primarily artifice. But my Milu is already enchanted, and it is not as vital to increase the density of enchantments as it is to have a steady supply of ammunition. Guns are hungry friends."

"Oh, I see. What is it enchanted to do?"

"A gun does one thing and it does it well. Milu is enchanted to do it better. - and also to enhance my reflexes, a bit. Have you enchanted your sword at all? If I may ask."

"I have added to it a bit, though most of the work was done by my older brothers and sisters."

"Ah! I am an only child, but I have wondered what it would be like to have siblings."

"I have had many. I am the first in the Scholomance."

"Ah. I am sorry. But - younger siblings, as well? Who you could help by excellent performance?"

"It is possible. Though I am not sure they will be offered the exam."

"Yes." Tintin sighs. "I sometimes wish - I know it is fraught, but - sometimes I wish that the Anglosphere had played hardball during the renovations and the Sinosphere had truly built our own Scholomance. Tensions would be higher, I'm sure, but - more children would be alive."

"I am not sure my older siblings would have gone even to a school controlled by the Chinese enclaves, but someone's siblings would have, certainly."

"- I am sorry, I did not mean to suggest it was a solution to your grief. Only - it made me think of it."

"It's all right. I try to be glad that they had what time they did. And two older than me are still living."

"That is very good, then."

Happier topics, or at least more useful topics - affinities discussed and mildly depressing, tracks discussed and very depressing, siblings discussed and aaaaa -

"What languages do you speak? I have been hoping to improve my English and Tamil."

"I do not speak either of those, although I have become familiar with the numbers and letters of English so that I could learn room numbers. I speak Tianjin, and putonghua. I have not decided for certain what other languages to learn. Possibly I will do maintenance in pairs with someone who is willing to talk in a new language with me."

"Yes, that sounds like a good way to acquire a language - immersion is how I learned Mandarin, my parents did not speak it well but they sent me to a school for it when I was young. I believe they thought English would be easier for me to learn, since my cradle tongue was French. Unfortunately it is a terrible language."

"I have heard this about it. Reportedly it is not necessary if you have good Mandarin."

"Well. It would not have been necessary had they not decided I should know it anyway. What if the Chinese do not accept you, they said. What if you must make friends among the Anglos or have no one. It was not a good worry to have."

"I am sorry this has troubled you so."

"Ah, I am sorry to have troubled you with it! I know it well enough for the school's purposes, even if I will not be making friends among the Anglos any time soon. Fortunately I should not need to - it seems I am not immediately rejected by the Mandarin contingent after all."

"You do not seem objectionable to me."

"My parents' worries were thankfully unfounded! It is a great relief. I am sure the Anglos have questions about why the tiny white boy is mixed in with the Sinosphere, but I am happy to be here."

"I saw another Westerner in our half of the room. She was - that direction, I believe."

"Oh? Perhaps I should acquaint myself with her. The - ah, I see her - she is rather tall. And such hair! She cuts a dramatic figure."

"I've not met her, myself."

"Perhaps if she is amenable I can recommend her to you. Who knows what might turn out to be a valuable connection?"

"I have received contradictory advice!"

"Oh?"

"I have been told to befriend other children who will be doing maintenance assignments for their immediate practical assistance, and to cement my connections to Tianjin, and to attempt to make friends farther afield, and to focus on competence to the exclusion of all else in seeking allies, and to focus on loyalty to the exclusion of all else in deciding who I will even be in a room with."

"That is contradictory. Individually these all seem like wise strategies but I think sooner or later one will need to be focused on over the rest, if only to avoid paradox."

"Yes. I think I will settle on one once I have more information about whose strategies allow them to select me."

"For the record, I favor seeking alliances further afield - if I had not had the courage to approach Shanghai, I would lack valuable information and knowledge of how they operate."

Which is to say, weirdly. Not that he's going to say that.

"I have not spoken to them as yet."

"They were surprisingly accepting of me. I expected such a respectable enclave to be colder."

"Perhaps being cold does not serve them."

"Perhaps not! It certainly suited their leader to be warm - he was the one cradling the crying freshman. I thought it was so strange but I think I respect it now, compassion can strengthen interpersonal bonds and that seems to be their strategy, to be a sort of family."

"I wish them all well. What had saddened the freshman?"

"His brother had died, and he had been planning on - relying on him very much. I helped him to calm down a bit and plan for himself, which he was not doing."

"That was kind of you."

"Ah - thank you, but it was not only kindness. I think when you have the opportunity to be kind to an enclaver it is not as necessary to be a kind person as it might be to help someone else."

"To have thought of something kind, even choosing the recipient advisedly, is still something."

"I suppose you are right. You have a good outlook on the world."

"Thank you."