"--Hi! I'm Lucy. And this is my brother Wilbur."

Two spiders, one for her and one for her brother. Definitely a strategy.

"Nice to meet you both!"

Adam resists the impulse to extend a hand to shake. In this place, he figures that would come off as either threatening or naive.

"I'm sure you get this a lot, but can I ask about the spiders?"

"They're familiars! Wilbur has a thread affinity and silk from Darwin's Bark Spiders is the strongest mundane organic compound in the world."

"Oooh, a thread affinity! My sister would love that; she's artificing track. Is that how you guys made your outfits?"

"Yes, yes it is. We're hoping to make a major business of selling the stuff."

"That's what I was hoping you would say! I should introduce you to my sister; she knows everyone in Seattle enclave. She could find people for you to sell to."

"Awesome. It's not urgent, we don't have production in progress yet, but our clothes serve as a perfectly good proof-of-concept."

"Cool! My room number is 629B, if you wanna come let me know when you have some material to sell."

"Is that so! I'm 630B."

"Wild. Wanna meet Talia now? She looks to be disengaging from her enclave-mates finally, and I think your silk outfits would be sufficient demonstration for her that you have something worth buying."

"Sounds excellent."

Adam leads Lucy and Wilbur through the crowd to a tall blonde girl.

"Hey, Talia! I've found some people I'd like you to meet. They have a business opportunity for you."

"Already? Nice. Hey, guys, I'm Talia Green, Seattle enclave. What are your names?"

"My name is Lucy Warren, and this is my brother Wilbur. He has a thread affinity and we both have spider familiars. He made our outfits."

"Nice to meet you guys! I'll have people I can put you in touch with, for sure, once your business takes off. I'm not the only artificer from Seattle."

"She says they're called Darwin's Bark Spiders, and their silk is, like, super strong."

"Is that true?" Talia looks at Lucy and Wilbur intently. "Would you guys be willing to make a demonstration of that once you have some more silk? I would be interested in buying some myself, too."

"Sure, we can have an unenchanted test strip for people to demonstratively fail to stab. Admittedly I don't know that it will hold up to all possible enchantments one could put on a dagger, but it will hold up against the teeth of most kinds of mals that will make it out of the graduation hall."

Talia smiles. "Sounds good to me! That will be very popular. I gotta go catch up to my enclave-mates now, so Adam, if you'd let me know when the business is off the ground--"

"For sure. We've already exchanged room numbers."

"Excellent. It was nice meeting you, Lucy and Wilbur, see you around."

"See you!" Lucy says brightly. 

"So, what else can you tell me about yourselves, or is there anything more you'd like to know about me?"

"What's your affinity?"

"If I had to put it in one word, I'd say 'charm'. I'm good at spells that, say, alter people's appearances, or make their voices more compelling, or just change the general impression they give off. If you know anyone who would be interested..."

Translation: I'm admitting I'm using this for something, so you don't have to worry about me being naive or lying, but also I'm not using it on myself, so you don't have to worry I'm mind-controlling you.

"I have met this one girl who has a weird doom-y aura for no apparent reason."

"Huh, I wonder if she'd be interested in my help.

...I wonder if anyone else would be interested in me giving them that sort of thing, come to think of it. Being scary can have its own advantages in here; I should look into spells along those lines."

"Maybe it's Maybelline." 

Adam snorts.

"Really, though, let me know if you think of any use you might have for it. I'd be happy to trade for a spider silk outfit of my own, when your business gets to that point."

"We'll let you know! Even if we can't personally use it, we've already arranged one three-way trade today."