"Crap. The fact that the Americans get all the seats is going to kill me after all. Do you know any Americans who want an androgynous Chinese useless artist boyfriend, I hear that's very popular there. I can write them poetry. My type is women who are six feet tall and have enormous swords."

"I'll ask around. If I find you a kickass amazon girlfriend you owe me a favor."

"I will design you some very pretty clothes."

Dunya has been watching the Shanghai group and now sees a way in. She walks over to Nie Huaisang

"Hi! My name is Dunya!"

Vi notices a bald Asian guy chatting in Mandarin to a bald white girl. They're talking to each other like they don't know each other well, but she's not sure. 

"Hi," she says in Mandarin. "Have you guys eaten yet? I've heard some of the food here is sketchy, so I wondered if you had any recommendations." (She doesn't sound at all like a native speaker and she hopes no one's a dick about it.)

"Depends. Are you looking for safety or taste? I am getting things set up so that I can sell my enclavemate's ability to make food taste better but that's still in the works so this is a serious question. Don't worry about nutrients, they're all nutrient paste deep down."

Oh great, he's an enclave kid.

"Wow, that's a cool affinity. What track are they? I think I'm going to settle for food that's safe to eat and just deal with the taste."

She wonders if the bald girl's his enclavemate, but it's maybe rude to ask.

"Alchemy! The safest food to eat is the Brussels sprouts but they're absolutely disgusting. I have never had a Brussels sprout before and I have to say I don't appreciate the experience. --Has it occurred to anyone that the food available here is racist? I'm going to go the next four years without congee."

"Yeah, I kinda accepted I'm gonna miss a lot of foods from home. No offense but you can tell a bunch of white British wizards made this school. Though I'm not sure that explains the Brussels sprouts?-- I'm Vi, by the way."

"I'm not sure anything explains the brussels sprouts," Lucy snorts, "but apparently it's still better than the nutrient sludge they used to have here, so there's that. I'm Lucy."

"Maybe magic likes being Brussels sprouts."

Oh no she sounds stupid.

"Nice to meet you, Lucy. Have there been mal sightings yet or were my parents overexaggerating how often people get eaten the first week?"

"A guy I was talking to found one and Orion Lake killed it."

"Normally you're good until Field Day."

"It wasn't a very big mal or anything."

"A very small mal could still definitely eat me!"

"If I see one in your vicinity I'll yell for Orion Lake again. You'll probably live until Field Day."

"It's good that we have a bit of time to get our bearings and build mana. What do you know about Orion Lake? I've heard a lot about them* but we haven't met, I don't think."

* Vi has never heard of Orion Lake before, thank god for ungendered Mandarin pronouns.

"Orion Lake is from New York and he's the second coming of Sun Wukong he's so good at killing mals."

"Do you think he wants a boyfriend?"

"I dunno, and I don't think I have sufficient in with the New York enclave yet to find out. Maybe later."

"So you've talked to the New York kids? They kinda seem cliqueish to me. But I do want to meet Orion properly maybe. They* seem cool."

* same deal, Vi's clueless

"I want a hot American boyfriend who kills mals. It's exotic. He can teach me about cowboys."

"I met Orion Lake briefly to tell him about a mal. He probably couldn't pick my face out of a crowd. I have a lead on maybe selling some slippers to a different New Yorker but I don't think that's particularly close to you having a hot American bodyguard slash boyfriend."

"I should engineer a meet-cute. Trip and fall into his arms and gaze up at him longingly."

Aw Orion is a boy. Good to know but not as cool.

"Honestly you have good taste. Killing mals is objectively badass. Maybe he could teach you self-defense against mals... Unless it's some inborn affinity thing?"