"Mn."

"Do you think someone's going to steal my stuff? I hope no one steals my stuff."

"Mn."

"You know what I don't get? Your brother. Why does he have a sworn brother in the Scholomance? Uh, hello, everyone's going to die. You have plenty of time to fall in love outside, with people who are confirmed not dead."

"Mn."

"And a maintenance track kid too? What the hell. He must have an enormous dick or something. You're not going to catch me falling in love here, nope. All the girls and all the guys are going to be falling at my feet begging me to fuck them and I'm going to be like 'nope, you are a distraction from my studies.'"

"Mn."

"Don't look at me like that! I so could do my homework. Especially since it's going to come to life and try to murder me if I don't. --Lan Zhan will you save me from the ferocious homeworks."

"Yes."

"You're a saint. I love you. I'd suck your dick if I weren't sworn to celibacy. --You know, this is why I helped Nie Huaisang smuggle in a bunch of porn. I bet if Lan Xichen had been practical and thought ahead like me he wouldn't have fallen in love."

"Mn."

"Twice! You know, once I can forgive but twice just seems like carelessness."

"Mn."

It's after dinner but there's probably still an hour or two to go before curfew, if he's kept track of time, and so Masozi is walking around getting a better sense of where things are in the school. Apparently 'homeroom' is first thing in the morning tomorrow, and he won't know where he has to go until he gets a slip of paper under his door? At which point he wants to already know the most efficient route there, that minimizes the number of mal-hiding-places he passes. 

Also, pacing around the school and using just his eyes to check for mals rather than his detection sort-of-spell - it must be a spell, though he hadn't consciously realized until now that there was any incantation involved and that the words he would loop in his thoughts or mutter under his breath were relevant - is at least a good way to bank up some mana, so he can do a ward on his door tonight without having to use his beetles. Since apparently it might be bad for him to do that, not to mention it supposedly makes him have creepy vibes, and right now it seems feasible to avoid. 

He's about to just walk past the kids talking in Mandarin, but...wait what are they even doing? 

Masozi stops walking. "Do you - need help with something?" he asks - in English, meaning it might not be understood, but eh he can at least try to offer. 

That person said a sentence in English. Lan Zhan didn't totally catch it but he's pretty sure from the intonation that it was a question.

"No," he says, because that's generally a safe answer to questions.

This kid has a mildly creepy aura. It's nothing you'd notice if you weren't looking for it and weren't Masozi, who has been training his situational awareness for years; most people, if they think of it at all, attribute it to him being goth.

"I forgot my room number so we're checking every room for my cockroaches! Lan Zhan is here to hit the mals with his sword because I can really only do much with things once they're dead."

"You forgot your room?" Masozi gives him a shocked look. "Do you remember if it was top or bottom, or inside or outside the ring, or near a bathroom or stairs...?" 

"I think it was one of the odd ones out but I'm not sure."

Helping some dumb unprepared kid who managed to forget his room number on the first day is probably not a great use of his time, but then again, he's out here anyway. And the other kid - Lan something? - has a sword, which will be useful if Masozi does spot any mals. 

"I can help you look, if you want," he offers cheerfully. 

"Yeah! Sure! That would be great! I'm Wei Wuxian, this is Lan Wangji, we're from Shanghai enclave. Don't mind Lan Wangji, he doesn't talk much even in a language he actually speaks well."

Lan Wangji hears his name. "Mn," he says on the grounds that it's appropriate in all situations.

"My name is Masozi. Pleased to meet you."

Masozi will try checking alternating rooms, so he and Wei Wuxian can leapfrog past each other and hopefully do this twice as fast. Nope, no cockroaches in this room. The next one is locked which means it's presumably another student's. 

Making conversation is a thing, right. "You brought cockroaches?" he asks, as they reach the end of this hall. "I have dung beetles." 

"Yeah! My affinity is corpses and my martial brother's affinity is animals so we brought in cockroaches because they don't die and we can both use them."

And he's planning to use them for malia when he can't get enough from cheating but let's not discuss that.

"...That affinity sounds kind of inconvenient." 

This guy...definitely has some kind of vibe, now that Masozi is actually paying any attention to that. It's perhaps easier to tell because he's clearly not paranoid or careful or on guard, so the slight feeling of danger is out of place. 

- is THAT the kind of thing that other people were noticing about him? Huh. 

It does imply that this is someone who might have some actual firsthand experience with maleficing, and therefore be more useful to ask for advice than the kids who clearly never even considered using it and seem to be mostly going on "common wisdom" which might or might not contain any truth. 

"Can I - ask you a question?" he says. "I didn't go to school or anything before this so there's a lot of things I don't know about wizard magic." 

"Of course."

Lan Wangji likes conversations that happen in English. No one could possibly expect him to contribute.

"Um, do you - know much about maleficing, and when it's bad for someone? People seem to think it's very worrying but not all of their arguments make any sense and I don't know how actually bad it is." 

"If you pull from inanimate objects or insects it's less powerful but it basically won't fuck you up, everyone does that but they like to pretend it isn't malia. Sacrificing animals is bad for you, it's addictive and it makes it harder to use mana and it cuts years off your lifespan. Sacrificing humans is worse on all those axes, especially the shortened life expectancy, because in addition to the malia itself you're going to have everyone ganging up and trying to kill you."

"....Why is it addictive? Climbing stairs to get mana or something isn't." 

"I don't know. It's easier? My teachers just said that it's always addictive to do things the easy way."

"I don't really think it's easier? It's just faster and so if you don't have a way to store mana and you need a lot of it at once to fight off a big mal or else you'll die, then it's the only option? I had to use rats sometimes to survive when I was traveling by myself, but - it's not like I'm tempted to for no reason? And there's not really any reason to here, there are a tenth as many mals and there are other wizards to help." And other wizard kids who make much more tempting targets, but Masozi doesn't say that out loud. 

"I think it's like cigarettes." He looks at Masozi. "--Do you have cigarettes wherever you're from?"

"Some people do but they seem stupid, I dunno why you'd want to breathe smoke on purpose–"

He dives to block Wei Wuxian from stepping forward and ending up underneath the ceiling grate, which is currently home to some sort of mal that looks as though it's made entirely out of ribbons. "Careful! Look." He points. 

Lan Zhan understands this part of the interaction!

He unsheathes Bichen and stabs the mal. 

Wei Wuxian is undisturbed. "So cigarettes make you want more cigarettes even though they don't get you high or anything. I thought that it must be a really good high given how much people smoke it but I tried and it's not fun at all and then Yanli caught me and frowned so I stopped. I think malia probably works like that?"

Lan-something is pretty good in combat! Masozi notes this with satisfaction. He checks another door. Nope, still no cockroaches. 

"But doing it with bugs isn't addictive?" he asks. "....Just, a different person I talked to before said that normally bugs is okay and people call it cheating not maleficing, but - that if I'd ever done it with animals then it might've hurt me already and I would have to stop using bugs too in order to get better from it? Only, it doesn't feel like it did anything bad. I don't think I have a harder time with normal mana and I definitely don't want to go find more rats so I don't think I'm addicted either." 

"Well," he says judiciously, "if you smoke a cigarette once a week it probably won't give you lung cancer or make you addicted either. I pull from bugs all the time, that's one of the things my cockroaches are for, and I don't think I'm addicted to it."

Masozi nods. Frowns. "Do you know about it doing - worse damage to you than just being addictive? If all it does is make you want to do it more, I mean, that's fine, it's just like being hungry and you can ignore that. But someone thought it might turn you into someone else, and change - what you care about - make you think hurting people is fine and not bad..." 

"Well, I mean, if you're craving something you can only get by killing people, you're going to rationalize killing people."

"Mn," Lan Wangji contributes.

"But you could just not do that because you don't want anyone to be dead!" Masozi's face and voice are very earnest. 

"I think most people just do whatever they feel like and come up with some explanation about how it makes them a good person afterward."

"But if you just do whatever you feel like then you can't make plans that work," Masozi says, as though this is incredibly obvious and he's very confused it hasn't been brought up. 

"I mostly do whatever I feel like and it's worked out okay for me so far!"

"Well," Masozi points out, "you did lose your room. That feels like things not working out very okay." 

"But then I met an interesting person finding it again!"

"You're not worried I'll murder you because I did maleficing?" Masozi is kind of joking but only kind of. "The New York people wouldn't even talk to me." 

"Do you want to see what would happen if you tried to murder me?"

"Not especially. I don't actually want to murder anyone, but apparently I look scary." 

"Aw, it's fun to have Lan Zhan show off."

Lan Wangji hears his name again. "Mn."

"If I find more mals he can show off then." 

"He has a magic sword named Bichen-- which means, uh, 'don't do fun shit'-- and-- you know that magic objects have to be taken care of or they'll wander off or stop behaving?"

"Yeah, I heard that." He's never actually owned a magic object. "Does that mean he has to fight and kill things with it to keep it behaving?" 

"Oh, no, it's a very priggish magic object. It wants him to defend the weak and helpless and defeat evil and not get drunk and go to bed on time and meditate a lot and never ever ever have sex."

"That seems oddly specific! Does he...mind?" Masozi opens another door to check. 

"Oh, no, they gave it to him because he's a prig, he's fine with it. --It's Taoist or whatever, getting drunk and not meditating and having sex is bad for you because it drains your qi."

"Your...tchee? Is that like mana?" 

"Oh, qi's not real, the Taoists made it up, but magic items get their opinions all sorts of places."

"....Right." Masozi is not entirely sure that he follows. 

Also they've now opened a LOT of doors and he's starting to run out of conversation to make. Although probably Wei Wuxian will just start chattering as soon as Masozi leaves him an opening. 

"It's not so bad when you're here because you shouldn't get drunk or have sex anyway. I mean, I'm going to get drunk a lot regardless. And you can build a ton of mana meditating because it's the most boring goddamn thing in the world. Oh! You might like meditating."

"What is meditating and why do you think I'd like it?" 

"You sit in one place and think about your breath or the sounds you're hearing or, like, the boundless compassion you feel for everyone in the world. You can build a ton of mana with it and it doesn't cost resources the way that knitting does and you don't get tired like with exercise. Probably don't do it more than a few hours a day, you get spacey." 

"That's interesting. Yeah, I'll try it - thanks." 

"I think it's supposed to make you be able to do cool things with your brain like focus really hard on something and stop being able to feel pain and stuff." He switches to Mandarin. "Lan Zhan, has meditating stopped you from feeling pain?"

Literally what happened to cause this topic to come up. "No."

"Lan Wangji doesn't know how but you can ask the void and maybe it'll send you a book."

That sounds very implausible. "Sure, I can try asking the void for a book. Does it have books that aren't about magic?" 

"This white girl said you could probably get it to give you novels?"

"I see. Does the library have novels?" 

"I don't know. Want to go check?"

"I think we should finish finding your room next! We could check after, if you wanted." Masozi is, in fact, SO EXCITED to see the library. 

"Let's go check out the library, I'm bored of room searching." Switches to Mandarin: "Lan Zhan, I want to go look at the library."

"Mn."

"See! He says yes."

....Well, it's not actually his problem if this dumb distractible enclave kid dies because he didn't get around to finding his room before curfew. "If you want. Let's finish checking this hall so you can keep track." There are only four doors left, it won't take long. 

Check check check the rooms. "What novels do you like?"

"I haven't read very many." By which Masozi means he's read half of one novel, for English practice, before the librarian chased him out for crimes of Being Poor And Weird. "I think I'd like novels about - people building really big projects?" 

"I wonder if we can convince the library to get you some books. If not, maybe Nie Huaisang can write you one. He's a really good writer."

"He is - one of the other people in the Shanghai enclave?" 

"Yeah! He's my best friend. He's really cool. He does a lot of art and he knows how to make moonshine."

Being able to do art and write novels does not exactly seem like a relevant survival skill. Unless the kid can do art that animates and chases mals for him, or something. 

"What is 'moonshine'?" he asks, while pausing to check the stairs for mals.

"Alcohol from the nutrient paste. Or toilet paper, or regular paper. He's planning to experiment since all the stuff here is magic."

That sounds incredibly disgusting. "Why is it useful to make that?" 

"I don't know if you've noticed but being at the Scholomance is awful because all your friends are dying and you're being attacked by rogue homework. So sometimes you want to shut your brain off for a bit so it stops hurting."

....Masozi is not going to say that actually the Scholomance is proving to be the least awful place he's ever experienced in his life, because even he has enough tact to realize that this would not help. What sort of lives do enclaver kids have, anyway? They must have it really good, for the Scholomance to seem so awful in comparison. 

"That sounds risky," he says, "but I guess if you have friends to watch your back...?" 

The stairs are free of mals. They can proceed up to the library. 

"Well, you know, people do a lot of things that increase their risk of dying. For example, I sometimes let Lan Zhan out of my sight."

"...We think about things differently." Masozi pauses at the landing, holding up a hand, and checks for mals again. "- I do sometimes help people when it's not helping me not die right then? But I think that's still - about not dying, just in the future, because then more people will be willing to help me if I need it." Which he intends to avoid as much as possible, but still. 

Stairs and checking for mals nonstop without using magic is earning him a decent chunk of mana, at least, and now: LIBRARY!!!!!! 

Library!!!

What if he tries glaring at a bookshelf and expecting really hard that it will contain the complete works of Becky Chambers.

This does not even slightly cause the library to manifest a shelf full of novels! Just books about magic here. ...And maybe that one includes a lot of dramatic mythology along with its spells? Which is sort of storylike? 

"No luck on the novels about building things front."

What about meditating? Meditating is a way of building mana, therefore it is magic, therefore it belongs in this library.

The library makes him work a bit for it, but he can totally find a book on meditation! However, it's in Mandarin. 

Masozi is still standing sort of vaguely by the nearest shelf, basking in the sheer number of BOOKS surrounding him, and feeling slightly overwhelmed by it. 

"Bad news, the book is in Mandarin. If you decide you want to meditate I can translate it for you?"

Masozi considers this for a while, seriously. 

"- Can you teach me Mandarin? It seems important to know."

"Mandarin is one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn. I don't know if you've tried to pick up something tonal before...?"

"I don't know what 'tonal' means but I don't think languages are very hard to learn. I learned Zulu in the last three months - after my parents died - and it was harder to study not in the school because I didn't have books and mals kept trying to eat me all the time." 

"...holy fuck that's impressive."

"This school is so good! I thought it'd be worth it but I didn't think it'd be this good! There's practically no mals and there are other students who are better at killing them! ....Anyway what does a tonal language mean. I don't know if I've learned any but I bet I could." 

"A tonal language means that mà and má and mā are different words but I really want to get back to this part where the Scholomance is relaxing for you."

Masozi thinks that's a much less interesting topic than learning a NEW LANGUAGE that apparently half the school speaks and does classes in and which he can't understand at all. He hates not being able to eavesdrop on conversations, and in fact he's already starting to parse some syllables despite himself, just from lurking around the edges of conversations. 

"Oh, like -" and he rattles off a string of Zulu phonemes. 

"Yes, exactly. --You know the school teaches you languages."

"How? I thought there weren't any teachers, and I don't think I could learn it just by reading a book." Though he's already reaching out hopefully for the Mandarin meditation book. ...Oh, awkward, that's a completely different script, this might actually be sort of hard. 

"The language classrooms are enchanted so that they'll talk to you in the language you're learning. But study groups definitely help."

"Huh! That must be strong magic." Masozi is BOUNCING. "I'd be really happy if you were willing to do a study group! I could teach you Zulu if you want. I think it's a 'tonal' language too so it probably wouldn't be hard for you? And the writing is the same alphabet as English." 

"Awesome! I love languages. What track are you going for?"

"...I haven't decided. I didn't know there were tracks until I got here today." 

"I'm doing artificing because I love making shit."

Masozi wants to learn EVERYTHING but apparently the school wants you to focus on one area. "I haven't made anything magic before," he admits. "...I don't think. Not on purpose. I'd like to be able to, though." 

"Oh shoot I'm supposed to trade things. Right. What kind of things can you give us in trade?"

“I can do lookout duty. My affinity is finding mals.” Or at least that is the version of it that everyone in this school is going to get to know. As long as no one has an affinity for mindreading then it should be fine. “I’m very good at it,” he adds. 

"Oh, that's a good affinity, Lan Xichen's going to love that affinity because his sworn brother is maintenance track."

" --A sworn brother is like a husband? Except platonic. But not in this case because they're totally fucking. No, I don't know why he got married in the Scholomance either. Bad idea."

Masozi has not exactly encountered the concept of committed homosexual relationships before, but it’s not any weirder - really it’s less weird - than any number of other things he’s encountered for the first time today. 

“At least neither of them can get pregnant?" he points out. "That makes it less a bad idea." 

"Oh, obviously you're not going to have heterosexual sex in the Scholomance. That's stupid."

It does seem very stupid, but so does not memorizing your ROOM NUMBER and then running off to the library instead of looking for it before curfew. 

Masozi does not say this out loud. He is, after all, benefiting personally from it. Because: LIBRARY!!!!!!! 

"Does your enclave have a spot here?" he asks Wei Wuxian. "I - could help do lookout for them there. If you wanted."

He's already managed to pick up that an enclave staked-out area is vastly preferable to whatever that random kid who tried to recruit him was planning - actually, he's no longer even sure which of the random kids who tried to recruit him had mentioned claiming a spot in the library. 

"Yeah, but I forgot where it is." Mandarin: "a-Zhan where is our fucking spot?"

Lan Zhan indicates an armchair.

"Right, okay, I love you." English: "it's over here."

"Can I trade..." Masozi considers. "I could come in every morning and check for mals first thing? I don't know when people usually come here to work." 

"Actually, you're probably useful enough that I should take you to Lan Xichen and he'll figure out what to do with you."

.....Wait is he about to get an alliance with an enclave. An enclave that speaks an entire new language??? This is - amazing and also really confusing! How does anything work over here. 

"All right," he says cheerfully. "- We should finish looking for your room first though. Can't be that much longer til curfew." 

"Oh, that's a good idea." He heads out. "Normally in an enclave everyone just kind of does what they want, you know, and if you're being an asshole people are going to bitch about you or not help you much or feed you to a mal if it's really excessive. But Lan Xichen has kind of a force of personality so now everyone kind of does whatever he says. He was like that even when he was a kid, you know, he'd just be polite at you and somehow you'd wind up following the rules without even knowing why."

"Wow. ...Is he good at coming up with rules? That seems like it'd be really useful if he were - good at things - and annoying if he wants people to follow stupid rules." 

"I guess it depends on what rules you think are good? Lan Xichen says he thinks all of Shanghai enclave is part of Shanghai enclave including our maintenance-track people and our allies and it's his job to get everyone out alive. Zixun hates it, obviously."

"I think that seems good! You'd expect to be stronger as a group if everyone in the group watches everyone else's back, yeah? ...Um, who's  Zixun?" 

"Oh, he's another member of the enclave. He's an asshole."

"Oh." Masozi is maybe going to not ask more questions now and hold off judgement until he's actually met this person. 

He confirms that the stairs are free of mals, heads down, and they can start checking the next hallway to see if any of the rooms contain cockroaches. 

"I mean it costs resources to keep people alive, right, if we're trying to ward the maintenance track's rooms we have less mana for graduation."

"But then you've also got them to help you fight? I'd've thought that that'd be worth it. Assuming they're good in a fight, I guess, but I figured anyone who makes it four years here would be by the end of it." 

"Well, sure, but it's a better way to get the ones who are good at fighting if you don't help them and let anyone who's bad at fighting die and ally with the survivors senior year."

"Yeah, I guess. Just - two different strategies." 

"Wonder why he chose that one."

"'Cause he's good at it? Or maybe he just doesn't like it when people die. I don't like it when people die." 

"Probably you'll get used to it. --Oh hey! Cockroaches."

"Oh good!" Masozi is so relieved. "Want me to check it for mals for you?" 

"Sure! Bichen food."

Unfortunately for Bichen's diet, there are not any exciting mals hiding in the room. There's an agglo in one of the desk drawers and some sort of cocoon inside the mattress. Masozi points these out. "I don't think agglos are dangerous though." 

He stabs them both just to be on the safe side.

"Cool! Let's take you to Xichen."

"- Oh, right now? Sure. Is his room far?" 

"Nah, he's back down at the cafeteria." Mandarin: "we're going to see Xichen."

"Oh, all right." Masozi takes the lead, so he can keep a lookout for mals and, if he sees any, point them out to Lan Wangji. 

On the way there Wei Wuxian maintains the conversation himself by explaining some pranks he pulled at the Shanghai enclave.

This is kind of mystifying as a conversation topic but at least Wei Wuxian doesn't mind that Masozi is quiet and busy checking the hallway. He doesn't find any mals worth pointing out to be stabbed. 

They arrive at the cafeteria. "Hello, Lan Xichen," Wei Wuxian says in English. "This is Masozi. His affinity is finding mals and he wants to learn Mandarin."

Lan Xichen is sitting on the bench with his head against someone's knee. "Pleased to meet you, Masozi," he says in heavily accented English. 

Masozi has not seen all that much physical affection in his life, or experienced it even from his parents. He blinks at this sight. 

"Pleased to meet you," he says. "Wei Wuxian showed me the library. It was very kind of him." 

"Indeed. --This is my sworn brother, Meng Yao."

Meng Yao ducks his head.

"You want to learn Mandarin?"

"His other language has tones so it'll be easy!"

"I want to learn all the languages! But Mandarin first because it's important. I think I can do it. I learned Zulu by myself in three months. ...Although it's related to Chichewa which I grew up speaking, I think, and Mandarin would be harder than that. But easier with teachers and books." He is slightly bouncing again with excitement. 

"That's quite impressive. Wei Wuxian wants to teach you? The obvious trade is language for language but I don't know what else you know..."

"I know Zulu and Chichewa! Which are tonal languages too. And I know some Africaans but not fluently yet. ...I can trade lookout duty too, I'm really good at finding mals." 

"Do you prefer set time or favors to be named later?"

"....I'm not sure? I guess maybe set time, so I can plan around it. But - whatever is most helpful for you?" 

"Shanghai enclave members who do highest-risk things regularly are maintenance team, but we also need coverage for supply runs and similar."

"We should keep it as favors. We don't know what's going to come up."

He kisses Meng Yao's knee. "That's probably wise."

"...All right." 

Masozi takes a deep breath. "- Wei Wuxian says that you - try to protect everyone in your enclave and keep them alive, and that includes maintenance people and allies and - kids who aren't good at fighting yet. I'm curious why you think that's the best strategy to survive and win." 

"Do you know anything about Confucianism?"

It sounds vaguely familiar but he can't quite place it. "....Is that a different thing from Taoism?" 

"Yes. Chinese practice several... religions? Philosophies? I don't know the word."

"Confucianism speaks of five relationships-- ruler and ruled, parent and child, older sibling and younger sibling, husband and wife, and friend and friend. First four are hierarchical. Superior is to be kind and generous and considerate, inferior to be obedient and dutiful and loyal."

"Then I don't think I've heard of that." He's still not quite following why it's relevant, either. 

"The way that enclaves relate to their minions and maintenance track people is wrong. Inferior is loyal and obedient but superiors aren't returning the favor. They're demanding things from others without returning them because they're powerful enough that they can."

"And that's wrong because it...hurts people? Because it doesn't help the enclaves win? Or something else?" 

"Because-- society works better if everyone knows what to expect from their relationships and relationships are... reciprocal? Meng Yao, is that the word?"

"Yes."

"And people will be more loyal to you, as leader, if they trust that you will deal fairly with them."

Masozi's expression says that he is not exactly convinced by any of these points but he sure is engaged in the discussion. 

"- Right, I thought that too. And that people'd be more loyal to you if they'd been allies with you for longer, probably? 'Cause then they'd - know more about how you treat them. ...Wei Wuxian was saying that a different strategy is to just wait and see who dies and then ally with the people who survived to senior year. But then you wouldn't have long to earn their loyalty before graduation." 

"And then you have to live with them for rest of your life, at enclave."

"You have to do that either way, right? I guess maybe if you've worked with someone all four years then you know them better and it's easier to get along." 

"It's harder for them to be loyal at enclave if you haven't taken any care for them in three years of their life where they're most likely to die."

"That makes sense. I think I like your strategy. If it works. ....Do you know if it's worked before?" 

"Records of strategies in here are not very good. No one wants to give someone else's child leg up. It isn't common, at any rate."

"Hmm." 

Pause. 

"....Well. People dying is bad. So it makes sense that you'd want fewer kids to die." 

"Number of deaths doesn't change. Mals don't eat one person, get hungry, and eat someone else. To first approximation."

"- But if you fight and kill a mal then there're fewer of them, right?" 

"Are you familiar with Malthus?"

Masozi blinks at him. "What? No." 

"More mals exist than can be fed. Most mals starve.You kill mal, and some other mal survives because there's more food for it. The system reaches equilibrium. It's like wolves and sheep."

"That - seems like it's bad and it could be better?" 

(The word Masozi is desperately searching for is 'suboptimal', but his English vocabulary does not yet include that term.) 

"...I mean, I dunno how to fix it or make it better yet? But I'm gonna try. Someone has to." 

"It's good thing to do, but while I'm here I'm worrying about people who are my responsibility."

".....I don't have anyone who's my responsibility yet."

A pause.

"...I guess except my little sister - she's the only one who's still alive in my family - but I left her with a mundane family and I think she'll be all right for another four years because they don't believe in magic. And so if I survive in here I'll go back for her." 

"That's a good thing to do. --How did you say you got here?"

"....I don't know if I said before. But - my parents died, and - I'd heard of the Scholomance. And that there was an enclave in Johannesburg. So I travelled there to see if they had an extra spot and they did."

He is going to elide the rest of that. 

"What training did you get?"

"....Dunno. My parents showed me some of their spells but they didn't usually work for me. I mostly figured it out myself." 

Meng Yao lowers himself to sit next to Lan Xichen and squeezes his hand. 

"What kinds of things can you do?"

- Eeeek, now he's on the spot, should he be honest or not aaaaah? 

This guy seems - sensible. Pragmatic. Like he won't hold it against Masozi that he can do things which other people find alarming. 

"I can sense mals if they're out of sight," he says. "It takes mana but only a little. I....think I can sort of convince them to do things? Like go away and leave students alone. It takes a lot of mana so I'd rather point them out to people who have a better affinity for killing them, though. ....And I have a ward spell and I can start fires."

"That's impressive. My own affinity is emotions, and my sworn brother's is thoughts. It seems very useful to have that for mals."

Masozi lights up to hear this. He feels appreciated and it's such a rare feeling for him. 

"I think so! ...But some people seem to think it's scary or evil. New York told me to never talk to them or go near them again." He's still a vague mix of hurt-and-confused about this; it's not like he expected anything to be fair, here, but something still feels differently unfair, about - people deciding he's probably in favour of murder and then threatening to murder him, and it feels a lot worse than just mals trying to eat his face. 

"You do feel like maleficer, but I'm not surprised by that for someone who's had no magical training and has no idea of harms."

Masozi ducks his head. 

"....I didn't know anything about it until today. I - someone told you it can - damage your brain and make you crazy and, and think that hurting people is fine - and Wei Wuxian says it's addictive - it doesn't feel addictive? I dunno. I'm going to stop doing it at all even with bugs for a while in case I already damaged my head and it needs time to get better." 

"That seems wise. When your aura is cleaner you can go back to bugs, everyone does it."

"I met a couple of people who say they don't! I didn't really understand why not. I think one of them said it was - emotional discomfort, about hurting bugs? But she didn't say it was a, uh, a moral objection? So that was really confusing." 

"Well, they are alive. Many people don't like to hurt living things."

"I don't like hurting rats. ....I would've died at least ten times if I hadn't, and I - learned how to do it in a way that hurt my head less? But it's still hurting them and I hope I never ever have to again." 

He looks thoughtfully at Lan Xichen. "Is there - any way to make my aura cleaner sooner? I don't like it, that people keep assuming I'm fine with murdering them, and then they - don't trust me even when I really want to try to help them not die..." 

His voice comes out a bit tight and choked; he hadn't fully realized how distressed he was about this, to - not be seen as he really is. It feels a bit like he's lying to them? Which is probably stupid, he's not doing it on purpose and it - does mean something, that he was willing to pull mana from mundane humans in a bad enough situation, he bets Sophie or Daria wouldn't ever have done that. (And so they'd be dead. And probably will end up dead. And that makes his chest clench as well, but it's so hard to help people protect themselves if they don't want his help...) 

"There are cleansing spells but they're quite expensive. Slow way is going to be better, I think, since you're not enclaver."

Nod. 

"Could I - is there any way I could do lookout duty to trade for clothes? Even just to borrow for a bit? I–" He gestures vaguely at his current clothing, which is very mismatched and ill-fitting and also displays some mysterious stains and noticeably smells like a garbage dump. "Apparently it - matters what you wear, to make a good first impression on people. A girl offered to make me clothes as a trade for watching her back on a supply run but she needs a couple of weeks." 

"Would Song Lan's extras fit?" he asks Meng Yao in Mandarin.

"They'll be baggy but Nie Huaisang could take them in."

"Does he have thread? --Of course he has thread. Why am I even asking." In English: "Yes. You can do one lookout shift for maintenance, alchemy, or artificing for anyone in the Shanghai enclave in exchange for one item of clothing, tailored, and the leftover fabric."

"Generous," Meng Yao says in Mandarin.

"Well, we can't have him running around looking like a disgrace to the Shanghai enclave."

"Okay. ....Are maintenance shifts during classes? I don't really want to miss classes, I'm already going to be behind because I haven't ever gone to school. I...could maybe try to take the same classes as some of your students who need protection?" 

It has not occurred to Masozi, at this point, that offering to take classes in a language he does not yet speak is, perhaps, what is generally considered a completely insane plan. From his current point of view, it can't be that hard? 

"Maintenance shifts are during classes. Taking class in language you don't speak seems difficult? Some people in Shanghai enclave take classes in English, this could be arranged."

"Okay. Um, how does it - work, if I want to try to take classes at the same time as them when we don't know the schedules until tomorrow?" 

"I send someone tomorrow to collect everyone's schedules and give them to you, and you can request that Scholomance give you classes you want."

"Okay! Thank you! ...I can do a lookout duty tomorrow if it's not at the same time as any classes. If people want to work in the lab or the shop in the evening, or something." 

"I don't think so this early on, but I ask. --Masozi, I would like you to take a truth potion. Meng Yao put a drop of it on your tongue and then you can only say true things. I ask you whether things you've said so far are true, whether you intend harm to Shanghai enclave, and whether you intend to use malia in the future. It wear off in five minutes. I ask you no questions other than those three and you be silent until it wears off." 

WOW that's a real thing that's amazing and incredibly and Masozi is so incredibly relieved. He desperately wants there to be a way that people can trust him. He's tired of not that. 

"Yes! I will do that!" 

Meng Yao takes out an eyedropper, gestures for Masozi to stick his tongue out, and drops a drop of the potion on his tongue.

That's - wow - that's very strange. He...it's not that his lips freeze if he tries to lie, it's that he - can't even think of any lies, it's like his mind slides away from even making the most tentative of plans in that direction. 

"I didn't–" 

He stops. 

"...I only said one thing that was - not a lie but it wasn't everything? My affinity....isn't just mals and feeling their minds. I can for people to. But I don't want to do things to people's minds if they're my allies, that wouldn't be..." Shrug. He's not sure what the word is. "I think everything else I said was completely true. I don't want to harm anyone in the Shanghai enclave - or anyone else in the school either! - I want to help people survive, even the ones who aren't careful enough yet, so they have time to learn. I..." He frowns, thinking. "I intend to not even use bugs for malia for a few weeks, but if it gets as dangerous here as it was in Malawi then I might not have a choice anymore, if I want to save other people too. I don't intend to take malia from people ever and I don't have rats or anything so I don't see how I'd do that either." 

Lan Xichen waits until the potion has worn off and then says, "Hm. That affinity could be more useful, unfortunately, right now that duplicates me and Meng Yao. But expanding it to mals is very useful."

"That's why I tried to do it! I'd be dead if I hadn't figured it out. And maybe I can get better spells for it from the school." 

"I recommend that. --This is advantage of being fair and reliable as leader. If I say 'this is truth potion and I ask you three things,' you trust me, because I am sort of person who is worthy of trust. I could have poisoned you for being maleficer, or questioned you in more depth."

Shrug. "I didn't think you would poison me even if you were - lying about that. Because I'm useful to you." 

"Brave of you."

Shrug. "If I wasn't brave I'd be dead." 

"Anything else you wish to discuss?"

"I don't think so right now. ...Oh, I did tell Wei Wuxian I could help guard the library spot from mals? But I don't know when people will be there." 

"I tell people they can fetch you. What's your room number?"

"My room is 132B." 

"Thank you. It's lovely to meet you."

Masozi nods and smiles and says one of his English pleasantries. And then it's time to excuse himself and run all the way back to his room so he has some time before curfew to try to get spells. 

In Mandarin: "you're ridiculous."

"He's a good investment for the enclave!"

"You know you're going to have problems if you want to bring in Julian and Masozi and a maintenance track kid."

"Song Lan died and no one was expecting that."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, er-ge."

"He's insanely impressive and no one else is going to notice because they're all judging him by his lack of shoes and the fact that he smells like garbage. Shanghai enclave needs a wizard that talented."

"Assuming you're right about him."

"I'd say I'm a pretty good judge of character."

That evening, Meng Yao is going to review the events of the day and think no, you're not.

"Yes, er-ge. --He wants to save everyone, that's going to get him killed."

"He can feed Bichen with Wangji. --I don't care how many people he wants to save as long as he wants to save Shanghai enclave the most."

"Just don't make decisions for the enclave based on the fact that you think he's cute."

"It's worked out well so far, a-Yao."

"He kept himself alive to fourteen and got a Scholomance slot without knowing what malia is."

"Imagine what he's going to be like in four years."