Masozi is at this point kind of irritated with the tall girl! Not everyone has a combat affinity such that setting things on fire is mana-efficient at all! 

"I'm saving my mana for if a dangerous mal shows up," he mutters. "If that happens I have a spell to trap it where it can't move."

And he should probably get....a weapon? On the road, it was almost always cheaper on mana to nudge the more powerful mals into ignoring him and then run like hell before it wore off, but now he's stuck in a relatively confined space and can't just flee for the next town. 

"Oh, that sounds like a good spell, what language is it in?"

"It's in Zulu. Sorry. ...I'd teach you if you wanted but it's a 'tonal' language and apparently people who grew up speaking English find those really hard? - Also mals are my affinity so I bet it's more mana efficient for me." 

"I apparently already need to learn Latin and Spanish and maybe also German and French depending on how many songs make the school count it so I better not try to learn Zulu."

Oh, great, the maleficer has a mals affinity. That's not going to go terribly at all.

(Julian sees Naima and quashes the urge to wave. He settles for a slight smile, which hopefully just makes him look friendly instead of lonely and desperate.) 

"Sorry, your affinity is mals? Do you mean you can control them?" Note to self, do not offend that kid. Or ideally be in the same room with him at any point after this morning. 

To the Asian kid whose name he doesn't know: "- I can sense them even if they're hidden, mostly. The void gave me a book of spells to control them but I didn't really want that so I just learned the one for trapping them in one spot." 

Tall combat girl is giving him the LOOK again. The look that means he's apparently letting off vibes of evilness and untrustworthiness and wanting-to-murder-people. Or something. Masozi is starting to edge past just being confused about this and is, instead, getting kind of frustrated. 

What's her name again...? Right, Bobbie. 

"Bobbie," he says, voice lowered so it's clear that he's mainly addressing her even though the entire room will inevitably here. "I - you don't gotta like me or trust me, obviously, but - I didn't know what maleficing was until yesterday and I didn't know it was bad for you and now I know that and I'm not gonna do it. 'Cause I don't have to, here, it's way safer." 

The latest arrival is an extremely tiny ... boy? Probably a boy? it's hard to tell, especially with the little ponytail and the fact that there is definitely some makeup going on. They can't be over five feet, in any case, and their mana-sharing bracelet marks them as an enclave student.

New kid gives the room a once-over, smiles politely at most of the occupants, and starts doing a perimeter check that keeps a very careful distance from Masozi.

"Pardon me if I don't just take your word for it. If you're telling the truth - great, go strict mana and get a good alliance and on graduation day you can tell Patience to clear a path for you and then go sit in a corner and think about what it's done, I'll pin a medal on your chest myself. If you're not - we're not gonna be friends but there's no laws in here, you can suck mana out of your pet rats to your heart's content and nobody's going to throw you in prison. When you start going after other kids someone's gonna put you down, might be me, might not. But right now everyone with eyes has got a lot of reasons to think you're bad news and nothing but your word to say otherwise and the smart ones know to stay away 'till that changes."

Julian privately thinks that a kid who's willing to cop to going maleficer when things get desperate ....will probably go maleficer when things get desperate. Which he'd rather not happen in a confined space with him in it, please and thank you. 

"So!" He says brightly. "Anyone know when we're supposed to get our schedules?" 

Masozi is really tired of people thinking that just because he's willing to take mana from rats and grew up not in an enclave and lost his parents, means he's on board with murdering humans. He's not! He's technically killed people but not even by draining their mana, because doing a thing that hurts his head in the middle of a fight where he's trying not to get MURDERED is STUPID and besides there were always plenty of bugs nearby. 

Whether or not it's fair isn't the point, of course. Probably by default a lot of these kids will die because they're not careful or paranoid enough. And he can do his best to prevent them from dying, although that does conflict some with staying out of their way enough that they don't decide to murder him. 

...He does really wish that Bobbie liked him better, though. She would be a great person to point mals out to. Oh well. Maybe later on, if it's true that he feels less creepy if he goes a few weeks without even draining any of his beetles. (A good idea anyway; it'll give them a chance to lay some eggs and start multiplying in their drawer-nest.) 

Bobbie checks her desk - There is a schedule there.

"I got mine by arguing with him, you want to be distracted by something. I've got shop Friday afternoon, anyone got something earlier than that?"

"Is earlier better? I have Thursday morning."

"What time? Earlier in the week is better for shop and lab, but for shop especially you don't want the first block in the morning. Earlier in the week matters more if you're serious about that class, later in the day matters more if you're doing incantations and want the section with the lowest mortality."

"It does look like it's the first of the day."

This is a very weird way for getting class schedules to work, but Masozi will happily distract himself by getting up to pace the perimeter of the room and check it over for mals again. There are, unsurprisingly-at-this-point, no new ones. 

- and then he gets a class schedule! Huh. Neat. 

"I have shop on Wednesday afternoon," he offers. "I wouldn't mind trading, probably. Is it more dangerous later in the week because of mals?" 

"You don't have to trade, per se, you can request any classes you want. But there's not a list, you've got to guess what's available from what the other people in this room get suggested. It's more dangerous earlier in the day but you get better stuff earlier in the week. Supplies restock weekly, mals restock nightly. From what we've heard so far Tuesday morning's best for hardcore artificers, Wednesday afternoon's best for everyone else, unless it's right after lunch in which case anyone just planning to do the absolute minimal amount of artificing should take the Friday 2 PM instead."

"What's wrong with right after lunch?"

"Sometimes mals creep in during lunch. Not very many, it's not as bad as a morning spot, but right after lunch is notably worse than right before. You're from Chicago? Shop is on the bottom floor, you never want to be the first in if you can avoid it, much better to be showing up as another class is leaving. Same's true for lab, but lab's up one floor so it's a little safer on the mals front."

"I think I want to do artificing track so I probably want earlier in the week? But I don't mind first thing after lunch, since I can sense mals." 

Rebecca looks at Masozi. "Do you want to take the same shop section so you'll notice if anything's gonna eat me?"

"Um, does anyone else...what alchemy slots do people have?"

To Rebecca, "You wanna wait 'till everyone's got their schedules before you write anything down. Don't commit to anything before you know what all the options are."

and to Anna, "I've got wednesday before-lunch and planning to keep it, it's a pretty good slot."

"I can take the same shop section as you if you want," Masozi tells Rebecca, "but I do want it as early in the week as I can get, if they have better supplies that way. What track are you going for?" 

Jean is busily poring over his schedule, which has just arrived.

M, 8:45-10:45 AM
     Malice and Maleficaria in 18th-century French poetry

MW, 10:45-11:45 AM
     Remedial Algebra

MW, 11:45 AM-12:45 PM
     The Magical Feminine in Medieval English Literature

MWF, 2:15-3:15 PM
     History of Artificing

MWF, 3:15-4:15 PM
     Introduction to Mechanics

TTH, 8:45-9:45 AM
     Beyond King James: English translations of the Pentateuch

TTH, 10:45-11:45 AM
     Early Modern Continental Drama

T, 10:45 AM-12:45 PM
     Intro to Shop

TTH, 2:15-3:15 PM
     Diaspora Enclaves: A History

TTH, 3:15-4:15 PM
     Language Lab

TH, 10:45 AM-12:45 PM
     Western European History through 1500

WF, 8:45-10:45 AM
     Freshman Maleficaria Studies

F, 10:45 AM-12:45 PM
     Intro to Lab