"Metamagic, oooh. I have so many questions. But sure, you're welcome to join if you don't mind me impolitely stopping conversation to hawk my wares from time to time. Be nice if you could snag some eggs while you're at it, but I legit won't take it as a snub if you don't." 

He's aware this is sort of vaguely alliance-suggesting, but not particularly fussed about it. It's only Day 2 and they're freshmen, and also subtext can hang itself. 

"I'll see what they have in the way of eggs."

Off she goes.

After a glance about for potential customers (or mals), he digs into his hash browns. One table over, a junior skewers a five-legged frog-thing that was making a beeline for Potion Table. Alexius waves in thanks. 

Bella's back later with a tray full of French toast and orange juice for her and a dollop of eggs for him.

Eggs! "Awesome, thank you." He digs in. 

Eventually: "So, metamagic. Enlighten me. Changing spell parameters? Ranges, durations, targets? Powering spells? Cheapening spells?" 

"Some of that, but more countering spells, disenchanting items, debugging spells that aren't quite where their authors mean for them to wind up. I'm good at circle casting but not by that much more than most people who've practiced it."

Not as much synergy as he might hope, but... "Got anything on potions?" 

"I don't know yet what it'll do there, New Orleans isn't heavy on the alchemy and I was trying to cram Mandarin so I didn't look into it as hard as I could have. I'll see what happens in lab."

That's not completely unpromising. "My affinity gives me a lot of personal spells and makes 'em cheaper to cast and maintain, but if I want to do anything to anything that isn't me, I pay a premium. I can brew decent potions if I drink 'em immediately after brewing, and actually benefit therefrom. Hence the ten-day cycle on these." He gestures towards the tray. "They last the full ten for me. The dose always comes out just right for me, but a crapshoot for everyone else." 

"Huh! It's possible that I could eventually figure something out to redirect that for a given potion but I would bet dollars to donuts it's not already in circulation. But I'm creative writing so."

"Yeah, see, that's what I was thinking when you said metamagic. If you can find a way to make my spells think someone else is me, suddenly we're a star buffing team. Similar for the potions, which may or may not be easier, I've never worked with a metamage before. I do plan to recruit some more alchemists, later, to brew larger batches in exchange for a cut of sales." 

"Very enterprising. I am willing to sink a fair amount of work into a steady supply of eidetic memory potions."

A girl in a silk shirt with a ruby-twinkling bracelet on her wrist, (doesn't look like a power sharer, more like something for storage) comes over as well.

"I've got enchanted items and luxuries for trade. Shielding, blasting, endurance and mana storage bracelets - bracelets are my affinity - and chocolate and gummies and spices and good silk clothing. Any of that you'd be interested in?"

Oh hey it's Lily. "I'll take a shielding bracelet, please. Do they come in different flavors? And I will gladly repeat this trade when I mix a new batch in ten days, even after the price goes up." If I'm still alive, of course...

To Bella: "Yep, that's the hope. Some of the ingredients are a bit challenging, I got lucky in yesterday's supply run and brought a few ingredients of my own to start me off. I'm banking on people like you to notice the value and trade for more of what I need." 

"Only aesthetically. I've got black and hematite, bronze and tigerseye, and copper and malachite." She fishes in her pack and shows examples. "All of them are good for enhancing your choice of hex, pretty broad-spectrum compatibility, best with explosive or incendiary ones."

"What's the ingredient list?"

"Life-saving and fashionable," he admires them a moment. "I'll take the bronze. I don't suppose they do mana efficiency as well?" 

And, "mercury base, dash of silver, bismuth, powdered fluorite and lapis, plus carnelian if I brew it. And a handful of common reagents. I need 'em all in bulk if I want to do this regularly, especially the mercury." 

Bella writes it all down. "I have lab first thing Tuesday so I should be okay at getting stuff."

"I've been working on a channeling design but it's been difficult. I'll let you know if I've made progress when I come back in ten days."

"Neat. Either of you interested in swapping spells? I tend to accumulate personal ones."

"Sure. What've you got? I have a generic counterspell and a thing in Spanish for setting mals alight and the commonest Mandarin wake-up ward, which I think is a bit better than the English but I have that too, and a French mind-ward."

"I'm good on wake-up wards. Got a bunch of languages, but in the ones you mentioned so far...several concealment variants in Spanish, one to staunch bleeding and oxygenate blood in Mandarin, a couple stimulants and gut microbiome tweaks in English, slightly faster thinking in Mandarin, contraception in French, movement speed in French and reflexes in English that I got from Angie, and English spells for an ice spike and cold resistance from Hira. Oh, and strength in Mandarin, and different speed and reflex spells in English. Yolanda Park has an affinity for self-buffing and we are going to be best friends. I'm also curious how my Russian mind ward stacks up against your French one." His affinity tends to make subtle mind magic slide off him, but powerful spells are still a threat. 

"I don't have Russian and wasn't planning on doing it soon but if yours is better maybe it's worth it just for that. The faster thinking one sounds lovely."

"It's only about ten percent or so but it does last a few hours. Good for studying. Gotta be careful not to abuse it, though, it can have side effects roughly akin to a bad hangover if used two or three times in a row. I kind of want the generic counterspell, even if it's out-of-affinity, just for the utility...I wonder if it would work especially well if what I'm countering is targeting me? Have to test it, I suppose. Trade?" 

"Sure thing." She writes out her counterspell. It's in modern if florid English, and it's short but one of those ones where you need to identify and mention and rhyme with whatever you're countering; she has a little flowchart for it which she supplies under the basic incantation and gesture (a triangle made with both thumbs and forefingers).