...someone's talking to him. Oh no.

"Introductory Theory of Artificing, History of Artificing, Poetry & Prosody, Alebra II, Number Theory, Intro to Lab and Intro to Shop on Tuesday and Thursday...a class called 'Santa Muerte, Pray For Us: The Holiness of Death in Southwestern Literature', I don't know what that's going to be like...um," he stops, realizing he's probably been going on too long. "What about you?"

She pulls out her schedule and shows him. "Of those I've got Algebra II and History of Artificing. That doesn't sound like a whole schedule, though, can I see?"

Her schedule has shop on Tuesday, Lab on Wednesday, Intro to Economics (in Mandarin), History of Magical Conflicts, Egyptian Books of the Dead, Writings of Avicenna, Algebra II, History of Artificing, History of Alchemy, Formal Logic for Spellcraft, and Intro to Incantations. Apparently she's skating by with no language lab this term.

"Sorry, sure."

He closes his eyes and recites it from memory.

Insults, Mockery, and Abuse Language in Antiquity, Santa Muerte, Pray For Us: The Holiness of Death in Southwestern Literature, Mathematical Models for Artificing, History of Artificing (Section 2), Poetry & Prosody, Algebra II, Number Theory, History of Siberian Shamanism, and language lab and alchemy lab on Tuesday afternoon, and language lab and shop on Thursday morning.

She shovels some eggs into her mouth while holding the schedule in her other hand, and takes a bit to look it over. "Mmmm. Looks like those are the only overlaps we have, though. Planning to be an artificer?"

"Yeah. I'm good at- fixing things, breaking them, making things move around- small things, or moving parts. It seemed like the best call if I want to make it out alive."

Not that he's sure he does, but he knows his dad won't make it if he dies in here, so. There is that.

"Cool. I hear that little fiddly stuff goes bad a lot, but I guess you already know to be careful. Is that your affinity, or something else?"

"Yeah. I don't have a name for it- never got tested, I'm independent. But it's something to do with small objects- I got really into close-up magic as a kid, and it, uh, works for me. I make small things disappear and re-appear by moving them, and I can tear and mend. Fiddly stuff is dangerous, but alchemy and artificing are always a little dangerous. Gotta follow where my talents lead."

The asian kid tagging along with Naima pipes up. 

"Oooh, mathematical models for artificing looks interesting – not sure how much that comes up with smaller-scale projects, though." 

"I bet you need math for some small stuff, depending on what you're doing. This is Julian, he's interested in artificing in terms of, like, large-scale construction and stuff."

"Julian Chan Hei-Lei, Hong Kong, nice to meet you." And thank you Naima – large-scale constructs is the most flattering possible spin on his affinity. 

"Honestly, I just didn't want change up my schedule again. I wanted to find other artificers to share notes with, so we can get a head start. The school is stingy with the good stuff. I only have two artificing classes besides shop. Two! Stupid requirements."

"Well, there's not a lot of practical stuff you can do without intro shop, is there? I've got metallurgy, which should at least be interesting." 

"I think it probably just wants to make sure everyone's picked up enough basic mal-frying spells before they go focusing too hard on artificing or alchemy. It'll probably let you do more in that area next semester."

"I know, we have to learn the basics. I'm still going to complain about it. It's not like we could change it even if it was stupid. Metallurgy sounds cool; have you done much with artificing yet?"

"Nothing with metal! I've enchanted clothing, of course, but we didn't have room for a real workshop at home." 
 

"Yeah, I only do clothing and beadwork so far. I wonder what it'll have us make at first."

"Safety," he sighs. "I know it's important, but we're not kids."

"I think we're kind of kids?" She sounds like she might be genuinely uncertain. "I guess we're kind of in the middle."

"Yeah. We were kids until we came here. Anyone who graduates is an adult."

"Let's not talk about graduation while we're eating, please. I hear complaining about the food is a traditional pasttime." 

"Well, it's certainly not good. That seems like it would get old, though, there's really only so much to say about it."

"But there are so many exciting ways food can be bad! It can be rubbery, or slimy, or dry, or bland, or bitter – or on rare occasions all of those things at the same time. Like these eggs! When you think about it it's really a major accomplishment in inadequacy." 

They'll probably think he's an idiot, running his mouth again, but he can't make himself think four years ahead without a painful twist in his stomach. 

She spears an egg on her fork and examines it, like she expects to learn something from this process. Then she eats it.

"I think it's mostly rubbery. I was going to say I don't think I'm that good at describing eggs, but I wonder if that's actually not the sort of thing you should just write off? If poetic ability is highly correlated with spellwriting ability."

It all tastes the same is probably not the right thing to say. Maybe he can just not say anything and see if they notice.

"Well, there are lots of different skills that go into poetic ability. Maybe descriptive language is less important than being able to spit out things in meter. I have a comp section so presumably we'll learn all about it. I just hope it isn't in Mandarin."