...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." 

"Well, if you find out you should report back. It didn't give me any comp at all, and I sure don't plan to give up entirely on ever writing any of my own spells."

"I'll fill you" 

"Cool."

Hmmmmm she can't think of anything else to say. She's gonna shovel more of these rubbery eggs into her mouth, she's gonna need a lot of energy to do the amount of exercise that she's going to need to do in the next four weeks in order to not die. Is that a normal thing to do instead of talking? Whatever. Julian can come up with another conversation topic before she finishes her food if she wants to.

When it looks like the other kid is distracted, Julian is going to lean over and suddenly look very serious. "Naima?"

" - yes?"

Well this is going to be unbelievably awkward so he's going to do what he does best and plow right ahead consequences be damned. 

"You can't just go up to enclaver tables and talk to them. I mean, of course you can, you obviously just did – and, uh, I don't mean it's morally wrong or anything like that because the whole thing is stupid, and unfair, and – okay. The thing I'm trying to say is, enclavers get to choose who takes up their time and attention, because we all need them, and they don't need us." 

" - I don't think I did that? Like, that seems good to know, if that's in fact some kind of - social rule of the Scholomance, although actually I'm pretty sure you are supposed to talk to enclavers and in fact need to talk to enclavers and now I'm sort of confused about whether these pieces of advice are in conflict or just missing some additional nuance? But I didn't talk to the enclavers."

"It doesn't matter, you talked to someone who was sitting at their table, that's still enough to piss them off. You saw how freaked out your friend looked? She probably worked really hard to get an in with them so early and she – she  was probably scared they'd blame her." 

Julian half can't believe what he's saying. When he tries to take all that internal screaming and actually put it in words, it's the most spineless craven bullshit he's ever heard of. Day two and he is already beginning a glorious new career as a doormat. 

"...it's like bears, okay? You kind of have to think of them like bears. Sometimes they might want something you have, but they're big, and unpredictable, and you don't want to just go stomping into their territory unless you can distract them – I think that's how bears work? I've never actually seen a bear. .....am I making any sense at all?"

" - I dunno, some? I think actually with bears you're supposed to wear bells so they know to avoid you because they actually just want to be left alone, but I guess maybe enclavers also want to be left alone? I'm still kind of confused about this whole 'we need them, and also we can never talk to them during the specific times during which they are actually free' theory - 

" - but whatever, you think Malak was freaked out because I messed stuff up for her by talking to her, somehow?"

"Well, we need them at graduation. So I guess we can talk to them when we've proven that we're cool and useful and valuable and, uh, alive past the second day. But, yeah. I don't know if you messed stuff up for her but it looked like you scared her pretty bad." 

"I suppose that makes some sense. And also makes sense of what happened with Malak.

"I should probably apologize. I guess that's good to know, now I can at least do that."

"I'm sorry." 

"Why are you sorry?"

"I don't know. It's not like I'm an expert on enclaver behavioral ecology. The whole thing is just so dumb. I mean, if I were you I'd want to know, but I also wish I could be the kind of person who didn't care." 

"Well, maybe I'll decide I don't care, for me. But I don't want to go around causing trouble for Malak. Or other people! If I ever see you sitting at an enclaver table I will dutifully pretend you don't exist."

When she says it that way it sounds so obvious. "If you ever see me sitting at an enclaver table, I promise I'd rather be talking to you" oh god he actually said that. 

"Good to know! Well, I'll remember it, and make sure to talk to you at some later point when you are allowed to socially exist to other people again. - you wanna get out of here a few minutes early so we don't get stuck with awful seats in mal studies?"

"Well, now I feel like an idiot, but I actually have to go pay my respects to Shanghai" – before he digs himself in any deeper – "so I can figure out exactly when I'm on bodyguard duty."  

"-it was nice meeting you. Good luck with- being a better friend."

Oh wow that was a stupid thing to say. Virgil finishes his food without making eye contact with them.

"Thank you! - I forgot your name, remind me what it was?"

Actually she thinks she may never have asked for his name. She's pretty sure that was a mistake.

-oh he didn't introduce himself. Just like him to screw up a basic social interaction.

"Virgil. Um, we could walk to mal studies together if you want. Since we're all going to the same place?"

"Sure. I'm Naima, odds are I probably also forgot to say that. Let's go."