"Mmm." Shannon glances hopefully at Marcy. "I - don't know if I'm any good at saying helpful things instead of dumb things that would upset him more?" 

"Honestly my plan is just to keep my mouth shut except for maybe talking about math." She knows what she's good at and it's a long list but "being kind to fragile people" is not on it. Even if they're fragile because of horrible life force injuries rather than because they suck.

"- Ooh, does he like math too? Maybe we can talk about that. I'd be happy to listen to him talk about music but I don't know enough to hold up a conversation myself and he....sort of runs out of words sometimes?" 

"- Okay, that part isn't new. He was kind of quiet and - a bit shy, I guess, even when we were growing up in the enclave." Raleigh rubs his eyes. "The really weird part is apparently he suddenly got a lot of affinity for combat and really powerful spells, after the thing happened?" 

"- Huh, what? That's so weird! Has that ever happened before?" 

Shrug. "Not that I've ever heard of." 

"Me neither. I've heard of people starting out crazy powerful on some axis but not ending up like that after an accident. Or on purpose."

Raleigh really does not feel like spending any longer on this topic! He's not sure how to SAY that, though. 

Shannon, whatever her social flaws, is perceptive enough to notice when someone is uncomfortable, and in this case she finally has enough context to guess why. So. Change the subject to something more fun? 

"How were your morning classes?" she asks Marcy brightly. "I had Welsh Mythology, which was–" okay fine it was not, actually, very interesting, "...which was all right? I met - one of the mundane kids from Chicago, I think? She seemed pretty together, though, so I guess she's landing on her feet. And I met someone from Jaipur, and this indie girl from Wales except she really wasn't very talkative." 

"I'm glad at least one of the Chicagoans is doing okay; I haven't had much chance to meet any of them. I had Korean History, which has good spells and is interesting even in the non-spell bits. And then this afternoon I've got Maleficaria 1700-Present and my first ever German class."

"- Oh wow! Good luck with that?" 

"I think someone in Sacramento has German," Raleigh says, because being helpful is a much easier mode of social interaction than others. "I can ask around, if you wanted tutoring help with it?" 

"I guess I might but I'm pretty sure I can keep up okay; it's close enough to English. It's poetry so I might end up speaking it like a crazy person who speaks in poetry for a while but I'll figure it out. The real hard one will be starting Akkadian next week; I need to ask my room for the Akkadian equivalent of Doctor Seuss over the weekend."

"Oh wow, Akkadian! What's that related to, I'm blanking on it." 

"Hebrew and Sumerian and stuff. Which I also don't know; I got it as a schedule revision. If I like it I might move into Hebrew or Aramaic next year; I hear Aramaic is good."

"Ooh! I almost learned Hebrew earlier - it'd be, like, learning about my history and stuff? My dad's parents were Israeli. I'm technically not Jewish because it goes through the mother, and - well, it's not like my dad was ever observant or anything. Anyway they convinced me I should focus on alchemy and potions instead, for my affinity, and I wasn't sure if there'd be a lot of Hebrew medicine and healing spells and stuff. My dad thought Arabic would be a better bet, if I think I'm up for picking up more languages." 

"That makes sense. Inconvenient that your dad didn't manage to teach you as a baby, but given that, better to take whatever has the best spells first."

"....Yeah. I - think if either of my parents had actually been to the Scholomance, maybe they'd've prioritized it more? But I think my dad has, uh. Some awkward feelings about that side of the family." 

She kind of wants to say "Congratulations to your parents on surviving outside" but actually it seems like time for a subject change. "It's really cool that you have a healing affinity. Is it anything specific within that, or fully general?"

"I think I'm maybe better with potions than spells? But that might just be practice, like, we didn't really have a way to get books with spells, and my dad's good with alchemy stuff - he says knowing lots of mundane chemistry helps - so I got more support for playing around with that. Also my mom thinks I'm better with fiddly delicate stuff than, like, high-power healing in general? But it might just be that I don't have my full adult mana capacity yet, she wasn't sure." 

Isn't Shannon so COOL and SMART and GREAT. Raleigh is beaming at her. 

"Nice! Does mundane biology help with the healing too?" 

"I think so, anyway! I guess especially with - making it targeted? I read an entire dentistry textbook - I mean, it wasn't mostly for the mouthwash, my parents just wanted to make a call on whether it was safe for me to adjust my own braces in here - but since braces make it hard to clean your teeth, and I already knew all about what causes plaque and dental caries and stuff, it was a pretty easy leap from there..." 

"That's really cool!"

Marcy's parents had bullied her (mundane) orthodontist into taking her braces off a year early; he had complained that she was probably going to need them again in five years, but of course neither they nor Marcy cared.

"Yeah, right, isn't it? Also biology is just really fascinating! I have a potion that enhances healing - it's not very powerful, I mean, but it's really mana-efficient, even as a freshman I can make it pretty easily. And I got that to work by trying to target the immune system in particular, once I'd learned some stuff about it."