"That is very terrible. My parents say, though, no one has too much advantage or disadvantage here. All new students are weak.

"That's not what other people say."

"Kinda sounds like wishful thinking. Money makes everything easier. That's the point of money."

"You could have a million dollars in here and no one would trade you for anything. You can come in with more, but no one can come in with too much. The advantage is the gangs, not the money."

"Well that too but I was thinking of this kid who had a bunch of rubies and the enclave people have, like, magic swords and magic bracelets and magic cookies."

"Even regular tools, screwdrivers or corkscrews are more useful than you'd think," or so he's heard, "or spare clothes and water storage, or of course you can promise people they'll be rich on the outside if they stick by you in here."

"You can promise that, but it is not worth much as a promise if they don't expect to live to see it. I think that is not the main thing they promise. I think it is safety, and - and having a gang, people like having a gang."

"...Yeah. Trust, huh. Trust and loyalty is gold. I avoided the mundane gangs because I didn't have an in but they'd make you do something they can blackmail you about so they can trust you. Or just promise that they'll kill you for betrayal."

"I think you're right that people want alliances with people who are capable of protecting them. Which resources help with, any kind of resources. And then - it doesn't have to be the biggest thing, if having nicer things makes them even a little bit stronger or less likely to die than everyone else, then a lot of people will think they'd make really good allies, and then - then they'll have a lot of people who want to be allied with them. So they'll have their people. And that will just make them safer and stronger, so people are even more interested in allying with them."

"That seems very - unhappy."

"Literally you're the one who brought up gangs, were you expecting a heartwarming story about how the Crips and the Bloods celebrated Christmas together in No Man's Land?"

"This is not a happy place. It might be psychologically healthy or whatever to be happy, you learn better or get hurt from stress, but if it requires lying to yourself and making bad decisions 'cause of that, you'll die, is the sense I'm getting."

"There's also the thing where if you believe things work out they do and if you believe you'll die you die, though, that's also a thing. And gangs have truces, sometimes. Lots of the time, even."

"Well sure, that's why I'd like to be in one, but there's literally no reason - I'm not hot like pajama girl who clung to a New York guy, I'm not the right kind of social to try just sucking up normally, and everyone says 'poor doomed kid', maybe you're angling for a little gang of our own Miguel but then it comes back to the trust thing- Like hell am I going to lie down and die, though. We'll just... Have to see."

"Personally, I think we can all do better than some randoms we had breakfast with because we were late. Not to say I wouldn't ally with you, just, I wouldn't do it on the basis of us having all been late to breakfast once."

"That is a stupid way to pick allies. You want matching -" he's forgotten the word for affinities again - "things you are good at, one who can do shields, one who can do very flexible magic for unexpected things - that is for graduation. For freshmen, you need a gang so no one picks on you, you just need people who look tough and have reason to stick by you."

"No shit. To both of you. I think my affinity might be metal..."

She should probably actually start eating, huh? She pokes her food suspiciously again before starting, though.