"No, it isn't." No one wants these tables, which is presumably obvious to the other kid, too, but maybe they're pretending there's nothing wrong with these tables. 

He should say more. "I'm Miguel."

"Val. Alchemy, you?"

Shrug. "I will have to learn what -" he doesn't know the English for affinity, even though he's sure someone said it to him just yesterday - "what I'm good at."

"Yeah, that seems good to figure out sooner than later."

"Do you know yours?"

It hadn't occurred to him that Miguel was reaching for the word affinity, there are just so many reasons someone might choke in the middle of a sentence and rephrase, but - that's not the right turn of phrase if he wasn't awkwardly circumlocuting around a noun - it takes Val a second but then it's obvious.

"I'm not totally sure about my affinity yet but I know how I think and what I'll have an easier time paying attention to."

Oh good, there are other people who don't know their affinity yet. He'd been worried everyone somehow - how, paying tens of thousands of dollars to a diviner?? - learned theirs before they were twelve, they all rattled them off so confidently. "Where are you from?"

He names a little town in Iowa and doesn't even give the state. "How about you?"

"Venezuela. My grandfather is in an enclave." Not a Venezuelan one but that's not really what matters. "I am the oldest of my sisters so I am hoping to help them when they arrive next year."

"Oh, wow. I don't have any living siblings but it seems really cool that you're hoping to look out for yours. How're you planning on doing that?" He'd ask about the enclave but he's not confident he can avoid sounding stupid and anyway this way he can use a word he suspects Miguel doesn't know in a context that makes the meaning obvious.

Siblings is maybe 'sisters' but masculine? He hates how English masculinizes and feminizes its words, it makes no sense. "Well, older students cast better wards, have done the homework and can give it to you, can share mana in emergencies. Like an enclave, some enclaves have only a few children in the school in a year."

Wards. Homework. Mana. He will remember that these things are useful trade goods later. "That makes sense. Although I think enclaves also have..." vague gesture, "you know?" Because Val does not know but maybe Miguel will fill in the blank.

Snort. "They have money. But money doesn't matter so much, here. And they have - if you mess with one, the others come after you - sis-sibings have that too - but just friends, don't, people don't know your friends will pick a bad fight to make a point over you." He is not sure he got his point across at all.

"Yeah, it's good to have - real allies. Who'll go down with you because they'd rather die than leave you unavenged. I've definitely considered that with the people I've met here but it's, you know, a little early for that."

"Even if you have - real allies, if other people don't know, if other people think it's not real, it doesn't keep you safe. Sis - blings - people understand that, they know it's real. Enclaves they know are real. Even if you build a real gang, here, it would be hard, for people to hear of it, and know it's real. Senior year, allies for the hall, people know that is real. Freshman year? No."

Another muggleborn, short-haired, is looking at the table with a plate full of bits and scraps. She peers skeptically at the vent half a table away but shrugs slightly. She makes eye contact and waits a beat so she's not interrupting.

"You two mind if I sit here? I was reading my spellbook, and now all the good spots are taken."

He puts on a welcoming smile but glances at Miguel really quickly to coordinate about that.

Yeah, sure, he's not in a position to be choosy. "Hello, I'm Miguel."

"Wendy. Artificing. Hopefully. Uh, yeah, sorry for interrupting."

She manages not to actually sigh by going over the incantation for that specifically-block-liquids shield in her head again. Maybe the reason it didn't work is because she doesn't know what the 'purzel' part of that compound word in the last line means?

It's going to be pretty hard to actually do something Productive right now. 

...She brings herself back to the present.

"Uh, English, Spanish, awful German. Since that's the standard intro thing and all."

"Is it? I've mostly heard home towns and affinities rather than languages."

"I am from Venezuela and don't know my affinity yet. I speak English and Spanish. My father is an artificer, like you want to be."

"I'm from the shi- The bad part of Chicago. The poor part. Hometown probably matters more for people who expected to be here." It's not like she can hide it.

"You did not expect to be here? You did not get a spot?"

"No-pe," she says, popping the P. "Chicago's wizards are all dead, apparently, so the school went - let's find some more Chicago wizards - I didn't know about magic until yesterday. Not like I can hide that, can I? Not long term. I'm told I have better odds in here than out there, which is probably true, the mals were getting bigger and less ratty by the day."

Oh, boy, what a tremendously awkward conversation.

"Yeah, I hear they had an entire enclave that just - isn't, now."

"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.