Alyona arrives soon after. "Oh, hey Shannon! I didn't realize you spoke Russian!"

"I don't," Shannon says, in a tone that is only slightly a snarl. 

Dasha had arrived early and claimed the one of the best seats, in a cluster of Russian enclavers. She turns around when she hears Shannon. "Oof, bad luck. I think usually lit classes are at least mostly in English? You might need help with the primary sources."

"Yeah, I figured. I'm pretty good with languages, I can probably manage it, I just–" Sigh. "It's my own fault. I met a guy with a music affinity and let him sing me a bunch of songs in Russian and I guess I paid too much attention to the words." 

Alyona sympathizes. "Oh yeah, that'll get you. You said in mal studies that you do healing, yeah? I bet somebody'd trade you primary source translations for healing. I know I would!"

"Yeah, I've got a healing affinity! And I finally managed to actually get some supplies from the stock room. I can't do anything very mana-intensive yet, but I've got a really efficient potion recipe that sort of generally boosts healing a bit? It won't fix injuries on the spot but it'll make a cut heal in half the time and not get infected or leave a scar, stuff like that. Plus it's great for knocking back colds if you take it early enough. Oh, and my easiest potion is mouthwash that replaces having to brush your teeth." 

"I'd trade for at least the general boost if you ever want to study together. Depending on how early we go I have Old Church Slavonic, too, I think those really early sources weren't quite in it but it's close enough."

"Yeah, I will definitely translate sources for you in exchange for a supply of either of those. And for a supply of both you can sit with me while I do the translating and I can explain it as I go. Can't do the Old Church Slavonic, though. How long do they keep?"

Wow. Having a useful affinity feels good. 

"The mouthwash keeps for ages. At least six months, I didn't have a chance to test longer. The other one is a couple of weeks, then it starts losing effectiveness, but I'm working on a more shelf stable version." 

"We're right next door, I'd go for first dibs on whatever you have in stock if I need it, if you're planning on keeping some most of the time?"

"Yeah, back home I made a batch every two weeks and if it was getting old my dad would take it to work - he works at a mundane university - and tell them it was homemade kombucha with immune-system-boosting effects, you can get it to do a surprising amount even for mundanes if you say stuff like that. I was, uh, trying to collect data on it for a while." 

Collecting data on healing potion efficacy! That is adorable. "Any weird side effects? Does the mouthwash make you lose your sense of taste or something?"

"Not that anyone's ever noticed! It tastes pretty nasty but not, like, worse than normal mouthwash, according to me? And you only have to use it once a week." 

"Did you notice anything else when you were testing the booster one?"

"...It makes your hair and nails grow a little bit faster? Not a lot, though, I had to measure it over a whole week to notice." 

"Huh, well that seems fine." Alyona has a bad habit of biting her nails, anyway, so maybe it'll even out. "The less of my life spent on brushing my teeth, the more time I can spend on literally anything other than brushing my teeth."

Ribo goes over to find a seat near Shannon when she arrives. "Hi there, I was wondering if we'd have any classes together."

Daria pulls a textbook out from inside her desk and starts flipping through it. It starts with Slovo o Polku Igoreve, with a facing translation and commentary in English. There's an essay prompt tucked into it. Compare and contrast the portrayals of Pagan and Christian beliefs in the first thirty stanzas.

Shannon waves back at Ribo. "Hey!" 

...Oh, that girl looks familiar too. Shannon....is completely blanking on her name, though. 

She tries to catch the girl's eye and smile at her. 

Ribo looks around the room to prompt her textbook to appear. Yep, definitely looks like she's going to have to learn Russian. "Are you looking forward to this class?"