Oh good the aspect of this everyone finds mysterious is Chantal's enclave's choices. "Indonesia disqualifies for diabetes, clotting disorders, severe asthma, that kind of thing - I had assumed the more rich and powerful your enclave the more obvious that call is, they can probably make it at home!!"

"I should clarify. It's really embarrassing for enclave parents. And this girl was an enclaver, right? Untenable disabilities – if they can get away with it they'll usually try to shove them in, but I think it depends on where they are in the enclave council and what the rest cohort looks like. The thinking is a sick kid probably won't make it anyway, and it looks better if they die in here than if they die out there."  

"That is so horrifyingly stupid! If I had an untenable disability I would have stayed home and gotten a cut of the proceeds for my slot!"

"A diabetic kid might be completely fine on the outside where insulin is a solved problem that inconveniences them once a week! You know, if -" Gesture, you don't say 'if we make it out', "there should be a section of Scholomance Confidential just dedicated to shaming parents who murder their kids to save face, with as many details as all the graduates can collectively remember."

"I don't know if parents care about what it says on Scholomance Confidential."

"We can buy a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal. - it's surprisingly cheap, to do that. I looked it up when we were figuring out how best to auction out my weight allowance."

"Pffft."

"Doesn't that involve looping in a bunch of mundanes?" - oh wait this was a joke. Whoops.

"It's not like every Chinese parent does this! We still want our kids to live. But, yeah, there's an enormous amount of shame around having a kid who's seen as a liability." 

She casts a sideways glance towards the Shanghai table.

"So you just gotta make it more shameful to send the kid unqualified." This is an objectively stupid flight of fancy but Annisa's mad about parents who aren't trying to keep their kids alive and it's carrying the conversation away from what Annisa did and Bella seems to find her objectively stupid flight of fancy entertaining. 

Julian is feeling a little bit prickly because – okay, it's obviously awful, but he also kind of gets it? When he thinks about being an enclave parents and having all those resources and tutors and god knows what else and still managing to produce a child who can't even get in the door – eurgh. Humiliating. There are so many reasons he should never have kids. 

"If you have a good idea for pushing back on two thousand years of Chinese academic culture, please be my guest." 

Oh no did this stop being 'make fun of Chantal's terrible parents' at some point, she didn't intend it to.

"I mean mostly I think they should just build another school already but I get why that's gridlocked."

Oh, good, safe territory. "I want to work on that! If – well, the obvious. I think in thirty or forty years the Chinese and Indian enclaves will have to at least seriously consider it, with the way our population is trending." 

"Do you think two is better than one, bigger one? I can see the arguments for either."

"I can see the argument either way. Whatever they decide on, I just want to build it." 

"And here I thought I was getting ahead of myself wondering if jetpacks count as weapons."

"Hey, as long as I'm in here, I'm going to be as laser-focused on survival as the next kid. But wanting to live doesn't mean you can't have something you want to live for."  

It was friendly teasing. Is he clear on that? His expression looks friendly back? 

She takes one of Toronto's rolls.

Is this friendly teasing? Julian can't tell. He knows Annisa and Malak are more focused than he is and he doesn't want them to think that he's too head-in-the-clouds to be good Group material. He nervously munches on a roll. 

"I'm hoping my mal ward gets better with enough mana in it, it's pretty rare and unreasonably expensive for everyone else I've known to try it but - I want my kids to be safe without a school. When I let myself dream."

"Haven't thought that far ahead but I did have a list pinned in my room, all the English-speaking enclaves by desirability."

Naima munches a roll and doesn't talk about having any dreams at all, because she doesn't.

Oh thank god Annisa doesn't think he's an idiot for having plans. 

"What's your top candidate?"