"It could be an attempt to, like, show off that they don't cut people off for temporary issues? Which might help under some circumstances, but only if people believe that it's generalizable and not just for relatives."

"And only if it doesn't kill them."

"I would think more of them if, like, something got him in the dinner line and he was clearly going to be out of it for a couple of days and they pulled some overnights to get him through, that'd be - impressive coordination and obviously impressive nighttime fighting skill and it'd suggest - having enough slack to not need to cut people loose at the first sign of weakness."

Speaking of coordination – "Anyway, we were thinking of going down to the gym tomorrow to do some running practice. Want to join us?" 

"Sounds great, I hate running."

"Perfect."

Julian has successfully made a social overture to an enclaver without sounding like a remora and is going to take a moment to feel pleased with himself.  

"I'd be tempted to get the History of Artificing homework out of the way tonight but if I don't learn French all the knives in the shop won't save me, so probably history'll have to wait for later this weekend." Conveniently this means they can invite Bella if running goes well and not otherwise.

"I speak French, if that helps."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH why does fucking everyone speak fucking FRENCH fuck!!!!  If they weren't all here at the table she could solicit French tutoring separately from each of them and then seem like not that much of an idiot to any one of them who was unaware of the other four tutors, but instead, THIS. 

"Oh cool! Once we've had shop I might be interested in swapping for French tutoring. Or, you know, if the spellbook turns up, French tutoring for French spells."

"Cool. When's your shop, I have first thing Thursday."

"Tuesdays before lunch. If my math turns out easy enough I may skip it for extra shop time on Thursdays, we'll see."

"I've also got Tuesday before lunch." 

"I figure almost everybody doing artificing is going to have gone for that. - me and Malak and Annisa all have the same room for it, although you might not have been there when we figured that out."

He checks his schedule. "106?"

"Yep, same one. That's lucky."

"We don't know for sure that there's another English section, it might just be one very big room."

"I wonder why shop's even language-segregated, it's not like there's any auditory instruction." 

"I'm pretty sure there are lots of workshops on the blueprints, it would be weird if it crammed everyone into one."

"I guess you wouldn't want to be confused about whether somebody was yelling 'duck, fire in the hole' or 'damn it they're out of iron filings'."

"Are there more than eight, eight would be four years and two languages and you might split the older students out before you split the freshmen out, they get to spend more time in the shop and their stuff's more delicate."

"Yeah, but all of the freshman artificers are going to specifically pick Tuesday before lunch, if they can swing it at all, so it'd be baffling if they were all in one room, wouldn't it?"

"What fraction of the school is artificers?"

"I guess I don't know that. It's the best spot if you even might be, though."

"What fraction doesn't have a track picked going in?"