"You... check it over very carefully before accepting?"

"I want to know what New York helped with."

"Presumably the thing that happened last year." 

And Bella's going to learn that soon and it doesn't do in negotiations to declare right up front that she assigns lots of value to it. "I guess it doesn't really matter. Kid's super dead, though."

"He made it this far. I guess he might've been... normal... until recently."

"Maybe it's some kind of... scam... thing."

"On freshmen? What do we have worth scamming us out of?"

"At first I thought he was looking for a girlfriend because that would make any goddamned sense. - and I'd probably have gone for it, he's cute."

"I guess if he can get people to date him by asking then it would be weird to do elaborate setups involving finding mana storage to get... that. Freshmen... presumably ever bring in valuable items? I guess?"

"I have no idea what that's about but I can ask Suze! He said 'James', right?" She's making a note.

Annisa did not strike him as the sort of person to make dating decisions based on cuteness but he senses this is not the sort of thing one asks about in mixed company.

(He looks easy to have the upper hand over. That is what cuteness is in boys.)

Malak does not know what makes a boy cute and is torn between curiosity and self-preservation. If she never learns what makes a boy cute maybe she can avoid ever having to deal with the temptation of cute boys.

"He said James. He's got to be notorious, if he makes a habit of this."

"I hope he does, if there was some reason to single this table out I am concerned."

"Well, he's over there bothering some other freshmen now, so..."

"Oh, so he is. Okay, Suze will probably know what his deal is."

" - I can go ask Alexios, I should do that now actually before the sophomores leave..." She gets up and heads across the cafeteria.

"What's Suze like, what's New Orleans like? It has managed to avoid being hot gossip, which speaks well of you."

"I mean, there's just the two of us right now, that kind of limits surface area from which gossip can escape, but yeah, it's low-drama by and large. Suze is fine? I don't actually know her that well, I moved into the enclave when I was almost eleven."

"Oh, wow. Your parents must be very impressive." 

"They didn't move in, just me. The Domina's my great-aunt but after my mother graduated she almost immediately had a falling-out with her folks. Aunt Evelyn had conveniently lost a grandchild around when I started getting more appetizing and found me sufficiently promising."

"Indonesia doesn't have enclaves so I have only gotten the internet version of them and today has been fascinatingly confirming on some fronts and disconfirming on others. Are they like living in an important person's house or like living on a street with an important mayor? Did you like it?"

"I have never lived in an important person's house or on a street with an important mayor. Honestly the enclave itself is kind of like - I dunno, a nice apartment building? Not as grim as the Scholomance but the same general idea, a building in the void. It has a courtyard with plants though, and a pool, and stuff like that, so it only minimally sucked to be inside it nearly all the time for several years."

"I don't see why they don't go in for more naturalistic artificial light, and illusion views and such. Maybe the richer ones do, I've only ever been inside Hong Kong and even then I only saw the testing room."