Also trying to win the Keynesian beauty contest: this guy, with an extremely short haircut that was nonetheless clearly done professionally, wearing the same cargo pants he's been wearing for over a day, paying a lot of attention to the people and a mostly reasonable amount of attention to possible mal hiding places. He smiles slightly at her.

Shannon waves. "Hey! I'm looking for people who want to do an alchemy supply run. You interested?" 

A boy with a shaved head, a power-sharer, and sticking-out ears happens to be going the other way down the same hall and turns toward Shannon. "Did somebody say supply run?"

Caio is LOST. He will pretend not to be lost. "Ooh, alchemy supplies?"

"I'm here for this."

"Great! Uh, I should probably - has anyone seen Raleigh, from Sacramento? He said something at lunch about coming with me if I managed to get a group together. I guess they might be in the...library - is that where people usually go between classes and dinner?" 

"It's where lots of people go, yeah."

"It's the safest place. And enclaves carve out reading spots."

Then they can head library-ward and try to track down Sacramento's spot! And maybe run into some other interested people on the way? 

"I'm Caio," Caio says when there have been a few steps taken without chatter.

"Val."

"I'm Kevin. I'm an artificer but my yearmate Abigail's an alchemist."

"Why'd you decide to be an artificer?"

Shannon finally catches a glimpse of a vaguely familiar face. "- Oh. I think that's the Sacramento spot. I -" damn it what's the older girl's name aaaaaah, "- hey!" she settles on calling out. "Have you seen Raleigh?" 

The girl looks over. "Huh? Oh - he's on a bathroom run with Vanya. He was looking for you, though. Supply run plans or something?" 

Wow. He remembered! That's oddly sweet and touching even though it should not, at this point, be even slightly surprising. 

Shannon glances back at the others. "We can hang out here until Raleigh gets back, I guess? Maybe if we walk around a bit we'll find other freshman who're interested." This feels like an incredibly socially presumptuous thing to say but she apparently caused a supply run to happen just by talking to people who had smiled at her, so....shrug? 

"Sounds as reasonable a plan as any."

"That's fine." Kevin's hanging around is a very mobile form of it. He circles the others like a sheepdog with his eyes moving hither and yon, looking for mals but also examining the library. He definitely pays more attention to the furniture than the people.

That's... helpful? Caio will go with helpful.

A pair of kids in matching outfits wanders over. "Did I hear the words supply run?"

Shannon looks around. 

"- Oh, hi! Yeah, we're doing an alchemy storeroom supply run, I need potion ingredients and I figured it'd be better to go in a bigger group. We're, um, just waiting for Raleigh from Sacramento to get back from the bathroom. You're interested in joining?" 

Theun is walking by along the mezzanine, but stops when he sees Caio in the little cluster of people.

"Oh, hey, you! I don't think I got your name in Roman History, do you have a minute?"

"Yeah, uh, we did a lot of networking yesterday and sort of missed out on going on supply runs, we managed a quick dash in the evening for pens and paper but that's all. We would love to do an alchemy supply run. I'm Lucy Warren and this is my brother Wilbur."

"Uh - yeah? What is it? I'm Caio," says Caio to Theun.

"Theun, thanks. I and one of the other students had some problems with a memory potion. It helped you remember very well, but including things that did not, in fact, happen. He got it worse than me, he was actively hallucinating. So we need notes, you up for trading yours?

...I also could use a lab run, if you're not full up."

"I'm Shannon," she says to Lucy and Wilbur. "Nice to meet you." 

- and, oh, that memory potion again, ew. 

"I think we've got room for more people," Shannon says without really thinking about it. (Is there a downside to having too many people? Maybe you just end up fighting over supplies more.) 

More people means less loot per person and more moving things he has to look at and evaluate but it's whatever.

"Yeah, I can trade notes, mine are pretty good I think."

"Just lab or does anyone else want any shop stuff?"

"Great! Assume I owe you future notes, or we can work something out if you want some other favor first."

"I'd have a use for shop as well, but mostly lab - squid ink, dandelion stems, crude oil, various tree saps."

"If it's a lab run it's a lab run, I'm not gonna try to hijack it."

Raleigh emerges from the stairs into the library and looks around. "- Shannon! Supply run?" He's escorting Vanya, who is not currently crying but who clearly was crying at some point in the last hour.

"I'd rather do just the lab run," Shannon says. "Though, um, I guess people are welcome to split off and do a smaller run to the shop as well? Raleigh, are you ready to go?" 

Oh, hey, decent enclaver from homeroom! Which might make Shannon his friend who did mule duties for his enclave? Seems like good company.

"I'd say we talk shop run after we see what we get in the lab. Does that work for everyone else?"

"Yeah, the shop has useful things too even if you're an alchemist, like if you want to tap your gas line."

"Tapping your gas line can be useful for artificers too, Mum bribed at least one graduate every year to keep her up-to-date on dangerous things inside the Scholomance and one of them was an artificer with a glass affinity who tapped her gas line to make a flameworking torch."

"Ooh, cool. I bet she did a good business in glassware."

"Good enough to get her into an enclave alliance, apparently. We're hoping to do something similar with silk."

"Presumably without the gas line?" Unless silk is a lot less flammable than he thought. ...that was probably a stupid thing to say. Oops.

"...Right, spiders don't eat gas." Atlach scuttles up her palm as she displays it to him. 

"Or... eh, never mind. All my artificing outside class is likely to be with flammable materials, I work with books. Inks are more alchemy materials, though. So, lab run. We waiting for anyone else?"

"Not that I heard about!" Let's gooo let's gooo Kevin starts heading for the door, spinning even more than usual so he can see who's following.

They can go! Shannon lets Raleigh take the lead, since he actually knows his way around the school.

Raleigh is an okay lookout, but he spends nearly as much time glancing back to check on the group as he does actually looking for mals.

Well then everyone else will just have to look for mals too. 

Yup, that's them, looking for mals every minute waking and otherwise of the next and maybe last four years of their lives!

Kevin is looking at everything all the time! On the way down to the labs they see: walls, floors, ceilings, stairs, stair railings, other students, and dust. No mals, fortunately.

Kevin seems to be noticing... different things, or something. Val doesn't ask, but he does look a Kevin curiously while considering how he might phrase his questions, long enough it might be noticeable.

Might as well keep an eye out for practice.

"Anyone have particularly good classes today?"

"History of alchemy looks like it's going to be neat."

"I'm in that too, and it does seem pretty cool!" He mostly sat next to Abigail and copied her notes but that doesn't make it not sound cool.

"I liked my class about dyes."

"I have a cool lit class about death in southwestern literature, which is great."

"I have one about old German mystical poetry, which is pretty and probably useful. Also history of artificing, but I'd prefer your Dyes class, I think."

"A class on dyes does sound pretty cool, what was it like?"

"Oh, Marcy's got German poetry too. Is she in your section?" Marcy doesn't even like poetry, she just needs new languages like some people need food.

"It was interesting! Don't put woad on your skin, it's caustic."

"I will try to avoid doing that, thank you." WHAT IS WOAD. WAS HE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT.

"Yeah, I met Marcy, we're probably going to have a study group tomorrow. That would make you... from Boston? Sorry, I missed your name."

"Yep. I'm Kevin. I don't think I know your name either."

"Theun Jansen. Philadelphia... more or less."

"Like you're from the city but not the enclave?" Weird social hinting stuff is more of Marcy's thing.

"From the enclave, but it's complicated. Philly doesn't do the team bonding stuff I've heard you do in Boston."

"I'm from a city with an enclave but not the enclave and I don't really know how to explain it shortly."

"Oh, okay. I think that stuff is fun but whatever works for you guys."

"I've heard, like, 'from Hong Kong city' or 'from Chicago city', but it's a kind of weird phrase and I wouldn't be surprised if it confused people who had English as a second language. And it doesn't translate great, I could say it okay in Dutch but not Latin."

"And of course 'Chicago' means something different than it did last week."

"...I chose my examples poorly. Please pretend I remembered current events and said 'from Seattle city' or 'from Rome city' or something instead."

"I'd probably know what someone meant if they said they were from Seattle city." Swivel swivel that ventilation grating has a loose screw he should come back here and tighten it later.

"I think if someone said they were 'from Rome city' I would assume they were not wholly fluent in English. You don't...say that, really, not if it's a city where the name doesn't include city. I'm not saying it doesn't succeed in communicating what you want it to communicate but it's not very euphonious."

"I tried saying 'São Paulo the city' and someone said I should just say Brazil."

"If I was an indie from Boston and I said I was from America that'd be weirdly vague but I dunno how big Brazil is."

"'Brazil' doesn't sound weirdly vague to me but I, uh, am not from Brazil."

"Brazil is enormous!"

"It is much much much bigger than the UK!"

"I can see why someone would suggest it but it seems rude. Even to people who don't know the cities of Brazil" - like Theun - "it's like it doesn't matter whether you were from a big city or out in some tiny town in the Amazon. Though I guess indies out in the Amazon probably don't get into the Scholomance."

"You could say what state in Brazil you're from if Brazil has states." He wouldn't recognize it but it's not like he got much information out of the city either. He never had any geography classes beyond 'here's the list of enclaves and which ones like each other and which ones don't'.

"Also, like, I wouldn't be bothered by saying I was from the UK, but...I'm English. I might object if I were Scottish or Irish or Welsh."

"Inconveniently, São Paulo is in a section of Brazil called 'Southeast Region'. I am not going to say 'hi, I'm Caio, Southeast Region'."

Sporfle. "Oh no. Confusing people like that would be memorable, at least."

"You could say it in... no, wait, another language and it's a descriptive phrase, that probably wouldn't risk anyone getting spell-choked but it would be rude. Welp."

Kevin is out of ideas but they're down at the labs now so that's alright. Kevin picks a room and starts inspecting the cabinet for potential lurkers.

Shannon can't tell if these people are really, really good at small talk, or what. She stays quiet until they reach the lab. 

"Oh, yeah, I had the German one but I think maybe a different section," Raleigh offers, very belatedly, as they reach the lab. "Anyway, what sorts of supplies are people looking for tonight? Shannon, you need stuff for your mouthwash recipe?" 

"Mmm-hmm. Salt, mostly. And alcohol but I bet the nurse's office can get something I could use." 

"Ooh, mouthwash, that's a good idea."

"I mostly need octopus ink. Or squid. Or blood from deep-sea creatures, fish or whatever, but probably the ink. It's really good for warding books for secrecy and making them feel appreciated."

"I want things to dye cloth with."

"Even if it's woad?"

"Yes, if there isn't anything better."

Abigail wants silver nitrate and pipettes and cedar wood in any shape because it's going to end up as shavings, and would love gold foil but won't be surprised if she can't get any. He determines a drawer to be unsuspicious and opens it. 

". . . Anyone interested in an entire jug of sulfuric acid and a bunch of amethyst bits?" 

"I could use them if no one else can."

"Okay." He pops the next drawer and score, it's pipettes! Now he has pockets full of pipettes, because they don't look especially durable or easy to clean so Abigail will probably want Lots. "If you find any silver nitrate or cedar wood let me know, yeah?"

"Will do." 

Now that he has an acid for a fixative he could really use a mordant. Alum salts would be best, but most kinds of powdered metal would work...

"Amethyst would be good trade goods, even in pieces. Lots of things work better gem-studded or with gem dust. ...Please keep the acid securely far away from me, thanks."

Theun opens a cabinet slowly, knife ready. A few small blocks of tree sap, metal dust that he thinks is aluminum, beakers...

"Anyone want aluminum dust? Or, I think it's aluminum, but maybe nobody light a spark in case it's magnesium."

He snaps up the saps. He'll figure out which species they are later.

"--Aluminum dust? I want aluminum dust. Or whatever metal."

He doesn't know enough to have a shopping list and needs to pretend he does. He pokes drawers and cabinets with his gratuitously cutesy knuckle-duster and looks for things he can identify that are probably inert and ideally also pocket-sized. Which apparently means seashells. Okay, then. He takes some, and... "Anyone want the rest of these shells, or any of the other - oh, hey, you've got glassware, I could use a beaker..."

They're incredibly lucky to have already found a fixative and a mordant but Lucy still rummages around to see if she can find any pigment. 

"Hey, is this cedar?" she asks, holding out a chunk of wood to Kevin. "I don't know a lot about wood."

Caio has a recipe from the void he wants to try but none of this stuff is in it, so he grabs whatever's good for trading that he won't have to argue over.

Kevin bags the amethyst since nobody has laid a higher claim to it, and goes to inspect Lucy's wood. This consists of bending over and sniffing it. "Yup, that's cedar alright! Can I just have it or do you want some amethyst for it?"

Theun's looking in more drawers rather than examining anything closely.

Amphisbaena and snake scales, in two bins side by side.

Frog eggs, several kinds, or maybe newt.

Lead, lots of it.

Inks! Several blacks, and he shakes the vials to see if they're moving like squid ink. One might be. Another is sparkling, he's not sure what it is but he wants it.

Oh, hey, amphisbaena scales. "You claiming all those scales or can I grab some?"

Ooh powdered eggshells. Those are not in his new recipe but they are in one of his old recipes.

"Go ahead, I'll take some if I don't find what I'm looking for myself but I'm still hoping."

Honestly, he'd probably get more use out of the snake scales anyway, but amphisbaena is better trade goods.

"Go ahead and take the cedar, you let Wilbur have the acid."

"Cool, thanks," says Kevin, and starts eyeing Theun's frog eggs. They don't look in any shape to turn into tadpoles, fortunately, and they're lightweight and easy to carry and he can probably find someone to buy them if Theun doesn't end up taking them and Abigail doesn't end up wanting them.

"I'd go for the frog eggs!" Shannon chimes in. She's been mostly distracted, trying to read the tiny labels on dozens of different jars and pouches of nearly-identical white powders. "...Also does anyone want cream of tartar? I've only ever heard of it as a cooking ingredient, I don't know what it's here for." 

"Oh, I want cream of tartar! It's good for symbolizing wine when you don't have wine."

Shavri is doing pretty well on everything except alcohol, which she wasn't expecting to find, and glassware, which she was less focused on. 

"I need - some kind of green plant leaves?" she calls out to the room at large. "Dried is fine but whole leaves is better than ground herbs, and fresher is better. Oh, and if anyone's seen fennel seeds or celery seeds, I could use those? ...Also I found, like, six jars of zinc carbonate powder, I'm taking two but the rest are up for grabs. Also I'm pretty sure this is gypsum but someone should maybe check if they want to use it." 

"I saw a couple bayleaves in that cupboard," says Caio.

Theun has looked in another cabinet and found a bunch of dandelion heads, which is practically taunting him. Also a jar of brass filings, which he has taken as probably useful in the same vein as his powdered silver, for something, later.

"I found a bunch of dandelion heads/seeds, if that interests anyone? Not enough stems to help me, my recipe calls for daisy-chaining them before I grind them into the ink."

"I could use the fluff if it's not squashed at all?"

"Most of it is completely unsquashed. Though, could I take a quick look at your crushed eggshells? If they're from venomous snakes, I'd trade plenty for them, I need that for my stronger ward."

He investigates the jars of zinc carbonate to see if they're pocket-sized, since that's something people who know things definitely want.

"I think it's just chicken but I don't need much." He displays the jar. "And I want the jar," he adds. Assertiveness. It's a thing. So he's told.

He looks at them, rubs a pinch between his fingers, but shakes his head. "I think you're right. Definitely not snake. Well, you're welcome to the dandelion fluff anyway."

(The jars are about the size of normal grocery-store spice jars, totally pocket sized!) 

Shavri will take bay leaves, and she'll totally take the dandelion heads too, though she specifically wants the seeds and not the fluff part - her mana-efficient minor accelerated healing potion calls for 'living things' as an ingredient, she's usually used fennel seeds but dandelions are, like, edible, right? 

"Uh, I found poppyseeds for some reason? I thought those were a cooking ingredient too." 

"- Um, it depends, are they the kind of poppy you get opium from?" 

How is he supposed to know? 

"Wait, is there a difference? I know you can fail a drug test from eating lemon poppyseed muffins."

"Different strains of the poppy plant, I think, and it's about how high a concentration of opioids they produce? Like, the poppies people grow in their gardens don't get stolen by drug dealers to make heroin." 

Theun has mostly been isolated from mundane government and is slightly boggling at 'drug tests' as a thing someone would actually care about.

Ehh, it's not like mundies are immune to stupid politics just because there's more of them and they have fewer stupid pressures. He gives up on looking for his target ingredients and goes back for snake and amphisbaena scales and the less-interesting inks.

Caio veeeeery carefully pinches the seeds off each fluff and collects all the uncrushed fluff into a vial that he pockets.

That's so helpful of him! Shannon beams at him. 

"Good luck with whatever you're doing with the seeds!"

Kevin snags one of the unclaimed jars of zinc carbonate powder and some plastic tubing from the back of another drawer. Cargo pants for the win.

"I'm going to use them for the healing potion I came up with! It's not especially powerful, obviously, I can't pull that off yet, but it's very mana-efficient to brew, and it basically boosts your body's natural healing mechanisms for a few days? So it won't help much with a serious injury, but it's great for healing up minor injuries twice as fast, and if you take it right at the start of cold symptoms then it shuts down the cold in its tracks." Shannon sounds about 1000% more confident and sure of herself when she's talking about her healing potion work. "Would you be interested in trading for some, once I've had a chance to brew up a batch?" 

"--We would, for sure, shutting down a cold in its tracks would be very valuable."

"That sounds useful, what are you hoping to trade it for?"

"This one is a lot more valuable than the mouthwash," Raleigh chimes in, since he's pretty sure that Shannon will NOT negotiate hard for what her work is actually worth. (And Raleigh has a very good sense of what it's worth; he was in all the discussions with his parents and the enclave, when they were agreeing on Shannon's contributions.) "She wants a day's worth of mana for one dose of it, or something equivalent in value." 

"We'd trade you a smaller dose of our mother's best healing goo, which will deal with serious injuries," Lucy suggests. 

Shannon's eyes go wide. "That would be amazing! You can get in on the first batch." 

And she looks over at Val. "Um, I don't think I know what your affinity is - what sorts of things would you want to trade for it?" 

"I'd ward a book for you for... three doses? The ward makes it unopenable by anyone else, though a senior burning a lot of mana can break it open. I'm not ready to sell the stronger version, short on materials."

Shannon has never thought about whether having some of her books warded against anyone else opening them is useful! She looks over at Raleigh. 

"I have had five flu shots but nothing about colds and those will start hitting any day now, will you trade me a dose for borrowing my water condenser for - a week of your choice? It can pull a glass of water out of the air every half an hour, it's good for skipping refill trips."

"I could trade mana, I guess, but I don't - I don't have storage yet and - my affinity's shields, I think?"

"Ah, so the idea there is it makes it less appealing for someone to steal it, and if they do steal it they won't be able to get at the spells in it?" Raleigh asks Theun. "Shannon, I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to get that for your notebook of potion recipes. Make sure no one else can nab your mouthwash, I think you're going to get a lot of business for that one all year." 

To the other kid, who he suddenly feels very bad for: "Sacramento has some spare tiny mana sinks that Cassie made. They're not amazing, they only hold like a week's worth, but Landon could temporarily bond one to you, and then you can fill it over a few days until you've got the amount Shannon wants?" 

"What are you charging for a loan of one of those?"

The first thing that occurs to Raleigh is 'babysitting duty with Vanya' which he really badly wants to get out of. That is, however, not a conversation to have in front of this entire group. 

"- I've got some recurring commitments that I'd love to have someone else cover for a week," he says lightly. "Not maintenance shifts, and it shouldn't be particularly dangerous. We can talk later?" 

"Yeah, let's. I've got stuff this evening but maybe there'll be time before it?"

Raleigh: only moving further up in Theun's opinion.

"That's what the book ward is usually for," he confirms, "Most enclavers come in with a warded book of family secrets, but usually it's unwise to write in that, so for spells or recipes you compose, or get from the void or in a trade, another ward is helpful. Some people won't trade their spells unless you can give them a credible promise you won't let it spread further."

- Aaaaaah that's so many people saying things in short succession! She needs to take NOTES on this. 

"- A batch makes about three doses," she says. "But I want one for myself, so two doses to trade. I can trade one to you, uh, Lucy, right? For the healing goo. And one to...Theun? For the book wards."

She pauses. "I'm going to make more batches later, I'll probably do one every weekend. So - I'm really sorry, I'm forgetting your name -" her brain is telling her that it's not Kane, great brain so helpful, "- but yeah, a water condenser sounds amazing as a trade for one of the second batch doses?" 

"She'll want a week with it later," Raleigh jumps in. "In three weeks to a month, once the mals are getting bad. That acceptable?"

And Shannon turns to Val. "Do you think you'll have mana or something shield-y to trade in a week?" 

"I think I'll pass for the first batch. I'll look you up later when you have more spare."

"Maybe I can get back to you on that after I've talked with Raleigh?"

Shannon nods to Val. 

"Makes sense," she adds to Theun, though she's slightly disappointed. "It's got a decent shelf life, it's good for at least a month, so I'll probably try to keep some extra around and people who do come down with a cold or, like, sprain their ankle or something, can come trade with me for it then?" 

"It's worth less to me in a week, I want to be able to catch it if I get something from all the new induction germs. - and my name's Caio."

"- Okay sure, it sounds like Theun doesn't want in on the first batch anyway, so you can have a dose tomorrow night once I've brewed it." She's going to have a very busy Saturday and she hopes Raleigh is still good on his offer to help her divert her gas lamp into a burner, she really doesn't want to hang out in the lab by herself on a weekend. 

"Great, thank you. And yeah, you can borrow the condenser in a worse week." By a worse week he'll have bathroom buddies more stably lined up and he'll have brewed some drinkable potions and he'll have snack bar tokens. Anyway it's chilly here so he isn't sweating much except when building mana and he can just not build much mana that week specifically.

"Sounds like a plan!" 

Wow. That went really well??? Probably mostly because of Raleigh, though. 

Raleigh is also going to offer to carry all of her supplies back to her room! And mention that Sacramento has a stash of glassware and he can lend her some until she has her own! 

Shannon is increasingly confused about what her standing is with Sacramento! Are Raleigh's seniors, like, okay with him offering her random favors constantly and not asking for anything in return? She's pretty sure that at this point any personal favors she did him by gear-carrying have been more than repaid?? Maybe it's different when a boy wants to date you, but he hasn't asked her out or anything???? 

Still, it makes her feel warm and fuzzy when he offers, and she smiles and thanks him. 

Theun thanks Shannon and Raleigh - the boy clearly has a crush but he seems really earnest about treating her nicely, it's kinda cute - and splits off with Caio to make copies of his notes.

Seems like a good bunch of people, despite everything.