Ribo gets her food, notices they have space, and walks over. "Hi there, is it alright if I join you again?"

Larisa looks over. "- Oh, hey. Yeah, sounds good, we've got room. Feel free to invite some friends too, if you want." 

"I'll keep an eye out. I didn't run into anyone in line. How was your day?"

Hmmmm. Interesting. Lucy will grab her brother and swing close enough by that they'll notice her if they want to invite her without making any actual presumptions regarding an enclave table. 

Ribo sees them and waves them over.

Lucy approaches...cautiously. Ribo is not, as best she can tell, actually an enclaver. 

"Hi Lucy. Hi Wilbur. Larisa here said I could invite friends to sit with us. I don't know that we really count as friends yet but you and your brother were nice both times I talked with you."

Vanya looks up, sees that Ribo is there, looks back down at his plate, and inexplicably starts crying. Quietly, at least. 

Everyone else at the enclave table seems to be very firmly settled on ignoring this and pretending it's not happening. 

Cool cool cool cool. 

She sits down and smiles at the upperclassman. "We try. Hi! Larisa, right?"

Ribo notices looks visibly uncertain for a moment but decides to follow suit and give him space for the moment.

"Yeah. And you are?" 

"I'm Lucy Warren! And this is my brother Wilbur. His affinity is thread, which is why we have spider familiars."

Another girl leans closer. “Thread! Artificing track, then?”

"Yes. I made our clothes. They're not very well enchanted, but it's not nothing."

"I'm also Artificing Track. My affinity is wire."

“Neat! May I have a look?” She’s staring hungrily at their spider silk clothing, like a hawk eyeing a mouse.

"Sure," he says, holding out an arm so she can see the sleeve better.

"Darwin's Bark Spiders' silk is the strongest mundane organic material in the world!" Lucy says brightly. "They're native to Madagascar but people like studying so Mum and Dad were able to get a pair from the local university."

"Hey! I'm James Holden, I'm a junior, is there anything any of you guys need to help you settle in better?"

Can't he tell there's upperclassmen at the table?

Larisa groans tiredly. 

"Holden, what is it this time." 

"I...wanted to check in on all the freshmen and make sure they're settling in OK? Help them grow up to be well-adjusted sophomores?"

Larisa rolls her eyes, and then looks over at Ribo and Lucy and her brother. "Well, kids? Settling in okay?" 

Vanya is squirming and looking deeply miserable about Holden's presence. 

"I'm, uh, fine? Are you...okay."

"Me? Yeah, I'm doing about as well as could be expected."

"I'm a little worried about how quickly I'll need to learn Russian for my class about Russian literature but all my other classes seem very manageable and I've met lots of nice people."

"I only ask because this kind of behavior isn't really usual in the Scholomance and my mother says anytime you see something weird in the Scholomance, you poke it with a stick to make sure it isn't a mal. Or, like, just back off and leave it alone, but."

"Well, the usual behavior in the Scholomance is gruesome death. I'm trying to improve on that."

"This isn't especially weird for Holden in particular," Larisa mutters, mostly sounding unimpressed and bored. 

Can he please GO AWAY this is awful. 

(Vanya would never, ever dream of saying that out loud.) 

"Well it sounds like everyone here has everything they need. Vanya you're not looking great, you might want to see the school nurse? We've got one of those again. Bye everyone!"

Shutupshutupshutupaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. 

Vanya sits in absolute silence and does not look at anyone. 

Larisa goes back to eating as though nothing at all out of the ordinary just happened. 

Ribo waits a moment and then because it seems desired deliberately changes the topic. "How were people's classes today? I generally liked mine, though Calculus for Engineers was just review and Russian Literature before Pushkin was a little intimidating."

"I had a class about dyes that I liked."

"Oh good, that sounds useful for making clothes. Are there magic dyes?"

"Yes. We haven't really gotten there yet on the first day, though."

"Of course, have to start at the beginning."

"Knock knock," Teresa says, out loud, "Lucy, do you have a moment? We'd like to take you up on the familiars deal."

Landon, until this point, has been sitting at the other end of the table, engaged in a quiet conversation with Justin about math homework. 

His head twitches up. "What are you– oh. Pisa, right?" 

"Yes, Teresa Calloconti. No malecifing involved, I promise. Though if you'd rather we step away to talk and Lucy's fine with that?"

Sigh. "If you're just here to finalize a deal of some kind with Lucy, go ahead." And then at least he'll know what's going on. 

Maleficers are really upsetting! Vanya curls up tighter on his seat and sets down his fork. (He's eaten two bites of a bread roll and about a quarter of his meatloaf and nothing else.) 

Something's up with Mr. Lump that she probably should have asked about with the cousins. Best not to ask Sacramento, though.

"We want seven males and a female. We're prepared to either trade poison detection - we have two that catch everything between them, neither of them in wide circulation, and the second also catches some oozes, those are Latin and English - or a well-tested incorporeal banisher in Ancient Greek."

Wilbur and Lucy put their heads together briefly for a quiet conference that probably wouldn't make sense to a third party even if they heard it; it has a lot of Twin Shorthand it it. 

"Okay. We don't have any spiders the appropriate age, we can arrange to make the swap when we do. We'll go with the poison detection."

"Lovely! You said a week or two? I'll come by then, today I just wanted to make sure we were at the front of the line."

"You are! And yeah, that should be about when."

It seems like nothing especially sketchy is going on - huh, do the maleficers want actual familiars, not malia sources? - but anyway, he's not going to intervene or anything, just pay very close attention to the proceedings. 

Larisa is slightly glaring at Teresa because she can TELL this is stressful for Vanya. 

"Thanks, see you then. And, I, ah, apologize for disturbing you all, Sacramento." Especially Mr. Lump.

She gets an expressionless nod from Landon. 

And a final parting glare from Larisa, who does NOT LIKE MALEFICERS even if they're supposedly doing it ""responsibly"" or something. 

And things got sad again, "What about you Lucy, did you have any interesting classes? Also do you happen to know Russian I remember you saying you knew a lot of languages."

"I don't happen to know Russian, sorry. I know a lot of languages but most of 'em are clustered, Dad's a linguist so I know a lot of Doggerland stuff and a lot of India stuff and a bunch of China stuff, plus some oddballs, it's not that I speak the N most popular languages."

Pause.

"Sorry, I didn't think she would approach me while I was sitting with another, non-Pisa enclave."

"Vanya and I know Russian." 

"Oh, would either of you be willing to trade something for Russian tutoring if I get stuck? I should have a supply of antibiotics and pain killers starting in a week or so and I can also probably help with math homework."

"- Yeah, quite possibly. You can come ask if and when it comes up and we'll figure out an appropriate trade?" 

"Oh good, I appreciate that. I have a dictionary with me but dictionaries don't cover everything."

Apparently they're just going to pretend Pisa didn't happen? She can work with that.

"Dictionaries really don't cover everything," she agrees. "Grammar alone is a big deal."

"Yeah, hopefully I'll get a textbook in my language lab for the grammar."

Pretending none of that happened, yeah, sure seems like the way to go. 

Larisa finishes the rest of her supper fairly promptly, and then stands up to leave. 

Hesitates. 

"Vanya, please eat more of your food, you haven't eaten anything else today. ...Ribo, would you mind reminding him?" 

"I'll try, I'm not sure how successful I'll be."

"Yeah, I get it." And Larisa leaves. 

....If the random freshman has to nag him, that's just going to be embarrassing for both of them. Vanya eats his food. 

Oh good she doesn't have to nag. That seems like it would be awkward. She eats her own food. She doesn't want to ignore Vanya but she also doesn't want to do anything that will stop him from eating.