Toward the end of dinner, Val gets up and calls out, "School supply run?"
OH NO.
Okay, the thing to figure out right now is whether she's plotting to kill them or not plotting to kill them so long as she gets what she wants. Um. Uh.
After some hesitation he decides that actually it's okay if he dies as long as it's very clear to everyone who did it so they're warned. "Uh, yeah, okay, um - what was your name?"
"El. Nice to meet you, El, as we all know it's pretty implausible that a mal would kill us today but we'll all be safer if we work together just in case." He's aiming for subtle and plausibly deniable, but his voice is just a tiny bit too loud and his smile is slightly forced. He's doing his very best around the internal screaming, anyway.
- that girl seems like bad news and Val seems not sure how to tell her to sod off? Miguel wasn't even sure if he meant to go, he's already got a supply run in, but he has talked to Val about gangs and that makes him sort of want to intervene here. He...doesn't know how, though.
"I think we...already have as many people as we need, actually?" he says, which is kind of a bold move, but....
"...are you wanting to come with us?" she asks Miguel, because she feels like 'we have enough people' is both a weird thing to say about three people and a weird thing to introduce yourself with. "You shouldn't count me as much as a full wizard, probably, I don't have a lot of spells."
This has gotten completely out of Val's control and he doesn't know what to do. El is going to murder Miguel, probably, now is there a way to keep her from murdering anyone else? And is there a way to do it without looking weak?
"I'm okay with any of you coming but I don't want a fight on the way, so, maybe another time, El."
That's a pretty justified belief. It's the first day of class and some of their class has been hunting mals for fun and profit since getting here.
Val leads the way, shoulders square, whistling the Battle Hymn of the Republic unless and until someone objects. He does a surprisingly good job of giving the impression of being casual and unconcerned, given that in fact he's looking all around for potential enemies and trying to figure out what to do in case of more interpersonal tension. That kid earlier who kept spinning around made it look more like playing than watching his back; that was very cool and Val copies it.
Okay, paper! She wants a lot of loose paper and a lot of pens and a lot of pencils and a lot of notebooks, if she can carry all that. Which she can, she's committed here.
Luckily all of those things are still here. If there were a lot of other things before, there don't seem to be now, unless they're hiding.
Basira acquires a long paintbrush for poking things manalessly. She wants enough notebooks and paper that she doesn't have to be conspicuously miserly about it, and the same for pens but she's only finding red ones, why... ooh, a ring-binder, score.
Maybe if she demonstrates collaboration other people will reciprocate and point out interesting things to her. "Anyone want red pens? I've got, like, twenty over here." She takes three.
"Sure, why not, I think the ones over here are all black." He sticks several but not all of the black pens in one of his zip-up pockets along with several pencils and a pocket-sized notebook in a hip pocket, then takes a couple red pens too for variety.
He takes as many full-size notebooks as he can carry in one arm or as many as no one else wants to lay claim to, whichever comes first.