"I have several, what's up?"

"So I heard on the grapevine that you're trying to set up an agglo terrarium they can't take apart, and my yearmate Franklin here has a container affinity."

Franklin gives a little wave.

"Ooh! Delighted to make your acquaintance. Yeah, I want at least four to start out, for a control group and three experiments at a time."

"How big of agglos are you planning to get, and do you need them to be secure against other people getting in or just against the agglos getting out?"

"Littler ones but mature. I don't really expect people to want to steal them? I guess if a lot of people want to steal my agglos I will need to revisit that question but mostly I just need to be able to open the tanks while the agglos can't."

"If I wanted agglos I would get my own and I assume everyone else will do likewise, yeah." Okay, actually she would ask Kevin to get them because he'd find them about four times as fast, but that's not the point.

"I think I can manage that," says Franklin. "It wouldn't be that different in principle from making a book box plus shoring up the weak points. How big would you like them to be and with what materials would you like them to be constructed?"

"I want to see in, and I got glass and caulk for it though I don't know that it's enough - I'm imagining yea big," she gestures, "though I am considering commandeering someone dead's room for the tanks and might go bigger given that space to work in, if I have promising early experiments."

"The mana cost will be proportional to the surface area rather than the volume, so if you're willing to provide the mana I should be able to make them as large as we can find materials for."

"How do we want to structure this deal?" adds Marcy. "Like, are you looking to buy just the casting, or do you also want to buy more glass and/or a starting population of agglos?"

"I can populate it with agglos myself, I imagine it's cheaper to make it known that I'll buy any agglos someone happens to pocket than to get someone to canvass the school for them. I don't have shop till Thursday and don't strongly expect to be good at getting more glass, though. You can stack the containers, so they share some surface area between them, if that helps?"

"Like a set of cubbies? Yes, that would work quite well. Or perhaps have them horizontally so they share side walls, if you can spare the floor space. The hinges will be attacked less often, though still frequently, if they're at the top."

"I can put them under my bed, if horizontal is better. I was imagining some kind of airlock setup to prevent a single hinge theft from letting all the agglos free, especially since I'm planning to try to starve some of them to death."

"I wonder if I could get the tools to do a lid that slides into a set of grooves in three of the walls. Then the locking mechanism could be entirely on the outside of the glass. Otherwise, yes, a double-layered lid would give you time to find me when they escape the inner layer."

"I like the groove idea!"

"It would be more easily done in wood or plastic than glass, but I think it is not impossible in glass. Perhaps by means of repeated scoring, or a torch, or some form of structural cement . . . I would like to see your materials and take an hour or two to make sketches."

"They're in my room. What are you going to want to be paid in?"

"The mana for the sealing and durability spells, both up front and when they require reinforcement, though the latter will be a much smaller cost, and for my time--spells, additional mana, other shop materials? Clay that can be fired would be especially welcome if you come by any." Practically no-one brings in clay, for obvious reasons, but it's such a lovely material. 

"What languages do you have?"

"English, Latin, enough French to get by."

"My shop slot is Thursdays but I'll keep an eye out for stuff for you and make up the rest with spells and mana if you like the look of any of my spells, then."

"That would be good. Is now a good time to go to your room and see the materials?"

"Lemme finish choking down this macaroni and bus the tray." She does this, and rejoins him.

Off they go! Marcy tags along as a lookout, since Franklin clearly has blueprints on the brain.

Bella has a pile of twelve rectangles of glass. Most of them are of a size but some are smaller than that. She has a tube of caulk. "I was going to try to make-and-mend it into being how I wanted it once I found hinges and brackets but it wouldn't have worked nearly as well," she says.

"Yes, I have sealing spells much better than make-and-mend. If I can find some sort of epoxy I could use multiple smaller ones in the role of a larger. Or I could simply give some of them lids that are only half of the top of a cube, with the other half fixed in place, if you will not need the full size opening. It might also be worthwhile to cut up this longer narrow one to make the grooves for the lids to slide into."

"I don't think I'll need the full opening, I just need to be able to add and remove agglos and give them shop scraps except the ones in the starvation condition."

"Then these shall do nicely. I can have sketches for you this time tomorrow, with estimates of construction time and mana cost. I have shop on Tuesday."

Marcy asks, "What are the other three conditions?"

"Poison, contraceptives, control."

"Intriguing. Do you have a lead on what kinds of substances would work as agglo contraceptives?"

"Nope. I'm going to start by asking the nurse to give me one of everything in case it works on a symbolic level."

"Makes sense. If the nurse doesn't have everything I bet there are seniors with some almost-expired plan B lying around."

This really seems like an adult type project but maybe she's hoping to turn it into some kind of awesome graduation weapon and just doesn't want to talk it up too much before knowing if it pans out.

"Oh, good idea."

"Are you planning on getting lab credit for this? That would be neat."

"I'm definitely going to try to get shop credit for the tanks."

"It's probably more a mal studies credit than anything, but it's not really geared toward that, I just think it should be tried and can't be as sure as I'd like that there will be plenty of time to go try things in London's agglo farm. I might need to pay you in installments, if that's all right, I can't afford too much outlay into a side project."

"That will be fine." Glance at Marcy. "Though I would prefer to get the mana for the spells when I cast them. It will be easier to measure the correct amount."

"That's totally legit, and I've established with my clavemate that she'll loan me mana as long as I pay her back with interest, so if you need to be paid faster I can do it that way."

"That sounds good. I think that's everything that should be settled before I have plans drawn up, yes?"

"Yep!"

"Then I will see you tomorrow."

"Pleasure doing business with you."