"OK, let's stick together and not spread out too much, it's early but this is still the most dangerous place to be. What's our shopping list - stone or concrete for the people who want room forges, bronze for a headstart on the knife assignment, I am looking for rare woods and animal parts. And tools, of course, but I've heard the tool chests are pretty dangerous, I don't know if they're safer at the start of term..."

"Don't think we should chance it unless we see one of the older students go through a tool chest." There are some in here working on upper-level or graduation projects. "Copper and tin also work for getting a jump on the shop assignment, obviously, and if it's making a mold and casting a knife - which is what it used to be - we'll want sand and wood for frames. I will in general be delighted about iron and steel even if I think we're not allowed to use them for baby's first knife because we're using the little furnaces that don't get hot enough. Lead, don't breathe and don't lick it but it's not nearly as dangerous as people think, zinc for alloys..."

Bronze is made of copper and tin! Good to know. Are there...labels anywhere? Or is she going to have to try and guess the difference between tin and iron and steel and lead and zinc and - what other metals are there -  uranium? is that a metal? - anyways she cannot tell them apart by sight.

Annisa can but by default it's not going to occur to her to give anyone lessons on metal identification because she is busy evaluating things on shelves for probability of being mals and, once she decides they're clear, picking them up and playing with them delightedly and then stowing them in her backpack.

"I'm mostly here to help Franklin haul whatever he wants - you mentioned clay, right?"

"Clay works for some kinds of molds," says Annisa, distracted by trying to determine whether she saw eyes blinking out at her from behind that tantalizing pile of copper bars.

"Cloth, yarn, thread, any sort of raw fiber that looks like it could be convinced to become cloth or yarn or thread, and enough wood for a spindle and a hand loom." She's not optimistic about actual cloth, that seems like it's so useful it'd get taken immediately, but maybe other people don't want to deal with raw fiber as much, given how much of a pain it is. "And I guess nails, wood glue, sealant, paint, chalk, leather, beads, those are all good to have some of on hand, if they happen to be around."

"Hey Annisa, is this metal useful?" It's gray. She's pretty sure most metals are gray.

"Naima, I saw paint over there," says Bella, "but it was all orange and pink, I think all the other colors got taken."

"I can use orange and pink, that's great."

Bella grabs her a little can of each. "Painting a sunset?"

Annisa steps reluctantly back from the copper bars (she's still not sure about the eyes, but something's deterred everyone else from taking them, too, and it's probably not nothing) and looks over at what Malak's got. "Tin's useful, aluminum's excellent, you'll have to hand it over if you want me to guess which that is."

"I'd like paint too, thread, needles. I can do a little carving, there probably aren't tools but it'd be incredibly useful. There won't be any goldleaf but if you see some I'll trade for it. Anything that can be made into dyes is useful but that's probably in the alchemists' store room."

An orange and a pink for Daria too.

"Bella can you grab some paint for me too?"

She hands the chunk of metal over to Annisa.

"You know what would be nice to have? A - I'm not sure what it's called. Mechanical arm? Grabby stick? You know what I mean, right?"

Orange and pink! "What are you all going to do with orange and pink paint? What is there to paint?"

Annisa bites the metal Malak gave her. "Tin! Useful if we manage to get the copper, less so otherwise. I've been thinking I want a grabby-stick too - I think I'd be willing to chance the copper, if I had one -"

"My room! I don't know exactly what pattern I will do but it could use some color. Hopefully I can get some other colors later."

"Furniture and walls, for me, though I might wait to start any major projects until I have a couple more colors. If I get any discerning books I want them to have a nice house."

"I have gold leaf I'll trade you," she tells Daria. "Found it on an earlier supply run, under a stack of textbooks."

Under some textbooks? That was incredibly lucky supply run, wow.

"What do you want for it?" she asks Annisa. 

"Call it even on the mana for my wards."

"How much gold leaf is it?" She's got some stored up and needs extra mana urgently far more than she needs extra gold leaf, but you can't just say that.

"Six sheets, eleven by eight."

That'll almost double her stock, and if she stretches it and uses some of her other supplies she could do an anchor for a disorientation ward all around her room. "I can do half the mana, or I've got gems and some other supplies I brought in I can trade."