"- Can I have a quick private conversation with you?" Marian gestures vaguely at a space near the wall that should be out of earshot of the Shanghai table if they keep their voices low. 

Aaaaaah is something wrong is he in trouble - that's the nurse, did someone else die, are they going to blame him aaaaaah - 

Masozi tries to hide from her behind Wei Wuxian. 

Wei Wuxian hugs him.

"Yes, of course." She casts a glare across the table to make sure everyone knows they should behave.

Hugs! Hugs when he's scared are such a good thing, actually! 

Marian heads over to the wall. Pokes it a few times with her dagger in case there's a monster hiding in it or something, then leans against it. She feels tired already and the day hasn't even STARTED. 

"I - so I just found out that I was totally misreading the whole New York argument yesterday, and the person who was cleared of murder charges wasn't the crimes kid who demanded drugs? ....I don't really think Xue Yang did it, I mean, he's - have you seen him - I don't know how he could possibly murder ONE person let alone FOUR, he's, like, high half the time. And Sophie didn't speak Mandarin as far as I know so why would she talk to him? But, uh, someone pointed out that I should really bring it up anyway. Uh, unless you already did and they've investigated him too?" 

"He also seems like an unlikely suspect to me-- we're thinking the maleficer is trying to start a war between the Shanghai and the New York for some reason, and Xue Yang doesn't seem that... goal-oriented."

"He really doesn't. And he - uh, I buy that he's done some bad shit, but he's - well, last night he showed up wanting drugs and I was bawling on the floor about Sophie and he, like, hugged me and got me candy? That doesn't sound like someone who'd– wait, fuck, are you kidding me? Start a war in here? It's already a death school! Why!" 

"I wish I knew! We're the two most powerful enclaves in the Scholomance, maybe that's why... they're hoping to get our parents to fight for some reason."

"Oh my god." Shiver. "I - who else died? I didn't know." 

"Song Lan is probably dead but we've been telling the enclave someone probably just dropped a rock in his backpack to get his weight allowance to go over-- no sense in people mourning him before we're certain-- and a Singaporean named Tintin whom I sent to investigate Song Lan. A Toronto girl allegedly committed suicide but some of us think it might be caused by the same person."

"God." Marian shivers. "I - I did hear about the suicide, I didn't know it was suspicious... Are things here normally this batshit? Because this is batshit." 

"This is way too many deaths for this early in the year. Everyone's spooked, especially after last year."

Sigh. "Anyway, that's pretty much all I wanted to say. ...I've got some other announcements, but for the whole table. I think the void felt bad for sucking at IV fluids yesterday and it gave me a really sweet haul." 

"Oh?"

Marian starts leading the way back to the Shanghai table. "So I asked it for nutrition supplements - for Xue Yang, right, he's clearly not been eating enough - and it gave me an entire shipping pallet of these - I think they're, like, a shelf-stable food product meant for treating kids with malnutrition? They're made with, like, peanut butter, so they're more real food than the cafeteria stuff. I have eight hundred of them! I think this is the best possible trade good I could've gotten. And I want to talk to alchemists and artificers, see if I can trade them for actually putting together a proper ICU in there, I've got notes on what equipment I'd want to replace..." 

"Awesome. That's incredible. You know Shanghai has some of the best artificers and alchemists in the world."

"Amazing! I'd love to talk to them! I'm going to go network with New York too, I think - I sort of have an agreement with them - oh, man, if there were murders happening this weekend, though, that totally explains why Julia's sister was so abrupt with me..." 

She reaches the table, and repeats this announcement to everyone there! 

"- Oh, and also I have a bunch of random-ass medical stuff that the void kept giving me instead of IV fluids which you would think would be less complicated. Uh, if anyone has any use for like five litres worth of very concentrated sugar water, I am literally never going to need five litres of D50% and it takes up a ton of space. I'm interested in trading for - hmm, honestly right now what I most want is, like, more sheets and blankets and maybe some actual hospital gowns, if anyone here can sew? I could sketch the pattern for you, they're not complicated." It's still upsetting how she had nothing clean to dress Sophie's body. 

"I'm working on Masozi's clothes now but I like sewing and have a use for very concentrated sugar water."

"Do I want to know what the use is."

"It will get us so much mana, I promise."

"Uh... huh."

....He's going to ferment it into alcohol. Obviously this is the thing one could do with sugar water that would have the highest economic value in a school full of stressed-out teenagers who don't expect to survive their adolescence. 

Honestly, Marian cannot even slightly blame him. At this point, she could really use an opportunity to get drunk. 

"Sure, of course. I'd want you to source the fabric too - I think the supply rooms here have it, but it's not very safe for me to go myself. I'll trade you fitted sheets, two sets for each gurney, and, uh, five hospital gowns? ...With laundry services included. It's not safe for me to go to the bathrooms to wash them either."

Probably that's a reasonable deal? She hopes? 

He can probably persuade someone to do the laundry. 

"If I have to provide laundry services I want dibs on any other useless sugar water the void gives you as long as I'm providing it. And I want to be paid now and give you the gowns later-- like you said, it's just taking up shelf space for you."

Marian considers this. 

"- Yeah, okay. I reserve the right to keep some for actual patient stuff, sometimes people need IV sugar, just - not an entire crate of it." 

...Also she wants some of his booze, but she can trade other goods for that later like an adult. 

Glance around the room. "Anyway. I want to talk to artificers in particular, right now. I've got some equipment I want made. Anyone interested in trading nutrition paste for building me stuff?"