"I don't mean to alarm you. Given the" - gestures - "news, we assume you'll be coordinating a search for the maleficer? We're willing to help. Our seniors have some expertise in the matter."

"How thoughtful of them." Olivia sounds like she's trying not to sound suspicious but not trying so hard as to camouflage that her first instinct was to be suspicious. She sighs. "We're staking out all the freshman shops to see if we can pick anything up off any of the kids, pull them aside for more questions. If they have expertise we'd be delighted to have their help."

"I don't know everything my eldest cousins know. But I'm sure they can recognize an aura from a greater distance than most, and probably with a better sense for whether someone killed one rat last month or four humans this week. Is there a good time for them to speak with your enclave?"

Tight smile. "I'm skipping my classes this week. When is convenient for them."

"At least one can meet you by the shop this morning." Hopefully, he didn't check in advance - but at C block, at least, even if not A. "Should I go tell them now?"

"Thank you."

She's clearly tense - man he is really not very cut out for diplomacy actually - so he just keeps his mouth shut and... nods enough that it is almost like a bow? Is that good? Probably it's fine.

Anyway he scurries off, back to the Pisa table before the seniors leave.

Olivia sits back down and says nothing about any of this.

Oookay, Tony is just going to ignore all that.

"Yeah," he says to Marian, "I'm not expecting you to be an engineer, don't worry. I can come by the infirmary maybe today after lunch if that works for you? And look at all your stuff and get all the specs written down."

"Okay, sure," Marian says distractedly. She's still peering after the mysterious boy. "What - was going on with that?" 

"We're trying to find the maleficer who has murdered three or four freshmen so far," Olivia says.