Orion's internal monologue isn't nearly that complicated. He hands his assignment over to Silas at lunch to disappear for him and cleans his plate and goes looking for mals. Lower down there should be some; there was the digester in the shop this morning.

Lan Wangji didn't find any mals while he was stalking around the shop level with Bichen out but even looking for them makes him feel better.

Hm. There's a white boy. White Boy doesn't seem to be making anything in shop. He seems to be also looking for mals.

Yup. Up vents down drains under chairs inside cubbies in unclaimed lockers beneath workbenches amongst tools and - oh, damn, just an agglo. Agglos aren't worth it. He puts the agglo back where it was diligently cleaning up the woodchips and becoming an increasingly wooden creature.

Did White Boy leave the agglo for him? That's polite.

He stabs the agglo. 

...huh. That is an interesting life choice but maybe the sword needs to kill things on a routine basis. Whatever. How about this pencil, there are kind of a weird number of pencils here and - aha! Baby mimics, those are worth it. Baby mimics burn (in French).

"Share?" Lan Wangji says in heavily accented English.

"Share... what?" Orion asks. There aren't any pencil mimics left. There aren't any regular pencils left either actually.

"Mals."

"...I guess?" It's slim pickings this early, he kept needing handouts from Chloe all weekend to accomplish anything, but sharing seems fine in principle, especially if the sword will settle for agglos. He resumes his search.

Lan Wangji also resumes his search. He sees a lone scratcher blending in with a pile of metal and points to it so White Boy can see it.

Oooooh a scratcher. This one gets the O CALAMITY treatment though this time he does not yell it, just mutters it real fast.

White Boy seems to really enjoy killing mals? Perhaps Lan Wangji should look for them and point them out to him and this will lead to more efficient mal-killing and greater safety for Wei Wuxian.

That works great for Orion! Maybe the sword is happy with just one agglo. That's a pretty gentle requirement for a sword. Orion should get a sword. Orion should get a LIGHTSABER. In the meantime he can merrily scour the shop for mals and take tips from Quiet Asian Kid.

Lan Wangji finds a mimic pretending to be tinsel. White Boy is distracted by looking in the other cupboard.

He says "Mn" loudly.

What does that mean in Chinese. Orion should not wonder about that too hard, language lab gave him Greek already. Oooh mimic! Shop is FULL of mimics. He goes and kills the mimic.

What an excellent and relaxing human being. Lan Wangji likes him immensely.

He isn't doing anything rude like talking. And he is, presumably unknowingly, playing an important role in Project Keep Wei Ying Alive. These are two of Lan Wangji's favorite traits in people.

Lan Wangji continues to systematically look through cabinets, Bichen out in case there's a mal that is aggressive enough that he can't wait for White Boy to deal with it.

Orion does his own looking but he doesn't have any particular advantage at it and the shop is huge; about half the mals he kills will be ones the Asian kid finds. He's so helpful! Not as efficient as Mal Spotting Kid but, and this is crucial, not a maleficer. Probably. At least he's not doing it right now.

"This is killing more mals than the alternative," he says to Bichen. Lan Wangji understands that you're supposed to talk to magic items that are powerful enough to get opinionated, so that they know they're wanted, but he thinks this is an unreasonable requirement and does it as little as possible. Obviously Bichen is wanted. How is he supposed to keep Wei Ying safe without Bichen?

"Come again?" says Orion, who is not looking in Lan Wangji's direction at the moment as he's trying to get a clear shot at a terrified centipede-scorpion thing that's hiding under a table saw and couldn't tell he was talking to the sword.

"I talk for sword," Lan Wangji says. "Sword like to be talked for."

"Oh, okay." Sword likes 1) stabbing a single agglo per hunting trip 2) being talked to. Orion should have a sword. A lightsaber. No, an incredibly anime sword-whip thing! He wants an incredibly anime sword-whip thing.

This was an unnecessary three (3) syllables of acknowledgement when a simple "Mn" would have done but Lan Wangji knows that no one is perfect.

Lan Wangji would have been able to introduce his new friend to an incredibly anime ring-whip thing but unfortunately his affinity is combat and not mindreading.

Orion will just have to go on slaughtering mals with spells, then.

He gets through a total of a baker's dozen, scorpion-centipede included, by the time the bell rings and they have to be on their way to afternoon classes. "I have language lab," Orion says, stretching his arms over his head since he's been crouching to get hidey under-things mals for a few. "Bye, thanks!" And out he goes.

What an excellent person.

Lan Wangji is going to have a friend now. Lan Xichen will be so proud.