"Is it working?" she asks, flopping again.

"Yes! I got everything I needed to keep working on this until our next group session!" 

"Group session?"

"Sorry, I meant with both of us - I'm going to keep working on it when I have time until then. I did think I might grab Vanya for the next time, and Cassie if he wants her there for it. I think he can figure out how to put in some finger holes and make it an actual instrument for you, too - and given your affinity, that could well make it work more efficiently for you as mana storage, too." 

"That'd be great! Maybe I could use it as a pitch pipe, since my pitch isn't absolute."

"Almost no one has absolute pitch! Vanya does - well, he would say that sometimes he's off by an eighth of a semitone, not that I really know what that means. But, yeah, if it'll be practically useful to you as well, that should actually work with my affinity here." 

"A semitone is the smallest amount of pitch difference used in Western music."

"- Right." Landon's expression hints that he isn't particularly following this and also doesn't care very much. "Good, then. Any questions for now?"

"Should I find you at some time or will you find me? Also should there be like, a plan, for when I'm hanging out with Vanya?"

"Er, for activities to do with him, or like, times and scheduling?"

"Times and scheduling! The activity's gonna be music obviously. And Latin and hugs and I guess maybe planks."

Nod. "Vanya....doesn't really do mana-building activities specially. Just so you're aware. We're not sure how this ended up happening, but for the last, uh, three months or so, he's been providing more mana to our enclave sink than anyone but me or Larisa - and sometimes more than either of us - and just by, well, living his day to day life." 

"Wow, that's weird. I guess I will do all the planking that needs doing then."

Shrug. "I mean, if you want to get him to plank with you, we could see if he builds twice as much mana that way or something." 

"That would really be something. Getting older lets you do it faster, right?"

"...I mean, not forever, but in the Scholomance that's basically right. ...The figure I heard is that our mana capacity doubles every six months? Though I'm not actually sure how that compares to how fast you can build mana, and - I guess I'm also not sure who got that number or how, so take it with a grain of salt." 

"Okay. ...does that mean it makes sense to try to get way ahead on school stuff and only build mana this early if I'm gonna use it soon, and then do less school and more mana, in a few months?"

"I think the exact rate isn't that predictable? And also you want to make sure you've got enough to survive a mal getting into your bedroom during the night - that's not likely to happen during the next couple of weeks but you can't count on it not happening after that." 

"Okay, that makes sense. And I guess I'd rather exercise for an hour a day than for like five hours a day for fewer days."

“To be clear, there are non-exercise drills for building mana! How are you on mental math? Or mental imagery?”

"...not super good?"

“Great! Then you can probably get a year or two of those being good for mana-building even once you’re too worn out to move. Um, I - don’t really feel like explaining the mental math puzzles right now but you can ask later, we’ve got a book on it. And I find trying to mentally re-imagine my favorite movies in as much detail as I can, soundtrack and individual shots and all, my is great for mana-building and….also just satisfying?” 

"That doesn't sound like it would be annoying enough to build mana but I can try it and see! Maybe when I'm trying to fall asleep."

“Annoying isn’t quite the thing? It’s more just - effort? And trust me, trying to mentally pause a movie you’re imagining in your head and then count all the ceiling lights you remember in that shot is a lot of effort.”

"I will try to do mental harmonic dictation from memory for every song from Cats."