Lissa smiles at El as she grabs her own seat, grabbing her assignment as well. "Thanks!" she says, grinning. "This is the knife assignment everyone gets where you need to be careful about tin and zinc, right?"

"I don't know, maybe it's some totally different knife assignment where if you swap zinc for tin it won't matter at all," muses El, peering at the assignment paper. "But better to be safe."

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to be the one who messes everything up for everyone and gets gossiped about." Lissa reads through the instructions a few more times, since she doesn't have any experience with metalwork at all, unlike mixing things in lab.

"I'll get us crucibles and gloves, you get us mold stuff and wax, then we approach the sketchy metal pile together," says El, and she goes and gets them crucibles and gloves.

Lissa grabs the mold stuff and wax, maybe a bit more than they need, and hurries to drop it on the table. She nearly trips over her own feet, but manages to catch herself on the table's edge with a "whew."

"And now for the main ingredients!" she says, half to herself and half to El.

Oh, that kid has a vibe. It's - not exactly the vibe you'd expect from having murdered several other students for malia, it's subtle for that and any kid competent to make it subtle could also just turn it off. But anyone who has merely started on hamsters in the first week is also bad news. 

Frank sits down at her table, plays his fingertips across the tabletop. "Name?"

...senior? In the freshman shop section? "- who the hell are you?"

He gestures slightly with the power-sharer on his right arm. "I'm Frank. And you are -"

"I'm Galadriel. And your problem is...?"

"Galadriel. I see. My problem is, someone's going around murdering off the frosh. Got any idea who it is?"

"Let's see. Who've I seen who approaches freshmen in situations that are at all strange, maybe asks their names..."

"You happen to have stuck to the buddy system the first couple days of school? That'd be really convenient for you."

"Lissa, will you kindly tell this wanker that you've not seen me commit any murders. And for the rest of my time you can mostly account for me by asking Bobbie Draper. New Zealand."

Oh, is that what he meant. Lissa bristles slightly, her desire to protect one of the few friends she has here coming to the fore. "Nope!" says Lissa, emphatically slamming her hands on the table. "I've been with El in a bunch of classes and meals and she hasn't killed anyone at all! Why would you even think that?"

"Well," Frank says with slightly exaggerated slowness, "whoever's killing the freshmen is almost definitely doing it for malia, which gives you a vibe, and your bestie here? Has a vibe. And we've been unable to find the murderer so what we're doing now is just going to every freshman shop class and trying to account for every kid who seems even the slightest bit off, so we can catch the murderer. The murderer isn't going to go after me, and I'd love to be in the gym right now instead, so you could stand to cool it a bit, okay?"

"Do most people you accuse of murder and their friends take this like you're asking them to pass the salt?"

"Well, see, a lot of people want us to catch the murderer! So they're glad we're on that."

"Thank you, O self-appointed heroic detective lacking only a deerstalker hat! Your skill at profiling is second only to the good people at bloody Heathrow! I tremble in awe! It would be the highlight of my life, Frank, if I may be so bold as to call you Frank, if you were to search my room for guinea pigs!"

Frank stands up and leaves.

"Wanker," she mutters, and she stalks toward the supplies for metals.

"Wow, that was rude," mutters Lissa as she follows. "Are people always so rude if they think you're being a malificer?"

"If they think they'd win in a fight, probably."

Oria Duccini walks briskly in from the doorway. This needs attention. Frank confronting someone...

Oria can see El, and that is a hell of an aura for a freshling.

But. She has her spell up. And that says... nothing. Not a speck.

"Wow, kid, you have the weirdest aura I have ever seen, and I live with an enclave of maleficers."

"I hope it brings you joy. What do you want."

"Can you do a spell? Smallest thing you have should be fine, I just need to see your mana moving a bit. I know more about maleficers than Frank and I want to confirm this spell is working right before I tell him you're a false positive."