“Wilbur!”

“Hey Tommy.”

“You didn’t show up for a couple days, we were worried, man. Toby has stuff for you, if you stop by his room, and if you want to switch out mana crystals—”

“Toby has stuff for me?”

“Yeah! He got his most recent project working, saved some for you—” Tommy grabs one and waves it triumphantly in the air. It looks sort of like a crumpled tin foil ball, insofar as it’s metal and about the same size as one. 

“Okay! Okay, that’s—that’s great, Tommy. I’ve been thinking, you know, you’re friends with Clay, right?”

“Yeah? He introduced me just the other day to his stuffed horse, you know.” Tommy grins and puffs out his chest, as though this is the coolest achievement possible. 

“—Clay Tatum has a stuffed horse?”

“Yeah!!!” He puts the ball down carefully and cups his hand. “It’s about this big? He’s had it since they were kids, its name is Spirit and it’s beautiful. Well. You should not talk about a woman’s age, that’s what they say, it is rude. I don’t know if it is a woman actually but it is not a man or else I would be rude, I see a man and I tell him, you are a man and that is strange.”

“You— whatever. Where does he hang out, I want to meet him.”

“Um. Right now he’d probably be in the alchemy lab, he, like, barely sleeps, it’s creepy. When everyone’s awake Tampa’s got a reading room in the library? I’m not allowed in.”

“Great. We’re going to the alchemy lab.”

“…Why?”

“To talk to Clay. Obviously. Get dressed, I’ll explain on the way.”

…Wilbur’s got the look in his eye that means arguing will be useless at best. 

He pockets two of Toby’s explosives, just in case. 

Great. Then they can start walking. “So I’ve been thinking—”

“Oh no, off to a bad start, huh.”

“Shut up, Tommy. Anyway, I was thinking, right, and I think— they didn’t actually do anything wrong? They voted for Schlatt but, like, they have the right to do that, if they think he’s better than I am, that’s not— I mean, maybe they’re right. You know? Maybe they’re right and I’m the one in the wrong.”

“You’re not, though.”

“Why not.”

“You— I mean, you should have won. You started it, man.”

“Okay. I didn’t, though.”

“You’re— I mean, come on, you’re Wilbur.”

“So you and me— you and me, we both agree we’re in the right.”

“Well, I mean, I’m always in the right.”

“Then let’s be the bad guys. Let’s be the villain in their history! I lost, if I do nothing— if I do nothing, nobody cares. We fade into obscurity. They have this—this study group, and I’m nothing, I’m just some guy who wasn’t right for it and left. But if we fuck them up—“

“Wilbur— I don’t, I don’t—“

“No, listen, Tommy. We could leave a mark on the school. Make them fucking listen to us. I say, if I can’t be a part of what they’re doing, they don’t get to do it. They don’t get to—erase me.”

“Wilbur…”

“You think— you think everyone’s on your side, Tommy. Nobody’s on your side. Clay? Toby? Alex? They’d sell you out in a heartbeat. They don’t give a shit about you. Nobody gives a shit about you! You’ll see. Watch. I’m going to ask Clay to fuck you over, just like Eret asked Clay to fuck us over, and he’s going to say yes, just like he said yes to Eret. Nobody cares about you, Tommy. That’s not— that’s not a challenge, or a threat, or something you can— overcome. It’s a fact. It’s true. Nobody in here cares.”

“That doesn’t— Toby has supplies for you, man.”

“Yeah? And what about Schlatt? He gave some to Schlatt, right, he’s been doing some of Schlatt’s homework?”

“…Yeah.”

“Right. He’s playing both sides. And don’t get me wrong! That’s smart, he’s being smart! You keep everyone on your good side, that’s smart. And I’ll take whatever he gives me. But it doesn’t mean anything.”

“I don’t think— I, no, Wilbur, you’re being insane.”

“I’m not insane, Tommy. I’ve— I’ve never seen things this clearly in my fucking life. And you know what I see, I see a world that doesn’t give a shit, but you know what else I see? I see that I don’t have anything to lose. This is it! This is rock bottom! Nothing matters, we can do what we want!”

“Great! I don’t want to do this! I want you to— to come back to the study group, man, we can still do this, I mean, what’s Schlatt going to do about it, he’s just annoying, man, we miss you—“

“You don’t get it. You still don’t get it. I’m not going where they don’t want me. —We’re here.” He pushes the door open and lets it slam behind them. Clay looks up from where he’s measuring ingredients— good, that’s good, he has his attention. Now to keep it. 

He keeps his head high, walks with confidence. “Clay. Hello. I have a proposal.”

“…Hello. I—um.” There isn’t a polite way to ask this, is there. “Why are you here, you hate me.”

“I did! I did hate you.” Wilbur laughs. “I didn’t— I didn’t understand. I understand now. I get it! You were just— being smart. Taking a trade. So I have—another trade.”

“What do you want?”

“What— you can’t actually be thinking of giving it to him.”

“Something— fire? Explosives? Blunt force? The more destructive the better.”

“Mm. And what do I get for it?”

“Whatever you want that I have.” He puts his hand on Clay’s chest, over his heart; he pushes his mana from himself to Clay, a steady stream until there isn’t any more, just his hand and Clay’s breathing and Clay’s heartbeat. It probably isn’t very much at all to Clay, but it’s not about that, not really, it’s about the symbol. “That’s all I have. Had. Yours now.”

“What the hell, Wilbur, you need that— Clay, give him his mana back—”

“I don’t think I will.” Clay touches his chest where Wilbur’s hand had been just a moment ago. It’s still warm. 

Wilbur laughs, laughs and punches the air. “See! See, Tommy, it’s exactly like I said.”

"Wilbur-- Clay-- this, this isn't right, what are you doing?"

"I'll be--agreeing to help, actually. You can... feel free to stay out of it."

"Yeah! Clay, thank you very much, I very much appreciate it. Meet here after class and I'll give you a song for your trouble."

"Pleasure doing business with you. If you want anything else, just let me know."

"Perfect. Well, that's all I wanted." Wilbur claps. "Thank you! I'll be going now."

Outside: "See? Fucking told you."

"Wilbur. Stop it. You're fucking scaring me, man."

"This is nothing. This is just the beginning. I say we fucking destroy that study group. And you can either--you can either join me or you can try to stop me, it's your decision. But they don't fucking care about us, so why should we care about them!"

"Wilbur. You're being reckless, you're being-- you're not being the person who came in here two years ago, you're not. I won't try and stop you, but I don't, I don't agree to this! This isn't the right thing to do, this isn't the moral thing to do. You’re being... What’s the point in doing anything, if you’ve lost all hope? You’ve gotta stay with it, man. You’ve gotta-- You’ve gotta pull yourself together. I'll--I won't tell anyone. But this isn't the right thing to do."

Wilbur goes quiet, for a moment. Looks down. Sighs. "Do you, uh-- do you know the poem Ozymandias, Tommy?"

"...Yes? A couple weeks ago I did Toby's homework on it, you know. Got an A+, as well. --Sorry, go on."

"You're a prick. I-- I'm feeling-- I'm feeling like I can understand where that poem is coming from, Tommy. I'm-- Look. I-- understand that this won't-- help me. I'm-- aware of that. But sometimes in order to feel safe, you have to... be ready to give it all up."

"Wilbur. I'm not gonna stop you, but I’m not gonna help you go through with this! You're being a moron, Wilbur! You're being insane!"

"I wanna-- I'm thinking."

"You're getting all-- You're saying everyone's against you! It's not--"

"Go back to your room, Tommy. I'm going to go talk to Toby."

"...At least take some mana."

"Goodbye, Tommy. Go back to your room."

And he goes to Toby's room and knocks. 46A, void wall.

"Hello?"

"It's Wilbur."

"Oh, okay, yeah, come in!" The door opens. His room is... marginally neater than Tommy's. (Not that Wilbur has room to judge. His room's easily the worst out of all of them.) "I saved you some stuff, I invented these new explosives, I don't know how much Tommy told you about them?"

"...Explosives? Tommy didn't tell me they were explosives. He just said that you had supplies." Well, this is going to be useful.

"Yeah! They're mostly flash, I had to figure something out that would hurt mals without damaging the scholomance itself.  I figured out a way to batch 'em so I can make loads."

"Great! That's, that's brilliant, Toby."

"You think so?" Toby starts putting the balls of explosive into Wilbur's backpack. "--Just throw one of these at a mal if you see one, it'll go boom, hopefully take care of it for you."

"I do. I do. I've been-- I've been thinking a lot, recently, actually.

You voted for Schlatt, right? I want-- honest opinion, what do you think. Don't sugarcoat it, just say it honestly, friend to friend."

"I mean... He's got pros and cons. Friend to friend-- he's made some positive improvements but he's got a lot of strange ideas."

"Okay. Okay. So you-- so you agree, you agree that he made, he made positive changes."

"I mean. Some of them, yeah."

Nod. "It's weird, though, how Tommy is-- he still thinks he's the hero, that he's, that he's the protagonist. Like, he's actually trying to do good things. You agree, right? I feel like I'm the only one not blind to who the villain is."

"Yeah, definitely."

"Yeah. I'm glad you agree with me, I'm glad someone agrees with me that, you know."

"Yeah." Wow he is not at all sure what he's agreeing with. Seems to make Wilbur happy, though.

"Tommy's--we had a bit of a talk, this morning, he's not really--he has some concerns about me, about my plans, but you're--you're reasonable, Toby, right, you'll hear me out."

"...Okay, sure...?"

"Great. I'm going to--ideally, if everything goes according to plan, I'm going to destroy where the study group meets, I'm going to destroy the supplies, the chairs, the--you know, everything. And I'm, I'm probably going to die with it, if all goes according to plan."

"Jesus, that's extreme."

"It's what has to be done. Tommy doesn't--doesn't understand. Like I said. He thinks, he thinks he's a hero, he thinks I can just--change the world. Like when we were kids." Wilbur laughs. It's a weird laugh, almost discordant. "He doesn't realize that I'm--the only way I can win is if I lose. I can't change things for the better, and I want to be remembered, I want to change something, so--the only way I can get any semblance of victory is destroying the thing I care about. If I just stop attending, I die eventually, everyone forgets me. If I go out with a bang, maybe some people remember me."

"That's... kind of smart." What the fuck.

"Thank you, see, I've been saying that! You're a good kid, you're just trying to survive, you've helped me out, I'll help you out, give you a little warning. Just don't tell anyone else."

"You said Tommy already knows."

"Yeah, yeah, it's Tommy. He's refusing to help."

"...I can see why."

"I don't want you talking to him about this. I want you to promise me you're not going to speak to Tommy about this."

"Uhhhhhhh.

......Sure?"

"Great. Great! Thank you, I'll--I really appreciate this. Remember me, alright? You're a good kid."

"Yeah, I'll--I'll remember."