"--Huh, okay." 

"This friend group is weirdly heavy on the hybridization."

"One hybrid and one chimera isn't that odd, for a group this size. Higher than average, but not implausibly so." 

"I guess I would feel less weird about it if it wasn't for all the secret-keeping!"

"Honestly it wouldn't shock me if that wasn't a coincidence, like, someone in residence life got an omen that it would be funny to put us together in a room. And then you were an innocent bystander." 

"--Okay, you're right, that makes sense."

"Is that a normal sort of thing to get omens about?"

"--It's--not something I'd heard of before but also not something that would surprise me?"

"Huh. - anyway, if the Atlanta kids are all home, I should send Kanimir a text, I don't know when he'll look at it but it could be soon and then we could bring him and his Jaromira in."

"--Oh, I am so in favor." 

Sending: 

Katarzyna: Are you going to try to kiss your doppelganger?

Jaromira: Not right away probably! There are more important things going on

Katarzyna: But you're totally going to. 

Jaromira: If she's really me I doubt there's going to be much chance of failure

Katarzyna: You don't know how four years of traumatic horrible death school would affect you. 

Jaromira: ...Really good point. Especially if Tamsen is in there right now, eek. 

Katarzyna: Didyme, not Tamsen

Jaromira: You know what I mean, just because her name isn't Tamsen doesn't mean she isn't Tamsen. 

Katarzyna: Fair point. 

Jaromira: I promise to take the lay of the land before I try to initiate anything. 

Katarzyna: Thank you. 

"I assume they don't have phones inside the Scholomance. --Like, for internal stuff even, not as a risky line to the outside."

"I wouldn't be astounded if someone brought in a pair of walkie-talkies, if they found little ones? But there's not electricity in there, so it's batteries, and that counts against your weight limit too."

"Oh, it wasn't obvious that you wouldn't have electricity. --Do you have running water?"

"Yes, and gas lamps."

"Gas lamps--oh right this thing was built a couple hundred years ago."

"Yup. Some people tap their gas lines, you can fuel some things that way."

"--Are there fire-based mals--"

"Of course there are."

"Does that ever, uh, have the obvious consequence."

"Most mals don't spontaneously generate? I guess a fire mal could be attracted to somebody's Bunsen burner but there are also mals that are attracted to, like, hair, you can't actually manage risk that way."

"I mean, if someone does something to their gas line and fucks up and a fire mal gets anywhere in the vicinity, boom."

"Oh. I think that's not especially more of a risk than having the gas lines at all, they're not infinitely sturdy."

"I guess insofar as it's a risk it's...nobody's highest priority."

"Yeah. Fire mals aren't especially common, anyway."