Sophie is on a roll. "I'm from Yorkshire. It's... nice."

"Wales."

(Sophie is not on enough of a roll to say "oh, I speak Welsh!" The words come to her but what if El thinks that she's trying to find some kind of commonality with her and doesn't appreciate it. She will die if she does not make friends but right now it seems easier than dying of embarrassment.)

Wales, great. Hopefully she doesn't bust out in Welsh, Alyona doesn't need another Celtic language right now.

"Ooh, that explains the cool accents. I'm from Santa Barbara, myself."

"Toronto," Elizabeth contributes.

"The enclaves or just the cities?"

"The city, in my case, although I've got my eye on the enclave. They'll love me, I'm an orphan."

Well, she doesn't seem too broken up about it, so far be it from Alyona to be. "Convenient! I'm from the enclave, but it's a bitty one, I'm the only kid in our year.

"I'm indie."

There is not an enclave in Yorkshire. Of course you're fucking indie, Sophie. What are you doing. She averts her eyes in shame.

...they land on... a puddle. They're not near the bathroom yet, why - it's iridescent.

"Mal," she says flatly, pointing. "Anybody know the breed?"

"Ugh, I've seen one but I don't know its name. I don't have mana, do you with the enclaver buddies have power sharers -" She's backing up.

"Ooze, of some kind? I've got a power sharer." Not that her enclave has a ton of mana banked up at the moment - most of it got used up during graduation, she guesses. But, this is what it's for, so she's not going to worry too much about pulling on what little is there. She can put more back in later.

There's a drain in the floor over there. It's probably where the mal came from in the first place. Alyona puts her index fingers and thumbs together, chants a short line in French, and whistles sharply through the frame of her hands. A spray of water shoots forth from them towards the suspicious puddle.

The ooze is shoved drainward; sparkly bits of it slough off but the rest of it slides into the pipe.

"Nice. I was going to have to figure out if electricity would touch that thing, I think water was a safer bet."

Paradoxically, Sophie seems much calmer now that a mal showed up.

"If somebody with the mana wants to slap a shield over the drain we can book it past and still hit the loo."

"I think I can cover it." She mutters under her breath, deliberately inaudible. The sparkles around the drain cover acquire a pressed-flat look.

El runs for it.

Alyona gives Elizabeth an approving look about her drain shield. She wonders what spell it was she used; it's not one Alyona recognized. But she assumes she couldn't hear the incantation on purpose, so she doesn't poke her nose in it.

A runaway sparkle had been oozing Lunawards, but she smiled at it and signed something with her hands, and it stopped moving long enough for her to catch up to the others as they all hurry past the drain and into the girls' loo.

Sophie fills her water bottle and clicks her fingernails a little. Then she says, to El, "I speak Welsh. Also. Assuming you speak Welsh, being from Wales. And if that information is useful to you in any way."

Elizabeth, too, has vessels to fill once she has done her business.

They don't see anything else on the way to the bathroom and the doorknob is a doorknob and the bathroom itself appears to have been mortally flamed recently enough as it should be.

There are bathroom stalls, and shower stalls with curtains; the curtains have not been prioritized for repairs and some have been taken down altogether. There's a cupboard labeled NECESSARIES, hanging open, one door removed at the hinges, with soap and toilet paper in it.

"I speak Welsh," El confirms. "We can swap spells in it sometime."

"That sounds lovely." Interaction achieved. Back to watching for mals. 

El has some flimsy plastic water bottles until she can make herself a jug in shop. She fills them up.

"I don't have Welsh but I've got Latin, Greek, French, and German if anybody wants to swap spells in those. The shield on the drain was Latin; it's not powerful but it's efficient and it makes a really distinctive noise when it pops, so you get some warning."

Huh. Rando tagalong does sign-spells? Maybe she hasn't introduced herself because she's Deaf. Unfortunately, whatever sign language that was, it wasn't ASL, or Alyona would try talking to her that way.

She fishes her hydration pack out of her bag and works on getting herself two full liters of water she won't have to risk making dangerous solo bathroom treks for next time she needs some.

"I've got all those, and I'd be happy to swap spells. Well, except the Welsh. My Greek is classical, do you have that or modern?"