Suze locates a somewhat frazzled-looking Alexius, who muttering imprecations about bronze knives and artificing. He brightens a bit when he sees her and starts over, then sobers again when he catches sight of Bella's face. Uh-oh. He beelines there, with only the most cursory check for mals en route. 

"What's the bad news?"

"Your potion's fucked. I can kind of see how this might not have come up if you were testing it outside school with people who... weren't me, but I take a lot of notes, and I review them a lot, and what is written is not what I remember, not exactly."

"Godsdammit. I tested at least ten different volunteers and they all loved it, they couldn't have been shitting me...can you describe it in more detail?" 

She gestures at her notebooks. "I remember these about as well as I normally would unassisted, I think, except that all the gaps are filled in with details that feel like I remember them very confidently. And that's not what's written down, those details - I remember writing 'twelve' here, in letters, but you see it actually says 'fourteen', in digits, and I have this chart of Old French conjugations here except I remember conjugating a different verb in this chart and that verb is actually over here in a different position on the page. It's not - crippling, or anything, but it... doesn't work and I don't like it."

"Shit, I'm sorry," he says, automatically, without thinking. "I swear, I've been using this potion for two years and I never once had a problem. My affinity must've...must..." he buries his face in his hands. "Shit." He traded those potions to people he liked, people whose judgment he respected and whose trust he wanted to earn; now he has to tell them that he's all but betrayed them, in the first twenty-four hours of their time stuck in a deathtrap together. 

(It does not even occur to him to try to hide the flaw.) 

And here, in front of him, is someone he could have possibly befriended, who for the next five days or more will have a fucked up memory because he didn't do enough testing. Arguments like but ingredients are expensive and you used it yourself for a month before you even let anyone else try it fall flat, swallowed by the enormous hollow feeling in his gut. 

Alexius takes a deep breath. "I...I have to tell the others. I'll reimburse you the mana, a...after." 

"Thank you, I hadn't been going to insist but I appreciate it. I'm going to ask the void for a spell to cancel potion effects in work period, if I get a decent one and you spot me the mana I'll cast it for all your other customers too."

"Oh, good, someone's already told him," Angie says from behind him. 

There's no sign of either Zed or Alexei anywhere around her which, if it's making her tense, and it must be, she's showing no sign of. Her smile does look a little fixed, though.  

Lily sees Bella and Alexius from across the room in the food line, and notices that they are apparently both not happy. 

She drops her place in the food line and comes across the room. 

"What's going on?"

Oh thank fuck she's not hideously furious or threatening to kill him and hopefully not plotting to poison him like that one asshole from Orlando when he refused to...this is not helping. Alexius takes another shuddering breath. "Thank you. I have to go tell -" 

He nearly jumps out of his skin when Angie speaks. 

"Jeschrisfuck. Augh. You too? Memory problems?" 

"Not that either of them noticed, no. Alexei is down with a migraine, Zed is apparently hallucinating things that aren't there. They had Sara knock them out and she's sitting on them, now. There's more?" 

Lily produces her undrunk potion vial from her pack. 

"I believe I'd like to reverse our earlier trade," she says brightly.

Ah, there's the guy he owes an artifice. With... two other potion-buyers and a distressed look. Theun notes the table and goes to fill his tray.

"Bella noticed it was doing fake memories. Shit." He takes off the shield bracelet and hands it over. "I've been on this thing for two years and it's been perfect, people tested it, what the fuck...Bella, anything you need to speed up that possible potion cancellation, besides mana?" 

"Wouldn't turn down an escort to my void to do the asking, and I guess if it's in Chinese I might go faster at interpreting it with help."

"Done. I saw Theun in the lunch line, I need to warn him too." Alexius hustles over to where Theun is standing in line. "You no longer owe me anything," he says bitterly. "And in fact I owe you. Potion's doing fake memories and apparently side effects I didn't find in Jax... Bella's going to look for a cancellation spell and if you'll kindly do her artifice for her I will owe you a favor. Another one," he adds. 

He runs through his still perfect fucking memory for the other people he sold potions to. Checks it against the list of transactions he wrote down. Same names. 

While he's filled his tray we watched it escalate to 'nervous as hell' and then 'coming to him directly'. And... wait, did the blonde swap spots with someone else?*

"Ah. I should...  How'd this get past you?"

(*she did not)

"I don't fucking know I've been on this for two years." Deep breaths. "Not a single side effect, not so much as a mild headache, no false memories or I would have noticed in two years, ten kids and adults tested it back home and went out to buy more ingredients, they loved it so much. I drank it myself this morning and my memory's fine! It has to be an affinity thing, I knew it made a difference but not this much..."

"What's your affinity? I meant to ask earlier." Or. He thinks he did. Fuck.

"Myself." He notices Theun's expression. "You did not in fact ask earlier, in case you were wondering. You might want to write things down for a while. According to Bella it doesn't overwrite memories, just make you think yours is better than it is. Bella's going to look for a counterspell to end potion effects in work period." 

Aaaandd there's one of the empotioned sophomores. "Sorry, Theun, I need to warn the others." He trots off to deliver more bad news, and presumably refund mana. Considering this is the third hardest thing he's ever done, it's at least good for getting a tiny fraction of that mana back. 

"Yeah, go. I should talk to Bella anyway." He pauses for a second. This guy seems unwise, but he's handling the screwup gracefully. "...See you later, Alexius."

He puts down his tray by Bella and the other unfortunate customers. "Metamagic, right? I have a spell that can help get through big books to key information if the void doesn't really cooperate. It's a mana hog, but I can swing it once."

"Wouldn't hurt, if it's not feeling friendly, though it should be solidly in-affinity."

"Here's hoping. I guess I'll be trading for notes for morning classes, I didn't notice anything off until I started watching this table on my way in."

"It shouldn't be very bad, I think, if you didn't have a math class." She shovels mechanically through her lunch. "Let's get Alexius's room number or something so we can find him when we know how the void is feeling today?"

"After Mals I had Introduction to Probability. But yeah, that's a good call... Pfff, bright side, you're probably top of the list for a book ward now, if you want one."

"I confess that I do. Please tell me it's better-tested than the potion."

"Well, I already know it's not infallible.  I modified it from an old design, and that was the cost of making it freshman-cheap, it's an hour with some powdered silver and I can enchant it from reserves, but any senior could "force the lock". I can also do the old design, if you'd rather not take the chance, but it takes more of everything. I have one of each for my spellbooks - weak for personal, strong for enclave."

"Would forcing the lock be obvious afterwards?"

"Brute force the easy way, yes, definitely visible. If a good artificer or someone with a useful affinity - yours, maybe - tried to do it carefully? That, I'm not sure."

"Well, I suppose it's still better not to be a soft target."

"Practically the motto of the whole school. Especially if you ask enclavers."

"If everybody were a hard target maybe the mals would chip a tooth now and again, it's not completely zero-sum, though I admit it's close."

"Yeah, I just... We're a crowd running from a tiger, drafting other people to run next to us because they're a little slower."

"My extracurricular project is going to be tiger-poisoning, although I'm not terribly optimistic since probably if methods used by mundane pest control were effective someone might have noticed before me. But I'm going to build an agglo terrarium and do horrible things to them."

"Good for you! I have less useful things that eat up my spare energy, unfortunately."

Like not offending people by telling them they're throwing people to tigers, but that went okay this time.

"Well, if you find any agglos that fit in your pocket I will want them in a couple weeks if it's convenient." She picks up her tray to bus, following in the footsteps of a senior who lingered over lunch. "My room is in that section," she says, once her tray is put.

"I'd be happy to walk there with you, once we have the room number for our careless merchant friend. I'm one section over, lower half of the outer ring."

"Cool. Where's he gotten to..." There he is. Wow he looks stressed out, poor guy. "Alexius! Where should we find you after stopping off at my void?"

Angie has been watching Alexius run about, her expression slowly softening a little throughout, and she sighs as he returns and glances down at the two at the table, "I would be willing to trade you notes," she tells Theun, "Angie Starr, Montréal," she adds, "I was in Accelerated Algebra with you this morning - I didn't take the potion, my brother and clavemate did." 

"Thought I was coming with," he calls back, "escort and Chinese and mana?" 

And now Alexius is getting shouted at by Jacksonville juniors, who have apparently forgotten about petty things like "solidarity" in their excitement. 

Oh, if he's coming with she'll just wait then. Continue the irksome process of condensing her notes when she remembers them wrong.

Right, that's where he saw her before.* "Thanks, Angie. I'll pay you back in kind, if I see you're out some morning? After this burns off, obviously."

(*Theun's schedule has been retconned so he was not in that class. Please ignore the discrepancy.)

Nod, "That's fair. Do either of you happen to know anyone who had Roman History or History of Magical Conflicts this morning? Those were Alexei and Zed's classes, they'll need notes." 

"Sorry, I don't know."

"I also had Roman History, I'll get back to you."

"Thank you. May I also come with you while you ask the void about that counterspell?" She asks Bella. 

"If you like."

"Thank you - if you need anything from Montréal, we'll be happy to return the favour," she adds. 

"If you consider it a favor to Montréal I won't contradict you." She makes a small note in a different section of her notebook.

Nod, and waiting for Alexius to return. 

And eventually, return he does, sporting a slowly purpling bruise on his jaw where one of the upperclassmen decided to Teach Him a Lesson. 

"That's everyone." 

"- Jesus, you still got your teeth there?"

"If I lose any I'll make 'em into mana storage. Done it before." 

"I guess if ivory works. Uh, thisaway." To Bella's room.

Roomwards. Angie rubs her chin and follows.

Bella's room, 563A, is on the top floor along the outermost ring with a void wall. She puts down her bag on her desk, checks under her furniture and her pile of terrarium supplies - "I'm going to keep agglos and experiment on them, to be clear" - and then sits at her desk and says, "I would like a spell to cancel ongoing potion effects in human drinkers."

Angie lingers in the doorway and peers in corners - it's a good habit - while she waits. 

Wait why is she experimenting on agglos - not important right now. What is important: push-ups. He has a lot of mana to repay. 

The room is not very big but he can do pushups if he's determined and everyone else makes space.

She gets a Spanish book - "Spanish," she warns - and starts paging through it. "Ugh, I think this is from the Inquisition."

Angie averts her eyes as she tends to when there's another language in front of them, "Inquisition counterspells?" She considers, "I suppose that makes as much sense as any place to find them." 

"I guess it might have caused some intra-wizarding conflicts! Anyway, it's a little archaic but I think I found the one I want, give me a bit..." She is frowning at page seventeen.

(Angie pulls a somewhat sad apple out of the bag she's carrying and munches on it while she does that.)

"I thought I'd heard they wrecked an enclave, sounds like there was a difference of opinion."

"The Jewish enclave in Castile, I think," she replies between bites, "I didn't read about it myself, but my brother told me about it." 

"Eugh. Figures they'd get the short end of the stick." Don't quote Tom Lehrer that never helps. "Less depressing topics... Did you mention your affinity, Angie?"

"Movement! I can make good use of speed spells, for a freshman, and dance has always worked well for me. You? I believe I heard something about books?"

"Yeah, I summarize it as 'books'. It seems to particularly like reference books and such, helping me navigate libraries or open a book to the relevant page sooner. So I'm mostly languages track, though I'm going to spend more time in shop than lab if I can arrange it."

"...Hm. I wonder if you could do anything interesting with my clavemate? Zed's affinity, which we just call 'Finding'." 

"I bet we will have a lot of affinity spells we could trade each other - Well, if the languages match up. My first priority is getting my Mandarin up, but I can probably start on French too. I mostly have Germanic languages plus Latin and Ancient Greek, and I accidentally learned Klingon and had to cram it."

Oh, Theun speaks Greek too. Good to know. Alexius stands. "I still owe you if you want language tutoring." 

Hmm, this isn't quite as mana-productive as he thought...oh, he's still feeding the stimulant spell. It's only a trickle but every bit matters. He cuts it off. 

...and his knees buckle as fatigue washes over him. He narrowly avoids falling over.

Well. Should have expected that. On the plus side, now everything is more mana-building. 

Squats in the hallway, next. 

"There are spells in Klingon?" asks Bella, startled out of her study.

"I mean, probably not? But getting spell-starved because I started picking up the patterns in the conlang and didn't follow up enough to decipher spells in it would be the stupidest way to die."

"I guess it would be mighty difficult to get tutoring in it here!" She shakes her head and returns to archaic Spanish. At this rate she's going to get old Spanish on top of old French, but no big deal, it's day one.

"I suppose uncle Ned was right about avoiding sci fi, then. Shame. Zed has Latin, and French, from that list. And English, of course." 

"I wouldn't go that far. Parents can screen things for conlangs pretty easily, Google is our friend. And Sci Fi produces... worlds to aspire to. That's worth a lot of trouble."

"I like spec fic and did not accidentally learn Elvish." She mutters under her breath a bit. "I think I have it down, though I'm glad I won't have to learn any more spells around this side effect - anyone have somewhere to be and wanna go first?"

"Would you mind detouring to my brother's room first? He and Zed are there, they had Sara knock them out. Their side effects were... More extensive." 

"My plans for the hour were canceled and I'm not finding it immensely disturbing, I'm okay with helping them first."

"...I'll give you what mana I've got and owe the rest if it's not enough."

"Lead the way." She brings the book in case she finds she needs a brushup.

She leads the way. 

Alexei's room is 654B, top floor with a void wall like Bella's, though in a different ring. Angie pushes the door open to reveal a spartan cell featuring two freshmen passed out in a tangle on the bed and one irritated-looking junior reading a thick text on the chair at the desk.

The junior looks up when they come in and ticks an eyebrow at Alexius, eyeing the bruise on his jaw, "Oh, someone got you first. Shame, that." 

"Bella here has a spell that should cut the potion's effects, we think," Angie assures her as she passes right by to sit on a small table next to the bed. 

Sara does not look mollified by this, but she doesn't comment further, only waves towards the pair on the bed, "Have at, then." 

Bella holds out her hand to Alexius for the mana, re-reading the spell to make sure all the words are where she expects them.

Alexius looks at Zed and Alexei with abject misery. He does not reply to the junior. He does hand over his last several hours' worth of mana. 

Bella reads aloud a soneta, pointing firmly at Zed, and waits to see how that works out before doing it again.

... Zed doesn't react in any way they can notice. Still being under the sleeping spell and all.

"I can just do it again but it might be wise to wake 'em so we can see how the spell's doing?"

"If that's not easily dismissable, you can do me. Now that I know it's there, I'm catching it okay."

"It will take me about half a minute to cast the counter," Sara says, and she lowers her book and starts a quiet spell of her own under her breath, so no one in the room gets Middle French by accident. 

And Zed is awake. Pretty suddenly, actually.

They stare at the gathered group for a few long moments and then detangle from Alex so they can sit up.

"...Angie?"

She reaches out to touch their shoulder, "Is the potion still working?" She asks, "Look at me and tell me what colour the other boy besides Alexius' shoes are."

Yeah he's just gonna build mana by...forcing himself to watch this interaction, honestly. You did this, don't you dare look away. 

"... no idea." That's good, right? Unless this is just a step up from the hallucinations they were experiencing before.

Shoulder squeeze, "I think it's fixed," she assures them, and she looks to Bella and Sara, "Do Alexei? His should be a bit more obvious, if his headache goes down when the effects break." 

"Mm-hm." She casts it again.

And so does Sara.

... Alexei makes a very grouchy noise, but actually opens his eyes all the way after a moment of squinting. The number of strange people in his doorway makes him tense up slowly, but his head is no longer pounding as much, at least.

"...Hell," he mutters, in French, and then corrects himself back to English, "S'better. Who-?" 

"Hi. I'm Bella, I got a spell for dismissing potion effects."

"...Fantastic," he mutters. He means it but he's still coming down from that migraine so it comes out sounding grudging. 

"Thank you," Angie takes over for him, "I meant it about that favour - we don't let a good turn go unrewarded." 

"Thank you. You probably have some good spells in French, which is one of mine, though maybe I should just keep it in reserve."

"You can," she agrees, "Though we do have a number of good spells in French. We should be in the cafeteria tomorrow at lunch, if you don't mind putting that off until then?" She looks down at her clavemates. 

Clavemate has flopped back down and is pretending there aren't strangers in their room.

"Happy to wait, I'm not in urgent need right now except -" She points at herself and mutters the soneta again.

Angie nods, and Alexei peers at Alexius from under his hand, upright but half-hunched over on the bed, "Hey, Marcus. More testing next time, yeah?" 

"I...don't know if I even can test my potions on other people, anymore. Not with risks like these. One of the sophomores had seizures." 

"Eesh. I mean, you can work from recipes, right?"

Angie grips Zed's shoulder really very hard for a moment!

"...Mm, maybe stick to what you learn in lab, or from the void, for a little while." Maybe a few years.

"In theory, yes, I never hurt anyone with a recipe before. But then, neither had the memory potions." 

They lean against Angie and do not look at Alexius.

"Angie, Alexei, Zed...for what it's worth, I'm sorry. And" more to the point, in the Scholomance, "I owe you." 

"Short durations, small doses, and pay people to be test subjects. Or find people who can do diagnostic spells and have healing affinity, work with them. But yeah, be cautious even if you get those."

They want to say a lot of things. But- instead they say nothing at all. Memories of the past few hours still stuck in their memory, painful.

"I'd planned to test things on myself first, but apparently that's worse than useless...we should get out of your way." He shoots what he hopes is a meaningful look at Bella. "There'll be others needing that counterspell." 

"Lay on, Macduff."

"Speaking of, do me?"

"Oh, right, sorry, I -" snort - "forgot." Point. Soneta.

"A problem I hopefully also have now."

"Much good may it do you."

Alexius leads the way back to the cafeteria. En route, he acquires a puzzled expression. "...Agglo terrarium?" 

"I want to figure out a way to poison or possibly sterilize the mal food chain. Agglos are harmless, and they remain harmless in picking up all kinds of random things, so if I can give them something that makes them drop dead..."

Shrug. "It probably won't work very well, but if it did wouldn't that be cool?"

"Sure would."

"...yes. Yes it would. Even if you spent a decade trying and got nowhere, that's a decade of research for the next attempt." Damn, why didn't he think of that. 

Alexius frowns. "I've...recently learned a valuable lesson about experimental rigor. It might take more than agglos, and past them there's not really such a thing as a safe mal. Be careful, okay? And let me know if you want a spotter." 

"Yeah, I will absolutely want more help with the project before I try to step up to kidnapping baby quattria to iterate on it - I found some on a supply run the other day, they were weirdly cute actually but I did not want to take them home with me."

"...yeah, that's fair." He falls silent the rest of the journey back, but there's a bit of spring in his step that wasn't there before.