Essentia Animus

66-Familiar Distances

Farewells didn't take the three girls very long, not after establishing the purpose of their journey. Ayzherie would make sure things were taken care of in their absence, the three girls just needed to devote themselves to dealing with Liyuzhe.

Hardly a moment later, the three girls arrived at the mall. Sryine had an illusion over her arm, hiding its glow, but she didn't bother with any further illusions. Everyone there knew who they were, and that did cause a bit of a comotion, but keeping up with girls that just kept teleporting everywhere proved effectively impossible for the crowds. Instead, stores were earnest to provide optimum service at considerable discount, especially after Sryine personally stepped in for the same objective. Sryine however was completely uncertain what she should bother picking up, but Vwyx didn't have anything close to the same problems. Instrumentation, and all of its wonder, any of the greatness it could provide to their daily lives. Vwyx even lent Sryine a hand in picking out some instruments of her own. Vwyx had also ensured that the new result of the music box had been brought along with them, along with pieces to easily convert it to any of its previous iterations. An immersive visual entertainment, or a personal life-like simulation, she was prepared to have her original creation offer either experience.

Still, the village was mostly practically minded people, they wouldn't be as interested in such measures of distraction. Instead, she picked practical tools that did practical things with practical results.. that were way more efficient than the regular process. Cooking instruments, even a tiny grain mill, would go a long way for both having a good breakfast and providing her family with improved meals of their own. Some of the mechanical instruments she had obtained would alone make her family's woodcrafting business progress far more efficiently, with special handheld instruments for carving and shaping wood, measurements, and the like. Walking into a store for office supplies offered an obvious lineup of instruments that would help organize any professional leader of people into effectively managing resources such as time and people, while collecting and calculating performance records so as to find ways to optimize the community's workflow.

Filling two separate bags with further samples of small instruments that projected the vision of both families this efficiently, they found that at some point Riyxia had managed to slip away and obtain all of their food without anyone noticing.. even while every single person in the mall was on the search for her. Sryine was amazed at how Riyxia could have possibly pulled that off with neither teleportation nor illusions, it seemed impossible to her. But with some spectral sleuthing and a few well placed alterations using her gift, the crowd had always remained unable to keep up with her shadow. It also helped having the other two stand out a bit more in the process, an effective cover for her own individual efforts.

Just as suddenly as their arrival at the mall, the three girls suddenly arrived once again at their first ever restaurant experience. The staff present instantly recognized them, but not as any previous patron, they were instead recognized with the same merit as they had at the mall. This place might be out of the city, but they still got all of the city's news. Even despite this, their waitress was still the same girl as before, just so obviously less composed since she was suddenly serving celebrities. Vwyx and Riyxia split another Aquarius Flambe, just the same as they had before, with all three of them getting their own mintberry smoothie. The entire meal was worth 35 Qeld, they only paid 20.. and that was after the tip that the waitress was ever eager to keep low. Sryine meanwhile had discovered that most of the path from here was a straight line, she was thus generally certain she could keep her bearings straight. No map reported where the clearing they sought would be, but with a path large enough for a vehicle to a clearing that stood out as much as it had, it was safe enough to assume that Sryine would not miss it. Vwyx however had quickly discovered that the restaurant seats weren't designed to accommodate backpacks, which brought her a degree of discomfort during their stay.