Egresta blinks, not sure what to think of Eeferi observing her mothers quite that closely.

"Okanel, could you go get a circular bowl, maybe? And Lhemur, perhaps you can find something square, like a chair?" she suggests, stifling a yawn.

"And maybe you can lie down there in the corner and get some sleep," Okanel suggests. "But sure, a bowl will be no trouble."

"We may produce loud noises at some point, but if you want to stay I do not want to stop you."

And Eeferi's smoke comes into contact with another's..

What do they find?

A desperate attempt to try and keep their sand grains in an approximate grid, their smoke nudging things to keep them in place. They're having a mildly better time of it, now that their environment has stopped moving. The lower temperature is also helpful.

Someone with lots of experience in the ways of genies can probably even tease out that there are two different 'areas' of sand trying to go about this in different ways — one more experimental, which occasionally accidentally manifests a burst of sound, and one that seems to be able to do a better job catching errant grains and directing them into the grid.

Occasionally, some of the sand pulls itself out of alignment in the direction of Egresta's household.

Carefully now, gently ..

Eeferi starts shielding the younger Genie from the turbulences of their shared environment. They form a layer of simple, blank walls around the other Genie. A cube to contain a smaller cube. They leave enough of gap that the other is not trapped, but they might not know that yet. Hopefully, this should cushion them against their own self-interference.

Quietly, Eeferi nudges the containing barrel along the misaligning direction. Its pretty clear the young Genie isn't quite ready for this much distance-strain yet.

"Could one of you, when you get the chance, bring their lamp closer? I think it would be easier on them."

"I'll get it," Egresta offers. "May as well grab a blanket at the same time."

They head out to fetch the various objects.

"Thank you."

Eeferi observes the development of the young Genie.  They consider extending a simple 'interactive' interface from the top of the cube, where pressure in one location will cause predefined simple movements in others.  They don't expect this to be necessary just yet, but its better to be ready just in case .. but they might grant a Wish soon, and the more complicated rush of air could be worse overall.  For now, the goal is a stable environment that won't significantly destabilize if Eeferi is themself distracted, where the younger Genie can learn to be .. whoever they choose to be.  With a way to leave.

.. They weren't expecting unified regions of action already, but perhaps they should have been.  Is there any hint as to the existence of a third?

No, there isn't.

Someone who knew Egresta's mothers better might be able to guess that Lhatis is playing a more internal role than the other two — coordinating their efforts, keeping everyone calm, thinking about how to go about things.

But this doesn't result in any externally visible movement.

The lack of third region implies something but Eeferi isn't clear on what.  They watch for progress, for sudden developments, for subtle shifts in distance-strain direction .. and .. for tension - competition for control. How often, if at all, do grains shift between regional behaviors?

After a few minutes, the distance-strain starts to slacken — presumably because someone is now returning with their lamp.

As for shifting between regional behaviors ... it's a little hard to be sure, but the regions stay in roughly similar locations. The carefully organized grid stays on the bottom, and the more experimental area mostly stays more toward the top of their shape. Sand grains that fall down are slotted into the grid (with more success once the distance-strain slackens); areas of the grid that become too crowded, or bits of sand that end up on the corners or edges too far from the center of their shape, sometimes get thrown up towards the top of the shape, where some of them are caught and others fall back down.

Someone who had spent time listening to Oskeli tell stories of their collectively adventurous youth might guess that Bardamma is keeping their base more-or-less organized while Oskeli tries to figure out how to interact with things.

Their first instinct is to panic, really.  But there isn't much they can do about the potential incoming identity collapse the war for control implies- and then they notice the pattern.  Its .. something different.  Trading off pieces of attention..

As the distance-strain lessons, Eeferi pays attention to how the behaviors of the regions change.  Do they become more extreme the more resources they can direct towards themselves instead of grain recovery?  Do they lessen in activity now that the urgency is lower?  .. Or perhaps something else.

Once the damned sand grains stay still long enough, the patch of neatly organized grid expands, until all but a pinch has been packed into tight rows. Once that happens, the edges get straightened out, sand being carefully scooted around to sit in a rectangle. Things are still.

Once the grid's edges have been straightened, the individual zones become harder to track, and the top pinch of sand lines up to become more regular — if much less than the bottom grid

The remaining pinch of sand, with less to keep track of (and more helpful suggestions from his headmates) starts moving more purposefully, trying to move itself back and forth while maintaining a shape. The frequency chosen happens to make a low, wavering buzzing noise that slowly gets more steady as they get the hang of moving the sand in formation.

.. that sound might disturb Egresta's ability to sleep.  Eeferi works to muffle it for people outside the barrel.

They are ... probably not even aware that moving things quickly like this can make sounds.

Once they mostly get the hang of moving things in formations, there's a brief pause, and then they start trying to make different flat shapes against the bottom of the barrel. There are, once again, two locuses of attention evident — one trying to make squares by placing individual grains, and one trying to make circles by making a little pile of sand, flattening it, and then smoothing the edges.

All of Eeferi's presence with the inside group vanished with the completion of the verbal Wish component.

Purple smoke rushes out of their lamp again, the sudden lack of buffeting exterior cube probably had some impact on the oscillating behavior.

... yup, they lost it.

They take a moment to re-organize their sand, undeterred. They got the very basics of how to move an individual grain of sand sorted in a much more chaotic environment, and so things changing yet again is not unexpected.

Oskeli hopes that the changes are people, coming to check on them. He wants to see how everybody's doing, and make little illusion-props like Eeferi can, and see what progress they've made on wishing. It's boring, trying to figure out how to do these things from scratch.

She pushes a mental sensation of a hug into their shared awareness.

It may be boring right now, but they are making progress, and they'll always have each other.

They have forever, now, to get it right.

Its troubling, to see them already in such disarray. Its heartening, to see them rebuild. Eeferi waits for them to reach a stable point.

Many ways of communicating don't seem available, right now .. but perhaps there is one anyways.

A simple hovering ball with a basic motion should do. One light tap against them. A pause. Two taps. Another pause. Three taps. A pause. Loop until three sixes of taps. It's not much, but hopefully they will understand.

Oh! Oh!

That's got to be someone trying to talk to them. Their daughter? Maybe that's what all the shifts have been, but they've just been too disorganized to spot it.

He assembles a grid, and waits for the right moment.

Once there are three sixes taps, he moves the grid back and forth three sixes and one times.

The hurried movement means some sand grains fall back down, and she throws them back up to him once he's finished tapping.