"Not here. I could fetch some of mine but that takes a while and risks someone finding my spot. In addition to being me giving away my stuff. Same thing with food and water. What've you got to offer in exchange for that?"

"Supernatural tech brilliance?"

"...Think you can figure out why my clock-work, doesn't? Work, that is."

"Was that a pun? But yes, yes I can."

"Yeah okay, I'll give you guys some clothes and food and stuff if you'll help me fix up my gadgets. You two never told me your names."

"Evan."

"Maurice."

"I'll be right back. And by right back I mean back in an hour or two."

He scrambles back into his vent-based secret passage.

"Think he'll come back?"

"He seems shifty."

He's back in closer to two hours than one. He seems more stressed and subdued than before, and is holding one arm a bit delicately.

He drags out two bags behind him after scrambling out of his passage. One contains two sets of loose shirt-and-pants plus plastic water bottles and a loaf of bread and a few apples. He opens this one and presents it to them. The other contains various things that make metallic noises as they're moved, probably his clockwork and gadgets.

"Hi again. Stuff's here."

Maurice takes one of the sets of clothes, pulling them over the phantasmic ones he'd drapped himself in, dispersing them like unsettled fog. "Thanks."

He notices the arm. "You hurt?"

"What no I'm fine I'm fine."

"...You sure?"

His voice sings with concern.

"I am fine. Here have an apple." He lightly tosses one. "Evan, get dressed so I can show you my gadgets, I wanna show off."

Evan neatly slips out of his suit and into the local clothes.

And Nick shows off! He has half a dozen little gadgets, including a walkie-talkie and a clock and a little electric engine and something to do with controlling balloons.

"Primitive, but plucky."

"But impressive given my limitations? I wish I had lost tech to poke and figure out."

"I'd let you look at my suit, but it's kinda my only one."

"Fair enough. I might break it. You could tell me about it, though."

"I'm pretty sure you don't have the words for it."

"So make some up? Or borrow them? I heard you can learn new languages better before you're twelve. I'm not twelve yet."

"Laws of thermodynamics, list them to me."