"Believe me, I was already planning on that in the long run. Now that I know it's possible to become some kind of immortal I want to find the best kind. Which I doubt this is."

"...So I would emerge as I am now, at a time of someone else's choosing, in a place under their power. It's not that I suspect anyone of ill intent, buuuuut... Anxiety is a hard thing to shake."

"Yeah, I can see how that'd be a hard sell. No need to take me up on it, I'd just feel bad about not offering and then you get killed and it's my fault, you know?"

"I'll think about it. Thank you for the offer none the less."

"It's no trouble. And here we are at the mall."

Eva gestures at the long lane of shops. 

"Hardware store first, Sable?"

She nods softly. "Yeah, that should be a pretty quick and easy trip. We need a handheld saw, along with just the usual basic stuff you'd find in a toolkit. What about you, Nick?"

"So a good general toolkit for work on Earth- Hold on, I should actually make a list-"

He pauses, drains one of the black bottles of water from his belt, and then- Presses it between his hands until it breaks all at once, turning to a pile of sand. He catches most of it and works it between his hands for a moment, coming up with a rough, doughy mostly flat mass. He takes a metal twig and starts scratching notes into it.

"...So, paper and ink, first off. Hammer, trowel, screwdrivers, spirit level, hand saw, tape measure, ruler and yardstick, carpenter square, vice, screws and nuts and bolts and screwdriver, allen wrench, scissors, threaded rod, utility knife, pliers, sandpaper... It's more like clay than glass, this stuff, so I should look into pottery tools but I don't actually know those. Maybe a lathe, on the large end of things. Chisels? Mallet. Quite a list, but I don't need all of it at once. -Whetstone."

"Potter's wheel? You could maybe throw it if it's clay-like enough."

"Kinda wanna see that, now. It'd be cool to watch, I figure."

"You're welcome to come to the land of the metal trees and oil sand with me some day. It is kind of pretty in its way, though a bit inhospitable."

"I'd love to see it. Perhaps once we're looking for a new adventure."

The mall's not too dissimilar from an Earth mall, despite the stone people coming and going. There's a distinct lack of anything that could start a fire, though. 

Eva heads into the hardware store and trusts the others to trail along behind her, and quickly they're surrounded by tools.

"So my budget is whatever you two lovely ladies feel like sparing...? To be paid back, naturally, once I find a buyer for some glass objects."

"Yeah, we can talk about what's reasonable but we should be able to provide at least the basics."

He will browse with them, then. Budget-consciously. Just the hand tools, just the essentials, and maybe a cloth bag. The numbers start adding up quickly, though.

Eva watches as the numbers stack up. Hammer, trowel, replaceable bit screwdriver, spirit level, hand saw, tape measure, ruler and yardstick, carpenter square, vice, allen wrench, scissors, threaded rod, utility knife, pliers, sandpaper...

Two bits for the hammer, another three for the trowel, a decent replaceable bit screwdriver set for sixty-four, another sixteen for the saw, forty for the tape measure, eight for the ruler and meter stick together, eighty-eight for a decent vice, sixteen for a hex key set, eight for a decent pair of scissors, sixteen for the utility knife, forty for the pliers...

It all comes out to about sixty-four Bytes. 

"Yeah, we can definitely cover everything you've mentioned so far," Eva says. "Our business has been doing very well so far and to be honest, you're worth the investment. Chisels and a mallet? Maybe a proper backpack to keep it all in? It feels a bit eggs-in-one-basket-y to give you the whole set when you've got nowhere to properly store it just yet, so the least I can do is keep you from having to toss it all into a cloth bag and get you a proper backpack or similar to haul it all." 

Sable tilts her head. "I'm with Eva on covering all of that, and offering a backpack too, but didn't Nick mention having a Bevin that he was furnishing with glass? So technically he does have somewhere to store all this crap? A backpack is still useful, though, so yeah, throw that in."

"Oh, yeah! My bad, my mistake. That makes a lot more sense."

He's wincing at the numbers adding, too. The vice can wait. So can the screwdrivers; It's not like he has screws.

"I am absolutely going to pay it all back. Maybe even with interest. It's just that this is the first stop we took rather than a glass wholesale or- Whatever. Would you like a set of plates and bowls as a signing bonus?"

Maya slips into front softly. Something about the current pace feels more her speed. "Entirely reasonable, though I suspect we would prefer that you pay it forward, rather than interest." She turns to Eva. "Do you have flatware and such in your Bevin, beloved?"

Nick may or may not be able to notice the shift in vocal tone. Maya sounds softer, a bit huskier, and seems to speak very precisely, with no contractions. She holds her body a bit straighter, as well.

Eva gets the sense that Nick's the kind of person who hates relying on charity. Well enough. She'll do her best not to bruise his pride further. 

"I could use some decent flatware, actually. And I like the aesthetic of Nick's glassware so far."

"A good moment for me to duck into the cave and fetch the ones I'm thinking of, then. Be right back."

He brings back bowls, plates, and cups in a big, slightly precarious stack. They meld the black, red, and clear in abstract swirly patterns, and the working surfaces are all nice and smooth and suitable for being held and used in the hands. Some of it's still a little lopsided, but there's clear effort to make them decent and not blobby. The biggest bowl has an almost celtic knot pattern around the rim in cloudy red glass. He has a few glass forks and spoons, too. 'Desert chic' is an appropriate descriptor.

"Oh, these are quite nice," Maya declares.

A childlike smile comes to Eva's face. "Ooh! Those are beautiful and I adore them. I will absolutely take those as a signing bonus if you're offering."

He tries to hide how flattered he feels at that.

"Two of each type as a signing bonus- Friendship bonus- Whatever. If you want the whole lot, maybe I should get a head start on my sales experience, eh?"