Is he in the way? He did not mean to be in the way. He didn't mean to be... here. Where is here. He does his best to sidestep the man in a hurry.

'Here' is an alley. About ten feet wide, brick walls on either side, a few windows and doors (boarded over).

The guy goes right past him and frantically tries to unlock a padlocked door at the far end of the alley.

Oh look! These three look like they're after him! Two have knives and the third has a hand-sized object that the people by the fire cringe away and take cover from when she brandishes it at them on the way past.

That's the weirdest looking wand he's ever seen but okay! He doesn't know whether these are lawmen after a thief or thugs after a traveler, he can't take sides here; he presses to the wall, mace still in hand but not raised.

The wand is brandished at him, too, as they pass, and they shout something, but yeah they're super after the guy with the backpack, who has gone through the door by now. They pile in after him.

...he'd like to not be in this alley any more. Can he get out the other direction.

Nothing's stopping him!

The street is wide, and most of the streetlights are on. The buildings are tall and crowded, but seem pretty... Run-down? People wear strange clothes. Some of them are injured or have metal parts or glowing parts. Many carry little palm-sized glowy objects. There are coffee stands and food trucks and stores and a construction site down the way. Several people are looking at the alley and gossiping worriedly. A van and a motorcycle trundle along, in opposite directions of each other, avoiding the potholes.

........this place is weird. It's definitely not Axis, people can't be chasing each other with knives down filthy alleyways in Axis.

He has no idea what's going on and needs to just park somewhere till he can prepare some language spells, he guesses. Is there a retaining wall or something to sit on where he won't be bothering anyone?

If he's willing to wander for a little bit there are bits of wall that aren't filthy and nobody is currently using, yes.

People give him weird looks about the armor and mace.

Well, he can't really ask them what their problem is right now. The mace is back on its hook at this point though.

Sit sit sit.

Cinci trundles on around him.

Things one can notice with slightly more observation time:

There's clearly some kind of gang situation, whether it's legitimate or not. The visibly well-armed people share a similar... Loud... Style, all scars and spikes on clothes and black leather and hair styled up into mohawks and such. And tattoos. Drones buzz around overhead, annoying little quadcopters that everyone ignores. 

The construction crew all sharing identification of bright orange and yellow down the way has some kind of Understanding with the black leather people and is doing things about the potholes, the dead lights, and the trash everywhere, but... Kind of a drop in the bucket situation, it looks like.

There are garish advertisements for unclear purposes, like, everywhere. Paper posted up on walls. Brightly colored signs designed to distract the eye. Ads for food, drinks, palm-devices, something to do with the metal bits that go into bodies, tough-looking people in armor carrying two-handed versions of that wand with music that might be supposed to be uplifting. This one pretty person, relaxing on a beach or sipping colorful drinks. Porn. The same few logos and motifs that seem to identify a group repeated over and over, not even showing a product, just the logo and maybe a catch-phrase.

An ambulance goes past, sirens wailing.

There's elements that make him think Nidal, and elements that make him think Norgorber's running the place, and elements that make him think he's on another planet, and over time he drifts toward the third interpretation.

When he hits diminishing returns on people- and cityscape-wataching, he Prestidigitates up a chess set next to him on the wall.

Nobody pauses to look at him long enough to realize he's making them out of thin air, but a little while after he's done this one woman stops next to him on a motorbike and asks a question, indicating the set with a smile.

...smile? Would she like to play?

Sure, she hops up onto the wall and will play. And try to make small talk, but shrug when this doesn't really work.

Her playstyle is... Weird. And kind of bad. She never takes the obvious move even when it's probably optimal, sometimes this is a mistake and sometimes it's good for her.

It makes it harder to think ahead usefully but her bizarre style isn't so cunning that he can't just win anyway. If he sets up again after and takes a few pieces off his side does she want to play again?

Sure, one more time.

...Halfway through this one her hand device makes a noise. She checks it, makes a face, then writes down a string of numbers on a notepad, tears the page and gives it to him, and gets on her bike again and drives off with a wave.

Maybe it's her name. In case he wants to Send her later. He can't cast Sending but maybe he is making some sartorial error that led her to expect he could.

Nobody else immediately wants to play chess with him. This guy might want to sell him something? He moves on quickly. There's a patrol of Tower Group soon after; Big armored wheeled vehicle with some Armor Guys from the advertisements just going straight down the street, showing the flag. Everyone gets out of the way.

Things are getting quieter, and the crowd is changing over time. More people are drunk or embroiled in use of things other than alcohol, and dressed in relatively little, now. Though this area is kind of a dead zone. A few people pick through the trash drifts for plausibly useful items.

He pulls his coat out of his bag and spreads it over the wall, sitting on one edge of it.

He casts Create Food, and if it gets attention when a spread of pies and rolls and fruit and cheese appears, that's fine; he picks up a pie and an apple for himself and it's fine if the rest is taken.

It sure gets him attention! Where'd all this come from?? Someone wants to try every language they can look up on their phone on him, referencing it between attempts.

...Some people just take the food. Some leave him coins and pieces of paper money about it. (It's fancy paper with some kind of shiny tough quality, so at least slightly hard to fake, maybe. Peoplewatching has revealed the use of this paper some time ago.)

Blai is actually accustomed to paper money! Maybe you can do it without backing it with souls! He will collect the money with polite smiles but not attempt to stop people from making off with a wheel of cheese for free. He apologetically shakes his head at every language attempt. Munch munch chicken and carrots and crust.

...Languages guy, a middle-aged looking man, sketches a picture of a pod hotel and giving the desk clerk OH$20 for a key, then sunrise, sunset, and Blai returning the key. And then hands him OH$20.

The pod hotel is a very confusing drawing! Blai frowns at it in puzzlement!

...Stick figure on a pillow in a pod?

Oh, okay. Weird, but all right, once his coat is free of food items he'll shake off the crumbs and stuff it back in his bag and go get a $20 pod to sleep in.