Flora takes out a card from her wallet and presses it against a box on the wall. It beeps. They get off.

"Yeah, you most likely are. Lowest bound on figuring out which tiny adjustments to make to the send-back elixir is one full day of work -- the realistic estimate might be a week, absolute worst case is probably like a month but I don't think it'll happen. See, every elixir accident is slightly different, so I'd have to take that into account. And then you have the added complication of having travelled between worlds already.

"Bus schedules are on a website, I'll show you.

"This way -- make sure you remember this part of the path, it's easy to get lost here."

"Ooh, you have a real internet, it's pretty limited in the world with the 'mon despite having plenty of tech for it."

"We do! It's useful. Limited? How is it limited?"

Flora intermittently points out landmarks for am-I-lost diagnosis.

She doesn't really pay attention to the landmarks in particular. She's good at watching. "There's radio networks, and a system of cell phone-like things, but... It's just not widely adopted, no websites for everything, more than one big city doesn't even have its own site."

"Oh."

They reach the shop! It is a supermarket which sells basically everything, including: clothes; cleaning and hygiene products; art supplies; weird toys like, say, a (plastic) headless chicken that runs around on a plastic platform and lights up with pink light every three seconds; packets of moondust; and, most importantly, food.

Flora takes out her list and guides Walta around the store in a very efficient path, taking all the things she needs and demonstrating which exact variety of each thing to buy -- "take this one, that one contains nuts -- one of my coprentices is allergic -- and that one sometimes has bits of paper in it" -- finally, after more than half an hour, everything on the list is bought.

"Is there anything you'd like to get for yourself?"

"The tacky toys are amusing but wasteful."

She adds a pack of sausage and some cheese to the cart.

"Okay, we're done then." Flora goes through the process of paying for their purchases and then they go back to the bus.

She is surprised and fascinated by the idea of credit cards and asks questions about them for most of the way back.

Flora doesn't know much about credit cards except the practical usage, so she takes this opportunity to demonstrate the use of a smartphone to get on the internet. Someone who knows more about the normal features of a smartphone might be surprised at the total lack of games and social apps.

"Just don't research things too long, okay? We've got internet at home."

She navigates the phone's features and browser without much issue. "Thanks!"

"You're welcome."

They arrive home. Flora puts all the groceries in their correct places. It's dinner time, so she peels some thick-skinned potatoes and calls everyone in the house to the kitchen. Five children/tweens of various ages gather and start mashing the potatoes, preparing meat, and other kitchen-y tasks. Flora retreats to the corner of the kitchen furthest from the action to wash dishes.

Walta is welcome to join in, but if she wants to research things that's fine too, someone will point her to a computer.

She produces strange cooking tools! She's proud of them, they're very clever aren't they, especially this dicing ball thing that only actually uses one sharp edge.

She is swarmed with questions about them and how they work!

(This is in English, so Flora translates for everyone. One of the others tries to stumble through asking in German, but gives up because he doesn't know half the words.)

Mostly really clever clockwork. She takes one apart and moves it, trying to show how the gears slide onto each other, the 14th tooth of this one is shorter so it sort of falls off and pushes this other one on instead, and so on...

Oooh. She is invited to use these tools to help cook things. She is also invited to propose new things to cook or vote on existing ones -- there is a well organised tally chart.

Soon, food is ready.

She wants eggs. That's about it.

Food: Is yummy.

Halfway through the meal, Doctor Bolinor arrives. All conversations halt. He finishes his food quickly and leaves. Everyone picks up right where they left off.

After everyone is done with their food, they efficiently cooperate in tidying everything up.

Then, Flora is free to show Walta around the house!

"You guys seemed kinda terrified of him..."

"Oh, no, he's perfectly nice, he just finds it really irritating when people talk while eating so we do that "suddenly tumbleweed" thing. --Tumbleweed is a -- cultural reference or whatever you call it -- for quietness, if that's not the same between worlds. Or between languages. I forget if that's a thing in German, I'm just translating literally." 

She shows Walta the bathrooms, the elixir making rooms which you definitely do not disturb ever, and leads her to an empty room. It's somewhat small but has a desk, a bean bag chair, a bed, and a small wardrobe/shelf.

"I am gonna be terrible at remembering to... Tumble weed."

"Terrible like 'oh whoops I said a thing and then remembered to be quiet again' or what?" 

Flora sits on the bean bag and gestures to Walta to sit on her new bed.

"Yes. That." She takes her tool belt off first and sets it on the floor - or, is it carpet? On the shelf if so. Oil stains: Not fun. "Probably should have gotten clothes at the store. These are work clothes, and covered in oil."

The floor is polished wood.

"Ah. I can let you borrow some spare clothes? Also, there are very, very effective cleaning elixirs -- which is my favourite feature of my lifestyle." 

And indeed, most of the house has been almost suspiciously clean.

"I have no interest in making elixers, but trading some other stuff for using them would be good. I've learned to be a mechanic and general fix-things-person twice now. Also, I won't be expensive clothes-wise. I would gladly flip between these and one other set of stuff almost all the time if they kept clean."