The train is packed when it arrives, but no-one bothers her for a ticket. Many people in various styles of clothing are aboard — slogan t-shirts with v-necks advertising one's kinks seem to be in vogue, as are leather jackets and stompy boots. She even sees one or two locals with visible facial hair, a comparative rarity. 

She's not hassled, though her ears and tail get a number of approving looks. 

Three stops later — and a very fast journey across the countryside, skyscrapers whipping by quickly despite the frequent stops — she is let out into another apartment complex. This one seems to be enfolded by a large orchard of some kind of peach tree. The fruit don't smell quite right to her to be peaches — they're like peaches, but there's an underlying buttery note.

Where's the urban sprawl?? She didn't think she was getting an intercity trip. How long does it take??

She keeps her tail very close to her chest, literally. It's kind of magic and will resist damage from incidental rubbing and pinching, more or less, if needing combing later, but still... It's just kind of private. Like the back of her neck, or her calves. Should not be touched without warning and consent!

...Ooh, orchard. Of some sort of mystery fruit. It's got nothing on primeval wild forest for the foxiest side of her but it's still nice. Now she wants a weird peach smoothie... Or an apple one...

Anyway. She Is On A Mission Right Now. Sniff fruit later. Pawn Shop: Where Is?

The pawn shop is in a large mall complex that takes up the whole first through third floors of the skyscraper, filling in the area around the train station and below it. There's a fountain with a sculpture of dancing silver dolphins, several sweet shops and a food court, a lot of fast fashion stores, and one or two stores selling electronics, including devices recognizable as smartphones. 

The pawn shop itself seems to be a combination jeweller and antique shop, and the woman behind the counter is in around her early forties with silver-dyed hair and a small smile. "Afternoon," she says to Weiss with a small smile. "Buying or selling?"

She's feeling a bit worn out, especially being cashless in a shopping center, but her goal is now here!

"Heya! Selling. I've got gold and silver coins- Should be pretty pure though I'm not actually sure how much so."

She even got out a leather pouch with leather-cord seams and drawstring earlier, so it doesn't have to be a direct pull from her Tail of Holding to show them off! She's chosen the square-holed Atsosi coins for this, chunky and impressed with Atsosi characters and a stylized dove carrying its own, smaller coin in its beak.

The store clerk's eyebrows shoot up as she deposits a whole handful of golden coins onto the counter. 

Several people's gazes shoot over as well, and the clerk pinches the bridge of her nose. 

"I'm not sure how you came by those," she says, "but assuming you did so in a sensible fashion, they should be cleared for sale on your ident. Please tap your card, ma'am?" She presents a small scanner.

...Well, fuck.

"I've lost it, that's why I need cash."

"Ah. I see." The cashier's lips purse like she's just bitten a lemon. "Then I'm afraid I can't do business with you, ma'am. You'll have to replace your card at the government offices just like any other citizen."

"...Okay, sure."

The vibes, they have shifted.

She feels unaccountably nervous as she gathers the coins back up in the pouch and - illusion, deposits them in a pants pocket - reality, deposits them back into her Tail of Holding.

Caaaasual exit, twitching ears now on the lookout for any particularly urgent movement.

A few people are looking her direction still with vaguely disapproving vibes as she walks away, but they return to their own days afterwards. 

No-one comes barrelling towards her. It seems that no-one has been sent to speak to her.

And very quietly, Asteron starts to wake up a little. A suspicious attempted transaction has been noticed, from a citizen that did not provide an ident card.  

There is an organization for this: its name is Asterism. It handles stars that are not part of a greater constellation. 

Now she's worrying about cameras. Do illusions even work on them? Does invisibility? She... Does not know. She looks around, trying to find telltale lens shapes; They won't all be big boxy things. The train, the public concourses, surely are recorded if there's anywhere near the kind of surveillance state she expects from vague memories. Smaller places often didn't bother, or went about it lazily... She's been not bothering to hide the ears and tail. What are they gonna do, shoot her?

Maybe. And it'd actually hurt if she didn't see it coming. Which she would. Because danger sense. But still...

Gods, her heart is pounding. She wants to transform and sprint.

Places that probably don't have cameras... Bathrooms? Less busy and more run-down streets. The orchard? If they let people wander in. The wilderness. What about drones? Satellites? How discernable is she against a bigass space telescope? She doesn't know.

Ughhhhhhhhh.

(The thought of just, interacting with the government, does not at any point occur to her. It sounds incredibly foolish and likely to fail messily. What, the government? ANY government? Competent? Sane? Surely you've been drinking, friend...)

...She walks out towards the orchardy areas, fretting.

Whereupon she chances upon a woman that looks like she grew up in the back-country harvesting corn, or would, if not for the large golden hoop earrings spoiling her farmer chic look. She's wearing overalls, a straw hat, a flannel shirt which shows off her muscles a little, and a silver ring at her neck that looks like a classic heart. 

"Afternoon, missus!" She doffs her hat with a huge sweeping bow. "Welcome to this here persine orchard which's been in my family some unbominable number of generations. Want a guided tour? There's few who bother getting out of the damn mall to see the local sights these days." 

Pop, goes the train of thought.

"Oh, hello! Sure, if you're offering. I could use the distraction..."

...She can't help it. People haven't blinked at her foxiness so far, which is surprisingly nice, soooo...

"...You sure I'm not a danger to any chickens you might have around, though? I thought farmers were supposed to be wary of sneaky foxes." 

She pulls at the side of her mouth with one finger and bares fangs for a moment.

She laughs. "Best for both of us then that I haven't any chickens to look after! And lovely teeth you have. I wonder how hard you can bite with 'em. Care for a persine? They're free for any passerby, we keep the old rules here." She reaches into a large basket next to her and tosses Weiss one of the peach-like fruit. "Catch!" 

"Free and food are two of my very most favorite words!"

She catches and takes a big juicy bite, no hesitation.

It tastes a little like a peach, but with a rich, buttery overtone and a little less tartness.

"Used to be these were the only food poor people could have. They grow like a weed on practically anything and the crops are so large the ground flour from the nuts can last you a winter. You could wander from one side of the continent to the other with not much more than a habit of eating these." 

She spreads her hands. "Of course, that comes at a cost. You eat a steady diet of these and you're sterile for a season. It'll wear off if you stop eating 'em but it takes time. These days they've made all kinds of modern drugs from the compounds in persines, libido boosters, immune system strengtheners, all kinds of things — but back then all they knew was you eat these enough and you won't be gotten with child. That's where the modern idea of a catching period comes from, all the way back then." 

She stretches. "Which, well, who knows how the world might've gone if not for that. Maybe I wouldn't be a voluptaten. Maybe I wouldn't be a farmer. Maybe I wouldn't live next to a shopping mall. Maybe a lot of things. I dunno." 

"M' Liv, by the way. Stands for Lively Ember. And who are you, foxy miss?"

.............Otena, is that you? Probably not, right, because it causes childlessness. Then again, it apparently has all sorts of medicinal uses- Illumine? Ragni? And grows everywhere, a phenomenally useful calorie source/fallback, Alteri?? ...And also helps prevent overcrowding and you can still have kids if you REALLY WANT TO and put in the effort, which kinda acts as a filter........

"I never really thought about it like that before," she hedges, which is technically true. "Uh, call me Weiss."

"Nice to meet you, Weiss. The orchard house is just a half-hex thataway through the trees if you'd like to join me for a more sophisticated meal from these. I don't get company that's interested in the orchard too often, everyone goes past by train these days. I'm not registered as a landmark in the system and that's how I like it. People give me my space, usually, 'cept when someone's hongry and then I usually end up givin' em the whole tour." 

"I've had a day. Not that much of one, nothing actually happened, but, egh. Don't wanna talk about it. Sounds like a nice way to be. Out of the way, but close enough still. Peripheral. Are you sure it's not intruding?"

Like living in the forest and wandering into the one village that seems to have chosen her specifically as a protector spirit, and leaves offerings,  and hanging out with people and playing games with kids who aren't scared of her giantness, but leaving whenever she feels like it.

"I'm sure. You can hardly intrude when you're my guest and all, can you?" She shrugs and smiles, and gets up from her seat next to the fence. "On we go, then."

"Well... Thanks. I'd feel better if I could, like, chop wood, or pick some, to help out, though."

She follows, trying to take deep breaths and appreciate the orchard.

"You can pick some for sure. I put out a big basket in the mall most days and usually it all goes. Lot of people coming and going."

"I'll make sure to do that, then. Sometimes ya want something simple to do. Or at least I do."