It's dusty and filled with props, and the floor is weirdly tiered - "I think this used to be the balcony?" Zio raises.  "And there's a bunch of other spaces off this one, with just boards to walk on, and I wanted to ask whether it was safe to poke around back there.  But not in a way where someone already knows the specific answer for this specific place; I want something I can apply generally."

"Better thinking than either charging ahead or just letting it be!  I'd want to learn a bit more about that myself before giving it a go, but maybe in a few weeks we can all come up here again; it's a really good thought.  I have a while before I need to head out; do you want to look for posts on rickety building exploration safety with me for a while?"

"Yeah obviously.  Check this out first though?  There's some cool stuff."  The two of them go up to the back of the balcony - that part's all cement and pretty obviously stable - and spend a bit looking at all the racks of hung costumes and craning their necks to read labels on boxes before Zio leads the way trotting back down the stairs.  Or - is it the same set of stairs?  In any case it's symmetrical with it and probably just leads to the other side of the stage.  One of the steps must be missing or broken, though, because Zio lurches forward and shrieks -

and Raltig tries to grab at zer and ends up off-balance rerself - Zio's scream cuts off unnaturally and ze's gone, and Raltig has a split moment to see that the staircase is entirely whole and holeless before he falls through it too.

Here they are in:

a town!

But not a familiar town. An early-morning town. Nobody seems to have seen them arrive; they are not immediately noticed by anybody around, that consisting of: 1) a dog, pulling a cart, 2) an old lady going for a walk and stopping to smell some flowers; 3) a crow, picking up small bits of litter off the ground and depositing it into a receptacle.

"I hit my wrist and it hurts maybe-persistently," Zio says, because it probably makes sense to tell an adult that no matter which of the very confusing possibilities is what's actually happening.  Ze's bleeding a little: "In like an internal way."

Raltig has a scrape running down rer forearm as well.  "Do you want to get patched up first or find an inside to go into?"

"This - is this -  . . . I guess we probably do the scratches and then an inside and then if it still seems like it's sprained or something in a few songs we can deal with that then?"

"I don't know what's happening either," Raltig asserts, unclipping the first-aid pocket from the side of his pants and passing zer a wipe and some adhesive bandages, taking a few for rerself too.  "This is not something I set up."

Zio nods, and wincingly cleans and enstickers zer arm, and cradles it against zer torso, and stands.  Then they can . . . . walk in a direction?  Looking for a building with a public space symbol out front?

There are no familiar symbols on anything, but they can find a building that has its doors propped open. The dog is walking into it, actually, and a person behind the counter examines something on the dog's harness and then produces a bundle of mail and packages, including several bottles of milk and a carton of eggs, for the dog to cart away.

Zio does not WANT to take the lead here but it will be so impressive and ze will be such a trouper* and it will develop zer character and ze will win so many ((metaphorical)) respect points from Mr.** Raltig if ze does.  Possibly ze'll just pass Competence immediately that's not how that works at all and ze doesn't actually want to not be in Competence anymore even though it would make zer extremely cool.

Tragic that ze can't pet the dog while holding onto zer other arm even if it's a good idea; how does ze feel about letting go of it - pretty negatively, still, apparently - ow don't cry don't cry -

Yeah, ze checks whether this building has a wall-mounted first aid kit accessible from in front of the counter.

*This has neither theatrical nor military connotations.

**A specific casual title referring to people currently acting as teachers.  Lit. 'growth-guide' or 'learning-leader', portmanteau'd with an overlapping syllable.  Non-gendered.

The building does not have a first aid kit accessible from in front of the counter, no. The person behind the counter peers at them curiously.

Ze checks like five times just in case, but this wasn't marked as a public space, so.

(aaaa talking to strangers aaaa - ze doesn't know what's going on here but it does seem like the sort of case where ze would ideally start with Allang, however: can't use arms.  If Counterperson doesn't know Represending then that's a pretty obvious point for knowing zer limits and stopping trying to handle this zerself?)

"Hi, um, is there a - where's the first aid kit?"

The person behind the counter furrows his brow at her. Taps a sign with a bunch of languages on it, each with a paragraph of information.

Zio recognizes none of these writing systems.

. . . Which makes it really weird that ze can read that one.

The first one says:

This is the Starfield Easternmost Delivery Hub. If you cannot talk to the operator, there are forms for your use to your left. To register your household with this hub, fill out a copy of the green form or scan the code on the box of green forms. If you are missing an item you expected, fill out a copy of the pink form or scan the pink form box's code. Other common issues are listed on the yellow form, and you can find more information and options at site^starfield^municipal^deliveryhubs^easternmost.

A tiny horse comes in, drawing a cart. The operator looks at the name on the harness - it says Primrose Palace on it - and gives the tiny horse a bunch of stuff to cart away.

Zio determines with a little testing that ze's capable of sounding out the mysterious text, too.  - Tiny!  Horse!  Right inside the building!!  World large and difficult horse small and soft!  Its little nooooose - ze jostles zer arm slightly about this and doesn't have to exert very much effort not to cry about it so maybe that's a good sign or maybe it just wasn't a proper jostle?

Ze tries again in the extremely confusing language, haltingly, once the tiny horse has gone:  "Where's the first aid kit?"

"...uh, I probably have one in the back, somewhere?" says the man. "What's wrong?"

. . . Should ze mention the weird stuff probably not that seems distracting.  "I hurt my wrist."  Oh, wait: the important skill of realizing when you can just tell the truth.  "Also maybe some other stuff but most immediately that."

(Raltig is making some faces about all of this - not even very much faces, really - but isn't interfering yet.)

"...I have, like, bandages. Ibuprofen. If you broke something you want the clinic." There's a map of the city on the wall, actually, with the delivery depots marked with little stars, and he points out where they are and where the nearest clinic is. It's twelve blocks away, due west.

"It's not broken pretty sure."

He gives her an ibuprofen. And gives the next dog with a cart some packages.