"Eh. I doubt it's that simple - prob. just a pain in the ass to try to stock a sufficiently wide variety to cover the higher level stuff. 'Alphazon'" - You can hear the scare quotes - "Or some other witchnet sellers prob. 'll take standard payments for mid-level stuff, but at the end of the day it seems like the favour economy 's the place where you get the like actually reasonable prices."

"Yeah, I did a little research, prices online are kinda jacked. Who pays five hundred dollars for a mystical apple?"

"People who've figured out a good 'nough gig to be price insensitive, prob? Gonna have to figure out what I can do meself f'r that - probably my best options are delivery work and tailorin', but less then sure there's 'nough there to be super worth it when 'm studyin'."

"I've got a job lined up animating undead for Hawthorne. They advanced me kind of a lot. Hence why I'm paying for the shopping."

"Nice!" 

"Anyway, were you gonna get out your carpet again?"

"Yeah sure." 

The big wooden pole unfurls into a brilliant cyan carpet, which she promptly hops on. 

Nix hops on, and this time she leans against Tourmaline. 

"You wanna steady me again, right?"

A ghost of a smirk lights up her face.

"'f course." 

Her hand rests against her opposite shoulder, resting softly against her skin. 

Up, up, and away they go, to their cute lil home. 

Audrey's sitting out on the step of the house when Tourmaline and Nix arrive. She waves as they come in.

She waves back lightly, and plops the carpet down well clear of the front step for them to disembark with plenty of space. 

Nix steps off the carpet and flashes her amulet at the door. 

"Everyone settling in okay?", she calls.

"Yeah!", Kumi calls back from upstairs.

Audrey looks away at the lingering sunset, and doesn't say anything.

She tuts and plops her butt and rug right up beside her, offering her a bag of candy. 

"No Glum, yes Gummi?"

Audrey rolls her eyes, but she takes the candy, opening the bag and looking down into it like it knows the secrets of the universe.

She smiles faintly, and takes out another two. 

"Anythin' you wanna talk about? Know we haven't known each other for too long but gettin' stuff aired 's important if we're gonna be runnin' a lil household together." 

"Not really. It's just... a big adjustment. I was living with my family, before this. Arcadia... gave me a better option. But the culture's different, and the magic is new, and - I don't know why I'm even talking to you about this."

She looks away and absently puts a cherry gummy in her mouth.

She hums and rocks back, drifting like a petal on the wind atop her 'broom'. 

"'cause you prob. realize that it's gonna come out some time regardless? Or maybe it's somethin' as simple as wanting to believe that you can get away w/ things that have scarred you, before." 

She breathes out, lightly. 

"- You do realize that you don't actually have to deal w/ witch society? You have 'nough basic skills 'lready, I bet, for you to just go 'nd make all the money you'd need to get yourself some cabin in the woods somewhere or a cute lil apartment in a big city, without botherin' to have more connection to the witchly world then occasionally droppin' some work off at a distributor, or somethin'. You don't need to take this if you don't want to so..."

She shrugs.

"I'm tired of hiding. I just... don't know anything else to do."

She hums. 

"And this comes w/ magic powers so guess that makes it a good default, 'n a way. If the cohabitation genuinely boterhs you, pls don't be 'fraid to actually like, do that? The portal network exists, 'nd you can just commute, if you want.
't's not like mundanes think they're 'hiding' if they decide not to live in a five-gal house." 

"Other then that... Personally 'd say that fuckin' 'round works wonders for a lotta people? Even just gettin' to a place where you can comofrably be lewd, or 't the v. least be proud is the kinda thin' that makes these things fit 'n. It's also good to just ask what you want to do and just... do i, or the things mostly directly connected to gettin' there? There's so much that people do that just makes zero sense when they could just write out a lista goals 'nd start goin' down them."

Audrey gets up and walks into the house, and closes the door of her room behind her.

Nix comes back out of the house. "- I just saw Audrey go past in a huff. What did you even say to her?"

I sigh. 

"I told her that she could just. not be here if she didn't wanna hang 'round?" 

I lay back on the carpet and groan heavily.