"Yup! There's the morning bus that comes at 7, the lunch bus that comes at 1 after noon, and the evening bus that comes at 7 after noon. They're usually quite punctual, too, since there generally isn't much traffic on this stretch of road."

There are modest chairs in the front room, which  aside from the woman at the desk is unoccupied at the moment. He could also sit back down at the canteen, and there's also a break room with fewer but more luxurious seats similar to the one that he slept on in Bishop's office, though his knowledge of the facility's usage indicates that there probably are people there at the moment, especially since he didn't encounter any faculty at the canteen.

He would be content with just sitting at the front room, but he's also kind of unreasonably excited by the prospect of comfy shapeshifting chairs? Cheliax does not put any effort toward comfort in anything, unless it's meant for someone important or rich. He'll go to the break room. Presumably there'll be a clock there, but if not, he has a good sense of time if he keeps the time in the back of his mind – timing spell durations is important, and pocket watches are expensive. Usually only the sergeants and higher have them.

He'll sit on an unoccupied chair and see if it can also do the leaning-back-and-turning-into-an-ersatz-bed thing.

It absolutely can! It's a little bit more well-worn than the one in the office, probably on account of being used more often, but it's definitely still very comfortable.

There is also a nice clock-face hanging on the wall of the breakroom. There's no visible machinery under or around it, a bit like if someone took a pocket watch and just quadrupled its diameter.

There are four other people in the break room, all older men with grey or salt-and-pepper hair, of varying height but all of distinctly academic build. One of them is snoring in a reclined chair, another is sitting at a table eating a canteen breakfast and sipping coffee, and two are chatting while playing a card game. The latter two take notice of Conrad's arrival, and one waves amicably, but the sleeper and eater are not distracted from their respective activities (or lack there of).

He waves back at the man, but otherwise doesn't initiate conversation.

Yep, they look like just what he expected from wizards researchers. Absolutely contemptible. Asmodeus will reshape them in Hell no he doesn't want that anymore, actually.

Echo's presence pulses, just a bit, accompanied by a subtle sense of reassurance.

Even if Conrad doesn't initiate anything, after a few minutes the man who waved to him will stand up and head over to him. "Hey! Haven't seen you around here before. You turn up for the Recognizant, or just got lucky?"

Thank You, Lord Echo.

He turns to the man and says, matter of factly, "I am the Recognizant." His face seems calm and composed, almost serene.

Should he have said that? Right, he keeps forgetting not everyone he meets is an Asmodean. That's going to near the top of the list of Things Conrad Must Get Used To Now. Which is very long.

The man laughs, notices that Conrad doesn't look like he's joking, takes a moment to scrutinize him, then laughs again a little louder and with a big grin. "Well damn! Nice to meet you!" He offers Conrad his hand for a handshake. "I'm Stanmoor."

"Well met. I am Conrad." 

...why is the person sticking out their hand? He keeps his hand at his sides.

"I'm currently waiting for the shuttle to take me into town."

Normally, that'd be all he says, but he feels like it's safe to ask for information. From this person, at least.

"Have you worked with other Recognizants before? If so, what were they like?"

Dr. Stanmoor quickly retracts his hands when it’s clear Conrad isn’t going to shake it. “I was around for the last one to come by, yeah, a guy named Adon Oumbark, I believe.”

He looks up as he recalls. “A real Lanzendaling-type, if you know what I mean, big and tall and rugged, though I don’t know if he was actually Lanzendish or from some other trackless steppe. He was very polite but pretty quiet, though that might have just been a language issue. He was echoic of course, and his invocation was an interesting forecasting-type, sort of a danger-sense, a very broad and subtle thing that he could call up and sharpen with the phrase. Almost chorismic, honestly, but we confirmed he wasn’t a twice-Recognizant. I forget what the actual words were unfortunately, they were in some other language, or maybe were nonsense.”

He refocuses on Conrad. “I’ll hold myself back from questioning you too deeply, we’re all on break after all, but out of personal curiosity can I ask, what was it like? Being Recognized?”

"I don't know what Lanzendal is. I'm...from someplace very far away. The manner of my Recognition is tied into me traveling here. Lord Echo was very friendly and understanding when They Recognized me, although at the time I didn't understand what was happening and flailed pathetically. It all went well in the end. I would say the sensation is like...being with someone who understands you very deeply, and sitting near them without talking to them, but knowing that they are there. I think Lord Echo, during my Recognition, specifically tried to make me calmer, but I foolishly resisted."

Tall and rugged. He would describe himself as tall and rugged. Perhaps the echoic wind has the same taste in men as him.

"Lord Echo granted me an effect similar to that during the day I was Recognized – giving me the lay of the land, and information about pathways and buildings – but I don't think I can call on that anymore."

He seems briefly rapt by Conrad's description, and visibly has to stop himself from probing further. "You have a perfect accent, wherever you're from, and Lanzend is a country, sort of. Really it's more of a city-state that claims to control a vast, and in practice largely lawless, territory, northeast of here."

He pauses, thinking for a moment. "That's maybe a bit impolitic of me. They're an up-and-coming player on the international stage, I suppose. And that fits. It's not exactly science yet, but it's well-supported by Recognizant testimony that Recognition often comes with various one-off mut-- blessings, let's say. The metabolic most strongly, of course, but all of the winds to one degree or another."

He looks back at the man he was playing a card game with and shares a quick glance, before turning back to Conrad. "If you've got the time, care to join me and Godsor for a game of Castle & Quarry? We can teach it, if they don't have it where you're from."

He smiles slightly when Stanmoor says they have a perfect accent. Thank You, Lord Echo.

"Interesting. I'm not sure about the geopolitical situation around here. Not that I'm planning to be a player on the world stage: my invocation is indirect and mostly sensory. It seems that Lord Echo gives out those types of invocations, in contrast to the other winds, which seem to prefer directness and forcefulness in their effects. Quite frankly, I'm surprised Lord Echo Recognized me and gave me such an invocation, because indirection is contrary to my character.

It's not self-evident to me why the metabolic wind would give out the most one-off blessings. 

And no, we don't have that game where I'm from. I'd be inclined to learn it, if one game is shorter than thirty minutes."

What does Castle and Quarry look like?

"Well, you know what they say about who the ec--who Echo chooses. People going through things, people who are growing and evolving." He shrugs. "And if it doesn't work out, you can always change it, right?"

He winces slightly and makes a sound of mock-pain. "Ooh, no, it usually takes more like an hour or two, especially if we're teaching along the way. You're headed into town then? Maybe we can catch you the next time you're here at the facility?"

The cards are pretty unfamiliar to Conrad. They're still rectangles, and a reasonable size for playing cards, but each one is divided into two sides by a black line down the middle. On each side of the line there's a design in one color, either red, green, blue, or black. The cards currently on the table form an odd sort of tree-structure, with cards laid half on top of each other in long straight lines, except for occasional branch-points where a card is laid down turned ninety degrees.

"Change what?" he asks offhandedly, before getting distracted by the cards.

"Yes. I haven't been there yet. And yes, I'm likely to come here for a while."

This world really likes its groups of four. It makes sense given that there are four winds, though. He initially thinks it looks like solitaire, with the long lines of arranged cards, with some sort of rule that lets the two halves be joined together, but he has no idea how to interpret the branching parts. He feels...stress...initially, because it's vaguely evoking the anxiety of being tested and not knowing the answer, but he forces himself to relax.

Echo will offer a still-distant pulse of reassruance to help with that!

"Your invocation. Honestly it's one of the most fascinating things about Recognition. I'm looking forward to delving into it." Dr. Stanmoor rubs his hands together greedily. "If you're up for it, of course! If you like your invocation no need to change it just for me."

He stops everything he's doing and looks at Stanmoor for a moment, before letting out an "Oh." 

"I didn't know you could do that. I plan on seeing the full capabilities of my invocation before replacing it, though, since it doesn't seem like you can just switch them up on a whim.

I'm planning on working with Dr Bishop – Lord Echo specifically directed me to work with her, and I wouldn't dare disobey Their direct order."

Stanmoor brings the palm of his hand to his forehead in embarrassment. "Right! You just got Recognized yesterday and are from Waker-only-knows where. Sorry, didn't mean to assume. There's plenty of literature on how changing invocations goes, even if most of it's idiosyncratic mysticism written by non-scientist Recognizants in their autobiographies, I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out once you feel the need. And, Bishop does good work, always been one to care for strays, so it makes sense she'd be the one to, uh, get the job I suppose. I'll see if I can talk to her about some experiment ideas I'm having, later today."

With that, unless Conrad keeps him, Dr. Stanmoor will sit back down at the table with Godsor and starts to set up a new game of presumably Castle & Quarry.

Conrad will Observe the game taking place, until the clock strikes 0655, at which point he'll return to the front room to await the shuttle, which ought to be there very soon.

What does the shuttle look like? Conrad has seen carriages, and can imagine a carriage without a horse, but he has no idea what an automobile is supposed to look like. Presumably there would be wheels and seats, and perhaps a driver.

The beginning of the game involves gathering all the cards up and shuffling them thoroughly, as most card games do. Each player is dealt a hand of five cards. then the remainder are dealt out into an odd sort of pile which has a pyramid-like construction, with a layer of cards on the bottom, then a smaller layer of cards laid on top of them that are rotated ninety degrees, then a smaller set on top of that again rotated, going like that until the very top is a single card.

Godsor says "High," and then Stanmoor flips over the top card, revealing a blue design and a green design, prompting Godsor to swear under his breath and for Stanmoor to chuckle as he takes the blue/green card, flips over the two cards that it laid on, then put one of his cards down onto a separate space next to the card-pyramid. The game progresses in alternating turns, Stanmoor and Godsor taking face-up cards form the pyramid, occasionally flipping new cards face up as they're uncovered, and putting cards onto the other space, always placing cards half on top of other cards such that one of the new card's designs matches the 'free' design of the card already on the table.

At 6:54, the man eating breakfast (who finished while Conrad was watching Stanmoor and Godsor play) pulls out a pocket watch, stands, and heads out of the break room. When Conrad goes out to the front room, he'll find the same man waiting there along with a handful of other varied facility staff and faculty.

A few minutes later, a horn honks, a loud sound, and the small crowd begins to file out. As Conrad exits with them, he sees the bus and may be rather amused by it's construction, which is a bit like if someone had taken a covered wagon, enclosed the driver's bench in a box, and stretched out the back to three or four times the length, then affixed a pair of big, rumbling cylinders to the back. With all the people evidently getting on, it might be a tad crowded, but not badly. The driver, speaking clearly and loudly from inside the driver-box either with incredible lung-capacity or magical aid, informs soon-to-be-passengers that change will not be given for overpay, before the door to the passenger section opens and people begin to board, passing coins through a slot by the door, entering only after a bell rings, evidently induced by having paid a sufficient amount.

Wow, yeah, this is definitely going to take an hour to learn. He can tell that there's domino-style halves matching going on, but he can't divine the rules from watching them play for that short amount of time – not without taking out a pencil and paper and writing down observations, which is entirely too much effort just to learn a card game.

The bus is fascinating and he wants to take it apart to see how it works. Magic item crafting is a lesser passion of his, but it's a passion all the same. 

No change? He hurriedly checks his coin purse, deliberately letting other people go on before him so he has time and doesn't make people wait. He paid two pounds for food, which means he should have gotten twenty two pounds as change. Checking his coins...given the 'multiples and divisors of twelve' theme, he'll guess that he got a twelve-pound coin, a six-pound coin, and two two-pound coins. Since there are twelve ounces to a pound, he'll be overpaying by a lot if he pays with a two-pound coin.

He calls out, "Does anyone have change for a two-pound coin?" He'll suffer embarrassment if it means saving precious money which he's not sure he can get more of – until he gets his first paycheck from the facility, his brain will refuse to accept that the test subject job is real.

At least five people's hands go to their coin-purses (more might be reaching for coins in their pockets, or might reaching for their pockets for unrelated reasons), though the nearest one to Conrad is also the fastest. When they go to offer the coins to Conrad, they're actually the same size and design as the two smaller ones he already has.

"Ah, I always mix up ones and twos, too. Don't know why they don't put the numbers on the coins," says the woman who offered the coins.

...did the food man just cheat him!? That seems very unlikely: the coins came out of a machine, and he wouldn't dare try that with everyone in the facility. He probably has one eight-pound coin and two one-pound coins, then. Eight isn't a multiple of twelve, so it kind of breaks the scheme he had in his mind.

Mostly to the woman, but also loud enough that other people could hear, he asks, "Does anyone have change for a one-pound coin?" If not, then he'll just eat the one pound difference – he doesn't think one ounce is valuable enough to spend eight or more hours running towards the town.

The woman quickly searches through her purse again, and manages to find a half-pound and six one-ounce coins before her turn to board comes, offering them in exchange for one of Conrad's one-pounds. When she boards, just pays with a single one-pound coin.