If Zef can touch things without consequence that means touching things isn't obliquely consent to anything, right?

...she's still not going to sit down or order anything.

Another napkin appears, right in front of their eyes!

I cannot provide magical goods directly, but I can tailor my recommendations to the specific nutritional needs of my patrons, and the infirmary is available for more substantial medical care.

...yeah, makes sense they couldn't pull that off.

"A protein shake, then, and feel free to add any other useful nutrition to it. And-" Fresh strawberries were so good that one time. "Yeah, that's it."

She turns to Basira. "Eating is probably net positive for my survival chances even if there's a chance it's poison," she justifies herself.

A tall crystal glass appears, full of milky-looking shake topped with fresh berries.

Zephyr drinks.

It would be incredibly stupid and weak to get emotional over a drink being sweet and delicious and free, so she's not. Probably not to the cameras, at least. Hopefully not to Basira. Her eyes close and her throat is the kind of tight that suggests she should not, under any circumstances, try to speak unless she wants to randomly start crying.

Her drink is sweet and satisfying and well-balanced in micronutrients and reveals an alternating sun-and-snowflake pattern frosted into the glass as it disappears.

Oh, it's a "pretend you can't see them (almost) crying" situation. "Our food sucks but there's almost always enough of it," she murmurs, not quite looking at Zeph.

That's polite of Basira.

Zeph will examine one of the wreaths for a minute until she feels speaking is an option again and then, still lingering awkwardly, uncomfortably aware of the empty space behind her, say:

"So, you've got magic."

Oh, so Zef doesn't believe her, that makes sense. If she ask her prove it she... shouldn't, really...

"Yeah. Uh, still learning how to use it."

"Well, it's not like I'll be able to judge your skill level," she points out, sounding... honestly encouraging, at least in comparison with her usual demeanor–the viewers will know, even if Basira doesn't. (They won't know a fraction of this encouragement might be more than just playing along.)

"It is also expensive for me; building up the arcane energy to do magic takes hard work - has to be actual work, if you enjoy it you don't get as much - well, 'energy', most people call it 'mana' in English - modern English, in Old English it was 'mana', or 'mana', and in Latin it was 'mana', and in Arabic it's usually 'mana' - "

Probably at some point she'll remember for social cues on the subject of "is the person I'm talking to still listening?"

She looks like she's about to say something sarcastic, but then the third 'mana' makes her snort in genuine, comparatively if not absolutely light-hearted, amusement.

" - I do like the term in Occitan, it's 'mana', which - uh, huh?"

"Oh, nothing, it's just—a nice touch, with the translation," she explains, a small smile still lingering on her lips.

"I... was translating, yes. ...do you have some reason to avoid learning bits of languages."

...her smile becomes a little brighter, a fact she internally finds infuriating.

"No, but if you were saying a different word each time, that's, uh, lost on me, I just heard mana, mana, mana, and mana." It's not that funny, come on, Zeph. "I suppose if I were running an interdimensional bar, I would need a way for people to communicate."

What.

"I... guess you would... if I explain the etymological history of how some of those words turned into other ones, would it let you understand - "

"Well, first, would it let you understand this?" It actually takes her a very awkward moment to remember anything in Birdsong's silly made up sibling language, but finally she manages. "Mom cry."

Basira waits just long enough to learn that the first sentence is not the one she's supposed to be understanding.

"Mum... cry?"

"...I never quite got the grammar down," is the only comment from Zeph. She... files this away. Could be... Well, she's not sure. She files it away. " Wanna try your thing?"

"… okay!  So - 'mana', the first one, is a four letter word with two syllables, and it's a Polynesian word, borrowed into English fairly recently – only caught on among English speaking wizards in maybe the last 40 years, so it's not related to any of the others.  'Arcane energy' is all Latin and it's 'arcane', two syllables and, uh, six letters, from secret, hidden, which is from the verb form 'to keep away', 'I enclose' – the endings change for the person and tense, it's a regular second conjugation verb, so the long 'o' turns into 'ere' in the infinitive, right, and the vowel length in the middle changes too, that's standard, then the adjective can actually decline into any gender, so in the English it has the 'n' but not – "

Basira can explain as many things about the etymology of the languages she has studied, largely in this manner, from childhood, as Zeph will listen to without interrupting. 👍

This is bizarre. This is the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to her.

...she quietly orders a hot chocolate, sits down, and listens, leaning against the bar. Because she can't figure out what else to do. (Because there's an odd sort of comforting normalcy to it, and it's useless, but-)