She just hopes she helped a little. 

She speeds her pace. She's got time to make up.

Two Meisters are having a fight with wooden weapons in the park, wearing padding. They move with a curious duality of skill and carelessness. Motions that are smooth and fast, but also chaotic and badly timed. There's a few heckling onlookers.

She can't stop to watch, she's got to get back up to her room and drop off her new clothes.

She goes back into the Wright building and waits for the elevator.

Someone else is already waiting for the elevator! An asian-looking boy.

"Ooh, new face! Hello hello, <welcome to nerd central.> I am going up to see my new girlfriend," he adds wistfully.

Ding! Elevator arrives empty.

"Aw, good luck with that!" 

Hazel gets in the elevator with him and punches in the third floor.

He punches in fifth and hums lightly and does not fill the air with sappy praise or anything.

Lounge is still full. Someone has a holographic projector and is lecturing a pair of people about a complicated... Car part? Wheeled robot? It's a colorful exploded view. A few other people have stuff on tables and a sign says 'Floor 3 Wrightwork Mini-Expo'. Seems like fun. 

She passes it by and heads for her dorm room. Nice gubbins, she will look later. 

Amaris seems to be out at the moment. There's an additional empty tupperware drying by the sink.

She leaves the slacks and shoes on her bed.

She's starting to get tired out from all this walking but she's got to press on. 

She retraces her steps out of Intake and brings up the transit route to Apex that she's aupposed to use tomorrow morning. Bus, right? Where's the bus stop?

There's a bus shelter right along the street with a big LED screen showing all the lines and a giant map of the vaguely crescent-shaped island. Apex is smaller and north, F-city is most of the crescent and Intake is about two thirds down its length. The long route has her take this line, stick to it all the way across the bridge to Apex, then get off at that stop and take a different line once she's there.

Alright. She'll wait for the bus at the shelter.

System, can you alert me when this line is about to arrive? 

She indicates the marked line on her map. 

If so then I'd like to follow the link to the menu that Olaf sent me.

Alarm set.

Alpine Peak Steakhouse's menu looks like an expensive fancy place. All hardwood and taxidermies and '240 hour smoked' and so on. The menu prices reflect it. All the dishes have 'brute mode' prices as well, which appear to be double portions. They work Artonan ingredients into a lot of their food, making a big deal out of it. Marleck berry paste, grollin beet salads, genuine Wevvi with all 16 traditional spices, smoked klimma (The same animal traditionally hunted by ryeh-b't! There is a cute picture of some kind of dog bird dragon.), imported Artonan "wine", and much more.

Her alarm goes off! A bus is pulling up, with the correct line number on it.

Well that was fast! She'll get her seat and set another alarm for five minutes before her transfer. 

Then, assuming nothing weird happens, she'll work on reading through the list of recipies Olaf sent.

They're in Russian which leads to a little translation weirdness, but trim and professional, with lots of Chef's Notes on where Artonan and Human tastes differ.

When the bus crosses the bridge she receives a System note:

You have entered Apex. Note, power use is less restricted here. Please pay careful attention to any warnings.

Your evacuation priority in the event of an emergency is: 3.

Okay, yeah, that's kind of spooky. She will take a moment to observe her surroundings then. 

The buildings are way fancier here. Not that ones by Intake are bad, but it's super noticeable. Even the ones built to clearly super-durable standards have a lot of careful architecture work put into them.

One of the tough buildings has a System sign declaring 'BRUTE EXERCISE AREA. DO NOT APPROACH.'

Yeeeeeeeeeeeah she can see how that would. Be dangerous.

Do you think they have beam wars like on Dragon Ball Z in there?

Who knows, let's not find out.

How long is left on her timer?

1 minute left, and she set it for 5 minutes before she has to swap.

She will watch the city go by and wait for her stop, then.

The bus is quiet. Electric. And conversation is keeping to a low murmur, most people are just on their phones, which about half of everyone seems to have- Or looking at something the System provides.

The switching stop is a little mini-plaza off the side of a road, with two platforms and a flower garden, plus a weird sculpture. The buildings have plenty of space between them. She can see slick video ads for a target range, a limo service ('Tired of waiting for the bus? Call now.'), Anesidoran language tutors, and North of North Fitness Center on a billboard across the street, above an Italian place, as she waits.

Snippets of conversation heard in passing:

"Not everyone can be above average, that's what average means, Charlie-"

"-Opening a new gig workshop, bulletin board part bounties kind of thing." "That'll never work, the market's already saturated."

"The most amazing ice cream I've ever had, I swear to God-"

"-Son just got selected and he's an S! I'm so excited! We're looking for trades now, he wants to go for Adjuster-"

She lets it all wash over her. It's comforting that it's this... normal, in some ways. 

Probably for the best to keep watching the world go by. 

Her new bus arrives! She's on this one for only a few more minutes, and then it's a half block walk to the restaurant.

Someone jumps up from their seat and shouts, "Oh my god! Yes!"

At the other passengers' alarm they explain while trying to put on a coat they yanked from their duffle- "I got a summon! I'm going- I'm going right now!"

She gives them a big grin, then moves on. It's nice to see a good thing happen to someone.

She'll stop in front of the restaurant. It looks way upscale for her, and Olaf's a busy person. Should she go in and say hi?

Opinions, girls?