They haven't seen Mogurol in a while, so they reserve a spot for her, and post the other three spots to their close-friends notification feed. They settle on 35 to 43 for a time; it's a little past the spring equinox, so that will go until not far after sunset.

The notifications get pushed to their friend's various computing devices, which filter them based on each person's settings, taking account of things like calendaring and travel times. Five people end up seeing the notification at some point during the day. 12 other people's computers filter it on their behalf, sending back "tentative negative acknowledgement" messages.

The guests will show up having already eaten, or bring their own food, but it's considered polite for the host to provide some finger-snacks as well. Lhasit places an order for lowest-denominator cookies at the bakery down the street from the place they like to get breakfast on their days off.

Lowest-denominator cookies are not great, but pretty much everyone finds them palatable, even people who have weird food preferences. And Lhasit doesn't know who exactly is going to show up, yet, so they can't tailor it much more.

They pull a robe over their head, pull their hair back into a simple pony tail, and clip their indicator light to their hair. They flip it over to blue and order breakfast as they walk down the hall, and then walk the few flights of stairs down to street level.

If they stuck to the street, it would be three blocks to the breakfast place. Instead, they cut through the internal courtyard that takes up the central seventh of their apartment building. One of their neighbors, Keriketa, is already working on one of the communal flower beds, trimming an errant herb that is straying onto the path.

Keriketa looks up, sees that their indicator is blue, and gives a friendly greeting.

"You're up late; slept in a while?"

Lhasit isn't in a rush, so they lean on one of the light poles that illuminates the courtyard at night.

"I guess so — I stayed up a bit late last night reading."

As they talk, their phones are also chatting, using local networking to synchronize their blogs. Keriketa likes Lhasit's taste in books, so his phone automatically finds the review Lhasit posted last night and adds it to his 'to read' list. It doesn't download it automatically, because the book is still copyrighted, but it does check to make sure the city's archive server has a copy, so the download will be fast if Keriketa decides to read it.

They talk for a bit about the garden, and Keriketa asks Lhasit to pick him up some breakfast as well, if they're going out anyway. Lhasit agrees, and says their temporary goodbyes.

They make their way out of the gate on the opposite side of the building, emerging onto the sidewalk. It is a little bit cold in Largest City, just because of the elevation and climate. But Lhasit is used to it, and doesn't mind the breeze along the street brushing over their bare arms.

Most of the traffic is foot traffic, but there are still a fair number of vehicles going by as well. Mostly delivery vehicles, with the occasional maintenance vehicle and trolley.

As they walk, their phone, the computers at the two stores, and their bank are all having a three-way negotiation. Their phone sets up an order using the bank's API, presents it to the store for agreement, and then uses a HMAC to sign the order. One of the stores uses the same bank, and the bank just arranges an internal transfer, and then issues a conformation.

The other store is a branch of a corporation that does business in several cities, and does their banking in Steep Valley City. The store allows the purchase on credit, and the bank starts a background task to settle with Third Bank of Steep Valley City.

Lhasit nods to other people with blue indicators as they walk. They step around a person reading against one of the trees that line the street with a red indicator.

The bakery is technically in another zone, but it's so early in the morning that they don't really expect anything different to be happening, so they step over the purple boundary markers without really paying any mind.

Some people are arguing over some slices of almond cake at two of the little tables outside the bakery.

Excuse me, Lhasit signs, to avoid interrupting verbally, and cuts between them to enter the store.

They're tempted by the glass display case, but they just grab their package of lowest-denominator cookies. One of the bakers has written their name on the outside of the paper, so it's easy to spot. They turn around and duck back outside, not spending more than 50 seconds in the shop.

The breakfast place is set up similarly. Lhasit has ordered a hot breakfast pocket — thin bread dough wrapped around cheese, eggs, beans, onions, green pepper, and some herbs, and then baked.

Keriketa has ordered a bowl of oats and yoghurt with slices of fruit. It comes in a plain ceramic bowl with a screw-on top; Keriketa will get a small deposit back if they return the bowl to the store at some point.

Lhasit balances their pocket on top of Keriketa's bowl, and returns to the apartment.

Keriketa waves to them as they come back in, and they both sit on the raised edge of the garden bed to eat their breakfasts and talk. Keriketa has a flask of yerba mate that they offer to share. Lhasit takes a few sips to be polite, although they're not a huge fan of the taste. This batch is fairly dilute, because Keriketa has been up for hours at this point.

Once they're finished with breakfast, Lhasit pops back up to their apartment to get ready for the party. So far, only one person has RSVPed, but it was Mogurol, so Lhasit is happy about that.

They collect some articles of clothing that have been left lying into the laundry basket. That turns out to make for a fairly full basket, so they take it down to the laundry room in the basement. This time, they use the elevator, because they've already been up and down the stairs, and they don't really want to do them again with a basket.

With laundry taken care of, they clean up the various other things they have lying around, packing them into their places. Once everything is tidied away, they pull the privacy screens over their cabinets, so that the guests won't have to see their things.

Right now, they have the various walls retracted, because it's normally just them in the apartment. For the party, they pull out one of the walls to partially separate the tiled area from the carpeted area.

They waffle for a moment about whether they should also separate off their bed — but the party isn't going to go that late, and they wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea.

Their phone goes off, and they go down to fetch the laundry. They shake their robes out and return them to their proper place, hanging over the bed. Most people prefer to use a rack by the door, but Lhasit isn't going to get much use out of the beam over the bed otherwise, so they store clothes there to save space. They like the way it makes the bed more cave-like, without actually taking up much space, since they can always just push them out of the way.

They settle down on one of their sitting cushions.

The apartment is now pretty much ready for the party, and it is only 23.

They look over at their robes, and try to decide whether they should wear one of the fancy ones. In any case, they decide that they should probably wear something fresh. And if they have time, and are going to have to change clothes, they might as well vacuum.

They open the windows, pushing them out to get a good breeze. Then they vacuum the (now cleared) floor.

They check their notification feed, spend an hour reading about the average size of the largest prime factor of a number (a bit more than 100, actually), and then decide they're getting distracted.

They throw their current robe into the empty laundry hamper, and step around the wall and into the tiled section. They step into the shower and close the door, making sure it seals well with the wall. They turn on the water, and wait for the stream to run hot before they pull the shunt and make the water come out of the shower nozzle.

They would normally shower pretty quickly, but they have time and are going to have company. They clean thoroughly, using the magnets on the wall to track which steps they've done, so that they don't loose track if they get distracted by a thought.

Once they're clean, they stop the water and open the shower door. The vent never really keeps up with the steam, but it tries, so there's not that much left to spill out into the apartment.

They grab a towel, dry off, and then step out of the shower and start up the hair dryer. It's a bit new-fangled, and they hate the noise, but it does dry their hair a lot faster than just sitting in the sun.

Once their hair is dry, they brush it out. They live alone, so they have one of the weird brushes with a long handle, to make it easier to use on yourself.

They decide to leave it down until just before the party, to let it dry the rest of the way.

They check their phone, to see who else might be coming.

It looks like the party has filled up — Mogurol, Bhevits, Calema, and Tlamin. Lhasit remembers what most of them like, for activities, but he re-reads their profiles, in case it has changed.

Mogurol and Calema are both fans of cooperative strategy games. Calema and Tlamin like reflex-games. Mogurol, Bhevits, and Calema like hidden-information bluffing games.

Lhasit opens one of their cabinets, and considers their selection of games. There are a few that might suit, but none is an exact match. They throw on their interaction indicator and go back downstairs to check the apartment library.

The apartment library doesn't have an amazing selection, but it does have a game that looks interesting and that might fit the criteria. It is a team-based card game where some members of a team try to build up a secret card deck for another member of the team to use in fast rounds against the other team.

Lhasit grabs it and heads back up. They check the reviews, and the game seems pretty well received. They set it on the bed, pull out their table, unfold it between the sitting cushions, and then relocate the game to the table suggestively.

They put the cookies next to it. If the new game doesn't work out, they can just play shatranj, or talk about books.

They sit on one of the cushions, drumming their fingers on their knee. It's not even 30.

Maybe they should do something with their hair. It's pretty much dry now.

They drag their cushion over in front of the mirror, and spend a while wrestling their hair into a braid.

Once their hair is up — it's tricky to get the braid to follow the curve of their head evenly on both sides when working on one's self — they consider painting their nails, before discarding it. The open window has aired the apartment out wonderfully, making it smell of grass and flowers from the courtyard below, but they don't really want to smell the acid in the nail polish.

They browse through their robes, eventually settling on a fancy blue one with gold-colored embroidery. It's a fairly usual style, going over one shoulder and then draping as though wrapped, even though the layers are sewn together in a few places. But they like the way it hugs their waist and the skirt comes up higher on one leg.

They pull it on and make sure it's sitting well, spinning to check the fit in the mirror.

They think about swapping it out for their forest green one, but ultimately decide that might be a little too 'quality assurance on their day off'. They just feel like looking nice, today.

They settle on a cushion and read for a while, until 33. At that point they realize they need to eat, and run downstairs to get something from the sandwich place at ground level. They get a dry, spicy wrap, since they don't want to spill anything on their robe.