John tapped his fingers on the frame of the glass counter, looking at the shirts that were housed within. Outside of the few events that came to the city a couple times a year, Riverburg was quiet, and so was the store he was in charge of. It would be a slow day today, like usual.
The chime of the bell caused John to look up from the latest merchandise that had been put on sale and direct his gaze to the door. Perhaps Miss Monet wanted to buy some more cards for her grandchildren? She was always fun and sometimes even brought some sweets, or even a regular meal.
Miss Monet was not who stepped through the door. Instead, John was faced with a tall, muscular woman that had to duck as she stepped inside. She wore a dress made from what appeared to be a very dark blue or even black silk, with silver embroidery that had either cost her a pretty penny or more than a few hours of her time. The same was true for the armour that covered her chest and part of her shoulders. Whatever material she had used to make it certainly looked like the actual metal, but John had seen his fair share of cosplayers to know that there was always some trick behind everything.
A trick he would have to learn for Miriam when she next stopped by – this woman had some very convincing Elven ears that his friend would probably kill for.
John wasn't aware of the character she was trying to portray, but there weren't many women seven feet tall who dressed up in cosplay for fun. He wasn't going to forget this sight anytime soon.
Before he could even greet the potential customer, she said something in a language he did not recognise. It sounded melodic, in a way, each word seemingly picking up right where the previous one left off and blending the entire sentence together. That was not the most interesting part, however. No, what intrigued John more was the novel sensation of warmth running down the length of his spine with each syllable that flowed from the lips of the new arrival.
Once the woman had finished talking to whoever still remained outside, she turned around and offered him a smile and a wave. "Greetings," she said, a bit of the melodic nature he had heard before still present in her voice. "Our friend lost his—" She paused for a moment, while a man around John's own age and another woman sporting a dress and Elven ears stepped inside. "He broke his phone," she continued, nodding towards the man, "and we would like to know if you could tell us where we could procure a new one."
"How interesting," the other woman said as she glided past her two friends and towards the comic books at the other end of the store. "Aperio! Look at this, they have so many!"
The tall woman — Aperio, apparently — looked towards her friend before she bent down slightly to whisper something in the man's ear. She handed him what John could only assume was her wallet before a few large strides — looking more like that of a dancer than someone who had so obviously spent most of their time in the gym — brought her to her other friend.
"I'm sorry," the man said as he shook his head slightly. "They probably won't break character in here. It can be a bit… much, at times."
"No problem," John replied, tearing his gaze from the tall woman to look at the man. "I'll see plenty more of that once the convention starts. You guys are a bit early, I’ll admit, but I guess taking a week to go and see some of the sights around here is a relaxing idea."
"It is," the man replied, his voice a bit shaky. "Would be better if I hadn't broken my phone."
"Ah, right," John replied. "You'll have to wait a couple more hours for the other stores to open, but you just continue towards the city center and you should have no trouble finding something." He scratched the back of his neck. "Kinda surprised you found this store first, if I am honest. All the hotels are in the center."
The man gestured towards the two woman, who had by now shifted away from the comics and towards the rather small collection of books in the store. "Aperio owns a house a few miles from here, and we stayed there while they prepared what they needed. Getting all of the stuff ready takes a while."
John gave a chuckle at the dismayed look of the man. "I can only imagine. I have a friend who does this and she spends hours upon hours sewing her own costumes." He hesitated for a moment, looking at the two women again as he could have sworn the tall one just wiggled her ears. "I am sure she would love to know how your friends made the ears, hers always look a little unrealistic."
"You can ask Aperio," the man replied. "She is a freak when it comes to creating things, but she might not want to share her secrets."
"So she made the dress too?" John asked, keeping to himself that the woman looked to be a freak in more than one department.
"And the armour," he replied, then gestured towards the shirt he wore. "She made this too because, and I quote, she 'was bored.' "
///
Aperio placed the book she had picked up back on the shelf. During her time, most things in the library had been related in one form or another to either magic or history. There had, of course, been a few fictional tales included, but it certainly wasn't the norm. She was fascinated to see literature that was seemingly accessible to all, and created only to entertain.
She stood to her full height and looked back at the clerk as he stole another glance in her direction. Did he suspect something, or was he just making sure they did not steal? Neither of them needed to resort to thievery, of course. Adam had walked them through the basics of this country's way of doing things when they arrived, and Aperio had taken the liberty to produce some money for them. While her actions likely had been in the realm of illegality, she doubted anyone could prove what she had done.
It was wrong to say that magic did not exist on Earth — despite Adam's claims, every Human had a bit of mana — but it most certainly came in quantities too minuscule for most accomplished mages to manipulate. Though, having them be in my presence seems to give them more.
She doubted the clerk would notice it, but the All-Mother had little trouble seeing how the amount of mana in the air increased with every passing moment, and how he took it in. When she had spoken it had been even more obvious, as her voice was laced with many times more mana than Earth freely had available.
"Is something wrong?" she finally asked, the conversation the man had had with Adam over. A few strides and a good amount of effort to not simply appear before the man brought Aperio to the counter. She looked down, first at Adam and then the clerk. "We have not done anything wrong, have we?"
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"No," he replied as he took a half-step back. "I was just curious how you made your outfit, especially the ears. A friend of mine also cosplays, but she never gets them quite right."
Aperio tilted her head slightly in reply. "I am afraid that I cannot help with that." She wiggled her ears and offered the man a smile. "She would have to be born with them."
Adam had told her that acting like this was fine for this first city. Apparently it was quite normal for the mortals here to see someone dressed up as an Elf, or something equally fantastical to them. Aperio had immediately tried to argue that her wings should be fine then, but he had been adamant that that would be too far. Her dress, armour, and even ears could all be explained away — and she did not even need to explain, as she could simply 'stay in character' — but no homemade tinkering could ever hope to match the splendor of her wings. Aperio had only shrugged at the time. Being herself was most certainly easier than trying to pretend she was a Human that had to try her best to not break everything.
Caethya, too, had quickly discovered that things on Earth were a lot more flimsy than what she was used to from Verenier. This world did not have to deal with people who could fight an army on their own or throw trees around, and it showed. What the Humans here regarded as sturdy was easily broken by her love if she was not careful. Even Adam ran into some issues.
"Told you," Adam replied, taking Aperio from her thoughts. "She won't break character."
The man laughed and shook his head. "It was worth a try. In any case, you just have to walk down the street for a few minutes and you should see enough options to choose from."
Caethya chose that moment to place a stack of the comics that Adam seemed to be so fond of on the counter, topped off with a few proper books. It had taken Aperio only a moment to find the origin of the people he had on his shirt, and found the idea quite amusing.
"I would like to buy all of these," Caethya said before looking at Aperio and switching to the language of their people. "Do we have enough to pay for all of this?"
"We do," Aperio replied as she took the wallet Adam was already offering her. The lack of storage skill was something she already despised; where were you supposed to put this wallet, let alone a phone? She had not designed her dress with pockets in mind, but now she had had to add some just to keep up appearances.
Before the man had finished holding each item in front of his little machine, Aperio pulled the correct amount of money from her wallet and placed it on the table. Adam raised a brow at that, and Aperio took a moment to realise why. Normal people would probably not just know the exact price of the items their friend had just selected and pay not a single piece of copper more. Too late to change that…
She would have to look into opening an account with the bank, something she had never even considered before. Aperio would have little trouble getting one on Verenier, her status proof enough that she could offset any amount of money she might want from them, but that would not work here on Earth. Nobody knew what she was, and that was supposed to stay that way. No need for more followers, no matter if they want to devote themselves to me or hunt me down.
The last one was only half true, as she would like to see what the mortals of this world had come up with in the absence of magic. A peek with her aura had already revealed plenty of things that could be weapons. Quite a few of them were the guns Adam had talked about and, if Aperio was honest with herself, she had expected a little more of them. It seemed to be nothing more than a bit of metal propelled by an explosion that was not even that strong. Better than a bow and arrow, though.
"That would be," the clerk began before his eyes landed on the money Aperio had already placed on the counter, "ninety-eight dollars and fifty…" His voice trailed off and he picked up the notes and coins. After counting it twice he looked at Aperio and shook his head slightly. "I guess you are good at math."
"Yes," Aperio replied, offering him her best smile. "You could say it is a requirement in my line of work."
"What are you, an Elven accountant?"
"Property manager would be more accurate," Caethya said, her voice slightly uneven as she tried her best to suppress a giggle. "What?" she asked as Aperio gave her a look. "It fits."
"Perhaps it does," the All-Mother relented after a moment of silence. "But it is missing the point a little." She shook her head slightly and stood to her full height again. "No matter, we came for information and we have gotten it."
The clerk did not reply, simply shaking his head again and mumbling half-words that seemed to make no sense to her as he put the money in his till, almost absentmindedly placing a bag next to the reading material Caethya had wanted.
Aperio still did not quite understand why they were going about this in such a roundabout way. It would have been so much easier to stop at Adam's home to get the things they were now looking for, or even to have been told beforehand what it was their guide was looking for so she could have brought them directly there instead of coming to this shop first, but it was all seeming to work out anyhow.
Her love started to bag her newly-acquired reading material, stopping to give each book a long glance before putting them inside. "Pleasure doing business," she said as she placed the last book in the bag. "Perhaps we will return."
“I shall look forward to it,” the clerk said with a nod. He turned his gaze to Aperio before he spoke again. "Next time my friend might be here, and I will warn you now that she won't stop until she learns the secrets of your ears. And your dress."
“She may do what she wishes,” Aperio replied, taking the bag off of the counter. “But do tell her that I dislike dealing with annoying Humans.”
Adam just shook his head and headed outside while the All-Mother offered her free arm to her love. Caethya took it, slinging her own through as the two of them followed their guide outside. Aperio wanted to drape her wing over the Demigoddess, but that was not an option. Not here, at least.
Flying was also not an option according to Adam. The Humans here had apparently not only built flying machines, but also tools with which to detect them. These machines, in turn, were apparently good enough to detect her in the sky even if she went faster than any of the planes they had.
Once outside, Aperio let the bag vanish into her Void. It was easy enough to use her aura to check if someone was looking, and as there had been nobody it had been a safe decision. Now to get one of these phones. Perhaps something interesting will happen at the next store.
She could already sense more and more of the Humans starting to move about, and a good number of the horseless carriages the dictionary had defined as cars were moving towards the city. Aperio would welcome whatever this world had in store for her before her presence would become too much and Earth would be welcomed by the System proper. At first she had thought that her visit would not be much of a problem, but as soon as they had arrived it had become clear to her that it was, and had always been, only a matter of time before the System blossomed into fuller functionality on Earth. Her return had spurred its expansion into the universe, and her presence here only sped it up.
A smile appeared on Aperio’s face as her ears picked up a happy yell from the other side of the city. The child that was playing there was right. Ready or not, here I come.