"I believe I will be able to make it as long as you two don't mind my presence," Nagesh states with a slight grin. "In fact, I do believe I should be there, for the purposes of the gift and otherwise."
"You should," Chiyoko agrees, before lowering her head slightly in an expression of apology. "I still cannot leave this domain, but if I may offer any aid in later increments of the process, I would be glad to offer it. My apologies."
"That's okay," Galaxian quickly reassures her before piping, "I wanna help too. If that's okay."
"Of course. Four out of five of us here is a good participation rate!" Manai notes, grinning from ear to ear. Addressing Chiyoko, she adds, "It's basically a five out of five too, since you have special circumstances on your end, Miss. Chiyoko. Maybe we'll get to see you in action while we're putting the house together."
She receives a polite but slightly doubtful smile. "I suppose I will see as well."
Manai just smiles bigger. "Okay, so what times would work for you, Galaxian and Shu?"
"I'll dedicate a form to the event even if something pops up, so anytime should work," Galaxian answers after a few moments of consideration. 
Meanwhile, Nagesh slightly smiles. When does he really have a break? It's not like all potential dangers go on break over the weekend. Still, he'll make it work, and not only that, he wants to think of a good time. His response is ultimately, "If we are to travel to the Modern Sect, then I do believe I would benefit from knowing the location of our destination."

"The same goes from me, of course. Such an excursion seems long overdue on my end." Nagesh smiles, though of course the action is full on his end. "Chiyoko, we will request aid from you as needed, so please do not worry about your contributions."
"Of course." She gives him the same faint smile she gave to Manai. "I will rely on your judgment, then."
"Laurie, you can use this device if you want," Manai offers, waving her tablet around a bit. Looks like she's excited. "You can write on it like you would for a notepad. I have a stylus with me, you'd just have to open the app with the purple pen icon."

"Looks like it is now," she quips. She tries spinning in her chair (which wasn't spinnable initially but becomes so as soon as her intention is there), simultaneously jumping up to meet her friend somewhere in the middle. 

"Here you go," Manai narrates, probably unnecessarily. But at least with her, it doesn't feel so much so. 
In the meantime, Nagesh rounds up what he remembers of Modern Sect vocabulary and talks to Galaxian, "Galaxian, do you think the most prudent day to acquire materials would be a weekday rather than a weekend?"
"It'll probably help with navigating the store or stores we decide to go to," answers the god. "There's usually less people, unless there's a holiday." He stares down at his hands for a moment. "And there aren't any holidays within our time frame, so we should be okay."
"Perhaps all the other customers would leave if I stand at the entrance and give them what they desire to purchase," Nagesh speculates.
The deity grins as he looks back up. "We wanna support the economy though, not launch it into chaos."
"I could offer the store a commission for allowing me to occupy the space as the sole customer," the mage offers with a grin.
"Same point." Galaxian gives the other a playful grin. 

Manai doesn't have many apps installed, and anyways, she was considerate enough to scroll to the screen with the app. Though because the tablet is upside down, the icon she described to Laurie is technically upside down.
"The stylus is in the little slot to the right," she further prompts. 

On the other end, the conversation continues, with Chiyoko observing: "I doubt there would be any merit in reserving a store as if a hotel. It would most likely detract from the atmosphere, after all."
"That's true," Nagesh agrees. "And thereby detract from the experience."
...Why do they sound like parents planning a cross-country trip all of a sudden?

It comes out a bit larger than she intended, but otherwise it works immediately. How cool.

"Why do you sound like parents planning a cross-country trip all of a sudden?" Manai asks Nagesh and Chiyoko.
Ha.
"I disagree," Nagesh states stoically, "for the sole reason that I am not ready to accept such a level of responsibility."
"Why not?" Manai asks in a full reversal of what she was saying before. "It's not like we're hard to take care of. Right?
Nagesh just gives Chiyoko a (knowing?) grin. 

You know, funnily enough, it works. And the other letters didn't get taken away with it as well. Nice.
"You're fine regarding the interruption," Nagesh says as his version of a pardon, though he does add slyly: "Although I do advise against additional interruptions to our meaningless chit-chat. As you may recall, the motto of this meeting is to make you do all the work."
"Surely there exists a limit even to our audacity," Chiyoko chides him immediately. 
"There definitely isn't one, Chiyoko-san," Manai corrects brightly. She seamlessly follows up by suggesting, "Maybe we could just buy a buuunch of gingerbread ingredients and different types of candy decorations? Then we won't have to plan ahead of time what we want it to look like. Aesthetically and stuff."
Not gonna lie, even Nagesh is wondering how they'll transport these ingredients ahead of time. Maybe that component doesn't matter as much in terms of how genuine a gift is? It certainly does feel as if it'll be suspicious, though. 
"A template might be smart to have too, unless we want to do a bunch of math for the house's dimensions and measurements," Galaxian adds. "Or we could even use some just to build a template of different types of houses on a smaller scale and then scale one up." 

(I'm trying to imagine how this would look in real life and my gods my brain cell is already trying to implode xD like how do they even bake the gingerbread?? How do the Alternate do this lol)

"I assume so," Nagesh states.
"We won't need big baking appliances," Galaxian adds, probably going through his own little brainstorming process. "We'll just need to apply the heat well."
"I don't mind doing math, by the way," Manai says, mostly to him. Probably because he mentioned it a few seconds ago. "That way we'll waste less ingredients. Do you guys have any types of candy that you'd like for the house? Or maybe any features you'd like to try making?" 

"I like chocolate candy canes and how they look," Galaxian offers, very characteristically. "Maybe we could put them outside by the house, near the door or something. If it doesn't seem too extra. And maybe we could decide possible aesthetics ahead of time, like if we want there to be snow on the rooftops and chimney."
...is it even possible to make a gingerbread house without the snow element? The narrator wonders.

"Marshmallows? Cotton candy?" Chiyoko offers.
Presumably she's talking about white cotton candy. Or else it wouldn't make as much sense.
"Snow is technically edible," Galaxian points out.
...and I was going to say that he's somewhat rational.
"You mean edible snow, Galaxian?" Manai asks.
He nods, not actually getting it.
"We could use 'frosting' and 'fondant' to imitate the texture of snow, though I hear the latter is best used in small quantities," suggests Nagesh. "If I do recall correctly, marshmallows and cotton candy are more clustered together, so perhaps they could imitate snow piles on the ground rather than on the house."

"That's true!" Galaxian realizes, clapping his hands together. (The motion doesn't make much noise.) "Snow is basically liquid, isn't it? I can't believe I didn't think about that!"
"Well, it would perhaps be good to have a balance of flavor," Chiyoko suggests. But for some reason, her impeccable expression gives away some semblance of doubt. 

“I would like to ask for any opinions on aesthetics ahead of time,” Nagesh states, “for the sole purpose of efficiency and not purchasing the full spectrum of the rainbow. In addition to some further hues.”
“Imagine we made a gingerbread house and it comes out just as different shades of grey,” says Manai, starting to imagine it already. “Wouldn’t that be dreary?”
Galaxian kind of just freezes. Uh oh, it looks like their new guests might have some peculiar tastes. 
“It would indeed seem very unconventional,” Nagesh agrees. The agreement seems to come a little faster than usual. 
Chiyoko says, “I am fine with any aesthetic as long as it fits the theme of this project.”
“She likes pastel cotton candy but isn’t sure if it will work in this context,” Manai translates to Laurie. Impressive.
“Maybe we can buy some as a snack,” she adds with all the excitement of a little kid at a carnival.  

"That's practically your aesthetic," Manai teases her. 

"I dunno." She tilts her head before grinning again. "Knock, knock?"
"For some reason, I am more inclined to think 'red velvet cupcake' from the color description provided," Chiyoko murmurs to Nagesh, who probably shouldn't be able to hear her from that distance but still does. He gives her a grin as well. 

"A temple then," she offers, putting one hand next to the side of her head as a joke.
"You do not know what a red velvet cupcake is?" Chiyoko is asking Nagesh, which probably means that they're not talking about anything important.
Galaxian is staring into the void. Probably means that he's taking the moment to quickly look at the outer world. Funny how he's not the one who started this latest bout of distraction.