The researchers respond quite fast. They think Emily is weird enough that it seems quite likely that she did come from another world, as opposed to somehow hallucinating an entire life that left her with such extremely limited familiarity with thomassia. When it comes to the masks, they are commonly custom-made, just like thomassian clothing; the most common design is a form-fitting mask of transparent fabric, to be worn in ordinary situations.

To be safer, and especially if you're working long hours in hospitals, positive-pressure masks that constantly push air away to keep any viruses away from your mouth and nose are incredibly common; they're seen as more breathable and helps prevent people that are around sick people all day from getting infected, but they have batteries that need to be changed and keep track of, so they're a bit less convenient. There are also "formal" masks, which for some reason involve hiding a bunch of fans and filters inside an anthropomorphic animal head with disproportionately large eyes.

She scrolls through the formal masks with increasingly wide eyes herself.

The idea that these count as formal wear — and, therefore, are presumably okay to wear anytime she wants, even if people think she's being oddly formal — is amazing. The idea of walking down the street, knowing that nobody can see her, and she doesn't need to think about her face ...

She needs a mask. But if they're custom fit, she can't just order them — it's a chicken and egg problem, at least until she's not sick.

She contents herself with scrolling through designs. She doesn't know if she needs a mask that has too much assisted breathing hardware — what if it breaks while she's wearing it? — and it's probably best to get one that is as light as possible, so that it's comfortable to wear for a long time.

She likes the ones with feathers.

She saves a few images of pretty blue formal masks to her phone, and slips into sleep dreaming about anthropomorphic animals.

When she wakes, she feels ... not much better and not much worse. Which isn't great — she thinks that's a long time to be sick? But there's not much she can do about it.

The humidifier maybe makes her eyes feel a little better, but she isn't really sure.

She checks where nearby she can get a mask made, and spoons disconsolately at her breakfast soup. ... maybe she should try some of their other foods, actually. She likes the soup, but she might have had enough for now. She finishes it anyway, but resolves to order something else for dinner.

About half-way through the afternoon, she suddenly starts feeling hot and breaks out in a sweat. She throws off her blankets and fans herself to cool down. Checking with the thermometer a few minutes later, she sees that she no longer counts as having a fever.

She alerts the researchers, so they have an idea of how long it was, lowers the temperature on the apartment, and takes a long shower. Then she fumbles all of the sheets off of the bed, and new ones on, and crawls in to sleep again.

Her sleep is much better, now that she is not bouncing between being over- and under- heated. She sleeps for longer than is entirely reasonable, but still wakes with the sun, feeling better than she has in days.

And maybe the sensible thing to do is rest. But she has been resting for days, and she feels better, even if she doesn't know whether she can get anyone sick still. She wants to go out and commission a mask.

She asks the researchers whether they think she can still get people sick, and if she should stay in for a while. And then she realizes that they probably don't need to fit all the masks, and maybe she could order a temporary one.

A standard-size transparent everyday mask can easily be bought; it's not the default option, but ready-to-wear clothes like that still have tons of options.

Okay, cool. She will order in a temporary mask, pick out a shirt, realize she really should shower, shower, get distracted in the shower wondering about whether the choice of animal means anything, get dressed, and head out.

Even the transparent temporary mask is kind of nice, although it feels a little awkward on her face.

She makes her way to the mask place, and then stands in front of it for a moment, admiring the displays.

There are a bunch of photos of fursuits, as well. And photos of their complicated internal wiring and cool electronics. But the big highlight is the display of "formal masks", in all kinds of colors and designs. Entering, there's a button that you press to let the mask maker know that there's a customer waiting; the button starts glowing, and after a few minutes, a woman walks out wearing what looks like a gym outfit, with a few pieces of fluff stuck to her clothes. "Hello! What can I do for you?"

"Hello!" Emily responds. "I was hoping to commission a formal mask. Only — I'm from another world, and so I'm not very familiar with what the different, like, kinds of mask mean. And I might have some unusual requirements."

She taps her fingers together, and then puts her hands in her pockets.

"So I was hoping that you could make me a custom one," she explains.

"Custom how? Do you have ideas for features in it, or are you thinking about how it looks?"

"Well, sort of ideas for features to take out? But also looks," she replies. "I don't really see why they need to have fans in them, or anything. It seems like it would make them more prone to breaking down, and then you would need to take them off to breathe anyway. But I would like it if the air could still be filtered, for when I get sick."

"As for looks — I really liked some of the fancier ones. And I like blue: the sort of deep, vibrant blue that you get on peacocks. But that seems like a ... more normal sort of thing to ask for. And I want it to fit my face, of course."

She glances down at her feet for a moment.

"I ... want to wear it a lot. Like all day whenever I need to be outside. So it has to be comfy."

"Hmm... I worry about getting you all 3? So, the thing that makes most sense is to have a system that's unfiltered and unpowered, and a system that's both. The first ones get used on most days, with the other one reserved for when you're sick, which shouldn't be all that often, should it? So... I think the best place to start is with the powered and filtered system, it's the bulkiest, and then the all-day, no battery system. And before that, you'll need to get a face scan! I currently have a job putting together a mask for someone else, but I can afford a break right now, just to get you scanned and to try out support skeletons at the very start. Sound good?" She gets ready to walk off and find her face scanner.

That sort of assumes some amount of background knowledge, but it's an expert in a hurry saying it and it sounds reasonable.

"Sure, sounds good!"

She nods at Emily, walking out and quickly coming back with what looks like a laser pointer. "Ideally, you should sit down, and try keeping your head as still as possible." There's a chair that looks like a combination of an office chair and a hammock in the lobby.

"... I should have thought ahead. I was sick until recently, and I don't know if I'm still infectious."

She gestures at her face. "Hence the mask. Do I need to take it off for the scan, and is that okay?"

"Well, yes to both! I'll get my own mask to be safe; don't worry about it too much." She runs off, coming back dressed in a purple fursuit head with two large, cute eyes. "You can take off your mask now, I'm safe behind mine!" she says, her voice only slightly muffled.

She pulls it off and does her best to hold still.

She points the face scanner at Emily for a few seconds, then walks around and uses it to scan her entire head. "That was the scan done, and now I'll be running the support skeleton through the 3D printer. I'll come back when we're both ready to start testing how it fits."

Emily pulls her mask back up.

"Okay, thank you."

And then she will just wait, she supposes. She starts off looking around at some of the things on display, but after a few minutes she pulls out a book to read while she waits.

It's probably 45 minutes before she comes back. She still has her "formal mask" on. "I'm basically done until the client comes over. Now, let's try out this support skeleton." She brings out a plastic bit of scaffolding that fits around Emily's head. The plastic is very thin, and it digs into her slightly in a few places, but it mostly sits on her collarbone and it feels like it weighs nearly nothing. "The first drafts are always too tight; can you point to me where you feel it dig into your skin? It's supposed to be comfortable all day, after all, so the fit has to be very precise. It can't be too loose either, or you won't get the right weight distribution."

"That makes sense," Emily agrees. She points out the spots that are most uncomfortable, and then starts making some faces to feel how that changes things, before realizing that she's making faces in front of the mask-maker and looking away in embarrassment.

She nods at Emily. "I'll expand the skeleton a bit, around the spots you indicated; it's probably just three more rounds of fit-testing, max. I'll get the printer started." She walks off, coming with the bright red tiger fursuit head she was working on. She hands it over to a boy Emily's age, who had walked into her store. He is not wearing a blue skirt, unlike many of the other boys that Emily has seen, instead he's wearing what looks like a pair of bike shorts. "I hope you're happy with the design changes!" she says, and he walks off gently smiling at her.

She wasn't expecting so many rounds of fitting — but, then again, she didn't really come into this with any particular expectations. And she doesn't have anything to do today, so she's content to wait.

She returns to her book.

The woman comes back with a different support skeleton; this one fits basically perfectly around Emily's head. "So, that's the skeleton that supports the formal mask seemingly done, unless you feel any pressure points. What kind of creature do you want your mask to be of? You said you liked the fancier ones; can you show me images on your phone, for example?"

Emily nods, feeling how the skeleton sits against her skin.

She shows some pictures she saved while looking through masks earlier. She has primarily been drawn to birds, although the occasional fox or dog is also included. It may become clear after a few examples that Emily's definition of "fancy" means "blue" and possibly also "detailed". She likes when there is some additional ornamentation besides the fur or feathers.

The woman strokes her chin. "I think I see what you're aiming for. I'll grab my tablet, and try finding a design you'd like." She grabs a tablet from another room, quickly scrolling through it to find some images of fursuit heads with a bird design, mostly in blue, including a few that are reminiscet of a peacock. "Are you thinking you want something like one of these?" she asks. "I'm thinking of using one of these as a base, and coming up with some designs on top, and then you pick the one you like best. Sound good?"

Emily smiles.

"Yeah!" she agrees. "That looks perfect."