"All right," he shrugs. "The offer stands, if you do think of something."

"I appreciate the sentiment."

"Was there anything else you wanted to ask about?"

"Some of my usual sort have trouble with the radical freedom of speech thing you find online. Freedom of speech is a thing in other contexts too but in most of those contexts people are more fettered by politeness and on the Internet they go nuts. That likely to be a shock?"

"Uh..." He has to think about it for a few seconds but then he blushes. "They should be warned, yes. I'm not sure how bad it gets to know how much of a problem it might be."

Matt nods and notes that on his phone.

"If that's all, I think we'll get going, we're on Mars time and it's getting pretty late."

"See you later!"

"Mmhmm!"

And back to Mars they go. Raafi turns in for the night; Kat takes the translation necklace and goes to check out the nightlife.

There is a silent parade with people in wacky outfits and headphones, dancing down the street and texting each other and all going SHHH if someone slips up! There are bars ("Miro's", "Extra Moon") and clubs ("Volume Up", "4S", "Trippy", "Danica's Dungeon") and house parties and a wedding reception in the park!

She dances with the parade for a little while, but ends up at Danica's Dungeon, out of curiosity at the name.

Kink club. There's a sign warning entrants that they may see fellow patrons in states of undress or other compromises of situation but assuring them that anything more violent than pinching or intimate than butt grabbing will be in a separate room. It's pretty sparsely populated right now but it does contain multiple people in the main room, snacking and flirting, though there's a notable absence of booze.

Nice. She gets some snacks and sits off to one side - not unapproachably so, but she wants to watch for a bit before she gets involved in anything.

People drift in and out of various side rooms, into and out of the club. A cleaning robot labeled SCRUBBA chugs along the floor. A guy looks Kat up and down from across the room.

She gives him a smile and nods at the empty chair at her table.

He plops down. "You're new."

"I am," she grins. "I just got into town a couple days ago."

"And the second or third thing you do is hit up a kink club? So you know, Danica doesn't like reporters."

She looks confused, briefly, and then seems to put the idea together. "No, nothing like that at all, I'm just curious what the scene is like here compared to what I'm used to."

"Where you from?"

Grin: "Oerth. Greens, specifically."

"Oh, damn. They've invented kink in Oerth?"

She laughs and pats his hand. "I'm pretty sure people have been doing kink as long as there have been people. I am curious what you've got that we don't, though."

"Couldn't tell you without knowing what you've got."

"Well, let's see if I've got the big closet memorized, then. Hm-" The closet in question seems to exist in a very well-supplied but obviously pre-industrial dungeon; the broad categories are all accounted for, but nothing that requires electricity, a motor, or materials more advanced than glass or metal. Instead, they have magic - ropes that move on their own, rings that let the wearer breathe no matter what's being done to them, various objects enchanted to turn hot or cold or grow or shrink on command, and so on.