"I think maybe the material plane's a better idea; I'm not sure I'm the right shape for this party anyway, y'know?"

"That makes perfect sense."

She pulls her hood back up and heads for a torii gate you could put a house through at the far end of the party-graveyard.

Behind them, there's a sudden outburst of enthusiastic cheering.

And then-

-They are in a city, four to six story buildings all around, crowded street, standing at the exit of a very large temple-park. Nobody seems to particularly notice a new pedestrian accompanied by (or possibly carrying) a smol fox.

"Inn? Lunch? Want to see the Glass Tower and that artifact orrery?"

"It's here?  Yes I absolutely would like to see the artifact orrery!

"...But now that I'm thinking about that I wonder if I should, if - does it only do its thing one time per person?"

"Every time you look at it! Though like many famous sights the first is special."

"Then, you know what, let's go see the orrery!  I wonder if I'll learn anything new."

(Also, yes, Megi is absolutely carrying the fox.)

Off through the busy street they go, then. There are all kinds of people- Both in terms of clothing and activity, and species, here. People who are half bird. Scaly lizard-type people. Furred people with tails and paws much further on the furry spectrum than a kitsune. Catboys. Someone with six arms. Someone with metal skin. Horses who seem like they're wearing clothes of their own accord rather than for an owner's; One of them is stacking crates via some weird hoof grip. A rich looking mermaid in an aquarium-palanquin, once. People with red skin and horns. People with purple skin and antennae. A person whose hair is on, or possibly just is, fire. A bear walking down the street on two legs wearing a monocle and a top hat. A group of hulking lizardfolk who seem to be a different variety than the more humanoid kobolds, hissing at each other animatedly in an alley.

Stores and cafes, residences and signs, traffic and noice, and a few visible police officers. Roughly half of everyone is visibly armed, roughly a tenth are wearing some sort of actual armor and many of those are acting as guards for goods or people. It's a busy city. There's a lot going on. Especially once they get to the main street.

"There it is, the famous Glass Tower!"

The Glass Tower is visible a mile away, with the street oriented directly at it. It gleams like any modern office skyscraper, something like twenty stories tall and wider around than most of those get, silver and glass standing tall and reflecting the sky and clouds, like a giant anachronism. It's not Empire State big, but for the otherwise medieval-ish visible technology level it really stands out.

"...How in the bloody fuck did a wholeass skyscraper survive the kind of shit that leaves all of the cursed shit you're still dealing with, so completely intact?"

"Oh, they've rebuilt it something like a dozen times. All that glass... Really expensive, but it's very shiny, it's one of the City of Silk's points of pride. You have to be rich and important to get to the top floors."

"...Well that's an impressive feat of engineering for people who don't have industrial metallurgy yet.  Unless you just mean the windows broke or the stuff that wasn't the steel beams got destroyed or something.  ...At least you have elevators?  ...Damn, I wish I knew how float glass worked.  I don't, though, beyond, like, the most general idea of it.  And maybe you already have that for all I know."

"Float glass sounds... Sort of familiar? Maybe one of the Otherworlders had the idea? I am not an engineer. And yes, it's cement and iron, or steel, like really important buildings- Police stations, government offices, palaces- Tend to be, at least in the foundations, at least in the big cities where everything is concentrated. The museum on the first eight floors talks all about it."

"It is not iron, iron would not be holding up to twenty stories of building on it, but yes.

"...It's kind of funny that the palaces these days are made of glass and steel.  We had palaces, but they were all - buildings built when we couldn't do skyscrapers yet.  And, damn, that's a big museum, comparatively."

"Mhm, it's huge, and has lots of fancy people's names on it. Generous benefactors and all."

Yeah, that seems about right.

"What's it a museum of?"

"Mmm... Academic things? The grand orrery is the biggest centerpiece but I really liked the hall of glass sculptures and the amphitheater where you can watch glassblowers work... There's a big collection of gold and gemstone'd things... A section that's a lot of very nice paintings... Some dioramas of famous battles and stuff like that... Oh, there was a bit about the history of the Glass City and how it built up over time, starting from the Cataclysm."

"Ooh.  ...So a museum, just in general."

"I suppose so! It's warded and there's guards especially around the gold- Not, like obviously menacing, but if you pay attention and can smell lust you can see the unobtrusive little alcoves where, one presumes, they sit shooting the shit until and unless someone gets rowdy."

The city seems to be getting nicer closer to the Glass Tower. Cleaner, more paint and colors, more silk strewn everywhere as hangings and curtains.

"...I see the tourism bureau really wants to paint a particular image with this part of the city," she quips.

"...Tourism bureau? Well, this is the rich part of town. Well, the rich but not your own private manor rich. Upper middle class. I got my favorite hand fan at that shop right there-" It has big glass windows showing wooden mannikins wearing a variety of outfits. Lots of robe-type things. "I should maybe get a backup tailbrush while I'm here..."

(A group of birdfolk all land in the middle of the road together somewhere up ahead a bit, causing the crowd to mill around in consternation, stopping their walk for a moment as the foot traffic snarls. There's some sort of argument going on, after they do land, but the crowd suddenly compressing through the street blocks a clear view.)

"-Oh dear."

"...Here, get me up somewhere so I can see -"

"Ooh, okay. On three! A one, a two, and a three-"

She flings Alicia lightly up onto a cloth balcony sticking out from a building. It holds her fox-sized weight easily but is a bit hard to walk on.

The scene as seen from an improved angle is a smug looking bird guy with red feathers, flanked by two others, gesturing wildly at a more bedraggled looking bird guy with mostly orange and a chip out of their beak. It looks kind of like a stereotypical bullying scene. Fragments of words: "Honor- -Last time you- -my family-"

"Oh goddammit when did I miss the genre transition to xianxia, because that is a stereotypical young master out to grind the boot into someone's face quite possibly just for existing inconveniently.  Fucking hell.  This seems like it's going to get violent unless somebody does something."

"...Fuck, am I somebody?"

"I'm somebody! A priestess, even." She calls up, skirting closer to the side of the road to get out of the way "Or we can let the watchdogs sort it out. Not our problem."

(There are indeed a squad of three black-uniformed people with black batons and round black hats, pushing through the crowd from the other direction. They carry themselves like annoyed cops, but they have more people to push through.)

...She's going to get close and if it looks like they're going to escalate she is going to make a loud noise and hope that they stop.  Other ideas will be deployed as she has them.

It looks like some kind of distraction is going to be necessary to keep this from escalating, yeah. The victim is just glowering quietly, and the bully is getting angrier and- Oh, there comes the guy with two goons challenging the other guy to a duel! 

She yaps loudly to interrupt and hisses at Richy McYoungMaster.  If that doesn't buy enough time she may have to jump on this fucker.