Nature for Everyone Paths are a pride of the municipalities maintaining them: not-too-steep ramps, helicopter rescue clearings, unobtrusive shelters, inviting ablution blocks and binoculars to get a better view in scenic areas are just some of the amenities they wish to offer. And in caves like these, mini-museums, free maps, art murals and protection from rain are just some of the nice things they can have. The one in this cave, Corner M3K9 Cave, has a cozy and messy mix of all these things, meant to look like a child having just played with them for anyone walking past it.
"Are there any clothes it'd make sense for you to get, you think? You'd want a mask, at least, if you want to do the 'pretend there's an illness around' thing."
Cynthia flashes Kellen a wry smile, before standing up to do some more stretches. They include bending over.
"Or maybe you're curious about what kind of clothes we tend to wear? Hmm..."
“A mask, yes”, he nods, “I want to do that. Oh, and is the holiday today?”
Kellen looks away for a moment when she stands up but he’s pretty calm overall now that he knows Cynthia is comfortable being seen in those clothes.
“Learning more is good. I saw many skirts yesterday…?”
"I don't know yet, it'd be a bit unlikely though. But so would an actual pandemic, so that's no excuse to be unprepared!"
"Yes, there are a lot of skirts, and there's supppsed to be a 'proper' way to wear them. But adults mostly do pants or leggings, they're a bit more practical. I wear dresses a lot, but that's for work reasons. And there are people who wear formalwear masks all the time! But that's mostly professors or people with fancy jobs."
Kellen nods again as she explains. "How do dresses have work reasons for you? And what are formalwear masks like? Is it... like a uniform?", he has to look up that last word.
"Ahh, formalwear masks!" Cynthia finds an image of a fursuit head. It's a blue and white antropomorphic wolf, with very large green eyes. "And about my dress... well, I have to look different to doctors and nurses, so I wear a dress because it'd be too impractical for them, so they'd never wear one. And because they make me look so much better and I love that!"
He does not understand how those masks relate to the fancy jobs unless it's a prize things. It isn't an important thing to understand though, so he'll leave it be.
"The dress makes sense, then. It's also good that you love it!"
Cynthia runs over to her closet, revealing several different kinds of dress; most of them are black, with some in white or in a similar color as her skin. Cynthia begins by quickly putting on one of the shorter black dresses, quickly pulling it over her head and getting her arms through the sleeves. It reaches to a bit above her knees, with an elaborate lace pattern all over it. "Like how this makes me look?" She spins around to let Kellen see all angles.
Kellen isn't much into fashion (yes, he does braid some of his hair but that doesn't mean he's interested in clothing) but he can still appreciate how nice Cynthia looks. Which is also positively influenced by how happy she looks.
He nods, "You look very pretty."
"Thank you!" she says. "Wanna see me put on something else? I haven't made up my mind about what to have on for today, so I'll try on a few other dresses and see how I feel about them."
He nods again, as long as Cynthia was already likely going to try on multiple dresses and/or she is enjoying this, it's no like he has much else to do. And this is kind of fun! Cynthia looks cute in any dresses.
Cynthia tries on several different dresses for Kellen, in different colors and with larger and smaller sheer areas, including one particularly attention-grabbing black dress with a mesh layer revealing a lot of Cynthia's back. She decides to settle on a close-fitting short dress, in blue and white. "I think you'd want to get a mask and a phone today, probably a change of clothes? Is there anything else you think it'd make sense to get?"
"I don't know enough to think of anything... I will tell you if I see or think of anything?", Kellen replies, shrugging.
Cynthia starts taking the elevator down, heading all the way down to the subway before starting to make up her mind about where to go. "There's a museum of transportation, with many different kinds of cool trains and cars! Let's try that one today."
“Do we do that first? Or buy the things? Has the holiday ever started half-day? If yes, we should go shopping first so I have a mask if it is today.”
"I think it'd make more sense to buy things on the way back, and we only start the holiday very early in the day, so we don't need to rush to buy a mask. So I think the shopping should be last, but shopping first is fine if you like that more."
"Yes, let's go there!" It's a bit more of a ride than the last museum they went to, but they get there in good time. Outside is a bit humid, which thankfully drops off completely when they get inside. Right inside the museum, they can see an incredibly wide locomotive, looming imposingly over them. Cynthia points at it excitedly. "That's how large our biggest trains get! We have very few places that have trains big like these."