"Sure, I'll get a car ready for once we get down." Ron leads Judith into the elevator, tapping a few times on his phone. When the duo heads outside, a huge car, tall enough for a short person to stand inside and long enough for 3 rows of seats with decadent legroom, is waiting for them. The sliding doors reveal the seats, and Ron makes his way to the middle row, motioning for Judith to sit on the rear row.

"Extremely unnecessary, but I still think they're stupidly fun."

"...does this normally take more people?" she asks, climbing in the back of the contraption, which she guesses is a bit like a wagon, but more like an entire room on wheels for some reason.

"About half the time. The other half it just carries one person. So they don't have to put their legs together and have lots of room for all their stuff and can shift positions without bumping into anyone else. It's mostly a symbolic gesture, really."

While all the fancy buildings and medical technology and flying had been a clue, Judith had not yet really appreciated just how incredibly wealthy this society was until this moment.

She gently runs her hand over the material of the seat, wondering if it feels even more luxurious without the quarantine gloves.

"Feels nice to have room, eh?" Ron ostentatiously puts his arms to the side, showing off how he can sit in any way he wants without worrying about intruding on the space of anyone next to him, as they finish the (rather short) trip to the nearest park.

After getting to the park, Judith can immediately see a group of boys and girls wearing white skirts, climbing in squat trees with many wide branches that make them easy to climb.

An entire room that just - moves. At least the helicopter had some kind of sycamore-seed arrangement on top that made sense...

At least the park has some nice normal things, like grass, and trees, and kids who are going to get grass stains on their nice white skirts.

"Is there some kind of - protocol, for meeting people at a park? I'm sure everyone will be gracious and forgiving from what I've seen so far, but..."

"No protocol, no. Just ask questions that they'd be happy to answer, no need to introduce yourself." One of the kids then falls off the branch, but manages to land on his feet, so he doesn't hurt himself anywhere. He mumbles and grumbles in annoyance.

Aww, that's cute.

She doesn't really want to talk to kids though, she's never been good with children. Are there - paths, some kind of map, a general feel of the layout?

Yes, there's 4 different paths, getting ever more complicated and winding, with the closest one the most direct. Looking ahead reveals a bed of flowers, ponds with people sitting on benches or swimming in the water, beautiful trees, colorful turkeys (?), and an adorably cute statue of a sleeping faun with knitting sticks instead of antlers placed on a white pedestal. People are enjoying runs, talking to each other, listening to public readings, having picnics and enjoying the weather in all sorts of ways. The park doesn't quite reach the horizon, but it goes nearly as far as the eye sees, before leading up to another near-wall of white skyscrapers.

Ooh, a statue!

Judith heads over to the statue to admire the artistry and maybe find someone else looking at it, so she can practice asking someone (who isn't Ron or the very obliging Mr H) something.

A woman pushing a baby on a stroller is looking at the statue, with some level of reverence. "To Commemorate The Lives of Mothers who'd Have Died but for the Heroic Efforts of Doctors" is what's engraved on the pedestal. She smiles before making her way past Judith, slightly amused by her PAPR mask.

Judith smiles back, which is hopefully correct etiquette? She was going to ask what the symbolism of the knitting needles was, but that feels like a bad question to ask someone who actually has a baby with them.

Maybe someone less attached to a child will come by in a moment. What's the statue made of, does it have tool marks, is it white granite?

The statue has 0 tool marks, somehow! And it's actually made from white granite, rather than marble or any other kind of rock. Another woman, this one wearing leggings, decides to stop for a moment to admire the statue.

Okay. Sure. Of course they just casually have white granite statues.

"Um, excuse me. If you don't mind me asking, do you know anything about the symbolism of the statue? I mean, it's probably meant to be cute like a little kid, but knitting needles?"

"The stereotype is that mothers like knitting, maybe even knitting baby clothes. The symbolism is a cute and vulnerable animal, that doesn't need antlers to fight off any danger, but can instead sleep soundly, knowing that it's safe and can relax and enjoy knitting instead."

"...people enjoy knitting?"

Judith had tried to learn how to knit, once. It was great for making gloves and scarfs, apparently. She was hopeless at it.

"Not anymore they don't! Now they just get the all-white baby clothes tailor-made and delivered to them. But a lot of people back then had to knit their own clothes, so the symbol lives on."

"I'm glad to hear that! I tried knitting once, but I was terrible at it. Not that, uh, I'm planning to have children any time soon..."

...could she have children here? She'd never intended to bring children into the Empire, but, they probably wouldn't send them off to war here.

"Knitting is tough! And precise! It's really stunning to think of our ancestors spending so much time creating clothes in such a laborious and tedious way. It's really almost embarrassing to consider how much clothing we have to choose from now."

"And it arrives so quickly, too!" she contributes, thinking of her tabard. Just to tack on the symbol piece would have taken Hananiah, who was much better at this than the average person, about the same amount of time as it had taken to make and deliver the whole thing.

"That's the power of machines and automation, for ya. We're slowly getting closer to those sci-fi novels where each person gets an entire floor of a building to themselves, so they have lots of space and privacy for themselves."

"It's very impressive," she says. It would be nice to have more than one room to herself, but she's not going to say that out loud, Ron has been very generous to let her stay with him at all - especially as it seems like these people have the personal space instincts of Urizeni...

"So, because I didn't want to be too direct: why are you wearing all that equipment? It's not Pandemic Awareness Day, so I'm curious why you're wearing it. Do you have a weakened immune system?"

"No, I've just come here from - a very long way away. So I've got to wear this for a few days in case I'm carrying something." She glances awkwardly at Ron in case he wants to fill in whatever details she's meant to be sharing with random people. She supposes she did announce where she came from to the entire world over the video, but clearly this woman wasn't watching, so it might not be polite to explain at length?

"Ahh, that sounds right! I really, really appreciate you taking precautions like that. And, you know, happy that people can do that without isolating themselves or wearing uncomfortable masks that make it hard to breathe. Now, off I go getting in better shape!" The woman in the leggings start running at great speed away from Judith, enjoying the spacious park that lets her run as fast as she wants.