"We use a phone app to buy a ticket. The train can know if there isn't anyone waiting to get on if nobody has a ticket from a particular station, so it knows to skip over that station."

"It's not really a city park. It's on the outskirts, where you don't have to think about land costs."

There are lots of paths, some of them straight, and others more curved. There's people walking around, most in gym clothes, a few boys and girls in white skirts. Further away, a group of people in SCUBA gear, standing on a pier next to lake, are walking around in their wetsuits and tanks.

There's a huge variety of animals, like birds and cats. Most intriguingly, there's something like a combination between a peacock and a turkey that can occasionally be seen among the flowers, with a beautiful plume of red, blue and yellow colors.

"Check. It's interesting to get all the way to the outskirts via subway."

(Internal monologue: Oh no what if I'll make them feel bad by not being excited about these excitingy naturey things.)

"Oh is wearing skirts not gendered here? Are the animals naturally occuring, that one with colored plumes looks really unique?"

Is the park smelling like anything? Are there any noises besides things that can be seen?

"Well, skirts aren't gendered, no. They're part of school uniforms because uniforms put comfort first. Thomassian clothing, especially formal clothing, is kind of built around the idea of vulnerability + comfort, and skirts get you both."

"Most of the animals are natural! But we had to breed the big, colorful animal you're talking about. We actually call it a decorator bird!"

The park smells like fresh grass and delicious food, including BBQ and a bakery. There is the occasional moment of birdsong, but the park is unusually quiet beyond that.

"Vulnerability seems like an interesting trait to make intentional in formal clothing. That's maybe true on Earth but only for women. And comfort is definitely not a priority for our formalwear."

"Oh that's cool!"

"It's a pretty relaxing park in any case. Could sit and walk here for a bit. And then try figuring out more things. (I'm a bit lost on how to enjoy parks in general, and especially now that I'm sort of very lost in this environment. Tips are welcome.)"

"Yeah, that'd be great! Does seeing the skirts make you want any clothes of your own? Buying clothes has gotten very cheap; maybe you have some ideas for designs?"

"On my end, I mostly use parks for socializing or working out. A lot of people like doing scuba diving with treasure hunting, but I think it's fun to just enjoy the weather with friends."

"Oh. That could be interesting. I enjoy many kind of skirts and dresses. Often in blue, black, and white but other colors can be interesting as well. A-line and otherwise fluffy skirts are nice. I like comfortable top parts, many kind of t-shirts work well but I'd be interested in what's on offer here."

"And well. That makes sense. I mostly don't work out, altough I should. Socializing in parks is nice. And enjoying weather is nice, altough I'm a bit picky about weather sometimes."

"Ooh, I'm curious to see what you end up coming up with at the tailor! Although a t-shirt sounds slightly bland, being honest."

"You should try a gacha gym if you don't work out enough! And you're right about socializing in parks, there are so many people to meet!"

"Oh you use tailors for making common clothing?"

"And I guess I probably should. I have a lot of emotional baggage regarding excercise because I've tried it a bunch of times and failed."

"I've mostly been to things like picnics with friends. Do you also like go chat up people you didn't know beforehand in parks?"

"Well, we have the tailors doing the measurements and advising you. We have automated cutting and sewing machines that fly through clothes, so it's not a particularly labor-intensive thing to make."

"Well, I think it'd help a lot if you had a buddy to help you out and motivate you when you exercise!"

"I don't chat up people much, really. But basically, if you sit on a bench and make eye contact with someone, that shows you're receptive. So it lets me encourage people to chat me up. I've had some really fantastic conversations doing this!"

"I guess that makes sense if you have automated cutting to measures. On Earth we just mass produce stock clothing and it's not uncommon for some people to not find well fitting ones."

"Plausible but uncertain. But I guess I can give it a change!"

"Hm. That's again pretty interesting. Nice to hear you've had fantastic conversations!"

Viola lets her eyes wander in the park a bit. It is actually very relaxing. And the situation will take a lot of adjusting. Also she's becoming a bit anxious about the fact that she's unable to connect to her friends or partner in any way. But the relaxing environment does help a bit. It doesn't seem like being less relaxed will solve anything better, in any case.

Eventually, a woman in a wetsuit approaches Cynthia.

"You sound like you'd be happy to hear me talk on and on! Anyway, I just dived hunting some of the new treasure chests, and hunting them down was awesomely fun! Do you want to see the video I recorded of everything?"

"Well, I'm not in the mood right now. But I'm really curious about how they were placed around!"

"They had this really pretty artificial shipwreck. I think it was so nice to see some of the props they had placed there, like they had a whole pirate captain's log placed next to the wheel. And it really felt like you were taken back in history, when people sailed in wooden ships like that."

This seems complicated weird. People are setting up artificial shipwrecks as treasure hunts? Perhaps some sort of puzzle games you do while also diving? Maybe it is the fun weird?

"Hey! I'm a visitor from far away. Do you enjoy the diving or historic immersion more? An entire captain's log as a prop does sound really cool! And a shipwreck as a prop too."

"You know, I can't decide! I feel like I like both about 50/50. And the shipwreck was made from kinda fake-looking plastic, to be clear. But it's still super-fun to do it! Do you have underwater scavenger hunts like that where you're from?"

"Well if we have I have not heard of those. I haven't done any sort of scavenger hunts."

"Huh, I guess you wouldn't have. I think that's something you should try!" The woman walks off. Lots of other people walk by, talking to both Cynthia and Viola.

"I think it's starting to be time to head home; I'm getting quite hungry." Cynthia takes the lead, and leads Viola back through the parking lot before finally ending up back in her apartment.

"I'll be ordering some food. I'm expecting you to want something, too?"

Hm. Chatting with the passerbys was surprisingly enkoyable.

"Yes absolutely. Thank you." delivered with a smile again.

"I like hot food but I'm not too picky. I'd prefer something vegetarian since I haven't yet completely figured out what to feel regarding the wireheading."

She gets wondering: what does the kitchen look like. Does it look like it's equipped / regularly used for cooking or mostly for eating ordered food.

"The obvious option for going vegetarian would be some chickpeas in spicy sauce. I'll order that, unless you have something more specific in mind. And some soy-sauce chicken for myself; I really think wireheading is OK, but I can see why you wouldn't know what to think."

The kitchen has nothing but a microwave, plates, bowls and cutlery. There are a few microwave accessories here and there, but it's obvious that they see little use.

"Sure! That sounds good."

"Do you have anything in mind you'd like to talk about before food arrives?"

"Well. since you'll presumably be living here, I'm curious about what you're thinking in terms of living arrangements? This is very possibly the most expensive city in the world, so you might maybe want to live somewhere where costs are lower. What kinds of features are you thinking about for your apartment, eventually? Like a jacuzzi or real pool?"

Whatt.

"Um. Yeah presumably if there's no way back I'll be living here. I guess the city options depend also on my job prospects, but if I'm going to be taking things slow and trying to figure out how your society ticks that will take a while in any case. So probably more effective to go somewhere cheaper to like read a bunch of books and news and the internet."

"I like big windows. Does this place have popular / economic shapes and room counts for apartments or how does that work? In any case I'd maybe like a room configuration with:

- a kitchen

- a living room (preferably with a nice view and a big window to something I like to stare at like a busy street or a body of water) 

- a study / work room (if I work remotely, but I'd prefer to have a study in any case)

- a bedroom

but if if's expensive I'd compromise about the study.

I've never really thought about having a pool. I'm more used to saunas in apartments. I'm interested in trying out having a jacuzzi. How common is that here? And having like a swimming pool would be a very luxury apartment thing in my world. Altough sometimes apartment building have shared pools.

I usually like clean looking interior bases (pretty basic / mild colours, like white, light brown, light blue, light grey), that I can add some busy to with my stuff and things like art and photos on the walls.

I like functional furniture.

I guess in general since I wouldn't moving with my old stuff this would be a change to do something interesting with furniture that would've been a waste of money before. Hm."

"Oh, oh, not swimming pool! Just a pool built into the floor of the bath. It's closer to a jacuzzi sans bubbles! It's very slightly like a sauna, actually. They're really common; all the nicer kinds of apartments have a bath with a pool you climb down into, instead of just a tub. I also like the simpler colors, myself. And all our furniture is extremely functional."

"Apartments like mine, we call them 1+1 apartments, are really the most standard size for people living by themselves, like me. Beyond that, we like to make it so everyone gets their own bedroom and en-suite bathroom, unless they're a couple, of course. We have put in a lot of effort in making housing as economical as it could possibly be, so everyone gets lots of space."

I think the biggest issue might be the study room. Or kitchen, even. Because we just use the mainroom for everything, and everyone just does food delivery. The good news is that modern plastic windows are ultra-cheap! So you can get places with essentially windows that take up the entire wall. As well as polarization filters for privacy, of course."

"If you're looking for somewhere near a body of water, there are lots of tendrils built to maximize the coastline. So there's a huge amount of beachfront property, if that's a feature you're looking for."

"Hmm that does seem sensible. Thanks for all the information."

There's a brief pause and Viola's expression becomes significantly less enthusiastic. And more sad.

"Umm. I feel pretty rude bringing this up. I wouldn't normally say any of this to somebody I met within the last day. And I have to say you have been very friendly and accomodating here. So thanks for that. But um. I'm having a lot of feelings right now. Like way more than is baseline for me." 

"I'm missing a lot of people from Earth. I normally message my loved ones a bunch of times each day. And I can't do it from here. And it's still very unclear to me if I could get back soon or ever. This place has seemed very nice but um. I have this feeling that Earth needs me. I guess it's also possible I could do something useful here or be needed but it'd take a bunch of time for that to become salient."

"I'm also feeling a bit um. Economically unsure. If I had like a bank account and a date for my next UBI payment that would be helpful. Or even like just applied for citizenship and then got the info for how long processing will take. Also I would prefer to know where I'll be sleeping. I don't want to intrude too much but if you're willing to host or help me figure out what to do with that that'd be really helpful. I'm just not feeling like I know what tomorrow or next week will look like for me right now and I have a hard time with that."

Tears are forming on Violas face.

"I'm really sorry for this. You were really accomodating and I wanted and tried really hard to be an enthusiastic guest but I guess it's not really something I can achieve with just effort with this big of an environment change. I think you're being really friendly and I'm really thankful for all this."

"You'll sleep in my bed, tonight. I have a sleeping bag; it's designed for in case I want to have guests over. What tomorrow, or next week, or hell, next month will look like, is you, sprawled out on your bed."

"You must miss everyone so bad. You need time to rest and cry and let everything out. I'll give you that."

Cynthia opens the door to her bedroom, revealing a king-sized bed in a compact room. There's a light in the ceiling, currently faint enough that it's easy on the eyes. "This will be yours. This is private space, that you'll have just to yourself."

She's definitely not... yeah no okay that makes sense. She wasn't suggesting Viola would sleep with Cynthia in her bed.

"Wow. That is a sizeable bed. Will you be comfortable enough with you sleeping bag? But thanks. This should help."

"I feel pretty awkward asking about this but can I also have a hug?"

"All the hugs you could ever want!" Cynthia opens her arms to embrace Viola.

"And yes, I'll feel great in my sleeping bag. Sometimes I try sleeping in it just for the novelty and because it sometimes makes me wake up full of energy."