According to the front desk clerk, it's a school day and most children 12 to 6 are in class, while younger ones are likely in their clan compounds being looked after by their caregivers. She has in fact seen the occasional tween or teen around, but they seem to not be treated much differently from any other adult; many of them have been out and about unaccompanied with no obvious minder. One of the women in the park was around twelve perhaps but was deeply engaged in reading a fantasy novel. 

Right, clan compounds. That has parent city vibes to Cynthia. They sound rather private, and like she'd have to know someone first before being allowed to take a look! But meeting someone new here is something she'd want to do sooner rather than later anyway. 

Any particular place she'd like to look to get to know someone? There are classified ads online, interest forums, meet-up groups for various activities... Many options, just in general. 

Finding someone else similarly curious about urban living technology would be wonderful! She starts looking Around, wanting to meet someone in person if that's possible. 

Urban living technology doesn't seem to be a heavy interest group - there's some amount of discussion, but the large discussion groups seem to be for artistry rather than engineering, particularly writing. There is a "get to know the hex system" day hike group that's meeting in a few hours though; does that interest her at all?

That's OK. They might think it's fun to hear about how her old world has a ton of museums where you learn about how the world has gotten as nice as it is, and also the way that they like making high-density living nice and see it as a kind of challenge.

They're meeting three hexes up the blue line and one hex up the green line. She'll have to make a train transfer on the way over.

She can probably handle it! And the train is probably going to be cool too.

It's a bit smaller than the trains she's used to from home, but quite fast. Crowded, too; it seems there are a lot of people coming and going most of the time. 

The bottom floor of this skyscraper complex seems to be a small history museum. The current exhibit is on the Apophine culture of around three thousand years ago. 

Three thousand years ago? There weren't many fun inventions to make life easier back then... Cynthia waits patiently for the group.

Indeed. Mostly only persines for food and the occasional nomadic herders, back that far. 

Eventually a man shows up, pince-nez balanced on his nose; he waves to her and goes back to his phone. A half-dozen more people trickle in over the next half hour, until what looks like a proper hiking group has formed. Most people are wearing actual heavy boots and practical pants, or else leggings under their skirt. 

"Alright," says the leader of the group. "Welcome to the hiking group, I'm Clarity Baker, I run this group every wednesday for those of you who don't know me. We're doing the west arc rivercourse today, so I hope you came prepared for a little wet ground. Those of you with regular shoes may have to stick a little closer to the trails today. I see we have a few new people -" She looks over at Cynthia. "- and a few new facets -" She looks over at the man, who's wearing a pink-glowing bracelet on his right wrist. "There'll be a little time to stop along the hike so feel free to chat among yourselves in the downtime, there will be some lovely river views to look at. While I understand the urge to take photographs, I'd encourage you all to try to immerse yourself in the moment rather than trying desperately to document it for later; some things are ephemeral by nature. I take enough photos at my job, personally. Anyway, I'm going to do a quick whip through the group and see which facets everyone's bringing today - let's start with our new member. Welcome to the tour group!" She smiles at Cynthia. "Please introduce yourself and tell us a surprising fact about yourself." 

"I'm Lovemaker 344193 Cynthia, and I wasn't born on this planet!"

Everyone looks at her with surprise. Clarity's first to recover. "Oh! Remarkable, I had heard about the transfer programs on the news but I didn't expect to run into someone from offworld on a hiking trip! I'll try not to bombard you with questions, but if you have anything more you'd like to share by all means feel free!" 

"Well, I think that the inventions that make life in cities like these possible are wonderful and great fun to learn about! Things like sewage system, elevators and trains."

"They really are quite lovely, aren't they? Little-appreciated wonders of the modern age. The hex system gets some praise in the news now and then but mostly you know it's worked because it's relatively uncontroversial these decades later. It makes me laugh thinking of what our grandparents went through in the restructuring. All their headaches and debates for a single solution to be adopted almost universally in the end." 

"Indeed," says the pince-nez'd man. "It's a wonder how much the world's changed in a few generations. Spiritualism used to be a much more accepted practice until the links with psychosis were conclusively demonstrated; it used to be state-endorsed, even. Nowadays that's completely outside the range of acceptable attitudes. Much has changed, some for good, some for middling, some maybe not so well. It's the very serious people's job to decide these things, but sometimes I wonder if my calling wasn't politics after all."

"Ah, I see Elm's forwards today. Yeah, thinking about all the history can really make your head spin." 

"The speed of change can be very mind-bending! That being said, how do we start this tour?"

"Ah, it's a walking tour down to the river taking an established set of hiking paths. North, then north-east along the river boardwalk, then to the artificial sandbars for a rest and then on to the west to take in the marshlands. About two hours' walk all told." 

"And is now when we're starting?"

"In five minutes, actually, just to give a little time for stragglers. Hence the introductions!" 

Five minutes isn't long to wait at all!

Clarity goes around the circle and everyone introduces themselves.

"Elm, of the Hearttree. Cyan." 

"Valerie of the Operating System. Violet." 

"Eris, of the Chaotic System. Pink." 

"Swinton Jones, I'm un-faceted." 

"I'm Eidelweiss and this is my Kept, Holly. We're both violet at the moment."

Clarity closes the discussion with "And I'm Clarity Baker and I'm a spark! Doing things like this, showing people new things, is my enra, so I really hope you all enjoy the tour. Now let's get going!"  

And she sets a steady walking pace towards the exit to the outdoors. 

Cynthia follows Clarity, paying close attention to everyone.