Is Raafi folding himself into outfits yet, they want to see that.

Raafi has finished being measured and is talking to the seamstress about what kind of outfit he wants. He's been paying enough attention to the conversation that when he notices their attention, he asks if they want to see him in the snake shirt.

Yes they do!!

The assistant brings it over and Raafi ducks into the changing room to put it on.

    "You know, it's not that bad?" the prince says when he gets back out. "The grey looks good with your hair."

"Really."

        "Yeah, I see it," the assistant adds. "Of course you'd need the rest of the ensemble."

"Why don't we get to see you fold up? That's what sounded so interesting!" objects Iss.

"I'm not going to change in front of the shopkeepers."

"Why not?"

    "It's just a shirt, we won't mind," the assistant says, and the shopkeeper shoots a sharp look at her.

       "He doesn't want to and that's enough of a reason, actually," the prince asserts, squeezing by Uamok to get to Raafi.

The disgruntled visitors content themselves looking at clothes without getting to see how hummun fold up into them.

The shop assistant does her best to keep them entertained while Raafi changes out of the snakeskin shirt and into a serviceable but much less interesting silver-trimmed indigo outfit, and then they can watch him try on accessories.

They're amusing themselves trying to figure out how exactly a hummun folds into clothes from first principles.

That's fine too.

Raafi ends up complementing his outfit with a yellow silk waist sash and matching turban and shoulder poofs, with some discussion of jewelry to be decided on later, and then changes back into the clothes he came in wearing, returns the items to the shopkeeper to tailor to his measurements, pays, and they can get going.

The prince waits outside with Uamok and her mates while Raafi helps get the tables back into place, after some slight hesitation about the situation. He seems to be a little annoyed.

They can't really read hummun facial expressions so they don't remark on it.

Then when Raafi comes out he'll start leading the group back to the palace.

Raafi goes up to match stride with him, and snuggles up under his arm. "Hey. I'm fine, no harm done."

    "It was still -" he trails off, sighs, and gives Raafi a squeeze.

"It's fine, sweetheart. Part of the job."

    "Mm."

"What, you think I never have to deal with people being awkward? Have I told you about the time-" he has a story, not even very much one about awkwardness, though there is a bit with a misunderstanding. The prince relaxes as he tells it, though, and by the time they get to the plaza he's in a better mood.

"Did you want to talk to Katrianne again while she's still here?" Raafi asks.

"I haven't thought of anything to say to her," says Uamok.

"Are you okay?" Zoi asks Raafi.

"I'm fine, I - " he turns to the prince. "Give us privacy for a minute, sweetheart?"

The prince pauses as if to object, but goes off to the birds-and-pomegranates kiosk to talk to the attendant.

"I'm not upset. But that was actually very rude, and the prince is upset about it, so I don't want to talk about it in front of him, and I don't really want to leave him alone, either. He'll be fine if you give him a couple hours to cool off, and I think you should talk to Kat anyway - she's a good one to answer any kind of questions you have about how humanoid bodies work."

"- what was rude," says Zoi.

"Did I misunderstand whatever the word you used was, when you said we could come and we said that sounded fun," says Uamok, "it had sounded like you were saying we could see."

"I don't remember what exactly I said, but I didn't mean that you could see. That's not - it's not something I'm going to do, to let you see me without clothes on. And asking when it's obvious enough someone doesn't mean to let you is a little rude, and demanding an explanation when someone tells you no about it is very rude, for something like that - like it would be rude to demand that someone explain why you're not letting them in your house or not giving them part of your food when they want it, that's not something you have to give a reason for, it being yours is enough of a reason and they should already know that."

"But we didn't already know that, it sounded like you were offering or we wouldn't have bothered to come along!" says Skon.

"Well, bodies are private, like food and houses, and I'm sorry about the misunderstanding."

"Does this mean we can't actually ask Katrianne to show us either, because I don't think a verbal explanation will help very much," says Uamok.

"Kat won't mind showing you, that's why I'm sending you to her. The rule isn't 'nobody can ever let you do that', it's 'people get to decide for themselves and if they don't want to that's the end of it', like you can decide to let people come into your house if you want."

"Okay, we can ask her then," says Uamok.

"All right."

He leads them into the palace and hands them off to a servant, who takes them to the sculpture garden where Katrianne is curled up on a shaded bench with the catfolk ambassador, petting him and listening to him purr.

    "Oh, hey sweethearts," she calls quietly when she spots them. "Is everything all right?"

"We had a misunderstanding," says Uamok. "Now the prince is mad at us and Traveler thinks we're rude."