She makes vague laundry-related excuses and updates her wardrobe in future illusions accordingly.

They have a lot of very tall buildings. Some have bridges between and balcony paths around them, almost a whole second street level twenty feet up. There are compact little parks lit with cunning mirrors so the plants don't die of shade. Most people are purple. It's busy.

She will be purple more often than not, then.

She gets better at Tapap and starts understanding the people around her better.

There are occasional vehicles humming along on streets that permit them.

Here's an idling truck splashed with red, and a girl with bubblegum hair at the wheel.

Hm.

Illia loiters near enough to hear her but far enough away to not be suspicious.

The red is fussing with her pocket everything, singing softly along with a track it's playing.

After a little while of this Illia ducks into an unobserved alcove, goes invisible, and sneaks close to the red.

"Excuse me," she says softly. "I'm an alien, we don't have a concept of pollution the way Amentans do, and it seems like things really suck for reds. We're trying to figure out how to help but without consulting any reds it seems hard to be sure of doing more good than harm."

"Um."

"I'd show you my hair but honestly invisibility seems harder to fake than buying costume hair dye."

"Are you where the food's coming from?"

"Technically my sister but yeah."

"Um, wow. Why me?"

"Sometimes I wander around the city disguised as an Amentan and I hadn't figured out a better way to get in contact with reds when I spotted you."

"Uh. I don't know if this is what you had in mind but I need to pay off a child credit lease."

"Ah. If I give you a handful of precious gems can you sell them or is that likely to get you beaten to death for supposedly stealing them?"

"...also I don't know where I'd sell them, putting them through deceased personal effects' cleaning wouldn't get them anywhere that buys gems."

"Yeah, that's...a problem. I'm reluctant to counterfeit money--maybe I should ask the government what Odette's getting for the food thing, but then how do I get the money to you..."

"Regular money transfer works fine."

"How does that work? I'm a fantasy alien, not a sci-fi alien, my planet is preindustrial."

"...oh. Uh, if you have money it will be in a bank and if you have a pocket everything you can access your bank. If you had your everything on you now you could just use the fact that I'm right here, but if you don't you need my number..."

"Okay. What's your number?"

She recites it.

Illia discreetly writes it down. "--Hey I don't suppose you happen to know or could find out where they kill the babies."

"No idea. Red ones they probably don't bother taking them anywhere first and just shoot them where they are."

"Ugh."