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It's a premise repeated over and over, these days. There is a truck. There is a collision.
There is now a person in an entirely new location. The plants are strange and colorful. They see mountains in the distance and rows and rows of oddly regular hills and pools of water at the bottom, with old brick buildings visible where the clearly artificial furrows end. They can hear muddled sounds of shouting, laughter, and splashing.
"You can guess by displayed traits, and you keep - likelihoods in mind. There's also baby-swapping if you think you're going too inward. What it sounds like. Find a neighboring clan, swap babies."
"New mothers usually like all babies, even if you found one in a field or something. Kits are cute, but mostly when they're out of the blob stage and into the wide-eyed giggling making funny faces stage, for me."
"Huh. I guess I can see how this would work for an engineered species, but it is weird weird weird based on what I'm used to."
"Anyways, what do the progressions of romantic relationships look like? How long do they tend to last?"
"Umm... Fascination romances are definitely the shortest. The- There's a quote about this that I'm going to mangle. Lifepartner romances are like stoves or hearths. They need to be constantly maintained but serve a useful purpose, an essential tool and foundation stone of a good life. Fascination romances are like fireworks- All glory and spectacle, to fill the heart and mind with joy and light and wonder, but ephemeral. Know that the festival show shall end. Indulgent romances are like unto candles, burning steady and slow deep into the night, but all candles eventually turn to worn nubs. 'Blessed indeed is the woman who finds a man who lives well with her, who thrills and enthralls her, and who comforts or succors her, all three, who also fulfills the myriad smaller joys that the three do not capture. For most of our fragile souls, we take reflections and shadows of this perfect whole from many others, and try to assemble them to that purity, sharing and being shared. We fail, but we yearn for it none the less.'
...Sorry, I know that's not quite what you asked. Romances aren't - permanent. Especially fascination romances. But marriage is. Marriage persists past romance, even if all the feelings are worn to nothing, the fact of the marriage remains. That's kind of important. It's... An ancestry thing, a connection to the whole... As for how romances start... You... Talk to people, flirt with them," she does an ear-flick and glances away. "Touch them, get involved... Lifepartner romances are often more - practical. Found, not pursued. You realize one day that, oh, we're in a lifepartner romance aren't we. Umm..."
"-No. I was using 'you realize that' as a turn of phrase suggesting a generic some other kitsune as the 'you'. If we have any kind of romance it's me having a crush on you..."
"Okay, that makes much more sense."
"Uh, I'm not entirely sure what the norms are on disclosing the contents of private conversations, but I guess I'll just tell you. I was talking to Tak yesterday and he seemed to think you would get attached to me, and that this could be bad. Otherwise I probably wouldn't have brought this up."
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