"Well... Everyone tells ones that they don't really need to know where their life is going yet. They just need to follow instructions when told to do something, and otherwise can do whatever and have fun. When you're a two, you're a real adult now, and expected to be respectable. Still not, like, mature, still learning, but no longer the kind of person who sneaks into an old industrial site and builds a dirt ramp to launch themselves into a pool. More the kind with goals and a plan to achieve them." Sigh.

"You're not entirely happy about that."

"I'm not a happy person. Also, I was a two years before my second actually started growing in but that just gets you an 'aww, shucks, kits and their ideas'."

"Yeah, that, I don't like."

"Anyways, none of this really explains to me why you can't delegate more. As far as I know none of what you're doing requires any skills the onetails don't have."

"It's not that I couldn't delegate. It's that they want someone to boss them around. To be present. Be worrying about things, tracking things, assigning chores. I'll delegate more when we settle into a routine."

"Wow, that's weird. But it does explain things."

"Thanks for everything, Mika. I won't take up any more of your time."

She can have a hug if she wants—Mika seems very huggable right now, although that's no indication it would actually help—and he'll wander off to see what everyone else is doing.

Sure, a hug, that's fine. It's a little unclear if she actually appreciated it or considered it a duty.

Thirty seconds after he leaves the second-room lounge, he gets a text on his tablet.

Old Wood House Quarantine Club

Mika: Mr. Hill has told me he doesn't mind being bothered, so stop asking ME about his availability.

Mika: Yes, I made a mistake. But it's fine. Bother to your tail's content.

Pena, who was playing video games in the big first floor den earlier, dashes up the stairs and runs over to him.

"Tell me about alien video games!"

Oh, Mika.

"That's a broad topic. Is there something specific you want to know about?"

"Basic game play loops! Like, jump on the platforms, collect the things, get to the level goal. Or collect stuff to build things to get more stuff to build more things. Or run and shoot the enemy then run some more to find more enemies. Or, uh, rearrange things until they're correct like in a puzzle. Do these sound familiar? Do you have different ones?"

"Yeah, we have all those things. There's also strategy games, rhythm games, role-playing games—which is really something of a misnomer, but that's what they're called—and others I can't remember. But I think that covers all the most popular types of video game."

"Dang. I was hoping for alien insight into a whole new genre or something. Role-playing... Do you mean exploring games, or drama games? More sailing the nine seas and trading with people or, you know, like- Someone has poisoned the Sen clan's well- Was it a mere accident? The obvious culprit would be the hated Shan, but perhaps this is merely another player targeting the Shan and courting division in the north..."

"RPGs vary a lot—there's a complicated history there—but usually involve some combination of exploration, combat, and narrative. Basically you play as an adventurer of some kind who wanders around doing quests for people and killing monsters. Usually in a fantasy setting, but not always."

"...That doesn't sound like drama games or exploring games. Killing monsters? Like some kind of mercenary company? And they're not, like, the Army?"

"Most RPGs have you play as a single character or control a party of four to six characters. The adventuring does not solely consist of killing monsters, sometimes it's bandits or cultists or some other threat. But usually one of the premises of the setting is that there are a bunch of threats—or opportunities for adventure, depending on how you view it—that singular or small groups of heroes can defeat, save the day, acquire treasure, et cetera."

"This whole genre is basically a bunch of derivatives of the original tabletop roleplaying games, maybe I should just explain how those work."

"...If there's bandits or, or, murderous cultists around, why don't you uh, send a four as a diplomat? I mean, you don't have four-tails I guess... Fighting about it should be the second or third option, maybe, to show that yeah we can actually hurt each other a lot how about we do something that doesn't end up with a bunch of people dead? Like, the shock and awe system of Lyrical Worldstream 3 won't let you just, farm people for tribute forever, eventually they go 'fuck you' and fight you anyway, or sell you out to a rival... So you have to, just, not fuck people over? Like you seem worried about happening to you, holding on to that fucking dynamite?"

"In terms of the in-story logic, the cultists are zealots of whatever evil powers they worship and probably aren't very amenable to negotiation. To the bandits you plausibly could say 'stop robbing people or we'll kill you all' but there's no real way to know they won't just keep robbing people later or do it somewhere else. Also if you don't kill them you don't get to take their stuff, and 'stop robbing people and also give us all your stuff' is a harder sell. Also also for frankly kinda silly historical reasons many examples of this genre award experience points—the resource used to advance your character's skills and capabilities—mainly for defeating enemies in combat, so convincing the bandits to go away might not give XP. Well, I guess if the game designers bothered to give you a way to negotiate with the bandits they could also give you XP for doing that successfully, but they usually don't give you a way to negotiate with the bandits, in part because the expectation is that you're going to conform to the RPG adventurer trope of killing all your enemies. And that trope got started because killing all your enemies gives you XP. Also also also a big part of what lets the 'singular or small group of extraordinary heroes defeating vast numbers of enemies' formula to work is ambushing the enemies, taking them on in smaller chunks. So if you wave the flag of parley and let them know you're there and thinking about killing them, they could all gang up on you and kill you. Either while you're trying to negotiate with them or afterwards. If game designers bothered to let you wave the flag of parley or design such complex logic for their bandits, which they don't."

"In terms of why RPGs are designed around killing things and often don't give you a way to negotiate with your enemies instead—indeed, the very point of cultists and bandits is to provide you with enemies you have a compelling narrative reason to kill—I think mostly it's just a lot harder to design a compelling negotiation/conversation system than it is to design a compelling combat system. And I think most players find combat more fun. Partially because it's more viscerally engaging, partially because human tropes of adventure and heroism tend to focus more on defeating enemies in battle than solving a problem diplomatically. And part of the fun of RPGs is getting to put yourself in the shoes of an extraordinary heroic adventurer."

"I can actually think of a few RPGs that offered paths to avoid combat by talking to people, but those are usually non-default and somewhat hidden paths. Maybe you have to have a piece of information from an earlier quest which most players would have missed, or you have to have done a side quest to get a certain character to owe you a favor or hold you in high regard and listen to what you say, or maybe you just need to have put a lot of points into your character's speech skill. But the fundamental premise of these paths is that you do something kinda involved and hidden and non-default and you get to feel clever for doing all those things and finding a way to avoid combat. If the diplomatic solution was the default, you wouldn't get that feeling. And usually the actual gameplay of this kind of thing is not very compelling compared to combat—selecting options in dialogue menus, basically."

"And yeah, the dynamite is because I am nonzero worried about being fucked over and very much do not want that to happen. No one has told me I definitely won't get imprisoned and prevented from killing myself, so until I get that guarantee..."

"...You humans seem kind of violent if the foundation of a major gaming genre is so fundamentally rooted in fighting. Well- No, that's hypocritical, shooters exist. I can imagine a magic system where doing a lot of fighting makes you magically stronger, and that sure would incentivize people to go on murder sprees, I guess. I think our mythic heroes tend to be great negotiators more than great soldiers? Strategists, sometimes. And sailors sometimes. There's Itta Seaspray, after all, master of self, ship, and wind."

Pena hesitates. "I don't know what the government is gonna do so I can't make any kind of guarantee, we're not even allowed to make promises for the clan, you know, but it would shock me if they did that especially knowing you'd hate it and the dynamite is kind of worrying." She huffs. "I guess I can just not be near you if it bothers me so much, which I might. Sorry for bringing it up?"

"The amount of violent that humans are varies a lot by person and circumstance, although possibly it's high by your standards in any case—I don't know how violent kitsune are. But I think the popularity of violence as a game mechanic or narrative device doesn't say very much about how violent humans actually are."

"I understand that no one here has formal negotiating power on the government's behalf, but the fact that no one here has told me it's inconceivable they would ever give me cause to regret cooperating with them makes me a nonzero amount of worried. I'm really not very worried at all, I just really really don't want to be unable to kill myself and am glad to have some insurance against that happening. I intend to dispose of the dynamite as soon as I get some kind of binding guarantee on that front. Hopefully tomorrow."

"And Pena? You have nothing to apologize for."

Pena makes a face at his second statement. 

"I'm gonna go be somewhere else. Thanks for telling me about 'RPGs'."

"Okay. Seeya."

He's not, in fact, sorry that the dynamite is scaring her, so he doesn't say that.

What is everyone else up to?

Immediately accessible people are Mori and Chak, who seem to have been waiting their turn to chat, and Fei, who is nonchalantly lurking in a nearby doorway, tail wagging.

"You guys are welcome to chat if you don't mind the dynamite. Although we should get a lounge or something."

"Sure! Fei, is that one in use?" Chak asks.

"No. Mind if I join you all?"

"I don't mind," Mori shrugs.

Chak also shrugs. "Me neither."

Fei moves out of the way, and the other two follow her into the lounge.

Chak continues, "I was planning to talk about clothes. I do costumes and formal robes and Mori does traditional arts, and we figured if you want to impress stuffy old people, we can help."

"Honestly? I don't think I'll ever want to impress stuffy old people with my clothing. Although I may be interested in it for aesthetic reasons."

"What are traditional arts?"

"It might make them take you more seriously. I'll find some good pictures..."

"The four traditional arts are calligraphy, dance, singing, and pottery. There's a bunch of others but those are the super special super respectable ones. I'm planning to do nightly shows after dinner every day to keep my practice up with the middle two, at least."