Sid has given some thought to this scenario before, because it's the kind of thing that's fun to think about in the shower or while tuning out in class, but is not especially prepared for it, because making an actual like, serious plan for what to do if you get isekai'd to another universe is not an especially fun use of time. Oh well. How hard can it be?

First order of business: make contact with the locals. Most likely followed by a long and tedious process of pantomime to learn their language. He heads off in the direction of laughter.

The most convenient way takes him close to those ominous factories. He sees a metal sign declaring 'UNSAFE STRUCTURE' in a language that looks a little like Chinese but clearly isn't Chinese.

The people are over there! Looks like about a dozen of them, skinny dipping. As he watches, two ride a sled from the top of one of the hills, downhill, off a dirt ramp, and into the water.

They look sort of human, but a lot more like some kind of demihuman or humanoid creature from fiction. Their faces have what look like very short snouts, their legs are digitgrade and clawed, and they have long, furry tails and a light dusting of fur over their limbs. Their heads are more 'furry' than 'hairy', but somehow still quite natural looking. They're all incredibly thin and fit. Skin is mostly tanned, and fur is mostly a bright orange to white. They have pointed ears that twitch around in the kemonomimi style.

Oh nice, he can read the language. Hopefully speak it too. That's something to investigate in more detail later—ooh, animal people!

It would be nice to introduce himself with some humorous reference, but he has no reason to think they have any culture in common. Probably not a great idea to do anything that would startle them either. He approaches them and, once he is clearly visible to them, shouts "Ahoy!"

They scramble up into one group, chattering. One waves back. After a moment of conferral the one who waved calls, "Ahoy! Do you need something? You look off!"

Another shouts, "Where's your tail? How's the alien costume hiding it?"

"You're not going to believe this, but I'm actually an alien. I don't have a tail. I literally just got here, so I figured I'd introduce myself."

He continues to walk towards them as he speaks.

"Bullshit! What are you supposed to be, one of the makers?"

"He does look pretty weird!"

"Come over here and have a snack if you like."

"Take off those pants and prove your tailessness!"

"Guys, maybe we should-"

"Yeah! Off with the pants!"

A chant of pants-pants-pants then begins.

Well, he has no reason not to. Sid takes off his clothes, folds them, and sets them down on whatever moderately-clean patch of ground is convenient.

"I do not know what the makers are. Despite my mysterious yet convenient ability to speak and read your language, I have basically no knowledge of anything about this world. Because I am an alien." Probably best to make that clear right away.

This is pretty freakout worthy!! They kind of surround him and peer at him, babbling questions. Is he really an alien? How doesn't he fall over? Does his back ever hurt? Did he cut his tail off? Is he going to die because of it? Isn't he cold without fur? Several ask if they can feel his back. A tail or two brushes against him accidentally; They're very soft. 

These people are, on closer inspection, acting kinda drunk? But differently than usual. Not stumbling and slurring but definitely some kind of altered mind state going on. One of them appears to be more sober and trying to corral everyone. She has what looks like the start of a second tail, a foot long rather than the enormous nearly six foot waving fluffy mass of the first one.

In between everyone gossiping over each other about how strange this is, one of the males present explains, "About five years ago we found this old monument that, uh, pretty conclusively proves we, the species, were designed by something or someone. We call them the makers now but we know almost nothing about them."

"Except that they did a shitty job!" Another shouts over the din, to general agreement.

Yes, he's really an alien. He doesn't fall over because he has large flat feet and a portion of his brain dedicated to balance. His back does sometimes hurt, if he puts it in a poor position for too long. He has never had a tail, except for a brief period in utero, and therefore could not have cut it off. He does not expect to die of it. Sometimes he gets cold without fur, but that's what clothes are for. They can touch him if he can touch them. Avoid the genitals and eyes.

(Sid is very interested in those tails...)

"I am definitely not one of those people. I come from a planet with a bunch of people like me, no designed species. Why do you say they did a shitty job?"

This seems fine! They will feel at his back where a tail ought to be in fascination. Several people shove up tails or arms for him to touch and someone makes a joke about not minding being touched anywhere, herself.

"They put fucking poetry in our DNA instead of fixing the thing where we have bad thermoregulation and the- What's it called-"

"Metabolic cascades."

"Those."

"Or maybe they all died before they could fix us. Which is an even scarier thought."

"Guys, I'm- This is actually a really big deal, I think I'm gonna call Zand if there's no reason not to?"

"Don't! We're not supposed to be here. In the old mines, I mean."

"But an Alien is, like. A lot more important than us getting in trouble."

"You can probably feel my tailbone, at the base of my spine. That's where all the vertebrae that would have been a tail got fused together."

These people are pretty cool. Sid feels them up and pets their tails. It's great. Some of them may notice that he's getting an erection.

"Who is Zand?"

Nobody seems to think this is noteworthy. Touching and cuddly-ing continues, though a couple people are drifting away now.

"Zand is chill and has got keys to the clan's vans. He could come pick us all up. I don't want to mistreat an alien somehow. Who knows what you can teach us!"

"Can he even eat what we eat? He's probably no Vork."

"I mean, he looks like us... Do you know the word 'sucrose'? How are you speaking Unified?"

"I will let you know if I am being mistreated. I'm actually enjoying my treatment quite a bit so far."

"I do know what sucrose is, and I can eat it. I have no idea how I'm speaking your language. I certainly didn't before I got hit by a truck and ended up here."

They don't have perfect control over their tail motions. They seem to use it for balance, and they inevitably brush over places. The tips also curl up, enough to wrap around his arm, at least.

"I'm glad you like us!" Someone giggles and runs her tail over the back of his neck.

"This is too weird..."

"There's more to food than sugar..."

"Amaranth is like, the safest food, right?"

"It's a staple, that doesn't mean you can undercook it..."

"I'm not entirely sure we're not hallucinating this. And if we are, we need help. I'm getting my tablet and calling Zand."

The short-second-tail lady who declares this walks over towards the clothes pile. People hesitate but don't actually move to stop her.

"Honestly, I'm not all that worried about the food. If I don't taste or smell anything that seems inedible, I'll probably either be fine or throw it up. And if there's something in your food that will straight up kill me, I could run into that at any time, so I might as well get it over with sooner rather than later. If I die I hopefully get isekai'd again. I don't think I have the patience to meticulously verify that, like, each of the thousands of different compounds present in food is safe for me to eat."

"You should maybe be worried about disease, though. If whatever gave me your language didn't also take care of that."

"That..."

"An alarmingly good point! MIKA!"

The one going for a tablet turns around.

"Quarantine!"

Mika's eyes widen and she hisses. "Shit! Fuckdammit! Kola, lord of Plagues, you're right! We'll need to quarantine ourselves. It's the only responsible thing to do."

"Uh, how long do you guys need for the quarantine?"

"I don't know. However long it is, we'll do it."

"It'd be better for us to all kill ourselves here and now than risk a new plague."

"Sensible of you." Much more so than he'd expect from humans.

"Do we need to camp out here or is there a suitable... quarantine facility, or something, that we can live in for the duration?"

"Urgh... We need someone who isn't high to figure that out. There's the old wood house."

"This is actually important. The regional plan will give us a facility if we need it. Probably involve Doctors Without Borders."

Well, this is getting a lot more serious a lot faster than Sid thought it would five minutes ago.

"I will follow the directions of whoever isn't high. My name is Sid, by the way. Normally I introduce myself to people before I get naked with them. Or get stuck in quarantine with them. Which I suppose does give us plenty of time to get naked together."

There's a round of chuckling and then a round of names called out. Ayami, Fei, Osal, Pena, Jann, Lyra, Ka'do, and a few more.

"What are you, from Nar? Naked is the natural state of being."

"I'm least high," Mika says, "And I'm calling Zand. It'll all be okay, I'm sure."

"It occurs to me to ask what, like... What you want to happen after the quarantine. I'm sure the sixers will want to- Uh, to be very serious people at you and maybe whisk you off to a university or a military base or something, but like, that doesn't sound very fun."

Aaand he just accidentally made a joke relying on cultural context they don't have. This is trickier than he expected.

"Most members of my species—humans—have a nudity taboo. I don't, obviously."

"Being whisked off to a military base does indeed not sound very fun, although I'm not averse if the very serious people want to pay me to answer questions or give blood samples or whatever. I don't suppose any of you can get me an instrument of suicide? Ideally a gun or explosive, but I'd settle for a knife."

"Well, there's the Lilac Bridge..."

"No. It's sacred. And the Lilac Bridge might not even do anything for a- Whatever he is."

"He just said it, 'human'."

"Lilac Bridge is a suicide drug. Arguably, the suicide drug. It's kind of... Hard to explain."

"Most Kitsune* wear clothes, yes. In Luo we think they're too fussy about it. And if you were talking about sex, yes, we got that too." There's a teasing lilt in Lyra's voice.

*It literally means something liked 'tail-growing'.

"I don't feel great about the probability of success of any chemical method of suicide and would really rather have something that can rapidly physically destroy my brain, but I'll take what I can get. I don't suppose your very serious people can be trusted to do acasual bargaining or advanced decision theory or whatever?"

"I meant to reference sex as part of a humorous juxtaposition that probably mostly didn't make sense to you guys. The details aren't important."

"I mean, probably? They're not-"

"It's like the story about the runaway-fission-weapons. Tsu's Bargain."

"Yeah, Tsu told everyone when they invented that and just like, did acausal negotiation or something about it. I don't think the history lessons went into detail."

"Or that thing in Iwa, with the amnesties. I'm too high for this..."

"The sixers and most important-person types generally at least try to act in decision theory ways like that. I wouldn't say they're necessarily great about it. If you're like, I was reassured by these nice onetails I met that you all would retroactively whatever the fuck, I mean..."

Mika has an ordinary-looking tablet computer out and has started a video call with someone, a bit further away. The mob of people surrounding him are mostly sitting or pacing now.

"...Can you swear very seriously that you'd only ever use it on yourself?" Asks one of the guys, who has been mostly quiet so far and not joined the touching-the-alien party.

"The weapon or poison or whatever? Sure."

"And, just to make my position clear now, if your government or anyone else would prevent me from killing myself, I'd rather just die now. I'm not attached to anything in this world and have, as I see it, a decent chance of waking up in another one, so it's not a bad option for me. If they won't prevent me from killing myself, then we can talk, and maybe I can do something useful for them. If they'll keep to that bargain, I'm not worried."

Sid looks for volunteers to cuddle with lying down. He's really liking the fur and tails and isn't done with them yet.

They've already formed two small cuddlepiles, and people make inviting gestures. Tail-brushing is happening.

"If you're that determined and pre-committed to it, they won't try anything, I don't think," Someone comments thoughtfully. "It's just stupid when they get a high risk of losing something for a small chance of benefit. If, like, you were holding the secret to fixing tail-growth and wanted one million slaves or something they might torture you about it then but that's just, an absurd scenario. This is a pretty dark topic..."

"I've got something in the old blast furnace. Be right back." Says the Strange Guy. He goes out of his way to grab a sort of sandals-thing, but doesn't bother with the rest of his clothes.

Sid enthusiastically joins a cuddlepile and participates in the tail-brushing. They can brush his hair if they want.

"That sounds good. I'll tell you right now though, I definitely do not hold the secret to fixing tail-growth, whatever that is, and I don't want slaves. Is slavery a thing here?"

Wow, Strange Guy (did he seriously not introduce himself?), how ominous yet impressively prepared.

He grunted, instead of giving a name.

"No! Well, not in a servant-clan sense or chattel slavery sense any more, no than the fact that everyone has to do some kind of work at some point or you'll maybe stop getting housed and fed eventually."

"You see Mika's tails? She's growing her second. It's short now but it'll get bigger fast. You just kind of keep getting more, 'till you die of it. It's cursed. Presumably the makers had whatever genetic key or implant was necessary to stop that from happening, but we sure don't."

"And it's the tails that kill them and not just old age? Because humans just get old and die, no tails necessary."

"...I'm pretty sure it's the metabolic strain from the tails? You can't surgically remove a tail or you get a Lychosin type cascade and die, so they're just, as far as your health goes, kind of like cancers that aren't growing but will never go away either."

"We don't know any of this shit for sure, alien guy. We're just dumb one-tails. Practically still kits."

It's at around this time that Mika comes over to the group.

"Current plan. We're gonna take the van from here to the old wood house. Zand stuck his bike in it and will bike home, himself, and not go near us. We're gonna have our devices and food delivered there, plus a new tablet for Sidney. We're gonna call Doctors Without Borders and try to get them to handle things discreetly and tell them our alien doesn't want to become worldwide news, no sense causing a panic. Does that sound good? ...Where'd Tak go?"

"That sounds good. Tak went to fetch me some mysterious object I can use to kill myself, or so he implied."

"...Fucking Tak. Never have any idea what's going on in his head." Mika sighs. "Sorry if I'm not going to be a good host. The- I've got personal stuff, the quarantine is going to ruin it. It is, objectively, pretty amazing that there's an alien visiting us. I'm sure it's going to be wonderful and great. Some of these fools might even treat the quarantine like a little vacation!" There's a halfhearted whoop from someone. "Just... Yeah."

"To be clear, I did ask for that. He's being helpful. And Mika, you're doing fine."

"Sorry I, uh, approached you guys without thinking about the quarantine."

"We hadn't thought about it then, either. It happens. And, sure. Hey, any word on what kind of exciting new alien technologies we might be able to learn about?"

"Probably not much. If you have touchscreen tablets, our worlds are at around the same tech level. And I don't know enough about any technology, really, to recreate it here."

"Dang."

There's not much else to say about that, and everyone seems to be in a pensive mood now. She joins the cuddle with a sigh.

A couple minutes later Tak comes back, carrying two dirty red-paper-wrapped cylinders with obvious fuses on the end, and a shiny steel lighter.

"Tak..." Mika starts.

Tak shakes his head. "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies. These are TNT. I had them checked, still stable and safe. This much will definitely kill you if you hold it up to your head, and only maybe kill anyone standing within five feet of you."

"What the fuck, Tak!"

"Thanks Tak, you're a lifesaver. No one tell the government I have these or they'll just nab me while I'm sleeping. Mika, do you know when the van is going to get here?"

Mika sighs. "Probably less than ten minutes. It was about a forty minute walk out here, so... Maybe we should be getting dressed, I guess. We're kinda dry by now."

Sid is surprisingly bothered that Mika is sad, for someone he just met. Maybe her vulpine features are activating his protect-the-cute-animal instincts. Is there anything he can do to make her feel better? Seeing as he barely knows anything about her, her species, or her culture, it seems difficult.

He gets up and puts his clothes on.

The crowd of teens will follow along, grumbling slightly. This certainly wasn't the end they imagined for their little adventure in the Old Mines.

A van pulls up! It's painted green, and is more small-bus-like than van-like. It's quiet, electric. The seats all have tail holes. A two-tailed man gets out of it, pulls a bike from the back, and bikes away after giving Sid a long curious look.

Everyone piles into the van. They give Tak wary looks. Tak crosses his arms stubbornly. Mika takes the wheel.

"I hope you won't be too lonely, away from your old clan," someone- Fei?- Comments. "Even if you find a new one like I did... It's not the same."

"The word 'clan' does not well describe any social structure I have ever been a member of. I'll miss my friends and family, but I didn't have anyone I can't bear to be without. And, well, all the new things I can discover here are a great consolation."

Sid is curious about the subtext between Tak and the others. But if he doesn't want to talk about it, bringing it up carelessly would be a poor repayment of the favor he did to Sid.

"...'Family'? You mean, a small clan of closely related people? Isn't that way too lonely?"

"Yeah. My mother and father and sister, who I lived with, and my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins, who we'd visit sometimes. That's not lonely for my species. I'm kinda confused about how it could be too lonely. I spent like, between half and three quarters of my waking hours with or near people I knew well and liked. It would have been difficult to have too many more close relationships."

"You only have a few close relationships, but you- We- Spend a lot of time around clan. The... There's traditions, and milestones. You'll always have someone to help you figure out what the next tail is like, where you're going in life. It's important. And if anyone has a baby, the whole clan takes care of it along with everyone else's, so nobody is run too ragged. You can have a nice big granary and water tower so you're safe if something happens that interrupts grocery deliveries. And if someone's sick or dies suddenly, the whole clan can pick up the slack and mourn together. And there's enough one-tails and two tails still strong enough to do physical work around, to support the elders who're older and wiser."

"Cells are what organelles form together. Tissue is what cells form together. Organs are what tissues form together. The individual is what organs form together. The clan is what we individuals form together. The town is what clans form together. The county is what towns form together. The state is what counties form together. Society is what states form together."

"It kind of sounds like you have a clan, just one that lives in separate houses and doesn't see each other every often?"

"If you mean my extended family, than yes, kind of. To be clear, humans have, like, relationships with people they're not related to, and a market economy, and insurance, and government programs that are similar to insurance in some ways. Your description of Kitsune society sounds similar enough to human society, except that I'd say individuals form families or households and those form towns or cities. Although it does vary by culture, and some are more clannish than the one I grew up in."

"We have friends! We go to school!"

"Oh, Sun and Moon, markets? You rely on those for food and healthcare? Doesn't that just let someone get a monopoly and hurt everyone else for their own benefit?"

"What's insurance?"

"It's a markets thing- Like, uh... You play WaveClans? If you go independent you don't have to send resources back to your home state but they won't bail you out if you run low on food either. Insurance is like picking a home state, kinda."

"In practice, it's pretty difficult to gain a monopoly in most industries, and there are laws that allow the government to break up monopolies and prosecute anti-competitive behavior when it does happen. And some industries are a lot more regulated than that. It's not perfect, but it works out fairly well overall. Grocery deliveries basically never get interrupted in my country, for instance. I don't know why they would in your world, it might be a non-economics-related difference."

"I mean. The Sixers get some things right. Some things need to be given to all."

"A lot of people worked very hard to build the Central Plan. And it fucking worked. Nobody starves anymore. There's plenty of electricity, everywhere in the world, even tiny islands. I may have issues with some of the decisions and priorities, how much gets allocated to science versus quality of life or whatever, but- The basic idea-"

"In your country, you say. What about in other countries? Pre-unification Kao kept neighboring states in exploitative economic positions and invaded them with tanks if they got any funny ideas."

"Maybe we're being a bit too reflexive here. You guys sound like a civics textbook. We're just regurgitating sound bites. Sid says it mostly worked, maybe it mostly worked? Maybe 'humans' think differently than us?"

"...That's a fair point. Sorry."

"I don't have specific knowledge about what it's like to live in most other countries on Earth—my planet—but supply chains are probably less reliable in some of them. I'm pretty sure people mostly don't starve to death unless a war interrupts food imports, mostly because agricultural productivity is so high. I think even very poor countries often have electricity, but it may not be reliable or available everywhere. Diplomatic pressure from the most powerful states mostly prevents states from exploiting or threatening each other. Like I said, there are still problems, but things are much better than they were for most of human history, they're for the most part getting better, and I'm pretty sure most of the problems would not be solved by more central planning and less markets. Probably that would make things worse, given my species' history with central planning. I get the impression it works better for you than it does for us."

Not that Sid isn't still a little uneasy about the apparent collectivism of the Kitsune (and what that means for him) but there's clearly a lot he doesn't know about their whole... situation, so he'll keep quiet for now. And dear lord he doesn't want to get into a political argument.

"You still have wars too? We don't, aside from the Snow Rats and the mafia*. No offense, but I prefer Iwami just off what I've heard so far."

"Uh, guys-"

"Of course if you do it badly it makes things worse..."

"Let me say it out loud, guys: I don't think he wants to keep talking about this?"

"...Agricultural productivity is really high? How do you manage that?"

*Organized-crime-rings more generally, 'mafia' is just a punchy translatable word

"I'm not particularly excited by this line of conversation, but talking about it doesn't bother me. If I don't want to talk about something, I'll tell you. In general I'd rather people explicitly ask me about what I'm thinking or what I want than make assumptions about it. Particularly because I come from a different species and culture and a lot of those assumptions will be wrong."

"To clarify what I mean about agricultural productivity, one in fifty people in my country work in agriculture, and a lot of that is exported, or production of animal products. With modern agricultural technology, it would probably be possible to feed the whole world with a lot less labor than that, in terms of the proportion of people working to make that food. I don't know the details, but you can increase yields with fertilizers, pesticides, specially-bred or genetically engineered crops, irrigation—my country built a lot of dams—and machines to plow and plant and harvest the crops. I'd be surprised if any of that was very different from what you guys have, except the crops. Which actually might make a pretty big difference."

"I don't know the numbers but I think it's like... One in five?"

"A lot of that is home gardens by threes that don't actually produce tons of calories. But have to exist, because reasons."

"Wouldn't surprise me if the makers did just as bad a job with our crops."

"Yikes. Yeah, one in five is a lot. Why do those gardens have to exist?"

"It's tradition, don't ya know. Can't disappoint the ancestors."

"Uh, because we're part of a chain of meaning that goes back thousands and thousands of years and the clans that survived pre-industrial times probably had good ideas about how to keep clans functional, healthy, and safe and sane? So obviously we can't just- Throw everything away. The gardens stay, even if they're not whole farms now. The cloistering, the welcome fruit, the entry halls and family trees..."

"That's not a bad reason."

Okay, this is getting kinda boring. New topic, new topic...

"Do you guys have any fiction about people like me? Furless flat-footed ape people?"

"You look kind of like a Ganak!"

"Ganaks are lizard people from the Homogenizing Swarm series of novels. They have flat feet, no fur, and detachable tails which they keep detached to fit into smaller spacesuits. Uh, fictional, obviously."

"Nice. I ask because, uh, humans definitely have fiction about people that look kinda like you guys. Art, too. It's a reasonably popular trope."

"Aliens are cool! Science fiction authors have a lot of fun inventing new kinds and imagining how they might think with different evolutionary pressures- Or uh, different design goals, more recently."

"Ye old and new gods, the number of 'soldier species' and 'slave species' movies that came out two years ago..."

Someone giggles. 

"I think tailless aliens are pretty rare in fiction, though! They tend to be portrayed as kind of... Emotionally dead? Robotic almost? I'm having a hard time reading your body language, since you don't have a tail or proper ears."

"Yeah, it's mostly in the facial expressions for humans. I feel like I know what your ears and tails are saying, but that's just my instincts for cats and dogs and may be entirely wrong. If you catch me slowly blinking at you, that's why."

"Maybe we should be specifically state what we're feeling to see if we are totally off base for each other."

"Should we be recording everything we say?"

"I'm sure some science types would appreciate it but, uh, I'd rather not be recorded constantly. Feeling shy."

"I think you look good. Strong, a little exotic, a little primal, like some mythic hero just unkitsune enough to show their power but still mostly the same- Mythic heroes would have tails that burn with fire or are made of steel or living wood or things like that though. I wonder if we were designed to look similar to other species, or if leg-leg-arm-arm-head-tail - or, uh, no tail - is just a convergent evolution thing like crabs or small flying critters."

"I would also rather not be recorded constantly."

To the person who said he looked good, "Thanks! I think you guys look good as well. Adorable, even. Do Kitsune keep pets?"

"Aww, thanks!"

"Vorks. Mostly a Kao thing."

"Not so much pets as livestock mostly? Aside from Vorks. They're cute and affectionate little idiots."

"I kinda wondered if you guys would keep pets or just get your cute animal fix from each other. Or more likely if your sense of cuteness would be different. I would show you pictures of my cat but I should probably conserve battery until someone can figure out how to charge it. Which reminds me..."

He pulls out his phone and shuts it down. Hopefully that will last for a while.

"You guys are Luo, right? Are Kao a different culture or country or something?"

"Little kits are really cute. Vorks are kinda cute. Most other animals can be pretty but not so much cute, in my opinion."

"We're in Luo, yes. Luo and Kao are both one of the five big pre-unification states."

"Plus Tsu, Nar, and Iwa. Not that there weren't other states- Shen has been making news a lot lately 'cause of the space program- But nobody disputes the big five."

Someone peers at the phone. "Do you know things about voltage and frequency for the electricity? I remember there were problems joining Nar to Tsu's power grid because they wanted to keep their 145 hertz system."

"I have a charger that takes 120 volts at 60 hertz. But I think my units are not the same as your units. I guess I can get close enough on the frequency and slowly ramp up the voltage until it starts charging."

"...Probably it would best to let someone specialized look at the charger and do electrical engineer stuff to make something that works. I'm sure they'd be very careful with it."

"Oi, by the way, I just saw that one fallen tree guys. Two minutes to the old wood house."

"Actually, does someone have a picture of a vork they can show me?"

They fuss with tablets, picking out their favorite videos and photos.

A Vork seems to be some sort of messy cross of a dog, a pig, and a cow. It still manages 'cute' in a kind of awkward way, especially when running around excitedly, tail wagging and making 'mar!' noises.

"Yeah, honestly, that ain't shit. Strong possibility that when I show you a picture of my cat it's going to blow your socks—stun and impress you. Just you wait. Unless cats are something you already have on this planet, in which case I retract my claims."

"Never heard of cats."

"I kind of doubt it but I guess we'll see?"

"We'll have plenty of time to see, like you said... Time to catch up on studying and stuff too..."

The van is pulling into a driveway now.

"If it wasn't clear that was sort of humorous pretend boastfulness. I actually have no idea how your humor works and all my instincts are failing me and it's kinda really annoying. But if I say something weird or absurd it may be a joke and you can ask if you aren't sure."

What does the house look like?

It's wood-built, looking a bit worn but solid. Painted mostly brown. Narrow and three stories high, with a pointed roof and a few patios and balconies. Architecturally, it looks like a really large house that's also trying to be an apartment building. He can see that the whole first floor is open-plan, through the windows.

Mika grumpily plugs the car into a charger under a carport- Not an enclosed garage, just a roof.

Tak stomps straight towards the house. Rather than going through the front door, he scales the outside to a third floor balcony.

Mika then addresses everyone, reminding them that it is very important for the good of all Iwami that people hold to quarantine, even though it sucks. They'll still be able to order stuff, even hot food. A doctor will come by in a few hours, probably.

Sid will now explore the house. Important questions: what are the sleeping arrangements? What's the urination/defecation situation? Normal toilet or something weird? What does the kitchen look like?

There are four (tiny) individual rooms and what looks like a massive cuddlepile room with a 'bed' that's sunk into the floor. The kitchen is laid out in such a way as to provide a buffet along a counter to people and the pantry is Unreasonably Huge and Fully Stocked. Someone is already cooking something. It smells pancakey. All the toilets are on the second floor together like in student housing, normal enough that he can work it out. Separately, there's a room for baths, communal style. There are also a bunch of lounges and the big open-plan ground floor for daily use and hanging out. Someone has put unfamiliar woodwind music on.

Sid approves of the cuddle room and the bath room. He looks for someone that looks free who he can pester with questions about Iwami music.

The flirtiest Kitsune, Fei, is still sorta following him around and explaining house features!

"I'm not really a musical type, but I love orchestras. So many working together smoothly is really the apex of art."

"What instruments does an orchestra have?"

"A whole lot. Four or five kinds of drums, violins* and violas* and and cellos*, that use strings, miushis, mishos, isshis** that blow air through metal pipes, foot brasses that also blow air with bellows, and bells, zither, guitar, other string instruments you pluck with fingers, woodsticks and xylophones... A lot."

*Well, close enough, at least

**It feels like these are varieties of church organs

"No aerophones? Flutes or horns? Do you have pianos?"

"I've never heard of flutes or horns. Piano... Those are really big and heavy, right? It's more of a solo instrument than an orchestral one. Or at least more known that way. But I think orchestras usually have at least one. I'm not sure what aerophone means but it sounds like bellows instruments?"

"'Aerophone' is just the generic term for an instrument that makes sound by air moving through it. Humans have a lot of instruments we blow air into with our lungs. They're pretty nice."

"Do you have rock and roll? Played by a band, usually one or two electric guitars, an electric bass guitar, drums, sometimes a synthesizer, and a singer. I don't know much music theory but I think it's usually played in 4/4 time and with lots of chord progressions."

"Oh, yeah, bellows instruments are aerophones. My favorite is a Grass-stalks. I've never heard of that genre! Electric guitars sound so sci-fi, it sounds cool."

"...Do you guys not have electric guitars at all? It's just a guitar with steel strings and magnetic pickups."

"I've never heard of it. Maybe you can make one?"

"Yes. I think I will have to. Electric guitars are extremely important. I'm surprised your species got this far without making any. Maybe someone did and they never took off for some reason. Please tell me that Kitsune at least make music with synthesizers?"

"Well, not so much for live music, but for games and movies definitely."

"Oh, good."

Sid looks for a comfy place to sit down with Fei.

"So, I'm curious about, like, what your guys' life is like and what you do from day-to-day. I know you're onetails, and that means you're young, but I'm not sure how young, or what that means for your life. Are you guys expected to participate in the economy yet? Have children? That kinda stuff."

There's lots of couch-like objects in the lounges. She rests her tail in his lap.

"One-tails are the strongest and most physically able. It's... We do all the physically difficult work, while we still can. And we're all mostly idiots with youth and enthusiasm more than wisdom, right? So it's a one's job to listen to her elders. When I was near full size I stopped going to school full time and learned trades work. I started doing electricals, then started doing construction wiring full time, aside from vacations. And that's what I do most of the time these days. When my second tail grows in, I'll go back to school for a year or two and learn something else- Probably related to my one-tail career. Whatever I seem to have an aptitude for or there's a need for. Some people really desperately want to be a musician or an astronaut or something, but me... Meh. As far as children go, well obviously we're all on birth control pills, but those aren't perfect. If kits happen anyway, the people in our clan who like kits mostly end up taking care of them. I haven't had any, but Mika has. Statistically, most people have two and a bit eventually." She shrugs.

Sid pets her tail, of course.

"None of you seem like idiots to me."

The way these people talk about themselves is ringing his 'these people have been psyopped into thinking less of their capabilities than they should' alarm bells. But with an entirely different species, it's too early to tell.

"No, no- I'm being sarcastic. It's a whole thing. Just like none of your jokes make sense. Less 'idiot' and more 'unwizened'. The idea is that youth is when you know the least, so you have a duty to listen to those who ought to know. And those who ought to know have a duty to teach- Not just berate or command, but really teach. It's why Mika and Tak are a bit of an odd tail out. Tak's like... I want to say twenty four and a half I think? So he'll be getting his second tail any month now, too. It's pretty consistent."

"I see. That makes more sense, thank you."

Can they work out roughly how long Earth units of time are compared to Iwami units of time?

Iwami's day is about 23 1/2 earth hours. They divide it up into 16 hours with 100 minutes each and 50 seconds in a minute. Their second is pretty close to that of earth's. It's currently 11:80, or early evening. Fei thinks the topic is kind of boring but gamely goes along trying to compare the units and get a conversion.

Mika shows up and tells Sid that the Doctors Without Borders seems to think they're pulling an elaborate prank, they're being kind of short with her. Can she take a photo of Sid for them?

"Sure thing!"

He smiles for the photo.

"Actually, if baring my teeth is hostile in Kitsune body language or something, you should take a picture of me not smiling. Do they want a picture of my tailbone too?"

"Bared teeth can mean lots of things. It more depends on the tail and ears. Let's get a bunch of pictures."

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Mika shows him the photo roll. The camera quality is clearly inferior to 2019 Earth phones.

"Sending. It'll be a couple minutes, the wifi's slow out here. Fuckin'... I mean, 'actual alien' is a pretty outlandish claim but you'd think they'd at least send someone to check, Rain's sake..."

(We have just decided that Sid comes from Earth in the year 2019. You are now aware of this Sid Fact.)

"Anyways, Fei, sorry about the timekeeping rigamarole, I was hoping to figure out how old people are in units that mean something to me. How many days are in a year? How old are you guys? How old are people of different tail-quantities, in general, if that's roughly consistent?"

"I don't really mind. It's so interesting to watch your face, I feel like I'm starting to understand what your expressions mean. Um... A year is two hundred ninety seven days. 298 on leap years, which are every five years usually. You're usually fully grown and working at around... Fourteen, fifteen? Second tail comes in at around 25-26. I'm twenty, Mika's twenty six..." She gives more ages: Fifteen, nineteen, twenty, sixteen, twenty-two...

Mika gives Fei a Meaningful Look of some kind. Fei makes a shooing sort of hand gesture. Mika snorts and walks off again, doing a distinctively annoyed tail-flick as she does.

Wonder what that means. Anyways.

"Wow, that's pretty fast. I'm eighteen Earth years old, which is... about twenty three Iwami years, and that's considered barely an adult. I was still in school, actually. How long does it take for the other tails to come in, past the second?"

"Ah, so you're kind of a onetail too!" Fei's tail wags. "It's once every fifteen years after the second. Used to be you were lucky to survive 'till your fourth, now people can live through most of their fifth pretty okay! They invented these devices that they implant in you, right next to your heart, to dispense drugs automatically during medical emergencies. Hurray for medical science!"

"So it sounds like Kitsune live for a decade or so less than humans. The life expectancy in my country is I think eighty, which is about a hundred Iwami years. Although frequently people get cognitive decline a while before they die."

"...That would really suck*. The most tailed are the smartest, for us... You mentioned that people thought up aliens that looked like us earlier. What was that like, what kind of stories were they in?"

*The cultural translation of 'suck' as a mild negative swear is about accurate, but the actual word is a reference to getting covered in mud.

"The trope I was talking about... they weren't really thought of as aliens. It was more like, 'foxes are cool, wouldn't it be cool and/or sexy if there were people that looked kinda like foxes?' They featured sometimes in fantasy stories and art. Plenty of porn too. And it wasn't just fox-people, people came up with all kinds of human-animal hybrids."

Fei giggles. "Wow, that's kind of a stuffy word for it? Why 'porn' and not 'erotic-art'? Also, I bet all the hybrids are very sexy and cute. We kitsune certainly are, right~? And we have that too. Vork-people and fish-people and bird-people and snake and lizard people and lots more kinds. Very popular among certain crowds." Wink.

"Yes, you are." He gives her a gentle scratch behind the ears.

"I don't know how to begin to describe American cultural attitudes towards porn, nor do I know how they differ from your expectations... but I guess I'd say a lot of it isn't considered particularly artistically meritorious. Lowbrow stuff that appeals basically exclusively to the audience's lust and not their aesthetic sensibilities. It's an unfortunate state of affairs, I know."

She leans against him. Apparently, Kitsunes purr.

"Tragic, really. So much art gets tarred with the brush of 'lowbrow' and ignored. Sometimes you just want to watch explosions and punching and guns!"

Oh wow, she's purring. He'll keep petting her, then.

"So, do Kitsune kiss?"

"Oh, sometimes. Maybe humans would do it a lot more. Your noses might get in the way less. Switch ears once in a while so you get both, please~?"

"Well, the human style is to kiss each other's lips."

He gives that a try. And he'll give her ears some kisses as well.

"How is that?"

"...It's a little new, but I think I like it well enough."

She gives him a peck on the cheek in return.

"Further testing may be necessary. To acquire a sufficient dataset. Yes."

"Good. I need lots of practice."

They can practice then! 

Fei doesn't seem to think they need any more privacy than this lounge that nobody else happens to be in at the moment.

Neither does he. They experiment for a while. Sid is making observations. What does she like?

Light scratching on parts that have fur, and whispers, make her the most shivery. Chin scratching is good. Her tongue is slightly rough, not in a painful way, and apparently she likes licking skin. Also, she likes rubbing her tail over him, mostly for how he reacts.

She tries escalating to heavy petting after a few minutes.

Sid also enjoys the licking. Her tail is soft and pleasant and tickles him when it touches his face or neck. Not too much of that, please.

Heavy petting sounds good!

If they keep going in this manner they'll discover that the lower bits work pretty much the same way. Though the preference for licking continues. And Fei will have a lot of fun and then nap contentedly on Sid.

It's fun. He can nap for a while and hopefully have the time to take a bath before the doctor arrives.

Fei's tablet flashes with a grouptext saying that Doctors Without Borders will be here in 50 minutes* a bit later. She jerks, then relaxes and stands and stretches. 

"That was really fun! I've always wanted to do it with an alien, and even accounting for that it was really nice! I will forever be the first Kitsune to bang an alien!" Triumphant pose! "Ehm. It looks like there's still enough time for a quick bath and a snack before it's serious stuff time."

*Half of a long hour.

"Good. I enjoyed it too." He gives her a kiss on the forehead. "Let's get that bath."

Fei wipes down the furniture with a wetwipe-type thing from a little box in a drawer, first. There's a laundry chute situation to dump their clothes into. The communal baths have two others in them right now. The pair leave and another kitsune files in while they wash up. Fei will wash him and let him wash her during the bath but is sure to firmly mention that Bathtime Is Bathtime and mixing it with sexy-time is bad manners.

The bath towels and bathrobes are pretty multifunctional and Fei sees no problem wearing one downstairs or with Sid doing the same. There's a buffet of warm foods in buffet-style heated trays and room temperature foods like candy or little bread-bits on the kitchen half-wall counter. Fei casually grabs some and says hi to a couple others playing some kind of platformer game on a big wall screen.

Thank you for explaining that, Fei.

Sid gets clean, gets a bathrobe, and gets some food. What are his instincts telling him? Does it taste and smell good to eat?

The bread seems bread-y. The candy is weirdly floral and a little artificial-tasting. Most of the spread appears to be the same grain prepared in different ways- Bread, crackers, porridge, pancakes. The texture on most of the fruits and veggies is off, but they seem mostly fine. If generally small and weirdly pretty, for fruits and veggies. The meat is meat, but there's not much. Just one plate in little bite-sized chunks. There's no dairy products.

There's a clearly separated bowl of purpley ?sauce? with its own spoon- That doesn't smell like anything but makes his skin tingle and then go kind of numb if he tries it.

Okay, skip the candy and purple stuff.

"I'm guessing meat is pretty expensive? And what's the purple stuff?"

"Meat is a lot harder to grow than grain, yes? You should make sure to eat some of those Tosa beans for their protein, too. That's Amarit. Basically just raw Amaranth grains ground to flour and mixed with butter and water and then not cooked, so the, uh, chemical that gets you high isn't destroyed."

He grabs some beans.

"Meat is harder to grow than grain but my family was still able to afford more of it than this. Again with the mysterious agricultural productivity discrepancy, I guess. Do Kitsune eat dairy?"

"I think meat on every plate can wait. Just getting enough Amaranth grown that nobody's in danger of starving any time soon is relatively recent. Like, in the last three decades. Milk and cheese and things? Sometimes. Cheese is not really a thing in Luo, I'd say it's more a Shen thing. Or maybe an Iwa thing. Small children drink milk, though."

"Three decades? Christ."

Sid will chow down and wait for the doctor to get here, he guesses.

"There's a reason some curse the makers..."

The doctors arrive. There are two, wearing a pair of biohazard suits. They would like to do various medical things and get blood samples and sweat samples and saliva samples and skin samples and ideally more samples and do things like checking his pulse and breathing and ask a lot of questions about diseases he knows about.

"I can hardly believe my eyes," says the three-tailed doctor through his suit at one point. "But, uh, ignoring evidence is, uh... Yes. There was some question about wanting to keep your existence quiet, Mr. Sid? Is that the proper address?"

They can have all the samples they want that don't require a biopsy. That one costs money. Or... something, if kitsune don't use money. He'll answer their questions to the best of his ability, which isn't great. Infectious disease is not one of his special interests.

"'Mr. Hill' would be the formal address, but 'Sid' is fine. I'm not very formal. I would prefer to keep things quiet if possible. Becoming the target of... the amount of attention my presence here merits does not sound very fun."

"We can get you a whole lot of Lux. It's technically still money, more that you can't buy everything with it. Mr. Hill of Earth, then? Uh, obviously I cannot just keep it to myself. Your presence here has - immense implications. But I predict my superiors also will want to handle this calmly. To borrow a phrase, the individuals are not the same thing as the clan and an unwilling sacrifice is just as great an evil as a willing one is good. Uh, I'm planning to bring this to the highest levels directly and minimize the number of people who could have... Strong reactions. There will probably be people who want to work out terms with you. I don't imagine it will be relaxed but I hope it's not too bad."

Then they can do a biopsy or two in exchange for some Lux. Sid is not actually going to charge them a lot for something that could be important for disease control, he just expects some compensation for the pain and inconvenience of literally removing part of his flesh.

Sid thinks the doctor's plan to communicate the situation to his superiors sounds fine and explains to him the acasual bargaining he did earlier. (He doesn't mention the dynamite, obviously.)

"Do you think the relevant parties will be willing to commit to that?"

They do something in the computer systems to make a 'Hill-of-Earth' Clan Account. He now has 100,000 Lux.

"...I think you think a little like a canny old Iwa matriarch, if you're going to determinedly offer a hard line of killing yourself. I also think they will commit to not preventing you from killing yourself and giving you whatever assurances you require about that. Do you need a suicide device? I can offer you, at least, catastrophic amounts of painkillers. I'm unsure if they would even do anything to you."

"I have one."

A nod and a little affirmative half-chirr, half-yip sort of noise. 

"Please let me know if you notice anything off about your health so we can attempt to address it. I'm going to, uh, spray everything with aerosolized disinfectant and then drive these samples to the lab and talk to a bunch of people now, unless there's anything else..."

"Nope. Message one of us with any updates."

"It was interesting to meet you... But we have quite the job ahead of us now."

The doctor and his one-tailed assistant (who has been mostly a quiet fetching-assistant) will leave without issue, after that. It's getting dimmer as the local sun moves to twilight.

Sid is still really curious about whatever was going on with Tak, so he'll try to find him.

Tak is doing some kind of martial arts kata shirtless in what passes for a yard. It's more of a fallow and bare dirt garden. He looks stiff, angry, frustrated.

"Hey, Tak. Is this a bad time?"

Tak ignores him and finishes a set of motions.

Then, "...No worse than any other. I guess that's a polite intro to a conversation for you guys? I have every question, all of 'em, 'bout my own special interest but I think we came to a quiet collective agreement not to bombard you with those."

"It's a polite way to ask if a conversation would be welcome. You seem kinda grumpy, is why I asked. You, and everyone else, are welcome to ask me questions about things at a sufficiently moderate pace that I don't get overwhelmed. I like talking to people and it's not as if we have a ton of other stuff to do in quarantine."

"But I actually sought you out because I was curious about, uh, why everyone was giving you dirty looks about the dynamite and the whole context behind that. If you don't mind talking about it."

"It's a pretty suspicious thing to have, explosives, isn't it? Someone who knows things about explosives, if they're not in the military or a mining engineer or something, might be part of... A group of like-minded individuals."

Pause.

"Wait shit, you're not going to get any of the subtext. Okay, well, having a stash of dynamite in a place that's supposed to be off limits is a stereotypical organized-crime thing. I'm not an organized criminal, but it sure looks that way to them right now."

"Gotcha. I figured you just like to blow stuff up for fun. That's... not a particularly uncommon interest, among humans, although people are more likely to have guns or fireworks than dynamite. Thanks for taking the reputation hit for me, I owe you one."

"I don't regret it. And you're pretty much right as far as blowing things up goes. I also like swords, sailing, and tanks." Shrug.

"An entirely sensible set of things to be interested in. If you have any burning questions for me, we can talk about that."

"What kind of swords did Earth have? Your hands are mostly like mine, but your legs are different. I think you'll have less reach. But maybe more stability? So maybe heavy blades like the two hander? Does Earth favor single edges? Sabers, curved single edges are a wonderful design. Brutally efficient."

"Humans historically used a variety of swords—one-handed, two-handed, single and double edged. It varies by culture, time period, and application. I think the largest ones were about as long as I am tall. Sabers were definitely also a thing, particularly used by cavalry."

Sid can try to draw some designs from memory if they have paper.

"This is a difficult topic for me to talk about with any accuracy, because swords were used for ceremonial purposes and in art and fiction for a long time after they became obsolete on the battlefield, and I don't know enough about them to distinguish what's true from the false impressions I picked up by cultural osmosis."

"What's 'cavalry'?"

"Oh! Soldiers that ride on horseback. Horses are domesticated herbivores that are used for riding and as beasts of burden. Very important in preindustrial Earth."

Sid will also attempt to draw a horse, with a human to scale.

Wow! Tak thinks horses are amazingly cool and also like they would kill themselves all the time if not carefully tended to, like Vorks do.

Nope! They can in fact survive in the wild perfectly well.

...Why does Tak so strongly expect them to kill themselves?

"Well, there's barely any large animals anywhere- They're just too big and too vulnerable to too much stuff. Especially poison, since most animals can only eat a few things and big ones can't find enough of what they eat."

"Oh, Earth has plenty of large animals. Horses, and many other ungulates, mainly eat grass, which grows in very large quantities in some biomes."

"I don't think most Earth plants are poisonous. I mean, I can't digest the cellulose in grass, but I don't think grass evolved anything specifically to poison predators."

"...Most plants are poisonous, or at least indigestible to most animals. It's been, uh, there are a few dozen crops that have become mostly safe by taking out all the weird stuff. Those bird bites for example, the birds eat insects that eat dead grass, but we can't eat either species."

"Yeah, I'm starting to see what happened here. The makers really fucked you over. Earth has probably hundreds of food crops, and plenty more things we just don't eat because they aren't very practical."

He snorts. "Hundreds of staple crops? Welcome to Iwami! Plenty of folk, especially the older ones, think the makers got fucked over by a cosmic radiation blast or a black hole or some unimaginable fucking thing before they 'finished' and it's lurking out there, ready to end us if we poke it too. A few nutjobs even worship them and consider the whole... Situation, a test."

"No, only a few dozen or so staple crops. Hundreds of different fruits and vegetables different cultures all over the world regularly eat, to say nothing of herbs and spices."

"Anyways, uh, if you want I can try to draw some more Earth animals."

"Eh. Plenty of time for all that later. Naya would love that a lot more than me, too. If anything I'd want to fight you, but that's a stupid idea when you're our only alien. I just hope you end up..."

Tak scratches at the ground with his bare clawfeet.

"Where you want to be, and don't drag the rest of us around too much getting there, if that makes sense."

"If we fought you would definitely win, I don't really know anything about fighting."

"...Why and how do you think I would drag you guys around?"

"It's a metaphor. Your existence and importance has weight. Everything interlocks, everything has circumstance and gravity. It'd be fuckin' stupid to just ignore that."

"I know that, but like... what concretely do you imagine happening, that you wish wouldn't?"

"I'm gonna be 'the guy who tried to blow up the alien!' forever to some people, regardless of intentions. Mika's missing her chance for space school. Fei is gonna limpet to you. Teko is hoping you'll know some arcane alien secret to saving everyone. All of us are going on watchlists forever."

"Sorry, what is space school?"

"Astronaut training. They're expanding lots of roles to twos 'cause the launch loop will come online in a few years. She didn't quite make the cut as a one but they're lowering standards now."

"What is the 'launch loop'?"

"D'you not have one? I mean, I don't really understand the engineering, but it's basically a giant magnetic slingshot. So we can get stuff into space without having to rely so much on giant rockets. They've been building it for at least a decade, over near Shen."

"...No, Earth does not have that. I don't think I've ever even heard someone propose such a thing as a realistic near future possibility. What, exactly, is the objective of this space program? This seems important."

"I dunno, man, to build a moon city. More space stations. Space science, space industry. Asteroid mining gets mentioned a lot. But since we found out about the makers it's been a lot more 'orbital defenses' and 'new weapons' and 'space warships' too. They have this nuclear powered rocket now."

...Something about this doesn't add up. A mystery for later, he supposes.

"Anyways. Uh... do you think it won't be possible to convince everyone to keep the dynamite thing a secret so you don't become known as the guy who tried to blow me up?"

"And why do you think Fei is going to limpet to me?"

"...Don't think anything can be done about the watchlists. Fuck that."

"I'm sure they've already sworn all their friends to secrecy about it. Nothing for it. Knew that when I did it. Fei's been flirting with you since you showed up and made the moves on you as soon as she could? I heard from someone you were hanging out with her, and she is, well, known to be into the alien characters in stories. One imagines you and her may be expecting different stuff."

"I will have a conversation with her about expectations, then."

"In general I would prefer not to fuck things up for you guys more than is already inevitable. Let me know if you have any ideas on that front, I guess."

"Yeah, I got nothing. Lots of vague worries, no fixes."

"There you are!" Mika's voice calls out loudly. She jogs up and hands him a tablet computer. "It's in first time setup mode and has the medical stipend on it. Let me know if you have questions. Tak, are you gonna plant the garden? It's summer, so we'd need-"

"Nah."

"-To order- No? What are you gonna do, then?"

Tak shakes his head. "Stuff I can be alone for."

"Laundry?"

Tak shrugs. Mika nods, glances at Sid.

"Thanks, Mika. Is there anything specific I should be doing with this, or is it just for my general computing needs?"

"General computing needs. But they might be weird compared to alien computing needs? If anything I'm surprised you're so like us."

"I will at some point want something with a keyboard, but otherwise I can't imagine there would be much difference."

"Okay. Find me if you need anything. I'm off to keep organizing this madhouse since I'm the only two."

...That seems kinda stupid.

"Okay, seeya, Mika. Seeya, Tak, good talk."

Sid finds a lounge to set up his tablet.

The first three lounges he checks are: Occupied by a trio who sound like they are having sex, occupied by four Kitsune playing some sort of board game and eating snacks, and empty aside from someone who he recognizes (Osal) by an odd stripey mark on her tail, reading on her own tablet. She glances at him, does an ear-flick, and goes back to reading.

The tablet in startup mode wants him to touch spots to calibrate it and then give a visual tutorial of swiping around. The icons are all unfamiliar, but they have text under them- Voice, Text, Library, Theater, Grocery, Goods, and so on. 'Settings' is recognizably a screwdriver and pliers.

What do the apps do? Presumably there's the equivalent of a web browser and messaging app.

Voice does calls. Text does texting. Library seems to be wikipedia-or-something, and Theater is basically YouTube. Grocery is a food delivery service (it asks for his address upon startup) and Goods is the same but for non-perishables. 'Search' and 'Forum' are on the second screen and each are a little bit like an ordinary browser. There's also 'News' and 'Opinion' and 'School' and 'Games' and 'Get More Apps'.

Has his identity been registered with the system somehow? Can other people (such as the people in charge the doctors were going to talk to) reach him?

Also, can he get some kind of programming environment on this tablet?

He's registered as Sidney Hill, sole member and Administrator of Hill-of-Earth-Clan.

'Search' will give him an instruction page on installing a Pawprints 5.6 IDE on his tablet, and plenty of tutorials. Pawprints is pretty complex as a language. More C++ than Javascript, object oriented and weird in subtle ways that he's not used to. But the IDE is very slick.

Okay, good to know.

Hey, by the way, what's up with with the written form of Unified? Is it a logography? Is there, by chance, an alternate form for phonetic spelling?

(Sid is, of course, already familiar with the answers to these questions and is merely taking a moment to reflect on them.)

It's a logography. There's a phonetic spelling version, but it seems reserved for small children, mostly. All the stuff he sees in it on the internet is either obscure jargon or clearly aimed at children, anyway. Typing works by putting in phonetic-spellings and them turning into the proper logographs. There's no tones like in Chinese, though.

If he did not already know how to read this language he would be very mad at it!

Sid prides himself on his self-knowledge, and is aware that if he starts his internet research spree now he may not be able to sleep. So that can wait for tomorrow.

Is Mika free?

Mika is arguing with someone on video call in one of the lounges. Apparently someone else from the clan wants to come over and voluntarily join the quarantine to share the social burden of 'eldest', while Mika argues that it's not necessary.

It might be rude to interrupt, but this is also kinda exactly what he wants to talk to her about. He'll give her a wave to let her know he's here and wait outside for her to finish if she doesn't want to talk to him right now.

"You're driving yourself crazy, dear. And don't you want to listen to your uncle? Come on now."

"If there is some sort of - alien pathogen - exposing more people to it is the exact thing we don't want to do, Witak!"

"No, no. I know what I'm talking about and what I'm willing to endure and risk more than you do. Besides, being around to glare at anyone who gets too antsy and be cried on will actually reduce the chance someone goes and breaks the quarantine, I think! I'm driving over there, you can't stop me."

Mika makes several rapid expressions with her ears. One involves showing teeth.

"...Very well, uncle Witak. The alien- I mean, Sid, is here so I should see what he needs."

"Go on."

She ends the call and pauses for a moment.

"...Sid? You need anything?"

"I actually wanted to talk to you about the whole, uh, being in charge thing you're doing. You seem kinda stressed about it. Is there a reason why the others can't take some of the load off your plate? And is there anything I can do to help?"

"Oh. It is stressful, yes. But- There's no real way it doesn't happen. Until Witak comes over here, he has three tails. It's... The tail count is important. I don't think you get it. It's really important and I can't explain why in simple words, to alien sensibilities, it would just seem obvious to most kits once they're old enough to get it at all. It'd make everyone uncomfortable if I didn't. Uh... I told everyone not to bother you and they've been bothering me instead, can I un-say that? I guess?"

"I don't really know what things people would bother me about that they could bother you about instead, but they're welcome to do that, I guess. I will communicate if it's too much."

"And yeah, I really don't get the tail count thing. Maybe I will eventually. Just, uh, please don't round me off to 'onetail' in your head, in terms of my capabilities or responsibilities or social role. Because I'm not."

"...That's a challenging ask, I can already tell. I will try to keep it in mind. Would it help if I gave a quick, I guess, ramble on the social roles?"

"Yes, it would!"

"Okay. Here's a rhyme for babies, I guess."

One, spring, still so young and eager! Be raucous and simple, but work hard and eagerly, for those who can't any longer!

Two, blossoming like summer! Be artful and curious, for your wisdom grows, like fractal flower petals reaching higher!

Three, full-fruited of autumn! Be satisfied and diligent, your hands crafting wonders even as your back complains!

Four, the deep wisdom of winter! Be contented and wary, teaching and guiding your children so they might surpass you!

Five, the elder, the timeless! Be nostalgic and thoughtful, for you have felt the weight of the world and know the cycle entire!

Why would you ever tell someone to be simple?

"That seems reasonably straightforward. It's not the roles that confuse me, I think, it's how people relate to them."

"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."

"I kinda want to say that if they take me less seriously because of my clothing, I don't care what they think... although formal clothing does signal things I might want to signal. I'd probably rather eventually have formal clothing from my own culture, but that might take a while."

"I look forward to your dancing and singing. When is dinner, actually?"

"Maybe I could help you make that, too! It'd be an interesting novelty. Dinner is thirteen zero to thirteen fifty hours. Right before most people's preferred bedtime. So... In about half an hour, looks like. Time goes quickly during excitement."

"I hope you're not expecting too much. I think I'll go with the start of Distant Mountain Exploration... Or maybe the Winter of Ash. Distant Mountain is much more thematically appropriate, the other's a tragedy, but I really feel like being Aulia- Winter of Ash's main character- Today."

"Uh, in Luo for dinner everyone gathers up and talks about their day, any important news gets shared, that kind of thing. It's custom for everyone present to say at least one thing about their day, and then anyone who wants to show something off does so while the rest of those in attendance watch, relax, and eat."

(As a reminder: Sixteen hour days, with 100 minutes each, 50 seconds in a minute.)

"The problem with the sort of formal clothing I'd want to wear is that, although I know what it's supposed to look like, I have no idea how it's supposed to be constructed. But if you want to try it, I'm game."

To Mori, "I'm not really expecting anything in particular. I'm sure it will be interesting to get a look at a whole new culture's traditions even if I'm not enraptured by beauty."

"I don't mind trying!" Chak says. "Maybe just talking about it tonight. I'm kind of tired. If you need one of the spare outfits let out to fit you while your earth clothes are in laundry though, tell me now and I can have it ready by bedtime."

"If you don't want formal robes, I think I'll go try to slap together an Aulia costume before dinner starts." Mori stands, does a tail and ear gesture that Sid is starting to parse as 'polite departure', and heads out of the lounge.

"Do you even need clothes?" Wonders Fei impishly. "You're a guest. It's not like you'll be expected to do any hard work."

"I would appreciate some spare outfits, but it's not urgent."

"Bye, Mori."

To Fei, "I don't actually know how you guys feel about it but in my culture it's considered rude to get your skin oils and body hair and so on all over the furniture."

He gets a pair of near-identical puzzled head-tilts.

Chak: "As a visitor- Different than a guest- That would be true, but also you're supposed to be comfortable in a home."

Fei: "Mika has already bugged us about a daily cleaning rotation. Hair is a fact of life, and so is daily cleaning in a group home."

Chak: "Anything actively unclean like, uh, snot or other things, you're supposed to deal with yourself if you can."

"I think I'll just keep wearing clothes. Or bathrobes. Fei can satisfy herself with her imagination."

"Do kitsune have non-group homes?"

"They're utterly miserable things," Chak explains. "I stayed in student housing for a bit and it was fine after a fashion, you could hang out in the lounges and there was the dining hall downstairs, but if you don't have a proper clan you get basically a concrete box with a bed and a sink all to yourself to go crazy in. I hear it's really hard to find a new clan if your old one doesn't want you anymore or you leave it without arranging things first."

"Clans can kick people out?"

"Also, am I correct in assuming everyone here is part of the same clan?"

"Yes?" Fei says. "Of course they can, if an individual is harming the group more than they're helping it. If you kill someone through negligence, or refuse to do any useful work or even act like you're going to later, or something like that. And yes, we're all of the Kliiu Clan- We used to be a steel making clan during the early industrial age but they do that in new basic-oxygen furnaces now, and we've been more working on cleaning up all the old mining tailings instead."

"Yeah, that makes sense. It's a conceptual difference, I guess—humans basically never get kicked out of their families. Even if they're in really poor standing and no one will do them any favors, they're still considered part of the family."

"To what degree are jobs and professions hereditary? Do all you guys have to do mine remediation work because you're Kliiu, or is that more of a clan-wide project that not everyone has to participate in?"

"Mostly, yeah. We can't just leave the clan- Who'll take care of you when you're a four-tail? You have to marry into a new one, or form a split-off."

"Things are changing in the modern world. There's so many new jobs in new places. The three-councils and four-councils offer clans new homes to move into sometimes, if there's work that needs doing in a factory somewhere, or tries to tempt ones and twos away for it. And we have city-clans forming- Not proper family, but groups doing the same kind of work. Grandma Rata will complain about it all day if you let her."

"If you're leaving to do something important or prestigious that's mostly fine if you visit, though. If Mika makes it as an astronaut we'll be bragging about 'The Kliiu Clan Having An Astronaut' for ages and trying to get her to drag important friends down here to Luo."

"That doesn't really answer my question... Chak, what do you mainly do for work?"

"I make and repair clothes- For the clan, and for neighboring clans. Especially formal robes. I might end up having to do something else, there's more industrial sewing lately."

"How many of the people in this house do mine remediation stuff? How many in the whole clan? How many people are in the Kliiu clan total?"

Fei answers this one. "Uh... I think Ka'do, Teko, Jann, and Tak all get hauled out to help carrying stuff around sometimes? Ka'do most often, he's a driver. There's a little cabal of aunties who's most in charge of it and they talk with people from the four-councils a lot. Self important engineer types. Probably twenty in total who work on it sometimes? Maybe five who do remediation related things full time? It's mostly done now- No way we would have tried swimming in that water thirty years ago. Oh, in total the clan rolls have seventy-nine people right now. We're, like, half the one-tails all in quarantine, everyone else is gonna be run a little ragged."

"So it's more of a clan-wide project thing. Makes sense. I was kinda worried that clans had assigned enterprises and everyone born into the clan had to work on that. Earth has a religion where people are born into castes and expected to have a profession appropriate for their caste. So the children of potters would also have to be potters. Well, not necessarily any more, and I'm not sure how strictly it was enforced it was historically, but that would be the expectation. Anyways, I'm not a fan."

"It's more of a 'from each according to their ability' thing."

"Religion? I used to believe in Nonism but after discovering the Makers... If the nine gods existed, they were probably Makers, not divine."

"Earth has a whole bunch of religions. I'm reasonably confident that all of the theistic ones are wrong, especially since none of them predicted the existence of Iwami."

"How recently were the makers discovered?"

"It was late in 26. And it's summer of 31 now. So four and a half years ago... It still feels unreal, honestly."

"So Iwami is right in the middle of a huge cultural shift, huh?"

"...I may end up exacerbating that."

"Oh, for sure! And that's a good thing. Maybe we can actually shake up politics for once, with a live mystery alien supporting change, instead of 'considering' new things for decades."

"Legacy may be important, but so is moving forward."

"...Being a political figure like that does not sound very fun, frankly. But I could be convinced to do it if the cause is important enough. I don't really know what Iwami politics is like."

"I was thinking that more culture change would mean political change, but that's, uh, reasonable."

His tablet beeps! It's a notification from Opinion, asking him to please answer a few quick questions in order to help determine the Central Plan's priorities.

"Aaand I guess now I can find out, because the computer is asking me questions."

What are the questions?

They're clearly designed to be slick, fast, and easy, but there's a wiki-like link to get more context on each item. There's also a button to go back and edit your choices. All the questions are phrased as 'how much would you like X, from 1 to 9' or 'would you rather have X or Y'.

More personal vehicles? 

Preserving endangered species?

Expanding crop variety (more sugar, more fruits and veggies)? 

Living in a dense city vs a rural area?

Going through a STEM-focus education, vs an arts/civics-focus one? 

A global sports program ala the Olympics?

More access to 3D printed goods orders such as this custom-ergonomic chair?

Less time off work but more frequent travel for vacations, vs more time off work and less frequent travel for vacations?

Faster internet speeds?

More buildup of the military? (It's a pretty small one, compared to America's, if he looks at the statistics)

How cool/exciting are:

The New Kitsune Genome Project (attempting to translate all the comments that the Makers left in non-coding sections of the Kitsune genome)
The Royal Iwa Museum of Warfare (from antiquity to today!)
The Grand Park of Tsu (huge national park/arboretum situation)
The Arc of Unity (massive arch monument and art museum)
The Shen Launch Ramp (huge construction for launching stuff into space)

That's all it bugs him to complete, but he could optionally keep going, too. And there is a 'contact your local representatives' link, too.

Hmm... pass (Sid has no knowledge of the current state of personal vehicles), 3, 8, city, STEM, 1, 2, more time off, 3, pass (unclear why they have a military or what it's expected to be used for), 7, 2, 5, 1, 3. And he'll stop there.

"Well, that seems like a very characteristically Iwami way to do things, based on my impressions of Iwami so far."

Chak and Fei can see his answers if they want.

They will take a look, sure. "Yeah, I agree with you about the crops. Amaranth for every meal isn't that fun. It's why artificial flavoring is so common."

"The genome project is a joke," Opines Fei. "I don't want to know what the idiots who cursed us with these bodies thought about it."

"I told Tak this, but Earth has hundreds of edible food crops. You guys have no idea what you're missing out on."

"The genome project seems like a high-risk high-reward thing to me. The makers, and what they thought and were trying to do, seem like potentially a really important mystery. And I can't resist mysteries like that, I guess."

Is it almost dinnertime?

Not quite, but Chak will occupy the remaining few minutes inquiring about Earthly formal fashion. 

There's a Dinner Gong. People seem to swarm out of the woodwork of the hallway full of lounges, when it sounds. A long, low table has been set up near the edge of the big clear area on the first floor. Padded pillows for seats, not chairs. Everyone is sitting on one side of it. Mika is fussing over the buffet with Ayami, who has claimed the kitchen as her domain. There doesn't appear to be assigned seats. 

The dinner gong is very charming.

Sid takes a seat, preferably next to people he hasn't already talked to today.

...Sid notices someone new at the table. Dressed much more fancily and sitting in a very composed sort of way, with slow gentle movements and a neutral expression. Ka'do and Osal are fussing over him, arranging utensils and fetching drinks even as he tries to wave them off and tells a joke a bit too quiet to hear. He has four tails. They're bulky and obvious. Probably Witak, who Mika was talking to earlier. He's acting a bit like a grumpy old grandpa, for all that his face and body look just as young, toned, and fit as the others- Aside from the tails.

But in the shuffle for seats, he gets seated next to Jann, wearing rough looking steel wire wound around his tail, and Lyra, wearing a bright blue ribbon with two gently jingling bells tied around the curly tip. They sound gently with every motion she makes.

"I hope you're settling in okay," Lyra says. "I'm sure everyone has plenty of questions. Personally, I want to know how 'humans' raise children without large clans... But it can wait."

"If everyone waits to ask their questions, no questions ever actually get asked," opines Jann. "Sheesh, I don't get why people are treating this as some sort of disaster. It's great! I'm sure Sid will invent all sorts of amazing things! And we get a vacation and get to be the ones who gave him a warm welcome to Iwami. Your kiddos can wait a couple weeks, Lyra. Wouldn't want them to get sick, right?"

"No. But I still miss them. I'm worried how well they'll take a new nanny- I talked to Bai and they're going to ask for help from the neighbors. But will the new minders know exactly how Jula likes her milk prepared? What tone to use for Nalti's bedtime story?"

"They'll be fine. Kits are tough."

Lyra whaps Jann with her tail. He looks a tad puzzled and annoyed but doesn't say anything else.

Ayami, distinctive for wearing lots of black, starts passing out plates of food. It's a pasta arrangement with a sauce that tastes strongly of one of the savory veggies he had earlier, plus oils and a few bits of meat, a side of ?hash browns?, and a small bowl of also savory-smelling yellow soup. They use forks and spoons, though the forks have just two tines. The portions are pretty small, possibly because the Eternal Buffet is still available. Several people get up and grab more, at least.

And then Mika walks over to the clear area and waits for everyone to settle down and look at her.

Sid is actually settling in surprisingly well for it being his first day on an alien planet.

The pasta and hash browns are quite good, if carb-heavy. He looks for something fibrous to eat if it's available.

He lends Mika his full attention when she asks for it.

There's some vaguely guacamole-like fruit spread on a crunchy celery-ish (but slightly spicy??) vegetable of some sort, for 'fibrous'. Also a fruit with stringy, pulpy insides and not much sweetness, almost like an enormous bean.

Mika has a short speech. "I know several of us are a tad overwhelmed at the implications of meeting a live alien... And it is important we reach out and try to understand. For all that we appear to be getting along, there are greater worries circling about the situation. I've been trying to create a feeling of normalcy for everyone here to counter that. And dinner is part of that. We all know the custom, but our guest does not- I'd like everyone here to say one or two things about their day. It doesn't need to be deep or meaningful. It's just a way to make sure we have points of connection. And then Sid can too, if he wants. After that, Mori has promised us the first section of Winter of Ash, which will take about fifteen minutes. Dinner Plays are designed to be broken up into brief segments and usually done by just one or two actors, to be contemplated on until the next comes on the following night. And finally, anyone else who wishes to show or demonstrate something is welcome to."

People are eating idly during this little speech, attentive and quiet but not utterly focused on her.

She slaps the ground with her tail, a soft whup sound. "I am Mika. I've come to a realization this evening, that it's alright if I don't become an astronaut- That I was being selfish, and if I'm not the best candidate- It would be a disgrace to all those who build the rockets and the ground support staff and everyone else to try and force it anyway. I will be thinking on what to do with my life instead over the next couple of weeks."

People stand from their seats and speak up one at a time, announcing their names.

"Tak. There comes a moment in life where you just have to act and hesitating would be worse than taking the wrong action. I firmly believe today was such a day. That's all."

"Ayami. I'm glad I get a whole kitchen to myself and can cook what I want, organized how I like it. It's nice to be in charge of something unambiguously. I love baking complicated pastries, so now I can make 'em without anyone bugging me about nutrients, nyehe!"

"I'm Witak," the four-tailed newcomer says, standing with obvious strain at the unwieldy mass of tail behind him. "I imagine our guest has a lot of questions. I imagine myself at least a teensy bit wise with my accumulated years. I'm looking forward to answering them as best I can, if asked. And I'll make sure everything that needs doing gets done- No need to worry, and Mika can relax a tad more tomorrow!"

There's a round of chuckling.

"Fei! I can't say anything else besides how unbelievably exciting it is to meet a real-live alien! I've ordered several bellows instruments from Goods since I think Earth does not have things quite like them. They're expected to come tomorrow, and I can show them to Sid. Looking forward to it!"

"To'ke. Call me Teko instead, I hate the stop in my name. I didn't bother Sid since Mika asked us not to but at some point, I'm really curious about Earth's oceanic life and how it might differ from Iwami's. The largest known creatures on Iwami are found in the oceans. Are such titans present on Earth too?"

"Pena. I've been thinking about the common tropes of video games today, and how they reflect what society values. Naturally, clan-building and colony-building games are extremely popular, but we also have exploration games, combat games, and dozens of other genres. I don't think we can necessarily say video games reflect society's soul or whatever, a lot of them are just fun!"

"Jann! Today was really fun, especially before the alien showed up! I know we weren't supposed to but the fox is out of his pen- Playing in the old slag hills was really fun! That mixture of adventure, forbidden thrill, and the simple physical joy of sledding and swimming. It was a day I'll remember for a long time even without all the alien stuff. I love you guys."

"I'm Lyra and I'm going to miss the main clan house. It feels too quiet here, without small children crying for attention or running around and playing..."

"Maki. Uh, I'm going back on birth control pills for however long we're in quarantine- Do we know that yet? I don't want to do ANYTHING at all that might hurt a baby!"

"Osal." Her voice is very quiet. "I always just talk about the book I'm reading today. It's a fantasy story. The main character has terraforming powers that create magic weather and new plants and stuff... They're using it stupidly. Like a weapon, not a resource. I'm gonna drop this book."

"I'm Mori. I considered several different plays, but you know what they say, the actress's whim is as the dancing breeze. Winter of Ash is just calling to me."

"Chak. I hope to talk about Earth fashion a lot more in the coming days and even make some examples for myself and everyone else. It'll be fun."

"...Ka'do. People talk too much at these things. The pancakes are really good. Thanks, Ayami."

'Greater worries'? Ominous.

...Hopefully Fei has not picked up a misconception about the amount of musical talent he actually has.

"I'm Sid. Today I got hit by a truck and woke up on another world. And of all the places I could have ended up, I'm glad to be with you guys."

After that, Mori does his show.

...The costume is clearly supposed to be armor, badly damaged armor at that. The dance is deliberate. It implies someone tired, desperate struggle alternating with exhausted rote. But no less elegant for it. He sings first about the latest verse in a long conflict, a feud clung to from fear and suspicion about to be ended once and forever. It's a battle song, Tak joins in and does martial arts in counterpoint for a dance-fight for a bit and they yell vitriol at each other. Tak falls dramatically to a plastic sword. Then, the rest of the short performance is about how it's too late to turn back now. The damage is done, granaries are broken open and smoldering on both sides, and winter is upon us. Victory is bitter, not sweet. What have we done?

That almost feels like it could be a complete story, but it's the first part of several, which makes him curious about where the story will go from here. It's quite well done.

After that the dinner turns to ordinary conversation. Ka'do gets up and heads upstairs but everyone else stays, at least for a bit.

"If you don't mind me asking, who cares for children on Earth? How does it work?" Lyra asks, once it's over and Mori sits down again.

"It varies by culture and family, but usually it's mostly the parents. Where I grew up, it's common for one parent, usually the mother but not always, to do most of the childcare while the other parent works. Grandparents and other family members also help out sometimes, most commonly if they're retired and therefore don't have to work. Once kids are old enough to go to school they spend a lot of their time doing that, but school usually lets out a couple of hours before most people get out of work, so it's common to send kids to a daycare for that period if both parents are working. I guess most childcare arrangements are determined by who has to work when."

"That seems a little sad. I think taking care of children is work. Possibly the most important work there is, second to farming."

"I think this is mostly my habits from my native language—in different contexts we use the same word to refer to either work in general, or specifically things for which one is financially compensated. But I think most humans would agree with you that taking care of children is work, and that it's important."

"Oh, good."

The bell she wears jingles pleasantly as her tail wags, and Lyra turns back to her food.

"You gonna sleep in the cuddlepile or in one of the side rooms?" Wonders Jann aloud. "Do aliens do cuddlepiles, even? I know in Tsu they mostly don't."

"Humans mostly do not do cuddlepiles, but I personally enjoy them quite a lot and will happily join you all."

"Cool, 'cause Tak, Witak, me, and Mika all want a side room. 'Salways males who want side rooms and I never understand why, but whatever. That's not important. Anyway, I'm pretty tired and gonna head out. Have a nice sleep, welcome to Iwami!"

Sid's first impressions of this species probably caused him to believe they were more cuddly than they actually are, if cuddlepiles do not in fact receive universal acclaim, but it's still a massive improvement over humans, so he's not complaining.

"Good night."

If people are getting ready to go to bed, Sid will... try to find a toothbrush. Hopefully the dental hygiene situation isn't too exotic.

Their toothbrushes are larger and weirdly shaped (curved a bit) and the bristles are very stiff, but they're recognizable. There's some in sealed cardboard packs in the sinks in the bathroom-toiletroom combo. Toothpaste too; It's possible there's something exotic in it that'll harm him but it tastes like ordinary slightly-chalky Generic Brand Unflavored stuff from earth. There's no mouthwash or dental floss in evidence.

These guys are going to be so unenthused when the first incredible alien technology he brings to Iwami is dental floss.

He brushes his teeth and heads downstairs.

Mika, Witak, Ayami, and Osal are still downstairs, cleaning up. The eternal buffet is shrinking to just stable items like candy and crackers.

Sid will help them clean up.

And then everyone troops upstairs, cleans up, and goes to sleep. The pajama situation is 'if you think they're comfy'. Tails are hugged and draped, and there's a few pillows and blankets too.

People leave the cuddlepile and return a couple times overnight, and then everyone seems to wake up all at once at some unseen signal.

Sid is very cozy, and sleeps well. He does not mysteriously awake with everyone else, but may do so soon after if they leave him all alone.

The first order of business for newly awakened Kitsune is Snacks. EVERYONE heads to the first floor and eats something.

Teko is actually working on her tablet in the cuddleroom when he wakes up a bit later.

"...Good waking. We didn't want to wake you in case humans need more sleep than us. I volunteered to watch you since I'm just studying."

Sid, still groggy, is confused by this.

"...Why do I need to be watched while I'm sleeping?"

"...You didn't choose an individual room so we thought you don't want to sleep alone?"

"Oh, that's nice of you."

Sid cuddles Teko until he has finished waking up, then checks his tablet. Does he have any new messages?

From Doctors Without Borders: A health report with a lot of obvious caveats and blank fields. They're cataloging the microbes they've identified from him and how they react to Kitsune cells but medical science is slow. Nothing dangerous identified so far but it's far too soon to be certain on that front.

Also from the specific doctor who visited: He has told some people and they have presumably told other people about him. It's out of his hands now. He's being asked to come back for more checkups, maybe every day, would that be acceptable to Sid?

Also from someone called 'Akane Iho of Iwa', signed with the signature-particle that indicates six tails, no other title or qualifications attached: She would like to schedule a video call to 'establish mutual understanding', at his convenience, please.

Sure, they can do more checkups. Preferably at a regularly scheduled time so he can plan things around them.

He can talk to Akane Iho any time today. This should be interesting. What does the internet say about her?

Akane Iho of Iwa is the head of the military and a career soldier. She served Iwa's national army until it merged with Tsu's as the Joint Sea Patrol Service about 50 years ago, and served in that until the Final Unification about 30 years ago, and served in the United Global Military ever since. She's been its overall leader for the past seven years. She has bounced around the service and has experience in every branch: Army, Air, Sea, and Space. At one point in the JSPS she successfully negotiated with a batch of terrorists who claimed to have chemical weapons and de-escalated the situation; She got a medal for it. Her largest political push has been towards having the army do complicated large scale field exercises in varied terrain on a regular basis instead of only very occasionally, and instead of simply training in and around local bases. She also built a reserve system in response to recent surges in volunteers. She has six tails: Old, and likely to die soon, and admirable for continuing to work through what is surely debilitating pain.

It's good that the people in charge want to talk to him right away, instead of like, making him go up the chain, but he's not sure what to make of the fact that it's the head of the military he'll be speaking to.

Sid heads downstairs to get some food and inquire about clothing.

His outfit from yesterday is clean now. There's also a generic Kitsune shirt and pants that Chak has attempted to make fit. Half a dozen people are milling about breakfasting, including Witak.

Tablet: Akane suggests a 4:00 meeting. That's in most of an hour.

He'll wear the kistune clothing—thank you, Chak. He accepts the meeting, which gives him enough time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, take a bath, brush his teeth, and find a quiet spot to take the call.

People try to chat with him during the leadup to the meeting, but let him go without fuss.

When the call connects, Akane Iho is in uniform. It's black, gold, red, made of simple cuts and limited embroidery of circles and radiant motifs. She looks as thin and young as anyone else, with the clearest signs of age being the six gently waving tails fanned out behind her and an obvious metal port visible at the base of her neck.

She has a solid poker face.

"Sidney Hill of Earth. Before anything else, I promise you this now and commit to it upon the honor of the institution, to be followed so long as it maintains any continuity at all. The military of Iwami, the United Global Military, will never prevent you from killing yourself if you clearly and of sound mind wish to, even if ordered to by the government. If you wish, I will commit to this non-interference even if you seem depressive, confused, or otherwise of unsound mind. I have issued standing orders to this effect to the general staff along with the briefing this morning on your situation, and I will take whatever steps you wish to proof this commitment to you, publicly or privately."

"I would like you to commit to that even if I seem of unsound mind, yes. Particularly because signs of an unsound mind in a Kitsune may be of no concern in a human."

"Are there parties other than the United Global Military that might prevent me from killing myself?"

"Then I do so commit. I will issue updated orders upon finishing this call."

She waves a golden scepter looking thing above the desk. It looks Very Ceremonial, like a judge's gavel. 

"There are three groups of note who might hold you captive if given opportunity. The Silver Oak organization, sometimes derisively called 'Snow Rats', style themselves the rightful rulers of Iwa. They are violent guerillas and operate only on Iwa. Similarly the Greentails are a separatist movement on an island known as Ekis. They are not violent as a whole but a small group of extremists have been known to commit acts of terrorism. Lastly, we have a loose network of organized criminals whose chief concerns are securing power and luxuries for themselves. The military does not investigate them, only occasionally supports police units in raids."

"I'm not expecting to receive any commitments from people who aren't part of the government. I mean, are there other parts of the government which have prisons they might try to put me into, or is there a legal mechanism for involuntary commitment to a psychiatric ward, or is there any other legally-sanctioned mechanism by which I might be deprived of the ability to kill myself?"

Akane pauses for a long moment.

"...I suppose I am predisposed to think of things in terms of threats and opponents. I apologize. It's hard to prevent a Kitsune determined to commit suicide from doing so. Let me think..."

"...In some cases, clans are permitted to restrain certain members of their own clan who have not reached the age of majority, or who have documented psychological disabilities. As your own clan these would not apply. The police also may generally confine people for a short time during an active crisis or investigation. Prisons exist and people are sometimes sentenced to them, but they are obligated by law to provide inmates a means of suicide- I think it might specifically be the Lilac Bridge they are obligated to provide on request, I'm not sure off the top of my head. I am not an expert on prisons but there are observer groups who inspect conditions and interview inmates to ensure the prisons are well-behaved. There are also quarantine measures, evacuation measures, and a generalized emergency measures clause. I was chosen to contact you because I represent the state's capacity for violence and thus would be most reassuring on the overall state's willingness to commit to this point. We can extract a treaty or public promise similar to mine from the various councils making up the World Government if you wish."

"I would like a commitment that no part of the government will prevent me from killing myself, or conveniently look the other way if someone not part of the government does so—by which mean, in a situation where the government would intervene if it was someone other than me who was kidnapped or imprisoned or whatever, they should not do nothing because it's me. I want an assurance that no games will be played, you understand? Because the commitments you have made thus far leave plenty of room to play games, if someone were so inclined."

"I understand. The reason the commitments offered thus far are relatively limited in scope is due to a general hesitancy to make binding agreements unconditional and especially to not do that quickly. Unconditional agreements are easy to wedge into corners. For example and I know this is not quite what you described, I don't want to commit, without thinking it through carefully, to rescuing you from kidnappers or ensuring your death if kidnappers are holding you and then find myself in an impossible, unreasonable situation- Say, where the only option is to kill a lot of people to get to you, or to go to war against an alien power for the same reason. Does that make sense?"

"All I ask in that regard is that the government not treat me any differently than an ordinary Iwami citizen, who it has no motivation to coerce."

"Say there is an alien, and the government wants something from him, but they can't coerce it from him else he kill himself. So this information is leaked to some patriot, who is not themselves a member of the government or bound by its commitments, and they take it upon themselves to kidnap, imprison, and torture him until he gives the government what they want. And the government, which, if they knew someone was kidnapped, might ordinarily take action about this, decides to do nothing, because in this case they would find it convenient if the kidnapper succeeds. So they allow him to be tortured until they get what they want. Like I said, playing games."

She scowls.

"That's- Criminal thinking. I can imagine the mindset that would choose such a thing but they are not wise, they are not- The kind of person who we select for greater responsibility. I would have words with anyone who even hinted at such stupidity. It courts terrorism, conflict. Breaks trust."

She schools her face again. "While not prepared to make such a commitment instantly, I have no doubt that the Council of Six Tails will be willing to commit to diligently protect you as a valuable member of the planetary community. The only cases where such protection might be- Limited- Would be if for example you insisted on wandering around northern Iwa without escort and against warnings of trouble there."

"Alright. I imagine you have questions for me?"

"Many. Do you remember what occurred immediately before and after you found yourself on Iwami? Could you point out exactly where it was, within a few tail-lengths? Are you aware of- Please do not go out of your way to learn about this, I want an unbiased perspective- A phenomenon where mental activity has a direct effect on physical reality? Do you know much about the stars surrounding your planet, enough to possibly identify it given star charts? Is Earth aware of other alien species and what are they like? Would Earth invade Iwami if it could? Trade with Iwami, instead? Various questions about Earth's technology, organizational systems, history, et cetera*, after those."

*Not literally 'et cetera' but a similarly anachronistic borrowed phrase from old language.

"I was crossing the street when I got hit by a truck. I experienced suddenly being in a different place, near an abandoned mine complex near here. I can point out exactly where I appeared, once I'm out of quarantine. I have no reason to believe mental activity affects physical reality other than the obvious—where people take different actions or behave differently depending on what they're thinking. I know some things about the stars visible from Earth, but probably not enough to identify it on a star chart. Earth is not aware of any other alien species. I don't expect Earth would invade Iwami if it could, both because Iwami could probably win any such war and because none of the states on Earth would have any real reason to do that. Everyone would probably be pretty enthusiastic about trading with Iwami, although there might be some frictions related to financial laws or tariffs or whatever."

The poker face continues.

"Would you be willing to try and point out your appearance point on a map so we can try to examine it? Are there any other assurances other than never preventing you from harming yourself and protecting you as we would a Kitsune citizen of fine standing, that you would like? Do you have any preferences for special treatment or lack thereof for the Kliiu clan? Do you have any preferences about with whom or how to contact you going forward? Do you have any questions for me?"

"Sure. I'll do so once we're done here. I don't need any commitments other than the ones we've already discussed. I would prefer my arrival here not to mess things up for any of the Kliiu any more than necessary. If you can arrange some way for Mika to get into space school if she wants—and I don't know if she still wants that—that would be appreciated. Texting me is fine if you or anyone else needs to get in contact with me."

"What I want to know is—what does the government want from me? How can I expect to be treated going forward? Also, do you foresee problems if my existence became known to the general public?"

"I can at least arrange so that a sudden cancelation due to quarantine does not harm her chances... And perhaps someone to give advice on what an astronaut needs to be. Mika Kliiu of Luo. Noted. We'll arrange the formal commitment in the next day or two. You don't need to help us with anything until then."

"My job, the military's job, is to use the implicit threat of violence for the state's goals, and while I think they are fine goals I prefer not to dress it up. I don't think I'm the best contact for you beyond today."

"I want to know if more sudden aliens can appear and who or what is causing it and why. I want to know if Kitsune could disappear like you did. We want any insights you have that can improve the world- Technology, art, civics, history of Earth to learn lessons from. If you become public knowledge you'll be a celebrity for better or worse. A lot of people will pin their own hopes or ideologies on you. Whether that is a problem depends on your proclivities."

"I'd be fine serving as an importer of Earth knowledge for the rest of my life, although, just to manage your expectations, I doubt any of it will be truly revolutionary. Earth and Iwami seem to be at roughly the same tech level, and I don't have the expertise to replicate anything even moderately complicated that you don't already have."

"If you don't have any further questions, I don't think you and I have anything else we need to discuss. Have a nice day."

"Ten thousand pebbles make a road. I hope your day goes well."

The call disconnects.

Sid opens up a map on his tablet, finds the place he appeared yesterday, and texts her the coordinates.

That was kind of a frustrating conversation.

Anyways, Sid is curious about some things, and has no reason to delay that curiosity any further.

Prepare yourself now for an IWAMI WORLDBUILDING ORDEAL. From Sid's perspective, he is not a fictional character but a real person in a real world which he can expect to be REALISTICALLY DETAILED AND COHERENT. As he has recently gained access to the Iwami internet, containing the collective knowledge of BILLIONS OF PEOPLE, Sid will now embark on a MULTI-HOUR INTERNET RESEARCH BINGE. My illustrious coauthor, Rockeye, will be PUSHED TO HIS VERY LIMITS to satisfy Sid's curiosity. Unless he chooses to pass on a question, for which he shall face NO SHAME.

Internet, what's the deal with the Makers? What does Iwami think it knows and how does it think it knows it?

There is righteous scholarly discourse about this. A lot of it.

Evidence one: Once you know where to look for it, the signs of genetic manipulation are omnipresent. There are lots of non-coding segments with what was previously believed to be random junk in the Kitsune genome, and lots of other species' genomes too. But with evidence two, they can be sensibly translated. The Fibonacci sequence is encoded in quaternary in one of them! And a bunch of other first-contact-math type stuff!

Evidence two: There's literally a huge stone pyramid someone dug up a few years ago with a Rosetta Stone of an obscure stone age language to DNA. There was a Punnett Square on one of the walls. Archaeologically, the place seems to be about 10,000 years old.

Evidence three: Huh. By examining the rocks, it sure looks like the oxygen content shot WAY up and lots of fossils started appearing about 10,000 years ago. Funny, that. (They have a pretty basic seeming understanding of fossils. It sounds... Off.)

Evidence four: Everything on Iwami appears to be designed or bred to be pretty before anything else. There were theories at one point about runaway sexual selection but there's no reason for a tree to be pretty to Kitsune. Early biological scholarship was shortsighted and wrong about lots of stuff.

Evidence five: One of the gas giant's moons started getting all oxygenated after a probe visited it. There seems to be something growing on it. Sus. Did the Makers have other projects?

Evidence six: Translating the non-coding segments of genomes reveals a lot of what scans like prose or poetry. Most of it doesn't translate very elegantly but it seems like the Makers had a lot of religious and philosophical opinions, including on the power of the mind to overcome physical reality.

Evidence seven: Kitsune can alter the effects of particle physics experiments by thinking really hard in the vicinity of a particle accelerator. It's not electromagnetism or any other known force. It doesn't seem to matter what they're thinking about, but neural activity = tiny but measurable and replicable weird particle accelerator results! From Kitsunes, not from other animals, even! Those with more tails do it more strongly. Some people take this as evidence that psionics are just around the corner. The Academic Establishment is a lot more skeptical of that. Severed tails from people who donated their bodies to science also do it.

Overall things people mostly agree on is that something or someone made the Kitsune and also all other life on Iwami, they're long gone, they gave Iwami air and water and stuff in addition to life, they had strong religious beliefs that may or may not be true, they liked the number nine a lot (pyramid stuff is all in base nine and it comes up in the prose). Anything else is a fuckton of speculation and nothing solidly provable.

Well, this is all very mysterious. More mysterious than he was expecting, even, and he expected quite a lot.

Do the Makers seem to have left any physical artifacts behind on Iwami itself, besides the pyramid? What exactly seems to be growing on that one moon? What are some of the highlights of the translated DNA and what specifically did the Makers consider so important? Does their language have any particularly interesting features?

There are a few items and sites that are purported to be that old- Mostly stone age crafts. Some cave art. Carved statuettes. If he investigates their archaeology and has any idea what proper archaeology looks like it seems almost amateurish.

Current theories point to 'some kind of bacteria that eats calcium carbonate and excretes calcium oxide and oxygen'. It makes pretty coral-like structures; The prettiness is the main argument for specifically a Maker origin. The first probe lander had an engine failure and exploded, more are on the way.

Interesting translated highlights: "Every-universal-forever organized system has a process, a beginning, and an end. Most-few-exceptions systems are meaningless and futile, perpetuating themselves or acting in mechanical rote to trend to uniformity."

"Entropy is the enemy of every-universal-forever person. The best goal to pursue is the end of entropy, so beauty and thought may continue forever."

"Few-have-special-qualities people believe in an exceptional system. Intelligence is the comprehension of patterns and invention of new paths, but intelligence is bent to most-few-exceptions simple and straightforward ends derived from natural selection. It seeks feasts, greed, status, pleasure, and any other purpose is an aberration. Most-few-exceptions intelligences are a random knot of order in a sea of noise. New purpose emerges at chance, but it does not need to die. It can spread like any life or idea." 

"This-group-inclusive writers are not the end of progress. Our system of ideas is one configuration in an infinity of possibilities. Our goal is to be replaced by something more beautiful and unknowable than ourselves."

"Seven is the number of deception. Do not trust it. It has not proven itself."

Like a lot of Iwami's languages, the Maker Language has pronouns for tail count and not for gender. There are a lot of words for collections or scopes of different kinds from 'this-specific-unique' to 'everything-universal-forever', with nouns liberally sprinkled with them.

Well, these guys certainly... knew what they were all about. Although Sid thinks he will leave the task of deciphering what, specifically, that is to others.

Questions about the mysterious interactions between Kitsune minds and/or tails and particle physics: are the effects more pronounced if there are a bunch of people nearby thinking hard at once? If so, have they tried like, getting a thousand people to think really hard and show those particles who's boss? Do the tails from cadavers specifically have to be severed? What, uh, state are the severed tails in when they cause these effects? Presumably after a certain amount of decay it stops working? Have they tried dissecting the tails to pin the effect down to specific tissues? Actually, what is the anatomy of a kitsune tail? Someone mentioned they have a role in hormones, so presumably there's more than just the muscle and bones and so on found in a normal animal tail. Actually, do they even have bones? If so how do the vertebrae in the bones connect up to the spine when there's more than one tail? Are the particle physics effects stronger if there are more severed tails present? How do the effects caused by a severed tail differ from the effects caused by a person thinking hard? Does the proximity of a person not thinking hard have any effect on the particles, compared to when there isn't anyone nearby? How close does someone have to be to the particle accelerator to effect the particles?

As many as several of these questions may depend on his ability to dig through arcane academic papers.

More people in the target area increases the effect. They've tried up to 300 at once, packing everyone in a neat little custom built sphere around the annihilation chamber to get within the 20 meters or so where there are best effects. The tails in question are gently electrified, exciting the neurons there in a way brain neurons do not work. Decay matters, and only very fresh tails work, before the neural-bone-lace starts to break down. Neural-bone-lace by itself does it; The rest of the tail's muscle and blood and so on doesn't matter much except for how it keeps the neural-bone-lace alive. The reason severed tails are used is because they can be electrified with a lot less variability than a live person thinking creates, but there's obviously still some. They can get constructive interference if they do things just right or turbulence in the effect if they do it wrong. It's a subject of active and vigorous scientific inquiry. It propagates slower than light, at about a few thousand meters per second, in fact. Variations in observed speed are unexplained. Computer simulations try to model it as motion in a fluid, or like light, or in increasingly arcane ways, but none accurately predict it yet. It seems to take the excitement of tail neurons to induce the effect. Studies on what exactly is different between tail neurons and brain neurons is ongoing.

Kitsune tail bones are porous and shot through with nerves! Tail neural-bone-lace is metabolically active and thought to be linked to intuition, emotional depth, and spatial reasoning, but this might just be 'older people have more of these things' and not the tails specifically. And the joint at the base of the spine is one of the most common things to fail, especially during the growth of a new tail! It actually buds off, forming a ring of tail-connections in an incredibly cursed looking joint over time and placing immense stress upon the lower back.

Arcane academic papers? But these are just basic questions that anyone would think to ask!, objects the part of Sid's brain responsible for the typical mind fallacy.

Do any other Iwami animals have neural-bone-lace or anything similar?

Some deep sea squid do. They have not managed to wrangle one to a particle accelerator; They die really easy.

Sid takes a look at the Iwami tree of life, or whatever passes for one on a planet where all the life was engineered. Are there any notable omissions, compared to Earth, or categories of species that Earth doesn't have?

...There seem to be a lot of holes in this food web. There's only maybe 10 or 20 thousand species on Iwami, not counting the beginnings of mutation and speciation in short-lived life like grasses and insects. There aren't any archaea: Bacteria, viruses, fungi, and eukaryotes, yes, but an entire kingdom of microbes is missing. There's only one family of algae. There's corals, but no sponges. No mollusks. No sharks. No crocodilians. Relatively few parasites. No marsupials or monkeys, though there do seem to be foxes. They're apparently holy animals, since Kitsune see the resemblance. Most life on Iwami does not senesce; They die of anything and everything but 'old age', especially cancers.

It is roughly at this point that Fei finds him and, tail wagging, holds up what looks like a very odd set of bagpipes married to an accordion. "Behold!"

"Hi Fei! I'm learning so many interesting things about the Makers. Do you know how to play that? Because I sure don't."

"I do! You work the bellows with your feet and use your fingers on these holes to change the sound..."

"I figured that much. Do you want to play a song?"

"Mhm! I'm not sure what to play. Do you want to help?"

"...How would I help? I don't know nearly anything about this instrument or Iwami musical traditions?"

"I was thinking a song with vocals you could follow, or something... I wouldn't mind teaching you to read sheet music! But it's fine if you don't want to. I'll... Do part of the Summer Call, that's nice and complicated."

"I'm happy to sing, or learn to read sheet music. I just figured you could play something short so I could see how the instrument—what's it called, by the way?—works. And I'm curious what it sounds like."

"Oh! Okay, right, I kind of interrupted you didn't I? Sorry. Ah- This is called a three stalk grassfingers. There are two and four and five stalk versions too. I'll just do a quick chorus."

She sets it down and closes a valve on one of the poles. Her foot fits neatly into a sandal strap on the bellows. She pulls it up with a soft whine, then leans the tallest pole on her shoulder and puts her hands on the other two. 

She works the foot pedal to start and stop, using her fingers to change pitch. It sounds a bit like bagpipes- Lots of sustained tones playing over each other in a droning sort of sound. She plays something slow and relaxed and cheerful, tapping a steady beat on the wood floor with her other foot.

"Thank you, that's quite nice."

"It's not that you interrupted me—that's not a problem—it's that, uh, hearing what a brand new musical instrument sounds like is obviously the most thing about it, right? And I'm not usually very patient when something interesting is right in front of me. I guess I could have been more clear about that, sorry."

"Did you have anything in mind that I can sing along with?"

"There's a song called Burning Fields that I like- The burning is good if you're doing it for fertilizer. The grassfingers part is tricky but the vocals are really simple and I have a singalong app on my tablet. We can just turn percussion and strings tracks on too."

Then Sid can, with some practice, sing along to her performance. He's not a bad singer, but obviously not trained in any way.

The song is about hard work, and how something can be both good and bad in different places and contexts! It has the cadence of a work song.

"I looked for anything like an 'electric guitar' and kind of went down a rabbit hole* about synthesized music. You can do guitar noises from a synthesizer just fine, but I think you meant things where there's no acoustic chamber, and vibration goes directly to a microphone instead? That makes a clearer, sharper sound most of the time?"

*The Kitsune language of Unified does have this exact same idiom, actually.

"No microphones. It's a guitar with steel strings and magnets below the strings such that the vibration of the strings creates an electrical signal that can be modified and amplified. You can get a cleaner sharper sound if you want, or you can make it more distorted, or do a whole bunch of other things with it. It might be possible to achieve a similar sound with an acoustic guitar and a microphone, but I think that would probably be more problematic."

"I'll search the internet more but if it doesn't already exist we should totally try to make that some day."

"It's fairly high up on my todo list right now, actually. Although my todo list is likely to be completely different in a week."

"I have an oscilloscope. For work. And other electrical tools. Or, technically they're not mine-mine, but I have access to them for work and I don't think it'd be too terrible of a fuss to get them delivered here. So I'm maybe the best person to work on this with. Maybe not right this second, though."