Nod nod.  "Do you think having more paper makes a lot of difference for what things people write?"

"It... would not be my first guess for why surface books differ?"

"Okay."  He shrugs.

"They're a different species living in completely different material conditions." Shrug. "Did you like the book?"

"Yeah.  ... It, uh, was different than I expected."

"...howso?"

"It, uh.... it seems like guys and girls are kind of the opposite of what I'm used to.  Even the drow ones."

"Oh! Yeah, we're a matriarchal species. It's not likely to come up for you, that's a species-internal thing, you aren't like, lower status than Via even though she's female."

"Oh.  Okay."

"I think humans are the other way because they do more things that require upper body strength? And can't decide when to be fertile, that's probably not helping."

"Woah.  Yeah, we can't do that.  Or, well, there's technology for it back home."

"Is there? - is that one of the things where you don't know how it works?"

"I kind of know how one of them works."

"Well, I'm sure when you get upstairs the humans'll be delighted, but fortunately elves - it's all elves not just drow - have our own thing we can do, and unfortunately no one is interested in letting the slaves set their own schedules."

"Yeah. Sucks."

That's so much worse than trying to explain condoms would have been.  Still: at least he doesn't have to try and explain condoms.  "Um.  How did you like the book so far?"

"I love it. It's a really unfamiliar style and I think Comprehend Languages is stretching harder than it normally has to but it's very cool and unlike anything I've seen before."

"Oh, that's great!  I can try and explain anything that was confusing anyways -"

"I should actually go to sleep, but maybe tomorrow evening. In the morning Rynaeri's going to talk to you about joining her at work."

Wow, he has no sense of time without the sun.  "So in general I should try and sleep before you as opposed to after?"

"I might actually try to talk Rynaeri into moving her own schedule so that you can work while I'm sleeping, because the obvious alternative is that you work while I'm at school and sleep when I'm at home and then you have my sleeping hours to do nothing much in."

"That would be really nice of her!"

"She's a nice person! You know, considering."

"Huh.  ...I guess it's not that weird?  I mean, you're nice."