Beka is not sure what she was expecting as a result of walking into a snake monster but an Elf city would have been very low on a list of possibilities if someone had jumbled a lot of random words together into place-phrases and had her rank them. "Elf city" would probably have been under "spider void" and above "grape juice ocean". And yet here she is.
"Maybe it's like how humans don't care if things are pretty."
"If one does, I take it we avoid mentioning that we have heard of them from someone with pink hair?"
"Yeah. And they'll be real mad if they find out I've already touched anything they touched. Or that Katin has. Or that anyone who's touched us has."
"Gosh, real mad, we can't have that. We'll keep 'em away from you."
"It seems like they just have a - sense that things are inherently horrible - which is turned up way too high and catches tons of things that are perfectly fine."
Doesn't seem too far off. Although reds are fine with other reds and would still not want to drink sewage.
If he thinks that their boyfriend objections are an instance of the same thing he does not say so. They have dinner!
Of the singing girls Beka is best equipped to notice the sudden absence of city noises and presence of the sound of water and other minds.
...do we say hi? she wonders, while relaying what she's hearing to the other singing girls. Singing girls pick up their babies.