Thanks.

You remember the common okay?

Think so. Less tampering with procedural knowledge. That was my father's analysis, anyway.

I'll translate the bits in Harthanic but leave the common alone, then.

Kib can't get within a foot of Maitimo to hand him objects, so a courier brings him the first packet of pages the next day.

He spends half of the day out and about and the rest of it reading.

It starts [Curation note: these are in chronological order: cute parts are later. Also, in many cases I refer to factual notes like how the Trees and calendar worked which I kept in a tidier form elsewhere but have not included here] and then:

...So I asked for someone who would be better equipped to deal with strange people from far away and I got the I can't spell any of these names, some form of local monarch. Developing the sense that "tall pale and hot" is a theme but at least they have different hair colors, some-form-of-local-monarch's a redhead. There was bowing. It was weird. He congratulated one of them on a baby and I had this really vivid mental image of {margin note: this is not in fact what was going on} people dressing up babies and showing them like they were purebred cats or something, I'm sure there are stranger hobbies but what in the world could they be. I was confused at the some-sort-of-monarch I'm just going to go ahead and mangle the transliteration - Nelyafinwe Maitimo - and he showed me a map and it was completely unrecognizable.

He thought the Valar could send me back to my family {this turned out not to be a weird telepathy glitch!}. Spent a while unable to distinguish generosity from the apparently zero scarcity economy, although I suppose generosity with time is still a meaningful concept. Also turns out they have nonservantmaking magic. And don't have a sun. The fuck. They have trees instead. Shiny ones. Also the magic is very nice, got me running without cracking my skull open, and also nice is his singing voice. Suggested hurdy-gurdy automatons. They do not have hurdy-gurdies. They do not have automata. Or servants at all. He knows a guy who can talk to animals but they're not pets, different thing, checked. Have a bird now. Don't know what kind it is. Not sure what to name it. Fruit? Have shades for sun tree protection now.

[redacted for length not content: four paragraphs' bewilderment about people having families]

He was really horrified by the appearing babies thing, it was sweet. Tossed solutions around for a while. Vastly disparate populations. Also they're immortal, what, want. He was really surprised I'm eighteen, like I'd almost think he'd been scoping me out before that, but I guess I'm Elf jailbait.

[redacted for length not content: sidenote about animal ecology]

He says he might be tempted to go feed stray cats for centuries. It's too naive and cute help. Produced two iterations of obvious-improvement-ideas.

[More ramble about families]

Explained stork politics thing. Maitimo or whichever name I'm supposed to call him (is it THAT HARD to explain your culture to outsiders, Literally Every Elf I Have Met All Four Of You) picked up big chunks of the common ridiculously fast, I don't know if language learning is a specialty of the species like apparently the singing voices and the being really hot or if they're just so smart they can do that or what, wow, intimidating much. Talked politics basics. Obtained food (yum) and clothes (pants: what a concept) and explained hair (they just all have it long and fancy and touching it is "intimate", how much so unspecified).

[5 paragraphs economics]

[11 paragraphs personal reflection]

The notes are exactly the sort of things he'd want to remember. He is so happy. It is an unfamiliar experience but not so much so he can't recognize it. He tells Kib so, and isn't sure if Kib believes him, and asks for more when he's not too busy, and tries not to sound desperate for it.

He can have more! It doesn't take that long to redact them, and then Kib can just put shades over the parts to skip and give them to a scribe and add notes.

Notes Kib makes fun of Maitimo for re-writing a page because it wasn't pretty enough. Notes Kib likes Fëanáro and writes six more redacted paragraphs about families but leaves in one speculating about families in the specific case he's seen, trying to cast Maitimo's interactions with Tyelcormo and Fëanáro both in a more comprehensible light. Notes Kib thinks Maitimo has a weapons-grade smile and should be careful where he aims those teeth. Notes Kib is pleased to have a dark place to sleep. Notes Kib writes a redacted paragraph about Valar and architecture. Notes Kib is going to make a scribe! Notes Kib is so amazed that he had a conversation with an inventor of writing!!! Notes Kib is really charmed by the fact that Maitimo will sing him useful magic songs. [9 paragraphs personal reflection]

He sort of wishes there were a way to hug him that wouldn't be awful for everyone involved.

Eventually the notes get to the part where they play Governor. Kib includes the entire game in the packet.

He reads through it. He wonders idly if the Enemy could have made all this up. Could have gotten a copy somehow, he was after all in Kib's house....

...this is distressing and he stops reading.

Does he want more notes?

"I think I got the idea, and I think your time is more valuable than you're letting on. But thank you."

"Okay. Let me know. I do need to task-switch sometimes anyway."

Faking a smile is startlingly hard. "I hope and imagine you have enough tasks to switch between without me adding to them."

"If you say so."

Confronting the fake Kib on whether he stole Kib's notes: a terrible idea. He shouldn't let on that he knows how they're impersonating Kib so convincingly, and if they know he can infer it from the notes then they'll take the memory of the notes. "I say so," he says, as lightly as he can manage.

"Did they help, far as they went...? I don't know if this is the kind of memory loss where you can have it jogged or not..."

"Not - jogged, exactly, but knowing that I love someone and not why is unpleasant and it's nice to have the bits fill in.

I'm worried they'll take the memory of the notes away if I get too attached to them, so I'm trying not to do that."

Oh fuck that's heartbreaking. "Oh."

"Are you very sure you don't want a hug I am pretty sure the real Kib, if we ever interact again, is not going to feel cheated-on that I offered you one-"

"I am not going to feel cheated on I'm just not very well equipped to derive comfort from affection that costs the source as I assume it would!"

"Not being able to offer you anything is costing me too, I honestly have no idea which would be worse."

"Well, I assume you would have a really hard time right now terraforming me another island but I am sure nothing that will tempt your golem to break my jaw need be involved."

He nods.

"...also I am assuming the Enemy copied the notes when he broke your house and I don't feel comfortable reading them, knowing that's how I'm getting them, but I think that realization they're going to just erase next iteration, I was getting all trusting before I thought it through -"