That certainly makes sense.

And laws?

"I haven't decided yet. I think since humans free their children at pretty high rates I should maybe require people not to hit them on the head a lot while their brains are growing. And since we take the longest to grow up there's so much time to teach human children things, maybe we can have more educated people."

...yes that sounds like a good law.

Oh, humans take the longest to grow up?

And, yes, this sounds like the sort of venture she'd want to help with. And thinks she can - she'd been considering what to use any resources she might be able to acquire for, aside from repayment, and this would be a effective answer, and she has lived (exclusively, in fact) in cities designed for humans and such, and would predict that she knows things that would be useful.

"Well, maybe I can use you if I ever make enough to get my city. I'd need to make up all the money I've spent on you and then some, though." Sigh. He looks out the window and doesn't do anything regrettable. "...Yeah, humans take the longest, our age of majority is seventeen, it's twelve for caralendri and they take the next-longest."

Ah, she hadn't realized. What about everyone else?

"Four or so for beluli and agerah and seven months for essi and ereli."

Understood. (Well then.)

How do the life spans compare?

"Uh. Beluli don't live as long as humans, ereli don't live as long as beluli, essi don't live as long as ereli, thwilit can live forever but the individual birds don't, anemones can just live forever, agerah live longer than humans and caralendri live longer than agerah."

About how long do humans live here? And what about individual birds?

"Humans usually live to be more than sixty and usually not ninety. Thwilit, uh... I'm not sure."

"Four or sixteen or twenty-four," says Iri. "Depending on who you're talking about."

That's a fairly good lifespan. Especially considering the circumstances.

Oh?

Iri explains but the explanation hinges on three very important words that she's heard one of before but not the other two. The one she's heard is what Valanda called Iri's gender.

She asks about those. (Which lifespan does the one Iri goes with correspond to?)

Well, one of them lays eggs and lives more than twenty years, one of them fathers eggs and lives about four years, and Iri does useful things and might live to be about sixteen.

Oh. Are thwilit like bees?

"I think so."

She sees. (She doesn't say anything about the lifespan, because condolences seem like they might be misplaced, and it is not as thought she expects to be able to do anything about it.)

Alright, so if this is what Valanda wants, does he want to be making a plan together and such?

"I can't rule anywhere right now, I need to buy land. Which I can't do because I don't have enough saved up."

Makes sense.

Have the place value system buyers gotten back to him yet? She has some useful things you can use once you have that she could try selling to them. And are they going to be spreading it around? She has some calculation aids some people might like. 

"I've put off agreeing to some things while doing some market research, now that you have something you're doing already, but I'm planning to talk to them again tomorrow."

Ah, good, that's the part he is fairly certainly more qualified to do than she is and she has been aware of her lack.

If at some point they need to advertise she can beat people in a public speed math contest, if one can be arranged?

What other kinds of market research is he doing? Would he be able to conduct some about nitrile and latex gloves? She thinks that is another good and low hanging candidate for her to sell.

"That's a good idea, I'll look into both of those things."

Excellent.

It is quite beneficial, in several senses, to have a plan in existence. She would have had an improvement in tide table/Hari performance regardless, due to the outing (she can push her psychology around to a much greater extent than at all standard, but it does remain her psychology), but with this it increases further. 

She works on tide tables and Hari.

He talks to people and asks her how long she expects it'll take to explain place value, someone wants to schedule a lecture for a handful of mathematicians about it.

That seems a desirable idea.

Not that long to explain, but perhaps they'll want to attempt using it with her available for questions?

How are presentations done here; in her world they have chalkboards or whiteboards to write on, or slides to project.