"So most - houses, have a couple and their children, and not anyone else, and sometimes people are allowed to do other things but not many other things?"

"You can probably do most other things you're likely to think of if you find someone to do them with, they'll just be unusual and require explanation to anyone you're introducing to your situation for the first time. Our protectors aren't inclined to strongly enforce the cultural norm."

'Protectors', sure.  He wants to ask - but if they don't have magic, will it be suspicious - but it might not hurt, for him to look like he cares a lot about hedonistic things - "Are there ways to not have kids?"

"Yes. You can go back up the stairs and get your own, but any women you encounter will have arrangements so it's not urgent even if you expect to hook up with someone within the hour."

"Oh, good."

"If you see fruit or nuts or anything like that growing around you it's almost certainly edible. It's the principal way to get fruit. Mushrooms will reliably be nontoxic but not necessarily any good for you. Vegetables can be foraged but you should learn which ones so you don't wind up eating the leaves of a plant that's there for the stalk or something like that. Things other than fresh produce can be had at the grocery store in the town center. Everything is free. That also applies to the stores with clothes, art supplies, the library if you want to keep a book from there - you can only keep the aboveground ones in your house, the basement ones are information leak risks for the children."

As they walk there sure are varmints all over the place, gliding overhead and scurrying underfoot, though never close enough to touch.

Jensi tries to mostly ignore the varmints, which is hopefully also what 'John' would be doing.  ...Hm, he did skip dinner, and he doesn't know how long he was out - is there any of this food around?  How hungry is he, if he pays attention to it?

He's got the slightly queasy ravenousness of someone who was recently knocked unconscious for several hours and whose digestive system isn't sure what that adds up to. They are passing trees and some have apples on them.

Anything these - people, or whatever - wanted done to him they will have already done while he was out.  It doesn't do to be suspicious of the apples; he'll pick two and start at them with a speed that hopefully won't make his nausea much worse.

While his mouth is full he considers the stores thing.  And then gets distracted by the art supplies one in particular.  Probably the strategy is not to go straight into sewing.  John'll start with something Jensi likes (music, maybe, if they do that here enough to build a hobby on), and then discover that he doesn't like it quite enough to fill all his time, and take recommendations for other activities until someone suggests sewing or at least until he's tried several other things.  And he'll keep at the music, too...

The apples are really really good.

John is delighted!  John is going to be repeatedly surprised by how much he likes things here, and that starts with this apple.

(Jensi thinks it's good but is less enthused than that.  It's the best apple he's had by far but definitely not the best food, or as good as the dessert dumpling he was going to get.)

Eventually they're walking down one of the plush grass streets between neighborhoods all the way into the town center. "Tom lives in Strawpatch. Most of the neighborhoods are named for a particularly abundant fruit, Strawpatch has strawberries. It's close to the town center compared to some, though if you're not already used to walking everywhere you'll get that way."

"I don't know whether I am!  I guess I feel fine so far; is this as long as a normal walk?  Is all the fruit this good?"

"It is if you pick it fresh and don't get one that's been damaged or something, yeah, it's all good varietals. This is a pretty normal length of walk to get someplace."

John is too naive to know that identifying how much stamina you have is hard until you run out of it, and doesn't have memories to compare against for a more educated guess.  "Nice."

"We're almost there."

Tom's house is a two story ivy-covered thing with a porch swing and a big oak tree dangling strawberry-plant baskets from its branches. Tom's waiting out front in a recliner under the tree. "You must be John."

"Apparently.  Tom?  Hi."

"Yes, I'm Tom. Put sheets on the spare bed when I heard you were coming, I'll show you." He gets up and shows John inside. "Thank you, April," he adds.

"Thanks."  What is the weird stiff home like on the inside??  Also presumably it will become obvious what a bed is shortly.

The weird stiff home has mostly weird stiff furniture! There's a flap over a hole in the bottom of the door. There is a rug on the floor in the front hall and windows showing a blackberry thicket on the side of the house. The hall has a staircase straight ahead, and an eating nook between it and the blackberry window, and a closet (open, revealing various hanging outerwear and a broom and some folding chairs) to the right, and then after that a sitting room with a violin on a stand. Tom says, "Kitchen's past there," that is to say beyond the eating nook, and then he leads John up the stairs to show him the bedroom. The bed is a weird stiff freestanding hammock! The room also has a bookshelf and a desk and a mirror and an armchair and an ensuite bathroom. And its own window showing a blooming lilac tree.

John would like to run a finger along the mirror, and the window, and have it explained to him how the things in the bathroom work.  (Jensi would like to see if he can identify how the rug was made, from relatively brief glances.)

The rug looks woven. Tom can turn the sink off and on and flush the toilet and run the bath and the shower for a moment.

"...Where's the water coming from?"

"There's a reservoir up in the mountains."

"Huh!"  (If there's even one hint that sewing magic might exist here, Jensi should immediately put his plan on hold.  But the rugs are woven and they claim the water comes from somewhere...)