"Because she settled as one when I was thirteen, and it was the most appropriate shape for her? What species is yours?"

"I'm a human? You mostly look like a human but with a mandolin."

"I am a human! All humans have souls shaped like other animals? I thought you might be a witch instead of a human, because witches can go places without their souls, but you said you said you weren't allowed to be one? And I don't think even witch babies are supposed to be away from their souls?"

"Somehow you are managing not to make sense even now that I'm not so sleep deprived."

"I'm sorry. I'm worried because it looks like your souls, where by 'soul' I mean the part of you that takes the form of a talking animal and helps you have feelings and make decisions and interact with people, are not here. Are any parts of that wrong or confusing?"

"Yyyyes, the part where you expect us to have animals that do those things. That's confusing."

"You don't have them at all?"

"No."

"Oh! Sorry for the confusion, then, I suppose that isn't an emergency. Everyone in my world has them. Can I ask you about what your world is like?"

"Sure, I guess, but I'm not doing super well in school."

He nods sympathetically. "I'm curious about how society without souls, or at least external souls, works, but it would probably be hard to figure out the specific differences. What species of people are there in your world?"

"Of people? Humans. I guess maybe there's aliens but I'm not super clear if the aliens are just on different planets or in whole other universes."

"We haven't found aliens on other planets yet either, but we've only actually been to the moon. Although there are apparently aliens in at least one other universe! - Speaking of alternate universes, what year is it in yours? One of the many-material-worlds hypotheses is that all universes are the same age."

"It's 2040."

"It's 2026 for us. That might just be due to a difference in calendars? What's technology like for you?"

"Um, do you wanna look at my phone?"

"Yes! If it's close enough to the door you came in through that I could see it without letting the door close?"

...she reaches into her pocket and hands him a phone.

He and his soul inspect it with delight!

"Do you know how it works? It's not connected to anything! Do calls still go through an exchange?" He turns its screen on and off a few times, then starts gently looking for opening compartments.

"I - I think they had cell phones in 2026."

"I'm a little behind on news in that sort of invention, but I'm reasonably sure that if my world has portable phones anything like this, they aren't public? As of a few years ago, the closest published designs are the Svedish radio-telephone, which is about the size of a briefcase and only works within a few cities, and the New Danish phone that can place calls from moving Cthonic trains. And I think the Muscovites might be working on improving the range and reducing the size of portable communications radios?"

"We have Sweden but I think the Danish are old not new and don't know what thonic or muskratites are."

"Oh! Our countries and maybe our continents might not be the same!" He hands back her phone to sketch out a loose map of Earth's continents. "A Cthonic is a train that goes underground in cities. New Denmark is here," he points to a region of northeastern land including about a third of Gilead and a tiny bit of Canada, "and Muscovy is somewhere over here, I think?" Vague gesture around eastern Europe and western Asia.

"Are your continents like this?"

"The shapes look right? But this is Gilead and Deseret's tucked into it here and this is Mexico and there's Cascadia. And that's Canada. I don't know that much about Europe."

He labels countries accordingly. "Okay. For us, that's New Denmark, except for the Republic of Texas down here. Then, most of Mexico, Deseret, and this little piece of Gilead are Hispania Nova, Cascadia is pretty close to Astoria, and the rest of Gilead and Canada are split between New France and Beringland, I think. Where are you from?"