"If more people understood the difference, there would be less of a difference."

Bella thinks about that, then giggles.

"I'm not coming up with any clever solutions for the mermaid problem."

"I'm figuring I talk to some dolphins and octopi and see where that gets me, and if I'm very lucky it gets me dolphin friends who can talk to the mermaids more effectively about this than I can."

"Good plan. And if you're not lucky you can talk to different dolphins."

"Yep."

"How'd you find that out, anyway?"

"A mermaid told me during one of those conversations I mentioned where I explain Human Facts."

"Ah. So why are you a designated exposition person? I am because my parents run the school, so I'm generally assumed to be knowledgeable without being, you know, a teacher. Yet."

"Apparently I'm good at explaining stuff without being incredulous that there's people who do things in non-human ways, or using prerequisite concepts they don't have, or being... overtly judgmental... or treating them like they're stupid for not knowing? And word got around that I was good at that?"

"Makes sense. Yay for competent nonjudgemental exposition."

"I said I'm not overtly judgmental. I judge the hell out of some things I hear. It's not even just eating people. You wouldn't believe how casual elves are about rape under some circumstances."

"...Gooood point. And good distinction, I entirely see what you mean. I wouldn't predict rapist elf behavior based on the word as it's used in my universe, but I have an endless capacity to believe in human--or other sapient--evil."

"Elves have ludicrous sex drives and corresponding endurance and their society is sort of - designed around that to a degree that... It's like how you would not necessarily condemn someone for stealing bread if they were really hungry even if that bread wasn't literally going to be the thing that kept them from starving to death, I don't think elves can die of not having sex any more than humans can but they certainly experience a lot of urgency about it a lot of the time. It's not much of an exaggeration to say that elves are naturally better at everything than humans - except that the physically strongest humans are stronger than all elves, that and reproducing rapidly and organizing in large groups and adapting to rapidly changing circumstances, elves are a little worse at those things. But on a one on one level elves basically win, which means that when they take their elven culture designed for everybody having this ludicrous sex drive, and then they meet humans, who they can trivially overpower..."

"Ick."

"Yeah. I mean, it makes the elf culture look pretty ugly too in places, but I think it's legitimately addressing needs, in elf-only groups, albeit in a way that makes tradeoffs I wish they'd find ways around."

"I think every culture makes tradeoffs sensible people wish they'd find ways around, but that's a particularly jarring one, yeah."

"I mean, it's not like humans are pristine moral paragons, like I've said. But I'm more accustomed to our tradeoffs, you know?"

"Exactly. That's why I used 'jarring' instead of, I don't know, 'nasty' or 'malicious'. It refers to our perception of it rather than a quasi-objective moral comparison."

Nod, nod.

"But either way exporting that into non-elf space is just not okay. Not that my culture doesn't have anything in terms of not-okay interactions with other groups."

"Yeah? What've you got?"

"Well, when settlers from Europe discovered the Americas they promptly began raping, murdering, and forcibly converting the people who were already there."

"...People," sighs Bella.

"People," Edie agrees. "I have absolute faith that there are, always have been, and always will be good people who want to make things better, and no faith whatsoever that anyone else will listen to them."