"In my experience, people don't throw out systems that have been around a long time just because they don't work as well as they did when they started out."

"Yeah. What's wrong with Lellepin City specifically?"

"It's where I live."

"Oh, it's not, like, famously hard to get a building permit or file a noise complaint?"

"Not so far as I know!"

"My town is mostly famous for flavored rice milk and the annual handicrafts festival. The nearest city, where my mom works, is a slightly bigger deal."

"Lellepin City has some semi-famous gardens."

"I wonder if your plants are different."

"I have no idea."

"Well, I knew how to say 'rice milk'."

"Oh, yeah, we definitely have those things. But there are enough different kinds of, say, flowers, that if we had different ones it would be hard to tell because I don't know them all."

"Roses camellias tulips pansies lilacs carnations daisies."

"I recognize all of those things. Uh, hibiscus magnolia lotus lily?"

"Yup."

"So we probably have the same plants."

"Sounds like. Or at least similar plants. Maybe your lilies have eighteen sexes."

"...I don't think plants have sexes the way animals do."

"Some of them do. Well, not the same way, but kind of."

"I'll take your word for it."

Aurin looks in his empty glass. "I should probably go. I'm meeting somebody for dinner."

"Oh, who?"

"Old friend who's in town for the week."

"Well, have fun."