Gack. Pay. Money. Eaugh ough blergh.

Her ears droop.

"I feel much better already... I'm not sure about braiding my fur though. I've forgotten your name if you ever mentioned it."

"I didn't. I'm Kaþerva," she says. "I usually don't give my name because some people just want silence and doing, but you were a talking person, not a silence person."

She's also a people person, and she can read those droopy ears just fine.

"... I don't know what I said to make you —"

She mimes ears moving down with her hands.

"— but I'm sorry. I hope I helped more than that."

"I'm having scary thoughts about money and paying for things and how expensive - all this - is. It doesn't seem like a thing for you to talk about. And you did help. I might come looking for you again later, Kaþerva! I'm Weiss, but I'm sure you know that."

Ah. Yeah, talking to Weiss about money is definitely above her paygrade. She does hair.

"Okay! Come visit any time, Weiss. It was good to meet you!"

She picks up her bag and makes her way out. She nods at the diplomat as she goes by, and stops in the situation tent to mention that Weiss wants a copy of The Laws and Customs of Central River City.

For the next little while she will pad around the quarantined-off area, appreciating the feeling of nice sharp clicky claws and well-groomed fur. Isn't her tail pretty? And if she's wandering around she feels less like a SPECIMEN waiting for some undecided fate. She's not very directed about it, though. She'll chat with people if people want to chat (in Notal, she's not even really trying to learn SC... Whatever again today...).

Plenty of people want to chat! The medical folks have a plan to lift the quarantine fairly soon, because lots of people are willing to take health risks to get a chance to talk to Weiss and they haven't seen evidence of anything particularly novel or virulent. Mostly, they're just waiting on the city being reorganized to get everyone who definitely doesn't want to take the risk relocated. But for now, there are two shifts of people here, and only one of those shifts is on duty. The others are hanging out in the clear space behind the tent, out of the way of anyone with an actual task, variously talking and playing games.

The most energetic game is something like a cross between corn-hole and a Notal vocabulary quiz — you can score points by either getting a ball through a target with different sizes of hole on it, or by spelling a Notal word correctly given the definition, before your opponent does.

If she walks over to investigate the area, one of the people sitting watching the game will offer her some sweet-and-spicy broth that a knot of people are sipping from paper cups.

Hah. She's a little tempted to cheat with her native-ness, but she'll restrain herself to cheekily answering one vocab-question very quickly and then lapping at a cup of the broth and enjoying the ambiance of fun.

The broth is both hot (temperature) and hot (spiciness), which makes it not the ideal beverage for lapping. But it does warm her up.

Someone discretely checks on their phone whether any of the ingredients are poisonous to foxes, and is relieved to discover that it is probably fine.

After a little while, one of the off-duty Emergency Services personnel sidles up to her and tries to figure out whether she's open to a conversation.

"What is music like, in Tirra?" they ask, after a moment. "How many, uh, —" they sing a note "— are there in a — " they sing a scale.

"I'm not really a music person? That sounds sort of off... Hmm..."

She discovered her ease and flexibility with illusions early on, but all the music she vaguely remembers from two worlds ago is, well, vague...

But she'll illusion up what is maybe a good rendition of some sort of Beethoven... Unless she's rounding off all classical music to Beethoven...

"I have a good memory for sounds, I think because of the brain parts needed to do illusions well, but I don't know things about the songs."

Orenamis nods.

"My sister is like that," they offer. "She is frustrated when ... seeing a song like math. But I like the math. What other Tirra songs can you share?"

"Hmmmmmm..." Urk. Most of her favorites aren't actually from Tirra. Well, they do have string instuments that are mostly violin-like, and pianos, in big cities... She can try to stick to more acoustical things...

Wait wait wait. She has an easy excuse. Kitsune sounds don't have to be limited to what one can actually make with a real instrument. She can play snippets of all sorts of things. Rise Against, video game soundtracks, chillstep, weird J-Pop...

Oh, this one is distinctly Tirran: The Thunder Show! That one circus with a little mini-orchaestra and the lightning sorcerer who figured out a strange magnetic-warbling instrument that takes really impressive magical control.

Her tail wags as she remembers watching the show and projects it into the air: A woman dressed in flamboyant black and white, leaping and dancing across a metal stage and performing all sorts of tesla-coil and magnetic manipulation tricks, and then using her manipulation to play something shaped like a great church organ but with a distinctly more electronic sound. (The sorceress is singing and speaking Notal, in the show, the song is about the force of a storm and the joy of speed).

That rapidly draws everyone's attention away from the game. People crowd around to watch the performance. When it finishes, they all flutter their hands in silent applause.

"That is very neat!" Orenamis pronounces. "Can you just know and show all songs you hear like that?"

"Only if I liked it and was paying close attention! And I'm filling in some details. See the crowd? They're kind of all the same face."

They peer at the crowd.

"Your remembering must be so good," Orenamis observes.

Once the lightning performance has ended, she gets a number of requests to show another performance, although people are careful not to crowd her. Through their improving Notal, they make sure to be clear that this is a request, and they won't be upset if she refuses.

"Oh wait. It's not a show exactly but here."

Festival scene! It's a harvest festival back near home. There are roses EVERYWHERE. And food everywhere. The Baron is dancing on stage, badly, and everyone is laughing at him cheerfully. Two priestesses in clearly specially designed outfits are carrying large censers and wafting them at people. Dogs are barking. People are drunk. There's a large bonfire. A fiddle and drum band is doing a simple wordless fast tune.

Oh! That's totally recognizable as a holiday.

One of the members of the crowd gets out their phone to show pictures from the solstice festival, which was a little bit ago. There's a similar amount of people and food, although nobody seems particularly drunk, and there's no dogs in evidence.

"The next ... one of these ... is on the day when the day and night are the same length," they explain. "On 41054-05-24, in three ... uh. In three ... amounts of time?"

They shrug helplessly at the missing vocabulary.

"What are your holidays like? Is it just the food? This is a harvest festival, to celebrate being done bringing all the food in and being ready for winter."

"Oh! Yes, the old holidays, they have a harvest festival. In the today, people want to celebrate other things," they explain.

They draw a picture of a circle in the air, and start pointing at spots along it, starting at the bottom and moving by eighth-turns.

"The winter holiday is — the sun is coming back, the cold won't last forever. The half-way holiday is — quietly watching the snow. The spring holiday is — flowers are blooming, fresh vegetables are here again, the sun comes back faster now. The half-way holiday is — it starts to get warm, fall in love with people. The summer holiday is — things are so hot, stop work and go swimming. The half-way holiday is — our things are so much better than they used to be, people do good things and things get better. The fall holiday is — the harvest is coming in, there is lots of traditional food. The half-way holiday is — the sun is going and things are sad, people have left us, but it won't be forever, the sun will come back again. Then the winter holiday again."

    "Those are the most-places holidays," someone else interjects. "Cities have their own holidays. And the holidays have their foods, and dances."

"Isara would like that. The cycle, continuing, growing, better each year. I think I like the summer holiday. Though, I hate deep water. A river is better than the ocean."

"We have a river!" Orenamis volunteers. "The city name is for it. Central River City — A river goes in the middle of it city. It is cold for swim now; there is ice in it. But in the summer, it is nice to swim."

"There is also the ... a place for everyone to swim indoors, even when it's cold," the holiday-namer offers.

"Maybe, maybe."

Her tail wags slowly.

"I liked the computer game. I like - jokes and stories and puzzles and games."