They'll talk to the other crows about it tonight.

"If you do decide to stay here, instead of following Traveler, we can agree on some written symbols to communicate with. I'm not sure if you would want to learn our whole system, or whether you just want to learn a few symbols for the most important things like 'yes' and 'no'."

He translates this, but adds to Vesherti that crows can't generally learn to read fluently.

They can read a little, though - the 'go this way' symbol was easy once the crow who knew how it worked explained it - and it'd be good if they could understand what the people here are trying to tell them.

Vesherti puts up two symbols: red with a white cross on it, and green-blue with a black circle on it.

"These are symbols that we use for 'no' and 'yes', respectively. That's probably most important, because then you can ask people questions and get answers."

Then he shows the þereminian equivalent of the NFPA hazard diamond — a spiky hyperbolic 5-pointed star with smaller symbols inside it.

"This is our 'danger' symbol. The smaller symbols inside tell you what kind of danger, but for now you should probably just learn the basic shape. We put it on machines or places that might be dangerous. Traveler, would you be willing to make something with those three symbols on it so that these crows can show the others?"

Sure. Three little glyph charms, here they go.

Unfortunately, the rest of their writing system is a lot less ideographic; those symbols exist because they need to be recognizable from a distance or across languages. He'll need to get a team on figuring out what other concepts they'll want to communicate to crows.

"I can teach you more symbols, but I don't want to overwhelm you. Are there any other things that you think are especially important for us to be able to say to you? Otherwise you should teach those three to the other crows, and then come find a purple person —" another picture of an Emergency Services uniform "— if you want to learn more."

They'll tell the other crows. They're going to want to know what the people here want from them? Like he's pretty sure the guy who gave him the glass bauble wanted something for it but he couldn't figure out what.

"I don't know what that guy wanted specifically, but I think people generally probably just want to talk to you and maybe play games? You're interesting to interact with because normally we don't know what animals want. We don't have Crafting, but now that you and Traveler have come to visit, we see how useful it is and want to learn how to do it. Traveler thinks that if we put crafting material near our babies they might pick it up, but he doesn't know for sure. Maybe having you talk to our children would help them learn it."

Games and stuff are nice. Baby Crafters are kind of dangerous but maybe if they don't get too close it'll be fine.

They'll want to be fed if they're going to spend much time on that rather than on foraging, he adds.

"What do you like to eat? I can let people know so they know what to give you."

They eat all kinds of stuff but eggs and meat are best.

They'll take plant foods too, he clarifies, and they like nuts in particular, but they don't get eggs and meat from Crafters that often because those are in limited supply for them.

Vesherti notes that down.

"I'll make sure to tell people."

He asks if the crows have any other questions and if they want to hang out with him and Vesherti for a while or if they're going to go about their business; they want to know why he brought them here and if he can bring them home and aren't very satisfied with the news that it was an accident and he can't, but one of them settles on the roof of the walker while the other takes the charms and goes off to find the others.

"Do you know what you'd like to do or see next?" Vesherti asks.

Hm. He was hoping to get to spend some time talking to normal people today, if there's a way to do that - Crafter communities tend to have public spaces where people will hang out if they're interested in socializing with whoever happens to be around, he's not sure if they have an equivalent of that here.

Vesherti chuckles.

"We do and you're standing in one," he replies. "The color-coding means that we don't really need a discrete, separate space for it. Although there are particular areas where people congregate for different hobbies, I suppose. I'm sure many people in the park here would like to talk to you."

Well, sure, that works. He'll put out a couple of chairs and make himself a lightweight metalic-blue scarf. And a blue neckpiece for the crow when she turns out to want one after he explains what he's doing.