He'd expect it to be normal, yeah. Most instances of taking care of dependents are taking care of yourself, in the long run, for Crafters.

There is a word, in LCTL. It's not a short word. It's one of the slightly horrible obscure compound words manufactured in a philosophy department (quite possibly specifically to torment undergraduates) and then latched onto by people who feel strongly about categorizing things. It refers to a feeling that is something like existential vertigo — balancing on a mental precipice, past which you can tell your understanding of something will be forever changed, but over which you have not yet stepped. It is the anticipation of changing your worldview.

It is a feeling that has been increasingly prevalent, since Traveler came to visit, and Xenife feels it now.

It's an important feeling. How someone reacts to it says a lot about them. Sometimes, we are too tired, or confused, or afraid, and we shrink from the feeling, retreating from revelation before we can be changed. And sometimes, we feel it like the wind beneath our wings, and leap.

"Are you being metaphorical? Do you just mean that taking care of your dependents sets you up to have pleasant relationships with them in the future? Or do you mean that taking care of dependents is actually directly good for your long-term wellbeing, even though it isn't easier?"

No, most of his dependents are, like, his dogs, his chickens, to a degree his plants - they're there for a reason and the reason is that they're useful to him. He doesn't always want to get up when he's comfy and fill the chickens' feed bin but if he wants eggs he kind of has to.

Oh! Of course!

That's not what Xenife had been expecting him to say — they had anticipated narrowing down a big chunk of the psychological difference between them — but it makes sense anyway.

"It seems like that wouldn't apply to children, though. Do you feel differently about your children and your other dependents?"

Mm, yes and no? When he needs to feed the chickens he's not thinking through how he won't have eggs if he doesn't every time, after a while it just becomes a part of his routine, and childcare is the same way with a different sort of thing backing it up - wanting his kids to have good lives isn't the same as wanting himself to have eggs next week but it's not that different. And wanting an adult he's responsible for to have whatever thing wouldn't be wholly different either, but there's a tendency to feel that they should be able to arrange it for themselves that isn't there with other sorts of dependents.

They ruminate on that for a moment.

"But if you had an adult dependent who couldn't arrange something for themselves it would be similar?"

In theory it's similar but in practice it's hard to shake the feeling that they can, and different people handle that better or worse, especially in the longer run - most any Crafter social enough to have friends can handle helping a friend with a broken leg out for a couple months, but past that the feeling will tend to win out for most people, unfortunately. - and also most Crafters really don't want to be stuck living in someone else's territory, there are major downsides to that for them, but it'd be good if there was more leeway for the person's needs to guide what happened instead of other peoples' feelings being a constraint.

... well, nope, they're right back to being confused. Not so much by what Traveler describes — it hangs together — but by why in the world this ended up being a stable equilibrium.

"What a ... neatly-arranged set of instincts you have," they observe. "It's interesting because there are some parts that are quite similar to us, but the way they end up shaking out in the end is different. It makes me wish that I had learned more about minds so I could study it better."

Vesherti waves to get their attention.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think Traveler will want to know this. Our group-of-groups had a meeting and finished deciding what we'd like to be called in Crafter glyphs."

Actually the decision has been a somewhat foregone conclusion for hours, but nothing could possibly stop people from discussing something like this to death. The head of the Larger Continent Regularized Legal Language Advocacy Group actually had to be removed from the debate floor with water pistols.

"If the glyph isn't already taken, we were thinking 'Helpers'".

He draws the glyph using part of the symbol for 'help', but with an overall structure that shares similarities with 'Crafters', as though to identify them as being symbols for the same kind of thing.

Yeah, that works fine, and the glyph is a good one.

The degree of similarity is interesting to him, too; it really does feel like he's found a cousin species here.

"Yeah. It's not at all what we expected before you came," they agree.

"... I want to keep talking to you, because this is interesting, but I feel like my brain is full of new information to digest and a next topic of conversation is not immediately occurring to me."

Well, he'll be around for a while, they can use the ansible to ask where he'll be if they want to meet up in the city or come out to his house sometime.

"That would be nice," they agree. "Alright. It was good to meet you."

Xenife gives a wave goodbye and rolls away.

Vesherti glances up to judge whether Traveler is going to want to continue talking to people.

He doesn't seem immediately inclined to leave, at least, though he does check how long the shadows are getting and whether his dog seems to be getting tired (somewhat, yeah) before looking around to see if anyone else wants to talk.

There definitely are. The various people hanging out in the park are being very virtuous and not bothering Traveler more than he invites, but if he wants more people to talk to, he won't find a shortage.

Two people in light blue robes come over, holding hands. One of them has a yellow pin that says 'Welcome Traveler' on it.

The taller of the two fiddles a little bit with the controls of Vesherti's screen to get it working, but he eventually does without too much trouble.

"Hello, Traveler! I hope you're well. Do you have a moment to talk about aerostat design?"

He does! He'll get out some crafting material in case the discussion wants illustrative examples, too. 

The shorter member of the pair smiles at him.

It turns out that what they mainly want to talk about is how Crafting impacts the design process, including whether he can make zeppelins with vacuum-filled 'gas' bags, whether he can make effectively stationary aerostats for permanent installations either by having propellers that automatically push against the wind to maintain position, or by using unbreakable tethers, and that kind of thing. They're also interested in how he has designed floating houses in the past.

The two of them had been thinking about what would be needed to make a more efficient city, and they think that one of the limits on practical density that will start being an issue soon is on the maximum heights of buildings; being able to use stationary aerostats would help circumvent that, but it just isn't practical without Crafting.

They are, indeed, very receptive to seeing miniature illustrative examples, and will get as far into discussions of aerodynamics and windtunnels as Traveler wants to let them.

Vacuum-filled balloons: yes; automatic propeller-based geostationary systems: no; unbreakable tethers allowing functional midair building: yes, though for his purposes it's generally better to just land when he wants to stay in one place for a while; he can show them what makes a good ocean-crossing airship design, though (and they can keep the examples if they'd like). He's sure he can do something to help with their building problems but he's not sure whether flying-based solutions are worthwhile compared to giving them a bunch of unnaturally strong and light building materials; it's an interesting question.

It is quite possible that this particular pair of lighter-than-air transit enthusiasts are biased, but they seem to think the flying-buildings solution is at least worth thinking about. They are particularly interested in how the ocean-crossing airship handles turbulance, as well.

When the conversation has reached a natural conclusion, the taller member of the pair asks whether they can keep the most recent model airship to have around their house.

Of course they can.

His dog is looking pretty tired out by this point, and he himself is ready to head home, perhaps with a stop on the way to pick up something interesting for dinner.

Vesherti places his book next to him on the seat of his cart, and prepares to lead Traveler back out of the city.

"I think I had recommended one of our sweet flatbreads to you; does that sound interesting? There's a place that has them on the way."

That does sound interesting, yes.