"It'd be like reading, but we don't have to use it for much, it'd just be a good way to get you the link to the website."

"Okay! And I don't mind getting emails from people I can't talk to. I can read, so."

"That's good, reading's really useful!"

"Yeah. I'm glad I know how."

"Well! Unless either of you have more questions I'll get out of your way and the greens'll be here soon."

"I think we're good. Thank you."

"You're welcome!"

The videographers are there with their purple assistant about half an hour later ready to make the video about shoggoth castes!

Bright's been talking with her mom about how to organize the video, but she doesn't know much about how videos are organized so mostly it's been her mom explaining jobs.

"Do we wanna do a script before the filming again?"

"I think that'd be a good idea! What've you got so far?"

Currently it's mostly bullet points.

-Reintroduce herself, introduce her mom

-Say she's going to talk about what shoggoths do for castes

-Background: shoggoths live a really really long time, and might not die of old age

-Earth shoggoths currently don't have formal castes, but there's a caste-like thing with age

-The oldest shoggoths, who were old enough to have fought in the first war the shoggoths had, when they were rebelling against their creators, are like the greys. They mostly protect the communities from predators and sometimes scare off aggressive neighbors.

-The second oldest shoggoths have wisdom jobs. That's most blue jobs - stuff like mediating, or leading, or judging cases, where being really old and experienced helps a lot.

-The shoggoths who're old but not ancient have knowledge jobs. That's most green and yellow jobs - stuff that benefits from having lived a long time, but where you don't get a ton of extra benefit over the millennia. History, science, really hard art forms. Fun fact: most shoggoths have kids while they're in a knowledge job.

-Shoggoths who're new adults have energy jobs. That's most purple and orange jobs - stuff that it's really good to be young and energetic for. Building, caring for the sick, teaching.

-There's no hard and fast line between the castes, and if you're really talented in one area you can skip around. Mom's really young, for instance, but she has a good memory and is curious and wanted to do a job not a lot of people are doing. She's a cultural anthropologist, specializing in one of the shoggoths' same-planet neighbors, humans.

-Some jobs get sorted differently than Amentans do things, too. Bright gave herself blue hair because she wants to be a diplomat, which is an energy job, because interacting a lot with strangers is hard for older shoggoths. 

"Why does it get hard to interact with strangers?" wonders Ziard.

"We're usually not exceptionally social in the first place, and we tend to get less willing to take risks over time. This happens less with just other shoggoths, and might not happen if everyone's interactions with other species were positive-sum."

"People who are committed to what you'd call knowledge jobs now often get attached to their specific fields. Do shoggoths tend to lose interest, or do they still keep those things as hobbies?"

"Somewhat both. It's hard to be interested in the same thing for millennia - we usually don't actually stay in the same exact field, even within a rough category, though it's rare for someone to jump to an entirely unrelated field."

"That makes sense. Our fields change a lot, so it can be plenty of work just keeping up to date on that. Anyway, this looks like a great vlog outline."

"Thanks!"

And to work on exact wording and directions and cues, and which parts should Bright say (probably most of them) versus Combing.

The videographers are really helpful with that sort of thing. They get them all set up and nicely lit and have a cue system they can prop under the camera in case they forget what they were about to talk about.

Cool!!!

Bright is just as energetic and camera-friendly as last time.

"Everybody's gonna love you," Viko tells her.

"Thanks!"

"The first video will probably go up tonight, but we aren't sure about release schedule yet. How many do you think you'll be able to do in a week?"

"Dunno? I'll probably run out of topics I can do just me at some point? And if I'm having friends and doing school it'll be slower to make these. One that's like a teaching thing and one that's more silly or social maybe?"

"Okay! I'll tell them to plan for that."

"Thanks."

"No problem!" They can hear the front door opening. "Oh, that'll be your anthropologist."