"Huh. I suppose I can list it as a nice-to-have when advertising for jobs that may get facetime with her."

That is a trap a lot of us fall into. "I may die some day, but the eldest Kin have seen thousands and thousands of years! What matters a moment of peace and contentment and happiness? A fleeting minute of joy does not matter and is no good compared to the vast time I will exist, nor does a few days of pain and hunger and stress indicate a problem of any kind: Only the long arc is important." But I hold that each moment is a mote of color in the landscape that is your life, and you want warm summers and not cold winters to dominate it.

"That seems reasonable to me."

I see my role here as feelings-nudger as much as Enkindling-student. As a Draak I may have better insight into us. And though I will try my best, I do not have the sheer talent she does.

I would like to hear about you and the other people who have worked with Bloom, though when the scent things arrive I will try to sleep.

"They'll be here in about ten minutes, they're trying to get a variety in case it turns out you don't like some of the smells. What would you like to know?"

What drives you? What brought you here? What frustrates you? What makes you proud? What do you think and feel about we Draak? And things I will have to puzzle out over more than a few minutes, what is it like to be Amentan? How do you form friendships and how is it different to how Draak do it? How do castes affect perception and behavior? How does romantic love work? Minds are fascinating.

"Bloom's been reading some of our fiction, you might want to learn to read too - for fiction or for psychology books and journalism. I'm personally here because I have a good track record in my diplomatic background and wanted the job - some people could have had it over me but were feeling risk-averse about something as big as alien guests."

Yes, I want to read! If you don't want to answer those other questions, well, that is fair enough.

"Oh, I can - it wasn't obvious which you thought would fit satisfyingly in - eight minutes now -"

Amused tail-wave.

We are not delicate flowers, though I'm sure some consider deference and respect to a Draak the natural course of things. Do Amentans think about social risk a lot? As opposed to physical dangers, games of chance...

"Both physically dangerous activities and games of chance are - minority interests, though I guess lots of people have some low-level anxiety about less avoidable physical risks like getting sick or hit by a bicycle or mugged. I suppose social risk is on our minds a lot but of course 'a lot' is relative."

I get the impression that you don't want to mess up your job, you don't want to appear silly to your friends or even random strangers, that an Amentan might want to appear responsible and clever and like a good friend or neighbor or boss more than they actually want to be those things. Draak like having good reputations too but I wonder if the drives are different - more different than finding different things admirable, I mean. Certainly I would be very embarrassed if I said something stupid at a Moot.

"Oh, that seems very likely, since you're solitary by default and Amentans effectively can't live on our own - some may have been able to before we developed an interdependent civilization but I don't think it was ever a winning strategy and now unless there's someone with the specific hobby of living alone on a boat and only putting in for supplies once a year, or something, I wouldn't expect it of anyone."

The winning strategy for Draak is to claim a lot of land and keep it well, to amass great hoards of Treasure and long lists of accomplishments and show them off, and to seek out other Draak who do the same at the time if creation.

'I hate you and want to kill you but cannot because you are wise and mighty!' Feels very nearly as nice as 'You are truly a fine example of the Kin and I wish to mate with you!'

"Hm. Well, I suppose the equivalent would be something like - 'I hate you and want to ruin your life but can't because no one will listen to me' versus, uh, 'let's have five babies'. Which I suppose are surprisingly close in pleasantness depending on the recipient's current parenting prospects and the general quality of the speaker."

For Draak that feeling is focused on the self. 'Nobody will listen to me' makes someone... Irrelevant, it doesn't make you victorious over them. And we'll pick partners we personally hate over ones we are good friends with if they're more attractive, more accomplished.

"Well, as I understand it you don't do much parenting? So being able to work together comfortably would matter less."

That is true.

I wonder if we should learn lessons from your kind, and vice versa. Many things you do seem so silly to me...

"Oh?"

Such a complicated criminal justice system! Such an extensive definition of pollution. So many dizzyingly complicated social standards that all make one stand out as unusual if violated. Castes.

"What dizzyingly complicated standards are you thinking of?"

This is going by what Bloom tells me, not direct observations, but - accents and word choice and posture and caste mannerisms and shared assumed knowledge and shared assumed values.

"Those are mostly pretty automatic for us."

To hear her describe it, you have invented rules for all these things and more - how to look at a blue versus a yellow versus a green! How to talk like a purple and when it's acceptable to be loud and what it's acceptable to complain about! When to let others speak or help them with some minor thing just because helping is a thing you do! All to live in close-packed hives without infuriating each other as much. And follow them mostly effortlessly!

It's weird.

"Do Draak not have any customs like that? Or do you just not care much about what happens if people find you unpleasant?"