I will appreciate that! I don't think I have any questions the pocket everything can't answer right now if you have other stuff to do, by the way. Unless you have questions for me. It's polite to answer those if they're casual things I think?

He is signing up for an OurPlatform account now.

"That's polite, yeah. Uh, I'm not sure every university you look into will be prepared to accommodate you, you should probably cast a pretty wide net."

Good point. I need to research a whole bunch of things first though.

"Okay. If you want to go to school in Tapa I can process a residency app for you."

I know Voan too! Oh, asking you is probably much better at getting relevant information than undirected searching, for topics related to government. What does a residency app do? What legal issues and more importantly what taxes would I run into if I auction a lot of artsy things and buy food and pay tuition and rent somewhere to live that'll sell to me and buy materials from places? Should I be giving you some kind of consideration for this assistance? I'm not at all sure, though I am sure you are and will be helpful!

"The residency app would give you permission to live in Tapa long term. I can find you a Voan if you want to go to Voa instead. We're not enforcing any caste income limits or anything and the auction site will pay all the other fees out of its service charge - you don't qualify for the art subsidy, though, so don't check that box on the form. I'm already being paid to be here and you don't owe me anything."

Well, I don't have a caste and wouldn't want to pick one. I don't know if going to Voa would be better for what I want yet! Maybe my favorite school among those I end up applying to and accept me will be in Voa. Or another country that speaks Tapap or Voan!

He manages to take a selfie, then starts digging in one of the other compartments for something.

"There are some people who speak either in any country, but I'm not sure about universities that teach in those languages."

I will see when I do my research. I'm probably going to be here for a few days building my internet presence and researching. Is there any reason not to send in a residency app? I might as well do it now if not.

He digs out a palm-sized twisty wire-and-rock sculpture of a whiskered alien fish with gemstones for eyes from one of the compartments, takes a picture of it, and posts both that and the selfie to OurPlatform.

Another Draak Takes The Stage! Watchful Arranger Of Wire And Spark, Who May Be Called "Wire". My Artful Creations Will Soon Be Shared With All Of Amenta, For Auction.

This promptly gets lots of attention.

"It'd be better not to have applied for Tapai residency if you're going to live in Voa, because then it'd have to be transferred."

I guess I'd better wait to do that until I pick some universities then.

He turns on comments for his OurPlatform posts and posts another art piece. This one waves its flippers and turns its head and tail slowly, powered by tiny solar panels cunningly disguised as scales.

People really like that!

The idea of a government controlling its population is pretty wild, he idly comments while signing up for that auction site. I mean, it's kind of self-correcting if there's too many kin, is how we see it.

"- well, we don't want there to be horrible destructive territory wars over it."

I wouldn't call most territory challenges horrible and destructive. Kind of horrible for whoever loses, admittedly. But, we don't do armies and organized conquering and killing.

The blue nods.

He reads the terms of service.

-How do you tell if something counts as a weapon?

"...for the auction site? Uh, do you have something in mind?"

I know how to make nice lasers, and sticks that shock things they touch, and electrically powered guns, and stuff like that.

"Those'd all count unless it'd be hard to use the laser to hurt someone like the lasers in optical drives or whatever."

Makes sense. No, they're pretty serious lasers. I use them in science and mining but they could definitely blind someone. I'm not sure I even want to try to sell those. Pretty, harmless things seem more expensive anyway. I can make lots of stuff but it seems like those will be the best money for effort.

Tappity-tap-tap tap.

I am setting up my auction account with these treasures and many more but will totally answer questions in the meantime!

He gets lots of questions, mostly random autobiographical stuff and what he's doing on Amenta and why he chose Tapap to pick up.

He's a Sapphire who lives on a small volcanic island in the middle of the ocean. He's fourteen and doesn't have any kids. He wants to go to a local school and he really likes making intricate sculptures, and it turns out he can get paid for his intricate sculptures which is kind of great! His dad knew a lot of Tapap and less of a bunch of other languages, and Tapap and bits of Voan seemed the most useful pair.

Is he going to study sculpture?

Electrical engineering, actually! Or some kind of engineering. Probably electrical.