"Why don't people ask other people they know to intervene?"

"Sometimes you don't know how to find who did it, sometimes the person who did it is dangerous and you don't want to put your friends in harm's way, also on my planet everyone has castes and that's complicating."

"Castes?"

"There's different hereditary groups with different sorts of jobs we're meant to be specialized for."

"Huh, how many groups?"

"Seven but we're phasing out one, relatively functional countries are letting them self-sort into other castes."

"What are the seven?"

"I guess you could call them by the color nicknames. Blue, green, yellow, grey, orange, purple, and the one we're phasing out is red. It's... by the most common hair color, of each."

"What does each caste do?"

"Does it matter?"

"I guess not. I'm just curious about how other societies function, but we can talk about something else if you'd prefer."

"I just don't like being grey, and this planet sucks but I don't have to be grey on it."

"Oh, yeah. We don't have castes at all."

"I'll probably tell you eventually, but - not right now. I'm mixed, anyway, my mother's orange, everyone assumes that's why I hate being grey so much."

"And there wasn't a way to change what caste you were in?"

"Not really."

"That doesn't sound like a very reasonable way to design a society."

"Most of our fiction about aliens assumed that aliens would also have a caste system. Like, probably not the exact same one, but a recognizable caste system. But you seem to just not, and while you have a lot of problems around here I don't think that's causing any of them."

"I'm only familiar with the word because of fiction."

"Do you not have species of animals that do something similar? A bit more biologically than Amentans have yet evolved to do, but still."

"Oh, bees I think? I wouldn't have used the term caste for that, but it would fit."

"Sure, maybe your bees do it. It has some advantages, just..."

"Yeah, I can imagine. There are a lot of things I dislike about the culture I'm in, but to its credit, it is pretty good at acknowledging that where someone started doesn't have to determine where they end up. Both my parents are outcasts and I still got elected the mayor of Kenton."

"I did not actually know you were the mayor. - who has the vote? How is it weighted, we do it by caste but maybe you do it by something else."

"Anyone who has lived here for at least a year can vote and votes are equally weighted."