"If she really is an alt of Aduva, I don't see that stopping her." 

"The aliens are accomplishing most of the things she felt most strongly about anyway, one way or another." 

"That I'll buy." 

"So what's your wife like? My husband's grey--intercaste marriages are unusual and grey/green is an unusual pairing but it's not shocking like, say, blue/purple. He teaches martial arts to non-greys. He's very smart, I didn't have any concerns about his children succeeding as greens, especially in Voa but I wouldn't have not married him in a credit country." 

"I'm sure I don't know all the context behind 'credit country' or your caste system or what have you, but my wife is a different species than me. Arka is--was--will be--a frost giant. Taller than I am and blue-skinned and cryokinetic. And, in Arka's case, very smart, yes. And loyal, and passionate. And...angry, for a long time, before we met. Aduva gets her malcontent from her, to be sure." 

"That description does sound...not entirely unlike my Arek. I do think I've heard things about alts not having to be the same sex." 

"It's funny because if you'd asked me which of me or Arka was more likely to be a boy in another species I'd have said me without hesitation; my species doesn't have boys." 

"Your poor species." 

"Most of us aren't missing much. If I lived somewhere that was almost all my own species there would be plenty of folks who thought I was weird and kinky for finding men attractive at all." 

"Ha, so for you it's liking the opposite gender that's sideways? How peculiarly apt." 

"You could put it that way!" 

"I think I'm going to have to insist on meeting your children, under the circumstances. And of course you have to meet mine--and my husband, and probably Anevar." 

"Anevar?"

"Ada's boyfriend."

"Ah. Amalta's engaged, but Aduva is single." 

"I wonder if Amila will ultimately end up with an alt of..."

"Kaleith. We'll find out eventually, I'm sure." 

"I'm sure. I'd love to take you and yours to meet my family immediately, but sadly I do have other things to do this afternoon--I can give you my address and you can come over for dinner?"

"There are a lot of us, and we don't want to split up--it's not just my daughters and I and Kaleith, it's me plus the entire group that was refugees together while I was dead." 

"Hm. Yes, that is quite a crowd for our apartment. We could come where you guys are staying?"

"That should work. I'll tell the others, my girls at least should be intrigued."

"I'd imagine so."

She arranges the details of Saerltes's work with her, then, when her alt is gone, immediately picks up her everything to update her family on the situation. 

Ada's everything buzzes at her when her mother's message comes in. She picks it up and reads, her eyebrows raising as she progresses through it. 

"Well, that's exciting."

"Is this a guessing game?" wonders Anevar from where he's scrolling through his work email. "They found a way to make you a subtle artist. You have received spam about grant funding to study the wildlife on an uninhabited planet. - are there uninhabited planets in Warp, I feel like I only ever hear about ones with people, which is pretty weird if you think about it."

"I have an alt! Well, Mom has an alt, and they're pretty sure Mom's alt's wife is an alt of Dad and her kids are alts of me and Amila. No idea about the uninhabited planets thing."