Well, that does sound like the kidnappers were not operating with general social approval. Which is definitely better than the alternative, though they don't yet know what kinds of things do get general social approval here.

She's probably not a sub after all, then, though he can't be completely sure - doesn't know what their etiquette might look like for the subs of important families and people.

He will describe what happened to them, from going to bed as usual back in their own world and then waking up in the lab, through the arrival of these people who broke them out. He can repeat a lot of what the kidnappers said to them with very high accuracy, including what the first kidnapper had said about his own and the guard's daemons, as well as the guard's name. He can also describe all the daemons, including the later men's but also the others, in case the kidnapper was not telling the truth about them. (All of this is not something he ever expected to use his memory lessons for, but he did and does have them to use.)

Alessa has a better verbal memory than him and is better at the consistently properly deferential thing; he lets him take the lead, adding a few occasional comments, including even better descriptions of all the daemons. And not daemons.

The descriptions are very helpful, and the officer takes out her phone and shows pictures of the likely daemon varieties to make sure the identification is correct.  There are enough daemon forms that any given form is a small fraction of the population - adding descriptions of the humans will be enough to put the list of suspects down to something reasonable.  Everything he says gets recorded.

One of the officers returns, though his floating tentacled daemon stays back in the lab.  The distance doesn't seem to be causing him any level of distress, though it's beyond the distance where it ought to be causing some reaction.  None of the others consider that strange.  "Report," the woman commands.

"The area is secure.  They have at least one teleporter among them and were gone when we got through.  The place is filled with machines, though there are sections that look like things might have been taken away recently.  One room with three beds and broken cages, all empty.  One empty room.  One with what look like food supplies.  It doesn't look like they had any other captives there.  There's very little room."

"I see.  Go back down and stand guard for now." 

As he does so, she pauses and looks at the various non-officers.  There isn't a protocol for aliens - in the two hundred years since they had left their dying home world, this is the first time anyone has boarded the fleet.  The standard protocol for handling people whose apartments burned will have to do. 

"You three," she says, pointing to the twins and Verity, "If you can think of any other details be sure to let us know.  And you two - until we can find a way to return you, there are temporary hotel areas intended for people displaced from fires or other issues.  We can get you a stipend for food and other supplies."

They can look at pictures and confirm identification.

They have no information about how daemon-distance might vary by any sorts of factors, and aren't going to draw much conclusions from this beyond that apparently it does vary at all.

Teleportation, fun times. Hopefully if the kidnappers decide to come back after them these police can deal with it. They don't look super alarmed, so probably they can.

Well, time to get the subs handled. Great.

He is kind of very tempted to tell them that he's a dom and Alessa is under his guardianship. He's been sub-deferential so far, which might be an obstacle, but 'our world has some different etiquette' and 'we were kidnapped' should probably cover it - they might not think super highly of him as a dom, but that doesn't matter that much, does it.

(He isn't sure what Alessa might think of this idea, but he is sure Alessa won't contradict him if he tries it, just because of the ridiculous amount of trouble that would immediately cause if he did.)

But it is, in fact, probably not a good idea. They might have high-level lie detectors, or daemons might turn out to role-match or role-indicate somehow, or basically any number of other things. And it'll definitely end badly if he's caught out on a lie like that. (Also, he hasn't actually ever tried pretending to be a dom long term and it might not turn out to work very well. Also they just mentioned 'returning you' and if that came with any amount of communication that would sure go very badly.) Better to just try to manage the other way, however much he doesn't want to deal with rolling the die on state custody. Or deal with state custody period.

Not like they're new to it, at least.

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am." 

It wasn't probably very likely that they'd just drop Kente and him on a street somewhere, but it's still good that they aren't. And good the way she said 'find a way to return you', like of course that was going to be done. Could be lying, like Kente thought the kidnappers had been, but that's less likely here. And less likely if she said that that the plan is to keep them for more government approved experiments, or sell them in some alien market, or something like that.

Though they've been dismissed, the three who found the lab hang around just a little while longer.  Azure keeps a small pad of paper with him, and writes down their phone numbers and gives them to Kente.

"Call any of us if you want help while you stay here.  The police can do basics and safety, but if you have any cultural questions or want someone to show you around we can do that," he tells them.  "I'd be happy to bring you to a tailor in the morning for local clothes - I'm not sure how you decide fashion at home, but people are expected to wear things matching their daemon here and you'll stand out wearing white."

They don't have a phone, obviously, but probably the hotel has one or something. He says thank you.

"Yes, sir, thank you. We'd be very grateful for that." Is he expected to take some level of responsibility for them, having found them? Or does he just feel some level of it? 

It's not a very good sign that he doesn't seem to think orienting them will be done otherwise. But a good sign that he doesn't seem to think they're likely to have their phone calls very restricted, or their permission to go out. 

He unconsciously pulls the sheet more around himself. "These are our nightclothes, sir. We were taken from our beds. We'd be very grateful for clothes as well, sir."

Having had no immigration or foreign visitors in over 200 years, the fleet doesn't have much concept of how orientation should go.  

It's obvious from the local's expressions that they hadn't recognized the clothing as not being alien street clothes.  "I see.  In that case, Azure, would you mind teleporting us to the pad by the Sienna Police Station?"

"Sure."  After a moment to size up the placement of each person and focus, as well as to give a moment to the people about to be moved so it isn't so sudden, his gallade daemon begins to glow faintly.  There's a last-minute check ensuring that the correct people and daemons were targeted.  Then he, the officer woman, the two alien cousins, and their four respective daemons are all brought to a large circular platform.  Alizara, Verity, and the twins' grandfather are left behind.  The teleport itself didn't feel like anything - one moment they were in the small hallway, the next on the platform.  The lighting is similar, though instead of yellow with blue accents the walls are now tan with dark red accents, and a fading diamond pattern is repeated in the tiles instead of bold squares.  It is slightly warmer.

"Step off the platform quickly, for safety," he says.  It gets drilled into every person as soon as they're old enough to walk, enough that people sometimes mock the words for being annoying.  In this case, it really is the first time someone's hearing them.  

They step off too, though Azure and Florentho are only going to be in this area for a few moments to debate which teleport platform is closest to where he started from.  

The officer sighs, slightly annoyed that he'd rushed the teleport instead of explaining or asking the aliens.  "Thank you," she says instead, stepping off of the platform herself.  

The platform is in the center of a lobby-like nook jutting out of the Sienna Hall's third floor.  The back of the nook contains the police station and the aforementioned hotel.  To either side of the path out are a cafeteria and a room with a row of computers along the back wall, both with walls made almost entirely out of floor to ceiling windows.  All of the doors and walkways are wide, enough to accommodate daemons even larger than the ones they've seen already.  There is a bit of wear to the tiles.  Like the place they were in before, plants feature heavily in the decoration.  These ones are evergreen shrubs of some kind.  A few people are walking by on the street outside of the nook, sitting in the cafeteria, or typing on the computers.  Their daemons walk alongside them, or sit on their shoulders, or lounge on low cushions set up against the windows and watch the people passing by.  

"If you'd follow me, please," she says, gesturing to the hotel.

He's not really clear on what changed about the plan here - were they otherwise just going to walk to the police station? But that doesn't actually matter.

And, police station, great. Not that he was expecting something else. (Well, maybe some other government place, but it comes to the same). Time to extra keep his mouth shut when he doesn't need to talk.

He doesn't know yet that this world isn't made up of different countries like the world he's used to. But still, official attempt at orientation would be a better sign. But if the dom with the phone numbers is supposed to take responsibility for them, then that might be the official attempt.

...The change in expression makes him even more self conscious. Apparently they hadn't known before. (He wonders what they wear to bed here, and also if some people regularly walk around barefoot, that no one has remarked on that). He pulls the sheet more around himself again, but this time catches himself doing it and tries to stop.  

They would not have expected to be asked. They are very good at prompt obedience to orders. They step off the platform. (Once he's done that, he wonders what it is that makes it needed for safety.)

(The building design here is interesting. He wants to look more at it, though he's trying to keep his focus on the situation right now. Wonders if he might get a chance to try to draw some of it later, if they're here for enough time.)

He looks around, for more information about the world they're in. (...And because it's interesting).

They obey again and follow (it seems normal for people's daemons of a lot of sorts to move around themselves, and the - spinarak - seems to be doing alright; he doesn't ask again what to do about it. Does keep looking at it. (Partially to make sure it is still alright. Partially - probably not just that.))

More new places! She is definitely a fan of this. She also looks around.

The hotel lobby contains a matronly woman with thin blonde hair and a bipedal orange lizard.  She's sitting behind a sturdy desk, the wall behind her covered in labeled cubbies.  On two of the other walls are long couches, and the back wall and the wall opposite the one shared by the police station have hallways leading off to rooms.  The large rug in the center of the room has an intricate maze printed onto it.  

"Hello, Mareline," the officer says.  "These two will be needing a pair of anti-teleportation rooms, phones and new accounts, and a week of emergency income transferred to the new accounts."

Needing a new account is sadly quite common, particularly for the people getting the anti-teleportation rooms.  Mareline types for a bit, then holds out a tablet and stylus and gestures for the nearest of the two to take it.  "Fill this in, please."  Her daemon scurries around behind the desk, and there's the sound of drawers opening.  The human half of that pair then goes back to typing again, presumably preparing the other tasks while waiting for the documents to get filled in.

"Yes, ma'am." He still can't tell about anyone - in their own country subs do this kind of job sometimes, but not in the first hall of anywhere important, and not in a police station (he thinks this might not actually be the police station though). She hadn't said yes-ma'am to the officer, but he doesn't know the protocol here, and sometimes doms don't want full protocol, and the officer had called her by name so they're not strangers.

He might not have seen any subs yet - he didn't have long to look around out where there were more people. He'll keep the appellative for everyone, at least unless and until he notices something really obvious. And probably at some point someone will react surprised and tell him they're not a dom, and then he can ask them how to tell. Much better than a mistake the other way around.

They look at the documents for what they need to fill out.

His hands are still kind of occupied with the daemon (he hasn't noticed anything weird happening because of this, at least yet), but he can look on.

The document is relatively simple.

Human Name: 

Daemon Name:

Daemon Form:

Gender:

Birthdate:

Ship of Residence:

The officer looks over at the form and whispers, "I don't know if we're using the same calendar system.  Subtract your age from 213 for the year.  We're on the ship Tower of Autumn."

That'll only work if they have the same year lengths. He doesn't say that; he's been taught the error of his ways with respect to correcting doms quite a while back, and this is not a good time to pick that up again. 

"Yes, ma'am, thank you."

He'll fill in their names (instead of the more typical sort of familial name he and Kente both have a piece meaning 'belonging to the state'). Daemon forms as the kidnapper had said, since he's gotten no information otherwise. Genders. He'll do as the officer said for the last two, and also put down their more regular birthdates.

He's not sure what to do for 'Daemon Name'.

"How would we know the daemon names, ma'am?" (He's - not sure if that's rude, talking about the daemons when they're right there. But he's not sure if it's rude to talk to them in public - he doesn't think he's seen anyone else doing that. And he doesn't know how to do it.)

The boxes for birth date only accept numbers and only within certain values.  By looking at the number ranges available, they can learn that the fleet has a year divided into 18 months with 21 days each.  The ships are also listed in a dropdown menu, with Tower of Autumn being one of a few dozen options.  Most are alphabetical, but Tower of Autumn and three others are put right near the top out of order with the others.  The other ships that get special treatment in the selector are Citadel of Spring, Spire of Winter, and Column of Summer.  

The officer glances at it over his shoulder.  "Normally parents pick names for their children... If they don't have one when you ask, perhaps choose a name you always wanted?  Or one of the parts of your multi-word human name, if that would make sense with however names work in your society.  This is mostly so you can use a phone and purchase things for the next few days - given the circumstances no one will fault you for having to just fill in something random and it can be fixed later if you think of something better."

In the background the orange lizard has grabbed two keys and tossed them onto the desktop, then gone back to retrieve something else from another part of the desk.

Called it.

Someone who is paying very, very close attention might notice that he flinches a little at the mention of their parents.

"Yes, ma'am, thank you."

He wonders if they don't have familial names here. And - that sounds like they are expected to ask. (He - still doesn't know how, but-)

He's been keeping at least part of an eye on the spinarak. Now looks over more fully.

"Do you - have a name?" 

He is being talked to. That's interesting. He thinks about the question.

"I do not think so. I can't remember having such a thing."