:Something wrong?: His shields don't seem to keep her out.

"Er, sorry, what?" (Tran is startled and confused and mildly alarmed that she's not using the Mindspeech protocols at all and it seemed to work despite his not letting her through, but he's mainly realizing with growing embarrassment that the most likely reason for her to show up with this exact timing, and ask him that question, is that DZ somehow realized he was upset, and the cause. Savil is going to be so miffed with him if he grievously offends the foreign visitors.) 

:I just came to check on my droid, but you seem upset; is something wrong.:

Tran is preeeetty sure that he's not visibly upset, even if he was for a second or two earlier, he's good at controlling his face. Is she reading him with Empathy? ...Gods, she's probably reading his thoughts, if she can duck clear through his shields like that. 

"I, er, some things about your world caught me by surprise, but it's fine." 

:That happens, yeah. There's reasons we're not going back. Did you want to ask me anything?:

Asking is quite possibly a terrible idea! Is he – yep, it seems like he's going to do it anyway. Privately in Mindspeech, though. :Er, DZ seems to think that you 'own' her. That...made me uncomfortable. Though I understand that other places have different customs: 

:Ah.: She grins. :She does; that's how it is for droids in our world. Some biological people, too. I don't approve, but she's not ready to take care of herself yet, and it's easier to let her live in the framework she's used to while she's building those skills. If she wants to leave I won't stop her.:

:Her entire species is that way?: That's...really sad, actually. :I've heard of countries in our world where people can keep other people as slaves, but it's not allowed here: 

:That's good.:

He's starting to relax now. :I'm glad you think so: 

She shrugs. :I've met slaves. It's not good for people. Even when they're designed for it.: A mental gesture indicates that she's talking about DZ.

:I haven't. Met any slaves, I mean. But that makes sense: Tran is feeling a lot warmer toward her than he did a couple of minutes ago, and also kind of embarrassed about jumping to conclusions so quickly. 

:Did you have any other questions about her? I know droids are strange if you're not used to them.:

He thinks. :Anything I should know about, er, etiquette from your world? She's very polite, I don't know if she'd tell me if I were being horribly offensive: 

:She wouldn't, yeah - I don't think she'd notice, in the way you're worried about. I don't expect it to be a problem, people here are a lot more considerate than we're used to in general.:

:Oh. That's good - er, not the part where people in your world aren't considerate, but, um... I guess other people would treat her like a slave, there. And we won't. She might get odd looks, she does look - odd - compared to what we're used to, but hopefully it won't bother her: 

:She's looking forward to people getting used to her. Doesn't bother her much, though.:

:That's good: And now he's run out of things to say, oops. 

:It is. Anyway, if everything's all right here I think I'll head back.:

:Sounds good. Er, it was nice meeting you properly: 

:Likewise.: She withdraws from his shields, signs something else to the droid, and goes.

Tran reads for a bit longer and then bids farewell to DZ and heads out for his next commitment.

That evening, Sandra comes looking for Deskyl and DZ's room. 

DZ answers when she knocks.

"I, um, is Deskyl here? She asked me to make a list of things that would be useful to do with electricity..."