"Action."

"A substantial number of them don't apply to you if you can't lièv - um, don't take things that aren't yours or try to hurt people or interfere with public officials; do what people with authority tell you, and that's stricter if there's an emergency . . ."

"Don't deface public property or make enough of a ruckus that it disturbs others . . ."

"Oh, don't do things likely to hurt yourself in ways you can't easily fix on your own - probably that's everything for you, isn't it.  Hm.  - Just stick with us for now, how about, and you can check if there's anything you're not sure about."

"Thank you, that's very kind. Are the authorities uniformed?"

"Oh, you would have to use clothes, wouldn't you - they're the ones with vitiligo?  Um, and public officials look a bunch of different ways but you can mostly tell on-duty ones because they're in designated areas - if you hear clanging, tuneless bells, get out of the way of wherever the people carrying them are running?  - And don't run with or ring a particular kind of bell if you're not on your way to help out with an emergency in an official capacity, which you probably won't be so just don't.  Little tinkly ones are fine, but probably just don't touch any bigger ones at all until you know what they look like."

". . . They aren't just sitting around everywhere; it probably won't come up."

"Would be bad if it did, though."

"Mmhm."

"Bells and vitiligo. What is vitiligo?"

"Depigmented skin splotches."

"Or more pigmented, comparatively, as the case may be; we let people pretty much look however they want here."

"So, um, what do you guys need in order to not die, like, soon?  That seems - important."

"I'm in fine health - Kyeo -?"

"I was prescribed something and I have perhaps a month's supply on me but not having it won't kill me."

"Okay - what do you need in order to . . . be alright.  You - I'm trying to think of things - you probably have to eat for yourselves all the time; you can't fix it if you get hurt - how much do you have to sleep?"

"Eight hours a night for long term sustainability but shorting it sometimes isn't dangerous."

"Are there other things we might not be thinking of for how you . . . work."

"...we also need to do our own hygiene tasks? I don't know what's copiable... What things do you copy in a normal week?"

They count off on their fingers.  "Hunger, sleep, physique if you're not working out the right way on your own, uh, stamina, um, any injuries but they don't happen that often mostly . . . any skills you need, a couple different - citrelièses, maybe - that's uh, different versions of the copying thing itself; they're specialized . . ."

"Any cosmetic changes, or if you want a different physique instead of maintaining the one you have . . ."

"I don't suppose we can learn to do this?"

"Not . . . without . . . copying it?  I don't think??  I mean if you had any you could probably get somewhere, since society has already made all the advancements, but - I don't know at all how you'd start; it's just something everyone has."  Contemplative bouncing.

"It didn't have to be invented?"

"Well, yeah, to get to where we are; it's improving all the time.  We only started to be able to use it to fix aging about two and a half centuries ago.  But I think it's - I don't think we invented the thing we started out with."

"If this were a book I'd think we could maybe do it just by being on the planet where it works but if you can't tell us how because usually you copy knowing how..."

"In our books usually people from other worlds have the same basic thing, even if they've gone in very different directions for it.  Or sometimes they have it but it takes things from people, instead of copying . . ."

" - Oh!  Maybe you do have it, but it's - not something we can have, so we can't see it - have you tried copying something from us?"  Bounce bounce bounce bounce.

"We don't know how to try."

"Can you . . . try?  To try?"

"Can you copy my ability to teach people to do things when they can't just copy the skill out of your head."

"We're not really specced for that at the moment, and - " They're looking in his direction quite intently, not quite at him and not quite past him.  " - your skills are kind of all together, compared to what we have; they're - less divided.  But I think there's a fairly discrete section here that I can just - "  They blink.  "Try - wanting something that one of us has, and intending to have it, and just - make it yours.  It's only a mental action; you don't have to do anything else."

Sarham attempts to collect the local language.

Nothing noticeably happens.