"...I don't think I understand."

" - Maybe an example would help.  You've interacted with the authorities, yes?"

"A little."

"So, it's quite straightforward to copy somebody else's skin tone; we've been able to do that for probably most of recorded history.  And at some point, somebody showed up with vitiligo, and this was also straightforward to copy, but it would be specifically their vitiligo, in their particular pattern and with their particular colors.  Relatively recently, though, we got it narrow enough that you could copy a person's skin tone onto one particular part of your body rather than across the whole thing, so now people can make their own patterns, and at varying sizes, too.

"But then, if someone in the authorities wanted to look like a regular citizen again, especially if they wanted to be a color that they didn't already have, they'd have to go over their entire body, copying tiny patches of it, which would be tedious and easy to miss spots with.  So in that case you'd just want something broad again.  - Sometimes you can get multiple, hm, scopes, or scales, into a single citrelièse, but it's generally quite an involved process; it can take decades and it's generally not the most valuable thing to be working on."

"...this might just be hard for us to model since we don't have this - sense."

"That seems plausible.  It's hard enough when you do, really; I've heard development likened to - trying to measure every piece of something, only with every measurement the size and shape and markings on your ruler change, or that but the thing you're trying to measure is the ruler itself.  I don't think most laypeople have a particularly nuanced grasp of it either."

"Well, I'm pretty sure we have literally none - if showing up on the planet did it, well, we've been here a while, and if people normally had it in a vestigial form on other planets I think some of the billions of people there would have noticed."

"Did you want to do the more thorough tests for that now."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Aside from the ones I mentioned?  Probably . . . we should try having you copy from someone with a very narrow citrelièse, in case the difference in scale matters, or a very broad one in case the amount of finesse does - maybe find someone with a particular trait very similar to yours, but of course different enough that we'd be able to see it happen; have someone - try to push it at you, as well? - while you're trying to copy something . . . maybe it only works at touch range.  And of course every combination of those it makes any sense to try."

"I'm - a little concerned about some of the implications of us being able to pick up any of it."

"Oh?"

"Your society has mandatory personality traits."

"Yes."

"Mine, uh, doesn't. - Kyeo's arguably does but even if he would be like 'oh, okay' I like him."

"I think it is - important, that somewhere like Creta exists, where people can trust others not to hurt them, and to help them if need be, and life is - stable.  It's also, obviously, very important that places not like Creta exist."

"It seems like a fine place and we're not hurting people or introducing more instability than is associated with our being aliens in the first place. I think it'd be fairly tragic if acquiring a new ability meant we had to move away to continue to be ourselves."

"It - seems likely, that being aliens means you wouldn't count as citizens, but I understand - not wanting to put weight on that, without confirmation.  - I wonder if, even if the authorities ruled - unfavorably - if you could get citizenship somewhere else and continue to live here, if you wanted; plenty of ordinary people from other countries live here, and they don't have to be any particular way."

"That's reassuring, thank you."

"In any case we can put those off until I have a more concrete answer for you."

"Thank you."

"What exactly are all the mandatory personality traits?"

"We count it as mostly one thing, and have one word for all of it, but it's being kind and - actually.  I think you might have a better time asking almost anyone else about this.  Maybe find someone who grew up somewhere else, see if their - outsider's perspective is closer to yours.  Or just someone - I obviously have enough of it now, but it was - a big change, and most people are more, ah, naturally aligned with it, and would perhaps be of more use to you."

Wow that's so uncomfortable. "Mm. Do you know anyone we could ask?"