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Emiko looked around the new research outpost. It was fairly small by Starlight's standards but it could be expanded later if necessary. The station was a mere 2 kilometers in diameter and only the same amount wide making for an inner surface of about 12 square kilometers. For now it was mostly park land and some small farms. There was constant soft illumination through the transparent siding of the station's outer ring from the silver mist outside and fusion powered lights provided brighter illumination on a daily cycle. The strange mist didn't seem to be affected by gravity and was close to uniform in every direction they'd sent probes out for at least a few million kilometers. A magecrafter had come through and determined that the mist was probably harmless but none of them were currently available for follow-up tests so at least for now the team here would be relying on resonators and good old-fashioned physics.
"Well, basic research, looking into the feasability of Starlight intervening in my world, and if so lobbying for same through whatever channels people usually do politics through, are in fact more enjoyable than fighting to disrupt other people's attempts to cause problems, and those things are my current long-term plan. …my current medium-term plan! I have more of a long term than I have full plans for! Thank you, again."
"Those all sound like good plans. If you're staying for a while we should probably register you as a resident if that's alright with you. Being a resident entitle you to some amount of currency on a regular basis, a residence to live in, medical care, education should you wish to pursue it and allows you to participate in our political process. On your end it means you're committing to comply the rules of our society and in case of extreme emergencies obey the dictates of the emergency committee within certain limits."
"That sounds potentially good. Tell me about your society's rules and the typical responses of the emergency committee to emergencies, then?"
"We have the basic rules I think are present in most societies. You're not allowed to injure or steal from other individuals. There are exception for extreme circumstances but we try to prevent those from happening. We also have a number of rules that govern how resources are allocated. For the average person all that those rules are relevant for is how many resources they personally get and the restrictions about speed of usage. Even if you accumulate a massive amount of resource credits there's a limit to how much you can redeem at once. You're also not allowed to bribe people to support your political causes. If you break the rules, our justice system is focused on understanding why and building a framework for ensuring it won't happen again. In rare cases, that will mean we take steps to make it impossible for you to do whatever you did again, either by requiring you be escorted by someone or something that can stop you or by banning you from wearing certain types of bodies."
"Do extreme circumstances include self-defense, at least if I am careful to avoid lastingly injurious use of force? …lower rates of violence, right, possibly if someone tries to rob me I can get in their face with a scimitar and they'll just stop immediately without us needing to attack each other. Or I can spend a Wild Shape usage on running off without having to worry that I'll urgently need that usage later."
"Self defense is a broad category. In general the expectation is that you'll attempt to disengage and only attack back if that's for some reason infeasible. That said, in most cases, the justice system will find no wrongdoing on the part of the defending party. The cases where self defense would be unacceptable would either be in a case of disproportionate force, such as dismembering someone in response to a punch or kick, or if you goaded someone into attacking you with the intent of being able to defend yourself. As for protecting yourself from theft, if an item is replaceable we generally prefer you just let the person go, you'll be compensated either by the person or the justice system. In the case of something irreplaceable the same comments about disproportionate force can apply."
"That sounds overall reasonable. Is flight rare enough that it's usually an effective means of disengagement from hostilities?"
"It should be. The generally speaking only operatives and a few committed hobbyists have personal flight. It's pretty resource intensive. Magecrafters can do it too but they're extremely rare. We don't have any here at the moment."
"I could take the form of a large bird and fly you around the station, if you liked, though at that point we wouldn't be on a telepathic communication network together so I wouldn't be able to speak. But I digress. If flight is a good means of disengaging from attackers, and violence is rare, I ought to be able to do so."
"That sounds fun. I don't really care if I can't tell you where to go. Though flying here is likely to be weird. Apparent gravity decreases as you get higher and that takes adjusting to."
"Oh, I'd be able to hear you just fine, and make various expressive bird sounds, just not to speak. But I like being able to talk. I suppose if you have cheap infrastructure for safe falling I could go Air Elemental, they have a problem with dropping objects they try to carry but they can talk."
"Hmm, I could get a wing suit. It's a piece of clothing that lets people fall safely from large heights."
"It's your choice, I just thought you might like flying if it's cheaper than usual. Anyway. Your justice system sounds good. I will research how to conduct myself honorably regarding politics and do my best to adhere to the guidelines, I don't have much political experience anyway so I'll need to do research no matter what. I can survive almost anywhere people aren't actively trying to kill me so I'm not deeply worried about resources."
"I am always up for new experiences as long as nobody's being hurt in ways they don't want. Sometimes they aren't things I want to repeat but I don't know for sure unless I've tried them. I can get you setup with access to our libraries, those are open even to visitors. There's a physical library I can show you which is likely more like what you're used to but you can also get access to most information from a remote access system."
"Are your libraries integrated with the translation magic? And is your remote-access system in the form of single small storage cores containing libraries worth of data and attached to multiple viewing terminals?"
"They're mostly integrated with the translation magic. The main gap is that not every word has a good translation. The translation magic as used by people makes them aware of that and allows them to actively rephrase. For books though it just leaves some words untranslated. For languages with a sound to character correspondence it will also transliterate the word. Our remote access is something like that, though the cores are not physically present near the viewer and their contents are temporarily copied into the viewer."
"Well, it sounds like you have lower manufacturing costs, if you're willing to let non-residents handle the viewers. I'd be happy to have a look at the library."
"They're cheap enough that everyone who wants one can have one. A lot of people don't bother with them because a large portion of our population can just use a mental interface with no external parts. I have a couple just because I enjoy using them. Let's walk over to my house. People get slightly cross with me when I use direct delivery in ways they consider frivolous."
"Offer to fly you is still open. It'd be a little frivolous to go to giant bird form just for a short trip and then detransform so soon, but the impression I get is that I'm not going to need all my wild shape uses today, and for a short trip I'm fine with a nonverbal form."
"That would be fun. My house is that way," She points in a direction. "You can't miss it, it's the one painted in a rainbow's worth of colors."
Griffie transforms into a giant vulture, picks up Emiko, and flies in the stated direction.
The area is mostly parkland with scattered houses and other buildings. Nothing is more than three stories tall. There are what seem to be well maintained paths and all the trees around look fairly young. It's immediately evident when they're approaching Emiko's house. Most homes have been one or two colors at most and usually fairly sedate tones. Emiko's is bright white with splashes of color some like paint splatters and others more like what you would find on a tie-dye shirt.
Emiko for her part is laughing and peering around though she isn't moving much out of an abundance of caution. "This is fun."
Griffie makes a pleased chirp in response to Emiko's statement, then sets Emiko down by her house, lands, and detransforms.
"Thank you, that was great. I've tried flying like a bird before but I hadn't thought of being carried by one."