Three people come out of a seemingly innocuous door to a dull, grey building. Two of them are laughing about something the other one said, and then one parts way from the group, waving and making his way out of the alley.
The other two are left behind, looking around curiously.
One of them has blue hair. The other has purple eyes and slightly pointy ears.
They're quite out of place.
– Blink. "I really should've guessed that profanity in a foreign language would be weird."
She looks up, humming. "I suppose when not heard through however Milliways translates things it might be. Sorry, I have a tendency to swear without really noticing it." She reached down absently to scratch Dieter's ears. "So. What precisely do you mean by 'cleaner way to do things'?"
"I mean, if there's a clean way for us to change anything." Pause. "Since we come from a place that could, I think, be a role model to some parts of your world. Might prompt change."
"In my experience, people very rarely want change to happen. I mean, they do, but they don't want to put the work in. If you have a way that might change that, I can probably introduce you to some people who can get the word out and try implementing your methods. But I'd need a bit more information first, really. How about we go somewhere and get out of this cold?" She crouches down and fits Dieter's harness back on. "I know a fantastic cafe just down the road. My treat."
"I'm not sure we have anything revolutionary," says Theira. "We might not be a ton of help."
"Worth looking at though, isn't it? Otherwise you wouldn't be here. Unless you were just looking for a pleasure jaunt, but you appear to have declared otherwise."
When they get to the cafe, Jay leads them to a table in the corner and immediately places her back to the wall, with a good exit path. She gestures to the seats remaining, scanning the cafe and spots...
Tau noticed Lady Jennifer enter, with her entourage, but is pretending to be engrossed in both her food and her phone conversation. Although she's not entirely expecting Lady Jennifer to be taken in by this. She will be listening in, but she'll wait on interrupting for now.
Itaruko pokes at his earring. "What sorts of things do they serve at a cafe?"
Jay reels off the menu from memory - it's clear she's here a fair amount. "If you want a recommendation, the soup is really good. You've got lentil or- Oh, it's thai green chicken curry today. Wonderful. Their selection of cakes is also rather good, the chocolate brownie in particular. Also, their herbal teas are good if you don't just want regular tea." She already knows what she's having, and gives her order to the waitress when she appears.
Theira considers, has a brief conversation with Itaruko, and then says, "Lentil soup, I think, for me?"
"Good choices," Jay says.
The waitress disappears off to get their orders.
"So. Where do you want to start? I can give you a run down of the world as it currently stands, or you can talk about how you do things, and I can offer comparisons."
"That is...very true. I mean, there are colourful places. But our major cities...do tend towards grey, you are correct. I mean, I like them, they're...uh, easy to blend in with?" Jay realises that might not have been the best thing to say. "And hey, at least they don't clash with each other? Boring does have a few upshots."
"i am reasonably sure that the lack of colour slowly destroys people's will to live, but I don't actually have hard evidence of this and it seems like it might not be first priority."
"Now, there's a thought. I suppose I don't necessarily see it like that, but I don't necessarily spend a lot of time in cities like these. And it certainly won't be the first thing on most people's minds around here. Mostly they're too busy being absorbed in their own worries and concerns. They don't stop to actually look." She scans the room again. "There's other problems that need to be fixed before we start on the colour of our buildings."
"Probably," he agrees. "Theira has some engineering knowledge, so she might be able to help with some things – I'm not sure how advanced you are but it seems like you're not dramatically behind us in technology…?"
"That rather depends on where you are. Different countries have varying levels of technology. Developed countries like Britain and America have higher levels of tech than a developing country like say...some of the African countries. There are plenty of people trying to even that divide, but it's...slow. I-" She pauses, considering the people in front of her. "There are various regions made unstable by conflicts of one form or another. My...people, try to stabilize the regions to allow for others more suited to helping build infrastructure to improve conditions."
Tau rolls her eyes at that - Lady Jennifer isn't being loud, quite the opposite in fact, but Tau's ears were always good. And she wouldn't necessarily have thought that her thugs were trying to 'stabilize' regions. Still, it doesn't feel like quite the right time to make herself known.
Jay gives him a blank look for a moment, before gathering her thoughts. "Civil wars, invasion by other countries under one guise or another, warlords and other criminal sects wanting control of natural resources in an area. Or wanting to start civil wars. We can't help with some of those things, but... We do what we can, to either stabilize the region, or reduce the impact on civilians."
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