Mostly it's just that everything I have heard about doing experiments on reds, even from Doet where they do it all the time and ought to know how, they sometimes act unpredictably or uncooperatively and it's just better to avoid using them if you can. Maybe if initial research is promising it'll be worth it? I don't think we'll need you for cleanup after any of the experiments, we have plenty of bleach &c.

- Sasip

Well that sure sounds like a problem he should have guessed that they would have.

Well, we'll see what we can do, I guess. My fleshcrafter friend is on their way, I expect them to be here in a few weeks.

-traveler

He emails the reds back to let them know what's going on, too.

I'll let everyone know when it comes up that the mouse-touching experiment is not necessarily as sketchy as it sounds, thanks.

Sounds good.

A few days later, the crows report a group of nomads close to the city; traveler offers to go check them out and let them know where Sun's camp is.

That would be very kind of him!

Off he goes in his balloon, then!

He's back that evening, trailed by a dozen walking structures in three distinct color schemes: neon orange with black diamonds, dark blue with a pink swirl and lighter blue speckles, and sunny yellow and warm brown in a messy plaid-like configuration.

Gosh, that's interestingly clashy all together. Sun waves.

The crafter on the leading orange vehicle waves back! As they get closer Sun can see that the one on the front of the yellow-and-brown house is younger than the other two, perhaps just past her third Amentan birthday.

They stop somewhat farther off than traveler and lone sassafras do, and blue and yellow set about unhitching the dogs from their other vehicles while orange comes closer: Hi! Will her group be all right setting up where they are?

That's fine by Sun!

Oh that's a neat-looking doodad. Is that the sort of thing they're trading with? She'd heard they were looking to trade.

The pocket everything? Yes, they can get one, but they don't have planetwide signal yet and it needs electricity.

She'll go get her houses sorted out and then they can explain that, how about.

Oh, and traveler, she's got something for you - she ducks into her house for a moment and tosses him something from just inside the door.

Network connection to goosewing, she explains. Someone up by that big lake up north of here heard he was trying to get in touch with them and had one, gave them the tip to head down here for trade.

Oh, excellent. Does Sun have something prepared to send out? He can do that right away.

Sun has a list of things that it has been suggested goosewing could help with and a polite request outlined! Here it is.

He drafts up a quick letter himself and sends it all off.

Meanwhile, the newcomers settle in; yellow is slower with her chores than the adults, and still busy in her garden when blue comes back to detach the bench she had been sitting on to drive her house and convert it into its own smaller vehicle. She waits for orange, who's done after another minute, and invites her to join her with a querying look and a pat of the seat next to her; once they're both settled, she brings them back over to Sun.

So, orange asks, what kinds of things are they looking to trade for? They have seeds, and a real good collection of clothing minis and the usual assortment of other stuff, and she hunts and her friend does medium-complicated regular crafting and basic genecrafting and the kid's good with animals.

They don't especially need clothes, though probably crafter styles will be in vogue at some point. A genecrafter getting acquainted with Amentan genomes seems like it'll be important sooner or later, though, and the scientists would like more animals to study.

Blue reiterates that she really only does the basics of genecrafting; she could look at one of them and see what the easiest changes to make would be, if they'd like.

Sure! This grey volunteers.

She'll need to touch her -

Most of the recent stuff looks more psychological than physical - that one looks reproductive, she thinks it'd ease the reprodutive drive a bit; this one looks like it'd reduce anxiety; this one would improve physical endurance; this one would improve patience at the expense of some inclination to move around and do things so much. Going back farther it gets into the same kinds of changes as she could make in crafters - digestive setup more suited to uncooked foods, fur, different hand and foot and facial morphology, a tail if she goes back farther than that.

This grey in particular doesn't spring too bad but somebody will certainly be up for trying the eased reproductive drive thing! Reduced anxiety might also be popular.

Well, they'll probably be here for at least a week.

What do they have to trade, orange wants to know?

They have Amentan foods, and Amentan clothes, and electronics - which all need charge, but some can last a very long time on a reasonable number of swappable battery packs, and there's even a solar-charging battery option if they don't need to use them that much - and books and maps and music and art?

Blue wants to get minis of all the new clothes, and maybe some art for her niece. Orange wants to know more about what the electronics do.

Amentans don't normally make miniature versions of clothes - they do have doll clothes? Electronics can do things like play music, translate from crafter writing to Tapap (or other Amentan languages), connect to the Internet close to the city, play games, and tell time.

If they don't have minis on hand blue can convert what they do have while she's here and make minis of the converted ones.

Orange is interested in the games, and calls yellow over to look too when she's done with her chores.