Stoneheart mostly stays out of the tourism planning aside from strenly reminding everyone that Amentans don't come back when they die so be careful and besides they are guests so be nice too.

The tourism itinerary can include meeting different people and art museums and fancy food and sports events and wouldn't it be cool to teach some Dwellin games to greys and one of the Dwellin would like to advertise that she's looking for sex and another suggests adding a gun range to the list which everyone else immediately enthusiastically agrees with and maybe a tour of a school or a tour of a factory and whatever other entertainment gets suggested they'll at least try unless it totally centers on writing.

Their escorts know enough not to suggest things that totally center on writing! They can go to a gun range, the one who wants to do sex tourism can have her pick of a hundred alienfuckers who respond to the announcement, they can eat at a different restaurant for every meal and meet some greys who want to learn Dwellin games, they can see art museums and watch several different major league sports and visit a factory. (Schools have a lot of writing.)

It's a great time! It turns out that Dwellin games tend to either one-on-one, or teams of 30+. They might pull some reckless stunts like climbing on the outside of buildings or poking electrified train tracks, if not stopped. They have a lot of strange questions for the factory purples; Dwellin mostly make everything by hand, though several would like to import some hand or table tools now. Amenta has really good cutting tools! A few would like to visit a school anyway, including Stoneheart, and ask about getting teachers for their species. The diplomat types in the tourist group would be up for meeting important blues too.

They are allowed to climb some buildings but not all of them and definitely not allowed to touch electrified tracks. The factory purples are flattered to be so interesting to the aliens and are happy to recommend them some tools. Stoneheart and other school visitors can go through a purple school which has shop classes and a student kitchen and driver's ed and stuff, and an orange school where they can talk about how they'd get teachers from a pipeline like this and what they'd want them trained on. Important blues are happy to invite them to a gala or a forum meeting where members of the public can ask questions!

They want purple engineering and electricity, basically. And guns, but they're pretty sure they can figure that out themselves since Amentans seem nervous about Dwellin with guns. Sure, they'll answer the public's questions! (Not Stoneheart, who declines with a simple 'no'.)

Okay, trade school teachers who can pick up the language okay. It's not that they're nervous about Dwellin with guns, just hesitant to introduce guns to a non-unified set of people before all the diplomacy has shaken out.

Well, obviously the first polities to have guns have a massive advantage. That's the point of getting guns before the other guys.

Right, and the Amentans aren't ready to back anybody that thoroughly right now.

Anyway, four of the tourists are particularly enthusiastic about the Q&A panel thing. Hansa the Dwellin equivalent of a bureaucrat from Three Bells, Dalvor a carpenter and carpentry teacher, Lakvar a diplomat from a state that's been kind of standoffish called Floodless Stone, and Tirktra, a professional hunter-for-food.

Questions that get through the screening include:

- What Amentan foods do you guys like best?
- Are you worried about Amentan goods outcompeting Dwellin handicrafts?
- Why don't you like books?
- Why don't you farm the animals you like to eat?
- What are some of the neatest sights to see on the Dwellin world?
- Do Dwellin keep pets?
- What is remembering past lives like? What is having your children remember past lives like?

The fancy seafood from this one place! Cake. Ice cream! The purples at this one restaurant looked so horrified when they poured salad dressing on the cheesy lasagna but it was still good. Thick stews and barbeque!

Not really, the economy will shift and adapt. Well, the carpenter is a little worried but he's sure people will always recognize quality and care compared to mass produced stuff. And they don't think they're going to do Amentan style factories at home or want to do tons of trade; Heavy industrialization is a no-no.

There's something uncanny about a information stored as text, especially fiction and detailed instructions. How are you supposed to get true mastery with something by reading about it? You have to do it. And the discomfort and effort of reading makes enjoying a story impossible. Also historically lots of books tended to lead to rampant industrialization, which turned out really badly and pretty much everyone agreed to drop it, or something. This was centuries ago.

They do? At least for some of them? But it's honestly easier in some ways to hunt down wild animals than build a pen and farm all that extra vegetation to feed animals and go through the fuss of guarding them and checking on sick ones and all that... Plus, hunters double as scouts and wilderness-trained people, and it's honestly just more rewarding and fulfilling than trying to farm livestock. Plus, some of the best meat animals can't be penned easily. And Tirktra wants to go on a hunt for magic eventually, so it's also training.

Ooh! Ooh! Everyone has their own champion sights and eagerly describe them all. The one from Three Bells includes his hometown's temple-slash-art-museum of course, and the rest are mostly various natural wonders and vistas - wonderful islands, amazing rock formations, beautifully stark mountains, colorful hot springs - aside from the cliff city of Redrock which sort of counts as a natural wonder anyway. A few more civilization-y places mentioned are the Annual Teeth Mountain War, the eternal festival at Yashtu (which originally meant something else but now just means Festival Place), and the purple jungle Rumila with its incredible variety of amazing flora and fauna.

Not really, and they don't quite see the appeal. Especially when any pet would only be a part of your life incredibly briefly.

Remembering past lives is like... Hmm... It's kind of like waking up in the morning and making breakfast and walking somewhere and without entirely realizing it you're already at your place of work or standing outside near the woods, and you blink, and when you think about it you can remember how you got there but it doesn't really feel like anything. You're just suddenly there, your past life intact in a new place. The memories first come out in dreams, often, and that can be a bit more of an actual experience, but it feels natural and smooth and right. You never really know what your kids will be like, and they do grow up kind of fast, but that's part of the fun! You get to watch them remember, watching that history slowly unfold in a cute little kid and putting a slight new spin on a tale that's been echoing for a long time.

- Have Dwellin considered having Amentans keep records for them so they can keep track of who they are and find their past families and friends easily?
- Is it safe to go see those things? They've heard it's dangerous on the planet.
- Does the planet have an endonym?

They haven't considered that! They mull it over uncertainly for a bit and decide that maybe it would be weird and bad but maybe it would be good.

Some places are pretty dangerous, yeah. Including the purple jungle. But lots of places are safe-ish, especially if there's greys with guns (or Dwellin with crossbows!) along.

Not one in common use. There's an old theological term for 'everything the gods made' that might fit, though it technically includes the Dwellin and all the native life too. "Ko'tundus."

Do they have a way to tell if it would be good besides trying it?

Ko'tundus it is!

What made these particular Dwellin decide to come to Amenta? What do they like about it so far? Is there anything they don't like?

Will Dwellin want to colonize other planets too like Amentans do?

Not really, but it does seem kind of complicated and non-urgent? Though they know people who want to meet old friends a lot more who might like it!

A combination of curiosity and excitement about aliens, wanting to learn things, and diplomatic reasons, which is sort of also wanting to learn things, just different things!

They'd be happy to be brought along or visit most places but don't think they're quite so motivated about it. Also, they'll need to bring the Well of Souls to new planets and they're not sure if that's possible- Maybe that's what dour old Stoneheart is here for, though, since they can barely imagine her having fun!

If the Well of Souls can be grown anywhere what will the Dwellin do about that?

Well, they want more kids too so probably go other places if they can? Amenta really has the leg up on finding places, though, and they kind of need it more, they only get the one chance. What would be really hard but really awesome is if they figured out how to make the Well of Souls accept Amentans... And then any other aliens that are found later!

So far no other aliens have been met! What do Dwellin think more aliens would be like?

Probably pretty similar shaped, with four limbs and a head! It seems like a pretty good general design, especially since the gods used it for them and Amentans evolved into it. Not necessarily, though.

The rest of the questions are fairly inconsequential fluff (do they like music, will they visit other countries, do they like low gravity, is anybody ever their own child's parent later on or anything like that...)

Sure, music is fun, one will sing a low throaty thing with two others harmonizing though they caveat that they're not pros and don't have instruments. Are other empires offering? ("Empire" has more to do with the size of the state than the structure in their language, they're really just saying 'very big polity') -Anyway just Tapa is already so huge they can't really experience all of it, but maybe if there's a good reason. Zero g is fun! They want to experience more of it later. Strange childhood situations happen occasionally yeah, but it's a celebration-worthy thing rather than awkward or weird.

Other polities are for sure offering, but if they want to stick to Tapa that's up to them. How is it not awkward to be your kid's kid?

It just kind of isn't? Being a kid is still like being a kid, even the second time. They'll be adults by then, anyway.

It's hard to miss the signs of a seventh caste if something has gotten you suspicious. Just wandering around and being warned off the trash alleys she wanted to have a look at is enough to solidify the vague nugget of confusion. Harder still when, unbeknownst to most, you do in fact know how to read the Amentans' language and navigate the internet, if very haltingly.

What does the internet have to say about red Amentans?