"It does, yeah." This seems important to get right. They've never done geotherm or been space crew, but this seems like the same reference class, collaboration in a high-stakes environment with no one else around in some direction… And it'd probably be worse, without air shields, at least caving you can only be stuck. Still, maybe Kuvi has quick teammates with wings like theirs or likewise… Anyway. "So, I 'Rappel!' and you 'Ready!' and get down more rope? And if not, you 'Wait!' and I stop, until you 'Okay!'. Is this right? Safely?"

Slow, thoughtful nodding.

"...I think that's right. We can figure out how to talk more in the morning. But this is safe. I rappel many people."

"Right. Yeah. …In the morning I'll be done with it, probably." (Depending on what 'morning' is, but probably the next day? Still more common to keep time this way than not, human sleep cycles are skewed towards nights near-everywhere they know.) And they get ready to follow Kuvi's instructions.

At any rate, they can get her down off the rock without much fuss, and then pack the climbing gear all up again.

Kuvi then shows her to a little Japanese-style shrine near the base of the rock. There are nine chest-high pedestals in a nice little garden, with offering bowls, and a few small buildings, and a few wooden sort of-windchimes, and a well, and a stone perimeter wall, and two people (both humans, a man and a woman) who seem curious but are playing the social script respectfully-quiet-in-important-place right now.

And a guest room that is pantomimed to be hers. "You can sleep here. Or if you're not tired... I don't know. I'm tired."

"I'm not, much." It hasn't been long for them today, it's been years since they had anything effortful on in the morning, and Kuvi probably has something else they do all day besides help randomly dropped arrivals, unlikely they've been waiting on call for this all day. Unless it's somehow common to specifically here… And Clematis wants- they got a little used to this place while they were climbing down. Felt some of the wind, the smell of the grasses, if it was them. So, now they're noticing people properly, their own standpoint in the world.

And they're so glad to be the kind of thing people are curious about. It's a kind of cooperation, reciprocal, that allows people to become whatever, or did at home — Uncanny 102: notice others' weirdnesses and appreciate them, reinforcing any sign of them getting out of the narrow default pathway. They realise there's much more of a gap here, a whole other world to them; you don't have to curate difference painstakingly, just linger in whatever is already there. Bring it together with what they know, even, try to build one framework to understand both. That's not really a different ideal, though, a world that has — so much more than they had the feeling of expecting to hear about —

They stare into the distance back in the vague direction of the two curious people. Reply to Kuvi. "I could stay here for some time, maybe?"

"You seem to be picking up things quickly. Sorry for the trouble... You want to talk to Kalisha and Clove?" Shrug. "Sure, if they're willing. They have work to do in the morning just like me."

If she goes over to the two strangers, they'll both give shallow bows. On closer inspection, their robes carry some of the same design aesthetics as Kuvi's, but less ornamented. Probably a rank or status marker.

"I'm Kalisha, and that is Clove," the woman says. "Hello, and welcome to the shrine. You do not know much Notal?" She is trying to speak slowly and clearly. And she mimes the next two questions. "Do you want to go in there and sit? And drink tea?"

That's interesting about the robes… It actually reminds them of amateur worldbuilding at first — when people imagine a different place's clothing as more homogenous by accident, because enough detail and difference is much harder to construct than a rule-thing. They do consider that it's on purpose, though, after a moment, maybe a uniform of some grouping.

"I'm Clematis." They nod, try to signal that they're ready to follow wherever. "Hello… Yeah, if you're willing. I don't want to wait[en] you from sleep," that's a Flans causative, they hope it'll make sense in context, "it's just… Here! I'm new here, and… What are you like, your everything? What part of this here is a 'shrine'… what is a shrine… All new for me. And it's good for tongue, to talk." (That's the word for 'language' they've heard, unaware of any subtle constraints it might have on use, if there is any.)

Clove says, "You're new here! New people being here is exciting. You know things." He taps his temple at 'know'.

Kalisha gestures everyone towards the side building. The interior of it looks like it has some kind of formal purpose in addition to containing a mini-kitchen and a table with four chairs, but what exactly is not immediately clear. There are two... What might be worktables? Or some kind of ritual space or altar? Currently bare and tidy.

Clove gets a slate and piece of chalk from a cabinet, and starts drawing... A map, maybe? It's all rather squiggly and vague, for the most part. He also draws a sketch of a solar system. "Do you recognize-? Yes, you know what this is okay. This is Ragni," he indicates the star. "And these, planets. Emisstatus," a tiny planet, "Tirra," drawn with a moon and vague continents, "Noblius, Ember," both small, "The Giant," a gas giant, "Kalimar, Wretch, and Glisten." Three small ones. "We are here, on Tirra." Tap tap.

And then over to the vague continent-sketch, he taps part of it. "We are here, in Chelarn and near the great Noten." He circles a fairly large area for Noten, and indicates a particular spot near the equator for Chelarn.

Meanwhile, Kalisha goes over to the stone-brick stove and opens the front grate, takes a deep breath, claps her arms together, and showers a dusting of sullenly glowing embers from her hands into it. Then she picks up an iron pot. "I will boil water for tea."

Clematis has quieted down their voice a little, by now. There's somehow an atmosphere for it, in this less public, more functional space, as it looks to them. "That's many planets, mine has less. Is there anyone on the others? And the…" they point at the star, "what is its word? And, Noten — Notal is of there? What else do people talk in?"

"Noten is... Here." A mid latitude big curving coast. "And here and here." A couple islands, a couple other patches of coast, including the one they tapped for Chelarn.

"Notal is the tongue of Noten. What about Ragni? Do you mean 'star', for things like Ragni? Nobody on the other planets... Probably? Uh."

Pockets pockets. Here is a six sided die, he rolls it. "Probably is- one two three four five, yes. Six, no. I think I forgot a question."

"Oh, that's [interesting], with the [cube]"… they gesture at it. "And star, yeah. But also-" Oh no I made a mistake- no, no, that's all right in a new place, no one is depending on me here… "Sorry, I think I forgot a yours, that it's Ragni. Mine was, what are other tongues on this planet like? On my world there's many different ones, but there's translation, so I know almost none, didn't have figure out."

"There's...? Hmm. I think I'm confused. Tongues, or actually, 'languages'... Notal, Atsosi, Khangi...? Notal and Atsosi are the... Biggest." Expansive hand gesture. "All persons speak Notal or Atsosi... Shemak and Kigo sometimes are spoken around here, and... And Ancient Tirran? You read it, you don't speak it, and only uh... People who learn about things know Ancient Tirran. Oh, there's species- Some people can say things like-" He attempts to imitate various click and purr type noises. "Like that, and they talk that way. Dialects."

"The water people speak Merrish," Kalisha adds, having returned with a bucket of water.

"Thanks." They nod, look over at what Kalisha's doing, quietly sit down now that they've done some leaning over Clove's map, enough for now. "Didn't have… Ah! Didn't have to figure out each language, translation does that for me, if it knows it. Some people point attention at how words feel anyway. Not me, though, except now, I had so many other things to do this at… Water people?" Any species they've heard of, they wonder… The cosmos is big, but there's humans here, so some nearness.

"The water people live in water. Some of them are shaped like us but also like fishes... Like how honored Kuvi is like a bird. Some are made of soft jelly or have a hard shell, like crabs. Most of the kinds of people are like humans but also like a different animal. They say the humans looked at all the animals and were fascinated and made themselves like the animals with ancient Tirran magic we no longer know."

"What about the story of Tamamo?"

Shrug. "They also say that the Light Gods made all peoples, humans and mer and fastwings and all the rest, giving them mind and soul and tools as they were shaped from the natural world and loved. They say many things."

"Ah! Thanks." 'Magic' — that's technology, maybe… something like that, maybe a subset. 'animals' — kinds of creature? Kuvi is like a bird, or maybe that's the word for a specific kind of bird, that makes sense… 'Mind' and 'soul' and 'tools', those probably have subtle distinctions between each other, like ontologies have. That they can ask, they think. "Sorry, that is a lot of words… Mind and soul and tools, what is different in those? And Tamamo, what's that, or who? And 'Light Gods'."

"The Light Gods? They are the nine we praise here."

Kalisha will draw a grid of nine symbols matching the ones that are on the little altars outside, all stylized, and name them. A two lines diverging in a curving path (Galasa), a puffy maybe-a-cloud (Illumine), wavy lines with curlicues on the ends of them (Alteri), differently wavy lines without curlicues (Otena), a fox (Tamamo), a crescent moon like Kuvi was wearing (Isara), two concentric circles (Hekosi), a bird (Erius), and a circle with lines radiating from it (Ragni).

"The Light Gods are a little bit like very big people who are in a lot of places at once. This is not really right, but it's... Abstract - not easy to see. I don't think I can say it in a way that helps you know more right now."

"Mind is the thing in your head-" Tap temple. "That does thinking and knowing and learning. You are learning Notal very fast, with your mind. Uh, learning is - not knowing, and then knowing."

"Very, very fast. I'm not sure whether to do baby-talk or just talk normally."

"Soul is the thing... Uh..." They look at each other. "I don't think you know enough words yet. Mind and soul and body are you. Body is-" they wave over themself. "This. Meat. What is different between me and Kalisha and you, and more different between me and Kuvi, that you can see and touch. Soul is the part of you that is not mind or body. You feel things and do magic with it."