"It'd be very exciting! My wife is positively buzzing about trade with a magical alternate dimension, and if you guys can do more magic with stimulants we can ship you so much the better."

Awww. 

...Also. Her - wife -? Are they, as an entire civilization, just as comfortable with same-sex relationships as the Tayledras? That would be really neat. Melody isn't going to ask Kelta about it because it seems potentially awkward. 

:I think it's very exciting! If we want genuine interdimensional trade that'll have to wait on them winning the war over there. Or on Leareth being able to do magic again and checking what's going on, if we don't hear anything for years or whatever. But still: 

"Yup. That'll give the international trade types time to square things away and be ready for it, at least!"

Nod. :Hopefully! Anyway, I may not be comfortable enough with the language yet to write up a whole explanation of Mindhealing, but I should be able to send you an email if I have questions. As long as you're willing to forgive my dubious grammar and spelling: 

"Do you want me to write in a few eoms for you?"

:- That's the, er, prewritten email thing? I think Dree did some for me before. I would probably appreciate it but I don't want to interrupt Leareth while he's using the laptop: 

"Makes sense."

"Sorry, I don't have another yet, the office is out of loaners and the new ones will be in tomorrow," says Dree.

:That's fine, I understand. I've lived my whole life up until now without a laptop, it's not a big deal! Though it does seem like a lot of things in your world rely on having one. I guess it's sort of a replacement for Mindspeech and also all the other Gifts, but better since everyone can have one?: 

"I think I wouldn't give up the Internet for Mindspeech," says Dree thoughtfully.

"I would but not if everybody got to, it'd lose the comparative advantage," says Kelta. "And I have to admit in this scenario I imagine relying on my housemates to tell me what's going on online."

Melody nods along.

:What does 'comparative advantage' mean? Just, it sounds like the sort of thing Leareth would talk about, but I don't think it's a thing he's specifically talked about with me before or anything: 

"Oh, it's an econ concept," says Kelta. "I don't remember the formal definition, in casual conversation it just means whatever it's most efficient for you to be doing on the assumption that other people are also more or less doing what's efficient for them to be doing."

Melody also isn't sure what it means for something to be an 'econ' concept but now is maybe not the time to pursue that, since Kelta seems to be hinting that she wants to head out soon. 

:Oh, huh. I think that makes sense but I feel like I should think about it more! Thank you for explaining: 

"No problem! What's your email, for future reference -"

Aaaaaaaah Melody continues to be so bad at things. :Dree, do you remember how my name was spelled in my email address? I'm not sure: 

Dree provides the email and Kelta writes it down. "Okay, I'm gonna go home - it's been lovely but I hate all your chairs, next time I can bring one of mine."

:Of course! ...Er, what's wrong with our chairs? Just, now I'm curious if I can buy better chairs once I have money to do that and all. I think they're perfectly adequate by Velgarth standards but your world is better than Velgarth standards at everything I've cared to check so far: 

"I'm just really picky about chairs. If we have a fantastic time playing board games next time I come I can direct you to the ones I have."

:Sounds good!: 

Melody ushers her out. 

And off nyooms Kelta!

"I don't have a laptop but I do have a selection of fidgets," Dree says once she's gone.

:Ooh!: Melody is so excited to have a look. 

Dree got the kinds she asked for - a squishy ball in mottled green like malachite, a wheel within a wheel - and also a water wiggle full of glitter, and a fist-sized grabbable object that can be held in various configurations to enable access to the various buttons and switches and dials on its surface, and also a wiggly alien-plant-looking thing in bright red silicone. "This one is not strictly speaking a fidget toy but it was in the same section and if you don't want it I'll give it to my nephew," says Dree, "it's a chocolate obstacle. You dip it in chocolate - or another thing that has a sufficiently compatible texture - and then you eat the chocolate off it. It's more interesting than just biting directly into a candy bar and unlike buying chocolate covered caramels and then peeling them all with your teeth you aren't left with a bunch of caramel you didn't especially want in the first place."

:....That's really neat but also I feel like it leaves me with several more questions than what I started out with! What are chocolate covered caramels and why do people buy them to peel them with their teeth when they don't want the caramel - that's edible too, right -?: 

She is already squishing the squishy mottled green ball. It's SO SATISFYING. 

"- do you have caramel? You can get them covered in - chocolate - do you have chocolate - anyway, people sometimes just really prefer eating certain foods if they can do something more complicated than biting it, like peeling it off something else. Which is fine if you want to also eat the caramel, but if you don't, you get one of these." She waves the chocolate obstacle.

:I am not obviously recognizing either of those concepts! Though it's tricky in Mindspeech when you don't share a language and also come from entirely different worlds with different foods. Your world does seem to also have tea which is fairly recognizable as tea, but I wouldn't be all that surprised if Velgarth doesn't have 'chocolate' or 'caramel'. I'd have to taste them for sure. ...I guess I might have already, the custard-filled cakes came in all those flavor combinations, but I mostly couldn't read the packaging at the time: 

Melody has never actually heard of people preferring to eat foods if they could peel them off other things with their teeth, either, but possibly they've just never...checked...? 

"Well, can I see the packages? Caramel is a thing you get if you cook sugar in the right way, I'd be a little surprised if you didn't have it in any form, but chocolate's from a specific plant."