No, yes.

No Val doesn't think he can communicate it like this, yes they should focus on better communication?

Yes.

Okay. (He takes a minute to think.) There's lots of ways they could try to do that but they kind of break down into 'get Val a territory of his own', 'other less resource-intensive things to help him get out of his freeze', and 'someone learns someone else's writing system'.

He gestures at the notes he's taken on their writing system that he is working on learning right now.

All right. The medic has a connection to the world library, he's pretty sure, and probably won't mind making him some educational materials, or one of them can ask around for someone else to. Most likely she'll do it, though.

He might need to stay with her for a couple of days if there's more wrong than is obvious; should someone check on Val's noncrafter household for him?

Nope.

(...Man, this help is really helpful, for some hypothetical person who is how they expect him to be. They will presumably want some really tremendous favors but since they don't seem to have defense magic that'll be fine.)

All right. It's not much farther, is there anything else he should try to think to ask about before they get there?

Not sure.

(He's kind of having a time. Maybe he would have better ideas if he weren't.)

He'll leave it for the medic to figure out then, she's got more experience with this kind of thing.

After another few minutes' walk, and they come to a territory marker similar to the one he pointed out to Val when they left his territory - a chest-height pillar of crafting material marked with the glyphs of the local writing system, this one a peachy matte orange mottled with yellow and red and purple. On the other side of the trail is a larger installation reminiscent of a noticeboard, but with notices aside from the main one tucked into slots on one side and machinery on the other and on the top.

It looks to Val's companion like Val is in good enough shape not to need him to activate the emergency bell, but to be sure - should he do that?

Nah.

The territory system here is interesting, he's going to have to consciously pay attention to avoid treating it as basically agerah with more art.

Okay. He'll fill out the form then... it's this one here... He takes another clump of material off of his walking stick to make a copy of the form and leans on the structure while he fills it out, after noting that Val should stop him if he gets anything wrong.

Val fell off a cliff, is the main problem. He doesn't have any obvious-to-someone-else broken bones but there's something wrong with his ankle and might be other injuries - are there any that are obvious to him? there's a diagram he can fill out if he wants - and he might have hit his head - did he, does he know? - since he's not able to communicate normally, though he's writing and following a conversation okay and generally seems alert. Val isn't sure how he got to the top of the cliff though and the whole situation is pretty weird so if she can do any forensics on top of the medical care that'd be good. Does that seem to Val like it sums the situation up?

He did not hit his head. Yes, that sums it up.

He puts that Val didn't hit his head, and runs the form through the machine on the side of the structure; after a few seconds a spot above the machine begins to glow, and a mechanism flips to show a small board with a couple of glyphs on it; he explains that this indicates that the medic got their message and should be here in about fifteen minutes or so.

It's closer to ten though when someone comes running up the path toward them - a human-sized figure in closer-fitting black clothing than the robe Val's companion is wearing, making no effort to look where he's going as he runs on shortened legs and knuckles covered by a pair of apparatuses strapped to his forearms, but instead using the long thin black tentacles that sprout from the backs of his shoulders as antennae to keep himself from running into things. His ears are inhumanly large and pointed, and he has a pair of deep blue feathery moth's antennae growing on the top of his head, and when he stops short and faces them, his eyes are a solid blue with no obvious affordance for being able to see with them.

The peach one sent him to see if he could figure anything out about their mystery, and - his antennae twitch gently - he probably has more mysteries for them than he's going to solve - why does the stranger smell so strange, both personally and all the other smells that are on her. how doesn't she smell like anything around here. how is she malnourished, that doesn't happen to people her age. Anyway, they should come in, he'll drop them off at the workhouse and go get Val something to eat.

The one in the green seems to have some trouble with this, starting to move a couple of times but stopping short of walking past the territory-marker, until the one in black offers him a hand (folding back his protective bracer to do so) and leads him across, which seems to solve the problem.

...Ugh, gender again, he didn't miss that. He'll... whatever, he'll deal with it later. After the... all of this.

He leads the way, spending a few minutes walking upright on his short legs before folding his bracer back down so he can use the more comfortable knucklewalking gait. The underbrush is sparser here, and Val can catch glimpses of structures through the trees, rounded and lumpy like gigantic boulders in fantastic colors, mostly peach-themed but with the occasional black-and-blue or mint-and-gold or pearlescent pink. After a few minutes they pass a cluster of large platforms carrying plants and chickens and topped with mesh cages to keep wildlife away from their contents sit on the other side of the path, their legs tucked in close, and their guide notes that they're almost to the workhouse.

They come to it around the next corner: a large one-story building, rounded like the others and with its peach color scheme splattered with a rainbow of pastel colors. It's flanked by half a dozen small cottages in the same style, with various colors of trim around the doors; an old woman dozes bundled up in a spider-legged chair on the porch of one of them.

Their guide stops them in the clearing between the buildings, and goes into the main one; the person who comes out again is presumably the medic. Her general build is more human, though she's at least as modified overall - instead of wearing clothing, she's covered with a thick and very pettable-looking peach-colored fur that fades into red on her back with a line of blackish-purple running down her spine to her tail, a long-haired waggy doglike thing. Where their guide had antennae, she has a pair of simple three-pointed backswept antlers, continuing the peach theme with red on the back third and purple tips and draped with golden garlands strung with charms and baubles. Her forearms and calves are protected by structures that look like turtle shells, and she also has a shoulder tentacles, but two pairs rather than one, and they're thicker, looking sturdy enough to hold things with, lined with leathery yellow patches, and bald at the tips. She asks if Val's companion would like her to move him to another seat, and when he replies that it's fine to leave him where he is, she comes over to address Val - may she have a look at him? She doesn't need to touch him if he's not comfortable with that but it'll make it easier for her to see what's going on with him internally.

Sure.

(So many new species here. Well, but they recognized him as a human, so it's fine. Probably.)

She sets her hand on his knee - the one on the side with the good ankle - and considers him for a few moments, seeming mildly worried as she does. Her conclusion is that he's bruised up and his hand is scraped up and ankle is in some trouble but there's no brain damage or anything. She's concerned about his diet; it isn't terribly urgent, but his lack of fat reserves is going to complicate treatment a little - ideally she'd grow him some extra bone marrow to top his blood supply back up, but there isn't enough mass for her to work with for that without cannibalizing something: his breasts are the obvious choice, and she can put them back once he's put on some weight for her to use for that, but that might take a few weeks or months even if there's not something going on that's making it hard for him to eat. Or she thinks he'll be okay without that, he'll just be weak for a few days or weeks while he recovers naturally, and he's welcome to stay in one of the cottages while he does - really ideally he'd stay for a bit anyway while they see if they can get his nutrition situation figured out, but she doesn't expect him to want to. Anyway, she can fix the ankle and the hand now, with his permission, and either 1) let her make him some bone marrow, and he can come back for the breast reconstruction at his leisure; 2) move into one of the cottages until he feels like leaving, however long that ends up taking; 3) both; or 4) neither, and he'll take care of himself or go to someone else.

He is fine with her cannibalizing his breasts. (Wow, for the first time he doesn't particularly resent their existence.) He... has no idea where he should live right now. Maybe here, on the basis that someone said it was okay and no one has said that about anywhere else?

Okay; this'll feel weird...

His various aches and pains subside quickly, and then there's an odd sensation along his ribs as his breasts shrink to nothing.

...how's that, does he want any adjustments?

Nah, he's fine.

Good. She'll need a few minutes to sanitize a cottage, but he can come in while she's setting it up and point out anything he'd like her to adjust.

His companion cuts in at this point to bring up the nature of the communication problem and Val's request for materials to learn the form of writing they use from; the medic agrees to get that started once the cottage is ready, and then goes to start on that.

While she's gone, the black-themed person returns with a plate of food - garlic and herb mashed potatoes-and-carrots, roasted mixed vegetables, and a small venison steak - on a tray with utensils and a glass of fruit juice, to offer to Val.

Oh. Well, he doesn't have a better way to find food, and he will eventually need to eat at least once before he's fluent in their language, so even if he's going to end up owing them even more for this what choice does he really have.

...The mashed whatever it is is really good, at least.

When he's done, the medic has finished with the inside of the cottage and recolored its trim to dull orange, and is adding planters to the railings of its porch using material taken from other decorative elements. When she notices that he's done, she indicates that he can come over and help her set it up, and bring the dishes with him.

Inside, the cottage has also been recolored to dull orange, with neutral grey as a secondary color. It uses a mostly-open floor plan, with a workbench, small kitchen, and communication machinery along the left wall and a seating area and enclosed bed-bay on the right, with a restroom in the back; she goes around the room, showing Val all the amenities - this patch of wall can be touched to turn the overhead lights on and off, or this one operates the workbench's dedicated light, and here's a writing pad and various colors of utensils he can use, and there's a supply of crafting material in the cabinet here that he's welcome to; the kitchen has a cold box without any particular controls and a small oven and a stovetop element that are operated like so, and she'll get it stocked with food next; the communication station won't be very useful until they share a writing system but the emergency button is here and the not-an-emergency-but-please-come-by button is here; the bed enclosure has a built in light and fan and heater and cooler and water dispenser and moonroof and variable-softness sleeping surface that are operated via this panel of buttons, plus the sliding doors latch closed like so, or there are also curtains if he prefers to use those, and there are a couple of types of blankets and pillows in drawers underneath; the seating area has its own lamp, and the chairs can be warmed or cooled or softened or firmed with this other panel of buttons, plus there's storage built into the base of the seats for blankets; if any of this doesn't suit him she can adjust it however he likes.

It's very nice. He tries to smile about that.

He is going to have to do so much for these people. It might even be legal to force him to, here, he doesn't know, but even if it's not, if he doesn't pay them back they'll tell everyone.