It still sounds like a clue, at least - probably people will appreciate it if she writes down what she remembers soon while it's fresh in her mind, even if there's not much of it.

Anyway - she's curious what's confusing her, if that seems like it'd make good dinner conversation.

There's not really one specific thing, everything's just very different! Hm, what did honeysuckle find most unusual...

People in Mabel's world communicate mostly with noise is the big one. Also, generally people in her world live in the same place with many other people -- fifty to a hundred at the smallest, thousands at the largest, which seems unthinkable here? They also have a thing which is like crafting but meaningfully different, and everyone spends a lot of time doing a thing that is like trading but is meaningfully different.

That's very different, definitely; she has no idea how you'd have a place with that many people.

They are mostly... Like the collection of buildings here, but over a much larger area? People's... territories in Mabel's world are much smaller, basically only their building? Sometimes multiple people or families live in the same building because they can't thing-like-trading enough to get their own but this is generally considered undesirable.

That's imaginable, she guesses, except for the part where they'd have no room to grow food and no place to get materials... Mabel doesn't need to explain it right now, though, she's just wondering.

She hears Mabel is interested in robotics?

Robotics! Yes. Mabel makes a lot of things-like-robots at home but she suspects it's really meaningfully different here and she'd love to learn how things work here. She's especially interested because the main material she uses doesn't seem to be something people here have.

She can explain the basics! Most of it is fairly similar to mundane engineering, though the ability to make pieces that change shape when nudged instead of just moving certainly opens up some new possibilities, and being able to make parts as durable and frictionless or friction-full as they want is very convenient.

Oh, you do have mundane engineering here! Neat. Those definitely sound convenient -- if she doesn't mind Mabel will take notes on all this in her own writing system, on the free space in her dictionaries.

(She wants to say thank you at the end of the explanation, too, but stops herself.)

It'd be a bit silly to make Mabel mark up her dictionaries with unrelated notes when she can just make her more paper, so she does that.

Unfortunately she really does only know the basics, but there's a roboticist not too far away who'll know more, did her daughter mention?

Yeah! Honeysuckle has been really helpful with helping Mabel learn things and find places to learn things -- Mabel hopes to write the roboticist later when she's not actively being taught most of the words she wants to use. She'd love to try and make some robots here -- her crafting-but-different does seem to still work, which is good!

That is good! Probably Mabel's not comfortable enough with the writing system to try to explain her crafting-type thing yet, but she's curious about it when she's ready. In the meantime does Mabel have any questions about crafting for them? Or about anything, really.

Hmmm... honestly, it seems like most of her basic questions have been answered? She seems to have reached the edge of things she doesn't know she doesn't know.

Maybe... how long do crafters usually live? When are they considered adults? This varies pretty significantly in Mabel's world, because there are so many different types of people. She's not sure which crafters are most like.

She knows the ability to craft isn't really taught, but at what age do people usually begin?

They usually live about 70-100 years, though fleshcafting can add an extra decade or so if it's used intensively enough. They go through puberty between ages 12 and 18, about, and usually start feeling like adults to other crafters' territory instincts in the middle of that but don't claim their own territories until close to the end.

Baby crafters start being able to communicate in their second year (so, between their first and second birthdays) but they don't start doing the more complex kind of crafting until they're five or six, usually around the same time they start being able to write sentences.

Ah, okay! She doesn't know if their years are the same length, but their days seem to be, so... maybe? Mabel's species lives to maybe... 700 of their years, and becomes an adult at around 100, but a number of groups are closer to crafters in lifespan. She's 112 years old herself and considered young still -- around the same age as a 20 year old or so in those other species. 

(She thinks, but doesn't write, because she doesn't have the vocabulary, that crafters sound like humans or maybe half-elves in her own world.)

...wow. She'd like to take a closer look at her and see if she can figure out anything about how she's doing that, sometime, if she doesn't mind.

That's okay! Maybe she'll be able to find something out about it -- scientists in her world have looked into it too but mostly haven't had many good theories.

Honestly, she's been saying "species" for ease much like a lot of things. Technically people like Mabel and people with lifespans like crafters can have fertile children with smaller horns, in-between ears, and an in-between lifespan, and this can happen with another few species too. She's going to doodle what all these types of people look like, for clarity -- people she would call humans, half elves, and elves. She's also going to draw a four-armed person with no horns and a smaller four-armed person with smaller horns and put their relative ages (400, 650 ish) there too. 

Huh, neat! The closest living species to crafters are apes, and she's pretty sure they can't hybridize - she can print up a drawing later if Mabel wants to see what they're like but they're pretty different from crafters.

That would be great! There are people like that (well, maybe not like apes, but unable to hybridize and very physically different) in Mabel's world too, so she's definitely familiar with the concept.

After dinner, then; they can get books, too, if she wants.

(Didn't the traveler write one on apes?)

(He did! That was a while ago now, though, probably she wants something newer to start with.)

She doesn't mind old stuff, but anything is good! She'd really appreciate books. It will help with both vocabulary and just understanding everything that's going on here.

Sure! They have a connection to the big library, they can get pretty much any kind of book she wants - they have recommendation lists if she doesn't have a firm idea of where she wants to start, too, though probably not one exactly aimed at her situation; she might want to write to the librarians for a personalized suggestion.

Yes! She'd love that -- if she writes a letter could someone make sure it's at least comprehensible? Possibly she might benefit from books meant for children, or something similar, but if anyone has recommendations that would also be great. She read a lot at home and enjoys it.

One of them can read over her letter, sure; she seems to be doing reasonably well, though. And they can print her up a kids' book collection overnight - does she want to start with little kids' books or something a little more challenging with a little more to it?