Hahahaaaaa holy shit is it seasonable? Opinions are divided on whether that's the only possible thing that could make this better - some people think it would be better if nobody lived there even though that would be less interesting, and some people think that hurricanes are not inevitable in habitable planets that accordingly have weather and think they could do without those, but everyone agrees that it would at least be an improvement, if the place is seasonable.

It has seasons. The year is 454 days long, give or take some hours. A lot of the landmass is equatorial though. A solid majority of it, even.

Do the natives seem to like living at the equator?

Sure. They're kind of everywhere vaguely arable. They like coasts and rivers a lot. Less dense right up close to the poles.

Then they will not have an inevitable conflict over living space! Lots of equator for natives to gradually concentrate in as the carrying capacity of the planet is improved with Amentan technology. Win win.

Definitely no radio?

No radio is in evidence.

They will just have to pick someplace to land, then. What have they got that's:

- neither equatorial nor polar, so they can get data soonest on seasonability
- prosperous, but maybe having some kind of acute problem Amentans can help with - probably not a hurricane in particular, that wants buildout in advance, but if they've got an earthquake or a tornado that wants S&R followed by rebuilding that would be perfect
- not having any conflicts with its neighbors that are obvious from space (some factions want to find a conflict that is obvious from space and back a side, so they keep an eye out for that too)

The storm season is obscuring things a lot but...

There are wildfires in a likely seeming part of the west half of the main continent.

The southeast side of the biggest secondary continent is maybe having some sort of mass forest die off situation?

There's also some sort of border standoff situation just west of the big mountain range. Stone forts and walls and patrols, no active fighting. Same situation in a few other places, but it's most obvious there.

There is a vigorous debate and then the forest dieoff site wins. Landing party is go. (Air OK?)

The air is Amentan-compatible, and no storm is affecting this region right now.

There are three town-ish settlements (river, copper mine, and university(?)) and a bunch of little building clusters in the patch of die-off.

They land near the ?university? because, to the aliens, they're the aliens, and university types will find them the most interesting, probably, and it allows them to tailor their pitch slightly before news is all up and down the river.

Up close, a lot of the plants and animals here are really aesthetically something. Flower clusters form gentle rainbows. The grain in that field is shimmering pale purple. That bird has enormous iridescent head feathers. The bark of that tree forms neat little swirl patterns. That vine is braided. It's like a video game fairyland.

...Where it's not dead, anyway.

The university town is a big cluster of stone and wood buildings. There are a lot of little gardens and shrines around. Relatively little window glass, mostly wooden shutters.

The first responders to the shuttle are a big cluster of aliens who were playing some sort of ball game, even as more look out of windows and start coming outside curiously. 

They have a head and two arms and two legs, are around the same height as amentans, and have a sort of almost dog-like snout, extending their mouth and nose forward on their face a bit. They have thick hair covering much of their limbs and some of their necks or backs, as well as much of their heads. They have large pointed, swiveling ears like those on foxes or cats, and tails- Long, flexible, and fluffy tails apparently dexterous enough to hold things. Most of this group has one tail, but a few have two. Most of this group is dressed in light clothing in what seems to be two team colors. They also follow the weird almost fairyland type aesthetics. Bright colors, visual flourishes, and very intensely symmetrical bodies and faces.

They huddle and chatter at each other as one large group, slowly approaching the shuttle.

The door opens and out steps a landing party: greys, greens, a blue, a yellow. The blue told them all not to show their teeth - might read as hostile to these toothy folks.

One of the greens is excitedly taking pictures. The blue waves with a big broad gesture.

After a bit more huddled discussion and some checking of pockets and a couple of backpacks, two of the two-tailed people step forward and smile - there is a difference between a smile and a snarl, even with pointed faces - and wave.

They approach, each with a wooden bowl in hand, one with water and one with some of the purple grain.

"We welcome you, guests, to the world Iwami, to the region of Jo, to the area of Naimak's Pride, to the town of Arkens University. You may take water and grain if you wish."

And then they hold out the bowls for a moment. Then lower them again. Hospitality ceremony completed, the one holding the water points to the sky and gasps dramatically before gesturing at the shuttle. "You are from another world?"

They're taking this in stride! A green takes point and points at the shuttle, too, repeating that last sentence.

You know, she kind of always expected the legendary visitors who travel from world to world in falling stars would speak the same language as her, for some reason. But what does she know, she's just the oldest one present here and therefore nominated to take the lead by default. She's just a two-tail farmer, like most two-tails.

"We," point self, "Are from the world Iwami." Point down. "You," point at the group of aliens at large, "Are from the world...?" Point up.

Now the thing about language learning is that it's not magic. For example, is this person's name "we", or is it the species name, or a pronoun, or a title? But they seem amenable to offering local words instead of demanding Tapap ones, so an elicitation is probably looking for a proper noun, not "sky" or "space" or "far away" in Tapap.

"Amenta!"

"Amenta!"

...She focuses on her half-remembered sailing lessons. Everyone learns navigation when they get their second tail. Even if you're not going to sail. And that includes maps.

"Some one*, bring me my chalk and slate!" She calls back to the crowd, which is murmuring 'Amenta' to each other.

A black slate and pink stick of chalk is delivered to her. "Kassam, I'm going to draw Iwami. You keep talking."

She starts drawing. A circle and then a somewhat distorted projection of the major landmasses of the planet.

In the meantime, the other two tail shrugs, then will engage in the pointing and naming game. "Tree. Water." And so on.

*Not a typo. "Some - number" is a phrase referring to "any person with [number] of tails".

The Amentan team is in tight contact with more greens on the mothership and will never forget a word. They do have accents, though, and verbs and grammatical particles are harder than names and nouns, especially since boundaries between words are pretty opaque to a novice. Tree, water. Numbers? Colors?

Colors, sure. One through nine-

-Like people at a university tend to do, a brief academic discussion breaks out, with more slates and writing samples brought forth. It seems there are two sets of numbers in use and this is in some way contentious. A set of nine with weird notations for larger quantities, and a base ten place system set. These use different words and characters, but do both refer to numbers. And the word 'death' can also mean 'zero', apparently.

(Some of the initial group has sort of peeled back off, more watching the shuttle than participating in the conversation. And the first speaker has finished her map sketch by now. And also, a new group is approaching from university-wards at walking pace, including some locals with three and four tails each, dressed quite fancy-in-comparison.)

Do they have a tail-number-based caste system? Well, at least they don't seem to expect the Amentans to have tails. They use their hair as example colors.

Three or four whole huge, long, fluffy tails seem to be nontrivially impeding the few locals who have them. They move slowly and carefully and certainly do seem to have others deferring to them.

These better dressed and more tailed folks would like to gently take over the conversation. They seem quite patient and will do language exchange work for a while, trying to start learning a bit of the visitors' language, too. They're quite patient and do not push to get into any non-academic topics. 

(Twos and threes are writing things down on paper. Lots of people come watch, hanging out looking at the shuttle from a respectful distance and talking to each other. Some one tails come lay out colorful blankets and cushions and then, a bit later, lunch consisting mostly of purple-lilac porridge. Some is offered a bit hesitantly to the Amentans, too.)

The visitors will provide vocabulary for things that won't have any local words like "space shuttle" and "pocket everything", and their names, but they do expect to be better at learning the - what's the language here called? - than the locals are at Tapap, because of their friends in the sky and their computer assistance.

They're not going to hastily eat the porridge but they would love samples to do analysis on if that's okay!

They're calling the language "Iwa-talk". Iwa being the regional name for the upper part of this landmass.

They can have some. It's a gift, so it's theirs to do whatever they want with, of course. (But it does seem to be... Some kind of faux pas, or at least some kind of disconnect. Someone tells a joke about food using a lot of unfamiliar words and yipping chuckles go around.)

Are they not going to eat anything? You're supposed to eat at meal times, you know. -Oh, of course, the meal times must not line up, duh.

If they want to watch Amentans eat the Amentans can go get some food, they did bring some. They don't think the locals should have it, though they are apologetic about this. Amentan food is not Iwami food.

Huh. Soon a bunch of words like 'poison' and 'toxic' and so on are exchanged. Maybe they can have small samples and volunteers can do progressive exposure tests?

They could take a blood sample and see if there is anything that would obviously interact dangerously first?

They'd be delighted to learn how that works first! They are a center of knowledge, after all!

Sure, they can watch the onboard shuttle lab process some blood from this green here. Little bit of blood comes out, some goes in the microscope and some in this machine here. They can look at the microscope image if they'd like!

Wow, that is some really good lenses! The magnification is much better than theirs! The pocket everythings are very neat too. This three tailed local geeking out over it happens to be a local bio/ecology professor apparently.

The expedition biologist experiences fellow feeling. So this machine can test for these proteins, see? If they're already there, they're probably safe to eat more of. And they can have it react with small amounts of things in the food. And they can check the food for trace chemicals.

Wow if more Amentan teaching can be had the university is going to be able to write like dozens of new books just on biology, at least.

It turns out that the basic mechanisms of biology are broadly the same- DNA, oxygen based respiration (knowledge of the underlying mechanisms is new here, and FASCINATING)- But the local biologist is pessimistic about being able to safely eat Amentan food. There's always the chance of- A two syllable word that takes some explaining. Some random unknown protein or chemical in the mix causing the body to poison itself and then poison itself more in response to the effects of the first poison. 'Metabolic cascade', perhaps.

Yes, that's the kind of thing they're worried about! Obviously someone will probably want to try it eventually but they'd like to first rule out all the problems they can detect in a lab.

"Why not try it with a bridge-crosser? ...With... Someone who wants to die doing something good?"

"We do not bring people who want to die in space shuttles. People who are okay with maybe dying even if no person wants this, we bring those. Not people who want to."

"No, no, I meant a kitsune- An Iwami person trying your food. Of course I wouldn't try to make that decision for [foreigners]. For - people who are not us?"

"It would be so sad if one of you died also! We want this day when we meet to be a good day."

"Agree. Let's talk about proteins more instead..."

Back outside, most of the locals have gone back to work aside from the threes and fours. Though some are working on handicrafts and food processing in viewing range of the shiny shuttle.

"We have stories, things we say that are maybe correct, stories that say there are world sailors who use space shuttles and explore worlds. They say that people like that put life on Iwami. I thought those were wrong until today. I am very glad to know that space sailors are real. It is a feeling of hope, a feeling that I think good things will happen. Is this the first time you have visited Iwami?"

"It is the first time for us. We did not have maybe real stories about this. We had only stories of wanting."

"It reminds me of a story about lonely sailors lost on the water. We would like to write your stories and to tell you our stories."

"We want to see your stories! Our computers can learn to read and tell us better how to talk if your stories for seeing are drawn with sounds."

"Drawn with sounds?"

"Sound characters."

"Ahhhh. Yes. Tsu-talk has a way of writing where one symbol always makes the same sound, is that what you mean? I don't know it. I think someone does."

"Sarai la Nar?"

"No... Maybe. Send some two to ask."

"I will."

"We are an everything learning place, not an arts learning place, but we do have, huuu... Plays. We have a few people whose art is moving and talking and talking music, singing. We call it a play. We have one every evening between dinner and sunset. We will invite you to see the evening play."

"We are wanting to see the play! We will put the play in the computer, too. Like this." The green in question points his pocket everything at himself. "I'm putting this in the computer." Then he plays it back.

"That is good. Pocket everythings are interesting. We want to learn how it works so we can also do this. Sailing and walking is a slow way to talk and makes agreeing with other places difficult. We know stories of Tsu towers. In parts of Tsu, talk is moved by people watching from inside towers and moving flags. I think you can do better. Your space shuttle is talking with people who are not here, yes?"

"Yes! The people up are doing word help."

"If we had pocket everythings we could show you the sound characters right now!"

"...We would like to ask that you do not record a certain thing. There are some things that it is very important to be correct. One of those things is the name rock. We don't let people write down anything from the name rock. It would be bad for the people whose names are on the rock. We think recordings are the same as writing. Please do not."

"Is the name rock very different from not name rocks?"

"It is in a place inside that we do not tell most people. It has this character very big and many small characters below." They quickly sketch a boxy complicated ideogram. "This character means 'Arkens'. That is the name of our good ancestor. An ancestor is parent parent parent."

"I should not put this in the pocket everything?" he asks, pointing at the sketch. "Or only the rock?"

"Only the rock. It is important because the name on the name rock is the last thing that a person writes before they die."

The glyph is photographed. "No rock in pocket everything," he confirms solemnly.

"Thank you. We would like to know if there are rules for Amentans like this."

"Like this how? You do not have a pocket everything."

"Important rules. Things it would be bad to do. We don't want to hurt guests and not all hurt is easy to see."

This seems like a good time to check if they have germ theory and something resembling associated pollution theory.

Germ theory, yes. Well, sort of mostly. Microbes were an unconfirmed theory. Pollution theory... It's tangled in a lot of more general purity traditions that touch on when/how it is correct to eat, sleep, or exercise, apparently.

That's normal, that's how theology works! Only some of that is necessary for preventing pollution per se but the rest of it is still useful for living a healthy life otherwise, that's how they get conflated before modern understanding. Amentans do not have all the same needs as them - it would be surprising if they had - and probably microbes will not be immediately able to transmit between them, but they should make sure that they're not polluting anybody, that would be bad, and if it happens, they need to know right away so they can wash.

Nodnod. Of course each group's traditions are optimized for their species. They very solemnly promise to do their best on this front. Someone will write down a summary of the Amentan purity rules and spread it along with the rest of the news, if they like?

That would be so helpful! The basics are these. They know the tech level is not to the point of abundant bleach and plastic and they all knew that before they landed, and they will take their own showering pretty seriously for this reason just out of an abundance of caution, but it will help a lot if the Iwami people are doing their best.

.....They definitely can't afford to do this everywhere right now. They have a brief discussion in how much all the procedures and checks and cleaning products cost in terms of meals... Maybe there should be designated Amentan visiting spots to make it easier.

That would make sense. Amentans do also expect to be able to help them out economically in the medium to long term, but that will take the form of ramping up local production of things, cargo is expensive for things like distribution amounts of single-use plastics.

They would be very happy to learn better ways of doing things. Especially food and industry and communications.

The Amentans came with information about these things that they will share as a goodwill gift!

Yesssss these university kitsunes are very excited about that. And here are some of their own books, free for the photographing.

Some kits of various sizes have come out to watch by now. They all have one tail.

Books! Hooray! The mothership linguists will be able to improve the translation project much faster now, at least if the books have sound writing and someone can quickly correlate sounds to symbols for them.

BABY FOX ALIENS! All the Amentans find that VERY wonderful. They are trying to be professional but BABY FOX ALIENS with BABY TAILS.

Sadly the books do not have sound writing! They only have five that do, and they are in Tsu-talk which is related but distinct. But the person who brought them does know the correspondences.

The tails have a cute curl-around-things reflex and are very soft!! Parents keep a close watch. Probably best not to let any Amentan touch the kits. For germ reasons. One of the one year old equivalents asks if it rains a lot on Amenta.

The linguists will still be happy to have the non-sound writing to look at, but it will be of less immediate help with the translation project.

It rains a lot in some places and hardly at all in other places. They will sadly acede to not touching the kits even though they are so cute and fluffy. (Do Iwami people find Amentan babies cute? Here is a picture of the linguist's grandson.)

This kit likes it when it doesn't rain because then they can play outside!

Aww, yeah, she can see it... Not quite the same but there is definitely cuteness there! Congrats. Hopefully his family is taking good care of him.

Sometimes little Amentans like to play in the rain, but it does make things slippery and cold, sometimes even muddy, which is worse.

Yes, his daughter is taking to parenting very well!

The kit's next question is, are their clothes made of hair is that why they have such good colors?

Huh, what about the rest of the family?

Amentan hair doesn't make good clothes! Their clothes are mostly made from plants.

His son-in-law is not really good enough for his daughter but he is fine probably, and they are getting help from his wife back home and from the son-in-law's parents and from the baby's uncle.

Kitsune hair is good for clothes. Especially tail hair. Auntie Gosa showed her how to turn hair into thread but she is mostly too little for that.

...So it sounds like just six people in the child's life? That seems like too few but maybe they are misunderstanding something.

They have more relatives but they are not all super close such that they'll share the baby with them. Maybe kitsunes are currently in a period of considerable population growth and have many more aunts and uncles and great aunts and great uncles per child?

-?? Oh. Okay yeah okay they can clarify a bunch of words for genetic relations. 

But really the whole clan more or less takes care of babies communally. Sometimes you throw a wanderer, or do a baby swap, or marry or adopt into somewhere else especially if you move far away or permanently.

Amentans do marrying faraway people and once in a while have occasion to adopt, but do not really have clans, do not have an obvious translation for "wanderer" that means any recognized social phenomenon, and are politely horrified at the notion of swapping babies.

You have to do that once in a while. They tell a myth of a clan that refused and all the horrible misfortunes that happened to them.

Do these misfortunes by any chance sound like inbreeding?

Quite possibly. Also 'nobody came to help them during the flood because nobody even realized they were in danger, they were that isolated'.

They could resolve both issues with more exogamy! And not have to give up their babies!

So, Amentans would really hate giving up their specific baby? They're not really that hung up about it.

Actually, they have another semi-myth story where people started favoring their own direct relatives over the good of the clan and then everyone starved because the clan distrusted itself.

Amentans would hate that very bitterly but if it’s not bothering the Iwami people they don’t object to them doing it with theirs.

Nepotism is sometimes a problem on Amenta but they have other mechanisms to deal with it.

They'll be interested in discussing that later, probably. For now they can keep talking and get some general translation work done.

In the meantime some engineers and other nerds have shown up and are looking into the goodwill knowledge-gift that was mentioned earlier. They're conversing rapid fire and have tools hauled out from the workshops to help with translations and everything. They're looking for things that kitsunes could learn to build right now, or with minimal help. Farming information? Industrial information? 'Radio' sounds fascinating. So does the steam engine. Ooh, float glass, that's a really clever method and could let them make cheap(ish) greenhouses!!

It's hard to ramp up to modern standards of industrial production overnight. Especially on this little translation project. And anything short of that will probably soon be obviated by trade. But they can try to find things that will be useful pronto and upgradeable later? They were also hoping to study the sad plants around here and see if they could help with those!

Oh, the dead forest? Yeah, invasive species of moths, killed off important trees, which were the only habitat of these birds that are important pollinators, which... Ecologies fall apart real easy if you look away from them for too long. They've got it contained, mostly. The Bronzes and Silvers up in Iwa are having another stupid boat drama, so the Jo regional council of tails is funding a big containment effort even though it's mostly not even affecting the Jo region proper. We're all on the same rock, and all. Here's what they know about it!

Well sure, trade and economy of scale and such is good, but does that mean they DON'T get to build cool new factories? That would be awful. They are going to want to develop the industries anyway. Whether competitive or not. Good neighbors help you help yourself.

Where'd the moths come from? ...do they have this kind of ecological problem a lot? What precipitates it?

They can super build factories here! They'd love to do that, shipping things many lightyears is expensive! But they might not want to start solely with local materials when they could import some Amentan tools to get started on being able to build their own. If they construct a radio on the spot with what they have lying around, they'll have a kind of bad radio. Maybe still worth it as proof of concept or to get a feel for the principles involved but they should not go open a radio factory right now probably.

They're not sure, maybe the moths came in from the main continent as eggs on wood or something carried by a storm. Or on a boat. (Huh, was that what the boat drama up north is about? They're not sure...)

This kind of thing happens ALL THE TIME, in large and small ways, but the venerable Order of Wandering Gardeners helps with it, mostly by keeping knowledge alive. It is correct and good to help a Wanderer, any kind of Wanderer not just Gardeners, and horrible and bad to claim Wanderer status if you are not doing something important and valuable with it.

Oh, the fours and fives are going to be all over the 'build our own' thing. Nobody wants to be part of a clan who can't replace its own tools! It's kind of shameful, even if sometimes necessary.

These greens are not ecologists but that seems kind of weird to them. Invasive species can cause problems but... hm, maybe it's because Amentan land is more connected, just one big continent. Their species may be less shocking to one another.

What other kinds of Wanderer are there?

Modern industrial production has a lot of dependencies and it may be a while before all of them can be produced on-planet even going full speed ahead. Most countries on Amenta do not have fully independent domestic production of most things. Within a clan would be even more difficult, how big are their clans?

Are tail numbers a caste thing or possibly an age thing?

The big types of wanderers are: Mediators, Gardeners, Architects, Theologians(?), Doctors, Rescuers, Teachers, and arguably Couriers but those tend to be local and not regional often as not.

Of course perfect independence isn't possible for everything for everyone. Not everyone has copper mines, for example. But it is an important ideal to be striven towards.

Single clans top out around one hundred core members before you should really consider splitting or marrying a lot of people off, but as few as fifteen can be viable, especially if it's a specialist thing like a clan of doctors or miners or a boatclan, a clan that owns and lives full time on a boat.

Tail count is an age thing, yes. You get your first at birth, and then one more every once in a while. It's always difficult. (There is some awkwardness and hesitation around this topic.)

The Amentans do not see a need to pry about the tails at this time. Can anyone be a Wanderer?

In theory sure, if they get taken in and educated and approved by an existing known wanderer threeclan*.

*An individual being 'oneclan', using the fancy special base 9 numbers and not the base 10 ones, and a closely related group of kitsunes being a 'twoclan', and an association of related twoclans being a 'threeclan'. With the implicit higher numbers being valid constructions too.

How do those decide who to take?

Wanderers look for bright and curious seeming kits who are interested in the specific group's thing, during their wandering, and the kit wants to go and the clan says 'sure, we release you from your familial duties, go wander'? That would be an emblematic case, but it varies. This town actually has representatives of the Wandering Gardeners- These groups do need permanent facilities to store records and supplies and things, mostly those go to towns and cities. But all the Gardeners are busy with the trees thing.

If they come back to sleep or something the Amentans would like to talk to them about how they're doing and how Amentans can help. The planet also has other problems visible from space but hurricanes are harder to help with.

Probably they will be interested, given the huge shiny space shuttle... Yeah, everyone knows how to deal with storms, but they've been hearing that this year's storm season is really bad.

The Amentans are relieved that it's unusual! They sort of thought having more continents would make the hurricanes less of a problem than they have with their giant ocean. Probably the climatologists will figure out what's going on that makes that not happen.

It's not always this bad but there are always some storms. Huh, climatology is not something they have a lot of. It's really hard to gather that kind of information.

Would they like to see their planet as viewed from space?

Ooooooh yes.

Here they go! There are those hurricanes spinning along over there.

Wow, you can see the calm center and the curling effect that drives ships in particular directions really clearly like this.

One of these engineers would like to look for a famous temple in the mountains. Another would like to look for a bridge he heard about. Another points at a little island far out past two of the lesser continents and says that it was previously unknown. This is cool!

They can ask for new pictures from the mothership but didn't zoom in everywhere so they'll take a while to scoot around and get a good view of all the things.

Huh, okay. The temple is pretty famous and they have poems and a wood block print of the landscape (that someone quickly goes to fetch), so it's probably......... Here? Yeah, see, those two mountains on the left and that big one kinda match up...

...You could use this to just see where ships are and then radio that to them!!! No more getting lost!!! Well. If the weather is clear.

Amentans do that with satellites that can tell any cooperating device where it is!

How does that work? (More technical conversations and translation work can happen.)

Eventually it's dinnertime for the locals. The meal is purple bread with various dips and sauces. The purple grain seems to be the primary staple food here.

The evening play will be in a big open lecture hall type room over that way, who all from the Amentan camp will come?

All the greens who aren't doing lab work on the food, and the blue and the yellow and half the greys.

The stage is a square and there are tiered seats on all four sides. A section is set up special for them. The actors are mostly one or two tails. There is a narrator on stage wearing a special outfit that marks them out as not part of the play, and a band mostly using string instruments provides backing.

The first act: A hunter from the HillClan is trying to hunt a dangerous animal, and the play goes on for a bit about how they are clever and capable at hunting. Surely RiverClan will appreciate it when he kills this awful water predator they have been complaining about! He is risking his life to do a good thing! He attacks the animal (a big wooden prop), but fails to kill it. He slinks off to recover and plan for another atttempt.

Then someone from RiverClan is discovered dead to an animal attack, and other RiverClan members recall seeing the HillClan hunter- Covered in blood and with a broken spear. In grief and anger RiverClan captures and accuses the hunter of murder. The RiverClan asks the hunter to swear to stay put until a mediator arrives, but the hunter refuses, saying he was only trying to help and the animal might kill again if they keep him here.

Later, a RiverClan member who has gotten infatuated with the hunter lets him go free. All the RiverClan characters get up in arms about the 'escape'. The act closes with the HillClan hunter talking with some of his family and being chastised- "Trying to help them is not enough. They must believe you are trying to help. Now- All they see is one of their own dead, and us responsible for it!"

And now a brief intermission. The kitsune who was sticking close to the Amentan section asks if they have any questions.

They want to clarify this list of vocabulary and they ask if this is based on a true story.

Vocabulary can be explained. It is not really based on a true story. Hunting actually is not very common, it's more exciting than water rights and constructing a weir without consulting your downstream neighbors though.

Is the hunter's mistake understood to be not announcing that he was going to go hunt the dangerous creature?

Subtleties this quality of translation are inadequate for are present but pretty much yep.

They are ready for act two!

Act two: HillClan sends representatives down escorting the hunter and submit him to RiverClan imprisonment again and bring apology gifts- The gifts are presented in a big ceremony that takes a while and clearly has some sort of importance or cultural context around it, a bronze hammer and a blanket and a kite. The hunter and the girl infatuated with him have a relationship talk. They've only met a few times but wouldn't he like to spend more time together? -The hunter rejects her, feeling guilty about the impression he has made, and she leaves after a soliloquy about what promises you can make for yourself and what promises you can make on behalf of others.

RiverClan acknowledges the gifts and there is a political segment as two five tails (each actually a three tail with two surprisingly convincing when they're fixed to a palanquin cloth prosthetic tails) meet to discuss the clans' relations and future cooperation. Are they not neighbors? Have they not helped each other with bad harvests before? Do they not have marriages between them? The hunter from HillClan proposes a plan to construct a special trap to kill the water beast once and for all. But the RiverClan is scared. Not only would that take enough labor to weaken the harvest, wouldn't trying and failing to kill it make it wrathful and vengeful? And HillClan would not be the ones to suffer, in that case.

Both clans are then surprised by the sudden arrival of a Wandering Doctor, who begs for assistance. There has been an epidemic in the far off SilverClan, a distant but reliable ally, and their granaries have been depleted. They may all starve if nothing is done. Perhaps other clans can help SilverClan. Perhaps they won't. The doctor doesn't know- His fellows are all travelling in different directions to spread word. After listening to the doctor and discussing it, the RiverClan and HillClan leaders agree that they can spare food... But the only practical way to move that much food is by boat, and the river is blocked by the water beast. So they will have to go through with the dangerous plan to trap it after all...

Do they have "doctor" right? Is it normal for them to carry messages? Imprisonment is pretty expensive to maintain and they are a little surprised it's a thing they do at this tech level, is the HillClan paying for RiverClan to keep an eye on the hunter? Here are their wild guesses about the significance of the gift ceremony.

They have doctor right. The doctor is now passing through his normal circuit after being delayed by the epidemic.

In real life he probably would have been ordered by his home clan to do any reasonable chores that were to be had, like weeding or whatever, along with not trying to run away again. And if he disobeyed then, he'd have been starved to death.

The wild takes on the gift ceremony are pretty amusing, can they have some more of those?

Sure, here are some that were less highly-upvoted by the anthropologists since they're so funny.

Hahaha.

The correct answer is that it's a durable tool, a comfort/hygeine/household item, and a toy/decoration/pure leisure item. A proper apology gift has all three of those.

Why is that?

Oh boy it is time for some theology. Hope the translators are up for it.

Durable tools are often precious, expensive, and scarce. Giving one up shows real sincerity since you are giving up part of your clan's hard-earned foundation and future. A rare book or scroll, or a skilled person to marry into the clan or just serve as a servant for a time is also acceptable.

Comfort items, things like blankets or clothes or soap or cutlery, should be customized to the recipient's needs if at all possible. It shows that you make a real effort to understand their concerns and wants and care enough to actually cater to them. This ties in to some of the earlier theology about correct sleeping habits too.

Toys or decorations are a demonstration that you have enough prosperity to spare on making things for fun or for no reason, and also that you want to be generous. However, if your toy-or-decoration is very flashy and impressive and your other gifts are not, shame on you. Recreational drugs are acceptable in this category but 'food' is not. 'Food', substances primarily consumed for their nutrition, is an entirely separate thing, theologically.

They will keep this in mind if there is ever a problem they have to apologize for! (They are also curious about how apology marriages work, does that tend to sharply constrain the entering individual's spousal choices? Does it have lasting relationship effects? While they're at it, are they usually monogamous or do they get more complicated than that?)

It's more of a 'give up the expected dowry or groomgift' thing. People have an... Expected value of sorts that is apparently complicated to get into. And marriage is more complicated than pair bonding, yes. There are several things that are being translated as 'marriage' or 'romance', here, and-

-Oops, act 3 is starting.

Act three: The doctor moves on. There is a funeral-feast for the dead RiverClan member, who is represented by a clay urn here. Despite the dead person never appearing on stage, all the RiverClan people talk about the things she liked and did. A single seam torn out of the heart of a tapestry weakens the whole weave... We will remember her as she joins the ancestors on the Name Rock... Meanwhile, HillClan begins moving food down from the hill to RiverClan's place and also starts assembling the animal trap, a huge weighted net and a tower across the river to suspend it from. They will entangle the water beast and then stab it with spears.

There is an argument about who will take the most dangerous job of luring the water beast under the net trap. The original hunter still feels guilty, but another hunter from RiverClan feels vengeful and argues that she is more skilled and suited to it. They have a series of contests about it. First a spar, with dull spears and tail spikes- Metal bars carried by/tied to the tail used to parry or interfere with the opponent's footing. The spar is inconclusive. Then they start to have a swimming race, before the hunter's love interest catches and berates them both for doing dangerous things. The three have a long discussion and end up deciding that the RiverClan hunter will lure the water-beast.

There's another action scene with the water beast prop from earlier! It's obviously someone or several someones inside the prop moving it around but still. They get chased and drop a net and there's a lot of roaring and fighting. In the end the 'beast' is slain, everyone is friends again, but the original hunter from HillClan is hurt in the fighting after rushing in to help, and dies. RiverClan hosts another funeral-feast and gives an apology gift back to HillClan (a loom, baskets, and colorful ribbons), and there are monologues from a few supporting characters. The Travelling Doctor shows up again and informs everyone that SilverClan is recovering. There's a 'life goes on' vibe.

Stage out.

Does the play depict responsible postmortem handling or at least leave room to assume it's happening offstage?

There's room to assume it's happening off stage; The 'body' is carried off by two people who don't reappear until the end sequence.

Oh good. Is this a famous play? Is it new or old? Are these professional actors or hobbyists?

It's a pretty famous play, and an old one. They don't understand the professional/hobbyist distinction and eventually declare that the two three tail actors are professional but the ones and twos have other work. Also they would like to thank the Amentans for watching.

It was their pleasure. Do they want to see some of the recording to see how it came out?

Sure!

And soon after that it is time for almost all the kitsunes to go to sleep. Though a Wandering Gardener has shown up and wants to talk?

The Amentans will stay up late, at least some of them, to talk to the Wandering Gardener.

She's a black-furred three tail with ruffled and slightly dirty fur.

"Aliens... You're going to destroy entire biomes not-deliberately..."

"We'd rather not do that! We landed here because we saw the forest and wanted to see if we could help."

"That is good. But how much do you value not doing that? I know how this goes. It is too expensive to do everything one can to prevent ecological collapse. There is a point where precaution becomes absurd. But disruption is inevitable unless you never set foot on land or sea. The job of a gardener is to minimize the damage. Do you have tools we do not for growing plants and caring for animals?"

"Yes. Mostly for farms, but some things for wild things too. We have less wild space - we have less land, all one continent - but a lot of tools."

"No water barrier makes it more difficult. The Wandering Gardeners will want to hear all about those tools. I want to hear about those, and about this metal tower and all the other things, but I am tired."

"We will be here tomorrow too."

"Tomorrow. Not sleeping just drives you to an early death..."

She is back early in the morning tomorrow!

"I've heard about pocket everythings and radio now and I think tools like that would actually be much more useful for gardening than better ways to grow plants. Most of the work is gathering information. I think that just seeing a 'picture' of a place will be very good to see bad things sooner, when they are less bad. I have also heard about 'proteins' and 'genetics'. What these types of studies can tell us about the life of Iwami, of course I don't know. But I would like to!"

"We'll be happy to get that spread around to everyone who needs it! Pocket everythings don't work by themselves and we will need materials to build with and places to build, to get the things that make them work. That is true of a lot of things we would like everyone to have. We can bring some things from home, but it is better to be able to make most of them here."

"Ah, sailing the stars must be much more difficult than the ocean. So you bring books first, and then the most irreplaceable tools. I don't know how the sharing is going to work out, I'll leave that to elders. Did you have questions for me as a gardener?"

They have ecology questions about the forest! They're still confused about how it's this fragile.

It doesn't strike her as surprising at all. But sure, she can explain everything they know about the ecology and trophic web here.

...This planet, it turns out, has really low biodiversity compared to Amenta.

Huh!! Weird!! Does it have a really low background radiation level? Do the bugs and bacteria and stuff have longer generations than Amentan bugs and bacteria and stuff? Do the larger organisms?

Background radiation is below average but not really 'low'. She doesn't have answers about bacteria, but the insects do have longer generations, and most of the large animals do not senesce and only die to injuries/starvation/vitamin-deficiency*/predation/etc. They have a strong conservation tradition apparently, with oral and stone-carved history records of a significant number of extinct species over a few thousand years.

Fish and other marine organisms are a different story. The marine ecosystem is much closer to 'normal'.

(Maybe this has something to do with how all the local plants and animals are kind of storybook-pretty unless they're dead. Including the kitsunes.)

*The locals haven't confidently scientifically identified many of the complex organic molecules that comprise "vitamins" but the pattern sure fits, needing a small amount of a specific thing in one's diet.

What's the amphibious/semiaquatic/freshwater species diversity situation like?

Basically the same as the terrestrial situation.

It is very impressive how much the gardener knows, by the way, the Amentans are having to look up things like how many kinds of fish Amenta has.

She purrs happily at the compliment and demurs a bit. It is literally her life's work to know these things.

The Gardeners would definitely not turn down information about Amentan species, by the way.

Sure, but there are a lot and they will not be able to cover them all, Here are pictures though!

Lovely. Huh. They look strange, but it's very interesting...

She was due for a rest day anyway and talking about this sort of thing all day with the other university kitsunes probably counts as rest, right?

Also, more representatives from several surrounding locations have arrived and want to say hi, too.

Hello representatives! Lovely to meet you!

Right back at you!

The general consensus of local representatives is that this is definitely going to call for a big regional conclave but they are really really excited about their new alien star-sailing visitors.

Kitsunes most of all want knowledge and industrial food production and communications - not necessarily pocket everythings - broadly. What do Amentans want?

Amentans want to learn things and live in more places. They will need mines and farms and cities to be able to establish the industries the kitsunes need, and Amentans who can do that will flock to Iwami if they can settle and have babies here.

Definitely a big regional conclave thing, then, to figure out the best arc from here to there and what is fair and reasonable and sustainable. There's not a ton of unused land, though much of what is being 'used' is mostly just theoretically huntable or forageable 'reserve' land. Dedicating chunks of it for specialist uses is definitely doable though; See the example of the copper mine in the region, which operates under this web of agreements with all the neighboring regional groups.

If they have deserts or mountains that they can't live in, Amentans can with some infrastructure work, and they expect to be able to improve the locals' farm efficiency a lot too.

They don't really have large deserts on this continent, they want Kao for that. And Tsu for mountains. (Both of these places are rather equatorial, though...)

Yeah, they will be all over farming efficiency!

Amentans do not like to live where there aren't seasons, and since the years are different lengths here than on Amenta, a lot of Amentans won't want to live here at all, but some will probably be able to adjust to the cycle. They can have some people living there but then it becomes an absolutely essential quality of life issue that they be able to have babies, and there have to be places for those babies to go.

Now, since kitsunes don't senesce, are they currently losing a lot of people to hunger and its consequences? If they get a lot more efficient at farming that will stop, and they'll need a new way to avoid overrunning their land or being crowded into the temptation to war for resources.

...Really what they lose a lot of people to are the tails. The survivorship curve is really grim past three. Supposedly according to legends, nine is when they'll stop. There have been a handful of sevens and no reliably recorded eights.

.......that is sort of like senescing. But they still might wind up with more people, if their farms get more productive suddenly. So they will need reliable contraception.

That would probably be convenient if it's cheaper than this one herb or telling people not to fuck PIV when the clan currently has enough babies. Worth looking into. You indeed don't want a huge baby boom with no way to regulate it, they agree. Especially if this is relevant to some high priority Amentan concerns?

They had a lot of war on their planet when they started getting within sight of Amenta's carrying capacity after industrializing. It was really bad. Industrializing is good, but you need some way to throttle the population.

Oof. That makes sense. Irresponsible population growth is on the list of sins. Maybe the individual families instead of clans thing makes it harder to manage.

Plausibly! Kitsunes seem less psychologically attached to having their own personal babies. An extended family structure can work for Amentans but it's concommitant with some other things that (these) Amentans think are bad social organization things, like the nepotism they were talking about earlier (people can usually avoid it if they're in nuclear families, but if getting access to their baby second cousin once removed who they've grown to see as an integral part of their own family depends on getting the second cousin a job, that comes up more often).

The kitsunes are confused. Of course it is your responsibility to make sure your children have work they like. As much as feasible. The fields do need to be planted, watered, and weeded.

Most Amentans are not farmers these days. Also, Amentans migrate more - an Amentan trying to do a clan structure in the modern day might find that if they did not get their second cousin a job in town that the second cousin (and the baby once-removed) would go somewhere it was easier to find a job.

The kitsunes are still confused. That sounds not meaningfully different than throwing a few Wanderers or marriages to other clans.

Maybe they're not explaining very well. Anyway most Amentans don't do clans even though it would make some things easier, because it would make other things worse and for most of them either the tradeoff is bad, or it would be bad for too many of the people they'd have to coordinate with.

They don't have to do clans if they don't want to, of course. Stability, reliable food sources, and having plenty of people around to help absorb emergencies are important to the kitsunes. Maybe that changes with industrialization.

Amentans have a global economy instead! It works pretty well. Do kitsunes have money, uh, at all?

...Well, you get precious metal coins in some places, and notarized records of contributions and obligations sometimes, and sometimes stuff like a particular species of dry acorns being traded around to pay for chore swapping or sexual favors or preferred snacks. But that doesn't sound like the same thing Amenta is doing.

Those are precursors to money like how Amenta does it! They can explain the history of the transition from that kind of thing to digital fiat and global (and soon interstellar!) trade.

Kitsunes are politely skeptical but if it's fiat and appropriately governed maybe it would work.

They have lots of financial regulations yes.

They'll add it to the list of Big Conclave Or Something Topics.

The current Space Shuttle is something like a scouting or expeditionary voyage, right? They didn't bring a lot of things to directly trade?

Right. They have spares of some of their own things they could give away but not trade goods.

Then space aboard their vessel will be limited; They will make sure not to overburden the Amentans with inconvenient gifts. (This is a joke.)

They can have a bunch more food samples, and the chance to photo a lot of books in the university, including a few more Tsu phonetic books someone found, and so on, if they promise to freely share back to kitsunes at large what is learned from the samples. They can have some local handicrafts if they like too. Kitsune-fur decorative woven stuff is a popular offer.

That is a very easy promise to make! This is all going to be public research. The handicrafts can go straight into a museum back home!

With primary source interviews of the significance of the designs, even. One group decides to weave something right there on video, after hearing about the play recording. They use their tails in addition to their hands to manipulate parts of the loom and hum a fast beat as they go. It looks very cool.

...Anything else significant to cover here and now?

Wow that does look so cool! Is it hard to learn to use new tails when they grow them?

They think they've been over all the basics. Does anyone want to plan to come to Amenta? Can they recommend other places to talk to and maybe provide interpreters till they have new translation projects up?

There's an adjustment period as it grows in. There are traditional new-tail activities that involve being mostly hidden away from society the whole time, which is why they haven't seen any short growing-in tails.

What is the journey among the stars like? They think there is a real risk that if it's very stressful, kitsunes will just straight up suddenly die about it. They are a little bit worried about sending people to Amenta because kitsunes do best in groups. There is the precedent of Wanderers accepting the risks of being alone and relying only on themselves but that kind of assumes that there are doctors who know how to treat any sudden maladies within a day's walk and they usually operate with a buddy system or at least check-ins. If they plan to shuttle-sail to another part of Iwami, though, there are people who know other regional languages and would be willing to help.

The shuttle ride can be a little jostle-y. The trip on the interstellar ship, though, is very smooth; doing it at all without shaking to pieces requires some technology that means you don't feel the acceleration and would easily not notice a thing if you drew the curtains so you couldn't see the stars blur. They wouldn't make a trip direct from point to point; they'd stop at the mothership to re-up their supplies of various things.

This two tail Wandering Mediator named Hayani (it means 'Opal' in her native language) knows five languages and is willing to take the risk in order to be the first kitsune in space.

There is a port city here, and a port city there, and a famous theater here, and a port city there, and a famous alcohol brewery there, and a famous temple there, and the biggest city in the world (supposedly) is right there on the equator and currently only slightly stormy. 

...But they should have a plan for what to do if she dies on the shuttle trip. They are very serious about that being a risk. People Just Die on boat rides in rough enough seas sometimes too.

Letting her make a last message and then cremation before or after repatriating her to any religious authority on Iwami will suffice.

If she dies very suddenly they obviously won't be able to arrange a last message...

"I will carry... We call them bridge drugs. They create a brief window of lucidity - of being okay - even for the dying. But taking them means you will die. We give them to the dying to hear their last words."

"The likeliest way to die in a shuttle is to crash. We are not going to crash, we have had shuttles far longer than the starships and we're good at them and it's been years since any Amentan shuttle has crashed and Kemoko here is a great pilot. But it would not allow that kind of thing."

"A star may fall upon us here and now and kill everyone... Unless you have a map of them on your pocket everything. If that happens, it happens and what I write down before we leave will have to do, even if it is less good. It would be bad but not your fault. We do not mean to create any burden for you, and I appreciate the chance to discuss this."

With that clear, yeah, they do have an emergency incineration setup on the shuttle, it's not very big but kitsunes aren't bigger than Amentans so it would do.

Hayani is ready to go whenever the Amentans are.

Oh, one last question. The university leaders would like to know when/if these particular Amentans or another shuttle of them will return?

And should they build a landing pad or anything like that? Shuttle-port, to analogize to the ocean ports? They'd probably prefer to build their own place, right, but maybe kitsunes could provide support by doing site suitability and hydrology and ground stability and ecological impact surveys, clearing and levelling, or tunneling, or fetching raw materials? Guidelines to point to for initial investigation would speed things up later.

Some of these same ones may come back again! Everything's pretty up in the air still, they didn't know what kind of reception they'd get so they don't have permanent roles assigned to specific people. This kind of shuttle can land on any flat solid ground, but the flatter and solider the better, and if the kitsunes want to designate a place that would be amazing. Have they invented concrete? It's good for landing pads.

They have invented cement and various cement mixes, yep. It's kind of difficult to use in very large quantities away from limestone quarries and especially away from navigable waterways, because moving thousands of tons of ANYTHING is not easy. One lines canals and bridges and tunnels with it sometimes. In major cities they have buildings constructed from it. They aren't going to desginate a place now but will be discussing appropriate places for sure. Fast messengers have already gone and come back to several places and there is going to be a regional religious summit... Which seems to be standing in for regional government, a theology of sorts.

The Amentans are invited to that, exact start date TBD.

Do they have an idea of the agenda so they can figure out who will be most useful at the event?

Current tentative agenda:

Discussion of implications of alien contact on theology

Lectures and initial exploration of technology from the knowledge-gift

Discussion of the implications of improved communications for kitsune governance

Discussion of what major technical/industrial development might look like

Selection of a site for an Amentan outpost/embassy/township/something

Discussion of fiat money

Discussion of potential Amentan trade

Forming a regional consensus on how one is to correctly interact with Amentans in general

Partying and celebrations!

All valid topics, they'd like a little more theology detail - and what do they mean "correctly interact with Amentans" exactly? - but that gives them a sense of what kinds of specialists should be there.

The big theological question is going to be "Are the mythical creators of the world who came here across the stars and seeded the planet with life real? What should we do if yes? What should we do if no?"

Things like whether it is okay to invite Amentans into places and what to do if someone does something bad or if there is some dire misunderstanding and whether it is appropriate for one clan to make a deal with Amentans separately from others and in what circumstances... That kind of thing.

So more of a diplomacy thing than an etiquette thing, good thing they asked.

Okay now they think everything for this visit is done. Looking forward to the next one!

The Amentans are all so glad to meet them!

Before they go they are all going to take showers in their ship. This has hardly gotten any less important since they learned that invasive species are such a big deal on this planet, they could have spores or something. Will this work for Hayani?

...Yes, she can do that, even if she is a little nervous about unfamiliar soaps. Also they're going to have some shedding with such a thorough wash and it's a good habit to keep all your shedding for weaving, is that a problem?

The shower isn't set up for that but the hair will get clean so keeping it should be fine?

Okay. It's their ship, she'll discard it if they prefer, she is a guest and acknowledges that, to be clear.

She has no difficulty doing all the steps diligently and also no problem being watched if they prefer to confirm.

......As long as she can have a few meals' worth of appropriately containered food brought too.

Of course she should bring food on the trip, they haven't checked if they can eat one another's thoroughly enough yet.

How long is it expected they will stay up there before returning to some planetary location? She should take twice as much food as that. To be safe.

They will probably be up at the mothership for about a day and then the trip down again will be a couple hours.

She's not particularly concerned about being able to secure food from any given kitsune settlement. Still, three days' food. To be safe. It fills her travelling backpack but that is exactly what it's designed for. Will that and everything in it need cleaning, too?

Ideally! What is the backpack made of?

lacquered wood frame and tough (expensive, scarce) leather, brass buttons and fittings, kitsune-fur inner lining.

Okay, so it shouldn't go through the washing machine; they can irradiate it?

Sure. Or she could use some Amentan containers instead. Whatever they prefer.

They have bins but her bag is very nice and it should be fine through the irradiator.

Very well then.

...Off they go?

Off they go! Up up and away!

Eyes closed and sitting down and breathing deeply trying to stay relaxed.

She doesn't spontaneously die! Horray. Is there going to be zero-G at any point here?

Just a little when they're docking so they can equalize their artificial gravity with the ship's.

Hayani is only briefly disoriented, and then amazed! She's sensible enough not to immediately start moving around or undo any safety straps though.

They dock! The gravity comes back on! Now they can unstrap.

She unstraps and waits patiently to be directed.

"You-all* probably don't have anything for me to interpret yet unless some group has been making enormous messages in sky art- That would be fun- So... Should I restrain my questions or ask them freely?"

*Distinct pronouns for several types of collectives and then one for the individual 'you' exist here.

"Please ask! Everything you say gives us more words and teaches us what is important to you."

"It felt as though I was falling for a moment! I once mediated an argument around a specialist field of study about the motion of the moon and the planets*, I could not follow the technical points well but it did strike me as very interesting and plausible, the idea that one can fall towards the world forever by slinging around in a circle like a tether ball game. Do I have that roughly correct?"

*etymologically, wandering-stars.

"Roughly! It is not a neat circle, it is more like -" The Amentan she's talking to draws an ellipse in the air with her finger.

What does it look like immediately out of the shuttle? It was difficult enough to judge things just in the shuttle itself, but this must be a pretty grandiose ship. It's not shifting. There's no ocean to bob on, it's not as if Mother Moon is tugged this way and that by currents.

"I might call that 'oblong' as an adjective, or 'squashed circle' as a noun or 'ellipse' as a precise mathematical term. Hmm... I think more questions will occur to me as we move, but where and how do you cook?"

It's a hallway. It's got a carpet in it but is otherwise pretty sterile and metal; the wall does have a few cupboards and hatches on the wall marked in Amentan writing.

"We brought most of our food already cooked but we can warm it up in ovens that are like the irradiator, but a different kind of radiation that makes the water in food warm."

"Huh. I suppose that is how it often is on ships. I brought meal ingots." She mimes a brick shape. "Like metal is transported, but it is hard food mix. There are so many unseen colors... How did you get so much metal- No, that's not a priority, I think the knowledge-gift will have that. How many days of food did you bring? How long did you expect the journey to last? Our ships have to make scary trade-offs around how much food to carry because it's so bulky."

"On the trip that found your planet we brought only thirty days' worth of food on a very small ship. This ship is bigger and we sent it here with a year of food after we saw your planet was alive!"

"That is a lot of food for a ship. But this seems to be a very big ship. A settled clan with a proper granary* and cellars, cold dry places for other food, is only at ease if there is at least one full year of food at all times. Even if an entire harvest burns, you should have enough to last you to the next autumn. This also helps make sure you have enough to give when neighbors have trouble."

*grain-dry-place

"This is a new kind of ship, so we do not know if we might find strange dangers out here that could make it hard to go home for more food - and the fuel to get off the planet is more for all the things that you bring, but the fuel to get between stars is mostly not. So we want to make fewer bigger trips between the stars."

"Fuel? What does fuel have to do with star-sailing?"

"Sailing in space can work but not very fast. To get from Amenta to Iwami in days and not a lifetime, we need special fuel."

"Ah, perhaps I should learn more about this later. What about water? How do you handle that?"

"We have to recycle it. We have fast distillation and for drinking water we add some minerals back in because distilled water isn't the best to drink."

"Mrr. We don't have enough fuel to rely on distillation except in desperate times."

"The star-going fuel makes so much extra that it is easy to do things that only want fuel, here."

"Extra heat? More heat makes water turn into air. We also harvest extra heat from things when we can. Forge clans have hot baths. -I'll leave that to engineers also. But it would be very useful. What are your rooms for sleeping like?"

They can show her! They have it SRO style, sharing a multi-occupancy bathroom between a few dozen bedrooms in this wing. Amentans peep out of doors and around corners to get a look at her and beam delightedly at the real alien.

She hellos people!

"Individual rooms seem strange to me. Kitsunes like to sleep in a large pile. I am used to sleeping alone though. At least communal wet area is sensible- I should learn what your etiquette for washing is where it is different from ours. I do not like being rude."

They can walk her through their process, though she did fine for the pre-shuttle washup. They don't require privacy for showers but absolutely do for the toilet.

Very well. It's not like they like to think about that either.

"Is there anyone who wants to talk to me the most? I should start learning names and roles, things you do. You tend to divide tasks and social rules by hair color?"

"Yes! By caste, which we show with hair color. Greens are for learning things and making stories and art. Blues are for being in charge of things. Greys are for making sure everything is safe, and for flying ships, and some other things we don't have words for. Yellows do organizing things and making computers work. Purples do most ordinary work like farming and building. And you haven't met oranges yet but those are our healers."

"I do not think tail count is perfectly analogous but of course it is where the mind first goes in association. Ones are young and unlearned and quite suitable to hard labor. They farm, mine, sail, and do domestic chores, while learning the deeper knowledge for future work. Their vigorous youth must be well spent. It is harder to make generalizations about other numbers, except that knowledge work and leadership and dexterous handicrafts are more often done by high tails. More tails mean more knowing things and have seen and done more things and more being smart, but less able to use muscles safely and more likely to suddenly die. I do not think this is the same thing as caste exactly. Why do you use caste?"

"It means we can specialize, both in terms of - the way people are like their parents, and birds are like birds and not like fish? Amentans mostly marry the same caste, and can get better at being each caste, all at the same time, faster than we could get everyone better at everything. And in how we study when we are children."