look what you made me do | Glowfic Constellation

"We are not the talking to king people! We are greens." They made sure to cover all the colors, since they can't expect there to be local names for the castes qua castes. She touches her hair to emphasize the point. "Kings on our land place thing are blues. When we are right with the grammar, blues - we do not do kings this year but we do blues who do king-similar things - can talk to your king. They are better at not accidentally going across as disrespectful."

"You mean you're not the people who should talk to the king, and you mean, uh, 'blues' will talk to the king when you have the grammar right... and the idiom is coming across... I don't know what 'blues' and 'greens' are supposed to mean."

"On our land place thing people have colors! The colors mean what you are good at. Greens are good at thinking about things, like languages and circles and animals and going fast fast fast. Blues are good at talking to kings."

"Are you telling me that those with green hair have an aptitude for learning and those with blue hair have an aptitude for diplomacy? And, um, it looks as though not all of you have blue or green hair..."

"Yes. The greys are here in case of angry people. You have not angried! We did not know when we brought them."

"Would you mind listing all of the colors and what they're good at?"

"Blue diplomacy, green learning, yellow - organizing? Orange healing, grey fighting, purple - making. And -" A desultory shake of the hand. "Red, not good at things, do things no one wants to be for doing. There are fewer now, maybe never one here. And this is all too simple, we do not do six things only."

"Should I be comparing us to your colors, saying 'I think that person is blue' or 'I think that person is grey' even though our hair is black?"

"Maybe! It might help for knowing who to ask what questions."

"I am not sure if I am blue or yellow. Those who came to meet you at first are grey. Reds are the ones with tattoos that look like so. At least, I think those are the closest analogies, but, as you said, it must be more complicated than you've told me, so I might be entirely wrong."

"Is it safe to touch a tattoo face one?"

"Safe? Well, some of them are criminals, but there isn't a specific threat that will only materialize if you touch one and not if you're an inch away."

"Then that seems different but it is good to know, thank you!"

"I see. Do you have colors for farming or fishing?"

"Purples do both those things. Not too many of us are doing farming or fishing though. We have got more good at it so one farmer feed more people."

"Interesting! Do you think you might want to trade lessons in that for something?"

"Yes! Maybe different plants need new lessons we don't know yet but we are not happy for you to hunger."

"I am sure the king will be delighted to discuss that with you! Does that suggest a particular topic I should prioritize teaching you vocabulary about?"

"Maybe! Words for plants and for things that happen up in sky and for places?" They have a satellite photo of the area. "This is where we putted our house."

She starts talking about astronomy. Admittedly astronomy here is in its bronze age stamp-collecting phase and she knows of no words for things like nuclear fusion.

That's okay! They actually meant weather, which they clarify soon enough.

She can teach them so many words for weather phenomena. Here are five words for different kinds of wind and three for different kinds of rain and then there are fires which she apparently thinks of as part of the same category, and frost and snow and hail, and a handful of terms for different broad categories of combinations of ambient temperature and humidity and sunniness.

They diligently learn all this vocabulary and ask what kinds of weather prevail where and what they grow.

She tries to explain their crops. While she's in the middle of that the person she sent for hors d'oeuvres returns and that gives her some examples to point to.