If Griffith were less extremely startled or in pain, he might have taken the time to fully analyze this situation. As it stands, he instead yells "Ow! I am in pain and extremely startled! This is unpleasant!" before really catching up with things.

Someone [which his memories helpfully explain is one of his drones, named Nam] arrives with water.

"Good morning, Controller. How are you? Is there anything you want?" it asks. [Remembered context: drones aren't treated as people, and also get impersonal pronouns.]

"I am extremely disoriented and also don't seem to have full continuity of identity with the person occupying this body as of several minutes ago. Also, I may have a concussion, and I would like to be checked for injuries."

He winces. Right. Norms. "Arrange for me to be checked for medical issues that require treatment aside from rest associated with head injuries."

The drone extends its tongue – which seems to be more than a foot long – as well as makes an oscillating extension-and-retraction motion with its back tentacles. It also looks intently at Griffie.

"This drone detects no noticeable difference between you, Controller, currently, compared to before you were injured," Nam says.

"Are you currently incapable of detecting injuries yourself, Controller?"

[Remna, his species, have body control, which is like proprioception on steroids. It's expected that he'll be able to tell whether he has a bodily injury. Gifit was average at it, but it should be enough. It requires doing a specific mental motion, accessing qualia previously unknown to Griffith. It will say that the injury is on the way to healing and that he doesn't perceivably have brain damage – it's painful because his shell-forming matrix is injured. It's minor, though.

Pain can be suppressed with body control, but that requires above average body control Gifit didn't have and didn't bother to improve.]

"This drone can arrange either for a doctor to make a house visit, or arrange transportation for you, Controller, to be transported to Kosfor City to be treated, either via a carriage or by locomotive."

"I am capable of detecting injuries myself, but failed to do so due to extreme disorientation, and requested assistance due to a context-inappropriate habit. I do not perceivably have brain damage, just a minor injury to my shell-forming matrix."

Does Griffith happen to know the rate of impairment to body-control senses that causes them to falsely report things are fine? Wait, no, that's … he's going to ask about that. "What is the base rate of impairments to body-control that cause the impaired entity to falsely believe himself uninjured?"

"Apologies, Controller, this drone does not know. This drone believes that a doctor might have such knowledge. Its knowledge of biology tells it that injury detection is done distributively, through nerve clusters situated throughout the body, and so have independence from the central nervous system."

Nam will remain standing still the whole time, save for the gentle oscillation of its aftendrils. 

"Make that query happen if it's not too costly, and bring me … scratch that, I am not going to ask for acetaminophen. I don't remember the chemical formula and I don't know how it'd interact with my physiology and I really don't know if it's sold here. Ugh."

"Yes, Controller," Nam says. "This drone can connect to the teletype network and make queries to the medical service you are subscribed to, which is Nalem Medical."

[The teletype network is a fixed cost, billed seasonally – there are three seasons in the year, each lasting a gross days. Many people, especially those who are living in remote locations, are subscribed to a medical advice service which can answer health questions for you. This is also billed as a subscription seasonally, so asking questions won't cost any extra money. It will only cost money if he actually goes and has a doctor come to examine him, or goes to the doctor himself.

You can totally go to a doctor different to the one you're subscribed to to answer your health questions, but like why would you want to do that, since the medical query service doctor already has your previous questions in their records and you can save time explaining.]

[Griffith will know that Nam has proactivity training, but it's been instructed not to leave or go do what it's been told unless it's been dismissed or told to execute its orders.]

[Griffith will also know that they do, in fact, sell acetaminophen here, and that he has some on hand. Here it's only indicated for pain relief and not fever, though. He also has stronger painkillers like morphine.]

"Go do that."

Okay. So. Medical stuff is now delegated and feels like it's probably somehow fine despite how incredibly disoriented he is. He should really stop and think.

He's in an unfamiliar body. The new body is overall good, but his somewhat under-considered plans to use estradiol for physiological changes are probably not going to happen given that he's part of a single-sex species now. …more importantly he's just not going to senesce, which is great, hooray for not senescing.

On the subject of death, what is going on with Gifit Zudas Reimas? Does Gifit need some kind of urgent attention? How is he supposed to coordinate that, given that what happened to him seems highly unprecedented and people are probably going to assume he is Gifit but with a personality shift?

Right. 'People'. That term in the local language doesn't seem to refer to sterile workers such as Nam. This seems concerning and bears further investigation.

Also, people-and-drones can say mistaken – no, inaccurate statements on purpose. Statements someone says with full confidence – no, with signals of full confidence – might be wrong. Someone might say 'I will pay for your tea with this rock, which is highly valuable' when the rock was not in fact valuable, sort of like how an orchid might appear to be a female bumblebee despite not being one. This has massive implications, but he's not quite sure what they are.

Still, this is probably less urgent than Gifit's status. …there really isn't anything relevant to this in Gifit's memories, is there.

Nam will bow deeply – his torso perpendicular to the floor – and will leave, closing the door behind it slowly.

Yes, 'people' does only refer to Keepers like him, not drones like Nam. 

Nope! The last memory Griffith can access is Gifit falling...and then it ends there. Maybe he went and possessed Griffith's old body – who knows.

Nam returns several minutes later, and does the same bow he did when entering.

"This drone transmitted information about your current status to Sir Nalem, Controller. Sir Nalem said that the base rate for body control injury false negatives with regard to head injuries is about two pergross. He says that when there is damage to nervous tissue, body control will give either no response or weird responses, which both indicate injury – when querying whether parts are healthy via body control, there is a base response that they give which indicates health, not no response.

Sir Nalem said that he can transmit exercises for querying body part status using body control, focusing on the brain, if this would be helpful to you, Controller. He said that it's free, but that the exercises will take upwards of an hour or more."

"Go request transmission of those exercises—actually, hold. I have two sets of memories. One set belongs to a mammal by the name 'Griffith Young'. One set belongs to the body you are familiar with. I identify primarily with the memory-set and personality associated with 'Griffith Young', but … this body does not belong to me, and if measures can be taken with regards to the well-being of the person I remember previously occupying this body, that would be important. …but my original body was senescing and I don't actually want to let go of this one, it isn't. This probably sounds like some form of extreme confusion and I'm not sure what would be convincing evidence of my model of this situation. Go summarize this to the doctor and if the doctor still thinks it's appropriate request those exercises, I don't have better plans for the next few hours."

Nam displays no outward signs of confusion – it's well trained in impassivity – but internally it's very confused.

Nam will...go do that. It bows and leaves.

The wait is considerably longer than several minutes and takes a quarter of an hour.

Nam returns.

"Sir Nalem said that he has never heard of anything like this in the medical literature. He also said to do the exercises – if they report that you have no brain injury, then the problem – if it is a problem; he said that you might not see it as one – is purely psychological and outside his realm of expertise."

A few more minutes pass while the teletype machine prints out the exercise instructions. The exercise seems to consist of someone – it's assumed you have drones helping you – prodding various parts of the head, neck, and shoulder, and also paying attention to certain sensations and qualia, which it appears that Gifit and his language install have words and concepts for, but which Griffith doesn't. It does seem that remna have the capacity to feel – as in the feeling of touch – their insides the same way you might feel something brushing up against your arm, which is the basis of the techniques. If Griffie is familiar with bodyscan meditation, this will be very similar!

"Confirm that, if it were somehow the case that Gifit's personality was replaced with that of another person from another world, there's not really anything we can do about it. Then return to me and assist me through these exercises."

Griffith pauses. Right, this. "Go do that."

He keeps talking, but less loudly and directedly. "Why did the past occupant of this body order you to require this kind of confirmation and not prompt me for it, anyway. Probably I'll remember if I think about it."

Bow, then exit.

"Sir Nalem said that, if you, Controller, were from a different world and possessed this body, but retained the old body's memories, then this is empirically indistinguishable from undergoing a personality shift with fantastic confabulation. This is also the more parsimonious theory, and so it is the one that he would operate under, since it requires making fewer assumptions. Sir Nalem does not know of any alternate worlds, nor manners by which they might be contacted, and even if so, he has no idea how to contact your presumable previous world specifically. Therefore, he says that there is nothing that can be done about it, unless there was some way to distinguish between 'alternate world personality possession' and 'personality shift with confabulation'.

He says that you should see a therapist if the changes are ego-dystonic."

Sadly, Nam leaves before Griffith's next words come. However, [Griffith will know that Gifit simply preferred his drones not to leave unless explicitly told, aesthetically, rather than for some practical purpose – Nam's proactivity training is good enough that it can model Gifit's behavior and tell whether he wanted them to immediately execute orders or to remain and hear more. Griffith will also know that people here really care about aesthetics and the coherence thereof! There are provincial city taxes to ensure that, in many places.]

"The changes are not ego-dystonic. They come with a belief that I have acquired novel information such as a complete language I do not recall designing, and if that's false I don't like it, but I like my current personality. …also, my current personality means I want you to not require explicit commands to leave, it seems really annoying and I think the past occupant of this body was unreasonable for finding it aesthetically pleasing. I'm ongoingly surprised that you're following my commands instead of trying to forcibly retrieve the previous occupant of this body somehow or otherwise not following my instructions even if you can't do that, describe your reasoning there. If someone used chemicals to smell like this body and I was drenched with strong non-remna odor chemicals would you follow that person's instructions or mine?"

"You are currently speaking Standard Imperial, Controller, which was initially designed by the Imperator but whose management was passed down to the Imperial Standards Authority. It is spoken by all Imperial citizens, of which you, Controller, are one.

Yes, Controller, this drone will now optimize over its model of your desires in considering whether to leave or stay, rather than relying on explicit commands.

This drone's training focused on obeying the Keeper named Gifit Zudas Reimas, and Imperial law defines this by means of specific bodies. You, Controller, are in said body, so this drone will obey you. Perhaps some other Keeper would have preferred to define identity to their drones based on personality, but this seems unlikely, given that people's personalities change. Also, you, Controller, retain 'the old personality's' memories, and memories are an important part of identity.

In any case, biologically speaking, you are still its Controller, because your genetic material has not changed – therefore, operating on the fact that drones evolved to serve their Controllers so as to propagate its genotype, this drone ought to continue serving you. This drone was trained not to look at things this way, but it is still a very natural model to adopt.

A drone operating on instinct, such as drones poorly trained or untrained, would not. This drone will continue to obey you, but only after confirming via other means. It would likely cause distress, however, since the instincts not to obey an entity displaying the wrong pheromonal signals would have to be suppressed."

"Understood. Assist me through the exercises now."

Nam will do that, and will poke and prod Griffith's body with its fingers as per the instructions.

The instructions about focusing on sensations and qualia are detailed, and Griffith will feel weird bodily qualia that he hasn't felt before! It may feel mildly disorientating, as though touching or palpating his internal organs. Querying Gifit's memories will indicate that this is totally normal and to be expected, and actually kind of boring.

It takes one and a quarter hours, because it takes longer than usual to get to the correct state of mind to sense things with body control – in this way it's similar to meditation – but it's within the expected-range-of-variation. Nam will ask whether he feels this sensation rather than that sensation when prodding on a part, or asks what sensation he feels on focusing on a particular locus. Nam writes down Griffith's answers at each step. At the end, Nam will transmit the results, and it comes back fine on all counts.

Nalem will say, indirectly, "Your results are all normal – there's no damage to your brain, spine, or nerve clusters. If the pain doesn't resolve after six days, or if you're still concerned, contact me again or visit my clinic."

Well, if Griffith doesn't have brain damage, he is going to take a walk around what is probably a very fancy and expensive estate which apparently is legally his for now, even though this isn't really his body.

Walking is good for contemplation. Most of Griffith's effort in the recent past has been related to gaining income, household upkeep including taking care of his dog, and trying to prevent senescence-related deaths. Senescence does not seem to be a going concern and Gifit appears to have delegated day-to-day labor to his worker drones. Griffith left a will regarding Cassie, if his original body is dead, and if someone else is in his original body hopefully that someone else will be responsible, though they might not be. Either way it's not under his control at this point. Given this, it's not really clear what his goals are going forward, but he does have time to think about it.

Nam will follow Griffith unless he tells it to go away. [Most Keepers keep at least one drone by their side at all times both for practical and instinctual reasons.]

It's not aesthetically fancy by Zmavlipre standards, but it's probably fancy by Griffith's standards. The main house is made of brick, and so will the ancillary structures for the drones be. [Only the drones which manage the house and attend to Gifit directly actually sleep in the main house – the rest of the drones which work on the plantation sleep on a separate structure close to the main house. There is also a shed containing tools, heavy equipment and transport equipment, and a large warehouse to store the harvest, process it, and package it.]

Drones he passes by will bow to him unless they're carrying something heavy.

Are there ornamental carvings out here too? Gardens in addition to productive land? What does a tea plantation on a hill look like, anyway? The architecture continues to evoke the organizational structure, which evokes unpleasant comparisons. Gifit's memories are quite insistent that the drone issue is fine. Griffith wishes he'd read more about eusocial animal dynamics in an environment where people couldn't lie and nobody had a strong investment in it being okay for queens to do whatever they want with their sterile workers, because every source he can find here is going to be subject to that pressure and capable of dishonestly.

The main building has ornamentation in the form of carvings on its facade. No statues or sculptures here. [Gifit wasn't really into that, but he knows that that's popular. Also, Gifit will say that ornamental art is more popular than fine art in Zmavlimu'e – art which blends into the environment and contributes to a coherent whole rather than art which demands your whole attention.]

Gifit has a garden! It's mostly around the main house. People have spent many, many hours breeding flowers which both smell good and look good! If Griffith oscillates his tentacles – rhythmically extending and retracting them – or extends and retracts his tongue, he'll be able to smell the flowers keenly even from far away, and even be able to separate out the smells in them as though picking out a voice from the din of a crowd. The smell qualia will be very surprising to Griffith even though it will be totally normal to Gifit. He'll be able to smell many things, including the soil, his drones, and the plants. It will stop if he stops oscillating, though he will still be able to smell with his nose, which is comparable to the upper range of sensitivity for humans.

The main house is situated on the edge of the property, with a small road leading directly from the house to the front gate marking the edge of the property, and a little further connecting to the main road. Behind the main house lies the plantation, which consists of tea shrubs grown in rectangular rows so that drones can pick the leaves. [Tea cultivation is very labor intensive, and must be done manually – there are no machines which do it with the delicate care required both to examine the leaves to see if they're an an appropriate stage to be picked, and also to pick them in a way which doesn't destroy the leaf.]

Griffith is going to stand around and actively smell the garden. It's a very nice garden. It would be on some level extremely easy to be distracted by being a rich immortal with enhanced senses and just hang around enjoying the least effortful form of that lifestyle until he gets bored of it.

He queries Gifit's memories. Do drones lie to their controllers? What, in full detail, is the consensus view around drone cognition and moral standing, and what does Gifit know of that backs this view? Also, less importantly, are domesticated companion animals a thing?