Lucien heads to an administrative building in the city for a meeting about how the construction noises are too loud for some of the amaliens camping nearby. He's hurrying since he only blocked out two hours for the meeting and his teaching some of the campers about how to avoid attracting unfriendly-to-Amentans monsters to the area ran late. And he can't stay extra cause he has to go explain to some other amaliens why they shouldn't name their planet "Wiggles", which is only a bit better than their last proposal of the Amentan word for "toaster". He knows some amaliens want to name the planet something that makes them giggle but he also knows some amaliens care a lot about people caring about their planet and don't want people to be giggling all the time when talking about it. 

Still, right now he needs to focus on talking about the loud noises in Chaspanti with the Amentans.

Right! He can talk to the acting mayor and colonial governor, Nin Hopa. (The previous blue didn't season so they're trying this one.) "The loud noises are pretty hard to eliminate entirely," he says very seriously. "The equipment we use to build things is about as quiet as we can make it. Would it help if we concentrated most of it into a few hours of the day, or, alternately, if we did more stuff at night so it's spread out more?"

"Day hours would be good, though if you can have a couple of days every once in a while where you do a lot of it and tell nearby amaliens beforehand they can know up stay away for a couple of days if they want to avoid sound?"

"Okay, I can have them concentrate the loud stuff on particular days insofar as they can and they can do less loud stuff or take breaks on other days unless there's something time sensitive. Do you have an idea of how loud it has to be to bother the neighboring amaliens?"

"Near the edge of the city and a bit louder than screaming, I think."

"So this isn't much of a problem in the city center?"

"Not right now since I don't think many amaliens are interested in there. Might change eventually but hopefully you'll be doing less building?"

"- well, I'd hope that amaliens interested in the city would be interested in all of its features at least to the point of accepting earmuffs, but the construction will slow down and ultimately move to a second city site, yes."

"Hm. How soft are the earmuffs you have?"

"They're usually foam with vinyl or something over it to make a good seal, so they're squashy but not pettable."

"It would probably be good if they could be very soft? I bet you lots of amaliens would be excited about using them that way."

"They won't keep out sound as well if they're fuzzy but maybe there's something that'll work. I can place an order. Will this help with people bothered by construction noise from farther away too, do you suppose?"

"It might, though I'd worry about the earmuffs getting lost if they're being used all the time and not just when amaliens are visiting the louder parts of the city."

"Well, we can order a whole bunch of them, even a thousand pairs of earmuffs are a lot cheaper than rescheduling construction."

"That should hopefully work, we can meet again a week after the order to check-in about this?"

Lucien has discovered that he can schedule things, and the Amentans will be okay with that! It's really great, most amaliens won't want to schedule things too far in advance or will and won't show up. He has a physical schedule book now! He also has a pocket everything but he is really enjoying the physical schedule book even if his handwriting is still sorta blocky and big.

"Sure, sounds good to me, same time?"

"Yup, two thirty pm."

He writes it into his ✨schedule✨. It takes him a bit but he's very focused. He doesn't want to miss any meetings after all. 

"I'll see you then!"

The earmuffs arrive some four days later, on the next ship to depart after the order went out, and all the neighboring amaliens can get a pair and a spare and directions to someplace with more. They also try to make more of the jackhammering and such happen at coordinated times.

Lucien has successfully convinced amaliens to not name their world Wiggles but now another group wants to name it the Cryptophasian word for "home" and now he's needs to explain how that wouldn't work given Cryptophasia isn't allowed in Amenta and he's having trouble explaining this.

Meanwhile, even though the Earmuffs have arrived and proved popular, most amaliens aren't interested in exploring the city with them and are instead just nuzzling and petting them. One boy with a black bear monster friend seemed interested in exploring but no others. He really thinks this is important, not just for the future but so they can get to know the Amentans well enough to understand things like why they don't want Cryptophasia on Amenta. 

He heads into the city, looking for somewhere nice to bring a tour group of amaliens to. 

(He has three hours blocked off to look. It's written in orange on his schedule.)

The city has a big children's museum and schools and apartments and a garden of local plants and restaurants and a gym and a bus system (subway still in progress) and a university and parks and shopping and rowhouses and a theater and a shuttleport and an under-construction roller coaster park.

He thinks he'll avoid a trip of amaliens to the children's museum for now cause he's nervous about Amentans not taking amaliens seriously cause they're small. Though some amaliens might enjoy things in it so he'll maybe recommend it to them event-ually anyways. What sorta restaurants are there?

There's a mix of ones doing adventurous things with the local plants that have turned out to be good for Amentans to eat and ones using almost entirely imported food, presumably planning to switch to local as the agriculture gets up to speed.

He'll sample little meals from different places! He's looking for gummy and sour things and also seeing how nice the staff are and if they are good with amaliens like him.

He can have free samples from most places but would need, like, money, to have a substantial amount. There are lemon cookies at this one place, and pickles at that one, and chewy tapioca thingies at that one.

He has a bit of money on his everything for helping organize amaliens advising amentans on things, but he isn't looking for a lot right now. He has enough to pay for things like a big meal for lots of amaliens once or twice, in addition to paying for his small apartment in the city.