"Yeah! Hard to get all the elements to write things though, so I have to use stand-in symbols sometimes! It's really fun though when I do get all the bits together to write something in it!"

"Oh, you used the elements themselves? That sounds so inconvenient, but it's still such a terribly clever writing system. I think Oahkar is written with a bunch of symbols with basic meanings piled up into complicated ones, but the basic meanings aren't the real elements."

Vira bounces excitedly.

"I also used molecules sometimes to mean more complicated combinations of things! Oahkar sounds really cool! Who made it?"

"I'm not sure! I didn't get very deep into linguistics in school."

"Oh, just wet things?"

"Animals and ecosystems in the sea, specifically! Wet things that live in lakes and rivers are a different specialty."

"Oh that makes sense! Do you study things that live in lakes with salt?"

"I don't personally but some people might study those and also sea animals, it depends on specialties. My specialty is molluscs, actually, but I have enough generalist background to start looking at the species here and it'll go a lot faster with someone who knows as much as you do, you sound like an amazing naturalist."

"Thank you! I bet you're an amazing molluscist! Did you know you can clean water more quickly by making it harder to live in for a few molluscs there so they start filtering it more to get more food to survive with?"

"Yes, we use molluscs to clean water a lot on Amenta, though they're usually freshwater molluscs since that's most of the water we want to clean!"

"Oh! If the fresh water isn't from a big river and is in a lake made by snow or rain or something I figured out that I can find a bunch of different creatures and add them to the water to create an eco-system where each spe-cies changes the balance so it ends up being extra superduper clean and it's easier to take care of a bunch of lakes that way cause I just need to introduce a new species and wait a few decades or centuries for the food chain and things to be affected!"

The marine biologist thinks Vira is SO COOL and all her research is SO COOL and yes incidentally is able to find ways to turn this into money (prizes, grants, buying parcels of goop, etcetera).

Meanwhile, the mayor sends Lucien an email that Meelia has been arrested back on Amenta and is being deported to the general area of Keetim.

What.

What did Meelia do...

Looks like battery and incitement to pollution hysteria. Also she went missing for weeks and her host family were worried but that isn't actually a crime.

That doesn't sound like Mee- okay that does sort of sound like Meelia. Did she have a reason?

The battery was unprovoked as far as they can tell - she might have been worried he'd do something to stop her from going and committing incitement to pollution hysteria, but he was actually moving away from her to wake up a noncombatant blue at the time she attacked him. The IPH seems to have been motivated by concern for red welfare but they have no idea why she chose to disappear among the reds, who did not ask her to be there, for weeks, accomplishing nothing, instead of doing some Citrus searches to learn more or something.

Yup, that sure does sound like Meelia's attempting to use adventuring to solve any problems she encounters. He suspects that there was an issue where she was trying to do something and didn't know the Amentan way to do it and did it her own way - she isn't used to using Citrus to solve things. Still, she really doesn't like hurting people unless she has to and it sounds like things escalated pretty far. 

Lucien had been about to leave the city to go in-person to try to convince Deet to come and help with the chicken farming but this seems more urgent. He messages Deet on his pocket everything that they'll have to reschedule.

Meanwhile he schedules a meeting with the mayor to discuss this as soon as possible. He doesn't want there to be some problem when Meelia lands that still isn't resolved. He's not worried though - him and the mayor are good at solving problems together. 

The mayor can see him that very afternoon.

Excellent. He spends the intervening time reading any news he can find about what happened. Also icing his back cause he woke up early and now it's hurting again and it turns out the ice helps as long as he doesn't put it right on the monster on his back.

And at the meeting the mayor can tell him when Meelia's ship is expected and that she is not to enter Tapai territory unless she appeals in thirty years and her re-interview comes up more favorable and that battery and IPH are actually both really bad and either one would have most likely gotten an Amentan sterilized.

Lucien is extremely confused about how Amentans use the ability to have children to commit battery and IPH. He thinks he can imagine how for IPH but all his guesses for battery seem... unlikely.

Also he'd like to clarify what areas the mayor considers Tapai territory.

This area on the map here carved out for the city and its supporting industry, that Lucien helped them pick. Meelia asked to be dropped off near Lucien or at Keetim and the latter is not in that territory so that's where they're taking her.

The fact that she wanted to be dropped off near Keetim makes total sense - she's friends with Keeta and feels safe there and would go there when she is sad. But... while Lucien is friends with her he's not her closest comforting hugging friend. He's a "things should happen to fix problems" sort of friend. It's not a great sign. 

Lucien would like to know how the mayor intends to handle Meelia visiting the city.

"Well, my sincere hope is that she will not attempt it. But I do have on my agenda attempting to workshop with you what range of solutions would work for amaliens here who come into the city and break the law, either just by being there if they've been asked not to or by doing something else while visiting."

"I mean, you could remove them from the city? Might make them sad though. Specially Meelia."