"If it helps, kids come to board game meetups sometimes, my son's group has a 3D-puzzlewar whiz who's three and has been there for seasons, and I think the people there get pretty used to them."

Sigh,

"I think that might make it worse? I'd worry people would get the amaliens confused with kids. It's happened to me a few times."

"Hm. I'm not sure how to solve that, all the ideas I'd give a - taller - person worried about being taken seriously would possibly just parse as... kids playing dress-up, and make the problem worse..."

Lucien freezes awkwardly. He really hopes that isn't what he's been doing! Would be really bad to just make it worse.

"So I don't think I should suggest you get fitted for formalwear. I do think people being used to you in general will help, though, as you have more opportunities to be seen as individuals with your own areas of competence and your own individual levels of maturity, as opposed to 'the aliens who look like kids'."

Okay he will make sure not to get formal wear but that won't really help tell him what to wear.

"How do you think amaliens can get started on that?"

"Hm. Well, if any amaliens want to be on television, I would be happy to record some interviews with them, me and maybe some of the greens, semi-scripted to make sure it comes off right, and everyone will gradually get accustomed that way; and I still think the game and hiking meets would be a good plan, it'd let everybody have a word-of-mouth source of information on what amaliens are like up close."

"Those both sound like good ideas. What do you think I should be looking for in amaliens to be on TV?"

"They should be good at speaking Tapap, ideally, though we can subtitle them if not, and - composed, I guess, more like you than like some of the others I've seen who are more exuberant, exuberance is childlike. We'd probably want ones who know useful things about this planet or the monsters or who have interesting anecdotes about their own life history."

Lucien bats around ideas with the mayor over dinner, suggesting amaliens like a camper who had recently been a Volcano Watcher as good fits. Probably they'll need subtitles, at least for now - in the future he can get some of the others to learn Tapap better. 

What do Volcano Watchers do?

Keep an eye out for any amaliens who got trapped in volcanoes a while ago and bubble up. It happens sometimes, specially cause there was a collapse that dropped a bunch of em.

How often is sometimes??

There were a couple dozen who were dropped into the lava during the collapse a while ago and one floats up maybe every ten years? They've recovered four so far, and lost one more cause it's dangerous. 

The amaliens who have been watching there recently tend to be more serious then the others so that could be good for the interviews.

"Okay, so, that does sound like it would filter for seriousness, but I'm also - as long as we're focusing on PR here - a little worried that it's sort of an inherently cartoonish sort of thing to happen, people falling in volcanoes and needing to be fished out so they can sleep it off - you know we'd just die if we fell in lava, right -"

"I assume you'd be in a lot of pain first? It's still possible to swim out sometimes."

He... does not know what to say to the mayor calling one of the most special amalien jobs "cartoonish". He will have to watch more cartoons to figure it out he guesses.

"Yes, we'd be in a lot of pain and catch fire, I suppose it's possible we'd escape with horrific injuries if we were very lucky but those could still kill someone later in the hospital. We have no idea at all how amaliens survive things like that. So, it is interesting, but in a way that's sort of difficult to think about."

"Ah, yes. It can be difficult to think about for us to."

"So. What you want is someone who is serious and has a life that won't be difficult to think about?"

"Right. Someone with legible accomplishments, ideally - I mean, fishing people out of a volcano is important but it's not the sort of thing Amentans are used to assigning status to, we're looking for something more like an expert on all the kinds of birds on the planet or a musician who'll demonstrate for us or something."

"Hm, Meelia is off planet. What about the Mayor of Keetim? Or Cryptophasia? Or Veena, she's a good singer even if she can be a bit silly."

"Cryptophasia seems hard to interview and I don't know how it'd take to being on a video like that. Mayor of Keetim sounds great, I'd love to meet her, and a singer we can edit the silliness out if it's too much and just show her singing."

"Her singing can be a bit silly sometimes but we could try it. Would it be possible to interview the Mayor in Keetim, so she doesn't have to leave?

"As long as Keetim's awake so it's safe, yes."

Lucien agrees that Keetim should be awake! He'll hash out details with the Amentan mayor for as long as he is willing to stay - Lucien is really quite excited about figuring out the logistics of everything.

The mayor will kick a lot of the details to his yellow and make a remark about getting Lucien a yellow hat, and let himself out, thanking Lucien for the hospitality.