Lucien thinks he should have a blue hat, but he doesn't say that aloud. He's still really confused by the colored heads thing. 

After the mayor leaves he checks his schedule. It turns out he went later then he thought he should and now he doesn't have too much time to prep-are for his meeting with an Amentan Agricultural Specialist tomorrow. He'll do research on his everything to get a better idea of how Amentans grow plants.

Lucien stays up late researching. He would have managed to get to bed earlier but he got distracted cause irrigation is exciting and it took him a while to get back on track to figuring out basics of how farming worked. Some amaliens had irrigation but they never used it to protect against frost, which is just such a cool way to use it! Also the cost of getting water to places that could be irrigated could be so high you couldn't make money by growing crops with that water cause the water cost more. But then when there were more people who needed more food the value of the crops went up and the cost of irrigation stayed the same and so those places got irrigated and the Amentans irrigated so many places! 

Oh no he got distracted again. 

Eventually Lucien gets to sleep. He doesn't have one of the two days a week he schedules where he'll need to do the heavy thinking things tomorrow, so he will be okay on only a few hours of sleep. His back might hurt but it's worth the not napping. He has lots to do.

Meanwhile, just outside the city:

Neh heard about the city when Lucien visited his camp before, and he thought it sounded different than other places. He wanted to see what was in the shadows there. So, after he slept through most of the day like he us'lly does, he is heading out to the city with his friend Meow the Bear-Monster.

Meow looks like a big black bear, with a habit of walking upright. He folds Neh in with a big hug in the darkness, and the two of them vanish into shadows.

.... and appear together somewhere else. In the city. Hidden in a dark corner.

This dark corner is a cleaning supply closet and they're kind of squeezed in here between the vacuum and the boxes of disposable mop heads.

Neh shivers, going through shadows can be really cold and sorta tiring. This doesn't look as different as Lucien made it sound. Meow moves things out of the way so Neh can open the door and peek out.

This is a dance club! It's dim and the lights that there are are colorful and pulsing in time to the music, which is throbbing and low. Amentans are dancing with each other and getting drinks from the bartender, whose lavender hair is slicked up in a mohawk.

Aaaa, too much!

Neh puts his hands over his ears and screws his eyes very shut. When the loud sounds and lights keep going, Meow roars to try to get all the chaos to go away.

That gets the dancing to stop, actually! ...doesn't immediately do anything about the lights and music.

Neh keeps her hands over her ears and her eyes closed while Meow tries swiping at the lights.

Meow is able to knock a sconce off the wall!

Amentans start screaming and fleeing for the exits!

No that's even louder! Neh grabs onto Meow and they move into shadows again, to a different place in the city.

This dark part of the city is a laundry room. The lights are off and the machines are rumbling and there is nobody here.

Oh this place is nicer! What's in the machines?

When this machine is opened a bunch of water and soapsuds and clothes fall out!

Fun! Neh will play around with soapsuds and the clothes for a bit. Afterwards he'll put it all back into the machine and try a different machine. 

This one is empty.

What about this other one?

This one is a dryer but it's not very far along in the cycle. Wet clothes flop out onto Neh's feet.

Squish! These are all full of such different cool things!

What about this one?

This one's a dryer that is done! Dry warm clothes mostly don't flop out because they weren't in motion.

Soft! Warm! Neh cuddles into the dryer.

This will be nice and cozy for about ten minutes and then the door opens!

She wakes up when the door opens, she was having a good nap and Meow was lounging in the corner.