"Extremely, but on this specific axis not uniquely - I was just also flexibly employed enough to take advantage, which most Amentans of any caste are not."

"I guess we're lucky to have you."

He's sorta bummed by how few Amentans who think about reds like her there are.

"What other ways are you exceptional?"

"I'm smarter than most greens and have a skillset more like one than a half-orange grey reasonably ought. I arrived at my opinions on reds without being clinically hyposensitive. Also I have a balance disorder but that's not really helping with anything."

Lucien sorta suspects most amaliens would arrive at that opinion like her but he's not sure and it seems rude to say. Also he's not actually sure he would.

"You seem very good at per-suing your goals given all those things making it complicated! And also your goals being hard to do aside from things about you making them hard."

"Thanks. I'd list what I tried but I don't know if any of it would mean anything to you, it was stuff like 'travel to Ereith to try to research polar hypovernal variants' - didn't go very well, they hate foreigners -"

"Polar hypovernal variants?"

Sounds like something Vira would like.

"Some initial attempts at modernizing went badly. In general reds are compliant at a steady background rate of abuse but they sometimes riot destructively when there's a threat that would make them all obsolete because they know that even if someone gentle enough to pension them off wins every election going forward they're not going to get any child credits after that point. Robotics, traditionally, is the thing that sets them off, but also more recently stuff like training purples to do their jobs or touching their credit numbers at all. Tapa has been trying subsidizing red credits for families that will accept having a baby with polar hypovernal syndrome - it's a class of mutations that crops up naturally in Ereith because they're so far north, to help them season closer to the poles than most people can, and people who have it are almost totally normal, except they don't spring. Little to no sex drive, little to no baby drive. A last generation of reds who won't mind, so much, being pensioned off and going extinct."

"I ... am confused about how people deal with having kids and how wanting them works and so I can't really imagine if that is a solution that makes everyone happy? Guessing not since you said you were re-searching variants and also. What you des-cribed sorta sounds like a sad solution to me but I'm not sure why."

"We want children. We care about it a lot. We expect evolved species to be the same unless they're r-selected - having hundreds or thousands of babies and neglecting them, a lot of bugs do that - or something. We want grandchildren. We want nieces and nephews. We want to hold babies and feel like they're going to carry our lines forward and learn from us and eventually become a parent themselves. A hypovernal baby is still cute and cuddly and will still learn and grow and love their parents and then it all ends forty years later. But it soothes the immediate panic about pensioning reds and expecting normally vernal ones to go their whole lives without ever having children."

"What does it mean for babies to carry your lines? Also, what does soothing the immediate panic.. look like? If there was a way to make all new red babies hypovernal, would that be a basically satisfactory solution with only minor drawbacks according to reds?"

He gets a notification informing him Deet has replied, saying "Okay - I'll be there,".

"To be descended from us. A lot of people can sort of fool their instincts with adopted children but not everybody finds that good enough. Uh, I'm not sure you understand that that's in fact what they're trying to do. They're starting relatively slowly so they don't spook the reds, so each change is incremental, but they want all the new red babies to ultimately be hypovernal so they'll go extinct without a violent uprising trying to stop it. This is not a minor drawback but it is plausibly not worth dying to avoid for one's friends and family, which is why they are at present getting away with it."

"Oh, I didn't understand that that was what they are trying. Are the reds aware of the long-term plan around that? Also, why were you researching variants?"

"The long term plan is pretty obvious though I doubt the relevant decisionmakers have ever said it in as many words to the reds. I was researching variants because some of them could conceivably have been, say, fixable with hormone therapy later, if anything ever changed, and then if I found one of those I could have pushed for that to be the variant they induced, somehow, maybe, it would not actually have worked."

"Why haven't reds respond-ed aggressively over it, given the drawbacks and long-term plans?"

"Uh, so you know why I'm asking about this: I'm trying to figure what pref-ren-ces reds have 'round this stuff. Prolly I should try talking to them on my everything but you seem good at explaining some stuff and are easy to talk to right now."

"They don't think they can realistically get a better deal, and - hypovernal babies are still babies, they're still cute and little and soft, so the ones who are going along with it even now when it isn't required are at this particular moment doing okay even if they won't have grandchildren, and the ones who are insisting on paying for the full price credits have, well, families to worry about, and - you have to understand that when reds riot, over robotics programs or whatever else, they die. In droves. The police just kill any of them who might have twitched wrong and sometimes their families too. The polar hypovernal program offers a sort of... compromise... where no reds necessarily have to be killed, and the cleans still get a world without them soon enough. It's harder for them to coordinate and go to their deaths protesting that than it is for them to die to protest a development that means they'd all get gunned down later anyway."

"That sounds really bad..."

"Yep."

Lucien continues to discuss reds with Pelape until amaliens start arriving. Peli shows up first, though this time he lands much more softly (and farther away) to avoid scaring Pelape. Shortly after he's disgorged his passengers a bundle of amaliens arrives - carried there inside the fluff of Flooze. Keeta shows up once everyone else has arrived, with Fluffeld trailing behind her.

The group is similar to the group that made first contact. The differences:

 - Fika (the girl with leaves in her hair during first contact) is not there. An amalien boy with leaves sewn into his clothes is here as a repre-sent-ative from the Esteel Tree instead.

- The bonus beach girl who first met the Amentans is not there.

- Vira, Keeta, and Flooze are there.

"Hello everyone."

The gathered amaliens are ... on the whole happy to meet her but clearly are a bit nervous about this meeting given the explanation they were given about it.

"Thanks for coming, this is really important and sad and hard but we can help I think." 

He should really have thought what he was gonna say earlier but he was distract-ed by Pelape, oops.

"Some Amentans are called reds, basic-ally cause of the color of their hair though it's a bit more compli-cated. Most other Amentans are really mean to them and don't care too much 'bout that. The reds are really scared of new people and have trouble doing things on their own to fix things and. Are really really hurting and alone and in danger and things aren't going to get better."

The group is paying close attention to Lucien, a few nodding and a few tearing up.

"I... don't think Amentans care like we do. Not always anyways. They get con-fused bout what matters to them when it's hard for them to care and to do the things they have to do at the same time. And then they keep on not caring even when they don't really have to do the things quite that way anymore. It's hard for them and ... I sorta think we're prolly gonna do things that hurt them and make them feel sad or angry. We can try our best to not but. I think the reds are so alone and they need us and we can do our best to help the other Amentans but we gotta help the reds 'specially, cause they need it most I think."

One amalien has clamped her hand over her mouth cause she has questions 'bout this but is trying to wait. She is also crying, quietly.

"I think this might take all of us, in a way we haven't done before. Not just us here but all amaliens. I think we can help and make things better. I'm scared, and sad, and feel sorta lost. But I know I have you all to help and that is the important thing."