<Do you think if I have taste in clothing it's probably somehow evil enough that you shouldn't care?>

<I can't see how, really. You want to pick stuff? I've never worn clothes before.>

<I haven't picked clothes for this society before but I have worn clothes before. I hate wearing white, let's try green or blue or orange. I've seen people roll up their cuffs so it's fine if we get pants that are too long and if they won't stay rolled up we can hem them. Or maybe I'm wrong, did anyone with better information maybe at any point tell you anything.>

<I have some briefing but they were expecting human hosts to be better oriented to the situation than you are. We'll figure it out.> He finds blue jeans and a green shirt and some flip-flops that have some orange on them though they are mostly black, and they fit tolerably, and they can be worn out once they are purchased, with the things they came in with left in the dressing room unceremoniously.

This is the best thing that's happened to him in centuries and probably in the top ten things that have ever happened to him.

<We should get a haircut, I think this style is used in iconography of Jesus but otherwise it's kind of unusual locally, or maybe I'm totally wrong about that but I think we should still change more things just in case - not sure if we should also stop shaving, it gets prickly - on the other hand maybe they expect that I'll think that so maybe we specifically shouldn't, or maybe you should pick something at random.>

<Yeah, looking around I don't see a lot of other male humans with long hair.> Walk walk walk. There's a barbershop. In they go. "Just hack it all off, I'm sick of it being like this," he tells the barber, when they get a chair. There are lollipops and he takes one of those. Mmmmmmm.

<Um! We don't need food, we can save it for other people - I'm sorry - I'm sorry - > He's trying very hard not to remember something and not otherwise thinking very well.

<They're free and even if they weren't I got plenty of money out of the ATM. This way the guy won't expect us to talk to him. Besides, what's the point of having a host with tastebuds if I don't taste anything?>

That's probably right since the person who had the idea wasn't thoroughly and comprehensively corrupted and made as bad as possible. He apologizes and then apologizes again for good measure, and it's not entirely clear even to him whether he means anything by it or if it's just a reflex.

The Yeerk ignores him and enjoys the lollipop and gives the barber a nod and a hefty tip after his hair has been cut down to a nice shaggy-layers situation that doesn't come close to brushing his shirt collar. Onward!

Onward, apparently. This really sucks and his judgment is terrible so he probably only feels bad because he's a terrible person and deeply mistaken about right and wrong, only that's not reassuring at all because it means either they're going to do bad things and hurt people or he's going to be miserable all the time. Or conceivably both.

Sub-Visser, this is Atsinni 3094 reporting supplementary to the presumable report you will have had from Ishkan 8015. A vagrant human entered the work site and was presently stunned and I have been given him as a host. The human does not presently have his own means of support and I would like to requisition an apartment and sinecure until a permanent assignment is found for me. CCing Nansta 1223 to this end. I will write again from a new phone once I have acquired one.

He tries to pay attention to that to distract himself from the horror of the lollipop but then that results in him knowing Atsinni 3094's name, which is terrible, what if he doesn't like that name, for that matter what if at some point he wants to use a name for his prisoner?

<I mean I'll probably have to call you something at some point to get you fake papers and whatever with a human name on them but I don't care what it is. My name's fine.>

<...Okay. If you want.>

And now he's back to feeling bad about the lollipop. Surely there's something else to think about but nothing seems as salient. He's trying not to think about why that is, it's humiliating and horrible and he'd just as soon not share it. Surely there's something else to think about but nothing's coming easily to mind.

When the email is sent they are going to go buy a phone. Without any guidance from his host the Yeerk is going to put his name into the phone as Stan Peters and then text his superior again so he'll have the number. Then while waiting for a reply he's going to play Bejeweled.

Stan Peters is fine. Bejeweled is nice. It seems like it'd be fun to play but it's also nice to just watch, and anyway it's very distracting. He'd ask for a turn but why would Atsinni 3094 let him do anything ever.

<Do you do this a lot?>

<What, Bejeweled? No, I've never tried it! All this human stuff is new to me.>

<What did you do before?>

<Swam around. Read. Not like with eyeballs, we don't have those.>

<Swimming sounds interesting. I can't remember if I've done it. Not recently.> What is even the point of not having eyeballs if people make you read things anyway. He doesn't especially intend that thought as part of the conversation but it's not like he can hide it. He had his eyes sewn shut for a while and honestly it was fine but that's because it gave him a break from things that were even worse.

<Seeing things is great, if you ask me. They have colors!!>

<Colors are nice!> All senses are nice when you can control what you perceive with them and not otherwise. Or maybe not, he wouldn't really know. <I like natural landscapes a lot, I missed them while I was... you know.> Or maybe he didn't, why would he remember anything correctly.

<Aww.> He will switch the default phone wallpaper to a landscape one, they have some nice generic landscapes on the thing. Eventually he gets a text back and summons a taxi to take them to their new apartment in a building where they've got the landlord.

That's so unfathomably kind!

He has actually seen the insides of some modern residences, but his standards were mostly set by a medieval village and then Hell. He'll probably think the apartment is amazing but he does know enough to expect to find it amazing. Sort of. With all of the caveats that apply every single time he thinks anything.