It's showing...a city. Specifically, one of the plazas of the city which is being used as a marketplace. There are people milling about. They seem to be traveling in groups – basically no one is walking alone by themselves. And a lot of them are wearing uniforms? Or at least have unusually coordinated outfits. Most of the stalls are selling foods of some sort, either raw ingredients like vegetables or snacks and such.

The people distinctly do not look like Krissan, being taller and bigger and being hairless and having plates of shell, like sea shells, on their shoulders and head. And having six retractable tentacles emerging from their back.

The architecture of the place is also unusually coordinated. It's definitely giving an Art Nouveau vibe, with lots of curves and plant-inspired patterns. The tiling on the floor and the buildings and the stalls have a unified aesthetic, and a significant number of the people walking by have outfits that match it.

The weather is warm, but not hot, like late spring. Indeed, it is late spring in the Old World, the lower continent, where Kosfor City is located.

It's also not fully aligned with the plane everyone looking at the ring can be imagined as standing on - rather the floor is parallel to where their floor would be if the portal ring was fully upright. It is, instead, leaning, and if any of the aliens look through it they'll be treated to the view of a bright blue sky and a few surprised faces - eyes and nose and mouth all on the front of their faces like humans, but eyes somewhat bigger with slit pupils and jewel-tone irises, and noses somewhat flatter with flexible nostrils that can seal closed, with silky hair on their heads that's gotten pretty oily with all the seaspray around, mostly in a muddle of striped colors, and faintly shimmery skin. And, also, large furry ears on the sides of their heads.

An adolescent with hair in stripes of a darker peach with faint bands of yellow and pink says, "Should we go through?" Peach leans a bit more over, squinting into the portal like peach is considering just jumping. 

The current project lead, an elder with very faint pastel hair that's probably mostly green, puts a warning hand on peach's shoulder. "Wait," eld says, clearly a bit exasperated. Eld then twists, and signals one of the twitch-dogs to alert the relays and pass on an urgent message to - probably honestly straight to Beloved of Water Lilies, if this isn't a collective hallucination. 

(A twitch-dog closer to the portal - one with a blue and green brindled coat - helpfully confirms with a few twists and barks that brindle can see the same thing through the portal. So, probably not a collective hallucination.)

A warbling howl arises from the messenger twitch-dog, probably readily audible through the portal if sound carries at all. 

The people on the other side do not try to look through, and instead are busy running away from the area. Half of them write very urgent messages to the Imperial government's special hotline. The other half take out cameras and are taking pictures of the portal at what they consider to be a safe distance. 

The aliens do have colored shells, with quite large variation in coloration. Their eye anatomy is humanoid, but they have nictitating membranes, and their irises tend to match the color of their shells. Can't close their nostrils, though.

People are Alarmed over the howl and some of the photographers join the people running away.

Wow, that's...a lot of reports. With pictures. A lot of reports, all signed with valid keys registered in the government databases. So this isn't some sort of prank.

He convenes his cabinet and the Senate and the ministers immediately.

- Oh no they did not mean to scare people! Also they have no idea what to do in this situation, which means the project lead can very easily take charge and insist on no, really, nothing, this is so extremely weird they're jumping straight to Beloved of Water Lilies (whose soon arrival is quickly confirmed via return howl; Beloved will be approximately two fragments of a day). 

They'll... Discuss plans, get things secured on their end, and watch the portal until then? If anything on the other side changes then they might change their plans, though. 

The Kosfor City Government Office is very unequipped to deal with this situation!! Help!!

The Consul and his court have decided that they should take these actions.

- Quarantine the portal site.

- Put out a notice strongly discouraging people from entering or leaving Kosfor City until further notice, the announcement being released in Kosfor and in nearby cities. Zmavlipre take freedom of movement very, very seriously and would not tolerate an actual city-wide quarantine.

The Imperial Government will send people: scientists, soldiers, diplomats, and other people to Kosfor at once. It will take several hours up to a day. Consul Restem will be there too.

Does the Kosfor City Office have hazmat suits? Follow biohazard protocol. Also follow protocol for potential hostilities. Do they have measuring equipment? Can they try to find out anything about the portal aside from 'it's a portal'?

They will do that.

In about seven minutes, there's the sound of loud sirens as several vans with government insignia arrive on the scene, and quickly put up tape barriers. A dotted line circle is drawn twenty four meters away from the portal. 

All of them are wearing orange hazmat suits. Half of them seem to be working on setting up equipment of some kind, with the other half being security personnel bearing guns. They set up recording equipment and various detectors for radiation or signals and also biology and chemistry portable labs.

To Restem: Should they try to communicate?

No! Not yet! They should wait for Restem and the other officials to arrive. But if they talk or say or transmit signals they should record it. Record everything.

What if something comes out. Are they authorized to use lethal force.

...try your best to tell them not to go past the dotted line. But if they do, then yes, yes you are authorized to use lethal force.

They observe from their side but don't come through, and don't seem to have any kind of modern weaponry. Or weaponry at all, unless a utility knife or spade counts. Someone has a fishing spear strapped to their back? They're talking among themselves but mostly quietly and mostly not near the portals - they also set up their own monitoring equipment, of course. 

And after about three of the Imperium's hours, a person steps slowly through the portal, flanked by a thin dog whose shoulders come up just below Beloved's hip and another older member of Beloved's species. Beloved's hair is much darker than anyone else they've seen peering through, nearly black (whereas the dog has speckled greyish-blue and white fur, and the other krissan has a nearly uniform light purple hair). Beloved is totally unarmed - not even a utility knife - though the krissan standing behind Beloved has a spear, and the dog isn't additionally armed but has some pretty significant teeth (and is wearing a utility vest made of straps and bags and sturdy stretches of fabric). 

All three pause just outside the portal, coming nowhere near the dotted line. 

Entities are emerging through the portal! Entities are emerging through the portal! There's a remnoid and a quadruped. Here's a picture. Please advise!!

They'll be arriving in sixteen minutes. Stay the course.

The remna near the portal will continue doing what they've been doing until Restem arrives. Does Beloved do anything before Restem's helicopter arrives?

Attempts to talk to them! In what might be a few different languages? The sound patterns of each distinct phrase are very different from each other, at least. 

These will be transmitted to Restem and his advisors, although they won't have much time to pore over them because it's time to learn the other person's – people's – language in person.

They suit up and cross the barrier. 

There being a language barrier was expected. Restem brings a linguist, Dedan, through the circle. The other advisors and the guards stand back.

The hazmat suit hampers speech, but they're equipped with external speakers that should transmit the sound. Hopefully that's enough? The speakers are of good quality but there is the chance they don't have the fidelity for linguistics work.

He's...scared scared scared, but he did equanimity exercises on the way. He reminds himself that he ran for Consul not just because he wanted to earn a lot of money, and that this is for the good of the Imperium.

Dedan has brought various picture books and other resources which he's going to hold out for Beloved and her dog to see. He's not...anticipating the dog to be capable of speaking Standard Imperial but they're aliens so.

This simple book has very detailed and realistic pictures – all of them are photographs – of a walk in a forest. 'This is a forest. I go to the forest. I walk to the forest. I see trees. I see leaves.' 

He sounds out each sentence, gesturing at the letters and the words.

Is he going to have to stand here for weeks teaching the aliens how to read. He is willing to do that, and not just because he's being paid lots of hazard pay for it.

Tiny smile. "Kajint-ti-awa neveq-we. Kajkaj-ti-awa kajlit-ap-ka kajint-we. Lasari sar-ewet-ebe krissan-ti-awa kajint-we. Kajkaj-ewat si krissan-le-ewat."

Beloved's eyes rapidly skim over the words, though, even as Beloved speaks - 

And then Beloved exactly repeats what Dedan said earlier, accurately identifying which printed word corresponds with which sound, nearly eerily mimicking his voice. Then the most common word with the mouthfeel of a noun/ verb and not a particle - they're often longer - 'forest', Beloved says, and taps the word 'forest,' then taps multiple trees in quick succession and then draws an imaginary circle around them. "¿La 'forest' la?"

Dedan will write down what he hears Beloved say in the Imperial Phonetic Alphabet, along with what the Standard Imperial sentences that prompted the speech was. He'll assume that Beloved is translating it into B's language.

That's a very accurate mimicking of his voice, but all government employees are trained in impassivity, so it won't show on his face.

"Gohi. Rišfoj" Yes. Forest. "Lohi-trišu se-gunma lo-rišfoj." Centrally-defined forests are composed of trees.

It makes sense that they would send someone over who's quick with languages.

Given that they're working with a trained representative and not a child, they'll move quickly to this other book that explains the government.

This one has cartoons and diagrams rather than photographs.

"This is the Imperium," followed by city skylines and the flag and the spiral insignia and the seal. "The Imperial government governs the Imperium. Keepers can vote on who gets to govern the Imperium." It gets very repetitive in the style of children's books but it's very helpful for learning.

Eventually it gets to the point where it explains the Consul, and Dedan points at Restem.

Restem waves, and says, "I am the Consul. I am Consul Restem Talset Meden. Call me Restem [optional, highly recommended]." Names are morphologically different from other words in Standard Imperial, so it would be unambiguous where the title ends and the name begins, even if it wasn't hinted at in the earlier sentence.

Beloved furrows own brow and says, slowly, "I am the Consul of Sitlakh-ne Leĥan-awa Menit, I am Consul Sarilril-au-Qatl-ne Lijhan. Call me Lijhan [optional, highly recommended]."

(There are... A lot of very, very alien concepts in this government explanation.)

Do they have two names? He'll try to clarify.

"I am the Consul of the Zmavli Imperium. My name is Restem Talset Meden."

He gestures at Dedan, who produces an illustrated dictionary. On the 'name' section, there's several examples: someone holding a child saying, "I name you Misen," and someone with a collar labeled 'Tak'.