Crafting crafting crafting

How are they planning to display the translation? Is there tech she needs to familiarize herself with?

Daisy has just been writing the English under the Crafters' glyphs; she doesn't have a good way to digitize the Crafters' books so it's all going to be hardcopies for now.

Got it.

She gets started on the butter churn while the book finishes printing; Rebecca can read what she's got translated in the meantime, though, if she'd like.

Great! Which one is this, the talking animals one?

Yep, that's what she asked for.

The narration assumes a degree of familiarity with talking animals, and doesn't go very far into the details of what they're like in general, but it does give an overview for readers who live in areas without one species or another. Corvids are the most common family of species to live with Crafters, and the most likely to habitually involve themselves in Crafter affairs, for example by matchmaking or telling them things about their neighbors. Parrots tend to be more oriented toward their flocks; there are plenty of individual exceptions in areas where they live, but any given parrot isn't as likely to care about the Crafters near them, and they're also sillier and less trustworthy with a tendency toward playing pranks, which makes them much less popular among Crafters. Elephantiforms vary by gender; the females live in small herds that tend to have only transactional or tradition-based relationships with Crafters, while males prefer to avoid others of their species but join Crafter communities fairly frequently and tend to form individual friendships with Crafters much more often than corvids or parrots do. Cetaceans vary quite widely in how they interact with Crafters, and tend to be too standoffish or too unpredictable to take a consistent role in Crafter society.

There are plenty of exceptions to and variations on the themes, though, and that's what most of the book is about: situations where by some quirk of history or geography the corvids live more closely with Crafters, or ignore them almost entirely in favor of focusing on their own foraging and flocks, or Crafters take a more central role in helping a parrot flock, or elephantiform herds have settled in an area where they're dependent on Crafters for food, or dolphins or orcas have established a tradition of working with Crafters to hunt a seasonal bounty of fish more effectively than either species could alone, or where one of the less common talking species has established a relationship with their local Crafters, like the island where rats take on a role similar to crows in the rest of the world or the rare cases of Crafters tolerating the presence of apes well enough to visit and trade with them.

It also discusses the different approaches to some of the moral issues that come up with talking animals; crows in particular tend to like the idea of having genecrafted or fleshcrafted hatchlings, and in addition to all the issues that come up when a Crafter wants something like that done to their offspring, there's the issue of their less clear understanding of the risks of it, which are usually reduced but not completely mitigated by Crafters' willingness to help any creature they come across who needs it. Similarly it's not clear which of several common approaches is best when faced with a lost or orphaned or runaway baby elephant; they tend to turn out weird when raised by Crafters, and while there have been some clear success stories - the book spends a whole chapter covering a visit to the mammoth who's gone so far as to claim a Crafter-style territory with help from his neighbors - it's more common for them to end up neither comfortable in Crafter society nor able to interact smoothly with their conspecifics as adults.

She likes the corvids. Is that rude to say?

She enjoys the comparative approach to... well, not anthropology. Sociology. You learn the most from the exceptions. She wonders if there are parrots around and she just hasn't seen them because they don't hang out with Crafters; they sound interesting. Perhaps not to live with, though. What's wrong with apes, does the book say that?

She'll ask a few times for clarification on some glyphs and grammatical conventions, but she chews through it at a steady pace.

It's nice that the Crafters take such a mindful approach to interacting with talking animals, with all the concerns about socialization and informed consent. For a long time, even now to a significant extent, human attempts at doing right by people they have power over have been... rough around the edges. When they're trying at all. The mammoth claiming a territory is interesting—this book would be just about a year old, right, if she's understanding the publishing schedule, so there wouldn't be any longitudinal updates on how that mammoth is doing?

Apes are close enough to Crafters in body plan to feel uncanny, the book explains, especially in relation to the territory instinct, which they don't have, and their tribal instinct. Traveler describes visiting them with another Crafter in enclosed vehicles, which seems to be the standard approach to situations where a Crafter is nervous about being touched, and he worried the whole time about being surrounded and trapped, even though the visit went fine.

The chapter about the mammoth does go into some history of his situation: Teenage Crafters often prefer to spend a couple years living with an adult mentor before claiming a territory of their own, but this is less poplar among the adults, so there's almost always a surplus of teenagers looking for that kind of opportunity. The mammoth takes in one of those teenagers every year or two to handle the chores that need crafting, while he handles the logistics of the place, with a neighbor he's close to offering advice when it's needed. He's been at it for six years as of Traveler's visit and it's going well, with the teenagers appreciating the gentler start on learning how to run territories of their own and the mammoth happy with the niche he's found.

That makes sense! And that's great for the mammoth, and for the community, honestly. Traveler really does write well, with such documentary intent, but with a strong personal touch that makes it feel more narrative than textbook. She supposes he's had a lot of practice.

After she's done with the first book, she'll acquire some pen and paper and try constructing a few test sentences. Can Daisy confirm if these work?

Daisy comes up with a couple of minor nitpicks, but she's definitely doing well enough to communicate that way, yes.

Have Daisy or Nine met the local mammoths? Any impressions?

"I've met the mammoths a couple times. They seem... businesslike."

"The little ones are cute, though."

Businesslike. That's a word for it. She has a long to-do list, but seeing that for herself is going somewhere on it.

How's the second book coming along?

Daisy started it when the first one finished printing, but the printer is still working on it and she hasn't started translating its output yet; she's brought some things over from the kitchen and is working on a pastry recipe at the moment.

Does anyone need her for anything right now, or does Daisy want help with the pastries? Otherwise she might start taking apart copies of the tinkertech, to refresh her memory and give Dusk some parts for parallel reference if she ends up messing with them when Rebecca isn't around.

Speaking of Dusk, is she about to wake up soon? It's been a few hours, about nearing noon now.

Daisy expects Dusk up soon, yes. She's just about ready to put the pastries in the oven but she was also going to make omelettes and sausage if Rebecca wants to take that over, or she's sure Dusk will also appreciate the tinkertech help, it's really up to her.

The tinkertech help would be better to do synchronously, if Dusk will tolerate her presence; she was just thinking of getting a head start. She'll do omelettes and sausage. She's functional at cooking, but not exactly professional, she'll warn.

Dusk isn't picky, but Daisy can do the omelettes herself if Rebecca isn't comfortable with them, it's no trouble to make a second frying pan.

Rebecca can do both, then. They'll come out just about average.

It's fine, fresh vegetables cover over a multitude of sins and there are plenty to incorporate, brought in from the garden just outside the kitchen. The pan may take a little getting used to, since it generates heat itself rather than transmitting it from the surface below and has to be manually adjusted to different temperatures rather than being cooled by taking it off the heat, but overall it's not hard to work with.

Dusk turns up with the cooking partway done, just as the pastries are starting to smell enticing; she still seems a little wrung out, to Rebecca's eye, and a little surprised to find her in the kitchen, but overall much better than she was last night. She gives Daisy a hug around the shoulders - this is clearly what Daisy picked up Princess and the Dragon for, some of her flowers look pretty sharp - and gives her a kiss on the forehead before acknowledging Rebecca with a signed g'morning.

Rebecca smiles at her, not drawing particular attention to Dusk's condition, but pleased to see her more spirited. Good morning back at her!

She tips her head in the direction the pile of tech. It's more difficult than Rebecca expected to get art and books out of Dressing Room, it turns out, but she used it to replicate a collection of wearable tinkertech from home, since Daisy said Dusk might be interested. No one's managed to reverse-engineer and manufacture it properly without a relevant superpower, but it might be interesting to play with anyhow.

(She affects it as a vague, almost offhand idea, the same way one might tell a roommate they've picked up some weird foreign fruit at the grocery store and they're free to try some.)

I can tell it's kind of weird, yeah. I'll have a look after breakfast. Smells good, by the way. She lets Daisy go and sits next to Nine, leaning companionably on him and signing something Daisy doesn't translate.

Once the omelettes and sausages is done—she's not going to complain about the free crafting practice, with the pan—she will serve. Are Daisy's pastries done?

Rebecca won't say anything for a while, in case Dusk prefers a quiet morning, but her emotions and body language are open to conversation.