Lack of comprehension of verbal and nonverbal communication continues to be mutual. 

"Well that's promising for whether they have babies here! Or at least know what babies are and have them around sometimes. Also really big. Unless I'm hallucinating that part."

"I don't think you're hallucinating unless we both are." 

The local looks like she's trying to show them something on - what looks like a miniature tablet. It's too small to see without getting somewhat closer. She measures the distance with her eyes. 

"I still can't tell at all. Tell me if you can?"

"Nope. Well, I'm definitely a sub and my dom's definitely right here in the room." She walks over closer and furnishes sequential image descriptions. (She's not expecting to be able to role read the human looking people let alone the kangaroos - telling from pictures doesn't work more often than it does if you're not just recognizing signifiers and etiquette and all that. But she'll see if she can anyway.)

"I don't know if they're trying to tell us they also have sentient kangaroos here - or maybe they're kangaroo shapeshifters? But they definitely know what babies need. And they're either being friendly or still really want us to think they are."

If there was more of a message or a prompt to action there, they have missed it.

She motions for getting to hold one of the babies, wanting to be able to rock one in her arms to make it clear that she cares for the baby. She wants to do so while showing a reassuring and friendly smile to the 2 parents in front of her, as she thinks about the logistics of supplying and caring for them well. She mentally notes the need to start getting the custom-made baby clothes for the trio of new arrivals. She'll probably return with the measurement tools after letting the clearly-exhausted woman get some time to sleep.

She does get this nonverbal! Looks to Genna.

"Personally I'd say, if they think they can't outfight us - for some reason - they're not going to go on obvious attacks right now, and if they think they can outfight us - I'd bet on that one! - then either they're being nice or now would be a really weird time to stop pretending they're being nice."

Anais could say I don't want her to touch my children and could hate it and if she said yes it wouldn't matter. And she could do that.

(Anais didn't say that and Anais doesn't lie to her and this isn't the time to think about this.)

There's a part of her that still feels like no, not safe, only ours, but that's like jumping at a whip that's not being swung at her. 

She gives the affirmatives.

She gives the local a just-one-moment smile and gesture. Walks to Genna, hands her Tuesday. Comes back. Offers Moon to the local.

(And now she has her hands free, and it's not exactly her advantage but sometimes people don't do what you really thought they would, and they did have all the 'protecting your dominant's property' education right along with the etiquette.)

She keeps smiling at them, as she rocks Moon. (The bathroom should probably be converted to a baby's room, what with the quarantine worries. And - milk. And other logistics stuff! But now she's here and can help the new moms. She loves her job.)

...They should think about logistics beyond immediate danger. She doesn't look entirely away from Moon in the local's arms, but of all the task skills, she has this one - she can survey the room at the same time.

She does remember the explanations about separate cribs. Light-coming has her bassinet; that's at least two out of three. (She's not expecting another crib already here, but is there space, does the crib look easy to move - this wouldn't be the only room with a crib in the building. It probably wouldn't be). Is there an obvious door to a submissives' quarter, or a place at the foot of the bed, or a pallet to unfold, or is it the sort of bed that is meant to be shared nightly. Is the bed made. Is there any food in sight, or drinking water or supplies for it.

Or do they need to look for kangaroos to ask.

The room is plenty big to fit in two more cribs, perhaps inside of the open space to the left of the bed. Currently, there are a few children's toys placed there, together with a chest that probably has room for tons of baby gear. The crib is impressively light; it doesn't have wheels or anything, but it should probably slide well enough. The only doors are the one leading into the room, and the one opening into the bathroom. The bed is meant to be shared nightly, or at least big eough to do that. The bed has been made. There isn't any food or water or bottles or cups to be seen at the moment. 

They don’t know what the local is planning or what she will do next. Priorities -

“Make sure we have the necessities if she leaves. Drinking water, another crib. Diapers.” She’s probably forgetting something. She can feel it but that doesn’t tell her what it is. Should have run through it all more earlier, like the field lists. She knew sleep wouldn’t grow on trees.

At this point she’s gonna go for a ‘probably not’ on omniglots behind cameras, and language powers in some people here and there isn’t looking so likely either.

Obviously the local language is the one to go with, but talking has the quality of being much easier to just do than getting someone else to talk.

She gestures prominently at Moon and Tuesday and Light-coming. “Baby, baby, baby.” At the crib and Light-coming’s bassinet, “Crib, crib.”

Holds up fingers for numbers. “Three babies, two cribs?”

The woman just nods at Anais. "Crib!", she says back, ostentatiously turning to walk out of the room, wanting to give the two women in front of her the chance to interrupt her if they need her to be there still.

Is she giving Moon back first?

She gently hands over Moon to Anais, before walking through the door.

“If conversational implicature works here like it does at home, guessing either she’s coming back with a crib or there’ll be one soon. …You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a story where a difference between worlds was conversational implicature, wonder what that would be like.”

Moon seems to have liked the local enough to have fallen asleep. She sets him down in the existing crib.

“No, don’t get up, officer, I got this.” And she’ll walk around the room, checking that chest and any other potential storage locations for food/water/diapers/whatever’s in there. (Ooh, toys, what kind of toys do they have here?)

The chest doesn't have any of the essentials, nor does anywhere else in either room at the moment! When it comes to toys, the chest has a rattler, and some colorful, nice-feeling plastic rings, and a simple xylophone, together with a drawing board and a very bright picture book, showing scenes from everyday life.

“…Soap,” she says, in the middle of Anais walking the room. “And we should check the water.”

Can she see from here if there’s soap at the sink, and if there’s something that could look like a ‘don’t drink this water’ symbol?

If Genna can’t see, she’ll walk right over and check.

There is soap at the sink, in a plastic dispenser. There are no signs to be seen inside the bathroom, certainly not one that could be interpreted to say anything about the water being undrinkable.

“Soap yes, warnings on water no.” 

And, did she see a book over there? Yes she did. She checks the book for having contents, then brings it over.

Books are good. Information is good.

They look at the book together.

It shows off everyday life in thomassia: there are vast open courtyards, surrounded by skyscrapers. There are short mini-trains, rolling on subway tracks. There are tractors, plowing vast fields. There are planes, flying far above the earth. And above all else, there's a mom, showing her love for a baby. Feeding the baby. Bringing it on trips through the city. And the system of sensors letting the nurses keep an eye on the baby, even as the mother is asleep.

Is this the kind of picture book that makes role signifiers extra obvious in the pictures? Looks like it's not. Ah well.