Do the mom and baby have more apparent family or household? Are there any indication of why the baby has nurses? Are they servants?

A picture books is probably not the best medium for trying to figure out what all these sensors are and what's happening with them, but they're going to try.

The mom and baby are in a household with 2 other women and 2 men, raising a dozen other babies. The baby gets an equal amount of attention from all five of the parents. The nurses are for responding to the sensors, presumably keeping the baby safe? It only says there are "sensors", not really what those sensors do.

They can see a whole household and she still can’t figure out any roles or signifiers. (Are any more of them wearing the transparent masks?) 

That’s a lot of babies! Also ok they probably do the specializing in kids here. That’s still a lot of babies! 

“Think they’re inducing multiples or getting the cousins?” 

She’s looking at the nurses and sensors again. “Science work?” 

Her arms tighten on Tuesday a little. Her eyes go to Moon and Light-coming. (Most people don't take other households’ children. It wouldn’t even make sense to take completely random other households’ children for some science work.)

“That would explain it! Maybe about multiples.” She looks back at some other pages. “Would fit with the rest of this.” She hums one of the common ‘technological might of our country’ patriotic/propaganda songs. Of their new country; she’s picked a few up even beyond the ones she’d heard before.

They can’t read any sensor labels, but if nothing pressing comes up just now she will stretch out on the bed (body still touching Genna’s) and try to figure out anything she can about this writing system. Character based? Phonetic? Any obvious common patterns?

(She’s worried if she lies down she’ll just black out. She listens to Anais’s commentary, feels Anais beside her.)

None of the parents in the household are in transparent masks. The writing system is character-based, but it is strikingly... efficient. The letters are usually just simple lines or curves, or a few lines in patterns, and they form very neat almost-squares on the page.

The woman walks back in, pushing a crib on some kind of cart. She also holds a blue measuring tape, pointing it slightly at the babies. Then she makes a slight nod at the two women.

So that's probably neither a role signifier nor just common wear. What is local common wear, from these data points they have?

She starts trying to collate the symbology but then starts running out of memory. She does know a lot of memory strategies, but does she - she does have a little notebook and pen, thank you past her. 

She's absolutely keeping enough awareness to jump up when the door opens. Bows a greeting. Conversational implicature, check. (Being friendly or really want to give the impression, continued continued).

"Crib!" She bows again, deeper, with some gratitude body language that she knows pops up in a few cultures and might be convergent evolution, because why not, and some prominent pleased nonverbals.

She stays seated. If they get offended that's important to know. That might be a rationalization. 

Something pointed at the babies will successfully jolt her more alert. What is the local doing or trying to do?

The adults in the children's book wear what look like either workout clothes or short skirts, the men and women both; women wear skirts more, but men also have them on. The nurse moves the crib into the room. Then she looks at the two women, before very slowly and obviously moving to start taking measurements of the children.

If short skirts aren't just for doms that might have some implications but who knows for now! 

She'll see if the local looks to want help with the crib or looks to want to set it up herself. She looks to Genna with respect to the question of if she should try to do anything about the measuring.

Does the local's practical all-white outfit have anything in common with the clothes in the book?

She tries to think through why the local would be measuring -

"Think it might be for sizing? She brought the crib, cribs are more one size fits all than some kangaroo supplies."

Right. There aren't diapers or clothing in the room. They already know the locals know. (A measuring tape doesn't mean experiments.) They've already decided and let the local hold Moon. She gives affirmatives about letting the local go ahead. She watches.

Anais, who absolutely has this memorized, starts trying to use some hand gestures about sizes and weights, and more holding up fingers, to convey everyone's measures. In their own measuring system, obviously, but that should help them and the locals compare. She also tries to get a look at the tape measure. (Partially also because it'd be good to know if the local will get annoyed about that.)

The all-white outfit doesn't look much like what anyone is wearing in the children's book. She proceeds, putting the crib in the room and getting measurements of the babies. The tape measure is round, blue, and with a blue tape. She very gently uses it to take measurements of the babies, occasionally looking over at Anais in confusion. It doesn't take particularly long for the measurement to get done, which is followed by her making a phone appear seemingly from nowhere and tapping it a few times very rapidly. She smiles and nods at them, before showing them a picture of a baby in an all-white onesie on her phone, with a bunch of text with information on the baby clothes' features.

Sure, sure, but can she see what the units of measure on it are like. Also, numbers, which are likely to be in order starting from 0! 

She resists the impulse to keep doing what she’s doing and see if confusion lasting long enough turns into something else, and instead attempts to reduce confusion by pointing at the tape measure’s ticks and demonstrably counting on her fingers.

That’s a neat trick! Also she’d like to get a look at the mini tablet but she’s not going to try that now.

Does she need to communicate that they can’t read the text or is that obvious? She attempts to communicate this by pointing at the text, then opening the picture book and holding it upside-down. (For which she conveniently doesn’t need to be able to read if, since it has pictures). And she furnishes an image description for Genna again.

The measuring tape has relatively small units on it; the smallest ticks on it are one-quarter the length of someone's thumb, with longer ticks every 6 and every 36 points apart. The numbers are unfamiliar, but it doesn't take long to see the numbers going from 0 to 5. The woman nods when seeing Anais holding the book upside down, before thinking for a moment. Then she finds a picture of a dog with several letters under it, showing it to the 2 women. She nods slightly, before moving to an image of a cat with another few letters under that.

Ooh, seximal? She attempts to copy down the numbers.

She’s not completely sure what the local is getting at, but she will 1) try to see if that looks like the writing in the book, 2) See if she can recognize any symbols in particular as ones she’s seen earlier, and 3) point between the symbols on the screen and the symbols in the book and look questioning.

The writing does look like the writing from the book, although the symbols are new. She looks up various words that are in the book on her phone, helping the 2 women learn the language slowly. She's extremely excited to learn to be able to communicate with the women, as she teaches them the words in the book one word at a time.

‘Impromptu language lesson’ was in fact one of her larger guesses for what the local might be getting at.

She is going to actually check with Genna before she telegraphs checking with Genna. Image descriptions, continued, and inferences thereof. “Mind acquiring a translator, officer? As in me.”

She should work on the language too, of course, if they’re not whisked back like they were whisked here, security familiarity. And then the rest. She won’t match Anais at this stage of it, and she’ll study better with materials. It doesn’t have to be now. Unless it will determine their safety almost immediately, she’s not sure it can be now.

“Thank you.”

Then she will be very obvious about bowing at Genna and non-verballing (and verballing, because the local to their knowledge doesn’t understand them but can almost definitely hear whether or not they’re talking) the ‘I am at your command’ and getting said command and ‘her mistresses’s choice of where to put language knowledge is ‘her’’ and ‘she will be serving her mistress by translating.’

And then she can get back to the local. Can she get the local to pronounce the words, assuming they aren’t written-only? How pronounceable does she find them? (She has a good range of phonemes but not literally all of them). Will this help her figure out if the symbols correspond to sounds at all?

After hearing Anais speak a few words, the woman starts reading out the letters she's showing Anais herself. The syllables are all very short, very distinct, and very easy to pronounce. A few times, very different syllables come right after each other, which is a bit tough to pronounce; but the symbols correspond perfectly to the pronunciation. Anais will find that the language isn't very hard to learn at all.