Giving birth is awesome. All the points, all the stars, she is seriously tempted by a new career path here. Which does have the advantage of being compatible with several other career paths. She's glad she had the kind of twins that cooperated with coming out the traditional way; she's pretty sure they don't let you do the other one without drugs, maybe even if your dom said to.

She kind of wishes the hospital watches would hit her with a switch like normal already, even though at the moment it would not get to be fun, because the alternative is just being able to tell that they really want to. She has some suspicion that the reason she and Genna have been left alone right now is that someone is hoping that if Genna is left alone with her long enough Genna'll change her mind and let them hit her with a switch.

Anyway, babies. Outside and not inside. At some point that has got to stop feeling like a real novelty, but at the moment - seriously, babies. Her body made them and everything. Humans do not think enough about how crazy being human is.

Nobody is giving signs of needing to eat more right now (more stuff her body just makes! For real!), so she gets back to learning to tell the twins apart while they're dressed. There's Crescent Moon, there's Tuesday. They're not going to have the colored markers forever.

And then something large and strange and not quite in real colors appears in the room and swallows them all.

They randomly appear on a rooftop, standing above a huge courtyard. They must be some ridiculous distance above the ground; there are skyscrapers all around. It's dark enough that it's tough to see anything, but the full moon and some rays of light coming from skyscraper windows lets the two of them at least see the roof they're standing on under them.

...Ok you got her that is weirder than human baby production.

Anything around where the obvious thing to do would be to get the twins out of the way and throw herself in front of it? Current verdict: no.

She somehow tried to shield both Light-coming and Anais and the twins with her body. (She didn't even enlist - who does she think she is, Special Agent Spring?). For a moment it feels like this has to be Anais's household (-Anais's former household), somehow. That doesn't in reality make sense on any level.

Light-coming somehow slept through that. (Yes, slept, yes, she's breathing). 

The twins were not asleep and they have noticed that Something Happened and they don't like it!

She'll take - Moon, she thinks - from Anais, quickly. She hasn't held the twins much yet but it's probably not very different.

And she'll try to calm down Tuesday. And look around. What exactly are they standing on? Is the fact that they're outside and also in hospital clothing about to become a problem? Does there seem to be anyone or anything around that's noticed them?

They're standing on top of some kind of rubbery plastic. It's warm and soft and feels amazing to the touch, but it's also very cold and dark. And it's probably only going to get even colder. Nobody seems to have noticed them or to react in any way; someone daring to look down might be able to see a few people walking around on the streets, far, far below the mysterious group on the skyscraper.

It's not that cold, closer to chilly. That's still too cold. 

If they were going to land on a roof at least it's the kind of roof that's somewhat intended to have people on it. Unless that's meant to be crueler.

Tuesday settles down. Moon has also stopped crying. She gives Tuesday to Genna. "Gonna go look over."

They're in a city, it makes sense for Anais to be the one to do that. If something is going to happen it's not really likely to be someone suddenly attacking just whoever walks some feet away. Some part of her still doesn't like it. She takes Tuesday, carefully. Tries to somehow watch the twins and Light-coming and Anais walking to the railing at the same time.

She looks over the railing. Streets, handy to know this place has those too. And those figures down there do look like something that looks like people at this distance, and not, say, giant crabs.

Also they are definitely not getting down this way.

She walks back. Takes Tuesday again. Relays these pieces of information.

"Whoever put us here has very good aim."

She's looking at the buildings and the sky. "I think here's where Dr. Z's girl says the real good aim is we're not in the sky or inside the planet, even if no one's counting space. ...Think they both have the point in this one though."

(It keeps hitting her somewhere else - she hasn't seen the show in years, she hasn't thought about it. Hadn't thought about it since she would have laughed with everyone else.

Does Anais think she'd hit her? Does Anais think she might have hit her if Anais had just said it? It's not really a real question. It shouldn't be. But - she could, now. Any time she just decided to.)

That's not the point right now. "If they want us to think about their aim -" she doesn't know how to finish that.

"We're going to- we should figure out what to do right now, first."

"Good point, officer." She breaks off in the middle of trying to see if she recognizes constellations. She's almost sure she had more astronomy than Genna, but it was never exactly her top priority in classes.

Speaking of recognizing things and roofs intended to have people on them - how is this roof on obvious places where such people would be going in and out to the building?

There aren't any familiar constellations in the sky, it just looks like the tars are spread out in a completely random hodgepodge. Looking around does reveal a handle in the floor; anyone trying to lift it would see that it's unexpectedly light, giving a faint view of a corridor down some stairs.

Even if she kept looking, she probably doesn’t have enough astronomy to be sure, but she’s definitely not seeing anything she recognizes. She tells Genna both these things.

It won’t occur to her right away to check the floor (ground?), but she’ll get there when nothing else looks to be around. …That is definitely great news but not exactly ideal right now, is there by any chance a floor elevator anywhere along with the floor stairs?

(She doesn’t know more astronomy than she picked up here or there. She looks at the sky briefly anyway.)

There is, barely visible against the dark night, a relatively wide room on one corner of the ceiling. Stepping closer reveals a button that's similarly tough to see in the darkness; it sure looks like an elevator button.

That sure looks like an elevator button but they've sure been dumped on a mysterious roof by what didn't look like it belonged in the laws of physics, so she's going to press it and check.

(There's no reason to think pressing whatever that is is more of a risk than stepping on any next part of the roof. She still in some way wants to tell Anais not to touch it. She doesn't; doesn't tell Anais to stop and come back.)

Eventually, an elevator makes its way up. The door opening and revealing the blindingly white interior blinds Anais for a moment. It's quite a bit larger and more spacious than a normal elevator, that's for sure. There are just 2 rows of buttons on the elevator, one for each digit; it looks like they're in a building 60-something stories in height.

She pressed the button, but she is aware that she is (sadly) very injurable and that that is currently undesirable for multiple extra reasons. So she'd also stepped to the side, in case the looks-like-an-elevator-button did not call an elevator or called the kind of movie elevator that people with guns get out of.

She's still a bit blinded. She blinks. Well that is some high contrast lighting but it does look like high contrast lighting in an elevator. She steps partially in, looks at the side one can't see from outside. Can't read the digits, or whatever else the writing by the buttons might be. Good to know. She can notice that there aren't enough buttons for the number of floors she'd expect from that look down. Maybe they like their floors with very high ceilings, or part of the building is private. Or the other way around and the roof is private.

She walks back to Genna again.

Genna is trying to keep everyone warm enough. And to not sway on her feet. (She didn't enlist, but she can do that much). She should have slept more at the hospital. At some point.

(Anais has had a bit less time with the kids outside her body, and is also great at sleep deprivation. On the receiving end.)

"Does still look like an elevator from over there, officer.

On one hand, if someone wanted us trapped in a box they could have just put us in the box. And here we are, trapped on a roof." 

On the other hand, that doesn't mean things can't get worse than this. She nods.

"I could go down the stairs, try to call the elevator from there. If there's somewhere for that. Ride up and get you."

She thinks about it. (She doesn't like thinking about it, but. That's what she's for.) Nods again. 

Then she will try going down the trapdoor stairs.

The trapdoor stairs lead into a narrow corridor, with many doors leading off from it. Including the elevator door, quite clearly. It probably does, in fact, work as an elevator?

She is not at this moment going to start knocking on random doors, but she definitely noticed their presence. 

Alright, step 1: check for obvious 'you are on this floor' symbology around and memorize it. Step 2: she can't read any symbology but is the up button above the down button or are they represented with arrows or anything convenient like that? Step 3: call the elevator.

The elevators use up and down buttons, with the sides of an equilateral triangle pointing up and above a similar triangle pointing down. She can't find any signs indicating which floor she's on, though. Until she steps into the elevator, and sees two... symbols, on the LCD screen, indicating which floor she's on. She recognizes one of the symbols on the elevator buttons, and notices that the second symbol is one step below another symbol... presumably, the symbol of the floor that the roof is on?

Convenient!

She half-steps into the elevator again. LCD screens work for her just fine. Interesting how they seem to do this; she's not 100% sure of the details but she's interested. Was that second pair of symbols by any chance one she would have seen on the LCD screen when she was on the roof? If it is, she presses that pair, and if nothing unexpected suddenly happens, steps fully into the elevator with the air of someone cheerfully jumping from a challenging height.

Yes, indeed, pressing the pair of symbols that she saw on the LCD screen on the roof, leads to the elevator taking her up one floor, where she's able to get a look at Genna as it opens again after heading up to the roof.

Like Anais had pointed out, if someone wanted them dead, or imprisoned, or most other things, there's more reason to think they could have done it before this. She's still relieved when the elevator opens on Anais.

Between the two of them and Anais holding the elevator, they can get everyone into it. And try to shield the babies from the light, and mostly calm down Moon and Tuesday again after. (Light-coming has managed to sleep through all of this too. Was she herself like that as a baby? Not any way to know.)

On one hand, the obvious place to go is all the way down, since they know for sure there are people there. On the other hand she doesn't know for sure how to tell what buttons mean that, and also then they'll be outside again.

Somewhat incredibly, this actually seems like a practical use case for pressing all the elevator buttons. She does that.

Moon apparently likes the sensation of elevators. (Tuesday does not!)

The elevator heads down maybe 3 or 4 floors, before opening and revealing a woman, dressed in a practical all-white outfit and wearing a mask with a transparent film, walking around. She turns and looks at Genna and Anais with confusion, instinctively waving at them.

If the mask is a signifier that's going to be pretty weird, though she's not getting a role read yet so she doesn't even know whose signifier it would be. No collar, no bracelet-cuffs, no anything else like that, that's the only kind of thing that even has a strong preponderance of going one way and mostly not the other that she remembers. 

Well, no reason for them to prefer any people they encounter over any other people they might encounter, yes reason to hurry up. She looks to Genna, partially because appearances.

She knows less about role signifiers across the world, but she knows they're not the same everywhere. They're not even the same in all the neighboring countries. Of course she doesn't know the etiquette here. She takes a non-threatening this-is-mine stance. Nods to Anais. (She knows what Anais is doing, and she doesn't like it, but even everything else aside the ways etiquette goes wrong for doms is worse and there's nothing she can do about it being true.) 

She stops the elevator with her body again, bows to Genna, then bows to woman. (She has no information about their greeting norms other that waving like that may be part of some of them somehow, but she's had international and historical etiquette and she is not off the top of her head coming up with many places where bowing was disrespectful or threatening as opposed to just not the local thing.)

"Giving regard, my mistress and I and our newly-born children were brought here against her will in a way she and I had not known existed. May I ask where she and we find ourselves?" No she's not really expecting the woman to understand her, but who knows maybe they have universal translators or magic translation or cameras and omniglots. 

She is just confused by Genna's gesturing. She also has no idea whatsoever about what Anais is saying. There's a probably a minute of two of silent, awkward waiting. Then she closes her eyes and tries thinking about what to do, noting the babies that the strangers are carrying. Finally, she makes her decision. She grabs a phone from her pocket, starts a very quick phone call, and steps into the elevator with the 2 strangers.

She pushes a pair of buttons, the elevator rapidly taking them down probably 15 or so stories, before they end up in another corridor quite like the one that they came from. She motions for Genna and Anais to follow her, as she opens door, revealing an incredibly spacious and comfortable bedroom, with a crib tucked against one of the bed's corners. She motions for them to enter, smiling and trying to be as reassuring as possible.

They don't interrupt. 

Tuesday interrupts and causes most of the two minutes to be less than silent, at which point Moon joins in with that. 

But no one expects etiquette off babies, that one's universal. She takes them both, since one of them should have their hands free and now that there's a person here already seeing both of them that should be Genna. Shh-shh-shh. (Looks like no universal translators or magic everyone has, omniglots behind cameras and other more specialized individuals to be determined.)

(You know she'd never really thought about whether babies would be obviously babies on sight even if the locals are really human-looking elemental spirits who reproduce with spores or something. It feels like it would be obvious, but it would feel that way wouldn't it.)

Still no role read but in etiquette class they had some movies selected for that, so she knows it ever happens even without possibilities of elemental spirits. She keeps being obvious about the checking-with-Genna and otherwise goes with what the local woman seems to be gesturally suggesting.

She had less comprehensive etiquette class and not getting the role read feels much more strange, but today it's still many steps down, in feeling that way. Fortunately, one basic standard is, to her knowledge, basically universal across all etiquettes and roles - they give the local space in the elevator. She tries a little to figure out something from how the local is gesturing, but she's not surprised that she can't. She can't even be sure the local has realized they're not both the same role-side, or who is who, for all that Anais is doing to try to show it.

She answers Anais's silent checks. She goes where is being shown to them.

She can't help the bite of fear when she sees what's in the room. That's not practical - most people don't take children away for experimentation. Even Anais's household would never have tried to give another household's children away for it. And it's not helpful. They can't run as they are and they can't fight as they are and this is absolutely obvious so there isn't very much reason to deceive them.

Unfortunately, how doms can show gratitude, let along to someone of unclear role, is not universal at all and even she knows that. She does her best to be obvious about indicating for Anais to do that.

Does this building apparently being at least partially hotel indicate that whatever put them there might have been more friendly, she hasn't an idea.

(Does high-class etiquette cover bowing while literally holding babies, absolutely). She bows again. "Giving regard, my mistress gives gratitude for the hospitality." (Etiquette practices without knowing role: also covered! She can complain about all sorts of things in etiquette class, but not so much comprehensiveness.)

The woman shrugs after hearing Anais speaking again, and raises her hands in a gesture of confusion and uncertainty. Then she walks around the bedroom, opening a door leading into a large bathroom. It has a positively huge changing table, together with a shower in an unusually large shower cabinet, a toilet, and a pair of sinks. She nods at the two adults, before tapping on her phone.

She shows them an image: it depicts a weary-looking kangaroo embracing a baby kangaroo with both arms, surrounded by other kangaroos holding all sorts of baby equipment: bottles, wipes, diapers, pacifiers, baby clothes and everything else. They're clearly meant to be supporting the weary one with her hands full with the baby. She taps her phone a few more times, revealing a picture showing an exhausted mother handing off her baby to an obviously caring nurse who embraces it lovingly in both of her arms. Then she nods at the two adults again.

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.

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.

She takes some phonetic notes and tries to acquire the full collection. Once she’s far enough along, she’ll attempt some confirmation with the local, pointing to each symbol in her notes and pronouncing what she’s noted down.

Light-coming, meanwhile, takes this moment to finally wake up. And announce this loudly!

She puts Tuesday down in the new crib and quickly picks up Light-coming. The hospital clothes of course were designed for this; a quick and easy motion is all that’s between her and starting to feed Light-coming.

(It will not occur to her that there might be a reason to do something other than that.)

Is Tuesday ok in the crib? For the moment looks like yes. She’ll be checking, but that shouldn’t preclude continuing with the language lesson. (If Genna wanted her to do some other thing she’d say so.) 

(Anais has had a broader education on cultural variation, but this did not include any cultures differing on this point in particular, and it won’t independently occur to her either.)

The woman nods approvingly at Anais, confirming that she undertands the way that the symbols work. She doesn't acknowledge Genna starting to feed Light-coming in any way, as she quietly tries teaching Anais the words she'd need to read the children's book. After a second of thought, she reads one of the sentences from it, and motions for Anais to repeat after her. As Anais reads, the woman finds pictures on her phone, helping her star to understand the meaning of each word as it's being read.