"...I think so. It's important."

"Alright," she agrees.

She lifts their platform from the grass and guides it back through the iris and into orbit. They accelerate, and the moon grows in the sky. A moment later, they descend through a surface access shaft, and end up in one of the professional worriers' disposable meeting rooms.

There's a woman waiting for them behind a heavy oak conference table (which can be tipped over and sheltered behind in an emergency). She is wearing fashionable black clothing (stab resistant), and taking notes in an actual physical notebook (also black) with an actual physical pen.

"Hello," she says. "I'm Jupiter Jones. I'm told that you have information to share about your world of origin. Is that right?"

She nods.

"I don't remember anything, but I... expect things. Different things seem normal to me than to people here. So I think it's probably important to find out as much as you can about what my expectations are, so that if you find the world I came from, you'll know more about what it's like there."

She nods.

"I agree," she responds. She avoids commenting about how she wanted to talk to the alien an hour ago, and also that they need to re-build their procedures to consider aliens with amnesia, which is obvious in hindsight. A lot of things are obvious in hindsight, which is why her job looks much easier than it is.

"I'm glad you feel able to share. Please let me know when you require a break. Tell me, what do you remember surprising you so far? We can start with those things, and then I have a list of scenarios to ask you about."

Sandalwood sits out of the way, just close enough to be preset if their visitor wants her, and far away enough not to be obtrusive.

Then she jumps to another body, keeping only a sliver of attention on this one, so that she can debrief, get caught up on the progress the physicists have made, and take a bit of a break. First contact is stressful.

"Well..."

She casts her mind back to those first few too-bright moments.

"I was surprised that it was so bright but I'm not sure that's relevant, it hasn't seemed surprising since then. I was surprised that... Sandalwood didn't think I should belong to anyone. Me belonging to someone seems obvious to me. The... way you use words around people, um, pronouns, that thing, was strange. I was surprised that Sandalwood thought of me as a person. I was surprised about... someone appearing in a flash of light being unprecedented, or sort of unprecedented. But I was surprised about making something out of nothing being so easy for you, too... I was surprised by... a lot of things. I might not remember them all. I was really surprised by computers, and chemistry. Oh! I was surprised that people here don't have souls. The surprising thing about chemistry is that changing one thing into another doesn't change how much of it there is or what kinds. I'm used to changing one thing into another mostly happening in ways that do change those things. Oh, I was surprised by the way this world uses money... it was pretty alarming to find out that I had money even though I'm not sure I'm the sort of thing that should own things."

She nods and takes efficient notes.

"Let's dig into those in more detail. Can you describe what it means for an entity like yourself to belong someone? Be specific. What does that mean generally, but also how does that relationship function day to day? How is it begun? How can it change over time? How is it ended?"

"I think... I think I was made to be the way that I am, and I'm supposed to keep being that way forever. I'm supposed to do what my owner wants, and make sure she never has to worry about things like food, and... protect her? I think I'm supposed to protect her, but I don't remember how..."

"What would you be protecting her from?" Jupiter asks, flipping to a fresh page.

She also intends to ask about what would happen if her owner died, but that would potentially be upsetting, so it's better to get other information first.

She closes her eyes, brow furrowed in concentration. "...other people? I think? Or... something else... not people. Something like... what's the danger when you're in a place that's not very populated and something bad might happen unexpectedly? Maybe you don't have that danger here..."

"Perhaps we do and perhaps we don't. I don't want to influence your answer. What things make that danger more or less likely? What is the worst, average, and best outcome from encountering that danger?"

Handling the case where the alien is lying is not her department (she will double-check their work later), but she can't help but spend a moment thinking that it's such a specific set of things the alien does and does not recall. It's curious.

"...I don't know what makes it more or less likely. Being alone makes it more dangerous. The worst thing that can happen is that you die. I'm not sure what the best thing is... the best thing might be that you're fine and no one gets hurt. I'm not sure how to imagine the average..."

"That's fine," she replies. "What precautions do people commonly take against the danger, other than not being alone?"

"...getting better at magic. So you can... fight them off?"

And that is much more specific information than she had supplied previously. Interesting.

"What techniques or approaches work best for fighting them off?" she asks, making a note to come back to more general magic questions. She doesn't want to change the topic when it looks like asking more specific questions is getting her more specific answers.

Her frown of concentration is getting ever fiercer. "...I don't know. It's... just blank, how protecting someone works, how fighting works. I think... I think, different people, have different things they can do, with magic, and a lot of different things all work for fighting? But I don't know anything about what I could do."

"Understandable. Let's stop discussing that and come back to it later. What are common things that people do with magic? Both general areas of expertise, and specific day-to-day uses."

"Um." She tries to think. "...hat...? I don't know why I'm thinking about hats. Clothing. I think maybe most people have magic to do with clothing? I think..." Her little wooden face scrunches up. "...changing one thing into another is magic. Moving long distances quickly is magic. I think... I'm not sure what else. Um. Something with cauldrons... something with... writing...?"

She takes notes on each of these to come back to.

"Let's talk about clothing," she begins. Normally, this wouldn't be this high on her priority list next to magic, but apparently the clothing has to do with the magic.

"What would an average person wear on a typical day? Describe their outfit in detail."