A Lost boy somehow gets even more lost.
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"Good to know." Not a useful one for him, though he could possibly ask a wide set of questions to the "better traveled" researchers. "What else?"

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"They've got people who study animals and fish and plants. Got a department about the weather and the way rounds move. There's some who study all the religions, those ones travel too."

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Before, Blenn had his attention. Now he has his interest. "Those all sound like the sort of people I'd want to talk to, for sure. Could you... say something about the last one? I haven't heard much about it around here, yet."

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"Religions? Well, I don't know where you're from but hereabouts it's mostly Fortunite sects and there's some Celebratory Animists."

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"I guess I should maybe talk to the researchers," he says. "Don't want to take too much of your time. But I haven't heard of either of those. Any basics you could share? Or places here where I could learn more?" Hopefully ones with lots of singing.

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"Wow, I thought Celebratory Animists were everywhere. They think everything's a little bit alive, a little bit aware, maybe has a little bit of personality, and they like to have a festival about something or other going all the time to be friendly to it, so you get them all being like, 'yay for fish' followed by 'yay for grass'. Fortunites are about luck, but the different kinds are all different, I'm a Good Merit type myself but if I just explain that and then you bring my explanation to a Cyclic they'll think you got it all wrong."

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"I'll keep your explanation to myself unless I meet another Good Merit type. Besides, it's useful getting different people's views of each other, when trying to understand everyone."

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"The Cyclics believe in reincarnation and think that being a good person in one life means you'll have an easier time in the next and vice versa if you're bad, or something like that? Sometimes they get evasive if you try to pin them down more than that. Good Merit is more about luck coming back to you. If you're somebody else's luck, somebody'll be yours."

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It's easier to fill in the vocab gaps now, and he mentally counts one theory of an afterlife, sort of, and no mention of a god. He's half expecting some mention of fae, or Outsiders, or godlike beings instead, but he imagines it would be beneficial for whoever someone seeded this world's religions to avoid those topics.

"Does Celebratory Animists imply... non-Celebratory Animists? And how do Fortunites know which acts bring good luck or bad, or a better next life or worse?"

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"There are non-Celebratory ones somewhere, yeah, but not around here. The way I reckon it with what brings good luck is if I do someone a good turn, like talking to you about the stuff you want to know, I'm making there be a little more luck in the world and it'll reflect back onto me. You'd have to talk to a Cyclic about how they figure this persists across lives, though sometimes they do think they know who somebody used to be, they do a fair amount of trying on purpose to make new people be old ones over again."

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"I'm definitely thankful I've found you to help me make sense of some things." He wonders if he can finally ask some questions about the whole "making people" thing, and get direct answers. He doesn't want to reveal his ignorance of something so basic to the world, or mislead the friendly man (the exposed feeling twinges, gaping like a hole beneath his feet for a moment) but...

"What are all the things they pick, when trying to build someone's 'next life?' The same skills, I'm guessing, and...?"

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"They don't need the same skills, just the same personality. But a lot of personality is incommunicable - sometimes people can't even figure themselves out so well - so inevitably they miss things, you know? They just get exactly what you'd expect from somebody making someone new to be a copy of a dead person. It just seems like a weird coping mechanism to me."

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He frowns slightly. "Yeah." It just seems sad, to him, but more importantly... what does it mean to pick their "personality?" Is there a dial someone's setting for each emotion, or is it more like picking from a list of horoscope-like labels?

"Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but that seems like a pretty basic mistake. If they just pick the same personality traits, but not the same skills, it seems likely their personality would change a lot just from that, not to mention their experiences afterward. Has anyone tried making the exact same person, with all the same things they can, in the same sort of environment?"

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"Like just making two people from the same spec? You have to wait like a week in between so you couldn't get it that exact but maybe somebody's tried it."

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These people are definitely not smarter than him.

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Huh. Guess that comment from Chesabit dug deeper than he thought.

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He should be a bit less presumptive, probably. For all he knows people try it all the time, and the fae intervene to mess with the attempt, and their memory.

Though that seems... expensive. And like a lot of micromanaging. The one week cooldown is an interesting point, maybe that helps, though he's curious how obviously artificial it is to others around here.

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"Maybe. I really appreciate your help, by the way." But he should probably get going, if he wants to talk to the captain. "Maybe I'll talk with you more later, especially if the captain likes my gifts." He shows him the eggs, and the flowers. If this would be considered a 'bribe,' and be a bad idea, he's hoping to get told ahead of trying.

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"Oh, did you hollow out some eggs for her?"

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"Not yet, I was planning to see if she'd like them first." As he says it, he realizes this probably is not the best way to present a potential gift. "I guess I should just go ahead with it."

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"She might, I'm not good at predicting that."

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"Still probably better than me, since you know her." Also since he hasn't given anyone a gift in years; there's bound to be some things he's not considering in how to do this all well, even aside from the cultural differences. "Anyway, thanks again." He smiles and hands over enough money to cover a drink.

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"Hope to see you on the ship!" says Blenn, and off he goes.

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Danny is off himself, to visit a certain glassworker with a certain pot of ever-changing stew. Would they by chance pay a money in exchange for the contents of three small eggs for the pot?

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"Only if it's still got yolk, I don't like trying to debone chicks."

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