"Oh! Uh, I added some vinegar with salt and sugar. I read about this as a method for preparing rice for sushi (sushi is a dish of sliced raw fish and rice in its simplest form, but has a bunch of variations thereof) but I really like it in general."

"Huh! Maybe you can try making 'sushi' sometime! I was under the impression that raw meat is generally a bad idea."

"Uhhhhh.

It is, but if I remember correctly, fish used for sushi has some way of making it safe? They freeze it, I think, to kill any parasites. And raw meat, well, meat from land animals, is less safe, but there are still some dishes that use it, I think. Sushi is a lot more common. I'm not sure what separates the two? Probably Eifwen has some methods for making raw fish safe to eat for those who want to as well, I wouldn't know."

"Yeah I'm sure that exists but I have no idea how it works."

Celene finishes eating.

Alright, what does she want to do now?

Hmmm.

She'd ideally like to get her own source of income as soon as possible so that she's not, like, imposing herself on Summer. And also so she can not have to worry about going through Summer for everything.

There's basic income, right? Does she qualify for that? She'll grab the tablet and go over to the couch. 

Ugh.

Hmmm.

It'd be nice if she could cuddle with Summer. She's feeling kind of lonely.

Celene will lie facedown with her arms and knees tucked under her on the couch for a few minutes to see if Summer somehow discerns this and comes over to hug her. Or something.

Summer does not understand what this means.

She will go also curl up into a ball like Celene did, on the other side of the couch.

Celene opens her eyes when she feels Summer move onto the couch.

What the heck.

Um. No one has ever done that before. She wasn't particularly expecting anything to happen.

Celene waves to Summer, then turns and logs into the tablet.

SEARCH: "how to get basic income"

Hi! Summer waves back.

Basic income should just show up in your bank account. If that isn't happening, something weird is going on and you will probably have to ask a person for help with it, sorry.

Aww.

Ok, that's pretty reasonable probably everyone is registered some way or other and it's an exception if you aren't. Still, in the US you could just fill out a form or write an email or call them or something (generally, unfortunately, the answer is "call them") but-

Wait.

"ask a person for help" doesn't imply "you have to be there in person" in this case, does it?

Are there like contact options listed for who you should talk to?

Probably text the bank?

What is "the bank." The bank you have an account with? What if you don't have one of these?

Also, what if you don't have a phone- actually "text" probably does not imply "you need a phone number" here and also even if it does there are probably services that allow you to get a phone number without a phone, just like on Earth.

...Okay yeah we could've phrased that translation to English better, sorry. No, you don't need a phone, that's just the word for sending an informal typed message. And we mean the central bank. Though if you have some other bank account probably you could also text them and they can talk to the central bank for you.

Huh. Does this imply that most people bank with the central bank? What are the economic implications of that?

Let's see, banks provide a cushion between the central bank and the individual, they can federally insure deposits, something something correspondence banking, the feds can manipulate the flow of money by changing interest rates on the banks....

Yeah, she's not economically literate enough to remember why this system exists or what the implications would be of changing it.

Ok, well.

She probably shouldn't do that? She doesn't want to cause a collision problem and jam up their system, like, for example, if she gets a new entry in the records, and Emergency Services finds it and concludes that she already existed, or if they get information about her situation and submit a duplicate report to Emergency Services, or something like that.

We're not that bad at dealing with this sort of issue but understandable to worry about it a little.

She'll turn to Summer then.

Hmm. She isn't actually sure if it's appropriate to ask Emergency Services to set up basic income for her in this situation? It probably isn't the top priority in her case?

Well, Celene's problem is that Providence doesn't know she exists. Neither does Nucleus, for that matter. They gotta go register her—this is gonna require a trip down to an office, if you could do it all online it'd be too easy to double your UBI by registering a fake person.

"Did Emergency Services mention what the next steps we should take are?"

"—Emergency Services didn't give any real specific directions, but I did tell them we'd try a DNA test soon. It's getting a bit late, though, so that could wait for tomorrow."

"Ah! Okay. Sure, I can do that tomorrow."

She yawns. It is getting a bit late.

"Uh, mind if I sleep on your couch tonight?"