"Alright ... what are the other colors? All the security had grey hair ... I'm assuming that's part of this caste thing, too?"

"Yup, grey is the caste for security and military and athletics. You might have seen the purple who drove us here, most Amentans are purple, they also do farming and construction and manufacturing of various sorts. You're less likely to run into oranges - doctors, nurses, teachers - or yellows - programming, clerical work."

"Okay, that seems easy enough to remember. Grey is security and athletics, purple is labor, blue is government, green is academia and art, yellow is clerical, and orange is doctors and teachers." She lists them off on her fingers as she talks. "Is there no red? And they're inherited, right? It's not like you choose a job and then spend your life dying your hair? What happens if a yellow wants to be an actor? Or does that just ... not happen somehow?"

"There is red but they're rare and you won't meet any," says Papenna, waving a hand. "And they're inherited, though some people do have throwback colors or mixed ancestry and those need dye. Nothing's stopping a yellow from doing amateur theater, it's just the professionals who are greens."

Hel accepts this with a nod, even though it sounds strange to her.

"Cool. So ... what next? I can keep answering questions if you want, or ... you said I could choose a room to stay in?"

"You can!" agrees Kato. "And it would be totally understandable if you wanted to decompress - or go to sleep, I have no idea what time zone you're coming from, please don't let us overtax you with our excitement."

"That actually sounds nice - getting to decompress a bit, I mean. I don't think it's fully set in that I'm in a different universe. Where are the rooms?"

Kato takes her on a little tour of the house. There's an elevator in addition to the stairs.

Hel looks for a room with a window seat or a bay window (or both!), somewhere she can sit near and see outside. 

There are window seats in two of the bedrooms on the second floor! One has a tree right up against it, the other has a bit more depth of field to the view.

She chooses the one with more depth of field.

"Would it be a lot of trouble to ask for some more, like, pillows and blankets?"

"Not at all!" says Kato, and he finds the linen closet. "Are you cold, do you want the thermostat turned up too?"

"No, the temperature is fine, I just ... like having a lot of blankets and pillows. I tend to make ... well someone called them 'nests' at one point, and it seems like the best description."

"Is that typical?" asks Papenna, helping unload the spare blankets and pillows from the closet.

"I don't think so. I mean, some monsters are bird-like and they make nests, but it's not common outside of them. I'm just weird."

"I'm probably going to ask you that a lot," Papenna says. "Since there's only one of you and I can't tell by observation."

She chuckles, "I know. It's your job, right? I'll try to give you the best answers I can, but I can only go off of my own experience and ... well, like I said, I'm weird."

"That's okay!" says Papenna, pulling out the last pillow. "We're so glad to have you here. I'm going to take the room down the stairs first on the left, do you need anything before I go scope that out?"

"I don't think so. If you leave me something to write with and some paper or something I can draw out a map of the Underground to show you later.

"And thanks for the help with the pillows!"

"I'll go scare up some paper!"

Papenna's back in a couple minutes with a pad of paper and a pen, and then she trots down the stairs to her own designated room.

Hel starts making herself a pile of blankets and pillows on the bed while getting a feel for the room. Is there a desk or table she can draw the map at?

There's a desk near the window seat, and a nightstand.

After making up the bed how she wants it, Hel goes to the desk to draw a map to show Papenna later. Then she decides to curl up in the bed and sleep for a while.

It has been a long day.

It's not sundown yet, but the shadows are getting longer. No one disturbs her, assuming occasional soft voices and footsteps and door-openings downstairs don't do it.

They make it a little hard to sleep, but Hel is able to doze until it grows quiet. Then she's able to fall fully asleep.

Her dreams are fairly unpleasant, and she wakes with a gasp, covered in sweat, sometime in the early morning.

She decides to find a bathroom so she can shower, even if she's just going to put on the same clothes afterwards.