She makes a rude gesture at the Andalites generally and stomps out.

Sigh.

"Is that actually what the thing about reds looks like to aliens," wonders Katin.

"Yep."

"Huh." Pause. "If your disabled people are lonely they could come live with us."

"I don't know if they'd want to - and there really aren't many, we work very hard on fixing things - but I'll see if there's a discreet way to let people know it's an option."

"I have -" - pause. "Oh, uh, not talking about it."

Sigh.

"- I mean, not me personally, the next word was 'friends'. Sorry."

"Perhaps some day everyone can live on a planet where no one finds it viscerally upsetting to be in the same room as them."

"That'd be nice."

"Your taboo is stupid. I think ours is too, so I'm allowed to say that. Reds don't think reds are gross, I bet if Andalites weren't raised thinking that an Andalite with a limp is the worst thing they've ever heard of then they wouldn't. You could end it in one generation if you wanted to."

"I will attempt that with the copious leverage and political influence one accumulates on trial for sharing military secrets."

"I guess Andalites wouldn't want to move here," says Ladah, "because there aren't a lot of fields?"

"Not a lot of fields, not a lot of space - we get claustrophobic, soldiers have desensitization training but it's rather horrible and most disabled Andalites wouldn't have had it - we do better around lots of other Andalites, there's a sort of - background space of shared thoughts which it's unpleasant to be extendedly separate from - your internet and media are less appealing to our sensibilities -"

"Do you let them in on the shared thought thing?" says Katin. "That doesn't mean thinking about them?"

"What are your sensibilities?" wonders Ladah.

"Accessing communal thoughts is not like interacting directly with someone. When we used to shun people for crimes you'd cut them out but that'd be for murder or something, and specifically as a punishment rather than as an accommodation of everyone else. Andalite media features Andalites and less conflict driven by trying to afford children and less conflict driven by - dishonesty and scheming and corruption - you'd never have an Andalite protagonist who broke their word - there's tail-dueling and body language that's actually legible to us and technologies we're familiar with and other species that actually exist -"

"I mean, some of that will catch up once we've met more people. And have more space so kids are less expensive."

"Then we might find your media more relatable!"

"You lied about not knowing FTL."

"That's not the same as breaking your word. If you'd asked me to swear to it I'd have been stuck."

"Is that how to keep the judges honest, just establish that the social penalties for having demonstrably broken your word ever in any context are unbearable and then have people pledge to do their jobs uninfluenced -"

"The causation might run the other way but that's part of the picture."

"That seems really weird, you can't have two things you never do if they might bump into each other."

"- I mean, the most honorable, if fairly useless, course of action would be to truthfully tell Anitam that we could help them but are forbidden from so doing and will turn off our translators if the topic is raised again. You shouldn't arrange your obligations such that they compete."