They have a security escort, this time to protect them and not to tell them to go anywhere specific. They can observe people being cruel to baristas and getting into shouting matches with each other on the street over where trucks are parked and everyone who is paying to go into the place with the babies to hold the babies looks so very sad but it's nothing quite like the business at the capitol.

Yes those are less worrying! Not okay but not the same sort of thing at all.

(On the ship an Elf timidly asks that yellow what happened with the confrontation when they walked in.)

She bumped into a very senior, very irritable senator! He could have complained about her to her boss and then when her employment contract came up for review she wouldn't get a permission bonus. If she kept her job at all.

Over bumping into someone? 

He's very irritable! And she was new.

Elves frown. Does that kind of thing happen often.

All the time. There's a few ways to get permissions for yellows other than working for blues - there's awards you can get in architecture or programming, or if you work for a big company they sometimes are allowed to delegate permissions to employees, but if you think you can pull off working for blues that's the way to go.

If Elves have to do restrictions at all they are inclined to do four per family.

That's twice as many as Voa, although Voa does extras as awards.

Well, maybe Voa'll increase it once they have lightleapers. Are there other horrible things happening in their world.

Sometimes there are wars and hurricanes and stuff?

Does Calado get into wars?

Not recently.

Elves are curious what people eat and what work they do and what their hobbies are and if one thing were changed about their lives what would it be and what they think of as a successful life and what music they listen to.

They can describe their food and hobbies! They have two cops and a notetaker and a page and various relatives (editor, photographer, stay-at-home husband who did competitive rowing until his shoulder blew out, stunt double...) all grey and yellow. They all want kids. Most of them managed to pack electronics and can play music.

If the cops had arrested the yellows instead of joining them what would have happened.

The yellows would have been investigated and punished, probably lost their jobs and been fined, maybe even gone to jail.

How horrible.

Oh yeah, a criminal record will disqualify you from child permissions for long enough that they'd have all been past twenty by the time they could try again.

...and that's a problem somehow? The being past twenty, they are clear on these people really wanting kids.

(Someone asks what jail is like.)

Amentans can't have kids past that age.

If you are in jail you get locked up? None of these people have been. The cops know what short term lockup is like but not that much about long term sentences.

Elves would die. WIthin a week or so. Horribly.

Wow, of what?

Steady buildup of stress hormones and then eventual breakdown of, like, everything. It's similar to what would happen if you made someone go without sleep indefinitely. 

Gosh. Well, it's also possible someone would have been angry enough at the yellows to have them executed.