They appear in midair, visible out of a few thirtieth-floor apartments.
One starts to fall. The other catches her by the arm, flings out - wing-shapes of light - and slows her, spiraling down until they're at street level.
They appear in midair, visible out of a few thirtieth-floor apartments.
One starts to fall. The other catches her by the arm, flings out - wing-shapes of light - and slows her, spiraling down until they're at street level.
"I'm not sure, I don't think that was the law here. Might be the other castes successfully lobbied against being undercut by slave labor."
"I did and one of my sons did and another one informally does but it's not, like, anyone can go in any time and register as a different color, it's more like if it's obvious from very young and you move and live as your new caste and don't get into trouble then no one will bother objecting. "
"I do think it's strange that people don't mind more. The selection is very strong but still."
"There's a site to petition the government for things you want them to do. There are petitions to build new sports stadiums and petitions to subsidize all kinds of things and petitions to have the whole council quit and petitions to require the whole council to be purple and there is a petition on there to make a easier process to change castes but it has many thousands of times less signatures than the other ones."
"It's like - gender? Every once in a while you get someone who wants to change it but most people don't even if there'd be some advantage in some contexts."
"Well, intercaste marriages are very rare, less than 5 percent, and that's where you usually get people who badly fit. And also I have seven children, that's vanishingly rare - one in a thousand - which makes it likelier I'd have two who weren't green and ran off to do something else."
"I could actually stand a walk outside, it's been a while cooped up. Penumbra?"
"I'd like to go flying," says Penumbra.
"- I mean I don't want to walk I just want to fly around," says Penumbra.
"She can't carry me, either, if that's what you meant."
"Oh, okay. Then we can go for a walk and meet you back here later. ...it might be a good idea to not make it clear which hotel room you're leaving from, actually, just in case someone wanted to bother you, would you mind going down in the elevator with us and then going flying?"