And suddenly has a clear sense that if she pulls like this in her mind, she can be there.

...what.

<That feels a whole damned lot more tangible than your usual isekai daydreams,> Hailey notes.

<Oooh! Exciting! Maybe a whole new world,> Ruby cheers.

No one objects, so...

Sable pulls at the mental cord.

"Huh." Sable accepts the offered hand and gets up. "I did not expect flopping on my couch wishing to be elsewhere to actually work this time."

<What.> Hailey's shock resounds through their mind. That... doesn't happen. Every previous isekai daydream has been obviously a daydream, 'cause they're aphantasic as fuck. <What.>

"Let me just bring you to the arrivals lounge and we can talk a little and I'll give you the introductory brochure." 

Clematis leads the way into a room with a pair of large pieces of furniture that look like crosses between a couch and a bed, a rack of pamphlets and papers, and a lap desk. 

"Let me see, Earth, Earth..."

She picks up a pamphlet and passes it to Sable. It has a large image of a peach-like fruit on the front cover.

Welcome to Balacia (Earth Edition) is the title.

Interesting. The furniture definitely looks like it's made to be fucked on. She sits down and starts reading.

Welcome to Balacia!

Balacia is the local name for the continent you know as North America. On this planet, which is named Forest, there is a variety of fruit known as a persine (similar to an earth peach), that has been known since antiquity with natural contraceptive and STD-eliminating qualities. As a result, Balacia (the country) is a much more sexually free nation than the United States of your world. 

While you are making your transition to Balacia, you will be temporarily staying in government-run housing, and provided a cultural interpreter (who will have been present at your summoning), a stipend, and access to support services to aid with the trauma and cultural baggage of your home world. In time, you are expected to acculturate to Balacia and live an independent life as an ordinary citizen; however, an acculturation period of up to three years is provided for by the program.

You may encounter fellow refugees in your government housing. Please be kind and recall that everyone here has been displaced and has their own cultural baggage from their former world.

If you should wish to return home, return transit may be arranged after a period of one week.

Brief Cultural Notes:

— Sexuality is a neutral topic in Balacia, and offers of sex or sexual services are not unusual. Please do not feel obligated to engage in any sexual activity that is proposed to you; it is always polite to turn down an offer. 

— By Earth standards, the majority of people on Forest are polyamorous. It is not standard to expect sexual exclusivity in Balacia even if you are dating someone seriously. 

— You may also observe sexual activity in some public places. This is entirely normal in Balacia. However, do not assume that any arbitrary public place is acceptable for sex! You may be subject to fines for any damage or mess you create. Ask your interpreter if you are in doubt.

— Many people will introduce themselves to you with a title before their names in casual contexts. The majority of these titles represent their pleat or ruche, which are difficult-to-translate concepts. When you wish to interact socially outside government housing, ask your cultural interpreter for details on how to properly introduce yourself. 

— Balacian cuisine is more sour and sweet than the western cuisine you are likely familiar with from earth, and uses persines (which are an abundant and highly nutritious staple crop) heavily. Talk to your interpreter if you have issues with this cuisine; more earthlike dishes can be provided during your transition period by request. 

We hope you have a pleasurable and enjoyable life here in our great nation!

She stares at the pamphlet for a long moment.

<I suppose they would have been selecting for people who didn't like the sex-negativity of their homeworld when targeting isekais,> Maya suggests. <I think I am going to like it here.>

Ruby just blushes.

Neo snickers a bit.

Hailey shakes her head internally. <Unexpected or not, we're here. They seem to have a decent system going, and it makes sense that the persine will have a big cultural impact. Orient?>

"What's the local time," Sable asks, looking up at Clematis, "and what would you recommend doing first?"

"It's 11:30 in the morning, currently."

Clematis taps her fingers together. "If you have any prescriptions you take regularly you should interface with the on-site pharmacy and doctor; there are bureaucratic processes to satisfy with getting you an official legal identity, naturally, but I think the highest priority is simply getting settled in your local apartment and getting the essentials of life together. After that, it would be a good idea to speak with some fellow refugees who are a little more experienced with the culture. There's a courtyard bistro at the government housing where you could meet and try some local cuisine."

Well. This will be informative. "I do need to talk with the doctor. I'm on an ongoing prescription for feminizing hormones and a testosterone blocker. After that, I'd love to see the apartment and try the bistro."

"Ah, you are — what do they call it in North America again — transgendered? I apologize, I know it's a delicate subject where you come from. Here we would simply say you pleat femininely..." 

She tilts her head. "It's still somewhat uncommon in our world to pleat differently than your birth sex, but it's not subject to the same kind of... controversy... that it is in your world. For example, most people will gracefully accept singular they." 

"Well that's an improvement. It was far more of a fight than it should've been to get gender-confirming treatment, where I came from. Had to move to a different state before I felt safe doing it."

She hums thoughtfully. "So it sounds like pleat sort of straddles gender and like... social role? Or something like that?"

"Something like that. Let me give you an example. I go by Mentera Clematis. "Mentera" is my pleat title, and in your language it would mean "one who teaches" or "instructor". This is distinct from my job title of "cultural liason." If I were to leave this job, I would still be Mentera Clematis, because I... see myself that way, feel that teaching is core to my identity. The shades of meaning you might catch are... 'dominant', 'caring', 'tender', and you could expect me to be sexually and emotionally compatible with others who have the corresponding pleat of "Pupilla", which means 'learner', 'trainee', 'apprentice', with shades of submission and eagerness-to-learn. Presently I am in extended relationships with a Physic, a Pupilla, and a Voluptaten. I'm — it's not quite marriage as you would understand it, but it's close enough to be useful — married to the Voluptaten. All of them pleat femininely."

She nods. "Okay, that kinda makes sense. Is there a big dictionary of titles to read through?"

"Not formally, but I'll see if I can scare something up! Different dating sites etcetera have different lists, often with a write-in option — I'll see if I can snag copies of the main sites' lists. Pleat and ruche cover the categories your world knows as dynamic, species, and... calling, I guess you could say. Anything that's a deeply held part of identity that affects how you interface with others. They're centrally sexual but don't necessarily have to be."

"Interesting. I think I like it."

<Scared to ask about plurality?>, Hailey teases.

Well, yes, she is. She thinks they're going to like it here, and they weren't going to be able to stay stealth about being trans forever, especially given they needed prescriptions.

<It may still be worth a shot,> Maya suggests, her tone soothing.

Maybe, but... not yet.

"I'd really appreciate those lists, if you can find them. I guess the next stop is the doctor?"

Clematis nods. "Seems so! I'll escort you. It's just across the courtyard to the housing."

She leads Sable out another door and into an interior courtyard, which has a few maple trees in it in full green leaf, along with an unfamiliar one with curving, sweeping branches. It could be spring? Summer? Early fall? It's warm enough to be any of those. The building they came from is in a familiar style, not too dissimilar from home; mostly brick and cinderblock, not hugely attractive, but then it is a government building. Across the courtyard there's a high-rise with many small balconies, almost certainly an apartment building. 

Clematis lets Sable into the ground floor of the apartment building with a key from her pocket. Inside is a small potted garden in the center of a lobby; a bistro with wide booths made to lounge in is on one side of the lobby, while the other side seems to be a pharmacy and convenience store. There's a girl with pink hair sitting and eating alone at the bistro, and clerks behind the counters in simple uniforms at both. 

"This'll be your home base until you can find an apartment in the city," Clematis says. "The doctor's office is attached to the pharmacy, so we'll be heading there first. If you wanted to stop by the convenience store or the bistro first to familiarize yourself a little or eat a meal, that's fine by me too. I'm your personal aide and I'm on the clock until five P.M, so we don't need to rush." 

"Goodness, I get to monopolize your time until your shift ends. That's some personal attention. I think I'll feel more comfortable if I've got the hormones sorted, so probably that first, just to get that off my mind."

She smiles softly at Clematis and starts toward the pharmacy.

"Alright, then!" 

Clematis comes up to the counter at the pharmacy and nods to the clerk on duty. "Morning, Docila." 

"Morning, Mentera." The woman behind the counter nods to Clematis and then to Sable. "Another new client, hm? Nice to meet you."

"Docila, this is — wait, I literally haven't asked your name. Sorry, I was a bit caught up in the job!" She laughs a litttle and rubs the back of her neck. "In any case, my client needs the latest in feminizing care. You're up to the task?" 

"For pleat accomodation I don't even need to call the doctor out of their office. I'll prescribe the usual slate." She turns away and starts filling out forms.

"Thank you."

She turns back to Sable. "So what is your name?"

"Sable. I suppose I should ask how names even work here, there's no reason to assume y'all use the same pattern of given name then family name that I'm used to."

"Generally it's pleat, given name, clan name. So I'm Clematis Silva on my legal documents but Mentera Clematis or even just Mentera to most people in casual settings."

"Interesting. We didn't have pleat titles — though I'm starting to wish we had — and sometimes people have middle names that are like extra given names, but otherwise it's pretty similar, just with family in place of clan. Family name is Barlow, by the way."

Clematis nods as if filing that information away for further reference. 

"It's good to meet you, Sable." She smiles. "And we'll sort out the pleat title soon." 

Docila returns shortly with a slate of four prescriptions. 

"I have here prescriptions for Andrenda, Cycloterine, estrogen and progesterone."

"Not familiar with the first two. The latter two are familiar, though y'all may have different administration methods than I'm used to. What do they do and how do I take them?"

The pharmacist produces four bottles of pills. "Adrenda is a brand name - it's what would be known in your world as cyproacetate. Cycloterine is a hormone system regulator that doesn't exist on your world - it helps with libido and preventing hot flashes. All four are pills."

"Well that's handy. All four daily, or more often than that?"

"All four daily, yes. Best taken together in the morning."

"And if I'm coming off a twice-daily regimen and my body thinks it's evening due to the time difference, should I just take a round now and then get on the normal routine with breakfast tomorrow?"

"Yes, that should be safe. If you prefer a split dose for more even hormone balance through the day then I can do the estrogen split, but with the Cyloterine involved it generally doesn't make much of a difference. I'll give you the medication sheets for full disclosure. The cycloterine shouldn't have side effects, but if it does it'll likely be making you a little more susceptible to cold or a little more prone to dehydration. There are the usual cases of rare but serious side effects as well, but practically you don't need to worry about them."

"Thank you, Docila. I'll stick with the daily for these. Anything you need from me?"

"In the longer term the doctor will probably want bloodwork done, both for your hormones and as a screen for any earth-native pathogens in your system before you leave the housing complex for the first time. I don't know what all would be ordered for that, you'd have to talk to the doctor. All the staff have been vaccinated against the major earth diseases but that's not the case of the general Balacian population."

Clematis gives Sable a small shrug. "Up to you whether you want to do that now." 

She frowns thoughtfully. "Much as I love getting medical stuff out of the way, I think I need food and to settle in before I do that. Probably tomorrow, I think?"

"Entirely reasonable. Do you want to drop by the bistro now, or pick some stuff up from the convenience store, or see the rest of the complex? Right now you're stuck on the complex until that bloodwork is done, but there's a couple other places to see — the offices for therapy and bureaucracy, the rec room, the library, the lacrosse courts, your apartment. You can also get things delivered to the complex if there's something in particular you need, such as more extensive groceries." 

"Bistro, I think. I'd been pretty close to making food before the summoning caught me, and I can take the pills at the same time."

She shakes her head. "I probably should be worrying about how much all this costs, but I don't know how much my stipend is or how much stuff that amount of currency buys, so the numbers probably won't be meaningful to me yet."

"Don't worry too much; the stipend is intended to let you live comfortably on the complex, and while it won't allow you many off-complex luxuries, if you need funds for essentials your expenses may be reimbursable. We want to give our refugees a chance at a real start. That said, if you decide to, I don't know, purchase a new high-end television with your funds and then not have enough left for food, we might have words at that point. But so long as you're not blatantly profligate we'll work with you during your adjustment period."

Clematis leads Sable across to the bistro, and gestures to the offerings. "Pick whatever you like, I'll cover it this time."

There is quite a range of tasty-looking things for sale. Persine-nut meal bars, persine and squash cassserole, persine hand pies, barbecued pineapple and chicken skewers, wraps (sliced persine and cheese, halibut in a spicy sauce, persine nut butter and jam, persine flesh and berries drizzled in honey), mini chicken curry, cornbread muffins with persine nut butter, fried eggs and hashbrowns with goat sausage, goat rib sandwich with persine chutney to dip in, persine nut cake... 

It is quite an extensive menu and almost all of it uses persines somehow. 

"Yeah, that should be more than enough. The most expensive thing I'm likely to get in the next several months is a computer to look into learning the local programming languages, in hopes of making my main career skill usable here. Probably save up for that or something."

She looks over the menu, then licks her lips. "Wow. all of this looks good. I think I want the sandwich and dip, and probably something to drink."

The woman behind the counter speaks up, adjusting one of her hoop earrings. "We have calvera — sort of like hot chocolate, it's made from ground persine nuts — wintergreen soda, several flavors of fruity yogurt drink, goat milk, apple-orange-persine juice, straight persine juice, and honeyed chamomile tea."

"Ooh. Calvera sounds lovely, thank you," she replies with a warm smile.

The woman behind the counter plates up Sable's order, and Clematis steps forwards and pays with a tap of her phone. 

"Here you go, enjoy!"

There's a small bar along the side of the bistro counter, or Sable can take one of the lounging-booths and sprawl out a bit.

"Thank you!"

Oh now this is a tough decision.

<The bar will get you more conversation, which I know you want,> Hailey points out.

Maya counters, <But the booth will let you ask Clematis some more-private questions, and we do have some of those.>

She settles on the booth.

Clematis comes and settles on the far side of the booth from Sable a minute later, sprawling out casually. She's bought a paper cup of calvera and a sliced persine and cheese wrap, which is bundled up in a paper wrapper and on a paper plate.

"So yeah, if there's anything you'd like to talk about go ahead, or you can just ignore me and I'll research that pleat list on my phone. It's fine if you're not interested in conversation, I know this is a lot to take in."

Sable takes a deep breath. "I do have a few questions. I'm... embarrassed, even though I know it's probably not taboo here like it was on Earth, but... getting over my nerves about it will take time and practice. Given how much more present sexuality is here I need to ask this stuff, so..."

She looks down, gathering her thoughts.

Clematis nods thoughtfully and sips her calvera, giving Sable time.

She blushes, but steels herself and asks, "What's the range of known and accepted kink look like here? Just in generalities?"

"Let me see..." Clematis folds her hands in her lap. 

"Speaking generally, there's a broader variety of accepted kinks on Forest, or things that are merely considered part of sexuality. Pleat is one of those things. It is generally accepted that what you pleat is not, in a real sense, a choice, but instead is an expression of something core to you. I've seen people pleat everything from the color blue to mythological creatures to siblings, parents, teachers, doctors, villians, heroes, predators, persines — yes, I do mean the fruit —, abusers... the words for kink from your world don't translate exactly but there's approximants for words like slut, whore, bitch, and so on, though in our language they are not perjorative. For slut or whore we say instead Voluptaten, one who causes pleasure, and for bitch and other words that exist to degrade we instead say Denigre, one who is lower or worthless. Similarly language such as sadist and masochist transfers — we say Dolorate, one who inflicts pain, and Dolorin, one who suffers pain. Most kinks on earth have an accepted equivalent in Balacia."

Clematis taps her fingers against the tabletop.

"In our world fantasies based on sexual violence are rarer, fantasies based on pregnancy and child raising are considered somewhat more extreme due to the degree of effort required to eliminate persines from the diet in preparation for pregnancy, and the rest are broadly more accepted."

Sable nods, taking a breath.

<Sounds like I'm covered, at least,> Hailey notes. <Actually, since you're this nervous...>

Hailey steps into front smoothly. Clematis might notice a change, comparing Hailey's voice and diction to Sable's — consonants a bit sharper, resonance a bit tighter.

"Is there a word that straddles both Dolorate and Dolorin? And what about kinks that cannot safely be implemented physically?"

"No, you'd simply be said to pleat both circumstantially. As for dangerous kinks, they're still accepted in the vast majority of cases. It may still be a crime to act on such kinks — if you execute someone because you have a kink for that, your kink is not a defense against the murder charge — but discussion, safe roleplay, and so on are all quite accepted."

Clematis tilts her head. "I apologize if this scares you, but in countries and states that allow euthanasia, which some of the federated states do, the option to treat the assisted death as a kink scene may be available to their close partners. Such scenes happen rarely, generally in cases of couples where one is diagnosed with metastatic cancer. There are about sixty of them each year across the entirety of Balacia."

Hailey blinks, takes a breath, swallows hard. "Hhhholy fuck."

She takes a slow breath, trying to get her flushed cheeks under control.

"Thank you. That... is definitely something I needed to know."

"You have a personal interest?" Clematis raises an eyebrow.

She nods. "I do."

A thought occurs.

<I thought we weren't going to mention plurality until later,> Sable argues.

<It's necessary context, at this point,> Hailey counters.

"I think there's an additional piece of context you need," she says. "Is there a psychological concept of plurality, or multiplicity, here on Forest?"

"It's known, though rare. Less so within the multi-pleat community, which I happen to belong to. I could put you in contact with some people later. There is some degree of stigma attached, though I think less than in your world due to the familiarity most people have with ruches."

She smiles slightly. "Good to know," she replies, then takes a breath. "There are five of us. I'm Hailey. You were talking to Sable earlier. And we'd definitely appreciate those contacts later."

"It's nice to meet you, Hailey. Is there anything we should pick up for the rest of you? Clothes, accessories...?"

"Nice to meet you too."

She hums thoughtfully. "There are some things, yeah. Our clothing aesthetics have a lot in common, but there are some differences. Some kind of easily swapped bracelets, or a single bracelet that changes colors, would be very useful for indicating who's fronting. Is multi-pleat what it sounds like?"

"Multi-pleat is for people who strongly pleat in ways considered 'incompatible' with each other by the mainstream culture. For example, someone who pleats two different species simultaneously, or two opposing kink roles, etc. It is for people who want to defend their strongly held passions from being called mere ruches because they happen to go by a title that seems incongruous with the others."

She coughs. "And certainly, some bracelets would be easily purchasable. There's a clothing store on the bottom floor of one of the other apartment buildings, we could go shop there? I believe you only have the clothes on your back at the moment, so it might be a good idea to get you a change for tomorrow." 

"Sounds like a reasonable plan." She nods, then washes down the hormones with a sip of calvera, before digging into the sandwich. It's pretty great. Sweeter than she's used to, but tasty.

"Oh, I've been forgetting my food as well." 

Clematis gets to work on her persine slice and cheese wrap.

"This is pretty good." Hailey takes another bite, swallows, and then asks, "For Sable's sake, is there a title for predators, in an 'eating people' sense?"

Sable is blushing in mindspace, but that's not news.

"Voracia." Clematis smiles. "Would she like me to use it for her?" 

Hailey smirks. "Yes, she's embarrassed that I'm asking about it, but she absolutely would."

She dips her sandwich in the chutney and has another bite. It's pretty great.

"Voracia Sable Barlow. That sounds like progress to me."

Clematis finishes up with her wrap and cleans her fingers on her napkin.

"It does, doesn't it?" She takes her last bite, then hums after a moment. "I'll be Dolorate, Maya wants Voluptaten, and Neo and Ruby will take a bit of thinking."

"Alright!" Clematis puts her paper plate and wrap wrapper into the garbage by the table and gets up. "Let's go see what we can find at the clothing store for you all." 

Hailey does the same with hers, and gets up as well. "Let's."

She follows Clematis' lead.

Clematis leads Hailey through the courtyard and down a small paved path to a second apartment building in the grassy area. This one is lower, perhaps only five stories, and longer. 

The ground floor of this building has a small grocery on one side, with a whole aisle dedicated to persines and their preparations. There's a prominent display of squash and greens, a dairy aisle (though it's notable that the cow cheese is labeled as "cow cheese", it seems to be the assumption that most cheese is goat) and several aisles of dried goods with unfamiliar brand names. 

Across from that is the clothes shop. There are simple, unpatterned t-shirts and jeans on offer, but they're in a section marked as earth couture. The rest of the clothes are sorted by pleat. This store does not have a Voracian wear section, but it does have both Voluptaten and Dolorate sections. 

The Voluptaten section is dominated by easily-shed clothing, generally in flowing fabrics. It seems to encompass a fashion range from "toga" to "sarong", though many of the options have shaping features to silhouette the body more closely. Patterns depicting natural beauty are common, mostly leaves or flowers. There is also another style present which seems to be single-shade shirts and skirts in primary or secondary colors, with intricate combinations of fasteners, such as snaps or zippers, against backing material so as not to touch the skin with cold metal. The underwear section includes a large selection of eye-pleasing lingerie, though mostly in simple, bold colors — side-tie panties seem to be in fashion.

The Dolorate section is dominated by red, black, and metallic silver, and has a lot of chunky, brutalist-looking bracelets and pendants, often with spikes. The clothes tend to be simple and built with a look to intimidate; leather coats with slashes, t-shirts with the arms cut off, heavy combat boots. It looks pretty gothy to Hailey's eye. There also appears to be a second style which is based on practical function: t-shirts with patterns depicting knives or claw-marks, in black and red the color of dried blood, and matching black slacks with lots of cargo pockets. There are a few skirts as well, which have patterns of spider lilies and veins on them. The underwear selection here seems to be more brieflike. 

"Goodness. We're going to have so many clothes to buy. We'll have to spread it out over a while, maybe only get two outfits for each of us to start. Don't even know what to get for Ruby, neither of her core kinks make seem like the kind of thing that would have a clothing aesthetic. Is there a pleat title for little sisters? There's no Voracian aisle, but maybe the cryptid aisle will work. Can you think of anything that fits sort of trickster vibes, for Neopolitan? I'm absolutely loving the Dolorate aesthetic, though, and Maya adores Voluptaten."

She shakes her head and picks out a few things from the Dolorate section: a couple knife t-shirts, black cargo slacks, a spider lily skirt, combat boots, a spiky pendant, and some underwear, before heading toward Voluptaten.

"I know a voracian specialty shop in town. Tends towards patterns of teeth and fangs, skulls of prey animals and livestock, and stylized cooking gear and cooking gear accessories. I haven't investigated it closely, but I'm sure some investigation would turn up more information."

"There is, in fact, a pleat title for little sisters. It's Sorana. The associated fashion style is soft sweaters, shorts, knee-length skirts with flower patterns in natural hues like brown, blue and green, sneakers, socks in bright colors, simple hair barettes and clips, and a particular kind of t-shirt with a casual dip in the center. It competes a little with Pupila for the aesthetic space of... carefree comfiness, you could say."

"As for 'trickster vibes', you might want the Audacian aisle — it corresponds somewhat to the earth concept of a "switch," though really what it deals with is the concept of competition or struggle as a major part of one's sexuality or personality. I'm not sure that it fits, but you could try it. It tends towards athletic gear that's easy to move in and flashy enough to draw the eye."

"Yeah, we're going to have to special order from the voracian shop, that sounds perfect. Ruby's blushing and smiling internally at the sound of Sorana, though she's wondering about slightly darker variants on that too, and Audacian sounds just like Neo. Would an Audacian see a good fight as foreplay?"

"Yes, Audacians are like that." Clematis smiles. She gestures to another aisle. 

It features t-shirts in bold, solid colors with patterns of fists, lightning, fire. Windbreakers and fleeces, two-tone skorts and shorts, halter and crop tops, sports bras, and practical-looking jeans and briefs. There's also a selection of pendants in the shapes of various weapons, ranging from spears and swords to rifles and pistols. They're made of stainless steel. 

"Yep, Neo's practically vibrating with excitement about these. Good rec."

She grabs a rapier pendant, a skort that pairs a loud pink with white, a brown halter, a pink crop top with a fist pattern, and some snug and practical jeans.

Does this place have a Sorana section? She grabs some curve-hugging wrappy things and some lacy lingerie from the Voluptaten aisle while she looks.

"We are going to spend so stupidly much on clothes. On the plus side, though, the fact that each of us pleats differently makes the color-coded bracelet idea redundant."

"This particular shop doesn't have a Sorana section, mostly because we'd rather make acculturation a little more gentle for our refugees who still have some lingering Earth cultural baggage." Clematis says, "But it's not a specialty pleat like Voracian, you can find it in malls and so on. There'll be a dozen or more shops in the city that cater, easily. We can order clothes from any of them easily enough. In fact, if you can give me some guidelines on what to get I could nip out in the car and get something whenever you'd like to be rid of my company for a while."

"Honestly we're enjoying having you around. We — especially Sable — really need to play off of someone to process stuff, and you're very helpful with all the cultural interpreting. Does any comms tech come with the refugee program, like a smartphone or a computer or anything, to make ordering things easier?"

"Yes, that'll be part of setting up your legal identity, you'll be provided with a program phone. Mind you, it'll hardly be the latest model, but it'll serve for banking and payments. Setting up your actual bank account will be part of that process."

"It doesn't need to be great, for sure. Functioning for banking, looking basic stuff up, and occasional online shopping is plenty."

She looks down at what she's got, nodding. "Okay, all this should do us until we can order some clothes properly. Anything else you'd recommend? Also, Ruby's figured out that she likes the Sorana style and absolutely pleats Sorana, but prefers the Dolorate color scheme — the black and red and silver. Any suggestions there?"

"That's very doable. If you wanted to make sure her pleat was crystal-clear you could purchase a Sorana word-token — in cases where people want to disambiguate what their main pleat is, they generally wear a calligraphy pendant with their pleat title on it. Some of the standard calligraphies have become so cut down they're basically just ideographs now."

Clematis smiles. "I have a custom pendant that's the ideographs for Mentara, Audacian, and Voluptaten strung together, which I wear when I feel like confusing strangers."

A knifelike grin splits Hailey's face. "Hah. That combo pendant's excellent. And word-tokens are a great idea. We'll probably get her a Sorana pendant in silver and then pick out Sorana-style clothes in red and black and some cream or white. That's perfect. Now I'm wondering if they sell pendants that blur Dolorate and Dolorin, but I can look that up later probably."

"I wouldn't be surprised. Incidentally, just so you know — if you see someone with a circle with a dot in it for their pendant, they are saying they are unpleated. That has implications here — it's like being agender on earth, lacking a pleat means the normal social scripts fail a lot when it comes to you."

"Good to know." She bundles everything up and heads for the cashier.

Clematis moseys along beside her. 

"What would you like to do next?"

She hums a bit, tilting her head. "Paperwork, brainstorm a better option than keeping clothes in a bag for what to do if we switch while we're out and about, learn about how people meet people here?"

"Alright, we can do paperwork. I don't have any immediate thoughts on you being able to change while you're out and about, but as for meeting people — there's the rec room and the lacrosse courts, here, and out in the city there's everything from arcades to parks."

"Reasonable enough," she nods, bagging up the clothes after they're paid-for. She looks down at the bags for a moment. "Might change into some of these before heading out, actually."

"Sure. There's a change room in the back." Clematis points.

Hailey heads into the change room, and comes back wearing the cargo slacks, a knife shirt, a spiky pendant, the cargo boots, and a sharp grin. "This feels damned great to wear. Plausibly we shouldn't be hauling a mess of bags to the paperwork, though. What d'you say to finding the apartment first?"

"Fine by me. Your room is fifteen-oh-four in the building with the bistro, we'll have to take the elevator up. Oh, and if you want me to carry anything feel free to split the load."

Clematis sets off at a casual pace, leading Hailey back the way they came. 

Hailey passes Clematis one of the bags and follows.

They pass through the gardens and come to the building with the bistro, convenience store and pharmacy. There's a small hallway off the lobby: Clematis presses the button for the elevator and waits with Hailey.  

"I think we're gonna like it here. Gonna have to figure out what people use for cursing instead of fuck, though."

"Shit and damn still work. There are also some sex related insults, but they're different here — there's balch, which is... the local equivalent to prude, you could say, but it's a deadly insult. It means one who opposes pleasure, in the sense of someone who..." She visibly searches for words. "Would burn down a library, or destroy a rose garden, out of a sense of... it not being efficient enough. It was originally used to describe people who would destroy persine trees to try and get people to farm grain. It's like a combination of prude and miser."

She winces and shakes her head. "I love cursing and generally being — well on Earth we'd call me an acerbic bitch — but balch is nasty. That's... I can feel the sincerity of how insulting it is, especially here."

"Yes, I just thought I should warn you."

The elevator arrives and Clematis gets aboard.

"Thanks for that."

Hailey follows her. Presumably they're going to floor fifteen?

They are indeed.

Clematis disembarks from the elevator, goes down a short hallway, and produces a key from her pocket labelled 1504. She hands it to Hailey. 

"Be my guest," she says.

She takes the key, opens the door, and steps inside, looking around curiously.

There's a small living room with a large bed slash couch and a coffee table in front of it. The other side of the room is a fully-equipped kitchenette with a toaster, a two-burner stove and oven, a microwave, a sink, a tiny dishwasher, several cupboards, and an eating-table with two high-backed chairs with arms. There's a window on the far side of the room which looks out over the city; it seems they're on a river near the city's heart. There are open doors to a familiar-looking bathroom, a bedroom, and a small balcony.

"Oh this is really cute. We like it."

She sets the bags down on the coffee table.

"We'll sort this shit out when we get home. To Paperwork Land, then?"

"Yes, that'll be the administration building." 

Back down the elevator and across the courtyard to the cinderblock building they go. Eventually they arrive at a small office, currently unoccupied.

Clematis takes the chair behind the desk and gestures for Hailey to take the opposing chair. "So, legally you're one person, sorry about that but multiplicity hasn't gotten through the courts yet. We'll have to set up a legal identity first, but then there's a whole gaggle of other forms to fill out."

She pulls a folder of forms out of her desk drawer and places it before Hailey. 

She nods, and opens the folder, tilting her head at the forms. "Yeah. Legally we'll put Sable's name on everything, she's the host and the personable one and all that."

She starts skimming through the forms, setting aside the ones that are comparatively simple and don't promise anything they don't know enough about yet — mostly the identity and banking forms — and then starts carefully paging through the laws-and-immigration one. "No time like the present," she mutters.

Clematis gives Hailey time, and offers a few pointers here and there. There isn't anything too outrageous in the forms; the law system of Balacia seems to be fairly similar to Canada's, though with notable differences around sexual services (which are entirely legal.) 

There are quite a few pages to get through, but gradually the stack of paperwork is whittled down. Form after form is filled out, sometimes in multiple carbon copies. And after a few hours, everything is dealt with. 

"Here's your program phone," Clematis says eventually, handing over a sleek black rectangle. "You'll still need to set up your banking app for contactless payments, and it may take a few hours for your account to be created, but everything should work out just fine. Welcome to Balacia; once your forms of intent to stay are processed there'll be a citizenship oath ceremony in a few days."

"Whew." She exhales in relief. "Lotta forms. Glad to get 'em done, though, and glad to have lucked into y'all finding us. Thanks for all the help."

"It's no trouble. I'm going to be off the clock pretty soon, so we should pick up some toiletries and initial groceries with my card so you're not missing anything essential before nine tomorrow morning; after that, I recommend you check out the rec room or library for the evening, they're on the second floors of the apartment buildings."

She nods. "Sounds like a plan. Lead the way, Mentera."

"Of course, Dolorate."

And off they go back to the grocery store. The displays of persines, goat cheese and goat meat, and dried goods with unfamiliar branding are all still there. 

"If you're going to stay here, it's a good idea to get used to preparing persines. There's also plenty of frozen wraps in the freezer aisle if you want something easy you can just microwave. Do you want something more familiar to north american cuisine, or do you want to experiment?"

"I like cooking. Let's go for experimenting. Probably some frozen wraps too, in case we have a down day, but I'm looking forward to learning." She grabs a few packs of wraps and tosses them in a cart, then follows Clematis toward the actual ingredients.

The grocery has a lot of stuff!

Clematis starts with the produce section. It contains:

— Persines, obviously, in great quantity and many varietals and crossbreeds, and their nuts. There are some tempting looking crossbreeds with nectarines (persweets) and plums (plusines).

— Citrus fruit in a wide variety, ranging from lemons to limes to oranges. The "standard" citrus fruit with the most varieties appears to be what would be called a tangelo on earth. 

— Many varieties of squashes, again heavily crossbred; some varieties are advertised as seedless. 

— Berries, including an unfamiliar ridged orange one called "winterberry". Strawberries, blueberries and blackberries are all represented as well. 

— Brassicas. Broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, turnips, cabbage, brussles sprouts, and kholrabi. 

— Carrots and potatoes. 

— Corn, again in a couple varieties. 

— Apples are present, but seem to have been largely outcompeted by persines and citrus for the title of Best Fruit. There's only one variety at this store. 

— There's a display of condensed fruit bars here too, which are mostly persine, plusine, and persweet based. 

That's all that's available on a very first pass through. It's a fairly small grocery store.

Damn, that's a very fruit- and veggie-centric cuisine. She's fascinated. She gets a bunch of persines and nuts, some persweets, a few plusines, several of the tangelo-looking thing, some seedless squashes, several berries, plenty of veggies, corn, and a few bars. Then she starts looking for something tortilla-ish or bread-ish to unlock sandwiches or wraps as a cuisine direction.

She's kinda excited. Been a while since she got to fuck with new cuisine.

There is a whole aisle full of pitas, naan, tortillas, and other wrap-making flatbreads! On the end of it is a small display of loaves, in two varieties. (White and multigrain.)

The other side of the pita aisle is filled with sauces, ranging from persica chutney to a spicy-sweet sauce that Clematis says is a little like sriracha. There's also a small section of dried goods in the aisle, mainly various varieties of cracker.

Hell yes. Pitas, naan, tortillas, yes please. Into the cart those go. She... will not actually get a loaf of bread, just because they've never been as reliable as they'd like at finishing loaves of bread before they go bad. Definitely sauces. The chutney for sure, the sriracha-ish one, a couple others, a few crackers too...

Is there anything else Clematis would recommend she stock up on?

"There's some nice yogurt drinks in the dairy section? I'm assuming you haven't missed the deli completely."

Hailey slaps the side of her head and sighs. "Nope, totally missed the deli. Because apparently Sable's ditziness leaks when we're isekai-lagged." She heads over, grabs deli meats and cheeses, gets some yogurt drinks, and then heads to checkout.

"Alright," Clematis says, paying for the groceries. "Let's get these back to your apartment."

Hailey smiles lightly, grabs the majority of the bags, and nods. "Off we go."

As they head to the elevator, she turns to Clematis. "Thank you for all this."

"Just doing my job. But you're welcome."

One elevator ride later, Clematis helps Sable pack away all the groceries. 

"Check for toiletries you need?" she asks.

She looks through the basics that came with the apartment — unscented baby shampoo, toilet paper, jasmine toothpaste, manual toothbrush still in the package, a couple bars of worn soap that smell a bit floral — and then nods. "This stuff will do until we can do some research on nice conditioner. Need a deodorant but that can wait until tomorrow morning."

She shrugs.

"Alright. Then have a nice night! Any final questioms before I go?"

"Any particular time you wanna see us tomorrow?"

"Nine's when I get on, but feel free to text before then if you want to shift my day later."

"Nine works. We'll be up before then, almost guaranteed. Anything in particular on deck for tomorrow?"

"Probably the bloodwork, getting you cleared for off-the-complex stuff. Any remnants of banking that still need to be dealt with. And then I think that's all that's compulsory, though you'll still have me available as an educator and cultural guide."

She nods. "Makes sense. Probably after those we'll bother you intermittently about ideas for next steps and general tips. But we'll see." she stretches.

"Have a good night, Mentera Clematis."

"Have a good night, Dolorate Hailey."

And Clematis walks away.

Hailey flops tiredly on the bed couch thing. Today has been a day, and it's not done yet.

This place is pretty cool though.

After a few minutes rest, she stands back up and grabs a persweet to snack on while she thinks.

It's sweet and rich, distinctly tangy like an earth peach with an undertaste of butter. It doesn't have fuzzy skin like an earth peach either. That's probably the nectarine cross.

Tasty.

<So now the fuck what?>, Hailey asks internally.

Maya replies, <There is the rec room and the library, as Clematis suggested.>

<Or you could work on cooking something,> Ruby pipes up.

<Hailey, you know I love your cooking,> Sable starts, <but can we meet people please?> Her tone's a bit pleading.

<Fine,> she replies. <Rec room it is.>

She finishes off the persweet, washes her hands, and heads down the hall to the elevator. 

The rec room has a loungiere in front of a large plasma TV, which is currently unoccupied; there's also a foosball table, several small tables with tabletop games and cards set out on them, one of which is occupied by two pink-haired women in shorts and t-shirts playing a card game, and a small garden of what looks like tomato plants by the windowsill. There's also a second loungiere by the wall, which is presently occupied by a brown-haired woman wearing blue earrings, currently reading a book. 

Huh. Inserting themselves into this would normally be Sable's job, but eh. Well, wait, do they want to set themselves up for eventual plural explanations by introducing her right now rather than Sable?

They don't have Sable's clothes, though.

Eh. New world. They don't wanna try very hard to keep anyone who can't deal with the plurality, and Sable's tired, so fuck it.

She walks up to pinkettes. "Hi. What're y'all playin', if you don't mind my askin'?"

"Hey," says one of them. "We're playing a maid-collecting game, sort of like Dominion if you've played that. Want to join us for next round?" 

The other girl looks up. She's wearing similar clothes to Hailey, including a pendant of a knife. "Hey," she says. "Another Dolorate?" 

Hailey sits down with a grin. "Love to," she replies to the first. Turning to the second, "And sometimes Dolorin, as the mood strikes me. Hailey, good to meet y'all."

"Good to meet you too. I'm Rose, she's Audrey. We're both from earth just like you. It's been a process of adaptation, but..." Rose gestures to her black and red clothing. "There's definitely some advantages."

"There really are," she agrees with a light smile. "Lucked out and got an interpreter who understands plurality, too."

She examines the cards for a bit to try to get a sense of how the game is played, and lets herself check out both girls a bit more blatantly. They're cute.

Is Audrey's outfit pleat-legible at all, to her extremely limited training on the subject?

Audrey seems to be wearing a lot of pink and purple, in a shapeless, soft sort of style. She's got on arm warmers, a pair of striped stockings, and a one-piece dress that comes just to her thighs. 

"Plurality?" Rose hazards. "You mean like the thing in voting...?"

She laughs sharply and shakes her head. "I mean in the 'secretly five girls in a trenchcoat' way."

"Huh! Interesting. I'll try not to bombard you with questions." Audrey gives Rose a small Look.

Rose looks away and nods.

Hailey cocks an eyebrow curiously, but doesn't address the Look.

"We mostly don't mind questions. Long as they're not asinine shit like 'have you considered that you're completely delusional and the other people sharing a brain with you are just figments of your broken imagination', at least."

Audrey laughs. "Yeah, no, I think we can manage not that." She finishes her round and starts dealing out stacks of cards to the table.

"So the goal of this game," Rose says, "is to employ the most victory points of maids as you can. You get a private maid and as many public staff as you want. — It's an Earth board game. The maids have different powers to earn money or victory points." 

She gestures to the table. "You get a recruiting pool for each game that's different and you have to figure out what's efficient for that round."

"Interesting. Looks like fun. We've played Dominion, so it should be pretty easy to get a handle on it. Go 'head and deal me in for the next round, after y'all finish this one?"

She looks over at Audrey. "I think I can guess what Rose's favorite thing about moving to Forest is, and frankly mood, but what's yours, Audrey?"

"I would say it's... getting to be soft. The three year program is a lot of breathing space, and I wasn't in such a good situation on earth... I was trans, so..." She shrugs. "Being able to relax and just... be myself is so good."

Hailey sighs tiredly. "Ugh, yes. We — especially Sable — were approaching some serious burnout before the summon grabbed us. Three years is enough time to put ourselves back together."

"Yeah. And the pleat stuff is welcome too. I'd have been way too embarrassed to wear my princess clothes where anyone could see me on Earth."

She nods. "Yeah, I definitely get that. And same, for some of ours. Not as familiar with princess stuff, but wouldn't mind hearing more."

"I, um." Audrey looks down at her lap. "I'm still kind of embarrassed to talk about it, honestly. Maybe once we know each other better."

She arches an eyebrow curiously, then nods and shrugs. "Valid. Embarrassment instincts don't listen even when you know you've found someone who won't judge, let alone when you've just met."

She shakes her head with a laugh. "S'not like we've got a leg to stand on when it comes to kinkshaming, but meh."

"Thanks a lot. Now, um, shall we play? We've got the market all set up for a new game now."

Rose looks over at Hailey too, seemingly a bit impatient to get started.

She nods. "Definitely."

And they play! Audrey explains the rules as they go along, and play proceeds more or less smoothly around the table. Rose is pretty quiet, but Audrey talks a little about things she's seen in town, like how shocked she was to see a mall with a food court that was half beds being used for sex.

Eventually the game winds down.

"So yeah," Audrey says. "It's a whole new world out there. It's definitely a whole big culture shock to see people, um, in flagrante delicto in public. I saw another girl walking I think a boy on a leash... He was wearing a skirt, too..."

Hailey laughs. "I bet. It's pretty wild. A lot freer, in some ways, though. Got a lot of shit to learn — like I'm sure they have better safety practices for painplay here than they did back on Earth, and I'd better learn all 'bout those before I try to find anyone to cut, or let any cuties cut me." She gives Rose a mischievous look at the last bit.

"But I've got a shiny new local phone, so I can look that shit up tonight."

"Yeah! Good luck with that, I hope it goes well. Do you want to play another round, or?"

"I might be interested," Rose says. "Eventually. Still adjusting, yeah?"

"Yeah, no point rushing," she replies to Rose, before turning to Audrey. "And I wouldn't say no to another round, sure."

Then they can go back to cards! 

"So where did you live before this?" Audrey asks. "I was from Vancouver."

"Toronto."

"Tacoma. What were y'all doing or studying?"

"I was working a pretty dead-end job as a delivery driver." Rose shrugs. "There was a decent kink scene though so I'd been able to flog a couple people."

"Comp sci degree program. I wasn't doing so hot at it though because of the whole trans thing."

"Yeah, I get that, not having cracked our eggshell f- ruined uni for us too," she replies to Audrey with a nod. To Rose, "Pretty similar. Dead-end tech support, was trying to switch into programming full-time but stuck doing garbage until then."

"Solidarity." Rose offers a hand to clasp. 

"Yeah, it can really be a mess being trans and all."

Audrey leans back in her chair and runs a hand through her pink ponytail. 

"Solidarity," she replies. She looks down at Rose's hand for a moment, takes a steadying breath, and reaches out to clasp her hand.

She doesn't last long before she has to let go, digging fingernails into her palm to calm her racing heart and the chills running across her skin.

"Sorry," she mutters, looking down. "Touch trauma. The others don't have this problem."

"It's cool. I get that, uh, stuff has happened to pretty much everyone here. Audrey told me a story a little while back about... the circumstances that led to her being summoned. They weren't great."

Audrey winces slightly, but nods. "Yeah. Save that for later though."

She catches her breath and looks back up with a tired, lopsided smile. "Thanks. Anyway, let's play."

They can definitely play. It seems like everyone could use a distraction. 

Hailey evens back out as the game goes on, and does a bit better this round than last. She's actually pretty close to Rose and Audrey's victory points this time.

"You're doing pretty good at this for your first time, Hailey." Audrey smiles. "I think I'm done for the moment though, I want to head down to the bistro and grab something for supper. You're welcome to come with if you want though."

"Not really interested, sorry." Rose shrugs. "If you wanted to play a 1v1 game I could do that though?"

Hailey tilts her head for a moment. 

"Sable's gonna want a raincheck on grabbing a meal with you, Audrey, but I'm in front so I get to pick. Thanks anyway for the offer, and have a good meal."

She turns to Rose. "Yeah, I'll take you up on that game."

"Cool. Let's redeal and get the match underway. See you, Audrey."

"See you, Rose." Audrey smiles and heads out.

Hailey gathers up the cards, shuffles thoroughly, and redeals. Let's see if she can get good enough to actually challenge her this time.

Rose seems to have a sense of things, but Hailey's definitely catching up. After a fairly intense round, they total the VPs and it turns out she's ahead. 

"Damn," Rose swears. "You got me. Nice play."

"Thanks. It was pretty close." She grins. "A challenging opponent, cards with cute maids, what more could a girl want?"

"Someone to make pretty patterns on?" Rose smiles slightly. "As Audrey said, it's a whole new world out there. Finding some nice Dolorin shouldn't be too too hard. After all, I'm in a room with one right now."

Hailey's cheeks flush and she bites her lip for just a moment. "Very good point. I don't seem to have had much trouble finding a pretty Dolorate for when I'm ready to get some elegant designs cut in. Finding a cute Dolorin of my own shouldn't be too hard either."

Rose smiles slightly. "Cool. Maybe we can arrange that sometime. Once we're both more acquainted with kink practices here."

"Well, I know what I'm researching tonight," she replies with a smirk. 

"Heh. Good luck with that." Rose smiles. She flips a card over her thumb and back again. "Another game, or...?"

She hums, then nods. "Yeah, I could do at least one more. Should head home and make something for dinner eventually, but that can wait."

"Then let's play." 

Rose resets the board and gets another match underway.

Hailey focuses on the game, and tries something a bit experimental. It doesn't quite work, despite her best efforts.

So sure enough, she loses. 

"Yeah, it can be tough picking staff from a maid stack you haven't played with any of the cards of before. Still, you put up a decent fight. Good game. Want to finish the best of three now or leave it for another time?"

"Yeah, it'll take a few rounds to get used to 'em all."

Hmmm.

"Best of three," she nods.

"Alright, let's go." Rose deals a new hiring board and off they go. 

Hailey works at it. She's getting a better handle on figuring out what new maids she's never hired before are best used for, but it's still tricky. She does her best to make this match a close one.

It's very close, but Rose ends up short a buy at a critical moment in the endgame, letting Hailey just squeak out a win. 

"Nicely done," she says. "I'd shake your hand, but." She shrugs. "Still. A good game."

"Thanks," she replies with a lopsided smile. "Good game indeed. Gonna have to work on the touch thing, though. I actually have a shot at things I want to touch people for, and I'm not gonna let some damned trauma stop me from enjoying it."

"Sounds like you've got a goal to work on, then. That's good, it'd be easy to flounder what with the new setup and all. God knows I've been stumbling around trying to figure this place out."

"Well, if you need a sounding board or a hand with anything, let us know. Sable basically lives to help, the dork, and you're more tolerable than most people I've met."

"Will do. Think I'm going to go back to my apartment, make something for supper. It was nice to meet you, Hailey."

Rose stretches and gets up from the table.

"Likewise, Rose."

Hailey stretches for a bit, enjoying the view out the window, before heading back to the apartment as well.

It's as she left it, with all her groceries in place. Clematis hasn't left any messages on her phone. She's alone for now.

Except she's never alone. Thank goodness.

She flops onto the lounge-thing

<What we wanna do tonight, girls?>

<Find some local music on our phone?>, Ruby suggests.

Sable adds, <I wonder if they have podcasts.>

<Those sound like decent options while you cook,> Maya concurs, <and then we could research after.>

Hailey nods, stretching out.

After a moment, she pulls out their phone and starts looking for music and podcast options.

There is a wide array of unfamiliar podcasts and musicians, including both familiar genres like rap and country and unfamiliar ones, which seem to have pleat titles mashed up into their names.

How about some jams targeted at Dolorates? She finds a Dolorate-focused streaming radio and starts it up, then gets to making food.