...it's not a normal thing to do but it gets you, like, a ticket for public drunkenness or disorderly conduct or something, it's weird to react to it like it's some kind of atrocity.

That's horrifying. Why are aliens gross???

Well, aliens think they're evil, so it's even.

...they're not evil.

"Look," the guy says, "I help compile lists of destinations to advertise and make sure Atazzat's people will be safe while they visit, I don't really want to get into the question of whether you're any worse than your average slaveowner. But to people from a halfway decent society, uh, the question is whether you're worse than your average slaveowner, not whether you're evil at all."

"But we outlawed slavery decades ago," says the chair of the tourism board of Cene.

"Yeah, but you kept a brutalized and oppressed underclass who was prohibited from striking and would be murdered for not showing up to work, how is that not slavery? And you execute people for drunkenly peeing on the side of the road, and you sterilize people for crimes and don't give them access to counsel - which we invented long before we invented electricity - and you don't let anyone descended from farmers run for elected office or serve in the judiciary and you think it's an advantage of your population control system that poor people don't get to ever have children."

"...can we get a different tourism person who will be, uh, more interested in showing off Amenta to best advantage..."

"Are you okay with not executing tourists. If you can swing that I'm sure we can find someone who thinks you're great but if you can't then we can't in good conscience let anyone visit anyway."

"I don't think we have a punishment on the books for peeing on buildings in particular because that's... I think literally never come up... but we can just charge tourists for the cost of cleaning to local standards if they cause pollution violations and fine them additionally if they aren't prompt in reporting."

"That sounds a whole lot cheaper than a resurrection. Fine. We'll advertise for people who are really impressed with your gender politics or something and they'll get in touch."

"...our what politics?"

"Gender. Like, you don't have fields with gender disparities, you don't have disparate sentencing, that stuff."

"...if that's what attracts tourists."

"It helps counterbalance the other stuff."

Someone announces intent to resurrect any babies Tapa kills.

"...and then do what with them?" the Tapai liaison to Vanda Nossëo wants to know.

"- maybe the parents will want to immigrate? Let someone adopt them, otherwise - look, the aim here is to get you to stop killing babies, not to acquire a lot of Amentan babies, but if we get a lot of Amentan babies out of it I think they'll do okay."

"We don't kill babies recreationally. Would it satisfy you if we seized all the perpetrators' assets and exiled them from Tapa, illegal baby and all?"

" - that sounds way better than killing babies, yes."

"Can we possibly get someone who has any understanding of historical context to do your job - we aren't doing it because it's fun, you don't have to sound as though you think we're delighted about it or less than eager to stop, we just need to replace the functionality."

"On Savandol this is an elected position."

Sigh.

(Saving babies polls very well on Savandol.)

Yvalta, on the federal level, declines membership, and attempts to find Soyok guilty of treason when he says his House is joining on its own.

What does this attempt look like exactly.