She's in a hallway on a - ship? Wooden deck under her feet, wooden walls, cheap plastic pipe and cheap electric lights running along the ceiling. The hum of some giant combustion engine and other machinery sounds form a background noise together with the sound of wind or waves on the outside of the hull. There's metal doors visible every so often along the hall, but it curves slightly and she can't see the ends of it.

She's been on ships before. She takes a moment, then starts to look around. Any writing on the doors? Portholes or other windows?

No windows here. The door nearest her says "Ballast 3", in English.

And the other doors, if she looks?

To the left: Main Deck Access, a junction in the hallway, Ballast 2, Ballast 1, Signal Room, Forward Catwalk Access.

To the right: Ballast 4, Fuel Storage, Aft Catwalk Access.

Could she see anyone or anything around the junction?

The junction is a straight hallway maybe eighty feet long with a couple of doors in it. It looks like there's a little side room halfway through - there might be sunlight coming in.

Are the doors also labeled? Can she hear anything from the room?

The doors all say 'Cargo Bay'.

She can hear occasional rustling and tapping as if from a bored watchman shifting slightly in that room.

It does not seem possible to look around more without likely running into someone.

She sits against a wall and waits for someone to find her.

At length, someone comes around the corner. A woman dressed in rough cotton and leather. Low-tech work clothes.

She spots Xeyr's outfit, her hair, and stops dead in her tracks. "...Uh-oh."

(Her hair is dark green, tied in two long knots on either side of the top of her head. Her clothes are the utility suit from the planetoid mining colony.)

She holds out her hands to show weaponlessness, without pointing them at the woman in case they have magic like that. 

"I'm sorry, I'm here by accident. I'm not going to hurt anyone."

"Suuuure. Weird, techy person, stowing away? Really? What the hell are you even wearing." She takes a step backward and glances at the hall behind her.

"Work uniform," she says, because sometimes people have lie detection.

She doesn't know what she's been taken for, in this case. Does not much expect to convince anyone otherwise, if she did.

"You - you - is anyone gonna be after you? Steal something? You bring tech on board, you gonna blow us up by accident?"

"My friends might come - there are two of them. They also won't be coming to hurt anyone. They won't steal. I won't blow anything up."

"Look, I don't know what you're actually up to, but I know a tech-hunter when I see one. You've stolen something and have pirates after you, or you're gonna steal something, or you have something dangerous onboard that'll kill someone, or something. Deeps. And here I was hopin' to buck off next time we hit port but there's a tech hunter and everything's gonna go to the deeps now, isn't it? For the love of everything that floats."

"I'm sorry. I'm not a tech hunter." (She does not expect to be believed.) "I don't want anyone to be hurt. I'll leave as soon as I can, if you want."

"-Yeah. Yeah, get you off the ship. I should tell the captain. Can't leave you alone. Come with me- Wait. Oh! HEY, CARL!"

There's a clatter from the alcove room. "Sir, yes - er - what?"

"Carl, you lump. Fell asleep on watch again? We could've hit something. Jesus. Make yourself useful and tell the captain we've got a stowaway!"

"Y-Yes ma'am!"

Carl goes back into the alcove room and does this.

"C-Captain says to wait here he's sending an escort."

The woman nods, tense.

She stays perfectly still with her hands up.

And at length there is a guy with a weird low-tech gun and an older man with a Fancy Outfit. They talk with the tense woman briefly.

"Ma'am. I'm Captain Faren. You'll bring trouble. I want trouble off my ship as soon as possible. It's not personal. I just have forty-seven lives to account for, and it is a grave responsibility that brooks no compromise of safety. So, Galen here is going to watch you while we find somewhere to drop you off. We'll give you some food and water and a flag to wave in case some other captain is fool enough to pick you up again. Is that clear?"

"Yes. Thank you. I would not want to endanger your people. That is very kind of you."

"Thank you. Please accompany us to the lounge for now."

And to the lounge they go. They're still tense, but the Captain's easy confidence seems to calm the other two down.

She accompanies them. Lounge?

Utilitarian stairwell and hallway and then a lounge. There's a few lightweight chairs and couches and tables affixed to the floor. There's a bookshelf with paper books.

There are windows to a wide cloudscape, miles and miles out, sky above and below so that she can't see the surface. There is some floaty wildlife visible, an alien three-lobed tentacled and beaked thing, a tangle of green and brown that might be some sort of floating plant.

She waits for indication of whether she should sit down, or sit on the floor, or stay standing, or be restrained to something, or something else.

That is an interesting type of world. (Jewel will likely be excited, if Xeyr lives long enough for her to get here.) If no one seems to be minding, she'll look around and out the windows and at any book titles she can see.

"You can sit," the Captain says. "I want you off my ship but that's no reason to be mean about it. Sanha, go relieve Carl. Galen, watch her, stay diligent, give a shout if she tries anything. I'll have Willis make up a castaway's crate and go back to the bridge. Nice and neat."

The tense woman nods sharply, a little sullenly, glaring at Xeyr. "...Aye, sir." The big guy holding a gun just nods.

The captain leaves.

"Thank you." She sits, and does not try anything.

In about an hour, the ship turns and descends slightly. There's a large - floating island? - visible outside the lounge windows. There are trees and birds and alien things visible. There don't seem to be any people.

Some other sailor comes by with a wooden crate full of dry food and four full canteens and a big white cloth sheet. They lead her to a sort of elevator as the ship maneuvers to try and stay steady over the island. "Down you go, miss."

"Thank you. I hope your travels go well." She goes.

"Likewise." He pulls a lever and the elevator starts to descend. It touches down on the island with only a little bit of a jarring impact.

(She doesn't seem too worried about being stranded on an empty island. So she probably does have a crew coming after her with some kind of radio nonsense, or something. Good riddance.)

"Please don't worry about me or feel you've done wrong by me or feel guilt on my behalf. You've been very kind, and I will be well." (It's true, even if this will be a time it takes Mia a while to come to her. Being on an island is not a bad temporary fate, as they go. And if not well here, she will be well somewhere, however short or long away.)

When it has descended, if it seems like she is supposed to get off the elevator, she does that. And brings anything that was put down with her.

The elevator goes back up. The aitship's engines rev and the backwash ruffles her hair a bit as giant propellers pass overhead.

Now she has a wooden crate, a big piece of white cloth, some food and water, and a smallish floating island to explore.

She looks at what the ship is like from outside, while it is still here.

It's pretty big. The lower section is hundreds of feet long and maybe eighty feet across, and the large balloon section is proportionally larger. Though the lift section might be smaller than one would expect of such an airship, compared to one that exists on Earth.

There are four large engine nacelles with propellers sticking out a bit from near the rear of the ship, and there are giant rudders and ailerons you could fit a house on. There are only a few windows. It looks to be made mostly out of wood and canvas, flimsy in the way that airships tend to be, though there's some metallic equipment here and there.

Earth is not her own reference. She's seen a lot of sorts. People craft so many things in so many places and ways...

She looks what food she has, and explores the island.

Dried fruit. Biscuits. Hard bread. A little bit of jerky and something like trail mix. All told, maybe a week's worth of food for one person. But she'll run out of water in a couple of days unless it rains.

The island is made of some strange coral-like rock, tiny thin-walled cells that are very delicate alone but surprisingly tough packed together, covered by a layer of dirt thinner and thicker in some places and then by a lot of Earthly and otherworldly plants. There's some tall grass with floaty seeds, bushes and shrubs, an alien plant with thick, waxy leaves like palm fronds, some trees. There are few insects - these tiny barnacle-jellyfish things seem to have out-competed them. There are a few squirrels, some birds, and a small colony of manta-ray-shaped floating critters resting on a sort of mangrove clinging to the side of the island.

In terms of forage there are some unfamiliar maybe-poisonous berry bushes, and wild onions, if she recognizes wild onions.

An interesting world. 

The berries are unlikely to be poisonous to her. She has too much variety of experience to be sure of the onions, rather than too little to recognize them, but she checks out various plants and discovers them successfully. 

She tries some onions and berries (spaced), in case they do something she is not expecting.

Does she have anything she could collect water in, if it does rain?

The berries aren't poisonous. The crate probably isn't waterproof. The big sailcloth could get nice and soaked at least until it dries, and maybe be used to refill the plastic canteens.

Is the food also inside something waterproof, or should she attempt to arrange protection from water for it? 

She finds a good location for the sailcloth for that eventuality. 

The food is wrapped in a mix of paper and plastic bags. She might want to eat the paper-wrapped ones first.

In the distance there's a - squeal. It looks like a flock of birds are pecking apart some unfortunate flying critter. They rest on it, dragging it down and eating voraciously, until it gets too low and then take flight again.

She consolidates food that can be stored in plastic bags into those as possible, and tries some waterproofing with the waxy leaves.

Oh dear. What happens to the critter? Do the birds look likely to attack island-bound persons?

Critter's definitely dead! There's blood and everything! It was about the size of a big raccoon or a medium-sized dog. It's plausible that the bird swarm would be wary of larger prey.

OK. 

She makes a plan for the food and water. She begins further exploring the plants. Can she weave the tall grass? Could she potentially spin the fibers of the floaty seeds? Can she make anything with the waxy leaves? Does any other vegetation seen usable for that kind of work? Does any of it look like it would have potential if dried?

Also, what color are the berries?

The tall grass is mostly dry and fragile. The trees seem healthy, if a bit - thin? There's loose sticks here and there. The floaty seeds aren't very fibrous. She can catch a seed easily, but it's a paper-thin shell that weighs almost nothing. The floaty critters seem to enjoy eating them whole, though. The waxy palm-frond-ish leaves would take well to being woven into things, they're relatively thin and flat, tough and flexible. There are fluffy tassels on the edge of some kind of mangrove thing that might turn out to be spinnable fibers - or hold some water.. The berries are dull red. They don't seem to be poisonous, upon testing, but they don't taste very nice either. Kind of starchy and hard.

Can she eat the floaty seeds? Did any of the people she saw have hair that color or close to it?

She hangs up some picked waxy leaves to dry, to see what they will be like then. 

The floaty seeds taste like inedible dry grass.

The hair colors she has seen are various shades of brown, grey/white, black, and blonde.

Hm. Is any of the dried fruit a local-hair-like color or close?

Some of the dried fruit is pale enough to probably pass for blonde.

Not her choice of color, but it is better than to alarm people. She holds it in her hands and squeezes. The new color creeps through her hair from the roots until it has all changed.

She starts weaving a test square from the waxy leaves. 

Waxy leaf weaving is a skill that could benefit from practice, but totally doable.

She has relevant skills and practice, and is very willing to practice with the local specifics. She works, looking around as she does for further happenings in the environment.

Further changes in the environment include the flock of floaty things deciding to float off somewhere else, and nighttime.

How dark does it get at night? Are there light sources?

There's a moon, not a huge looming one or anything. There's stars. It's pretty dark though. A few of the alien plants bioluminesce.

She watches for a little to see if any dangerous-looking things appear with the night. If not, she wraps herself in the white sheet and sleeps.

Nothing more dangerous than the wind, which is mostly calm but occasionally flares up in a seemingly random direction.

Unless it's strong enough that she needs to tie herself to something, that does not seem like a danger. She sleeps. 

The dawn comes uneventfully. The landscape of distant islands and colonies of critters is different now.

She wakes up. She notices the changed skyscape.

Do the islands seems propelled by the wind, or something else? Can she time about how fast the one she is on moves?

The islands are riding the wind. They're moving relative to each other pretty slowy, and without good reference points it's hard to tell exactly how fast.

She continues weaving and looking around, with breaks for food and water. 

That might be a ship in the distance! It's moving relative to everything else at a fair clip, at any rate.

Is it doing anything obviously suggestive of being the kind of ship whose attention she wouldn't want to draw? (Something that would look like this world's version of a pirate flag, or corpses hanging somewhere, or so on).

Nope. It's a ship, it has engines - it does look a lot smaller than the one she was left here by, and the lift envelope has an odd swooping shape that narrows to a point at the front.

If that has significance it is not something she can know. And she could try to wait for Mia, but - less likely to cause a fight, this way, if anything.

She hangs the white sheet on the tree she thought would be best for it, arranges it to blow out in the wind, tries waving to draw more attention.

The ship doesn't seem to notice her at all! It doesn't bother turning or anything. In about half an hour, it slips behind clouds.

That seems the sort of thing that might happen. She goes back to weaving and looking around. Once she's doing it well enough, she'll stop weaving practice squares and start on a cloak. 

This will make a pretty stiff and heavy cloak. It'd make a good wide-brimmed hat, though. Something like a woven shelter might suit better.

The intent is not as much comfort or protection from the elements as it is covering her clothes from first glance (the previous response to her seemed to be brought on by her clothes and her hair both, and she cannot change the former as she can the latter.) She'd considered the white flag cloth, but she has no good way to cut it or stitch it, and also needs it.

Well, a crude but serviceable cloak is within her grasp with some effort.

Around noon it drizzles for a little while but doesn't properly rain. Enough to make everything annoyingly damp but not really enough to refill her canteens with.

Just after that, a large floating jellyfish-thing covered in green fuzz visits the island and gorges itself on the grass with the floating seeds. It doesn't seem hostile - it barely even has teeth.

She has effort to give. 

She hides under trees and uses the in progress cloak for cover if it's needed.

Not hostile is helpful. 

She eats onions (and scatters seeds if she can) and berries and some of the given food, and drinks some water, and weaves, and looks around. 

And the peaceful, sparse sky fades into afternoon. One of the new islands in the distance seems to be inhabited. It looks like there's a few buildings and maybe a crop field, at any rate.

Flag and waving? (She drapes herself in what she has of the cloak.)

They shout at her! It's hard to make anything out clearly due to the distance. "Hello! We don't have a ship! Good luck!" is the only message the farmstead-or-something manages to get to her. Eventually this island starts drifting further away too.

She takes in this aspect of living in a world like this. She hopes they do not worry too much over her.

And a little while after the islands drift apart again, two more people appear. 

The one has red hair in a braid, and is wearing a more martial looking uniform, complete with holstered weapon. She's carrying some bags.

The other has a bob of short brown hair and a utility suit like Xeyr's.

"Good news. Persons who like stranding other persons in mine shafts aren't going to be doing that anymore! Because they got arrested and not because I killed them, either."

Then she gets a look around and adds, "Wow, this is some place."

Somewhat-smile. "Thank you, Mia.

Yes. I - think the whole world is this way? They have airships. Not very high technology. They were alarmed by my hair and clothes, though I'm not entirely sure exactly why."

(Jewel meanwhile jumps forward almost immediately to hug Xeyr. "People making you alone and dead is not nice!" Then also gets a look around. "It's an island in the air!")

(She returns the hug. "No dearest, it's not. Hopefully they won't do that to anyone else now.

And yes, it is.")

(She asks with a look at both of them if she can go explore said island, and, getting go-ahead-looks, runs off to do so.)

Mia, meanwhile, raises her eyebrows. "'Alarmed'?"

"They didn't want me on their ship, let me out here. Left me some food and water and a flag for being seen by other ships."

"'Let you out', right. They marooned you on an island because they didn't like how you looked."

"They were scared. I don't mind." She fills in Mia on the rest of the story, including what she's been doing here in the meanwhile. 

("Of course you don't," she says to that, but listens.)

Jewel meanwhile is looking at things about the island. What's this coral-like rock like? Can she break off a little piece? What happens?

She won't bother the floating rays, because Xeyr wouldn't like that, but what are they like?

The coral-like rock is surprisingly tough but will bend to determined attempts to break it off. If she breaks off a little piece it will try to float away. It's made up of tiny sealed cells, and probably alive. The floating rays are nervous herbivores. There are baby floating rays clinging to a few of the pack's back, two or three on each probably-mom that has them. They nibble on leaves and floating seeds and make warbling noises.

She will catch it and not let it float away! Can she press it back in place?

Alive like a plant or like an animal or something else?

Aw! 

The floating stone does not reattach, it's well broken. Alive sort of like a plant? There's some green in there, anyway. And some fungus-like tendrils and fibers.

A big green jellything suddenly moves! It was camouflaged quite effectively, settled down in a tangle of bushes. It heaves itself out of its hiding spot and makes a low-pitched whistling sound, looking at the newcomers with two of its six eyes.

If it was like an animal it would be not very good that she broke it, so it is good that it is not that. 

Wow!

Does it seem dangerous and/or a threat?

It's not a predator, those are herbivore teeth.

Of course, moose are dangerous because of their sheer size despite being herbivores...

And does this one look like it is being dangerous right now?

It looks like it just woke up and doesn't know what to make of the loud visitors! It's hard to judge what a big tentacled jellyfish-thing is about to do, though. It's not moving towards them, at least - it's stretching and making whistle noises.

She keeps an eye on it and signals to Jewel to carefully move away.

Jewel tries to do that.

The jellyfish thing slowly hefts itself into the air and heads for the patch of floating-seed-grass.

Good. She'll keep keeping an eye on it just in case.

It eats for a while, slowly and placidly, and then slowly drifts closer towards them, whistling, almost - curiously?

To her and Xeyr, or to Jewel?

Towards Jewel, who's closer. It pauses still some distance away and stretches out one long tentacle covered in that not-quite-hair green stuff towards her.

Jewel runs away to the others!

Well, it can tell it's not wanted here. It shoves off into the air with a burst of slightly foul-smelling gas, clicking away.

Oh, good.

(She hugs Jewel.)

Mia, now being updated, heads off to some empty space to do weapons practice.

She lets Jewel know things about the world and their plans as well - the others now being here, and them not really having other clothes, they're going to try having Mia do first-meeting and see if that might help with someone being willing to at least transport them.

Jewel wants more hugs, and then runs off to do more island exploring.

Xeyr goes back to weaving, this time a mat or a basket for possible trade. Keeps looking around. 

The island has started a slow but steady descent with the addition of two more people. But it doesn't seem likely that they'll stumble across another ship before the mass of homogenous fog off to the - north, if the sun here works like most suns do, rising in the east and setting in the west - before the fog washes over them and makes them all but invisible for who knows how long.

Does it seem like they should be worried about continuing to drop?

Is it foggy enough for concern about falling off the island?

The rate of descent is pretty slow. The fog doesn't look like it will cut visibility quite enough that falling off would be a danger - but to less than a hundred feet, certainly.

Guess they're hanging out in fog then.

Fog is kind of spooky. Everything seems quiet, except for the steady, cold wind. Occasionally, hulking shadows loom over them.

It lasts into the night. Some time before dawn the fog turns to rain.

The packs have some extra clothes and a basic portable shelter so cold and rain are less of a problem. When it starts getting dark she sets it up. 

What's casting the shadows?

It's hard to tell what's casting the shadows! Possibly other islands. Once the fog turns to rain they can see that they're in a more crowded part of the sky now. More islands, more floating wildlife, at least two things that might be ships but it's hard to tell given the rain.

She's not going to fire into the air here, and she doesn't want to waste a flair yet, but she can pull together supplies enough to start a fire on the end of a longer branch and then wave it. 

The alien wildlife is very spooked by fire!

One of the ships turns a bit closer.

She can wave in patterns. 

Yep, the crew of that ship is pretty sure that that's three people stranded on an island, playing with fire. They're not heading directly towards them, because fire, but aiming to be close enough to shout. It'll be a few minutes.

They can wait. The fire is well controlled, though of course they might not be sure of that looking from a distance.

Shouting distance is achieved eventually. "Hey! Put out that flame so we can get closer, why don't you?"

Flame is put out. 

And the ship gets a little closer. It's a bit smaller than the first one and seems to be built a lot sturdier - metal skin covers most of the gas envelope, the gondola looks reinforced. There's something that might be a weapon sticking out of the bottom.

"You three got anything I'd think is worth giving you a lift off this rock?"

How exactly are they supposed to know what would be thought worth it?

They have clothing with properties like 'fireproof' and a tent with the same and nonperishable exotic food and flares. And some mining tools.

The clothes and tent and mining tools are tech. Maybe dangerous, definitely valuable. It's enough for them to be willing to tie down to the island and negotiate further. A little help from the ground to tie off ropes would be appreciated.

Have some help.

And then three people descend a ladder. They look much more rough-and-tumble than the first ship. Leather clothes, scars. The second man is carrying a blade.

"G'day. Name's Renfield. This is Alice and Richie. I'm sure we can work something out for a lift off of this rock, depending on what kind of place you want to go next."

She's tucked the higher-tech gun out of sight and turned her general weapon into a shiny pistol, which she has not tucked out of sight at all. Sometimes weapons can solve some problems without even needing to be used on anyone.

"Good day. Mia. My friends went back out of the rain for now. I'm sure we can make that a mutually positive outcome. We'd like to go to a town if possible, and a settlement if otherwise."

The armed man frowns at the pistol and rests his hand nearer his sheathed short sword, but doesn't tense up very much or pull it.

Renfield says, "Town, can do. We were looking for something like that anyhow. Tech-hunters like you are a bit risky, as passengers, of course. I'd like to hear in more detail about what the things you have can do."

She keeps around the 'I could take you but wouldn't it be nicer for everyone if there wasn't a fight' nonverbal communication as called for.

They're not hunters, but that's probably not an important distinction to him. The clothes and tent have various sorts of fabric properties - durable and fireproof and impervious to various sorts of dangerous chemicals. The food is nonperishable and nutritionally complete (usefully the last world they were on had a lot of humans, though obviously she doesn't volunteer that part). The flares make bright and very visible light without fire. They're emergency supplies, though, not lighting. The mining tools were used for mining.

Nonperishable food isn't particularly appealing, also how do they know it's actually nutritionally complete? They don't. Flares sound dangerous and, uh, maybe you should toss them over the side. Or stick them in a secure box. Fire bad. The fabric items are promising. What exactly do the mining tools do?

She decides not to argue with them over that part; they don't have that much of the food anyway.

Flares are not fire and cannot set anything on fire. 

She's not sure, she wasn't the one using them, she'll call over her friend who knows.

The woman snarks that flares make heat, which makes fire, which even children know.

"Let's all be polite, here," Renfield reminds her. "And I'd be happy to hear what she says about them."

(Is the language messing up somehow or what?)

...Human bodies make heat. 'Make heat' doesn't mean 'sets things on fire'. Flares do not make enough heat to set something on fire. If they did, they would be able to set something on fire, which they're not.

Xeyr shows up. 

Mia watches for reactions.

"So they're lost technology flares, that only make light? Not hunks of phosphorous you light up? That's much more promising, if true. Hello, there. I'm Renfield. It sounds like you can explain the mining tools?"

Yes, they only make light. 

"Hello."

She can. They - were - used to mine such-and-such material which she's not sure what to call. This one helps you locate where there are deposits, and this one helps you get to it, and this one helps you extract it. They can be modified for other materials instead. 

Ooh.

What's the range on the 'scanning for deposits' bit? How does it recharge? What other materials can it detect, like, oh, say, metals commonly used in other lost technology?

Handheld it goes from about a large room to close-range. There's a way to get it to cover somewhat more ground. It trades off fidelity; the procedure usually used amounts to narrowing down and 'zooming' repeatedly. At the moment they run on a long term battery; it'll last centuries from here, but could be retrofitted with a different energy source. 

Yes, it could do metals. 

They mutter to each other. Getting a bearing on some titanium or silver or gold and sailing for it and narrowing until they find it sounds like a way to make tech-hunting... Not reliable, but less likely to turn up nothing.

"The scanner sounds promising - if you're willing I'd like to test it out a bit, see if it can detect the location of something we have on our ship that you have no way of knowing about. If it can, I'll offer you all passage and room and board until we find a big town, as well as sixty gold draws. Those're coins, of course. The other two aren't as important for the purpose I'm thinking of, but I'm sure they'll do alright at auction in some town."

"If the test involves taking it to your ship, I'd need to accompany you. Otherwise that sounds like a deal we'd accept."

Passage should give enough time to get an idea of them, and if they're the sort who shouldn't have something like that then take measure.

The ship-people are meanwhile wondering whether these strangers can be trusted not to hold the ship hostage or misrepresent their tech for a better deal. 

"If it can give me a convincing bearing from out here I won't need to take it aboard without you."

He has her search for gold, iridium, tungsten, and palladium in the ship overhead, in that order. There's no iridium or palladium nearby - he's checking for false positives. There's a little tungsten in the engines at the back and a couple of pounds of gold in a safe in the captain's cabin.

Those are not the kinds of things they generally do, not that this is something the ship-people have access to.

She fiddles with setting (it is not difficult, for plain elements). Scanner can't pinpoint 'in the engines' and 'in the safe' from here, she'd need to be closer, but it can accurately report 'not around' and 'in the ship'. She proceeds carefully and lets them see what she's doing if they want. If she can walk and make herself closer to the ship (carefully), she can narrow down a little, enough to say 'in the back' for tungsten.

"...Hmm. How far away would it be able to search if we just need to know if we need to go left or right? Miles, or less than that?"

(The scanner wasn't engineered for this, but no one forced an artificial range limit on it either. She fiddles again.)

They'll need to wait a few seconds for a response, but it can do miles at low fidelity. 

"Hmm. That'll work. Alright, sounds like a deal, given a tutorial on how to use it."

Scanner for passage and room and board until they find a big town, and sixty gold draws? Deal on their side too.

When would they like their tutorial?

"It can wait. We're going to pass the night here, since we're already tied down. Take care of some chores, rest, maybe forage up some wood and floatseeds. You don't need to help, as passengers. I'll show you the cabins now if you like. We can give you two cabins with two beds each, or move a third bed into one, whichever you prefer. Oh, but we do have safety rules. No fire or sparks. Don't go on the top deck or outside without a harness. And stay out of the working sections, engines, bridge, and so on - those will be clearly marked in yellow. Have any of you got experience on airships? If you have, we might want you to help out in case of an emergency, help with damage control. If you haven't you should probably just stay out of the way if something happens."

Move a third bed into one, please. (She doesn't need Mia looking at her, though of course Mia does that.)

Understood. 

They've been on airships before, but it was far away so they wouldn't want to assume it transfers.

She can help with some chores, if they might like?

"What kind of 'something happens' would you be thinking of there? Are you anticipating attack?"

"Wildlife attack. Debris strike. Storm. Random accident, engine breach or something. Pirates. Nothing is very likely to go wrong, but precaution saves lives."

If an attack might happen, it'd be useful if they'd tell her about their procedures. If they don't trust her with details, which would of course be fully understandable, at least enough so they won't get in each other's way as she protects her friends. 

"Two long rings and two short rings of the bell mean we're doing hard maneuvering to avoid something we'd rather not fight. And we're certainly not going to go picking fights. Look out for loose objects and be careful in the halls if you hear that. Five short rings means emergency damage control. I'll get Sam to quiz you later to see if you three'd do more harm than good helping damage control. Mostly, stay out of the way, preferably in your cabin. And don't go shooting that slug-thrower onboard unless you absolutely have to, hear? It could set off sparks and set the whole gas envelope on fire. So for the love of god, keep it unloaded and safetied."

"Understood." She'll take that for a 'no they won't explain and she'll have to be figuring it out in the moment if they do get attacked'. Well, she can do that.

"I think that's everything we wanted to cover? If so, let's get you aboard and settled." He indicates the rope ladder they've unspooled.

She goes to help Xeyr pack up the tent and carry packs. 

Jewel, out of the tent, stares excitedly at the airship.

It might be hard to climb the ladder with the crate, but other than that they're ready to go up.

There's a little cargo net they can lift up the crate with.

Here's a ship! It's built more fancily than the first one, with wood paneling and fancy inset lights and such. Their cabin is just this way, they'll steal a bed from the one next over.

They go to the cabin. May they look around the rest of the ship if they don't go to off-limits areas?

Sure. No crossing the yellow lines into engineering areas or the bridge and no going into other people's cabins and cook might chase you out of the kitchen but there's still the lounge and observation deck and storerooms and library and stuff.

Understood. 

They go to look around.

It's a ship so there's not really that much space, but the lounge is spacious at least. The library is more like just two bookshelves. The storeroom has a bunch of large lockers with padlocks on them all.

She heads off to walk the ship some more, be ready if anything. 

What does the kitchen seem to be like, if she can be near it long enough to see? What books do they have? Is there anything to suggest how they keep things clean?

The kitchen is made of white plastic and metallic and slightly off-color glassy surfaces everywhere, to prevent fire. There are hooks and cabinets everywhere, and no loose implements or dishes at all.

The books seem to be mostly novels and magazines and so on. A few beat-up and low-tech-calibrated textbooks on algebra and chemistry and such. Four slightly better ones, on the weather, and Dangerous Fauna, and fire prevention and fighting, and Safe Weapons. There's also a dictionary.

They get water out of a tank on the bottom deck, with taps or hand pumps on the upper level. There are brooms and mops and tins of soap and the like in the supply closets.

She wonders how they get the plastic. (Wonders in a practical sort of way. 'Less common, going by everything else' doesn't mean 'going to surprise'.)

She wants to read about Dangerous Fauna! And Safe Weapons! And magazines!

She'll read about fire.

There are lots of dangerous fauna! Vicious alien pack predators with sharp claws and beaks and huge solitary alien predators with poisoned bladed tentacles uncreatively called 'bladesquid' and these red and orange spiked things called 'fire floaters' that tend to explode and sky whales, which are more dangerous for their massive size than anything else.

Safe weapons are mostly crossbows and slings and pneumatic harpoon launchers and pressurized-air rifles and the like. The magazines are very eclectic, no one series seems complete. There's fashion magazines and gossip rags and restaurant reviews and political treatises and popular science magazines with flashy illustrations and a couple History Of Our Noble City type things. They're all beat up, and it doesn't seem like more than three are from the same place.

Fire prevention is a hard job! Ship fires are nasty even if you use helium as a lift gas because there's nowhere to run and nowhere to get water. Honestly a fire on a ship without a very excellent suppression system is a death sentence unless you have escape pods or something. It's better on a large town, but most native life is, er, highly flammable, so always be careful! The best thing if you can manage it is to toss whatever's burning overboard, not your problem anymore. The chance it'll land on someone else and still be burning is very small, but such a thing has ever happened before.

She will remember about fauna and weapons for Mia. She will bookmark political and science and history of noble city for Xeyr. She will read science! Illustrations? And fashion and gossip.

What do they have for suppression, and escape pods? Does the material the islands are made of catch fire, or explode, or something else dangerous?

There's foam and water and compressed gases, for fire suppression. The top layer of floatstone will burn, but it won't burn all the way through in most fires. Some islands are made of many interconnected clumps of the stuff, held together by roots, not one solid piece - those fare worse.

Do they - fall apart?

The fire burns hotter faster because of air channels and readily available soft green matter. But that too, yes.

Escape pods?

Signs loudly declaring LIFEBOAT all lead to metal-and-plastic baskets with four seats and a bundle of equipment and fabric overhead, and what looks like a hatch out. There's no instruction manual on the lifeboats, though.

There's also a runabout in a sort of loading bay. Another, smaller ship inside the big ship, with its own engine and so on. Maybe ten people could cram into it if they had to.

Maybe she can offer to help make instruction sheets, later. 

She takes further reading material from what Jewel bookmarked.

Meanwhile: science? Gossip? Fashion?

The magazines are clearly flashy summaries that don't go into technical detail, but they have vaccines and understand genetics and used to be able to do genetic engineering (most crops are heavily engineered) but can't anymore. They have fancy chemistry and radios and computing and mathematical theory and aerodynamics. The magazines lament that so much has been lost and probably will continue to be lost as time passes.

Nobody knows how the Stargate worked, and it's broken beyond repair, probably. Even if someone could build a rocket ship and go check it out in geostationary orbit, even if they could fix it, the other side might have been taken down by now anyway! What a tragedy. Maybe we should build a giant radio beacon and point it at Earth asking them to send another. (But who will pay for it?, someone scrawled in the margin.)

Gossip is potentially illuminating on local culture. It all seems to be from different places that work fairly differently, too.

The richest man in town has three mistresses, and one is pregnant! His wife wants a divorce and all his money. Their son took a sack of gold and left in the night. What a delicious scandal all around!

We caught the serial killer by tracking down the source of the poison he was using! His trial is scheduled for next week. The editor hopes he will be imprisoned for life.

The outbreak of flu was successfully contained by an aggressive quarantine. Two people were shot for trying to break quarantine. Their bodies were burned and returned to next of kin. Those idiots put us all in danger!

The Assembly of Houses voted 8-2-1 on a highly controversial measure to legalize prostitution with a lot of limits, which is a pass. There's high-context commentary on the political alliances involved and how this vote affects them.

The flying sports star Ken Lamone broke his leg in the middle of a game. He may be out for months or never play again. This writer is devastated for his favorite team's chances in the finals! ...And Mr. Lamone's health, of course.

Fashion tends to favor either loose baggy clothes and bright colors, or tight-fitting and revealing things in patterns, for 'city folk'. Pants, gloves and boots, tough looking leather, big coats, and so on are ship folk clothes. A touch of shiny metal as an accessory or embellishment is good for any fashion as long as it's not overly gaudy or gemstone-festooned or something.

:( things being lost. She wants to build a giant radio beacon! This will probably not be allowed. Xeyr's traveling thing and the other things are mean.

Computing?

She bookmarks the prostitution thing for Xeyr. 

If they have enough money maybe she can get pretty clothes! If they don't she can still have looked at pictures of pretty clothes!

Meanwhile she'll look at some political treatises and city history.

Each big city seems to have its own government and laws. Mostly various kinds of democracies and oligarchies, a few explicit dictatorships and monarchies and communist societies.

What does 'communist societies' mean here?

What kind of laws are common here? How much do they vary. (She looks at the bookmarked prostitution law question. What are the limits? Can she know what laws other cities tend to have?) What kind of justice systems?

How common is government turnover?

This collection of magazines is not exactly a comprehensive reference library.

The two sets of communists she can find are a planned economy where luxuries can still be bought and sold, and a semi-anarchic place where the guiding principle of law is group ownership of just about everything.

There are several references to courts and lawyers and tribunals and so on, but none are explained very exhaustively.

Only two of the Houses is allowed to profit off of prostitution, it can only be done in certain places, nobody under the age of 16.

Most of the crimes mentioned are fairly straightforward - arson, murder, rape, theft, fraud, etc. Though how authoritarian places are varies widely. The place that shot quarantine violators was on the high end of that.

It's not at all clear how common government turnover is from these magazines.

Houses?

There's only one magazine from that city, but it sounds like there's an oligarchy and the Great Houses each have areas of rule, and vote on city-wide issues and also do complicated nepotistic political maneuvering with each other.

Mia checks in; they exchange information. 

Have any ship-locals seemed to have any interest in something other than leaving them alone for now? Seeing what they're doing? The aforementioned quiz or tutorial? Explaining how the mealtimes part of room and board works?

Most all of the ship locals are on the island below, chopping down the trees or gathering up the floating seeds. A few of them have been not-very-sneakily watching them.

Cook, who refuses to acknowledge any name but Cook, explains how mealtimes work: Food comes out when he yells that it's ready, if it's gone by the time they get there not his fault. At least for them, that's how it works, anyway.

What do they use the floating seeds for, can one see? Or, what are they doing with them, if not that?

Right then.

Who's watching them? Anything else about the watchers?

The floating seeds get fed into a machine with a tube leading into the upper part of the ship, and empty husks fall out. Probably extracting gas.

A man and a woman in overalls, carrying toolbelts. If they get watched back much, one will approach and ask how familiar they are with ships.

That's really cool!!

They've been on ships before, but not exactly like this one.

So they recognize this thing here, right? And that one? And the other thing? How do you use that one?

She'll respond as she can. (Some things are similar to things she has seen, and some can be derived, and she'll say those, and some she can guess and sometimes be right and sometimes wrong, and some she doesn't know.)

Their knowledge is oddly patchy, but they know enough stuff to be more of a help than a hindrance in an emergency, it seems. Alright. They'll give them a rundown of what damage control will be like tomorrow morning, if they want. Maybe even a drill or two, if the captain doesn't mind. Better safe than sorry, right?

Thank you, they would appreciate that.

They're still treated like strangers on a strange ship, but are no longer watched after that. One of the engineers will even hang out in the lounge and maybe chat if they feel chatty.

She feels chatty! (She won't actually talk though, because they're new.)

She'd love to talk. She's a good listener, if the engineer has things to talk about.

Well, they realize the captain sees them as kind of incredibly sketchy characters, right? But this engineer doesn't have the patience for stuff like that. People are people. She has strong opinions on kinds of engines and will expound on them at length.

(Good to know for sure.)

That is very kind of her. They endeavor to be good passengers who no one will regret having taken on board.

Engines!! She wants to listen about engines.

Yeah, the Captain's misgivings aren't her concern. She just works on engines. If you guys are pirates, you'll still need an engineer, right? So she's safe.

Jewel can hear all about engines. The cast aluminum rotaries they have on this thing are finicky to keep running smoothly, but they're very light for their power, gives them a lot of spare lift to carry supplies and stuff. She once worked in this ship with a gloriously impractical and dangerous nitrate-and-ash fueled engine. That thing was a rush, she sweated buckets every time they turned it on!

And so on. Lots of opinions about engines.

They are not pirates and she is very safe. 

(Reasonable enough logic. She won't share that.)

Engines are cool!! She wants to know what a nitrate-and-ash engine is like!

Well, it was fun! See the thing about chamber pressures is......

Talk about engines can last for hours. At some point, Cook yells into the lounge that if the guests want dinner they'd better come get it soon.

Dinner is mostly grain and fruit, with a small serving of nuts, and a bowl of vegetable soup that has bits of mysterious meat in it. Half a dozen of the crew come eat at the same time. Two of them sit at a table in a corner and act prim and proper and discuss some kind of chart over the food. The rest are sort of rough-and-tumble, like their new engineer friend, and banter and shout. The raucous group is a bit wary of the visitors, but eventually one of them asks what it's like to shoot a slugthrower? He's only ever used crossbows and air-guns.

:D

They want dinner. They are not picky eaters. They will avoid doing anything alarming.

Are the prim and proper ones dressed differently from the others?

"Depends on the slugthrower. Now this one -" She can talk about guns to about the same parameters as their new engineer friend can talk about engines, censoring appropriately for the tech level and adding notes about fire safety.

The prim and proper ones have noticeably nicer clothes and a multicolored badge on their chests. Officers?

The rough-and-tumble crew seem to accept them a bit more as the conversation on guns progresses.

Nice when that happens.

They're still outsiders. Just not exactly strangers, anymore.

Soon it's time for sleep. There's a night shift and normally they'd fly through the night, but since the ship is tied down they get easy maintenance and cleaning duties instead. As passengers, they should probably just sleep - they'll set off in the morning.

Reasonably.

They can sleep.

She moves her bed into a defense position relative to the others.

She curls up with Xeyr.

They sleep.

Nothing of much interest happens during the night.

A while after sunrise, someone knocks on their door and calls out, "Breakfast'll be served soon! And we're shipping off soon too!"

"Thank you."

They will get up and come to breakfast. Do they need to do anything for the second of those?

Nope. Breakfast is much the same as dinner. A few officers, a few crew, and meat-light but decently hearty meals.

The captain who negotiated with them is there. 

"Good to see you three settling in. The scanner is a nice piece of kit, it'll be useful. About your gold - I think I'll give you half now and half when you depart. Sound fair?"

Does he dress like an officer?

"Yes, thank you."

The captain does dress like an officer. He's also slightly more guarded around the three of them than even the other officers.

"I'll go get it now, then. Get that out of the way. And then I'm sure we'll have you at a nice big town in a day or two."

He marches off.

He comes back with a small pouch of thirty dime-sized gold coins.

Not surprising.

She counts them, lets Jewel have them for a moment to better check authenticity, then puts the money away.

"Thank you."

"I'm glad we can all get what we want out of this encounter. Hopefully everything from now will run smoothly, yes? Good day to you."

The Captain heads up to the bridge with that.

"Of course. And to you."

The ship's crew get to work, though a few are resting at any given time. Nothing particularly exciting happens. Lunch is served, eventually.

Can they go out to the observation deck?

Grumble grumble fine if they get escorted to and from, so they don't go wandering the halls of engineering areas or anything.

"Thank you. We won't." (They don't want to be trouble, but they do want to look around.)

Well then they can get shown up to the observation deck. It's chilly. Nice view, though. Islands are fairly thick at this altitude, though most are small and uninhabited. The ship is sailing in a straight line.

She wants to look at everything!

Approximate travel speed? Can she see what any of the crew are doing on other decks and such?

She looks around and at passing islands, especially inhabited ones. 

They're going at nearly highway speed. The wind is strong enough to be dangerous and loud if they go to the edge. Passing inhabited islands appear to be mostly farms or small farming settlements of various kinds. Many of them fly flags with a strange code of colors and symbols. The crew are mostly inside the ship. There is one lookout visible in a crow's nest sort of place, however.

Wind is fun! She'll stay away from dangerous wind though.

She keeps looking around.

Eventually, there is a whole floating city visible through the clouds. The ship is heading for it. Dozens of islands tightly lashed together, covered in buildings. Not much more detail is visible at this distance.

Do their escorts want them back inside?

(They tie islands together!)

Their escorts are mostly actually working below deck and checking in every once in a while. And they do want them back inside in the next hour or two, please.

She wants to stay out! (While they're allowed.)

Do the escorts look like they'll mind very much if it is indeed in about an hour or an hour and a half?

Nah, no big deal. They haven't tried anything and a dropoff point is in sight now. Just, they should be inside when they start final approach.

They'll do that. And meanwhile look at the city at the ship gets closer to it.

It looks like all the heavy parts of town - big industrial buildings, high-stacked apartment complexes - are near the bottom of the place. Higher up it's mostly open walkways and gardens and the like. Looks like a fairly thriving place, though. Little airships and balloons and gliders throng the air nearby. Smoke and steam pour out of vents here and there. Pale yellow and white walls shine in the overcast day.

Clever.

What do the walls look like they're made of?

The walls seem to be made of the same floaty stone as the islands themselves, painted somehow. The nicer and more expensive-looking buildings have glass windows and wooden walls.

"Time to go back below decks, you three. We'll be there soon enough, easy as you like."

That's really cool!

They go below.

The view from the lounge is a bit more boring. They carefully work their way through the traffic near the place, going slow and steady.

Eventually they dock. The captain hands over another thirty golden coins. "...No trouble, no fuss. Just the way I like my voyages. Fair winds, whatever you three do next."

"Thank you, and to you." They divided things into packs earlier, so they won't have to worry about the crate. Does this crew want the actual crate part of it? 

And they can disembark however is wanted of them.

Sure, free crate.

They can disembark into an industrial-looking area. There are signs saying 'LOCAL LAWS IN EFFECT FOR VISITORS - CUSTOMS REVIEW ON BULK GOODS - SEE OFFICE FOR DETAILS --->'

They would like details on the law, yes.

It's pretty standard stuff! No murder, assault, theft, etc. They're apparently a democracy, electing three co-mayors every few years.

Except for - NO FIRE HAZARDS. Reckless fire hazards are punishable by ruinous fines or forced labor.

Which things are fire hazards?

Use common sense, more or less? Large piles of flammable things. Throw them out or recycle them, or else have a sprinkler system (if you're a library or something). Sparks or open flame outside a fireproofed room. That sort of thing.

Good to know.

How are people on carrying weapons here? Common? Uncommon?

Seems pretty uncommon. And when people do have weapons, it's mostly small blades.

She makes her weapon a small blade and tucks it mostly out of sight.

Sex work?

...There are some weird regulations on it, but sex work is not completely disallowed under the law here.

Weird regulations? Can she get an idea of the social opinion/place of it?

It defines sex acts in dry language and forbids receiving payment for certain ones. Also, running a business of prostitution is not allowed, but being one yourself is. As long as you pay your taxes and don't con people. Based on that, it seems very frowned upon but ultimately accepted as a fact of life.

Good to know.

It would be good to find a place to stay, can they find that? Also to figure out the monetary system.

There are a bunch of hotels and boarding houses right by the docks that cater to visitors! Money mostly goes by weight-of-metal. This town has paper banknotes for convenient standard amounts they can get some of those for a 2% fee. Their gold will go a fairly long way.

They will exchange some money and get a room. They would like an inexpensive room but one that is theirs alone, is that possible?

(The price is higher than three beds in the bunkroom, but sure. Breakfast not included be out by 10 AM.)

If they can afford it, some privacy while they're learning how to live here better might be better.

"Thank you." Does it seem safe to leave some things in the room?

It's probably safe. There's a cheap lock on the door. Safe as any shady motel, anyway.

Not a very high standard.

They'll leave things they mind losing less if anything, and that seem less at risk for it, and take their other things. 

And, it would be good to find somewhere to buy local clothes and bags. 

There are stores that sell those! The city is very vertically-oriented, there are stairs and ramps everywhere, apartments stacked on top of businesses, rooftop parks. There are elevators and trolleys that hang from wires travelling from place to place - the fare isn't too pricey on most of them, either.

They can walk for free, if that's possible. They look at clothes for sale and clothes people are wearing. Are there categories of people that seem to be distinguished by clothing?

Leather and big coats are popular near the docks, and seems to indicates sailors, fighters, and so on. Most people carrying weapons are dressed like that. The more elaborate and loose your clothing is, the more money you have, it seems. Short sleeves, short hair, tight shirts, and rough-cut metal jewelry seems correlated to - troublemakers? It's definitely a style, and people wearing it get vaguely unfriendly and worried looks on the street, anyway.

Can they afford leather alright?

Is there something like laborer clothing?

They can afford leather.

Slightly more practical versions of the swoopy robe-style things the rich have seem to serve as laborer clothes.

She'll get fighters-and-so-on-leather, then.

She'll get cheap laborer clothes. They'll both get bags and such that go with what they'll have.

She wants pretty clothes, can she have pretty clothes?

Is there inexpensive pretty clothing that doesn't look like it signals anything that would be a problem?

Most of the really pretty clothes are fairly expensive, but there's some relatively cheap stuff that is pretty, and not elaborate enough to scream 'I'm rich!'.

They'll buy some, then.

Yay!

And if they go back to their room and change, and go in a different direction than they did before, does this help with how they seem to be looked at?

Yeah, they're much less suspicious with less foreign and high-tech looking clothes. Mia still gets given space, but not in the same way.

That is good. Is there somewhere inexpensive they could eat where they would be near locals?

Street stalls are mostly not a thing, but semi-enclosed cafeteria type places are popular! Locals walk along a row of food displays and ask for that, that, and the other thing, and pay at the end, and sit down and eat. Doesn't seem like too bad a deal.

Sounds good. They get some food and sit down and listen in on surrounding conversations.

"Had a man come in today wanting metal rope. Do I look like a forgeworks to you? We make rope rope. Completely different."

"I mean, I can see the reasoning. If they don't work, uh, in an actual industry, were they a bureaucrat or something?"

"Dressed like a sailor. So, no."

"Well, sailors. There you go."

"Don't know why he doesn't just marry her already. She'd say yes. They're good for each other."

"I saw her with that gaudy necklace, isn't she a-"

"No. She's not. She just dresses like one. She has a job in the upper districts."

"Her family is, then?"

"My boy wouldn't fall in with a lower city rat. She's not one, she just dresses that way."

"If you say so..."

"-Just another re-run of the same old movie. You'd think they could make new ones once in a while."

"That sounds expensive. And people keep watching the old ones."

"Still. I might quit going if they don't bring out something new."

"Maybe you should make your own."

"How would I afford my own camera? They cost, like, tens of thousands."

"Exactly."

"Oh, shut up."

"They closed the line by my apartment again. 'Maintenance issues.' It's always maintenance issues. Are the trolleys even safe?"

"They're, like, halfway to Lost Technology, you know?"

"What, really?"

"Yeah. Well, they use electricity, anyway. So it's probably tricky to find replacement parts. I'm sure it's safe."

"Well, maybe..."

They listen.

How are the various speakers dressed and such?

The first pair are dressed in work clothes. Tighter, greyer, and more practical than most.

"But seriously. Metal rope."

"Hey, you asked Jerome if he could make a tea-pot once. It's not always obvious what a craftsperson can do."

"I suppose so..."

The second pair, dressed much more fancily, have started complaining about their husbands to each other.

The third pair is trying to emulate the rich fashions but looks poor. The one who wants to make a movie is rambling about plot points while her friend nods along knowingly.

The last pair also look kind of rich. "You should have been an engineer, man. You've got the mind for it. You're always talking about tech and stuff."

"No way. That shit's hard."

"Come on, you're brilliant. Being an accountant is just... Wasted potential."

"I'd screw up engineering, I know it. It's a different mode of thinking."

"I bet you'd be happier that way. Look at me, I quit the restaurant and started my pottery store and I'm peachy."

"Well, more school would be expensive. And nobody's hiring engineers."

"That can't be true."

Complaining about what about their husbands?

That does seem odd, if no one is hiring engineers. Is there a response? (Also, they will need to try to find out how school works here.)

Complaining about annoying habits their husbands have, like leaving the doors open.

There's no explanation for why nobody is hiring engineers forthcoming.

That is relieving. 

And that is a natural consequence of gathering information by eavesdropping. 

Which they should likely not do for much longer or they will be noticeable.

How might they look for work here?

They could probably ask people who's hiring?

They will try seeing if any places have job ads posted first, whether for themselves or if there is some more central location.

A few places want waitresses or laborers and advertise such. There are occasional bulletin boards where people post shop sales, want ads, upcoming events like parties or auctions, and so on - there are some jobs listed there, like 'Wanted: a person skilled in the manufacture of Furniture, pay per piece' or 'Work tending the gardens and animals & cleaning & other chores at 13 Rose Ct. #3, level 4.'

What kind of laborers? Are there jobs for cleaning in particular? Are there guard jobs?

Sounds like landscaping and stockroom type work, in terms of laborers. A couple of low-light farms too - it's kind of dim here, but some food is still being grown. No jobs for guards are posted, at least on the first two bulletin boards they check.

If they do not find any cleaning work, she'll take a stockroom laborer one.

They'll keep looking for guard openings.

Cleaning work is available if you look hard enough. Nobody seems to be advertising for guards, but they could ask banks or factories or other places that look like they could use one? Or the local police force?

They look. Can she apply for some cleaning work?

Those sound more likely to not want new unknown people. Anything by the docks maybe?

...A couple of bars could use bouncers?

Sounds good. 

Applying for cleaning and bouncer work respectively.

They can always use more cleaners. It's not great-paying work but it's simple and available.

Well, she looks tough enough, but no spooky tech-hunter stuff while on duty. Just fists and a nightstick, you hear? And you get paid half for your provisional first night.

Sounds fine.

When do they respectively start? Will the cleaning job mind if she has Jewel along, as long as she still does her work?

"Now" and "Eight in the evening to 2 A.M." (which is most of the day away), respectively.

Xeyr's new boss is skeptical of this request. It's a weird request. Why would she want someone else along? They're not casing the places they're cleaning or anything, are they?

They are not doing that. 

They don't know enough yet to know how people here would react to answers involving caretaking concepts. Better not to risk it, without need especially. She doesn't push it. 

She can get to work now.

Jewel skips off with Mia!

The cleaning work is not particularly difficult, just very tedious.

The city isn't particularly prosperous, but if they stick to the nicer areas it's crime-free and seems nice enough. They can find apartments for a longer-term living situation if they look hard enough, too. Those are expensive in this part of town though.

She knows how cleaning work goes. She works. 

Did the laws they looked at earlier indicate how this place feels about self defense? Defense of others?

How are nicer areas identified?

Self defense with reasonable, proportionate force is okay! If you escalate the level of violence you might get squinted at. Defense of others is a bit iffy - the defense of others law seems to be written in a way that they can round up everyone involved in a gang fight without worrying about them claiming defense of others.

Nicer areas have wood construction, clean streets, glass windows, fresh paint, and people go around in ones and twos mostly instead of four or more.

(Gang fights, wonderful.)

(Wood as opposed to?)

Well, she'll stick to the nice areas for now, she does have Jewel with her and there's no reason to go borrowing trouble, but she's not especially worried about the not nice parts. Not looking for apartments for now, to early to know how things will be turning out here.

Are there museums or libraries? Or movie theaters, she heard they have those? Or other things?(!)

As opposed to cheap-looking plastic or slightly-crumbly floatstone walls.

Museums, libraries, movie theaters, botanical gardens, and sports arenas all exist here! The museums and libraries have entry fees.

How high are the fees? What kind of sports?

What kind of museums? And, she wants to go to the botanical gardens!

The fees are maybe three meals' worth. Either the food's kinda cheap or the museums and things are kinda expensive. Sports include glider races, soccer, wrestling, and something involving lots of climbing and leaping around tall rope nets with a ball.

There's a museum about Earth. There's a museum about space. There's one about the history of the city. The botanical garden has three zones - Earthly, Native, and Mixed.

Free activities first at the moment. She'll consult with Xeyr about the city history museum later. (How much are the sports? Are there opportunities for the common people to give said sports a try?)

Mixed first!

A few places look like they'd welcome newcomers or hobbyists! It's not immediately clear how expensive participating in the local sports is, though.

The mixed terrarium is apparently mostly about Earthly and Cloudbank life that mixes well. Invasive species is a really huge problem, particularly of birds.

Can it become clearer with slightly more effort, including asking someone?

Is it ok to jump around the garden as long as she doesn't step on anything?

Invasive birds?! How did they get invasive birds?! What are the birds doing?

Renting equipment and a space is pretty cheap for wrestling and ground-soccer, still decent but pricier for rope-soccer, but glider rental and glider race course fees will start to add up fast. Also, they'll probably want to hire an instructor, at least for a little while.

Some of the birds were escaped experiment subjects. Some were carelessly contained pets, or escaped from zoos after a catastropic airborne collision, being able to fly unlike the bears and tigers and so on. One species was deliberately brought in and engineered to specifically hunt these tiny tentacled insect-analogues so honeybees could survive and pollinate Earthly crops!

Renting equipment and space is overkill; she was thinking of a 'come here and try this' sort of opportunity. She'll keep the various information in mind.

Wheee garden!

They can spend their time on this and other free activities such as walking around the city.

With Xeyr be done with work by the time she needs to go to work?

A couple of places can do a 'walk in and try it out' deal! Rope-soccer and regular-soccer, particularly.

Yes, Xeyr is done with work by then.

No time today but she'll be interested in trying the rope soccer.

Good. Then she can drop off Jewel and go off to her job.

She checks what her work schedule will be like going forward - when do they want her coming in? Are there off days? When is payment?

There are off days, irregularly. Come in at such and such a time. Payment at the end of each week. Shifts are kind of irregular, but check in at this office place and you can probably pick up extras.

Mia's bouncer job pairs her with a guy who sizes her up and asks about her history with this kind of work.

She looks at times and shifts. Do they allow for her being free while Mia is working?

Does he mean specifically if she's been a bouncer before (yes), or something more general?

There's a couple shifts they put her down for that overlap Mia's job.

Both. Her history with security types of jobs in general, not just bouncing.

Is it ok if she turns those ones down?

She's done a lot of security jobs. Rather far away from here, so lots of the setup was different, but she has. She's done bouncing, she's guarded places, she's defended places, she's guarded trade movement, she's done police work, she's done fighting...

The crotchety bosslady gets really annoyed and tells her she'll be last on the list for extra shifts if she's picky. They don't actually fire her over it.

Good stuff. Hopefully nobody needs to be hit today. Here's a description of who to let in and who to turn away and so on. Nobody makes trouble. They like her; They'll hire her on permanently.

So it goes. She will look humble and chastened and apologize for the trouble. (She will continue to have the same intentions about shifts she did before.)

Yes, much easier if no one needs to be. 

She can take descriptions and act accordingly.

Always nice when that happens.