There's a room. It's soft, walls a light blue and carpet thick and plush, ceilings cozily high. There's a desk with strange things made of metal and glass and some odd smooth material on it, alongside notebooks and papers. There's a few bookshelves.

There's also a window to her right, decently large and looking out onto a forest, and a now very startled human man reading in the window-seat.

He says something at her, questioning and somewhat concerned.

- well, he's apparently hiding whatever he just said as private thoughts which... seems like a weird choice if you want to be understood... but maybe he has a reason? "Um, I don't speak that. I know the Black Speech and Quenya and Sindarin?"

In the same language she just used, now a bit more confused: " - I know those."

Slowly: "How did you - get here?"

...She has no idea why he would know the Black Speech but okay! "I walked into some kind of monster. I don't know why it put me here."

The baby makes a small noise and she adjusts her on her shoulder.

He nods. "Do you - need anything, for you or the baby?"

"...eventually, I guess? Not right this second."

He opens his mouth, then closes it, then: "Is telepathy better, this language is - odd."

"I tried that but it didn't work. Elf languages are prettier?"

"I have protections. They're lowered now, for communication. These languages don't have - what I want to say."

Oh, okay. Hi! What do you want to say?

'Do you want to go back or find somewhere else to be, is - relevant to what we should do next.'

I don't want to go back there! I wouldn't have walked into a monster if I wanted to be there!

He nods, expression going a bit serious. 'Then you won't go back there.'

Thanks! She smooches her baby on the head. The baby is very ugly.

He smiles a bit.

'We can try to figure out how to get you settled in, here, if you decide you want to stay.'

That's really nice of you! This is the friendliest inside of a monster ever.

'There's some unfriendly places in this world, but most of it's at least trying to be nice.'

He stands. 'Do you want - anything short term?'

I guess like sometime today we should eat something?

He nods. 'We have food. I - don't know how many humans your area has around? Or how to compare dietary needs.'

Oh, we don't have any, we're expecting them later I think? But not yet. I don't know what they're going to eat or if it's whatever you eat. I'm used to bugs and grain and stuff, the baby can have whatever I can so I can taste stuff for her.

'We have grains. Bugs aren't commonly food around here, but there's some cultures where they are so we can probably get you some.'

He sighs. 'The kitchen's downstairs. I can show you where the food is.'

Thanks!

He nods, heading over to open the door. 'By the way, my kids will probably be curious about you.'

That's okay by me! How many do you have?

'Just the two so far.'

Well you are very nice and I wish you twenty.

'Thanks. The older kid's Kusumgal, the younger's Nishirtu. Their mom's Mu-Shita.'

And he leads her to the kitchen, where there's three people waiting - an adult woman, a boy just barely into adolescence, and a preteen girl. He speaks out loud and leaves the translation public as he tells them this is their visitor, she'll be staying while they figure out immigration.

"Did you ask her name, dad?" the girl asks. Her thoughts are apparently all public, but they're fairly orderly and the translation's sort of at the forefront.

"Oh, people where I'm from don't have names mostly. You can make up a nickname for me if you want."

"Huh. I heard some swarms are like that? Are you from a swarm, it'd be cool if you were from a swarm - "

The concept of 'swarms' is very vague in her head. Something about hundreds of children with a single mother, all loyal to her.

"Nishir, be polite," the woman says. Then, to the stranger: "I'm Mu-Shita. Probably the kids will pick something for you and the baby, but for now let's get you both fed."

"Thank you! I'm not a swarm, I'm an orf."

"Haven't heard about orfs before!"

"I think I'm the only one right now."

"Oh. That's sad. Being the only human would be weird."

The guy who has so far entirely failed to introduce himself gets out a few leftover samples of assorted variously processed grains, as well as some plant-based proteins for the orf to try. These are mostly beans, since he figures that's closer to grains than nuts, knowing absolutely nothing about botany. (He also makes quick snacks for his own children).

She tries everything he puts in front of her and finds it all edible and gives the baby (who has tusks, two on the left and one on the right) some to try. The baby seems to find them edible too. "Thanks!"

'You're welcome.'

'What types of things do you need, other than food?'

"I have to sleep about as much as an Elf or an orc but I don't know how much that is compared to you..."

'Humans without magic sleep about a third of each day.'

"I don't think I sleep a third of the anything. Maybe a... fourth? Or less?"

He nods. 'Anyways, we have a guest room you can have.'

"Thanks!!! Wow, I didn't even bring you a present, before the monster showed up I was going to bring some Elves a present so they wouldn't shoot me."

He shrugs, awkwardly. 'You have a kid, and you didn't attack me or anything, and it's not costing me anything to help. And I've ever been stranded somewhere weird with a baby, so, it's - good to pay help forward.'

"You got stranded somewhere weird with a baby?"

'It's - a long story and hard to put into words. Which I'm not good at in the first place. That was with Nishirtu, though.'

"Well this seems like a great weird place to be with my baby." The baby accepts more beans.

'That's good.'

'At some point we'll - want to get you to the immigration office or something. This place has open borders, and not much in the way of basic income, though, so it's not urgent.'

Basic income?

'It's a thing in the Empire and some of the nicer places. It's - one of the kinds of things some governments provide to people for free. ...I don't know if that's the level I should be explaining at or if I need to explain income.'

Yeah I don't know what income is.

'So - I'm going to just start with the basics - especially in larger societies, there's - not everyone can do everything for themselves. So it makes sense to have some people who make food, and some people who make clothes, and some people who make furniture, and so on. And one of the problems with this is how do you make sure the clothier has food and furniture, and the farmer has clothing and furniture, and so on. In a small society, that's easy, because the farmer can just trade with the clothier. If people get into larger groups, trading directly gets complicated. There's a lot of ways to try and solve this. The - sort of normal way here, is for the farmer to sell food to a person who specializes in trading, and the trader gives the farmer something everyone agrees is worthwhile, but that doesn't have - actual basic real world value? This used to be things like gold or gemstones, and now it's usually a number that just represents some potential thing you can get. The farmer can then buy clothes from whichever trader, and the clothier can buy food from traders. The thing being traded for goods is money, and income is the amount of money someone earns over a period of time.'

'The other problem that bigger societies need to solve is that not everyone can or should be working. Parents with small children, people with disabilities, students, children, artists who make things of cultural but not monetary worth... And then there's the question of how to make sure they have food, clothing, medicine, and shelter if they can't work, and if there's no one in their family who can care for them. Very large societies like the Empire solve this by just giving everyone money that they can buy things with. That's one kind of basic income. This place we're in solves this by making medicine free, and having systems for getting free shelter and food, plus some controls making sure everyone gets paid what their work is worth.'

I still don't understand most of that but it sounds... nice? Where I'm from everybody does whatever the Ainur tell them to be doing and most of the food comes from Melkor making it by magic.

'I think that's a command economy. Swarms tend to have them. They're hard to enforce, here, but if your area didn't have too many ring-makers it'd be... easier?'

"Ring-makers?"

' - The main type of magic?' He seems a bit at a loss. 'Some people just - have the ability to will magic rings into existence?'

"I don't think that's true on the monster's outside. Magic jewelry takes a lot of work and I don't think it's gotta be rings."

'That - sounds more like a different universe, than a different planet.'

"If you say so, I don't know how monster transportation works."

'Who made your world?'

"Eru."

'Ours was made by Inanna. She is - very clear that she was the maker of this world, and I think the theology around her mentions other creator gods. So, very different magic systems, likely.'

"Oh. I wonder if singing works here."

'Magical singing? I'd expect so, if your telepathy does?'

"I think that's different."

'Well, we can probably test it, either way.'

"Yeah, next time I see a pond or something."

'I think there's one on the university's grounds...'

"Does it look nice to walk on?"

"Kind of. Pond-ish."

"Well I've never seen a pond in real life."

"Usually they've got a mud or stone bottom and a bunch of green algae, at least around here. There's some non-natural water stuff with like mosaics under the water. Sometimes people put statues in ponds and stuff, though that's usually deeper water."

"Oooh, mosaics and statues."

"I know some nice intentional ones, then."

"I've barely seen any art in real life either! Pretty much just my art." She pulls up a sleeve revealing an admittedly rather artistic series of circular burns cascading down her upper arm from the shoulder, denser at the top and sparser toward the elbow.

He makes a sort of humming, interested noise, while the two kids crane their heads for a closer look. 

'Well, the university has a lot of art around,' he sends, examining the art. 'Do different things have different meanings?'

"Oh that's pretty - what, you mean on me? Nah I just got my tattoo guy to do whatever'd cover up the scars."

He pauses for a few moments, brow furrowed.

Mu-Shita takes over. "Does your world not have good healing magic for scars, then?"

"I would look way worse if I didn't have healing magic! I probably wouldn't be able to walk!"

"Is that - usual, where you're from?"

"No, it's just 'cause my birth parents were Elves and I wasn't supposed to be an Elf and the way you get an orf instead is lotsa torture. Orcs just hurt all the time without getting scars from it at least till they go fight Elves." She pats her baby.

"Is your baby likely in pain?"

"...yeah? She's an orc. They can like think around it though. She can still be happy and have fun."

"Our healers might be able to help. Some people are born with diseases that make them be in pain, and those are curable, here."

"- oh, that would be really neat. What do I have to do?"

"Likely taking her in to the relevant office for an evaluation on urgency - there's sometimes wait lists, if something isn't fatal. If you want to not have a wait list, some jobs, like the temple to Inanna, provide healing to workers and family members."

"What do people working at the temple do?"

"There's a lot. Things like cleaning the temple, making food for visitors and priests, updating records, and menial tasks on behalf of priests are the common tasks for new people, I believe, though I know someone who made it to sacred prostitute right away, which has a good income."

"Sacred prostitute, what's that?"

"Providing physical and emotional connections to those in need, generally through conversation and sex."

"That sounds fun! I'm used to doing it with singing but I can do the other things too!"

"Past experience might help there, then."

"Sometimes one of the prisoners would earn a break and they'd get more food and stuff, and sometimes I was stuff. But they were all Elves so they didn't want sex."

"The prisoners? And I'm not familiar with Elves."

"The evil god who ran the place I grew up liked having Elf prisoners, like my mom. Elves are... like... well, I'm in between an Elf and an orc? And this is an orc." She points at her baby.

"The situation sounds - unpleasant."

"Yeah it's real bad that's why I walked into a monster."

"Very reasonably so!"

"Before that I was going to steal a prisoner and run away and try giving him back to his family to see if they'd protect me. But that probably wasn't gonna work."

"I don't know how much elves value family, or if you'd have been able to get out. It's - good that monster found you."

"I think they'd have wanted him, he was a prince and stuff, but I wasn't really gonna be able to get out, but I figured I'd rather get tortured to death than have another twenty babies and have them all taken away!"

She nods, seeming sad. "Well, you are under our protection now, and if Inanna pulled you here I suspect she'd object to you being pulled back."

"Did she send the monster? It ate some orcs before me, I dunno where they went."

"I don't know. She doesn't often talk to people, outside of legends at least. But she controls this world, and is usually held to hold sway over who's allowed in."

"Okay. Well, um, thanks!" the orf says vaguely ceilingward.

"Though I'll admit I'm not as familiar as some with her tenets or personality..."

"Hm?"

"I don't know why she would do things, essentially."

"Oh... do you think it'll wind up worse later?"

"It's very unlikely to. Things are stable, here, for the most part."

"She likes stories," Sugira says, from where he's been busying himself talking quietly to his children about their studies. "And good stories glorify her. Mostly 'good stories' seems to mean romances, especially dramatic ones. Most people don't really have her directly relevant to their day to day life, though some people find it important to get her favor. You can get magic, doing that, if she thinks you'll make better stories with it."

"Ooh. I don't know a lot of romance stories, though. I guess I know some songs with romance in?"