"Okay, but now I'm curious, what does it mean? I- actually, I missed that completely, the first time, I suppose because I didn't understand you… Or, no, I'd thought it just meant 'area'." What could it possibly mean that you'd expect everyone to understand- or are they very isolated, somehow, despite all the trains and miles and miles of fields, so you really couldn't get to anywhere too different… no, probably not that…

"It's... the point that's closest to the 'top' of the planet that's in your house or city or whatever? I don't know how the top of the planet is defined, you have the north pole and... well it's tough to explain but everyone learns it in school and knows what it is! So you not even noticing that I used that word shows that... you're not from this planet..."

"…Huh, there's anything complicated there? Does, just, closest distance to the North Pole not work in some way I'm missing? Neat, though…" They look lost in thought for a moment, then restart speaking. "What I'm amazed by is how you can be sure that everyone on the planet understands that coordinate system. The planet is enormous — well, the one I know, — there's billions of people there, you can just barely expect them to be human because 'not that' isn't technologically possible yet-" They deeply breathe in, than out. "Sorry, got on my soapbox again, I meet so many schoolkids assuming stuff, they haven't yet learned not to… but I suppose, if this really is a different planet, you have good reasons for thinking that's actually true of yours. In that case I'm amazed in a completely different way. Genuinely so, how?" (Hey, what do you think, while they're waiting for a reply-)

(This… was in their intuitive space-of-possibilities, if barely. You were right to not dismiss those! I — still think putting as much weight on the possibilities that sound like interesting stories would lead one astray most of the time? But, much less sure now, if this does turns out to be true.

Their interlocutor does sound human, though? And everything else looks like the planet which they are used to — plants, sky, even architecture somewhat? (Technically cannot be sure they look human yet, but — again, anything that predicts 'similar and survivable' at all probably has no reason to be as alien as it could get away with within those bounds, either… Stories would? Not all stories, you know that some of them do other incompatible things, but point taken.))

— if this happened once, though, it might conceivably happen again, or a wider space of things formerly thought impossible may turn out not to be. (They would not, actually, know, if some of the mysterious disappearances per year have always ended up on other worlds.) This — is not a lever, yet, but it is a unique angle, which I had been looking out for.

— right, paying external attention now.

"The opposite side of the planet is the same distance from the north pole as here, because the north pole is perfectly in the middle of both places!"

"I know you'd know about the corners thing because our education is just very, very good and the system of corners is so utterly ubiquitous, so for anyone to end up anywhere, they'd have to know some way of doing that. Even if you have amnesia, the chance of me just bumping into the perfect right time for you to not have re-learned the corners thing is wildly unlikely."

"Ohh, of course, right! And you want to distinguish all those, so you also need the distance along the concentric circle? Or is it something else and not continuous distance?" Or probably something I haven't come up with yet at all, that happens a lot. Still, how would you set up as similar an education throughout nigh on the whole population- You could ask? "Um, how many people are there on your planet?" They raise their hand in a 'wait' gesture, though, thinking of ways to put another thing.

"…And, well, subjectively I've only been here since sometime this morning. So, maybe it's unlikely, but I can't see how it's more unlikely with amnesia than it is with whatever weird thing actually happened." Maybe it is, depending on your model of how the weird thing works? But I know of no reason to expect a skew either way yet. Huh, suppose so! Though I feel like it's less true than it's complicated and distracting to say out loud, so I don't think I'll mention it. "Though, admittedly, it might still turn out that I've made myself up a backstory fictional world and convinced my brain I was from there. I think that's usually less vivid memories but I don't have direct experience, it's not like I tried to have those and vividly at any point…"

(— if they genuinely wonder — I agree this is not how they would expect that to feel, but I would like to be surer — they could check if their bag has the contents they expect, including those that imply the world they believe they knew? That would at least imply preparation on your part. My part, or their part? This is very characteristic of you to try on purpose, while I struggle to imagine what anyone who is recogniseably me would need to do this for, and in what situation? But not more impossible than having actually moved, and they need not have been recogniseably either of them, in the scenario, so- yes, their part.) And they do start hauling the bag back upward onto their lap, to look through more conveniently during the next lull in conversation.

(Also, might this person just be lying for a stunt, they had earlier guessed 'not' but- no, still true that the language thing is impossible then. To keep in mind the space of possibilities, though.)

"Yes, that's right, you need to find a... north pole of sort for the longitude. 15 billion people live on this planet, actually!" The man in the fursuit shuffles a little, curious about what the stranger is going to do.

The stranger is going to open their bag and look over its contents! And continue speaking, it doesn't take a lot of attention to and the opaque social intuition likes it. "I believe the latest estimate for mine was about 6 billion, though I have not looked into how approximate that was, not sure what the authors did for areas with no census-taking body responsible for them." — actually, no, not entirely opaque, they could learn things from this person. Mostly? probably? background information, the kind they would never think even to ask about on their own.

(Of the contents, someone'd be able to see — a flat tablet with an e-ink screen (an e-reader, about a day of charge left, which makes sense?), a hand crank charger, a tiny flashlight with the same kind built in, several water bottles (most of them full, they remember filling them), a light scarf, and half a dozen thick notebooks. (They open their current one and skim it to find the latest entry, which is — again, exactly what they remember writing just that evening. Oh, right — I catch my breath — it's both real, what they'd written in a familiar place, happening in the same reality as this… incredible feeling, look at it……… Is the very first entry in the very first notebook so, by the way, I've read that story! It- also is, though it is from over a decade ago, so I have barely any memories of writing it instead of rereading. And, anyway, this is not answering the same question anymore. The notebooks exist.))

"We're trusting our numbers to be pretty perfect, thanks to our thing about ensuring people get a good basic income from the day they're born! I think it's such a beautiful system. Of course, you're going to need to be registered at some point... though unfortunately there isn't anywhere to do that anyplace close."

"Huh, so you register every child?" It remains to be seen if the basic income is actually enough to live on, but if it is, this is actually very impressive! And kind of terrifying, to be frank, to have your name forever in an organisation's records… (Actually, let me relay — "Kind of terrifying, to be frank, though it is impressive if it's how you describe it…" I can be fine with doing this consensually, mind! That's precisely why you- they moved to Isohedral, isn't it, because it looked to keep much better statistics than most places, so there'd be raw material for them to build an intuition for what the world can even be like…) Depends what the organisation would do with the information, as well? A basic income is on the benign side of uses. …Would also mean — do the hospitals or midwives consistently go along with this, instead of using pseudonyms for patients? Maybe a different channel, but this feels like a natural point.

"Yes, it's not particularly hard as a matter of fact and we give a great reward for doing so. It lets us do so, so much more on top!" 

Do what. (Morbid curiosity, terrified amazement.) (Acknowledgement that this is a good direction to ask in —) "Do what, for example?"

"It works as a wonderful way of storing someone's ID, so people can prove who they are that they claim to be: you simply send a tiny amount of money in front of them, which can only work when you actually control that account yourself."

"Hold on, I think I failed to follow that. You — send the money to the person you wish to know about, and see if they receive it? Or do you ask them to send it to you and check if it came from the correct account?" The former would need there to be a visible-to-you notification of receipt, though, while the latter only needs the option to access that information, so the latter would make more sense — no, wait, you can ask them to exercise the same option and show you the result, and it would be in their interest to prove their identity, in the scenario, so they would. Still kind of pressure-y to be the default, necessarily share some of their personal financial info just for this… Maybe? It depends on the UI, I think. Speaking of- right, almost missed that. "…Can one do these operations over the phone, or otherwise at a distance from the nearest bank?" It's just that it was mentioned like it's convenient, see 'simply'… And I don't think this person would have, if it was a whole thing each time.

"Yes that's right, everything works with just your phone, and you see if someone's account is registered someplace to do background checks and get stronger proof of them really being what they claim to be. You don't need to send money to anyone, you can in fact send it to yourself and that can be publicly registered."

-Shiver, a visible one. Aaaaaaahh. "Sorry, sorry," I'm being polite, but I'm still having the emotion, "I don't quite get it, what do you need that for? What do you mean by 'what they claim to be'? I understand deduplication, and I get it if you want to know if they're really part of some organisation or not, but-" but then you ask the organisation's database! But nevermind that… "er, how often do you need to confirm your average person's identity as surely as this?"

"— uh, do tell me if I'm asking about too much at once. I'm desperately curious about every detail, of course, but I'm probably going to bore you eventually at this rate." (I would be less worried about boring this person than that? They have other important concerns this time, they do need to learn more about here. And if the person gets bored and takes this as reason to stop helping us orient, while we still need it, I think worrying will not help us avoid that. — will not reliably make us less boring and not more. Eh, I think most people aren't actually like that! Though I don't know about here, I suppose…)

(— can they assume 'most people are basically friendly', they had the thought about this before the possibility that this may be a different planet — well, more variance. But no reason they have seen to think the opposite yet. Still, 'more variance' suggests — speaking to more people if they have the opportunity, to be less dependent on this person? Noted, look out for opportunities, setting this aside now —)

"...almost never unless you want to work in emergency services or with vulnerable people? You'd similarly want a doctor or safety inspector to have more proof of them being what they're saying than an ID card or badge? Do you think this might somehow matter to you?"

"-Uh, no, I don't, I just got distracted. It's just all so interesting! That does make sense, I'd assumed it was more wide-ranging for some reason… And it turns out I care an inordinate amount about — I suppose you wouldn't have the phrase… 'The trapped anguish of being named'. That's not quite right, it's more 'trapped-person's', in the original… 'prisoner' is the wrong connotation… Anyway."

"I suppose I could ask… what would you say first, about this village, or this area, or the planet, if you were talking to someone who'd never seen it before?"

"This village is here to be good for parents and children, and to let the people working the farms have a place to be and live?"

?????????? Why this, of all things, it sounds so dry, don't you like the place for anything? "Huh, and second?" (Sounds fine to me? This is anything. Certainly better than if the village was here to be bad for them, it fits to be proud no, more information than that. Apparently specifically for parents and children, for one.)

After a pause, "…you can also ask things, to be clear, either I wouldn't mind or wouldn't answer." And I'm not exactly in a position to object to things for comfort reasons, even if I minded- nah, not saying that, it's overdramatic in the wrong direction, their interlocutor would probably hate hearing it if they're anything like me…

"Well, I'd talk about how it's really important to make it so everyone is in the right place to do things for others, become what they want to be, and make people's lives better? And having schools like this, where the children can live and learn all day, helps a lot with that?"

…No, yeah, that does sound much more your thing. (Does so far, though I wonder how they operationalise that.) I'd been trying to elicit something like- that the person likes how quiet it is here, — or how loud, maybe it's loud, — or how everyone knows everyone, if they do, or a specific design detail of the architecture, or a cousin of my thing about Isohedral's parks… …no, hold on, I don't like this of me, something wrong with this framing, I'd like not to be preemptively dismissive of anything that doesn't fit the pattern, thought I'd gotten mostly rid of that tendency by now.

Break, rethink, start over. What kind of story can this be which isn't that? Yes, yes, I know, I just like it better than 'what kind of person', because people aren't of kinds, I know about correspondence bias… These are not actually your only options. …No, but I like this one.

What kind of story do I want to view this as, what's my role in it… Well, what do you care about? The usual, of course, endless beautiful diversity, surprising amount of detail, look in any corner and you'll see something you could never have imagined on your own- and, people caring about it and also noticing, which is why I'd wanted—

…Oh. It's obvious once I look at it. Aliens are psychologically alien, what a fucking surprise. There's still uncertainty as to what's actually going on, of course, I see the uncertainty, but regardless, look at this place! It's so itself I can almost taste it, and I'd almost forgotten I'm even in it for the last few minutes… Take it on its own terms, me. If that's what the person wants to say, then it is, and I know how to be interested in what is, don't I?

(…Actually, do look at this place, they got distracted. How much time has passed, has anything changed since they last paid attention?)

Not particularly; the houses are still look old-fashioned, there's still tall grass and charming flowerbeds, a bench to sit on and enjoy the view, a boy chatting with a girl, both in school uniforms with short blue skirts, and a few other people dressed just like the stranger he's speaking to right now!