……
………???…?
let it SING …let what sing?
no, but see, there's- Dream plot. Where are they actually. (There's that sleepy floating feeling, unmoored from reality in favour of…) Oh, but come on! — they have reasons to wake up on time often enough.

(Their eyes are still closed, but they're starting to notice a sun's brightness on them, and it'd be hard to keep them closed for much longer… a light breeze.)

…they've fallen asleep on a bench? Notice — outside, comfortable — how about I-

They abruptly sit up, look around, as usual. Hold on- What do they see?

It looks like somewhere fairly in the middle of nowhere, with a few picturesque houses with tall grass and gardens of beautiful flowers between them. Further away is an out of place huge white building, with floors upon floors of balconies or rooms with huge windows surrounding it; people can be seen walking around, wearing gym clothes or short blue skirts, or sitting on the floor. Everything is placed among endless rows of neat and even fields of grain, with a train station next to train tracks built on a simple dirt road.

????????????… This is really not where they remember being last evening.

They're confused, and they don't have it overtrained, no opportunity for it, but they have still installed a bundle of checks to run if you're confused about where you are at some point. You can always have dissociated through your bus stop. So, check belongings, did they leave those anywhere? Are they in the middle of a train track or long-haul road, are they physically safe or should they move to anywhere right now- no, this is a bench, this is fine. Anyway, what are their immediate surroundings like? Any people?

(A mental current underneath like skidding on sand, at first. ?? Does this happen to people, could they have forgotten…? Never happened to them before, and- no, I don't remember hearing of cases either, but there's always something, minds are weird, haven't they been taught that too? Could they have been moved while asleep? Probably not the kilometres this implies —
— no, focus. Confused means confused, understand better later means later, they are still half-asleep. What considerations, what do I need to know right now…?
And deep breaths, to let the residual anxiety of surprise fall away. No scenario they can imagine in which it would help any.)

(Or maybe someone's rescue-simulating them, like in that novel… Isn't it, technically, exactly what you'd expect, odd peaceful place? (Continue to breathe, try-to-be-grounded —) I think this is you getting caught in stories again? Most of what you tried that with has not been anything unusual, in the past. But still, I really did not expect this! Acknowledging that, and going from there…)

Someone in a blue and white fursuit walks past one of the buildings to water some flowers. It's shinier and smoother, somehow, than the types of fursuits people are most familiar with. They turn to the new arrival and are confused for a moment.

…They haven't, actually, seen fursuits before, mind, though it sounds exactly like something an interesting-person would do somewhere, or for theater. And it looks like an odd kind of visual stylisation I've never seen before — of which there's, of course, thousands, and I haven't followed the goings-on of interesting-people even in other cities close by… but this is still some information on how close by they are to where they live. Unless they are completely wrong about the nature of reality- no, I think still true then, at least about how similar to where they live?

They get lost in thought for a moment, then, and have to catch themselves. Never miss an opportunity to stare at a beautiful thing, and it does look oddly — high-craftsmanship, I'd say if I tried to put it into words… Anyway, can you-

Anyway, they turn to the person and make eye contact to acknowledge their presence. Not saying anything, yet — it strongly depends on the person and culture, how much conversation they prefer in public spaces, and I would prefer to get my bearings more for now — but ready if they ask something.

(They look a bit more alert again, and sit up straighter, if you pay attention to this kind of thing.)

The fursuit-wearer waves awkwardly and in confusion. Whoever it is waits long enough for the silence to become wildly uncomfortable before saying, "Hello? Did you come here for a reason?"

"Ah, sorry, no, actually! I can leave to wherever if you point me there, so I don't interfere with your thing. I'm just… very unfamiliar with the place." They affect looking sheepish, and a friendlier smile, avert their eyes and lean back a little. "I've forgotten how I even got here, to be honest." Are you sure of mentioning this out loud? Well, too late now, isn't it? And they do have to ask their actual questions, at some point, if they still want the answers… We could read signs if they exist here? But mostly I concur. Though, hold on-
what language is this that I'm replying in, it's not one I remember knowing—

They pay attention, while they're listening to the reply.

"That sound pretty scary! Do you want to get your head checked? The school nearby has a really well-equipped clinic with ultrasound stuff."

"Huh, I wouldn't say- I know you want to be desperately careful, with brains, but I think memory issues are fairly common in places I know of… You might be right, though, this one's new for me. Could you sketch me a map of how to get there, if you've the energy or time for it?" I'm not sure if this language has that stock question, that's transparently a calque from one of their other ones. "And I might have to ask if they have the 'fund for nonpaying clients' thing, if I'm far enough this place's currency's different, or if they're volunteer enough to sometimes do without it…"

The sentence trails off. Not paying even close to all the attention they have, to the conversation, because- what is this language like, though? Have they remembered it as related to anything, or anything historical about who it's constructed by, if it was constructed? Maybe they wouldn't remember it as related, though, if they don't know anything it's related to, or would but entirely wrongly, that's not unusual… It feels like a language — an entire language, look at that! — ought to be very integrated into a mind, though, hard to just forget. Maybe they could elicit something if they introspect there.

"It's just..." he points at the out-of-place huge building. "There. There's an entrance on this side and from there you have to go left to end up at the medical wing. I'm happy to advance you the money just for a scan and come with and help you, I'm not working today! You're also right that some of the kids do free scans just for practice, though they don't give out too many."

The language is efficient, straightforward, and uses many different syllables and subtly different phonemes to let words be shorter! It does in fact feel a little unsophisticated.

Huh, that actually makes sense! Of course they would want a clinic to always be nearby. "Oh, thank you, hope it won't end up taking too much of your today. That's neat, though, that they do that-" Do you want to, or are you reflexively agreeing? Appreciated. "…Or, actually, I suppose, I'd like to find out how far I've gotten from home, first. Do you have a map of the wider area, by any chance?"

The language, though… Does it feel constructed? They've an intuition for it, because there's people building all sorts of things, but there are some features that barely ever show up naturally that they know of.

"-wait. If 'advance' means I would need to pay the money back later, I might not be able to take you up on that. Figuring out exchange especially depends on a lot of things going right at once, and I prefer not to depend on that even when I am less confused than this." Social politeness noise here? "…Sorry."

The language is constructed.

"Certainly, no advance then! And when it comes to a map, I can show you on my phone? There... isn't much of a wider area, really! It's fields that go on forever and the school behind me."

"…Wow. That'll be how many people living hereabouts full-time? How often does the train come, what's the closest places it would usually go? And, yeah, thank you again, that'd be wonderful…" And they lean in to look at whatever they're shown.

"Well with this village there's like 100 of us, the school has 800 students, and across all the fields there's another 60 or so people, the tractors and everything do a lot. The train comes every 10 minutes at the moment, it's self-driving and we need it for the two cities of 20,000 at both ends. It's like a 40 minute trip from one city to the other, and the train can stop by a few farms along the way."

"Oh, that's tiny! Students come to the school from all over, then?" !! wait. Could you ask- "…Also, just to check, are train tickets also paid, or is it funded differently somehow?" A personal story to make it less awkward… "My old hometown used to let all the trains to and from it be free deep in the morning, so- I think, so everyone was at worst a day from freely leaving if they needed it, but most people paid for the convenience. Don't think it worked out, though, overestimated how set it was, what's convenient for people…"

(— notice — these numbers are also information, they might have heard and remembered some living densities from different parts of the world, for example — to try to remember them to process afterward? Although not likely to be the densest most important part of the conversation… I feel it's fine! But I often feel it's fine at first glance in lots of cases where it isn't, actually, so go do whatever. Right, then, 160–800–20000–40h —)

"That's right, students come from far off and live here. You do have to pay for train tickets here, it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. So, do you need a place to stay? It sounded like you didn't think you were quite comfortable taking that ultrasound, yet."

"…Huh, I suppose I do, don't I. I wonder if you have anything systematic set up here, for cases like this, or if it'd be individual kindness? Fuck, it sounds hypocritical of me, though, how I keep repeating how I wouldn't like to impose on you and then I just keep imposing-" They laugh for a couple seconds, then abruptly pull back to serious and thoughtful. "…I, um, don't think it's about 'comfortable'? It's just, if I'm two hours of travel from home I'd prefer to know first, so I can plan about it, and if it's two weeks I'd prefer to know, and regardless I'd like not to take loans I can't pay back. …Wouldn't guess that it's two hours, though, honestly, I'm sure I'd have heard of this language, it's so interesting…"

"Well uhh... tell me about where you're from so we can know how far you are? Like, the corner? The language thing is quite worrying. Don't worry about the imposition, I don't feel you're much of an imposition really. You're a cool surprise! I have a big enough house." He tries curling his fursuit head into a bit of a smile, and it looks funny for a moment.

…Wo-oaha-ha-haoowwww, their animal costume can do what, if barely? :O "Oh, that's the best-case scenario, really! I always thought I'd try to find a relevant interest group, or something, if I ended up in this situation, so I could make sure… Right. Hm."

(While they're thinking: check, is the conversation going in the direction they prefer, have they only agreed to what they meant to (yes, looks like?) Do they trust this person enough to go live in their house — yes, most people do not pull ridiculous stunts that require harming someone, least of all without preparation. (This line of thought is overtrained, almost nonverbal at this point.) Though, was it without — well, the person looked convincingly surprised, though this is not much evidence? And I still have no model of how the language thing happened, the ability to do that is already far enough from what I expect, that also proposing a normal ridiculous stunt is — something like superfluous. I think they can let themselves be straighforwardly very grateful. …there you go, straightforwardly grateful now.)

"Well, Isohedral-on-lake-İilete, usually just Isohedral for us inhabitants, where I'm living now, is a city of… half a million people or so, last I looked, though that was a while ago and it might've changed in any direction. Its main lingua franca's Kawelen, it's what I mostly think in nowadays, though the community of Ghje home-speakers is sizeable, and I've heard the journalists do half their professional correspondence in Mhùlistē. The public-spaces editorial team loves sharp shapes and solid colour, and they've a couple of designers around that are really good at making its parks into environments that feel alien… though that's my opinion, there was a popular travel writer that thinks Ânursii's, nearby, are much better at it… don't recall the name, sorry, something starting with 'lh'? …Is any of that recogniseable?"

"Ohh nooo... I asked which corner and you sound like you don't even know what I could mean! If you can't say that then I have no idea about how you could possibly ever get back to that Isohedral place."

"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!

…Huh, so it's not everyone doing the costume thing. Are the others recogniseable animals? Are they all animals, or are there other types of costumes, by the way. …More people gathering, or had they missed everyone being there already? Are the people doing that for anything, that they can tell?

(They're not going to have the guess that it's the time of day that might matter. …Won't notice the gender of the kids, either. What's a 'gender' and can you eat it? Does confirm people here look human, though. — or, no, they must also have seen some earlier, through the school windows, just forgot. A moment of annoyance — no, their priorities were fine, they do not in fact have infinite attentional capacity yet —)

"…no, wait, I'm still confused. Terrifying capability of your registering-people organisations aside, how can you be sure it's-" Wait, maybe they are not sure, or sure wrongly. "-anyway, what does lead you to think I'm not just from an isolated community someplace? One you maybe wouldn't even know about, maybe a horrible one that doesn't let people out or to talk to external people at all? Or if someone raised a child in secret and didn't register them, I'd expect people to try that at some point."

"Well, if you were how could you have gotten here? You'd need money and an account to buy a ticket with, and if you were from a secret cult they'd not let you get that? You can live an entire life in secret, and never let any person with an account or know about you or your baby or spend money on anything and never give your baby the chance to do that and give up all the money you're given on the baby's behalf so you're not in the system because you want that for some reason or another."

"Is that the case with you?"

"No! No," they trail off, stare into the distance for a second again, "fair enough. …Well, not as far as I know, anyway. I've read books written on other continents, and I've seen maps, even aerial photos, and I've never had anyone try to stop me from changing cities… That'd be a bizarre amount of effort put into it, when it works plenty just to say that everyone else's lying to you. If you say it to someone sleep-deprived enough." They'd read a series of testimonials about that, at some point.

…Euh, I feel like- wait, I could just say it— "…I feel like we're going in circles about something, here. Can we skip that? I'm going to stop asking this endless question, and we'll just- accept our intuitions differ and talk about something else." How much weight should they put on their own intuition versus their interlocutor's surety — maybe later, once they know more specifics, instead of tweaking a vague guess. "I'm sure you want something out of the interaction." So do they? But, yes, also uncomfortable not to know what. And they break off whatever eye contact they'd reestablished to emphasize that last sentence, and look around enjoying the view.

A train not much wider than a car rolls past, stopping silently. A slight smell of a running diesel engine can barely be felt in the air as it gets going again.

"Something else like that! Ahahaa-" They almost jump at noticing, certainly they stand up. Do a clumsy dancey twirl, which makes them pay attention to what the ground's like, dirt if it's dirt pavement if there's pavement- and, oh look at that, that's so narrow! Somehow they'd gotten it into their head that longer-haul trains are enormous, towering things. Maybe it's because they'd last seen one as a child… but it is a very different place, pretty much no matter what the explanation for how… (Does it have windows where they can see, or is it mostly freight wagons? If it does, if it's passenger, does anyone come out during the stop?)

The person in the fursuit looks at the stranger in confusion over overexcitedly jumping around. The ground is mostly dirt, with a path of stone between the houses. The train has windows, and each train car has two benches facing each other, with a few people sitting across from each other, all of them driving past rather than stopping.

They keep staring in the direction where the train went, but slow down. "Uh, I just-" Do you want to be apologetic? No, it's just, what else- ah, one meta-level up, I have that worked out, self-awareness is neat and hot! "Ah, I'm doing the excitement on purpose! I've found it starts faster there, and not with specific questions I'd like to show interest in… I can tone it down if you'd like." By which I mean, ask you to do the talking, depending on how much down… :) "But, for example, how do your trains do tickets? Where I've lived there's usually a ticket booth by every station, and you either buy a paper ticket right before the trip, or a pass for some number of days. Some places that's contiguous days, but Isohedral and its environs decided to do a more flexible thing, not sure how that's working out for them…"

"…uh. I assume you'd tell me if you burningly want something else from me or to know. Do tell, I'm starting to notice a quietly different conversational etiquette, so I'm not sure you would." Aliens are! Psychologically alien! Though maybe this person's just like that, that's also possible, or the place's culture happens to be, but that's an odd-feeling lack of catching conversational hooks they'd thrown and excitedly elaborating on them, for someone on their day off… Well, maybe they're inexplicably bad at that today, that happens.

(…At some point they ought start figuring out life logistics, what this person's offer of housing them for some time means, what other options they have, jobs— or whether they could qualify for the basic income, and so on. I see how that feels awkward to bring up without first succeeding at an interesting side-conversation, but it is important, even if you have still not in an hour? Yes, yes, okay, that makes sense, just, they are relying on their goodwill here, for a pretty large favour… (reflexively) An average person is like you, would you renege on it in their place — no, wait, this is not known true here. That they offered is evidence that they wanted to offer, but go on, your social intuition is sometimes right and this is cheap for now.)

"...you're not being efficient or restrained, like I'm used to and like. Also on trains here, we trust you to not take a train you can't ride on and the driver can quickly run down the train and see that everyone has a right-color ticket, or there's a camera in the train and you show it you have a ticket when you step on. If we feel the need to check. And sometimes there's someone selling you a ticket on the train itself, but I think maybe the driver checks your ticket at the front of the train if there are very few people getting on board. So that's how they'd do it here. Or trust people, if they're in a rush and don't want to waste the driver's time."

Huh, okay. 'Efficient or restrained'… restrained from what, I say! "Restrained from what? But, okay, makes sense." Still, can do. :) (A trace of that grin shows on their face somewhat.) Oh, that's fascinating, though, they're rarely in a situation where that's something people prefer unambiguously, and not just easier for themselves to work with… "That is neat, that you can also trust people sometimes. And, hey, you colour-code them, I've never seen that!- Sorry, sorry," set that aside, hold out a mental hand, could you —

— do I want to be here? — yes — right. Gather up the context of the last several minutes, did their actions make sense, what does it mean for my intentions now?
…nod at it, move on… the notebooks exist……
…hold on, I think I contradicted myself. (aaahh- a brief glance at it, and set it aside.) Do I expect your trying to be interesting to make this person more willing to help them, or not? Well, not anymore now that I know they expect 'efficient', but. Hold the two vague memories up against each other — worrying while trying your best would of course not, but specific choices might? (Not quite all and only 'choices', but I know what I mean.) …I do think I was either wrong, or not yet aware of how different to expect the place to be, to think that a person who stops helping because they get bored is very rare, or wrong more recently that it was plausible. — anyway, what if they character-model the person in front of them (exactly, the person in front of them, like I'd mentioned!), seems truer than going with either guess.

What do they look like they want. (…for the concerning stranger to be all right, seems obvious and likely now, otherwise would bother them.) What do I want — well, the above, figuring out life logistics, and learning about this place — planet? To learn partly to be more sure around that — seems aligned on 'ask what they most need to know to set up here, in the amount of detail they need it', so far? …they have been sitting here quietly for several seconds now, social intuition dislikes that — no, I think this is fine, the intuition was wrong in a similar way just recently —

— has the other person said anything? And start composing their question anyway. (They had looked abruptly lost in thought, for the several seconds, but they've stopped averting their eyes and their posture changed, a bit like it was earlier. They're not waiting long, just enough to come up with a phrasing.)

People are allowed to be quiet and think for a few seconds. Whoever is in that suit is happy to let the silence continue.

In a few seconds: "Could you go for me over the steps I would need to take to eventually stably live — somewhere in this society?" UM SOCIAL …no? This is — at least, close to my best guess about how this person would prefer the conversation goes? …there is a thing that fits the social-intuition that I would also genuinely like to know, though. "…And what they would take on your part, if anything." (So that, to the degree they do prefer not to bother this person, they would prioritize by something closer to the person's actual constraints. — and preferences? — yes, they will probably hear something about those.)

"You need money, that means basic income, go to a police station and they take all your biometrics so you can't register twice to scam them... you'll have to drive there I think. I know someone who can drive, they'd be delighted to take you. Then with that you buy a share in a place to live. And then use your money to eat and pay for necessities? I do actually think that'd be everything, what more could you need to stably live?"

Very — systematic, again — or, not quite, but the certainty that this would definitely all work? (Hold this, the certainty may be wrong.) They… had heard of any organizations which onboard newcomers to cities, and which are probably more used to people without any social contacts or accessible history showing up, but I expect people still slip through the cracks. Most people they know (knew?) who could, got jobs, or formed a pair or triad to be their interesting-person within — which always felt somewhat horrifying to me, even though they would still have a third or so of their time or effort with which to pursue their own aims…

(— a mental note, another person they could later talk to, though chosen by this one —)

"Mhm, thank you." Speaking of, "Would it be a problem that I appeared out of thin air this morning, if I did?"

"No, not at all! We respect people's privacy beyond what's needed to give them their basic income, other government services, and what they need to be full parts of society, so to speak."

Okay, at least they have the concept here, though with different connotations, and convincingly enough that a presumably random person believes in it. (If they do, and if they are relevantly random.) — wait, this is surprising to think, I had not noticed myself caring about being-known for its own sake, though you do any — what is their actual threat model?

That — they might want to do something a local infrastructure organisation dislikes, in a year, or some group with the capacity for violence against them if those exist, and I would like not to make its job of finding them easier.

Right, then, what can I ask that would tell me anything relevant? 'What do people need to be full parts of society, according to this system?' — no, the answer would probably not be very new, this is basically the same as 'buy a share in a place to live, (…) eat and pay for necessities'. Though, what is considered necessities — ask that later? 'How detailed are the biometrics' — this is not quite what interests me? I would like to know who could identify them against their will, and how known their movements would be to whom. All right, then, found it: "Who can access which parts of the databases? Is registering reversible?" (With an actually hostile other party, if the data is out there, then it is, but sometimes one can trust a system to actually delete something when requested. And I am not certain cryptography can in no way help ensure this, though probably not.*) !! — "And what is stored about people, exactly?"

(This time the pause is noticeable again, about a minute or two.)

* Certified deletion is an idea that exists, but only possible in quantum cryptography; they haven't read enough about either of classical or quantum to have solid intuitions here.

"People can know that someone has money and has gone through certain background checks, but they can't know much about who that was. The database is visible to the world. Your account number, and the money moving around can be seen, but there's no way to prove that the account number belongs to someone unless they use it for something right in front of your face, or you more or less already know how much money they make and spend. This only counts for people with accounts given at birth; if you make a new one with biometrics, the police know that the account is linked to a certain person by their specific biometrics."

(It catches up with their character-modelling that their interlocutor would probably be horrified at their taking the possibility seriously, if they are not misreading them. Which — would mean something about the shape of this society, or this person's position within it — in the Village of Tranquillity it would instead look suspicious, from what they heard… …So, the thing is, probably no one cares, right? And probably they're not enforcing anything sinister at all, not just with too little manpower and other resources spent for it to make sense to notice them. Except they don't know, they don't know how much manpower! Fifteen billion people, what- no, wait, should be proportionate, that's also who'd be monitored- Anyway, it pays to be prepared, doesn't it? You do not have to justify yourself to them? If you mention this out loud and this person has an argument why this is too unlikely, I will listen.)

"Are there other ways to — anchor — a new account in adulthood?" (That part is quick, they've already been thinking it for a while.) "What happens when a person moves to a faraway part of the world, are the databases connected- Actually, is there anything like an internet here where I could look this up? That would be both more reliable," less dependent on this person's incidental knowledge, if they succeed at finding the data-collecting organization's official page on this, which — this feels like the kind of society where there would be one, "and probably less tedious for you." (— does that last part square with considering the person in front of them, or did they slide back into their default politeness script — yes, it does, 'wants the concerning stranger to be all right' and 'finds them an interesting surprise' does not imply willlingness to answer every question personally, in the detail I would prefer to know the answer.)

"Well... I think Vault Services companies let you have accounts with them, separately? But not many places accept them. There would be networks trading goods in kind, but then you have to know the people in them... and of course this is the only way for you to be part of the tax system, and you miss out on so, so much money if you're not part."

"There's only one database, it's... like one per person? But you don't need to worry about your money only working in some places. You have an internet, but you don't have a phone silly!"