Tips for Your १st Visit to an Eifweni-Majority City
An Interstellar Cultural Guide
By the grace of 𐍥𐍐𐍚 and of ᴘʀᴏᴠɪᴅᴇɴᴄᴇ, I, 𐍱𐍳, greet you, the honored readers of the 𐍔𐍖𐍣 Guide to ᴛɪɴʏᴀ.
There inevitably comes a time in the life of anyone interested in alien cultures—a group which I presume includes most readers—wherein they wish to take a visit to one. While some brave souls dive in the deep end and hitch a ride in a warpship right away, a more standard approach is to first visit an immigrant city on our Homeworld. Many would advise visiting a 𐘜𐚄 settlement first due to our longer history of cultural intermingling, but I think ʜᴜᴍᴀɴꜱ aren't too challenging a choice—especially if you're the sort of person to be a fan of my blog.
There are a mouthful or two of ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ cities dotted around the globe, but the wealthiest by a substantial margin is ʜᴇᴀʀᴛʜʟɪɴᴇ (I will refrain from complaining about the standard transliteration, 𐍧𐍝𐍢𐍙𐍠.) My advice mostly generalizes, but I will use it as the example. You may wish to do further research if you plan to travel somewhere less central.
१. Expect to be spoken to without ceremony.
ʜᴜᴍᴀɴꜱ tend to avoid approaching strangers unprompted, and the ones in ʜᴇᴀʀᴛʜʟɪɴᴇ tend to be familiar with the proper responses to a formal 𐍔𐍖𐍣 greeting—or if not, at least with the most prominent ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ-language adaption thereof. Consequently, it can actually take quite a while before you experience being abruptly addressed. This often causes confusion followed by anger, as someone first tries to figure out what the urgent emergency is, and then realizes there isn't any.
Most ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ in ʜᴇᴀʀᴛʜʟɪɴᴇ have picked up on this issue by now, and will try to avoid it. But they spend most of their time talking to other ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ, and have not practiced our etiquette from birth. Counter to your intuitions, those ʜᴜᴍᴀɴꜱ most familiar with us are the most likely to slip-up here (aside from babies), as they are less likely to ᴀɴxɪᴏᴜꜱʟʏ ensure they don't make any error in their interactions with us.
२. Understand cutlery basics.
Though it can vary depending on the food item, meals are generally served with individual eating tools that are not shared between diners. For solid meals, this is typically either ꜱᴘᴏʀᴋꜱ, a ʜᴀɴᴅʜᴇʟᴅ implement designed for scooping and stabbing, or some sort of tong. Liquid meals usually use cups in addition to—depending on viscosity—either ꜱᴘᴏʀᴋꜱ or ꜱᴛʀᴀᴡꜱ, rigid cylindrical tubes which use suction to transport food to the ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ mouth (typically without any great difficulty).
Using a tool incorrectly is for the most part inoffensive, but any tool which has made contact with your feeding appendages is considered ᴜɴꜱᴀɴɪᴛᴀʀʏ. Allowing ᴜɴꜱᴀɴɪᴛᴀʀʏ tools (or your feeding appendages themselves) to contact communal food violates ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ feeding taboos.
३. Operate your own doors.
ʜᴜᴍᴀɴꜱ tend to prefer their traditional ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ doors. Though some doors will open automatically, most will require manual operation—do not dance around in an attempt to aid the door in sensing your presence.
ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ doors come in two main varieties. Doors with a physical lock typically feature a ᴅᴏᴏʀ ᴋɴᴏʙ, a rounded circular frustum which must be grabbed, rotated widdershins through a plane parallel to the door, and then pushed or pulled in order to open the door. Doors without a physical lock typically contain on one side a 𐍰-shaped handle that must be pulled, and on the other a horizontal bar that must be pushed.
४. Prepare to interface with multiple timekeeping systems.
Frequent readers of the blog are likely familiar with the ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ timekeeping system, which divides a ᴛɪɴʏᴀ day into 0x24 ᴘᴇʀɪᴏᴅꜱ and each ᴘᴇʀɪᴏᴅ into 0x24 ᴍɪɴᴜᴛᴇꜱ. What you may be unaware of, however, is the fact that ʜᴇᴀʀᴛʜʟɪɴᴇ citizens tend to switch between our timekeeping system and a system synced to ᴛɪɴʏᴀ fluidly as is convenient.
On reflection, this makes sense. ʜᴇᴀʀᴛʜʟɪɴᴇ citizens tend to interact, at least occasionally, both with 𐍔𐍖𐍣 and with ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ back on ᴛɪɴʏᴀ via the interstellar net, and thus benefit from being able to understand times in either format. (Also, their ꜱʟᴇᴇᴘ patterns tend to remain on a 0x24 ᴘᴇʀɪᴏᴅ schedule, despite our shorter days.) But it will likely seem odd at first if you are used to a normal entirely rigid schedule.
५. Do not abruptly depart conversations.
Some 𐍔𐍖𐍣 tend to assume that, as ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ do not require formal greetings akin to ours, they similarly don't require formal farewells. This is only partially the case. While there is no especially standardized departure procedure, an abrupt departure without explanation is typically considered rude.
ʜᴜᴍᴀɴꜱ typically consider participation in at least certain sorts of conversations or other interactions to include an implicit contractual agreement to remain present until the completion of the interaction, absent any reason it is necessary to cut the conversation short. Most of the reasons you might want to leave are adequate, though they do need to be explained to your conversation partner. You might wish to familiarize yourself with my ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ etiquette guide for advice on framing.
६. Mind volume in enclosed spaces.
Although you will frequently see ʜᴜᴍᴀɴꜱ in close physical contact with other ʜᴜᴍᴀɴꜱ, they as a general rule tend to only do so with particular ʜᴜᴍᴀɴꜱ, usually mates or other collaborators. Otherwise, they only engage in touch in either highly regularized ritual manners, or according to a set of norms that ᴇɪꜰᴡᴇɴɪ tend to find difficult to explain even to each other (this is related to the concepts of ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴄᴇ and ꜰʟɪʀᴛɪɴɢ.) Consequently it is generally best practice to limit the physical space you take up as much as feasible.
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