IC contact

[boughtabookstore]

 You've reached Chief Inspector Roslyn Small at [number here]. Leave your name, contact details, and intent. I will return your message soon.

Comments

[boughtabookstore]

I told you to stop stalking him. Those are entirely different things.

[speakveryclearly]

...

I was pretty sure you also said forget about him. And move on and so on.

[boughtabookstore]

Move on with your life, certainly, because that's simply what's best for you. I didn't say to ignore his existence, and if you can legitimately give aid without having stalked him to do so - then good for you.

[speakveryclearly]

[Being an alien and navigating this sociological matrix is hard, Roslyn.]

In spite of the sometimes obsessive bent of my behavior, I do have other priorities, you know. That is what I meant to call you about.

[boughtabookstore]

[ being human and navigating the social matrix is hard too, tbh ]

What is it?

[speakveryclearly]

[TBF she thinks of humans as just swimming around in social soup

She pauses just a moment like somone trying to come up with the best phrasing and then barreling forward regardless.]

Both of my roommates are currently small children. I think... eight to ten of your years.

[boughtabookstore]

It's become increasingly common, yes. And?

[speakveryclearly]

I have no idea how they are expected to function. Actually I'm rather hazy on how children of your species even survive to adulthood given your planet's lack of lusus naturae.

[boughtabookstore]

Lusus naturae?

And they function much as adults do in terms of nutrition. They simply tend to have more energy and more emotional upset.

[speakveryclearly]

I don't think there's any equivalent at all on Earth. They're these creatures who care for young trolls until such an age that they can care for themselves.

[boughtabookstore]

You mean parents.

[speakveryclearly]

No no no no no, not biological pregenitors, I mean someone who actually acts as your custodian.

[boughtabookstore]

Parents, in most cases.

[speakveryclearly]

[She's sort of silent for a little while.]

I'm... sorry this is difficult for me to understand; you know that it's not "in most cases" among the transports here.

[boughtabookstore]

There are always the exceptions, but the majority of people are raised by their parents, or by relatives of their parents if their parents are dead.

[speakveryclearly]

OK...

I've only ever actually known one human here who neither was an orphan nor wanted to be, so that's kind of surprising information.

[boughtabookstore]

I think we're an - interesting assortment. As it stands, I am an orphan but I was raised by my parents until adulthood.

[speakveryclearly]

Adulthood. [Repeating and testing the word.]

So parents as in actually possessing the plural. [Wow is that unexpected.]

[boughtabookstore]

Two, generally, though there are single parent households as well, or ones in which multiple extended family members serve the function.

[speakveryclearly]

A matched pair of biological pregenitors. [Wow.]

This is the single most aberrant answer I have ever received about guardianship on your planet.

[boughtabookstore]

I think you've been talking to the wrong people about parenthood.

[speakveryclearly]

My closest human friends.

[boughtabookstore]

Perhaps they have been unlucky. I don't know.

[speakveryclearly]

I didn't get the impression it was abnormal luck. Although all of us trolls are the cultural equivalent of orphans and we do consider it unusual, but that's different.

[boughtabookstore]

How is it different?