It had occurred to me that I pretty much didn't know anyone here... nor did anyone else for that matter.

So I decided that I would try to meet everybody properly.

It was hard to juggle everyone's schedules so that I could talk to them, they could get their work done, and they could get sleep and eat; as harsh as it sounds, especially because of whose fault it is that they were in that position, but it made it a bit easier that quite a few Fifskae were recovering from injuries and unable to work... that was until I finally got to the people who could work.

At that point it was more of doing things with a conversation in the background because the sheer mass of tasks.

After that, I vowed to assign more people to food prep and waste disposal, as those things kept the people who did them busy for the whole day before they went back to sleep.

It was made a bit more complicated by the fact that the average Fifska was supposed to sleep about half as long, but three times as often.

I ended up learning a lot about their culture that I never expected to learn.

Apparently a lot of the common practices around the village are usually considered rude, but I live among outcasts who don't care about common practice usually.

I found this out when I accidentally trespassed on one such tradition when entering Ayula's house for history lesson.

"What are you doing?" Ayula asked incredulously.

I looked at myself and the bag I had just dropped on the floor uncomprehendingly.

"What do you mean?"

Some of the Fifskae had finally figured out how to tan leather, so they made me some clothes to wear as well as some satchels and other stuff like that. I had a bag of recently dried laundry that I just hadn't brought home yet.

"It's considered rude to put things on the floor of someone's house." She chastised.

"Why?"

She looked at my genuine confusion and calmingly explained. "It shows a lack of respect of your host's property."

When explained, it made a lot more sense. "Interesting, I never would have thought of it that way."

"Well, I suppose we'll have to schedule a class about Fifskaen etiquette."

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "May as well while we're at it I suppose."

Ayula interlaced her fingers and looked at me with a warm smile. "Are you ready for your first lesson?"

"Yes indeed I am."

She nodded. "Let's begin."

I will summarize what she told me, as it took a very long time to go through everything we had planned for that day.

The first thing I noticed is that most of their history was bloodless, or at least they didn't literally fight, instead bending over backwards with lots of political maneuvers.

That wasn't to say there wasn't a lot of people sent off to places to die.

In fact, exile is widely considered to be a punishment equal to execution in some ways, because execution is just so hard to get as a penalty in their culture.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

It also seemed like they took their sweet time advancing their technology, taking ten times as long to make a lot of the advances that we did, instead focusing on arts and not trying anything overly dangerous to get to a favorable result.

I wonder if I told her about the demon core if her head would explode.

Anyway, as I was saying, when space flight became commercially available for them, it began what she called "the second age of exploration".

Not long after that, a group of individuals called "The New Wave" entered the picture.

They said a lot of stuff about "returning to how things were", positing that Fifskae used to share more and "be less greedy".

As soon as I heard that, I saw where it was going... and I was not disappointed.

The New Wave started a "crusade against the oppression of the common people", beginning their first world war.

Their version was less centralized than ours was; there was the major powers duking it out as expected, but a lot of them were fighting their own citizenry who were armed by The New Wave.

Eventually, the lesser offshoot movements all came under the banner of the leader of The New Wave, a woman whose charisma and eloquence lead to her rise to power.

Her name was Fudryka.

A few of her major nicknames were: the word of the people, the atheist prophet, and the capitalist's doom.

They were right on that last one.

Fudryka and The New Wave under her managed to subjugate the rebellions and threats posed to her power and unite the world's governments into one.

Then comes the decline that anyone from Earth could have pointed out to you happening as soon as Fudryka opened her mouth to tell us how good her method of solving all of the world's problems was.

Directly after The New Wave got governmental control, a man named General Oluptu, a man who lead the largest part of the young world-nation's armies, started an initiative the was later called "the purge" by most of the populace.

That was the moment that Ayula, and people like her were exiled because of whatever reason the government could make up.

That was three years ago now.

At first Ayula was happy to have someone to talk to about history, but as the topic became more and more current, the joy was lost and replaced with melancholy.

After she had finished saying the last history lesson she knew about the Fifska homeworld, she just stared at the table in silence for a good few minutes.

When she eventually broke the silence, her question took me completely by surprise.

"You asked me why I came here, but I never asked why you were here, care to tell me?"

I shrugged. "I warn you that it's not that interesting."

She mimicked the motion. "And mine was simple, I still would like to reciprocate the gesture you offered me."

"Okay." I leaned back a bit and looked at the ceiling. "I just didn't like reality, it bored me. There was so many more interesting things happening in the anime I watched, than in my pitiful life where the rent was due the next month, and the month after that, and the month after that." I looked her directly in the eyes. "Even though in my heart of hearts I knew it was impossible, I had to believe that there was something more than that... so when it suddenly became possible, I had no hesitation."

Ayula's eyes widened. "So, you had a perfectly civil life and you left it behind?"

"Yeah, but my kind is different than yours. In humans, standing still is akin to moving backwards, and moving backwards is death. A lot of people have lost their way due to the monotony."

Ayula's eyebrows furrowed. "I see."

I stood up. "It was nice to talk and everything, but I have lots of people to chat with and they should probably be getting up about now."

"I'll make sure to put on some tea next time you visit." She offered.

"I still can't drink it, I'm not certain I won't just keel over and die afterward." I apologized.

She gave me a smile. "It'll be your first lesson about etiquette, you don't have to drink it, but there's a process if you want to be tactful about it."

I thought for a moment. "Fair enough."

Outside, Sydui had been leaning against the wall next to the door as she was waiting for me.

She pushed off of it and stepped into stride with me. "How was your conversation that I'm not allowed to be part of?" She asked, clearly annoyed at me in some way.

"It was long, which you no doubt are aware..." I chuckled sheepishly. "I'll ask if you can sit in on the next one, it hadn't even occurred to me until about halfway through our meeting."

Sydui gave me a significant amount of side-eye at that. "Are you sure I wouldn't be intruding on you or something?"

I stopped walking for a second and looked at Sydui. "Are you jealous that I was talking to Ayula for so long?"

"No... actually a bit but... no nevermind, let's talk about something else." She fumbled.

I wracked my brain for what was being implied here, until all at once it clicked. "Oh wow, I didn't even consider how that must have looked from an outsider's perspective!"

Sydui jumped slightly at my sudden increase in volume. "You also didn't consider how close your mouth is to my ears it would seem."

"Oh, sorry..." I looked her in the eyes. "I'm also sorry for not considering your feelings in this whole thing, I'm a bit new to having to explain my thinking I suppose..."

Sydui searched my eyes with her own, and then chuckled. "I suppose I am too, now that you mention it... let's try to be better at it together, how's that sound?"

I nodded. "I wouldn't have it any other way Sydui."

We both smiled at each other and began walking again.

After a couple steps, I stopped again. "Oh before I forget, how would you like to hold hands for a while?"

"I'd like that."