After Xerrid gets confirmation from Billerica that Karine is hired, she only needs to wait a few minutes while Xerrid files the paperwork for the work contract to become effective. Upon receipt of the paperwork, Billerica then contacts Xerrid, asking for Karine:

“I’m Billerica, your new boss. Welcome to Wonderlic. You’re obviously new to this world. For this reason, I don’t want you to face the customers directly unless absolutely necessary”

“Ok, Billerica, but surely I would need to get on-site every now and then” Karine retorts.

“It won’t be necessary since we have drone cameras”

“Let me make that clear: I will only work for you until I can pay my way back to my home world. Now, Xerrid mentioned that you were insolvent; what does that imply for my pay?”

“I’m afraid you will only get paid after a portion of our current debts are repaid”

Karine sighs. I wonder if some crimes could result in me being banished or extradited from this world. Obviously I don’t want anything to do with jail, but I know nothing about what constitutes crimes here, nor sentences, so I might not want to commit one just yet. So I feel trapped. I have no choice but to bear it and work on this world to return to mine. At the same time… she keeps ruminating.

“Because of that, I wonder where I’ll live while on this world”

“It would be much simpler if you lived at my place; after all, it is common courtesy on our world in this situation”

“What else should I be aware of, beyond the scope of contractual obligations?”

“I take care of getting tenants, but you will need to take care of buying and selling homes as needed, on top of assigning tasks to construction bots! Before there’s any housing start, I will tell you exactly what’s relevant to you” Billerica answers her while waiting for the answer from the government.

Because of how easy the boss makes out the purchase and sale of homes to be here, I have the impression that so many on this world treat homes like commodities, Karine is made to feel like people don’t hold the same attitude towards home ownership on Taladu vs on Earth. On Earth, it’s not uncommon to treat a home as an investment property.

“I wonder how much do materials cost, how much properties are worth, as well as the cost of construction bots. I feel these are going to be our main expenses”

“Materials and construction bot costs are on a sliding scale” Billerica explains to her before picking her up.

When going for a ride to Billerica’s home, Karine is left wondering how else this world is going to differ from her corner of Quebec she lived in back on Earth. Some of the buildings feel like they were built with molten metal, others have futuristic domes, but Billerica’s home has clearly seen better days.

As she enters her Taladuan boss’ home, she feels like it’s a wooden cabin built in a horror movie set, complete with the home being in the middle of a forest. And the trees feel like they’re out to get her. The creaking floor is not helping her. The more I see of this world, the more I feel like these aliens want something much more unsavory out of me, she starts trembling at every step she takes in this cabin’s living room.

“This is my home. Please apologize for the poor condition the home is in, rent is sky high in the main cities, and forget about home ownership unless you want to either bankrupt yourself or live in rural areas” Billerica explains to her.

“You’re describing a situation not unlike my home corner of my world” Karine feels like the cramped quarters will make her job harder. “Is it me or the floor needs repairs?”

“Yes. However, I can’t afford that right now” Billerica turns to his computer to check on the status of his bids for contracting under the Housing Crisis Plan.

Billerica jumps for joy and his eyes open much wider than usual. His mouth is wide open, too. Which leads Karine to ask him a question.

“Are you all right?” Karine asks him, wondering how Taladuan body language differs from the human one. “You seem horrified”

“I’m happy that we were awarded anything under the Housing Crisis Plan! Why did you feel like I was horrified?”

“It’s just that I know nothing about your race’s body language; I am new to this world!”

And they read through the conditions imposed by the Taladuan authorities, such as the use of HCP- approved suppliers for all three of materials, construction bots and blueprints, all sales of properties built in HCP-designated areas must be done through the HCP realty system up to a certain price limit, rent must be collected via pre-authorized direct deposits, again up to a certain price limit, depending on the property type. And, of course, repairs must be borne at the landlord’s expense.

“I kept seeing references to talas. What are these?” a Karine puzzled by Taladuan legalese asks her boss.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Money. Remember that, since your salary is deemed a new debt, it’s excluded from our creditor proposal, and you won’t get paid until our cash flow allows us to cover our obligations under the proposal”

Oh boy. Is it me or it feels like these aliens drew me into what feels far too much like a video game world? Karine’s mind seems to be wandering. Billerica seems to be implying that Taladuan creditor proposals are much like the business proposals I dealt with on Earth. But now I have a better idea of why people are reluctant to try turning insolvent companies around here.

“Our first contract under the HCP is in a swamp village and then we shall see if you’re worth anything as a project manager. Speaking of the contract, the contractor needs to provide two signatures before it goes into effect”

“Two signatures? Why? The village and the government only needed one person to sign off on it!” Karine wonders why would construction companies need two people signing a given contract, upon seeing the section for the signatures at the end.

That’s weird as hell: video game worlds usually have little real bureaucracy. In past games I played, and certainly MAA, I could build whatever I wanted so long as I could afford it, Karine wonders if this world leans more towards a horror movie set or a video game world. However, horror movies might include bureaucracy as a means of either catching the villain or the victims off-guard.

“On this world, it’s good practice not to have the business owner also run a construction project, even with the level of automation the bots give you, so here, people feel like project managers should be held accountable for breaches of contract and hence must sign the contracts for the projects they supervise” Billerica explains to her, in a tone of voice leaving no room for doubt as to what he wants Karine to do.

Karine re-reads the clauses in the contract related to construction and demolition permits. Much to her delight, she realizes that HCP contractors have full authorization to construct, renovate and demolish buildings pursuant to the HCP rules. So long as they stick to working in areas covered by their contracts.

“All right, I will sign it!” Karine sighs, reluctantly signing on her dotted line.

“At least they were nice to provide us with a blueprint and seed money” Billerica comments on the attachment to the contract.

“What am I going to eat on this world?” her tone of voice starts to betray her despair. “If I am going to work here until I can pay my way out, I need to eat!”

“I am going to cook fried toilets!”

“Fried… toilets?” Karine gasps upon hearing about fried toilets being eaten by Taladuans. “That’s gross, but at the same time, maybe your world’s toilets have nothing to do with sanitation! And maybe frying food doesn’t mean the same to you as it does for us either!”

There’s more of a chance that frying means the same to the both of us than toilets. But even if frying food meant the same to them as it does for me, I can’t shake the feeling that, even disinfected by frying, I can’t eat Taladuan fried toilets! An apprehensive Karine ruminates about what could frying toilets mean to her otherworldly boss vs to her, as he goes to the kitchen. Do Taladuans eat ceramic or acrylic?

“What do you mean, toilets have something to do with sanitation?” an equally bewildered Billerica asks her while the toilets are being air-fried.

“My world’s toilets are used for disposing of our bodies’ waste. What are your world’s toilets?”

“Really?” Billerica asks, while tending to his air-fryer containing the fried toilets.

“What do you use to dispose of your bodies’ waste?” Karine’s follow-up question goes unanswered as the Taladuan watches over the fried toilets in the air fryer.

Karine is far more curious intellectually than other people I dealt with. However, I can’t blame her; she’s stuck here until she can pay for the teleporter trip back to her world. But tomorrow, the first housing start begins! Billerica is in no position to show her what raw Taladuan toilets look like, nor what nutritional value they have.

“I guess I have no choice but to eat fried toilets tonight…” Karine starts to hyperventilate when she’s served her fried toilets.

And her heartbeat accelerates while a stream of thoughts seem to short-circuit her. While I don’t think Billerica want to poison me, at least not on purpose, what if this food is poisoned? What if Taladuan fried toilets are poisonous to humans? Questions surface in her mind while her heart pounds in her chest and her head starts hurting. It seems like my brain is about to fry, just like my boss’ toilets…

With her body trembling, fearing that she will break her teeth, Karine slowly takes a fried toilet, and she feels like she’s about to drop it with every move she makes.

“Are you OK, Karine?” the Taladuan general contractor asks her, between eating two toilets.

“No… this place… this world even… reminds me of some horror video game on my home world” Karine feels trapped, with her own fried toilet in her shaking hand, about to cry. However, she tries to hold her own emotions. “I won’t go into details right now!”

It's for circumstances like these I’m grateful for eating one dish at a time, Karine, her heart still pounding, tries to appraise the texture of these fried toilets when she has one in her hand. To ensure that the fried toilet will not break her teeth, she touches the dome-shaped food. Yet, somehow, after cracking the alien, coconut-sized fried toilet open, she realizes it doesn’t seem to be made of ceramic or acrylic. A bit crispy, perhaps, but she expected that out of fried food, at least the way she ate it.

She eats the fried toilet, first in slow motion, and later a little more comfortably, as her initial unease seems to melt with every bite. Especially since, for some reason, the fried toilet seems to taste, and smell, like a fried water chestnut. After finishing one in full, she sighs in relief, and eats a second fried toilet.

“Sorry for not answering your question about bodily waste disposal earlier. It made me a little uncomfortable, but what your world calls a toilet, we call it a WC” Billerica answers her after he’s done eating two fried toilets. “Waste closet if you will”

“Just show me where this home’s waste closet is, please”

“Sorry, I just didn’t show you around my home until now. We spent the entire time in the living and kitchen!” the Taladuan, over whom Karine towers, shows her around the final two rooms of his swamp cabin.

The waste closet, which is about the size of a shower, is the Taladuan equivalent of a bathroom. Complete with an opaque, black door so outsiders can’t see what takes place in a waste closet when someone is using it.

And finally, the bedroom. As with the rest of the home, it has clearly seen better days, and has bunk beds.

“It makes me wonder what’s the population vs housing start situation here on this world. When you hired me specifically to play a role, no matter how small, in solving a housing crisis…” Karine makes her comment before going to the waste closet.

“I don’t think the time is right to tell you about demographics until we even make a housing start, tomorrow”