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I thiiiink this is the layout I'm going with for now?

Shikaviil Port is a co-species FIFO (fly-in-fly-out) work town located in a crater on a planet with a minimal atmosphere. The planet is technically called Shikaviil in Tiiliitian and Ixion-3 in English, but the English speaking residents usually call it Dirtball. It was originally a Tiiliitian avian outpost, but the recycling plant was established by Jovian humans, so the settlement was modified to accommodate human residents.

A major result of this is separate housing and agriculture blocks; avians have to be on a different water treatment loop than humans because they are full of cobalt. Talita is the only centaur living on Dirtball (at time of writing) and she has her own tiny corner carved out of the dry storage area. The other apartments are not big enough to fit her. :') Electrical power is supplied by solar arrays on the light side of the planet, comms are on top of the central spire. 

There is no community center or real gathering place other than the trade center... it's kind of a miserable place to live. Like an airport lobby. They have way more living space capacity than they usually have people living there, so most of the time it's super empty.

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Anonymous

Why are avians full of cobalt? Does it make up their blood or something? Also, what happens if, for example, a bunch of bug ferrets come to work, like the ones that were moving Cal? Do they have to bring their own supplies etc? And where does the oxygen come from? Also, why does Cal hate it there? Since he's able to communicate with other AIs, and presumably doesn't have a true body, would he really have the same psychological needs as organics do?

Jay Eaton

Avians use cobalt in their blood as an oxygen-carrying metal (like we use iron) and as a blue/black skin pigment. Their planet has an unusual amount of it in their soil. Bug ferrets visiting usually don't stay long enough to need room and board, but there's a bunch of UPR (Universal Public Restroom) stalls attached to the trade center for anyone who needs to use the facilities. If they do stay longer than a day or so, they have to bring their own food provisions, and one of the human apartment buildings is opened up for them. The septic system for that building has to be switched to a tank. Even without heavy metals like cobalt in the picture, different aliens are usually put on different water recycling loops because of the risk of accidental poisonings and allergic reactions from ingesting foreign macromolecules. They usually need different kinds of salts in their tap water too. Cal mostly hates working at Ixion, lol. Even if an A.I. can communicate with varying amounts of lag to anyone in the universe, a location-based job means they're spending most of their time and processing power on that job. He's moving away to be a ferret ship A.I., which is a very different daily workload with very different squishy coworkers.

Anonymous

What's Talita's arrangement for water treatment here? Does she get by (but presumably not ideally) on the human recycling loop or does she need to get her water another way? EDIT: Also, can people get sick or have allergy issues from prolonged exposure to certain alien materials like cobalt-rich avian soil (without eating it, that is)? Could that be a problem if someone wanted to live on another species' home planet or place terraformed for that species on top of the food issues? Pollen season's bad enough for a chunk of humans; maybe it'd be worse for someone with different biochemistry.

Jay Eaton

Talita's on a seperate loop with its own septic tank and water tank, which occasionally have to be pumped/refilled. It's dealt with in the wet storage area. She's fine drinking human tap water mix though. Cobalt buildup in non-avian bodies can be a problem in long term cohabitation. Over the counter chelating medications are the usual way to deal with it.