+iny ©at people

I dunno if I really like the argument of "we should be friendly because that way they'll trust and listen to us", because we're not actually capable of being unilaterally "nice" to them. Someone's constantly gonna stir shit up, either by being deliberately destructive with the TCP's environment+home or teaching them a bunch of nonsense they don't clearly need. Like, either be kind to them (in spite of all the nonsense other parts of the collective throw at them) cuz it's the right thing to do or just bribe/blackmail the damn things and stop pretending there's really any functional difference.

I guess if I were sending a letter back to the TCPs it'd be something like:

"Hey uh so I personally am rooting for you guys to survive and thrive but that's just one voice among many. It might be best to describe our relationship with you TCPs like parent(s) and children?

A parent's job is to help a child grow up, which is actually a lot of different jobs. It's providing what a child needs that a child still can't acquire for itself; it's teaching them about the world, what's in it and how it works; it's teaching them how to interact with the world; and sometimes it's protecting them from things which might hurt them, at least until the children have the skills themselves to avoid getting hurt.

Learning how to be a parent is a skill, and waaaay too many people don't learn how to do it until they start being a parent. Heck, we're still kind of learning what's in this world and how it works, so we're even more on the parenting back foot than most.

I guess others are teaching you this that and the next thing because according to their experience, that's what they believe will be important for you to survive? We're still learning what threats to your survival there might be, but this planet at least is safe, and although some of us will confuse you for the sake of confusing you, many want to and will protect you from legitimate danger."


Maybe CREATE a book explaining parents and children and growing up? With cute illustrations of gastric brooding frogs looking after their tadpoles, or Plant-type TCPs growing plants. If we do make that, make a note of it in the letter so the TCPs can go check it out at their leisure.