There are different kinds of topics in storytelling, and not all involve romance. There are political stories, friendship stories, funny stories, and trip-to-the-surface stories. Textile stories are very popular. Some people like to change time around and have stories where Shria and Hrotrun save each other during the Age of the Towers, or where Bluey and Emim are among the First Diggers. Some of the stories are totally unrealistic, with giant trashrats controlled by decoherent agents destroying habitations and Panaximandra saving the day with laser eyes. Lots of different kinds of stories.

But there are three tricky topics that you have to watch out for, and they are: fighting, sex, and Staid matters. You can’t show any of these directly. You can imply them, and sometimes you can skirt the edges. You can show a kiss, or some Vails disappearing through a door to a mat room; or imply a riot is happening around the corner; or have two Staids look at each other knowingly, and the audience gets that it’s some kind of allusion to Staid matters.

But you can’t go farther than that if you don’t want your whole section of the world-of-ideas to get shut down. Feedgardeners still have some standards, even when they’re distracted by fighting with each other. If you’re too blatant, you’ll just ruin things for everybody.

Romance is different. For some reason, the feedgardeners will allow it even if it’s not so appropriate. I don’t know why. Some people say the feed-sentinel agents like romance. I don’t know if that’s true. Other people say it’s about political compromises and giving people a place to vent their feelings. All I know is, you can have a lot of stories where people are longing for each other and burning to hold each other and as long as it doesn’t go beyond an embrace and a kiss, they will probably leave the story up. Even if the match makes no sense in real life. I mean Shria and Hrotrun? Yuck.

If you write stories with romance it is called mancing, and you are called a mancer. Different storytellers are fans of different mances, and they often compete with each other. For instance, there was a feud between Shria-Bluey-Vvonda mancers and Shria-Bluey-Bojum mancers that almost escalated to a real riot . . . ! And that is saying something, because most storytellers are stay-at-home types.