“Sibling Dex, look!” Mosscap cried with unbridled glee. “They gave me a map!”
“That’s great,” Dex said, then paused. “Why?”
“I inquired as to our approximate location in relationship to other settlements, and Mx. Sage here fetched me a map, and they said I could have it!” Mosscap turned to the person who, presumably, was Mx. Sage. “It’s my very first belonging, and I just can’t thank you enough.”
“It’s really no problem,” laughed the map-giver. Dex assumed they’d been thanked plenty already.
“If you’ll excuse me for a moment,” Mosscap said, folding the map with extreme care, “I’d like to have a private conversation with my friend.”
The group nodded and waved amicably as Mosscap pulled Dex off to the side.
“What’s up?” Dex asked, leading them out of earshot.
“I’m so glad you’re back,” Mosscap said. “I need to ask you something.”
Dex frowned. “Is something wrong?”
“No, no,” Mosscap said. “Nothing’s wrong; I just have no idea what this is, and I didn’t know how to ask.” The robot opened the panel on the front of its chest, put the map inside, and removed another piece of paper from within itself. “I didn’t want to seem rude.”
Dex took the paper and turned it right-side up. It was an ordinary sheet torn from a notebook, bearing several scribbled lines, each in different handwriting.
Fixed door: 12–215735
Changed bike tire: 8–980104
Paint touch-up: 7–910603
Carried lumber: 4–331050
Brushed Biscuit: 2–495848
Washed veggies: 5–732298
“Ah!” Dex said with a single nod. “I didn’t think to explain this; I’m sorry.”
“So, you do know what it is, then?” Mosscap said.
“Yeah,” Dex said. “They’re pebs, and the accounts they’re coming from.” This elicited no response from Mosscap. “It’s a way of tracking exchanges of goods and services.”
“Oh!” Mosscap said. It looked at the paper with interest. “This is … money?”
“No,” Dex said quickly. They didn’t know a ton about money, but they knew enough about the concept from their days in school to reject the comparison. “Well … I mean, it is a sort of payment, I guess, but it’s not … what’s the word … y’know, capital.” They ran a hand through their hair. They’d never had to explain pebs before. “Okay. Anytime you receive anything that involves some sort of craft or work or labor or whatever from someone else, you give them pebs in exchange. So, let’s say you start out with zero pebs.”
“Which is true, for me.”
“Yes. Let’s also say you go to a farmer and get an apple, and let’s say that’s worth one peb to you.”
“What would I do with an apple?”
“Just pretend you can eat apples.”
“All right.”
“Okay. You take the apple, and you give the farmer one peb.”
“How?” Mosscap asked.
“I’ll explain later,” Dex said. “Stick with the farmer for now.”
“If you say so.” Mosscap’s eyes shifted in thought. “I currently have one hypothetical apple and negative-one hypothetical pebs.”
“Right. The farmer’s work has benefited you, so now you need to provide something to benefit someone else.”
“To the farmer, you mean.”
“No.” Dex tried to explain. “It can be to the farmer, if you provide something the farmer wants. But exchanging pebs isn’t about bartering. It’s about benefit. You are a part of the community, and the farmer doing something for you means that they are, effectively, doing something for the group. So, you’ve got your negative-one-peb balance now. You’ve got to fill that up. Let’s say you’re … I don’t know. A musician. You go play some music in a town square, and five people come to listen. They now give you some pebs. If they each give you two pebs, now you’ve got nine pebs, which you can exchange for other things. Make sense?”
“I believe so,” Mosscap said. “You’re saying that instead of a system of currency that tracks individual trade, you have one that facilitates exchange through the community. Because … all exchange benefits the community as a whole?”
“Exactly.”
“Do people give you pebs for tea?”