Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Well I guess I can ask around where they would make fancy mechanisms like that. I could probably motion it out with my fist cupped in my other hand moving around... Though I'll have to wait until tomorrow even if I find out where I could get something like that I guess.


"Thank you very much for your hospitality. [Probably gets mangled into "food"]"

I suppose Ump's father was pointed out yesterday in the mines.
I direct the next question to one of Ump's older sisters, "So, what do you do all day? Do you work too?" And then to the other, "How about you?"

"Soldiers. Who look like us. How would they even get here? Wouldn't they just get pushed off when they tried to land on the Vasic? And what could a few soldiers do anyway?"

"If they just wanted to rob people why would they even need an excuse? They didn't give one to us."

All or almost all? I'd think that at least the food vendors would be working; big money on the holiday season... Otherwise, I guess I starve.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Ump's father was indeed pointed out.
Oldest Sister: "I'm an assistant at the food-place."
Second Sister: "I help mother with washing, cooking, and sewing"
Mother: "There is a lot of extra work to be done here. Men without women pay us to help"


Father after several simplifications: "They think the soldiers left their weapons behind and looked normal. Came as miners. Then they can make spears and steal Bamudo for their city. But this is not happening."


Father: "They need an excuse to their leaders, not to us. They must at least pretend to be keeping us safe."


almost all. The oldest sister has a big day ahead of her. Many people are not working. Vendors are spotty: many aren't working today, but many new ones show up in the market. At least for selling food.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

"Do you know why they serve the same food all hours of the day?"
Figures; an entire day's work gets one shirt and I doubt anyone has a washing machine. Maybe you could use Vasic to construct a washing machine, warping the water and clothes throughout the basin, sloshing about.
"Has that ever happened here? Anywhere?"
"If it's obviously a paper-thin excuse, why would their leaders buy it? And if they're willing to lie, why not just say they were never here?"

"But if they're as bad as you say, maybe somebody should do something about them."

I guess I'll get to go browse and have something new and exciting today!

Is that the best answer Julian's getting for now or can he ask for details? If so:
"What exactly is going down on the floor of Riask? A government meeting? A religious festival?"

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

"Who? the Market Vendors? They sell the same food because they're market vendors. We change up the food."


"Not here, but in other communities on the ceiling. Four years ago Temiri was taken that way. That made everyone paranoid. Nothing has happened since though, and they've had time."


"Because their leaders care that they are were they are supposed to be more than they care about what they steal. We could report them if they were in the wrong place and the leaders would punish them."


"Thugs are Thugs. Can't fix it, just make the best of the situation."


A government meeting with religious ceremonies beforehand. The council of Tiskara is meeting today. Tiskara is the city that controls bamundo.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

"Yeah, the market vendors. Would the tastes of people change throughout the day, so it would be smart to sell different food at different times?"

"So maybe the security measures are working? You wouldn't need to actually catch an enemy soldier to neutralize them. All you need to do is to make it too risky to gather weapons in the first place."

"Oh, so their leaders told them to go investigate this neighborhood, and they just took advantage."

I open my mouth as if to say something, and then close it back up. I can't really judge them; I didn't do anything about Beatty either. Just made the best of a bad situation... And look where that got me.

"I was in a bad situation too once. Making the best of it didn't really help anything in the long run. Things got worse either way."

I suppose the councilors have different jobs the rest of the time, which is why everyone gets time off. Does Bumundo have a councilor?

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

"Vendors sell one kind of food. Every day. That's how it works. People choose what they want. The <place she works at> feeds people on our shift, and we change up the food type by meal."


(that is far too fancy language for what he is actually saying!)
"That could be. They still could paranoid and running the checks far too often."


"Yes"


"I can see that. How far from trouble are you now?"


Skalindir. Bumundo is his.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

"I see. I thought it had to do with the..." I'm at a loss for words to describe night. "Constant light? No darkness? No... [English] nighttime."

I suppose I could start looking at a Simple English dictionary and make sentences terser, but I think adding in a simplification step to the translation convention works just as fine.

"Maybe the guards are lying so they have more opportunities to steal. The guards are the eyes and ears, right? Garbage in, garbage out."

"Unsure. Far, beyond Riask far. Maybe beyond beyond Riask. Beyond Kiraskan maybe." I gather my thoughts for a moment, It's bittersweet; happy and sad. I've left my troubles behind, along with everything else."

I glance at my journal, "Almost everything else."

"I suppose little people," I pause to look for something less idiomatic, "not rich, unimportant people, have no say in whether Bumundo is Skalindir's or not. Who decides?"

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

"It does. The vendors sell to whoever is awake and out, and we sell to people on our shift the right meals"


Yeah, its just a flavor comment. I will continue trying to use small words in the answers he gets, at least for now.


"I'm sure they are".


They're quiet and let him have his moment.


Ump's Father: "Hah! No! Not at all. Money, Swords, and Oaths decide that."

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

I notice the silence after a few seconds. "Sorry, I'm bringing the mood down, aren't I?"

"Swords? So every now and then they have a fight in the streets to see who gets to be the new councilor? And oaths? Do they put a lot of weight in what a politician says?"

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

"Not usually in the streets, but its happened. A councilor without an army will loose what has. Unless his friends remember their oaths. They control things by having their soldiers beat or kill those who disagree with them, and by oaths to each other about where their soldiers go."