Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

The best bang for his buck is the rice wrapped in a leaf*. He will probably eventually find it bland, but right now, its good food, and a fair amount of it.

.
"Oo! Ako si Ump! Ikaw si Julian!". He pauses, and holds up his stone "Ano ito??" he draws it out... "Vasic!"


So it appears Ano means "what", Ikaw means "you"... Ump says other things as they work, pointing to them and smiling. A shout comes from down the tunnel... the only thing Julian picks out it "Ump!", and the boy turns around and works harder for a while.


The stones are renewed three times before they come out of the tunnel to receive their pay.



*I made that food up. Then saw a version of it depicted in a show last night.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Well hopefully it's more like a piece of romaine as opposed to a maple or birch leaf.

And "ito" is... "this"? Not sure about "ano" being strictly "what"; doesn't seem to square with "ano" being used to ask for my name...

OK, so Ump is definitely his name. Though I'm wondering how many things there are to identify in the tunnel. Maybe he's thrilled he's met someone with a worse command of the language than him?

Let's see if Ump is willing to talk some more outside of the tunnel. Maybe ask him why everyone looks so weird around here.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Julian takes a chance and bites into the leaf... and it turns out to be pretty edible. More like cabbage than lettuce, but still edible.


Yeah, ito is pretty much this. I'm basing the language on Filipino... which I don't actually know myself.

He mostly seems happy to chat and smile and say things. There are indeed a fairly limited number of things to point to and name.


[/quote]Let's see if Ump is willing to talk some more outside of the tunnel. Maybe ask him why everyone looks so weird around here.[/QUOTE]
Today he receives five metal coins, rather than four. He's pretty sure he worked substantially longer today than yesterday.



Ump is happy to ... talk (more like gesturing) outside of the tunnel, but he wants Julian to come with him. The questions about people's weird features results in learning a bunch of words. The short folk with beards are . The talls ones with the slightly webbed hands and pale skin with black hair are "Muggragle". Ones with wings are "Lawin".



Ump is in a hurry to get somewhere.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

I can gloss over the language if it would help.

I guess I arrived on time this time around. Or maybe something else?
I don't think I'm in any position to argue.

Sure, I'll follow.

Nameless ones I suppose.

Probably too much of a hurry for me to write down any of these new words. I'll try to keep them in my head for later. I suppose we haven't seen and/or cannot gesture the grey pointy eared ones.

I'll ask what the language he speaks is called. Maybe by example: "Ano ito, 'My name is Julian'? English. Ano ito, 'Ako si Julian'?" And I'll ask what yes & no are.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Yes, I'd prefer to reserve new words for interesting things like magical stone.



The language is "Riask". yes and no are "oo" and "na".

duwende.



He heads down deeper into the structure, away from the mine. Several of the boys follow him. They introduce themselves to him, each with a simple name: "Brog", "Rails", "Yip". Most of them are "european" looking, though Yip has the grey skin and pointed ears: he's a "Yanak". They want to know where Julian lives, and one of them wants to see how good he is at catching a tossed coin.



The group passes where Julian slept, and continues on. Brog pulls out a vasic stone attatched to a cord around his neck, and a small piece of chalk from his pocket. Then he starts drawing a circular pattern on it.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

I'll introduce myself back to them. I'm not sure how I'd ask something abstract like, "why are your names are so short?" Maybe it's the street kid culture here?

Hm. Not sure how much to read into that. Maybe there's a big stunting problem here. Foods here don't seem to be nutritious.

What exactly do you mean by "passes"? Are we in the rough tunnel now?
I'll point it out along the way.

Literally? I can give it a shot. Unless he meant it as a metaphor for panhandling. Then I'm probably awful at it. I'll try to communicate that.

Are we at a wall or something? Or the entrance to a tunnel?
I try to get a better look at what exactly he's drawing. Is it like a spiral, concentric circles?

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Julian's not sure how well the concept came across, but they get something of the Idea and start calling him "Jules". This does seem to be something of a bonding moment, with back slapping.


OCC: hah! Using the english names for these people would clear up a lot... but its always interesting to see traveler's reactions when they don't know the language. Puts a little ambiguity into naming and "ethnicity vs species vs race"


Literally... a game of dexterity and skill.


[quote]What exactly do you mean by "passes"? Are we in the rough tunnel now?
I'll point it out along the way.

Are we at a wall or something? Or the entrance to a tunnel?
[quote]
The wooden tunnel doesn't end at the platform: it continues on in both directions. The platform has vegetation tunnel you can access on it, which goes in an downward direction compared to the wooden tunnel, but is mostly parallel, if a bit lower. Here is a rough diagram if it helps.



The boys urge him to come on past where he sleeps with them. They hardly stop, and seem to be in something of a hurry.


Something like this.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Well I don't know how much I like being called Jules but it'd probably be taken as a slight to reject that. At least they didn't just lop off the 'n'.

Well hopefully it's not a gambling thing otherwise... Well I can't exactly lose my shirt now, can I?

I'll follow along. Hopefully it's somewhere I won't get kicked around as much.

I see, so were continuing down to an even lower tunnel. Dotted lines are more vertical? I suppose the lower tunnels get dark?

So a spirally heptagram. Whenever we get where we're going I guess I can ask how chalk makes the Vasic light up.

Well... There's a few way to read into 'most of the street kids appear of European descent'. One is 'they're discriminated against', another is 'there's tensions between ethnic groups'. Though there might be 'Lawin and Muggragle are a minority and/or they can move in more on the z-axis and keep to themselves'. Though between this and Graco asking about 'taller responsible people' I have a sneaking suspicion being short might be part of it. Everyone Julian's seen has been (apart from Ump and Co.) are of the four named groups, right?

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Think of the science fiction author! For the record, yes, the "Jules" I know is female.The other option I considered was "Ju".


For now... its just skill. A gambling variant probably happens. Julian notices that they're not using any of the coins they just got for it.

Dotted lines means a bunch of tunnel between the two sections depicted. not that the diagram is to scale in the first place.


Brog almost finishes the diagram, and then stops for a while. They turn off into a platform room, with a tunnel leading off of it, and then Brog finishes the chalk pattern on the stone. with a flash, the tactile divot appears in its surface, and it begins to glow. Brog leads the rest of the boys into a dark tunnel formed from vegetation.



The tunnel has much sparser light in it, but it does have some. There are lots of side tunnels. The boys peel off one by one to go to glowing stones in the side tunnels, but they seem to catch up afterwords. Brog and Ump take Julian with them on one side passage, and Brog hands a woman his money for the day. She looks at Julian long and hard, and asks what he thinks are questions about him.



No, you've seen pointed ears with pale skin rather than grey. You've also seen very small people with feathered wings (30lbs or so) and Keep watching, there are certainly tensions and a dynamic here.



If you're looking for patterns, the "europeans" seem to be the most common (maybe half the population), followed by Mugraggle. You've never see any Lawin working, only traveling or purchasing things. The people you see in here do seem to be at least mostly "europeans", though yip went in, and you think you saw someone with very dark skin.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Well my mind went to Julian/Jules Lennon. Julian's just a bit particular about nicknames.

I guess these coins are worth more? Maybe I've been getting short changed. Or I'm spending money like crazy. I worry a little about overspending.

I see. I guess the platform room below is passed the dotted line?

The divot just appears? Ok...

Clearly the flow of the energy causes the Vasic to distort in a particular way. A uniformly particular way. And there's energy supplied, everywhere. Even in a tunnel made from plants.

Or maybe it's like a glow stick; you start using the battery and the disk distorts. That would explain why the same divot seems to appear.

Or I could accept this is as inexplicable as my dreams.
I'll try to ask them what's over there, even if it comes out really broken like:
"What there?"
I know this game. Hopefully this one doesn't squeeze as much. I'll try to motion my hands to ask her to slow down, and say, "No Riask, No Riask."

Her I guess? I think I made an assumption there.
Uh, where? "Feather" and "wing" turned up nothing. The birds from the first dream, maybe?

I guess it's impossible to differentiate short hairy Humans from Duwende, if there is a difference.
And kicking people around. That might be more of a clue than I thought.

I suppose I can at least infer that Yanak also work in the mine. Muggragle appear to be working as shopkeepers and middle managers. Duwende do manual labor. And Humans are all over the place doing a bit of everything?

It's a mystery. Perhaps for later.