Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

The coins they use are quite a bit smaller than the ones you receive as pay.

correct.

Oh magic.

Its a combination of where they sleep, and where their "tall people"/ baby caretakers are. at least from the gestures. Its the same as the place where Brog hands off the money. looking around, there is a boiling pot behind the woman, a chair nearby it, and a small hole in the wall with light on the other side.

She is not a squeezer, but waves and smiles as the three boys leave. Julian is unsure what she thinks of him.

The boys stop by another woman, and Ump gives her his money. She also has a piercing look and a few questions, and she is content with a wave and a monosyllabic greeting.

The boys head for a cleared out area in the vegetation, where some of the other boys are waiting. Light is provided by Brog's stone, plus Rails brings another one, and a few other boys are here too. They chat with each other, play the coin game, and one of them brought a small rag ball that is getting thrown around.

I have not described every ethnicity/weird anatomy he's seen, just on notable people. But yes, the small winged people are from the first dream and from the marketplace. I tried to cover it all just now.

Quote:

I guess it's impossible to differentiate short hairy Humans from Duwende, if there is a difference.

The facial structure is slightly different, and the overlap in build is fairly small... but yes.

Good luck. I'll try to be careful with clues. Some you've got right, some wrong. more data will help.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

So there are smaller denominations of money. I worry some more about being ripped off by the food vendors.

Maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps these are their parents and they're just put to work young. How awful.

They're all probably judging me. "The weird kid who has no clothes and no language. Maybe dropped as a baby."

I try to shake off my negativity.

Is the ball tucked together, or stapled, or what?

I'll try to pick up more words while tossing the ball or coins, question words (who, when, where, how, why), names of things (clouds, water, food, clothes, home, coins, light), other verbs (do, can, work, get, have, make), and perhaps some pronouns (here, he, she, they, it). Then I'll ask a few questions depending on how my vocabulary:
"I have no home, what do I do?"
"Where can I get water/food/clothes?"
"How do you get small coins?"
"How does Vasic make light?"
"Why do clouds make light?"
"Where is here?"
"When is here?"
"How do you get when it is?" (or perhaps "How do you tell the time?" if I can manage it.)

Am I wrong in thinking that the food and clothes vendors and other specific and undescribed people are regular humans?

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Its tucked/tied together. No metal.


Julian makes some fair progress. Rolling linguistics (sometimes with modifiers) for each question...

11 vs 12: They have no idea. Maybe sleep in here somewhere?
12 vs 12+ 2: The market places for clothes, the market place for food, though they're not sure how to cook it, and for water they show him the local "spring", a waterfall flowing through the caverns here.
10 vs 12: By spending large coins. Its a 16 to 1 ratio.
11 vs 12 -2: Huh? what are you trying to say? someone sketches out the pattern again on the ground.
6 vs 12 -2: because there is a sun underneath the clouds. They seem aware that this is unusual and that the sun is supposed to be in the sky, especially Yip and one kid with dark skin and hair named Tig.
12 vs 12: This place is called "Bumundo".
12 vs 12-2: huh? what do you mean?
13 vs 12: They're not sure what Julian is trying to ask.

Most of them, yes.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

I shrug. At least there's no foot traffic.
I ask if one of their "tall responsible" ones would feed me for a large coin. It'd save me a long walk in the dark at least.
Hm. "How often? Do vendors usually sell at even prices?"
I put my hands on my head briefly. "But, how? Where is the... [english]energy[/english]? Light for nothing?"
"Oh. Ok."

Then I pause to think a little. The obvious answer is that can't be true. The sun would just swallow up everything that came too close to it. And then there'd be no cliff side to have the conversation on.

Maybe the clouds and the cliffs are orbiting the sun, but close enough to the sun that it still pulls objects downward... No, that would mean I'd be weightless or this wouldn't last long. Maybe the clouds pull everything down.

Maybe the sun is really small. If it were much closer, then you wouldn't need something as massive to provide the right amount of heat and light. But a "sun" that small would need maintenance, and building is completely beyond modern science...

I'm not on Earth any more, am I?

I absentmindedly ask, "How far is the sun? How big?"

Shortly after, I realize they probably don't know.
Yep. No Bumundo on Earth. Or at least no Bumundo full of white people. And bird people, little people and grey people.

I draw out a clock and say, "Only near upper fountain?", I point up when saying upper and try to make splashy motions with my hands when saying fountain.

I use the picture of the clock I drew. I circle around it twice and make a tally. I do that a couple of times. Then I say: "How many?"

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Do you have some sort of relevant skill for making this request?

Usually... haggling is possible, but usually its even amounts.


Heh.


They eventually get the idea that he's talking about clocks. They give him the number six. And then point to one of the glowing stones.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Hm, almost forgot. Diplomacy-12? Merchant-12? Maybe even Streetwise-12? If you're asking me to pick I'd go with Diplomacy.
I suppose Julian knows the names of the coins now? If not, he'll call the big ones Escudo and small ones Real. How about numbers?

Are the stones in any particular shape? Or have symbols under them?

I guess I'll just have to get better at the language before I ask about the date. I'd also like to ask what please and thank you are.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

Rolling... rolled an 11. With the penalty for language, that's a failure for now.


Asking about the names of coins and numbers is fine. If we want to call the coins Escudo and Real that works. If we really need the fluff for numbers, we can use tagalog numbers

You've looked at the light giving stones before: they have no symbols under them. They are shaped as thin disks that get thicker towards the middle, but any two of them will have slight differences in shape


Thank you is salamat. You can't figure out what please is. Its a weird word or something.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

I'll ask about the names of the coins.

With regard to the numbers, I was expecting an answer like "He knows the numbers from 1-20".
Hm. Is the one they indicated brighter than the others? Or maybe it's like: "Lights are changed at 8 AM, get darker as the day goes on".

Hm. Maybe a construct like French. I'll thank them and head back towards the market. Hopefully I can make it back to the market in time to get something to eat.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

lets use escudo and real.

ok, numbers from zero to twenty.

They are all the same brightness. You struggle to figure out why they associate the stones with the measurement of time.

Brog helpfully provides you light until you get to the lighted tunnel.

Re: (IC) Lost in Dreams (Julian)
 

I briefly consider how odd it is that they're using currency terms that resemble the currencies of the Spanish Main.

Maybe they can see in a slightly different frequency range. I briefly wonder if I could make/find a dark flashlight and take people by surprise.

I thank him at the end of the journey. I look over the edge of the platform and wonder how far down the clouds are. After that I'll reenter the main tunnel and try to see how much further the main tunnel goes. Maybe there a platform that's lower, perhaps below the clouds.

Then I'll head back up to the lower market (or possibly further) to get something to eat. I'll try to negotiate a little (if only for a one real discount), depending on traffic, I might say something like: "It's the end of the day, who else are you going to sell to?"

If I happen to head all the way up to the grand market, I might head on to the spring for a sip of water and ask what the "vanishing circle" is. After that I might stop in the dry, well lit area, to make a diary entry, then back down towards the vegetated tunnel. It might be hard walking in the dark but better than getting kicked around.