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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 26 Jan 2021 07:22
by k1234567890y
prettydragoon wrote: 25 Jan 2021 22:12 DOOO EEET

*ahem* I mean, I think that is a very good idea.
thank you for suggestions >< but I need to do it persistently and I also need to sort out my ideas first.

Besides I have not only one conworld but several conworlds, though I want to make them interconnected physically(the in-world peoples don't necessary know the existence of each other).
prettydragoon wrote: 25 Jan 2021 22:12 It's a narrow world, isn't it?
certainly, at least the conlanging circle has always been pretty small.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 30 Jan 2021 16:34
by prettydragoon
A good boy
Sari has a swing in his den. It’s an old car tyre suspended from a length of rope. Sometimes Sari swings in his swing. It’s great fun. Sometimes Sari lies on the ground on his back and kicks the swing this way and that. It’s great fun.

Sometimes Sari’s pecker gets hard. Sometimes he ignores it and it goes soft again. Sometimes he rubs it until white piss comes out. It’s great fun.

Sometimes Nurse takes Sari out of his den. Nurse is very tall. Nurse leads Sari to another den. The other den is not like Sari's den. It has no things to play with in it.

There is a stranger. She smells like heaven. Sari goes and sniffs her butt and she smells even more like heaven. Sari’s pecker is hard. He climbs on top of the stranger who smells like heaven and his body knows what to do. It’s great fun. The stranger who smells like heaven screams and it’s a happy scream. Sari grunts and it’s a happy grunt. He climbs off the stranger who smells like heaven. Nurse tells him he’s a good boy. The stranger who smells like heaven also tells him he’s a good boy. It’s great fun.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 30 Jan 2021 19:09
by eldin raigmore
Let me be sure I’ve got this straight.
My impression is; it’s great fun?

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 31 Jan 2021 16:01
by prettydragoon
Indeed, I am assured that the males in studhouses are provided with a suitably stimulating environment to keep them physically and mentally fit for their duty. Also they are carefully paced to make sure no single male overexerts himself. Male husbandry is a science and an art, with millennia of history and even more millennia of tradition.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 31 Jan 2021 16:15
by elemtilas
A question (or three):

I gather from the style in which you wrote this snippet that males are a bit, mm, dim. I know you've said before that males are not cognitively on par with females, but I'm wondering how great is the rift? He has a name: does he know it's his "name", or is just a meaningless sound that he associates with various activities like being led out of his den to mate? His swing is a car tyre, but does he grasp those concepts (car & tyre)?

Are all males kept in stud farms like this, or do any roam about "wild" in Rireinu society?

Are there ever any males who on par with females, or even near to?

Are there ever any females who are on par with the males?

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 31 Jan 2021 21:17
by prettydragoon
elemtilas wrote: 31 Jan 2021 16:15 A question (or three):

I gather from the style in which you wrote this snippet that males are a bit, mm, dim. I know you've said before that males are not cognitively on par with females, but I'm wondering how great is the rift? He has a name: does he know it's his "name", or is just a meaningless sound that he associates with various activities like being led out of his den to mate? His swing is a car tyre, but does he grasp those concepts (car & tyre)?
On average, Rireinukave (females) are about as intelligent as your average galactic. Males on the other hand, tend to be not quite as intellectually inclined as your average sheepdog. So. Our friend knows he is called Sari. Like his swing is called swing. He may have been in a car (since being brought in as a newborn), because sometimes males get traded between studhouses, but if so, he probably has only a vague recollection of it, nor would he be able to connect that experience to his swing.
Are all males kept in stud farms like this, or do any roam about "wild" in Rireinu society?
When you turn in your male baby to a studhouse, you receive a stipend equal to one year's average salary in your province. Also, your next pregnancy is free of charge. So I think it is safe to say all males live in a studhouse.
Are there ever any males who on par with females, or even near to?
No. Or at least, there is no mention in the literature, in several thousands of years of it.
Are there ever any females who are on par with the males?
Unfortunately, yes, sometimes there are. Usually they end up in an institution, but sometimes their mothers take care of them at home.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 31 Jan 2021 22:00
by elemtilas
prettydragoon wrote: 31 Jan 2021 21:17 When you turn in your male baby to a studhouse, you receive a stipend equal to one year's average salary in your province. Also, your next pregnancy is free of charge. So I think it is safe to say all males live in a studhouse.

Have any eccentric females ever kept their male babies?

Do they speak?
Unfortunately, yes, sometimes there are. Usually they end up in an institution, but sometimes their mothers take care of them at home.
Interesting. Thanks for the explanations!

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 01 Feb 2021 14:39
by k1234567890y
Speaking of the sex of Rireinu, a group of conpeople of mine is also all-female.

The speakers of Ame(and later Town Speech, as Town Speech speakers later intermarried with Ame people intensively as they settles at the ameland) are also a all-female group, but they are basically humans, though it is said that ancestors of Ame people had some non-human genetics, which caused the imbalance, but fortunately, there's a kind of fruit that enables parthenogenesis in Ameland, therefore they could sustain their population.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 01 Feb 2021 21:39
by elemtilas
k1234567890y wrote: 01 Feb 2021 14:39 Speaking of the sex of Rireinu, a group of conpeople of mine is also all-female.

The speakers of Ame(and later Town Speech, as Town Speech speakers later intermarried with Ame people intensively as they settles at the ameland) are also a all-female group, but they are basically humans, though it is said that ancestors of Ame people had some non-human genetics, which caused the imbalance, but fortunately, there's a kind of fruit that enables parthenogenesis in Ameland, therefore they could sustain their population.
These are the kinds of things we need to hear more about in CBB!

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 01 Feb 2021 23:58
by Khemehekis
CJ Miller (who used to go by something like xiljwya at the CBB, I think he changed his name to something like Halian) has also created an all-female conpeople. I can't remember their name.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 06 Feb 2021 21:08
by prettydragoon
elemtilas wrote: 31 Jan 2021 22:00
Have any eccentric females ever kept their male babies?

Do they speak?
In the days of old, certainly some people kept their male babies. After all, that is a straightforward way to start a new village. In recent centuries, not so much.

Males can learn to speak some words to communicate some simple needs, but not complete sentences.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 06 Feb 2021 21:20
by prettydragoon
Dating, relationships & marriage
Marriage is the basic building block of Rireinu society. Two women sharing their lives and raising each other’s children. The ideal is that once married, you raise 2.5 dutiful daughters and stay married until death do you part. But this does not always work, and therefore divorce is always a possibility.

How do you know who to marry? Typically, you go on a date with somebody you like, and then you find she likes you too, and then you fall in love. Many women find their future wife during their conscript year, in the Army or the Navy. This is good because you get to observe your potential partner in stressful situations. And so does she. Thus it is said that sisters-in-arms make best wives.

What do you do on a date? Talk. About anything and everything. Dancing is also popular. If not in the military, you might want to go jogging or rock climbing or do some other romantic thing. Of course, sex is also there. Do you want to share your bed with this woman for the rest of your life?

Have you two found each other? A common engagement token is a lock of pubic hair. As pubic hair is a visible sign of adulthood, cutting off a lock of it is a powerful symbol of commitment. Many couples buy matching lockets to keep their engagement lock and wear it on a necklace.

How do you make it official? A marriage must be solemnised by the Deputy District Registrar in the presence of two witnesses. That is all that the law requires. However, tradition requires much more ceremony.

What is to be done? First, each bride must choose a miko, to be her assistant. This is one of her friends. The miko will help run the wedding, assist the brides in the ceremony, and be the two official witnesses. The mothers of the brides usually help also.

How does the wedding start? The night before the wedding, the two miko bring the brides and their friends together for a party. This is called kuhoheto, or Last Night. All the friends together shave the two brides, all their head and pubic and body hair. This is a symbol of the two brides being born into a new life, no longer two women separately but a couple, two together. Then there are many toasts and speeches.

What about the wedding day? For joyous occasions, Rireinukave paint themselves with red ochre, the colour of joy. So here also. Each miko paints her bride with red ochre from the neck up. In villages they may paint the whole body, but that is very old-fashioned. And then the miko paint each other’s face. Also, the mothers of the brides paint their whole face with red ochre. All the other wedding guests paint their forehead. Everyone gets a garland of flowers. But in the beginning, the miko get two and the brides get none.

And the ceremony? First, the Deputy District Registrar gives a speech about marriage and family. Then the junior bride takes a garland from her miko and puts it around the neck of the senior bride. And then the senior bride does likewise. And then there is a party.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 13 Feb 2021 16:02
by prettydragoon
First Secretary Radetzky
When I found out I might be assigned to our embassy on Rireinu, I read up on it of course. It sounded like almost too good to be true. Class M planet, gravity close to 1g, day not too much shorter than 24h, climate mostly tropical, native sapients Human to ten decimal places... That the natives all look like Human females and that they seem to have a thing against clothes, were a bonus. I joined a naturist club in college, so I figured I was used to going about my business in the nude. I'd be able to fit in and move about unnoticed, always a useful skill for a diplomat.

So, long story short, I got the posting. The trip took so long I managed to get reasonably fluent in the language, so I thought I was prepared for everything. Well, it was everything as advertised, really. The dress code is belts with pouches, hats and sandals optional. The weather is great and the food is good. The sapients are very friendly when they find out I'm actually a galactic.

That was a problem for me in the beginning. Everybody just kept staring at me wherever I went. When I wore my clothes, it was curious stares, mostly friendly. I was obviously a galactic since I was wearing clothes, yet I looked so similar to them. When I went nude, the stares were much harder, very unfriendly. I was clearly not welcome. It took me the longest time to figure out what the problem was.

Hair. Since the natives don't really do clothing, they have a thing about hair. There's lots of rules about the cutting and styling of hair. All hair, but especially pubic hair. Pubic hair is... you could say that tuvu, pubic hair, is kinda sacred. It's a sign of adulthood, and age is very important to them, so they basically never cut their pubic hair. So, getting your pubic hair shaved is a punishment. It makes you symbolically into a child again and marks you as a ward of the state, so it's like a prison uniform as well.

Enter me, an ignorant galactic. The custom back home is to have all your body hair removed, which of course I had done as soon as I had any body hair to remove, ie. in high school, like all the cool kids. So when I walked out the embassy gate, undressed like the natives, I looked just like a native... a native just released ex-convict at best, an escapee at worst.

So nowadays I wear a merkin whenever I want to go out unnoticed further than the Embassy Quarter. Around here, everybody knows me already.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 15 Feb 2021 23:11
by eldin raigmore
I find First Secretary Radetzky fascinating.

She is dedicated to her career and her mission, and turns frustrations and delays and obstacles to her advantage by studying and reading up on things.
She seems to always have a plan B and a plan C, and probably frequently has a plan D as well.
She’s probably a lot younger than most people her rank.

How much of that is me truly reading what you wrote, and how much of it is coming from “readers imagination”?

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 16 Feb 2021 00:04
by prettydragoon
Well, I do like to think there is something of Permanent Undersecretary Henry Kiku (of The Star Beast fame) in First Secretary Radetzky, but I'm not sure how much of that is visible in the actual lines of the text. But of course, reading is an essential part of the creation of a text.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 17 Feb 2021 19:39
by elemtilas
What I found most interesting is that you didn't write the Undersecretary as obviously one way or the other. Ambiguity is fun, and reading eldin's response was equally interesting.

He very clearly identified Radetzky as female, whereas I was unable to determine, or definitively imagine one way or the other.

I know from my scanty second-hand knowledge of the US Foreign Service that we don't send to people to embassies in Africa or Asia because they obviously look like Africans or Asians. We send them because of their education, experience & skillsets. Obviously Radetzky has the credentials, but it got me wondering if Radetzky was looked on as a curiosity and then rejected for actually being male. Surely, if the Rireinu are aware of Galactics and their weirdness, why would they, at the very least those more cosmopolitan in outlook, would reject the Undersecretary simply because id's shorn. How would they know that Radetzky didn't come from a human type that has no hair? The reaction seemed quite extreme, visceral.

Which leads to a question: if Radetzky were male, shorn or unshorn, how might Rireinu society in and around the embassy react?

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 17 Feb 2021 20:44
by eldin raigmore
Wow, elemtilas, you’re right!
My (apparently faulty) memory is that Radetzky’s first name sounded feminine to me.
But I don’t see her first name upon second look!
I don’t know where I got the idea she is female!
....
OTOH Henry Gladstone Kiku seems to be Kikuyu. (If he was Kenyan, and not a trans samurai!)
Clearly one parent was English-speaking, or some other language where Henry is a name.
Clearly one parent was Anglophile.
I’d have thought his father and patrilineal ancestors for a while were Kikuyu; but it turns out the founders of the nine clans of the Kikuyu were sisters, and so I assume the nine clans were originally matriclans instead of patriclans.
Anyway “kikuyu” means “children of the olive”.
Or thus saith Wikipedia.

Back when I first read it I don’t think I even realized he was (probably) black.

.....

A lot of visualizing a story (as I do when reading) seems now, in retrospect, to have been guesswork.

I also sometimes cast Hollywood types as some of the characters.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 18 Feb 2021 00:47
by prettydragoon
Indeed, I did not specify Radetzky's gender. But I submit she is definitely female-presenting, as she notes in the first paragraph that she expected to be able to pass as one of the natives who "all look like Human females". It was her lack of body hair that made this not as easy as she had assumed.
elemtilas wrote: 17 Feb 2021 19:39 Surely, if the Rireinu are aware of Galactics and their weirdness, why would they, at the very least those more cosmopolitan in outlook, would reject the Undersecretary simply because id's shorn. How would they know that Radetzky didn't come from a human type that has no hair? The reaction seemed quite extreme, visceral.
It did not occur to the woman in the street that she was a galactic. She didn't look exotic enough for the conscious mind to cut in. She looked like a con so she got treated like a con.
Which leads to a question: if Radetzky were male, shorn or unshorn, how might Rireinu society in and around the embassy react?
That's a very hypothetical hypothetical. If Radetzky were male, the Outlandish Ministry would not be too keen to accept her accreditation. If she were forced on Rireinu, she would be treated like a male tourist when she wanted to leave her embassy compound: required to have a chaperone of her own species, as well as a "guide" from the Ministry, accompanying her at all times. But at least the ubiquitous stares would be mostly curious rather than hostile.

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 18 Feb 2021 04:55
by elemtilas
prettydragoon wrote: 18 Feb 2021 00:47 Indeed, I did not specify Radetzky's gender. But I submit she is definitely female-presenting, as she notes in the first paragraph that she expected to be able to pass as one of the natives who "all look like Human females". It was her lack of body hair that made this not as easy as she had assumed.
Hadn't thought of it that way. I figure, if I went to a place where everyone's a human girl, and I were a human boy, I'd be thinking, "I'll be able to pass, because they all look like human females, and not some great scary winged beast!"

But now that you confirm, I'm happy to reimagine!
It did not occur to the woman in the street that she was a galactic. She didn't look exotic enough for the conscious mind to cut in. She looked like a con so she got treated like a con.
Hm. First impressions!

Which leads to a second question: unless she's an avid fly fisher, I'm assuming she meant the other kind of merkin. Is there a market for such things among the Rireinu?

And a third question: how did she not know about this from her previous studies?

Which leads to a question: if Radetzky were male, shorn or unshorn, how might Rireinu society in and around the embassy react?
That's a very hypothetical hypothetical. If Radetzky were male, the Outlandish Ministry would not be too keen to accept her accreditation. If she were forced on Rireinu, she would be treated like a male tourist when she wanted to leave her embassy compound: required to have a chaperone of her own species, as well as a "guide" from the Ministry, accompanying her at all times. But at least the ubiquitous stares would be mostly curious rather than hostile.
Interesting! Why a local "guide"? Would the suspect a male might have ulterior motives?

Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Posted: 18 Feb 2021 21:38
by prettydragoon
elemtilas wrote: 18 Feb 2021 04:55
prettydragoon wrote: 18 Feb 2021 00:47 Indeed, I did not specify Radetzky's gender. But I submit she is definitely female-presenting, as she notes in the first paragraph that she expected to be able to pass as one of the natives who "all look like Human females". It was her lack of body hair that made this not as easy as she had assumed.
Hadn't thought of it that way. I figure, if I went to a place where everyone's a human girl, and I were a human boy, I'd be thinking, "I'll be able to pass, because they all look like human females, and not some great scary winged beast!"
Most male Humans of my acquaintance have certain anatomical differences from your typical regular female Human, so. I'm just saying.
But now that you confirm, I'm happy to reimagine!
It did not occur to the woman in the street that she was a galactic. She didn't look exotic enough for the conscious mind to cut in. She looked like a con so she got treated like a con.
Hm. First impressions!

Which leads to a second question: unless she's an avid fly fisher, I'm assuming she meant the other kind of merkin. Is there a market for such things among the Rireinu?
The propagandist in me would like to deny this in the strongest possible terms.

But seriously, most convicted felons eventually pay up their debt to society and expect to return to the straight and narrow. Also honeymooners may feel uncomfortable looking like gangsters. And despite various hair growth formulas being touted in some of the shadier corners of the Worldnet, it takes its time to grow your hair out. So yes, merkins are in fact widely available. Just search for napotuvu.
And a third question: how did she not know about this from her previous studies?
That's a very good question. I'm glad you asked it. That's exactly the kind of question I'd like to see more of. Next question?
Some things are just so obvious nobody thinks of writing them down, until they blow up in somebody's face. I'm not saying this is one of those things, but it might well be one of those things.
Which leads to a question: if Radetzky were male, shorn or unshorn, how might Rireinu society in and around the embassy react?
That's a very hypothetical hypothetical. If Radetzky were male, the Outlandish Ministry would not be too keen to accept her accreditation. If she were forced on Rireinu, she would be treated like a male tourist when she wanted to leave her embassy compound: required to have a chaperone of her own species, as well as a "guide" from the Ministry, accompanying her at all times. But at least the ubiquitous stares would be mostly curious rather than hostile.
Interesting! Why a local "guide"? Would the suspect a male might have ulterior motives?
It is axiomatic that all galactics are totally depraved. Also, all males (of whichever species) only care about rutting and fighting, not necessarily in that order. And an animal can be fixed, a sapient would cause an incident. So, one who is both galactic and male is absolutely not to be trusted.