Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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prettydragoon wrote: 18 Feb 2021 21:38
elemtilas wrote: 18 Feb 2021 04:55 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.
That they do but...well, they still look human! and would thus fit in! Especially for someone who's career undoubtedly brings her into regular contact will all sorts of bizarre appearing beings!
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.
[O.o]
But seriously, most convicted felons eventually pay up their debt to society and expect to return to the straight and narrow.
Apart from being degraded, what sorts of punishment do they face and for how long?
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.
Do people look on newlyweds as ex cons?
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?
[;)] That's why I asked! IRL diplomatic services publish country books full of this kind of information. I'm just suprised that something so obvious got left out!
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.
Well, to this outsider, it looks like one of those things! [}:D]
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.
Ah, depravity. Understood! Bloody foreigners!

Hopefully we'll hear more about her adventures, and I can ask more pointed questions about her government's "briefing"!
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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elemtilas wrote: 18 Feb 2021 23:48
prettydragoon wrote: 18 Feb 2021 21:38
elemtilas wrote: 18 Feb 2021 04:55 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.
That they do but...well, they still look human! and would thus fit in! Especially for someone who's career undoubtedly brings her into regular contact will all sorts of bizarre appearing beings!
Well, the people in the Embassy Quarter will be cool with it anyway. They have seen it all before (or at least will pretend to). The challenge comes when you venture further afield. If your appearance fits within the expected bounds of variation of a native sapient, you can pass as one. If not, not.
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.
[O.o]
I really, really would like to deny it. But you can't always do what you want.
But seriously, most convicted felons eventually pay up their debt to society and expect to return to the straight and narrow.
Apart from being degraded, what sorts of punishment do they face and for how long?
Depending on the crime, obvs. The basic punishments are fines, caning, and forced labour. Forced labour is served in prison farms where the inmates grow their own food. This is supposed to expose you to the morally uplifting qualities of honest agricultural work, thus curing you of your antisocial tendencies. Forced labour can be awarded (if that is the word I want) in a fixed sentence of six months to ten years (in Galactic Standard units, about (just under) six months to eight years four months), or life.
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.
Do people look on newlyweds as ex cons?
Not really, no. Usually they are easy to distinguish, since newlyweds have been shaved all over for the wedding, so they are "as above, so below". Ie. matching stubble on head and groin. But it is kinda embarrassing going out in public with no pubic hair.
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?
[;)] That's why I asked! IRL diplomatic services publish country books full of this kind of information. I'm just suprised that something so obvious got left out!
The next edition of their Rireinu factbook will be much improved, I trust.
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.
Ah, depravity. Understood! Bloody foreigners!

Hopefully we'll hear more about her adventures, and I can ask more pointed questions about her government's "briefing"!
We shall see what we can do. Will we hear more about Radetzky in March? Or even sooner?
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Post by eldin raigmore »

The Rakoczys have a March already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmFwBkzSjhU
Do the Radetzkys? Apparently so! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eab_eFtTKFs
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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So there is a Rakoczy March too? Cool!

(The Radetzky March is part of my New Year's traditions, courtesy of the Wiener Musikverein and their concert, conveniently broadcast at an hour I am awake on New Year's Day.) Which has definitely (defiantly, even) no connection whatsoever to the name of First Secretary Radetzky.
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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I wonder what would the Rireinu version of this look like: https://www.zompist.com/amercult.html
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

Post by eldin raigmore »

k1234567890y wrote: 23 Feb 2021 04:52 I wonder what would the Rireinu version of this look like: https://www.zompist.com/amercult.html
I second k-y’s question. If the bicycle dragoon already has a website answering it, can she post the link again?
Thanks!
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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k1234567890y wrote: 23 Feb 2021 04:52 I wonder what would the Rireinu version of this look like: https://www.zompist.com/amercult.html
Oh! I remember this. Nowadays I might be able to actually make one. Or at least a somewhat reasonable attempt. In other words, there isn't one yet. But there might be in the future. Not this week though, I can already promise that much. This week, I'm in the business of writing up something different for CoWriMo over at ConWorkShop.
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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prettydragoon wrote: 23 Feb 2021 20:30
k1234567890y wrote: 23 Feb 2021 04:52 I wonder what would the Rireinu version of this look like: https://www.zompist.com/amercult.html
Oh! I remember this. Nowadays I might be able to actually make one. Or at least a somewhat reasonable attempt. In other words, there isn't one yet. But there might be in the future. Not this week though, I can already promise that much. This week, I'm in the business of writing up something different for CoWriMo over at ConWorkShop.
If you do, be sure to send a copy to the Undersecretary for her review!

[}:D]
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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prettydragoon wrote: 23 Feb 2021 20:30
k1234567890y wrote: 23 Feb 2021 04:52 I wonder what would the Rireinu version of this look like: https://www.zompist.com/amercult.html
Oh! I remember this. Nowadays I might be able to actually make one. Or at least a somewhat reasonable attempt. In other words, there isn't one yet. But there might be in the future. Not this week though, I can already promise that much. This week, I'm in the business of writing up something different for CoWriMo over at ConWorkShop.
ok I understood. I have done one for a conpeople of mine recently(I still need to fill out the names of celebrities and famous movies, animations, novels, etc. and check the rest part though), and I wonder what would the one for Rireinu look like after seeing the “ If you're a woman, you don't go to the beach topless.” part lol

I noticed that your way or presenting your conpeople are different from my way, you seem to present the cultures mainly by using the individuals, and I present mine by “wikipedia-like” descriptions. I wonder if I should write short passages about individuals of my conpeoples too.
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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k1234567890y wrote: 24 Feb 2021 11:13
ok I understood. I have done one for a conpeople of mine recently(I still need to fill out the names of celebrities and famous movies, animations, novels, etc. and check the rest part though), and I wonder what would the one for Rireinu look like after seeing the “ If you're a woman, you don't go to the beach topless.” part lol
Ha! That line is definitely different. Starting with the very first word. ""If"? What do you mean, "if"?"
I noticed that your way or presenting your conpeople are different from my way, you seem to present the cultures mainly by using the individuals, and I present mine by “wikipedia-like” descriptions. I wonder if I should write short passages about individuals of my conpeoples too.
Why not! Try it and see if you like it. I should also try something that isn't first person narrator.
elemtilas wrote: 23 Feb 2021 22:51 If you do, be sure to send a copy to the Undersecretary for her review!

[}:D]
Yes, she would be the perfect beta reader! Someone with both familiarity with the culture and an outsider's perspective to it.
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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k1234567890y wrote: 24 Feb 2021 11:13 I noticed that your way or presenting your conpeople are different from my way, you seem to present the cultures mainly by using the individuals, and I present mine by “wikipedia-like” descriptions. I wonder if I should write short passages about individuals of my conpeoples too.
If you're asking for opinions, I'd actually ask for a balanced approach! I enjoy narrative very much, and so would love to read about just day in the life of a random person or an adventure an individual gets into. But there's also a place for straight up description, and I like to read that too.

Since you can draw, perhaps consider an image + story or article format? Doesn't always have to be pictures of people. It could be a drawing of the things or artifacts you're describing.
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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prettydragoon wrote: 24 Feb 2021 21:38
elemtilas wrote: 23 Feb 2021 22:51 If you do, be sure to send a copy to the Undersecretary for her review!

[}:D]
Yes, she would be the perfect beta reader! Someone with both familiarity with the culture and an outsider's perspective to it.
:mrgreen:
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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prettydragoon wrote: 24 Feb 2021 21:38
I noticed that your way or presenting your conpeople are different from my way, you seem to present the cultures mainly by using the individuals, and I present mine by “wikipedia-like” descriptions. I wonder if I should write short passages about individuals of my conpeoples too.
Why not! Try it and see if you like it. I should also try something that isn't first person narrator.
thanks (: and well do just whatever you want and whatever you find most suitable.
prettydragoon wrote: 24 Feb 2021 21:38
k1234567890y wrote: 24 Feb 2021 11:13
ok I understood. I have done one for a conpeople of mine recently(I still need to fill out the names of celebrities and famous movies, animations, novels, etc. and check the rest part though), and I wonder what would the one for Rireinu look like after seeing the “ If you're a woman, you don't go to the beach topless.” part lol
Ha! That line is definitely different. Starting with the very first word. ""If"? What do you mean, "if"?"
yeah "if", the "i" is just capitalized.
I prefer to not be referred to with masculine pronouns and nouns such as “he/him/his”.
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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The Blue Marigold

The dame was trouble. I could tell the moment she walked into my office.

She had plenty going for her, and sprawling in my chair as I was, I could see it all.

Her skin was the clear mahogany shade of a local, but somehow it suggested part of it came from a bottle.

She was wearing a gold necklace. Plain oval links, but the way they draped across her collarbones, you could tell they were solid gold.

Her purple-and-gold belt was tied in a carefully casual knot on her left hipbone, with a matching pouch on her right, leaving her pubic hair abundantly in evidence.

She was wearing fashionable pubic hair extensions. The expensive kind. Where you couldn't tell where she ends and the fake fibres begin. Her glossy black pelt reached halfway to her knees.

She had a dancer’s thighs. A woman could be crushed between those thighs and die happy.

On her left nipple, she wore a jade teardrop pendant.

But trouble or not, she was a potential client. And yours truly has bills to pay.

So I stood up and bowed, a little unsteady on my feet, as I had been drinking my lunch when she walked in, and offered her a seat and a cigarette.

- No thank you, I only smoke my own. But if I could trouble you for a light?

So saying, she pulled a gold cigarette case from her pouch and extracted from it a purple cigarette. The exact shade of her belt. Always a lady, I offered her a light. After her first puff of smoke, I lit one of mine.

- So. What brings you to my humble office?

Who am I? I’m a private investigator. Says so on my door. Pera Seanava is my name. Danger is my game.

- Seanava-sama, it’s my wife. I think she’s cheating on me.

In the City With No Heart, fortunes can be made and broken overnight. Many veterans of the Great War flock to the city to reinvent themselves and find their place in a changed world. One of them is Pera Seanava, a trench rat turned private investigator, who uses her war-forged skills to find out things her clients hire her to find. No matter who wants to keep them hidden.
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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In the Rayañina Hills

Sari, a high school senior, was visiting the Rayañina Hills with her family to see the ñarirehe, or autumn leaves. There she met Misa, a local college student. Misa told Sari all about the Rayañina region.

- Like, there was this tribe that lived totally isolated. See that mountain there, the one that looks like a sleeping tiger? That’s Keretusara. These people, the Keretu tribe, lived there. They built their homes actually in the trees and ate the fruit. They were so totally in tune with the trees, even their hair worked like leaves.

- What, like they had leaves for hair?

- Not quite. See, the hair was otherwise like normal hair, like your hair or mine, but it took on the colour of leaves. The leaves of their home tree. When the leaves were green, a Keretu-kave’s hair was green. And when the leaves turned red, her hair turned red.

- But didn’t you say the leaves fall off?

- Yes they do. Next month, when it starts getting cold.

- “Starts” getting cold? What do you call this weather then?

- Oh, you delicate flower of a sunnier clime! This is a fine mild day, perfect for sitting in a park with a mug of asato.

- Sure, if you have antifreeze in your veins.

- We can get some of that too, if you like.

- Was that your plan all along? To ply me with liquor? No, thank you. Not yet anyway. Let’s get back to your legendary tribe. So what happened when the leaves fell off?

- Why, naturally their hair fell off too.

- What, even the pubic hair?

- Even the pubic hair.

Sari giggled. - No way!

- So it was. Remember, the tribeswomen lived by themselves so that was simply the way it was, for them. And everybody looked the same way so there was no shame for them. And then, when the leaves sprouted again after the cold season, their hair grew out again all green and new.

- So what happened to them then?

- That is a sad story. When the queen of Yatipaya sent her army up here oh, about fifteen hundred years ago, they found the Keretu tribe. At first, everything was fine. The Keretu traded their fruits and furs and feathers for iron tools. And then the leaves turned red, and everything was still fine. And then the leaves fell off. And all the Keretu-kave died of embarrassment.
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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That was a great ending! [xD]
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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Cool stories, both! I like the folk interpretation in the second story, while the first definitely gives me some Richard Diamond vibes!
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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Frozen out in the Deep North

- Don't be disgusting! cried Professor Takematu and stood up from the table. As she was the senior person present in the meeting, everyone else scrambled to stand up as well.

- If that's galactic civilisation, we're well rid of it! So saying, the director of the Arctic Research Institute stomped out of the meeting room. Her aides filed out behind her, leaving the two of us by ourselves.

- What did I say? What did I say? The alien sounded honestly bewildered. Her normally cream-coloured skin was turning even whiter in the face.

A random thought popped into my head. I wonder if her ancestral species used their white skin as winter camouflage. Finally I took pity on the alien, who clearly didn't see why her suggestion was so repugnant.

- Indeed, Doctor Kaakinen. What did you say, before the Director ended this meeting so abruptly?

- Nothing. She was talking about researchers on outdoor duty having to reapply anti-chill grease so frequently, and I said why don't you cover your bodies with warm garments instead, and then she just blew up. What did I say?

- Well. A tree leans into the wind that blows when it is a sapling, I guess. It's...

- I'm sorry? Trees that... what?

- I mean, it's hard to see through the assumptions you learn as a girl. You have been living on Rireinu what, six months now, just over half a year. On a conscious level, you are thinking like a Rireinukave. But deep down, in the bottom of your liver, you are still a galactic. So you really have no idea why a venerable academician like Professor Takematu should explode when you tell her to cover her body.

- It's... obscene? But... persons wear all kinds of garments for their work all the time!

- So they do, but... well... it's unpleasant. Constricting. Chafing. Choking. Persons put up with it because they have to. Either out of a sense of duty or because otherwise they wouldn't be able to do the fun parts of their jobs.

- Still...

- Also, you happened to choose your words badly. "To cover one's body" is an expression that literally means going to bed, as in to sleep, but nowadays it's only used to refer to having sex.

- Oh no! She isn't thinking that I'm a pervert and I was propositioning her, is she?

- For her generation, it's axiomatic that all galactics are perverts. And you are of course much too young for her. I think you may in fact be the first galactic she's actually met in person. The first in ten years at least.

- Just great. So I've singlehandedly destroyed the reputation of all galactics. Should I put that on my cards? "Dr. Leena Kaakinen, Galactic Destroyer"?
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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prettydragoon wrote: 11 Apr 2021 20:43 Frozen out in the Deep North

- Don't be disgusting! cried Professor Takematu and stood up from the table. As she was the senior person present in the meeting, everyone else scrambled to stand up as well.

- If that's galactic civilisation, we're well rid of it! So saying, the director of the Arctic Research Institute...
As soon as I saw that I began to wonder...
- Also, you happened to choose your words badly. "To cover one's body" is an expression that literally means going to bed, as in to sleep, but nowadays it's only used to refer to having sex.
Oups!
- For her generation, it's axiomatic that all galactics are perverts.
Quite right for thinking so, if would seem!

But to be fair, the honourable Director dìd give the foreigner at least two chances to screw everything up royally before stomping out!

And a question! -- I find it very positive that age (and presumably wisdom!) is so respected among the Rireinukave (hope I spelled that right!) What if the oldest person at the (metaphorical) table happens to be a male?

But while we're on the topic of age respect, tell us how this plays out in family life! How does one show respect? Is there any kind of hierarchy? Etc.?
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Re: Flowering Fields - Snapshots from Rireinu

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elemtilas wrote: 12 Apr 2021 04:37 And a question! -- I find it very positive that age (and presumably wisdom!) is so respected among the Rireinukave (hope I spelled that right!) What if the oldest person at the (metaphorical) table happens to be a male?
Age implies wisdom. For a proto-kave savannah monkey to survive to a ripe old age, she had to be pretty dang clever to escape all the saber-toothed lions and tigers and bears (oh my!).

Ah yes. Since the Rireinukave are functionally a One Gender Race, they had no gender issues before encountering galactics. Biological gender is one of those things that is not mentioned in polite society. Galactics are tacitly assumed to be people, neither female nor male. The idea of people being male is still not quite real to the average Rireinukave, that there can be males that talk and think just like regular people (to the extent that galactics actually do think, anyway).
But while we're on the topic of age respect, tell us how this plays out in family life! How does one show respect? Is there any kind of hierarchy? Etc.?
In family life, of course, the word of the materfamilias is law. More so in the country than in the cities, but even in the turmoil of urban life, filial piety is highly prized. The young owe obedience to the old, and the old in return owe protection and guidance to the young. And as everyone is both daughter and mother in her time, it all comes out even.

The ways of showing respect are numerous. The elder always gets first choice. When an elder speaks, you do not interrupt. You address an elder with respect; the greater the age difference, the more respect. Nowadays simply bowing more deeply is usually sufficient to show respect. A traditional way to greet one of your grandmothers (or even your mothers-in-law, if you have married into a landed family) is pisuvosi or 'taking the dust': you go down on one knee before her, touch her feet with your right hand, and then touch that same hand to your forehead, lips, and heart.
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