(Sure, only 2K words, but whatever, i already fulfuilled my 2.5K word per week promise)

Part 8 of La Tramuntana (sorry for last time's labelling mistake), continuing from an awkward multilingual restaurant

Stuck here, with the Frenchies and only Onista… oh, what can i do?

Luckily, the street existed. Streets carry things and what this one, outside the window, was the members of some skinhead group. They spoke weird tongues, mixing it with Northern Spanish.

They walked into the restaurant and straight through the kitchen as if they had some immunity to social norms.

I watched them rage and rave against who must have been the manager  of the restaurant. My Spanish knowledge failed me in a barrage of Northern Spanish words.

I watched as the manager was dragged through, forced to pay some amount of money.

The gang left, but not for long.

Another person, well-dressed, walked into the restaurant, just after the gang. A few gang members ran in after him. The gang had an interest in him, and he'd just  bought back the interest to the restaurant.

“Hey, Michael!”, i said, meeting him again. “Come sit with us!”, to get him to sit with our protection. I'm sure some of use would have hidden arms, the dangerous kind that wouldn't just punch.

I heard the gang's screams. “lawa li insa tomo moku!!”

He shouted back at them in Northern Spanish, something like “Kollons! Vas!!” Something like Oh balls, go away!

I'd react the same, to be honest.  

To my suprise, they listened, maybe to find other, easier targets.

Maybe the local gang was a good gang, one for public order.

Maybe it wasn't.

So, i met Michael, decided to have an impromptu date. Maybe it'd work between us. “So… How's your day been? I kind of got trapped with a bunch of Frenchies”, i started, maybe out of an attempt to validate his suffering.

“Been being chased down by this gang for a while now.”, he said. “They keep wanting things from me and i'm like ‘just leave me alone’”

He sighed.

“if you want, you can always come crash at the brothel, the ‘horny jail’”, i said. “We're getting new accomodation!”

“Interesting…”, mused Michael. “Careful not to tell them, they'll clip a little off the subsidy.”

I acknowledged.

“So… we should arrange another date”, i said.

“Certainly”, he replied.

“Tomorrow lunchtime at the brothel again?”, i asked.

He nodded.

Onista and Anista finished finishing their food quietly and asked for the bill, wanting nothing more to do with the restaurant.

“So, it's time i go”, i said.

“Yeah”, he said. “Safe travels.”

The streets felt different. They didn't feel as pure as they could be. No, there was a gang launching random raids.

The sky was overcast, a moody sky. It looked like it was holding back rain.

We walked down the street, i next to our friends. And we passed a familiar general store. I pulled them in.

“Hey, look, they have different cards”, i mused, looking at the nearest available type.

“Boring”, shrugged Anista.

“I want to get both types.”, i said, ignoring her. 

“Ooh, the merged deck”, said Onista. “Let's just get that.”

“Wait, how do they work here?”, i asked out of curiosity.

“For the local version, 4 suits of 10 cards, named from the combinations of two sets of  binary differences in both Werewolf and Human society”, Onista explained. She was infodumping, for once.

“And those are…?”, i asked.

“Well, for humans, the gender ‘binary’, and for werewolves the species binary”, said Onist. “The suits are named in Northern Spanish but in English, it'd be human-male, human-female, werewolf-male, and werewolf-female.”

“Oh look, they've even put racism into their cards”, said Anista. “Look, earth cards are better, French cards even more so.”

We ignored Anista.

“So,  how does the merged deck work?”, i asked.

“They call the 0 card an ‘ace’ as well and have the other three 'royal cards'", said Onista. “It's an adapted version of werewolvian cards, nothing more.”

“So we can play earth games?”, i asked.

“Yeah, and some local games too!”, exclaimed Onista. “Hey, there are even social ones!”

So, we took a mixed deck and moved to the checkout, bought the cardset.

We walked back. It was coming winter, and sunset was coming sooner. Long shadows marked the silhouettes of trees.

I heard an accent, something southern. Not werewolvian southern but Brighton southern; British accents.

I smiled, semi-wickedly. I'd found those from my land. Finally.

I struck up a conversation with them before the inconfidence would strike. “So, how's it out here?”

They reeled for a second. Warmth filled my blushing cheeks in response. “…Well, it's been cheery", they said. 

“Hmm”, i said, to fill time for thinking. “So, you come from the UK?”

“Yeah, they brexited so we exited, almost moved to the USA but caught some guys raiding a a hospital”, said the shorter of the two.

“They noticed and kidnapped us”, finished the second. “Best choice of our lives.”

“Well, save for the languages”, groaned the first. “So damn many.”

“There's only three here”, i stated. “I know places with more.”

“That's the problem!”, exclaimed the second.

“Don't worry, you'll figure it out”, i shrugged. “No te preocupes." Don't you worry.

The first rolled their eyes. “Whatever.”

“We should get more people in our group”, said the second. “Hey, let's talk tomorrow lunchtime.”

“I'm occupied.”, i said.

“Hmmm… night-time?”, he asked.

“Yeah”, i agreed.

I walked away. Another date to manage, another time. Maybe my peers'd help me.

And we reached the Pekatuf brothel, walked in to a peaceful scene.

I talked to a prostitute from the brothel, showed her our new card-deck. She smiled.

“Oh, i forgot just how much fun these were”, she mused. “Hey, i know a fun game we could play together.”

Onista smiled. She like the direction this was going. Anista, who was probably now the main HR (well, more like Humanoid Resources HR, rather than Human Resources HR) person, also smiled.

“Is it the four elements game?”, asked Onista.

“Of course" was the prostitute's answer.

So we found a table to sit about, Onista shuffling and dealing the cards. We each got a deck of 7.

Onista turned over the first card and put it in the centre. Belatedly, she began explaining. “Play happens like the earthen game UNO™, give a card of the same suit or number and you continue, but there's a twist.”

Anista contributed, for once; “Maybe Elle here can explain the suitsystem of this game.”

“Yeah, yeah, it's epic”, she began. “We use the four basic universal elements; organic, abstract, physical, and humodian.”

“So none of the fire earth water stuff?”, i asked.

“That's a very earthenly view. Ours is less physical and more philosophical”, explained Elle. “So, the suits are rearranges such that masculine werewolf is organic, feminine abstract, feminine human the humanoid, and masculine human the physical.”

“Ah”, i said. “I totally remembered that all.”

“Don't worry!”, she said, noticing my sarcasm. “We'll explain as we go. Anyways, the number on the card an its suit determines the closeness to the suit the memory you choose to share.”

“Ooh, so this is a social game?”, i asked.

“Of course…? Don't you use games to socialise?!”, she said.

“Well, most of them yes, some of them are just about winning”

“You're horrible”, she joked.

Anista started the play, perhaps to interrupt the conversation. “Lika-mas 3, what does that give?"

Elle explained. “A memory relating to the abstract, 3 out of 10 closeness, 10 being the lowest.”

“Hmm”, said Anista. “This game is kind of useless.”

“Only losers say that”, i said.

“Maybe just go for a maths lesson or something, algebra”, examplified Elle

“Fine”, said Anista. “Maths lessons done in French.”

A sudden noise, shouts and screams, they interrupted us. “mi wile kakeik e tomo ni!!” screamed someone.

A deeper voice replied. “lawa li toki ni: sina ken ala pakala e nasin ni!!”

The other wasn't having it. “o ike tawa sina! mi wile e mani!”

The deeper voice went again. “o pakala tawa sina! o kakeik e tomo ante!”

“¡ugh, te odio mucho!” Ugh, i hate you!!

The depeer voice chuckled. “Sabes que tener que hablar la moki” You know you have to speak the moki.

“What was that?!”, i asked.

“Oh, just the local gang”, said Elle. “Give out loans and do raids to those who don't repay.”

Anista lit up. “Do you remember the guys down south with the burning brothel?”

“Oh?”, asked Elle. “The one who were loan sharks?”

“Yeah!”, i exclaimed.

“They were splitoffs from the gang, run by these two blokes.”

“So what language are they speaking?”, i asked.

“Some language imported from Earth to replace the code system they were using”, said Elle. “Take the Spanish and Northern Spanish words and alternate the syllables. it was too easy to break.”

“Hmm”, i mused. 

Something clicked. The language sounded similar to the one the pair were speaking when they walked into the brothel.

“And who else speaks it?”, i asked.

“A handful of hobbyists and gang investigators and former members, but not many”, Elle said. “I did learn a word from them once… ‘lawa’, meaning leader.”

Something else clicked. I remember hearing “lawa” from one of the members.

“And who leads them?”, i asked.

“These two blokes from earth, work as a pair.”

Hmm. Eh. I mustn't assume.

“So, Anista, told you so, that social games work well!”, chimed Onista. “That said, i draw a Chovesk-Mos 3.”

"Physical, same level”, said Elle. “Let's use a house-rule; the memory has to be interesting and nobody else can have it.”

“Hmm”, said Onista. “What about when i was in the brothel under my first abusive pimp and fell of the balcony in a ‘passionate’ kiss?”

Anista smirked. “That reminds me, my sister threw the venus fly trap off our balcony because it freaked her out, and it hit a couple kissing.”

Elle laughed. “You see, that's why social games are better.”

“Hmm”, i said. I looked at my cards. Hmm, lika-mos seemed interesting. I drew it and placed.

“Ah, organic, 3… be careful not to reference the humanoids, they're different.”

“So… i planted a tree once and made a pie from its apples and i accidentally put in salt instead of sugar.”, i said.

“Invalid to the house-rule!”, exclaimed Anista. “I also oversalted a pie and we used it as fertiliser for a protest tree.”

“A protest tree?”, asked Onista.

“Y'know, to block other things when it grows”, said Anista. “Oh, we caused so much chaos.”

Elle chuckled again. “Ok, i'll draw an organic 9.”

“Ok, so when i was on a holiday down south i saw a big tree and it had been hollowed out and turned into a street light… turns out they weren't allowed to cut it down because ?heritage? so they just built with it.”

I smiled. She was good at this game. “So 9 means kind-of opposite?”

“Yeah, you get it, a twist on things!”

Anista's turn again. “So what would the Chovesk-mas mean?”

“Oh, humanoid”, said Elle.

She drew a 9. “so, can we talk about the time i saw a furry on the streets of Quebec?”

“Interesting idea”, i mused. 

“Well, they spoke with a French accent to one of their friends, i kind of giggled.”

“5 points for earth-specific interpreation of ‘weird humanoid’”, said Elle. “Well, if points meant anything.”

“Show we start a house-rule?”, asked Onista.

"Later, maybe”, said Elle.

Onista drew her card. Lika-Mas 1.

“Reminder: Abstract”, said Elle.

Onista thought. “How about the time the roleplay website fell apart so i had to do it using whiteboards?”

“What the fuck?!”, i asked. “Could you not speak?”

“Well, i decided to have some fun that day”, she said. She smirked.

I drew my card; lika-mas/organic 1. “So, back in the south, i took fruit from the mentofruit tree and dried a mentofruit and sold powder to some bakers”

“What, seriously?!”, asked Onista. "Do you realise how dangerous that is?!2

“Erm… no?”, i asked. “It's just a fruit.”

“The powder is used in herricane production”, explained Elle. “Well, at least some strains of it.”

“But i didn't mean to”, i said.

“But it's still illegal”, said Elle. “If the police found out…”

“And everyone heard!”, exclaimed Onista. “They heard that you did something illegal!”

Stay tuned for part 9

Some notes:

• I'd actually like to see if i can play these games IRL. Hey, i'm also learning Racket because i'm like Alexander in his choice to use chopsticks (i should probably give them back TBH), applied to LISP languages, so maybe i'll go make a webapp to play these games online. That'd certainly be fun.
• Hmm, so my linguistics part of the hobby cycle seems to be fading. I'm kind of moving more onto acting off a kind of networking euphoria i get. It makes me very happy to see devices communicating using my own code, it turns out. Bonus points if it's peer-to-peer.
• One must take the good with the bad. No, i can't focus, yes, i can spin up a flywheel and waste its energy on something i can't focus on. It's about building and spending dopamine.
• I've given up on regular character building and now i'm going for more of a pantser-friendly way, suprising myself with new tidbits of my characters. Eh, maybe it won't work as well.
• Wow, designing games is a bunch of fun. It says a different kind of thing about its society than language does.
• Card reference:
  • Lika-mos ? LO ? organic
  • Lika-mas ? LA ? abstract
  • Chovesk-mos ? CO ? physical
  • Chovesk-mas ? CA ? humanoid (as in the conscious being seperate from animals)