first things first: a conlang is a language created by one group (or person) solely for the purpose of making it.
changes: - prepositions exist (not many but still) - adverbs exist (not many but still) - grammar rework - reading comprehension reworked (but not done) - 2 new conjunctions - interjections - named it Selenik
previously i said these updates would be weekly. im too impatient so you’ll get them when i work on selenik
ero taja sajatol <3
INSTRUCTIONS FOR VIEWING DOCUMENT: set your google docs to pageless & dark mode.
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I am NOT the Original Poster. That is u/IMighthavefuckedup97. He posted in AITAH and his own page.
Original BORU posted by u/LucyAriaRose
New update marked with ---!NEW UPDATE!---
Editor's Note: I did some mild editing to improve readability.
Mood Spoiler: sort of resolved, but still a lot of questions
Original Post: September 6, 2023
I might have fucked up.
Me (32M) and my best friend Alex (32M) have been friends since diapers, we're basically family. After college we both moved back home so we could live at home and get our feet underneath us. Alex started dating Stella (35F), a lovely girl, around 4.5 years ago, and from the get go she seemed to politely dislike me, idk why, oh well c'est la vie. Alex and Stella moved across the country in 2021 after Stella earned a promotion at work, In 2022 Alex proposed, she said yes, and they set a wedding date for the end of September 2023.
I got a save the date card at the beginning of the year, and based on the conversations I had with Alex assumed I would be in the wedding party, either as a groomsman or the best man, but never received any official confirmation from either of them. Couple months before the wedding I saw that wedding invitations had gone out on social media, and figured mine was en route. It never came. I waited a couple weeks, figured it might have just gotten lost in the mail, before I checked in with him.
I called Alex and had a brief conversation with him where he was clearly agitated and said he was dealing with a lot, would be incommunicado for the near future, to direct any wedding related questions to Stella, and he'd call me when things cooled off. I called, texted, and emailed Stella several times over the course of a week but she didn't respond to any of them. At this point I figured I wouldn't be attending the wedding, and that things were really fucked up for some reason between the two of us.
Yesterday, a little over three weeks after our last conversation, Alex dm'd asking if I was free to chat. I jumped at the opportunity to get some answers, and after exchanging pleasantries Alex jumped right into a spiel saying that he knew I was super busy with work and dealing with a lot of personal stuff but he'd love it if it could attend his wedding, even just as a guest, and wanted to know if there was anything he could do to help make that happen. I just blurted out that I'd love to but hadn't received an invitation. Alex stared blankly at me and said "what?" and I just kinda verbal vomited out that I hadn't received an invitation, that was the reason I'd called him a few weeks ago, that I'd contacted Stella about it but she never got back to me and left me on read, and that I had no idea what he was talking about me dealing with too much to be involved in the wedding. After a very pregnant pause, he said he needed to go sort things out, and that he'd call me when it was done.
My phone's blowing tf up since with wedding attendees asking me wtf happened and why the wedding might be off now. My girlfriend has reaffirmed to me that I did nothing wrong, but I've had people from all sides saying I stuck my nose where it didn't belong, and caused a stink, which is really fucking with my head. AITA?
EDIT: after he dmed me we switch to video chat, meant to include that whoops
EDIT2: I may not be able to respond to everyone's response but I have read them all an appreciate each and every one of them, my girlfriend is also having way too much with this and is kindly giving me shit for doubting myself
Relevant Comments:
Why didn't you ask any of your other friends if they knew what was going on?

"I asked a couple who I knew could be trusted to keep it on the DL who were both surprised I hadn't gotten an invite and encouraged me to talk to Stella
I've had some bad experiences in the past where shit interpersonal drama was happening, I reached out to people looking for answers and it made it 10x worse, I tend to just shell up and wait nowadays"

Is there any reason she might think you were a bad influence if you've known him since diapers?

"It's possible, Alex was raised kinda sheltered and I wasn't, I think we only got in trouble one time in HS, not like she has much room to judge though, AFAIK her HS experience was pretty bog standard, in college we all got into some shit as most people do"

Extra info on Stella:

"Funny part is everyone loves Stella except me and another guy in the group whose autistic
EDIT: I just want to clarify something, I did not mean autistic as a pejorative, because of his neurodivergence he has a completely different perspective, one I find incredibly valuable"
"yeah kinda, she's really good at doing that fake polite thing, especially to me, everyone else eats it up, he doesn't, but has learned over the years not to say anything"

Are you gay?

"NGL I expected this question way sooner, but no, I'm not gay, or queer, not that there anything wrong with that"

Possible biases she might have:

"ethnicity, no
socioeconomic, kinda?
religions, kinda, I'm agnostic, so's Alex, Stella's a non practicing Christian
different school? no we all went to 4 year university,
bathing? lmao no that's nasty
controlling behavior? none that I know of
past info? not that I can think of, Alex was raised fairly kinda sheltered and religious, me and Stella had more traditional HS experiences, college was more or less the same for all of us"

There must be missing info here:

"I don't disagree, I feel like I'm missing a lot of pieces of the puzzle, but Alex delegating to Stella is pretty normal, he gets overwhelmed easily in high pressure situations and tends to defer and she's much more an "alpha" personality, that's one of things he loves about her
The weddings might be getting called off AFIAK because she lied to him, people are mad I "exposed" this instead of going along with her story. The weddings massive, this isn't some small personal affair with 25 people"

Why tf would you think you're the asshole?

"a. when you've got a bunch of people spamming your phone it makes you question whether you were in the right or not
b. I didn't want to cause a bunch of drama and make shit worse for what I though was an honest mistake at first, blowing a whole friend group when the person you're "going against" is way better liked than you is a dangerous choice, also a lot of those people just assumed I was invited
c. Alex is pretty easily overwhelmed and tends to defer, one of the reasons he loves Stella is she's a go getter who will handle stuff for him, IDK why he didn't or why he had to go incommunicado though, guess ill find out soon I hope"

Update Post: September 7, 2023 (Next Day)
Alex and I texted Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, he said he was handling stuff and asked if I'd be free to talk Thursday afternoon with him and Stella, which I agreed to. This is just a rough summary, and I probably forgot some stuff, frankly I'm too mentally fried to weave a narrative rn so its just gonna be bullet points.
a couple of pieces of info about Alex to provide some context
-Alex was raised fairly sheltered and religious until he was 18, when he went to college and opened, as a result he still has some, idk, blindspots about certain things
-Alex has mild to moderate OCD, it's managed with low levels of medication and maintenance therapy, which is one of the reasons he gets overwhelmed easily, especially from unexpected stressors, and weddings are chock full of those.
Now for the actual update:
-The wedding, it's still happening, I will be the best man, and I've been read in on all the shit I need to do. The person who was filling in for me, Matthew (34M), one of mine and Alex's good friends whose also neurodivergent is thrilled not to have to "spend the day peopleing" and can instead "party his ass off." As a result of this clusterfuck Alex/Stella/whoever parents are paying for the wedding will be comping me+gf's plane tickets and hotel stay and my best man tux
-What was the main driver of this mess in the first place? Stella's pregnant, yay....... they found out a couple days after the wedding invites got sent out, apparently they were passively trying, then actively trying in 2022, but stopped and swapped back to heavy BC once the save dates went out because Stella did not want to be pregnant on her wedding day. This led to several changes to the wedding, threw a bunch of other planning into disarray, sent Alex into an OCD hole for a couple weeks which is why he was agitated when I called him and why he needed time to get his head around it all and get the intrusive thoughts managed, and one of the reasons why Stella ignored/missed my messages/calls.
-Why did Stella not respond to my messages? Besides surprise pregnancy, Stella said that she's on her phone for work a ton, and gets hundreds, if not thousands of emails/texts/calls per day, she misses some stuff, especially since she didn't have my contact info saved (lol), I also emailed her work email instead of personal email which I don't have, and my own personal email handle is not my name. In the future I was told to be more insistent in my communication with her to breakthrough her everyday noise, duly noted.
-What happened to my invite? Stella claims that she sent me one but must have sent it to my old address, I did move in March to my current residence and the save the dates were sent out in January
-What did Stella tell Alex about me not being in the wedding? Apparently nothing, according to Stella he either 1) believed one of his intrusive thoughts was real when he was he was in his OCD hole, 2) he got confused when she told him one of her cousins with a similar sounding name to mine wouldnt be attending, or 3) some combination thereof. According to Stella she always wanted me in the wedding.
-Why did Stella not contact me after I didn't RSVP back? She assumed there was something going with me and Alex and that we'd sort it out and he'd tell her, in the meantime she was busy with work, wedding planning, and unexpected baby
-How did a bunch of wedding guests find out about this mess? Alex called his mom for advice after our convo, mom had church friends over, church ladies overheard a good chunk of their convo, church ladies are gossipy fucks. Alex has spent a decent chunk of time the last couple days putting out fires so to speak
After about an hour Stella left to go deal with some wedding stuff and me and Alex chatted about shit for a couple hours. Do I believe Stella's explanations? kinda, the babies real AFAIK, confirmed by medical professional, she does have a cousin I know she's close with who has a similar sounding name to me, and she does work from her phone a lot, but the rest of it just seems a little too convenient, and I feel like I'm left with more questions than answers. Good news is since I'm in the wedding I should have great access to figure out wtf is going on, I hope.
TLDR: Wedding still on, surprise baby messed everyone up
Relevant Comments:

I don't believe Stella at all:
"neither do I, it should be a mildly entertaining mess based on the guest list"

Checking with Alex:

"After she left I asked him if he was sure he wanted to do this and that I'd support him no matter what, he said yes so he seems committed, I've generally found when people are this determined to see something through any action taken to get them of course will fuck up your relationship just as much as it'll fuck their determination, better to just be there, be supportive, and be ready for the mess"

OOP's theory on what really happened:

"She intended to wait and see how long she could delay my invite until Alex noticed, the pregnancy situation gave her a good crisis to take advantage of and she did, she hoped he'd be stuck in his OCD hole until the wedding ended, that's the rough version anyhow"

Examples of why you think she doesn't like you?

"I don't think she's ever given me a real smile, it's all dead eyed fake ones
body language is usually defensive around me, lotta crossed arms, hunched shoulders
she makes a lot of subtle snide remarks, IE I got him an 100 dollar bottle of Japanese whiskey a few years ago, she mentioned how it would look great on the bottom shelf"

Why you weren't best man in the first place:

"Alex treated me like the best man in the first place, his OCD kept him from making it official because he couldn't find the "right" time according to him"

---!NEW UPDATE!---

Update 2: April 28, 2024 (8 Months Later)
Welp, it's been a while, sorry y’all for taking so long to get this update out, been absolutely swamped at work putting out fires with my hair on fire for the last 6ish month, so here's the cliff notes version of the wedding and some post wedding shit.
-lead up was boring, shitton of emailing back and forth between me, Stella, other wedding people, venues, vendors, etc
-Me and Alex had some pretty deep conversations over the week and reaffirmed the importance of our continued friendship
-Shit was really fucking awkward the first night we were there for dinner nil, especially considering both Alex’s stepsister Sam (32F) and Stella younger sister and MoH Diana (29F) were already staying there, (we stayed at an Airbnb within walking distance of Alex's house). I went into event work mode pretty quick and that smoothed things out right quick and put Stella at ease.
-I spent most of the lead up to the wedding either at the ceremony/reception site doing liaison/set up (gaffing, running cables, setting up monitors, hanging and focusing, building shit etc.) or running around picking shit/people/shitty people up with Sam
-My GF, Alice (29F), was kinda miffed about the whole thing, she’s never worked a wedding before, just attended, so she expected it to be like 50% working 50% vacation, when it ended up being more likely 90% me working and 10% vacation. She spent most of her time helping Alex out with wedding support related shit or gaming on my laptop when she gassed out or got too overwhelmed.
-Wedding was a fun mess, tons of unrelated drama, Stella sure knows how to design a beautiful ceremony and plan a fucking party, I’ll give her credit for that, didn’t get to enjoy much of it since I was working the wedding with a few other people in the wedding party more than attending, but c’est la vie. Ceremony took fucking forever though, felt terrible for all the bridesmaids who had to wear heels through that shit.
-Unfortunately there was no gotcha moment or come to Jesus moment where I got the full story as to why SHTMFF, but based on what I observed while working the wedding I think I've been able to piece together roughly what went down
**Why wasn’t I the best man?**
I think this had more to do with Stella's parents, Ken and Karen (60’s), than her, although she still doesn’t like me, my main reasoning:
-Ken and Karen were paying for the majority of the wedding, more than Stella, Alex, and Alex’s parent combined
-Alex and Stella sketched out pretty early what they wanted the wedding to look like, throughout the process Stella made several significant changes out of the proverbial blue (EX: they originally agreed on a smaller wedding something like 50-60 people, then one day Stella wanted a big ass wedding). Alex didn’t really care all that much and just figured she changed her mind, he just somehow missed that most of these changes occurred after Stella either had a phone call or in person meeting with her parents (which is on brand for him)
-Her parents were very standoffish towards me (to be expected, feelings mutual) and made a lot of, frankly weird comments about Stella's younger, totally not a cokehead, brother Chase (23M), often times in comparisons between us that flattered him (and kept insisting he was “perfect best man material”)
-Alex has barely met Stella's parents, maybe a dozen times over the last 5 years, every time they visit for the holidays Stella has them leave early for whatever reason and Stella rarely initiates calls with them
-Stella acts really fucking weird around her parents. Around everyone else she’s a badass modern woman but around her parents she gets super meek (EX: her mom asked her to go drive to some specific store over an hour away to get her a specific food item in the middle of wedding planning shit, and she just did it without any protest and left the rest of the wedding party in a lurch. When she got back three hours later her mom took like two bites then threw it away). If I hadn’t seen this shit with my own two eyes I wouldn’t have believed it, it was that bizarre.
-Lots of other innocuous shit that individually means nothing but when combined to together provide a decent amount of circumstantial evidence
-So here’s what I think happened, roughly: Ken and Karen wanted Chase to be the best man in the wedding, Alex really wanted me to be the best man. Rather than make a choice Stella appeased both parties telling them what they wanted to hear while making no actual decision. The longer it went on the more complex the lying got, when Alex had his breakdown Stella saw a way to get out from under her Gordian knot of lies by taking advantage of the crisis. Unfortunately for her Alex came to his senses before the wedding, started asking questions, and when push finally came to shove she chose her relationship over whatever the fuck is going with the family, much to their apparent chagrin.
**Why does Stella not like me?**
I have two main guesses here:

1. I swear, a lot, I tend to forget most people don’t use the work fuck as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection, numeral, article, and determiner Since I was working the wedding and in I was on my best behavior and cut down on my swearing by a good 90%, which led me to noticing that any time swear, or anyone for that matter curses, Stella has a little grimace/cringe reaction. Stella herself also rarely curses, and if she does its something pretty small like “hell” or “dammit”, followed by a quick apology. It’s probably exacerbated by the fact that in spite of my generally “unprofessional” behavior I hold a fairly professional job, the dissonance can bother folks.
2. Politics, and before people freak out, I’m somewhere between a democratic socialist and socialist on the political spectrum, I am a far cry from conservative,, but for Stella that’s not far enough left, as from what I can tell she’s either a tankie or tankie adjacent. This has been more or less confirmed to me based on her social media engagement relating to the major geopolitical events of the last 6 months or so. Probably exacerbated by the fact that my job involves working in geopolitics so I am part of the “repressive imperialist western system”.

And as it turns out I’m not the only person in the wedding who isn’t super fond of Stella, found my flock so to speak
**Post wedding shit**
-Alex and Stella had a healthy baby girl, named Iris, me and Sam are the godparents.
-Me and Alex have been talking a lot more (for whatever reason he asks me for childcare tips, like bruh, I’m just as lost as you here), and have set up a weekly gaming sesh where we're slowly slogging through BG3 with Sam and Matthew
-AFAIK Alex and Stella are in couples counseling, which seems to be helping from my vantage point, Stella was weirdly against it, but Alex pushed for it so he could be a better husband to her, and she relented
-AFAIK Stella's already back at work and on most of her pre-baby schedule
-Alex’s stepsister Sam has been checking in on them periodically and according to her there’s no major red flags atm
-Stella actually texts/emails me stuff now, it's mostly baby pictures, but it's a step in the right direction and I appreciate it (I send cat pictures in response)
Hopefully this is the last update, my life got far too interesting for that month and with my current workload I doubt I could mentally handle more drama.
TLDR: Nothing really interesting happened, hopefully things are looking up
​

THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT THE OOP

DO NOT CONTACT THE OOP's OR COMMENT ON LINKED POSTS, REMEMBER - RULE 7

For some more indepth looks at what this is and how it came to be, even if they're mildly outdated, check the link below.
Clicky Here

To give a broad overview, I ended up watching Ken's GDC Talk on his Narrative Legos idea some time ago, and obviously, it spoke to me. Emergent Narrative as a concept is something I was already interested in, and Ken's idea seemed like a clear pathway to it.
Particularly because, when we look at the broader scope of games that have tackled that concept, a lot of them actually have a lot in common. Idk if Ken knows it now, but from my perspective his Narrative Legos isn't all that far off from what the Nemesis system is doing, and both aren't that far off from what something totally systemic, like Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld, is doing.
But the thing is, while the ideas of all these games speak to me, I'm designing for tabletop. I don't have the benefit of a computer simulation, and also have to contend with a number of issues with tabletop RPGs in general, not the least of which is the practicality of running systems like these. (Never mind the instantaneous prejudice that comes out as soon as I mention video game design)
How I squared that problem is whats detailed in the linked posts, and you'll also find some PDFs in there of some formalized rules, as well as a rudimentary play example to illustrate some things.

To TL;DR the whole thing, I collapsed the Narrative Legos idea into something that delivers a practical Living World system to tabletop; just needs a Calendar.
To try and go through the current state of it, though, much of the system is still rooted in how Levine originally presented his idea. "Stars", which I currently call Keeper Characters, or KC's for short, collectively act as both a combined personality for generic NPCs and as a sort of logic for how Cities behave as a group and interact with the Players.
I expanded this though, dubbing that collective purpose "Culture", and upped it to two tiers where entire Regions have their own Culture made up out of the commonalities between all the Cities and individiual KCs (eg, KC Adventurers, evil doers, etc) within it.
To drive KC behavior, we still have the Passions, but also a second level in "Motivations". Motivations are used to build up dynamic Passions as the game progresses, but also serve as the first line of KC behavior.
For Motivations specifically, I actually inadvertently reinvented the Personality system that the Pendragon TTRPGs use, funnily enough by working backwards from what Bannerlord and Warband did in a much less comprehensive way. (And in fact I'm convinced Taleworlds got it from Pendragon originally, or they reinvented it like I did)
By doing that though, it also solves a couple other issues, namely Reactivity, which is a big big big thing about these kinds of systems, as well as squaring how social mechanics work on tabletop when we're assuming people want their improv to matter and not be wasted. And theough these, we also fulfill the Macro bar, with disposition towards players (or each other) being handled through Motivations.
Player's don't have prescribed personalities, but Reputations that they accumulate through their actions. These Reputations then pull double duty as Personality Traits for KCs, and through this combination, we gain a lot of fidelity in terms of how KCs can behave and how they'll react to certain kinds of player actions.

But, at this stage, we just have the Narrative Legos sans what Ken called the macro bar, IIRC.
We still need something like that, but it was also desirable to be able to integrate more conventional "Adventures" that we see in TTRPGs, and all of that needs to be squared with my specific vision for a sandbox game; agency can only be real if players can fail, and can miss out.
This was the root impetus for how this evolved into a Living World system, and it involves a few solutions working in tandem.

So firstly, the core enabler is my use of Timekeeping through AngryGMs Tension Pool. But also my idea for Quest Blocks. Basically generic stat blocks that detail how specific kinds of quests will progress in stages that I call "Acts".
For example, a basic Assassinate Quest might come in 3 Acts: Track Target, Kill Target, Flee. This would be available to the Keeper as 3 Blocks, which detail the generic requiremenrs to fulfill that act, but would also detail how to handle deviations, and what kinds of quests can be easily integrated. Say Kill Target fails, and the Players Flee, and now the Target is hold up in a fort. This can lead into an Infiltrate Quest.
As a tool, these are going to be highly useful given the sandbox nature of the game. Rather than worry about stopping the game so you can prep, pull up the Blocks and improvise.
But as a mechanic, these become potent for elaborating into what I call Quest Lines; detailed, bespoke adventures that can integrate seamlessly with with the sandbox and the living world.
The idea behind them is, all Quest Lines are written from the assumption that the Players are never involved; including not even witnessing any of the events. So once the Quest Line begins, through whatever trigger, the assumption is that if the players never become involved, then the events of each Act, as they trigger as time progresses, will backfill into the "canon".
They become stories that, if the players go poking around, can learn about what happened.
But through the Quest Blocks, if the players interject at any time, the Keeper will have the tools they need to adapt the Quest Line no matter how that interjection manifests; up to and including completely derailing it.
But what these do in conjunction with the Narrative Legos mechanics, is allow for a gameworld that can solve its own problems. KCs with the right Motivations or Passions can not only generate quests on the fly, but may also be eligible to take up Quests, and as such, Quest Lines will have guidance saying how any KC, or even specific ones, will be involved and what their canon becomes if left undisturbed.
With a combination of a lot of initial seeding, a well developed gameworld, and just time to keep playing, the living world just starts working, and changes over time.
Its often jokingly asked "Who needs players anyway?"...you don't need players to watch this system go to work.

Now all of that is great, but practicality is the issue. How do we make this workable in tabletop, especially for a role that is already heavy as it usually is?
Firstly, a lot of that comes from the games overall philosophy. For one, Keepers don't need to know or internalize the whole game. They don't even need to know how player characters work. They just need to know their role, and thats it. So that collapses a lot of the overhead already, as does the numerous tools and procedures that will be there to guide gameplay.
But secondly, is something I'm pretty proud of: just keep a Calendar.

So lets assume a Keeper is beginning a brand new game, utilizing a pre-made World Builder Book (my version of a setting and adventure book combo). You could just make your own, but thats gonna be some work and will be a different process.
To prep the World, they'd have to Seed the World and fill out the Calendar.
My thinking here, they'll either have their choice of what initial Quest Lines will begin, or they can roll for it, and there will be a number of things they'll be seeding regardless (to foster and reflect already developed relationships between Cultures and KCs).
To do this, for Quest Lines, they'd simply look to the Quest, and see what its Time Die and Time denomination is. Eg, roll 1d8 Weeks. Per the result they'd go to the Calendar and, forward from the starting date, fill in that Quest as triggering its first Act, and then put in the same sort of thing for the next Act, to be rolled at that time.
For other things, like generic Quests that may be running or even just short Quest Lines, they might not have a second Act at all, and might instead just trigger a new Quest, as can the bigger Quest Lines themselves at their end.
Others still will also include a note to check for a KC of a specific KC/Region. What this would mean is that when the Act triggers, the Keeper should also choose or roll for, and then note down that a specific KC is doing the Quest, if any are available that can.
And there will also be cases where there could be multiple outcomes; all of that would be notated on the Calendar, and its just up to the Keeper to update it as time moves along. (And they'd have the flexibility to shift time around as needed so things don't pile up on a single day)
And thats basically it as far as managing the world. Updating KCs themselves, including any dispositions they might have as a result of either Player or other KC Actions, won't be handled until those KCs are interacted with, or the Calendar says to do it as part of an Act resolving. (Eg KC X was the one that slayed Elvarg the Dragon, so once that Act triggers, things would need to be updated for their Culture, which is easy enough)
The final thing Keepers will want to do as part of this, to ensure that the fact that all these things are happening are visible, is follow through on the "World Effects" Quests impose when they finish.
For example, some part of the world might be at war when the game starts, and may be a Month later the Quest Line for that war has progressed to where a City ended up getting destroyed. Refugees could start flooding into other parts of the world, and Keepers will have the mechanics (through an expansion of the Tension Pool mechanics) to introduce these elements to the Players. And of course, they'll have the option to seek rumors just to get an idea of whats going on.

So, taking all that together, it just works. A lot of it is still rough (and I'm guaranteed forgetting a lot that would go into it), and it does need a lot of work to set up (unless you're nuts like me and don't mind improvising literally everything just to test the mechanics).
But! Thats not necessarily a bad thing, as the game is intended to be heavily integrated with its default setting, so a lot of that would be set up for you. For those that would still want to do their own, though, that's an excellent reason to design a book intended for such people.
I'm inevitably going to have a lot of experience by the time I've finished setting up my own world. Translating that experience into a bespoke book so you can set it up step by step is a great opportunity.
And ultimately, its a lot of fun. Part of the goal here is to give the GM of the game more gameplay to engage with that isn't dependent on the Players, and this does a lot for that in tandem with other systems in the game. And, IMO, it should work well to nix the tendency to want to railroad players.
With enough things going on, you and the game will always be telling a story. Even if the players decide to piss off and play pretend Fantasy Bakers.
I(Which this system is actually fantastic for supporting along side the more typical epic fantasy. So much so my game now could be described as a blend of epic fantasy and slice of life)

Welp, its been a while, sorry y’all for taking so long to get this update out, been absolutely swamped at work putting out fires with my hair on fire for the last 6ish month, so here the cliff notes version of the wedding and some post wedding shit.
​
-lead up was boring, shitton of emailing back and forth between me, Stella, other wedding people, venues, vendors, etc
​
-Me and Alex had some pretty deep conversations over the week and reaffirmed the importance of our continued friendship
​
-Shit was really fucking awkward the first night we were there for dinner nil, especially considering both Alex’s stepsister Sam (32F) and Stella younger sister and MoH Diana (29F) were already staying there, (we stayed at an Airbnb within walking distance of Alexs house). I went into event work mode pretty quick and that smoothed things out right quick and put Stella at ease.
​
-I spent most of the lead up to the wedding either at the ceremony/reception site doing liaison/set up (gaffing, running cables, setting up monitors, hanging and focusing, building shit etc) or running around picking shit/people/shitty people up with Sam
​
-My GF, Alice (29F), was kinda miffed about the whole thing, she’s never worked a wedding before, just attended, so she expected it to be like 50% working 50% vacation, when it ended up being more likely 90% me.working and 10% vacation. She spent most of her time helping Alex out with wedding support related shit or gaming on my laptop when she gassed out or got too overwhelmed.
​
-Wedding was a fun mess, tons of unrelated drama, Stella sure knows how to design a beautiful ceremony and plan a fucking party, I’ll give her credit for that, didn’t get to enjoy much of it since I was working the wedding with a few other people in the wedding party more than attending, but c’est la vie. Ceremony took fucking forever though, felt terrible for all the bridesmaid who had to wear heels through that shit.
​
-Unfortunately there was no gotcha moment or come to Jesus mount where I cot the full story as to why SHTMFF, but based on what I observed while working the wedding I think Ive been able to piece together roughly what went down
​
**Why wasn’t I the best man?**
​
I think this had more to do with Stellas parents Ken and Karen (60’s), than her, although she still doesn’t like me, my main reasoning:
​
-Ken and Karen were paying for the majority of the wedding, more than Stella, Alex, and Alex’s parent combined
​
-Alex and Stella sketched out pretty early what they wanted the wedding to look like, throughout the process Stella made several significant changes out of the proverbial blue (EX: they originally agreed on a smaller wedding something like 50-60 people, then one day Stella wanted a bias wedding). Alex didn’t really care all that much sand just figured she changed her mind, he just somehow missed that most of these changes occurred after Stella either had a phone call or in person meeting with her parents (which is on brand for him)
​
-Her parents were very standoffish towards me (to be expected, feelings mutual) and made a lot of, frankly weird comments about Stellas younger, totally not a cokehead, brother Chase (23M), often times in comparisons between us that flattered him (and kept insisting he was “perfect best man material”)
​
-Alex has barely met Stellas parents, maybe a dozen times over the last 5 years, every time they visit for the holidays Stella has them leave early for whatever reason and Stella rarely inmates calls with them
​
-Stella acts really fucking weird around her parents. Around everyone else she’s a badass modern women but around her parents she gets super meek (EX: her mom asked her to go drive to some specific store over an hour away to get her a specific food item in the middle of wedding planning shit, and she just did it without any protest and left the rest of the wedding party in a lurch. When she got back three hours later her mom took like two bites then threw it away). If I hadn’t seen this shit with my own two eyes I wouldn’t have believed it, it was that bizarre.
​
-Lots of other innocuous shit that individually means nothing but when combined to together provide a decent amount of circumstantial evidence
​
-So here’s what I think happened, roughly: Ken and Karen wanted Chase to be the best man in the wedding, Alex really wanted me to be the best man. Rather than make a choice Stella appeased both parties telling them what they wanted to hear while making no actual decision. The longer it went on the more complex the lying got, when Alex had his breakdown Stella saw a way to get out from under her Gordian knot of lies by taking advantage of the crisis. Unfortunately for her Alex came to his senses before the wedding, started asking questions, and when push finally came to shove she chose her relationship over whatever the fuck is going with the family, much to their apparent chagrin.
​
**Why does Stella not like me?**
​
I have two main guesses here:
​

1. I swear, a lot, I tend to forget most people don’t use the work fuck as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection, numeral, article, and determiner Since I was working the wedding and in I was on my best behavior and cut down on my swearing by a good 90%, which led me to noticing that any time swear, or anyone for that matter curses, Stella has a little grimace/cringe reaction. Stella herself also rarely curses, and if she does its something pretty small like “hell” or “dammit”, followed by a quick apology. It’s probably exacerbated by the fact that in spite of my generally “unprofessional” behavior I hold a fairly professional job, the dissonance can bother folks.
   
2. Politics, and before people freak out, I’m somewhere between a democratic socialist and socialist on the political spectrum, I am a far cry from conservative,, but for Stella that’s not far enough left, as from what I can tell she’s either a tankie or tankie adjacent. This has been more or less confirmed to me based on her social media engagement relating to the major geopolitical events of the last 6 months or so. Probably exacerbated by the fact that my job involves working in geopolitics so I am parts of the “repressive imperialist western system”.
   

​
And as it turns out I’m not the only person in the wedding who isn’t super fond of Stella, found my flock so to speak
​
​
**Post wedding shit**
​
-Alex and Stella had a healthy baby girl, named Iris, me and Sam are the godparents.
​
-Me and Alex have been talking a lot more (for whatever reason he asks me for childcare tips, like bruh, I’m just as lost as you here), and have set up a weekly gaming sash where were slowly slogging through BG3 with Sam and Matthew
​
-AFAIK Alex and Stella are in couples counseling, which seems to be helping from my vantage point, Stella was weirdly against it, but Alex pushed for it so he could be a better husband to her, and she relented
​
-AFAIK Stellas already back at work and on most of her pre-baby schedule
​
-Alex’s stepsister Sam has been checking in on them periodically and according to her there’s no major red flags atm
​
-Stella actually texts/emails me stuff now, its mostly baby pictures, but its a step in the right direction and I appreciate it (I send cat pictures in response)
​
Hopefully this is the last update, my life got far too interesting for that month and with my current workload I doubt I could mentally handle more drama.
​
TLDR: Nothing really interesting happened, hopefully things are looking up
​

Welp, its been a while, sorry y’all for taking so long to get this update out, been absolutely swamped at work putting out fires with my hair on fire for the last 6ish month, so here the cliff notes version of the wedding and some post wedding shit.
-lead up was boring, shitton of emailing back and forth between me, Stella, other wedding people, venues, vendors, etc
-Me and Alex had some pretty deep conversations over the week and reaffirmed the importance of our continued friendship
-Shit was really fucking awkward the first night we were there for dinner nil, especially considering both Alex’s stepsister Sam (32F) and Stella younger sister and MoH Diana (29F) were already staying there, (we stayed at an Airbnb within walking distance of Alexs house). I went into event work mode pretty quick and that smoothed things out right quick and put Stella at ease.
-I spent most of the lead up to the wedding either at the ceremony/reception site doing liaison/set up (gaffing, running cables, setting up monitors, hanging and focusing, building shit etc) or running around picking shit/people/shitty people up with Sam
-My GF, Alice (29F), was kinda miffed about the whole thing, she’s never worked a wedding before, just attended, so she expected it to be like 50% working 50% vacation, when it ended up being more likely 90% me.working and 10% vacation. She spent most of her time helping Alex out with wedding support related shit or gaming on my laptop when she gassed out or got too overwhelmed.
-Wedding was a fun mess, tons of unrelated drama, Stella sure knows how to design a beautiful ceremony and plan a fucking party, I’ll give her credit for that, didn’t get to enjoy much of it since I was working the wedding with a few other people in the wedding party more than attending, but c’est la vie. Ceremony took fucking forever though, felt terrible for all the bridesmaid who had to wear heels through that shit.
-Unfortunately there was no gotcha moment or come to Jesus mount where I cot the full story as to why SHTMFF, but based on what I observed while working the wedding I think Ive been able to piece together roughly what went down
Why wasn’t I the best man?
I think this had more to do with Stellas parents Ken and Karen (60’s), than her, although she still doesn’t like me, my main reasoning:
-Ken and Karen were paying for the majority of the wedding, more than Stella, Alex, and Alex’s parent combined
-Alex and Stella sketched out pretty early what they wanted the wedding to look like, throughout the process Stella made several significant changes out of the proverbial blue (EX: they originally agreed on a smaller wedding something like 50-60 people, then one day Stella wanted a bias wedding). Alex didn’t really care all that much sand just figured she changed her mind, he just somehow missed that most of these changes occurred after Stella either had a phone call or in person meeting with her parents (which is on brand for him)
-Her parents were very standoffish towards me (to be expected, feelings mutual) and made a lot of, frankly weird comments about Stellas younger, totally not a cokehead, brother Chase (23M), often times in comparisons between us that flattered him (and kept insisting he was “perfect best man material”)
-Alex has barely met Stellas parents, maybe a dozen times over the last 5 years, every time they visit for the holidays Stella has them leave early for whatever reason and Stella rarely inmates calls with them
-Stella acts really fucking weird around her parents. Around everyone else she’s a badass modern women but around her parents she gets super meek (EX: her mom asked her to go drive to some specific store over an hour away to get her a specific food item in the middle of wedding planning shit, and she just did it without any protest and left the rest of the wedding party in a lurch. When she got back three hours later her mom took like two bites then threw it away). If I hadn’t seen this shit with my own two eyes I wouldn’t have believed it, it was that bizarre.
-Lots of other innocuous shit that individually means nothing but when combined to together provide a decent amount of circumstantial evidence
-So here’s what I think happened, roughly: Ken and Karen wanted Chase to be the best man in the wedding, Alex really wanted me to be the best man. Rather than make a choice Stella appeased both parties telling them what they wanted to hear while making no actual decision. The longer it went on the more complex the lying got, when Alex had his breakdown Stella saw a way to get out from under her Gordian knot of lies by taking advantage of the crisis. Unfortunately for her Alex came to his senses before the wedding, started asking questions, and when push finally came to shove she chose her relationship over whatever the fuck is going with the family, much to their apparent chagrin.
Why does Stella not like me?
I have two main guesses here:

1. I swear, a lot, I tend to forget most people don’t use the work fuck as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection, numeral, article, and determiner Since I was working the wedding and in I was on my best behavior and cut down on my swearing by a good 90%, which led me to noticing that any time swear, or anyone for that matter curses, Stella has a little grimace/cringe reaction. Stella herself also rarely curses, and if she does its something pretty small like “hell” or “dammit”, followed by a quick apology. It’s probably exacerbated by the fact that in spite of my generally “unprofessional” behavior I hold a fairly professional job, the dissonance can bother folks.
2. Politics, and before people freak out, I’m somewhere between a democratic socialist and socialist on the political spectrum, I am a far cry from conservative,, but for Stella that’s not far enough left, as from what I can tell she’s either a tankie or tankie adjacent. This has been more or less confirmed to me based on her social media engagement relating to the major geopolitical events of the last 6 months or so. Probably exacerbated by the fact that my job involves working in geopolitics so I am parts of the “repressive imperialist western system”.

And as it turns out I’m not the only person in the wedding who isn’t super fond of Stella, found my flock so to speak
Post wedding shit
-Alex and Stella had a healthy baby girl, named Iris, me and Sam are the godparents.
-Me and Alex have been talking a lot more (for whatever reason he asks me for childcare tips, like bruh, I’m just as lost as you here), and have set up a weekly gaming sash where were slowly slogging through BG3 with Sam and Matthew
-AFAIK Alex and Stella are in couples counseling, which seems to be helping from my vantage point, Stella was weirdly against it, but Alex pushed for it so he could be a better husband to her, and she relented
-AFAIK Stellas already back at work and on most of her pre-baby schedule
-Alex’s stepsister Sam has been checking in on them periodically and according to her there’s no major red flags atm
-Stella actually texts/emails me stuff now, its mostly baby pictures, but its a step in the right direction and I appreciate it (I send cat pictures in response)
Hopefully this is the last update, my life got far too interesting for that month and with my current workload I doubt I could mentally handle more drama.

TLDR: Nothing really interesting happened, hopefully things are looking up

Note: non-canon
“Are you kidding me?”
Emma looked at me, freshly exited from the portal.
“Jealous?” I put my hands on my hips. “It’s the black, right?”
“They…there was another suit and they never told me?” She was shocked. “And they let you choose the color?”
“I thought it looked good on me.”
I could tell she was rolling her eyes.
“I think the black stands out.” Thacea said. “The polish is very well done.”
“I concur.” Thalmin added on.
Illunor stared at me. “It looks like you are covered by the soot of a dragon’s breath.”
I snorted. “Good one.”
Emma looked at my suit. “They give you any upgrades?”
“No. Don’t have an EVI either.”
“Damn. I’m surprised that they put it together so quickly. How’s it feel?”
“It’s like I’m wearing a tank.”
“You’ll get used to it, trust me. It’s-”
Knock knock.
“I’ll get it.” Emma walked over to the door, opening it. “Apprentice-”
“Cadet Booker.” The elf nodded. “You are needed immediately.”
“I’m sorry?”
“I apologize for the disturbance, but you are needed now.” The elf’s eyes narrowed. “This is most urgent, and cannot be delayed.”
“I…see.” She turned towards me. “Let’s go.”
I began to follow Emma.
What could this be?
_____
Faculty Tower, Staff Meeting Room. Local Time: 1456 Hours.
After a hasty trip through shortcuts and backrooms, led by an unusually tight-lipped Larial, we arrived at a familiar sight.
The same room where the Librarian condemned the black-robed Mal’Tory to his fate.
The same room where the Academy’s assembled professors ousted their dean.
Those same professors, as well as the white-robed Vanavan, sat in those very same seats, some giving us looks of sympathy and worry.
As well as…
“Oh, shit.” I heard Emma practically seethe through our private channel, just beating me to the punch.
“They sent ANOTHER black-robe!?” I shot back, the pit of my stomach reflexively coiling in dread.
“Greetings. Cadet Emma Booker, yes? Please, take a seat.” The man in question, having noticed our approach, motioned towards a singular chair, notably unadorned compared to its peers. With only a moment of reluctant hesitation from Emma, she moved to occupy it - the chair surprisingly taking the weight of her suit without the aid of any observable spell.
“Ah, that’s simply grand. It would seem that the furniture I requested in anticipation of your presence here was adequate enough to withstand your armored form. It would be unbecoming of a student of this institution to lose face to a mere chair, yes?”
…
If nothing else, this guy was much more of a conversationalist than the last one.
“...Yeah, I guess so… sir?” Emma replied with an undercurrent of trepidation.
“His Eternal Majesty’s personally-appointed black-robed representative to the Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts, one Professor Alak Chergena. A pleasure to meet you, Cadet Booker.”
Oh.
Oh dear.
So he knows about us now.
I could sense the same revelation hitting Emma with the force of a truck, but unlike me she had proven unable to slink into a corner and was actively being spoken to; it was only the Nexian love for wasting conversational time that allowed her lack of any sort of initial response to go relatively unnoticed.
“...I… It’s nice to meet you as well, Professor Chergena.” Emma eventually managed. “But why bring my golem and I here alone, if your intention was just to introduce yourself? Surely you’re too busy to do this with every student, yeah? That’s what emergency assemblies are for? Heck, even breakfast?”
“Your assertion would be correct, unfortunate less-than-enlightened ramble notwithstanding. It would seem that you and your puppet,” the black-robed Professor managed to lock eyes with me under my suit, sending an involuntary shiver down my spine before shifting back to Emma just as quickly. “Have been at the center of a lot of ill attention as of late. From my predecessor’s attempts on the lives of you and those in your peer-group, for which I apologize,” he directly stated, taking us completely by surprise, “to your purported role in the reshuffling of the faculty present here with us,” Vanavan visibly turned his head away from us, if only slightly. The rest of the faculty held their best poker faces, though body language suggested varying signs of discomfort. “To your dealings with The Library, again, spurred on in large part due to the direct antagonization by my predecessor, but all the same has seen that institution which has been hosted by The Nexus for eons abandon its true home for that which is lesser, as well as much else.” Chergena finally relented.
At least, that’s what I thought, before he started up again mere seconds later.
“Which brings us to the true meat of why you have been brought before us. Before me.” His tone changed to something markedly less friendly. “Your actions over the past weeks, Cadet Emma Booker, have served to threaten, and indeed disrupt the Status Eternia that guards the eternal sanctity of civilization. Now, it can plainly be seen through the craftsmanship of the armor that adorns both yourself and your inanimate servile construct,” the black-robe gave me another brief flick of the eyes. “As well as your novel weapons which, in spite of their primitive mana-less disposition, have managed to dispatch those creatures which even this faculty, and by extension myself, would have difficulty in subduing, to your own personal status as a commoner, that your realm has been engaged in a constant battle against ruination. A constant battle, a losing battle, even, that has seen your realm’s kind shed whatever form of proper decorum you may have once possessed, to throw your all into the creation of weapons of war; unburdened by advanced sociological organizations.”
“I understand, that in these contexts, perhaps the greatest show of an Earthrealmer’s civility would be those which destabilize, disrupt, and decimate the forces of ruination; that which would see what little civilization your realm has retained lost to the annals of history. However,” Professor Chergena continued. “You must realize that you now find yourself at the center of civilization. The center of all civilizations. Indeed, far from a ravenous tribe of barbarians, The Nexus, under the enlightened guidance and tutelage of His Majesty, has delivered many a realm from the same jaws of apocalypse that you yourself have likely stared down before your induction into this Academy. It is under these contexts,” he fixed Emma with a hard stare. “That your actions, however well-meaning you believe them to be in the service of the propagation of civilization, are actively detrimental to a society as perfect and vibrant as the one you find yourself in right now.”
“The Adventurer hunts the common beast, the Guard fights the mad king’s shield-bearer, and the Mage delivers the force of the righteous against that which threatens to undo what we strive to maintain. To put it in simpler words, Cadet Booker, there is no extraneous danger in the Nexus - not one created without direct action and intent to do so. Your fear of that which was unfamiliar, including the rejection of the Oath of Binding, as well as your realm’s defiling of a heretofore-unknown Gift, provoked the previous black-robe into their actions against you. Your martial responses thus forced him to parry, in an unfortunate series of escalatory actions that has brought me to this very academy, and seen perhaps the greatest arsenal of knowledge leave us, those who can use that most effectively in the quest to maintain the longevity of civilization - all civilization.”
“Let this meeting prove to be a stern word of caution to you, Cadet Emma Booker. For while you may believe that your actions in undermining the Status Eternia to be beneficial to the propagation of the civil order, it is anything but. To simply acknowledge your rank and station, and to listen to your betters, is to participate in the very pinnacle of civilization.” His steely gaze at Emma, maintained throughout his entire monologue, hardened as he reached his conclusion. “I understand that your realm stands on the precipice of destruction, Cadet. But that in of itself is not an acceptable reason for this behavior of yours; to fight ruination where there is simply none. Be still and calm your spirit, for owing to the apparent condition of peril amongst your people, we shall soon arrive and save Earthrealm ourselves, just as we have done with the thousands of realms before you. You need only exercise patience, and deliverance will come in return.”
Professor Chergena finally stood back, his hardened look fading slightly.
“That is all, Cadet Booker. From here on out, I would encourage you to redirect your efforts in chasing societal phantoms to your own studies - for both the safety of yourself and your fellow students. Should you fail to heed this most valuable advice, I shall know and take appropriate actions to protect this Academy from incurring further dishonor. Now then, if you would be so kind as to collect your golem and return to your dormitory - Apprentice Larial will show you the way. This faculty has much to discuss, and there are only so many hours in the day.”
Emma silently got up from the chair, her and I moving towards the door without so much as a word spoken, quickly received by a Larial that looked more unnerved than on her arrival.
“Farewell, Cadet Emma Booker. May we, for the sake of both of us, not have to meet again so soon, and under such dire circumstances.”
______
Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30, Living Room. Local Time: 1537 Hours.
Emma and I arrived back at the dorm at what increasingly became a breakneck pace, as our own mutual debrief carried with it the weight of perhaps the greatest threat openly declared against the UN in its entire history.
“I… There has to be some sort of different meaning to that-”
“There isn’t, Emma. The man personally sent here by the Big Boss himself just said we’re going to war.”
We practically burst back through the dorm doors, only paying a curt nod to a winded-looking Larial, who had been increasingly struggling to keep up.
“Well, James, it just so happens that we’re in the company of three people who know just a little bit about subliminal messaging,” came Emma’s immediate retort, as we barged into the the Living Room, starting an Avinor, a Lupinor, and a Vunerian in the process.
“...Emma? James? Are you two quite alright?” Thacea immediately broke the awkward silence that ensued. “Was there some sort of pressing issue pertaining to the faculty that needed attention?”
“My thoughts exactly,” Thalmin affirmed. “Given the chaotic state of the Academy, given our latest upsets, it’s only natural that there was a loose end or two that required tying.”
The blue creature said nothing, electing to gaze at us expectantly.
“It’s… complicated,” I managed to get out, reaching for my tablet. “And I think it’s better if we showed you.”

2 Hours Later
“Indeed, Emma. As much as I wish it to be otherwise, it is highly unlikely that Professor Chergena’s words were an empty threat.” Thacea confirmed what had become our greatest fears with a single sentence. “For a person such as himself, both with regard to his rank and station, and the fact that he was explicitly sent by His Eternal Majesty, it would be illogical and counterproductive to take a stance that is different in any way to the current established order. That is to say,” she concluded, “That the new Black-Robe is speaking the truth. Earthrealm faces down the tip of the Nexian Spear, Emma, James.”
…
“For what it’s worth, you two, Havenbrock stands with you and your cause.” Thalmin interjected. “You and your people are perhaps the greatest chance history will ever offer in finally throwing off the Nexian yoke; both for my own realm and the thousands of others it has subjugated.”
“I… Thank you, Thalmin, but-”
“Now, now, James. I was not finished.” The Lupinor held up a finger, paired with a toothy grin. “I know that, given the inherent limitations in inter-realm communications and transportation, that my kin will not be able to assist you directly. Therefore, at least allow me to give you some form of aid by which to fight for your, and our, freedoms.” With an amount of martial flair that I could only dream of possessing, Thalmin drew out his dagger, stretching it out to its full length as a greatsword, before-
LOCALIZED SOURCE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED: 400% ABOVE BACKGROUND LEVELS.
-using a spell that had remained unknown to us, evicting any and all traces of detectable mana from the weapon.
Thalmin presented it to me.
“You have my sword.”
To say this was unexpected was an understatement.
To say that it meant the world to be would be a disservice to the statement.
“Thalmin, I… But the magic you had in-”
“If my memory serves me right, mana would be poisonous to an Earthrealmer, yes? It would be difficult to use a weapon if it were actively trying to kill you.” He left off with a snarky tone.
“...I will treasure this.” Within the safety of my mana-repulsion field, I took off my own helmet, matching Thalmin’s savage grin with one of my own. “And don’t worry. It’s not gonna be a mantlepiece, either.” He nodded sagely in return.
“Of course, while my realm, much the same as Prince Havenbrock’s, cannot lend any material support to yours,” Thacea re-joined the conversation, you will have our aid in the realm of espionage; the deconstruction of Nexian social decorum with the purpose of establishing a clearly defined narrative.”
“Which is something we’ll be eternally grateful for, Thacea,” Emma replied.
And then there was one.
Ilunor, having put on a stoic visage for the entire exchange, finally dropped it with a hefty sigh.
“While I subscribe to the axioms of civilization, and the principles of the Perpetual Regime… I cannot deny that this move from His Eternal Majesty is uncharacteristically shortsighted.” His eyes flashed with realization, before finally meeting both of our gazes.
“He doesn’t know. There’s no way He couldn’t have possibly known the nature of your realm, as shown through your sight-seer,” He half-gasped out. “All logic in absence of that would point to an uppity mana-deficient newrealm trying to undermine Nexian authority. This is the same conclusion Professor Chergena came to. It stands to reason, then, that His Eternal Majesty, for all his power and wisdom, is operating with an incomplete picture of who he wishes to reform.”
“Reform, Ilunor?” I questioned the lizard, putting my helmet back on.
“Yes, James, reform.” He responded in kind. “The Nexian Reformations are a series of edicts thrust upon any newrealm that makes contact, to preserve the longevity of their civilization, modeled off the Nexian System, under the watch and scrutiny of The Nexus. In the case of Earthrealm, that would entail a dismantling of your ‘Euen,’ and a return to the rule of monarchs.”
“A return to Feudalism.” Emma stately bluntly.
Three nods immediately followed that summary.
“...Thank you, Ilunor, for that information.” I said curtly. “And thank all of you for your support.” The three of them responded with varying degrees of acknowledgement.
“With that being said,” Emma concluded, starting to walk to her tent with me in tow. “We’ve got a report to write.”
________
Greater United Nations, Earth, Atlantic Ocean Floor. Institute of Anomalous Studies Portal Complex. 0800 Hours UNST.
Second Lieutenant James O’Neil appeared in the Portal Room on an unscheduled return, seconds before an emergency-priority report was received from Cadet Emma Booker’s Exo-reality Communications Suite. Director Laura Weir was immediately flagged down, in a manner that stretched the definition of professional, before being pulled into an emergency meeting with one O’Neil, as well as vital staff, in addition to various government and military representatives.
Thirty minutes later, as Captain Li of the United Nations Long Range Expeditionary Forces was engaged in a near-shouting match with several members of the Sociology Department, a package was received in the Portal Room, bearing what had been previously identified as official Nexian Markings. A hasty read and a more thorough re-read of the elaborately-packaged ultimatum presented to them served to extinguish any ideas or fears of a potential miscommunication with the powers beyond the portal.
Director Weir, three hours and forty-five minutes after James O’Neil’s return, relayed the demands of The Nexus, as well as the all-but-confirmed preparations for war to all relevant government and military offices.
________
Earth-Luna Lagrange Point L1, Greater United Nations General Assembly Parliamentary Capitol. Office of the First Secretary. 1200 Hours UNST.
The most powerful human alive, having been interrupted from a late-morning brunch, sat at the front of the table, the First Speaker immediately adjacent to them. The First Commanders of the United Nations Armed Forces sat on their flanks, all of them having been present in the Sol System by lucky chance; all had been authorized the use of emergency warps, their ships arriving in Earth-Luna space within minutes. The heads of the executive departments, those still within Sol, were also present.
Speaking remotely from Earth, Director Weir of the United Nations Science Advisory’s Institute for Anomalous studies, joined on her right by a nervous but determined young Lieutenant, recounted the demands of the enigmatic civilization beyond the precipice.
The dismantling of “Earthrealm’s seditious governing institutions.”
The reinstatement of the Monarchs of those few remaining relevant member states to “Their positions of rightful authority, to swear an oath of fealty to His Eternal Majesty.”
The “Immediate revocation of unwarranted and undeserved ‘commoner privileges.’ ”
A return of Humanity to a medieval state, lest it be subjected to the interdimensional jackboot.
The Secretary and Speaker queried about the state of the UN’s military and logistical assets.
It was deftly relayed that, with Lieutenant O’Neil’s prior report to the First Commanders, that tangible plans had been laid for a full evacuation of Earth’s surface of all non-military personnel within 4 months.
A brief consultation in turn with the only one who had seen The Nexus for themselves, Lieutenant O’Neil, would solidify the Secretary’s decision.
After an on-the-spot decision to make James O’Neil the “Special Advisor to the First Speaker on Exo-Reality Affairs,” a post ordained to bridge the imminent chasm that would be the gap in knowledge between the military and the vast majority of the civilian government, two executive decisions would be made.
The re-designation of The Nexian diplomatic standing to an E-9 as per the Revised New Oslo Criteria,
And the enabling of “Plan Arc.”
Fifteen minutes after the conclusion of the meeting of the UN’s highest government and military leaders, scarcely enough for contacted news agencies to prepare their emergency broadcasts, thirty billion people would be forced from their homes.
As transport ships both in the Sol System and in Extrasolar Space, on pleasure cruises, carrying cargo, and everything in between received their alerts through the QE network and started to spool up their warp drives, the First Secretary collapsed into the finely-upholstered chair in their personal office, having finagled a minute of solitude from their Press Secretary; their emergency address would be upon them imminently.
The First Secretary of the United Nations of Earth and Luna nibbled on their now-cold food, finding that they were no longer hungry.
Earth, Acela Corridor, NYC New Quarter, Brooklyn, Inside of a megatall skyscraper. Room 2325. Booker Residence. 1317 Hours UNST.
The hero of the Jovian Insurrection, for the briefest of moments, though she was back on that damned station when every electronic device with a speaker blared in an ear-splitting klaxon. Immediately regaining her senses, Ran Booker saw a Bim-Bim-shaped mass of irritated fur dart underneath a table, before digesting the message displayed on and orated out of every screen in her apartment.
“ATTENTION. ATTENTION. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY BROADCAST FROM THE FIRST SECRETARY, FIRST SPEAKER, AND THE UNIFIED CENTRAL COMMAND. AS OF THIS MORNING, THE PRESENCE OF A HOSTILE INTERDIMENSIONAL POLITY KNOWN AS ‘THE NEXUS’ HAS BEEN CONFIRMED, WITH DIRECT ACCESS TO EARTH.
UN AGENTS OPERATING WITHIN ‘THE NEXUS’ HAVE CONFIRMED INITIAL PREPARATIONS FOR A MILITARY INVASION OF EARTH ARE UNDERWAY. ESTIMATED TIME OF INVASION IS CURRENTLY UNKNOWN.
THE FIRST SECRETARY AND SPEAKER, IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ARMED FORCES AND THE UNITED NATIONS EMERGENCY RELOCATION OFFICE, HAVE AUTHORIZED THE TOTAL EVACUATION OF ALL CIVILIAN PERSONNEL FROM EARTH’S SURFACE. INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR TIME AND PLACE OF EVACUATION SHALL BE SENT TO YOUR PERSONAL DEVICES.
PLEASE REMAIN CALM. PLEASE COOPERATE WITH STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AT THIS TIME.
MORE INFORMATION SHALL BE GIVEN AS IT IS RECEIVED. PLEASE REMAIN UPDATED THROUGH YOUR LOCAL NEWS OUTLETS AS WELL AS THIS EMERGENCY MESSAGE CHANNEL.
THIS MESSAGE WILL REPEAT THREE TIMES.”
It took only a handful of seconds of hearing the shouts of her neighbors, as well as the sudden cacophony of screams from the city below for Ran to understand that, despite the behest of the message to “remain calm,” New York and Acela’s riot police would likely be donning their gear for the first time outside of drill for the first time in decades.
Soon after, much to her lack of surprise, her phone started buzzing, an unknown number staring back at her before she swiped to answer, immediately holding it to her ear.
“This is Booker.”
“Sergeant Major Booker,” the gruff voice on the other end of the line started. “This is General Mark Stone of the United Nations TSEC Special Operations Group. You are being reactivated, effective immediately. You have two hours to report to the High Security Terminal at the Port of New York and New Jersey. Your identity will be confirmed and you will receive further orders.”
“Roger.”
The line went dead immediately after, Sergeant Major Ran Booker of the United Nations Terrestrial Space and Expeditionary Command taking another moment to regard the chaos that had now enveloped what had once been a peaceful city, the roar of police and other emergency sirens re-introducing a type of mid-millenium flair that was better left to the annals of history.
It would seem that the young man who had knocked on her door so recently had his hands full.
The same force that had repeatedly tried to kill her adoptive daughter now threatened to raze Humanity’s cradle to the ground.
For all the centuries of Humanity’s preparations to fight an extraterrestrial enemy, they had still been caught by absolute surprise.
War was coming.
And Ran Booker now faced the most difficult challenge of her life.
Finding a goddamn cat-sitter.
Orion Spur, 2500 Light-years from Earth. 2250 Light-years from UN incorporated space. Mid-Warp. Fleet time: 1319 Hours.
Commodore John Perry, were he back on Earth, would’ve been an incredibly busy man. Organizing this Long Patrol had been a tall order, even considering his own admittedly small role in the finer details. However, this far out into space, and in warp space at that, there was little else for him to do but sit at the bridge of the Heavy Cruiser LREFS Pathfinder and watch the stars pass him by like raindrops on a windshield.
This had been his routing for months; chart another lifeless rock, perhaps a gas giant or two, harvest an asteroid when needed, then move on to the next system.
Perhaps, he thought to himself, I need a change of pace.
And it was at that moment that the ship’s QE machine whined to life with a series of coded beeps that designated the received message as the highest-possible priority.
He immediately read it, of course.
After checking and double-checking its contents, as well as composing and sending off a message to the rest of his own Lead Task Unit, Commodore Perry calmly stood up from the seat he had taken, met the worried gazes of the few bridge crew were needed to operate the Pathfinder, and gently slammed his fist on the General Quarters alarm.

10 Minutes Later
“I am going to relay to you what every captain on every other ship of this patrol group is telling their own crews right now.” Perry forced out in an even tone, over the ship-wide intercom to his crew, assembled at their battle stations. “Fifteen minutes ago, we received a message from LREF Command back home. They have confirmed the presence of a hostile extraterrestrial force on Earth’s doorstep.” Several gasps were heard from the now-packed bridge of the ship. Others looked on, ashen-faced.
“This polity, known to us as ‘The Nexus,’ sent our leaders an ultimatum. One that would see Humanity reduced to serfs. See us returned to a medieval state.” Several grimaces joined the chorus of expressions dotting the bridge. “It goes without saying what our answer to such demands are.” Resolute determination, now. “It is for that reason, everyone, that I have elected to cut our patrol short. It’s entirely possible that we’re too far out to render any assistance, but given the seeming gap in capabilities represented by their mastery in interdimensional travel, in spite of other limitations, the coming conflict may be long and grueling.”
“Our stop at the next system will be our last, at which point we will hold to rendezvous with all other task units in our Patrol Group before proceeding directly back to Earth. And speaking of-” Perry turned to the helmsman. “We are nearly due to drop out of warp, yes?”
“In approximately three hours, sir. I’d recommend taking a seat and keeping everyone at their stations.”
“And so it shall be.”
_____
Orion Spur, uncharted star system. 2500 Light-years from Earth. 2250 Light-years from UN incorporated space. Mid-Warp. Fleet time: 1630 Hours.
“Dropping out of warp in T-minus 10, 9, 8…”
Commodore John Perry never so desperately wanted to be back home in his life.
It was under threat.
Everything he knew, loved, and held dear, save for the Patrol Group he commanded at this instant, was liable to be destroyed.
“7, 6, 5…”
He was going to get this job done as quickly as possible.
He needed to get back.
“4, 3, 2, 1…”
He owed it to everyone here.
“Warp Drive disengaged!”
The sight of smeared stars on the transparent metal in front of him suddenly disappeared, replaced with a single white sun immediately ahead of them. Several smaller “stars” could be seen nearby. All around him, the 28 other combat ships of his patrol group, as well as the handful of support craft blinked into existence in a ring around the Pathfinder kilometers away, in a professionally choreographed display.
Telescopes pointed at this system, almost a thousand years ago, had identified six planets. Two gas giants, four rocky bodies. Fleet-wide sensors confirmed those findings, as well as an asteroid belt between the rocky planets and gas giants.
The second-closest to its star was in the habitable zone of its G2V-class star. That same one hosted an atmospheric composition that was one of the closest mirrors to Earth on record. That same one also had a mass nearly identical to the homeworld.
It was the sole reason Perry had elected to not simply disengage warp in the middle of interstellar space, turn back, and gun it for friendlier waters.
If nothing else, it may one day make a great colony.
Perry elected to simply get it over with, before anything else unexpected happened.
“Sir! I’m picking something up on the Exotic Energy Detection Suite! It’s coming from the planet in the habitable zone!”
Fuck.
Perry was already on his newly-liberated fleet-wide radio as he commanded his response. “All ships, this is Commodore Perry. Set an interception course for the second planet in the system. Be prepared to decelerate into a parking orbit. Prepare for interception burn in T-minus five minutes.”
John Perry sat back in his seat, keeping up the appearance of a dignified, disciplined commanding officer.
The man behind that appearance inwardly lamented what that sensor reading had meant.
The information packet he had received, for his eyes only, had told him two things.
While “The Nexus,” as confirmed by UN operatives, was an infinite plane, there were other civilizations connected to The Nexus, “Adjacent Realms,” that had the potential to occupy Humanity’s same corner of the multiverse.
And that the “Exotic Energy” that those hastily-added sensors were meant to detect went by another name, for those locals of the Nexus and Adjacent Realms alike.
Mana.
Whether he liked it or not, the United Nations of Earth and Luna had just found another.
________
Next time on: ‘The Backup:’
The Beginning of the End
A/N:
This chapter took a bit longer than usual to get out, but me and my editor had to make sure it was written well.
So, everyone, I have some news.
The next chapter is going to be the last one of The Backup. But don’t worry! There is a sequel in the works. To avoid burnout, after the last chapter is posted, I’ll be taking an extended break for around a month. This sequel will be the finale of The Backup, and bring a conclusion to my story.
I want to thank everyone who upvoted and commented on this story - to each and every one of you, I’m very grateful for your help, as it motivated me to continue writing.
Special thanks to u/0strich_Master on JCB’s discord server for providing edits, lore help, and other kinds of literary assistance!
-TurianCabal/kranberry488
__________
Part 1: Short Story: The Backup : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 2: Short Story: The Backup, Part 2 : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 3: Short Story: The Backup, Part 3 : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 4: Short Story: The Backup, Part 4: Show-and-Tell : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 5: Short Story: The Backup, Part 5: A Chat with the Higher-Ups : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 6: Short Story: The Backup, Part 6: A New Disguise : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 7: Short Story: The Backup, Part 7: The Mercenary and the Second Lieutenant : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 8: Short Story: The Backup, Part 8: Fly Me to the Moon : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 9: Short Story: The Backup, Part 9: How It All Began : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 10: Short Story: The Backup, Part 10: Welcome to the IAS : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 11: Short Story: The Backup, Part 11: The Library's Decision : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 12: Short Story: The Backup, Part 12: Teacher's Pet : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 13: Short Story: The Backup, Part 13: Bull Beatdown : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 14: Short Story: The Backup, Part 14: Faculty Issues : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 15: Short Story: The Backup, Part 15: Coup D'etat : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 16: Short Story: The Backup, Part 16: The Library's Judgement : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 17: Short Story: The Backup, Part 17: Who We Really Are : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 18: Short Story: The Backup, Part 18: Back to Earth : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 19: Short Story: The Backup, Part 19: The War Hero : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)
Part 20: Short Story: The Backup, Part 20: Suiting Up : JCBWritingCorner (reddit.com)

I'm continuing to post some of the mistakes throughout the localized script. This is the second part of Chapter 2. You can see the other posts I made down here:

• Prologue: https://www.reddit.com/Falcom/s/UblYsdaTW1
  
• Chapter 1: https://www.reddit.com/Falcom/s/0OyE2wAQDg
  
• Chapter 2 (1/2): https://www.reddit.com/Falcom/s/NdJGUmSWH0
  

Chapter 2 Continuation

• 63:「The full-scale inspection should be starting today.」/「本格的な視察は明日かららしいぞ。」

The localization actually mistranslated "tomorrow"/"明日".

• 64:「The Imperial Army and the RMP are working in conjunction to maintain security.」/「帝国軍やＴＭＰとも連携して警備に当たってる所だ。」

Originally, this line was meant to be: "We (from the Military Police) are working in conjunction with the Imperia army and RMP to maintain security."

• 65 「My name is Xin. I'm the representative of the Heiyue Trading Company's Crossbell branch.」/「ボクはシン。《黒月ヘイユエ貿易公司》クロスベル支店の臨時代表を務める者だ。」

Originally, Xin calls himself a "provisional representative"/"臨時代表."

• 66:「True members of Heiyue don't make promises we don't intend to keep. Lau, show them.」/「《黒月(ヘイユエ)》後継者候補に二言はない。 ラウ、開けてやるがいい。」

Xin doesn't generalise this to "members of Heiyue", rather he speaks of his position as "successor candidate"/"後継者候補".

• 67:「I convinced Reins to let me cover the inspection team.」/「センパイを説得して視察団の取材担当にしてもらったの。」

Vivi's "センパイ" is not supposed to be Reins. It's her seniors in the Imperial Chronicle in Heimdallr. It was even correctly localized here: 「I was only late because it took so long to win over the bigwigs at HQ!」 /「だってぇ、本社のセンパイたちを出し抜くので大変だったんですから～！」. Chapter 1 also had the same problem: 「Thing is, I kinda didn't tell Reins that I was coming back here, so I dunno if he'll be thrilled with the angle I'm taking.」 /「先輩には黙って来ちゃったから掲載してもらえるかは微妙なトコだけど。」, with using "先輩."

• 68:「Since the incident with the Crossbell Times, it's just been a buying frenzy.」/「どうやら《タイムズ》の一件を皮切りに“買い漁り”に来とるようじゃな。」

The localization misinterpreted what was being referred to here. It is meant to be about the Times Department Store, not the newspaper; it's the one that's addressed by "Times"/"《タイムズ》" that has actually been bought off.

• 69:「Randy said there was a cryptid nearby that looked like some kind of carnivorous plant thing.」/「ランディ先輩たちが戦った、食虫植物みたいな幻獣か……」

This should be better worded to: "Randy and Tio said they fought a cryptid nearby that looked like some kind of carnivorous plant thing."

• 70:「As it happens, I've had my hands so full with someone I'm coaching that I haven't been able to give the horses their due exercise.」/「実の所、ワンダー君に掛かりきりでろくに散歩もさせてやれていないんだ。」

The localization wrote the line much more awkwardly, considering that the one Albert speaks of is right beside his and he just uses his name "Wonder"/"ワンダー君."

• 71:「Going left should take us to a rural village. Right, Juna?」/「ああ、たしか左手の道は北上すると農村があるんだよな？」

The localization omits the extra mention of "Going left, to the north"/"左手の道は北上すると."

• 72:「Are you headed out?」/「ルーグマンさんはこれからお出かけですか？」

The localization removes Kenneth addressing "Mr. Lughmann"/"ルーグマンさん."

• 73:「Ahaha, 'Ashen Chevalier'? More like 'Ash-haired Chevali-Ogre'!」/「アハハ、灰色の騎士ならぬ“灰色の鬼”ってところかな！？」

The localization makes this so much more awkward and lame when it puts it so unnecessarily over the top instead of just being "Ashen Ogre."

• 74:「Is this cat talking...and using arts?!」/「ね、猫が喋った……！？」

Kurt only said the first part, originally.

• 75:「And we've still got some challenges up ahead.」/「はは……まだまだ課題も多いけどな。」

「Elliot has his share, too.」/「そういえばサザーラントでのエリオットたちと同じく……」
「Speaking of our old classmates, you've been talking to Alisa and Machias recently, right?」/「やっぱりアリサやマキアスと示し合わせていたんだろう？」
So, this part of the conversation starts when Celine talks about the New Class VII being "right on par" with the Old Class VII. Kurt and Juna react in doubt, saying that they are "still very green." Rean interjects, with the first line, to say that even the Old Class VII "still got some challenges." However, that should be the end of that topic. Much to the contrary, the localization took the fact that the second line was "By the way, just like Elliot and the others in Sutherland..." and tied it to that first, when it should be to the third. Thus, "just like Elliot, Laura, and Fie, in Sutherland..." => "You've been speaking to Alisa and Machias, right?"

• 76:「Those are railway cannons.」/「“新型列車砲”……存在だけは聞いていましたが。」

「Their size and design aren't the same as the ones we saw at the fortress, so they must be a newer model.」/ 「……サイズやデザインも違うし、その“後継機”といった所か。」
The localization omits that Altina calls the new armaments "new model railway cannons"/"新型列車砲". Perhaps because they already had Rean use "newer model" as a translation for "後継機". Still somewhat strange, given that they localized both fine without needing to fully omit one of them, with Irina later: 「Dragunov-class railway guns are the newest model.」/「ドラグノフ級、新型列車砲」and 「They're the official successor to the ones installed at Garrelia Fortress.」 /「かつてガレリア要塞に配備されていた列車砲の正式な後継機になるわ。」

• 77:「Many influential individuals have gathered here at Orchis Tower tonight.」/「──先ほどから続々とクロスベル州の有力者たちがタワーへと集まってきています。」

The localization removes the specification that "influential individuals are "from the Crossbell Province"/"クロスベル州の有力者たち."

• 78:「I was able to set up a small window of time during the dinner party to speak with some of the guests.」/「晩餐会までの僅かな時間だがゲストと話せる機会を作った。」

The localization straight up mistranslated "until the dinner party"/"晩餐会まで" for "during."

• 79:「I was tasked by the Imperial Army to make them, so I did. That's all.」/「あくまで帝国政府と正規軍の発注に応える最適なものを造った──それだけのこと。」

The localization omits the inclusion of the "Imperial Government"/"帝国政府" with the Imperial Army as the ones who made the request.

• 80:「That's a little too disrespectful. And this is me talking.」/「……流石に不敬かと。」

The localization inserted this Altina self-aware joke.

• 81:「Recently, Cedric's begun to look up to him...」/「最近、セドリックが随分、懇意にしているみたいで……」

The localizations changed Cedric "growing more familiar" with Osborne to "looking up," something he already did in CS: "find myself admiring Chancellor Osborne."

• 82:「She's a classmate of mine.」/「その、わたしと同じ科でルームメイトなんですけど……」

The localization removes the detail of saying that Musse is Tita's "roommate"/"同じ科でルームメイト."

• 83:「Tch. Of course the elevators are out of order.」/「ちっ、エレベーターは当然 監視対象ってわけか……」

Originally, Ash complained about the elevator being "under surveillance"/"監視対象," not broken or turned off.

• 84:「Yes, that is the full extent of my misdeeds.」/「ええ……所詮、わたくしはその程度の存在。」

「So long as the Reinford family is not at risk, I will not try to stop the wrongdoings of my prior colleagues.」/ 「ラインフォルト家に害がなければ古巣の悪事を手伝うような外道です。」
Sharon's first line isn't somewhat excusatory, like in the localization. She has a more somber statement about herself and why she did what she did during the Gospel Plan, which is: "Yes... Ultimately, that is all that I am. Even her second line is harsher, complimenting the idea of the previous one: "A monster that would collaborate with my prior colleagues wrongdoings, so long as the Reinford family is not at risk."

• 85:「Far as I can sense, you got some pretty interesting power in you, considering you're just some royal.」/「ただの皇族のクセに妙な魔力を感じるじゃねえか？」

The localization omits the specification: "magical power"/"魔力".

• 86:「Yes. We chat on occasion when we both have some free time.」/「フフ、まあ落ち着いた時にでも話をさせてもらうとしよう。」

Valimar actually says that he wants to talk to Celine when things (in Crossbell) settle down. They haven't seen each other in one year, and Celine remarks that it is going to be easier to converse now that he has improved his speech. It's not meant to come across as an ongoing common interaction, like in the localization.

• 87:「And on top of that, there was what McBurn said...」/「そして、あの火焔魔人の言葉……」

Just like Duvalie, in Chapter 1, Rean shouldn't be on a first name basis when he addresses Mcburn; instead, he should say "Blazing Demon"/"火焔魔人." This just makes the interactions too familiar and lessens the characters or moments that actually address him as such.

• 88:「The underground district that was used to develop the orbal science of alchemy...」/「かつて錬金術を発展させた魔導科学に利用された地下区画……」

The localization contradicts the lore. The alchemists used "magical science"/"魔導科学".

• 89:「There are framed photos on the desk.」/「机に写真立てらしきものが放置されている。」

It's possible to see in the scene that it is supposed to be a framed photo.

• 90:「I heard that some trains will be restricted...」/「車両もタイミングによっては交通規制が入るとか……」

「This is a major issue for shipping companies. I need to hurry before they start restricting the trains.」/「運送会社にとっては大問題だよ。 ったく、本格的な規制が始まる前に急がねえと！」
Billy works with a truck shipping company. He, originally, speaks about "traffic regulations"/"交通規制" affecting his work; logically, it'd be about cars and trucks. There is no mention of trains.

• 91:「We've been together for a year now, but even I have to admit, she can be a little...silly.」/「付き合って１年半になるけどいつも陽気でおっちょこちょいで。」

「Janetta and I have been together for a year now.」/「ジャネッタと付き合い始めてもう１年半なんだよね。」
The localization, incorrectly, says they've been together for "a year," which would be after Trails to Azure. However, they got together during the game, as the original states "a year and a half"/"１年半."

• 92:「I'm nervous. I hope she likes the new factory.」/「緊張すんなぁ。新工場建設、今さらダメ出しされたりしねーよな？」

The localization makes it sound ambiguous if the Military factory has already been built, when the original is about worrying that Irina "might cancel the construction of the new factory." In another line: 「Once the RF Company's factory is completed, there'll be several thousand new jobs.」 /「ＲＦ社の新工場が完成すれば数千人規模の雇用が生まれるそうだ。」

• 93:「Their two daughters continue to work hard even after their parents were sworn into the military police.」/「“軍警”になってからも２人の娘さんたちは 頑張っているみたいで。」

The localization misunderstood the subject "Even after the two sisters joined the military'/"軍警になってから２人の娘さんたち," which are Noel and Fran.

• 94:「You just ate dinner not too long ago...」/「さっき朝食を済ませたばかりだろう……」

「It's dinner time! Yup yup!」/「やっとメシっす。」
The localization mistranslated "breakfast"/"朝食" and misunderstood the context of when this happens, since it's far from dinnertime. The second line doesn't have a specific meal, but it was written with an incorrect context, like the first (and even contradicts it).

• 95:「I'm almost certain she started her rehabilitation today.」/「たしか今日から新しいリハビリって言ってたわね……」

The original says "started a new rehabilitation course"/"新しいリハビリ." Illya didn't start rehabilitating altogether until more than a year after Azure, as it implies.

• 96:「They say he was one of the culprits behind the Crossbell plan, but wasn't affiliated with Ouroboros.」/「……結社とは別にクロスベル独立国の絵を描いた黒幕(フィクサー)の一人だったらしい。」

The localization chose a strange way to word this. "behind the Crossbell plan" instead of "behind Crossbell's independence"/"クロスベル独立国."

• 97:「I heard from Fie. About your power..」/「フィーたちから聞いたわ。《神気合一》のこと。」

The localization singles out Fie when "フィーたち" is plural, including Laura and Elliot. "Spirit Unification"/"《神気合一》" is also omitted for "power."

• 98:「I can't believe she went and made such things. She knows how Grandfather and I felt about the first models.」/「……私やお祖父様の反対も押しのけて、あんなものを完成させてしまうなんて。」

The original illustrates that Alisa and Gwyn attempted to object to the new railway cannons, not mentioning anything about the first models. The localization somewhat paints it as being based on older objections.

• 99:「That can't be a mirage spell...right?」/「げ、幻術……ではないんですよね？」

Emma says "illusion"/"幻術," nothing to do with orbal arts. She's speaking from a witch's perspective.

• 100:「This one's different from the one I saw yesterday!」/「昨日現れたのとは違う──見たこともないタイプだわ！」

The original also has the extra detail of being "a type never seen before (in CSII)."

• 101:「B-But the royal family is--」/「で、ですが、皇族の方が……！」

「Ah, but it is BECAUSE I am a member of the royal family that I must do this.」/「いや──今回ばかりは“皇族だから”こそさ。」
「To be seen off by the royal family is truly more than we deserve...」/「このような場所でのお見送りさすがに畏れ多いかと……」
It should be "imperial family."

• 102:「Most people fled the city, hoping they'd be away from the fighting in rural towns or remote mining villages.」/「市街から、周辺にある農村や鉱山町に疎開する市民も多かった。」

The localization poorly words this line into being strangely inespecific of Crossbell's locations. It should be "the farming village" and "the mining town," which is how Armorica and Mainz are often referred to and are singular.

• 103 「Right ye are! Let's follow the chairman!」/「それやそれ！その方針で行こうや、会長さん！」

Becky is speaking to Chairman Mors. Originally, it's meant to be "Let's follow that plan, chairman!"

• 104:「But even so...considering that it's in Erebonia...」/「あいつらの事もあるし、帝国本土となると少し考えちまうが……」

The localization omits Oscar mentioning "the matter with everyone/them"/"あいつらの事もあるし" as another reason why he is hesitant to go train in the empire.

• 105:「Hm... Well, perhaps she could join my harem...」/「ふむ、逆ハーレムか……ボクとしてはそれもアリなんだが……」

The actual joke of Olivier's response to Nana's question, 「Is he another one of Juna's potential boyfriends?!」 /「おねえちゃんのカレシ候補がふえたのー！」, is completely lost in the localization. The original is: "Hmm, a reverse harem... I'd also find that arrangement acceptable..."

• 106:「Will she ever be able to act again?」/「前みたいに舞台に立てるのはいつになるか……」

The localization chooses to translate what could be more general phrasing as "perform/stand on stage"/"舞台に立てる," to be more specific to what Illya is known for... and, somehow, it was decided on "act" instead of the much more fitting "dance" (she's literally the Fervent Dancer).

• 107:「Also, the way you carefully avoided telling us where you're going for your inspections was impressive as always.」/「──どんな視察かはともかくとして。」

The localization turned Alisa's much more passive inquiry at Irina, "Wherever you'll be inspecting," to make it much more, unnecessarily, accusatory. Irina doesn't have any obligation to share that information, so she wasn't "avoiding" anything.

• 108:「(Who does he mean?)」/「（支援課……いったいどういう人？）」

The localization mistranslates this line entirely. Alisa sounds as if she actually has no clue who the "support section"/"支援課", mentioned by Abel is: 「We can't make contact... If only the support section were here.」 /「通信も繋がらないし……こんな時に支援課がいてくれたら。」. The original, only has her question about who the "Middle-Aged Man"/"中年男性" was. Especially given that, if the intention is as localized, it's very strange that Alisa would immediately refer to "支援課" as being a "person"/"人."

• 109:「He's the only director who previously held a high position within the police. He's the most reliable person we have.」/「本部長は“警察”出身としては唯一上層部に抜擢された人でね。僕らにとっては一番信頼できる人さ。」

It's not about Director Douglas having held "a high position within the police," it is about being "the only director (Crossbell Military Police) that was a member of the police (Crossbell Police Department), in general."

• 110:「Kate has been running around since early this morning. I'm sure she's...」/「ケイト先輩も朝から走り回っているしあいつだってきっと……」

The localization missed the fact that Officer Franz also makes a reference to Lloyd here, with "I'm sure even he's..."/"あいつだってきっと……" He has previously referred to Lloyd the same way before: 「(If only he were here right now...)」/「（こんな時、“あいつ”がいてくれたらな……）」.

• 111:「Director Douglas is directly in charge of the inspection team's schedule.」/「視察団の警備体制はダグラス本部長が直々に指揮を取っているんだ。」

I'm genuinely not sure how much being in charge of "schedule" has the same meaning as being in charge of "security"/"警備体制," as the localization puts it.

• 112:「I talked to Jessica, but we decided to leave Juna to Kurt and the others.」/「ゼシカちゃんとも話したんですが、ユウナちゃんのことはクルトさんたちに任せることになりましてー。」

「I guess I'll just have to leave it to Kurt.」/「……とりあえず、このままクルトたちに任せるしかねえか。」
The localization makes Louise and Sidney straight up not acknowledge Altina (and only Altina), even when the group (Kurt and Altina) is in the original, with: "クルトさんたち."

• 113:「...Very well. Thank you for your assistance, Prince Olivier.」/「……どうか宜しくお願いします、オリビエ殿。」

「(He couldn't help adding the 'prince' part, huh?)」/「（それでも、あくまで“殿”呼びなんだな。）」
This particular choice for this line just makes Michael come across as much more silly than in the original. Olivert asks him not to call him "Your Highness"/"殿下," so instead of that he uses "殿" (probably a play on the kanji, 殿~下~). Personally, it'd be an improvement if "Lord" or "Sir" were used. Of course, the play on the kanji can't be fully replicated in english, but the royal treatment => high-respect formal treatment (with the nuance that it can be used for non-royals) shouldn't be translated to royal treatment => unequivocally still royal treatment.

• 114:「I believe last we met was on the Courageous after the civil war. It is a pleasure to see you again, Valimar.」/「君と会うのは内戦時のカレイジャス以来か。久しぶりだね、ヴァリマール君。」

Originally, it's supposed to be "during the Civil War"/"内戦時."

• 115:「Oh. Well aren't you a cute little thing?」/「ほう、君はまた随分可愛らしい男の子だね。」

「Umm, Olivier... You know he's a boy, right?」/「……その、オリビエさん。まさか、そういう趣味があるわけじゃないですよね。」
The localization made Olivier use neutral wording when interacting with Kairi, when originally he outright referred to him as a "cute boy"/"可愛らしい男の子." Since this isn't ambiguous, Rean doesn't point out Kairi's gender; instead, he's surprised that Olivier has "that kind of interest"/"そういう趣味."

• 116:「(It might be good for healing spells, but...)」/「（ま、魔力の回復には役立ちそうですが……）」

The original is "recovering magic energy/power"/"魔力の回復." The localization somewhat inverted the meaning for "recovering/healing magic" => magic for recovery/healing."

• 117:「This is the tower.」/「これが塔の内部……」

It would've been phrased better as "So, this is (what it/the tower) looks like inside..." Instead of being a line, he could've said outside, and there would be no way to tell.

• 118:「But what's that weird light flickering at the top?」/「な、なんだか不思議な光が漂っているんだが……」

It's supposed to be "floating"/"漂っている." How was it translated to "flickering at the top" even?

• 119:「They could be. With all their behind-the-scenes corruption, they'd need an archive for their wickedness somewhere.」/「ああ、錬金術師たちに操られて非道を繰り返したっていう……」

This localization is so poor, given that the line in question is: "They could be. Their wicked acts were puppeteered from behin-the-scenes by the alchemists..." Alisa's logic is about considering that if the alchemists built Stargaze's Tower, wrote the old tomes within, and manipulated the cult, then the old tomes could have some relation to the cult. The cult shouldn't be the subject of "archiving their wickedness" and "behind-the-scenes corruption."

• 120:「It might seem strange to see Erebonians come here to stop you...」/「帝国人である私たちが出しゃばるのも心苦しいけど……」

Alisa isn't referring to how Campanella, Mcburn, or a third party might feel; originally, she stated how she feels that "it's painful to be so presumptuous as to be the ones here to stop you, as Erebonians...". It's all about the conflicted feelings of being pushed to fill that role. At the very least, it wouldn't be "It might seem strange (for you) to see," but rather, "I feel strange about it."

• 121:「All this while he's supposed to be leading the inspection team, no less...」/「それも視察団の行事の真っ最中だものね……」

Olivert isn't "leading the inspection team." Carl and Irina were doing their own thing. Alisa only says something akin to "during the inspection team's survey"/"視察団の行事の真っ最中だも."

• 122:「Since I've shown myself, don't you think it's only polite to step out of the shadows, too?」/「“魔女”が姿を現したのならそちらも出るのが筋じゃないかしら？」

The localization removes the play Vita makes with "Since the witch has shown herself..."/“魔女が姿を現したのなら...", given the group's relationship with the Gnomes in Azure Siegfried.

• 123:「There are a lot of things I want to ask her about...those railway cannons for example.」/「列車砲に巨大軍需工場……問い質したいことも多いから。」

The localization didn't include "Military Factory"/"列車砲."

• 124:「(Vita... She may have been our enemy, and a terrifying one at that, but she ended up helping all of us in Class VII.)」/「（クロチルダさんか……敵だったし、怖い人だったけど最後はⅦ組俺たちに協力してくれた。）」

「Oh, so that's what Vita was talking about.」/「そ、それって確か、クロチルダさんが言っていた──」
「(Could it be...Misty?!)」/「（まさか……クロチルダさんか！？）」
「(What in the world are you doing, Vita?!)」/「（何をやってるんだ、この人は(クロチルダ)さん……！？）」
「That's true. If Vita was here in Crossbell, then...」/「……た、確かにクロチルダさんが来てるなら……」
「Cryptids and Pleroma Grass... Do they have something to do with Vita?」/「幻獣とプレロマ草……クロチルダさんも関係があるのか？」
「So...Vita ended up in Crossbell while searching for the answer?」/「……クロチルダさんもそれを見極めているうちにクロスベルに辿り着いたのか？」
「At any time, if there's anything we can do to help you with Vita, please let me know.」/「……今回に限らず、クロチルダさんのことで俺たちが力になれる事があれば言って欲しい。」
「V-Vita?!」/「ク、クロチルダさん！？」
Much like for Duvalie in Chapter 1 and Mcburn in this chapter, the localization changes everyone who addresses her as "Clotilde" to only use "Vita." This doesn't only change the impression of these character dynamics but also, more impactfully, lessens the fact that only specific characters should call her by her first name (Emma and Celine, as of Chapter 2). Especially when the former already largely loses the use of "sister"/"姉さん.")

• 125:「Tio. Do you sense anything else coming?」/「……ティオ主任。まだ出現しそうな気配は？」

「You're spending time with Tio today, huh?」/「ランディさんはティオ主任とご一緒なんですね。」
「Tio? Is she still here?」/「ティオ主任と……？」
「So this is where Randy and Tio used to operate from...」/「ここがランディさんやティオ主任たちが使っていた……」
「With Tio's guidance, we were able to perform a wide-range spiritual scan at the junction in the Geofront.」/「ティオ主任の誘導でジオフロントのジャンクションで“広域霊視”をしたんだったか。」
「Tio was cute, too... Though she's still cute now.」/「ティオ主任も可愛いなぁ……まあ、今でも可愛らしいけど。」
「Yeah, the entrance to the B Sector, S-II Area, just like Tio said.」/「ああ、ティオ主任が言っていたＢ区画・ＳⅡエリアの入口だな。」
「I can feel mana steadily rising... It may be coming from where Tio had said.」/「霊力(マナ)の高まりも感じます……ティオ主任が言っていた場所が近いのかもしれません。」
「So this is the junction that Tio was talking about.」/「ここがティオ主任の言っていたジャンクション地点みたいだな。」
「T-Tio...」/「ティ、ティオ主任……」 「Yes, let's leave everything to Emma and Tio.」/「ええ、あとはエマとティオ主任に任せましょう。」
「Emma, Tio?!」/「エマ、ティオ主任……！？」
「According to Tio's map, the highway to the south.」/「ティオ主任の地図によるとここから街道を南下した先ね。」
「Oh, yeah. The chief DID say that once.」/「……ティオ主任から聞いたことがあります。」
In the case of Tio, the localization keeps making characters that call her "Chief Tio"/"ティオ主任" have sudden moments in which they only call her Tio. Alisa has a particular case in which she only refers to her as "Chief," in the last line.

• 126:「The prince's wife will stay at Karel Imperial Villa for three days, where she will meet with the Imperial governor and other key figures before visiting Crossbell City. Governor General Rufus Albarea will greet her as host upon arrival.」/「大公夫妻はカレル離宮に３日間滞在、帝都知事を始めとする要人たちと面会しつつ帝都を離れ、クロスベル市を回ってから帰国される見込み。その際にはルーファス・アルバレア同州総督がホストとして出迎えるという。 」

The localization of the Imperial Chronicle, issue 2 (Chapter 1) simply mistranlates "Prince and his wife"/"大公夫妻" as only being the prince's wife when "夫妻" it's a term for the "married couple." It does soumd very strange that wife is the one doing all of this.

• 127: 「しかし昨年からＲＦグループ主導で鋼都ルーレでの本格導入が始まっており、運用の手応えは十分だそうだ"いずれ帝都や他の州都でも導入できるのではないか"（同社ＣＥＯ）」

This paragraph, in the Imperial Chronicle, issue 4 (Chapter 2), outright doesn't have a localized version. It is: "However, last year, the RF group took the initiative to implement the system on a large scale in the industrial metropolis of Roer, obtaining favorable reaction to the operations; 'Eventually, we'll be able to introduce the system to Heimdallr and the other provicial cities' (says a CEO of the company)."

Long shot I know, I am wanting to do a reel on instagram for derby day and I will be in Florida! However, I will be making mint juleps in conjunction of derby day. I'm looking for any volunteers that have or can take any B roll footage of anything horse racing related. It doesn't not have to be on derby day.... even better if not. Footage such as, silks, paddocks, behind the scenes, the trucks, stables, cocktails, hats, anything to showcase how wonderful the culture of Kentucky is along with the culture of horse racing. The purpose of my reel is making a mint julep and I want to interject really cool B roll of the culture of horse racing around it. Any help is certainly appreciated. I'm a complete amateur to this, but I enjoy it, especially horse race related!

First / Previous / Royal Road / Patreon

The dream began the same way it always did – Alain was down the street, just a short walk away, when the house went up in flames. He’d been asleep in his dream, and it had been the stench of smoke that had awoken him, same as it always was. He knew what was happening the moment his eyes cracked open, but that had never stopped him before, and it wouldn’t stop him now.
The sixteen-year-old Alain climbed out of bed, then exited his uncle’s house, looking for him. He found his uncle gathered outside, along with a crowd of townspeople, all of them staring at the smoke on the horizon as it curled upwards into the air.
“I’m sorry, son,” his uncle told him, same as he always did. “We’ve already had some people go looking through the wreck, but we couldn’t find any trace of your parents. In fact, the only thing we found was this.”
His uncle offered him a small wooden box, and Alain opened it to find a single Colt Single Action Army staring back at him, complete with a leather holster and cartridge belt. He stared at his uncle in surprise, and his uncle furrowed his brow before letting out a sigh.
“It was the only thing untouched by the fire,” he said. “No idea how it managed to escape. But your Pa always did say he wanted you to have it when you came of age, and… well… I guess you’re of age now.”
Alain stared at the gun, unmoving and unflinching. After a few moments, his vision began to blur, and his shoulders shook with silent sobs.
The dream ended just as he fell to his knees, finally unable to keep his emotions from overwhelming him.
–
When Alain woke up the next morning, it was to the worst headache of his life. He sat up in his bedroll, a low, pained moan escaping him as he clutched at his temples.
“Fuck…” he breathed through gritted teeth.
It was funny – he’d certainly had a lot to drink the night before, but he’d been more drunk in the past, and it hadn’t hit him quite as hard as it had now. Part of him suspected that something else had gone on, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what had happened past sitting down at the fire and talking with Sable and Az for a bit.
The side of his neck suddenly started to itch really bad, and Alain brought a hand up to frantically scratch at it. He was surprised to find two small puncture wounds there.
“What the hell…?” he breathed. “Did an insect bite me or something…?”
That was the only explanation he could think of, because nothing else really made sense. After all, what other creature could have bitten him if not an insect?
Groggily, Alain rose to his feet and grabbed his shotgun, then slung it over his shoulder as he stepped outside. Az and Sable were already waiting for him, seated next to the few remaining embers of the fire. It might have just been him seeing things, but Alain could have sworn that it looked like neither of them had slept very much the night before. Then again, that was none of his business.
“Morning…” he greeted softly as he took a seat at the fire next to them. “Sleep well?”
“Something like that,” Sable muttered.
Alain turned towards her, and his brow furrowed when he saw a brownish-red stain on the collar of her dress.
“What’s that?”
“What’s what?”
“You’ve got red on you.”
Hurriedly, Sable brought a hand up to cover the stain. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
“No, I just saw it-”
“It’s my mistake,” Az interjected. “Cut myself shaving this morning. Got a little bit on her dress by mistake.”
“That doesn’t make any-”
“When shall we set off?” Sable asked, impatient. “I am growing tired of the wilderness.”
“Well, it’s going to be a bit longer,” Alain volunteered. “We’ve still got a few days before we make it to Los Banos. It should be pretty uneventful, but days are still days, unfortunately. So you might as well get used to it.”
Sable let out an annoyed moan. “This was a mistake. I’m roasting in this sun.”
“Don’t you mean in the heat?”
“No.”
“My lady, if I may offer a suggestion?” Az said. “Perhaps Alain could allow you to borrow his hat – keep the sun off of you.”
Alain shrugged. “I mean, hell, you’re the ones paying with the diamond. You want my Stetson, you can have it for now. Just make sure to give it back before we part ways.”
He pulled his hat off and placed it on her head. The faded brown leather looked very out-of-place when taken in conjunction with her creamy white Victorian-era dress, but it had the desired effect – Sable instantly let out a satisfied sigh, drawing the hat tighter around herself.
“Your queen-to-be thanks you,” she said.
Alain rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. Let’s just get moving, shall we?”
Sable and Az nodded, and the three of them set off further into the wilds.
–
As Alain had predicted, the rest of the trip was uneventful. There were no more instances of drinking to excess, mainly because he’d run out of whiskey after the first night, but that was both a blessing and a curse – a blessing because it meant no more hangovers, and a curse because it meant no more alcohol. Combined with his lack of cigarettes and the fact that he was walking for miles every day, and Alain was quickly growing frustrated with this job, not helped by the company he was keeping.
Still, the diamond at the end would be worth it. So he endured regardless.
Eventually, however, they reached the outskirts of Los Banos, as indicated by a weathered wooden sign posted at a set of crossroads.
“You are now entering the town of Los Banos,” Alain read as they approached the sign. “Population: 231. I’m surprised – I figured there’d be far less of them. The sign does seem like it’s missing a tagline, though.”
“What would that be?” Az asked.
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” Alain looked off into the horizon, squinting to see if he could get a better look. Sure enough, he was able to make out the distant shapes of wooden buildings looming just on the horizon. “Geez, this place is backwater. You two sure you want to stay here?”
“Positive,” Sable chimed in. “My empire has to start somewhere, and where better than here?”
“If you say so,” Alain ventured. “Come on, let’s get there already. My feet are killing me.”
The three of them started walking again, and soon enough, they’d entered the town. Los Banos was as small as he’d expected it to be, though a bit more densely populated than anticipated. It looked like most of the people there were just passing through, however, if the lineup of carriages and horses were any indication.
“Wonder what’s going on here,” Alain commented as they passed by a crowd of people.
“Perhaps we should find out,” Az ventured.
“You and Sable can certainly do that if you like. For now, this is where my journey with you ends.”
“You mean to leave us?” Sable asked, surprised.
Alain nodded. “The job was to take you both to Los Banos. You’re both now in Los Banos. Therefore, the job is complete. Unless you wanted to hire me for something else?”
“Not at the moment, no.”
“Great. Then I’ll be taking my payment.”
For a moment, Sable looked as though she wanted to argue, but held herself back. Instead, she snapped her fingers, and Az handed him the small box. Alain cracked it open enough to confirm the diamond was there, then swiftly pocketed it.
“My hat, too,” he said.
Sable puffed out her cheeks in frustration, but did as she was told, plucking the Stetson off her head and offering it to him. Alain placed it back on his own head, then adjusted it back to its proper orientation. Then, he tipped it towards both of them.
“Pleasure doing business with you both,” he said.
Then he turned and left them standing there in the center of town while he went off on his own.
–
Of course, the problem with being paid in jewels was that they weren’t worth anything until they were converted to a usable currency. So while he currently had a valuable diamond on his person, it was next to worthless when it came to actually buying things with it. So until he found a jeweler who was willing to give him a good price for it, he was stuck living off his pocket change.
That was no reason to despair, however, nor was it a reason to refrain from celebrating. In the end, the job had been easy enough, despite Sable and Az’s eccentricities, and he’d been paid with something that would likely sustain him for many months while he found more work somewhere else. Alain figured that was cause enough to treat himself to something nice.
And so, shortly after parting ways with Az and Sable, he’d found himself in a saloon, seated at the bar.
“No long guns on your person inside the bar,” the bartender said.
Alain was unperturbed. He shrugged off his Ithaca, then offered it to the man. The bartender broke the shotgun open, plucked the two shells out, and offered them to Alain; he pocketed them and watched as the bartender placed his shotgun in a weapon rack behind the bar, along with several other rifles and shotguns. Once that was done, the man came over to him.
“What’ll it be, stranger?” he asked.
“Just a beer,” Alain said, sliding a few coins over to him. “And if you’ve got steak and eggs, I’ll take a plate of that as well.”
“Beer, steak, and eggs,” the barman said as he pocketed the money. “Breakfast of champions. What’s the occasion?”
“Job went well,” Alain grunted. “Don’t need much more of an occasion than that.”
“Amen to that. Hold tight, I’ll get your food going real quick.”
The barman disappeared into the back for a moment. While he was gone, Alain took the opportunity to look around the saloon. There were only a few other patrons there, which seemed out-of-the-ordinary to him, given how densely-populated the town was for something its size.
The bartender came back a short while later, a frothing mug in his hand. He slid it over to Alain.
“Food’ll be out in a bit,” he said.
Alain tipped his hat towards the man, then took a sip from his bear. As he went to put the glass down, he winced, his neck having suddenly started to itch. He began to frantically scratch it, much to the barman’s amusement.
“Bug bite?” the bartender asked.
“Must be,” Alain replied. “Never had one this bad, though.”
“Let me see.”
Alain obliged, leaning in to show the man his neck. The bartender’s brow furrowed, and he brought a hand up to rub at his handlebar mustache in confusion.
“That’s like no bug bite I’ve ever seen,” he commented. “You might want to see Doc about that.”
“It’s fine,” Alain assured him. “Doesn’t hurt or anything, it just itches really bad sometimes. Happened a few nights ago, when I was out on the frontier.”
“The frontier, you say? You ever hear of the Chupacabra?”
“The what?”
“The Chupacabra,” the man repeated. “Old legend hailing from Mexico. Locals there say that it’s some kind of odd creature that kills goats and drinks their blood.”
“That’s a problem, then, because I’m neither dead nor a goat,” Alain pointed out. “So it must be bug bites.”
“Think what you want to think. All I’m saying is I’ve never seen bug bites that look like that.”
“What do they look like?”
“Two perfectly round puncture marks spaced a few inches apart. If those are bug bites, they’re just about the most damn perfect bug bites I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, I don’t know what they are, but I know what they aren’t, and that’s Chupacabra bites.”
“If you say so.”
Another man came out of the back, holding a steaming plate. He put it in front of Alain before returning, and Alain wasted no time in digging into his food with vigor.
“Just bringing it up because a lot of weird shit’s been happening out here recently,” the bartender said.
“Weird how?” Alain asked through a mouthful of steak and eggs.
That earned him a shrug. “Locals say something strange has been going on in the cemetery. Say they can hear a woman crying out there in the middle of the night. A few people have even sworn they’ve seen a pale-white apparition walking around there every now and again. Haven’t seen it myself, but the people who live out that way are pretty spooked. They think it’s a ghost.”
“They’re just seeing things,” Alain said dismissively. “Ghosts are about as real as Chupacabras are.”
“I wouldn’t be so confident if I were you,” the bartender warned. “Some of the locals were talking about bringing a priest down to do an exorcism. Now, I’m not Catholic, but if they’re that concerned, there might be a kernel of truth to what they’re saying.”
“There are so many wild tales around life in the frontier that you can’t believe any of them,” Alain said. “It’s all a bunch of shit, if you ask me. Bunch of superstitious morons trying to scare each other with ghost stories and old wives’ tales.”
The bartender held up his hands in surrender. “Don’t shoot the messenger, buddy. I just talk about what I hear.”
Alain finished his plate of food, then pushed it away. He turned to look out the nearby window, frowning when he saw a crowd of people dressed in fancy clothes walk by.
“Circus in town?” he asked.
The bartender shook his head. “Investors,” he explained. “New gold mine is going to be opening up soon. The mayor’s been heading into town, trying to drum up interest and attract some people who might want to throw some money at it in exchange for a return on their investment. Guess he’s had some success.”
“I’ll say,” Alain replied. “Little podunk town like this, getting all these rich people in it so suddenly? Must be causing quite a stir.”
“Ask me, I think it could do the town some good,” the barman said as he picked up a glass and began to polish it.
“Los Banos could use an injection of cash. Help us grow the town. If the gold mine can help with that, then I’m all for it.”
“No complaints from me. I won’t be staying long enough for it to matter.”
“Looking for work?” Alain nodded, and the man said, “Could always volunteer to work in the mines.”
Alain shook his head. “Frontier life or bust for me. That’s all I know.”
“I feel you on that.” The bartender stuck his hand out. “Felix.”
“Alain,” he replied, shaking the man’s hand.
“Well, Alain, if I don’t see you again, it was good to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Alain finished his beer, then pushed his empty glass over to the man and tipped his hat towards him. “Be seeing you.”
With that, he turned and marched out of the saloon, looking for a place he could stay for the night.

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, u/Ickbard for the help with writing this story.

*fictional. It isn’t the official language from any of these countries.
Occigotian (endonym: Occorgțaķa or, in full, Ligaķe Occorgțaķa) is an Eastern Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Occigotian(West Ukraine) part of the Black Sea. It is the official language of Occigotia, Romania, Moldova, Mexico, The Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Turkey, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Canada and Georgia, while having co-official language status in Lebanon, United States(California,Illinois,Mississippi and Wyoming), China(Guangdong,Zhenjiang,Shanghai,Jiangsu,Hebei,Tianjin,Beijing and Fujian), India(West Bengal), Japan(Tokyo,Kanagawa-Ken, Okinawa and Hokkaido) and Bulgaria. Between Parenthesis means that more Occigotian live in that area.
Occigotian is a language spoken by 104 million people worldwide. The language was spread by the Occigotian Colonization. Between 1567-1646, Occigotian colonized 4 countries(Taiwan,Hong Kong,Macau and Phillipines) and 18 islands. Occigotian Diaspora that occurred between 1800-1945, where approximately 44,8 million people left Occigotia and neighboring occigotian-speaking countries and went to places such as Brazil, the United States,Canada,China,British Raj,Japan, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, Mexico, Georgia, The Philippines, Chile and Peru. Currently, 70 million people speak Occigotian as their native language, 29 million as second language, and 5 million with intermediate or basic knowledge of the language.
—Alphabet—
The letters with asterisks are variants with diacritics: A /a/ Â* /ɑ/ À* /ɒ/ Á* /ɐ/ B /β/ C /c/ Ç/ç/ D /d/ Ḑ /ɟ/ E /e/ É/æ/ È /ɛ/ Ê* /ɜː/ F /ɸ/ G /g/ H /ʜ/ I /i/ Í* /iː/ Ì* /ɪ/ Î* /ɨ/ Ï* /i̤/ J /j/ Ĵ* /ʒ/ K /k/ Ķ* /k͡s/ Ḱ* /kʲ/ L /l/ M /m/ N /n/ Ń* /ŋ/ Ņ* /ɲ/ O /o/ Ó* /ɔ/ Ò* /ɔː/ Ô* /ø/ P /p/ Ṕ* /pʼ̤/ Q /q/ R / Ŗ* /𝼈/ S /s/ Ș* /ɕ/ T /t/ Ț* /ʦ/ U Û*/ʉ/ V /v/ X /ɣ/( Before H,Q,T and V, has /ks/ sound) Z /z/
— Digraphs — Lh /ʎ/ Sj /ʃ/ Rh /χ/ Th /θ/ Vh /β/ Cc /k͡ʃ/ Ph /pʰ/ — Trigraphs — Tsj /ʧ/ — Grammar —
In Occigotian grammar, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are moderately inflected: there are two genders (masculine and feminine) and two numbers (singular and plural). The case system of the ancestor language, Latin, has been lost, but personal pronouns are still declined with three main types of forms: subject, object of verb, and object of preposition. Most nouns and many adjectives can take diminutive or augmentative derivational suffixes, and most adjectives can take a so-called "superlative" derivational suffix. Adjectives usually follow their respective nouns. Verbs are highly inflected: there are three tenses (past, present, future), three moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), three aspects (perfective, imperfective, and progressive), three voices (active, passive, reflexive), and an inflected infinitive. Most perfect and imperfect tenses are synthetic, totaling 11 conjugational paradigms, while all progressive tenses and passive constructions are periphrastic. There is also an impersonal passive construction, with the agent replaced by an indefinite pronoun. Occigotian is generally an SVO language, although SOV syntax may occur with a few object pronouns, and word order is generally not as rigid as in English. It is a null subject language, with a tendency to drop object pronouns as well, in colloquial varieties. Like Spanish, it has two main copular verbs: sere and haxvare. It has a number of grammatical features that distinguish it from most other Romance languages, such as a synthetic pluperfect, a future subjunctive tense, the inflected infinitive, and a present perfect with an iterative sense.
Like most Indo-European languages, including English, Occigotian classifies most of its lexicon into four word classes: verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. These are "open" classes, in the sense that they readily accept new members, by coinage, borrowing, or compounding. Interjections form a smaller open class. There are also several small closed classes, such as pronouns, prepositions, articles, demonstratives, numerals, and conjunctions. A few grammatically peculiar words are difficult to categorize; these include fasû ("where is"—SAm., colloq.), mecrenuzeea("let's hope"), mecrenuzeeaman ("let's hope that"), and mà ("here is"). Within the four main classes there are many semi-regular mechanisms that can be used to derive new words from existing words, sometimes with change of class; for example, fatsje ("fast") → fatsjevoluțe ("very fast"), maḑire ("to measure") → mavairesanmo ("measurement"), ṕamgeŗņu(ķa)("pilot") → ṕamĵuŗve ("to pilot"). Finally, there are several phrase embedding mechanisms that allow arbitrarily complex phrases to behave like nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
Following the general Indo-European pattern, the central element of almost any Occigotian clause is a verb, which may directly connect to one, two, or (rarely) three nouns (or noun-like phrases), called the subject, the object (more specifically, the direct object), and the complement (more specifically, the object complement or objective complement). The most frequent order of these elements in Occigotian is subject–verb–object (SVO, as in examples (1) and (2) below), or, when a complement is present, subject–verb–object-complement (SVOC — examples (3) and (4)): (1) {Ķa Mary}S {fuŗeveķa}V {ņu Paul}O, "Mary loves Paul." (2) {Ņu fasiņu}S {consxhiveélu}V {ķa merseden}O, "The mason has constructed the house." (3) {Ņu prunḑvel}S {namireélu}V ņu {Peter}O {ministre}C, "The president appointed Pedro (as) minister." (4) {Dal}S {fûńkredalu}V {ņu lupfe}O {úma baķxviț}C, "She found the book a bore." Any of the three noun elements may be omitted if it can be inferred from the context or from other syntactic clues; but many grammatical rules will still apply as if the omitted part were there. A clause will often contain a number of adverbs (or adverbial phrases) that modify the meaning of the verb; they may be inserted between the major components of the clause. Additional nouns can be connected to the verb by means of prepositions; the resulting prepositional phrases have an adverbial function. For example: Él caxhiaĵeiveélu {naj marțv} ķa maglvķa {farh dal} {daņu casjivétsji} {vaxta ķa farfthe}, "He carried {without delay} the bag {for her} {from the car} {to the door}."
Occigotian is a null subject language, meaning that it permits and sometimes mandates the omission of an explicit subject. In Occigotian, the grammatical person of the subject is generally reflected by the inflection of the verb. Sometimes, though an explicit subject is not necessary to form a grammatically correct sentence, one may be stated in order to emphasize its importance. Some sentences, however, do not allow a subject at all and in some other cases an explicit subject would sound awkward or unnatural: "I'm going home" can be translated either as (Ïxqe vaxta rhajme) or as (Lî ïxqe vaxta rhajme), where (Lî) means "I". "It's raining" is (haxvarea ķa ujve) in European Occigotian, or (haxvarea ujvento) in South American Occigotian, neither of which occurs with an explicit subject. Man ohuķazan serevo? "what time is it?" (literally "what hours are they?"). In European Occigotian, only in exceptional circumstances would "I'm going home; I'm going to watch TV" be translated as (Lî haxvarehî hinvento vaxta merseden;Lî haxvarehî hinvento axhve TV) ver televisão. At least the second eu ("I") would normally be omitted, if not both. Meanwhile, in South American Occigotian, the subject pronoun is more likely to be repeated. As in other null subject language with a SVO word order, the subject is often postponed, mostly in existential sentences, in answers to partial questions and in contrast structures: Akxhiveni mutsji ractsji ahê! ("There are many mice here!") — Verb akxhiveni, subject ractsji, complement ahê indicating place. Manse man sereéu? Sereîu lî. ("Who was it? It was me.") — Verb sereéu, subject lî. Dal ńe eareéu ķa kakme, maj eareu-ņu lî. (European Occigotian) or ...maj lî eareîu (Brazilian Occigotian) ("She didn't eat the cake, but I did.") — Subject Dal, negation ńe, verb eareéu, object ķa kakme; the complement divides itself into: adversative conjunction maj, verb eareu, object -ņu, subject lî.
Occigotian declarative sentences, as in many languages, are the least marked ones. Imperative sentences use the imperative mood for the second person. For other grammatical persons and for every negative imperative sentence, the subjunctive is used. Yes/no questions have the same structure as declarative sentences, and are marked only by a different tonal pattern (mostly a raised tone near the end of the sentence), represented by a question mark in writing. Wh-questions often start with Manse ("who"), ņu man ("what"), mahík ("which"), mońat ("where"), ķamońat ("where... to"), mansajgn ("when"), mac-là ("why"), etc. The interrogative pronouns manse, ņu man and mahík can be preceded by any preposition, but in this case ņu man will usually be reduced to man. Frequently in oral language, and occasionally in writing, these words are followed by the interrogative device sereét que (literally, "is [it] that"; compare French est-ce que in wh-questions). Wh-questions sometimes occur without wh-movement, that is, wh-words can remain in situ. In this case, ņu man and mac-lat are replaced by their stressed counterparts ņu man and mac-lat (South American Occigotian) or maclat (European Occigotian). For example: Ņu man/Man eareéu man dal akereéu? or Ņu man/man akereéu dal? "What did she do?" Dal akereéu ņu man? "What did she do?" or, if emphatic, "Dal akereéu ņu man?" Mac La? (South American Occigotian) / Maclá? (European Occigotian) "Ņu man?" En man dej akereéu man thûzi ajfekpeveéu? "On what day did that happen?" Thôman daj en man ajfekpeveéu? "On what day did that happen?" In South American Occigotian, the phrase (akereéu man) is more often omitted.
Ńe ("no") is the natural negative answer to yes/no questions. As in Latin, positive answers are usually made with the inflected verb of the question in the appropriate person and number. Occigotian is one of the few Romance languages keeping this Latin peculiarity. The adverbs xhâ ("already"), hacinka ("yet"), and ķuțumesc ("too", "also") are used when one of them appears in the question. Q: Tu gasjfaretuun daņu filme? A: gasjfareîu. / Ńe. Q: "Did you like the movie?" A: "Yes.", literally, "I liked." / "No." Q: Lî ńe havivreîu deińareîu heńat úm sjapfe? A: havivretuun! Q: "Didn't I leave a key here?" A: "Yes, you did!", literally, "[You] did." Q: Xhâ liaeretuun eșņu líabrio? A: Xhâ. / Iatze ńe. Q: "Have you already read this book?" A: "Yes", literally, "Already." / "Not yet." The word rhe("yes") may be used for a positive answer, but, if used alone, it may in certain cases sound unnatural or impolite. In South American Occigotian, rhe can be used after the verb for emphasis. In North American Occigotian, emphasis in answers is added with the duplication of the verb. In all versions of Occigotian, emphasis can also result from syntactical processes that are not restricted to answers, such as the addition of adverbs like moôt ("much") or moôtișimalle ("very much"). It is also acceptable, though sometimes formal, to use yes before the verb of the question, separated by a pause or, in writing, a comma. The use of rhe before the verb does not add emphasis, and may on the contrary be less assertive. Q: Gasjfaretuu țeņu filme? A: Gasjfareîu, rhe! Q: "Did you like the movie?" A:"Yes, I did!" Q: Gasjfaretuun țeņu filme? A: Gasjafareîu, gasjfareîu! Q: "Did you like the movie?" A:"I did, I did!" Q: Havivreél combosĵos ha eșķa çóre? A: Havivreél, havivreél! Q: "Are there any trains at this time?" A:"Yes, there are!" Q: Él gasjfareélu țeņu filme? A: Rhe, gasjfareélu... Q:"Did he like the movie?" A: "He did, yes..."
Occigotian has definite and indefinite articles, with different forms according to the gender and number of the noun to which they refer: singular plural meaning masculine feminine masculine feminine definite article ņu, Él ķa, Dal ņus, Éls dals the indefinite article úm úma úms úmas a, an; some The noun after the indefinite article may be elided, in which case the article is equivalent to English "one" (if singular) or "some" (if plural): uhanveî úm ķuțumesc ("I want one too"), uhanveî úms ķuțumesc ("I want some too").
Nouns are classified into two grammatical genders ("masculine" and "feminine") and are inflected for grammatical number (singular or plural). Adjectives and determiners (articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers) must be inflected to agree with the noun in gender and number. Many nouns can take diminutive or augmentative suffixes to express size, endearment, or deprecation. Occigotian does not inflect nouns to indicate their grammatical function or case, relying instead on the use of prepositions (simple and phrasal), on pleonastic objects, or on the context or word order. Personal pronouns, on the other hand, still maintain some vestiges of declension from the ancestor language, Latin.
[Full Part on comments]

Common knowledge about English grammar〽️⁉️
Common knowledge about English grammar includes understanding parts of speech such as
nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

function main() { var CLICKS_THRESHOLD = 1; var report = AdsApp.report( `SELECT Query, Impressions, Clicks, Cost, Ctr, Conversions, CostPerConversion, AdGroupId, CampaignId ` + `FROM SEARCH_QUERY_PERFORMANCE_REPORT ` + `WHERE Clicks >= ${CLICKS_THRESHOLD} ` + `AND Conversions = 0 ` + `DURING LAST_30_DAYS` ); var searchData = []; var rows = report.rows(); while (rows.hasNext()) { var row = rows.next(); var data = { query: row['Query'], impressions: row['Impressions'], clicks: row['Clicks'], cost: row['Cost'], ctr: row['Ctr'], conversions: row['Conversions'], costPerConversion: row['CostPerConversion'], adGroupId: row['AdGroupId'], campaignId: row['CampaignId'] }; searchData.push(data); } var convertReport = AdsApp.report( `SELECT Query ` + `FROM SEARCH_QUERY_PERFORMANCE_REPORT ` + `WHERE Clicks >= ${CLICKS_THRESHOLD} ` + `AND Conversions > 0 ` + `DURING LAST_30_DAYS` ); var convertSearchData = []; var convertRows = convertReport.rows(); while (convertRows.hasNext()) { var convertRow = convertRows.next(); convertSearchData.push(convertRow['Query']); } var topConvertNGrams = getTopNGrams(convertSearchData, 5); var topNonConvertNGrams = getTopNGrams(searchData.map(data => data.query), 20); generateUnderperformingSearchTermsReport(searchData, topConvertNGrams, topNonConvertNGrams); } function getTopNGrams(searchQueries, n) { var nGrams = {}; searchQueries.forEach(function (query) { var words = query.split(' '); for (var i = 0; i < words.length - 1; i++) { var nGram = words.slice(i, i + n).join(' '); if (!nGrams[nGram]) { nGrams[nGram] = 1; } else { nGrams[nGram]++; } } }); var sortedNGrams = Object.keys(nGrams).sort(function (a, b) { return nGrams[b] - nGrams[a]; }); return sortedNGrams.slice(0, n); } function generateUnderperformingSearchTermsReport(searchData, topConvertNGrams, topNonConvertNGrams) { var searchTermsByCategory = { 'Noun': [], 'Verb': [], 'Adjective': [], 'Adverb': [], 'Pronoun': [], 'Preposition': [], 'Conjunction': [], 'Interjection': [] }; searchData.forEach(function (data) { var category = determineCategory(data.query); searchTermsByCategory[category].push({ searchTerm: data.query, impressions: data.impressions, clicks: data.clicks, conversions: data.conversions, costPerConversion: data.costPerConversion, adGroupId: data.adGroupId, campaignId: data.campaignId }); }); sendEmailReport(searchTermsByCategory, topConvertNGrams, topNonConvertNGrams); // Log what was sent and any changes made Logger.log("Email sent with underperforming search terms report."); } function determineCategory(searchTerm) { // Determine the category of the search term based on its linguistic properties if (searchTerm.includes(' ')) { return 'Noun'; } else if (searchTerm.includes('ing')) { return 'Verb'; } else if (searchTerm.endsWith('ly')) { return 'Adverb'; } else if (searchTerm === searchTerm.toUpperCase()) { return 'Pronoun'; } else if (['a', 'an', 'the'].includes(searchTerm.toLowerCase())) { return 'Article'; } else if (['and', 'but', 'or', 'nor', 'for', 'so', 'yet'].includes(searchTerm.toLowerCase())) { return 'Conjunction'; } else if (['!', '!!', '!!!'].includes(searchTerm)) { return 'Interjection'; } else { return 'Adjective'; } } function sendEmailReport(searchTermsByCategory, topConvertNGrams, topNonConvertNGrams) { var emailBody = "Dear [Your Name],\n\nI hope this email finds you well. As requested, here's a detailed report on underperforming search terms from your Google Ads campaigns.\n\n"; for (var category in searchTermsByCategory) { if (searchTermsByCategory.hasOwnProperty(category) && searchTermsByCategory[category].length > 0) { emailBody += "**" + category + "s:**\n\n"; emailBody += " Search Term Impressions Clicks Conversions Cost Per Conversion Ad Group ID Campaign ID \n"; emailBody += "----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n"; searchTermsByCategory[category].forEach(function (term) { var impressions = term.impressions ? term.impressions.toString() : ''; var clicks = term.clicks ? term.clicks.toString() : ''; var conversions = term.conversions ? term.conversions.toString() : ''; var costPerConversion = term.costPerConversion ? term.costPerConversion.toString() : ''; var adGroupId = term.adGroupId ? term.adGroupId : ''; var campaignId = term.campaignId ? term.campaignId : ''; emailBody += " " + padRight(term.searchTerm, 18) + " " + padLeft(impressions, 11) + " " + padLeft(clicks, 6) + " " + padLeft(conversions, 11) + " " + padLeft(costPerConversion, 20) + " " + padRight(adGroupId, 11) + " " + padRight(campaignId, 10) + " \n"; }); emailBody += "\n"; } } emailBody += "**Top 5 N-Grams from Queries that Convert:**\n\n"; emailBody += topConvertNGrams.join(", ") + "\n\n"; emailBody += "**Top 20 N-Grams from Queries that Do Not Convert:**\n\n"; emailBody += topNonConvertNGrams.join(", ") + "\n\n"; emailBody += "**Total Underperforming Search Terms: X**\n\n"; emailBody += "If you need further analysis or assistance in optimizing your Google Ads campaigns, please feel free to reach out.\n\n"; emailBody += "Best regards,\n John M. Williams"; // Replace placeholders such as [Your Name] and [Your Email] with your actual name and email address var recipientEmail = "youremail@email.com"; // Replace with your email address var subject = "Underperforming Search Term Report"; // Send email MailApp.sendEmail(recipientEmail, subject, emailBody); Logger.log("Email body:\n" + emailBody); } function padRight(str, length) { return (str + " ".repeat(length)).slice(0, length); } function padLeft(str, length) { return (" ".repeat(length) + str).slice(-length); } 

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- O'Brian Continued -
The team was met with a small courtyard with a pedestrian path leading to the building entrance. To their right was an empty parking lot which unconsciously eased a portion of their tension.
“Move up and breach the entrance. Strega, Athene, check for any alarms that might get tripped.”
They nodded, and worked in conjunction to find any traces of active alarms that might activate upon their breach. Athena was the first to report, quickly followed by Strega, who showed a minor bout of frustration but quickly let it go. She knew well that against an AI on the level of Athena, that it was pointless to compete.
“I detect no active measures for alarms. All available power seems to be routing through a terminal on the first level. Other than that, the building appears derelict,” Athena responded, triumphant of her usefulness.
With the sound of apparent confirmation, Gray was the first to attempt a breach at the entrance, which revealed to be slightly ajar, enough for him to grip and slide open. There was an external device beside the door, but most of it was missing, so the team settled for forcing open the doors utilizing Gray’s unrivaled strength.
They opened slowly, the mechanism straining against an unauthorized entry, as noted by the creaking sounds of the internal gears. But without much effort for Gray, the doors were opened, revealing a dark hallway. Gray then took a step forward, but was quickly stopped by both Strega and O’Brian, his foot barely within the door. Gray held it in position as if it were flash frozen in midair. He turned to O’Brian, who then pointed to the side of his helmet.
“Turn on your night visor.”
With a press of a button, the view of a darkened hallway lit up revealing more details than he previously could. “I know your eyes are great at night, but there are just some things even you can’t see without ‘em, Gray,” O’Brian stated, directing with an index finger to where his foot hovered.
The Raider in question knew he was being scolded and looked down, as ordered. What he saw were two bright lines that existed above and below his foot. At that moment, his shame grew, but luckily, he wore his helmet to hide his embarrassment.
“IR trip mine. You’re lucky you didn’t blow us all up,” added Strega with a sigh, and pulled out her FEA Pad, “Hang still.”
He did as he was told until the two strings of light went off, and he could freely move his feet forward, which landed with a heavy thud.
“Eh, sorry, Sir,” Gray said, hiding the embarrassment from escaping his voice.
“C’mon, be more careful next time, big guy. I’m not trying to go out on a trip-mine, of all things,” voiced Dare, frustration apparent in his voice.
The team slowed their advance since the trip-mine and moved as one to the terminal Athena had detected. Papers were littered across the floor alongside everyday office items that were forgotten in a rush to leave. They followed the hall to the end with a single door to the right. Strega was the first to lead, opening it with remote access by use of her FEA Pad. Luckily, unlike the entrance, the door was not rigged to blow, but they still searched the room cautiously for evidence of rigged defenses.
Against the wall to their left, was a single terminal, and above it was a large monitor. The room was small and housed two chairs, but remained largely empty with a set of slim lockers on the wall to the right. O’Brian made his way to the terminal, and Dare was the first to begin looking through the lockers after ensuring they too, were not rigged to blow. Strega and Gray, however, continued their patrol through the building as O’Brian retrieved Athena from a pouch, where he held her before him and her Greek goddess visage appeared, and she bowed. Without words, O’Brian silently equipped a port that was fashioned to integrate with Sellian ports.
“Connecting. Sir, I think you will be most pleased with what I have found,” reported Athena. The display above the terminal lit up showcasing a series of graphs, numbers, and characters foreign to him. It looked like a diagnostic, of which he knew nothing about.
“What am I looking at, Athena?”
“From what I have gathered so far… This compound looks to be a service and maintenance station. They monitor gate access and power distribution… Pulling up connected services now.”
A series of visuals appeared, relating to a connected system, in sequence as she explained each function.
“It appears they control gate operations from this compound, which so happens to be connected to the rest of the wall.”
“What’s it connected to?” he asked.
She pulled up what looked to be military defenses in addition to a series of sensors, all of which were indicated to be running at maximum power.
“All available power had been rerouted to newly placed defensive batteries.”
“New?” voiced Dare, occupied with newfound documents and trinkets from the locker.
“They had recently upgraded from an older missile battery model, although the platform remains the same.”
O’Brian knew what had to be done. He didn’t need an order from a higher authority to tell him his secondary objective, since his decision would align with his current mission.
“Shut it down. Those AA Batteries would wreak havoc on our Raiders.”
With his order, indicators signifying a connected signal were cut, and the equivalent of error symbols flashed in place as Athena severed the connections portions at a time.
“Connection severed. Opening the gate now-”
And as she said, the large doors to the wall began to open with a near a low and constant hum. They felt the vibrations of the gate lightly, but they soon came to a stop. He knew that their entry had to be noticed by somebody, whether it be a passing patrol or electronic sensors within the city.
He had more questions now that they had access to the city, and the lack of a force in the outer section of the city was cause for concern. So far, they had come across no form of aerial security or patrols on their route, especially considering the amount of noise they made taking on the small outpost on the outskirts.
O’Brian also checked his Holo-map for a possible change, but found it the same as when he last checked, “Any lead on that jammer? I need to get in contact with 7th Fleet,” inquired O’Brian to his digital companion.
“I am having some difficulties trying to decode its frequency, but its coded main-line frequency is rapidly changing. Whoever came up with it did a decent job making the signal tamper-proof. I’m not familiar with the technology employed, so I may need more time.”
“We’ll see about that,” chimed Dare, pointing to the large case on his back, “We just need a visual, point me in a direction.”
She nodded to his suggestion, but ultimately felt curious about how he would handle it.
“There is an access tunnel that leads from this compound to the other side of the wall. There should be a plethora of vantage points for some one of your… skill set. I’ll mark a notable location on your HUD.”
O’Brian nodded his head in a motion for him to get moving, to which Dare dismissed himself almost gleefully. He had already gotten permission and left for the tunnel, which revealed to be an entrance at the end of the hall that was previously hidden.
He tapped away on his wrist pad, engaging short range comms for others in his company, but was met with static.
“Damn it. Strega, Gray. Time to head out and regroup.”
When he stepped out of the room, he was met with both Strega and Gray who stood idle in the hallway after watching Dare depart on his mission.
“Sent him to scout?” Strega was the first to ask.
O’Brian nodded in affirmation, “Short and long range comms are shot. He’s been ordered to search and destroy the source. To do that, we’ll need to draw them away.”
He motioned in the vague direction of the city gate, and the three made their way to the entrance and beyond the compound walls, moving south through the nearby building alleys towards the main road.
They moved quickly while still maintaining an alert mind. They did so by constantly glancing at all likely spots for an ambush. It’s a skill developed after surviving encounters in a dense hostile environment and knowing possible locations where someone could hide were valuable in their survival.
The team made their way to the edge of the main road. Before nearing the end of the alley way, O’Brian noticed on his mini-map that friendly indicators entered the edge of his sensor radius, as indicated with green dots on his lower left of his HUD.
A Raider on the outer edge of the perimeter turned to meet them, his weapon at the ready, but lowered it upon their clearing of the alley. The vehicles they came with were now established in a spread convoy, with all two Pumas in the front, followed by two Grizzly tanks, then the two Rhinos, with the last two Pumas taking the rear.
The convoy was off-set to avoid taking a round from behind by friendly fire. This ensured that enemies engaged forward of the convoy would receive maximum engagement. Their spacing as well also allowed for groups of soldiers to be able to take cover from either their left or right flanks. If they were assaulted on both sides, then the rhinos would park beside one another to protect the Raiders in between; a standard tactic for convoys.
Before he gave the order to set off, he checked his holo-map once more. This time, the only change noted was the amount of friendly indicators present around him, with the diminished building details on the edge of sensor range. Feeling that map status insignificant, he closed it, and ordered his troop’s advance.
“Move out!” he ordered, taking a ride in the now empty Rhino. It was common for officers to be in a place to take cover during a convoy, and the Rhino was his best option. It offered defense as well as offense, making it a decent option as a mobile command center.
With his order, the convoy moved forward, the sounds of tire, tread, and boots sounding the atmosphere. They were in the enemy’s home, and their mind’s focus was at an all-time high. O’Brian was aware of their thinking, how some were bloodthirsty for the enemy, or some who simply wanted to go home. At the end of the day, they had a job to do, and they all knew, collectively, that winning this would grant them time off when they went home.
They only need to survive.
As they advanced, all conversation ceased, for the most part. Hushed tones were occasionally spoken, commenting on the state of their environment.
“Huh, you’d think this place would be more…”
“Lively?”
“I was thinking ‘Swarming with patrols’, but yours works.”
It was two Raiders patrolling beside each other at the rear of O’Brian’s Rhino. He couldn’t see them, but their proximity comms were enough for most of the company to hear. However, they were silenced by an order of their sergeant.
“Quiet down you two. Scan your flanks, and shut up.”
“Aye, Sarn’t,” replied the two, increasing the space between each other to fifteen paces.
Raptor Company followed the main road, cautiously navigating through debris and left behind vehicles, but most of the road remained clear of obstructions. It felt unnatural to them as they continued scanning every window and door that entered their view, of which there were thousands.
Ahead, a pair of Pumas paused, as did the rest of the convoy. As standard practice during a halt in the convoy, those on foot took cover on the sides of the road below building awnings and inlets while scanning around the convoy. O’Brian felt this, and pulled up his map. It tracked all of his current force with his troops on the sides of the road and the vehicles still on the road.
“Puma team, why’d we stop?”
A reply came quickly from the team in question, “A cross road. What are your orders?”
With his map still relatively useless on a larger scale, he decided to depart from the Rhino and meet with the puma team up front. The rest of the company remained in hiding between the crevices of buildings as O’Brian made his way to them.
They had traveled for several minutes and had encountered no resistance thus far, which worried him, but analyzed his situation. The road they were on extended further east, with the cross flowing north and south. At the ends, blue lights shined from beyond some buildings, momentarily lighting up the surrounding buildings.
‘The cannons!’ he thought to himself. Now would be a perfect time to neutralize them for ships to get within support range. He had already taken care of the missile batteries so aerial support and drop pods would be safe from attack, or so he thought.
With an order with his proximity comms, he called for the squad leaders of the company to convene. He didn’t need all the company to converge on his position. It would make for a horrific mass casualty event.
Before him were Sergeants Strega, O’Clair, Jericho, and Blythe; squad leaders of Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta, respectively. They stood ready, while also minding their silhouette in the open, and oriented themselves beside the Puma.
“Here’s what we have,” O’Brian started, pointing at the location of the pillars of light to the north and south, “We don’t have much time, and we’ve wasted enough of it. This city has at least two, surface-to-orbit cannons that are taking out the navy as we speak. We need to take them out to make room for the assault carrier and to get the rest of our brothers and sisters to assist in our invasion. We barely scratched the interior of the city, so we’ll need to double time our efforts, without delay.”
He directed a finger to Jericho and Blythe, “You two will take the south cannon, while Alpha and Bravo will take the north. Naturalize the cannon then return to this crossroad, if possible. If not, make your way to the center of the city. Intel says that the Council Compound is at the center. You have execute authority on all hostiles, only. So, conserve your ammo,” he continued, “We don't have the means to resupply. Worst case, you start using the enemy’s weapons…”
The mention made them gag. For Raiders, they held a displeasure of utilizing weapons not in standard use by their organization, since their current armory has been tested for decades, with reliability to match. That, paired with the large calibers made them a need in their line of work, more than a want. They wouldn’t want to settle for anything less, which became evident during a body search of an enemy utilizing small caliber rounds, which seemed to be their standard.
“Shouldn’t be a problem, Sir,” voiced Jericho, presenting his Series Eight Auto Rifle.
“From what I’ve noticed, a single round from this baby can put ‘em six under, even with their armor,” Blythe nodded, supporting his teammate’s claim.
“Good. Take half of the convoy, and high-tail it to your objective,” he turned to O’Clair and Strega, ordering them in the same manner.
Those who were on foot, got with their squads and embarked on any free space of the Rhinos and Grizzlies. The recon vehicles were already at capacity, and they were the first to depart toward the objective while scouting the roads ahead. With their leadership, Alpha and Bravo took to the roads at full throttle to the north, with Charlie and Delta squads departing southbound.
O’Brian remained at the crossroads, leaving with him only two lower enlisted Raiders. They were identified by their white markings on their pauldrons. Telling by how fresh the marking was, with no real fading to the paint, he knew them to be fresh to the unit. They were on alert, as shown by their lowered combat stance and their weapon at the ready, itching to put several rounds into the first thing that decided to deem its life short.
He decided to break the ice with them as they advanced eastward on the main road, sticking close to the buildings and weaving into the alleyways whenever possible.
“I don’t recall you two being in the unit. When did you show up?” The two in question were caught off guard, being directly addressed by their commanding officer.
The first to answer was Lance Corporal Ryder, a female attached to Bravo squad but ordered by Sergeant O’Clair to stick with the Lieutenant, “Right after the Battle of Draxis, Sir. Myself and Lance Corporal Fox,” she directed a nod behind her, identifying the second Raider who was cautiously eying all possible ambush locations on their route. When he noticed the attention on himself, he gave a quick informal salute with only two fingers with his left hand before placing them back on the foregrip of his Series Four Badger Rifle.
“Sir, I have a question,” Ryder spoke, quiet as to not disturb their silent approach through the empty pathways. O’Brian nodded for her to continue. “What do you think of the Sellians?”
He thought for a moment as they continued silently through the alleyway before reaching the end and paused before answering, “Just soldiers, like us.”
He noticed that his answer didn’t fulfill her curiosity but now was a perfect time to impart his thinking on a new generation of Raider, “Like us, they’re soldiers. Doing what they feel is right and justified. Of course, that varies between individuals, but that fact remains the same. Many of them are willing to take up arms against us, as we are towards them. We fight for Terra and its citizens, they fight for Sella and her people.”
“I’ve seen the vids, Sir,” she replied, “they took slaves and murdered innocent civilians. What part of that seems justified?”
He understood where she was coming from, but with a race that grew up culturally different from themselves, they miraculously shared some parallels. And so, O’Brian replied to her question, “I understand your frustration, but every so often, you need to take a step back and view from their perspective. They thought we were encroaching on their territory, and sought to remove us.”
She took a minute to take in his words before replying with a question of her own, “Why didn’t they try diplomacy. Surely, it would’ve been more beneficial than what they lost since Draxis.”
After motioning them to advance past an open road to the alleyway across from them. Once they made it across, he answered, “Scared leaders will always rush their judgment with little thought. I understand why they did it, but I don’t have to forgive them. Remember, every decision has a price, and their decision to wipe us out will come with a heavy toll,” this time, he fashioned his Series Four Badger, “The price just so happens to come in the form of subsonic hate and discontent.”
“Oo-rah! Sir!” Ryder replied in a loud whisper.
“Until we’re ordered otherwise,” O’Brian began, “you are weapons free on all hostiles,” she nodded in response and regained her combat posture, same as Fox.
As they continued on their path, O’Brian attempted to gain comms with his scout sniper, Dare. Meanwhile, as he peered into the night sky, flashes of lights came into being for fractions of a second, taking the place of stars in the foreground. He knew if his team kept this pace, then all would be for nothing and their fleet would be reduced to orbital debris. An outcome he wanted to avoid at all costs.
Looking at his watch, he noticed that they had only a couple of hours before daylight broke, and he needed to know the status of his squads and their objectives.
“Dare, come in,” he said, only to be met with static. O’Brian tried multiple times to connect but to no avail. He checked his map for any nearby friendly icons, but found none. When in the cover of the nearby buildings, he retrieved Athena from her pouch.
“Did you manage to crack their frequency?” he asked.
“Still at work, but I am close to-” Athena spoke, before being abruptly cut off by a litany of comms chatter assaulting his ears. With a press of a button, he was able to isolate the numerous calls by priority, with Dare being the first.
“Sir? Do you read me?”
O’Brian was quick to respond, “I read you, did you take out the jammer?”
“Yes Sir,” Dare replied, “But my area might be compromised. Making my way to you.”
O’Brian pulled up his tactical map, and noticed that there was an increase in resolution of the display. To his North-East, a lone icon with the letters ‘RPTR D-1-4’ above it was displayed on the top of a building, and a neutrally colored icon sat beside him.
“You have a friend?” Questioned O’Brian.
“A resident of the building. Don’t worry, I have it under control,” replied dare, followed by several consecutive thumps from a suppressed weapon, most notably, from his Series Ten Marksman Rifle.
“We’ll make our way to you, hang tight,” ordered O’Brian.
“Copy,” replied Dare.
O’Brian then ordered a change in direction for his fireteam, with Fox taking point, and Ryder second in their stack, and himself in the rear as he tried to get in contact with his squads. He was able to get in contact with Strega, but the sound of gunfire filtered through their comms, “Sir! We’ve taken control of the cannon, but we’re bogged down by heavy fire from our east! We couldn’t blow it; a sniper took out our explosives supply!”
“Stand by and hold out! Get ready for a counteroffensive!” He cut the line, this time switching to Jericho, leader of Charlie squad.
“Tell me you have good news,” O’Brian ordered, expecting a quick and concise report, as evidenced by the reply from Jericho.
“We have the cannon sir, planting explosives now-” he replied, but was interjected by his lieutenant with a secondary solution. “Do you have access to a command terminal for the cannon?”
With several seconds of silence, Jericho came back with an answer that pleased him, “We do sir. What do you want us to do?”
“Turn it on the enemy navy,” he replied, “Once you do that, I'm certain the enemy is gonna try to regain control. So dig in, and defend your position.”
“Yes sir,” replied the Raider, no doubt relaying orders to the rest of his group.
He then returned his attention to Strega, who picked up as quickly as he called. Her comms were littered with the same sounds of combat. At first, she ignored his initial request as she was actively giving orders to both Alpha and Bravo squads.
“Get a beat on those snipers! They already nailed Rivers!” several shots of her own followed shortly after, then directed her attention back to her lieutenant, “Sir! What about that air support?!?”
“They won't be able to make it with that AA gun still trained on our ships. Redirect the cannon on the enemy, then you’ll have your air support.”
Frustration was sounded from Strega with an exasperated grunt, “Aye sir. We’ll get it done,” and she cut off her communication.
By the time he ended his communications, they had made it to Dare’s location, but Fox silently held his left arm at a ninety-degree with a fist, symbolizing the group to halt. They stopped short when they spotted a small group of Sellian troopers patrolling at the base of the building.
He counted six individuals by a set of opened doors, facing out towards the street. Luckily for his fireteam, they were concealed by the shadows of the buildings, and the light of a streetlamp illuminated the enemy soldiers, surrounding the group in darkness.
O’Brian addressed Ryder and Fox quietly as he readied his weapon, and the two followed his action, “I’ll take the center two, both of you take a pair on the left and right.”
They nodded as a laser from their weapon and crosshair on their HUDs lined up on the chest of three soldiers. He counted down, with the final number spelling the doom of the six before them.
“Three, two, one…”
Several shots were fired from their rifles, with the pitched thumps of sub-sonic rounds exiting their barrels. The velocity edged on the barrier of supersonic, but just enough to not break it, maximizing lethality and stealth. Paired with the engineering of their integrated suppressors, the enemy fell before they knew what had hit them.
“Dare, you have contacts inbound,” stated O’Brian as his fireteam advanced on the open doors, keeping their weapon at the ready for any surprises.
“Understood. Standing by,” replied the sniper.
Fox was the first to scan the entrance before giving the signal to advance into the building. Knowing that the enemy was present, Fox, Ryder, and O’Brian moved in a combat glide through the building.
The combat glide is a posture used by almost all organized and professional armed forces. By making precise contact with the balls of their feet and rolling it forward, paired with the support of their hunched torso, a rifleman could move through an interior environment quickly, and silently. Their movements flowed like water as they progressed through the halls of the building.
With each room they passed, Fox would clear it, peering in from the first available angle and rotating his torso in an arc to match with his increasing view of the room until he passed it. Behind him, Ryder would keep her rifle trained forward until Fox passed the room and would do the same while O’Brian watched their rear, until it was his turn to clear the room.
This was a practiced and drilled movement when engaged in a close-quarters environment, like the interiors of buildings or ships. It was something they were used to and their actions were smooth, yet fast. A doctrine known for time immemorial. Their movements changed when they reached the stairs. Their movement remained largely the same, but this time, their eyes followed the rising slope of the stairs.
Even as experienced as O’Brian was, when it came to clearing stairs, it was a lot more hazardous than clearing rooms of a leveled plane. If the enemy knew they were coming and that they had to progress through a set of stairs, then they held an innate advantage. Their views were larger, and they would be able to spot their rifles or helmets before the advancing party could even see the waiting enemy. But for his fireteam, they held an advantage of their own.
O’Brian glanced at his HUDs mini-map and several red icons appeared in upright triangles and two identifiable lines beneath them, indicating how many floors they were above the fireteam.
“Hold,” he said, issuing Fox and Ryder to stop, but still maintained sight lines of the stairs, “They’re two floors above us. Reload, and get ready to engage.”
They replied in response by swapping out their current magazine for a fresh one. As he referenced the mini-map, the lines increased once more, making three lines beneath the triangle icon. As far as his map could identify, the early detection system only allowed up to three levels of distance before capping out. If they had three, then they could be anywhere from three to five floors away, since the proximity sensors only allowed detection for a short range, depending on interfering materials. But as he recently saw two lines, then they weren’t too far behind.
O’Brian tapped Ryder on the shoulder, who did the same with Fox. That was his signal to advance, and the three repeated their motions until they began to hear chatter above them, and the enemy triangle icons changed from one line to none. Fox halted the team once again, maintaining his rifle with one hand. O’Brian knew that they were one stair well away from the enemy.
Before they advanced further, gunfire erupted at the top of the stairwell and chaos among the enemy erupted.
“Vek’Ta! He shot Ronu!!” yelled one Sellian trooper trying to apply medical aid to the unresponsive downed trooper.
“Chief! What of the civilian?” asked another as he fired blindly from the cover of the wall by the door.
“I don’t care! Kill them both!” replied their commanding officer.
“Of course! War Chief!”
As was their cue, O’Brian gave the order to advance with rapid taps on Ryder’s shoulder, which she applied the same to Fox who increased his speed. As he rounded the corner of the stairwell, a pair of Sellian Ground Troopers were seen treating a downed trooper on the landing. A Sellian facing towards the descending path of the stairs was the first to notice Fox and began to notify his busy comrade treating the downed soldier. He was promptly silenced with two shots that made their way through the amber glass of their visor, his body falling limp onto the body that his comrade was treating.
The second grew confused by the sudden action by his comrade but was subsequently shot with three rounds from Fox who landed two at the base of the neck and another in his back. Fox continued, turning his attention back to the stairwell, with Ryder switching from the well to the downed Sellian, firing one round into the head of the unresponsive Sellians before continuing behind Fox.
As they reached what seemed to be the top level of the building, a gunfight was erupting just beyond the door, with more Sellians waiting by the door for cover. The fireteam wasted no time up the stairs and began firing into the waiting enemy crowd.
- O'Brian Continued -
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 #bu_globalexplorer2024 

1. Sentence Structure: A sentence typically consists of a subject (who or what the sentence is about) and a predicate (what the subject is doing or being). For example: "The cat (subject) is sleeping (predicate)."
   
2. Parts of Speech: There are eight basic parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Each serves a specific function within a sentence.
   
3. Nouns: Nouns are words that represent people, places, things, or ideas. They can be common (e.g., book, city) or proper (e.g., London, John).
   
4. Pronouns: Pronouns are used to replace nouns to avoid repetition. Examples include I, you, he, she, it, we, they, me, him, her, us, and them.
   
5. Verbs: Verbs express action (e.g., run, jump) or state of being (e.g., is, are). They can be in different tenses (past, present, future) and forms (regular, irregular).
   
6. Adjectives: Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns to provide more information about them. For example, "The blue car" or "She is happy."
   
7. Adverbs: Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs to provide information about time, manner, place, or degree. For example, "He ran quickly."
   
8. Prepositions: Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. Common prepositions include in, on, at, by, for, to, with, and from.
   
9. Conjunctions: Conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence. Examples include and, but, or, so, yet, for, and nor.
   
10. Interjections: Interjections are words or phrases used to express emotion or surprise. Examples include wow, ouch, hey, and alas.
    

By Mabelle (Mewmew)

This is for a protolang spoken by a fictional population of humanoid and villager-like NPCs in a modded Minecraft server, these people residing in a jungle on an island. The protolang would split in two via sound and grammar changes.
It's an idea I thought up for a Minecraft SMP series idea I posted about here a while back in the small discussions. A series played by myself, Life series players like Grian, SolidarityGaming, Martyn, Skizzleman, SmallishBeans, PearlescentMoon, ZombieCleo, Mumbo Jumbo, LDShadowLady, etc. some Hermits from the Hermitcraft server, and Minecraft players like Dracheneks and Agma Schwa, and some friends of theirs, given their experience with conlangs.
In this series, inspired by NativLang's video about first contact with foreign speakers in their territory, each season finds the players crashed or shipwrecked "on an island, in a rainforest, or up in the mountains" and, while trying to survive and rebuild civilization, are challenged with figuring out the language(s) and customs of the native speakers nearby them. For each season, it's (a) new location(s), (a) new people(s), and (a) new language(s). This language is the common ancestor of the two for the first season.
Phonology

	Labial	Alveolar	Alveolar(cont.)	Palatal	Velar	Guttural	Guttural(cont.)	Glottal
	Labial(cont.)	plain	lateral	Palatal(cont.)	Velar(cont.)	voiceless	voiced	Glottal(cont.)
Nasal	m	n
Oral stop	p	t			k	q		ʔ(')
Affricate		ts	tɬ(tl)
Fricative		s	ɬ(hl)			ħ(hh)	ʕ(hq)	h
Liquid	w	r	l	j	w

Vowels: a, e, i, o, u (With long and short variance of each.)
Syllables and stress are the same as Simatsan, with the structure being (C)V, and stress falling on the antepenult by default, the only exception being if the penult has a long vowel, in which that one is stressed instead.
The script would start out as a logography, the speakers using flint or arrows to carve glyphs into trees, leading to logographs with thick vertical lines and thin horizontal ones. Eventually, they'd transition their writing to paper(invented from sugar cane) with ink written on it via feathers.
Nouns:
animal: tahli
tree: petlee
food: tsohhe
water: tuuhha
fire: qi'i
sheep: ketlaa
pig: tiike
chicken: teqi
cow: napaa
bird(parrot): wuhee
bear(panda): tse
ocelot/cat: riikii
creeper: qee
phantom: hhu
turtle(sea turtle): tli
cocoa beans: sote
melon: sa
bamboo: hleqitse
frog: hlu
sword: hunt+tool
bow: string+tool
arrow: 'eequ
string: spider+stuff
spider: qaatli
person: ohu
bone: maate
stuff: qatsuu
leaf: lera
plant: tle
slime: mohlu
squid: hhe
sun: tso
moon: ka
light: qoohqu
dark: hheeri
ground: qii
grass: nela
dirt: setsii
stone/cobblestone: quuhle
pickaxe: mine+tool
shovel: dig+tool
cave: hqaako
zombie: cave+person
tiny zombie: person+small
witch: hqihi
enderman: person+big
rotten flesh: cave+person+stuff
crafting table: craft+tool
furnace: cook+place
chest: hiitse
place: teehho
home: hetaa
jungle: tree+place
ink: squid+stuff
fish: 'utla
tool: loraa
weapon: hunt+ tool
ax: tree+tool
sheers: sheer+tool
wool: sheep+stuff
leather: cow+stuff
redstone: tlaka
lead: animal+tool
gunpowder: creeper+stuff
gravel: haqa
flint: gravel+unit
rain: retse
lightning: hqo
stair: hla'e
slab: te
sand: 'uu
glass: tlahho
sugar cane: nuure
path: kute
unit/piece: leequ
feather: roohhe
egg: hli'o
fishing rod: fish+tool
bottle/container: 'ootse
bowl: woluu
day: hharu
night: hqiitso
lever: luji
door: jaa'e
house: hhooki
steak: cow+food
mutton: sheep+food
chicken(food): chicken+food
feather: chicken+stuff
porkchop: pig+food
farm: tsetli
sound: 'ohqii
speech: kotenu
Those certain mobs are chosen if the series starts with a cheap budget and cheap storage space. Those mobs spawn in jungle biomes in normal Minecraft, and besides, it could be nice to start with something familiar. More modifications would need to be accommodated.
Verbs:
kill: 'ehle
hunt: konee
craft: noota
build: nisuu
see: pitle
eat: siro
drink: he'o
stand: tluu
swim: tsi'u
crawl: 'aati
dig: 'ii
punch: hqu
mine: tliiqo
cook/smelt: saaquu
give: kiihha
take: quusa
stay: qitlee
go: 'oo
move: tlo'a
stop: hhila
sit: sooki
exist: hha
live/dwell/reside: e
lack: iqo
eventual successor word for "lack": mau
speak: taare
tell: oko
ask: tleehqi
come: jo'o
arrive: suuki
draw: 'ihlu
write: hhako
cause: muqa
milk: keehqo
plant: puhlii
sheer: qaahla
finish: iiho
complete: so
want/need: hhoo
possess/have: tloo'i
gain: tehqii
command: koose
push: waqo
pull: 'eena
enter: hqoone
exit: uhlii
proceed: hhaatsi
squat: hlutsaa
harvest: uro
know: qetlu
contain: 'iipo
hear: hluuma
Adjectives(derived from nouns):
big: paku
small: sutli
large/huge: pee'o
little/tiny: kiqii
empty: qosaa
half full: tlo
full: 'akee
raw: 'iitu
cooked: 'ete
before: tloka
during: tehla
after: tsihquu
some: wehhi
many: posaa
all: jooru
earlier: ke
latethen: pe
alive: too
dead: qaa
Those specific mobs are chosen if the series starts with a cheap budget and storage space. Those mobs spawn in jungle biomes in normal Minecraft, and besides, it could be nice to start with something familiar. More modifications would need to be accommodated.
Adpositions(derived from both nouns and verbs):
at/on: derived from "sit"
inside: tihle
outside: so'u
into: derived from "enter"
out of: derived from "exit"
above: a(derived from "up")
beneath: ju(derived from "down")
from: mo
to: derived from "go", despite it being the future tense marker(Should I use something different to derive "to" from?)
of: tsee
with: roo
around: tsii
about: ni
Pronouns:
I/me: kaa
You(singular): hlii
You(plural): nu
He/She/It: ree
We/Us: tlaa
They/Them: hqii
Interjections:
to call someone's attention: 'uusi
yes: derived from "possess"
no: derived from "lack"
unknown answer: neehho
maybe: saahla
surprise/fear: hhohi
Color Terms(tied to taxonomy):
red: derived from "redstone"
yellow: derived from "fire"
green: derived from "leaf"
blue: derived from "water"
white: derived from "light"
black: derived from "dark"
Demonstratives:
this: hoo
that: la
Question terms: There are no tutorials about question words in conlangs and languages compared to English, so I decided to improvise, even for the interjections.
interrogative marker: hqatlo
What: koo
When: 'a
How: tsiqe
Where: 'uupo
Why: hle
Negation marker: derived from "lack"
Conjunctions:
and: ji
or: mi
Copulae:
standard: derived from "exist"
locative: derived from "live/dwell/reside"
???: derived from "stand"
Valency:
passive/mediopassive: take +
causative: cause +
Numbers(the system is base-16):
zero: maybe derived from "empty"?
one: hlo
two: tsaahli
three: qo
four: komo
five: tsutaa
six: totse
seven: rahli
eight: wiruu
nine: rutsi
ten: jeta
eleven: litsu
twelve: meetu
thirteen: hqeko
fourteen: eru
fifteen: hutlo
Word order: VOS
Grammatical Number: singular(unmarked), plural(many), distributive(some)
TAM System:

	Perfective	Imperfective	Cessative
Past	finish +	(unmarked)	stop +
Present	(unmarked)	(unmarked)	???
Future	go +	(Non-existent)	???

A distinction between perfective and cessative would exist as long as the perfective means the verb was performed and completed, and the cessative means the verb was performed but not completed.
(I implemented backup words to take their place when they become grammaticalized. It's the same story with other nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adpositions. Just in case.)
Conceptual Metaphors: The flow of time is perceived the same way as in Mandarin, with "up" being related to the past, and "down" to the future. Fire could be associated with anger, pain, and death(if playing on modes where a person would die without the ability to respawn and thus be out of the game). Rain could be associated with sadness. Sunlight could be associated with happiness. Players and NPCs can drown in water, and fire is useful for lighting places, at least until the invention of torches.
They could learn farming by figuring out how to plant and harvest melons, thus associating moist dirt(tilled) with strength or wellness and dry dirt(while still tilled) with weakness or sickness, or whatever is similar to the latter if players and NPCs can't receive sicknesses unless mods are utilized.

ELA Free Resources: Summary of Parts of Speech https://www.elafree.com/2022/03/summary-of-parts-of-speech.html?spref=tw

ela #grammar #parts_of_speech #nouns #pronouns #adjectives #verba #adverba #prepositions #interjections #conjunctions