Sun replied to me, “No. Defensive Armsman what?” || No. What is Defensive Armsman?
I replied, “It is like Armsman, but instead of being a pure fighter class, it adds some skills that use mana.
Interface told me
It probably does less overall damage than a regular armsman, but adds skills to help protect yourself.
maybe perfect melee tank
The Guardsman class will help you protect others, while Defensive Armsman adds some offense, as well as additional capability to protect yourself.
sounds awesome to me for pure tank
“It I consider.” || Thank you. I will consider it.
“Hmmm. Much Forrest think.” || Um, you use Group Mind a lot, Forrest – after every sentence
“That you need not.” || You do not need to do that so much.
“Voice I understand.” || I understand your voice well.
“Once you try.” || Perhaps try a thought summary once at the end of each total thought.
“Arrjee, Skolturi honored too.” || Arrjee, honored Skolturi, you too group think more often than needed.
“It okay I.” || I am okay with it.
“Hard you try.” || But you might be trying too hard.
“Once you try, see.” || Maybe try once per total thought; let’s see how it works.
I summarized for clarification. “You think we might be overusing our Group Mind when we speak. Since you already understand our words well, we don’t need to constantly intersperse group thoughts within paragraphs. You would be fine with a final thought summary at the end.”
like this? (sorry if thoughts were too frequent)
“Yes, good.” || Yes, that was good.
Orian gave a short laugh. “Sun, you mean thousands of years ago, the Skolturi could have been constantly annoying Trichyans by overusing Group Mind?” || funny possibility
“Reluctant adults.” | Adults were probably reluctant to say anything.
“Polite they offend not.” || | They were probably too polite and were afraid of offending Honored Skolturi.
“Thing bad it not.” || It’s not a bad thing.
“Us you respect.” || You were respecting us.
“Unnecessary it.” || Using it so much is just unnecessary.
“Annoyed they not.” || You would have known if they had actually been annoyed.
Asiel announced, “Okay, I’ll try waiting until the end of paragraphs, unless something has a strong emotional context. For now, it is already late, 19:10. Does anyone have any other business this evening?” || they:tired
After a few seconds Dad, the Mayor, spoke up. “Thank you for coming today, and helping to establish this school with your skills and wisdom. I am sorry we did not get your curtains yet. I’ll make sure they are acquired and hung tomorrow.”
Orian said that it was no problem, and Asiel agreed. Dad said he would need to stop by the village’s storage room and get bedding for the teens staying in the cottage in town. Lenyet volunteered to help, and Grandma said she would go to the cottage with us and cast a couple torches. We left the meeting room and went our various ways. Not just Lenyet, but Runtel and Brune also, went with Dad to grab supplies for the sleepover. We headed to the cottage, with Sun making a quick side trip behind some trees. The rest of us used an outhouse on the way.
The cottage was on the smaller side, with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a den. Grandma cast a 3-hour torch in the den, and a 1-hour, dimmer, one in each bedroom. Kossa told us that her house was near and that she would go tell her family about the sleepover. The rest of us socialized for a few minutes until Dad and the masters arrived with some bedding and snacks. Kossa followed them in.
“Would you younglings be okay if I spent the night here as well?” asked Lenyet. I would prefer not to bother the people at the inn at this late hour.”
We looked at each other, and there was no dissent, and our Group Mind favored the idea. Arrjee stated, “You are welcome to stay, Lenyet. We would like you to be an honorary teenager tonight, however. While this is a sleepover, we are too old for a chaperone.”
Lenyet smiled, “I am happy to accept the status. That is how I would prefer it anyway.” Dad told us if we wanted breakfast, to be over to his house at 5:30. Lenyet was included in the offer.
Finally, all the adults left except for him. The first thing we did was decide to use both bedrooms, with four of us in one and three in the other. We began laying out bedding, with everyone going to sleep on the floor. There was more than enough bedding, and Sun asked if he could use two extra blankets. They would not be to cover him, but to help provide support for his somewhat hexagonal torso. He can sleep on any one of his sides, but Trichyan beds are designed for extra support of the two sides next to the one on the bottom. Of course it was not an issue, and he laid out his bedding with a rolled up blanket along each side.
Lenyet had brought two decks of cards with him from River. He had mentioned what I assumed to be a Poker-like game last Tuesday which he called Straight Face. Arrjee, Kossa, and Onre knew it, but Sun, Ferret, and I did not. Ferret had never seen a deck of cards before, and I had never seen one from my new home of Heere.
Although Ferret did not know arithmetic except for the very basics of addition, he did recognize the numerals 0 through 9. He had no problem learning that a 1 and a 0 together formed a 10. My knowledge of an Earth deck of cards was working against me. In the first place, there were only three suits, with 17 cards in each suit. Each deck included two special, non-suited cards he called ‘wild cards’, two words because Covargh did not have the single word ‘wildcard’. I told them that an Earth deck was quite similar, with four, 13-card suits and 2 wild cards, which they also called ‘jokers’.
Lenyet explained that some card games used wild cards, and some did not. With Straight Face they were optional, so players would agree to use both of them, just one, or none. It sounded exactly how jokers were used on Earth. Sun told us that a Trichyan deck was the same, but that they came with three wild cards. The picture cards had images of Trichyans, though, not Humans, Covargh, and Hybrids.
Three other features of these suits made them quite different to those of Earth. One difference was that there was no concept of “aces”. The number card 1 was no different than the number card 2, except it always had a lower value. The suits started out quite similar to Earth’s, with ten number cards and 3 pictured royal cards, knight, duchess, and king. The biggest difference was the peer cards. These were also picture cards, ranked higher than 10 and less than a knight. Except they all held the same value. If 10 was ten and knight was eleven, then all of the peer cards were essentially 10.5. It would take a while for my head to wrap itself around that concept.
The third feature of the suits that stood out to me were their very geometrical names, spheres, cones, and rods. Onre explained that those were the three simplest shapes of physical objects (I noticed he didn’t say “three dimensional”), one-sided, two-sided, and three-sided. Each number card in a suit was accompanied by both the number and that many simple representations of the shape, such as spheres. The picture cards, though, were more imaginative. For example a rod could be shown as a wand, a long, sawed-off bone, or even a solid wheel. Anything round with some depth to it was considered a rod for suit purposes, The picture cards for the other suits showed similar flexibility. For example, the non-pointed end of a cone could be flat or rounded; it did not matter as long as there were two overall sides.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Once those of us who were curious about the cards had looked at them, Lenyet told us the basics of playing Straight Face. He said that this evening the games would be friendly, but let us know that in serious games, people could lose a lot of money. Then he started with the rules. There were different varieties of the game, but we would be playing a variety known as Six Card. It was remarkably like Five-Card Draw on Earth, except played, unsurprisingly with six cards.
“Now, who would like to play? I know that is a lot to learn if you have never played before. We’ll be happy to guide anyone through the play of their hands. I won’t be playing, but will act as a coach for everyone else.” Both Sun and Ferret decided to just watch at first, so only Kossa, Onre, Arrjee, and I were playing at the start. With just four players, only one deck was used.
Lenyet handed everyone two stacks of coppers to be used as chips. Sun was unfamiliar with money on this continent, and Ferret barely understood the concept at all. I showed him the basics. “Coppers are the least valuable of all coins, the ‘least shiny’.” He happily shook his head in understanding. I had him hold one of his stacks in one hand and touch it with a finger in his other, and to think the word ‘value’.
He got a big smile on his face, “Voice say ten coppers!” I knew he was going to love what comes next. I remembered that I sure had when Master Tarbra Jossel had taught me. I told him to touch the stack again and think ‘unstack’. He did, and leaned back in amazement when ten thinner coins replaced the stack. I told him to touch one of the thinner ones and think ‘value’ again. “Voice say one copper!” He repeated the value command on several more coins, with a big smile on his face. This was probably the first time he had ever used charmed or enchanted objects.
I told him there was one more command. “A stack is always 10 of the same value of coin. With the ten still in your left hand, touch one and think the word ‘stack’.” He did, and laughed in amazement, as the ten individual coins formed the single, almost double-wide stack again. “Just remember the three money commands are ‘value’, ‘unstack’, and ‘stack’. You can use them as many times as you want. The charm on the coins is permanent, so you don’t need mana or ki to use them.”
I could see that Sun enjoyed watching Ferret play with his coins. They even tried it a couple of times on their stacks. Fortunately it worked for them the same as it did bipeds.Although the designs were different on Trichyan coins, how they functioned was the same as what Sun was used to.
While Ferret was having a lot of fun experimenting with his two stacks of coppers, Lenyet had Onre deal. The four of us played three hands, with me being the only one who needed Lenyet’s coaching. Then Sun asked to be dealt in, having attentively watched us. We couldn’t convince Ferret to play, though, but he did start paying attention to the game after eventually getting tired of experimenting with his coins.
When Sun joined, we began using both decks. We were not using any of the wild cards, though. Sun asked for Lenyet’s help during the next three hands, and we were both being coached. For the final three games, neither Sun nor I asked for his advice. It was pretty fun, but for this learning session, it did not really matter who won each hand. I almost ran out of coins before we were done, but my 20 coppers somehow managed to last. I had four coins left, and Kossa ended up with the most, 32.
By then we were pretty tired, and the torches in the two bedrooms had become very dim. They were essentially night lights now, and we knew they would be completely out soon. Kossa, Onre, and Lenyet took one room, and the rest of us used the other, where Sun had laid out their ‘Trichyan’ bed.
As I laid down, Interface reminded me,
Expect Einvigi.
----------------------------------------
“Thank you.”
I had almost forgotten that Einvigi had scheduled some sort of dream discussion concerning my Ki Healer class and approaches to using it responsibly.
This should be interesting.
I was able to fall asleep with only a few minutes spent thinking about this unique day. I gained two more friends close to my age, and I hoped that the two Skolturi would become friends as well. With Skawa’s help, I had learned the Group Mind skill, and both it and Wrestling had ranked up to E. I also learned that Jacques was a full separate consciousness, always observing but seldom interacting with me in any way.
Geez, Forrest, Jacques, and Interface are always part of my mind. Heh, Skawa is a frequent visitor.
Next thing I knew, someone was calling my name, “Forrest. … Forrest, it is time to awaken.”
I opened my eyes, but what I saw was a dream. I was in some sort of large garden along with Einvigi and two centaurs who seemed to be acting as guards. I could hear the sounds of men and women fighting – I guessed sparring. Their voices were not angry. I heard snippets of advice and good natured ribbing. However, those who were sparring were not visible from the bench Einvigi and I sat upon.
“Welcome, Forrest to my ethereal home. You are not actually here; your body remains asleep with your friends. But what you experience here is real.”
“Interface, are ‘aetherial’ and ‘ethereal’ different? If so, in what way?”
Yes. We have already had numerous discussions about the ‘aetherial’. The word ‘ethereal’ is different. You can think of it as describing something too perfect to exist.
Looking around, “Okay, I can see that.”
Einvigi asked me if I were speaking with my Interface. I told her that I had asked what ethereal meant and if it were the same as aetherial. I now understand the difference, and told her that her home did justice to the concept of ‘ethereal’.
“Skawa never told me, but from observing you and listening to him speak, I conclude that your interface is sapient. Is that correct?”
“Yes,” I told her. I might as well put everything in the open. “I call him Interface, and we are like eternal friends. You see, System gave me the option of becoming immortal. When I chose to do so, I gained a sapient interface. Skawa has spoken with him, and you are free to do so as well. You have my permission to monitor my surface thoughts and observe what Interface says. I assume you can do that, right? Like when you monitored my stats?”
She responded affirmatively and I let her know that Interface always sensed everything I did. He would hear whatever she says to me.. “Hello, Interface.”
Hello Einvigi. The dumbass didn’t ask, but you have my permission to observe these windows as well.
She laughed, obviously having read what Interface said. “He calls me ‘dumbass’ sometimes, and compared to him and gods, I guess I am. He uses it affectionately, though.
“I have read everything I could about immortals on galaxy-net. You are the first I have met, however. In addition to concluding Interface was sapient, I was also quite sure that you were an immortal. Is this your first reincarnation?”
“Yes. Forrest might be on Heere for thousands of years, though, before he dies and Jacques moves on to somewhere else in the galaxy, as someone else.”
She made sure, “Jacques will have access to your memories, correct?”
“Yes, for up to 18 more lives. Eventually there will be so many lives, Forrest’s memories might be completely gone.”
Einvigi countered, “No, not completely. Just as with everyone else, your soul will remember all previous lives, including Forrest’s. Jacques consciousness may eventually forget you, but the memories are permanent, part of your soul's quantum spirituality.”
I remembered the term. “That’s right. Interface had told me that when I first met him. I hadn’t thought about it, but it is reassuring to know that Forrest won’t completely vanish.”
Forrest has eidetic memories of our first meeting as well, although at the time he was still Jacques, on his way to becoming Forrest.
I clarified, “They are Jacques’ permanent-eidetic memories, so Jacques will always remember his decisions that led to the creation of Forrest. However, I think he will eventually forget everything Forrest did after arriving on Heere. He made the memories eidetic after I got here, but before I met anyone. Jacques will remember the planet, and specifically the glade where you and Onre met me. So Heere will not be completely forgotten either, complete with the smells and sounds of the forest that day.”
Einvigi changed the subject. “Thank you for freely sharing your true natures, Forrest and Interface. Now we should discuss the topic that brings us together in this place. What thoughts and insights have you had regarding Ki Healer? How can it best be presented to new younglings accepting the class and assuring it will not be misused.”
I had thought about what I wanted to say over the past weeks. “I still believe what I told you before. The class is open to misuse, and I continue to believe a training and supervision process should be set up for Ki Healers and those likely to interact with them. Make sure everyone understands the side effects, both their benefits and risks.”
“However, I have gained a broader view. Many skills are subject to misuse and could lead to undesired dependencies. For example, an empath can share soothing emotions – perhaps even sexual desires. I see the primary difference is that whatever an empath does is intentional. I can see how it might lead to their desires being immorally enacted on someone else. The dependency doesn’t even have to be sexual. It is possible a martial Master might so impose their world view on an apprentice that they no longer consider other ways of thought.”
“Ki Healer is different in one way. Some of its skills have side effects not having to do with actual healing and dependencies might unintentionally develop. Or not. Interface, please tell her your speculation about the Ki Healer class.”
I told Forrest the possibility exists that the side effects of Ki Healer are design features of the skills, an attempt to give mood boosts to a cleric-like class, similar to how an empath or bard might. It is only a speculation based on functionality, not anything documented.
I added, “Maybe it didn’t work out exactly as the designer intended, but they decided to leave the functionality in but not document it. Without understanding the purpose of the side effects, I can see why Ki Healer might have become a disfavored class. The failure in the design could be that the mood boosts lessen as a skill’s rank increases. Another factor in favor of Interface’ theory is that If I use Heal Other or Bless Blood on a Ki user, it may not immediately offer a mood boost. Instead, their ki is charged first, with the mood boost not taking place until after their ki is recharged.”
She told us, “You and Interface might well be correct. It is completely bizarre for a skill to have such noticeable secondary effects. I like thinking of them as not being side effects but part of the actual design. Inform the Skolturi about this possibility. Also tell them your ideas about establishing a training and awareness process for Ki Healers and those around them. “
“Yes, goddess.” She asked if there was anything else I wished to discuss. There are a huge number of things I don’t know yet, but I couldn’t think of anything specifically to discuss with the goddess. After thanking her, I fell back asleep.