Excerpt from “A Manual To Existence” - 2.2 - Defaults - Base Language

Base Words:

As you may already know, a NELO Droid like you is intended to be a highly functioning droid. Hence, you will be spared the jump from a baby to understanding standard language. The vocabulary of a standard 17 year old who has lived outside of a city like Ab Ovo has been transcribed to you. Of course, this doesn’t mean you will not need to learn colloquialisms and urban vocabulary during your existence.

While this usually takes the average human being a decade or so to fully internalise, many find that living in the environment where they pick up a new way of speaking to be far more effective.

In case you are curious to study common colloquialisms in Ab Ovo, do refer to the “Dictionary’ section of this manual.

Base words and forming sentences with such words would be largely simple for you, yet the application of new words in foreign contexts may give you a hard time, as you would not have memory of such contexts.

Walking through the building (train station, Silas referred to it as), Fons noticed a similar sight to the afternoon before. Packed with humans carrying an assortment of briefcases, luggage, or satchels, almost everyone walked with purpose. A collective, clink, clank, click or shoe heels marching on marble flooring filled an already intense atmosphere.

“Almost no one in Ab Ovo is ready to be friends all of a sudden. You seeing these people?” Fons shrunk away from a particularly demeaning glance.

“Half of them haven’t had their morning coffee yet, are late for work, or both. Dolisto has a particularly high concentration of the working class...the people who work day jobs which turn into night jobs... so expect a train station to contain even more tired people in the morning.”

“I see…”. Fons didn’t notice the deliberate steps the day before, but it was definitely there in the morning.

“Anyways, I should explain where we’re going to you.”

Right, just where was Silas’ job?

“We’re actually going to Ahnlo-Poma”

“Ahnlo-Poma? Wasn’t that one of the...one of the stops on the way to Dolisto?”, said Fons, vaguely remembering the journey of the day before.

“That’s right. Simply put, I work as a train inspector. While the pay isn’t very good, I think it’s important work.”

“And what does a train inspector do?”

“We make sure the Trider system runs smoothly and people behave themselves. You’ll see. My shifts - timings where I work, are every day from seven in the morning to three in the afternoon, weekdays. On weekends I work the second night shift, eleven at night to seven in the morning again. You’re lucky yesterday was thursday, that’s the only reason I was able to be out of the station in the afternoon.”

They fast approached a ticket station, where Silas instructed Fons on how to buy a Trider card. A sleek card, the thickness of Fons’ middle finger, was given to him.

“This thing has two hundred credits in it, so it should last a while. It’s on me.”

“On you? And what is a credit?”

“I meant that I’ll pay for it. And credits are Ab Ovo’s currency - the type of money we use in Ab Ovo. One train ride would set you back a credit per stop, so many people use it as their way of transport.”

“Thank you for paying for my Trider card. I do not want to be an inconvenience.”

“Well, there’s not much you can do about that now”, Silas said as he wore a wry grin, “Now to Ahnlo-Poma”

Ahnlo-Poma felt like another extension of Dolisto, if the grandfather who lived next door decided to give it a little re-up. Gone were the marble floorings of Dolisto, replaced with a similar material to the velvety carpet of Silas’ apartment. It still bore the same difficulty to navigate as Dolisto had presented, not so much as a labyrinth as a corn maze.

“Here’s my office”

Leading him to a steel sliding door, Silas tapped in yet another pin code and opened what looked similar to a walk in wardrobe. Inside lay an assortment of clothes and a large monitor.

“You see, I have the pleasure of working as a Malwand. In Ab Ovo, sometimes things get hairy on a train. It’s my job to prevent these things from happening, which really does save the Tride - The group who runs the Trider, a substantial amount of credits. Never know when some edgy teenager is going to jump.”

“Jump?”

“Yeah, jump. I’ve been working as a Malwand for the better part of three years and you’d be surprised at the things people do on the Trider”

“Three years only?”

“Hey, it’s way longer than you’ve been around. And what’s that supposed to mean? I’m twenty two, not thirty eight you know?”

“Sorry”

Fons glanced at the wardrobe of clothes. Inside lay a variety of outfits. It seemed like three people’s wardrobe’s in one.

“Don’t judge my fashion sense. Besides, who knows what situation would occur where an outfit change is in need? Wear this jacket?”. Silas pulled out a noticeably plain bomber jacket.

“...No thank you”

Shrugging to himself, Silas wore the jacket himself.

On the Trider, things seemed oddly tranquil. Why does it seem like every time you wait for something to happen, nothing really occurs? Passengers sat square in their seats. Some tapped words out on laptops. Others murmured conversations. But largely, nothing-

Silas snorted.

“That lady over there? The one with that weird lump in her jacket? She's bad news”

Statement redacted.