Welcome to Lingdom Quest, a cute and comfy slice-of-life quest about exploring the Lingdom, a kingdom of pygmies!You are Rika, a 15-year-old Ling on a journey with your cousin Kari, friends Bubu and Puki, and fox friend Moochy. You are on your Youthful Journey, a custom among your people where you leave your home to travel across the Lingdom to visit relatives and friends in other villages to help out and learn new skills. The function of the Youthful Journey is also to reconnect you with your wider family.>What are Lings?Pygmy humans with large, round ears who live in the Lingdom, a kingdom separated from the rest of the world and under the protection of the Emperor. The Emperor is known as a "Tallie", a human of normal height and normal-shaped and sized ears. Among your people are also "Halfies", individuals with both Ling and Tallie blood who appear like Lings in their childhood but enter a rapid growth spurt in their young adulthood (and reverting back to Ling size in their elder years.)>Where do Lings come from?The Lings claim to have been hosted by the Great Turtle where they learned to be good guests. Much of their core values come from their time being the Great Turtle's guests;>To be neat, tidy, and clean after themselves.>To eat sparingly so as to not overburn their hosts.>To reciprocate gifts so as to share Memories.>MemoriesMemories are something of a religious and spiritual concept for Lings. They represent literal memories that an individual holds but also their relationships and binds them all as one people, not only throughout the land but also through time. Ways Lings share their Memories:>Offering gifts.>Doing activities together.>Telling stories.>Guest-Host RelationshipLings behave themselves in accordance with the guest-host relationship as they learned from the Great Turtle. A Host must be benevolent and gracious to their guests, and a guest must be respectful and considerate to their hosts. This relationship is also attributed to their understanding of agriculture and politics. The land they cultivate is considered their host, but the crops raised from it their guests. The Emperor is a sacred individual who is their guest in their home, but their Host in His Empire.>Other Cute Ling ThingsLings are known for a variety of cute habits and behaviors. Here's some of them:>They don't have chairs, preferring to squat or sit on the ground.>Their cuisine largely consists of hand-held foods, wrapping their meals in either tortillas or leaves.>The only meat they eat are seafood and bugs.>They prefer sleeping in hammocks over beds.>They consider leaving things on the floor dirty so most of their possessions are hung on the walls or ceilings (like their hammocks)
prev threads:https://thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2023/5832267/https://thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/5881146/https://thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/5939898/https://thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/5984584/
Where did the Great Turtle come from? What was it like when it was a Little One? We're all born unable to Remember anything, trusting Our elders' Memories about Us until We're able to Remember. Our Host saved Us from the Demons who bullied Us to the Wide-Waters, and even after saying goodbye to Our Host, We still find Ourselves running away from meanies. Maybe Our Host and its family were bullied from their home far, far away. Maybe Our Host lost its family and had nobody to share their Memories with. Maybe it could not share its Memories with Us because We were still Little Ones who could not yet Remember. Maybe one day We will leave like Our Host after teaching a Little Guest to Remember... But for now, We have the Emperor who loves to listen to Our Memories and protect Us from the meanies!You went to bed sharing a large hammock with your friends, surrounded by ghosts. You wondered if the Great Turtle's family had a Host to teach them how to Remember, much like how it taught your family to. Was the Great Turtle's host as big to it as the Great Turtle is to you? Tallies call the Ocean and the Sky the same thing, and at night one can see the horizon of the Ocean Above like how one can see the horizon of the Sky Below. If that's where Our Host came from, maybe one day when We learn to sail the Ocean Above, We can return Our Host to its home...The following morning, the Youthies of the village gathered at the dock to prepare for the Kelp Gathering Festival. Everybody was eager to find their new crocko friend to dive with, but you and your friends agreed on swimming with that mean crocko. You saw it sitting on a rock alone as if it knew it didn't have a chance.How will you spend your time with the crocko today?>Dive with the crocko and stick with it no matter how slow it is.>Play with the crocko and not worry about the dive.>Invite it to the dock to make up and play with Moochy.>Write-in.
Glad to see this back again after our protagonist made special Memories elsewhere. Your art stole the show.>Dive with the crocko and stick with it no matter how slow it is.As we're swimming with our friends, we can cycle one at a time to take turns with the crocko. That way, we can keep him company without risk of drowning.
>>6038622>Dive with the crocko and stick with it no matter how slow it is.I would enjoy a swim with crocko on a turn basis.
>>6038595>Dive with the crocko and stick with it no matter how slow it is.
>>6038595>Dive with the crocko and stick with it no matter how slow it is.Welcome back OP
>>6038622Thank you, I am a bit disappointed that we couldn't do the final round, if I am correct Rika only went through 10, perhaps she could have exclusively achieved 2nd place. C'est la vie.
>>6038595>Play with the crocko and not worry about the dive.
>>6038595>Dive with the crocko and stick with it no matter how slow it is.Good to be back.
>>6038595>>Play with the crocko and not worry about the dive.
>>6038595>Dive with the crocko and stick with it no matter how slow it is.I learned about this quest from the waifu tourny, am now caught up. Nice to see this continue.
QM I just wanted to say I deeply enjoy the art that you make for this quest.
>>6039881I remember back when he was first making his world building threads, ah, good times.
Hey guys, I know I usually update twice a week, but this week I think I came down on something. As an apology for the inconvenience, here is a culture spread of the many people of the wider setting I made a while back, the Memory Cherishers representing the descendants of Lings.>>6041186Those were fun times but also consumed a big chunk of my time, if I did that again I'd probably do something less serious, as much as how goofy the setting is already.
You swam back to the dock with the crocko, it swimming in circles around you. Everybody was gathered on the docks with their new crocko friends and after you climbed onto the dock, your friend was too shy to get out. Perhaps it didn't want anybody to see her deformed leg, so you tapped your hands onto the edge of the dock, and the crocko came up to nip your fingers. Bubu who was standing next to you began mimicking that monotonous trill crockos do. After hearing Bubu, the crocko climbed up onto the dock, you and Bubu petted it while Moochy hid behind Bubu's legs. Bubu stepped away, allowing the crocko and Moochy to smell each other, where you laid a leaf and acorn bun between them to share. They each bit on it and tore it in half to munch on it. While your animal friends were becoming friends, aunties and uncles came out with nets and bridles, passing them to each of you."Good morning, good morning! We are happy to see you all eager to join us today! Many of you might have seen your baba and pappy make soap with kelp, but have you ever wondered where they get their kelp? You can find it in many places of Our Host, but here at Deep Waters, we harvest so much kelp that even Tallies get to use it!"An uncle fastens a bridle in the mouth of his crocko and puts a net behind it."We can get all the help we need here ourselves, but our crocko friends can dive so deep and help us harvest enough for Our whole family. They're strong swimmers and can help drag us down, but they have a hard time getting any help for us. They also don't like the taste! But they don't mind holding kelp for us while we use our hands to harvest."You noticed your crocko looking shyer than usual, sitting next to Moochy and tucking her hindleg under Moochy's tail, so you bent down to pet her while Bubu mimicked the trill."Remember, it's not a race, and the only thing more important than having fun is SAFETY! It can get dark and spooky beneath the waters, so all your aunties and uncles already harvested kelp below a certain line. You are not allowed to go past that and if we catch you, you'll be forbidden from participating in the soap-making festival!"You all fastened a net and bridle onto your crocko friends, you and Bubu sharing your friend while Kari and Puki were sharing that nice crocko from yesterday. Aunties and uncle did a demo in the waters with you, making you watch them being dragged down by a crocko, and then picking kelp with their hands before placing them in their friends' netpack. Soon they reemerged with a netpack full of kelp and placed it on the dock where they were given an empty netpack.
>>6041788"And that's how it's done! If you ever feel scared or see someone doing something scary, tug on your friend and they'll swim back up to the surface. Your aunties and uncles will be swimming around to make sure nobody is doing anything scary or if anybody is having any trouble because remember...""The only thing more important than having fun is SAFETY!" you all shouted in unison.When it was time to start, you and your friend dove down along with the others. Your friend was easily outpaced by the other crockos as it struggled to tow you. Though it can reach a patch of kelp, you couldn't stay for too long and had to re-emerge before even filling up your netpack. When Bubu dove down, he re-emerged with even less kelp than you as the others had picked clean much of the kelp closer to the surface."We're running out of kelp... but I think our friend had fun anyway." said Bubu as he petted the crocko, praising it.Just then, Kari emerged with her third pack of kelp, high-fiving Puki."Awright! I think we've gotten the most, there's no way anybody could catch up now that all the help was running out!" said Puki. That was their seventh pack together.You couldn't help but feel your friend was feeling a bit disappointed in itself. It was only able to dive twice before all the available kelp was picked. There was however more deeper, past the lower layer the grown-ups already picked from... but that's not safe!You decided to...>Finish the day by expressing how proud you are of your friend.>Take your friend for one more dive. Even if you won't get any kelp, you're sure your friend just liked to dive with you.>Aski Kari and Puki if you can borrow their friend... and have your friend and their friend tow you down together... maybe they'll be faster together to go past the safety line in a timely manner.>Write-in.
>>6041789>Finish the day by expressing how proud you are of your friend.
>>6041789>Write-in.>Express how proud you are of your friend and take the crocko for one more dive. Even if you won't get any kelp, you're sure your friend just liked to dive with you.We might find something neat below for our crocko to feel good about finding. Who knows?
>>6041789>Aski Kari and Puki if you can borrow their friend... and have your friend and their friend tow you down together... maybe they'll be faster together to go past the safety line in a timely manner.
>>6041789>Finish the day by expressing how proud you are of your friend
Votes closed, writing and drawing.
You got down and hugged your crocko friend as the last of the help was harvested."I know you couldn't dive as much as you wanted, but I had a lot of fun! That was brave of you to dive even though you wouldn't be as good as anybody else, but if it wasn't for you, Bubu and I would never have those Memories! Thank you so much for diving with us~"Moochy came by and dropped some snails at the crocko's feet but she wasn't in the mood to eat despite Moochy pushing them forward with his snout. So Moochy sat by his new friend who just moped around, none of them eating the snails.Before the Sun rose as high as it could, much kelp had to dry. Everybody diligently hung kelp on racks, a grown-up led the singing of a song you had never heard of before. It was a song about running away from meanies chasing your family from the Hammock hundreds of seasons ago.The rude Tallies came to Our homes as rude guests, demanding We row their rafts, abusing Our nature of being good hosts! So We ran to the trees, as Tallies are too big to climb them, but they continued to chase Us until We found Deep Waters inhabited by little dragon children! They were scary We thought, but We had no choice but to dive into the waters to swim to these tall trees in the middle of the waters. But Our dragon friends had learned to be good hosts and guided Us here, while those Meanies were too scared to even get in the waters!After hanging the kelp you were all invited to enjoy lunch prepared by your babas and pappies. While slurping on steamed snails, Bubu spoke up about your crocko friend."I feel sorry for our friend. I think we should invite her to make soap with us during the festival," said Bubu."Hnn?? A crocko making soap?? But crockos hate the taste of kelp!" said Kari."You dummy, it's not like we're supposed to chew on them! W-wait... r-right!?" said Puki.You're pretty sure chewing kelp isn't part of the Soap-Making Festival... Even then, it didn't feel right to not spend the rest of the day with your friend...>Invite your friend to the Soap-Making Festival.>Skip the Soap-Making Festival and swim with your friend.>Skip the Soap-Making Festival and invite your friend to lounge around at the highest point of the village.>Write-InAnd while we're at it, why don't we name our friend?>Naughty>Stumpy>Go-Getty>Write-In
>>6045429>Invite your friend to the Soap-Making Festival.>Stumpy
>>6045429>Invite your friend to the Soap-Making Festival.>Go-Getty
>>6045429>>Invite your friend to the Soap-Making Festival.>>Stumpy
>>6045429>Invite your friend to the Soap-Making Festival.>Go-GettyI don't think the crocko would like the name Stumpy if she understood what that meant. It would be like Rika's friends suddenly calling her Sleepy, or Second.
>>6045429>Invite your friend to the Soap-Making Festival.>Naughty
