Hello! Last month's Project W post was a little delayed and then we had to do all of the early new month posts for August. Since that's taken care of now, I'm sharing another fun-fact sheet for the lumulles. Today's topic is how they communicate!
Naturally, lumulles don’t "speak", not in the traditional sense. They are fully capable of voicing thoughts out loud, but it's not their default. They use chemicals and internal vibrations to communicate with one another. It is similar to how plants send messages. The silent action expresses intentions, info, and also emotion.
Because emotions are included in the message inherently, lumulles do not necessarily change their facial expression or body stance when communicating. Some lumulles do express themselves physically, and those who live among humans usually do pick up that habit. However, lumulles don’t even have to face each other while communicating. So, eye contact is another factor a lumulle may not consider.
This communication style will still be represented in the game with standard text and, if you have sound on, it will be like hearing a voice in your head. Lumulle characters speaking this way will still have voice acting. However, it’s not a one-to-one psychic communication. The signals a lummule sends off can be “overheard” by beings it didn’t intentionally send a message to. Lumulles can send a message “quietly” or more “loudly” by controlling how far and how strongly they give off the message.
Lumulles can pick up on signs from other lumulles at further distances than they can hear a distant spoken conversation. Signals can also linger for a bit even after the message has stopped being sent. In small settlements, lumulles can very easily keep in touch regardless of where they are in the village. But in a bigger, busier city, the signals of lumulles do tend to end up as undecipherable background “noise” for those not directly part of the conversation. You have to really put in effort to get your signals picked up by a wider audience.
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Pretty neat! Within Project W, you play as a lumulle. You'll get to have the choice of communicating exclusively by speaking, with signals, or by switching between those methods based on your feelings or who you're talking to, and it will make a difference.
I'll be explaining why later. The next update will continue the discussion on communication, specifically how things can go between human and lumulle interactions.
Infographic Artist: talentlesshuman
[To read further about this project, you can click the "Project W" tag on this post to see a list of every post about it!]