The Visitor's Guide to City Conversations

"Isn't this a little, I dunno, condescending?" Vance picked up a copy of the book. "Like, country bumpkins don't know how to talk?"
Lodia grabbed the book and flipped it to a random page. "Thick as a gearing. I've never heard that phrase before. Is it real?"
"Clearly you're way too country for the real city, Lodia. Back to the farmstead with you." He ducked the swipe.
"Price of progress. I've heard that maybe once?" The woman frowned. "Who wrote this? 'Etoilean Department of Language'?"
"There's a philosophical question. Who's allowed to tell us what is and isn't language? It's not like there's a God of Words that tells us what to say and what not to say."
"Unless that god is working down at the Principality Central Bureau."
"Save us all."

Common Phrases

Flywheel speed

Ready, at the ready, prepared

On the last wagon out of town

Ostracized, condemned

Good enough for Principality work

Done to a minimum standard but no more; lackadaisical

Thick as gearing

Close friendship or relationship, a la two gears in contact

Price of progress

A dismissal of a consequence as necessary

Lost technology

A mocking phrase used to describe pre-Power ways of doing things. Ex: ships that do not have Powered propulsion

As linked rods

An euphemism for an intimate relationship, referring to the way power linkages are hooked together when setting up a Power distribution system

Drawing power from a flood

A phrase that implies foolhardiness, as in the metaphor; water wheels only function when the water level is at a certain height, and will seize during flooding

Docking

An euphemism for an intimate relationship, referring to power-sails clutching in their flywheels to dockside Power

City-stupid

A mocking insult for someone who lives exclusively in cities without knowledge of the countryside