Nonsense word – “Fulaya”

  1. IS IT DIURNAL OR NOCTURNAL?
    AM: Diurnal
    SC: Diurnal
    HC: Crepuscular
    JF: Diurnal
  2. IS IT FAVOURABLE TO LOVE?
    AM: It is favorable to love!
    SC: Yes
    HC: Definitely not, and it is offended by the question.
    JF: Yes
  3. IS IT CAPABLE OF METAMORPHOSES?
    AM: Yes
    SC: Only under a green sky
    HC: It is continuously metamorphosing
    JF: Absolutely. It changes the wind.
  4. WHAT ERA IS IT FROM?
    AM: 1920s
    SC: 1930s
    HC: The future era closest to the sun’s supernova
    JF: The Aeon of pthalomandrius
  5. WHAT ELEMENT IS IT?
    AM: It is an element of motion. of pure energy.
    SC: Water
    HC: Slime
    JF: Air
  6. HOW DOES IT DIE?
    AM: At death it fades away slowly, dissipating its energy to surrounding beings.
    SC: Lost in a mole’s burrow, it starves
    HC: It dies every time it ends.
    JF: It evaporates
  7. WHAT ILLNESS DOES IT CALL TO MIND?
    AM: Calls to mind an illness causing anxiety…in the legs.
    SC: Water-sickness
    HC: Bubonic plague or else anything involving boils
    JF: Oversaturated skin magnets
  8. WHAT PART OF THE WORLD DOES IT LIVE IN?
    AM: Coastal Caribbean
    SC: Brazil, or thereabouts
    HC: The equator, which it constantly travels along.
    JF: Everywhere, in the air
  9. WHAT MIGHT ITS PROFESSION BE?
    AM: Dancer. Or perhaps an extremely rapid waiter or sandwich-maker.
    SC: Counter of beans in a white cloak
    HC: Clerk or calligrapher
    JF: Bridge Consultant (after it happens to them)
  10. IN WHAT MATERIAL DO YOU SEE IT WRAPPED?
    AM: Sachets, tropical leaves, shiny fabric or silk.
    SC: Transparent plastic wrap
    HC: A mud and saliva nest
    JF: Molten tinsel, aged, and pounded to dust after hardening for 7 years.
  11. HOW WOULD YOU KILL IT?
    AM: By ignoring it, by not letting it connect with you.
    SC: Remove its dreams
    HC: Talk over it
    JF: By ignoring its song
  12. HOW DOES IT GET AROUND?
    AM: It travels along sound vibrations and electromagnetic radiation.
    SC: Flies, flutters, floats
    HC: It scuttles on its wavelimbs
    JF: Flights on abstract breezes.
  13. WHAT SCENT GOES WITH IT?
    AM: Almonds, humidity, good cooking.
    SC: Fruity, vaguely mango scent
    HC: Ambergris and mugwort smoke
    JF: Burnt wood from a fire last night mixed with a parent’s cologne you smelled as a child

Word in a language not understood by participants – “Namazu”

Listen to pronunciation here

  1. IS IT DIURNAL OR NOCTURNAL?
    AM: Nocturnal
    SC: Nocturnal
    HC: Nocturnal, but only wakes every other night.
    JF: There is no sun where it lives… moot question.
  2. IS IT FAVOURABLE TO LOVE?
    AM: It is favorable to love. But love must be earned.
    SC: Not very, somewhat irritable towards love
    HC: Yes, but only when its sleeping.
    JF: It is indifferent.
  3. IS IT CAPABLE OF METAMORPHOSES?
    AM: It’s not capable of metamorphosis.
    SC: Yes, but each time it gets smaller and contains less light.
    HC: No, it is solidified and has been for years.
    JF: Yes. But only when death is on the line…
  4. WHAT ERA IS IT FROM?
    AM: It came into being in the 1600s.
    SC: 1940-1960
    HC: 1890’s
    JF: Before we knew…
  5. WHAT ELEMENT IS IT?
    AM: Rock element with flowing water within.
    SC: Earth
    HC: Earth/Stone
    JF: Metallic ore
  6. HOW DOES IT DIE?
    AM: At the end of its life, it cracks open and from it flows a stream.
    SC: Plane crash
    HC: It is broken into syllables and scattered.
    JF: It doesn’t
  7. WHAT ILLNESS DOES IT CALL TO MIND?
    AM: A sudden and mildly painful loss of the knuckles.
    SC: Viral diamond shattering.
    HC: Eczema or leprosy or dandruff, something crusty.
    JF: Bloomsfield-Jordson Syndrome
  8. WHAT PART OF THE WORLD DOES IT LIVE IN?
    AM: At the edge of the Arctic.
    SC: Arctic
    HC: The Mariana Trench
    JF: The center of a ball of hot stuff.
  9. WHAT MIGHT ITS PROFESSION BE?
    AM: Brick wall builder, or maybe teacher.
    SC: Burner of overcooked steaks
    HC: Fish cake pounder or pharmacist addicted to drugs
    JF: There are no professions there…
  10. IN WHAT MATERIAL DO YOU SEE IT WRAPPED?
    AM: A moss fabric, dark green and soft.
    SC: Yarn
    HC: Wax paper first and then phylo dough
    JF: Rock
  11. HOW WOULD YOU KILL IT?
    AM: Throw it off a cliff. Or scream at it intensely till it cracks.
    SC: Hit over the head with mallet or anvil.
    HC: With a strong wind.
    JF: Again, it doesn’t die…
  12. HOW DOES IT GET AROUND?
    AM: It rolls itself around, but only when nobody is looking.
    SC: Miniaturized Airplane
    HC: It rolls, but can only go downhill.
    JF: Words fail here, I cannot explain.
  13. WHAT SCENT GOES WITH IT?
    AM: Pine, freshness, mint
    SC: Decay and rot
    HC: Meat roasting on a campfire
    JF: The smell of asphalt after a summer rain.
  14. WHAT COLOR IS IT?
    AM: Dark grey
    SC: Greenish grey
    HC: Dark purpley maroon
    JF: Speckled gray with streaks of orange.

[ Namazu was translated after the game, and discovered to mean Catfish in Japanese.]