niteo_logs | English is a funny language

Entry tags:

English is a funny language

Characters: Nori, Espedon
When: Backdated to March 24th
Where: Nori's room
Rating: PG
Summary: Nori becomes a language teacher

Nori looked over her papers she'd written up as she dressed. Just the basic stuff for now. She figured it'd be similar to how she was taught as a child, with bits and pieces of how she'd taught herself. The only added confusion would be that she didn't know his language. But this PDA seemed to navigate that problem pretty well. She nudged the papers to the side and started applying her make-up , wondering when Mr. What's-his-name was going to show up.

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'Tomorrow sometime', she'd said. Not very specific, but Espedon could work with that. He settled on meeting Nori around lunchtime- that would give him time enough to check the traps for the morning and maybe bring something edible over. Never bad to ingratiate oneself with the teacher.

Noon-ish, Espedon exited his room and made the trek up the stairs. He was still sore from the earlier expedition to Cronoss's remains, but he made it.

There were a few quick raps on Nori's door. She'd open it to find him holding a bag of... something... up.

"Untek... untek... uhhh... pigeon," he said, pointing at the bag. He'd at least had the presence of mind to look up the word for their lunch.

Noriko's jaw dropped for a moment, eyebrow quirking, though she was quick to cover it up with an uncertain smile. Flying rat, huh? Well beggars couldn't be choosers. It was just a bird. Probably tasted like chicken...hopefully.

She welcomed him inside with a wave of her hand. "Pigeon, cool, that was nice of you...oh, uh...sorry." She grabbed the PDA and repeated her words, giving a thumbs up.

Espedon gave the girl a nod and lowered the bag before entering. He pulled his own PDA out of his pocket and spoke into it.

"No problem. It's not filet mignon, and the pigeons are skinny here, but it's edible. When we get the situation with Credinta figured out, maybe we can bargain for real food."

Finding the nearest flat surface, he set the bag on it (it was filled with boiled pigeon, some pigeon jerky, and a few edible mushrooms he'd found). He turned around and, with the PDA lowered, counting off on his fingers, he rattled off a couple of the other words he'd picked up.

"Hmm... 'hello'... sio 'goodbye'... sio... 'lunch'."

This was punctuated with a shrug. "That's all I have," the PDA translated for him.

Nori gave a laugh. They were pretty good words to know. The staples beyond 'bathroom?' and 'help' that everyone needed to know.

"That's a good start. So what language do you speak anyway?" she asked, gathering her papers and tucking a pen behind her ear, "I'm not sure which way easier to teach, just word for word or more like...how you learn when you're a kid from the start and building up."

Rhevin'ze Mateka, he said into the PDA, which came out as 'Conclave Common'.

"Word for word... we could do that, but I think I can handle vocabulary on my own. The PDA helps with that. Conversational English would be most helpful. Commonly used phrases, pronunciation. Hearing it from a real person would help," he said with a smile.

Idly, he looked around the girl's room. Still dirty, but livable.

"You haven't been here long. Have you been able to get water?"

"Never heard of it," she said with a shrug, idly fiddling with the seam of her gauntlets.

She nodded, taking a seat, "Can do. You just tell me what you wanna hear then. And uh...I guess I'll try and cut back on the slang, you probably don't want that, you're not a teenager."

She followed his gaze. "From the river, yeah, probably not the safest but I haven't figured out if I'd stand out too much in the city or not."

"I can help you boil the water," he said. He offered a lopsided grin. "'Powers.'"

He followed her lead and took a seat himself. He spent a few moments thinking of where to start before shrugging and pointing to himself. No better place to start than in the deep end.

Lo vanet Espedon, he said. The student gave her a quizzical look and a nod, asking with his eyes. Introductions were always a good place to start.

She smirked, letting electricity crackle in her palm for a moment, "Powers," she repeated with a smirk, "It's finding something to hold the water that's the problem.

"Oh um-" she pointed to herself in turn, "I'm Noriko. Nori," she added with a shrug.

"Eyem," he started. "Eyem Espedon."

He was mimicking her inflection exactly. Maybe a little embarassing, but it was funny. Espedon also nodded in response to the problem of buckets; while the city had been abandoned for ages, there were some spots, if you looked close enough, where some of the old manufactured good were still okay. If the pigeon didn't suffice, maybe he could repay her with a bucket.

The thought of repaying somebody for language lessons with a bucket put an amused expression on his face.

"Hello, Nori. I'm... Espedon."

Good. Got that one out of the way.

She hid her laugh behind a gauntlet, nodding her approval.
"Awesome. You're good at this." She tucked her hair behind her ears. "Um...ok, what next...? What else is important to know. You got introductions and exits down...I guess...emergency stuff is good."

Espedon nodded in response.

"I've had to learn a few different languages. Once I understand the grammar, it shouldn't be hard," he said. His eyes followed her lips as he spoke, and he appeared to be trying to match up how she spoke and what she said with what came out on his side of the PDA.

He left her to figure out some phrases while he got up to get the lunch sack and bring it back over.

"I guess you're ahead of the game then," she said with a small smile, chewing on her lower lip as she tried to run through which emergency words would be the most useful, "Help. That's an important one. Umm...Move, or Get Down if someone else is in danger."

He took his seat again, opened the bag, and fished through it. Withdrawing a couple pieces of pigeon jerky, he offered her the larger one and popped the other in his mouth.

Espedon mouthed the words she said, committing the sound to memory.

"Help... move... get down."

He meant to say 'I understand' into the PDA, but he changed his mind and began toying with it instead, trying to look up the English. Always better not to use it as a crutch.

Nori turned the jerky about between her fingers a moment for taking an experimental bite. Not bad. Any food was heaven at this point, especially meat, and she smiled at him. "Thank you," she said, then frowned to herself, holdng the jerky between her teeth and removing her gauntlets, laying them on the bed and wiping off a small sheen that the jerky had left. She twisted her wrists and fingers about before taking the jerky back into her hand. "It's good."

"'Welcome'," he responded, chewing the pigeon thoughtfully. He watched her takethe gauntlets off and gazed at them a little bit before cocking his head toward them.

"What are those for?" asked the PDA.

"Oh um..." she paused, thinking how best to explain it. "I...absorb electricity. But...it's not something I can control, and when too much builds up it messes with my head and then...I overload and...people can get hurt so...they regulate how much I can take in, and how much I can discharge. These are better then my last ones, but it's still a bit weird, you need the tactile sense for some things." She cracked her wrist and scratched at her palm. It was good to get out of them from time to time. "I look kinda like a weird...robot...android thing with them on," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I wouldn't say that," he said, popping one of the mushrooms in his mouth. The design of the gauntlets looked relatively advanced. He hadn't encountered that many individuals with inborn 'powers' in his travels, either. It was almost always an acquired thing. "And... this city doesn't appear to have any electricity left. I doubt 'overloading' would be a problem here."

"It comes from all over," she said with a soft smile, "People generate it too. It's slower, but it would still build up. I'm just glad there haven't been any storms. I become something like a lightning rod," she said with a small laugh, "Doesn't hurt me too bad, but it can do a number on anyone near by."

"Hm. Maybe you could help get some of the generators back online, then. Or something. Having electricity in the apartments would make things easier on the tentants. And also..."

He drew out his PDA and pulled up the image of General Angar, then showed it to her.

"This man burned down a village a few days ago. And now he's trying to buy our help. If we had electricity, I think people would be less likely to help him."

Nori looked thoughtful before giving a nod. "I could try. I'd have to look around, see how they work, but I could probably manage something. Forge would be better, he can do anything with tech stuff, but he's not here. So Surge to the rescue," she said with a brief smirk.

She sneered at the picture of Angar. "That jerk, ugh. Anything to piss him off. And...stop world domination...that too."

(lol, ansgar*. sorry for the typo.)

"Is that what he's after?" he asked, frowning. "Then he's a threat. For certain. He'll be after us eventually."

He toyed on the PDA a little more and helped himself to a couple slices of pigeon jerky. There were about five pigeons' worth of meat in there, but they were skinny little bastards. Not much on them.

"Everyone seems to be a threat," she said with a sigh, taking another piece of meat and laying back, covering her eyes with the back of her arm, "I plan to get the hell out of here before it gets too dangerous. My team will come for me."

"...Sorry...got all off topic there...I'm a horrible teacher. What else what it you were hoping to learn? I have like...the alphabet and simple words I wrote out last night."

Espedon was silent at Nori's assertion that her friends would take her home. It would be better not to speak than to insist that they would never come. After all, some of the residents of Hotel Nesreca had found their friends. Getting home, on the other hand, was another matter.

"The alphabet and a word list would be perfect. I don't mean to take up all of your time this afternoon. Perhaps a little self-study would be helpful," he said. And it was true; what he was aiming for, primarily, was somebody to talk to in English. Without a basic grasp of the language, conversation would be difficult. "Don't worry about your teaching ability. I just need somebody to converse with. Makes it easier to understand when you use it."

She smiled, handing over the papers. "Don't worry, I haven't exactly got anything else to do, have I? It's kinda nice to have some company. You're lucky you have practice with learning languages. It's supposed to be difficult for adults."

She groped blindly for her gauntlets and fastened them back over her arms.

He laughed.

"Lucky? I suppose I am. Inconvenient, though, to have to learn so many."

He made a thoughtful expression. "You know, there was a time when all I would have wanted was to have a home. Just a little cottage somewhere. One language, one place to stay. Don't even need a family, really. Just some roots would be nice."

Nori offered a smile, but seemed unconvinced. "...Sometimes roots rot," she said, a bit cryptic, but she brushed it aside with a more genuine smile, "Maybe by yourself it would be okay."

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English is a funny language

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