[... She knows "Valentia"! Well, more than saying she can read it, it's more that she just recognizes the shapes that are on the facade of the building, but. It counts. Okay, she's got this. "Copy"... "Paste!...]
[After all, it will be a cold day in Hell before Liem feels comfortable going to meet someone without taking the chance to freshen up first. Especially given how ghastly he's started looking in the months since his augmenter was implanted. He needs to at least make sure he's properly groomed!
Fifteen minutes later, Liem is waiting in the hotel lobby, looking neat and presentable in a suit of local Karterian style. He does not look as though he has been eating well, any more than he usually does. In fact, if anything he looks paler than usual, with a faint sheen of sweat that gathers on his forehead as he waits for Konoha to join him. He pats his brow mechanically with a pocket handkerchief, apparently quite used by now to whatever is ailing him, and smiles when he sees Konoha approach.]
Ah, Miss Konoha. It's a pleasure to see you again.
[Fifteen is probably best. Konoha might be used to meeting people sweaty and a bit disheveled, but this wasn't the lumberyard. Also, she has to awkwardly get down the stairs. When she arrives... she's wearing the same robe she had been when they first met months ago. It's starting to look a bit worn (well, more worn), in places. It's clean, though! She washes it!!]
Mister Liem, hello...
[The greeting is a bow first, because bows make the most sense to her, but when she rises from it she does add in a little wave, the hand moving to nervously fidget with some stray hairs around her ear that were a bit too short to tuck properly into her bun.]
I hope my puzzle picture messages were okay... I thought I should practice a little- ? I probably should have asked if people wanted to be practice partners first, though, huh...
[She hadn't actually intended to meet, necessarily, so she's a little worried this might be a polite excuse to stop wracking his brain over the emoji... Or... was it an excuse to go get food? He looks...]
[Liem dips his head in amenable reply to Konoha’s bow, pleased to see her even if he’s been feeling under the weather of late. Had the “puzzle picture” messages been confusing? Yes, some, but he can’t blame her for that.]
I think I got most of your meaning. Perhaps you could explain them to me, so I’ll be able to better interpret them later on.
[He does note that her robe looks to be the same one she’d been wearing on the other occasions he’d seen her, and given how long they’ve both been here, he wonders if she’s been struggling to find clothes tailored appropriately for her, given the solely-human population of this land.]
Besides, I didn’t realize before, but… would I be correct to think that you cannot read and write this land’s script?
[He doesn’t want to make assumptions about her facility with her own language, but given that he seemed to know how to read Karteria’s language as soon as he arrived, he does suspect that this lack might have preceded her coming here. Perhaps a knowledge of written tongues is necessary to automatically grasp the Karterian script.]
[There's a brief pause, a hint of shock on her face... before Konoha smiles, bright.]
I could do that!
[Beaming with gratitude over the simple but extremely thoughtful offer of letting her explain her puzzle picture thought process to him so that they might communicate with them better, she doesn't show much hint at all of shame or embarrassment when answering his question, too buoyed to deflate so quickly. Just a bit of self-consciousness over the trouble it's causing others.]
No, I can't... It doesn't look anything like the way people write where I'm from... not that, you know, I knew how to read or write that either...
[Something she just would expect people to know based on either her race or her work, but she's at least learned that isn't the case, here, and she has to add a bit of context.]
The temple school in my village didn't take jinba... and I don't really need much beyond numbers at the lumber yard...
[She holds up a finger as if she's had an idea to soften the blow, helpfully supplying,]
I do know some useful words! And I can recognize those here! "Money", and "rice", and "tea" and "food" and "liquor"... and the four cardinal directions... oh, and "shrine"... "temple"... "village"...
[The sort of words you see every day on shop signs, directions on sign posts at crossroads, and common locations with stone markers. Those words. But beyond simple nouns, when it comes to adjectives, predicates, or verbs...........]
[As Konoha explains, Liem nods in understanding. He may be a city boy, but for decades of his life, his job consisted of travelling from small village to small village, tending to the needs of settlements too underpopulated to have their own temple to Abadar. He knows the way of life for people in smaller settlements is different from those in a big city like this one, or the one he grew up in.]
I understand. The signage in a big city like this one is different compared to what you had back home, yes? I’ve learned quite a few new worlds since being brought here, as well.
[Not to mention, he assumes that if her village was small enough, she would presumably have learned most of the businesses by sight without ever needing to read anything to identify them. She’s right that literacy isn’t a much-needed skill for a lumber yard worker, even a foreman. It makes sense that, if no one went out of their way to make that skill available to her, she would see little need to find some other way to learn.]
If there are words you feel like you’d benefit from knowing how to write here, I’ll gladly teach them to you. You only need ask.
[Committing to something like learning how to write and read in general might seem like a lot, especially if she still wants to go home as soon as possible. What need would she have for such knowledge if she’s back home in three months? But a few supplementary words could still be useful.]
[Her smile falters for a moment when the obvious follow of "everything is really different" comes to her mind... but she manages to stop it from becoming words on her tongue, swallowing it back down in favor of preventing her fingers from wringing by hooking her thumbs in the tool belt holding her pelt wrap closed about her "waist". Actually no, wait, she needs one of those hands to tap a knuckle against her lips, brow furrowing as she thinks.]
Useful words...
[It remains a truth that three months in... Konoha doesn't want to give up on the futile hope that this is all just a dream. That she will soon wake up on her own futon, in her own home, and everything will make sense again. Barring that, that... that Patho-Gen will realize they have made a mistake and send them all back. Or at least the ones who will be useless in a fight... She doesn't want to think about being here long enough to need to know how to communicate with others, with these people...
But. Liem is being kind. And it's a nice offer, even if she laments everything else about the situation. So she actually thinks about it... and then points at herself a bit haplessly.]
[Poor Konoha. The life she left behind was so clearly different from this one in every possible way. Even though Liem wants to return home more than anything, at least he’s used to being an unwelcome stranger in a big city. He doesn’t have a quiet little village and a loving family waiting for him.]
It certainly couldn’t hurt. Here, I’ll show you.
[Pulling out his syntrofos, he steps closer, turning so she can see his screen as he pulls up their conversation. The bewildering emojis remain right where he’d left them.]
This is the character for “I.” [He indicates it on the keyboard, pressing it and then composing a simple emoji message, which he then sends to her device:] I 🩷 🍚
If you wanted to write “I’m” instead, it would look like this: I’m 🌳🍃
[Oh... There they are... her puzzle pictures. Were they weird? She hopes not. She knows how to send the voice messages, where you "record" your voice and send snippets of it to other people... and she knows how to press the button to accept a "call", but... what if she was somewhere where it was too scary to speak, or being overheard would be bad... ?
Nibbling on her lip, she leans closer, committed to trying to memorize what Liem shows her. It's bound to be complicated.
Except it's just... one tap?]
Eh- ?
[She digs her own device out of her tool belt and stares at it, then puts it together with Liem's as if to compare them, trying to find some sort of difference in the keys. Four down, five left... the one with the little line on it???]
It's just one character? That's "I"?
[Someone is used to kanji that have... lots of strokes...]
[Even despite his fatigue, Liem finds a smile lifting the corner of his mouth at Konoha’s clear bewilderment. He’s not familiar enough with her language to know how complicated the characters can get, but clearly, even for a short word like this one, she was expecting something more involved.]
That’s right. Simple, yes? “We” is very short, too. Here, you might like to know that one…
[Again, he taps it out on the keyboard: two letters, this time. He could probably go through every pronoun that came to mind and not encounter anything she’d find especially complicated, but he assumes the more words he throws at her all at once, the more difficult it will be for her to memorize which spelling is which.]
I didn’t mean that you need to come up with all the words you’d like to know right know, anyway. I’m sure it’d be simpler to single out useful ones as they come up, and ask me then. I don’t mind.
[He supposes that he might not reply right away if he’s busy, but in this land, he’s rarely so busy that he can’t take 30 seconds to explain the meaning of a written word, or the spelling of a spoken one.]
["I" is eight different strokes in Japanese, Liem... and okay, Konoha doesn't know that, but. The point is, she was definitely expecting such an important word to be more complicated than what looked to her now like one press of a button. Wild. Still, even though she does look at "we", it's smart to think... too much at once was probably not a good idea. She smiles, grateful.]
Thanks, Mister Liem... I'll ask if I need up needing one.
[She didn't want to bother him too much, but if it was important...]
Besides, I didn't mean to make you play teacher today... we're going to cook together, right?
[It was "cook", right? (No, Konoha, it was probably "go eat".)]
[Based on the surprised lift of his eyebrows when Konoha asks if they’re going to cook together, this is not exactly what Liem had intended upon agreeing to meet here. True, they did exchange some cooking-related emojis, but he thinks some miscommunications may have happened along the way.]
Oh… That does sound nice, but I’m not sure where we could do something like that. I doubt the hotel staff would let us use their kitchen.
[Considering they’re kept busy all day preparing the free food available for the hotel residents, he’s betting the Valentia’s kitchen is a pretty busy place. Cooking there might be a bit hectic for their tastes even if they were allowed.]
I thought maybe you wanted to eat together. I suppose I didn’t catch your meaning quite as adroitly as I’d hoped.
[... Oh, his eyebrows went up. Up-up. There's a moment when Konoha just blinks in confusion, the wheels in her head moving just a bit too obviously, until finally, just a beat late-]
No, no, no, that's not your fault, Mister Liem!
[She jumps in quick to take the blame, waving her hands a bit in betrayal of her fluster.]
I was sending puzzle pictures and you had to send them back to me so quickly... I'd be more surprised if it worked perfectly the first time. We can just eat together, I have a little money...
[Though also... his comments about the logistics of cooking make her think, lip pursing and brow furrowing.]
I did ask to use the kitchen here, before, but the staff wouldn't let me, you're right... They said I could get my own place, if I wanted to do my own cooking.
[All right, so the puzzle pictures exchange didn’t go completely flawlessly. That’s fine; that’s one benefit of them meeting in person like this. Now they can sort things out and maybe have more success later on.]
I certainly can’t blame you if you’re trying to save money for that. Even I find the accommodations here a bit cramped.
[In his case, he mostly begrudges the lack of a private bathroom, and also the lack of closet space. Sleeping is tolerable, despite the thin walls, and hotel facilities are nice to explore, especially during the day when he wants to avoid going outside, but he can’t deny that he’d still like to find somewhere a little roomier. He can’t imagine how Konoha must feel here.]
We don’t have go eat if you don’t wish to. I just misunderstood—and besides which, it’s nice to meet again and see a friendly face.
[They're going to have to go over the differences between 🥩🍚🫃 and 🔥🍳🥩🍚. Because in Konoha's mind, one is definitely eating (until nice and full!) and one is definitely cooking. But, it's fine! For now... Konoha's expression gets. A little awkward.]
Saving money, right...
[Unconsciously, her fingers fuss at her tool belt- mainly at the pouch that looks like it might be a coin purse. Not a very big coin purse. ... She'd heard about their time at the hotel coming to an end soon, but surely... How could they bring them here without even asking, and then turn them out on the streets? It just wasn't right, and she didn't even know where to begin with it. So at first, she just smiles. Even brighter, as if she could blot out anything dark by just trying harder.]
No, no, let's go out to eat! Or, if you're saving money we can just grab something cheap at the market and eat it in the park... You should eat more, Mister Liem, get some more meat on your bones!
[Which might be rich, coming from a woman who's withers are growing sharper... but she can hide her weight loss beneath the horse blanket she's thrown over her back to hide her feathers with. Nevermind that it's too warm for blankets.]
I was going to eat anyway, it's not an inconvenience or anything...
[And she wanted to see a friendly face, too. Maybe that's obvious, in the way her tone tips the words into more of a plea than stalwart encouragement about his diet.]
[Liem can’t help the small smile that curves his mouth at Konoha’s obvious concern for him. It’s sweet of her to be worried about whether he’s eating enough, especially because he still suspects that being in this city must be harder for her than it ever has been for him. If not for the soul inside his augmenter, he’d probably be managing just fine.
As it is… he does look a little worse for wear compared to when she’d seen him last. It isn’t just his pallor, though he surely couldn’t get any paler now, nor is it just the feverish sheen on his skin; he’s lost weight over the last several weeks, as tolerating food has become increasingly more difficult. Though he was not a stout man to begin with, and his prudish layers disguise most of his body, even his face looks a bit more angular than usual.
But neither he nor Konoha can do anything about that.]
Visiting the market sounds nice.
[It’s early enough in the day that there should still be plenty of shadows, given the impressive heights of many of Karteria’s buildings. And he would rather not try to eat while trapped inside some crowded restaurant.]
Let’s do that, then.
[He’s already got his hat and everything. Not a single beam of sunlight will touch this pallid face.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
FatherTalbott
PROFILE
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Valentia now
[Her first whole sentence! Sort of.]
⬇️ now? ⬇️ 15?
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[After all, it will be a cold day in Hell before Liem feels comfortable going to meet someone without taking the chance to freshen up first. Especially given how ghastly he's started looking in the months since his augmenter was implanted. He needs to at least make sure he's properly groomed!
Fifteen minutes later, Liem is waiting in the hotel lobby, looking neat and presentable in a suit of local Karterian style. He does not look as though he has been eating well, any more than he usually does. In fact, if anything he looks paler than usual, with a faint sheen of sweat that gathers on his forehead as he waits for Konoha to join him. He pats his brow mechanically with a pocket handkerchief, apparently quite used by now to whatever is ailing him, and smiles when he sees Konoha approach.]
Ah, Miss Konoha. It's a pleasure to see you again.
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Mister Liem, hello...
[The greeting is a bow first, because bows make the most sense to her, but when she rises from it she does add in a little wave, the hand moving to nervously fidget with some stray hairs around her ear that were a bit too short to tuck properly into her bun.]
I hope my puzzle picture messages were okay... I thought I should practice a little- ? I probably should have asked if people wanted to be practice partners first, though, huh...
[She hadn't actually intended to meet, necessarily, so she's a little worried this might be a polite excuse to stop wracking his brain over the emoji... Or... was it an excuse to go get food? He looks...]
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I think I got most of your meaning. Perhaps you could explain them to me, so I’ll be able to better interpret them later on.
[He does note that her robe looks to be the same one she’d been wearing on the other occasions he’d seen her, and given how long they’ve both been here, he wonders if she’s been struggling to find clothes tailored appropriately for her, given the solely-human population of this land.]
Besides, I didn’t realize before, but… would I be correct to think that you cannot read and write this land’s script?
[He doesn’t want to make assumptions about her facility with her own language, but given that he seemed to know how to read Karteria’s language as soon as he arrived, he does suspect that this lack might have preceded her coming here. Perhaps a knowledge of written tongues is necessary to automatically grasp the Karterian script.]
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I could do that!
[Beaming with gratitude over the simple but extremely thoughtful offer of letting her explain her puzzle picture thought process to him so that they might communicate with them better, she doesn't show much hint at all of shame or embarrassment when answering his question, too buoyed to deflate so quickly. Just a bit of self-consciousness over the trouble it's causing others.]
No, I can't... It doesn't look anything like the way people write where I'm from... not that, you know, I knew how to read or write that either...
[Something she just would expect people to know based on either her race or her work, but she's at least learned that isn't the case, here, and she has to add a bit of context.]
The temple school in my village didn't take jinba... and I don't really need much beyond numbers at the lumber yard...
[She holds up a finger as if she's had an idea to soften the blow, helpfully supplying,]
I do know some useful words! And I can recognize those here! "Money", and "rice", and "tea" and "food" and "liquor"... and the four cardinal directions... oh, and "shrine"... "temple"... "village"...
[The sort of words you see every day on shop signs, directions on sign posts at crossroads, and common locations with stone markers. Those words. But beyond simple nouns, when it comes to adjectives, predicates, or verbs...........]
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I understand. The signage in a big city like this one is different compared to what you had back home, yes? I’ve learned quite a few new worlds since being brought here, as well.
[Not to mention, he assumes that if her village was small enough, she would presumably have learned most of the businesses by sight without ever needing to read anything to identify them. She’s right that literacy isn’t a much-needed skill for a lumber yard worker, even a foreman. It makes sense that, if no one went out of their way to make that skill available to her, she would see little need to find some other way to learn.]
If there are words you feel like you’d benefit from knowing how to write here, I’ll gladly teach them to you. You only need ask.
[Committing to something like learning how to write and read in general might seem like a lot, especially if she still wants to go home as soon as possible. What need would she have for such knowledge if she’s back home in three months? But a few supplementary words could still be useful.]
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[Her smile falters for a moment when the obvious follow of "everything is really different" comes to her mind... but she manages to stop it from becoming words on her tongue, swallowing it back down in favor of preventing her fingers from wringing by hooking her thumbs in the tool belt holding her pelt wrap closed about her "waist". Actually no, wait, she needs one of those hands to tap a knuckle against her lips, brow furrowing as she thinks.]
Useful words...
[It remains a truth that three months in... Konoha doesn't want to give up on the futile hope that this is all just a dream. That she will soon wake up on her own futon, in her own home, and everything will make sense again. Barring that, that... that Patho-Gen will realize they have made a mistake and send them all back. Or at least the ones who will be useless in a fight... She doesn't want to think about being here long enough to need to know how to communicate with others, with these people...
But. Liem is being kind. And it's a nice offer, even if she laments everything else about the situation. So she actually thinks about it... and then points at herself a bit haplessly.]
Would "I" be good to know... ?
[If she could say "I 🌳🍃" or "I 👩🐎"...]
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It certainly couldn’t hurt. Here, I’ll show you.
[Pulling out his syntrofos, he steps closer, turning so she can see his screen as he pulls up their conversation. The bewildering emojis remain right where he’d left them.]
This is the character for “I.” [He indicates it on the keyboard, pressing it and then composing a simple emoji message, which he then sends to her device:] I 🩷 🍚
If you wanted to write “I’m” instead, it would look like this: I’m 🌳🍃
no subject
Nibbling on her lip, she leans closer, committed to trying to memorize what Liem shows her. It's bound to be complicated.
Except it's just... one tap?]
Eh- ?
[She digs her own device out of her tool belt and stares at it, then puts it together with Liem's as if to compare them, trying to find some sort of difference in the keys. Four down, five left... the one with the little line on it???]
It's just one character? That's "I"?
[Someone is used to kanji that have... lots of strokes...]
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That’s right. Simple, yes? “We” is very short, too. Here, you might like to know that one…
[Again, he taps it out on the keyboard: two letters, this time. He could probably go through every pronoun that came to mind and not encounter anything she’d find especially complicated, but he assumes the more words he throws at her all at once, the more difficult it will be for her to memorize which spelling is which.]
I didn’t mean that you need to come up with all the words you’d like to know right know, anyway. I’m sure it’d be simpler to single out useful ones as they come up, and ask me then. I don’t mind.
[He supposes that he might not reply right away if he’s busy, but in this land, he’s rarely so busy that he can’t take 30 seconds to explain the meaning of a written word, or the spelling of a spoken one.]
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Thanks, Mister Liem... I'll ask if I need up needing one.
[She didn't want to bother him too much, but if it was important...]
Besides, I didn't mean to make you play teacher today... we're going to cook together, right?
[It was "cook", right? (No, Konoha, it was probably "go eat".)]
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Oh… That does sound nice, but I’m not sure where we could do something like that. I doubt the hotel staff would let us use their kitchen.
[Considering they’re kept busy all day preparing the free food available for the hotel residents, he’s betting the Valentia’s kitchen is a pretty busy place. Cooking there might be a bit hectic for their tastes even if they were allowed.]
I thought maybe you wanted to eat together. I suppose I didn’t catch your meaning quite as adroitly as I’d hoped.
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No, no, no, that's not your fault, Mister Liem!
[She jumps in quick to take the blame, waving her hands a bit in betrayal of her fluster.]
I was sending puzzle pictures and you had to send them back to me so quickly... I'd be more surprised if it worked perfectly the first time. We can just eat together, I have a little money...
[Though also... his comments about the logistics of cooking make her think, lip pursing and brow furrowing.]
I did ask to use the kitchen here, before, but the staff wouldn't let me, you're right... They said I could get my own place, if I wanted to do my own cooking.
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I certainly can’t blame you if you’re trying to save money for that. Even I find the accommodations here a bit cramped.
[In his case, he mostly begrudges the lack of a private bathroom, and also the lack of closet space. Sleeping is tolerable, despite the thin walls, and hotel facilities are nice to explore, especially during the day when he wants to avoid going outside, but he can’t deny that he’d still like to find somewhere a little roomier. He can’t imagine how Konoha must feel here.]
We don’t have go eat if you don’t wish to. I just misunderstood—and besides which, it’s nice to meet again and see a friendly face.
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Saving money, right...
[Unconsciously, her fingers fuss at her tool belt- mainly at the pouch that looks like it might be a coin purse. Not a very big coin purse. ... She'd heard about their time at the hotel coming to an end soon, but surely... How could they bring them here without even asking, and then turn them out on the streets? It just wasn't right, and she didn't even know where to begin with it. So at first, she just smiles. Even brighter, as if she could blot out anything dark by just trying harder.]
No, no, let's go out to eat! Or, if you're saving money we can just grab something cheap at the market and eat it in the park... You should eat more, Mister Liem, get some more meat on your bones!
[Which might be rich, coming from a woman who's withers are growing sharper... but she can hide her weight loss beneath the horse blanket she's thrown over her back to hide her feathers with. Nevermind that it's too warm for blankets.]
I was going to eat anyway, it's not an inconvenience or anything...
[And she wanted to see a friendly face, too. Maybe that's obvious, in the way her tone tips the words into more of a plea than stalwart encouragement about his diet.]
no subject
As it is… he does look a little worse for wear compared to when she’d seen him last. It isn’t just his pallor, though he surely couldn’t get any paler now, nor is it just the feverish sheen on his skin; he’s lost weight over the last several weeks, as tolerating food has become increasingly more difficult. Though he was not a stout man to begin with, and his prudish layers disguise most of his body, even his face looks a bit more angular than usual.
But neither he nor Konoha can do anything about that.]
Visiting the market sounds nice.
[It’s early enough in the day that there should still be plenty of shadows, given the impressive heights of many of Karteria’s buildings. And he would rather not try to eat while trapped inside some crowded restaurant.]
Let’s do that, then.
[He’s already got his hat and everything. Not a single beam of sunlight will touch this pallid face.]