[voice]

[unetrustworthy]

I was wondering...how many other people here can speak other languages?

[But then, she paused and there was a slight jostling of the camera as she shook her head.  Sorting out her thoughts.]

No,  not speak.  That doesn't really help any, with everything always being translated for us.  More like...read.  I was wondering...what languages everyone here can read?  Since written words have never been translated.  Not since I've been here.

Comments

[unetrustworthy]

Because I wanted to know.

[...did that sound precocious? Because she was trying to work on that. Really. But it was also the truth. She only ever asked questions when she had an invested interest in them.]

[mrsarcastic003]

[That actually makes Tim grin a little. Well, who doesn't just want to know stuff sometimes? He gets himself into loads of trouble that way.]

What about you? Do you read other languages?

[unetrustworthy]

[She nodded, and held up one finger at a time. Four in total.]

I'm fluent in French and Japanese, but I've been studying English and kedanese since I've been here.

[Though her look of confidence faltered at the latter two, and she very nearly frowned.]

...but only in writing. It's hard to learn a new language when every language you don't know already gets translated automatically.

[mrsarcastic003]

Yeah. I guess that's a drawback of the magic that lets us all communicate with each other. It's hard to know how to pronounce what you see written down, if you can't hear it.

[unetrustworthy]

[She nodded in full agreement.]

English isn't too hard. Most of the letters are basically the same as the French alphabet, so I've been able to sound out a lot--[Basically, if the translators were to ever shut down, she would sound like English with a thick French accent.]--but kedanese...

At least Da--I mean, the boy who first taught me spoke French too, so he was able to help a lot with learning the alphabet.

[mrsarcastic003]

Kedanese is a bit of a challenge, yeah. I wonder if there's a way... [His voice trails off, and he;s obviously thinking. Then he laughs.]

And now I'm trying to solve this problem.

It sounds like you got really lucky on the French-English front. Finding someone who would help with the basics.

[unetrustworthy]

[She smiled. Sadly.]

I was lucky, yeah. [Was] And I didn't even know it at the time. I knew that people leave here...I was even read for people leaving...but I never stopped worrying long enough to realize that I was lucky.

[mrsarcastic003]

[Have a slightly wry--but definitely sympathetic--smile.] When I was here before, most of my family was as well, and a number of friends. Most of them are gone now.

It's funny how you can take things like that for granted.

[unetrustworthy]

[She wished she had taken it for granted.]

Oh, that's right. I heard that sometimes, people can go away and come back again.

[Though it never seemed to happen to faces she wanted to see. Jack. Eponine. Gavroche. Damian.]

That must have been...difficult. To adjust to, I mean. Your memories getting scrambled around like that.

[mrsarcastic003]

[:( He misses Damian, too. Much to his surprise.] I'm living proof. Though I don't think it's typical for someone gone as long as I was to come back. And yeah, it's a little... challenging.. I'm lucky, though. The friend I do have left here is pretty awesome.

[unetrustworthy]

[Probably not for the same reason she does. :c]

Only one?

[Her brows rose. Not because he was admitting he only had one friend--she was hardly one to comment on something like that--but because it meant that all his other friends had left.]

You must have been from a really long time ago. I know a lot of people left, but a lot of people have come here since.

[mrsarcastic003]

[Prooooobably not.]

I don't get out much. And I can be pretty shy, in some ways.

I was here a long time ago. Before Malicant was defeated, when we were still afraid to speak his name. I went home not long after Eshai was killed.

[unetrustworthy]

That...was a long time ago.

I just barely remember that. It was years ago--I was, what, twelve back then?

[mrsarcastic003]

[He laughs a little.]

Uh, yeah. It was a long while. The friend I mentioned? She was younger than me then. She's not now. It's pretty weird.

[unetrustworthy]

[Younger before. Older now. With...what, three years' difference? If one counted the time spent in Death and Dreaming...]

But she must still be pretty close to you in age. If a few years was all it took for her to surpass you.

[mrsarcastic003]

She is. There's a bit less difference now than there was. It was still a little disconcerting, when I realized what had happened.

[unetrustworthy]

That's...pretty amazing.

I'm not sure I would know how to react if somebody I knew ever came back, and there was that much of an age difference between us.

[It would be awkward, for sure, and that was before taking into account any discrepancy in memories.]

[mrsarcastic003]

[Since it actually wasn't the first time Tim had experienced something like that...]

I imagine you'd deal with it like any other weirdness that happens in life. I find it's easier to try to roll with those kinds of punches. It's a lot easier than the alternatives.

[unetrustworthy]

[Well, ACTUALLY...]

When I was younger, I used to deal with any sort of weirdness here by...pretending it wasn't real.

[She was such a skeptic as a child. To be fair, she was still...fairly cautious, but at least more open-minded to the impossible improbable.]

So I'd...try to be a little better now.

Though it would also depend on the person who came back. And...if they remembered me.

[mrsarcastic003]

That's... probably wise. It doesn't really help to ignore reality, just because it doesn't fit into your expectations.

Yeah, that... I'm not sure what I would do if someone I knew from before came back and didn't know me. That would be kind of awful.

[unetrustworthy]

Like I said, it...would depend on the person.

Most people, I could live with it. But there are a few...I let myself get close to them. And the only thing harder than knowing they're gone would be having to face the fact that nothing that happened between us mattered.

[mrsarcastic003]

[wry smile]

I know the feeling. I'm... not very good at letting go of people I care about.

[unetrustworthy]

But you've had to do it before.

[A guess, but one she was certain of. Judging from his tone.]

[mrsarcastic003]

[ha. ha. ha.]

Once or twice.

[unetrustworthy]

I'm sorry.

[There wasn't much else she could say, but what she could, she meant. Because she could empathize.]