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[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth's hair has finally gotten long enough again to go up in a semblance of a ponytail, and currently that ponytail is home to at least three pens: one black, one blue and one red.

Someone is correcting grammar.

If you don't mind the scattered dossiers on Ancient linguistics strewn across her table, you're more than welcome to come over and say hello.

Comments

[againstcovenant.livejournal.com]

John Spartan is not the most patient of men. He leaves that up to snipers and other soldiers who are used to hiding. His people go out first and blow them away so to speak-

But that doesn't mean that his job doesn't require the finest intelligence-or at least his universe's version of it. Most people don't think that Spartans posess brainpower. But he's always been-well-curious.

Hence why there's a figure in bright green armor trying to look as unobtrusive as possible. The language looks interesting.

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

Men in armor of any color whatsoever is hardly unobtrusive, in Elizabeth's experience. However, there's no discernable weapon pointed in her general direction, so she tries a smile on for size.

"Hello, sir -- anything look familiar?" she hazards skeptically, but without anything else to say at the moment.

[againstcovenant.livejournal.com]

The Spartan shakes his head, "No ma'am. Bits and pieces of it resemble covenant lettering s'far as I see ma'am but I'm no expert."

He folds his hands behind his back, "-My apologies for interrupting you."

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

"Oh it's not an interruption at all, trust me -- I could use a break. Would you sit?"

While clearing the files into a neat stack, "My name is Elizabeth, by the way. What's yours, if I could ask?"

[againstcovenant.livejournal.com]

Sitting is difficult in Mjolnir armor.

John hesitates before he sits, clanking like the tin man, "-Spartan-117 ma'am. Holding the rank Master Chief."

It's the best he can give. He'll only give his given name if he's ordered to.

He pauses, "....What sort of language is it? " That curiousity again.

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

"A derivative of a language my world calls Ancient. It was a project I'd started before I arrived here, and I thought I'd try to get some work done on it while I had the time."

Beat, and a smile. "Master Chief. It's nice to hear titles now and again -- I've never been in the military myself, but I have worked with them for several years."

[againstcovenant.livejournal.com]

The chief nods, tilting his head to the side, "-Are you ONI ma'am?" She has that distinctly calm bearing-studious appearance-

"-Military Intelligence?" He sits back, adjusting his position and a few knobs on his armor.

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

"To a certain degree, but probably not from your world. I am an expedition leader with the United States Air Force at home."

Or was.

"How about yourself?"

[againstcovenant.livejournal.com]

"...Master Chief, Spartan-117." The Chief says, his tone conveying nothing but the utmost respect. Expedition leader. sounds important, "....Designated Platoon Leader of the Spartan-II project."

Behind his helmet, he frowns, "...It's not quite that impressive Ma'am."

[no-comb-shep.livejournal.com]

Sheppard doesn't mind dossiers of Ancient linguistics. Better to see it in dossiers than written on something that he has to figure out in the nick of time. (It hasn't happened yet, but he's fairly sure the linguistic variety of the 'solve this or die' puzzle will shop up eventually.)

"Some new project I should know about?" he asks as he moves to sit down.

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

"Not terribly, John," still bent over her notes, scribbling something with a red pen. "A project I'd been working on at home that I retrieved the source material for here."

Looking up, finally, "There's only so much time one can spend in the stables."

[no-comb-shep.livejournal.com]

He nods, frowning a bit to himself as he looks at the dossiers. "So what's the project?"

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

"It appears to be a love letter between a sergeant on an Ancient battleship to a cook on Atlantis before the evacuation."

"...I didn't say it was very interesting. It's just the kinds of things that found their way to the bottom of the piles on my desk on Atlantis."

[no-comb-shep.livejournal.com]

"Hey, it could be interesting. Depends on how soap opera...ish it gets."

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

"Not just yet -- the sergeant is very flowery in his salutation.






"The seventeen-line salutation, that I haven't even finished yet."

[no-comb-shep.livejournal.com]

"...How much spare time did this guy have?" Yet another possible reason for the Ancients getting their asses handed to them: too busy writing to actually do something about the space vampires.

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

"He missed his girlfriend, what can I say?" Elizabeth jokes. "I'm sorry, I don't mean 'girlfriend'. I meant to say..."

Elizabeth holds up a paper to read: "'...beauteous creation out of the wonder that is the universe and all its inhabitants'. And so on and so forth."

[wolflord_andain]

Galadans eye is, perchance, attracted by the appearance of a language he does not know.

At all.

It's enough of a novelty to prompt a formal and almost polite approach.

"Is your workload often so heavy, lady?"

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

Smiling politely in return, "Not often enough, at the moment -- this is a project of my own, from home. I'm working on translating the text into a more common language from my world."

Elizabeth can count on her fingers how many people can fluently speak Ancient, and even then it is work.

"I enjoy it, however."

[wolflord_andain]

"And is it a religious text, then?"

He raises one eyebrow.

"Or prophecy?"

For what else, really, is worth the effort of translation?

Or so some on his world would believe, like as not.

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth feels almost embarrassed to reveal what the text is, but can't quite put a finger on why.

"It's a love letter. Or at least, that's the intonation from what I've translated so far."

[wolflord_andain]

"Is it?"

Galadan's expression is strange, for a brief moment.

"Does it tend toward the insipid, then? Or is it a letter of the more passionate kind?"

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

Slowly, "I try not to judge the text from my own perspe..."






"It is rather insipid at the moment," Elizabeth laughs quietly. "But it's a good mental exercise for the translation. A lot of the vocabulary is unfamiliar to me."

[wolflord_andain]

"There would, I imagine, be a difference between acknowledgment and judgment. Though most information is flavored heavily by perspective."

He laughs quietly.

"It keeps things on the far side of interesting, much of the time."

[doctor-weir.livejournal.com]

"You have a point, but I would ask then if the letter was insipid to its creator, or its audience."