milliways_bar | (no subject)

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[OOC: On his way to meet the representatives of the Great Lemurian Empire, Ray stops in Boise, Idaho for the night. There's more to Idaho than potatoes, though.

There's potentially haunted strip clubs, too.]

The door opens on a classically bedraggled Ray. He did try to dress respectably this morning, with a suit and a button-down shirt and all, but there are issues with looking respectable when you are actively covered in slime by the long-dead spirits of extremely irritated Methodist missionaries. Also when you have a small wiggly five-armed alien on your shoulder. "Bar," he says, "I'm going to need a glass of the green stuff and a bottle of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap, please. And a pile of kiwifruits the size of my head, if you don't mind."

Bar obliges.

"Thank you," Ray says, and heads for a table.

[tinytag: Long-Reach the Jotok]

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"Didn't have paper. Just clay and reeds. This is how you make the right marks."

It holds out a tentative hand.

"Jhalak make marks?"

Ray hands over the stylus.

"Go to town, kiddo."

"Go to town." "That's right!"

It holds the stylus somewhat awkwardly and makes a shaky but vaguely recognizable copy of the symbol.

Closing two of its hands in an irritated frown, it tries again, without much more success.

And again.

And (slight improvement) again.

And again... starting to run out of space, now; it writes a little bigger than it should.

"Easy," Ray warns. "When it gets like that, this is how you get a new place to write."

He takes the stylus back and scrapes the clay flat and clean.

"Okay. Try it again."

Without an original to copy from, its next attempt straggles slightly, but by the seventh attempt it seems to have settled into something of a rhythm.

"This," it intones, pointing the stylus triumphantly at a nearly elegant number eleven, "is the set of marks for the sound ga."

Two unoccupied hands wiggle their digits, and it giggles musically.

"Very good," Ray says. "I approve."

Then he makes the next set of marks, gives the appropriate sound, and hands the stylus over again. The great thing about clay is just how often you can reuse it.

This time it only takes ten tries before Jhalak is pleased with its result, again announcing its delight via the giggle-wiggle combination.

It'll take a while to go through all the sounds and signs, but that's okay. It beats being in Boise. Ray's good with this.

Jhalak is very evidently having the time of its life.

Learning new things is so much fun.

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