translation fail!

[veryvorkosigan]

Cordelia Vorkosigan is in the bar, frowning at the bulletin board.

If this were any other place in the universe, she'd be inclined to suspect a practical joke. It would have to be a very elaborate joke, though, to so carefully reproduce all the notices -- size and texture of paper, color of ink, degree of wear, even handwriting -- and change almost all of the languages.

Comments

[childofrebellion]

(OOC: Cassian speaks Basic/English and Festian/Spanish)

Cassian's on his way to the counter to get a caf holding his datapad and stops to join the woman, who looks like she's from the Core at the notice board.

He nods to her and says quietly in Festian as he prefers speaking it, "[All that paper and all those languages.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

(OOC: got it! Cordelia speaks English-plus-eight-hundred-years; I'm working on the assumption that contemporary English won't be her language, much less Basic.)

Cordelia's gaze flicks to him in startlement; yes, that's definitely not any language she knows.

"[Can you read any of that?]" she asks -- and gestures toward the board.

[childofrebellion]

He considers her as he didn't understand what she said but the gesture makes sense.

Looking over the board, he points to a few notes in Aurebesh before answering, "[I can read those.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

She considers, and then finds a note in what she's pretty sure is English -- although the letters are very oddly formed and the wording is archaic to the point of incomprehensibility -- and points to it.

"[That one,]" she says, "[I think that's my language. English.]" A pause, and she repeats it as a question: "[English?]"

[childofrebellion]

Cassian looks at the note she's pointing to, he has seen that alphabet but he doesn't know its name and shakes his head, "[I don't know it.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

Cordelia frowns again.

"[Is this going on all over the bar?]" Pointing to the different papers, and then a sweeping gesture with one hand to take in the whole room.

[childofrebellion]

He follows her gesture and nods, "[Yes, what creates the translation isn't working.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

"[I have no idea if we're actually communicating or not,]" she sighs, "[but I think we've established that we can't understand each other, and neither can anyone else. I don't even know where to start.]"

And then a moment later, she does.

"[I'm Cordelia,]" she says, gesturing to herself, and repeats it more slowly -- "[Cordelia.]" -- and then gestures at him, raising her eyebrows in what she hopes will be read as a question.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian listens without understanding and then it seems like she's saying a name as she points to herself, so gestures to himself, "[Cassian.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

"Cassian," she repeats, hoping she's pronouncing it right, and tries to work out how to ask the next question.

"... [Sergyar,]" she says, pointing at the front door. "[I'm from Sergyar.]"

[childofrebellion]

He nods as she gets his name fairly right and then watches her and her movement to the door.

Its an unfamiliar name, perhaps its a planet and he considers what's his best response before gesturing to his door and shaping his hands like a ship, "[Galactic Empire, a pilot.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

She frowns at the two-handed gesture, imitates it as best she can -- and in a sudden surmise, expands the gesture by gliding her hands forward, putting the shape into motion.

"[A ship?]"

[childofrebellion]

"[Yes, a U-wing,]" Its a hard shape to replicate with his hands then realizes he has his datapad and pulls up the specs of a U-wing, projecting them so she can see how it moves.

Then puts up a map of the galaxy, "[The Empire.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

"[Oh!]" That much is clear, she hopes. Of course, pictures.

She pulls out her own reader and thumbs through it quickly -- what does she have here that she could show him, there must be something -- yes, here, a map of the Barrayar-Komarr-Sergyar end of the wormhole nexus, with an inset showing their approximate realspace locations relative to the spiral of the Milky Way.

"[Sergyar]," she repeats, pointing to the little blue dot in the stylized map. And then, glancing from her own screen to his: "[I don't think we're in the same galaxy.]"

[childofrebellion]

He smiles at the image, this makes it simpler and pulls his own up, trying to find any similar places.

Which doesn't happen and he pulls up a recent route he's taken between the Mid and Outer Rim, "[We're not from the same world. Not really from anywhere but do a lot of this.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

"[Travel?]" she asks, tracing one finger between the different planets on her own map, Sergyar to Barrayar to Beta Colony and back again.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian watches her repeating and then shakes his head and pulls up routes he's flown in the last couple of months.

They mainly are in the Mid and Outer Rim, some repeats of places, but not like hers, "[Work is travel.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

"[Wider travel,]" she guesses at his meaning, and traces a longer route -- seven or eight jumps right across the Nexus, ending up around Marilac.

[childofrebellion]

He nods and traces his finger back and forth, this way and that to show how he doesn't stay in one place, "[Always moving.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

"[That's not uncommon,]" she says, even knowing he's not likely to understand her. "[Some people live their whole lives on ships and stations, where I come from.]"

[childofrebellion]

Cassian points to a tiny planet in the Outer Rim and then holds his hand out to about the height of a little boy,

"[I started out from there but left as a boy.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

Cordelia frowns again. "[You ... have a child there? Or you were a child there? -- Or else I'm not following.]"

And she can't for the life of her think of a gesture that could possibly clarify the first guess from the second.

[childofrebellion]

At the look of confusion on her face, he moves his hand away from the planet and gestures at himself.

He frowns as he probably should have done that first, "[I'm out of practice doing this.]"

Then points to the various planets she showed and then gestures at her. How does he ask if where she lives now is where she was born?

[veryvorkosigan]

"[Uhh --]"

Well, she'll give it a shot. She gestures to herself, and repeats his gesture to indicate the height of a small child, and points to Beta Colony. "[Beta Colony. I grew up there. And then --]" Raising her hand to her own head's height, and moving her other finger from Beta to two other worlds in sequence -- "[I moved here to Barrayar, and then here to Sergyar.]"

[childofrebellion]

As she watches her gestures, he nods and then says, trying to get the word right,

"[And now you live in Sergyar.]"

[veryvorkosigan]

"[Sergyar, yes.]" She nods back.

[childofrebellion]

Cassian's not certain what to attempt to say next as he wasn't successful with explaining about himself.

All the other questions he has are too complicated for gestures and he rubs the back of his neck as he thinks.

Then he pulls up the image of his ship up and points to her, "[Do you have a ship?]"

[littlegreycells]

"Who knew," a rather pudgy old man with an egg shaped head and a walking stick says in an accented 20th century English, "there were so many languages and so many alphabets?"

[veryvorkosigan]

Cordelia blinks; she's definitely sure she caught the word language in what he just said, and something that sounded like alphabet. The rest she isn't sure of, but his accent sounds peculiarly like Barrayaran French crossed with ... something else.

"[English?]" she asks hopefully -- and, on further hope: "[Français?]"

(The version of French she knows is even further from its 20th-century counterpart than her version of English.)

[littlegreycells]

"Ah. I fear you did not understand, Madam." And he is not sure he understood those words. Did she say English and French? Well, he will try both.

"[I speak French as well as English. And some Latin and some Flemish.]" The latter being a language no one outside of northern Belgium speaks.

[veryvorkosigan]

She hesitates, and shakes her head. "[Let's stick with English? I think I understood some of what you said.]"

Carefully, consciously, she slows down on the second sentence. Maybe that'll help.

[littlegreycells]

He listens closely, and yes, it is English, but an accent he doesn't know.

"I apologize then if my accent confuses you. My native tongue in French. I have learned English but I am told my accent remains."

[veryvorkosigan]

It's not just an accent; the vocabulary is strange, familiar words squashed or stretched, confusing verb forms. It sounds old, in a way she can't define.

"What year is it," she asks, still slowly, "where you come from?"

[littlegreycells]

"It was Anno Domini 1948 when I died. And you, madame?" He defaults to "madame" without thinking.

[veryvorkosigan]

Madame is a familiar enough word to her, even if something is weird about the vowels.

"About eight hundred years after that. Of course, that explains it, language drift ..."

[littlegreycells]

His hearing is not perfect - not after a long life that included the sounds of gunfire, explosions, train and steamship whistles at close range, and Hastings insisting on revving the engine of whatever car he drove. But he does make out those last two words, if barely.

"That you understand what I say is a bit of a wonder then." It's not like he could easily communicate with, as he noted to Sinric, Charlemagne.

[veryvorkosigan]

"-- Sorry, I lost you," she says, rueful -- and carefully slow again. "I heard 'you understand' and 'say', I think."

[littlegreycells]

He smiles and sorts his words carefully. Even after decades of speaking the King's English as his second language, the words do not always come well at the best of times.

"That you understand my words...at all...is surprising. A wonder. Unlikely." Maybe he needs a thesaurus to keep trying until he finds a word that lives till 2750.

[veryvorkosigan]

"Surprising," she says, "unlikely -- oh, a wonder."

(The word's recognizable when she says it, although decidedly changed.)

"Yes, I think ... we have good records from your time, and from later. Including sound and visual recordings, so there are historians who know what people of your time sounded like."

[littlegreycells]

He listens very carefully, starting to find a rhythm to her accent and patterns, but the words flow in the most peculiar manner.

"Then you have the slight advantage of me. Does it help for me to talk slower?"

[veryvorkosigan]

"Slower is helpful, yes, please." She's speaking slowly in turn, but smiling.

"Have you ever had any trouble understanding people here before? I don't think I have."

[littlegreycells]

"None. I have always spoken and heard English." He says this very deliberately now. "That was clearly some sort of illusion."