This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
The Fate who calls herself Mountain tried to convince some of her neighbors to allow the occasional mountain in their lands, for stability purposes.
"I meant no insult!" Dodge ball of lava. "I don't intend to interfere, you said no!" Dodge house-sized spear of ice. "I'm leaving peacefully, okay, so stop tearing up the tile!"
"You'll respawn at home. No permanent damage. You interrupted an important meeting, you need to learn a lesson about territory, mountain bitch." Dodge- no, fail to dodge a thrown tree, and then another ice ball. The next sphere of magma is what destroyed that form.
She wakes up, stripped of all her tools and enchantments and even clothes, and groans in pain.
Steel in Wormverse
+ Show First Post
sturdycoldsteel
That is good! Not that he'd been expecting something like that, but it is still reassuring.
He asks her to say things in her language, and write the things she's said, and he tries to repeat them and change them around some, and this can in fact take quite a while. Harry seems to like his job.
There will be food available when they need food.
He asks her to say things in her language, and write the things she's said, and he tries to repeat them and change them around some, and this can in fact take quite a while. Harry seems to like his job.
There will be food available when they need food.
sturdycoldsteel
She talks and writes and explains and eats and solicits intermittent English practice during all this.
There's a bit of a talent for languages there, probably from knowing seven (and a half, depending on if runes count) reasonably well already, but she won't be writing the Great American Novel any time soon.
There's a bit of a talent for languages there, probably from knowing seven (and a half, depending on if runes count) reasonably well already, but she won't be writing the Great American Novel any time soon.
That is interesting! Though without a power like his or Alexandria's, learning a language in one day is probably still infeasible.
Most of the notes will be sent to a computer anyway to create something that can automatically translate stuff (and be turned off when Mountain wants to speak English and practice, naturally).
Most of the notes will be sent to a computer anyway to create something that can automatically translate stuff (and be turned off when Mountain wants to speak English and practice, naturally).
Well, that's not a bad comparison!
Eventually Harry grabs a book in English and starts asking how certain sentences there would be rendered in her language. Not everything can be divined based on conversation and a parahuman linguist's intuition.
Eventually Harry grabs a book in English and starts asking how certain sentences there would be rendered in her language. Not everything can be divined based on conversation and a parahuman linguist's intuition.
sturdycoldsteel
This language apparently has lots of room for syntactic ambiguity. She writes two sometimes quite different versions of most sentences longer than five words. (Or maybe she's just not all that good at English yet.)
Well, with enough sentences and books Harry will be able to determine which is it, and hopefully help some with her English.
Okay, that's easier to help with! Apparently the active part of his power is having an easier time being understood, so if he repeats some sentences with the right emphasis most ambiguity problems should go away.
sturdycoldsteel
"English feels like four different languages smushed together... Valecana," (the language he's currently in the process of decoding,) "hates loanwords."
"Yes, English has many loaned words. Isn't there cultural coevolution of languages where you're from?"
sturdycoldsteel
"Yes, but Valecana is new as languages go, a few hundred years ago King Lica invented it and insisted all his ministers learn it. It was popular with everyone else because it was the 'Royal Tongue' and a few years later he had schools teach only in Valecana. Krellian gave us a few words like gata" (sickness) "But mostly just stopped existing."
"Most invented languages here are either from fictional universes, very old, or spoken by very few people. At one point people tried creating a 'universal' language to replace English as a language without a country but that project didn't work." He looks pretty disappointed about this fact.
sturdycoldsteel
"Royals of Graya are close to all-powerful, and even then it took a long time for it to stick. It probably wouldn't have if he wasn't also regarded as an administrative genius."
He nods, looking wistful. "An invented language spoken by people would really be something."
He shakes his head. "Anyway, maybe I should grab a textbook or two to get a feel for your language's technical vocabulary?"
He shakes his head. "Anyway, maybe I should grab a textbook or two to get a feel for your language's technical vocabulary?"
sturdycoldsteel
"I suspect what I call technical and what you do are very different. I tried making some of the technology we use in my world and it didn't work."
"Hmm, perhaps. I meant mostly physics and geography and geology, those sound like the most immediately relevant here from what I've been told."
sturdycoldsteel
"Indeed. Though I want to take a break and start on my mountain, or build a road or fix a bridge or something, soon."
sturdycoldsteel
"I'm going to make a mountain in the middle of the ocean. Besides just wanting to, I need to rest in a place that is 'mine' to get back to full power."
sturdycoldsteel
"Alexandria told me she'd find a place. I was going to just go to... I think it was the 'Catskill Mountains,' but apparently they're public property. No merfolk in this world, though, so: The middle of the ocean."
"That makes sense. They told me to inform the PRT when we were done so presumably they have arrangements in place for this."
Harry goes to the door and knocks on it, and it's opened from the outside. He talks to someone there and returns. "They'll give you a waterproof interactive map to show you a good location."
Harry goes to the door and knocks on it, and it's opened from the outside. He talks to someone there and returns. "They'll give you a waterproof interactive map to show you a good location."