ii. audio. after dark. both courts.

[vrykolakas]

[If anything, the Brucolac's voice sounds worse than ever, painfully scratchy and distinctly weary. The reception isn't perfect; he's sitting in the garden of the fortress at Redgate, where the lockets work, but the blood granite is still causing some interference.]

What languages do you speak? And what language would you say I'm speaking right now?

Comments

[noirant]

Said the prisoner to his cell door. [ Felix waggles his fingers, sounding perfectly cheerful about this all. ] What parameters have you observed in the recoil?

[vrykolakas]

Precious little. [He sounds fairly unsurprised by this, and continues with a sort of carelessness:] This cell door's rarely where my foot thinks it is. Some languages won't shift and some will; some people speak their mother tongue, some the tongue they know will be widely understood. The common denominator is one fuck-off enormous magical question mark, and I'm increasingly regretting even asking.

[noirant]

Thaumaturgic headaches seem part and parcel of the venture. That individual understanding is not that of a 'common' sort of pidgin, but rather personal expectation, seems to indicate the working acts upon individuals rather than the tongues themselves.

Those of us egocentric or dull enough to expect our first language might thereby set the spell -- if it can even be considered one, rather than some intrinsic property -- to work upon such. Everyone with the sense to opt for a more common tongue would do the same.

The common denominator, I suppose, could be considered to be all of us.

[vrykolakas]

[Check out that phrasing: seems to indicate, intrinsic property...]

A scholar?

[noirant]

[ Felix waves a dismissive hand. ]

At best, a poor imitation. Yourself, Messire...?

[vrykolakas]

Ha. May I choke on my own tongue before I claim that.

I'm a sailor and a politician. An understanding of the idiosyncrasies of language has been known to come in handy. [you're a flippant bitch.]

[noirant]

Heaven forbid; every politician needs a tongue to lie with — else, a proper understanding of delegation -- and if lewd jokes are anything to be believed, it's certainly of more use to your second career.

[ Who the fuck willingly goes out on the ocean? Evidently, the Brucolac is insane. ]

A peculiar combination.

[vrykolakas]

Everyone needs a tongue to lie with.

[Ooh, matron. ...?]

I come from a peculiar city.