SIXTH TRANSMISSION - VOICE;

[redcosmedic]

Wasn't that just the cosiest little sojourn into what-if-dystopia territory? Everyone present and accounted for with their new sets of traumatic memories? Excellent, moving on.

[ Yeah, he's very pointedly not dwelling on what happened in the City. ]

When I arrived on this charming waterworld several years ago, the planetary information packet included a truly egregious number of language files. I don't think any of you realize that a planet in your current stage of development having several thousand languages all in use at the same time is an anomaly, not the norm. Who needs that many? It's ridiculous.

And I do mean this in the most well-intentioned and helpful way — but you should really get that sorted before your species wanders its way out of this solar system. I'd hate to see humans become a laughingstock over something so trivial.

[ Well, he wouldn't necessarily hate it. But it's the thought that counts. He's trying to help, honest. ]

In any case, they've been loitering around my short term cache largely unused for a few years, so before I shuffle the majority of them to recall for storage, I thought I'd check if anyone needs translation services or conversational practice. Skill level or project size not important, I'd rather someone get some use out of them.

Comments

voice; un: Julian Delphiki | Bean

[justlittle]

[ Well... This post is fortuitous. Though Bean would rather it was coming from someone else. Maybe he and Knock Out can put their petty differences aside for the sake of some learning? ]

I recently lost some languages I used to know. I'd like to learn them back, if that's possible.

[redcosmedic]

[ Oh, it's this one again. Knock Out hasn't had cause to talk to Bean since FanPort, when they'd had a bit of a parking lot showdown.

Bean's phrasing alludes to the answer to this question but Knock Out figures he'll double check. ]

You "lost" some languages. Clotho?

[justlittle]

Eh. [ He nods in the affirmative, just in case Battle School slang doesn't translate. ]

I used to know eight, now I only know four. And the ones I lost are... inconvenient to lose, for my life back home.

[redcosmedic]

If you learn them here, and the general consensus is that we won't recall being in this world when we return, would you even remember relearning them?

[ a thoughtful pause ]

Or if this reality is self-contained, would you have even lost them at all in your own world?

[justlittle]

I still have them back home. [ He knows this, because he was just there. ] Nothing in this world carries over when we leave.

But I would feel better if I could get them back.

[redcosmedic]

[ Knock Out has yet to experience any kind of temporary Port-out, so he'll take the boy's word for that one. Still, he's a little enh that Bean is the one responding to his offer. ]

I see. Which languages?

text;

[bifroster]

[Jane is so relieved to be back, but she also kind of wants to smash something. She has so much to say, but it's probably best not to say something too emotional right now.]

Languages are tricky. Don't even get me started on ciphers.

Re: text;

[redcosmedic]

[ Knock Out is fully intending to ignore as much of the last two weeks as possible, because what is healthy coping. He appreciates Jane enabling that. ]

Ciphers at least serve a purpose. What's the point of having a language that only a thousand people speak, in one tiny region of the planet, that no one else understands?

text;

[bifroster]

[Indeed, what is coping at all? Eh, it'll bite them in the butts sooner or later, might as well allow themselves some emotional distance.]

Well, humans specifically didn't evolve or develop writing or language in similar ways and it's often considered an important part of the local culture. Especially if they were oppressed and their language managed to survive. So, I guess pride is the point.

Re: text;

[redcosmedic]

I understand local dialects. Praxians had their own, and Vosians have their wing language, but never to this number.

text;

[bifroster]

This is probably going to horrify you, but we've only had mass communication for about ... less than 600 years? The world can still be pretty isolated.

voice;

[slapfight]

There really are too many languages to keep track of. Gems, of course, adjust to the languages of any planet we come across, but it's so irritating when there's more than one.

[She pauses.] What happened to you during that... thing?

Re: voice;

[redcosmedic]

How do you "adjust" to them? We just download the relevant data and integrate it to our vernacular cortex.

[ a pause at her question, then with too-sociable cheer: ]

Not so different than anyone else. Just a friendly little bit of forced coercion to an authoritarian government, nothing new there.

[slapfight]

Maybe adjust isn't the right word. Adapt? Hrgh. It's closer to what you said, just... Harder to explain.

[AND NOT IMPORTANT, because she suddenly blurts out:]

They reset my character development!

[redcosmedic]

[ Peridot's outburst is not what he was expecting. ]

Reset it to what?

[slapfight]

To the default! To what I was like when I first came out of the ground. Cold, calculating, unfeeling... Utterly dedicated to the objectives of my mission without even considering other possibilities.

voice

[cannotrest]

How many languages do different species have in your world? Because we've gone intergalactic in mine and we're definitely not the only species with this many.

[She thinks the City talks are best for in person anyway, if he felt so inclined.]

Re: voice

[redcosmedic]

We're intergalactic in mine as well, and I've seen quite a swath of the cosmos. Usually by the time a planet develops a global communications system and space program, they've either culled their extraneous languages or at least, decided on a unified one as their main.

Earth seems to have accomplished neither.

[ Knock Out's preferred method of dealing is avoidance, so it's not likely to come up. However part of avoidance is finding other things to do, so he may initiate something Aegis-related. ]

[cannotrest]

'Extraneous'. Wow. Wonder if that's how the brass in the human Systems Alliance felt about other languages when they decided English would be the main one for the Alliance, because between English being the main language on Alliance bases and a lot of human colonies, and just about everyone having a translator, it makes it hard for people to hang on to their cultures' and families' languages.

[Her Spanish is so bad.]

[redcosmedic]

[ Knock Out sounds genuinely puzzled by her reaction, but one of his other conversations in this post have cleared up what the issue may be. ]

I see. I wasn't thinking of it in a cultural framework.

[ Now see, he could help her with that. ]

voice;

[pullsheavendown]

It's weird, isn't it? I went to a bunch of worlds before this one and I never needed a translator before.

[This Earth is pretty backwards in some ways.]</small. Hey, where'd everyone go? I was here the whole time.

Re: voice;

[redcosmedic]

Ah, another space-farer?

[ a slight hum in response to the question ]

To a world that doesn't exist, but very easily could.

voice;

[pullsheavendown]

Something like that.

[Sure.]

What kind of world doesn't exist that you can do to?

[Other than, like, where he grew up.]

Re: voice;

[redcosmedic]

If you're familiar with the concept of parallel timelines, it's like that.

voice;

[pullsheavendown]

Not really, no.