newberktown | IC Contact

[He has good taste. She loves Cianwood, too.]

We're lucky we got in when we did. Six hours in rain isn't a pleasant flight, and from the looks of things, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Yeah... I would have liked to see more of Olivine, but it certainly worked out better this way. Good thing I got all my flying in yesterday.

There are worse places to be stranded.

[Pause.]

And worse people to be stranded with.

[Hee, you can't see, but he's smiling.]

I'll give you that.

[She can hear it in his VOICE. Like MAGIC.]

It'll be better, now that a few of us have the HM for Fly. A ready pair of wings or two isn't such a bad thing.

Of course, with the gym beaten, that leaves us to entertain ourselves for the rest of the time we stay here.

With how many of our pokemon can use it, now, travel should be a snap.

[ZEN EXPRESS AIRLINES. Because they obviously don't have enough money-cash.]

I guess so, yeah. Weather takes away a few options, too, if it continues like this.

I certainly hope so. We'll have to share it with the others once we're back.

[Whenever that might be.]

For what it's worth, I'm mostly planning to leave you and Astrid to your own devices. And I don't mean that in the sense of "cahoots".

[Those darn cahoots again. Good thing this is audio, so Carmen can't see him blush.]

Oh? What are you planning on doing, then?

[SHE SAID THEY WEREN'T CAHOOTS, DAMMIT.]

I don't know, actually. Enjoy the sights of Cianwood despite the rain. Listen to Cliff's latest composition praising the magnificent arc of Val's swing when she whacks things with her bone club.

...Go shopping?

[HALP HOW DO I NORMAL PERSON LEISURE ACTIVITIES]

[JUST THE MENTION OF CAHOOTS IS ENOUGH.]

Maybe his composition can include the size of the lump on my head. [Ugh.

But, uh, wow, Mom.] You're not thinking about home again, are you?

[YOU WERE SHOPPING THAT TIME.]

I think it's mentioning the rosy quality, actually.

[THAT WAS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT OKAY.]

No, not in the least. But it'd be something to do indoors while it's wet out.

[Something that is decidedly not holing up in a coffee shop and harassing Coop for hours on end.]

Well, at least he's creative about her attack on me...

[GOOD, because he still worries about that making you sad.]

Alright. And you don't have to leave me and Astrid alone all the time, you know. I don't know what kind of company I'd be, but I'd be happy to be it, if that makes any sense.

"A graceful swing! The club connects!
And as her father, sore, objects,
A growing lump upon his head
Is rapidly a-growing red."

[TRULY A MASTERPIECE.]

I'd like that. How about breakfasts?

[Woah. He hates to admit it, but...]

That's actually...pretty good.

Breakfast with you would be great. Maybe throw in other meals, too, every once in awhile.

It could use some polishing. He resorted to use of the word "growing" twice in two lines. But he's well on his way to greatness.

Let's put it this way. I'll always have time for you.

Hey, it's masterful by viking standards. They have the same grace with words as they do with chewing food--and that's not a pretty sight, lemme tell you.

[what is this strange, unfamiliar feeling in his gut--OH, IT'S A CASE OF THE WARM FUZZIES.]

Even if there's a sale on nice, ankle-length red coats while you're out shopping?

That's another thing you're going to have to do for me this trip — tell me all about the viking standard of life. There's a je ne sais quoi to personal stories that you just can't get in books.

[Also, that gets her amused.]

I don't wear ankle-length coats. I like to show a little leg.

[GDI CARMEN.]

Sure thing! As long as you explain what some of those words you just said were...

[because wat]

Fine, fine. Is shin-length coats an acceptable description, or should I consider them higher than that?

Je ne sais quoi? That's interesting, that it stayed in French; I wonder if that's because there isn't a particularly good English equivalent for it. It means "I don't know what", but in context, it's something to the effect of, "that certain inexplicable something".

And shin-length is fine, thank you. With my approval at your attempt to be precise.

Huh...

[That reminds him of something, even if it's not exactly the same.]

Words don't always change here, though. Albert taught me how to write in code, and that stays. And it's hard, but I can still write like I did on Berk, if I concentrate enough.

I suspect it's the writing that has something to do with it. Zack knows a few words in an array of different languages, and when he types them they seem to hold. But when I try to change in speech, the most that tends to happen is a different accent.

...Albert taught you to write in code?

[The surprise seems to be more along the lines of, Albert taught you?]

Weird... Though I guess an image would be harder to change.

[What with having a visible structure and all.

And face it, Carmen, this kid is MAGIC.]

Yeah, for my notes and stuff. Like Da Vinci.

Or easier to concentrate on, like you suggested. Most fluent speakers don't tend to think very deliberately about the words they're choosing; maybe a beginning student of a language would actually stand a better chance of maintaining it here, if only because he or she would have to think more about it as it was said.

[Eee, Da Vinci.]

Ah, his mirror writing. Simple, yet surprisingly effective. Though some think he wrote that way out of simple practicality because he was left-handed, and so writing right to left kept the ink from smearing.

Mirror writing...?

[Although that does make him wonder if he should adjust how he writes. Smear-free notes sound nice.]

Albert taught me something called Pigpen, since we had been joking about barn animals.

Mirror writing was Da Vinci's "code" of choice. The words were written backwards, so they could only be read when reflected in a mirror.

[The more you know.]

Did he? Pigpen is what's called a "cypher". Codes traditionally involve the exchange of one word or concept for another — for example, you and I might decide to have a secret code in which we always refer to Albert as "duck". A cypher, on the other hand, is an alphabetical substitution, like Pigpen — each symbol represents one letter. And they both have their uses; the benefit of a cypher is that you can spell any word in the world, whether you have a pre-agreed "code word" for it or not. But the downside is that substitution cyphers are much easier to break.

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