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"They should have known better than to trust a known-pirate, but it's not their fault. I was leading them under a pseudo-name and a great disguise. You should have seen the loot I pillaged from their fleet, I even kept a few pieces of jewelry for myself. They're all back on The Phoenix, though, so if Zoto keeps his word and leaves my shit alone, I'll be able to show you." She poured herself another drink and topped off Zulo's before continuing. "Did you hear about the dogfight I got into with a smaller pirate crew? I damn-near sunk their main ship before they waved somebody's drawers as a white flag. Guess they didn't plan on losing," she snickered and took another sip of the sweet beverage. She wasn't sure if it would get her drunk like she wanted, but once you got past the initial shock of how sweet it was, it was actually quite delicious.
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Old Age of War stuff here:
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Zulo chuckled back as Zaria told her story. "Sounds like you're doing the navy's work for us," he joked. He held his glass up for a salute. "Cheers to that!" After they clinked, he continued sipping on his drink, though it still wasn't quite agreeing with his tastebuds. He had a more traditional, and expensive, taste in drink. His stomach grumbled. "I hope he hurries up with that food."
Just then, a proud and freshly washed Sylvester emerged into the mess hall to join them. "Good day, feathered friends," he nodded at the pair and sat down at a seat beside Zulo. He examined the brew they were sipping on. "What's that?"Comment
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Daniel remained focused on his food prep throughout the conversation, although he was listening to it as he cooked. Putting together meals was a relaxing activity for him, and he allowed himself to get lost in the process of chopping, mixing, seasoning, and cooking. Even with the unusual ingredients his mistress usually kept on hand, he was able to assemble a salad and meat pie, and had a fruit cobbler simmering on the stove top. He brought these over to the table and was on his way back for plates and cutlery when they were joined by the Earth native. Daniel, with his back to the port hole, didn't see him at first; his first indication of their new companion was the scent. He tensed, even knowing the various intermingling smells were a clear indication that his mistress trusted the other. More than trusted, if his nose was to be believed.
Years of training and practice kept him moving, made him grab another glass and place setting to bring to the table. "H-help yourself," he told the group as he retreated back to the cooking area to eat the portion he'd already set aside for himself, and to mind the cobbler still cooking.Phillipians 4:13 - I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
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Zaria poured a glass for Sylvester as he sat down, then portioned herself out some of the food Daniel had set in front of them. "Is it still day? I feel like it's evening without sunlight," Zaria joked, attempting to steer the conversation away from her escapades as a pirate. Sooner or later, they were going to run into a less light-hearted story, and she was much too sober for that. The fruity drink, however, was starting to remedy that condition. She turned to look back towards the kitchen were Daniel had retreated, wondering if he was going to join them. It was weird to her for the chef not to join the rest of the crew for a meal, but she chalked it up to intimidation, deciding if he came back out on his own accord, she would invite him to sit with the rest of them. "How wass your nap?" she asked Sylvester, noticing she was starting to slur her words just a tiny bit.Last edited by amaterasu; 07-18-2020, 08:46 PM.Old Age of War stuff here:
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Sylvester also portioned himself some food, and laughed at Zaria's mention of day and night. He had no idea which it was at this point either.
"It was great," Sylvester smirked. The Rito sounded like she was nice and tipsy. He took a good gulp of his drink, wanting to get on her level. It was strong, but he held it down like anything else.
"So where are you from, mister..... Sylvester?" Zulo asked between bites, pausing to remember the boys name.
"I'm from the planet Earth," Sylvester said. It had been a minute since he'd thought of his home. "I guess it a long ways from here."Comment
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Daniel perked up from his cooking as he noticed the change in dialect. The Ritos had been speaking Common up to this point, but once the Earth native had joined in, they swapped to their native language. At first the change had confused him, until he realized the Earth native was speaking it as well. Albiet with an accent, but still speaking it in a way the Rito could clearly understand. He listened for a bit, trying to follow along. He could understand pieces, he'd picked up a small amount in his time on Terarn, but not enough to be fluent. Then he frowned. He knew his mistress wouldn't have understood. She hated learning new languages, and only spoke Common because she had to. So the Earth native must know Common, right? Except, hadn't he noticed when he'd been giving Medy its tune-up that it had uploaded a medical record on the Earth native? Which would mean Earth couldn't be advanced enough to have interacted with its galactic neighbors. So he couldn't know Common. So how...?
Daniel pulled the cobbler from the oven, still puzzling over the question as he served a small portion of the dessert for himself and brought the tray to the others. "C-careful, it's hot," he mumbled as he set the dish down, then retreated back to the kitchen to finish and begin washing the dishes he used.Phillipians 4:13 - I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
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"Wait!" Zaria called out after Daniel, forgetting to switch back to Common and still speaking in her native tongue. "Come eat with uss," she tried flagging him down but he had already scurried back to his hiding spot in the kitchen. Zaria blew a raspberry and rolled her eyes. "Party pooper," she muttered, turning her attention back to the boys. "I've never heard of Earth, where's it at?" she asked Sylvester, happy to take the focus off of her stories. "In thiss solar system? Another one? I didn't pay much attenshion in class," she laughed to herself and took another sip of the fruity beverage Daniel had brought them.Old Age of War stuff here:
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"It's in the Milky Way," Sylvester answered, then pondered a moment as he wasn't sure how far from home he was, or which solar system they were currently in. It's very different from your planet, it has oceans but also a lotta land and stuff... and its not as peaceful..."
"Why's that?" Zulo probed.
"There's just a lot of war, humans like to fight a lot."
"What a shame," Zulo said. "We've had those in the past, but long ago. We've progressed past having wars. Earth must still be young. I haven't heard of it either. Is it registered in the database?"
"What does that mean?" Sylvester asked.
Zulo raised a brow, not saying anything. That would be very interesting if the boy had been taken from a primal planet, though as far as he knew it was illegal to make contact with such planets. He would be interested to hear what the captain had to say about it. "Nevermind."Last edited by Peeps; 07-19-2020, 05:15 PM.Comment
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"We still have wars," Zaria argued to Zulo. "Jusst not the ones that your armies fight. We'vve got pirate wars!" she laughed again at her own joke, and cut herself a slice of cobbler. "Not that the Navy knows about them," she pointed out. "They're very hussh hush." She cut two extra pieces for Zulo and Sylvester, before sitting back down in her seat. "Don't worry, kid," she said to Sylvester, not sure if he really was a kid compared to herself. "I don't know what the database he's talkin' about is, either," she assured him, truly unaware of inter-planetary politics.Old Age of War stuff here:
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The group continued talking and laughing as they grew more than a little tipsy off the èirinn juice. Daniel listened as best he could, trying to pick out words and determine the context of the conversation. Even as he did so, he continued to puzzle over the Earthling. He didn’t particularly care why his mistress had brought him aboard, she always did as she pleased. But Daniel couldn’t figure out why she brought the Earthling if she couldn’t understand him.
It was only as he was washing the used dishes of the diners that he finally remembered the small communication nanomachines he’d built for her. Had she decided to use them on the Earthling? Was that how she could understand him well enough to be willing to bring him aboard? Daniel had to admit a certain amount of respect if that was the case: such a resource would have been valuable to his mistress and would not have been used lightly. Whatever the Earthling had done must have thoroughly impressed her for her to use the nanos.
It did, however, mean that the Earthling could only understand the languages related to his home planet, such as Terarn, if they were spoken by any besides his mistress. This would likely offer some difficulty when they visited other planets, and would likely frustrate the Earthling. Already Daniel’s mind was whirling with thoughts for how to remedy this, and a number of solutions were presenting themselves to him. Inevitably, he realized that he’d likely need to reprogram the nano, which would mean speaking to the Earthling. He sighed as he finished putting the dishes away and silently wished he could ask his mistress to speak for him. But he knew, that if she hadn’t come to eat, given her voracious appetite, she was likely sleeping, and would be for awhile more.
So, steeling himself, he approached the table. Hands stuffed in his apron pockets and eyes turned down, he stumbled through Terarn words directed to the Earthling. “C-can I help you speak?”Phillipians 4:13 - I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
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After eating, Zulo and Zaria got up to return to the front of the ship to watch the stars once more. Zulo still thought it was the most magnificent thing he had ever seen, and the feeling was even crazy after drinking all that whateveritwas.
"Excuse me?" As he got up from the table, Sylvester could have sworn he'd heard the mumbling deckhand ask if he needed help speaking. The man literally stuttered as he asked. Sylvester spoke better than him even with all that space juice in his system. "Can I help you speak, numb nuts?"Comment
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Zaria leaned heavily on Zulo as they watched the stars pass by, decidedly drunk. "You knoww," she said to him, looking up at the other Rito. "I'm ssorry that we never got to hang out when wee got older. You got sso tied up in your rroyal duties and I got deeper into... shit." she frowned and looked away, still not sure if she wanted to delve into all of her pirate activities.Old Age of War stuff here:
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Daniel winced at the brusquely spoken words. Had he been anywhere else, he would have cringed into himself and backed off apologetically. Here, however, on board the Sionnach, he knew he was safe to speak his mind, Xio had seen to that. Instead, he had to resist the urge to growl a warning. "Sp-speak is... wrong word. I-I not so good w-with this tongue." He hesitated, then swapped into Common, just in case. "I o-only meant to ask if I... could look at the n-nano translator. I th-think I can make some upgrades so-so you can understand more than just wh-what Dragon says."Phillipians 4:13 - I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
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Sylvester still had no idea what the man was blabbering on about. He especially didn't understand when the guy started speaking another language out of nowhere. He was getting tired of it and was about to walk out the door, but gave one last attempt at making sense of things. "What?"
"I'm sorry too," Zulo said to Zaria as they watched the stars, comforting her. "At least we're here now, together, on vacation from it all. No royal duties to worry about."Comment
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Daniel grimaced. How did Xiomara deal with this? She always refused to learn more languages than just Common and his own Xiangese (although he suspected that was only for the job she'd been working), whereas he'd picked up several languages specifically to minimize being in this situation of unable to communicate. Clearly his grasp of Terarn was still wanting. He could understand what was being said, to a small extent, but he wasn't yet able to string together the words to form his own thoughts. He considered the dilemma, trying to puzzle out a solution.
...and sighed as he realized the obvious answer. He pulled out his slate and opened the translation program. It was a simple thing, nowhere near as sophisticated as his nanos, but it would suffice. It was capable of taking any phrase from Common and translating it to one of several galactic languages. It was already preset to Terarn, since he'd used it sseveral times for his clients while working in the shop. A few rapid strokes and it translated to the unique characters of the Terarn languages. He turned the screen around so the Earthling could see, taking a few small steps closer to make it easier to see.
"I can upgrade the nanite translator so you can understand more than just Dragon. Will you let me?"Last edited by HyrulianBlackcat; 08-14-2020, 05:03 AM.Phillipians 4:13 - I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
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