Jahi & Alex, Brief Talk in a Hallway

[Alex Efasteyo]

One of the next times Alex bumps into Jahiera...

"Hey Jahiera, there's something I wanted to ask you about earlier, but you rushed off to your archery practice earlier before I got a chance to mention it."

[jahierasaladin]

Jahiera had been busy reading "Warlock", one of her favorite books in the lounge, with her legs curled up on the wonderful sofa she sat on. Miyet was there with her, reading over her shoulder with her, occasionally the cat would meow quietly if her scion read too fast and was about to turn the page before she was done reading. Jahi in return would sigh or giggle just as quietly at her cat, she had stopped getting irritated at the cat ages ago...it was good to have her reading with her every so often.

It was this scene that Alex walked into and as he asked his question, Jahi looked up at him with a smile and petted the space next to her, Miyet on the other hand, was a little more proactive, and went up to the Greek Scion to rub against his legs, purring.

"Sorry about that..." she said, a little embarrassed.

[Alex Efasteyo]

Alex sites down next to Jahiera and bends down to pet Miyet. "Who's a pretty little girl?" Alex asks Miyet as he gently scratches her along the line of her lower jaw.

While stroking Miyet along her spine and scratching her a little behind the ears, Alex turns his head towards Jahiera and says, "No need to apologize, I like animals. We just didn't have any when growing up because my sister Rachel is severely allergic to anything with fur. Which is a real shame as she always wanted pets more than anyone else in the family."

Turning back to Miyet, "It's kind of hard to pet you down there, Miyet, maybe you might want to jump up here in my lap so I can do a better job?"

[jahierasaladin]

Miyet happily complied and jumped onto the scion's lap, curling up into a purring ball of white fur.

Jahiera simply looked at the scene with a small, serene smile, "Miyet loved spending time with the dig team, being petted or just napping with them around. I guess she misses that." Looking up at Alex with an oddly intense gaze, she wondered, "So, what brings you around?"

[Alex Efasteyo]

Alex pets Miyet and says to her, "Awww, does the cutie pie miss being the center of the universe these days? You poor little kitty."

While continuing to pamper Miyet with much petting and scratching, Alex turns to Jahiera and says, "Um, actually this reminds me of something else I wanted to ask. Assuming it's not too personal of a question for the two of you. Is Miyet a cat, lioness, or something else?"

[jahierasaladin]

A raised eyebrow and an impish smile revealed Jahi's amusement at Alex's question. It was something she had thought about at one point, but...honestly:

"It doesn't really matter to either of us," she answered the greek scion with a shrug. "Miyet's a lioness when she wants to be, but then she's a cat when she wants to be," a yawn escaped her lips and she stretched herself out, purring a little to the end. "I've stopped thinking about...you should too...it's going to drive you crazy."

Jahi quickly closed the book she was reading and looked at Alex, "I have a question for you if you don't mind..." Her eyes were deadly serious, "...can you teach me Greek?"

[Alex Efasteyo]

Surprised, Alex replies "Θα ήμουν ευτυχής να διδάξει ελληνικά σας." (Which sounds a lot like "Tha moun eutykh na theethksee elleeneek sa.") "Or in English," Alex continues with a smile, "I'd be happy to teach you Greek."

Then with a soft chuckle, Alex adds "The funny thing about that is the reason I stopped to talk with you in the first place was to see if you'd help me keep up my Hebrew. I've been studying it for a few years with my friend Kobi and his family. I'm decent at it, but I'm afraid that my skill will decay without some regular practice."

"I was even wondering if you might be interested in using some Italian with each other, though as I've been speaking that most of my life I don't expect I'll be forgetting it any time soon."

[[OOC note the Greek is provided by Google, so it's probably wrong but good enough for a game.]]

[jahierasaladin]

A wicked grin forms on Jahiera's face, "Non vedo l'ora di guidare tutto pazzesco!" (I can't wait to drive everyone crazy!) She continued, "אני מקבל קצת חלוד עצמי וכן ... אתה מדבר ערבית, צרפתית, גרמנית או יותר מדי?" ((Right to left) I'm getting a little rusty myself as well...do you speak Arabic, French, or German too??)

[[Ditto on this end, but it does lead to great amounts of fun the both of our charries =3]]

[Alex Efasteyo]

Alex returns Jahiera's wicked grin with a slight mischievous smile of his own.

"I'm sorry, but in addition to English, Greek, Italian, and Hebrew, I only know Latin and Portuguese. Of course knowing three of the major Romance languages, I can usually do a half way decent job reading French...or Spanish, Romanian, etc."

After a pause while Alex concentrates on petting Miyet, he says to Jahiera, "You know, there's something that maybe could be useful to all of us. Maybe we should pick some rare language and all learn it. Kind of like a secret language for all of us."

[jahierasaladin]

She snapped her fingers, eyes practically glowing with excitement.

"Like Minoan?" Jahi's mind was moving at a mile a minute, "No one's ever managed to translate either Scripts yet...maybe one of us can learn it and then teach it to everyone else?"

[Alex Efasteyo]

"Um, I guess that would work. But the problem of learning it in the first place might take a while longer than is practical. I was thinking of just some obscure language, more like Chickasaw. Or maybe a made up language."

"Though Minoan would be great if you have some way of learning it soon. I like languages, but I'm pretty sure you're better at them than I am."

[jahierasaladin]

A small blush appears on her cheeks as she tries to hide it, "Thanks...but yeah, a made up language could work. The problem is setting up the rules behind how it would work..."

[Alex Efasteyo]

Alex pauses a moment to collect his thoughts. Then begins, "Um, as far as I can tell you have the most training, the best background, with languages. That's not the same sort of thing as knowing more languages, though I'd guess there'd likely be a correlation there."

"I just figure that as an archeologist, you'd know more about linguistics than any of the rest of us. Of course, I don't really know what an archeologist would need to know about languages, or all the details of what you have experience in. But I do figure that when it comes to making up a new languages, you'd probably be the most capable of anyone living on our special floor."

"Anyway, to paraphrase my step-dad, when you ask an expert's advice, you probably ought to listen to it. As I see it, you are our language/linguistic expert. For mortals, trying to finally translate Minoan in a short period of time would be a ludicrous idea. But, um, if you reckon you could figure out the mystery of Minoan in a reasonable amount of time, then it seems like it would be just as good as a made up one."

"Well, um, not even sure what the others would think of this whole idea. But it seems like it could have its uses. So maybe you can kick it around a little and we can talk with the others later?"

There's another brief pause as Alex concentrates on petting Miyet before he says, "But one thing about using Minoan amongst us. If you published your translations in archeology journals, it'd be a bit less secret - and I do expect you'd want to let the world know about it, assuming you could."

[jahierasaladin]

She stays quiet for a good amount of time as she thinks about what Alex had just said, a small frown and a finger tapping against her cheek the only indicators that she isn't as distracted as she had been lately.

"Languages as a whole has never been my thing," she sighs, almost wistfully. "I learned them as I needed them at the time, but I guess I need to stop being so lazy," she looks over at Alex. "You have a deal, I'm gonna work on our personal language...it will most probably be Minoan at first, since I'll be using that as a base. The language seems to be a very secure one...but yeah, I suppose I would release the translation keys to Minoan at some point, the world needs to know about what the culture was all about, but it will happen after I've finished our new language."

[Alex Efasteyo]

"Well, um, I'm glad you like the idea," Alex says with a big grin. "But before you invest too much effort into creating a personal language, I think that, um, I should survey the other Scions and see if they are interested in learning one."

"I mean I'd enjoy having a secret language even if it was just between the two of us, but I'm not sure how worth your time it'd be if no one else saw any value to learning it."

[jahierasaladin]

Jahiera grins back, "It's no big issue to me, no such thing as wasting time when you're learning new stuff and all...if anything, it will help me from getting too bored here after the first month."

The grin becomes a little wistful, "Mi piacerebbe condividere un linguaggio segreto con nessuno." She shrugs, looking a little lonely, "Mi impedisce di sentirsi troppo in contatto con tutti."

(("I would love to share a secret language with anyone...it keeps me from feeling too out of touch with everyone."))

[Alex Efasteyo]

[[Mechanical translations are wonderful; FYI, Google more or less reverses the meaning of your last sentence as it has "in touch" instead of "out of touch." Note that I will only leave a translation when the reverse translation differs too much from my intent, otherwise expect Google Translate to be close enough.]]

"Ti senti come se stessi perdendo la connessione a qualcuno di importante per te?"

[jahierasaladin]

((Ah, thanks for the tip.))

She shrugs, looking a little confused, "Ognuno dei team scavare mi ha insegnato il loro linguaggio, in modo da poter sempre avere conversazioni private, anche in giro gli altri." A giggle, "E 'stato davvero divertente."

Jahi frowns a little as she realized something, "I'm starting to feel a little...I don't know...alone? Lonely? Lost?" She shrugs it off, "Either ways, I guess I just want to talk, really talk with anyone else...like you." A smile at Alex accompanied her statement, "So thank you."

She blinked, suddenly realizing what had just happened, and quickly stood up, trying to hide her blush, Miyet quickly following her, "Wow, that was rather corny, anyways, I'll lay down the groundwork in case they're interested, I have a few texts that dad gave that I can start in. Well, later then."

With that, the Scion of Bastet quickly walked away, her flushed face down in an attempt to keep it hidden.

[Alex Efasteyo]

"Homesick," Alex quietly calls out to Jahiera. He wonders if she heard, but he doesn't follow as he's not sure what just happened.

Alex noticed Jahiera turned red, but unfortunately doesn't understand the cause of her embarrassment. So as to save her from further distress, Alex decides to head back to his room for now- plus this gives him more time studying up on medicine.