1. Video | Computer

[moreweaponsthanyou]

[You probably haven't seen Fil's face before on the network. That's because he's the FNG. He's smiling into the video and his pose is relaxed.]

Hello there! Nice to meet you all, I'm Fil. Don't mind me, I just want to test something out. If you actually understand what I'm going to write next, can you respond? Or even if it feels vaguely familiar?

[It was with a bit of chagrin when Fili realized there was no software capable of writing Khuzdul on the computer. So he's written it out on paper instead that he holds up to the video feed:

Hello friend. Mind if we chat for a bit?]

Comments

[Voice]

[espigeonage]

Whoah. Hey, Fil, didn't realize you were networked! It's a small world.

Sorry, doesn't ring any bells, and sorry again, I don't like putting my face on the network.

Voice

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Hiya Julien.

It's looking to be a very small world.

Nah, it's okay. From what I've been reading, it's good to be cautious.

[espigeonage]

That's for sure! Congrats and my condolences on ending up part of this, man.

I'm glad to see you've acquainted yourself with what this is and what it's about - inasmuch as any of us actually knows, anyway. Hah. It's all pretty messy. Anything I can try and clear up?

[moreweaponsthanyou]

I've been reading about...snakes and attacks? Is that real? You know I'm mostly new to the city so I probably missed all that.

[espigeonage]

Regrettably, yeah. I've seen them.

But the explosions and the earthquake were both thanks to rock snake activity, and a couple days back someone's basement got wrecked by a batch of them. And there's definitely also been a marauding gang of cyborgs, too. Watch yourself. You picked a troublesome city to move to, my friend.

[Voice]

[dododo]

I'm afraid I don't recognise it. You don't know what it is, then?

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Oh no, I know what it is. Kind of. I just want to see if there's anyone else who recognizes it on this network.

[dododo]

Mm.

So what is it?

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Some sort of runic language. This says approximately: Hello friend. Mind if we chat for a bit?

[dododo]

[ Yeah, he figured out the runic bit himself. ]

You don't know the name of it, then? The language.

text;

[hustru]

Runes?

[She stares at them again. She can read some of that, but no words - not even all letters. Only enough to give her the same feeling that she gets when she hears someone speak really thick Estonian. Like she should understand, but too much is muddled and different.]

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Something like it yeah. The entire set just moved into my head one day.

[hustru]

I [her fingers hover over the keys for a moment, trying to figure out her choice of word] echoed a set that's vaguely similar right now.

[She hasn't looked into that part of the whole thing yet, but... over the span of centuries and between Russia and Canada. There have to been variations in Viking runes. So... is he? The little that she can read makes no sense to her, but she just assumes that she didn't echo any language yet. Only... letters?]

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Really? Something like the Vikings use? That's the closest thing I've found on Earth that's similar to it.

[Fil's wondering if the language in his head is a dead language as well...something only that the written form has survived, and no one alive remembers how to speak it.]

[hustru]

Earlier Viking age, probably towards the East.

[The coins seem to point to that... and that is as much as she's got, really.]

voice;

[metalbent]

I assume whatever you wrote on what sounds like a piece of paper is somehow weird or special.

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Weird? Probably. Except to maybe the people who invented it. Special? That depends on perspective.

To me, definitely the former at least. Time will tell if it becomes special and all.

[metalbent]

Okay, let's assume I'm blind and explain what it is without the weird purple prose, man.

[ Why does she keep talking to people who talk like that.

...Sophie, you could try to be somewhat more polite. ]

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Sorry, sorry. I guess I came across as a bit too enthusiastic.

[Fil's come across way ruder people.] It's an entire new language. I haven't come across anything else like it yet.

[metalbent]

Huh. That's actually pretty neat.

[ Unbeknownst to her her, she actually has a necklace with a pendant incorporating the rune for "friend" wrapped around it. She's honestly figured that it is "fancy metally stuff Killian did for some inscrutable Killian reason".

For the moment, however, she just looks intrigued. ]

Can you talk in it?

voice;

[comparative_insanity]

Oh, you got a language too? My boyfriend got some kind of weird language which is sort of like ancient Japanese, and a little bit like ancient Chinese, but which is neither.

voice;

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Well, half of it. I can only read and write, not speak it.

That's really interesting! I'd like to see a sample of that if possible.

voice;

[comparative_insanity]

Ah, really? That's certainly a bit interesting. You mean you know what it looks like but not how it sounds?

[No seriously that's kind of fascinating.] And I'm sure that can be arranged - providing he can write it, but I think he can. Certainly can swear in it.

voice;

[moreweaponsthanyou]

Take what I wrote today as an example. It means 'Hello friend. Mind if we chat for a bit?' I know the individual meanings of every rune in that phrase but I think of the meanings in English inside my head, instead of in that language. If that makes any sense.

I can swear in this language too! Well, I can write down the swear words....

voice;

[comparative_insanity]

Okay, wow, that makes absolutely no sense but it's still kind of cool. A bit like your brain has its own Google Translate, only less hilarious?

[A giggle.] I'll ask Youou to write you a list of his own swearwords then. Though I can't imagine writing swearwords down is very satisfying.