Mingle - Emergency Potluck

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WELCOME POTLUCK

Greetings, residents! Those more observant sorts among you may have noticed a large influx of very crowded ferries. In order to welcome our new residents en masse, Town Hall is holding a potluck in Town Square. Please bring a dish if you are able and make a new friend!

All of our newest arrivals need only bring themselves. We look forward to welcoming you all into our community, and may your lanterns always be lit.

This event is open to all! In light of our new influx of prospective players following the Great Sail Migration, we've decided to offer a small public event to tide everyone over until the TDM this weekend.

Comments

[amourtician]

Lt Tayrey reminds Anzu of no one so much as the youngest of the Nostalgines, the Red Guard irregulars during the long years of revolution—and thus he's charmed, and a little wistful. So much so that her elaboration on the standard handshake barely registers, when usually it'd be front and centre.

"If thou'rt comfortable with it, Lieutenant Tayrey, I think I'm quite all right with a little formality," he says. He does note to himself that she comes from a place with similar careful gradations of formality and the implication of formality. Well, that's a comfort. One less strange cultural gap to trip over, one less excuse to fall on his face.

"The Holy Tongue is used daily, but not for mundane matters," he says to her question about the nature and use of Hebrew. "Many know just the basics, plus a the roots what made it into the current vernaculars. Certainly, I can teach thee enough to understand the labels."

"As for my first language—" he pauses, and smiles in a sort of preening way, allowing himself a bit of vanity. "Well, nu. Much like thee, I speak several. My mother tongue and first language is the same—Yiddish, if we're not hair-splitting about dialects, and ah, sabesdiker-loshn if we are, in which case my first language is the literary standard. And I know several languages of the nations, though there, too, the line between dialect and language is not always so clear."

"And I'm called Anzu Menelikov, Lieutenant. Doctor Menelikov, if thou prefer'st formality, and Anzu Tamiratovitsh if thou find'st professional titles a touch too formal."

He has a hunch that insisting on familiar forms might just alienate the young lieutenant.

[astrogator]

Tayrey nods eagerly, committing all the information he has just given her to memory, especially the names. He has several, too, it seems, and she's curious about the significance each carries - if that Tamiratovitsh is a family name, an inspiration name, a name chosen, or something else entirely. Carrying so many herself, and having shifted all at once from "Citizen Kittredge" to "Apprentice Tayrey" at what she considers the most formative turning point of her life, she can't help but take an interest.

Yet it's a question for another day. If he's agreeable. Should they get to know one another better. There's a fine line between taking an interest and prying, and her experiences have taught her to be cautious about it.

Instead, she focuses on the languages. 'I'd appreciate it very much if you taught me a little of your Holy Tongue, Doctor Menelikov' she says brightly. 'And-' she hesitates, but it's only momentary, '-in my culture we rely on fair contract. That is to say, if someone gives you something of value, you give them something in return. So you both benefit, and you're on equal terms, no unspoken debts. If you're to teach me, I'll pay, or else I could teach you some of our Sector Standard in return, or trade in goods.' All perfectly reasonable, offering as much variety as she can in the hope he'll find something acceptable.'

[amourtician]

"Friend Lieutenant, I would be delighted to teach thee!" Anzu says. And his expression confirms that he means it – he's not just being polite.

(He did, without precisely intending to, slip into the modern style of address common by the Talons Commune.)

"In exchange, I would be more than happy to take thee up on thine offer, and learn thy Sector Standard. But! A condition. A condition. I shall teach thee not merely the words, but their context, too. And in exchange, thou shalt do the same—teach me not just the language, but also something about the people what speak it. That way, should either of us ever need to use the knowledge, we'll be prepared to look out for cultural nuances"

He beams, excited about the opportunity, by the novelty of learning a language from a different world — not the way he seems to have learned the language spoken here, but deliberately, through his own intellectual effort.