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 Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:49 pm
"No, it's his fault. He keeps flashing me those cute eyes. You've practice saying no." She petted Seamus. "You know your limits, don't you? You know not to eat things you shouldn't."
"Speaking English?" Maia stared in disbelief. "Forgetting their pelts, I don't know. I kept thinking of mine the entire time you had it." She set Seamus on Dari's lap, going to watch Toby play. "You won't beat me," she said.
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 2:51 pm
Seamus had given up on purring and his tail flicked in annoyance. He was annoyed when he was forced to move and jumped off of the couch to go investigate the kitchen. He began to lick the remnants of chicken juice on the floor.
"While in seal form," Toby nodded. He was trying to focus on the game, but barely miscalculated and hit his own tail. "Gah! No!"
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:42 pm
Maia shook her head. "Nope." Where had humans gotten that idea? Talking seals? "Ha. I told you you wouldn't beat me! Dari! I win!" She beamed. "Want a rematch after swimming, Toby? Since I distracted you."
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 5:44 pm
Dari grinned and nodded. Good job! Poor Toby's ego was probably crumbling. He was deadly competitive.
"Sure," Toby replied, nodding. He wasn't going to make that excuse for himself but if Maia was? Sure he would! "We're going swimming?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 6:07 pm
"Yup! You've never gone swimming with Dari and I, so we're going swimming tonight. We'll have a race! I'll stay in human form so it's fair. I'm not very fast yet though. After, we can play snake again. Whoever wins gets... Hm. Whoever wins gets to decide what We do afterwards."
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 6:41 pm
The night went well. It was without negative interaction or late-night emergency calls and subsisted mostly of swimming and video games until bed time. Both men had insisted Maia take the bed while Toby took the couch and Dari was available for whatever one may need, regardless of the quiet warning from Toby that cuddling with clients was generally frowned-upon. Seamus ended up sleeping beside Maia for the night, wandering out at about three in the morning thanks to an entirely-awake young alien.
Classes continued the next day with Lori for the first hour, and just as the last second clicked across the clock there was a knock at the door. Lori went to open it and grinned. At the other side stood Dari, offering his own smile.
"Just in time!" Lori chirped.
"Always."
"Come on in, we were done anyway."
Dari was carrying some papers and books at the time, relatively less organized than Lori's usual, and his gaze turned to Maia.
"Are you ready?" he asked.
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:18 pm
Classes went on as they had yesterday, until a knock came at the door. Maia looked up. When she saw who was at the door, she smiled. "Dari! Are you going to teach me now?" Were they going to start English lessons today?
"I'm ready."
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:24 pm
Dari nodded.
"Alright, Maia. I'll see you tomorrow. Or later!" Lori gave the selkie a little salute as he stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.
"Yes," Dari replied, setting his things down at the table and tilting his head slightly. "How much English do you understand? Written, I mean. Do you know any words? You're familiar with the alphabet, I'd bet, but are you sure the differences in sound between English and Gaelic?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:44 pm
"Not much," Maia admitted. "I know the alphabet, yes. But nothing more than that." She shook her head. "I know the differences in sound when it's spoken. But I learned verbally. What's the book for?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 7:48 pm
Dari waved a hand dismissively over the papers and books.
"There are some exercises in there, when we get to them. We'll start with letter sounds, and then on to letters combinations, then maybe an exercise. Maybe." It all depended on how well Maia learned and how well she remembered. "English sometimes doesn't make sense, I have to warn you." He pulled a pen from his pocket and scribbled down 'though', 'cough', and 'through'.
"None of these words rhyme. Though. Cough. Through. These, however, do."
He wrote down and said 'pony' and 'bologna'.
"and yet Toby says Gaelic is backward. But anyway. Write the alphabet for me the best you can. There's no pressure. I just want to help you learn."
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:09 pm
"They look like they should sound alike, though." she said, studying the words. "They have a lot of the same letters." She studied the next words, frowning in confusion. "These rhyme?" She asked, brow furrowed. "How?"
"Gaelic's not boring," she protested. "This is impossible." She pointed to the words pony and bologna. She wrote down the alphabet: her ds were backwards and the letters seemed rough-shapened. "There."
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:26 pm
"Because English likes to take other languages and mash them together to create an all new sort of confusion. Trust me, people think the same thing when learning Gaelic. It's not so hard. The letter sounds are all simpler too, save maybe those 'g-h's."
He took her alphabet and looked it over.
"Good! That's actually rather good. The only thing I see is this 'd'? It needs to face the other way. It doesn't meant anything backward as a capital, but in lowercase it turns into a 'b'." He wrote both in lower-case.
"Do you feel comfortable starting to go over basic sounds?"
The lesson continued as such, Dari always offering helpful hints rather than admonishments. For most inhabitants of this planet, language was an incredible difficulty. Maia already was several steps ahead than most and he had her sounding out words before long. after a particularly productive spate of teaching, another subject arose.
"By the way, a few of us are going out to dinner tonight, if you'd like to come. Lori will be there too."
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:59 pm
Maia was sounding out Sounds like a champ. Well. With minor difficulty, anyway. The ch and gh sounds were still giving her trouble. She still didn't understand how an a could sound like an a. "This is harder than I thought," She said.
"Dinner?" she asked. She smiled at him. "I'd love to go."
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:11 pm
"It's a difficult thing," Dari reassured her, "People who speak different languages actually have different-shaped palates. The roof of their mouth is a different shape. It's what makes an accent so hard to shake sometimes."
Then came the discussion about dinner and he nodded. Toby suggested he not tell Maia that it was engineered specifically for her to avoid putting undue pressure on her. The gang often got together to bring out a new client and make them feel welcome. Maia had just made her desired companions especially obvious.
"Alright. After work today. I can drive us or we can catch a ride with Toby, whatever you like."
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Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:07 pm
"Huh. Yeah, that'd do it. I don't think I've got one, though." She'd had at first, it'd been awful. She'd had to drag words out to ensure that they were understood. Comprehension had been slow too; there "It seems harder to write and read than to speak. I suppose that's why they always start with the speaking bit."
"Sounds good. What's your car like? Or is it one of the headquarters' cars?" she asked. She looked back to the words Dari had written. "I still don't understand how a sounds like y."
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