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rainbowfic2012-12-28 11:57 pm
shadowsong26) wrote in rainbowfic2012-12-28 11:57 pm
Jade #11, Red #17, Snow White #3
Name: shadowsong26
Story: Arriving at the Station
'Verse: Lux
Colors: Jade #11. I slumbered this spring morning, and missed the dawn, Red #17. red carpet treatment, Snow White #3. into the woods
Supplies and Materials: pastels (my current gen + romance card B1 "grace"), novelty beads, yarn, glitter, glue ("Your current uncertainty could put you in a more conservative frame of mind, prompting you to question your ability to reach your long-term goals.")
Word Count: 1090
Rating: PG
Characters: Dr. Mariko Anders, Lux
Warnings: None
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always.
"We are now arriving at the Consortium of Sentient Peoples Station, located in the D'ralis System, close to the centerpoint of Consortium space. Please refasten all restraint devices and stow all personal belongings until the docking procedure is complete."
Mariko hazily tried to figure out what the computer's accent was supposed to be. She'd forgotten how woozy lengthy space flights made her--jetlag was nothing compared to it, especially after three days. Apparently, the more powerful post-lightspeed booster engines used for the trip to CSP Station increased the effect. She only hoped she wouldn't throw up on whoever it was that came to meet her.
Finally, the ship came to a rumbling, shuddering halt and the "Fasten Seatbelts" light clicked off. The various passengers started shuffling around, untying themselves and collecting their various and sundry belongings. Mariko waited a few more minutes before slowly, carefully doing the same. So far, so good, she thought. She wasn't exactly steady, but wasn't on the verge of losing control of her stomach and its contents, either.
She made her way off the ship and into the spaceport with no further incident. Customs on this side was a blur, and fortunately was conducted in Standard Verbal--while Mariko was of course at least passably proficient in all four Standard Dialects usable by humans, Verbal felt most natural to her. As unsteady as she was at the moment, even that minimal relief was a blessing.
Once past Customs, she looked blearily around until she spotted a sign with her name spelled out roughly phonetically in Standard Written. She made her way towards the sign, weaving in and out of the other beings with an effort towards making the minimum amount of disturbance possible. The particular being holding the sign came into view before too long, and Mariko tried to bully her travel-dazed brain into focusing at least long enough to work out the proper greeting and pronouns to use, to say nothing of the appropriate dialect.
The Galactic Standard Language had five dialects in addition to its written language, to accommodate the five broad categories of communicative modes used by CSP member species. Standard Verbal used words and deliberate sound patterns, Standard Chemical used a specific array of scents and controlled explosions, Standard Sign used gesture and movement, Standard Color used varying shades of near-universally recognizable light patterns, and Standard Thought limited the number of mental concepts Thinktalkers could use, so as not to overwhelm or confuse the beings they were addressing.
In an attempt to avoid offense as much as possible, each Standard dialect had a number of pronouns, depending on the gender--or lack of gender--of all parties involved. Most beings--at least most given any sort of diplomatic role--were forgiving of mistakes, but there were some...
Best not to make a mistake. First impressions were, after all, very important.
The being holding the sign was not Human, but humanoid. Mariko didn't know whether to cheer or curse. Most likely, gender and rank clues would be similar to those she'd grown up with, but that was far, far from a sure bet.
Her greeter was tall--much taller than Mariko, roughly eight feet. The facial features read feminine to her, but that didn't mean much. Overall, the other being was built much longer and leaner than humans, with the proportions being correspondingly off. There were the same number of limbs and facial features, though the eyes were much larger and had no visible iris or pupil. The effect of these blank eyes was more than a little disturbing, and Mariko suppressed the urge to shiver.
The being had long dark hair, left loose, and was wearing a probably deceptively simple white robe that hung loose from their shoulders. The shoulders were the most blatantly non-human aspect aside from the eyes, being slightly too broad for the being's lean frame, and proportionally about twice as tall as a human's shoulders would be.
She didn't pick up on any definitively feminine shape to her greeter's body, but that might have been because of the looseness of the robe, as opposed to being an indication of masculinity. They weren't moving much, so she couldn't pick up on cues from that quarter. Not that those would be much help, anyway; movement pattern gender cues were the most widely varied of all, even among a single species. Or at least a Non-Unified species, like Humans. There weren't many of those, but that didn't mean that this particular being wasn't from one.
Fortunately, the being spared Mariko the increasingly panic-inducing necessity of guessing, by bowing slightly. "I greet you, Dr. Anders. My name is Lux."
Mariko slumped slightly--she hoped only internally--in relief. Lux had used feminine pronouns for both of them, and a fairly neutral, but respectful greeting. Most likely she was a staff member of the station itself with a fairly important position, placing her not too far below a newly-arrived interpreter in the pecking order here. At least, according to the documents Mariko had been sent.
What she imagined to be Ambassador Nouama's voice rang out in her head. The most important thing to remember is to assume nothing. She flushed a little and returned the slight gesture of respect, responding with the appropriate pronouns and greeting. She still didn't feel entirely steady, so felt it was probably better to take her cues as to rank and such from Lux. It seemed marginally less likely to get her into trouble.
Lux proceeded to courteously help Mariko collect all of her things and guide her to where they could find a short-hop shuttle to the living quarters of the various delegations. Mariko tried to pay attention to things they passed along the way, for future reference. One never knew what little tidbits might come in handy.
The other being seemed to have noticed after a while, because she began a quiet narration to that effect. This was easier for Mariko to follow than trying to observe and file things away on her own at the moment, and she made sure to thank Lux and ask for detail when she paused for a while.
By some unknown luck, they managed to just catch one of the regular short-hop shuttles without having to wait more than a couple of minutes. "It will take about ten minutes to reach the Earth delegation quarters," Lux informed Mariko quietly. "Assuming no significant shuttle traffic."
Mariko nodded. "Right. Good to know. Thank you."
Lux merely smiled a little, then resumed her quiet narration.
Story: Arriving at the Station
'Verse: Lux
Colors: Jade #11. I slumbered this spring morning, and missed the dawn, Red #17. red carpet treatment, Snow White #3. into the woods
Supplies and Materials: pastels (my current gen + romance card B1 "grace"), novelty beads, yarn, glitter, glue ("Your current uncertainty could put you in a more conservative frame of mind, prompting you to question your ability to reach your long-term goals.")
Word Count: 1090
Rating: PG
Characters: Dr. Mariko Anders, Lux
Warnings: None
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always.
"We are now arriving at the Consortium of Sentient Peoples Station, located in the D'ralis System, close to the centerpoint of Consortium space. Please refasten all restraint devices and stow all personal belongings until the docking procedure is complete."
Mariko hazily tried to figure out what the computer's accent was supposed to be. She'd forgotten how woozy lengthy space flights made her--jetlag was nothing compared to it, especially after three days. Apparently, the more powerful post-lightspeed booster engines used for the trip to CSP Station increased the effect. She only hoped she wouldn't throw up on whoever it was that came to meet her.
Finally, the ship came to a rumbling, shuddering halt and the "Fasten Seatbelts" light clicked off. The various passengers started shuffling around, untying themselves and collecting their various and sundry belongings. Mariko waited a few more minutes before slowly, carefully doing the same. So far, so good, she thought. She wasn't exactly steady, but wasn't on the verge of losing control of her stomach and its contents, either.
She made her way off the ship and into the spaceport with no further incident. Customs on this side was a blur, and fortunately was conducted in Standard Verbal--while Mariko was of course at least passably proficient in all four Standard Dialects usable by humans, Verbal felt most natural to her. As unsteady as she was at the moment, even that minimal relief was a blessing.
Once past Customs, she looked blearily around until she spotted a sign with her name spelled out roughly phonetically in Standard Written. She made her way towards the sign, weaving in and out of the other beings with an effort towards making the minimum amount of disturbance possible. The particular being holding the sign came into view before too long, and Mariko tried to bully her travel-dazed brain into focusing at least long enough to work out the proper greeting and pronouns to use, to say nothing of the appropriate dialect.
The Galactic Standard Language had five dialects in addition to its written language, to accommodate the five broad categories of communicative modes used by CSP member species. Standard Verbal used words and deliberate sound patterns, Standard Chemical used a specific array of scents and controlled explosions, Standard Sign used gesture and movement, Standard Color used varying shades of near-universally recognizable light patterns, and Standard Thought limited the number of mental concepts Thinktalkers could use, so as not to overwhelm or confuse the beings they were addressing.
In an attempt to avoid offense as much as possible, each Standard dialect had a number of pronouns, depending on the gender--or lack of gender--of all parties involved. Most beings--at least most given any sort of diplomatic role--were forgiving of mistakes, but there were some...
Best not to make a mistake. First impressions were, after all, very important.
The being holding the sign was not Human, but humanoid. Mariko didn't know whether to cheer or curse. Most likely, gender and rank clues would be similar to those she'd grown up with, but that was far, far from a sure bet.
Her greeter was tall--much taller than Mariko, roughly eight feet. The facial features read feminine to her, but that didn't mean much. Overall, the other being was built much longer and leaner than humans, with the proportions being correspondingly off. There were the same number of limbs and facial features, though the eyes were much larger and had no visible iris or pupil. The effect of these blank eyes was more than a little disturbing, and Mariko suppressed the urge to shiver.
The being had long dark hair, left loose, and was wearing a probably deceptively simple white robe that hung loose from their shoulders. The shoulders were the most blatantly non-human aspect aside from the eyes, being slightly too broad for the being's lean frame, and proportionally about twice as tall as a human's shoulders would be.
She didn't pick up on any definitively feminine shape to her greeter's body, but that might have been because of the looseness of the robe, as opposed to being an indication of masculinity. They weren't moving much, so she couldn't pick up on cues from that quarter. Not that those would be much help, anyway; movement pattern gender cues were the most widely varied of all, even among a single species. Or at least a Non-Unified species, like Humans. There weren't many of those, but that didn't mean that this particular being wasn't from one.
Fortunately, the being spared Mariko the increasingly panic-inducing necessity of guessing, by bowing slightly. "I greet you, Dr. Anders. My name is Lux."
Mariko slumped slightly--she hoped only internally--in relief. Lux had used feminine pronouns for both of them, and a fairly neutral, but respectful greeting. Most likely she was a staff member of the station itself with a fairly important position, placing her not too far below a newly-arrived interpreter in the pecking order here. At least, according to the documents Mariko had been sent.
What she imagined to be Ambassador Nouama's voice rang out in her head. The most important thing to remember is to assume nothing. She flushed a little and returned the slight gesture of respect, responding with the appropriate pronouns and greeting. She still didn't feel entirely steady, so felt it was probably better to take her cues as to rank and such from Lux. It seemed marginally less likely to get her into trouble.
Lux proceeded to courteously help Mariko collect all of her things and guide her to where they could find a short-hop shuttle to the living quarters of the various delegations. Mariko tried to pay attention to things they passed along the way, for future reference. One never knew what little tidbits might come in handy.
The other being seemed to have noticed after a while, because she began a quiet narration to that effect. This was easier for Mariko to follow than trying to observe and file things away on her own at the moment, and she made sure to thank Lux and ask for detail when she paused for a while.
By some unknown luck, they managed to just catch one of the regular short-hop shuttles without having to wait more than a couple of minutes. "It will take about ten minutes to reach the Earth delegation quarters," Lux informed Mariko quietly. "Assuming no significant shuttle traffic."
Mariko nodded. "Right. Good to know. Thank you."
Lux merely smiled a little, then resumed her quiet narration.
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I love all the dialects! And all the complexity of the language! Delicious. There should be more stories in which people try to work out how to use language across alien species.
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I have to say, I borrowed the idea of different modes of Alien speech from Suzette Haden Elgin's Native Tongue Trilogy. Because it makes a whole lot of sense--especially if not all aliens are assumed to be humanoid, the idea of every alien species using recognizable phonetic/verbal speech doesn't hold up. :D
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