[Antiquities Society] Orientation (Dust)

by **Elem Bree** on December 11th, 2012, 4:50 am

Elem was duly surprised by her admission to illiteracy. She certainly played it off well enough. "Oh, good. I would also be happy to teach you things there. It gets sort of lonely there, despite how many people live and work there. Most of them are out doing their own things most of the time. We always have dinner together, but usually, by then, everyone is so hungry that only the sound of chewing is heard." He chuckled a bit, although the truth wasn't so funny. Maybe it was more of a nervous laugh.

Moving on to more neutral topics, he stood and ran his fingers over the map, doing his best to explain it to her. "The idea about maps is representation. They aren't meant to be artistic depictions of the areas, though I have seen some around here. The first thing to do is to orientate yourself, or find where you are on the map. I'll show you a smaller example." Bending over and dipping the quill, Elem drew a rectangle, placing a smaller one in it and placing two dots near it. "This is not the greatest drawing, but I have drawn this room." He pointed to the walls and then to the outer rectangle. This is the table we are standing at." He then traced his finger around the smaller rectangle. "The two dots, though these would normally not be on a map, represent us." He then drew a similar drawing next to it, without the dots in it.

"Does that help a little?"

by **Dust** on December 21st, 2012, 1:45 pm

OOCSorry for the delay!

Dust grinned brightly over at Elem as he offered to teach her. "Do you know any stories?" she promptly inquired, with a rather childlike cheer and enthusiasm. "I like to learn stories. And words." She tipped her head, considering his descriptions of a Sanctuarian dinner. "Maybe we could tell stories over dinner? Then there would be other things to listen to!"

But then he moved on to a demonstration of map-drawing and -interpretation, and the raven Kelvic's interest immediately fixed on the pen and paper. He drew lines inside lines, and called them here; Dust looked back and forth from the paper to the room around them, several times, mental wheels quite visibly spinning as she thought it through. She set two fingers on the paper beside one of the newly-inked lines, the outer box of the first diagram; she looked from the table to each wall in turn, as if comparing the layout of the sketch with the actual layout of the objects.

"So the room is a box, and the table is a box, and the little box is inside the big box because the table is in the room." Representation, he said. Not what was, but something that stood for what was. "You said it was like what a bird sees, but it really isn't," Dust mused aloud, looking up at Elem. "You make a drawing, and say it stands for this, and because everyone else knows it stands for this, they can look at it and say where the table is from the map you made.

"It's like words," she continued. "People take words and make them mean the same thing everywhere, at least in one language. So I can come from The Spires and use the same words here and you know what I say, even though you've never been to Taldera. It's one of the nice things about language," Dust remarked, once again animated with enthusiasm. "That, and there are so many words, a word for everything. "

by **Elem Bree** on February 24th, 2013, 6:01 pm

Did he know any stories? Elem's mind scanned over his life thus far, with a few instances surely popping up, though one in particular remained a constant. "Well, there was the time at the Zeltivan Winter Ball when Rak'keli appeared to me. Quite a life changer. I look forward to discussing it with you over dinner one of these nights." Elem's confidence swelled with the tide of the conversation, his attention returning to his attempt at a lesson.

"I see what you mean. I suppose it's a bit arrogant to imagine I know what your sight could be like, though maybe one day I might find a way to work around that." He grinned as he thought of webbed fingers stretching into feathered arms and then wings. But that was for another time. "I do understand the difference in languages. I speak a little bit of Char, the language of the Charoda, the undersea dwellers that live in Plunge Pool Bay. Trying to speak a language from a world I've never lived in can be difficult, for sure." He hoped that the mention might help her feel like they had something in common.

"Perhaps we should continue this conversation at the Sanctuary. There's as much room there in the library to do this. Plus I'm sure neither of us would like to miss dinner." Elem smiled at his new friend, waiting to see what she thought. He also thought of that Charoda, when his mind returned to the whistling and clicking of Char.

by **Dust** on March 1st, 2013, 10:23 pm

Dust visibly perked up as Elem's introspection yielded a teaser line of a story -- and she looked just a little disappointed as he relegated the actual tale to later. But that was fair, as they'd been talking about dinner. "Yes," she agreed brightly. "I'll look forward to it!"

The Kelvic also looked keenly interested as he raised the subject of a language she didn't know the first word of. But she didn't press the subject there and then, her head instead bobbing in assent as Elem spoke of returning to Sanctuary. "Sure! Maybe you can tell the story at dinner?" she wheedled hopefully. "And I want to know more about Char." Of course she did.

Dust bounced up to her feet and reached for the papers, clearly eager to get going, what with the potential of stories and new words to follow. "I can help you put the maps away."

by **Magpie** on April 1st, 2013, 7:18 pm

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