[Jael is sitting in the hall of the barracks across from her room, knees drawn up close to her chest and arms wrapped around her knees as she stares with wide eyes at the door to her room
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/he can totally speak English/Common/whatever by now!angleofscienceOctober 21 2011, 18:41:34 UTC
[Jetfire's been wandering, quietly stunned over the... er. Talking vegetables. Whispers, screams, pleading. It's confusing, and it was slightly unsettling, but this is just... vegetables. The outpouring of fear and upset has Jetfire confused, but he's not insensitive enough to the reactions of upset that he isn't concerned when he comes upon Jael.]
Are you all right?
[He doesn't touch her, just kneels by her side, a hand on the ground close to her. He hopes his appearance won't upset her as much as - he assumes - all this noise and the... pumpkins? are, but he couldn't just leave her like that, so he takes a chance.]
Jetfire. It's a pity the situation's not as pleasant as it could have been to meet, but you work with what you have.
[He shrugs, and while he'd not admit it, it's definitely a relief to be out of the immediate chatter. Though he did lower the sensitivity of his audio pickup the moment it was clear Jael couldn't communicate verbally; why listen to the ambivalent noise when the person he's conversing with doesn't use it to speak? And he can, currently, hardly hear anything within the usual range that human (or human-like) species uses to communicate.]
... Forgive my curiosity, but you have always been constrained to this mode of communication? [It seems unfortunate that humans have less ways of communicating; a Cybertronian having damaged vocals or auxillaries just means they can use the comm. channels, instead.]
[Jetfire is lucky. With her large ears, Jael can still hear bits and pieces of the pumpkins that are closest to them. At least this far away it's easier to ignore them.
Jael was expecting to eventually be asked that, so she nods and pulls a previously written on piece of paper out and adds some more words onto it before holding it out for Jetfire to read.]
I have not spoken since I was young for reasons I am not comfortable discussing. I am not confined merely to writing, but as far as I know, no one here knows sign language.
I see. [He nods slowly, tilting his helm downwards to consider Jael, immediately accepting the (unknown) reason why she doesn't speak; it's not his business, after all, but...]
While it would obviously take some time, merely due to the fact that I assume there'd be quite a few signs to go through, if you wish to impart your knowledge of said sign language, I wouldn't be averse to learning it. [There's a brief pause.] And you'll find, there's no need to repeat anything.
[Which would, of course, make things go rather quickly. Jetfire's offer isn't merely because it'd make it easier for her, but because he's curious; it's a different way to communicate and impart information and why wouldn't he be interested in that?]
[It is definitely not merely due to curiosity, even if it's a driving factor; he is, after all, also interested in making things slightly easier for her.]
Excellent. [She gets a small smile back herself; not nearly as brightly as Jael's own, but Jetfire is a... touch... more reserved.] Maybe it will take your mind further off from the voices, if you don't want to go further out? I can't see that these pumpkins could be further afield...
[He has seen her slight winces, or the tension of someone bracing themselves; it's not so hard to figure out she has enough of an acute hearing to still hear the pumpkins faintly.]
[He does so, making sure to sit down beside her instead of opposite her; not that he could flip around any signs she does in his processor, but her hands would obscure her fingers at least part of the time, and he figures the whole hand, along with the placement of her fingers are actually important here.
And it would definitely be easier; he doesn't lack memory cores for something like this; his language-dedicated ones have space to spare, and compared to many other species, a Cybertronian's memory is usually a high-precision thing.]
[Jael starts off with the basics, showing him how to make the individual letters before moving on to the signs for whatever words or phrases comes to mind that she thinks Jetfire might need to know first.
This is the easiest time she's ever had teaching someone to sign; too bad it wouldn't always be this easy.]
[Definitely easier, as Jetfire does, as promised, only need to see any given sign once, and he only asks for a repeat if he thinks the angle obscured any detail of Jael's hands as he showed the sign.
And while Jetfire would certainly understand Jael's wish that it always be (this) easy to teach others a new language, not everbody is a giant alien robot with enough processor and memory-space to not worry about forgetting any individual sign or the nuances of them, or the meanings.]
[He chuckles softly and tilts his helm in assent; was he someone more attuned to human limits of endurance and more socially knowledgeable, he'd have known to call for a rest, but since he doesn't need to, he has simply been continuing as long as she has been showing him signs.]
Indeed. I suppose we should have stopped earlier. I apologize. I'm not used to the differences.
Not really, no. We can run out of energy, and the less there's left, I assume that could be compared to being 'tired', but we can't really overtax cables or servos the way being 'sore' seems to imply.
[Jetfire shrugs; flesh and metal really are different that way, and he's definitely impressed anyone organic can do as much as they can, without giving up earlier.]
[Her question merely makes him chuckle, and he taps one hand against the plating right above where the glass of the cockpit starts.]
Cybertronian. We're made wholly of metal... hmm. If you're familiar with clockworks, gears? Not that we are on that level at all, but it's... distantly [his tone implies more like the relation is of a stellar sort of distantly] related.
[There is more, or course, but how to explain a spark? No matter how nice she seems, he's not about to show her his spark, but...]
Mm... I suppose the only thing that cannot be derived from complicated computers and our purely physical metal frames are our sparks. They're... [a pause to look down at Jael] another component of us. Without it, anyone of us wouldn't be who we are. I suppose the closest could be the idea of a physical soul?
[Not that the concept of a soul is clear-cut, and Jetfire is uncertain if it's the right word to use.]
Are you all right?
[He doesn't touch her, just kneels by her side, a hand on the ground close to her. He hopes his appearance won't upset her as much as - he assumes - all this noise and the... pumpkins? are, but he couldn't just leave her like that, so he takes a chance.]
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[He shrugs, and while he'd not admit it, it's definitely a relief to be out of the immediate chatter. Though he did lower the sensitivity of his audio pickup the moment it was clear Jael couldn't communicate verbally; why listen to the ambivalent noise when the person he's conversing with doesn't use it to speak? And he can, currently, hardly hear anything within the usual range that human (or human-like) species uses to communicate.]
... Forgive my curiosity, but you have always been constrained to this mode of communication? [It seems unfortunate that humans have less ways of communicating; a Cybertronian having damaged vocals or auxillaries just means they can use the comm. channels, instead.]
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Jael was expecting to eventually be asked that, so she nods and pulls a previously written on piece of paper out and adds some more words onto it before holding it out for Jetfire to read.]
I have not spoken since I was young for reasons I am not comfortable discussing. I am not confined merely to writing, but as far as I know, no one here knows sign language.
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While it would obviously take some time, merely due to the fact that I assume there'd be quite a few signs to go through, if you wish to impart your knowledge of said sign language, I wouldn't be averse to learning it. [There's a brief pause.] And you'll find, there's no need to repeat anything.
[Which would, of course, make things go rather quickly. Jetfire's offer isn't merely because it'd make it easier for her, but because he's curious; it's a different way to communicate and impart information and why wouldn't he be interested in that?]
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I would be glad to teach you.
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Excellent. [She gets a small smile back herself; not nearly as brightly as Jael's own, but Jetfire is a... touch... more reserved.] Maybe it will take your mind further off from the voices, if you don't want to go further out? I can't see that these pumpkins could be further afield...
[He has seen her slight winces, or the tension of someone bracing themselves; it's not so hard to figure out she has enough of an acute hearing to still hear the pumpkins faintly.]
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At least this would be easier than last time. Jetfire can actually read and apparently wouldn't need to constantly be reminded of the signs.]
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And it would definitely be easier; he doesn't lack memory cores for something like this; his language-dedicated ones have space to spare, and compared to many other species, a Cybertronian's memory is usually a high-precision thing.]
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This is the easiest time she's ever had teaching someone to sign; too bad it wouldn't always be this easy.]
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And while Jetfire would certainly understand Jael's wish that it always be (this) easy to teach others a new language, not everbody is a giant alien robot with enough processor and memory-space to not worry about forgetting any individual sign or the nuances of them, or the meanings.]
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/It's been a long time since I've had to sign for that long./
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Indeed. I suppose we should have stopped earlier. I apologize. I'm not used to the differences.
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/It's fine. I guess you don't get sore like I do because of what you are?/
[Whatever he is. Jael has no clue. He's definitely not human, but she's never seen anything like Jetfire before.]
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[Jetfire shrugs; flesh and metal really are different that way, and he's definitely impressed anyone organic can do as much as they can, without giving up earlier.]
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/Not to sound rude or anything, but what exactly are you?/
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Cybertronian. We're made wholly of metal... hmm. If you're familiar with clockworks, gears? Not that we are on that level at all, but it's... distantly [his tone implies more like the relation is of a stellar sort of distantly] related.
[There is more, or course, but how to explain a spark? No matter how nice she seems, he's not about to show her his spark, but...]
Mm... I suppose the only thing that cannot be derived from complicated computers and our purely physical metal frames are our sparks. They're... [a pause to look down at Jael] another component of us. Without it, anyone of us wouldn't be who we are. I suppose the closest could be the idea of a physical soul?
[Not that the concept of a soul is clear-cut, and Jetfire is uncertain if it's the right word to use.]
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