(no subject)

[bypartisan]

[Is it possibly for a mental voice to sound giddy? Because there's a distinct giddy tinge to By's thoughts, for all that his words come out with his normal, lazy, lightly Russian-accented drawl.]

Byerly Vorrutyer here. We're on Earth, pre-spaceflight, although someone who isn't me will need to get a better read on the actual date and location. Linguistically, it's a hodgepodge. I can hear archaic Russian, a whole host of Asiatic and Romance languages, and something else I can't quite place.

If you can "hear" this, check in. We need to know who we've got to work with.

Comments

[loyalrebel]

Fascinating, though largely probably meaningless at the moment. I am guessing arabic is not a common language then?

[bypartisan]

Oh, that's wholly dependent on your planet of origin. Humanity spread out rather a bit by my time. On my own planet, the four main language groups are English, French, Russian, and Greek, for instance. But on, say, Escobar, they go more for Spanish, Portugese, and Italian.

[loyalrebel]

...Why would anyone speak french if they did not have to?

[Sorry, he's... not fond of the French. At all.]

[bypartisan]

Because a quarter of the Firsters--that is, our original colonists--were French.

[loyalrebel]

Of course they were. Luckily you had reasonable people like the Greeks there to keep them from getting out of hand and trying to take over alongside the English.

[bypartisan]

[Okay, Byerly's mental voice sounds definitely tinged with amusement.]

Oh, if anything, I would say that the Russians ended up the dominant members of the Firster hegemony.

Later

[bypartisan]

I don't suppose you'd be able to keep us abreast of how things are going on with the Caliphate this jaunt? Seeing as you seem to, ah, speak their language. As it were.

[loyalrebel]

As much as I can, yes. I am however only one man and even acting as a translator or scholar I can only get so close to political actions.

[bypartisan]

Of course. But every little bit helps.