un: what a load of pollocks | audio

[sergeant_slick]

So these quartz things--they're useful, but they're not forever. They could get broken or lost, and that kind of thing never happens when it's convenient for anybody. And given that it's our only translation device, that could get somebody killed if things go wrong enough.

We need to start trading basic, emergency vocabulary. So that if somebody loses their quartz, we'll still have a few words we can throw your way to keep you alive. And I mean really basic--think of the simplest, most idiot-proof way somebody could get across an idea, no matter how terrible their accent is. Bonus points if the words can't be easily confused for each other if things are hectic.

I'm not a translator so I don't know the proper way to go about this, but there's some places I can think to start: words for yes and no, friend and enemy, directions and distance, run, stop, ways to ask if somebody's alright, or say somebody's hurt, ah... [He stops, running a hand through his hair.]

Could go on, but that's a set to start with. Not sure if we can actually share this stuff over the quartz, so we might just have to swap words in-person.

Comments

[downswing]

A guard's practicality.

[sergeant_slick]

And here I thought survival instinct wasn't just a soldier thing. [In fact, anybody duped into fighting a war they don't need to probably has less of a survival instinct than the average civvie.]

[downswing]

Yes. [ And carefully pronounced: ] Shi.

Since Star Wars never tells us what Galactic Basic sounds like and Space English is boring...

[sergeant_slick]

[He wasn't quite sure what was meant to--oh, right.]

I can sort of hear what you're saying, but the translator's getting in the way. Sounded like shèr? [That's not quite right and he knows it. He frowns down at the quartz.] Is there any way to switch that off?

Anyway, mine's

lmfao beautiful

[downswing]

( The... longest pause, while he attempts and fails to articulate that. )

Apologies. I fail my task.

[sergeant_slick]

Hey, learning language things is hard, especially over a communicator. We can meet up at some point and work on it. And if we all work on learning this stuff, then it won't matter if some of it doesn't stick, we'll be able to make do.

[downswing]

We number a blind man. ( The call for words is therefore advantageous. ) But hand gestures are subtler.

oh for heck sake my browser ate my post last night ಠ_ಠ

[sergeant_slick]

Gestures are easier, yeah. Honestly I should try and teach everybody military hand-sign, but even without a blind person on board, it'd be difficult to get working with a mixed group with a lot of civilians. You have to know when and where to look for it to be of any use.

oh no!

[downswing]

Too high alert?

Re: oh no!

[sergeant_slick]

That's one way of putting it. When things get rough, you want people to react on instinct as much as possible, right? Civvies don't work naturally with hand signals, from what I've seen. [Hells, they didn't even understand pointing half the time in a combat situation. It was a mess.]

[downswing]

Apologies. 'Civvies'?

aw hell, apologies: PhD ate me for a couple weeks there.

[sergeant_slick]

Ah, right--civilians. People who don't fight. It's how we called them in the military sometimes. [When they were feeling polite, but not too polite.]

RL happens to everyone, no worries at all!

[downswing]

You find them untrained here.

[sergeant_slick]

Well, yeah. They weren't made for combat, so when things start to get hectic, they can lock up. If you can speak their language, they're more likely to do what you need them to do. [And that was pretty much his only experience with civilians--trying to manage them.]

[downswing]

They are not as cattle.

[sergeant_slick]

...I'm not sure what that is.

[[ooc: fun fact, star wars wiki helpfully tells us that the term has been used four times in the series, and all of those mentions are from before The Great Disneyfication. Thus, cows are no longer canon.]]

[downswing]

Groups of large animals. Producing milk.

( ooc: Disney wants to lower emissions! )

[sergeant_slick]

Banthas? [Milk comes from banthas, right? He wasn't sure how you got blue juice out of a big fuzzy beast, but he was pretty sure banthas were involved somehow.] Yeah, nah. They aren't dumb [sometimes], just untrained.

[downswing]

The same of 'civvies.'

[sergeant_slick]

Yeah, that's what I meant. They got the choice to not fight, and so they don't know how to deal with combat.

[downswing]

Duress teaches to discard privilege. They face it now.