I Once Saw the Past [Trebias]

[Trebias]

“Yeah, you’re right. Like a passion that goes beyond the. . .obsession, or something that sounds profound and fits in this case. Okay, okay, and I cheated a little. That was your introduction to some of the more confusing thing languages do,” El said. “Phone means sound, and it comes from another language, so for whatever reason, it’s spelled differently. A ‘ph’ together makes the same sound as an ‘f.’ So the phone in telephone is phone. Don’t forget what I said about the long vowels and silent e. The tele part, well, that’s my fault. I mumbled a little.” He enunciated the tele part so that Rai could hear it better. “That means long distance, just so you know. So, what the word means, loosely translated, is sound sent over a distance. See how much fun this is? I teach grammar and etymology! That’s the study of the origin of words, by the way.” He wondered if he was going about this in the right order. He decided that as long as the kid remembered, it wasn’t that big a deal.

He taught Rai transport and automatic. Transport didn’t really have any tricks, but El did teach Whip what auto meant, and helped make sure the kid would see and understand the auto and not switch it with an otto.

[seraaches]

They were covering a strange mixture of higher level concepts mixed in with the lower ones. At least Rai pretty much knew the letters already, just not in the 'normal' order. If he hadn't, he would have been in way over his head. He was repeating back El's words, but was getting a little bit confused again. After a quiet moment filled with a frustrated sigh, Rai closed his eyes and recited back again, "Transport, T-R-A-N-S-P-O-R-T, and automatic, A-U-T-O-M-A-T-I-C, and telephone, T-E-L-E-P-H-O-N-E."

His ears flattened as he finished tripping off the spellings almost as though they were really easy even though they totally weren't. All of the little bits and wot not that El had explained were rolling around in his head as though he had loose marbles in it. He guessed that the information would either settle down eventually or just fall out later. In which case he fully expected Elias to have some sort of punishment for not remembering.

[Trebias]

"You'll probably have to learn a lot by rote right now, but that will just make it easier to get the other things later. That's how I did it, anyway." He scraped a patch of ground clean. "Now write them out, and we'll call it a day." He moved a bit away so that he wasn't crowding or pressuring the colt.

"Language is something," he mused aloud, not expecting a reply. "Did the symbols for the letters and words come first, or the sounds? It's definitely an interesting relationship." He realized he was rambling more than usual. "Oh, sorry. Go ahead and finish up. I'll start on dinner. Call me if you need me to check it or want to ask me anything." He went to the garden to pick some herbs to add to dinner, and grabbed some veggies and fruits for Rai. Then he went inside to start cooking.

[seraaches]

"Of course sounds came first," the colt answered absently, mind on his careful scritching in the dirt. The letters weren't exactly slow in coming, but he still wasn't used to writing them, so he had to form them very carefully. "How else would everyone have communicated? If the letters came first-- blast you, curve all the way-- then it'd probably be from a bunch of people who couldn't talk, you know? How else would they organize hunts and forays and. . . there, I think that's all of them."[/color

Rai stared down at his handiwork with a critical eye. The letters still really weren't that pretty, but writing it down this time had given him plenty of time to make sure he had the spelling correct before he put them to the dirt. He gave a satisfied nod before glancing towards El's retreating back for approval. The colt gave a put-upon snort and headed indoors to help his teacher prepare the meal.

[Trebias]

"I don't think it's as straight-forward as that," El said during the meal. "The communication thing. For all we know, Cards or whoever made symbols to represent things that they didn't have words for. They draw a picture of a rabbit or something, or whatever they're hunting or foraying for, and language could have come from that. Don't know, to be honest. But, hey, it's not much good at this point except for speculation and fun conversation, right?" He finished the meal and set down their water bowls on the table.

-~-~-~-~-~

"How are those numbers coming, Whip?" El asked the colt some indeterminate time period later. He'd been working the Heart through words and language, and had started the boy on arithmetic. He hadn't gotten too terribly far in his studies of math back in the Court, but he had some books that he could use if they needed to go beyond what he knew. He wouldn't mind learning it, although he supposed the highest math was best left to those that could think of something to do with it.

[seraaches]

"The numbers," the colt said seriously. "All go in order." He made a face at the canine, but it was fairly obvious by glancing at the dirt that the long division was still giving the boy some trouble. It wasn't that he couldn't do it; it was just that often about halfway through he'd sort of lose interest and not quite pay as close attention as he should. And long division that took decimals usually took him a few tries to get correct.

Word problems, on the other hand, he absolutely delighted in. The math part of it wasn't as much fun, but trying to logic your way through all those purposefully confusing words was just a great deal of fun to the young equine. He wished they could just sit and work on those all day and not come back to decimal places and long division.

Not once, however, did he complain about it-- though he may have come close a time or two in his jokes. It was important to fully understand math for their upcoming business. He knew that. "How's the business coming along?" he asked in retaliation.

[Trebias]

"Bah," El snorted at the colt. "I can do my end any time, learning the paths. You're the one that's going to have to learn to talk to people and forge contracts. Nobody will believe that I can come up with a business plan and keep it running smooth, that's going to have to be your domain. Plus, they'll have the threat of pain that they can't ignore. What's your pain ability feel like, anyway? Tried it out yet? Keep in mind that I'll knock you loopy if you experiment on me, kid."

He moved to look at what the colt was working on, and how it was coming. "Well, you've got the right idea, but somewhere in the middle is where things fall apart, Whip. Is it the remainders giving you problems or something else?" He wanted to get the equine to the point that he could do the math before he introduced him to shortcuts like the abacus and that noisy calculating machine that looked like a type-writer that he'd seen once or twice before he went into hiding.

[seraaches]

Rai turned his head slightly to roll his eyes at the older man. His part was the easy one, really. Whenever they went into town, the colt was getting in people's way and making friends. And if they weren't friends at first, they'd eventually succumb to the constant 'charm' he inflicted upon them. Now he was viewed as the village's darling, for lack of a better term. No, he was having a great time whenever he got to work on the business. It was the back end that was killing him.

The colt sighed as El looked over his figuring. He really didn't enjoy long division. At all. "If I knew wot was wrong," he informed the man saucily. "I wouldn't still be having trouble with it, now would I?" He sent the canine a teasing, challenging glance.

[Kiki]

Sera and Trebias receive 4 tokens each, to be redeemed in Ashwin's Shoppe. This will automatically be added to your recorded totals in the shoppe. Congratulations, and keep up the good RP!

[Trebias]

Elias cuffed the colt behind the ears with his paw. “All right, you were right up to here,” Elias said. The colt seemed to be doing okay. He was pretty smart. “Right around here is where you went wrong. Did you miss something, or forget? It would have been the same over here. You’ve got to give the whole thing your attention. It’s like anything, if you’re not paying attention the whole time, it’ll come back and bite you. Kind of like the paths out there, huh? Bet you didn’t think I could pull an analogy out of my butt there, did you?” He pointed where Rai’s math went astray. He really did think it was just because it was boring, and the kid didn’t feel like paying attention. He tried a different tact. “You know, kid, the faster you master this, the sooner you can start learning the shortcuts.”