fandomhighdorms | Third Floor Common Room, Thursday Evening

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Third Floor Common Room, Thursday Evening

So Rikku had found a grumpy kitty in her Flight class, and lo and behold, it was the Worf!kitty! She'd totally have to take him back to Wellspring Arms tomorrow morning when she went in to work.

For now, she was going to keep him with her, and hope he didn't kill Petey.

Hmmm. This called for a few hours in the Common Room.

"Who's such a grumpy kitty?" she cooed, at the clearly miserable angry unhappy cat who was most likely plotting her death. "Who is that?"

(OOC: so, so, so open! IMPORTANT NOTE: the Worf!kitty hates (A) being a kitty (B) everything and especially (C) you. Some light modding is okay so long as you remember those three important points. Bring your own bandages!)

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"That is what I was going to say," Ella said. "I know I don't have to, but if you want me to, and if we get along -- and I liked you in the cabin -- I would love to. Reno can visit and everything."

"Where do you live?"

"I think that'd be awesome," Rikku said, nodding along. "I ... kinda really miss having a roommate, you know? And I'll keep my side neat and Petey's harmless. He's dim and cheery and he likes to cuddle. And I'll make sure Reno knocks and everything, and we can -- keep the visiting to his room. Uh."

She blushed, and gestured oddly. "Sometimes ... uh ... I ... stay over, in his room? He has a single so he's got ... an ... extra bed and all."

He did. She never used it, but he totally did.

Ella gave a confused smile, a slight blush rising in her own cheeks. "That must be very ... handy," she ventured. "To have extra space. And I would like to have a roommate, and a pet, even if he is less than bright. I'm supposed to get a parrot but I'm sure we can teach Petey to respect it."

"I'm sure we could," Rikku said, nodding. "Ooooh, a parrot, really? Parrots are kinda big, aren't they? I mean, it could probably beat him up. He's not all that tough, he just likes to play. And he's really sweet, he's a little cuddlelump, he's just ... you know. Dim."

He really, really was.

"Oh! I'm in 308, it's just down the hall. Where are you?"

"It would have to be a smaller one to fit in a dorm room," Ella mused. "Maybe a parakeet instead. I mostly want to teach one to talk. The cook has one at home." She shrugged. "Right now? 210, upstairs. There's usually better tea in this kitchen."

"Oh, that would be awesome!" Rikku giggled. "Could I teach it Al Bhed? We could teach it fun things to say like 'oh no you di'int!' Or is that mean?"

She considered. "If the tea's better here, do you just wanna move in with me? I mean, instead of the other way around? Or do you have a lot of stuff to move and that'd be a huge pain in the butt?"

"Mandy's says 'don't kiss me' in Ogrese," Ella reported happily. "I think half the fun is getting them to say silly things. can you teach me Al Bhed? I love languages."

She thought for a moment. "I've only my clothes and a few books, and I haven't been here as long, have I? I'll move."

"You want to learn it? Really?" Rikku's jaw dropped, and this was full-on bouncing. "It's my language, from back home! Nobody here speaks it, except Lulu knows some and Reno's learning it! It's not hard to learn at all, although everyone says it's weird trying to figure out how to pronounce things? But it so isn't."

Sure, they had bizarre words like cdnyhka, but the pronunciation was at least consistent. Which had driven her up a wall when learning Yevonite.

"Are you sure? You don't have to. I mean. I don't wanna be all, hey, we go to MY ROOM, DARN IT, you know?"

Ella opened her eyes wide to emphasize her sincerity. "You have no idea how much I like languages," she stated. "My best friend" -- and there she felt a twinge - "at my last school was Ayorthaian, from a kingdom west of mine. I made her spend hours teaching me her tongue."

She shook her head. "I wouldn't have offered if I minded."

"Oooh," Rikku said, nodding quickly. "Al Bhed is ... it's the language I grew up speaking? I had to learn this one 'cause everyone else -- who isn't us, I mean -- this is the one they know. So. Uh. Rammu is Hello, and Ruf yna oui?, that's How are you? And famlusa means welcome, I have it on my voicemail when people call. Famlusa, you have reached Rikku!"

She blushed, stopping herself from getting further into Conversational Al Bhed 101. "If you really don't mind -- that'd be awesome, 'cause I think I kinda like the third floor. And I'll clean, honest, things are a little messy right now 'cause I was trying to take apart a mech droid that I made for class."

"Rammu, Rikku, ruf yna oui?," Ella repeated, only stumbling a little over the new letter combinations. "It's pretty. is the grammar like ours?"

"Maybe I should wait until Monday to move, then," she added thoughtfully. "That way, you'll have a chance to tidy, and I wouldn't mind a last weekend on my own."

"E ys veha, dryhg oui! Yht oui?" Rikku giggled. "Oh! That's -- I'm fine, thank you, and you? The grammar's actually pretty similar so it's not too hard to pick up, it's just a matter of knowing the words and remembering all the little differences here and there, you know?"

If Ella was listening closely, she might detect a trace of an accent in Rikku's English, just when she switched back. She usually managed to speak without one, but sometimes it lingered when she hopped back and forth.

She nodded to the rest of it. "That sounds good. And if you decide you'd rather have a single, I mean, you can tell me Monday and we'll just decide to drop it, right? And if not I can help you move stuff. If that's cool and all."

"E ys veha - how do you say, 'as well'," Ella asked, concentrating, and trying to inflect her words as Rikku did. "Or roommate? No doubt I'll ask a million questions about it. Let me know if you get sick of it."

"I don't think I'll change my mind, but of course I would tell you if I did."

"'As well', that's just yc famm," Rikku said, almost giddy. "Roommate is -- hmmm. I don't think we have a word exactly the same? But you could smush something together. Nuussyda. I'm so not going to get sick of it, I was here for months and nobody spoke it and I miss hearing it. I kinda ... feel like I'm more me when I'm speaking it, you know?"

She had to consider that for a few seconds. "Was it like that, with your friend from Ayortharia?"

Well, she was close.

Ella gave a very definite nod. "One of the teachers would speak it with her, but most of the girls weren't interested in the least. They would make fun of her accent, too." Ugh, and her face showed her disgust.

"But it's just a lovely language. I have a friend at their court now, and he says they sing almost constantly." Also that he was bored out of his skull, but Ella was focusing on the positive.

"That's terrible," Rikku gasped. "I try hard not to have an accent, you know? Some people ... didn't even realize I was Al Bhed, at first. It's kinda ... back home, it's ... they think bad things about us. We're nice, honest, just ... we don't believe what they do? It's a huge mess."

She still couldn't believe no one here minded.

"Are you supposed to sing, in that language? That'd be a neat language." She attempted a quick little melody. "'I'm sorry, I must go buy some fruit.'"

"That's horrible," Ella said sympathetically. "People don't so much think bad things, about Ayorthaians? It's just they're ... you know. Different." She looked down her nose mockingly. "Not Kyrrian."

"They don't sing everything, but there'd be a song to sing walking to market, and a song about the market, and then you'd write a song to sing to your family about your trip," she tried to explain. "Instead of balls, they have sings. It's very different."

"It was different, for us. We sort of ..." She hesitated, but this would probably come up, if they were going to be roommates; might as well get it out of the way now. "We didn't ... follow their religion? So they assumed we were evil and immoral and all sorts of things, when we just -- didn't believe what they believed. It's getting better, but it's taking a lot of time, you know?"

"Whoa, really?" She grinned more at that. "But that'd be awesome. Unless you couldn't sing well. That'd just be frustrating. Or if you were the type who couldn't ever rhyme. I never think of good rhymes until way later."

"I'm so sorry," Ella said quietly, considering Rikku carefully. "I'm no religion in particular, if it helps you to know that."

"And Ayorthaian makes rhyming a bit easier because every word begins and ends with a vowel," she explained. "So I am Elle -- or Eleanore, but no one calls me by that name -- and you would be Urikku. And they aren't terribly precise with rhymes, either. But they all sing well."

"It's fine," Rikku said quickly. "I ... I have some friends here who are, and some who aren't. I just worry because ... the people who were, back home, got really ... upset at us. So sometimes I'm scared I'm gonna meet somebody and they'll go, 'Wait, you don't believe? You heathen.'"

She shrugged it off. "Eleanore, is that your full name, or just what you end up in in their language?" she asked. "That's beautiful. Urikku sounds kinda funky. I think I'll stick with Rikku, for now."

"I was named for my mother," Ella explained. "But no one calls me Eleanor except my father, and I don't like it when he does it. Ella's enough for me."

"Oh, sorry," Rikku said, flushing. "Ella's nice, too, I was just curious. I've never had a nickname or anything, 'Rikku' is kinda short enough on its own."

Ella laughed apologetically. "I didn't mean to sound so fierce. I've just never liked being called by my full name."

"No, it's totally okay." Rikku shook her head. "That's good to remember. There's one guy back home that calls me 'Cid's girl' -- Cid's my dad -- and I want to kick him whenever he does it."

"He would deserve it," Ella decided.

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the_merriest - 2008-06-28 03:57 (UTC) - Expand

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