Fourth Floor Common Room [Thursday night]

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

Olive had woken today to discover that, tragically, she did not still taste of oranges. She did move past this -- she'd kind of hoped it was a permanent change because hi, oranges tasted nice and Olive occasionally had a slightly dirty mind -- and had gone to class and everything.

But then a whole new tragedy had occurred.

She was parked in front of the television with a bottle of nail polish and bared feet, fully prepared to have an evening of politics and pedicures. But every time she tried to watch the DNC -- she really, really wanted one of the celebrities coming tonight to yell at a chair, shut up -- it was in Spanish. On CNN, on NBC -- all the news channels were, inexplicably, only broadcasting the convention en español.

And so Olive, nail polish forgotten, was trying to parse together what she could, based upon three years of public school Spanish. "Barack Obama has a...help for the February?"

Olive had never been gifted at foreign language, no.

[totes open, and bless you, craftyladyparts, for the prompt.]

Comments

[notconflicted]

Currently, Sia lived next door to a wannabe- if not actual- bounty hunter who was considering turning her in for a reward, and so far going home before anything could happen wasn't feasible at the moment. That meant her next best option was to basically stay in public where there were witnesses.

"What are you watching?" she asked, more confused by what was happening here than actually interested in it.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Politics," she said, frowning a little. "I can't find it in English though so I'm just trying to kind of figure it out based on context clues and what little bit I actually understand. I'm pretty sure public education has failed me, though, because nothing quite makes sense to me."

[pursuedthestars]

There was no one in his common room and Jim really didn't feel like entertaining himself so he went up a few floors, spotted someone familiar and ambled on in.

"Is the television broken?" Jim asked, brow furrowing at the unfamiliar language. "Or are my ears still messed up from the fire drill?"

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"No, for some reason we can only get the convention in Spanish," she said, sighing. "Everything else is in English. There's a Molly Ringwald movie on that I could be watching but I'm trying to like, enrich my mind."

[notconflicted]

"This is why your planet needs protocol droids," Sia said, taking a seat. "You can get the gist of what they're saying from body language, too."

Trust her on that.

[pursuedthestars]

"Convention?" Jim asked, leaning over the back of the couch to get a better look at what she was watching. "Convention of what? Clowns? That'd be awesome. A convention of Spanish speaking clowns!"

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"What's a protocol droid?" she wondered. So many new types of robots to learn about, god.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Um, no, it's a political convention. The clowns were last week." See how hilarious she was? Oh, Olive. "Do you speak Spanish? I have no idea what they're saying. Also, you're insane, clowns are terrifying regardless of what language they speak."

[notconflicted]

"They're primarily for etiquette, but they're usually knowledgeable about certain cultures and other languages so that you're not accidentally insulting a diplomat you don't really want to go to war with," she replied.

[pursuedthestars]

"Clowns are fluffy and there just to make you laugh!" Jim retorted, grinning now. "And no, I don't speak Spanish. It's not really one of those languages you need where I'm from."

They were more about the alien languages in the future. "...were there really clowns last week?"

The poor future boy, this was one area he didn't really know about. Politics weren't his thing.

[ultron_junior]

Victor hesitated by the door for a moment, following the speech for a few sentences before he realized what was a little odd about it.

"I didn't know John Kerry spoke Spanish," he commented. "Is this a Univision dub or something?"

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Oh my god, can I get one?" she asked. "It's like an Embarrassment Buffer. I would just take it around with me and any time I'm about to say something stupid it'd just tell me not to."

Not exactly.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"We can only get the DNC in Spanish," Olive said, shaking her head as she craned her neck to smile a hello at him. "I've messed with all the settings and I'm pretty sure it's just a Fandom thing? So I'm getting like every fourth word. It's interesting."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Ha, no, that was a little bit of a political joke," she replied, smiling at him. "And clowns are horrifying. What is wrong with you? I hope clowns invade your room and like, loom over you while you sleep."

What an oddly specific threat, Olive.

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"I'm not the only one who has no idea what they're saying, right?" Jessica asked as she walked in and realized what was on and what language it was in.

[ultron_junior]

"Oh, right, I once got only telenovelas," Victor told her. He paused to listen a bit more. "He's not saying anything you wouldn't expect. Democrats good, Republicans bad, pair of bunny slippers to everybody if Obama gets reelected..."

So maybe one of those things was not a direct translation.

"Hi," he added, and took a seat.

[notconflicted]

"It doesn't work quite like that," Sia said, managing a little smile. "If it did, I'm sure everyone would have one."

[pursuedthestars]

"There are a lot of things wrong with me," he quipped, resting his head on the arms that he'd propped up on the back of his couch. "So, it's a good thing I'm just so adorable, isn't it?"

He thought so, at least. "I still don't think clowns are that bad. They've got a bad reputation. I liked clowns when I was a kid."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"I'm getting like a third of it," Olive told her. "I'm way better at Spanish when they speak slower and I can see it written down, so...mostly I'm guessing."

[ultron_junior]

"Um, I understand it perfectly," Victor told her. "Your ears are broken."

So he was maybe a little smug about apparently being the only bilingual person in the room.

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"Well, see, now I have extra motivation to go vote on my birthday," she decided, since she weirdly did turn eighteen on Election Day. Technically she turned twenty, since she was two years out of her own time, but she was so not doing any math on that because ow. "I do like bunnies. That's a platform that speaks to my interests."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"And see how warped you are now," Olive said, tsking. "And I would argue the adorableness thing. I've seen more adorable. You could step it up."

[dirtiest-skank.livejournal.com]

"You should get on that. Make that happen. I could carry it around like a Furby," Olive told her. "It would be the best accessory ever."

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

"I'm going to have to rely on their broad hand gestures unless you change it to English," Jessica said.

[notconflicted]

"What's a Furby?"

They were hell in toy form, that's what they were.