"My musical repertoire is, I'm afraid, rather limited, though I've always been fond of music. My education was light on songs, heavy on books. Probably self-evidently." Either because he volunteered to teach her or, more likely, he's aware of the vibe he gives off.
Athessa smiles at him and then tips her chair back again, looking up at the ceiling as she thinks. There was a song she knew once, how did it go? She starts to tap her fingers, letting the rhythm remind her.
The song she sings is upbeat, a steady rolling beat the likes of which would be best suited for dancing to, and the words a little ironic for anyone who can understand Elven. It being the kind of song meant to be sung on a loop or in a queue with others, it doesn't take long to get through.
"Song for song, an even trade."
Edited (i always write the wrong end tag for a href) 2020-08-17 21:46 (UTC)
"Funny enough it's about rabbits," she says with amusement coloring her tone. It's never great to be called one, but clearly there's some in-jokes about the slur. "Dancing in a barley field. The oldest writes his will and falls into the rushes, the youngest broke his legs, one of them falls asleep in a sorrel field and freezes to death...cheery stuff."
"Perfect dancing fare," he says with a brief smile. "Though I suppose I don't have any room to talk, Ferelden songs have a lot of maidens drowning themselves because their lover deserted them, or their lover died in a Blight, or someone's father didn't approve and they both drown themselves."
Athessa's smile is less brief, but warm. She looks back over towards the shelves, thinking for a moment, then stands to peruse the shelves.
"I don't think I should be, at this point, but I'm always kinda surprised to hear the similarities between Dalish songs and ones from Ferelden or Orlais, or wherever."
"No ... I know what you mean. I'd never left Ferelden until a few years ago, and I remember being surprised that people weren't more different. I'd read about the Free Marches, Antiva, but most of it was about things unique to those places. But beneath it... I think people are people. The differences matter, sometimes, but they aren't everything." A rueful smile. "At least, that's my opinion. For whatever it's worth."
"I think you're right," she agrees, trailing her fingers along the spines of the books she's considering. Waiting for a title to jump out at her.
"I think focusing on the differences just makes everyone think they have nothing in common, when really we should be looking at what makes us the same. I bet we'd have fewer stories about shit like the Dalish luring travelers into the woods to eat them."
"But then how would we know how great dogs are?" Similarly deadpan, at least in tone. It's easy to see even in profile that there's a smile playing at the corners of her eyes.
"That is a trap I am not going to fall for," he says. "Though I confess, a fraction of the people writing romance novels could write novels about heroic dogs instead."
She hmms in amused agreement. "Yeah I'd much rather read about dogs in love than...Virtue Rewarded." That one, pulled directly from the shelf just to read the title, make a face, and slip it back into place.
"Benedict and I paged through some of the racy ones that someone'd stashed in the back, but they were awful."
"That's a shame," he says. Then, thoughtfully: "Did you ever meet Knight Enchanter Amsel, while she was here? There's a series you might have come across ... what was it, Knight's ... Honor? Knight's Code, that was it. Oh, they might be in Orlesian, though. I didn't actually look, because it seemed rude while she was still here, and I didn't think of it again until just now. But evidently someone used her as the pattern for their series' romantic hero."
Her answer to whether or not she met Knight Enchanter Amsel is a slight shrug and a shake of her head. Athessa either hasn't had the pleasure, or has forgotten. She's never been the best at remembering names.
"If they're not in Orlesian, I think I should like to read them," Or at least try. She pulls out another book, looks at it, and puts it back. "Though I expect sooner or later learning Orlesian might prove useful. Are there more lady heroes in Orlesian books, do you think?"
"You know, I've no idea. I'd be interested if anyone has looked into it. There's probably some poor Orlesian trying to interest the University in a monograph on the subject as we speak," he adds, lightly. "Comparative literature and the Orlesian mind, or something similar. My Orlesian is decent for reading, though my accent is quite bad, I've been reliably informed. If you eventually want to add a second language for lessons."
"I would very much enjoy the look on Bastien's face the first time I'm able to respond to him in Orlesian..." Her own accent, at least so far as single words and phrases are concerned, is passable only when she's not trying. "But I wouldn't want to take up all your time."
"Well, if there's no particular time constraint, I could always slowly work it into the existing curriculum," he says, thoughtful. "The two languages use the same alphabet for the most part, so it isn't as if you'd be starting from scratch. Though the tricky part about Orlesian if you want to speak it is that a lot of the letters are evidently decorative, since they indicate nothing about pronunciation."
Spoken like a man who learned how to read Orlesian years before he heard anyone speak it, and was very confused when he finally did.
He gets up and looks to find a book in Orlesian to illustrate. "Alright, so you know in Trade, most of the time the letters in a word indicate the sounds, either on their own or with their neighbors. Ah." He comes and opens the book to a random page.
"In Orelsian, as I understand it, a lot of them indicate things about where the word came from, but you don't actually pronounce all of them. For example, this word, all of the last four letters are silent. I suspect it's why Orlesians with a thick accent swallow the ends of words in Trade."
"Very Orlesian of them. What if we just learn the words and not the spelling?" Not a serious question. Her tone might've been flat but her expression gives that away.
"I'm not entirely certain how that would work with reading," he says with a laugh, "though if you want to give it a try, I'll gamely keep you company through the attempt."
"Nah, learning the normal way is fine," she says, and plucks a book off the shelf.
"In the meantime, maybe I'll read this." She holds the book aloft so they can both read the title: Love in the Time of Darkspawn. "Think it'll be any good?"
"Almost certainly not, but possibly entertaining. Though," he adds, "if it seems likely the love is with a Darkspawn, rather than just against the backdrop of them, I advise you to abandon the book immediately."
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Athessa smiles at him and then tips her chair back again, looking up at the ceiling as she thinks. There was a song she knew once, how did it go? She starts to tap her fingers, letting the rhythm remind her.
The song she sings is upbeat, a steady rolling beat the likes of which would be best suited for dancing to, and the words a little ironic for anyone who can understand Elven. It being the kind of song meant to be sung on a loop or in a queue with others, it doesn't take long to get through.
"Song for song, an even trade."
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"I don't think I should be, at this point, but I'm always kinda surprised to hear the similarities between Dalish songs and ones from Ferelden or Orlais, or wherever."
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"I think focusing on the differences just makes everyone think they have nothing in common, when really we should be looking at what makes us the same. I bet we'd have fewer stories about shit like the Dalish luring travelers into the woods to eat them."
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"Benedict and I paged through some of the racy ones that someone'd stashed in the back, but they were awful."
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"If they're not in Orlesian, I think I should like to read them," Or at least try. She pulls out another book, looks at it, and puts it back. "Though I expect sooner or later learning Orlesian might prove useful. Are there more lady heroes in Orlesian books, do you think?"
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Spoken like a man who learned how to read Orlesian years before he heard anyone speak it, and was very confused when he finally did.
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"In Orelsian, as I understand it, a lot of them indicate things about where the word came from, but you don't actually pronounce all of them. For example, this word, all of the last four letters are silent. I suspect it's why Orlesians with a thick accent swallow the ends of words in Trade."
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Athessa stares at the word, sounding it out phonetically first, and then dropping the last four letters and reading it again that way.
"Are they doing that on purpose?"
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"In the meantime, maybe I'll read this." She holds the book aloft so they can both read the title: Love in the Time of Darkspawn. "Think it'll be any good?"
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