|
Post by nierfenhimer on Feb 16, 2007 15:01:39 GMT -6
The machina quickly circled Muffin and then returned to its position above the table, facing Elphaba once more. "Feline's status: Name, Muffin. Breed, ragamuffin - a breed known for its large size, intelligence, and affectionate nature," it chirped, "A request has been made by feline, Muffin, to initiate translated conversation from Feline to English, United Kingdom. Accept or decline offer?" Muffin looked at the girl in a way that seemed to ask her to accept.
|
|
|
Post by caity on Feb 16, 2007 15:05:44 GMT -6
"Why the hell not," Elphaba muttered sarcastically as she glanced in the cat, who she now knew as Muffin, and tilted her head sideways slightly. The green witch had always wanted to speak with an animal, cats expecially, so why not attemp to now.
"Accept..." she said firmly to the machine.
|
|
|
Post by nierfenhimer on Feb 16, 2007 15:13:56 GMT -6
"Thank you, conversation initiated," it began. Meow... Mrrah. "So... Hello, then. As you heard, I'm Muffin," the machine chirped in translation.
Danny was still upstairs, tinkering away with the parts and pieces he had. He had heard his assistant start up, but he knew for a fact it was Muffin's doing. He must have gotten the girl to turn it on for him, he thought, I still need to get a button on there for him. I just hope there aren't more than two languages being spoken at once down there... I still haven't finished this yet.
|
|
|
Post by caity on Feb 16, 2007 15:23:14 GMT -6
"You are quite an intelligent cat, Muffin," Elphaba said softly as she tucked her long raven black hair behind her emerald green ear. It felt odd talking to a cat, but she had seen and done(and she probably was) wierder... "Thank you for allowing me to speak with you."
It was odd that Elphaba would show this softer side of herself to anyone, but animals had always had this sort of affect on her.
|
|
|
Post by nierfenhimer on Feb 19, 2007 13:35:01 GMT -6
Mraaaoo. "Thank you," was the translation. Mraah myaaao. Mrraooaa? "It is fun to speak with humans. Why would I not want to?" came the chirping once more. Mraa mrow? Myaawaa. Rrrrah. "So why were you hiding there?" it came, "I get the feeling that Danny only scratched the surface."
Upstairs, Danny took out the assistant's monitor to keep an eye on its condition. It was, of course, still in beta, so it had to have an eye kept on it. Okay, CPU is normal, temperature is good, and so is the memory usage. Stabilization and hover components functioning to par, and the translation module is still functioning. Please don't go past two languages... he thought as he monitored it. Of course, some of what he thought was mouthed, and some was mumbled, as was a bad habit for him.
|
|
|
Post by caity on Feb 19, 2007 13:45:34 GMT -6
"Few creatures ever want to associate with me," Elphaba told the cat moodily as she sat down upon one of the common room chair. Glanicng at the cat, Elphaba's emerald face conveyed a tired expression. She was tired of all this questioning, so she figured it safe to at least confide in a cat...
"Thats quite true.." she glanced at the stairway up to the boy's dormitory. She would not give that Danny boy the satisfaction that he was right. His holier than all attitude irked the girl and she just had wanted to slap him and tell him to get the hell away from her. "Imagine if all your life you were called a freak... and treated as such. By even your own father...Its a wonder I even attend school..."
|
|
|
Post by nierfenhimer on Feb 19, 2007 14:13:02 GMT -6
((I'm omitting the meow thing, as I'm lazy right now.))
"Well, I can tell he was irritating you. I can tell you that that's how he usually acts, though. He was trying to help, yet remain calm. He's not very good at being calm, especially when he comes off as being a jerk with it," came the translation with Muffin's meows, "I can tell you now that not many people like to associate themselves with him, either. Mainly because of his heritage. He's of a breed of human that no one's ever heard of. He doesn't socialize much either, so he's not good at speaking. I can say one thing, though: humans sure like talking. You are quite social creatures, so it's a little sad to know that no one's really wanted to speak with you like this. I can tell that Danny wanted to befriend you, but I can also tell that his mannerism came off as rude and imposing. On his behalf, I apologize. Were his contraptions for speech complete on this flying creature of his, we would speak more and I could instruct him on social interaction. However, more than one spoken language seems to make it mad and it seems to play dead. Because he speaks more than one human language, usually alternating, and it hears my language along with his few make it very mad. It's hard not to be accepted, though. I've watched Danny for these past five years or so. He's not one that fits in well, either. I'd suggest talking to him, really. He's much like me, if you can get past his odd manner of speech. He means well, he's just socially retarded, you will." If cats could laugh, at that point, he would have done so. Danny gave an annoyed sniff as he heard that last part. He didn't hear what the green girl said, but he heard parts of Muffin's translation. "But if you want, once his flying creature is trained, we can speak more," the machina chirped in translation, "I'm used to communicating with humans, even without them understanding me, usually."
|
|
|
Post by caity on Feb 19, 2007 14:19:30 GMT -6
"I'd like that," Elphaba replied truthfully to the rather large cat. She found she had liked talking to Muffin, although it had been quite a strange experience for her. "But as for speaking to your boy, Danny I believe you said his name was," she paused and glanced again at the stair case. Elphaba felt a bit guilty not even having known his name when she had snubbed him, but she shrugged it off. "If he will try to stop prying into who I am, and the way I act... Maybe then I can talk to him, but not before..."
|
|
|
Post by nierfenhimer on Feb 19, 2007 15:11:16 GMT -6
"I'm sure he will," Muffin said, "That was just his unorthodox way of saying he wished to know you better." He had paused before the word "unorthodox," but the translation time eliminated the pause. "Just try to be as open as you are with me, and I assure you, he will be a valuable friend."
Danny growled to himself as he began typing in variables with his custom-made laptop. He had the newly assembled translator addition completed, but now it had to be coded correctly, all the variables, statistics, and syntax keyed exactly correct wit5h everything in the right order, every letter, number and symbol correct. There was no room for error, or the program would crash when he tried to run it, and he would need to start the programming over. He began singing a My Chemical Romance song to himself as he review the first twenty lines.
|
|
|
Post by caity on Feb 19, 2007 15:18:12 GMT -6
With a small sigh, Elphaba replied, "Alright.. I will try. But please don't expect me to be open and happy with him. I'll tolerate him, and maybe talk to Danny... but confide in him," she paused slightly and bit her green lips before continuing. "I can't do that yet... not yet."
Glancing at the common room entrance, a fleeting thought passed through the green witch's head. Its a mircacle no one has walked in on us yet... This realization startled the girl, for she was vulnerable and unprotected at the moment. Doing the only thing she could do, she whipped out her tall pointed hat and set it atop her hat. The hat had long been a symbol of power for her, and many wise students avoided her if she had it on...
|
|
|
Post by nierfenhimer on Feb 19, 2007 15:29:14 GMT -6
Suddenly, the assistant made a few odd beeps and hovered back down to the table, powering down. Muffin poked it a few times, curiously examining the "creature," and hoping it hadn't died.
Danny came down the stairs from the dormitory, laptop under arm and a small apparatus, probably the size of an iPod mini, only much different-looking, in his hand, still attached to a USB port in the back of the computer.
"Sorry about that, I'll have the assistant back up and running in a little bit," Danny said to both the girl and Muffin, picking the assistant up in his free arm and moving to another area of the room to attempt the installation. However, he stopped halfway. "Muffin, I need you to come with me for a moment... He'll be right back."
Muffin hopped off the chair with a "mrraow" to Elphie and walked over to where Danny had made his new workspace.
He had begun affixing the small device to the assistant's translator board, black mechanic's goggles replacing his glasses. It would take a few minutes just to connect the new addition..... A spark or two flew past his head as he put minimal amounts of binding on the wires - enough for a test, but enough that, if need be, he could disconnect it.
|
|
|
Post by caity on Feb 19, 2007 15:37:15 GMT -6
Elphaba watched Danny curiously as he appeared to fiddle with the machine that had assisted the conversation between Muffin and herself. It was an odd thing to see in Hogwarts, but the witch shrugged it off as she continued to watch.
A wave of immense guilt washed over the young, green witch as she continued to watch the boy tinker away. It was one thing to hide away from the world, but it was another altogether to snap at it as she had done. And she regretted it immensely.
"I'm sorry for earlier," Elphaba told the boy a little stiffly. She was not used to admitting she had done wrong, and her pride was slightly wounded.
|
|
|
Post by nierfenhimer on Feb 19, 2007 15:51:47 GMT -6
It took Danny a few minutes to realize he was being spoken too, as he was completely absorbed in his work. "Pardon me if I don't look at you while I speak," he said, using a device to test each connection, "But if I were to keep working and do that too, I'd risk losing my fingers... But it's alright. I understand why you did that. Looking back, I see that my attitude may have com off as... er, how to say it... pompous and rather self-absorbed. I should be the only apologizing, really." He opened his laptop and typed a command. As it reached the USB mount that he had attached the assistant to, it powered up and assumed an alternative mode, staying still and silent. He began typing a few commands, to which the assistant beeped a response. "Kuut..." he said, each time. He did it twice more, with a copy of the commands in a second language - English. It responded positively again, to which he approved. "Here's the clincher - cross your paws, buddy," Danny said to Muffin. He typed the same line in French and sent the command string. No beeping. "Huh?" He sent the string once more, and it beeped. He looked at it odd and sent the string twice more. It beeped each time. He shrugged and closed the laptop, disconnecting and powering down the assistant. He brought out his solder-welder again and began to finish his work.
((Kuut. = KOOT = Good.))
|
|
|
Post by caity on Feb 19, 2007 17:07:25 GMT -6
"Whatever," Elphaba said at the boy's response. Although his continous tinkering with the gadget irritated her, she found it slightly relaxing that he wasn't looking at her. "Lets just move on past it, and be done. Is that alright?"
|
|