michellewebster (michellewebster) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2022-08-27 23:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !narrative, [plot] lost languages, michelle webster (michellewebster), ~2022 august, ~charly burke (ensignburke) |
A Conversation in Mandarin
Who: Michelle Webster and Charly Burke
What: Venting Over Coffee
When: Sunday, August 28
Where: Madison Valley Coffee & Tea
Ratings: None
Status:
"Does this happen a lot?" Charly asked, holding her coffee in both hands.
Michelle laughed. "You're asking the wrong person. I haven't been here much longer than you. This is my first experience of the sort of fuckery we can expect." She'd posted her network message asking if anyone else spoke Mandarin not really expecting an answer. But she'd gotten one, from Charly Burke.
"But...how?" Charly asked. "I don't speak Mandarin. I've never spoken it? How can I speak it like a native now?"
Michelle shrugged and sipped her own coffee. "I don't have any answers, Charly. I'm sorry. I know it's a lot, but from what I understand this is probably fairly mild as these things go. I've heard of people waking up in all kinds of strange places, sometimes believing they're someone else, living completely different lives until they find themselves back in Madison Valley."
"Yeah," Charly said with a sigh. "I've heard that as well. It's a lot to process." When she'd discovered that someone else here spoke Mandarin, she'd asked to meet in person. She had a lot of questions. Michelle had agreed, but it was becoming clear that she didn't have a lot of answers. As Charly had suspected, probably nobody did.
"What language did you lose?" Charly asked, deciding to focus on more personal experiences. "I lost my English."
"English, of course," Michelle said. "And a number of other languages. In return, in addition to Mandarin, I can speak Korean, Vietnamese and Thai. What about you? Anything besides Mandarin?"
Charly shook her head. "I only spoke the one language." Translation tech was so good back home that she'd never felt the need to learn additional languages. "You seem awfully young to be speaking so many languages, if you don't mind me saying so."
Michelle smiled. "I'm older than I look, and I've had some very intensive language training. Complete immersion is a good way to learn languages quickly." Which is why she'd gotten used to being whisked off to a new country by Amanda every so often, to live for months or a year or two, expected to speak only the local language until she'd mastered it.
"Okay," Charly said. Michelle didn't look old enough to drink. Even a generous estimate of "older than I look" meant, what? Twenty-five? "Did your family move around a lot?" She couldn't think of any other reason why Michelle would have learned so many languages.
"You could say that. I was raised by a guardian, but yes, we traveled a lot. She made sure I learned the local languages wherever we went. What about you?"
"I was born in Texas," Charly said. "When I grew up, I attended the Naval Academy and went into the service. I was serving aboard a ship when I found myself here."
"So you're AWOL?" Michelle asked with a smile.
Charly returned it, but the wattage was low. "No, I'm pretty sure they think I'm dead. I'd be dead if I hadn't found myself here. I hear that sometimes people get returned to where they came from. If that happens, I'll be dead." It was not the first time she'd thought about that. She had nowhere to go; for good or ill, Madison Valley was her home now.
"I'm sorry," Michelle said, sincerely. If she were dropped back into that alley in Barcelona, she could pick up her life very easily. But Charly wasn't the only person she'd met--or heard of--who had died, or was on the verge of dying, when they were plucked from their lives and dropped into Madison Valley.
"Still, things could be worse, right? We're alive, and if we can't leave this place, at least not more than temporarily, at least our lives will be interesting." She raised her cup of coffee. "Cheers."
"Cheers," Charly agreed.