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Post by Noa on Nov 23, 2021 23:15:42 GMT -6
Noa hadn't really meant to come to the mansion this month. He hadn't thought he would have time. There was so much research he needed to be doing. Earlier this year he had finally gotten his hands on a light node, and he had thought that his search for the cure to his ailment would proceed so much faster, but after an initial burst of progress everything had... stalled. He didn't have enough power. Even with Rhys feeding light energy into him through their link, he didn't have enough power. The trickle was too slow, and he couldn't bring it all to bear at once, and working on his own body sapped so much of his energy.
He had just recently acquired an Order node too, though to say that he was less enthusiastic about that was an understatement. A good variety was something to work towards, yes, but the binding magics associated with Order didn't do much to help his cause. Still, it was what he had to hand, and it had come to him through a rather interesting opportunity, so...
Well, the point stood that he had a lot of research that he ought to be doing.
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Post by Noa on Nov 23, 2021 23:15:52 GMT -6
But he was also tired of hitting dead ends. You could only throw yourself obsessively at a problem for so long before it stopped being productive. Even Noa realized this, for all that Rhys chastised him for things like forgetting to eat, or letting the property fall to such depths of disrepair. When Noa could remember to, he did summon magical servants to clean the place, fix things and air it out, and of course Rabbit was supposed to maintain it... But there was only one of Rabbit and so many things to attend to, even if they also had Briar taking care of the gardens now. And the magical servants required very specific instructions, which Noa was often too impatient to give.
So the property continued to decay, but Noa couldn't care less, so long as the parts he used remained in good condition. In fact there was a part of him that almost welcomed it, though he didn't really understand why.
He had come to the mansion for a change of pace. He had never had the occasion to come here so late in the year, somehow -- but not yet in winter, where there would be snow on the ground.
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Post by Noa on Nov 23, 2021 23:16:07 GMT -6
What did happen to the place come November? He supposed he would find out. And on this occasion it was kept from being a complete and utter waste of his time by the presence of one of his companions. Rhys was always with him, of course, but there was also a Nebuli accompanying them. The latter had been an acquisition from the Curious Collections shop of all places, and Noa's interest had been piqued purely by the idea that this thing had some magical potential. Well, no, that wasn't exactly right; it was a creature of the mansions that had magical potential, which was a much more fascinating premise than simply working with a Malii fresh out of the labs. This might be a dead end too, but perhaps it wouldn't be. Perhaps this creature had some magical understanding that it could impart on him, to better assist his efforts to unravel a cure for himself.
But first he had to find a way to communicate with it.
He could have gone with a ribbon of telepathy to make things faster. That would have been the easier solution. But Avander already struggled with some of his own esoteric abilities, let alone magic.
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Post by Noa on Nov 23, 2021 23:16:17 GMT -6
And Noa didn't want the creature to be utterly unable to impart on him the things that it knew, if indeed there was any magical knowledge to be gleaned from it. Besides, he wasn't exactly eager to have any more voices in his head. the few that occupied it were enough, especially if you included Rhys; at times he was tempted to take off the ribbons, but no, it was better to have them to hand and within easy reach, just in case. You never knew what could happen, and while Noa had considerable magical capabilities, a human was pretty easy to kill in the grand scheme of things if they couldn't summon a beast to hand at a moment's notice.
So instead they had acquired a charm of brilliance and a collar of speech, and affixed them both to the creature. There had been an... adjustment period... and what little trust there had been built between them had pretty well evaporated. And what was worse, it still didn't understand Common. Which was, in essence, what Noa hoped to be working on with the Nebuli today, if all went well.
It seemed to understand enough to follow Noa, at least.
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Post by Noa on Nov 23, 2021 23:16:49 GMT -6
That it had that much sense was encouraging, and a good sign. Maybe it didn't trust them that much, but it saw them as something familiar, yes? He could work with that, expand on it.
The Nebuli padded ahead of them, staring at the gate. It didn't try to move past it, even though, being ethereal, it very much could have phased right through if it wanted to.
"It hasn't, hmm? That's curious. Are they only aware of the iteration of the mansion from which they come then?" Noa was more musing to himself on this than anything else. He hardly expected there to be any answers from Rhys... Or for that matter, from the Nebuli.
But the Nebuli did turn around at the sound of Noa's voice, inclining its head as if asking a question. {They know you're saying something, and they want to know what,} Rhys said. {Can I tell them?}
{They've never seen the place like this,} Rhys supplied. Apparently the Faeron was skimming the thoughts of the Nebuli, and now there were, in fact, fully formed and coherent thoughts to relay where there hadn't been any before.
"You may as well, for now," Noa replied nonchalantly.
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Post by Noa on Nov 24, 2021 0:29:38 GMT -6
It would be interesting to see if the Nebuli did have an answer, though Noa doubted it. Rhys gave a wordless affirmation, then went quiet, speaking privately to the Nebuli to relay Noa's sentiments. There was a long pause, and the Nebuli looked back at the mansion's grounds again. At length, Rhys relayed another message. {They didn't even know the mansion could look like anything else. I guess they're not aware of it when they're living there.}
"Hmm," said Noa. It was interesting, but that wasn't exactly useful for his research. Since they had the Nebuli's attention though, he figured he might as well set the tone for the day. "Ask it if it wants to learn to speak with me," he said.
This time when Rhys relayed the message, there was an immediate response, though not from Rhys translating. Instead, from the collar issued a voice: "Yes, that would be wonderful."
"Well," said Noa. The creature itself seemed surprised by the speech as much as anything. Apparently it hadn't heard its own voice -- granted by the collar -- very much before this. A corner of Noa's mouth tugged upward with a slight smile. "Good to have you on board. Not that you know what I'm saying at the moment."
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Post by Noa on Nov 24, 2021 0:35:11 GMT -6
Noa walked past the Nebuli and through the gate. If they were going to get started on this, they may as well start on the mansion grounds proper, instead of just hovering at the entrance like they had been. The grounds this month didn't look particularly intimidating anyway, just some neatly kept gardens. If only it could always be that pristine.
"Don't translate for it unless I ask you to," Noa said. "Otherwise it's not going to really learn any Common."
{Okay,} Rhys said dutifully.
With that matter settled, Noa turned to the Nebuli. "Noa," he said, pointing to himself.
"Is that you? Is that what you are?" the Nebuli asked.
"Yes," Noa said. Then to Rhys, he thought, {You can tell it that means yes. And translate for me the first time I say no. That'll make things easier." The creature could learn through guesswork and observation, but laying down some basics like yes and no would expedite the process, especially since the collar expressed what the Nebuli wanted to communicate, so it could make itself understood, even if it didn't understand what Noa's responses were just yet.
After Rhys relayed the message, the Nebuli said, "Noa," and inclined its head again.
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Post by Noa on Nov 24, 2021 0:38:56 GMT -6
Interesting that it could call him so quickly after that short exchange. Noa had never worked with a creature with a collar of speech before, so it was going to be a bit of a learning experience for them all, probably. He pointed to Rhys this time. "Rhys," Noa said. The Nebuli repeated the word back, inclining its head the other way. It seemed to have caught on with what was happening... Well, no, Rhys had explained to it a little before they began anyway, he supposed. The Nebuli looked around, then set its sights on the grass, pawing at it a little -- for all the good that did, since it was ethereal to begin with. "What do you call this?"
"Grass," Noa supplied.
"What's this?" said the Nebuli, indicating a rock.
"Rock," Noa said.
This was going to be a long day. He could feel it.
They wandered around the grounds, with the Nebuli taking the lead, pointing out objects as Noa named them for it. After they had gotten a good number of objects established, Noa decided to change things up. Just because he was saying these words didn't mean the Nebuli was necessarily committing them to memory.
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Post by Noa on Nov 24, 2021 0:44:38 GMT -6
"Now I'm going to say a word, and you indicate what it is I've said," Noa said to the Nebuli, with Rhys translating his instructions this time, because it was far too advanced for the bare vocabulary the Nebuli had to work with right now.
"Okay," the Nebuli replied. At least Noa didn't have trouble understanding the Nebuli, which wasn't a completely useless advantage to have. He still wished he wasn't having to teach it to understand what he was saying, but you couldn't have everything.
"Grass," Noa said. The Nebuli thought for a moment, then pawed at the ground. "Good. Tree." The Nebuli looked at a tree, then back to Noa. They continued in that manner for the span of several minutes while Noa ran through all the words that the Nebuli had learned so far, with a few repeats for good measure.
The Nebuli had pretty good recall, at least with this many words to contend with. Whether that would hold as its vocabulary expanded remained to be seen. But it didn't make that many mistakes, and usually got things on the second try at most, which was promising.
But a few nouns did not a language make.
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Post by Noa on Nov 24, 2021 0:48:53 GMT -6
"I want to learn more," said the Nebuli. "What else can you teach me?"
It was... a salient question, and one that Noa wasn't sure he had an answer to. He had trained plenty of creatures, but on the whole he didn't often work with ones of intelligence on par with his own, and he was generally teaching them to fight or do useful tricks, rather than trying to impart a language.
At length, he sighed, and indicated the rest of the park. "Let's keep walking. Walk," he added, as almost an afterthought, and motioned to his legs, taking slow, deliberate steps. "Run." He broke into a run, very briefly, feeling foolish. Still, it was a necessary evil; he reminded himself of this, before turning to face the Nebuli. "You run," he said, pointing at it.
The Nebuli paused a moment, likely trying to parse what Noa was attempting to convey, before bounding up to him.
"Yes, that's it," Noa said. "I walk." He began walking, then pointed to the Nebuli once more. "You walk." At this prompting, the Nebuli began to walk beside him, and together the three of them took another turn about the mansion property, talking back and forth.
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Post by Noa on Nov 24, 2021 0:57:06 GMT -6
They continued on in this terribly rudimentary manner for the rest of their second turn around the property, with Noa teaching whatever words he could, whatever came to mind and seemed simple enough to explain through pantomime or indication. He didn't feel any less foolish the more he did these things, nor did he feel any less resentful of the general process, but at least the Nebuli seemed to be learning quite a lot.
The funny thing about it possessing a collar of speech was that it could pick up on its own words as well, and since the collar was projecting its thoughts to a certain degree, those learnings were communicated directly to Noa. After the fifth or so 'what' question it had asked, it paused and said, "That sound is how you ask what something is, isn't it?"
"Yes," Noa said, a little amused despite himself.
"Then how do you ask 'why'?"
"Why," Noa repeated, figuring he only had to pick out the relevant sound for the Nebuli to understand this time.
"Why," the Nebuli repeated. It blinked. "That's very interesting. Then what about where?" And in that manner they went through a variety of question words as well.
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Post by Nadia on Nov 24, 2021 12:39:28 GMT -6
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Post by Noa on Nov 24, 2021 23:39:44 GMT -6
From there things got a bit more difficult. The Nebuli could ask 'why' questions all it wanted, but it wasn't really able to understand Noa's explanations, since its vocabulary was still woefully underdeveloped. Nevertheless it did seem to have an unlimited number of them, even as it recognized this limitation and attempted to stop itself from asking questions that Noa couldn't answer.
Eventually they had to switch tracks, with Noa being the one to ask the questions. This was easier; the Nebuli could give whatever response it wanted, and the collar would generate the necessary speech. This worked out to be a better method of language acquisition than what they had been doing before. If the Nebuli wanted to know more about a particular word, it quickly figured out how to repeat said word over and over, presumably by focusing on that thought or concept. It wasn't the most pleasant thing to have to listen to, or to be a bystander for in general -- and Noa made a mental note to keep the Nebuli stationed well away from the places where he did the bulk of his research, so as not to be disturbed by the creature's burgeoning interest in language.
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Post by Noa on Nov 24, 2021 23:39:54 GMT -6
Still, that it had become self-sufficient to a certain degree wasn't a bad thing either. He had gotten the process started, but now the Nebuli had both the faculties and the means to teach itself Common, and as far as Noa could tell, had a disposition well suited to motivating itself to do just that. From here, it really ought to be a simple matter of checking in on its progress from time to time, and perhaps providing a partner for conversation, so that it didn't become entrenched in its own habits formed from talking to itself all day long.
They took another turn about the garden, making what limited conversation they could, before Noa decided to call it a day and head back to the estate.
They were back the next day, however, and the next day after that. It became a sort of habit, coming here, and Noa made a point of bringing the Nebuli along to converse with it. Noa's own research had made no more progress, for all that he came here on walks to clear his head, but the Nebuli's linguistic endeavors were bearing fruit at a much faster rate thanks to its own diligence.
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Post by Noa on Nov 24, 2021 23:40:05 GMT -6
It didn't take long at all before their conversations became more lively, and Noa was able to converse with it much more comfortably than he had before, now that he was no longer quite so limited in the vocabulary he could use. They talked about all kinds of things, though Rhys often cautioned Noa not to go too far; the Nebuli was a new... Well, not a new consciousness, exactly, but new to some of these higher, more cerebral levels of contemplation. It was not unlike guiding a particularly precocious child, and Noa had never had either the talent or the desire to interact with children.
Indeed, as the days wore on into a week, and then two, there came several awkward moments. But Noa moved past them without comment, and soon the Nebuli learned to do the same. Eventually it managed to achieve something like a fluency of understanding, and Noa had to explain less and less as the Nebuli was able to extrapolate meanings from context, rather than needing something explained or translated through Rhys.
They would soon be able to work on exploring the Nebuli's magical capabilities in earnest. That was something to look forward to, at least.
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