Not her speechcraft teacher [Closed]

[Haneroze]

(Legend: "Haneroze's thoughts" / -Speech / Actions / (Out of Character) )

(Conditions for joining: Level lower than 40.
0 slots out of 2 filled)

(Current worn hair accessory: Sky Ribbon: A simple sky-blue ribbon. It is meant to be attached close to the ears and form a bow on the back of the head.
Thread time: Day 18 post-apocalypse, 10h AM
Weather: Cloudy)



"I hope Ragnarok is still there."

Haneroze walked following the river. She looked at her notepad, opened on the last page where she kept the information of which letters she still had to practice. It was written like a grid, with vowels for the columns and consonants for the rows. There was a square drawn for each vowels within the rows for No-consonant, H, M, N, R and S. And only a few of them had an additional line inside the square.

"I got the S sound while trying to get the Z by myself. He could probably help me get it right?"

Knowing that she'd soon be at the spot, Haneroze looked over. There was a big rock blocking the view, so she tried moving away from it to see if Ragnarok was there. But there wasn't anyone. Stepping in front of the river, she looked around to see if he was around.

"Nowhere. He did say he's often here, but I guess he's gone somewhere else. I wonder what's he's doing. I guess I'll practice while waiting for him~"

She sat down, facing the river.

"I could try the W letter, it sounds similar to the U, and that's surely why it's called Double U. But before, I need some revision!"

She took a deep breath. Then she started from the beginning.

-AAa, eee, iii, oo, uuuu. Ha, He, Hi, Ho, Heu-- Huu.

Haneroze continued with the rest, struggling a lot with the R row, then repeated the whole thing 2 more times. Then she gave a try with the W consonant.

-UuuuAaaa.

"... Not quite. It's lacking something between. And now that I think about it... How would that work with the U vowel itself? Guess I have to keep trying."

-Uuuaaaa. UAaaaa. uAaaaa... UuIiiii.

She repeated without successfully pulling off the W sound. Then she heard footsteps. She immediately stopped and happily looked toward the direction of the footsteps, thinking it was Ragnarok.

[Tyonis]

The Samurai was idling some time away by staring at the scenery, admiring it like one would admire the peak-resolution graphics of a next generation video card. Even a hardcore gamer like Tyonis needed a break from the constant grind or he'd burn himself out long before hitting max-level. If Elder Tale required one thing it was patience. He sat, nestled against the trunk of a tree, using one of its immense roots as a makeshift footstool. His eyes were slowly sliding shut when he heard a strange sound from near the river. At first, he ignored it. But it started to grow louder. Closer.

-Uuuaaaa.. UAaaaaa. uAaaaaa.... Uuiii.

To Tyonis, the answer was obvious: Undead Zombie. He had not yet fought one in Elder Tale and briefly wondered how the mob had wandered this close to London. But the idea of testing the Skill from his Exorcist Subclass tickled his fancy. He wasn't sure if its full power would work on an Undead like it would a Demon. If nothing else, he could just run away. Odds are the mob lacked a proper CC. With that in mind, Tyonis pushed his way past the low hanging branches that occasionally draped over the riverbank like a cloak of green silk. His other hand was wrapped gently around the hilt of a longsword strapped across his back, ready to draw at a moment's notice.

"You're not a Zombie. Or even Undead." He said in a total deadpan to no one in particular.

The girl - an elf - was dressed like a lady of the court. No, not as extravagant, he amended. Hers was more tame. The colors were softer and easier on the eyes. But he couldn't fathom why she was making those strange noises.

"What are you doing..?" He prodded, relaxing his stance and letting his arms rest casually at his sides.

(WC: 311)

[Haneroze]

The expression on Haneroze's face immediately changed to deception as she saw it wasn't Ragnarok. Then to sudden surprise and blush as she realize he had heard her. And finally, she quickly pouted and turned her head to the opposite of the man that apparently thought she was a zombie.

"I know I'm faaar from perfect, but I certainly don't sound like a zombie!"

She hoped that one would pass his way. But he inquired instead about what she was doing. Haneroze turned her eyes toward the man, without turning her head.

"Should I tell him? Or should I ignore him?"

After a small moment of hesition, she highered her right hand and made sign with its index finger to come to her place. Then she waited for him to come, with her notepad on her laps showing the progress of her pronounciation in a grid.

"Maybe Ragnarok changed spot because too many people came by?"

[Tyonis]

The Fox Tail Samurai blinked slowly as the girl replied to his question with a quiet gesture of her hand. She was beckoning him over, obviously. But he wasn't sure why she just didn't answer his question. He spared a glance back to the river. It was still early in the morning and the sky refused to shift from its gloomy grayscale. He certainly didn't mind idling some time away with a pretty, albeit strange girl.

As he approached, the Samurai realized his tail and ears were showing. He was using his heightened senses to follow the zombie's - girl's - queer moans and had forgotten to hide them amidst their strange meeting. He shook his head, like a dog shedding water, and his ears and tail vanished, replaced with more human features.

Tyonis noticed the notepad as he got closer, eying it over her shoulder. A grid with letters and vowels..? The young man had seen a chart like this before, but his memory couldn't place it.

"So... are you a Scribe or something..?" He prodded, head tilted in curiosity as he sat next to her, leaning over to get a better look at her notepad.

(WC: 202)

[Haneroze]

Haneroze waited for his conclusion. But for someone who thought of her sounds as zombie sounds, she sort of expected him to be within those that couldn't guess that she was mute... And apparently with reason, as the only conclusion he reached was that she was a Scribe. Which wasn't even true.

She shooked her head left and right. Then, she picked her drawing tool, pointing it next to the W and in the A column, then tried again getting it right.

-UAaaa.

Still couldn't get it. Then she looked back at the man, waiting for his next conclusion.

"I hope he's not one of the hopeless ones that never understood that I was mute. I don't really want to deal with one of them..."

[Tyonis]

Tyonis blinked, recalling when and where he had seen that same chart. Once was when he was still attending preschool in America. And the other was during one of his linguistic lectures. It was a simple exercise that young children repeated daily to learn how to enunciate properly.

Had she been practicing how to pronounce basic consonant and vowel combinations? Was she a child in real life? No, even children adapted some form of speech recognition and could emulate the sounds they heard from their parents. In a sense, the daily exercise this girl was performing merely modified and refined one's pre-existing pronunciation skills. But her strange moans sounded worse then that, as if she ---

Never spoke a single word in her whole life.

Tyonis was overcome with pity. It flashed momentarily, before he turned away and hid the expression behind a soft palm to his face. If he learned anything during his meager experience with the disabled is that they hated pity. He exhaled and leaned back on his palms. Rather than confirm something he already knew, he opted to converse with her normally. For once, he was glad he took linguistics as an elective in college.

"You know, if you are trying to pronounce W, its actually better to practice saying simple words rather than sounds. Like 'What, was, we, will, words.' The most important part about the 'uwwh' sound is the shape of your mouth and how your tongue guides the air through to create the proper vibration. Take 'what' for example. You shape the 'wh' portion by gently puckering your lips and relaxing your tongue. The 'at' portion comes after you use your tongue to cut off the stream of air by touching the tip to the roof of your mouth, just behind your teeth." He scratched his head, unsure if he properly explained the importance of mouth-shaping during the enunciation process.

(WC: 316)

[Haneroze]

The man didn't seem to immediately get it. But just before Haneroze was about to conclude he was a hopeless case, he appeared to have realized something, after which he turned away to hide his reaction.

"...Even if you hide your face, your gestures still speak for you..."

She silently sighed and looked back at her notepad. But before she could take any mental note, the man resumed by giving tips. Haneroze turned back to him, paying great attention to what he was saying. She didn't really agree on how she had to learn simple words than sounds, as simple words were still about mixing simple sounds together, there was no way she could do that without a lot of trial and error, or learning the sounds beforehand.

But his explanations on the W and T sounds were very clear. It was very unlike Ragnarok, who simply asked to copy and gave a vague explication of what was hidden. She nodded to show she understood. Then immediately, she gave a try. She positionned her lips as she understood it, then let off the sound.

-Waaa. Wi. She smiled, it was fairly easy to pull off. Then, she immediately tried for the T sounds. Taa. Tiii.

Happy to have so easily learned the trick for these two letters, she proceeded to check with a square the places for TA, TI, WA and WI.Then, she pointed the Z before looking back at the man with a questioning look.

[Tyonis]

His heart lurched ever so slightly when the elf-girl managed to successfully enunciate a few basic word fragments. 'This must be what a teacher feels like,' he thought cheerfully. It was a foreign warmth that made his lips curl into a small smile as she continued her practice and began to mark off a few more grids off her chart. When she prodded him for more instruction, he leaned back, eyes closed as he pondered how best to explain.

He recalled several lectures during his linguistics course in college: his professor often made the class watch opera singers perform, since their profession required mastery over the four key muscles of speech. The lips, tongue, diaphragm, and vocal cords. It was not enough to simply push air through your vocal cords and open your mouth. Differentiation of syllables came from how one's lips and tongue manipulated the air circulating in and out of the mouth.

But Tyonis had always understood how to speak - he was not born a mute, so he instinctively knew how to use all four muscle groups to produce sounds. Him teaching this girl how to speak was like trying to teach a fish how to swim or a bird how to fly.

"'Z...'" He trailed off, repeating the sound over and over, brainstorming how best to describe what his tongue, lips, and vocal cords were doing. "It's a lot like 'b' or 'v.' But when you pronounce those two, your tongue must stay stationary to prevent the sound from isolating or you'd sound like a buzzing bee. Yeah! That's it! Your mouth shapes for 'bee' but you push air through your mouth faster and don't let the tip of your tongue touch the bottom of your teeth. That way, it vibrates with air circulating through your mouth to produce the buzzing sound."

(WC: 305)

[Haneroze]

However it was done, it seemed to be more complicated than a simple S, as the man was taking a somewhat longer time to think about it.

"Is it really that difficult? I thought it would be rather simple. Then, the difference from an S is harder to pull off?"

Then he started doing the Z sound, while apparently still thinking. Haneroze thought he was actually analyzing. Just like she was so used to typing on a keyboard that she had to slow down and repeat to actually realize which fingers she was using, she assumed it was also the same for most people with speaking.

But she didn't wait and tried to immitate his mouth's position, just like with Ragnarok. But it was indeed the same as the S she had been doing. There had to be something else. Finally, the man came up with an explanation, so Haneroze listened carefully.

But it wasn't as clear this time. He said it was very similar to a b or v, but obviously it looked like an S, and she hadn't learned the b or v consonants yet. He did talk about a buzzing sound however.

"Buzzing sound... It does indeed seem more complicated. So, I need to, with a similar mouth position, to produce a buzzing sound? Hmm, let's try what he said, then."

She positioned her mouth the same way, then tried, pushing the air through her mouth faster like he said.

-SHHhh. Sshhhh. sHHhhh.

It didn't work. She had no idea how to make the buzzing sound. But she did take mental note that she produced something close to the dual consonant SH. She looked back at the man with a very slight defeatist face, to hope getting a new hint from him.

[Tyonis]

He could only shrug and smile in reply at her attempt. It wasn't entirely a failure - the elf-girl came close, but pronouncing a 'Z' sound was one of the most difficult of the English language since it was so different compared to the rest. It was akin to learning how to roll an R in Spanish; no that wasn't quite right. He gave it more thought.

"Well, you're close. The 'shh' sound is very similar, without the buzz..." He closed his eyes, repeating both sounds to himself and trying to better scrutinize how he was producing the sound. After awhile, he rubbed his neck in frustration, but that caused the Z to shift into an S. His eyes snapped open in realization. "It's not the tongue that's vibrating! It's your vocal cords!" He demonstrated by starting off with the Z sound and tightly cupping his throat with both hands to stifle his vocal cord's oscillation. The Z muted into an Sh.

(WC: 159)

[Haneroze]

It was complicated enough that the man had to rethink about it again. So Haneroze waited for him to find the new trick. Then eventually, he got on something: it was the vocal cords.

"The vocal cords? That would explain why I can't pull it off. I'm not sure how to control it... Maybe it's... like if someone would suddenly grow wings. It's always a strange feeling to imagine being able to control these, but I keep having the feeling that if I'd touch them, I'd be able to learn how. Maybe it'd help if I touch the place where my vocal cords are?"

She positioned her mouth for the Z, then touched her throat, just lightly as apparently too strong would prevent the vibrations. "This is where I need to focus. Whatever is there, I must make it move somehow." Then she tried

-Sshhhhh... At the same time, she tried adjusting something that was right behind the spot she was touching. She could tell the sound changed by adjusting it, but it was still a SH. She kept trying. Ssshhhhhhh... Sshhhhhhhh. Then she tried even harder. SSSHHHHHHZZH!

Right after a similar sound to a Z came out, she coughed a few times. She felt it, the vibration feeling, and the feeling was uncomfortable.

"Is everyone used to these vibrations? Or did I make them too strong? Nonetheless, I must keep trying while I still have the fresh feeling!"

She smiled at the man, before trying again. But right after the Z came out again, she also coughed again.

[Tyonis]

Tyonis let her practice for a few more minutes. But her coughing fits gradually worsened to the point where Tyonis could no longer let her force herself to produce the sound. He waved at her to stop and offered her a waterskin to moisten her throat.

"Since you've never used your vocal cords, it's best you start off slowly. You can't expect someone with a recently broken leg to suddenly jump up and run a marathon. And you can't expect to run before you can crawl, right? Take it easy and it'll come." He encouraged with a small smile. Tyonis flipped through the interface, eventually coming across the friend's list. He pointed at the elf-girl and prompted her with a request.

"By the way, my name's Ty-on-is. You can just call me Ty, though. 'Ty' like a neck 'tie.'"

(WC: 139)

[Haneroze]

Amidst her coughing, Haneroze saw that the man offered her a waterskin. She quickly took it and drank a bit, just enough to ease her throat. And after she recovered, she did a refreshing sigh, then bowed to the man to show her gratitude.

He said she should start slowly, but Haneroze already felt it was slowly. All she needed it to get a good feeling of how to produce correctly the letter, after what she could just practice a bit on her own every day. But it was necessary to keep trying while she still had a grasp of the feeling.

Then, she saw the man was nagivating through his own interface. Eventually, a Friend request appeared, by a person called Tyonis. Of course, it was the man's username, which he had confirmed right after.

"Why the importance on a necktie?"

She nodded with a smile, then accepted the Friend request. She wanted to go back to trying immediately, and so gave another try, with Tyonis' waterskin ready.

-ShhhZhhz!

She coughed once twice, and immediately drank a bit. But at the same time, she realized something.

"I also felt the vibrations on the tip of my tongue, right at the end. Something was.... slightly different. Like the air was distributed differently. Let's try again."

She placed her mouth, and focused on everything she had learned so far. The position of an S, the vibration of her vocal cords, probably softer, and trying to control the flow of the air with her tongue. And she tried.

-Zzzzzaaa

She smiled on the success. It didn't feel as uncomfortable, and it came out good enough. That control of the air flow changed a lot.

[Tyonis]

'Haneroze,' Tyonis noted as her character name popped up on his Friend's list. He closed the window and continued to listen to the girl practice. To be honest, this was not a bad way to spend his time. Sure, it lacked the thrill of battle he had grown accustomed to, but it was just as fulfilling to watch someone grow thanks to his help. He was earnestly surprised by how quickly Haneroze was progressing. In a week or two, she might be able to say whole sentences. A boon from being brought here was the change in one's body. He briefly wondered how shocking it must have been when she realized she could speak. Tyonis already knew how to use a sword in real life, yet the transition between his old body and this new one was still quite jarring. For her, it must have been much worse.

He decided to lay on his back and pillow his head over his arms to stare up at the darkening sky. Was it going to rain soon? He idly wondered, his eyes slowly sliding shut as if lulled to sleep by Haneroze's voice. After he discovered sleep and food were unnecessary to his survival in Elder Tale, Tyonis had forgone rest and nourishment, so exhaustion took him rather quickly and he fell asleep, snoring gently.

(WC: 223)

[Haneroze]

She had to give a few more tries to make sure that the feeling was registered into her mind. And so she tried with the other vowels.

-Zzzee. Zzii. Zh-zzzoo. Zzuuuu.

It was good enough to say that she had learned it, so Haneroze drew a square in every space in the row of the Z letter. And since that letter was somewhat hard to pull off, she drank a bit of the waterskin to hydrate her throat. Then she looked for which letter she should try next.

Just like with Ragnarok, she wanted a complicated letter while she had help, one she knew she'd had trouble figuring out alone. There were a few, but the most useful yet complicated remaining letter had to be L. So she pointed the L with her pen and showed it to Tyonis.

But he had somehow fallen asleep. She could hear his snoring.

"When did he... I can't believe he'd fall asleep on me like that!" She sighed. "What should I do? Leave him be, or... A little revenge for calling me a zombie, that ought to do!"

Leaving the waterskin and her notepad on the ground, she stood up and walked to the river. Then she joined her hands together to pick up a bit of water, and finally walked back to Tyonis.

"Be more considerate!"

Haneroze released her hand, letting the water fall on Tyonis' face.

[Tyonis]

"BLARGUGH!" Tyonis exclaimed incoherently as his peaceful sleep was disturbed by a mouthful of water going straight down into his lungs. He rolled over into a coughing fit. "Ugh, you could have just.... tapped my shoulder or something!" He squawked then pulled himself off the ground. He wiped he water and spittle off his face and sat back down, arms folded, one eye closed and the other shooting Haneroze a soft glare.

"Well, you have my attention now!" He scratched the back of his head sheepishly and picked up the notebook. He offered it back to the girl. "All right, Haneroze - Roze -" he settled on the nickname, "which one did'cha wanna do next?"

(WC: 110)

[Haneroze]

Haneroze enjoyed Tyonis' reaction. It was a very fulfilling revenge, and perfect in accordance for his inconsiderate actions. Even though he said a simple tap on the shoulder would have been enough, she wouldn't have had it any other way.

Satisfied with her little revenge, she walked back to her notepad and sat again on the ground. She picked her notepad, but she noticed that a droplet of water had flown up to it.

"Could have been worst. Still was worth it~."

Haneroze lightly swept away the droplet with her finger, leaving a very pale and small stain. Then, she picked back her pen, pointed the L letter again, and shown her notepad to Tyonis, doing the same face as before like nothing even happened.

[Tyonis]

The Samurai suppressed a grumble as Haneroze apparently felt no remorse over waking him up in such a rude fashion. Normally, he would have laughed it off, but recent stresses were wearing him thinner than he anticipated. Tyonis shook his head. It was not fair to blame Haneroze over his exhaustion. It was by his own negligence of his basic necessities that he was driven so far to the edge. He made a note to get as much rest as possible later on. And go to the bathroom.

And a meal. Even if all the food in this world tasted like moist cardboard with a side of ducktape.

His musings were shattered when Haneroze thrust the notepad at him, her dainty finger resting on the letter L. Tyonis sighed. This girl - Roze - was just as demanding as his little sister. He found himself endeared to Roze because of that. She nagged him endlessly, pranked him mercilessly, and --- Tyonis stopped that train of thought, unable to recall one of his sibling's key traits. He blinked and thought harder but no matter what he tried, the memory refused to come.

'What the hell..?' He almost said out loud, so fixated on the loss of his memory that he had completely forgotten about Roze.

"Oh right," he said after a few moments, regaining his focus. He decided to dwell on that particular problem later, when he could spare more time for introspection. "The letter L, eh? That one is tough, even for me... 'luuuh.'" He repeated the sound, his eyes closed, mulling over how to best explain it.

"Open your lips a little and place the tip of your tongue touches the roof of your mouth and the base of your teeth. Then exhale like you would when pronouncing 'Z' so your vocal cords vibrate. But don't use your vocal cords too much or the sound will come out like a hiss."

He demonstrated, with a soft 'luh.'

((WC: 325))

[Haneroze]

As soon as Haneroze was sure that Tyonis had understood which letter she wanted to learn next, through a sigh, Haneroze replaced her notepad on her legs, and waited for his teachings. She ignored the sigh, as given how she had waken him up, it seemed like a natural reaction.

After a while, he seemed to have remembered... the letter she had pointed.

"Did he just get lost in his thoughts so easily? How forgetful can he be?"

Trying not to ponder too long on his forgetfulness, Haneroze concentrated again on learning to pronounce the L letter. As Tyonis was doing it, Haneroze observed to get as much information as possible. Filling the gaps with what Tyonis said, she gave a try, as she placed her mouth for the good position.

"The tongue seems the most important here. Its tip must touch the roof... And I've seen him remove it the moment the sound occured."

-Laaa

Haneroze was surprised that it was this simple once the trick was known. It wasn't a beautiful L, but it certainly was good enough for a start. She knew that different cultures spoke the L differently, and apparently some were very difficult.

-Leee. Liii. Loooo. Luuuu.

She drew a square in front of available spaces in the L row. Then, she pointed the letter P to Tyonis. For some unknown reason, this consonant traumatized Ragnarok, so she felt it was best to ask Tyonis instead.

[Tyonis]

Tyonis smiled broadly as Haneroze made quick progress through her practice chart. He knew it would take her several more days or even weeks of training before she would be able to speak with a higher level of fluency, but just being able to help gave him a warm feeling. It was alien - something Tyonis had rarely experienced since he was so distant and cold toward even his own family - but it was welcome. But when she prompted him about the letter P, his smile fell. Out of all the letters to ask him, she had to ask him one of the most difficult to explain.

"P, eh..?" He muttered, folding his arms and staring at the darkening sky as he drowned himself in thought. He said several words that started with a strong P sound, trying to get a feel for how to mouth the troublesome consonant.

"Uh. Hm. Well it's a sudden burst of air through your mouth. Set your lips like how you would for the 'b' sound. Your lips will naturally spread when you exhale to pronounce it, but instead of using your vocal cords like you would for the letter 'b' just pass air through your mouth. He demonstrated, folding his lips tightly then exhaling with a harsh but obvious, "puh."

((WC: 216))