Letting off some steam (tag Dorian). on Library

Tatiana Vorontsova

March 27, 2018 10:54 PM

Letting off some steam (tag Dorian). by Tatiana Vorontsova

To the world at large, nine times out of ten, Tatiana’s face was a somber-looking blank, despite the fact that almost no-one spoke to her for very long without realizing she was anything but a somber sort of person. When she had first arrived at Sonora, she had known in theory that Americans were masters of the false smile - that they were sneaky, disingenuous - but she had still spent ages feeling as though she had dirt on her face every time she made eye contact with a random person and she still had not adapted the American smile to fit her own face. When she was walking around in no particular mood, she was straight-faced, usually only really showing expression when one of her friends appeared and got a smile because she was happy to see that friend.

Dorian did not earn a smile when Tatiana saw him. Her face was fixed in the same expression it had been when he approached where she sat in the library, arms crossed over her chest, glaring holes through a shelf. Her aquamarine-green eyes snapped to his face when he sat down with her, and her expression did relax somewhat in recognition since he was not the source of her anger, but she still looked undeniably angry.

“Ni hao, Dorya,” she said, greeting him in Chinese. “Professor Wright - glyupi Amerikanets!

The Russian word for ‘stupid’ was one Tatiana often used to describe the English language and sometimes various American things, but not their professors. The venom in her tone, however, would have been unmistakable even if her speaker had never heard a word of Russian. “You know this? He says - bad quill! Chto ya napisala s self-quill! Make me take proklyatyi - “ he probably did not recognize the swearword - “test again! You - “ she fumbled for the word for believe - “know this?”

16 Tatiana Vorontsova Letting off some steam (tag Dorian). 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 1 5

Dorian Montoir

March 29, 2018 8:49 AM

Attempting sympathetic Russian by Dorian Montoir

Tatya was not happy. That was immediately and apparently obvious from the way she was glaring at a bookshelf, although he doubted it was directly responsible. She had mentioned needing to go see a teacher, so he suspected the problem was more of the usual English-is-a-frustrating-language variety, rather than her having attempted and failed to get on with – he glanced at the shelf she was evincing a dislike for – eighteenth century fiction.

“Privet, Tatya,” he replied cautiously. He had been ninety-five percent sure on approaching that he had done nothing worthy of the look currently on Tatya’s face, and the way she had softened slightly had confirmed that she was not angry at him. She was, however, definitely angry, and angry people needed to be handled like a volatile potion – with immense care, unless you wanted an explosion. It was a skill he had a reasonable degree of practise in. Not for the first time, the girl in front of him reminded him of his sister. Émilie could be upset, could cry when she had been wronged, but it was usually preceded or accompanied by a fit of temper. His dark brown eyes surveyed his friend, the level of her anger in her eyes matched by the level of sincere concern in his.

He didn’t need to ask her what was wrong, because she promptly gave vent to her feelings. Prior to her outburst, he would have said Professor Wright was a very nice man. A teacher he liked quite a lot. However, he knew Tatya, and spotted the difference in her syntax straight away. Assignments were stupid. English was frequently stupid (and he frequently agreed). But she did not usually direct her anger at specific people. He was both surprised and hurt that mild, kind Professor Wright could have done something to so upset Tatya, but he clearly had, and Dorian’s first and strongest loyalty was to his friends. The problem appeared to be to do with Tatya’s quill and a test but he wasn’t entirely sure… Test again? Had she spelt so badly that he wanted her to repeat? That seemed unfair. He decided not to try to guess, which would probably be wrong and lead to more confusion. Nor did he prompt Tatya to try to explain again, because she was already very upset and angry, and he doubted that not being understood would improve her mood, or how coherent she was. How she was feeling was the first problem that needed addressing, because she was hurt and that was not something that could be allowed to continue. Why she felt that way would have to come a little bit after.

"I... I don't know," he answered her direct question, feeling that that was a safe enough admission. He did not know a lot of things right now, and the fact that he was somewhat confused was quite evident.

He reached out hand and gently stroked her arm. You could not hug an angry person. She was too stiff and prickly with anger right now to be hugged. But he wanted to comfort her. He searched for words to express his sympathy, weighing up whether it was better to express his thoughts well in a language that Tatya was at odds with, or to express them badly in one that would mean more to her. He thought he knew the answer to that, but found his vocabulary lacking. He knew they had discussed it and that Russian, like almost every sensible language in the world, used two different words to express ‘sorry’ when one was directly responsible versus merely expressing sympathy. He was sure they had learnt both. But he had far more frequent use for the former. Prosti, ya zabyl slovo dlya… Prosti, moy russkiy ne ochen' khorosh. He had rarely needed to express sympathy to Tatya, or at least not to a degree that demanded the comfort of her native language.

“Professor Wright plokhoy,” he replied hesitantly. It was about as accurate and refined as Tatya’s description of their Professor, but any loyalty he felt to the teacher he liked was easily eclipsed by that which he felt to Tatya. “Plokhoy, potomu chto Tatya serditsya. Serditsya-grustnaya,” he added, because he suspected that for Tatya, as for Émilie, the emotions had a rather large overlap. He had never hated his lack of fluency in a language more. Not when he struggled on a test, not when he couldn’t collect his own thoughts. He needed words to make Tatya feel better again, and he lacked them, and that was just simply not good enough. However, even with all the accidental magic going around, apparently one could not simply wish oneself fluent. “Mne grustno, potomu chto Tanushka serdito-grustnaya,” he finished working laboriously around his lack of words for the sympathetic ‘sorry’. Then feeling the first kind was more than relevant again, added a phrase he could manage flawlessly. “Prosti, moy russkiy ne ochen' khorosh,” he continued to watch her attentively, looking deeply troubled by her sadness and his own insufficiency in addressing it.

OOC
Glossary: Prosti, ya zabyl slovo dlya… Sorry, I forgot the word for…
Prosti, moy russkiy ne ochen' khorosh - Sorry, my Russian is not good.
Professor Wright plokhoy. Plokhoy, potomu chto Tat'yana serditsya. Serditsya-grustnyy. Mne grustno, potomu chto Tat'yana serdito-grustnaya – Professor Wright is bad. Bad because Tatya is angry. Angry-sad. I am sad because Tanushka [Tatya] is angry-sad.

13 Dorian Montoir Attempting sympathetic Russian 1401 Dorian Montoir 0 5

Tatiana

March 29, 2018 1:11 PM

Noticing another problem. by Tatiana

Dorian’s Russian was slow and a touch awkward and a balm to Tatiana’s ears. She managed a small smile. “Ty ochen’ khorosho govorish po-Russkii,” said Tatiana, tightly gripping the hand petting her other arm. “Spasibo. Ah, Dorya....”

She sighed and shook her head. “I not write that paper,” she said. “I know this. And he knows this. And I have honest.” She thought that wasn’t the right word - she meant honor - but she thought that expressed the sentiment. She was telling the truth. “I work good. Why - how Professor get such a paper?” This occurred to her belatedly. “It looks like I write - “ she moved her hand as though she was writing, not knowing the word for penmanship. “But I not write it - English no wrong. None wrong. Where that from? Who write it?” she asked, sounding now slightly sad but mostly puzzled. For someone to steal her test and write up a fake one - imitating her handwriting, even - that would take a lot of effort. Who could hate her that much? She sometimes felt a bit unnecessary whenever she was with more than one of her friends at a time, but they were all her friends, and surely she hadn’t wronged anyone else so without noticing it? She thought everyone liked her - she had always thought everyone she knew liked her.

16 Tatiana Noticing another problem. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Dorian

March 30, 2018 9:58 AM

Figuring out the first one. And doing something about it. by Dorian

“Spasibo,” he thanked her in return, as she rather generously complimented his Russian. At least he’d made himself understood, and the gesture seemed to have meant just what he had hoped, and some of the worry left his eyes as she smiled a little.

His face fell into a frown though, as he tried to follow her explanation. No wrong? Nothing wrong? His knowledge of Tatya’s English prevented him from taking that at literal face value for a moment interpreting it as nothing wrong with her ideas, which he knew to always be the case. Tatya had good ideas, she wasn’t stupid. They just got… lost in translation sometimes. But as she explained more, that the paper looked like hers but… The knut dropped.

“He says you cheat?” he asked. “This is what Professor Wright say - why he is plokhoy Professor?” The anger that had been in Tatya’s eyes moments before kindled now in Dorian’s. How dare he? How could anyone think that Tatya would cheat? Clearly, they did not know her. But why leap to such a horrible conclusion?

“No… This is not allowed. He does not say things like this to you,” he frowned. “It is unacceptable,” he uttered the word with fierceness. But it wasn’t a word you could just say. When something was unacceptable, you had to do something about it. “I will go to speak to him.”

13 Dorian Figuring out the first one. And doing something about it. 1401 Dorian 0 5

Tatiana

March 30, 2018 1:46 PM

Being impressed. by Tatiana

Cheet. Was that the word? Tatiana was uncertain on the word. She shrugged.

“He thinks I use a bad quill,” said Tatiana. “That is to cheat? To say I used a quill that write for me?”

Such quills existed, of course. Tatiana knew this. She even had a quill that helped her take notes sometimes. All it did, however, was transcribe what people said, and she obviously had not said what she wanted to say out loud to her quill during a test! She had struggled laboriously to answer as fully as she could while writing English. She knew the words in this case, which had made it easier, but spelling them was another matter. She had to think through which letter made the same sound as the sounds of words - and in tests, without a chart of the English alphabet in front of her. When she had such a chart, writing English was easier, but even then her spelling wasn’t perfect. Without the chart...the sounds were there, but sometimes it wasn’t the exact English letter that the dictionary would use. She had long since given up on caring much about this so long as she could make herself understood, but now….

”No… This is not allowed. He does not say things like this to you,” said Dorian, and she really looked at her friend again, surprised by his tone. She did not think she had ever heard Dorian sound like that before. Dorian did not sound like that, and he especially did not sound how he did when he said the word ‘unacceptable’ and then threatened to go speak to the professor.

“You are kind,” said Tatiana carefully, “but you cannot do this, Dorya. You will to trouble too.”

16 Tatiana Being impressed. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Dorian

March 31, 2018 9:07 AM

By... me? I'm... impressive? by Dorian

“Yes, that is cheat,” he nodded sadly, when Tatya confirmed the meaning of the word, and reiterated the explanation about the quills, which made a lot more sense now. Except that it didn’t because she wouldn’t do that!

“I don’t care!” Dorian exclaimed, when she said he would be in trouble too, trying to ignore the small part of him that felt relieved at Tatya’s attempt to dissuade him. The part that pointed out that he didn’t particularly want to confront Professor Wright, and that it would be pointless because he doubted that the professor would listen to him. He was a thirteen year old boy. He would probably come across as rude… What if Professor Wright disliked him for the rest of his time at Sonora? He had liked Professor Wright (perhaps when his anger softened a little, he would be willing to admit that he still did like him, and that people made mistakes sometimes) and Dorian wanted to be well thought of by his professors.

He thought about Émilie, and what would happen to her if she was in this situation… Matthieu would never confront a teacher. He would play up, or make fun of them if he thought it would earn him points with the cool kids. But he wouldn’t confront a teacher in this way. Matthieu didn’t like to question people in power - to suggest that they could be wrong. But they could be. And Dorian was polite and was respectful when that was due to someone but those things were earnt not gifted. And when something mattered, when it was something he really truly believed was important, he wasn’t going to let someone’s position stop him from saying so, because to not say so, to not stand up for the things you believed in whatever the cost, was just wrong. So, he might get detention. He might lose Professor Wright’s good opinion. But if he did nothing, he would be disappointed in himself, and that was far worse.

“Ok… I care a little,” he admitted. “But some things are more important that be in trouble or not. You are more important, ma sœurette,” he insisted, gripping her shoulder, “He insult you! He accuse you! I do not want him to think this. If I do nothing, it is very wrong.”

13 Dorian By... me? I'm... impressive? 1401 Dorian 0 5

Tatiana

April 03, 2018 7:55 AM

You are as brave and loyal as a bear. by Tatiana

Tatiana stared at Dorian in silence for a moment. It was a long moment, at least in terms of her silences - a moment long enough that it would have been reasonable for him to doubt how much she had understood. Instead of either asking him to repeat himself or trying to bluff, however, she returned to form by abruptly throwing her arms around his neck.

“Dorya - ty chudestnyi - moi lyubimi drug’” You are wonderful - my favorite friend. This was accompanied by a quick kiss to each cheek and a slight stir of guilt.

Tatiana and Dorian and Jehan were all friends - but Dorian and Jehan looked at each other differently than either did at her. They were alike in temperament, in thought, and they both spoke much better English than she did. Jehan had an excuse, but Dorian had improved so much, and Tatiana and Dorian had first bonded over their inferior English….

Tatiana understood English much better now, but speaking was still hit or miss. Russian translated to English so much worse than French did - French used even more of the stupid articles than English, at least in practice. She supposed, on some level, the thought had been trying to develop - if Dorian stopped struggling as she did with his words, would he even still care about her?

That question, at least, did not feel particularly relevant right now.

“Maybe you tell him - so he knows - that I don’t know what happens,” said Tatiana. “Je dit, mais ya byl en colère - je ne pense pas comment parler eto.” I said, but I was angry - I do not think how to say it. She meant to say it in French, but a few words of Russian slipped in, and her French grammar jumped tenses where it was not outright mangled. “Tu parles trés bien po-Angli - you can say this in English for me?”

OOC Disclaimer: Russian was not properly proofread because of the circumstances under which I wrote this.

16 Tatiana You are as brave and loyal as a bear. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Dorian

April 04, 2018 10:39 AM

Right. Okay then. by Dorian

She was just… staring. Perhaps she hadn’t understood? Or perhaps she just thought he was mad. Maybe it was one thing to bad mouth a teacher in private, but maybe she disapproved of his-

That train of panic was cut off by Tatya throwing herself at him, engulfing him in a hug whilst she chattered in what he was pretty sure was happy Russian (he would never tell her that it was sometimes quite hard to tell ‘excited’ and ‘angry’ apart because of how rough it sounded compared to the pleasant smoothness of French) but he was pretty sure that the word ‘favourite’ was in there and if that wasn’t emphatic enough the kisses definitely were.

“Thank you?” he replied, “I think you are telling me nice things.”

Dorian found himself feeling rather flushed, and was pretty sure it showed. It wasn’t like kisses were new territory between him and Tatya, nor did he automatically ascribe them any kind of romantic status - they kissed each other in greeting, and when something special was going on, like giving gifts. Kisses were friendly. And Tatya reminded him of his sister. Although obviously it was a bit different when she kissed him because they weren’t actually related… And even if it wasn’t automatically romantic, it could possibly be seen that way, if anyone happened to see... But mostly it was the fact that Tatya seemed so… Something. He could not call the words ‘proud’ or ‘impressed’ to mind because he couldn’t really imagine someone being those of him. But he knew that he was doing the right thing, and that she was pleased with him in a way that he had very little experience of, and that it felt good.

He nodded, getting the gist of her final speech. He could not have repeated or even really translated exactly what she had said, but he knew what she meant.

“I try,” he nodded. “Maybe he doesn’t listen to me,” he added. He did not want to damage the fine impression Tatya currently had of him, but he also knew there was a very good chance he wouldn’t be able to change the teacher’s mind, and subconsciously, he wanted to prepare her for the possibility of that failure to slightly ease the moment when he had to come back and admit to it… “But I try.”

And with that, he headed off to see the Charms teacher.

13 Dorian Right. Okay then. 1401 Dorian 0 5