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[darkov]

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latest status update 3/6/2018

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[h2no]

[archie pats his shoulder lightly for a moment.]

See that? You're not wrong. It's good you noticed that, actually. Sometimes things aren't always spelled how they sound. I ain't gonna start you on all that yet-- I think it'd be best not to overwhelm you. Just focus on how the A at the start of the word looks, yeah?

[he leans over to grab a notepad and pen, holding them out to martin.]

Think you could copy it a few times? Just get used to writing it.

[darkov]

[Martin mumbles a sound, somewhat mollified that at least he wasn't wrong to think what he did. but the prospect of things not always sounding the way they're written is...well. not great. he's sure Adam complained of it before, but Martin never really understood it.

he doesn't question changing gears and accepts pen and paper, smoothing the surface out before starting to scrawl letters. he does this in a dedicated silence, as much to not screw up as it is to not be lazy and waste everyone's time.

still, though... the longer this goes on, the more his attention wavers and questions nag at him, up until he's finished a second row and stopped, staring at the book with a frown.]

...Are those really real things? [he sounds a little incredulous.] The pictures. Not--not the apples, I know those. I mean those animals.

[h2no]

[archie watches him write, not interrupting the silence, figuring marin prefers it or needs it to concentrate. he sips his coffee idly, watching the paper fill up.]

You can stop there-- uh. Yeah. [he says with a shrug.] They tend to live in swampy areas and even then are pretty rare. Have you seen them before?

[darkov]

...

[Martin thinks about it for a minute, then pulls the page he was writing on out. he sets it over top the book, pressing it until he can faintly see the illustration below. from there, he starts to trace the shape. when he has the gist of it down, he stops again, thinking.]

Except...like this... [he drags the pen down, making the legs longer.] And the face like... [he scratches out lines jutting out of the alligator jaws in all different ways. and after another pause, he scribbles out some of the feet he'd elongated on the back.] These are shorter. And that's not there... [he crosses out the tail, too.

he lifts his pen, sitting up and considering it for a second more.]

Uh. Sometimes there's...another face. But not always.

[h2no]

[he watches the image of this... thing come together with interest. it's not a great drawing, but he gets the general gist of it. fortunately, crazy looking animals aren't exactly foreign to archie, nor are two-headed ones.]

Are they common? [...he hopes not.]

[darkov]

Sometimes.

[his eyes haven't left the page as he ponders on it. then, he scratches out a shape near it -- just a scribbly, black blotch.]

They'll come out of the ground or the water...and if there's animals or bones nearby...they build up from there. So sometimes it's like that one, or sometimes it's smaller. Or bigger. It just depends on what's already there to take.

[h2no]

The ones here come out the water, but not the ground.

[he frowns, still looking at the page.]

You can tear it out if you don't like looking at it.

[darkov]

No, it's...it's fine. [familiar, even. just in a weird way.] It's just...odd. Odd that there's...things here that resemble home, but not really. Monsters.

[he moves away from his doodle, going back to scribbling out alligator.]

[h2no]

There are a lot of animals here that are similar to the ones back home for me, too.

[he shrugs.]

If you don't want any of them in the book, you can just tear the page out. I won't be upset or anythin'.

[darkov]

[alligator, alligator, alligator. alligator alligator alligator alligator alligator alligator alli]

...

[gator...

Martin stops mid-gator, peering over at Archie.]

...Um. So, um... How many times...do I need to do this?

[h2no]

Ah-- that's enough. I wanted to show you something, actually.

[he puts one finger under the a at the start of the word, and another under the one in the middle.]

These are both the same letter. D'you know why they look different?

[darkov]

[at Archie's direction, he looks back down, staring for a few seconds.

same letter, different shapes.

he...wait. he already knew that part. he frowns. but why?]

Um.

[...oh. right--] Be...because the letter at the front is always different. It's special.

[right? he thinks so. that seems right; he glances back at Archie to confirm.]

[h2no]

[archie beams at the reply.]

Yep! That's right! It's called a capital letter. They're at the start of sentences and for names of people or places.

[darkov]

[wait...he.

he got it right? first try? no hints?

wow. huh.

a little pink, Martin nods, looking back down.]

My...er, one of my cousins...he taught me that. He's really smart. He reads.

[h2no]

And you don't, but you remembered. See, I knew you'd be good at this.

[he grins again, then looks back to the book.]

Are there any letters that you don't recognise, so far?

[darkov]

These...

[a good chunk of the latter half of the alphabet gets pointed at, save for R, S, and T. then a few others he only recognizes in the lower case -- F and P and H and J...actually all of J. what is a J. he doesn't know any J-things or J-people.

and come to think, in regard to people's names...]

Archie? Uh, why is...why do you have that [little e] at the end? It doesn't make a sound.

[h2no]

[jorts, marty]

It's short for my full name. Archie, I mean. [he snorts.] It makes the end of the name have a longer sound than just a hard ih. Put the e on the and it comes out soft, like eey.

[he puts a finger on the edge of the book, flicking the pages lightly.]

D'you wanna go until you find a letter you don't know?

[darkov]

[Marty gives him a squint. it's a "i don't really believe you but i have no evidence to prove otherwise so i'm trying to accept it" squint.]

...If...if something needs to sound longer... [bear with him here, this is not a fully formed thought; this is fresh out of the think-oven.] Why not just...draw the letters longer? So that it looks the way it sounds?

[h2no]

[he rubs his beard for a moment, thinking how to explain it. english language sure is stupid...]

It's how the letters sound together, and how they change the sound of each other when said together.

[darkov]

[he makes what is actually...a faintly annoyed sound. just a little grunt through his nose.

his hand goes through the motion of setting the pencil down, but not quite: he stops just shy of letting it go. he can't just stop if he's still on the line for this; Archie came all this way in the dead of night to try and help him puzzle it out. even if it is futile...

still, even though he's dutiful, it doesn't mean he's able to mask his dislike of studying at all.]

It doesn't make sense.

[h2no]

[archie cocks his head as he watches this.]

We can have a break, if you want. [he won't stop the lesson entirely, but figures giving marty an out so he doesn't get overwhelmed might help.] But you don't have to worry about how words sound-- let's just focus on getting all the letters first, yeah? That's how everyone starts.

[darkov]

If you say so, sir...

[he's pretty sure he's too stupid to get this, but maybe it's not his place to say. maybe it's better Archie just find out for himself how useless it is to try; that's the same logic Martin's been using to excuse himself for still being around, after all.

he sighs, gloomy, and sets the pencil down at last, sitting back and frowning at the paper and book.]

What if I don't figure it out, though?

[h2no]

Your cousin did it, [he says with a shrug.] so you can't say Darkovs ain't able to read. There's no time limit for this, either, so we can take it as you please.

We just started, anyhow! Ain't no-one ever managed to learn how to read and write inside ten minutes. I didn't. Some of the smartest people I've ever known took ages to learn properly when they were young, an' even then everyone's still learnin'. I wouldn't have been able to tell you what an alligator was a couple months ago, y'know?

[he puts his mug on the table and clasps his hands gently together.]

So here's the thing about learnin'. You've already proven to me multiple times in the last couple minutes that you're fully capable of understanding this, but we ain't gonna get very far if you don't believe in yourself. [he raises a finger to point it at marty for emphasis.] There's this thing called a self fulfilling prophecy; if you believe you can't do something, then you'll never be able to do it. So maybe... instead of this, the first thing we gotta do is make sure you believe in your own ability to learn, huh?

[darkov]

[Archie's new gesture gets new posture out of Martin: he sits up, blinking, gawking at him as he speaks. and he startles, too, when a finger is thrust in his direction; belatedly, he lifts his own, pointing at himself. me?

blink blink.

...wait. what?]

Huh? [his hand retracts, his mouth tugging with a dubious frown.] Oh, uh...I mean...Al-alright? I guess? I mean...I don't know--

[h2no]

Believe in me, because I believe in you!!

[THIS IS THE PEN THAT WILL PIERCE THE HEAVENS!!!!!!!!]