Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (20/?) WiP 1 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here's the Work in Progress for Chapter 20 I hope you guys enjoy! :D

I always knew Thalmin was a wolf, or at least, eerily reminiscent of one. Though there was little in the way of his actions (aside from the occasional tail-wag) that really, truly, spoke to his lupine heritage.

Not in the way he acted, walked, or carried himself. Not even in the way he spoke.

His vocalizations had always been filtered through the translation suite without any issues, though that generally meant that a lot of his voice was more than likely lost in the process. However the software did attempt to account for this, going so far as to punctuate each and every translated word with subdued interpretations of his wolf-like vocalizations, adding a distinct personal flair to the reconstituted speech. From growls to barks and even the occasional yap, all were integrated into the translated output seamlessly and without any issue.

At least, that had been the case, until now.

“Tatcha ti ka. Ultir nes len telrian, Emma?” The Lupinor mercenary prince all but barked out, and unlike before, I could actually feel the hefty bass and underlying rumbling that carried through the entirety of his speech.

This was the first time I was hearing him completely unfiltered.

However, this also meant that this first time I was hearing him, without actually understanding him.

All of this could only mean one thing.

The translation suite was borked.

The mercenary prince continued to stare at me, blinking a few times, cocking his head to the side in confusion and awaiting a response that never came. It was at this point that my training kicked in hard, as I reached for my wrist-mounted data-pad, ready to plough through the diagnostics algorithm that had been seared into my head from the countless hours of field maintenance drilling. My fingers ran across the touchscreen, muscle memory kicking in as the proprietary UI was optimized for this very sort of thing: a quick and dirty debugging session that was designed to be as intuitive and as idiot-proof as possible.

“Latchow kusi! Ha tal, ke ney sa?” The wolf continued, now playfully elbowing my armored shoulderguards, beaming out a wide smile as if trying to bridge the veritable chasm that had suddenly formed out of this inexplicable language barrier.

Whatever Thalmin was trying to convey was lost on me, even though the context and the casualness of the friendly jab should’ve already clued me in to what was going on.

“Ultir nes len telrian, Emma?” The wolf repeated, chuckling to himself a bit as he moved to stand beside me, proceeding to reach his arm over to drape it across my shoulders. “Ultir, Emma?” He reiterated, before snapping his head towards Thacea, beaming out an expectant grin as if egging her on to join in on what I was quickly surmising was a joke I wasn’t privy to.

Thacea’s reactions confirmed my suspicions, as she looked on at Thalmin with a face of incredulity, completely unamused at the wolf’s antics. “Now isn’t the time for fun and games, Thalmin.” She sighed with a tone of resigned disappointment, before turning to face me. “Thamlin seems to be testing the limits of what he believes to be your… translation artifice, Emma. Evidently, his running theory is that speaking in a language and dialect completely removed from High Nexian would be sufficient in evading your translation artifice’s ability to comprehend what is being spoken.” The avian explained, causing all of the undue stress and anxiety from the rapidly forming concerns over a faulty translation suite to all but fade away in an instant. Having a major complication hit us this late into the day, what with the rapidly approaching meeting with the apprentice and the weapons demonstration after that, would’ve been a complete disaster and a half to contend with. Forget dealing with those two sensitive issues, I doubt I could even accomplish ordering breakfast, let alone deftly navigating the unnecessarily complex social norms that were required as a basic prerequisite.

Despite all of this, I couldn’t help but to break out in a dry chuckle. A sly smile formed across my face as I realized just what all of this was.

It was, admittedly, a sad realization. But I couldn’t deny that this was the first true instance of friendly, silly banter between me and anyone else within the hostile world that was the Academy.

Thalmin’s less than amusing jabs reminded me of my own first attempts at breaking the ice when I first moved to the city. With little in the way of friends or family other than my aunt, my first go-to tactic at bridging the social gap was almost always humor, or at least my own off brand attempt at it. I’d never claim that I was ever good at it, heck, it was borderline cringe. But that didn’t detract from the fact that it sometimes worked, and more importantly, it was being done with genuine intent. It was an honest attempt at breaking through the awkward social barriers that just naturally existed when trying to integrate into anywhere new.

This whole exchange was just Thalmin’s attempt at that. Which honestly couldn’t have come at a better time.

My personal perceptions and general interpretations of this place had already begun to solidify following the constant stream of crises that had targeted me one after another. Everything about the Academy, from its general vibes to its legit transgressions, was about enough for me to consider this place a complete and utter write-off; that all there was to this entire place was just one crisis to be overcome after another.

And while that was true… this whole exchange showed me that there was more to it than that. It gave me genuine hope that perhaps moving forward, there would be more of this banter to look forward to. More instances of nonsensical interactions amongst friends. More of just regular day-to-day life, rather than the scheming and machinations that had come to dominate most of my headspace up to this point.

It was with that, that I gave the wolf a playful punt on his shoulder, not enough to induce pain or hurt, but just enough to make my point.

With a little internal deliberation on whether or not I should try my own hand at his games, I decided to return the favor in my own way. “Ta tur yark len bab nan ko dai na. Chan ko ao muan kan wa, Thalmin.” I spoke, saying something that loosely translated to ‘If you wanna play it that way, then two can play it that game, Thalmin’. I intentionally spoke in Thai, a language that wouldn’t be picked up by the translation suite, given that it was designed explicitly for English to High Nexian translations. Whilst rusty, having only been taught by my mom’s side of the family, I still knew my way around the language enough to hold a decent conversation, at least according to my aunt. Though admittedly, I didn’t really have many places to practice it, given that it wasn’t common across North America, and rarer still once you left the boundaries of Earth’s orbital rings. Yet, it was still commonly spoken amongst the populations of the mainland states of the South East Asian Confederation.

However, as it stood, the only real place I got any practice with it nowadays was from a certain terrifying green owl that lived only to taunt me whenever I reached to check my phone notifications. It amazed me to think that the language learning app was founded over a millennium ago, and it terrified me to imagine just how many lives it had tormented over the years. I swore the thing was more aggressive at getting me to practice than my mom ever was.

“So you really can’t speak High Nexian?” Thalmin doubled down, cocking his head to the side so quickly that those triangle-shaped ears flopped about as he did so.

“Nope.” I answered, switching back to English and thus allowing my poor confused translation software to function as it was intended to.

“I’ll admit, I only got the bare basics of what the librarian said.” Thalmin shrugged. “But the fact that your people managed to create something on par, or at least, close enough to a translation stone without any mana is truly remarkable.”

“As I keep saying, Thalmin, there’s a lot my people have managed without the aid of mana.” I beamed out proudly.