IDE EVENT: Jibber Jabber (D2, Late Afternoon)

[Soshi Bantu]

Bantu had paid only the bare minimum attention to his scroll work in his studies, but drawing deep within himself he was able to puzzle out the characters before him quickly enough that he would proceed to the next step swiftly.

The questions also proved a simple matter after the hard work he had accomplished in his earlier efforts.

When it cam time to hold discourse with one of the Ide, he was very confident, and it would have been a perfect round for him had he not screwed up one of his pronouns, his female judge did not like being referred to as a man. Bantu managed to articulate a perfect apology in the fake language, but the damage to his chances had already been done.

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D2 LA EVENT. 1/6. Calligraphy/Int. VP for skill, 1CR TN 20: 5d10o10k4 24 = Success
D2 LA EVENT. 2/6. Commerce/Int. Untrained. +1k0 from Squiggly Lines. TN 15: 5d10o10k4 29 = Success = 1 LP
D2 LA EVENT. Rolls 3-6. Bilingual Conversation. Etiquette/Int. 2 CR TN25: 4#7d10o10k4-1 26 50 22 45 = Success, Success, Fail, Success = 6 LP

Total = 7 Linguistic Points

[Otomo Tenzo]

Putting his skills he learned in the dojo to the test, Tenzo worked through the mysterious calligraphy work set before him and after a bit of study was able to put together a key of sorts. It was that key that allowed the Otomo to scan through the passages and brush out the answers onto parchment. When it came time for the speaking portion of the "exam" he initially got the made-up language down, but in the last bit of the full conversation got a little ahead of himself and suffered a mis-translation. Despite that, however, he had done well overall and offered the Ide examiner a bow of thanks for a most interesting stretch of the mind-muscles.

Squiggly Lines: PASS (1 raise)
Story Problems: PASS (1 raise)
Bilingual Convos (initial and bonus): PASS initial (1 raise), PASS 2 (1 raise) FAIL 1 (1 raise)

8 Linguistic Points

[Bayushi Suteichi]

Oh this is just ridiculous. Fine...lets just get this over-with. Suteichi thought.

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1) Calligraphy/Intelligence: 26 +1 LP
2) Commerce/Intelligence roll + 1VP for Commerce 1: 17 +1 LP
3) Etiquette/Intelligence Roll: 17 +1 LP
4-6)Etiquette/Intelligence Roll: 14 -1 LP 27 +1 LP 19 +1 LP

Total: 5 Linguistics Points

[Tonbo Misa]

A young Moto maiden placed the test in front of Misa, giving a smile to her before turning to leave. Misa spoke up quietly, voice weak with her lingering illness. "I can't see."

The Moto stopped, turning around to look quizzingly at the woman. "Eh? Sorry samurai-sama, didn't hear you."

Misa smiled slightly and spoke up a bit. "I can't see. The test."

The Moto scratched her cheek. "Um... it's on the desk right there." She pointed at it.

Misa shook her head, looking toward the sound of the girl's voice with her pale, sickly face and waving her hand in front of her eyes. "No, I can't see."

The Moto flushed, then waved a hand dismissively out of instinct. "Oh yeah, well... I mean, that's fine." She pointed back at Sanmi with a smile. "You're with her, right? You can see?"

Sanmi flushed in turn, but nodded. The Moto gave a definitive nod. "Good, then you can read it to her." With that she left.

Sanmi sat beside Misa, still a bit pink in the cheeks. "Misa-dono, I'm not sure how to do this for you."

Misa just shook her head and smiled. "Do your best Sanmi, that's all I ask."

The girl gave a soft "Hai," before looking at the strange paper. While she could help with makeup and dressing, even manners and basic heraldry, Sanmi was most certainly not a sage, nor was she someone that did a lot of ciphering. The only writing she did was dictating letters for Misa. She furrowed her brow as she looked at the paper. "U-um... squiggle up... squiggle... sort of down, w-with a line across it... a... circle with a dot... on the right side..."

Misa's brow furrowed as well. While she understood what writing was, and letters, she had never seen any before, and most people didn't go around describing writing in such literal terms. While the squiggly nature of most of the... letters, she supposed... made them sound like no sort of Rokugani writing, that didn't help. Neither did the fact she didn't feel well. "I don't know."

Sanmi chewed softly on her lower lip a moment. "Oh, okay, ano... here's a line. Wavey looking... triangle shape... sort of flat, wavey... rectangle? A 6 pointed... upside down plant?" She flushed deeper.

Misa missed the flush of course, but her face remained furrowed. "I don't know."

This went on for a few minutes... or was it nearly an hour? Sanmi kept going over the shapes and strokes as best she could, while Misa tried to imagine things she had never seen and couldn't feel. Finally she caught enough of a pattern that she decided she could work out the basics at least. "Okay Sanmi, go over that line you read off a while back, the one on its own."

After looking for a moment, Sanmi found it again and read it off. Misa smiled softly; it was a math problem. "Read the lines below it." The girl did so, and Misa nodded in confirmation. They were all math problems.

If only she knew any math.

"Just put one next to all of them Sanmi, and let us go. It sounds like most everyone else left some time ago. Come, I will make you some tea."

Despite a total loss, both women were smiling as they left. At least a little.

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Calligraphy attempt 1 = Failed
Calligraphy attempt 2 = Failed
Calligraphy attempt 3 = Failed
Calligraphy attempt 4 = Failed
Calligraphy attempt 5 = Success
Commerce attempt w/ 3 raises = Failed

0 Linguistic points

[Yogo Mizuki]

Mizuki comes to a bad start as she can't comprehend why she is getting this.

She soon recognizes her error and moves on.

The first story problem is no problem for Mizuki. Umm.... she should probably spend less time on thinking of bad puns.

It's tough, but Mizuki is adequate in her conversation.

With some time left, Mizuki shows her mastery of story problems.

With only a little time left, Mizuki manages to finish one more problem before the test ends.

Squiggly Lines and Weird Shapes (First Roll): Fail
Squiggly Lines and Weird Shapes (Second Roll): Pass with 1 Raise
Story Problems: Pass with 2 Raises (3 LP)
Bilingual Conversation: Pass (1 LP)
Extra Credit: Pass with 2 Raises (3 LP)
Extra Credit (Deuce): Pass with 2 Raises (3 LP)

Total Linguistics Point: 10

[Bayushi Hotaru]

Hotaru never thought she ever needed to learn a language ever since she was old enough to read and write Rokugani, but leave it to their host to put them in a situation many Unicorn have found themselves many times during their journeys abroad. She understood the sequences of characters and words easily enough that it gave her a good leg up on this particular challenge. As she had learned to talk to the kami directly and decipher the will of the Heavens, this was quite easy in comparison. Perhaps the young Bayushi had it for her to learn another language after all! Or so she thought.

...Ultimately, the language wasn't for her as she stumbled and plodded through its intended meaning, unable to string words together to form a proper sentence. She walked away from the event almost speaking in tongues, as it made her even doubt the known structure of Rokugani with the intense mental work she put into translating the fictional language. If there was truly a hidden secret in this language, it was going to remain a closely guarded one to the priestess...

[1/6] Squiggly Lines and Weird Shapes : (Pass w/2 raises)
[2/6] Story Problems: (Failed w/1 raise)
[3/6] Story Problems: (Pass)
[4/6] Bilingual Conversation: (Pass w/ 2 raises)
[5/6] Bilingual Conversation: (Fail w 2/ raises)
[6/6] Bilingual Conversation: (Fail w/ 2 raises)

Linguistics Points: -2 (or -4, but otherwise dismal)

[Mirumoto Chou]

An Ide led Mirumoto Chou to a seat. She could feel the unease rolling off him, and gave a polite, expectant smile. This did absolutely nothing to make him more comfortable. She had not intended to.

The man tried his very best to help her, but there was nothing for it. Chou made a good attempt, for the sake of her Clan and to prolong the Ide's suffering. She gave it an hour before thanking the man and leaving.

((All rolls failed, no raises. Never broke a 9.))

[Otaku Imane]

Imane wasn't sure why she was attempting this dumb Ide test, but after her abysmal performance at the feast she felt she had something to prove. It turned out that reading a squiggly made-up language wasn't really her thing.

It took her a few tries to get the gist of it but the words were really ridiculous: "Bonjour? That's obviously not a real language."

The main problem seemed to be a lack of cheese, by her imaginative reading of the problem. The judges seemed to like this. However she found that whatever she said in this language the response always seemed rude, so she was forced to explain herself in Rokugani rather than life her cool.

Eventually her time was up, which was probably for the best, but she was pleased to see that she at least managed to score a point. It was better than none.

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Rolls
Roll 1: D2 event. Roll 1/6. Squiggly Lines and Weird Shapes: Calligraphy (Any Cipher)/Intelligence TN15. +1k0 for extra language. 3k2: 3d10k2 12, fail.
Roll 2: D2 event. Roll 2/6. Squiggly Lines and Weird Shapes: Calligraphy (Any Cipher)/Intelligence TN15. +1k0 for extra language. 3k2: 3d10k2 15, success!
Roll 3:[ url=http://orokos.com/roll/504902]D2 event. Roll 3/6. Story Problems: TN 15 Commerce (Mathematics)/Intelligence. 2k2[/url]: 2d10 13, fail.
Roll 4: D2 event. Roll 4/6. Story Problems: TN 15 Commerce (Mathematics)/Intelligence. 2k2: 2d10 12, fail.
Roll 5: D2 event. Roll 5/6. Story Problems: TN 15 Commerce (Mathematics)/Intelligence. Void for +1k1. 3k3: 3d10 18, success! +1 Linguistics Point.
Roll 6: D2 event. Roll 6/6. Bilingual Conversation: TN 15 Etiquette (Conversation)/Intelligence. Void for +1k1. One raise. TN20. 4k3: 4d10o10k3 12, fail.

Event total: 1 Linguistics point!

[Shinjo Hanashi]

Hanashi spent some time beforehand, attempting to convince the Ide to allow him to help the blind competitors rather then compete, because surely the compassion of the Unicorn should be great for the Dragon who helped guide us all home.

And then the blind Togashi had her servant help instead.

So with a huff and straightened back Shinjo Hanashi turned his one eye to the task with no further trepidation.

His hated enemy, calligraphy, lay before him. In unintelligible squiggles and lines. Ugh...the written word. So lifeless and dead. He'd need to prove his wit over such dead things. Bring them to life with whatever language the Ide had created here. Elvish or something.

Picking up the ink brush he fought to keep himself from tossing it aside in disgust. These were number problems after all. Sure, little dead stories asking for solutions, but the solutions were just numbers. Nothing truly important. Nothing that'd shame his ancestors.

Not that writing stories down would shame his ancestors, according to his Champion who had asked the Marta to write things down now. No, of course not. Surely they wouldn't mind it too terribly much. Ugh the things that made one debate kanshi.

He looked down and started scrubbing away the picture of himself committing kanshi away carefully. Whistling a little.

Better pay more attention this time. If you have two horses and five apples you give each of them 2 and a half apples, because somewhere you get a knife you dumb little story that didn't include that detail. Grumph.

Moving onto conversation in this strange elven tongue, Hanashi explained carefully that he was quite happy to finish a little early; it really was probably a better idea then attempting to have to write anymore, oh look at the time.

************
T.U.1: Squiggly Lines and Weird Shapes: TN 15, Precise Memory, Void for skill, 1 Raise TN 20: 41
TU2: Story Problems: TN 15 Commerce (Mathematics)/Intelligence: (+1k0 cause squiggles): 11
TU3: Story Problems: TN 15 Commerce (Mathematics)/Intelligence: (+1k0 cause squiggles): 19 +1 Linguistics.
TU4: Bilingual Conversation: TN 15 Etiquette (Conversation)/Intelligence (+1k0 Squiggles): +1 Linguistics.

Final: 2 linguistics points.

[Iuchi Dong-Ha]

Dong-Ha had some idea on how languages worked, and while he wasn't the most cunning linguist, he still managed to decipher the basics of the new Ide language. The part where he had to interpret the stories went surprisingly, perhaps because he was familiar with many many of the Clan's legends. Even if the Ide had made a commendable job of coming up with new parables, knowing how the stories tended to end did help him.

Next was the part where he was supposed to discuss with one of the Ide and while he had some initial success, eventually he botched, accidentally calling his conversation partner 'sandal' when Dong-Ha had tried to refer him as an orator. Well, all things considered he had done... decently enough.

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OOC: Rolls here. 6 points

[Moto Butaj]

Butaj doesn't usually wear his ceremonial furs on a hot day but this is a special Ide occasion so he wants to be presentable despite any sweaty discomfort! (TN +5) It is a gorgeous fur of snow minks that could be a subject of envy for many a Pony!



As Butaj sits down to focus on the task he gets soon distracted by the funny shapes the Ide have prepared. Deciphering them makes no sense to Butaj because his reading comprehension in general is only so-so being such a strong proponent of oral traditions, so he soon stops trying to guess what has been on author's mind and uses the funny pictures to puzzle out his own story! This looks like Butaj, and this looks like Huludai, and this looks like a nice maiden and this like a monster Butaj could wrestle into submission! And a mad sorcerer, and a djinn, a camel.. Ah, and this is a topshur, so even in the picture story Butaj can make music! Butaj is sweating profusely in his minks but stays for the whole two hours because he wants to finish the story and present it to Ide judges. Butaj tells it to the judges as he suggestively juggles the scraps of paper with drawings before them. He names it 'One Day from the Adventurous Life of Butaj'. And what a story it is!

Day 2 - LA - Event Step One, Almost Auto-Fail, so rolling 6 times to see if there's a 20 on 2k2; if there is rolls after it can be considered not taken - TN 20 (Furs!): 6#2d10 14 10 16 3 16 12 - 0 Points!

Day 2 - LA - Fluffy Roll Instead of Event Roll - Awa/Storytelling (Sensation, Voice): 5d10e10k4 40

[Shinjo Taichi]

Taichi had always known that he wasn't a good book learner. With anything physical, or even social, there was feedback. Something to tell you that even if you were wrong, you at least got a clue about how wrong you were.

This was different. After the events of the night, he'd had a number of things to take care of and hadn't had the chance to sleep yet. Again and again he felt that he'd started to move in the right direction, but each time it was another false start, the pattern breaking apart before his tired eyes.

As the allotted time drew to a close, he thought he finally had it - but sadly he did not.

Somewhat dejected, he made his way outside. I would have gotten it eventually. This was just a bad day. And I was tired too. Not my fault.

[ooc]
2d10 vs TN20 - Oh well, he did his best
6x fail on step 1. 0 points.

[Togashi Udo]

Udo approaches the Ide challenge with a fair amount of skepticism about his ability to complete it, but he knows there is no reason to turn away. It is a way to judge his skills, and even if they are lacking it is a good thing to know.

As the Ide taught Udo the language, he was surprised to find that he was able to pick it up somewhat, if he devoted his attention to it. It was a mixture of paying close attention and letting the words and sounds enter his mind as if by some transference. At the end of being taught it, he felt he could proceed.

The Ide next set up a written portion of the test, which Udo found a bit easier than the last. It was a written test, and the trick was properly utilizing the language that he'd just learned. Of course, beyond the translation he also had to solve the problems, which definitely taxed him. He left this portion of the challenge feeling a bit drained.

Last was a conversation with the Ide, which definitely was the easiest yet. Udo felt that if he had more time like this, in practice, he might be able to pick up the language over time. Each event seemed to make it easier, and he had a pleasant, if halting, conversation with the Ide judge.

When completed, they asked him if he'd like to stay and talk longer, to further show his skill. Feeling a bit drained, Udo declined, but mentioned that he would be interested in the future in learning another language. Expressing how much he enjoyed the challenge, despite its difficulty, Udo bowed and departed.

---

Squiggly Lines: Pass (No raises)
Story Problems: Pass (No raises) = 1 LP
Bilingual Conversations: Pass (No raises) = 1 LP

Total LP = 2

[Otaku Kitakuhime]

For kinsfolks, the Ide surely know how make the rest of us look bad...

Kitakuhime walked the room, looking at how others were doing and holding her laugh. The smile was stamped across her face, though. Seasoned with a tiny bit of sarcasm.

It soon wears off. She takes the scroll in hand and looks up to the judges with a desolate expression. Receiving no special attention, she returns to focus on the weird lines, actually managing to find a patter between them. Oh! I think I've got this. Let's go to the test.

Having the basic sheet to confront and copy the characters, Kitauhime manages to arrange the characters in an orderly fashion to translate words and meanings to each question.

I'm so smart. Next!

She elegantly sits in front of a familiar Ide and smiles. The conversation partner starts to talk, and... she can't pronounce a single word. There are a couple of attempts before she facepalms and gives up.

"You still have time," Says the Ide, inviting the girl back to continue. With a frown, the Otaku heir sits again, reminding herself she must give an example to others... even if that is to stay calm and carry on.

--
Squiggly Lines and Weird Shapes: TN 15 = 15 - Success
Story Problems: TN 15 = 20 - Success +1 Point
Bilingual Conversation: TN 15 = 8 - Fail
Bilingual Conversation - Round 2: TN 15 = 17 - Success +1 Point
Extra Credit (Bilingual Conversation): TN 15 = 8 - Fail
Extra Credit II (Bilingual Conversation): TN 15 = 17 - Success +1 Point
Linguistic Points: 3

[Shinjo Kemuri]

Kemuri sat down and looked over the odd language. Something about it felt familiar and he instinctively gained an understanding of it. When given the questions, he was able to give simple answers. The conversation, however, proved a bit more difficult for him to follow.

"No, I don't know where the green snow falls."

"The golden weasel? I'm not sure what that is."

"I see, but how will we sail a ship here?"

"Oh, is it time for me to go already? Thank you for your time, Ide-sama."

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1) Squiggly Lines and Weird Shapes - Pass
2) Story Problems - Pass
3) Bilingual Conversation - Fail
4) Bilingual Conversation - Fail
5) Bilingual Conversation - Fail
6) Bilingual Conversation - Pass

2 Linguistic Points