\|/ Turn 8, early light
Friend Has A Journal As Well!!
Alright, calm, this is how I found out.
I woke up maybe a few spans ago. Just like the previous turn, Friend was already awake by the time I woke (it seems to need less sleep than Scale). It was holding a pocket-sized journal in its lap and writing something, and when it saw me, it immediately fumbled to hide it. It failed to hide it with only one arm, the journal falling to the ground while it continued to flail around.
"Wait, no! I also have a journal!" I hissed at it, but of course it didn't understand.
Still groggy, but warm, I took off the blanket and crawled to it. Friend seemed highly uncomfortable, holding the journal through a pocket, trying to hide it despite me having seen it. I stopped and sat down again about two lengths away, the closest I've been to Friend, but I was too excited (and sleepy) to be afraid (or think rationally).
I took out my journal and showed it, opening and flipping through the pages of text and doodles I've drawn, before and after the crash.
Friend seemed to realize what I meant and took its own journal out, showing me the contents. Of course, it looks like gibberish and symbols, but the thought was there!
Even stranded on an alien planet, both a tornscale and a broken alien, we're both just nerds.
Now I'm writing this next to Friend, and Friend's writing to its journal! This won't really help with communication that much, its writing looks like a Scalari that's been stretched and bent into weird positions, but maybe we can doodle to convey things! Better than the whole water spring fingers dance.
It seems to have gotten the same idea, Friend's showing me something.
Aaaand I have no idea what it is. I'll try to describe it:
A circle placed upon five lines, one in the center, four protruding from the central one. The circle has a curved line and two dots.
Some kind of symbol, two lines intersecting at a 90-degree angle.
Something similar to the first thing, just very pointy and with an additional line.
…
Waaaaaaaaiiiit
I GET IT!
The left one is Friend! Extremely poorly drawn, barely recognizable, but the limb count makes sense! I'm on the right! Pointy and all. It does have a few extra triangles since I'm missing some…
What's the thing in the center then?
I can't parse that. But if its circle head is doing that weird teeth baring with that curved line (I noticed it curves its mouth in a position I can't even begin to imitate, Friend having too many extremely uncanny facial muscles) is that, then its conformation again!
Oh, wait, it's drawing something else. I'll let it do the drawing to conserve on paper, since it's journal seems fresh, while mine is already partially filled with calculations and such. I'll write about it later.
I may have underestimated its sanity and overestimated mine. It really does seem… normal.
\|/ Turn 8, dark
This is the first turn since the crash I am genuinely happy. Finding out that Friend keeps its own notes, that it functions at least partially similar to me felt so refreshing.
There were a few more doodle exchanges:
Friend drew what I think is its home system. It drew what I think is a star (but only one, like the Tau system, something I can't get used to), and 8 spheres around it. Well, 9 actually, but it scribbled the last one away for some reason. It kept touching the third one with its pen. It really made that planet visible, with a natural satellite around it.
I figured out that touching means drawing attention to it, so I adopted that strategy as well. I drew Varanth, Ignis Major and Minor and our own satellite Orbion. It seemed really pleased with that, baring while I touch-showed my home planet.
We continued like this for a bit before the red dwarf was high enough to get to proper work. It collected more firewood, though this time it sorted through the wood and took the biggest bits and set them aside. Not sure what its plan is. I collected berries, which there are fortunately quite a few of at this time and continued making my cloak. It's done now. It feels good, having the deformity being hidden. Despite the scales being nearly healed, I really don't want to think about it in the slightest.
We're at the campfire now, it's writing to its journal and I'm writing to mine. I wish I could read it, I really wonder what its' observations are. Probably something along the lines of
"I did all the work getting the firewood while the little one played with leaves."
Well, maybe. That sounds more like SILT than Friend. It really hasn't been rude to me at any point, but at the same time a complete language barrier blocks incoming sarcasm.
Oh, wait, it's trying to show me something now.
Oh, it has a name! Wonderful! At least I think that's its name.
It wrote down something, making a drawing of itself again and tapped the word, repeating it out loud. There is no chance I could ever biologically say what it said, but I can handle a bit of it.
The process sounded like this:
It taps the word, then the picture, then itself, saying the word out loud.
"Hsmhska" I struggle.
It repeats.
"Ssshshmk"
It repeats, patient but laughing. I start to get frustrated.
"Ssmik"
It repeats, slowly.
"Mik"
It bares its teeth, seemingly satisfied. I only managed to get the first part of its name, but it's a name!! Friend is actually Mik! I'll call it Mik from now on!
I think Mik's written language is some kind of speakwrite. Like what you write is what you speak. It sounds weird but… functional, I guess?
Then came the time for it to learn my name.
The process for my name was much, much more difficult.
I hissed Maya to it and tapped myself. It took about six attempts before Mik got it partially, maybe, not really correct.
During Mik's very poor hissing attempts it sounded like it was choking. Worse yet is that at one point it coughed quite a bit from trying to pronounce my name. It just doesn't work biologically, and it really doesn't help that my parents gave me some extremely obscure name that was originally a very rephrased version of Mashishla, but it functioned.
…
I still don't get why they butchered Mashishla into "Maya". It doesn't even mean anything, and Mik can barely pronounce it.
But my friend now has a name.
Mik.
Now just to learn how to say the rest of the name.
Perhaps one turn. A Scale can dream…