Log: Artie and April
Nov. 12th, 2023 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_artie posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsFollowing her stay in the infirmary/quarantine, Artie offers April some assistance.
backdated to 12 November.
Artie knocked on the door, shopping back with a variety of options tucked under one arm and waited to be let in. Or not.
April tilted her head to the side curiously. The knock was all wrong for Illyana or Maya. She rolled to her feet, shambling to the door of her suite carefully, and pushed the lever that would open the door.
She couldn't really show surprise like this, but her tendrils did their best, curling into a set of question marks on either shoulder as she regarded him with large, white, unblinking eyes. A few seconds passed, and she pointed to herself, then the man in front of her, and shrugged, turning and leaving the door open for him to follow. Or not.
Artie nodded, surprise at her new shape carefully masked. "I heard you were having some trouble communicating," he said, letting the text hang in the air. It was a bit larger than he'd ordinarily use one on one but he wasn't sure what April's vision was like in this form. "And, well, I'm the expert on that around here." He pointed to the bag. "I have a few tools to show you but first -- is this easy to read or do you prefer me to use an audio synthesiser?"
April pointed at the air, then turned her hand sideways and stuck her thumb out in an approximation of a thumbs up, fingers curled at the joint in as tight of a fist as she could manage. Her other hand gestured towards the couches, an easel still in the corner by the TV with a sketched out but half-finished painting on it. She turned, absently shooting a web at the ceiling and propelling herself across the room in effectively one jump, landing crouched on the far arm of the couch and looking in Artie's direction expectantly.
He was too well trained to react to the obvious - subconscious - threat display in her movements and followed her across the room, laying the communication boards - big and the portable one out on the table. "I don't know if you've seen these before but they work by pointing. The vocab is modified to your situation - I've got high frequency words, words we use in the mansion and common phrases as well as the usual pictographs." He pointed to one of the phrases. How does this work? and then tapped point. word. wait. look [at the other person]. understand. Question mark. yes. It was limited. Slow and frustrating, especially when the portable version of the chart just didn't have all the vocab options. They weren’t designed for in depth communication.
She nodded, tendrils pointing at yes, then slid down the arm of the couch into a sitting position. The board she'd gotten in the medlab had been very rudimentary, mostly geared towards issues medical could help with. Food, lights down so she could sleep, when she was going to get out. Pain, although that one hadn't been needed. She had a notebook, although her hands still weren't quite shaped right for lengthy writing, and she managed a shaky "Med - basic" to get her point across, then put the chunky marker she'd managed to find down so she could stretch what passed as fingers.
Artie nodded. The next thing he took out of the bag was an iPad in a rubberised case. "Also, I brought this. The communication boards are good and all but really limited. Useful if typing is hard, but not super portable. I prefer this whenever I have a choice and can't use my powers." He passed it over after it finished speaking and frowned. "Can you use those right now? I brought a proloquo, too. It has tactile keys."
April stretched her fingers wide, letting her claws lengthen and then retract back almost to the same shortness as her standard fingernails, then tried tapping on the ipad. It worked, but she had to hunt and peck like she'd never used an on-screen keyboard before. She shook her head, tendrils following the motion, and pointed at the proloquo. Once it was in her hands, it was the work of a few seconds of looking over the screen of words and pictures to manage "Symbols fast and easy, thank you." Her grin stretched wider as the sound projected, and her tendrils waved in excitement.
He grinned back, sharing her excitement and replied via the ipad, rather than through projected text to keep the conversation on an equal footing. "Good. The science types should be able to customise it a bit but--" he held up a hand "Don't ever let them take your primary one to work on. I learned that the hard way. Twice." He waved at everything on the table. "It's not great, you know? I got sick of the communication board after my first six months here but I had to learn to read and standard ASL not just home sign before I could graduate to better options. And I had the standard version at first that's just pictures and I could already make those."
She hadn't learned much sign before Forge left, but she could make the motions for "forget sign", although her hand didn't curl quite enough for the standard ending for forget. It was followed by "learn more" with one of her tendrils curling into a question mark above her head, and then, hesitantly, the sign for "slow."
"Slow learn or slow sign is better?" Artie asked, signing.
April kinda shrugged and nodded, then decided pressing buttons on the proloquo was easier. "Was slowly learning sign," it said. "Low practice, I forget signs. Need more practice."
Artie nodded. "Yeah. Makes sense." He paused and soldiered on, moving back to the ipad. "Don't take this the wrong way but even if you are learning, most of the people here aren't fluent enough to handle it if you try and communicate with them. The changed hands and all, plus their lack of vocab. They're just not going to understand you. Maya and Doug, yes, Alani maybe. Most of the others?" His smile was bitter. "You'd have more luck teaching the dog to understand sign than getting them to put the work in to get beyond key words to properly conversational."
April nodded. That wasn't a surprise. "Was mostly learning for communication with M-a-y-a. She is friend. Trying is polite, but I am bad at it." Her fingers paused for a moment. "Dog B-o-r-i-s knows a few basic signs. Sit. Stay. Greet. No." She lifted her hands to just beside her shoulders, extending what passed as her thumb and pinky while curling the other three down and slowly rotating her wrists in the sign for 'Play'.
"That dog knows more than half the mansion," Artie replied, moving back to sign before hitting the iPad again for the next, more complicated sentences. "Do you need uh. Emotional support and things? I can try but I'm not very good at that stuff." He looked slightly pained. "I know this has to be rough."
April's laughter burst from her in surprise, a hissing, deep thing that had her startling out of her own seat, landing on the floor with a thunk. She shook her head, then pulled the proloquo into her lap. "Signs helped language barrier for dog. My–" she hunted for languages, but found countries first. "Russia accent is terrible." She shrugged at Artie. "Do not need emotional support, thank you. Worst part so far is no chewing." She bared her teeth, but they held no threat, just showing off why she wasn't equipped to chew regularly at the moment.
Artie laughed. "Damn. That's just..." He shook his head, considered replying with an image of her swallowing something huge, jaw distended and thought better of it. "that's rough," he said finally.
"Motivational. Maybe." She shrugged again, and mimed a smiley face with her tendrils. "Thank you for your assistance."
backdated to 12 November.
Artie knocked on the door, shopping back with a variety of options tucked under one arm and waited to be let in. Or not.
April tilted her head to the side curiously. The knock was all wrong for Illyana or Maya. She rolled to her feet, shambling to the door of her suite carefully, and pushed the lever that would open the door.
She couldn't really show surprise like this, but her tendrils did their best, curling into a set of question marks on either shoulder as she regarded him with large, white, unblinking eyes. A few seconds passed, and she pointed to herself, then the man in front of her, and shrugged, turning and leaving the door open for him to follow. Or not.
Artie nodded, surprise at her new shape carefully masked. "I heard you were having some trouble communicating," he said, letting the text hang in the air. It was a bit larger than he'd ordinarily use one on one but he wasn't sure what April's vision was like in this form. "And, well, I'm the expert on that around here." He pointed to the bag. "I have a few tools to show you but first -- is this easy to read or do you prefer me to use an audio synthesiser?"
April pointed at the air, then turned her hand sideways and stuck her thumb out in an approximation of a thumbs up, fingers curled at the joint in as tight of a fist as she could manage. Her other hand gestured towards the couches, an easel still in the corner by the TV with a sketched out but half-finished painting on it. She turned, absently shooting a web at the ceiling and propelling herself across the room in effectively one jump, landing crouched on the far arm of the couch and looking in Artie's direction expectantly.
He was too well trained to react to the obvious - subconscious - threat display in her movements and followed her across the room, laying the communication boards - big and the portable one out on the table. "I don't know if you've seen these before but they work by pointing. The vocab is modified to your situation - I've got high frequency words, words we use in the mansion and common phrases as well as the usual pictographs." He pointed to one of the phrases. How does this work? and then tapped point. word. wait. look [at the other person]. understand. Question mark. yes. It was limited. Slow and frustrating, especially when the portable version of the chart just didn't have all the vocab options. They weren’t designed for in depth communication.
She nodded, tendrils pointing at yes, then slid down the arm of the couch into a sitting position. The board she'd gotten in the medlab had been very rudimentary, mostly geared towards issues medical could help with. Food, lights down so she could sleep, when she was going to get out. Pain, although that one hadn't been needed. She had a notebook, although her hands still weren't quite shaped right for lengthy writing, and she managed a shaky "Med - basic" to get her point across, then put the chunky marker she'd managed to find down so she could stretch what passed as fingers.
Artie nodded. The next thing he took out of the bag was an iPad in a rubberised case. "Also, I brought this. The communication boards are good and all but really limited. Useful if typing is hard, but not super portable. I prefer this whenever I have a choice and can't use my powers." He passed it over after it finished speaking and frowned. "Can you use those right now? I brought a proloquo, too. It has tactile keys."
April stretched her fingers wide, letting her claws lengthen and then retract back almost to the same shortness as her standard fingernails, then tried tapping on the ipad. It worked, but she had to hunt and peck like she'd never used an on-screen keyboard before. She shook her head, tendrils following the motion, and pointed at the proloquo. Once it was in her hands, it was the work of a few seconds of looking over the screen of words and pictures to manage "Symbols fast and easy, thank you." Her grin stretched wider as the sound projected, and her tendrils waved in excitement.
He grinned back, sharing her excitement and replied via the ipad, rather than through projected text to keep the conversation on an equal footing. "Good. The science types should be able to customise it a bit but--" he held up a hand "Don't ever let them take your primary one to work on. I learned that the hard way. Twice." He waved at everything on the table. "It's not great, you know? I got sick of the communication board after my first six months here but I had to learn to read and standard ASL not just home sign before I could graduate to better options. And I had the standard version at first that's just pictures and I could already make those."
She hadn't learned much sign before Forge left, but she could make the motions for "forget sign", although her hand didn't curl quite enough for the standard ending for forget. It was followed by "learn more" with one of her tendrils curling into a question mark above her head, and then, hesitantly, the sign for "slow."
"Slow learn or slow sign is better?" Artie asked, signing.
April kinda shrugged and nodded, then decided pressing buttons on the proloquo was easier. "Was slowly learning sign," it said. "Low practice, I forget signs. Need more practice."
Artie nodded. "Yeah. Makes sense." He paused and soldiered on, moving back to the ipad. "Don't take this the wrong way but even if you are learning, most of the people here aren't fluent enough to handle it if you try and communicate with them. The changed hands and all, plus their lack of vocab. They're just not going to understand you. Maya and Doug, yes, Alani maybe. Most of the others?" His smile was bitter. "You'd have more luck teaching the dog to understand sign than getting them to put the work in to get beyond key words to properly conversational."
April nodded. That wasn't a surprise. "Was mostly learning for communication with M-a-y-a. She is friend. Trying is polite, but I am bad at it." Her fingers paused for a moment. "Dog B-o-r-i-s knows a few basic signs. Sit. Stay. Greet. No." She lifted her hands to just beside her shoulders, extending what passed as her thumb and pinky while curling the other three down and slowly rotating her wrists in the sign for 'Play'.
"That dog knows more than half the mansion," Artie replied, moving back to sign before hitting the iPad again for the next, more complicated sentences. "Do you need uh. Emotional support and things? I can try but I'm not very good at that stuff." He looked slightly pained. "I know this has to be rough."
April's laughter burst from her in surprise, a hissing, deep thing that had her startling out of her own seat, landing on the floor with a thunk. She shook her head, then pulled the proloquo into her lap. "Signs helped language barrier for dog. My–" she hunted for languages, but found countries first. "Russia accent is terrible." She shrugged at Artie. "Do not need emotional support, thank you. Worst part so far is no chewing." She bared her teeth, but they held no threat, just showing off why she wasn't equipped to chew regularly at the moment.
Artie laughed. "Damn. That's just..." He shook his head, considered replying with an image of her swallowing something huge, jaw distended and thought better of it. "that's rough," he said finally.
"Motivational. Maybe." She shrugged again, and mimed a smiley face with her tendrils. "Thank you for your assistance."
