happy thedas weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! could we pretty please have more Emmrich/Strife? 👀 maybe "pet names/terms of endearment" from the domestic prompt list if it inspires you! 👀💖
"Things are going well with Strife, I take it," Lucanis says, as Emmrich pours tea.
"Does it show so readily?" Emmrich asks, smiling to himself. "I do feel lighter, when we spend time together."
"It's not that," Lucanis says.
"Darlin'," says Spite, not through Lucanis' own mouth, to illustrate the point. He's grinning, where he's sat in the chair Emmrich provided for him, even though Emmrich who can often hear Spite, still hasn't been able to see him. It is a notable act of consideration, though, that Spite seems very pleased about.
"Oh. Well, I'm quite aware that darling is my most commonly employed term endearment."
"Yes," Lucanis says, "but-"
"Darlin'!" says Manfred, as he plays with a chess board across the room. Lucanis isn't sure if he's actually playing, or just like the horse piece.
Spite vanishes from the tea table, and reappears over by Manfred, who he's pretty sure can see him when he projects like this, the way he seems to look up, excitment shaking through his bones.
"I would have thought you'd teach him to pronounce his Gs."
"Ah!" Emmrich says, as he slides Lucanis' cup over to him. "Of course I would, proper pronounciation is important for Manfred to learn in these early days, a good grasp of common as a basis for eventually teaching him Tomb-Script, perhaps some Tevene, and other languages he can employ in spellwork."
"But Strife says darlin'."
"Darlin'."
"Darlin'!"
"He does. That particular linguistic phenomenon of dropping the last consonant is fairly common amongst those from the Free Marches; Strife hails from Starkhaven, originally."
"Do you like it?"
"Most certainly! Accents are facinating, I'm not a purist about pronounciation. Only that it serve's Manfred's study to know the most correct way to say things in relation to the written form of it, since common does have some unusual variance that can be difficult to someone for whom it isn't their first language. Or for Manfred and Spite both, who it would be feasible to say have no verbal first language, such as it is."
Lucanis smiles, pulling on the thread.
"But Strife must be saying it a lot, for Manfred to pick up the way he says it, and not you. And then for Spite to copy him."
"It's called echolalia, a natural part of language learning for children. Though it's hardly as narrow as that, it's seen in adults, though often in a rather more, ah - regulartory nature, I suppose. A facinating feature of language, at any rate - our lovely Bellara is particularly prone to it."
"I had noticed. A few Crow friends do this too, the most quick-thinkers."
"Darlin'." "Darlin'!" "Daaaarlin'." "Daaaarlin'!"
"I've taken Manfred on a few trips with Strife. He seems fairly taken with him, which is most pleasing considering I was worried he'd find him unsettling, as some do. Though he does like to tease me about teaching Manfred how to use knives."
"Knives!" Manfred says, and hisses excitedly.
"Oooh, knives," says Spite, much more worryingly.
"Great, another enabler," Lucanis says, though he finds himself smiling into his tea.
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for @thedasweekend. This was actually perfectly timed as a prompt, bc in my last piece I did start thinking about endearments for them! Went with something fluffy, but its got me thinking even more about terms.
Like how Strife maybe wouldn't default to Elven because he was born a city elf and might not have been as immersed in the culture in the same way, he joined a Dalish clan as an adult.
Then there's the question of Nevarran language influences, not quite as cut and dry as Orlais = France or the endearments we're given for other languages. Maybe something Germanic, or something Greek, lots of room to play.
