Creature languages, 1/16, period 4

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

There is no spider or other animal in view today as Dream stands to address the class.

"Hello. I hope you all enjoyed speaking with Aunt Nancy last week. That was an attempt to acclimate you to the kind of experiences you will have in class.

She told me, by the way, that she quite enjoyed your questions. And she thanks Mr. Gavin for the coffee.

Today, I want you to take a step back from this subject and recognize something you already know: humans can speak Creature languages, at least on a primitive level. Think about the near-telepathy you might have experienced with a pet, for example. Or a time when you knew an anumal was dangerous. Even if it did not say "I would like to bite you," odds are you could tell what it was thinking.

Creature languages is really just about taking that intuitive communication and expanding it a level, so you can converse as readily with, say, a garden slug as you can with your pet cat, and so you can communicate more complex messages across the species barrier. It is physical and emotional as well as vocal, and I trust you will keep that in mind.

In class today, I want you to write a paragraph discussing a time when you feel you communicated with an animal."

Comments

Re: Sit in class, 1/16

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander glaned around, remembered that Cordy was in this class too, and mentally edited what he was going to say. "I... kind of speak a little hyena, I guess," he said, shifting in his seat. "Which I forgot to mention when we were listing out languages because I don't, uh. Remember it that well. There was this possession thing. But I do remember that a lot of it was visual cues - and smell. Someone smelled scared, or moved their head a certain way, or looked you straight in the eyes or not, and it sent a different message. Like, 'don't mess with me; I can kick your ass' or 'please don't eat me!'"

Re: Sit in class, 1/16

[upforachase.livejournal.com]

Cordy may have burst out laughing a little bit at this. It was funny, okay?

Re: Sit in class, 1/16

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

Dream raises his eyebrows a fraction when Xander describes his possession, then nods in agreement.

"Yes. Scent, visual cues ... all of those things are quite important, though I won't focus on scent in this class because it is so hard for humans to learn. And I should add that hyenas have quite the complex society, though I doubt that was clear from your experience."

Re: Sit in class, 1/16

[soldtoarmenians]

Xander nodded, acknowledging both Dream's response and Cordelia's snicker. "Yeah, there wasn't exactly a whole population there to study, even if we'd been into studying at the time - just four of us who ran into the wrong end of some witch-doctor's spell at the zoo."