fandomhigh | Summer Session 2, Scoobying Workshop #4, Afternoon 8/01/2006 (Main Campfire)

[Roster]

Xander is standing in front of the unlit campfire holding up a book in one hand. He's being careful not to get soot on it because yo, Tev'Meckian/English Dictionary. In hardback. Plus it was a present.

"Hi, my name's Xander and I'm -- prepare yourselves -- a geek. But despite the huge pains I take to hide that fact, I felt I should confess it today for the good of studentkind, since sometimes it actually comes in handy."

He coughs, then says in a gravelly voice, "Pef trom grabthar, kep mok frutwux!"

"Okay, a real Tev'Meckian would totally laugh at my accent, if there were real Tev'Meckians. But who else besides them or a bunch of Questarians -- who are pretty rarely evil -- are gonna have a clue what I just said?"

He waves the book. "This is a totally invented language, which means the speaking population is limited to... well, geeks. That makes it really useful for talking in front of people you're pretty sure aren't. Real languages are great too, if you happen to be lucky enough that your whole team speaks one that most people around you don't, but the made-up ones are a lot easier to come by.

No, I'm not gonna make you learn Tev'Meck. It's three hundred pages long and just reading a translation of The Cat In The Hat almost gave me laryngitis once. But there are other invented languages that are a lot easier to learn, and I've got a worksheet for you on one of them.

It sounds simple, but when you speak it fast enough it's pretty much just, well. Gibberish. Except to you and whoever you're talking to. If you practice enough, you can rattle off an entire conversation in front of your teacher without her realizing you're planning on sneaking out to giant irradiated Kep Mok blood ticks during the filmstrip --- which, uh is bad and you should totally not do mm'kay -- and if they start to catch on, at that point you'll probably be good enough at it that you can invent your own."

Xander grins. "So today you can spend the whole workshop yakking to each other about anything you want to yak about -- but the catch is, you have to do it in Gibberish."

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[Open! Posted early because I'll be afk all morning teaching stuff that is sadly less fun.]

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"See, it's tasty and healthy, because everybody knows we're supposed to drink more water, right?"

"Plus afterward was a strong urge to floss and brush my teeth," Willow said. "It really is a health food!"

"I think we're missing out on a whole range of marketing gimmicks here," Xander said thoughtfully. "Pretty sure we could sell the idea to Hostess for a nice chunk of change."

"Angela should get a cut of the profits, since she came up with it," Willow said. "I just supplied the donuts."

"That's fair," Xander said, nodding. "Hey, she's from before us, right? She could sell it in... ninety-four, right? And then invest the profits for us. In Google or something."

"Go you with the smartness!" Willow said, proudly. "No wonder you're getting so good at teaching."

"I feel truly proud to have taught a new generation of teenagers how to scam their teachers and steal sugary treats from each other," Xander said, nodding.

"Somebody has to," Willow said. She got a spare plastic spoon and reached over to help herself to some of the ice cream. "So do you do boy talk now? Do you want to?"

Xander sucked on his spoon and raised his eyebrows. "Define 'boy talk' ?"

"Talking about boys," Willow replied. "Specifically ours. Which would be Peter and Bridge."

"Ahhhhh. That kind of boy talk. Yeah, I guess I do that." Xander nodded.

By the immediate doofy grin on her face, it was clear Willow had come prepared for this conversation. "Peter says he's falling for me."

"That would be in the figurative 'awwww' sense, not the 'unconscious in the emergency clinic for a week after landing at the bottom of the stairs' sense, right?" Xander asked, tongue possibly in his cheek, or that might've been ice cream. "'Cause with some of the guys around here you do have to ask."

"Figurative 'awwww' sense," Willow said, smile still in place. "He's really nice. I like him, Xander."

"He's a good guy. And...also not breaking any mirrors." Xander darted a look at her. "Do we, uh, say things like that in boy talk, or are we supposed to pretend we don't notice the relative cuteness factor of our BFF's boyfriends? I kind of did a lot of that on purpose before, so I'm not real sure what the actual accepted practice is."

"It's allowed," Willow said. "Because yeah. Wow with the pretty. Also? Accent. Not saying I deliberately sought that out but as long as we're having the shallow moment..."

"Don't knock the shallow; it covers... most of my early high school dating history and okay possibly not a selling point, but anyway." Xander glanced down at his knees, which had become suddenly fascinating. "I may have a certain not entirely fathoms-deep thing about arms."

Willow gave a vigorous nod. "Abs."

"Those are also nice." La la la so not looking up la la la.

"And laps. And that thing where they pick you up and - " Willow trailed off, looking at Xander. "Okay, maybe not so much for you and Bridge, but I'm gaining all new appreciations for boyfriends that come with a height difference."

Okay, Xander did look up for that one, and laughed. "Well, mine comes with a height difference too. Just the other way around. Which is good for other things."

"Keeping him from tickling you?" Willow asked, being the voice of experience here though on the other end.

"I was more thinking the top of his head makes a good chin-rest." Xander frowned. "I don't seem to have a lot of luck using the height-advantage for tickle-stoppage." Not, granted, that he'd ever tried all that hard.

"Peter does sometimes but then he totally falls for the pout," Willow said, proudly. "Then there's smoochies. He's very good at that."

"I think I cut out the middleman and go straight to falling for the pout," Xander said thoughtfully. "Gets to the smoochies faster."

Re: Talk to Xander

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