The Magic Box, Thursday

[livingartifact]

Jenkins as a teenager had been absolutely insufferable, so it was probably better for everyone involved that the magic happening this week had passed him over. Seriously, he'd be all preachy and sanctimonious and trying to save all of your souls in the name of the Heavenly Father. There was kind of a reason why his dad -- and all his fellow knights -- hated him.

So Jenkins was his usual, average self today, brewing tea and reading up on youth and aging spells and pondering whether it was worth it to try to lure people in to experiment on interrogate find out more about the de-aging's implications and effects. From the sound of the radio, the present batch of teenagers were particularly obnoxious, after all.

Ah well. Perhaps he should simply try to enjoy his peace and quiet while it lasted. The personal diary of Ponce de León was highly entertaining.

[open!]

Comments

[2_old_for_this]

Peter was mostly boggled by this whole place - none of it was remotely familiar. This building seemed to have some older things in the window, though, and one of them...he was squinting at it. Was it actually Greek? It was hard to read.

He walked inside, still trying to see the thing.

[livingartifact]

"Please don't touch anything without asking first," Jenkins called. "The stock here is likely to bite if you're not careful."

[2_old_for_this]

Peter looked over at the voice. "Δεν καταλαβαίνω," he said apologetically.



[Intended translation in the mouseover in the event Google Translate sucks.]

[livingartifact]

Jenkins looked up, eyebrows raised. "Ah. I'm afraid my Greek is a little . . . rusty. Well, you'll find out anyway if it ends up biting you, won't you. Latine loqui tibi, forsitan?*"

* Do you speak Latin, perhaps?

[2_old_for_this]

Peter smiled. "Paulo," he answered. He pointed at the thing he'd been looking at. "Graecum est hoc?"

[livingartifact]

"Est. Non potes hoc legere?"

* It is. You can't read it?

[2_old_for_this]

Peter squinted at it. "Verba non...sensus?" He could read the letters, and some of the words, but it didn't seem to mean anything.

[livingartifact]

Jenkins looked at the book and shrugged. "Dialectos esset fluxum. Nam post annos circiter milia omnis lingua fuit."

*Perhaps an issue of dialect. The language has been around for thousands of years, after all.

[2_old_for_this]

The language was...a lot of years? Oh, it was old?

Peter nodded at that. Okay, that made sense. "Quod...dicit?"

[livingartifact]

"Videamus etiam," Jenkins said, picking up the book and peering at the cover. "Quia bis in mente afferentem hanc interpretari: 'Et Neptunia proles, secundum eripere posset Filtra'"

*Well, let's see. Bearing in mind that I'm translating this twice: 'And Neptune, to be able to deliver filters'

[2_old_for_this]

...Sorry, Jenkins, Peter got roughly none of that. Well, "See", "I am", and "that".

He shook his head, disappointed.

[livingartifact]

"Hmm, yes," Jenkins said. "This may be more of an issue than we thought." He sighed, picked up a potion, shook it in the air, then pointed to the book.

Maybe he could draw a picture of a trident.

[2_old_for_this]

"Libro de bibens?"

[livingartifact]

Sure. Why not.

"Magicae bibens."

* Magic drinking.

[2_old_for_this]

"Magicae?" Peter blinked. He pointed at the bottle. "Illud?"

[livingartifact]

"Sic," Jenkins said, then gestured to the rest of the stock. "Et haec est."

* Yes. And so is all this.

[2_old_for_this]

"Omnis?" Peter looked around, awed and very carefully not touching anything.

[livingartifact]

"Non vadis, non areæ. In stock: sic."

Not the shelves or the floor. The stock, yes.

[2_old_for_this]

Peter figured out enough of that to be glad that the floor was okay.

"Quid quod facit?" he asked.

[livingartifact]

Jenkins looked at the bottle in his hand. "Capillus incrementum seri."

*Hair growth serum

[2_old_for_this]

Peter took a moment to figure out what that meant, eyed the thing, and scrunched up his nose. That seemed like a silly thing to waste magic on.