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Interpretation

Interpretationby Red Wolf

Dawn stared at the text and turned back to her notes, it still didn't make sense. Well it did, sort of, but the two contenders she was working with were diametrically opposed in meaning.

She'd been working on this partcular document for weeks and had the basic gist of it, she knew it wasn't perfect, no better than a machine translation could provide in parts, but the essence of the text was there.

The problem was that Grettykol was a very nuance rich language that relied on tone to covey meaning and, as she couldn't pronounce the language and the Grettykol didn't deign to use distinct accents in their written script, she was left clutching at straws for some of the more esoteric passages.

"Penny for your thoughts." Spike interrupted her deliberation of a tricky compound character.

"Do Grettykol demons have a sense of humour?" She tapped the end of the pencil against her teeth.

Spike took a seat beside her and looked over the scroll. "They find killing small children amusing, but I don't think they're known for their great comic repertoire. Why?"

Dawn made another notation, crossing out her first guess and appending the second. "It seems that the hero of the story is either raining down fire and damnation on his enemies or entertaining a guest by slinging flaming jesters at them. I don't know enough about the species to even hazard a guess at their qualities as hosts, so the second may well be correct, as silly as it sounds."

Reading over the notes Dawn had made, Spike could see her problem. "Nasty. Although if I had the choice I think I'd opt for death by volcano over the clowns."

Smiling at the weirdness of the translation. Dawn had to agree, nobody deserved a clown.
15 Minute Ficlets — challenge #91: translation

Published Babble Horde — 26.01.2005
Published fanfiction.net — 31.01.2005
Published Forever Fandom — 31.01.2005
Published The Slayer's Fanfic Archive — 31.01.2005

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Comments

I'm with Spike. Clowns=creepy. Nice one. :-) — via LiveJournal — posted by Anne at 03.02.2005 13:14 AEST | #
Flinging them out of a trebuchet would be amusing. What pretty pictures they would make as they hit the wall — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 03.02.2005 13:15 AEST | #
::grins:: I like the flaming jesters idea. Splat! — via LiveJournal — posted by Willa at 03.02.2005 13:18 AEST | #
If clowns are involved there should be a nice solid splat accompanying them — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 03.02.2005 13:18 AEST | #
lol, i love the snarkiness of your spike/dawn ficlets! — via LiveJournal — posted by Pheral at 03.02.2005 13:19 AEST | #
Happy you enjoy them and don't get me started on the wrongness or the word snark — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 03.02.2005 13:20 AEST | #
::proceeds to absolutely not get Wolf started:: — via LiveJournal — posted by Pheral at 03.02.2005 13:20 AEST | #
Dawn's so right! No one deserves a clown! ::shudders:: Cute ficlet! — via LiveJournal — posted by Jessica at 03.02.2005 13:21 AEST | #
Not even if you flambéed one and flung it against an immovable object? — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 03.02.2005 13:22 AEST | #
Funny. I always like seeing Dawn and Spike interact. They almost have a big brother/little sister vibe going, but there's always an undertone to it... — via LiveJournal — posted by Jen at 03.02.2005 13:25 AEST | #
I like the undertone of things and manage to get a lot of drabbles in a grey area where intent is determined by the reader's preference — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 03.02.2005 13:26 AEST | #
::snicker"" Isn't translation fun?

(Last sentence is a run-on, btw) — via LiveJournal — posted by Elizabeth Culmer at 03.02.2005 13:27 AEST | #
Fixed the sentence. Thanks — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 03.02.2005 13:27 AEST | #
I know of a few people who deserve the clowns... — via LiveJournal — posted by tsita at 03.02.2005 13:28 AEST | #
Flaming clowns? But do they deserve a mime? — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 03.02.2005 13:28 AEST | #
::thinks of son's idiot DNA donor:: Yes! — via LiveJournal — posted by tsita at 03.02.2005 13:29 AEST | #
lol. Typical evil demons, leaving ambiguous documents behind. Heh. Really cool one, I see you're having a lot of fun with this 'verse. ::G:: — via LiveJournal — posted by Leni at 03.02.2005 13:35 AEST | #
It probably makes perfect sense if you're the demon in question — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 03.02.2005 13:36 AEST | #
lol, nice punch line... — via fanfiction.net — posted by bloody-awful1880 at 03.02.2005 13:55 AEST | #
love these little ficlets! — via The Slayer's Fanfic Archive — posted by Tiffany at 07.02.2005 14:30 AEST | #
I fully agree. No one deserves a clown. Or a mime for that matter... they lock you in boxes and leave you there! Anyways, I liked this, it was good! — via fanfiction.net — posted by Blame The Llama at 07.02.2005 14:54 AEST | #
lol... great story. ^_^ — via fanfiction.net — posted by YoshimiWolfspaw at 25.03.2005 16:02 AEST | #
I've never understood clownhate, but I'm not one to judge. :) — via LiveJournal — posted by IrishVampire13 at 02.08.2005 20:54 AEST | #
It's the fake smiles. Perhaps I could send you a mime instead — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 02.08.2005 20:55 AEST | #
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