Calligraphy, RSC style.*

[bad_in_latin]

Mal's walking into the bar at the end o' the 'verse just now, and by the looks of things, he has a Plan.

Not as good as a Way, but he tries.

Mandarin Calligraphy, for Sale, Trade, or Because I Feel Like It

At least he's to the point.

[*Rogue Spaceship Captain. Ask Lilly Kane

Comments

[lissla_lissar]

A while back Lissar was described to Mal, and when she pauses by his sign it's with an interested and vaguely confused expression.

She kinda-sorta recognizes the calligraphy from the one Ironhide got her.

[bad_in_latin]

It may have been awhile, but it's kind of hard to forget a description quite like Lissar's. Once Mal notices someone has stopped near him, he looks up.

"...Oh tamade," is the first thing that comes out of his mouth.

He can't remember her name.

[lissla_lissar]

"Excuse me?" she says, dancing back a step in a manner better suited to a startled deer.

[bad_in_latin]

"Sorry, miss -- was a big talkin' robot once told me your name, but I'm completely at a loss."

For tact as well as memory, apparently.

[lissla_lissar]

"Lissar." she says, calming down a bit. The unfamiliar, untranslated word still has her nervous, "If he was black, he was my beloved Ironhide. Red and blue is Optimus, yellow and black is Bumblebee."

[bad_in_latin]

"Ironhide was the one, then. Had me do a gift for you both, if I remember?"

The fact that the word 'beloved' came up in the explanation doesn't give Mal to misstep so much as blink. A couple of times.

Puck just gave birth to a squid. He moves on quickly.

[lissla_lissar]

"Ah, so it is the same writing." Lissar beams. She maybe should come with warning labels for that, fairy-tale princess and all. "I have it hung above the television; which is pushed so that we may watch movies together. Thank you, so very much."

[bad_in_latin]

"Not never a problem, miss." The smile is amiable enough -- he's just amused that something that requires little to no effort on his part is taken as frame-able art by so many. "Glad to help...uh...decorate."

[lissla_lissar]

Lissar's lips quirk, just a little bit, and she says; "It is the first home I have ever had. Getting something from Ironhide...I should have no greater joys in decoration."

[bad_in_latin]

A little truer of a smile, at that. "Understood."

[lissla_lissar]

The Autobots in general, and Ironhide in particular, make Lissar happy. She's even got the little Ironhide plush tucked into one of the pockets on her strange white coat, peeking over the top where he's hooked by his arms. Chances are that she'd put framed fenders on the walls if Ironhide asked her to.

"Do you do these things often?"

[bad_in_latin]

"I haven't for a while, at least -- not in the bar, anyhow. As far as how long I've been, I started learning characters as soon as I could really hold a pen."

[lissla_lissar]

"It is writing, yes?" Lissar is just checking, "My nurse, my last one, was not able to read or write well and so I had to teach myself. I am fairly good in my own tongue, but English reading and writing still confuses me."

[bad_in_latin]

"Want to show me yours?"

Mal points the handle of a fresh brush towards Lissar suggestively.

[lissla_lissar]

"It is not so fine." Lissar warns him, but she accepts the brush and carefully writes in something that looks a little bit like Arabic.

Not enough like Arabic that a speaker of that language could read it, but a little bit. And she'd be the first to admit that her penmanship with a brush is awful.

[bad_in_latin]

"But here's my point -- "

Mal sits Lissar's paper next to a working project of Mal's.

Pointing to each in turn: "That is new to me, and therefore shuai. The other one is boring, since I been doin' that most of my life. See what I mean?"