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Mary's studying languages tonight, which means there's a lot of muttered German coming from a table in the corner.
It's an unfortunate fact that no matter how often she repeats a sentence, or how correct her grammer is, her accent stubbornly fails to conform itself to 'native German speaker' and continues to quite clearly convey 'British
It's an unfortunate fact that no matter how often she repeats a sentence, or how correct her grammer is, her accent stubbornly fails to conform itself to 'native German speaker' and continues to quite clearly convey 'British
He looks to be going over some of his own work files at the table next to hers.
John had been listening in for the past little while, not entirely surprised that he had gone unnoticed this whole time; and being terribly busy with paperwork (and being a little antisocial), preferred to remain so.
But then he'd allowed himself a break, complete with a cup of tea.
So, there's an attempt at being amiable.
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She raises an eyebrow. "Do you speak it?"
If he does, perhaps she can rope him into practicing with her - not, of course, that she intends to let him know that she needs the practice. Dignity must be preserved.
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The fact that he isn't fluent in it feels, to him, like a bit of a weakness. (Even if that's completely ridiculous. He knows plenty of other more relevant languages instead.)
He clears his throat.
"German hasn't been terribly important to learn in my world."
Mostly because they're a small, almost insignificant nation right now.
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"It is about to become extremely important in mine," she tells him. "We are going to be at war with Germany quite soon."
The corollary, Mary feels, is self-evident. One ought to know one's enemy.
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... well.
"Ah. It's Germany you'll be at war against?" He remembers her telling something about war and spies during their last talk.
Germany poses no sort of threat in his world at the moment. Their conflict lies with Prague.
Ah, Prague.
(He is then reminded that he is to board a plane in a few hours.)
"I never did get your name the last time."
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"I am Mary Lennox."
She says her own name as if it would be capitalized even if capitalizing names were not a standard rule of punctuation; as if it is already, obviously, One To Know.
"What is yours?"
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Oh, Mary.
You've met your match with John. The boy oozes out that sort of confident attitude as well. It's a survival skill, really.
"I'm John Mandrake," he replies in a similar tone. He thinks about adding the rest of his title into his introduction, but while he is all for demonstrating his place in the world, redundancy isn't exactly appropriate right now.
"So. A world war? How did Germany learn to gain so much power? And when did it start?"
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"Austria, and Serbia - but Austria is allied with Germany, and Serbia with Russia. And then more and more alliances, and more and more nations joining in, because they are frightened of their enemies winning and growing too powerful - that is all! It is not as if anyone in England cared about Serbia."
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He remains as carefully composed as ever, listening as though she's just told him about the weather.
"Well. The world really will make quite a mess of itself," he remarks. "And the Americas? Where are they in this?"
Does that mean they fall? Did they succumb to the British Empire after all - at least on one version of Earth?
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There are a few areas that Mary has not perhaps researched so thoroughly as she ought.
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