01--[Audio: English/French]

[jolie_aile]

[This particular voice on the intranets today is childish, curious, and BRAND NEW...yet familiar, at least to a small handful of people.]

--this a microphone?

[Tap. Tap tap tap. Then the voice again.]

Oh, is it recording what I say now? I should say something. Hello! My name is Flandre Scarlet, and--now what should I say?

[A moment longer

Comments

[parlezvousnaps]

[ Oh gosh, why does it have to be half in French. She replies in kind, hesitantly, and with an awful accent. It'll probably offend her delicate native-speaking ears. ] {Yes, that's the--!}

[ Crap. What's the word? ]

[ And, lacking a pause for the shift, either (and mostly because it's easier to say her name this way), she switches back to English. ] My name is Meiling. And yes, that's a microphone. Can you hear me, too? [ Maybe the young-sounding girl's machine was on the fritz? ]

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[jolie_aile]

[She makes a puzzled noise, at first. What was the computer saying?]

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[jolie_aile]

[Though when the voice switches to English, Flandre practically squeaks.]

Hello, Meiling! I can hear Meiling!

[She does stumble a bit over the Clearly Not Franch name, though.]

[parlezvousnaps]

Good! [ She claps her hands together once. ] Then it seems to be working. I was worried!

[jolie_aile]

It was broken?

[parlezvousnaps]

...wasn't it? [ Equal parts confusion, here. ]

[jolie_aile]

I don't know. I don't think it was.

[parlezvousnaps]

But that's why you were testing it, wasn't it?

[jolie_aile]

I've never seen one that looks like this before. It's so small! It looks like a spot, but sounds come out.

...or, no, sounds go in it, sounds come out of the speaker things. Why are they called speakers, anyway? They don't really speak, do they?

[parlezvousnaps]

[ She giggles. What a curious girl. ] It's so you can hear others speak! ... or instruments, though they don't really talk. [ That was a good question. ]

[jolie_aile]

...they don't have mouths?

[parlezvousnaps]

No, but they have mouth-pieces!

[jolie_aile]

Like a...puzzle?

[Flandre is imagining a mouth deconstructed into its constituent parts. Or at the very least separate pieces.]

[parlezvousnaps]

[ There is a long pause. Meiling has finally lost all track of this conversation, apparently. ] --I'm not following you.

[jolie_aile]

You said it had pieces.

[parlezvousnaps]

Yes, for your mouth! They might be complicated, but they're not puzzles...