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WHO: Sam, Taas, and Cyril
WHAT: Cyril mentioned that he was learning sign from Taas, Sam wants to learn too!
WHEN: Sometime after the illness but before Cy runs off to help Twisted Fate with his clan.
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Copious of amounts of UST.

Since the soiree, Sam had been interested in learning the sign language that Taas used. Cyril had promised to set up a lesson with Taas, but then the illness had taken place and distracted everyone. Now, though, there was time for everyone to relax and Cyril wanted to do the lesson before he left with Twisted Fate.

He found Sam and took him to meet with Taas. When they got to the qunari Cyril waved then signed 'hello' before gesturing to Sam.

"My friend wants to learn too. Do you mind having one more?" It would delay the inevitable sex that usually happened at the end of their meetings, but Cyril liked Sam enough to make that sacrifice.

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Taas was in the empty tower room where they usually had their little lessons (and trysts), washing his mouth out with some mead when Cyril arrives with Sam. He looks a little bit surprised to see the mage, but it turns into a smile as he reads the words on the elf's lips.

"Hello, Sam. You want to learn as well?"

Ah, so Cyril hadn't asked ahead if it was alright for him to join - the way he was introduced and Taas' surprise shows that. He chuckles nervously, rubbing the back of his head as he offers Taashath a smile of his own.

"Good to see you again, Taas. If it isn't too much trouble? Yes."

Cyril nudges Sam a bit at the nervousness and grins a bit. "Get comfortable okay?" he suggests and then moves to settle down a bit. He makes sure Taas is looking at him when he speaks next. "We can go over the basics for Sam. It can't hurt to get a refresher in it."

Taas rubs the back of his head a bit, his dark hair put up in a less fancy version of the soiree braids. He's smiling, though, taking a seat and rolling his shoulders a bit. "I can't say I'm... teacher-material, but I can tell you what I've taught Cyril." There's a smile and a wink. "...maybe with a little less obscenities."

He waits for them to get comfortable. Taas had to take this from the beginning, maybe even with a bit of a better explanation than what he had given Cyril during their talk. Pausing a moment, he thinks it over and then speaks again. "Now, talking in sign is not like talking with your mouth. It's a visual language that cannot be translated word-by-word."

The qunari takes out a piece of paper and writes 'axe' on it, and then his own axe. Holding the note, he smiles again. "This is language," he starts, and then holds up his axe. "...and this is sign."

At the nudge he looks at Cyril, muttering an 'alright', watching where the two of them sit before finding his own spot - just a bit closer to Taas since he would be teaching. The smile and wink have him biting his lip and giving a small nod - ah.

He's still a bit nervous even as Taas explains, nodding slowly to show that he was following up to this point. So the hand gestures he had seen were not so much words, rather than visual of what they wanted to say?

"I think I follow so far... but you don't actually use an axe to visually communicate about it with sign right?

Cyril chuckles a bit at the question. "That would be a little unwieldy," he comments, a little amused by the mental image. "You'd have to carry around an item for every word... You use your hands to imply the item instead."

The warrior chuckles as well. "Yeah, it would be an issue. Like Cyril says, it's indicated by the hand movements what you mean. So this," he makes a sign of grabbing something with two hands and making a small chop." ...is 'axe'."

He leans back a little bit, trying to figure out what more to mention. "There's also an alphabet that's used mainly for names, which is spelled with fingers. Your same would be S-a-m." Taas does the letters with his fingers as he says them.

"Otherwise every name in the world would have to have their own sign."

For a moment Sam looks at Cyril then back at Taas when they answer his question. "Ah huh... so if that is 'axe'," he says, slowly copying the movement, "then what would sword or a different weapon or tool be?" That wasn't terribly important at the moment to know, but since they were on that particular example it would probably help to know the difference.

Once more Sam tries to copy the hand motions when he sees that Taas is spelling his name, getting stuck on the second letter since he was not use to the gesture or going from one letter to another. "Are there times that a name does have their own sign? Or do you just hope they don't have a long name?"

Edited 2016-04-26 20:44 (UTC)

Cyril reaches out and helps Sam shape the 'a' though really it seems like just a good excuse to touch him. He chuckles a bit at the question.

"That's a really good question," he says, a little amused at the idea of a noble with a very long name having to spell out the whole thing.

Taas' expression is quite fond as he watches Cyril helping Sam.

"Some things don't have shortcuts. That's why fingerspelling is very fluid in the motions." The warrior shakes his head, leaning forward as if he's sharing a secret. "Sometimes, when you know someone, you could make them their own sign that only you use together." He shrugs a bit, rolling his massive shoulders again.

"Or if they're named something like Faith, you can use the sign for that... even if that might confuse other people that didn't have the full context."

Sam doesn't think much about Cyril touching him to help form the letters seeing as he's rather used to it, and it was because he was helping. Right? Still, he's enjoying the attention, hiding it behind just watching intently as his fingers are moved to 'a' and then to 'm'.

He almost asks if Taas and Cyril have such signs for each other, but he thinks better of it. That might be a private thing even if Taas had brought it up. It would make sense that they would though.

"So... instead of referring to me as Sam necessarily I might just be signed as mage or healer?" He makes sure to be looking straight at Taas to read his words, brows raising with interest.

Cyril hadn't thought of making up a sign for Taas and he isn't super what they would use anyway. He imagining something incredibly dirty.

At the question, though, Cyril lets Taas answer. He knows the sign for mage by now, but he doesn't want to just jump in when Taas is the one teaching the class.

"Yeah, but it would be the same as saying 'get the healer' and not 'get Sam'. It's less personal, but it technically works." Taas smiles again, and repeats the finger movements for 'Sam'. "This is best, in my opinion."

He starts collecting his thoughts again, trying to figure out what to teach and in which order. The warrior starts with the sign for 'mage', and then 'human'. Sam the human mage.

Then 'healer'. Sam the human mage healer. A good introduction, if anything.

"I'm qunari," he starts, and makes a sweeping gesture of horns on his head with fingers crossed. "This means 'Tal-Vashoth'. Cyril is an 'elf'-" he traces his ear to a point "-and he's 'Dalish'." The sign for Dalish was pretty long and in stages.

"...literally 'tattoo' and 'elf' put together."

"Hm." Sam once again follows along spelling out his name, having an easier time signing the letters now, but not doing it quite as quick or smoothly as Taas or even Cyril. Still he's learning. "That is nicer. Guess it's good that it's only three letters."

Following along with the other signs is simple enough, especially the ones for qunari, Tal-Vashoth, and elf. Dalish is a bit more complicated and takes a few tries before he gets the movements down. He's pretty certain there were a few he was going to need to be reminded of. "And what about Vashoth?" That seemed like it would be something he would need to know.

Cyril chuckles a bit. "That's what I asked when I was first starting to learn," he admitted. "I wanted to know what I should sign if I was talking about Korrin."

Clearly, he had priorities.

He grins even wider at that, and then keeps his fingers even, making a shorter horn motion with v-shaped fingers this time. "Vashoth." All related and originating from Qunari.

"Any other word that strikes your fancy, or should we move on to a few important sentences?"

It was a very important thing to know, also respectful to refer to them properly. Sam repeats the motion Taas does, humming lightly in thought. It made sense, but it was different enough from the others. Course he would have to be mindful of the length he made the 'V'.

"Maybe 'spirit'? After that I'm good with going onto the sentences."

Cyril settles back as he watched Sam repeat the words that Taas teaches him. Once again he feels like odd sort of happiness in his chest, similar to how he had felt watching Taas and Zevran interact. It's different here, without the sexual taste to it, but it's still warm and pleasant. He realizes he wants to see Sam and Taas become good friends at least.

He lets Taas take over for now, wanting to see how he handles the class. Also, he's just pleased to be watching them. He does practice the signs himself though, not wanting to get rusty.

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