![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: Black Edelweiss
Series: Zeitgeist
Follows: One Giant Leap
Wordcount: 2,064
Summary: Two weeks after Claire Bennet's televised leap from the Ferris wheel, the 12th handles it's first case delving into the strange world of specials. Evidence points the investigation toward a former Company Agent, a man Noah Bennet would swear up and down doesn't exist.
Details: Minimal details due to inflation. Full warnings and details in main post.
PREV: Chapter Fifteen // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Sixteen
Konrad & Angela—Toulouse, France; July 1969
Angela frowned slightly, squinting as she tried to make sense of the notes spread out upon her lap.
Konrad's handwriting could be almost impossible to read until one got used to it—and even then, occasionally presented a significant challenge. Of course, whenever he was called out on its illegibility, the immortal preferred to call it "eccentric". Daniel had joked more than once that Konrad's ability to absorb the abilities of other specials might extend to other traits as well, as if that could be responsible for the numerous bizarre quirks in his penmanship as well. Still, however one chose to describe it, the ironic fact remained that, for a man whose talents included the ability to speak nearly any language flawlessly, Konrad's facility with handwritten communication was almost zero.
Angela resolved to be the one to speak with Adam the next time they updated the information on their mission—even if she had to beat Konrad away from the phone with a stick.
Still focused on the difficult task of deciphering Konrad's notes, Angela almost didn't notice the car attendant approach with his cart.
"Messieurs dames. Voulez-vous quelque chose?"
In his seat across from her Konrad turned away from his quiet scan of the world flashing past the train window, offering the man a friendly smile.
"Je prendrai La Dépêche et une boîte de tabac, s'il vous plait," Konrad said, nodding as he fished out his wallet and his pipe case.
"Voilà, Monsieur."
Money was exchanged, and the man handed Konrad a copy of La Dépêche and a tin of pipe tobacco.
"Merci bien," Konrad thanked the man, smiling gratefully.
"Madame?" the man asked, turning his attention to her.
"Rien, merci," Angela said, declining politely. "Je partage le papier."
The man favored her with a confused stare and Konrad, who had been loading his pipe, smiled.
"Elle veux dire 'le journal'," Konrad clarified helpfully. "Nouse le liront à deux."
Angela did her best to look abashed, throwing the man an apologetic smile. She understood French almost perfectly, but she could hardly speak it to save her life. Her vocabulary was a little limited, but that was hardly her largest obstacle. Apparently her accent was so poor that even Konrad often had difficulty understanding what she was saying.
"Je vois," the attendant said, smiling politely as he returned to his cart. "Bonne journée."
"Merci beaucoup, Monsieur," Angela returned, enunciating carefully.
She sat back in her seat, returning to the notes with a sigh. When a few frustrated moments of study failed to clarify anything more Angela finally gave up, folding them back into the envelope and setting them aside.
"If 'le journal' is a newspaper," she asked Konrad idly, "what would I use for 'diary'?"
Konrad didn't respond. Looking over, Angela saw him studying the news paper unfolded in front of him with a troubled frown, the pipe in his mouth still unlit. Angela smiled.
"I don't care what Charles tells you," she said teasingly, "it doesn't make you look any older."
When Konrad failed to respond to the jibe, or give any sign that he had heard her, Angela began to get worried.
"Konrad?" When he failed to respond to his name, she raised her voice a little louder. "Konrad, are you okay?"
Finally he seemed to snap out of it, answering her with a questioning hum around the stem of his pipe.
"You just got quiet," she told him.
It was something she had experienced a few times since the immortal had joined the Company. Konrad was generally a rather friendly, energetic person, but every now and then he was struck by moments where his whole personality seemed to dim. And Angela had heard the phrase "lost in thought" used numerous times in her life, but it wasn't until she met Konrad that it ever really meant anything. Because he really did look frighteningly lost at times as he wandered whatever roads he had gone down in his head. Those moments never lasted long, however, and Angela wasn't sure why they always left her so unsettled.
Yet the fact remained that they always did.
"Sorry," Konrad said softly, "just...distracted."
But while his apology certainly felt sincere, Konrad still seemed rather subdued. He set the paper on his lap, smoothing out the folds with unnecessary attention. Though his eyes scanned the paper again, she didn't think he was really reading it. Not now. Leaning over, just close enough read the headline, Angela saw that it was about the recent moon landing. She couldn't connect it with his reaction, not right away, and she had just opened her mouth to ask him when he spoke.
"It catches me off guard sometimes," Konrad said, his voice soft and a little distant, "all the things Adam has seen during his long life. He fought in the Revolutionary War. Did you know that? He was already old, then, and America was just being born... He watched empires rise and fall in Europe, he watched the world become electrified. He remembers the invention of flight—"
"Perhaps," Angela interrupted. His voice had picked up energy as he went and, while his earlier quiet distress had been worrying, there had been a frantic note underneath it that she hadn't liked any better. "Though for all we know, there might have been a man with our sort of capabilities who flew long before then."
Angela phrased it lightly, as a joke. She saw him recognize that much, and his slight smile put her somewhat at ease. Though, after a moment, the expression turned a little wry. A little sad.
"I suppose," Konrad said, setting the paper on the seat beside him. "I mean, people like us can do some amazing things. But we shouldn't let ourselves forget how much we're are capable of without them."
"Would you ever give it up?" Angela asked curiously, detecting something behind his words that she couldn't quite get a grip on, and determined to try and feel it out. "I mean, do you really think you could survive being reduced to a boring monoglot like the rest of us?"
Konrad smiled a little at her words, turning his head to hide it with a little embarrassment.
"You know, your French really is improving beautifully," he said.
"Don't change the subject," Angela said. "Konrad, your understanding of the way people communicate—the world is open to you in a way most of us probably couldn't even imagine. Would you really give that up?"
Konrad delayed his answer, frowning as he stowed his pipe back in its case, and the case back in his pocket.
"Given the choice, I wouldn't give up my facility with language," he admitted finally.
"But," Konrad continued hesitantly, "if it came down to it...I think might make that sacrifice if I could be free of my immortality."
Angela stared at him for a shocked moment.
"I don't understand, why—"
The smile he returned to her was kind, but so sad that it cut off her words abruptly. He didn't speak right away. His eyes slid from hers for a moment, looking out the window— No, at his reflection in the window's glass.
"We're posing as brother and sister on this mission," Konrad said, looking back at her, "and already people assume I'm the younger sibling. But I'm old enough to be your father, Angela. Eventually, if you and I keep going on assignments like this, I would have to pose as your nephew or your son...maybe even your grandson one day."
Angela understood his meaning, though her nose crinkled slightly.
"I don't anticipate being involved with field work when I'm old enough to be a grandmother," she argued lightly, relieved when the words earned a smile.
The smile dimmed a little as Konrad sat back with a sigh, sparing another glance at the newspaper on the seat beside him.
"I just worry..." Konrad said after another short silence. "Adam...he's become so callous. It's easy for him to set aside the things he's lost—he's grown used to losing them. But...at the same time he holds onto other parts of his past in...very ugly ways."
"This is about the argument you two had before we left for the mission," Angela concluded.
Konrad seemed to consider a moment before he gave a reluctant nod.
"He wanted Kaito with me on this mission," Konrad told her. "He was angry when I insisted your grasp of the language made you a better choice."
Angela thought about that for a moment. She thought about that, and about a few other strange moments she had witnessed between the older immortal and Kaito Nakamura. Putting them together, she realized there was something more going on than she had seen. Though the subject clearly made Konrad uncomfortable, she decided to ask.
"He has some kind of special interest in Kaito, doesn't he?"
Konrad's forehead wrote itself into one of those complicated expressions of his. She thought she saw a lot of worry in it. Finally, he let out a slow breath, seeming to commit to his answer.
"Back in the 17th century," Konrad said, "before Adam learned of his ability, he met a man named Hiro Nakamura. A man who claimed to be a time traveler. They were friends, at first, but apparently Hiro betrayed his trust, and Adam wants me to get close to Kaito so that I can find out what the connection is. He refuses to believe it's a coincidence, and I don't blame him. He wants to know whether Hiro was Kaito's ancestor or his descendent, and..."
Konrad trailed off into silence for a moment.
"And I don't know what I'm going to tell him if it's the latter," Konrad finally added. "I don't like to think about what Adam might do if I did."
Konrad shook his head, as if trying to dismiss the thought, but it seemed to cling stubbornly.
"I can't even imagine what it would be like," he said, voice filled with both wonder and horror, "holding a grudge for almost three hundred years."
Speechless, Angela could only agree. The thought was...disturbing, to say the least.
For a while they rode in silence, the repetitive noises of the train filling the emptiness between them. But in the time she had known him, in spite of those strange, still moments of his, Konrad had never been one to suffer silence for very long.
"So how does Arthur feel about taking care of your little boy while you're off 'visiting family'," he asked teasingly.
Angela let out an amused snort.
"We do have an au paire," she said. "Arthur's busy trying to get his practice established."
"And the other thing?" Konrad asked carefully, after a moment.
His short-lived humor had evaporated, and she thought he regretted bringing the subject up at all. Her eyes left his and she stared out the window for a moment as she considered her answer. But there was nothing she could tell him but the truth, however little either of them would like it.
"My dreams have suggested Arthur has the potential to become the most powerful of us," she said distantly, eyes still on the passing scenery. "He may even be like you."
She looked back to see his frown, full of concern. She sighed.
"My place at Arthur's side is necessary to guide that for our future," Angela insisted, "but we've agreed it's best if Danny handles the revelation—about the Company, about specials. Arthur's...not ready to know about my part in it. Not yet."
"Doesn't that ever bother you?" Konrad asked.
Angela knew Konrad hated it, that her marriage to Arthur had been built from false pretenses and not real love. It almost seemed to hurt him more than it hurt her, which was...really kind of sweet of him, in a way. But while Konrad had disagreed with Angela's methods, he was resigned to her commitment, at least. Once Nathan was born, it had been impossible for any of them to doubt it.
"And I do care about Arthur," she told him, soothingly.
That much was certainly true—as she had grown closer to the man, it had been impossible not to. The words didn't seem to ease Konrad's concerns very much, however. His silence drew out uncomfortably.
"Relationships built on lies don't last," Konrad said, finally, looking away.
And there was such an ache in his voice and a pain in his eyes that Angela knew he was speaking from experience.
"Sometimes the lies are a necessary evil," Angela said, sure of herself.
Though he was visibly unhappy, Konrad didn't—and very probably couldn't—disagree.
PREV: Chapter Fifteen // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Sixteen
Author's Note: I thought I had this scene pretty well established in my head. Konrad was going to use the moon landing as an opportunity to wangst about his immortality some more. Then I thought about the date and remembered that the Heroes comic "War Buddies" would likely already have happened, and Angela would already be married to Arthur.
The comic wasn't very specific about when exactly Daniel Linderman approached Arthur after their experiences in Vietnam, and how long it was after that that Arthur learned about his wife's ability, so I decided this probably took place before either of those things happened. The fact that Angela was married to Arthur before he even found out about specials (and judging by his reaction to Linderman's power, obviously before his own ability manifested) seemed significant.
And out of nowhere, my brain cooked up this theory...which really explains so much about Arthur and Angela's relationship it's not even funny.
The joke about Angela's French arose because this scene was originally going to be from Konrad's point of view. I remembered that she spoke it, but really needed to know with what level of fluency, because language always matters with Konrad.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
adja999 rewatched the conversation between Angela and Rene, and apparently her accent is...pretty darned bad. Even when I switched it to her perspective I had to use that, it's just funny.
By the way, La Dépêche is a real newspaper, which adja999 was kind enough to dig up a picture of the article on the moon landing for...that I promptly lost the link to. I found another copy of the picture, but it's real shitty quality.
Also, because it was a long time ago, and my memory is horrible, and I have a tendency to accidentally delete all my PMs (followed by my swearing very loudly), apart from the help with the opening dialogue I don't remember how much of the scene itself was adja's direct creation, so I'll give general thanks for helping with everything she helped with. :)
(P.S. Any mistakes from copying or altering her dialog are totally my fault.)
Translations:
"Messieurs dames. Voulez-vous quelque chose?" - "Ladies, gents. Do you want something?"
"Je prendrai La Dépêche et une boîte de tabac, s'il vous plait." - "I'll take La Dépêche and a tin of tobacco, please."
"Voilà, Monsieur." - "Here, sir."
"Merci bien." - "Thanks a bunch."
"Rien, merci. Je partage le papier." - "No, thank you. I share [sic] the paper [in the sense of the material]."
"Elle veux dire 'le journal'. Nous le liront à deux." - "She means 'the newspaper'. We'll read it together."
"Je vois. Bonne journée." - "I see, have a good day."
"Merci beaucoup, Monsieur." - "Thank you very much, sir."
Series: Zeitgeist
Follows: One Giant Leap
Wordcount: 2,064
Summary: Two weeks after Claire Bennet's televised leap from the Ferris wheel, the 12th handles it's first case delving into the strange world of specials. Evidence points the investigation toward a former Company Agent, a man Noah Bennet would swear up and down doesn't exist.
Details: Minimal details due to inflation. Full warnings and details in main post.
PREV: Chapter Fifteen // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Sixteen
Konrad & Angela—Toulouse, France; July 1969
Angela frowned slightly, squinting as she tried to make sense of the notes spread out upon her lap.
Konrad's handwriting could be almost impossible to read until one got used to it—and even then, occasionally presented a significant challenge. Of course, whenever he was called out on its illegibility, the immortal preferred to call it "eccentric". Daniel had joked more than once that Konrad's ability to absorb the abilities of other specials might extend to other traits as well, as if that could be responsible for the numerous bizarre quirks in his penmanship as well. Still, however one chose to describe it, the ironic fact remained that, for a man whose talents included the ability to speak nearly any language flawlessly, Konrad's facility with handwritten communication was almost zero.
Angela resolved to be the one to speak with Adam the next time they updated the information on their mission—even if she had to beat Konrad away from the phone with a stick.
Still focused on the difficult task of deciphering Konrad's notes, Angela almost didn't notice the car attendant approach with his cart.
"Messieurs dames. Voulez-vous quelque chose?"
In his seat across from her Konrad turned away from his quiet scan of the world flashing past the train window, offering the man a friendly smile.
"Je prendrai La Dépêche et une boîte de tabac, s'il vous plait," Konrad said, nodding as he fished out his wallet and his pipe case.
"Voilà, Monsieur."
Money was exchanged, and the man handed Konrad a copy of La Dépêche and a tin of pipe tobacco.
"Merci bien," Konrad thanked the man, smiling gratefully.
"Madame?" the man asked, turning his attention to her.
"Rien, merci," Angela said, declining politely. "Je partage le papier."
The man favored her with a confused stare and Konrad, who had been loading his pipe, smiled.
"Elle veux dire 'le journal'," Konrad clarified helpfully. "Nouse le liront à deux."
Angela did her best to look abashed, throwing the man an apologetic smile. She understood French almost perfectly, but she could hardly speak it to save her life. Her vocabulary was a little limited, but that was hardly her largest obstacle. Apparently her accent was so poor that even Konrad often had difficulty understanding what she was saying.
"Je vois," the attendant said, smiling politely as he returned to his cart. "Bonne journée."
"Merci beaucoup, Monsieur," Angela returned, enunciating carefully.
She sat back in her seat, returning to the notes with a sigh. When a few frustrated moments of study failed to clarify anything more Angela finally gave up, folding them back into the envelope and setting them aside.
"If 'le journal' is a newspaper," she asked Konrad idly, "what would I use for 'diary'?"
Konrad didn't respond. Looking over, Angela saw him studying the news paper unfolded in front of him with a troubled frown, the pipe in his mouth still unlit. Angela smiled.
"I don't care what Charles tells you," she said teasingly, "it doesn't make you look any older."
When Konrad failed to respond to the jibe, or give any sign that he had heard her, Angela began to get worried.
"Konrad?" When he failed to respond to his name, she raised her voice a little louder. "Konrad, are you okay?"
Finally he seemed to snap out of it, answering her with a questioning hum around the stem of his pipe.
"You just got quiet," she told him.
It was something she had experienced a few times since the immortal had joined the Company. Konrad was generally a rather friendly, energetic person, but every now and then he was struck by moments where his whole personality seemed to dim. And Angela had heard the phrase "lost in thought" used numerous times in her life, but it wasn't until she met Konrad that it ever really meant anything. Because he really did look frighteningly lost at times as he wandered whatever roads he had gone down in his head. Those moments never lasted long, however, and Angela wasn't sure why they always left her so unsettled.
Yet the fact remained that they always did.
"Sorry," Konrad said softly, "just...distracted."
But while his apology certainly felt sincere, Konrad still seemed rather subdued. He set the paper on his lap, smoothing out the folds with unnecessary attention. Though his eyes scanned the paper again, she didn't think he was really reading it. Not now. Leaning over, just close enough read the headline, Angela saw that it was about the recent moon landing. She couldn't connect it with his reaction, not right away, and she had just opened her mouth to ask him when he spoke.
"It catches me off guard sometimes," Konrad said, his voice soft and a little distant, "all the things Adam has seen during his long life. He fought in the Revolutionary War. Did you know that? He was already old, then, and America was just being born... He watched empires rise and fall in Europe, he watched the world become electrified. He remembers the invention of flight—"
"Perhaps," Angela interrupted. His voice had picked up energy as he went and, while his earlier quiet distress had been worrying, there had been a frantic note underneath it that she hadn't liked any better. "Though for all we know, there might have been a man with our sort of capabilities who flew long before then."
Angela phrased it lightly, as a joke. She saw him recognize that much, and his slight smile put her somewhat at ease. Though, after a moment, the expression turned a little wry. A little sad.
"I suppose," Konrad said, setting the paper on the seat beside him. "I mean, people like us can do some amazing things. But we shouldn't let ourselves forget how much we're are capable of without them."
"Would you ever give it up?" Angela asked curiously, detecting something behind his words that she couldn't quite get a grip on, and determined to try and feel it out. "I mean, do you really think you could survive being reduced to a boring monoglot like the rest of us?"
Konrad smiled a little at her words, turning his head to hide it with a little embarrassment.
"You know, your French really is improving beautifully," he said.
"Don't change the subject," Angela said. "Konrad, your understanding of the way people communicate—the world is open to you in a way most of us probably couldn't even imagine. Would you really give that up?"
Konrad delayed his answer, frowning as he stowed his pipe back in its case, and the case back in his pocket.
"Given the choice, I wouldn't give up my facility with language," he admitted finally.
"But," Konrad continued hesitantly, "if it came down to it...I think might make that sacrifice if I could be free of my immortality."
Angela stared at him for a shocked moment.
"I don't understand, why—"
The smile he returned to her was kind, but so sad that it cut off her words abruptly. He didn't speak right away. His eyes slid from hers for a moment, looking out the window— No, at his reflection in the window's glass.
"We're posing as brother and sister on this mission," Konrad said, looking back at her, "and already people assume I'm the younger sibling. But I'm old enough to be your father, Angela. Eventually, if you and I keep going on assignments like this, I would have to pose as your nephew or your son...maybe even your grandson one day."
Angela understood his meaning, though her nose crinkled slightly.
"I don't anticipate being involved with field work when I'm old enough to be a grandmother," she argued lightly, relieved when the words earned a smile.
The smile dimmed a little as Konrad sat back with a sigh, sparing another glance at the newspaper on the seat beside him.
"I just worry..." Konrad said after another short silence. "Adam...he's become so callous. It's easy for him to set aside the things he's lost—he's grown used to losing them. But...at the same time he holds onto other parts of his past in...very ugly ways."
"This is about the argument you two had before we left for the mission," Angela concluded.
Konrad seemed to consider a moment before he gave a reluctant nod.
"He wanted Kaito with me on this mission," Konrad told her. "He was angry when I insisted your grasp of the language made you a better choice."
Angela thought about that for a moment. She thought about that, and about a few other strange moments she had witnessed between the older immortal and Kaito Nakamura. Putting them together, she realized there was something more going on than she had seen. Though the subject clearly made Konrad uncomfortable, she decided to ask.
"He has some kind of special interest in Kaito, doesn't he?"
Konrad's forehead wrote itself into one of those complicated expressions of his. She thought she saw a lot of worry in it. Finally, he let out a slow breath, seeming to commit to his answer.
"Back in the 17th century," Konrad said, "before Adam learned of his ability, he met a man named Hiro Nakamura. A man who claimed to be a time traveler. They were friends, at first, but apparently Hiro betrayed his trust, and Adam wants me to get close to Kaito so that I can find out what the connection is. He refuses to believe it's a coincidence, and I don't blame him. He wants to know whether Hiro was Kaito's ancestor or his descendent, and..."
Konrad trailed off into silence for a moment.
"And I don't know what I'm going to tell him if it's the latter," Konrad finally added. "I don't like to think about what Adam might do if I did."
Konrad shook his head, as if trying to dismiss the thought, but it seemed to cling stubbornly.
"I can't even imagine what it would be like," he said, voice filled with both wonder and horror, "holding a grudge for almost three hundred years."
Speechless, Angela could only agree. The thought was...disturbing, to say the least.
For a while they rode in silence, the repetitive noises of the train filling the emptiness between them. But in the time she had known him, in spite of those strange, still moments of his, Konrad had never been one to suffer silence for very long.
"So how does Arthur feel about taking care of your little boy while you're off 'visiting family'," he asked teasingly.
Angela let out an amused snort.
"We do have an au paire," she said. "Arthur's busy trying to get his practice established."
"And the other thing?" Konrad asked carefully, after a moment.
His short-lived humor had evaporated, and she thought he regretted bringing the subject up at all. Her eyes left his and she stared out the window for a moment as she considered her answer. But there was nothing she could tell him but the truth, however little either of them would like it.
"My dreams have suggested Arthur has the potential to become the most powerful of us," she said distantly, eyes still on the passing scenery. "He may even be like you."
She looked back to see his frown, full of concern. She sighed.
"My place at Arthur's side is necessary to guide that for our future," Angela insisted, "but we've agreed it's best if Danny handles the revelation—about the Company, about specials. Arthur's...not ready to know about my part in it. Not yet."
"Doesn't that ever bother you?" Konrad asked.
Angela knew Konrad hated it, that her marriage to Arthur had been built from false pretenses and not real love. It almost seemed to hurt him more than it hurt her, which was...really kind of sweet of him, in a way. But while Konrad had disagreed with Angela's methods, he was resigned to her commitment, at least. Once Nathan was born, it had been impossible for any of them to doubt it.
"And I do care about Arthur," she told him, soothingly.
That much was certainly true—as she had grown closer to the man, it had been impossible not to. The words didn't seem to ease Konrad's concerns very much, however. His silence drew out uncomfortably.
"Relationships built on lies don't last," Konrad said, finally, looking away.
And there was such an ache in his voice and a pain in his eyes that Angela knew he was speaking from experience.
"Sometimes the lies are a necessary evil," Angela said, sure of herself.
Though he was visibly unhappy, Konrad didn't—and very probably couldn't—disagree.
PREV: Chapter Fifteen // MAIN // NEXT: Chapter Sixteen
Author's Note: I thought I had this scene pretty well established in my head. Konrad was going to use the moon landing as an opportunity to wangst about his immortality some more. Then I thought about the date and remembered that the Heroes comic "War Buddies" would likely already have happened, and Angela would already be married to Arthur.
The comic wasn't very specific about when exactly Daniel Linderman approached Arthur after their experiences in Vietnam, and how long it was after that that Arthur learned about his wife's ability, so I decided this probably took place before either of those things happened. The fact that Angela was married to Arthur before he even found out about specials (and judging by his reaction to Linderman's power, obviously before his own ability manifested) seemed significant.
And out of nowhere, my brain cooked up this theory...which really explains so much about Arthur and Angela's relationship it's not even funny.
The joke about Angela's French arose because this scene was originally going to be from Konrad's point of view. I remembered that she spoke it, but really needed to know with what level of fluency, because language always matters with Konrad.
adja999 rewatched the conversation between Angela and Rene, and apparently her accent is...pretty darned bad. Even when I switched it to her perspective I had to use that, it's just funny.By the way, La Dépêche is a real newspaper, which adja999 was kind enough to dig up a picture of the article on the moon landing for...that I promptly lost the link to. I found another copy of the picture, but it's real shitty quality.
Also, because it was a long time ago, and my memory is horrible, and I have a tendency to accidentally delete all my PMs (followed by my swearing very loudly), apart from the help with the opening dialogue I don't remember how much of the scene itself was adja's direct creation, so I'll give general thanks for helping with everything she helped with. :)
(P.S. Any mistakes from copying or altering her dialog are totally my fault.)
Translations:
"Messieurs dames. Voulez-vous quelque chose?" - "Ladies, gents. Do you want something?"
"Je prendrai La Dépêche et une boîte de tabac, s'il vous plait." - "I'll take La Dépêche and a tin of tobacco, please."
"Voilà, Monsieur." - "Here, sir."
"Merci bien." - "Thanks a bunch."
"Rien, merci. Je partage le papier." - "No, thank you. I share [sic] the paper [in the sense of the material]."
"Elle veux dire 'le journal'. Nous le liront à deux." - "She means 'the newspaper'. We'll read it together."
"Je vois. Bonne journée." - "I see, have a good day."
"Merci beaucoup, Monsieur." - "Thank you very much, sir."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Friday, 17 August 2012 02:16 am (UTC)From:I think Adam should have killed Kaito on general principles, but I can see that such might be a bit pointless. It would suck to kill every single living Nakamura only to find that a hundred years later, the urban legend of the Nakamura massacre prompted some random Asian-looking dude to name himself after the clan ... and then just happened to manifest the ability of time traveling.
I loved the translations. Mostly I loved trying to figure them out, knowing I wouldn't be denied finding out the truth at the end.
I'm still trying to work out why Angela and Arthur married. It started off loveless ... okay ... but if neither of them had desire for the other, and there were no parents around to arrange it, and there was no child on the way or economic incentive, then why did they marry? Did Angela have a dream that they should?
This: "My place at his side is necessary to guide that for our future," Angela said, "but Danny and I both agree it's better to let him handle the revelation. Arthur's...not ready to know about my part in it. Not yet."
I don't know who 'his side' refers to, or 'let him' would be. Is it supposed to be a mystery, or am I just dense?
no subject
Date: Friday, 17 August 2012 02:39 am (UTC)From:I guess the part about Angela and Arthur really is kind of vague. I'll have to see if I can fix it.
Basically, Angela had a dream that Arthur would be powerful and important, so she insinuated herself into his life (either on her own, or as a plan agreed upon within the Company). The marriage began as loveless from her perspective, since she originally got involved with him solely to maneuver him for the sake of the Company's agenda. Though not from Arthur's, because at this point he has no idea to think he's being manipulated.
By "his side", Angela means Aurthur's side. She married him to guide the future in their favor. By "let him", she means Daniel, i.e letting Linderman introduce Arthur to the idea of specials, the way it went down in "War Stories".
At the very least the pronoun confusion should be easy to fix.
no subject
Date: Friday, 17 August 2012 03:03 am (UTC)From:"My place at Arthur's side is necessary to guide that for our future," Angela insisted, "but we've agred it's best if Danny handles the revelation—about the Company, about specials. Arthur's...not ready to know about my part in it. Not yet."
"Doesn't that ever bother you?" Konrad asked.
She knew Konrad hated it, that her marriage had been based on false pretenses and not real love. It almost seemed to hurt him more than it hurt her, which was...really kind of sweet of him, in a way. But while Konrad had disagreed with Angela's methods, he was resigned to her commitment, at least. After Nathan was born, it had been impossible for any of them to doubt it.