( she smiles up at him before leaning back in and kissing him, tugging him closer to her as she wraps a leg around him, secure over his hip )
Then slowly... ( she draws the word out between kisses, keeping her language a little simpler on the hope that he can still get the idea of what she wants even if he doesn't know the language himself ) I want you. Again. And again.
( there's a kiss between each pause before she leans back down, pressing her head into the pillow, brushing his hair back with her fingers )
[ Even without the city's translation benefits, she's leaving no room to mistake what she wants from him, and he loves it. He kisses back with increasing depth and hunger each time she pauses, spurring her on with soft vibrating noises of appreciation.
His rhythm would be slow and gentle even without her express instructions, because he's cautious about these things now in a way he hasn't had to be in the past, and hadn't needed to worry about last time with her on top and setting the pace. But he doesn't mind the care, thrusting deep instead of hard, listening to the echo of her native language behind the English that the city magic superimposes.
It's been a rough and uncertain week, but for now, things are feeling right again. ]
( her head presses firmer into the pillow as he pushes in, her nails grazing over his scalp and her words become a little more murmured, not quite audible enough behind the feeling of him to be a fully formed word not even to be translated.
her leg presses a little tighter, trying to restrict his motion to smaller thrusts, her eyes closing, fingers gripping as she breaths deeply for a moment, intending to talk for as long as she can get words out, encouraged by his response to her )
If I could stay here all day I would... this bed, the couch... anywhere. See how much you have in you--
[ He lets her guide his tempo, pulling back to rock more shallowly as she twines herself around him, every little lightning bolt of sensation from her grip on his hair singing through him and heightening the ecstasy.
Thinking about how the magic works is beyond him now, when he's just letting every word soak in, but for as smolderingly hot as the foreign words are, he's glad he can understand them. It's the best of both worlds. ]
You can.
[ Breathless, in English, though the profanity of his own mother tongue feels eager to well up behind it. ]
( she's going to question just how he can understand her later, though somehow it feels more arousing that he can. maybe his german was better than he'd let on, her specific dialect of it, or maybe it was one of those strangenesses of his world that she hadn't before questioned.
either way, her moan is both at his rocking and this situation, fingers tugging again and she leans up to kiss him, words whispered against his lips )
You are conveniently close by.
( which she really does love and is considering taking more advantage of )
Waking you up just to-- get in your bed. Not sleep--
[ This is not an idea that has ever occurred to him before, and yet picturing it now prompts a fierce surge of arousal, a groan that he smothers with his mouth against her neck. He doesn't trust many people in this city, and he'd been "sleep with a gun in the nightstand" paranoid long before Duplicity got hold of him, but for that, he'd start leaving his front door unlocked at all hours. ]
I'd never get to work on time again--wouldn't be able to resist you, how could I possibly--
[ He's close enough now to make coherence difficult, forehead falling to her shoulder as he gasps. ]
Fuck--
[ This in Tamil, now that she's driving him to it. ]
( whatever she'd been about to say gets lost by her moan as she comes, wrapped tight around him to keep him where she needs him, rougher tug of his hair. there's a messy press of her lips to his check, not exactly a kiss, she can't manage that but a press, needing to touch him as much as she possibly can.
the slump against the bed when they're both spent is nice, adrienne enjoying the weight of him against her, keeping him close for a little longer )
It's a good job we work together. ( breathlessly, smoothing her fingers out of his hair, trailing down his neck ) I can help you get there.
( she's purposely speaking english now, giving them both a breather. though if he was serious about all day in her bed... she would not complain one bit )
[ Even now, wrung out and clear-minded after orgasm, he's still pretty damn sure he means every word of that. He will stay as long as she wants in her bed and offer her a standing invitation to his.
He keeps his weight resting on his elbows as they come down from the high, trying to keep up that warm tender closeness without pinning her, and nuzzles gently into the curve of her neck again. ]
For you, I'll try to be a morning person.
[ Eventually, he shifts over to one side, sliding one arm under the pillow and gazing at her with deep fondness. ]
( because adrienne certainly wasn't a morning person, the only time she tended to see early was an overnight shift, not yet in bed or a really bad night's sleep. somehow it happened more than she would like but it was never her preference.
she tucks both hands underneath her head to push her up a little more, a more curious frown on her as she considers her question )
How did you understand me? ( it really had felt to be every word ) Outside of Switzerland no one does.
( and even in Switzerland you had to be in the right canton for that )
[ Unusually for him and his overactive sense of scientific curiosity, he hasn't really given that much thought to this beyond the assumption that it's the city's doing in the same way that the aphrodisiacs and the steady stream of new arrivals are. ]
Well, it sounded like English after a moment. Like...news interviews where there's an interpreter dubbed over the person speaking, but you can still hear their voice in the background. I wouldn't have been able to otherwise; I've never been to Switzerland in my life.
( she frowns, slipping out one of her hands and holding it up in case he was going to repeat it because it was an instinctual confusion, adrienne not needing to hear him say it again just needing to try and get her head around it.
that was the harder part, her brain really not certain how to process the fact that somehow they were dubbed and autotranslated? )
Say something. Not in English.
( because from that last curse, sir, she knows you have another language in there )
[ He raises his eyebrows, but something about the command is just...amusing to him, and there's something refreshing besides about being able to experiment and pick apart some aspect of Duplicity's weirdness that isn't actually traumatizing or harmful. It's nice to have a little mystery to investigate again, even if it's a very minor one.
He considers what to say, realizes he's probably overthinking it, and just switches over to speaking Tamil after taking a moment to get into the proper mindset. ]
Before I got here, I hadn't been back home to Chennai in months. Nobody's given me a reason to speak Tamil unless I wanted to stop my flatmate listening in when I was talking to my mum on the phone. Honestly, I've missed it.
( she hears his words, hears that other tongue before somehow understanding them. it feels more in her head the dub than verbally aloud but she knows what he means.
and it makes her sit up, pulling away from him in a way that she really doesn't mean to because she's not pulling away from him she's just surprised and not quite handling it well.
the curse that falls from her lips doesn't translate-- doesn't exactly translate which makes him hear a very literal translation that really loses the meaning of what she means, hand resting in front of her mouth for a minute )
That-- is very weird. That it's in my head and not like... ( she pauses, taking a breath with her eyes closed for a minute before looking back down at him ) Keep going.
( she keeps with the steadier breaths for a minute, trying to focus on the story he's telling her rather than the weirdness happening. but when he speaks again she does settle back down next to him, enjoying those little glimpses of words that she doesn't understand and the ease he has with them, that comfort of speaking his language she knows exists. because she has no one to speak german with anymore )
[ It does startle him for a moment when she sits up, and for a split second he wonders what he's done, but--it makes some sense, consistent as it is with the way he's seen her react at the mention of magic before. And as loath as he usually is to attribute anything to magic when he'd rather explain it with science, all of this weirdness is almost certainly magic.
The literally-translated idiom is fascinating in its implications, if he thinks about those for more than a second. But he isn't thinking of them yet. He props himself up on his elbows and watches her with faint concern, but as she relaxes again, he lies back down to focus on the ceiling. ]
It makes sense, I suppose. We didn't notice it before when we were speaking English with each other, and I'm fairly sure that's what nearly everyone else I've met here defaults to.
But people keep telling me to broaden my horizons and sleep with all the aliens and mythical beings that are apparently hanging out around every corner in this place, and I don't know how we could be expected to understand each other if the city wasn't translating.
I guess I now know how they knew what I'd said to you.
( if their speech was being auto-translated when no technology was on their person to do it then clearly it would be easy for their conversations to be listened to.
her hands slip back under her head and the more that he speaks the more relaxed she feels, barely batting an eye at the translation and looking a lot calmer again )
So much for any kind of privacy... and our only miscommunication is of our own.
( though she means a much broader our than their own. even if they've done that before )
It's been years since I've spoken German or been to Switzerland. I like that I can with you.
( intentionally as well as unintentionally. she could with others in the city also, she could likely speak german permanently with this city weirdness but to her that would feel weird itself. socially, she was used to speaking english to be understood, that habit wouldn't change now )
[ He's always found it easier to be profane in Tamil, more expressive, but that theory is distressing and plausible enough that he'd probably have been just as emphatic in English. He'd already been upset on her behalf that the city would take her private words and publish them mockingly like an ad, and being able to imagine the how of it now doesn't help.
But it's true, still, that there are benefits along with the dystopian drawbacks. He looks over at her, managing a smile again. ]
I hadn't even known you were from Switzerland. Or are you? How long did you live there?
[ He's switched back to English, for similar reasons--it's simply what he's used to speaking, especially this past year, and he doesn't have to think about the way idioms will be translated or rely on what the city decides to make of his wording. But he's still happy to hear her speak German, and happier still to know that he can help alleviate her homesickness in a way. ]
( she nearly did at two points in her life: once after her parents died, the second time after becoming pregnant. but changing her life that dramatically on either occasion didn't feel the right choice even having family there )
I'm Swiss through my mom. We'd visit my grandparents twice a year so it was always a home but never home.
( she'd never lived there but there was always a home there for her. she loved the country, loved every time she'd been there and stayed, had made sure her daughter knew it. but it wasn't the same to make her homesick )
That's what I'd thought, I mean, from your accent. But I know how that goes.
[ He rolls onto his side and curls up, easy and relaxed again. It surprises him a little just how comfortable he can feel in her bed, when he lets himself. ]
Is that how you learned the language so well, from your mum?
[ He knows what it's like to be raised bilingual in that way; it's why he's always thought of Tamil as his mother tongue in a more literal sense than metaphorical. ]
( she nods slowly, a slightly cheekier smile on her now )
One parent one language.
( how's the accent now? she'd picked up her mother's sound of sankt gallen in learning german from her, the only accent she'd ever known german in. american sounding otherwise until her language changed )
My mother spoke German with me, my father English, even as a teenager. Though apparently there was a time I refused to speak anything but German.
( she didn't remember it, adrienne young at that point and too much time having passed since )
[ It makes him laugh, though, picturing it and finding the image endearing no matter how old she'd been. There's something very cute about the notion of Adrienne as a small stubborn child. ]
All right. Say I ever got to go to Switzerland someday. What do you recommend for the first-timers? I'm not sold on the idea of skiing, but I'd try anything else.
( she laughs at the comment of her at school and he's certainly not wrong, though she'd known english enough to understand what was happening even if she refused to speak. something that hadn't lasted at least.
there's a thoughtful hum at his question )
I always loved the Christmas markets. The canton my mother was from always seemed to come alive in a very different way.
( she saw them a lot given that christmas was one of the times she often spent in switzerland )
You'll also just have to accept that our chocolate is better. ( she says it with a full seriousness. she is teasing, everyone has their preference, but she's still stating fact ) It's a very serious thing.
I would never impugn the honor of Swiss chocolate. I know better than that.
[ Equally solemn, because chocolate is serious and weighty business and these are, indeed, facts. He might not be a particular fan of cold winter weather, but the idea of sipping the world's best hot chocolate while watching snow fall on a Christmas market in Switzerland is pretty damn enchanting, and he drifts pleasantly for a moment as he pictures it. ]
I always thought it'd be nice to take in a lecture at the University of Geneva. I suppose that's probably not what most people would want to plan a vacation around, but it would be fun.
Well, if they ever let us out of here, and I ever have the kind of job again that lets me take vacations, then Sankt Gallen will be at the top of my list to visit.
[ It would have seemed too forward, too intimate in a way he's afraid of putting out there, to say that he would want her to come with him and show him all of these things about her little slice of home--but it would always have to be a hypothetical anyway, he realizes, because they don't come from the same world.
It should have occurred to him sooner, when she's one of the only people he'd wanted to say goodbye to when they thought they'd be freed, but...well. No sense in dwelling. He does, though, reach gently over to skim a hand down her side, wanting to be touching her again. ]
( she leans into that touch, the softest brush of her lips against his and there's perhaps a slight contrast between how she's touching him and what she says. they're both forms of intimacy but both a little different )
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( she smiles up at him before leaning back in and kissing him, tugging him closer to her as she wraps a leg around him, secure over his hip )
Then slowly... ( she draws the word out between kisses, keeping her language a little simpler on the hope that he can still get the idea of what she wants even if he doesn't know the language himself ) I want you. Again. And again.
( there's a kiss between each pause before she leans back down, pressing her head into the pillow, brushing his hair back with her fingers )
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His rhythm would be slow and gentle even without her express instructions, because he's cautious about these things now in a way he hasn't had to be in the past, and hadn't needed to worry about last time with her on top and setting the pace. But he doesn't mind the care, thrusting deep instead of hard, listening to the echo of her native language behind the English that the city magic superimposes.
It's been a rough and uncertain week, but for now, things are feeling right again. ]
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her leg presses a little tighter, trying to restrict his motion to smaller thrusts, her eyes closing, fingers gripping as she breaths deeply for a moment, intending to talk for as long as she can get words out, encouraged by his response to her )
If I could stay here all day I would... this bed, the couch... anywhere. See how much you have in you--
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Thinking about how the magic works is beyond him now, when he's just letting every word soak in, but for as smolderingly hot as the foreign words are, he's glad he can understand them. It's the best of both worlds. ]
You can.
[ Breathless, in English, though the profanity of his own mother tongue feels eager to well up behind it. ]
God, you can have me any time you like--please--
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either way, her moan is both at his rocking and this situation, fingers tugging again and she leans up to kiss him, words whispered against his lips )
You are conveniently close by.
( which she really does love and is considering taking more advantage of )
Waking you up just to-- get in your bed. Not sleep--
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I'd never get to work on time again--wouldn't be able to resist you, how could I possibly--
[ He's close enough now to make coherence difficult, forehead falling to her shoulder as he gasps. ]
Fuck--
[ This in Tamil, now that she's driving him to it. ]
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the slump against the bed when they're both spent is nice, adrienne enjoying the weight of him against her, keeping him close for a little longer )
It's a good job we work together. ( breathlessly, smoothing her fingers out of his hair, trailing down his neck ) I can help you get there.
( she's purposely speaking english now, giving them both a breather. though if he was serious about all day in her bed... she would not complain one bit )
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He keeps his weight resting on his elbows as they come down from the high, trying to keep up that warm tender closeness without pinning her, and nuzzles gently into the curve of her neck again. ]
For you, I'll try to be a morning person.
[ Eventually, he shifts over to one side, sliding one arm under the pillow and gazing at her with deep fondness. ]
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( because adrienne certainly wasn't a morning person, the only time she tended to see early was an overnight shift, not yet in bed or a really bad night's sleep. somehow it happened more than she would like but it was never her preference.
she tucks both hands underneath her head to push her up a little more, a more curious frown on her as she considers her question )
How did you understand me? ( it really had felt to be every word ) Outside of Switzerland no one does.
( and even in Switzerland you had to be in the right canton for that )
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[ Unusually for him and his overactive sense of scientific curiosity, he hasn't really given that much thought to this beyond the assumption that it's the city's doing in the same way that the aphrodisiacs and the steady stream of new arrivals are. ]
Well, it sounded like English after a moment. Like...news interviews where there's an interpreter dubbed over the person speaking, but you can still hear their voice in the background. I wouldn't have been able to otherwise; I've never been to Switzerland in my life.
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( she frowns, slipping out one of her hands and holding it up in case he was going to repeat it because it was an instinctual confusion, adrienne not needing to hear him say it again just needing to try and get her head around it.
that was the harder part, her brain really not certain how to process the fact that somehow they were dubbed and autotranslated? )
Say something. Not in English.
( because from that last curse, sir, she knows you have another language in there )
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[ He raises his eyebrows, but something about the command is just...amusing to him, and there's something refreshing besides about being able to experiment and pick apart some aspect of Duplicity's weirdness that isn't actually traumatizing or harmful. It's nice to have a little mystery to investigate again, even if it's a very minor one.
He considers what to say, realizes he's probably overthinking it, and just switches over to speaking Tamil after taking a moment to get into the proper mindset. ]
Before I got here, I hadn't been back home to Chennai in months. Nobody's given me a reason to speak Tamil unless I wanted to stop my flatmate listening in when I was talking to my mum on the phone. Honestly, I've missed it.
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and it makes her sit up, pulling away from him in a way that she really doesn't mean to because she's not pulling away from him she's just surprised and not quite handling it well.
the curse that falls from her lips doesn't translate-- doesn't exactly translate which makes him hear a very literal translation that really loses the meaning of what she means, hand resting in front of her mouth for a minute )
That-- is very weird. That it's in my head and not like... ( she pauses, taking a breath with her eyes closed for a minute before looking back down at him ) Keep going.
( she keeps with the steadier breaths for a minute, trying to focus on the story he's telling her rather than the weirdness happening. but when he speaks again she does settle back down next to him, enjoying those little glimpses of words that she doesn't understand and the ease he has with them, that comfort of speaking his language she knows exists. because she has no one to speak german with anymore )
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The literally-translated idiom is fascinating in its implications, if he thinks about those for more than a second. But he isn't thinking of them yet. He props himself up on his elbows and watches her with faint concern, but as she relaxes again, he lies back down to focus on the ceiling. ]
It makes sense, I suppose. We didn't notice it before when we were speaking English with each other, and I'm fairly sure that's what nearly everyone else I've met here defaults to.
But people keep telling me to broaden my horizons and sleep with all the aliens and mythical beings that are apparently hanging out around every corner in this place, and I don't know how we could be expected to understand each other if the city wasn't translating.
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( if their speech was being auto-translated when no technology was on their person to do it then clearly it would be easy for their conversations to be listened to.
her hands slip back under her head and the more that he speaks the more relaxed she feels, barely batting an eye at the translation and looking a lot calmer again )
So much for any kind of privacy... and our only miscommunication is of our own.
( though she means a much broader our than their own. even if they've done that before )
It's been years since I've spoken German or been to Switzerland. I like that I can with you.
( intentionally as well as unintentionally. she could with others in the city also, she could likely speak german permanently with this city weirdness but to her that would feel weird itself. socially, she was used to speaking english to be understood, that habit wouldn't change now )
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[ He's always found it easier to be profane in Tamil, more expressive, but that theory is distressing and plausible enough that he'd probably have been just as emphatic in English. He'd already been upset on her behalf that the city would take her private words and publish them mockingly like an ad, and being able to imagine the how of it now doesn't help.
But it's true, still, that there are benefits along with the dystopian drawbacks. He looks over at her, managing a smile again. ]
I hadn't even known you were from Switzerland. Or are you? How long did you live there?
[ He's switched back to English, for similar reasons--it's simply what he's used to speaking, especially this past year, and he doesn't have to think about the way idioms will be translated or rely on what the city decides to make of his wording. But he's still happy to hear her speak German, and happier still to know that he can help alleviate her homesickness in a way. ]
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( she nearly did at two points in her life: once after her parents died, the second time after becoming pregnant. but changing her life that dramatically on either occasion didn't feel the right choice even having family there )
I'm Swiss through my mom. We'd visit my grandparents twice a year so it was always a home but never home.
( she'd never lived there but there was always a home there for her. she loved the country, loved every time she'd been there and stayed, had made sure her daughter knew it. but it wasn't the same to make her homesick )
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[ He rolls onto his side and curls up, easy and relaxed again. It surprises him a little just how comfortable he can feel in her bed, when he lets himself. ]
Is that how you learned the language so well, from your mum?
[ He knows what it's like to be raised bilingual in that way; it's why he's always thought of Tamil as his mother tongue in a more literal sense than metaphorical. ]
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One parent one language.
( how's the accent now? she'd picked up her mother's sound of sankt gallen in learning german from her, the only accent she'd ever known german in. american sounding otherwise until her language changed )
My mother spoke German with me, my father English, even as a teenager. Though apparently there was a time I refused to speak anything but German.
( she didn't remember it, adrienne young at that point and too much time having passed since )
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[ It makes him laugh, though, picturing it and finding the image endearing no matter how old she'd been. There's something very cute about the notion of Adrienne as a small stubborn child. ]
All right. Say I ever got to go to Switzerland someday. What do you recommend for the first-timers? I'm not sold on the idea of skiing, but I'd try anything else.
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there's a thoughtful hum at his question )
I always loved the Christmas markets. The canton my mother was from always seemed to come alive in a very different way.
( she saw them a lot given that christmas was one of the times she often spent in switzerland )
You'll also just have to accept that our chocolate is better. ( she says it with a full seriousness. she is teasing, everyone has their preference, but she's still stating fact ) It's a very serious thing.
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[ Equally solemn, because chocolate is serious and weighty business and these are, indeed, facts. He might not be a particular fan of cold winter weather, but the idea of sipping the world's best hot chocolate while watching snow fall on a Christmas market in Switzerland is pretty damn enchanting, and he drifts pleasantly for a moment as he pictures it. ]
I always thought it'd be nice to take in a lecture at the University of Geneva. I suppose that's probably not what most people would want to plan a vacation around, but it would be fun.
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( she smiles before continuing, letting herself dip back into her memory )
That is my little slice of home.
( she doesn't say it but if she could she'd make that trip with him )
You absolutely should take the lecture there.
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[ It would have seemed too forward, too intimate in a way he's afraid of putting out there, to say that he would want her to come with him and show him all of these things about her little slice of home--but it would always have to be a hypothetical anyway, he realizes, because they don't come from the same world.
It should have occurred to him sooner, when she's one of the only people he'd wanted to say goodbye to when they thought they'd be freed, but...well. No sense in dwelling. He does, though, reach gently over to skim a hand down her side, wanting to be touching her again. ]
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Tell me about home. Yours.
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