#and Yasha becoming the same alto with smoother speech patterns in Celestial

[artaphant]

I had a thought today about how great it would have been if, at the dinner party, Trent spoke in Zemnian.

I mean it would have been a great dividing point- none of the Nein are Zemnian and would have been a play to remind Caleb of his roots, that only he, Astrid and Eadwulf truly understand him. And he could give some heavy bakchanded insults to the M9.

But then Beauregard just fucking roasts him back in Zemnian, or in common bc I don't know exactly how that skill works. Everyone is stunned into silence.

Until Yasha quietly turns to Caleb and asks in Celestial what Trent had just said, and that she could easily kill him if he says the word. Beau cackles in delight and nods in agreement.

Veth chimes up in Halfling- "Do you speak Zemnian now??" And those two start a chat about Beau's skills and how they want to kill this fucker so bad.

Jester, seeing the chaos and wanting in, turns towards Fjord and speaks in Infernal, "Fjord do you know Infernal?" And being the master improvisationalist, Fjord mimics the sounds of Infernal and pantomimes a conversation of jibberish with Beau occasionally chiming in Common.

Caduceus weakly mentions that this seems like really poor table manners but at some point Jester asks if anyone speaks Sylvan (Her childhood friend is an archfey she should know the language) and Caduceus responds and they talk about how yeah it's shitty but Icky-thong did it first. And then it is a cacophony of three to four languages at once

Astrid and Eadwulf look around the table in vague confusion, picking up some of the language tossed around the table, maybe one or both knowing the three shared languages and listening on those little conversations or picking up the Abyssal "I could really go for a spider leg right now" from Yasha, or Beau's Deep Speech cry, "Pussy"

They keep switching between all the languages they know just to see which the others recognize and then back to shared languages beside Common. Beau and Jester are the biggest perpetrators of this when Beau touches Jester's arm and can now reply in Infernal.

At some point Caleb murmurs an apology to Astrid and Eadwulf. "It's an interesting study in language, and how diverse your group is." Astrid mutters, giving nervous glances to Trent and wondering how long he'll let this continue.

Trent patiently waits for the noise to die down before giving an insincere apology about the rudeness of using foreign language. "It is just much... simpler to communicate to Bren in our native tongue."

"I agree, it feels much easier," Yasha replies in Celestial while Beau nods, and Jester continues to speak in Infernal, with Beau translating.. somewhat.

The party resumes with Caleb using a mix of Zemnian, Common and Celestial depending on what he says, and pretty much anyone else chit-chatting in a shared language. Jester continues speaking Infernal, letting Beau make up a translation for her and getting the strangest looks from Astrid.

It isn't until they all leave the mansion that the Nein learns Astrid speaks Infernal.