[embedded video - Conquest; Seeking]

[duchy]

[Lithuania appears on the screen, looking pleased that it's on--he's had to do this a few times to get it to work right, though the other attempts were all deleted before they ever had the chance to hit the forum. Honestly, he's been trying to post this for hours, but PDAs are a bit more confusing than he thought. Still, he's smiling.]

Hi! I'm Lithuania, one of the Players this round, so if you need someone to vow to, you can come to me if you want! I'll give you permission to do whatever you want. If you have a sword, that would be nice--um, I can work with any kind of sword, I think, as long as it's not especially large. But I can use other weapons, too. Even if you don't have a good weapon, you don't have to be a Discard, I'll let you do what you want and won't use you in a fight.

Um, I'm in room 1-A, or you can find me around the school or town.

[He waves, and the clip ends.]

Comments

[independencesong]

[She's quite happily playing around on a computer when he shows, but she's alert enough (paranoia hightens the senses!) that she's quickly aware of his arrival and pulling a nearby chair closer for him.]

Hello, Leedu.

[duchy]

Hi.

[Climbing onto the chair.]

How do you teach reading?

[independencesong]

You start with the alphabet and what letter combinations make what sounds, and then you start to give meaning to everything.

[duchy]

Okay. So we're starting with the alphabet?

[He hopes the alphabet doesn't take too long.]

[independencesong]

I think it's the best place to start. It's the base of written language, after all.

[duchy]

Okay!

[Lithuania sits cross-legged on his chair, looking up at Estonia with rapt attention. He is ready to learn! For now.]

[independencesong]

[She smiles, then types the first few letters out on her screen, both capital and lower case, as if to use it as a instructional board.]

And here we are, starting with A... [Teaching, go!]

[duchy]

Okay, so that's A.

[...What do you do with it now.]

[independencesong]

When you see it, it tends to make 'ah' sounds... Except for when it doesn't, which I suppose is frequent enough. You'll catch on eventually, but I suppose we'll just get through these first.

The next ones, here, are B, C, D, and E.

[duchy]

["Except when it doesn't" doesn't seem like a good rule, really, but Lithuania follows along to the next few letters.]

Do they make sounds except when they don't, too?

[independencesong]

Pretty much. Some of them are more straight-forward, though. B almost always makes 'buh' sounds, and D likes 'duh' sounds. C can be soft like in 'choose' or hard, like 'clack,' depending on what goes with it.

E is a miserable little thing that can never be predicted and is best to just be ignored, sometimes.

[duchy]

You can just ignore parts of the alphabet?

[Maybe this will be easier than he thought.]

[independencesong]

Not really, just this one. It's generally just a bother, except for in important places, like my name.

[Sparkle sparkle.]

[duchy]

[...You definitely sparkled that time.]

How am I supposed to know when it's important?

[independencesong]

Just guess for now. You'll catch on eventually.

[She is the best teacher, clearly. And she'll type out a few more letters for Lithuania to see.]

Moving on, these are F, G, H, I, and J. Most of them are straight-forward, but note that H is fairly quiet, but sometimes makes an aspirating sort of noise - [Estonia demonstrates.] - and I is often as fussy as E.

[duchy]

[Starting to lose track of all these letters, but not about to say so because he's sure if he just focuses hard enough he'll be able to remember them all.]

Why don't they make it more than one letter if it makes different sounds?

[independencesong]

I have no idea. Ask Rome?

[duchy]

...He's scary.

[Trust Lithuania to take that suggestion literally.]

[independencesong]

I can only imagine.

[She met Rome once, when she was very small, and was completely unimpressed with the woman.]

Next in the alphabet are K and L, which generally make the sort of sounds you'd expect them to.