[God help him, he's half-endeared. There are two reasons why young men will run their mouth like this: bravado stemming from insecurity or a complete removal of consequence from the course of their lives.
Instinct would have him intuit the former over the latter, here. This boy doesn't hold himself like old money. Flint has known too many foul-mouthed cabin and powder boys to really hold it against him. If you don't act tough in the face of adversity, it swallows you.
James turns the book over in his hands so that the cover is facing upwards, and he rubs a thumb across the engraved Cyrillic. His mouth is turned up at one edge when he speaks,]
Some. [Enough that he understands what's asked of him, at least, though he continues in English.] Though what I do know is out of date by several centuries.
[Ѧ was replaced by Я, for but one example. Apparently he has Peter the Great to thank for the reform that's rendered so much of his knowledge obsolete. By the time he was changing the alphabet, James McGraw had already left London, and the alterations were slow to crawl across the globe.]
no subject
Instinct would have him intuit the former over the latter, here. This boy doesn't hold himself like old money. Flint has known too many foul-mouthed cabin and powder boys to really hold it against him. If you don't act tough in the face of adversity, it swallows you.
James turns the book over in his hands so that the cover is facing upwards, and he rubs a thumb across the engraved Cyrillic. His mouth is turned up at one edge when he speaks,]
Some. [Enough that he understands what's asked of him, at least, though he continues in English.] Though what I do know is out of date by several centuries.
[Ѧ was replaced by Я, for but one example. Apparently he has Peter the Great to thank for the reform that's rendered so much of his knowledge obsolete. By the time he was changing the alphabet, James McGraw had already left London, and the alterations were slow to crawl across the globe.]