Language LOL: Translator Malfunction

[rumham]

You know what's cool? Chatting with your pals. Reading the Internet. Navigating the roads because you can understand the Gods-damned street signs. You know what's not cool? Not being able to do any of that. By that metric, one might describe today in the Nexus decidedly uncool.

It's utterly without warning that the multiversal hub goes from automatic to manual translation. Shop signs, radio and television broadcasts, conversations on the streets between vendors and friends and businesspeople are suddenly a jarring cacophony of dissonant languages. Then there's the silence. Then there's the shouting. Turns out people get pissed off when nobody understands them!

Momentary chaos dies down as the average people of the Nexus come to grips with their new situation. Shopkeepers wait outside their stores and stands with expectant expressions, impatiently waiting for the translator to pull itself together and start working again.

Except...

It sort of doesn't.

No, it super doesn't.

Citizens of the Nexus, it would appear you're going to have to adjust...

((The temporary LANGUAGE LOL is now underway! It's freeform fun until you're done and participation is completely optional. Don't feel like this event should stop you from making threads which are unaffected by the LOL in the mean time. If you want your Language LOL'd character to interact with a non-LOL thread, please ask the OP if they want to play that dynamic first. For the OOC and organization post, GO HERE. ))

Comments

[somepray]

Wendla, for her part, is more than used to having to carry around her little notebook and pen just to be understood. Sometimes it makes her a little sad, knowing that not everyone knows sign language, but she tries to be an optimist about it--after all, they can always learn!

She sees the confusion and chaos begin, and it concerns her. It looks like people are really mad, and Wendla can't even lip-read and decipher what they're saying that way. Uh-oh.

However, she has an idea.

She waves her notebook, as a way to get someone's--anyone's--attention. Maybe she can help!

[ooc: So, Wendla, being Deaf, is used to uh, not many people knowing sign language. She can lip-read German in this LOL, and is more than willing to be a helper/facilitator for those who can't understand each other. Or, at least she can try, heh.]

[brother_alone]

"Hey! Hey are you okay?"

Josh has been wandering around the Plaza ever since the Nexus went to shit, hands clutching at his ears while he looks around. He's snapped, right? This must be what it's like. He's finally gone off the deep end and--

But everyone else seems just as weirded out as he is. And then there's a girl waving her notebook around. He hurries over to her.

[westfallcorndog]

Woah woah woah, what the Hell is this? One second Harrowheart is reading on his phone, the next he feels considerably stupider, because all of a sudden he can't understand what he's looking at. Squinting, he realizes that the Common characters have turned into something else entirely. What gives?!

He looks up from his phone to see other people around the Plaza having their own crises. People are putting down their phones just like he is. They're looking around to be sure that what's happening to them is happening to other people. He hears people speaking languages he doesn't understand, and that's when it all starts to come together. Looks like some unpaid intern really goofed up this time.

Sighing, Harrowheart stows his phone away in his pocket. He stands from the couch he'd been reclining on, cups his hands around his mouth, and shouts in Azerothian Common, "HEY! ANY OF Y'ALL SPEAK COMMON AROUND HERE?"

Of course to everyone who doesn't he sounds a lot more like some kind of Space Swede shouting, "HOI! GLOINADOR MAJIS ANDOVAL VARUM?"

[dembonyhips]

It may take a while, but Harrowheart will eventually find at least one person who speaks common. To be fair, she's not difficult to find: One minute, Fortyskey was negotiating with a Ferengi in one of the shops for some supplies and spell regents, and the next minute they suddenly can't understand each other, which has lead to some swearing and confused arguing on both of their parts.

To someone who somehow could understand both: Fortyskey's mad because she thinks he's swindling her, the Ferengi's mad for the exact same reason, as both think the translator malfunction is an excuse to do so.

Needless to say, neither's making much progress.

[sweetcandygirl]

Harley has no idea what is going on with the Nexus at large. She had just finished grocery shopping when the language issues started. And her first thought was since she couldn't understand anyone, that was a sign of another psychotic break.

So it is good that she sees someone she recognizes. Harrowheart. She has not seen him since Halloween (and she has no idea that he was involved in the whole Nightmare experience, since he was in a different form at the time).

But Steve had told her that Harrowheart was a good guy. The issue is that she can't understand him at all.

Only one thing to do. She opens one of her grocery bags, pulls out two bottles of beer. And holds one out to him.

[fiveofnone]

Caspar and Adia are huddled over a Nexus terminal, trying to make sense of the translation failure, when they hear the death knight bellow from the other side of the Plaza. "Oh, that's Harrowheart. Maybe he knows what happened."

"Sure he does," Caspar says, making a face. "That's why he's standing on a couch and yelling gibberish." But he doesn't protest when Adia takes him by the hand and leads them over there, anyway. It's not like the computer was giving them any useful information.

"γεια," she says hopefully. "μπορείτε να με καταλάβετε?"

[juststeverogers]

"Harrow?" Is that? It is! Steve hurries through the crowd, excusing himself and moving between people until he can get over to where his friend is.

"Harrowhaart!" Steve's smile is weak and strained hearing the words tumbling out of the death knight's mouth. None of it sounds familiar to him at all. He claps his friend on the shoulder and shakes his head. Steve doesn't understand a word of it.

"Canyew speekuh aneething elsuh?" A beat and then Steve is fishing for his notebook. Quickly doodling a stick figure harrow speaking nothing but symbols and Steve speaking in English. He crosses out both with a big 'X' and draws an empty speech bubble pointing to each of them with a question mark in the middle.

[losthunter]

Behind a large table of artwork and customized jewelry stood Hunter, who had come to the Nexus to sell some of his creations again. He now has an excess supply once again, after regaining use of his right hand.

So he is one of those 'shopkeepers' who immediately notices the chaos. He had been negotiating a price with someone from another world, when the translation ended. And somehow, they had worked out a barter by just gesturing.

Hunter puts up a closed sign on his table. And wonders forward slightly, to glance around the rest of the Nexus. It seems that whatever is happening, it is a Nexus-wide effect.

He frowns slightly. He only knows English. So that won't help.

But he does have his art supplies on hand, in case anyone wants to grab pens and pencils to try to communicate in another way.

[fiveofnone]

Well, this sucks.

In the middle of shopping, Caspar figures out pretty quickly what has happened. Kind of difficult to miss a bunch of stores closing up shop, disgruntled owners and customers alike all speaking in a cacophony of languages. Caspar prides himself on how many languages he knows, but he can't make sense of most of the ones around him.

Which means the Nexus translator is down. He already knew that the AV field could fall, but the translator, too?

Heading to the Plaza to get some answers, he pauses when he passes by Hunter's table. That art style looks awfully familiar. His gaze travels from the paintings to the artist himself. Rose tattoo, piercings... looks an awful lot like how Adia described Jim's boyfriend...

Salt of the Earth, huh? Well, he seems calm, at least. Maybe he knows what happened.

"γειά," he says politely. "τι συνέβη?"

[plagueofdeception]

Dr. White thought the dissonance of languages was a sudden plague of madness until he looked outside and noticed the mishmash of written languages on the signage. Still not a bad time to bust out the plague doctor getup under the pretense of a possible plague. It's more of an excuse to not bother wasting his breath on people who can't speak English, and who can read facial expressions that are obscured behind a mask.

Most of the time, he's either busying himself in his clinic (Kind of hoping the giant cadecus on the sign would be more attractive to people due to the lack of words to translate) or strolling out to the plaza and watching the chaos. Quietly. Like the creep he is.

((A list of languages Dr. White knows can be found in his OOC plotting post, but he is going to be doing a bit of bluffing here.))

[not_the_question]

This Doctor served as a witch doctor not too long ago. And just sort of assumed the language to speak when he came across the other. Middle English was either very cool, or very annoying - depending on one's point of view.

No matter, he approached the man and started to speak in a bit of broken Middle English (which, to be fair is only because he doesn't know exactly when the man is from, so he's just trying different combinations until he hits the right one.

"Hullo. Is that mask that comfortable? Because, if you're trying to not catch this illness, well, it's not an illness, I don't think."

[attackpatternbattista]

For her part, Delia's not as inconvenienced as most Nexus residents might be. She speaks English (admittedly, 25th century English, which is known as 'Federation Standard' by her time) fairly fluently, although she does visibly once for a moment and has to take her earpiece off because of the horrific noise and string of error messages her Universal Translator gives her.

[bornstrong]

Iphigenia had been casually flipping through a book in the library, but now she's not, because the book? Was in English. And right now, she can only read Linear B.

She walks outside to the Plaza, and sees everyone else looking, well, as confused as she does. What is going on?

"What's happening?!" she asks, to no one in particular, because she's a little concerned about her eyesight--or her mind. Has she gone mad? Has everyone gone mad?

[mudblood_andproud]

Hermione is trying to make sense of the Nexus around her, doing her best to journal everything and maybe learn some new languages in the confusion. When she sees Iphigenia.

She waves at the woman. Of course she can't understand what Iphigenia has said.

"Are you okay?" Maybe the other woman will understand her?

[grantuseyes]

Distress creates a particular sort of atmosphere, one that the supernatural can sometimes be sensitive to. And detected distress can summon two things: things who want to help, and things who want to eat you.

Thankfully, today, it's the first option. Because what else do messengers do but help people? They do not speak their own language, or any language at all, but they try their best to understand the needs of those they wish to aid. And the usual gathering of little withered beings near Katsuya's café have been witness to a great deal of confusion and frustration in short order! People who showed up just to get a coffee and a danish or read the news on their laptop are suddenly thrown into linguistic chaos! No one can understand one another! Everyone is talking weird! Some of them are yelling!

However, these messengers have a plan. They got a taste for this sort of thing during the Halloween's Nightmare ordeal and now? They are ready.

In various places around the Nexus, drawn to hot spots like the plaza, shops and just any clusters of frustrated and wildly gesturing people are, messengers arrive. Appearing through silver, bubbling portals in the floor and only surfacing from the waist up are groups of tiny, grey-skinned, gaunt creatures no bigger than a human infant. Every group is armed with rolls of parchment and a fresh box of crayons.

The messengers of the hunt are ready to offer their translation services in the only way they know how: through childish art.

[sweetcandygirl]

"RINGO! Boys! You are okay!" Harley claps her hands upon spying the Messengers. She is so glad to see them.

[boldygoing]

Jim's first indication that something has gone wrong is the god-awful squealing his universal translator is piping directly into his skull. Cursing loudly, it takes him a couple tries to shut the damn thing off, and... oh. The fuck?

Clearly, the translator itself isn't the problem, because unless he's just had a stroke or something, all of the signage has just changed. The crowd noise has become angry and dissonant, a thousand languages clashing in a way that they hadn't just mere moments ago, as whatever was keeping conversation flowing smoothly grinds to a fucking halt.

Well that's... certainly something.

Jim abandons his window shopping, now that he can't read any of the signs or labels, shutting down his padd and shoving it under his arm as he heads back towards the center area of the plaza in search of answers. Or failing that, a cup of coffee to help get a handle on things, assuming he can manage to order one.

[attackpatternbattista]

Jim may or may not run across Delia--rather than being angry or focusing on the lack of communication, she's instead trying to scan a small, black colored device with a handheld scanner, and her eyebrows furrow when the scanner gives her an error she doesn't recognize.

To be fair, she's not otherwise hard to spot, she's wearing warmer pants, boots, and a jacket, and she's sitting on a bench with her satchel settled next to her on it, and open.

[red_room]

Well this is ten kinds of a shit show. Natasha frowns over the menu she'd been studying up until now with an intense dissatisfaction. The words are all misshapen into some kind of Necronomicon Lovecraftian scrawl and the man at the counter sounds like he's about half way through a ritualistic demon summoning by the time Natasha sets the menu aside and hastily makes her exit from the cafe and back to the Nexus proper.

The noise is overwhelming. Hundreds of voices crying out and despite the many languages the spy knows almost none of them lend themselves to any real meaning to her ears.

She's quick to make her way to the busier parts of the thoroughfair.

"Что я упустил? Cosa mi sono perso? Was habe ich verpasst? What did I miss?"

[sweetcandygirl]

"Natasha!" That excited greeting comes from none other than Harley Quinn. Hey she is just glad that there were a few languages there that she understood. Chalk a big X over that she went crazy.

"Ya'know I don'tcha really know." Harley's accent seems thicker right now.

(( Note: Japanese in italics. ))

[gorogorogoro_chan]

"糞 ... なんで、これ？" Majima mutters under his breath as he strains his ear for any snippet of language he can understand. "Well, what's this tomfuckery? Some kinda Tower of Babel shit?"

Well, might as well broadcast for any other confused Japanese speakers. He cups his hands around his mouth and yells: "おい, 日本語を話します! Japanese! Over here! NO ENGLISH!! SORRY!!"

[sumarusfinest]

Oh god.

Katsuya nearly flinches when Majima's voice carries out over the crowds. He'd been so eager to find someone, anyone, he understood. He should have been more careful what he wished for.

"I'm here. There's no need to shout."

[chiron_survivor]

Having found a couch away from the noisier section of the Plaza, Caspar and Adia are comparing notes about what they've learned so far about the translator malfunction.

Without warning, they are joined by a visitor. "Oh, Bucky!" Adia smiles at the flying pokémon. "What're you--"

Bucky wedges himself between the young couple and glares at Caspar.

"H-hey. I thought we already talked about this," Caspar says irritatedly, scooting back a little on the couch. Adia sighs and pets at Bucky's ruffled feathers.

"Bucky, it's okay. Caspar's a friend, remember?" Bucky turns his head to look at her blankly and she blinks. "Oh... oh, no! You don't understand me, do you?"

The braviary shrugs his feathery shoulders and returns to glaring at Caspar menacingly. He has no idea why everyone in the Nexus is being especially loud and annoying, but the fact that he can't understand Adia works out just fine for him, because it means he can intimidate her jerky friend with impunity.

Bucky uses training loophole! It's super effective!

[mudblood_andproud]

Crookshanks is looking around for his witch, when he sees two people he recognizes. And a big huge bird. Interesting.

He chirps a greeting at all three of them. Hello humans. Hello bird.

[drehnifusbahi]

Unfortunately, Vanyel was in the middle of bartering with a shopkeep when whatever magic or technology allows the denizens of the Nexus to understand each other failed. The sudden rise of the language barrier puts paid to that, though; he pushes the spell tomes back toward the seller and takes his leave, as politely as he can manage given... well.

The general noise level rises as he makes his way to the plaza, and though he's listening hard he can't make out much that's remotely understandable. Which means, he realizes with a wince, that the problem is fairly widespread. And the only people he knows for a fact speak any of the same languages he does are the Caelus brothers, who... may or may not even be here.

He pushes a hand back through his hair, sighs, and sets out to find things to write with and on. Pictionary might well be the only way he can make himself understood for the duration.

[smartass_captain]

"Vanyel?"

At least the Dragonborn will be able to pick out his name from the audio chaos surrounding them as Jim cautiously approaches his friend. Jim's already gesturing while he talks, pretty sure the other isn't going to understand him. Gesturing around at everyone before pointing at his ear and then at Vanyel.

"Eye noh saye whaht ki'pavesh-tor bhut alsow yew?"

[poetwarrior]

Oh. Oh dear.

Faris has been learning to read English, but suddenly most of the signs are no longer recognizable to him, and there are few familiar words being spoken. This is going to make his visit much more difficult.

"Meh nei pret ueik. Eik uei adkas-e?"

[brother_alone]

In this complete and utter chaos in the Plaza it might take Faris some time to find a familiar face. Joshua's sitting on one of the plaza couches with a dazed look on his face. He snaps out of it when Faris approaches with his question, but shakes his head sadly.

"Sorry, bro. I'm...I'm not so good in th'head today."

[not_the_question]

One of the problems of knowing over five billion languages is that when the TARDIS translation circuit (or the Nexus translation circuit, in this case) breaks down, it can take the Doctor awhile to notice.

Such was the case today. He didn't understand why people were in a mass state of confusion and figured they were panicking over nothing.

The problem is, usually these days, he spoke Queen's English. If only because that was what most of his companions spoke and why use the translation circuit when he didn't have to? But today was different.

Since he had Missy in the vault, he had gotten used to slipping into Gallifreyan every now and then. Which, isn't normally a problem when translation circuits are working, but when they're not, well.

As the Doctor speaks, it might sound more like he's singing. It's more like middle-English chant than Gregorian Chant. But it's clearly not anything that anyone else can translate. Oops.

He might eventually realise what's happening, but it might take him awhile too. Curse his intelligence.

[smartass_captain]

Jim's been all over the Nexus and everywhere he goes it's the same problem. People shouting at each other, gesturing wildly, or just plain giving up and walking away as the sudden language barrier in the Nexus becomes too great. He understood his counterpart just fine, but so far there's been no one else who speaks anything Jim can even sort of relate to.

He's taking a break by one of he vending machines, holding two cans of coffee. One he takes a sip from, the other he holds out to anyone who stops by. it's a pretty universal gesture, he hopes.

Here, want a drink?

[mudblood_andproud]

Hermione is looking around the Nexus for Crookshanks, a little worried that she can not immediately sense her familiar through their bond.

She sees Jim. And smiles bigger.

She comes up to him. Her speech pattern sounds old school to him, with a heavy British accent. "Thee art back! I am so glad to see thee!"

[thissideonly]

Well. This... wasn't what Tatsuya was expecting coming back to the Nexus.

As he adjusts the hoodie Ice Bear has given him, he looks around the Plaza, eyes wide, as he picks up the soda his friend back home picked up for him to take a sip. He makes sure to stay more in the shadows, hood on his head, trying to process what the hell is going on.

[invisiblebonds]

Robin is just... standing in the Plaza, looking around with eyes like a deer in the headlights, turning around trying to figure out why he's able to discern some people were saying.

Has he... learned those languages before? Is that why he understood what people were saying? ...He really hates his amnesia right now.

Someone help this confused guy.

[zunesareawesome]

This is probably a terrible time for Peter to have discovered this place was...a thing.

He's in the Plaza, standing there and staring as he pulls down his earphones when the music gets weird. Not entirely weird, he knows...most of it, his English is so rusty years after he'd had to learn the common language the Ravagers used, a mish-mash of trader-speak, Kree, Xandarian, and who knows what else. The handy dandy universal translator Yondu got for him after he'd gotten used to speaking it was pretty much something he didn't really think about much these days. Until now.

Coming to the Nexus itself isn't what was all that off-putting, weirder things have happened and right now it seemed the door on the Eclector was working both ways to this place and back, so it seemed kinda safe to venture out. Or not, apparently, if it was making tech fail.

He really should be more worried about the fact there was an entire world behind the door to the pantry.

"Hey, have any...uh...tech...fix-it store?" Peter's speaking grammatically incorrect, accented English to anyone he can find.

[red_room]

"It's not your tech."

More English! This time coming from a redhead in a tight black outfit who seems to be watching the chaos going on in the plaza with something akin to vague interest. People watching is always fun in the Nexus, especially because half of them aren't people necessarily.

One more face asking about all the hubbub shouldn't catch her attention but it's a new face and that says something.
"The universal translator's broken." She points to her ear and then gestures around.

See? Everyone is just as confused as you are, guy!

[heirtothearcane]

Viatorus likely wouldn't have noticed the malfunction if it wasn't for the fact that suddenly he doesn't understand the book he's reading. He flicks back and forth, until he realises that the book isn't sulking at him. Suddenly Lyall is sticking closer to him and everyone seems to be in a mix of panic and confusion.

Closing his book he stands up and looks around to see if he can find anyone who can explain what's going on. Or if he can even understand anyone...

[juststeverogers]

Something bumps against the back of Viatorus' knee gently, though backs up slightly when Lyall gives her the stink eye. It's a wee dino creature with an oddly shaped head peering pitifully up at the mage and making a soft whine that gives off a faintly metallic ring.

She has little snowbooties on and a red, white, and blue scarf wrapped around her neck so she's clearly not a wild critter. Someone's been separated from their friend!

"Shiieelll--" Her whine is strange and quiet in the din of the Plaza's confusion.