nexus_crossings | Language LOL: Translator Malfunction

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. ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Hunter?"

Finally, someone else who speaks English decides to show up at Hunter's table. Steve looks as confused as the rest of the people coming through. He's never the quickest to pick up on magical or advanced technologies and as such its failing leaves him wondering just what the hell has gone wrong in the Nexus today.

His best guess is that everyone's been cursed to speak differently. He doesn't know any better. But if that's the case, Hunter won't understand him either, will he?

"Can you understand me?"

Hunter smiles at that question. He is very relieved to see Steve, and most of all to understand Steve.

"Yes. Can you understand me?"

Steve's worst fears were in vain. Hunter can understand him! Oh thank goodness. Steve sighs in relief, a small smile spreading across his face.

"I can, yeah. But I can't understand anyone else. It's like all of a sudden my ears stopped working right."

"Weird." Hunter looks around the Nexus. Watches the other people get confused. Or frustrated. Or angry.

"It is not just us, Steve. It is the whole Nexus."

"Yeah but, we understand each other...?"

Steve rubs at his left arm with his right and casts another worried glance at the people all around him muttering, shouting, pleading in languages he can't even hope to understand. It's making him nervous, and that's not the only reason.

"It's not just the people either. Sarah, Ethel, and Bucky got scared when this happened and ran off. I haven't been able to find them anywhere!"

"Maybe because we both are from New York, and we both speak English?"

Hunter watches Steve in concern. "Can I help find them?"

"Unless you've got a way to cover a large are easily...I mean. Hell, even walking with me and being another set of eyes will help. I know they can take care of themselves but I"m really worried."

Steve sighs and scrubs a hand through his hair back and forth.

"Why did this have to happen..?"

Hunter thinks for a moment. Then he picks up an art pad. "How about we make a few lost posters, with a drawing of what they look like? Then as we search, we leave the posters behind. That way, if someone else sees them, and we are not there... they at least have a number to call."

"Oh!"

Hunter's suggestion erases a bit of the worry etching itself into Steve's features. He nods eagerly. Moves closer over to Hunter's art table. "That's a really good idea. Have you met them yet? Don't worry--I'll make a set of sketches and you can copy them."

Steve takes a quick moment to sketch out all three of his pokemon before sliding the page over for Hunter to see.

"That's them. Sarah, Ethel, and Bucky."

Edited 2018-01-19 14:34 (UTC)

Hunter takes the sketches, and glances over them. "I have not met them yet. These drawings should help. They all have distinctive marks."

Hunter gives Steve an extra art pad with lots of paper in it. And he starts copying the sketches onto the pages in his art pad. Creating poster after poster.

"What is the best way people can reach you? I want to make these posters readable... especially considering the situation."

"My PINpoint frequency, but if the Nexus translator is broken, I don't know how I'd figure out what they're saying. Though I guess they could send a picture? It's probably still best to put my number in there."

Hunter's a faster sketch artist than even Steve and the captain is very glad to have his friend's help right now. Who knows how far they could have gotten?

"I think the nice thing about numbers is that they are recognizable. Maybe if we included a picture of you?" That way the person understands who they are calling.

"The number will have to be enough. I'm really worried about where they could be while we're still here..."

Steve casts a look around the plaza as though they might pop up any moment and sighs when there's no sign at all of his pokemon friends. They must be so scared right now.

"Thank you for all the help, Hunter. I've been beside myself with worry ever since they ran off."

"I am glad we ran into each other." It is nice to be with someone who speaks the same language, right now in the confusion.

Steve picks up the small pile of fliers he's made and gives Hunter a hopeful look. One he can't quite stem in his worries over his lost friends.

"Will you help me go look for them?"

"Of course." Hunter was going to offer his help, even if Steve had not asked. But he is glad that Steve asked.

Okay. He just needs to think a bit. Where would his mons run off to? Bucky's easy. Steve knows for a fact he'd try to find Adia and hunker down with her if she's in the Nexus. Also of the three of them he's the largest and the strongest. Probably not the one Steve needs to eb the most worried about.

Sarah gets easily excitable and Ethel has been having a lot of trouble navigating around the frozen Nexus of late.

"I'm pretty sure they'd stay on the main roads. Ethel's heavy enough that she tends to break ice that isn't several inches thick. Maybe find an outdoor cafe to hide underneath the tables of??"

"Where would be a familiar place to them?" Hunter asks. It seems logical that a lost animal would go somewhere familiar.

"Somewhere familiar...oh!"

Steve turns and gives Hunter a grateful smile. That might not be a bad idea.

"Nana's diner isn't too far away from here and we're there almost every day."

"Well, let's go there. At the very least, maybe they were sighted there."

Language LOL: Translator Malfunction

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject