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

[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.

[red_room]

"Harley."

Natasha's voice doesn't sound any different than normal, but only because of how practiced she is with American English. She nods at the waving the other woman is giving and walks over to join her.

"Is this everywhere in the Nexus? Have you found anyone else you can understand?"

[sweetcandygirl]

"Seems to be everywhere."

Harley thinks for a moment. "I spoke to Harrowheart earlier. But it wasn't until we started speaking in German, that we understood each other."

[red_room]

Oh. Oh.

Well, that makes things a bit less overwhelming to deal with. It's just a matter of finding a common language. She knows over a dozen of them, if anyone's been to Earth she's got a fair shot of being understood.

"And we're both speaking English now. Okay, so it's less a problem of magic obscuring speech and more...the translator for the Nexus is broken."

[sweetcandygirl]

"That can happen?" Harley frowns. She taps her foot for a moment.

"Do you think we can fix it, somehow?"

[red_room]

"Apparently. I've never seen it happen before but all kinds of weird things happen in this place. Why not have the translator go down?"

Natasha shrugs her shoulders. Who knows? This isn't the worst breakdown the Nexus has ever suffered. If anything it's one of the most benign at least so far.

"We can try, but I'm not even sure where to start looking."

[sweetcandygirl]

"Me neither." Harley has to admit that in this case, a plan of action would be nice. And she is not a plan maker.

"Hey! Guess what! Steve helped me to find a new apartment. I have a place to stay now." They might as well make conversation, since they can.

[red_room]

"Did he now?" That sounds like something Rogers the literal boyscout would do. Natasha gives the faintest hints of a smile there. She's glad he was able to help Harley out like that. He needs more friends, after everything that's happened to them recently.

"Where is it at?"

[sweetcandygirl]

"By one of the Nexus parks," Harley points in the direction where her Nexus apartment is located. "You should be come over sometime, Natasha."

[red_room]

Oh. That looks an awful lot like where Steve himself lives. Natasha nods.

"I've been to that complex before. It's a good neighborhood, if not a bit quiet for you I'd think. I've got a safe house in one of the more urban apartments in the Nexus. Use that for my base of operations when I'm staying here."

The spy tucks a strand of hair behind her ear while Harley talks. It's strange to her to be considered a friend so easily. She's not used to people trusting her like Harley is.

"Oh yeah? For what, movies? Dinner?" Why would Harley want to have her around her place? Is it because she reminds the blonde of Pamela?

[sweetcandygirl]

"I got a job in a noisy, flashy city. So it is a nice balance. Work surrounded by music and people. Rest near a park."

Harley grins. "All of the above?"

[red_room]

"Not here I take it."

But not her own world, Natasha's fairly certain. Harley had been talking about moving on, starting over.

"I'm not the best company, you know."

[losthunter]

Unable to speak to each other at the moment, Jim had suggested to Hunter that they should find Natasha. Who might be able to help them.

Hunter kept an eye out for the red-haired woman. Keeping Jim at his side.

He breathes in relief at hearing her voice. And understanding her.

"Natasha!" He calls out to her.

[red_room]

Natasha snaps her head toward the sound of her name. Two familiar faces in the crowd, gesturing toward her. The spy nods and hurries through the crowd until she's in front of the couple.

"Hunter. Jim. Good to see you both. What's the situation? This isn't just an audio disruptor. All the signage and written word has changed too."

[boldygoing]

Great, her English is just as archaic as Hunter's. Jim makes a face, hoping that Russian hasn't changed quite as much. His accent is probably going to be atrocious. "Наш английский несовместим," he says, once she joins the two of them for Adventures In Translation. "Я не знаю, что происходит."

[losthunter]

Hunter just looks more confused, once Jim starts speaking.

"I am having trouble understanding him. And he can barely understand me."

"He said something about Russian?"

[red_room]

Natasha's eyes narrow sharply when Jim breaks out the Russian. What kind of accent is that? Moreover, this isn't the way he spoke her language before during the Halloween party. It was much more proper and lacking the pronunciation problems she's having to sort through now.

The translator. Even then, why had she assumed a man from the future was speaking the same kind of Russian as a 21st century spy from another universe?

"He says your English isn't matching up with his. He's not sure how this happened. And his Russian isn't much better than his English is I'm betting, but it'll do." She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and gestures to Hunter when she turns back to Jim.

"Это из-за разницы во времени? Он беспокоится, потому что он не может понять тебя.
Вы понимаете меня?" A beat then while she turns from Jim to Hunter again. "I asked him if he could understand me."

[boldygoing]

He's still trying to parse her English when she busts out the Russian, and Jim has to pay close attention to figure out what the hell she's saying, her pronunciation so different from what he's learned to expect. Still, he's quicker to understand it than the English, and he nods to both her questions. "Странно, но да. Вы оба говорите очень старомодно для меня. Я могу понять некоторые, это занимает больше времени. Это как слушать Шекспира."

[losthunter]

Well at least they found someone who has a better chance of understanding Jim. Hunter nods slightly, when Natasha translates what Jim has said.

"I'm not sure how it happened either." He runs a hand over his head. He is trying to stay calm, but it is just not helping.

[red_room]

"He says we sound like we're quoting Shakespeare at him, with all the antiquated turns of phrase that comes with it."

Natasha supposes she shouldn't be all that surprised. Considering when the guy comes from even before anything else there's no way what she considers contemporary English or Russian is going to be the same to him.

"I think he understands you better than you can him, either way Hunter." Natasha offers him a sympathetic smile. "You can speak normally. If he's confused I'll try to interpret for him. Maybe he can teach us some of his dialect so you can talk easier with him."

Turning back to Jim, Natasha sucks in a breath and tries again.

"Что ты хочешь, чтобы я сказал ему? Можем ли мы получить кофе и сесть?" The spy points over to the vending machines on the other side of the walkway and a set of couches. "Нам нужно выяснить, что с этим делать."

[boldygoing]

Jim gives a thumbs-up the moment she says 'Shakespeare,' fairly confident that Hunter will understand that. "Forsooth, prithee, et cetera," he adds, just in case.

Hunter looks pretty damn worried, but Jim... not as much. Yeah, it's a bit freaky to be surrounded by countless people he can't understand, but that's pretty damn normal, isn't it? He's only had a Starfleet-grade universal translator for a few years, after all. So he knows just what he wants Natasha to tell Hunter. "Скажи ему успокоиться. Это, вероятно, временное, и никто не пострадал. Мы что-нибудь придумаем." He claps a hand on Hunter's shoulder in support, giving him a smile that's almost relaxed, if not confident.

To Natasha's other question, he nods also. "Я мог бы использовать кофе." If nothing else, maybe it'll soothe Hunter's nerves.

[losthunter]

Hunter has to chuckle a little when Jim speaks a few words of what he is hearing. It is a relief to know that Jim can understand him a little.

He relaxes even more when Jim he gives him that confident, relaxed smile.

"Good idea Natasha." He agrees to the idea of sitting at the couches. Or at least that is what he thinks she means, when she points in that direction.

[red_room]

"He says to calm down. This won't last long and it's not like anyone's hurt. We'll figure something out."

Jim's Russian is still a bit difficult for Natasha to translate word for word perfectly, but they're getting the general meanings across. She doesn't bother to add that Jim could go for a coffee. He's nodding and heading that way and there's sure to be coffee soon.

The spy steps back a little bit and lets Hunter and Jim walk ahead of her arm in arm while they make way to the couches. All the better for them to get used to this and each other. She'll head for the vending machines first to get them all something to drink.

"I take it this is the first time you've ever heard each other speak in your true voices then?" She gestures between the two of them once everyone has something to drink. Repeats the question in Russian for Jim's benefit.

[boldygoing]

It's a damn good thing that Jim isn't literally hearing Shakespearean English, as that would be even farther away from his century's rendition of the long-metamorphosed language, but he can hardly tell the difference. It's all old to him, either way, full of words that haven't been in common use in his lifetime.

"Правильный голос?" Jim repeats, cocking an eyebrow at her choice of words. True voice... yeah, okay, he can see why she'd call it that. "У меня всегда был переводчик. Я не понимал, что это сильно изменилось."

Even with the translation difficulties, Natasha being here is making it a hell of a lot easier to make himself understood. But he's already starting to miss getting to speak directly with the person he's talking to, especially since that person is Hunter. "My transsprekker is Pòsuì auch," he says to them both, tapping the little patch behind his ear and shaking his head. "Whahtote did this toz yehder."