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

[westfallcorndog]

Harrowheart watches the art closely, not moving – not even breathing – as the little people draw... Him? So they know he's a worgen. And he... Ah. His first inclination was right. These are the strange little things he vaguely remembers pouncing on in the Nightmare.

He gently puts his palm over the drawing and looks between the outwardly ugly creatures. "Ewiddan," he repeats, frowning guiltily. He sets the picture down beside himself and shakes his head, then taps his temple and shakes it a little harder.

"Lon, lon," he says as he reaches out for their drawing supplies. They drew him, it's only fair he does the same for them. And, hey, drawing portraits made him at least one friendship in the past. Maybe lightning strikes twice?

When he's through with his work he turns it around and hands it over with a smile. How do you like it, little dude(ttes)?

[grantuseyes]

When Harrow takes up the crayons in turn, they're surprised! One even gets a little protective and tries to grab them back but the rest stop it. This is what we came to do, remember? We're going to help and sometimes people need to draw back to help.

They're all terribly curious as Harrowheart works, some trying to peek and crane their necks to see what he's doing. When he presents them his finished drawing, the whole mess of messengers gather close to look. Bent over the parchment, little hands resting on the paper or one another as they lean in.

It's only two seconds before they all erupt into excited groans. Disbelief! Amazement! Awe! Wonder! Delight! So many emotions and reactions to go through! He drew THEM! That's THEM! Do you see that? That's them! Look, there's me! And that's you! The messengers have become animated as they pass around the paper, pointing and gesturing, clapping and pumping their tiny fists.

This is the best day!!

A single messenger soon takes the picture and vanishes down into the portal. The rest have to see this! The ones left start to quickly labour over a new drawing. Working quick and eagerly, sometimes having to pause to shake or clap their hands in child-like giddy energy. Oh boy! Oh boy!

The new drawing is given with a great deal more enthusiasm than the first.



We Are Become Pals.

[westfallcorndog]

Harrowheart laughs with pure joy when he sees the art of himself. In Common he says, "That's me!" He delicately begins to take the picture, unsure at first if he's allowed to have it for his own. When they hand it over he laughs anew. "You got my weird head right and everything. Dang..." Another laugh and he can't help but repeat in an amused whisper, "Dang."

Objectively ugly as these little things are their corpse-like appearances don't bother Harrowheart, who reaches out to pat the nearest Messenger on the head. They're good little... Dudes.

Only when he looks back at the drawing once more does he notice something he didn't see before. His eyebrows furrow and he points to the symbol in the top right. The Cross of the Light. Rather than ask why they've drawn this particular rune – and he's sure it's a rune – he makes a confused sort of grunt. "Mmh?" What? Why? Why squiggle, boys? C'mon, boys, why squiggle?

[grantuseyes]

Oh, he wants to know what that rune means? Okay, uhhh, think, guys, think! One gets out a fresh roll of parchment and rests on his elbows as he stares at it. One hand holds one side of his head and the other taps at the paper. Think, think, think.

Another isn't about that navel-gazing life and just grabs a crayon and gets started. Drawing the symbol again seems a good a start as any, right? One more messenger joins in, drawing yellow shapes, like he's seen humans do for this symbol's meaning. The original artist is affronted that his work is happening without him and furiously starts drawing something else in red, and taking up as much paper real estate as he can to spite his cohorts.

Harrowheart shouldn't feel TOO bad if the message is lost on this one.

[westfallcorndog]

Okay, so there's two little... Croissants. And the Cross of the Light. And... Okay, that bit in the top left does look like a moon... Or a health stone. Harrowheart lays down on his stomach, a better Thinkin' Pose, and tries to riddle this all out as he scratches one of his sideburns with the blunt end of a crayon.

Red thing... What are you?...

He squints, he grumbles. He idly traces the three lumpy shapes of the figure... And then he gasps! Immediately he dives into his own re-interpretation of what the Messengers have presented to him.

When he's through he flips the paper around and points between the woman he's drawn and the figure the Messengers have drawn.



"Elune!" he says, hopeful as he's ever been. He points between the Cross of the Light, his woman, their woman, their moon, and finally the sky. "Elune!"

Wait wait wait! He can't stop his energy now! He points to the Cross of the Light over his head in their first drawing of him, then points to himself incredulously. Him? He uncertainly gestures between the two deities they've draw. Associated with?... Her?

[grantuseyes]

They don't know who this pretty lady is, but she looks like a vicar or a cleric if they had to make a guess. She just looks important. Oh and she has a shiny hat like the Vilebloods used to wear! And the pointing between her and the moon and the red thing, that makes this all sound about right. One messenger drives the point home that whatever Red Thing is, she must be good, because he pets the drawing with one hand affectionately. Good and Nice.

And Harrowheart puzzling out that all of this links to him and therefore the symbol gets the overall attempted communication across! Yes! You! Linked and associated with her! Them! Whatever! Nodding and clapping accompanies the death knight's questions.