nexus_crossings | Language LOL: Translator Malfunction

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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. ))

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"Suou-ch..."

Before Katsuya can even begin to get offended by that Majima has moved the conversation along swiftly following a train of logic that Katsuya can only gawk at. His being able to speak English isn't going to help anything get fixed if no one knows how to fix it.

But oh. Oh dear. They're not fixing anything.

"I certainly wouldn't trust whatever device powers this place's language faculties to you with the filth coming out of your mouth."

Hey, it's not a 'No' Majima! Success?

Majima's face suddenly goes slack. He clicks his heels together and bows repeatedly. Now he enunciates crisply, totally dropping his Kansai-ben. "My sincerest apologies, Suou-sama. It was not my intention to offend your delicate ears with my course language. Will you please forgive my indiscretion."

He holds his bow, awaiting Katsuya's response.

His...his dialect is flawless. This whole time he's been screwing with Katsuya. Including now. But the bowing and the tone of voice have him raising both hands in a placating manner.

"Okay, okay STOP." People are looking, what are you doing Majima? Unless they understand Japanese--which they won't--this looks like something else entirely and Katsuya is not in the mood for this kind of attention or any attention really from passers by. "I get it, okay?!"

Edited (html.... *shakes fist*) 2018-01-21 15:37 (UTC)

Just like that, Mr. Manager Majima evaporates, and he rises from the bow with a shit-eating grin. This is too easy.

He gives Katsuya's upper arm a playful punch. "C'mon, lighten up a little, 'baasan. Ya gotta teach me more of that filth in English!"

Majima bounces on his heels, thinking, before he snaps his fingers. "Tell me how to say somethin' like, 'Eat a shit sandwich, dickcheese!'"

"What makes you think I bothered to learn that kind of English? They don't teach you those things in any class."

For someone so wispy Katsuya doesn't move much with the playful punch nor does he flinch from it. He's reverted from horrified embarrassment to resting bitchface again and started walking away from Majima though at a slow enough pace that it's clear he's not trying to get away from the other.

He leads his begrudging companion toward a small set of vending machines selling packages of cigarettes and purchases two packs. One he hands over to Majima. Payment for their first meeting with interest. Rather than fumbling for a lighter, Katsuya summons a soft blue light underfoot before touching the tip of one finger to his cigarette and sending it alight after only a second's pause. He takes a long drag from the smoke then, blowing out away from both of them after a couple of seconds.

"Eat a shit sandwich." A beat. "I don't know how to say 'dickcheese' in English."

"Ya gotta know when some American is disrespectin' ya, right?" Majima argues as he trails behind Katsuya. He's genuinely grateful at the opportunity to replenish his cigarettes; he's been leaning on them a lot to grease the wheels of Nexus conversations. His gratitude is such that he even spares Katsuya a polite "thanks, bud."

Majima does not, however, light his cigarette on the startling blue flame. He's too busy trying to keep his jaw from falling completely agape. "For fuck's sake, Suou-chan! Yer just full'a fun secrets! English and what? Pyrotechnics?"

He throws up his hands. "I'm startin' to think I'm the only motherfucker here who ain't got some bullshit super power."

"You're better off without them. I didn't get these abilities randomly. It took the end of my world for me to be granted the weapon needed to save it. I'd rather be ordinary if it meant my world was safe enough to not need people like myself."

Katsuya pulls the cigarette out of his mouth while he talks, holding it with the same fingers that lit it only a moment ago. The light and fire have faded away to noghing already.

"It isn't all it's cracked up to be. Do you really want to be responsible for the fate of your world and humanity as a whole?"

"Can't say that I do, but I'd take that over bein' totally helpless to do anything about it." Majima pulls out his normal-ass lighter for his own cigarette.

"So doin' magic an' savin' the world ... is this yer full-time job now, or what?"

"Fair enough. What would you be fighting against in your world, anyway?"

Katsuya's going easy on his own cigarette, trying not to puff it down like he needs it to breathe. It would be painfully easy to get back into an addiction to these things, especially with how easily they reduce stress.

"Not for a few years now. That all happened a while ago. I've been more use protecting the Nexus than I have my own world of late." He gives a glance back Majima's way before smiling just a tiny bit. "I'm a detective. Violent crimes division."

Edited 2018-01-27 15:48 (UTC)

Majima shrugs emphatically. "Other people doin' what people always do -- comin' up with shitty ways to kill or fuck each other over. Worst case scenario, maybe avoiding a nuclear holocaust. The Cold War's still a thing."

Katsuya's day job -- or that knowing smile? -- doesn't elicit a visible reaction from the assuredly-not-yakuza. "Shoulda known. I was gettin' that stiff police vibe off ya."

He teeters his cigarette between his fingers, then gives it a quick flick to knock off some ash. "How's the force in your world? Back home, most precincts I've seen've been crawlin' with dirty cops."

Edited 2018-01-27 17:45 (UTC)

Well, that gets rid of Katsuya's smile in an awful hurry. He turns his attention to his cigarette for a few seconds while he considers a reply. The withdrawn look on his face and the anger behind his eyes say more than he intends to about the subject.

"Better than it used to be. There's still plenty wrong with the department in Sumaru, but we've done our best to get rid of every last piece of trash that dares to act like a civil servant."

Changing he fate of the world is easier than rooting out corruption on a smaller scale like this. Affecting change on a local level takes more than wanton destruction and widespread murder. He still doesn't have the evidence he needs to take down all of the snakes in the grass, and Suou's made something of a name for himself on the force.

"It's only a matter of time before they find some reason to get rid of me."

The shift in Katsuya's demeanor is very much noted. "Shit, man. You put a big target on your back bein' a part of that, huh?"

Majima shifts his weight back and forth thoughtfully before giving Katsuya a look that could almost be interpreted as respectful. "Takes guts to stick to your guns, Suou-chan. Props for that."

"As a civilian," he takes a weighty pause, "it's nice to know there's cops like you around who take servin' and protectin' seriously."

He offers a shrug in reply at first. What can you do? Sit by and say nothing in the face of corruption? That's not possible for someone like him. He has no misunderstanding as to why he's been passed up for promotion so many times and no qualms with it. If furthering his career means playing into the politics that shouldn't have a place in his job, then he's better off where he is.

"At least I've always got the Nexus as a fall back option, though I'd rather it not come to that. I've sacrificed quite a bit to protect my world. I'd hate to leave it behind entirely."

Majima hums in agreement. "Interestin' as this place is, I couldn't see leavin' everything behind, either."

He takes one last, long drag off of his cigarette and flicks it to the ground. He grinds it out with his toe. "So where'd ya learn English so good? Spend any time in the States?"

The question makes him smile as though he's remembering something he's particularly fond of before he offers Majima a shrug of his shoulders.

"I studied it in high school and University at first, but I ended up spending a year or so in a small Colorado city helping stop an undead uprising with some friends I made in the Nexus several years ago. And they were all American."

He wishes he was kidding, fingers brushing against his chest where the scar from the plaga he'd had in his chest had been removed.

"Yeah, I learned a little in school, too. Never really stuck, though. English is a fuckin' weird language."

The mention of zombies piques his interest. "For real undead? Eatin' brains zombies? Like in the movies? Not the circumstances I was expectin' for gettin' fluent in English."

"It is, I found it just sort of clicked for me after so many years and became easier to grasp. It's a very irrational language."

For a lot of things, rote memorization is the only way to get it and that took Katsuya a long time to master. He was never the most gifted student. His only skill was his stubbornness and dedication to his studies.

"Unfortunately, yes. Though this was after I'd faced down demons in my own world, so at least the shock wasn't debilitating." It was indescribably gross though. There are no words for how disgusting the undead are.

"Those stupid-ass L's and R's really throw me for a loop. How the fuck do you make them different sounds?" He snorts. "Figures I'd be sweet on an American girl that has both in her name. Makes me feel like a chump not bein' able to say it just right.

"Zombie flicks are great, but damn. I'd never wanna run across 'em in real life." He gives Katsuya a fresh once-over, as if revising his mental model of this skinny nerd. "You been through some real shit, Suou-chan."

Katsuya winces in sympathy. Even fluent in English, his pronunciation isn't always the best. It took him months to be able to say Hermione's name properly. And she's not the only one.

"A lot of trial and error and patient people repeating themselves until I got it right. I can usually make myself understood through context but it is fustrating."

What is this? What is happening right now? Is he actually shooting the shit with Majima? He doesn't get the chance to think too hard on it before the subject turns again.

"The smell is horrific. You can't ever get it out of your clothes. To say nothing about the dangers. Those are obvious, though." He takes another drag from his cigarette and watches Majima look him over. His observation makes the officer crack a smile finally.

"To put it mildly. But everyone has their own struggles. I'm not the one bearing such heavy scars like you are, Majima-san."

"I definitely ain't got the patience for that crap."

For his part, Majima isn't too concerned about rubbing elbows with a detective; the police have a tenuous symbiosis with the yakuza in his world, to say the least. Besides, he's technically a civilian.

"Eh, there's lotsa different scars. Some of 'em ain't always so obvious," he says with a dismissive wave. "An' scars of the flesh really ain't so bad when ya stop an' think about it. Ya learn to adapt.

"Biggest inconvenience is people assumin' shit that may or may not be true."

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Language LOL: Translator Malfunction

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Oh my gosh those typos im so sorry....

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