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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Oh, that worries her a little more. She bites her lip and glances over at Bucky, who has settled down now that Caspar remains sulking on his side of the couch. She shakes her head and writes They must be scared. Not that the other two pokémon can't handle themselves, but if they are without her or Steve, they must be that much more unhappy by the confusion around them.

Caspar loses his sulk, then. He says something to Adia in their native tongue and her expression brightens immediately. She replies quickly, and then the Cylon gets up. He leans in to Adia to give her a quick kiss, much to Bucky's consternation. But before the bird can get worked up over it, Caspar is already walking away, a quick, sardonic salute to Jim before he disappears into the Plaza proper.

He is going to look for them. She keeps her smile, much more relaxed now. He likes them and they like him. Apparently it's only Bucky who has a problem with the Cylon.

As for his question, which she understands easily, she sets aside her drawing and picks up her writing implement once more. Moon rune. She touches the back of her head a moment before adding, A moon goddess gave me help in the Nightmare. It made the messengers happy.

That's the really short, abridged version of what happened, but she can go into more detail if he's curious. And speaking of curious, she gestures to his collection of drawings. Can she see what they drew for him?

Well, Caspar certainly looks a lot happier to have something to do, and Bucky looks... well, he still has his feathers all ruffled, but glad to have only one interloper to eye suspiciously. Still, it's good that someone's gonna be looking for the others; Jim's become quite fond of Sarah during his occasional visits to Steve's place. And Ethel can't be dealing well with all this cold.

Knowing that Caspar is on a mission frees up his concentration to focus on the conversation, and his eyebrows go up in surprise when he reads the scrawled note about the symbol. "Luna akua," he repeats thoughtfully, but the real surprise is her touching her head, like that's where the symbol is. Even as she's gesturing for him to share, he's already shuffling through the drawings to find one in particular, which he presents without delay.

She's unsure how successful Caspar will be, but it does give him something to do, and it gets him out of Bucky's hair -- er, feathers. Already the braviary is calming down, not nearly as suspicious of Jim.

When he says "Luna", she blinks in surprise. It sounds so much like "Elune" that she wonders if he's also heard of Harrowheart's moon goddess. But then he's showing her his drawing, and that thought is immediately tabled. Having gotten used to the Messengers' drawings, she can tell that it's a picture of Jim -- the one sitting in front of her.

There's a rune in his head.

She gasps softly and touches the symbol, tracing its squiggles with her finger, then sets the picture aside to write hurriedly.

You have a rune, too. In your brain. She touches the back of her head again, for emphasis.

Who gave it to you?

The shock on her face damn near mirrors his own, even though she's clearly had more time to figure out what the hell hers is, and where it came from. Jim suppresses a shudder at the thought of that place, but now he has to know. He has some kind of magic weirdness inside of his head, and he hasn't yet figured out what it's doing. If anything.

"My mémoire..." He waves a hand next to his head, like a thought that's flying away from him, and shakes his head. A good chunk of what happened after passing through the mirror is still little more than a blur, and what he does remember is nowhere near as pleasant as having a moon goddess lend a hand. There's only one thing he can think of, one transformative experience that left its mark on him physically, mentally... why not this, too?

He hesitates, not really sure how to explain. Jim moves his hand to touch his shoulder, as if protecting an injury. "Warwulf bit me. Mayhap...?"

"Mémoire," she repeats flawlessly, recognizing the word. That's Leonisian! Or... French, she supposes. Either way, he gets his point across. His memory was poor for what happened, and after he explains, she understands why.

For a moment, her expression falters, a look of sadness replacing her wide-eyed curiosity. There's no surprise on her face, though. Someone must have already told her. Perhaps she heard it from the werewolf herself. "Je suis désolée," she says softly, slipping into her childhood tongue, before shaking her head and writing something down.

I'm sorry that happened to you. But I don't know if that's what gave you a rune. Runes are words from the language of Great Ones. In my Nightmare, there was a Great One that was suffering. My friend and I helped it, and then we were able to leave through the broken mirror. This was before the moon goddess.

She bites her lip and rubs at her writing wrist. Even without the language barrier, she feels like her words are inadequate. As much more as she knows than Jim, she still barely understands what it means to have a rune in her brain. And she has no idea what Jim's is.

Micolash would know what the rune means. The very name makes her frown. She draws a picture of a stick figure wearing a cage on its head, in case he doesn't recognize the name.

She doesn't look surprised, and Jim was not prepared for how much it bothers him that other people know about that. His first reflex is to get angry, upset that someone else has been spreading it around... but he can't. He wasn't the only one who suffered, wasn't the only one affected by his bestial transformation. The hot flash of anger is quickly cooled by guilt at the reminder, and he nods, not quite making eye contact.

Besides, he has reading to do, once she's done writing her next message. Jim frowns as he slowly parses the old language, thinking. He's not sure what the hell a Great One is, unless that's what the little messenger people drew in one of the other sketches he's holding, which he shows to Adia with a shrug. "They not pa'shi being whaht orr who ikh, but it runah having also. Not thinking it being innen Nightmarr." His body language is rather rigid, closed-off, as much to himself as it is to outsiders. Time has begun to dull the sharp edges of that place, though he can't imagine ever wanting to talk about it in detail. But he can't avoid the memories, and it's with great reluctance that he sets his jaw and tries to sort through what he does remember, to find a possible answer to a question he didn't even know he'd need to ask. "Greyat One being runah giver? Or Luna?" Because he does remember the moon...

The mention of some kind of expert gets his attention, though the name isn't familiar. It isn't until she draws a stick man and sketches a cage around his head that Jim recognizes who she must be talking about, and a scowl steals across his expression. Of course. Of course that man would know. They were all in his head, weren't they? "Him," he mutters unhappily.

She doesn't miss that flash of anger, instinctively worried that it's directed at her, but then she understands: he's ashamed. She bites her lip, wanting to tell him that it's all right, he's as blameless as anyone can be who has been turned feral, but she fears pointing this out will only upset him more. Perhaps, she decides, there is a way to make that point more obliquely.

I am friends with the ~~worgen~~ werewolf. The Nightmare made him feral. Normally he is nice. Only hurts bad people. He was very sad about hurting you. She remembers all too well that downtrodden look on Harrowheart's bestial face, the guilt coming off of him in waves. What a terrible night for him, and for Jim...

Looking over the drawing, she's as flummoxed as he is. What the heck is that thing?? Is it a Great One? It certainly looks unusual enough to be a Great One. It doesn't sound like Jim actually saw it in his Nightmare, or he'd at least recognize it. She mulls over his words, as much to understand them as to put together a reply. He doesn't want to talk about his Nightmare, she can tell that easily enough from his body language. The Great One gave me my rune she confirms. Is it worth explaining in more detail? She looks up at him, then back down at her notebook.

Slowly, she draws a creature in the blank corner of the page. A round, lumpy body with only two appendages: giant, claw-like hands at the ends of long, spindly arms. She gives it a dozen eyes, each one turned down in a nearly cartoonish expression of sadness. Great One she writes underneath it. Brain of Mensis. It touched me in the Nightmare twice. Both times, it hurt so much. Blood --

She stops writing, miming blood coming from her nose and eyes, before writing again.

It was suffering, and I felt it suffer. It did not mean to make me suffer. When my friend and I helped it, that is when it must have given me the rune.

Maybe that's why she seems so calm about her own experience. For all that she suffered, she was able to do some good anyway.

His unhappy mutter makes her look back up. She shifts uncomfortably in her seat and nods. Once again, Micolash's reputation precedes him. It wasn't his fault what happened, but I don't think he is sorry, either. Talking to him gave me answers, but I did not like some of them. Her gaze returns to her drawing, to those sad eyes. How much worse it is, to know what was behind their suffering.

She frowns and brings the tip of her pencil down on Micolash's effigy, striking a line through his smiling visage.

Edited 2018-02-01 14:45 (UTC)

She's friends with the werewolf too? Jim still doesn't particularly trust the guy, but if Adia and his older doppelganger both are willing to vouch for him... well, it's something to think about, anyway. Jim nods slowly, contemplatively. He's not exactly gonna rush out to be friends, but if they ever meet again, maybe it'll be under less hostile circumstances.

He pays close attention to her drawing, a species he doesn't recognize at all. There was nothing like that in his Nightmare, not that he saw. From what he understands of what she's written, this Great One is no monster, no matter how it looks. There was only one other living creature anywhere in that hellish place, the worst kind of monster imaginable, wrapped in a deceptively harmless human shell.

Whatever the case, Adia seems to have come out of it much better than he has, though he doesn't resent her for it, not for an instant. He's glad that somebody could get something positive out of that madness. He hesitates, not able to talk too deeply about what he saw there, even if he'd wanted to. But he doesn't have to go into detail, not that she might be able to understand it all with the language barrier in place. "Not help being innen my Nightmarr. Verst child mémoire, but... uh, tordita." He mimes twisting something in his hands, wringing an imaginary object out of shape. "Not real." Not how it actually happened, not that it was any less traumatizing the second time around.

Well, that is certainly a clear enough sentiment, and Jim can't help but agree. "He bete like ikh spolek being. Err... science test?" He's blanking on the word he wants in the old dialect, but hopefully that's enough to get the point across. Talking about the Nightmare like it was some kind of fun experiment was off-putting to say the least.

Jim, honey. Adia is friends with everyone. And based on her expression, she's rather good friends with the werewolf, because she looks relieved that Jim is at least willing to give Harrowheart another chance. She'd hate to witness another schism between people that she cares about.

However long it takes for him to describe his nightmare, she listens patiently, pencil held flat against the notebook so she can give him her full attention. His worst childhood memory... something to do with his mother? His brother? She's clueless. She knows so little of Jim Kirk's past, not that it's stopped her from befriending him. The both of them. It must have been terrible, to affect him so badly. She nods sympathetically, then picks up her pencil and writes a little more.

The Nightmare used our memories against us. My friend and I were trapped on a spaceship with the Great One.. She points to her drawing. It reminded me of something that happened to me. My worst memory, too.

But what that is, she doesn't say. With Caspar back, it's not her story to tell anymore.

She nods animatedly at his assessment of Micolash, her frustration coming to the fore. Not so much for herself -- she's gotten enough information about her rune to feel comfortable having it -- but for Jim. How is he going to learn what his rune means if he can't talk to someone about it?

Wait a minute. She hurriedly writes down her idea as the thought strikes her. Micolash and I could talk to one another with our runes. Maybe we can do the same thing? They are from the same language so the translator malfunction shouldn't matter.

Jim can't decide if it would be easier if she already knew about this or not. He never wants anyone to know about that hellhole, never wants to even think about it, but it sure saves a shit ton of time to not have to explain. Hell, even Hunter wouldn't know anything about it, if not for an inconvenient LOL that made him blurt out his train of thought with no regard for secrecy. Being in the Federation equivalent of witness protection sucks, regardless of how talkative he wants to be about the matter.

The Nightmare... sure, it's not subject to the same laws that bind his silence, but it's sure as shit difficult to avoid it. So for the moment, he just nods a little, setting that thought aside for later.

Besides, she's just written something much more interesting, if he's reading this right. "Whaht? Like... kash-nohv?" He's already miming a Vulcan mind-meld before he realizes she won't know what that is. "Uh... brain sprek."

A nod and an end to the subject is fine with her. She's on the freer end of sharing her past traumas, but she doesn't expect that of anyone else. She does hope that Jim has someone to share his pain with. Hunter, or the other Jim, or one of his crew. To keep it bottled up inside is not an effective long-term strategy.

She's learned that the hard way.

But sharing runes, that's different. No painful memories necessary. In fact, she looks a little excited about it, a hopeful smile on her face when Jim does not immediately reject the idea. Although the mind-meld gesture is lost on her. She turns a page in her notebook, and on a fresh sheet draws a little picture that emulates the Messengers' drawing style. Two stick figures, each with a rune in their head (a moon rune and Jim's rune, respectively), look at one another and share a thought bubble. Inside of it are the two runes.

Would you like to try? she writes underneath. The worst that could happen is that it doesn't work at all.

Well, that's fairly unambiguous. If Jim had doubts about his interpretation of what she wrote, they're certainly dispelled now.

While he's wary as fuck of letting someone else into his head, it can't be too deep of a connection, or she'd know a hell of a lot more of what Micolash knows. And if it's not an automatic thing, he should be able to disengage if anything goes wrong. So after a moment's contemplation, he nods. "Whaht to do?"

Ah, here is where she doesn't look so certain. Micolash took the lead last time, otherwise she has little experience with any sort of telepathic communication, rune-based or otherwise. She's willing to try, though. She can't deny the exhilaration she felt of her rune speaking to its twin, its meaning revealing itself to her, a profound understanding and blessing all at once.

Setting aside the notebook, she holds out her hands for Jim to take and smiles at him. Whether it will work or not, that's all he needs to do.

Hand-holding? Well, all right, not as similar to Vulcan mind-meld as he thought it might be. If the runes are in their brains, he would've thought they'd need more head-contact. But he can definitely work with this.

There's no hesitation when he reaches out to take her hands in return. He has no idea how this is going to work, or what to expect, but he's not afraid to find out. "Okay."

Her hands are warm and dry, her nails clean and cut short. She keeps her smile, looking into his eyes. She doesn't have to do that, Micolash's eyes were bound when they shared runes, but it give her something to focus on as she tries to get into what is hopefully the proper mindset. Should she clear her mind? Or concentrate on her rune? Or maybe try to picture his, or --

It's like being at a party and hearing one's name. Or being lost in the Nexus during a translator malfunction and hearing the words of your own language spoken clear as day. It is a flood of knowledge that flows between them, so much meaning packed into each rune that all other thoughts fall away.

The moon rune speaks of the moon, of course, and her providence. She is compassion, and maternal care. She is the power that comes from a light that reflects rather than burns. She is solace and comfort, her pull strong enough to command the tides but gentle enough to soothe the loneliest of souls.

Adia listens to her own rune -- if one can call her brain scrambling to strengthen newly formed neural networks "listening" -- before turning her attention to Jim's rune, and what it means.

Her hands are warm in his own, but for a moment, nothing else seems to happen. There's a little furrow in her brow, a thoughtfulness that looks like she's focusing on a moderately challenging puzzle, and then...

A jolt, like being startled out of a daydream, or water overflowing the lip of a dam, a gentle flood that cascades into his consciousness, impossible to ignore. And Jim suddenly becomes aware of it, blaring as brightly as a lighthouse on a cliff, its light so strong he should wonder how he ever missed its presence.

Dancing lights in the darkness, gently driving out fear and uncertainty. A soft trail to follow, paths opening up that lead away from the tangled thorns of baser beasthood, outward and upward towards discovery and enlightenment. The hand of Guidance on the reins, reassurance and confidence in the face of unknown danger, logic and reason over animal instinct, rejecting mindless suffering to seek meaning in the pain. Whispers and dreams, the unknown and unseen, a key to secrets left locked away. A message, if only he would look, if only he would listen. A question, seeking the reasons why, digging deep like roots to what is unseen below.

It's nothing like the mind-meld with the old Vulcan ambassador, that flood of memories and emotions and pain so strong, so deep, that to this day he still can't entirely sort out which parts come from Spock and which are his own. No, this is different, it's simply knowing in an instant, clarity like a bell being rung, eyes opening to the light after being in darkness. Strangely familiar, like he had always known it was there, only forgotten.

It's not words, not exactly, like he'd thought it might be. But he sees the moon in her, a gentle light that softens the shadows of the night and casts a watchful eye over what lies below. It's like nothing he's ever felt before.

His rune is clear as day to her, a thousand ideas wrapped into one single symbol. A trail that widens to a path that leads her ever upward, past fears and base instincts, towards understanding, towards the desire to learn more, to know when to ask and when to listen. A hand that gently guides her away from traps and missteps, that eases her forward, that keeps her from stumbling back into pain, into darkness.

When she did this before, with Micolash, their runes were like mirrors, reflecting one another into infinity, an ocean of moonlight spreading around them in a dazzling array. This moment she shares with Jim is different, but no less precious. It is a handshake, an exchange of ideas. It is guidance and compassion, a steady hand and a caring, watchful eye working in harmony to draw out answers from the shadows, to bring them both closer to understanding the language of the Great Ones.

She sighs softly and lets go of his hands. The connection ends, but the images remain, like a fading dream.

Unlike the mind-meld, when the connection between them breaks, Jim feels no need to wrench himself away and fight to regain his composure. His hands stay up for a long moment, as if still holding hers, before awareness begins to settle in and he slowly lowers them. The afterimages still paint themselves across his inner eye, and his head spins from the dizzying weight of it, making him reach out a hand to steady himself against the back of the couch just in case.

He still doesn't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't quite that. "Wow."

As it was her second experience communicating in runes, she recovers a little more quickly than Jim, although she seems rather dazed by this new information. "Wow," she agrees with a smile, a word that carries its meaning across the translation barrier without trouble.

Remembering that barrier, she picks up her notebook and pencil. It feels cumbersome to return to a human language, after what they have shared, but she tries her best. Did that help? It didn't give him a name for his rune, or tell him how he got it, but at least now he knows what it means. That's a step forward. And better that he could learn that from a friend than the only other person she knows who has a rune inside his brain.

It really does feel clumsy when he tries to decipher her handwritten note again, his mind still swirling with impressions and ideas that he hadn't even known were there, echoes that are slow to fade now that he's aware of them. He's certainly got a lot to think about, after that.

Jim nods slowly, looking back up at her with a small smile. "Mayhap. When we tsuri sprek, we sollte sprek about ikh encore." With as limited as their communication is at the moment, he's confident that trying to discuss it now is gonna be an even worse headache for the both of them. Seems like his whole life revolves around waiting lately, but he's looking forward to getting to pick her brain about this, when they can speak more clearly than scribbled notes and hand gestures.

It takes her far longer this time to decipher what he's saying, her brow knitted in confusion, but eventually she nods, either getting what he's saying or coming to the same conclusion. We can talk about it again soon. I am going to talk with a mage friend of mine so maybe I will have more information.

Bucky, who had been watching their exchange vigilantly, chirrups and shuffles closer to Adia. Not out of protectiveness this time, but loneliness. All this silent hand-holding and writing instead of talking -- even if he can't understand it -- is making him feel left out. Adia runs a hand down his feathery crest before writing something else to Jim.

I should take Bucky back to Steve's now so he can at least wait for him at his roost.

Jim flashes her a thumbs up, once he's puzzled through her message. Later is good, when they can actually talk to each other. And Bucky's neediness is pretty obvious even without words. "Okay, okay." Jim offers her a small smile, nodding once. Sure, the answers he's managed to get aren't entirely what he expected, but damn is he glad he ran into her regardless. Strange enough to learn he's gone some rune in his head; at least he's not the only one.

She's glad to have run into him, too. It's nice to know that she isn't alone in this, and Captain Kirk is good company to be in.

Gathering up her belongings, she waves goodbye before standing up. She doesn't need to non-verbal coax Bucky to follow her, he hops off the couch as soon as she's taken a step. He gives Jim a brief look -- less suspicious than before because he didn't try anything funny and perhaps was indirectly responsible for Caspar leaving, always a plus -- and then hops alongside Adia, back to Steve's apartment.

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Language LOL: Translator Malfunction

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