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

[boldygoing]

Jim watches Harrowheart go, if only to make sure he's not about to come back at them both and make good on what sounded an awful lot like threats in whatever language that was supposed to be. "Why is that guy your friend again?" he asks, glancing over at the other captain with a steep frown.

[smartass_captain]

"Fuck if I know, some days."

Jim throws his hands in the air in clear frustration of the whole thing. He's seriously pissed off now and the adrenaline has him pacing even before Harrowheart is out of sight.

"We've fought some really bad shit together. He's saved my life and I've saved his. We've shared beers and just hung out before, but lately..."

Jim doesn't know.

[boldygoing]

Jim is not about to give out any advice on this, not really knowing or understanding their friendship beyond what he's seen and heard so far, not that his counterpart would be in any mind to hear it if he did. And so far, it's not exactly looking favorable for this Harrowheart guy. But there's gotta be something more to it than the werewolf being a total dick, otherwise the other captain wouldn't be giving him the time of day, let alone looking happy to see him.

"Can't say I'm sorry to see him fuck off right now either."

[smartass_captain]

"I really don't know why he's decided to be such a complete fuckwit recently. I haven't seen him all that much. Not since..."

Jim shakes his head.

"Not since we all trekked to Tamriel to get Harrowheart's runeblades back for him. The sword in his back. It's two blades that can join together."

[boldygoing]

Well, isn't that interesting? Jim eyes his frustrated companion, trying to get a read on whether or not this is one of those things he can ask about without being a nosy prying asshole. If it wasn't, the other wouldn't have mentioned it, right? Like Jim Kirk wouldn't want to know more about that kinda shit. "Somebody took 'em? Why?"

[smartass_captain]

"...They have a will of their own. Harrowheart fell outta favor with 'em somehow, and they went looking for a new owner. Someone who'd have a reason to use them."

There's still so much of this story Jim doesn't understand and never will. Things no one will tell him about the hows and whys. What Jim knows is that for whatever reason, they targeted Felix. Enticed him, empowered him when he needed to feel strong. They lied to him and were there for him when Jim wasn't. He failed Felix, and because of it...

"They're dangerous. They'll kill their wielder. Drain everything out of them. Their life, their soul...." Leave nothing but a pale lich, a puppet they can move at their leisure. Is that what's gotten into Harrowheart? Does he hate Jim now because the blades do? Have they stripped away more of his own willpower when they accepted him back? Already the guilt eats at Jim and he sighs bitterly.

"Don't ever touch them. I've already had to rescue someone close to me from their clutches."

[boldygoing]

Yeah, Jim doesn't understand what the deal is anyway, but it's hard to miss the signs that something awful must've happened to put that sort of look on the other's face. The swords kill the person using them? Maybe that's why this Harrowheart guy is undead. Or why he's such a dick.

Either way, hearing what it does, he nods immediately. "Right, noted, don't touch the swords." He's been dead once before, and he never wants to do it again, let alone anytime soon.