EVENT ★ LOST IN TRANSLATION

[futurologists]

RETURN TO OSKA Upon arrival in Oska, new and returning recruits alike will find that something strange is going on. Any attempts to communicate with someone who doesn't speak the same language as you will be just that -- like you don't speak the same language. Let's hope everyone is good at charades, because you're going to be out of luck for a full day. On the second day, a text comes across -- surprisingly intelligible to everyone. Is it over? Well . . . crowley: Hello, Audentes. We are currently experiencing magitek difficulties, as you may have guessed already. Temporal insects have arrived with our latest arrivals, and as you may imagine, we have had our paws full. cherenkov: We are working out how to mitigate the pest problem for good. For now, please put your unpleasantly huge feet to use and stomp them out. Or other such methods. crowley: We have created a quick patch to facilitate text-based communications, but verbal translation will continue to be down until the insects are exterminated. Thank you for your patience. It's not over. TEMPORAL INSECTS This invasive species has worked its way in through the rifts along with the newest batch of arrivals, and information on them is available in the library (provided you can read the language it's written in!). It seems they behave like locusts, living quietly within the space between rifts for many years until their numbers suddenly balloon and they begin to swarm in search of food. These bugs move fast and pack a nasty bite, but are unarmored and easily squished. Each one is about the size of a football, and leaves a little tell-tale slime trail that makes it easy to track. They can cling to any surface, and won't hesitate to leap onto attackers and bite if they feel threatened. One can take a decently sized but non-lethal bite out of someone, but a number of them together will pose a real danger. If punctured or squished they tend to explode into moderately acidic goo that can cause caustic burns if not immediately washed off. They are attracted to any area of high temporal energy, which can be literally any surface, corner, or point on or within the castle and its grounds. As they begin to feed they cause temporal distortion in the area. This manifests as the immediate area seeming to flicker backwards and forwards through time. An insect gnawing at a table leg in the dining area, for example, might cause the area to stutter between years and years of dinner parties, ghostly attendants of all fashions and species appearing and disappearing as they enter and leave the affected area. An onlooker can't interact with temporal distortions directly, but if the insect is left to its own devices, it will eventually eat through all of the temporal energy and render the immediate area gray, frozen, and completely inert. It's highly recommended you kill or otherwise chase off an insect before it manages this, as it can do irreversible damage to a world. For affected Oska locations, please see this post. OOC NOTES The translation errors will continue through the rest of the month. For more information or to ask questions, please check the plotting post here! New bounties are available in Oska! Please remember to fill out your squidge success form before August 31, 23:59 UTC! Filling the form out is mandatory, even if you do not have the 3 squidge threads. You will not pass AC if you do not fill out the form. Characters who have been accepted on August 20th are exempt. Please direct questions relating to the success form here.

Comments

[grunehexe]

[This was not how she'd planned this.

She'd hoped to be able to run. Maybe it was a bit much to hope for, seeing as before Zeta-12 she hadn't really been able to walk at all, but. She'd still thought that maybe she could do it, even with the numbness that required a certain level of attention paid to balance and where she put her feet.

It's embarrassing more than painful, though it was that too, wincing and holding back instinctive pinpricks of tears as she tried to get to her hands and knees, blood dribbling from her nose, palms and knees scraped.]

Yes, I am fine...

[Even if it was a different language, and so was her own tongue... she made an appropriate guess as to what that voice would be asking her.]

[sengetsu]

[...Ah, right. Language barrier. Still, she's moving, so she can't be too badly hurt, thankfully. That bloody nose is a mess, but this is the area of first aid he's experienced in. He mimes pinching the bridge of his nose and tilting his head back, and then offers her a hand for support.]

[grunehexe]

[Body language seemed more similar than not, much to everyone's great aid. She takes the hand with a wince, picking skinned knees off the ground struggling to get her feet back under her, torn between awkwardly holding up her skirts above her knees with her other hand to keep the blood off the fabric and also pinching her nose.

So she half-assed both.]

Do you have a hankerchief... ?

[She wasn't sure, but. Masamune spoke some English, so she gave it a try.]

[sengetsu]

[He gets some of the nouns in that, and extrapolates the rest from context. He doesn't have a real handkerchief, but he does have a piece of cloth for keeping his hair from falling in his face while he works. He pulls out from where it's tucked in the front of his kimono with his free hand]

Ah, yes. [wait, no, English] Yes.

[grunehexe]

[That worked. Good. She nodded in relief, assent, to hear that English would work perhaps, accepting the cloth her offers and using it to dam the flow of blood from her nose, pinching tightly to stem it rather than waste magic on something so superficial.]

Thank you...

[Her voice was almost unrecognizable, nasaly and wavering due to her breathing through her mouth with a pinched nose, but.

One ought to say such things.]

[sengetsu]

[He has to think for a second to pull up the appropriate response, but polite phrases like this are some of the little English he knows other than Masamune's favorite phrases]

You're welcome. [the words are stilted, and his accent is basically atrocious, though it's probably just barely comprehensible.

It's easier to point in the direction of the castle, and then give her a questioning look - does she want help getting back?]