epidemiology | EVENT ★ LOST IN TRANSLATION

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EVENT ★ LOST IN TRANSLATION

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.

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[Evan's care for simplicity is fairly appreciated by Shizuo as well, even if he's not quite as eager as his other two colleagues here to pick up a new language necessarily. It's not for a lack of curiosity, but simply that it would be a slow and time-consuming process--Shizuo trusts neither his patience nor his own intellect to do a particularly good job of it anytime soon. But English is a given, at least, and now seems as good a time as ever to knock some of the rust off...

The half-charades do help to supplement things, too. Evan's statement is easier to parse this time, and at Haise's response Shizuo nods too, putting down his spoon and taking up his cup again.]

Yes. [Haise holds up his quinque, and Shizuo just sort of mimes squashing something on the table with his free hand. ...Very gingerly. (Since it wouldn't do any good to break the table here--)] It is...not fun. [Coupled with a grimace; "a pain in the ass" is what he means, actually, but that's a little more of a handful and the sentiment...hopefully gets through anyway.

Shizuo points at the notebook Evan's brought to the table with him now, though, because while he's not terribly confident in more full sentences just yet he still has to wonder what that's all about. He doesn't usually carry around notebooks everywhere, does he?] Why?

[Their halting description of their recent battles parses, and their audience nods. Moreover Evan, prone to understating for humor's sake, reads Shizuo's 'not fun' as a dry joke and grins sympathy. Purely by accident Shizuo had managed to communicate his frustration.

When he asks about the notebook, though, the redhead perks up. He lifts the coil-bound book, which has been with him on and off since Nalawi, though often tucked in the bottom of his pack or forgotten at home during day outings.] This? Learning.

[He flips it open, flips to a page halfway to the end of the book. The first half of the pages breeze by with tight, messy notes and honestly pretty bad sketches of greenery and fauna from the island mission, but Evan settles on a page that's scribed with lines of text, some short, some long, some not in his hand.]

I'm making a... [Phrasebook? How would that translate?] A list of useful things to say. Um, English, French, German... [He flips the book to show to the pair, pointing to lines in each language as he lists them.]

[The only language Haise can read of course is English, and it's far easier than understanding the spoken language or trying to produce it for himself. He observes this quietly, taking in listed phrases before he points to one in English, other languages underneath it]

The same meaning?

[Which is to ask if those listed phrases are grouped in translations of the same ones or not. He's unsure whether that's the case, but if they're equivalent, that sounds pretty handy. Well, so long as one knew what sounds to assign to the characters. Some of them might be more difficult than others among their number to decipher.

Unless of course it was for Evan's personal reference, in order to interact with all of them. He did say he was a scholar, so that could easily be the case, what with his enjoyment of learning new information.

Being able to interpret even a little would surely be helpful]

[Shizuo leans forward a little to peer at the pages as well, when Evan turns the notebook for them to see, taking a long and thoughtful sip from his (finally sweet enough) coffee as the list of different languages is pointed out. English is the only vaguely recognizable text as far as he's concerned too...useful things to say? Huh.]

Ah, they probably are... [This is a bemused Japanese mumble that's directed more to Haise, now. Writing down handy phrases in a book, though, he hadn't even thought of anything like that being a possibility...especially if there's a language barrier going on, as there certainly is right now.] Man, must be useful. Hey Haise, tell him this is neat, huh?

[Since Haise is clearly the more fluent English-speaker here and Shizuo figures he might botch the compliment somehow himself otherwise...be the midway translator, Haise!! But also, oh...frowning vaguely as he continues down the page now:] Doesn't look like he's got any Japanese yet, though...I guess he doesn't know any yet?

[Evan all but beams when Haise gets it right in one, and nods.] The same. Translations of each, so people can learn them. [So he can learn them, really.

He grabs one of the empty chairs at the table to the two have settled down in, and plops his notebook on the table, his bag on his lap. Shizuo speaks to Haise again in their shared language and he listens, knowing he doesn't know near enough Japanese to pick anything up but still on the aural lookout for anything that sounds even vaguely familiar. It's hard to turn off the tendencies.

Once they're done, he asks what's top of mind for him, looking back and forth between Haise and Shizuo.] Would you two be willing to help me fill this out? To add Japanese?

[Haise wonders if he'll be the best medium between one language and the other, but he can at least convey what Shizuo has asked him to. And between them, it doesn't seem unreasonable that they should be able to figure out a few useful phrases for Evan's list in various languages]

Shizuo thinks it's a good idea. Your list.

[List might not be exactly the right word to use, but Haise figures that Evan will get the idea. As to his request, he naturally doesn't see a problem with it, imagining that it would help people out during this period of technical difficulties. So he simply nods before he turns glances in Shizuo's direction to confer with him in their native language]

Think we can help with that?

[Ah, thanks Haise, you're a real bro...Shizuo nods along as Haise passes along his message with considerably more eloquence than he would have managed otherwise--not that this is saying terribly much--but then he straightens to look back over at Evan, as the question sinks in.]

Add Japanese? [So he echoes the phrase, in English; Shizuo glances back at Haise again, shoulders rolling in a shrug. To Evan:] Yes? Could do. ...What--ah. Phrases?

[He takes a longer, contemplative sip from his mug of coffee, slipping over to thoughtful Japanese in Haise's direction again.] Maybe swearwords? I hear people always want to know those first...

[It comes as no surprise to Haise that Shizuo is willing to help. He's a good guy, and he's been a reliable member of the team every time he's seen him around. Typical day-to-day phrases are the sorts of things that Haise anticipates, but he's caught off-guard by the suggestion of expletives. Did people always want to know those first...?

Well, he supposes the only way to be sure is to run the suggestion by Evan and find out]

Did you want... [A pause as he searches for the right term- ah] Curses? Shizuo wonders.

[The question catches him by surprise, as he'd been gearing up gleefully to run through his phrasebook and start transcribing as best he could whatever words they were willing to share. It gives him pause, and he stares at Haise for a moment before he grins.]

Swear words?

Oh, lord, why not?

[And why does it not surprise him, that little clarification at the end? He flashes Shizuo a grin too, more familiar with the man for having spent a few days stuck underground with him.]

It's supposed to be a book of useful words and I suppose there's no arguing that a good bit of profanity counts as utilitarian. Uh, [He pauses, remembering he's supposed to be speaking simply for the sake of his audience,] Yes, please. I'll add a new section for them.

[And true to that, he flips a few pages forward to an empty page in the notebook.]

[Well then, it looks like that went over pretty well. The suggestion had been a fairly offhand one, honestly, but the fact that Evan seems more than happy to take up swearwords anyway is simultaneously kind of funny and kind of relieving--so he had heard right about people always wanting to learn those first...

Shizuo muffles a smile behind his cup as he takes another swallow of coffee, but it's still pretty obviously there anyway. Though half of Evan's response ends up a little muddled, the last bit is pretty clear (as well as the enthusiasm); Shizuo nods.]

Okay. Ah... [Lowering his cup, he waves a free hand a little vaguely now. Speaking of actually handy swearwords...what to even pick....] Urusai is useful. Good for loud...like. Annoying people. [Or just anyone too talkative in general, really--needless to say, Shizuo does get quite a lot of mileage out of it himself. He looks over to Haise, switching back over to Japanese.] How about you, got any in mind? Baka might be good too, but I don't know if he's a name-calling sort of person...

[Ah, asking Haise for his advice on rude speech... Right about now, he wishes certain members of his squad were here, as they were far more vocal in this department. He's always been staunchly polite, unless he's getting the stuffing beaten out of him, to which end he imagines the vast majority of people might just grit out an obscenity or two]

Kuso maybe? [As a strict expletive... Although he's not as comfortable casually swearing] What else...hm.

[This he says in Japanese to Shizuo as he considers phrases that might be useful. Everything that comes to mind is, of course, heavily colored by the fact that he's lived his life among co-workers and no one else for as long as he can remember. And so none of it is impolite, exactly.

Excuse him while he clears his throat]

It's not swearing, but... Meiwaku is to inconvenience or trouble.

[As in, you don't want to meiwaku your co-workers.

He tried really hard Shizuo, he truly did]

[It may in fact be that Evan knew a friend or two while growing up who may or may not have been rather into certain genres of animation that shall not be named.... and so when he lights up at recognizing 'baka' he tamps that back down again, lightly embarrassed by secondhand otaku blowback.]

I know that one, [he admits, glancing up and then down again at his notebook to scribble each word down as Shizuo suggests the ones he explains in English. Then he's in the dark again for a moment while Haise and Shizuo confer, to which he grins prosaically. This feels like a delightfully silly addtion to his book.]

Meiwaku? [He tries it out when Haise offers it up... perhaps lightly disappointed it wasn't sterner stuff.] Like... calling someone 'trouble'? Saying they're a bad influence? Or is it describing a... an event or an influence?

[Evan...that secondhand otaku moment......Shizuo may or may not have arched his eyebrows a little at you, after you make that particular admission. But he's none the wiser as to where Evan's weird secondhand knowledge might be coming from, anyway--(he's not at all into anime or anything in that sort of genre himself, and knows next to nothing about the commonalities there anyway)--and in the end it's something filed away to ask about later. Preferably when things are being translated normally again.

But aw, Haise...well, in retrospect, Shizuo probably should have expected this sort of feedback. Haise really does seem like a very polite sort of person, so swearing really wouldn't be his thing at all, would it...? With that thought in mind, the effort is appreciated all the same, even if it's kind of. Underwhelming, by comparison. Shizuo nods along as if it's a perfectly valid and qualified input anyhow.]

Uh--of a sort? [Shizuo frowns a little to himself at Evan's question, wondering over how to even phrase this.] But for normal, like...being...trouble--at someone. Being rude? [Well, that probably went over about as well as a lead balloon, but he tried. Shizuo sits back, lightly swirling around his coffee cup now. Actually though, while they're on this topic...] Ah. How about, in English? English curses?

[Shizuo's familiar with a couple, sure--mostly thanks to osmosis through media and slips on Tom-san's part every now and then--but, admittedly, it feels like a point of interest now. And they might as well get an exchange going here, right...?]

[A small smile tugs at Haise's lips as he watches Evan's face light up with recognition, if only for a moment. It's not surprising that he'd know that word in particular, considering the way it's been carried overseas with otaku culture. He wouldn't have pegged Evan for the type, but he doesn't know too many of his interests aside how he favors research]

Meiwaku is causing trouble or inconvenience for others.

[Which is basically confirming what Shizuo said, just with marginally smoother English. It's practically a curse word in the workplace, nobody wants to be known for causing trouble for others, but he knows it's not quite the subject at hand.

Sorry friends, he tried...

When Shizuo brings up English expletives though, it seems like a good change of pace]

Fair trade, right?

[Time to put on the sensei pants, Evan]

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EVENT ★ LOST IN TRANSLATION

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