what in the longdark spitting-pit is that

[inourhead]

This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.

Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.

And the demon's gaining on her.

She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.

And Holly's not fast enough.

The mouth catches her.





But it doesn't hurt.

Where are we?

----


with Minus (kappa)

with Mark (kappa)

with Max (Benedict)

in Terraria (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Erin (Rockeye)

Comments

[inourhead]

Pyay is oblivious to his inner monologue. She looks out the window and watches things go by.

[unblinkered]

They arrive at the Rutgers campus. "Here, school," he says- forgetting whether or not she knows "here". Or if she knows "hear" instead, that's going to be no fun to deal with. Homophones.

He begins driving slowly, scanning the building signage for something about a Department of Physics. There's no "Department of Magic", but the physics or chemistry people are likely to have the kind of precision equipment that might be useful for observing her magic at work.

[inourhead]

"What?"

Apparently she doesn't know enough of the two words to make out what he means.

[unblinkered]

Ah, there it is- he starts looking for a parking space.

She doesn't know "here" then- so, he... points at the building and says "school". He told her "school" earlier, right? Or was that "building"? Crap.

[inourhead]

"Skuul," she repeats.

[unblinkered]

He finds a parking spot- there's a meter, it's pricey, but this is important- and stops the car. He unbuckles his seatbelt, and looks over at Pyay to see if she understands the unlocking mechanism.

[inourhead]

She undoes her seatbelt. And opens the door.

[unblinkered]

Oh, good. She's got the hang of it, then.

He leads her up to the door of- Smith Hall, it looks like. There's some receptionist, or something, behind a window in the front.

"Excuse me- this is the physics department building, right? I need some help figuring out who to talk to about something unusual."

Turning to Pyay: "Pyay, Earth no mweelsrow- school... 'study' mweelsrow."

[inourhead]

"Something unusual like what?" asks the receptionist.

"What?" asks Pyay, sighing. "School what muilsroo?"

[unblinkered]

How to... oh!

"Pyay- Pyay 'study' English, school 'study' mweelsrow."

"Something unusual like... probably magic. Or extremely advanced nanotechnology. Or something like that. This girl here does something really strange."

[inourhead]

"Oh yeah?" says the receptionist skeptically.

"Sohng English," mutters Pyay.

[unblinkered]

"Yes, 'oh yeah'- this is definitely an oh-yeah kind of situation. I've done some tests. This isn't a prank."

And...

"Song English? Wait- Pyay... Song... when...?" He turns to the receptionist: "She, uh, doesn't speak English, I've been trying to teach her- has some weird thing going on with her language, has two names. Not the important part."

[inourhead]

"Sohng English," repeats Pyay. "Pyay - mouse, muilsroo."

"So what does she do?" ask the receptionist. "...Mouse? What's with the, are those live mice, what."

[unblinkered]

Why would... it can't just be a weird tense thing, can it? Why would anyone have another name just for speaking in another language? But it doesn't fit Gloria's voices theory, either... imaginary voices can't learn English while their host doesn't, probably, unless it's a really bizarre dissociative thing.

"She, uh... switches things. Properties of things. I don't know what the limits are, but she's switched the colors of chalk, turned food into other food... the mice are for, um, I think she switches tiredness and awakeness, so she doesn't have to sleep. I don't know how it's possible, no."

[inourhead]

"So - show me the color thing and I'll get you the head of department, but I'm not stupid, I won't be fooled by some stupid magic trick," says the receptionist, finding a rubber band (blue) and a paperclip (red).

[unblinkered]

"Alright- but sometimes she doesn't switch stuff, I don't know why- not like she tries and fails, she just doesn't understand what she's supposed to do with stuff I give her. I'll try these-" -he takes them- "-but if she doesn't figure it out, I can have her try the mouse tiredness thing on you, that one's pretty unmistakeable."

He hands the two items to Pyay. "Mweelsrow 'color'- uh, Song, English... 'blue' and 'red'? Same mweelsrow as chalk."

[inourhead]

"Blue," says Sohng, pointing to the rubber band, "red? Pyay muilsroo blue red, red blue?"

[unblinkered]

"Yes." He points at- there's a cup of pens on the counter- "red pen" and "blue pen", to make sure she's not mixing them up with some other property.

[inourhead]

Sohng nods.

And then Pyay tilts her head and swaps the colors and offers the objects to Max.

[unblinkered]

Well! That went smoothly!

"Thanks, Pyay. Or... thanks, Song? Thanks Pyay and Song? Thanks."

Max hands them back to the receptionist.

"I promise I didn't have a blue paperclip and red rubber band on me. Or, paint, or anything."

[inourhead]

The receptionist looks at the objects.





He calls the head of the department and says there's somebody interesting here.

"Pyay muilsroo, Sohng English."

[unblinkered]

He's not... she's acting like the names are two different people, with different skills? Which...

Well, they could be. It could be anything, because mweelsrow and clowns and mice and Nloggy and all kinds of things that violate precedent. The trick is figuring out whether it's true- the distinctions between "person" and "body" and "name" and have proven to be tricky.

"I Max. One name-" -again, simplifying- "-one person. One body," he says, gesturing to himself. "You Pyay... and you Song... two names, two people, one body?"

[inourhead]

"...Sohng and Pyay, two," says Sohng, slowly.

[unblinkered]

His eyes widen a bit. Are they... two of the same underlying personality with different sets of skills- the mweelsrow and the English- or... two different people entirely? Is this normal where she's from? It must be, she assumed he'd understand... could it be a delusion? He supposes it's possible for someone to legitimately be a magic person from another world, and also have some Hollywood split personality disorder. But... even if it were true, it wouldn't imply anything useful.

He can ask about the normal thing, though.

"Earth, all people one person. Nloggy, all people two people? Or only Song and Pyay?"

[inourhead]

This is complicated enough to send Sohng looking through her language notes. She can't find what she's looking for well enough to interpret him; she shakes her head. And makes a cradling gesture like she's holding a baby. "Word...?"

The receptionist, having got the professor's attention, hangs up the phone.