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

[follow_the_leader]

Emma looks at her in confusion. "Uh..." This is about her name? She points at the cup. "Cup." Then at the plate. "Plate." And holds out her porcelain plate, which is not yet em-pied. "Plate."

[inourhead]

She frowns, then picks up the nearest fork, and one of the cups, and -

Now the fork is made of crystal and the cup is made of silver.

"Sohng," she says, waving the fork.

[follow_the_leader]

Okay, so sohng means crystal, so then-

-and then the part of Emma's brain that is not an enormous language nerd catches up with her and she panics. "Aaaaaah, what did you do?" she barely manages not to shriek. "That's- that's crystal, and silver, my parents are gonna kill me." She hurries over and examines them. Whatever Crystal-Pyay did, the cup is now definitely silver.

She taps it tentatively. Still silver.

"I'm gonna be in so much trouble," she moans.

[inourhead]

"Ah - hwatreemree," says Crystal-Pyay apologetically, with the first consonant being something frictiony in the back of her throat, and then the cup and fork are back to normal. She puts them down and clasps her hands behind her back.

[follow_the_leader]

...well. That's a thing.

Emma stares, then splutters a bit. She plasters on a smile, says thank you, it's fixed now, she should be polite. But- she's met one Prime, once, and they were old and quiet and didn't do magic in front of her. And this isn't anything Prime magic, it's something she's never ever heard of.

(She hasn't heard of people appearing on staircases either, or this language, or that map, or-)

This is all way too much. She slumps on her stool, unsteadily. "I don't know what's going ooooon," she wails. "I have a magically appearing girl in my house, I can't speak a word of- of- whatever language that even is, and she can turn crystal things into silver and back and this is not how I was expecting today to go."

[joy_in_laughter]

"But- it's magic! It's cool!" Jenny says, worry and confusion on her face. She has nothing to compare Crystal-Pyay too; it's not quite as weird, for her. More 'awesome and cool' then 'strange and unknown and frightening.'

[cry_me_a]

Alli wraps an arm around Emma's shoulders and awkwardly pats her. "You're doing really well with the language thing?" she says, trying to be supportive.

[follow_the_leader]

"It's strange magic, I don't know what she did, I can't even ask her," Emma mumbles, but she manages to pull herself together (a little). And then, because she is used to Jenny and this is now how she handles crises, she cuts everyone a slice of pie and mechanically starts to eat her piece.

It's quite good, actually.

[inourhead]

Crystal-Pyay seems to like her pie too. A little ways in to her slice she says, "Hwatreesrayn."

[follow_the_leader]

"...I'm going to assume that means thank you, because that makes me feel better," Emma declares. Then, to Crystal-Pyay, "You're welcome. Glad you like it."

She will be polite even when incomprehensible.

[joy_in_laughter]

"What, no credit for meeee?"

[follow_the_leader]

"It's still our pie!"

[inourhead]

Crystal-Pyay looks between the other girls, uncomprehending but apparently picking up on the tone.

[joy_in_laughter]

Jenny points at Emma and sticks her tongue out.

[follow_the_leader]

Emma mimes shaking an angry fist in response. It is not terribly convincing, because she and Alli are both convulsed with giggles at the sight of Jenny's blueberry-tinted tongue.

[inourhead]

Hee hee hee!

[follow_the_leader]

Emma finishes her pie without much delay. Jenny has the best ideas sometimes. She and Jenny do the dishes, put them back, and then it is time for her to be actually-asleep, rather than fake-asleep-while-really-sneaking-into-the-kitchen.

She gets hugs from her friends then looks at Crystal-Pyay. She points at herself, then mimes sleeping on her hands. She repeats the gestures for her departing friends. Bedtime for sleepy, pie-eating people.

[inourhead]

Crystal-Pyay looks - pitying? Something along those lines. "Emma, Emma," she sighs, dispensing with further elaboration since Emma couldn't understand any of it. Then she looks thoughtful and (carefully, nonthreateningly) takes Emma's hand, leading her back to the room she was given, with the bag and the mice. Some of the mice are awake.

[follow_the_leader]

Well, now Emma is confused, but she follows along readily enough. Does the girl need something in her room, maybe?

[inourhead]

A mouse, apparently. She peers into the cage. Some of the mice are awake. Still holding Emma's hand, she reaches in, pokes the liveliest mouse (it's eating a bit of a large chunk of bread that has been left in the cage), and -

Emma's not tired anymore.

The girl lets her hand go and grins.

[follow_the_leader]

Emma is now extremely awake!

And extremely confused. But tragically for her, she has no way to ask about this. She can just be confused.

She looks at the mouse, which is now sleeping, then at her hand, then at Crystal Pyay. (And then repeats this a few times.)

...nope. Still no idea what just happened.

It is, in the realm of the crazy magic she has encountered, harmless. And arguably helpful. But... what.

She decides not to worry about it. She's awake now. What does she do now? She has- hours and hours, she's usually asleep now.

Well- being able to ask about it would help.

She makes reading and writing gestures, then points at herself and Crystal-Pyay, then makes a questioning expression.

She wants to be able to ask about things. And that means vocabulary lessons.

[inourhead]

Crystal-Pyay peers into her bag theatrically, mimes writing, throws up her hands helplessly: she doesn't have pen and paper.

[follow_the_leader]

Emma laughs, and points down the hall. There's writing implements back in the library, in the desk with the map on it, if Crystal-Pyay will follow her.

[inourhead]

Crystal-Pyay will follow her.

And then look expectantly at Emma; apparently she'd rather learn the local language than teach her own.

[follow_the_leader]

Well, they've already begun this. So Emma writes down all the words they've already gone over (it's a fairly short list so far, thankfully) and then hands the supplies to Crystal-Pyay. She points to the first word. "Bag," she reads, and then looks expectantly at Crystal-Pyay, so she can mark down her own word. Emma doesn't need to learn the language, necessarily, but Crystal-Pyay probably wants some way to remember what is what.