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

[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.

[unblinkered]

Max isn't sure what the arm motion is supposed to... she's answering something about people, it's probably not an abstract gesture... and then he gets it, he thinks.

"Baby? Small person? Like-" he digs out an old photo from his wallet, of his ex-wife cradling their son, and shows it to her.

[inourhead]

"Yes! Baby. Baby, one. Baby sleep - tlaa eat baby. So - two baby -" She makes a smushing gesture. "One baby sleep one baby not sleep, tlaa no eat. One baby not-sleep one baby sleep, tlaa no eat. Yes? Earth no tlaa - one person." She points at Max when she says 'one person'.

[unblinkered]

Max thinks he follows, but... he gives her a fearful look and mimics the smushing gesture.

[inourhead]

"Muilsroo," she explains. "Mm - Pyay sleep, I no sleep. I sleep, Pyay no sleep. Yes? Mouse no person. Mouse sleep no person sleep."

[unblinkered]

"Mweelsrow people..." So... it can be used to merge things? Or... swap parts of the brain around, so they share the same hardware? He stops and contemplates this for a moment.

A man in a dress shirt and large, round glasses steps out of a nearby stairwell. "I was told there was something interesting down here?"

[inourhead]

Sohng pauses her explanation to look at the newcomer curiously.

"She can do something that looks a lot like magic," says the receptionist. "She swapped the colors of this rubber band and that paperclip there."

[unblinkered]

"Looks a lot like- you realize- well, let me see. I can take a few minutes to watch a magic trick, I'm not, say, busy..." The department chair yawns for effect.

"It's not a trick, Dr... whoever," Max says. "This girl's thing- I brought her here because she actually seems to be able to do something that- god, it's- it's something you're going to want to look at under a microscope."

"Not a doctor. Professor Liu. Let's see it, then." Liu turns his attention to Sohng. "You have something to show me, miss?"

[inourhead]

"She knows about five words of English," the receptionist says helpfully. "I can't make heads or tails of what she's saying. Sounds like my kid's toys that talk when they break."

Sohng blinks at Professor Liu. "...What?" she says.

[unblinkered]

"Oh, uh- right. She doesn't- the thing she does is... she swaps things. Like, the colors on the office supplies- but other things, too. I don't know the limits, exactly... here."

Max grabs a blank white piece of paper and a green sign-in form from the desk, and hands them to Sohng- or, Pyay, if she's about to do muilsroo.

"What's she meant to do with these?" asks Liu.

[inourhead]

"Muilsroo?" asks Sohng. She swaps the colors, green for white, and offers them back to Max.

[unblinkered]

"'Mweelsrow' is her word for that thing." Max adds helpfully.

Liu stares at the paper. "It must have been... sleight of hand? Where's... look, let me. I've got..." He hands her a key off a ring of keys, and some unidentifiable piece of black plastic of about the same size.

"Uh, you don't want to do that. It's not- if you need that key, it's a real thing, and I don't know if the key's shape will stay intact if she swit-"

"It's for the photosensitive materials closet. There's twenty more just like it. I mean to be sure you're not all picking props to hornswoggle me, understood?"

Max looks helplessly at Sohng and/or Pyay and asks "Mweelsrow?"

[inourhead]

She swaps those colors too. Black key, silver plastic.

[unblinkered]

Liu takes them back, and examines them closely.

"Pyay- Pyay mweelsrow, yes? Thanks." Max turns to Liu. "So... this is important, right? This is the place to be for this?"

Liu stares quietly at the key and plastic for a moment. And then wheezes at Pyay, "You- how did you- where?"

"Liu ask how mweelsrow," Max offers by partial translation. "She claims to be from another world. Parallel universe, teleported here somehow. So that's... another thing to look into. She wants to-"

Actually, he never asked, did he? He's not confident about whether Sohng knows "want" or "go", but...

"Pyay and Sohng want go Nloggy?"

[inourhead]

Sohng flips through her notes. "...What Nlaaki?" she asks, confused, when she has found relevant words. "Nlaaki words."

[unblinkered]

"Uh- want go... Kweengow? Home. The-" he takes the green paper and quickly sketches the plane with the dark circle in the middle.

[inourhead]

"Go Kuigao! Yes!" She digs out her map and points at the place she wishes to go.

[unblinkered]

Oh, god, he's got her excited. "Whoa, um- slow down- we- no... know..." -and she probably doesn't know 'know', it's a homophone with 'no', and...

"Uh... we no go Kweengow. Can't. School study Pyay and Song, school study mweelsrow, school study tlaa, school study... how go Kweengow."

("Do any of those words mean anything?" asks Liu.

"...No, speaking total gibberish, actually. Bad habit."

"You know what I mean."

"Just telling her she can't go home yet, unless you can figure out how.)

[inourhead]

Sohng puts her map away.

[unblinkered]

Max takes that to mean that she understood. Probably.

"And you want me to...?" asks Liu.

Max gives him a funny look. "Well, she wants you to send her home. Me... I want you to do what I assume you want to do? Take her off my hands, study her, figure out how all this nonsense works, make everything- make it make sense again. And... she won't be able to get home if you don't figure it out, so, common... common interest."

"Well, I- yes, of course I- the department- we'll... you say 'take her off your hands', but..."
He stops and thinks.
"If we're going to do research- and it's certainly pressing- it's going to take some time to get a research grant. And if she doesn't already have a place to stay, we can't start paying for housing right away. How are you taking care of her?"

Max sighs, takes out his phone, and dials Gloria. And, briefly- "Phone. Kweengow have phones?"

[inourhead]

"...No." Sohng writes down the new vocabulary word.

Gloria picks up. "Max, hello. Did you find her someplace that would sell you mice?"

[unblinkered]

"...Yes! Yes we did. We did get mice. So, that's taken care of. Bought some mice."

"Phone help me talk to Gloria," he mentions to Song.

[inourhead]

Sohng doesn't look like she understands.

"Okay. Are you coming back?" Gloria asked. "The only people I called who seemed like they thought they knew what to do were the ones who wanted to call the cops and file a missing person report..."

[unblinkered]

"Uh. Um. Well, see, that was what I wanted to talk about. The situation with... taking care of her. Since... that's... so, I'm at the physics department at Rutgers, and..."