inourhead | what in the longdark spitting-pit is that

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)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

inourhead

She gestures around the room. It is empty of tall blonde boys.

From:

unblinkered

Right, of course he's not present with her, but... the question is... first step is identify the information he wants from her, then he identifies the information he needs to give her for her to answer, and then he attacks the communication problem itself.

So... he wants to know if she has a co-conspirator who could have helped her make that appearance. She's confirmed that someone else was involved. (The idea that she was literally teleported here from another world by a snake monster being clearly a lie or insanity, he must identify how this person helped or manipulated her into faking sudden teleportation.)

So... he wants to find out where this person is, in hopes that they'll be more knowledgeable or at least more cooperative. Her gesture implies that they couldn't be here, as they're not immediately here in the room. The information she needs... is that this person's lack of immediate presence doesn't imply a lack of involvement- they could be hiding, or not personally present for the trick.

That's a complicated sentiment... he needs to explain "imply", and "involvement" and various vague ideas that can't be drawn on paper.

How about...

He gestures around at the school building, and draws a small circle on a fresh sheet of paper. He then draws a large outline of the US around that circle, and puts several additional circles on the map nearby. He puts stick figures for himself and Pyay in the first circle, and stick figure for the accomplice in another circle. And then... a parallelogram with a black spot for Kweengow, with another circle. And a snake in that circle, and then two arrows- one pointing from the snake to the school circle, and another to the accomplice's circle.

He stares at his handiwork in disgust- there's got to be a thousand ways she could misinterpret this- but hands her the drawing anyway.

From:

inourhead

She seems pretty bewildered. She looks at it for a while, then starts a new drawing: snake monster, herself, tall blond stick figure. Solid arrow from snake monster to herself; arrow from herself to a doodle of the United States. Dotted arrow from snake monster to blond stick figure, and a much more sparsely dotted arrow from the blond stick figure to an empty, blank circle.

From:

unblinkered

So... she... doesn't know if the snake monster got him? But if it did, she doesn't know where he'd end up?

So, okay, most likely she is in on whatever this is, considering how unhelpful that was. She has no idea where her accomplice is, or where they would be under whatever circumstances? If she'd been being manipulated, she'd have some idea of what was going on.

Max has had enough of this. He's going to take her down to Gloria's classroom, and stick her with the English as a Second Language kids, and tell security about some trespasser talking in gibberish. Too old to be a student sneaking in to change their grades, but... he'll let them figure it out.
...except she materialized out of thin air. That'll eat him up all day if he lets it go unanswered.

"Y'know, if you're just making up this don't-speak-English crap to distract me, you're being a real jackass."

(If she can't understand him, the language won't matter, and if she can, she deserves it.)

From:

inourhead

She looks at him blankly.

Then she draws an arrow from the end of her own chain-of-travel, to another empty circle.

From:

unblinkered

If empty-circle means... doesn't know where something goes... she's asking "where am I going to go now?"

He draws a circle right next to a circle containing them, with a shorter, wider stick figure with curly hair for the English teacher, and draws an arrow between them. He walks a ways down the hall and opens a door to a staircase, making a beckoning motion.

Does she even have the same general sign language? Would she understand shaking her head for no and nodding for- oh, as if it matters, she's probably faking it anyway.

From:

inourhead

She follows him, anyway.

From:

unblinkered

He leads her downstairs and into a classroom on the ground floor. It's full of early reader books and translation dictionaries- she might be able to find one with her language in it somewhere, although whatever... probably African thing she's speaking, if it isn't fake gibberish, is unlikely to be represented here.

There's a picture of Gloria with her class- he shows it to her and points to the stick figure drawing he made previously.

But how to explain that she teaches language...?

He points at her papers with the columns of translations- pointing rapidly between pairs of words, and at the picture. "Gloria... teach... English."

From:

inourhead

The sentence makes no apparent impact whatever, but the girl does sift through the books available - and finds none that she decides to pull off the shelf or that match the lettering she's been using in her notes.

Her stomach grumbles. She rubs her tummy and looks at him inquisitively.

From:

unblinkered

Oh, butts... he doesn't have anything on him, except... he could get... the cafeteria would... not even be open, if he grabbed something from there he could get in trouble...

He goes through his pockets. There is... an apple core in a ziploc bag he forget to throw away, rapidly going brown... half of a chip... he sets this aside on the desk and starts looking through his bag. It's a mess in there, there must be a granola bar he forgot about, or something...

From:

inourhead

She looks through her bag, too. She produces what looks like a single deshelled peanut.

She picks up his apple core.

There is a series of abrupt transitions, and then she is holding what for all the world looks and smells like an apple-core-shaped peanut and a peanut-shaped bit of browned apple.

She puts the bit of browned apple in with the mice, and breaks off the "stem" of her peanut and gives that to the mice too, and bites off a nubbin of peanut and puts it in her bag, and then eats the rest of it, nibble nibble.

From:

unblinkered

Mice. Teleporting. Language. Snakes. These are all things he has abruptly stopped thinking about. He has instead started thinking about the impossible thing she just did.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!"

He lunges for- no, she's eaten it, he- the mice are eating- he- frantically points at the mice eating the thing, and her mouth, and the...

What?

From:

inourhead

When he makes a sudden movement she scrambles away from him. Her noise of alarm sounds like "leep".

From:

unblinkered

He stops moving- shit, he spooked her again- and instead just points at her accusingly.

"What was that?! What did you do?"

He doesn't bother trying to communicate anything complicated- she shouldn't have any trouble noticing what alarmed him, he assumes.

From:

inourhead

She looks really confused, then slowly holds up her apple-core-turned-weird-peanut. And bites into it again.

From:

unblinkered

Max nods, to confirm that's what he's concerned about- and "What?! What did you-"

He would ordinarily have no words, and then quickly produce words, and then say those words- but in this case, practical considerations have him locked into the first state.

From:

inourhead

She blinks, then holds out her other hand, open, empty.

From:

unblinkered

No, what? Is that like... a shrug? Is she holding something he can't see? What does that gesture mean?

He... he looks around the room, he spies- there's a wax apple on Gloria's desk, he could use that to... say... what kind of question could he illustrate with...

He grabs the wax apple, and- and the half of a chip, and he holds them, and stares at them really hard, and shakes them... and nothing happens, maybe she'll notice what didn't happen...

From:

inourhead

She plucks the wax apple out of his hand - gives it a funny look - and rummages in her bag and comes up with a bit of dried papaya. She holds them up so he can clearly see them.

Step by step, the wax apple changes in color, and sheen, and her hand dips a little as it gets heavier, and the smell of papaya wafts from it.

The piece of papaya she started with turns wax-apple-colored and glossy.

She digs her thumbnail into the ex-wax-fruit, takes a chunk out of it, and tucks it into her bag. She hands him the rest of it.

From:

unblinkered

His eyes widen as she performs the... the magic, is all he can call it, and stares intently at the papayapple as she hands it to him. This is a real thing that she just did.

Gloria is going to want to know what happened to her wax apple, and he's not going to have an answer she'll believe. Unless... he supposes Pyay could re-wax the apple, though he'd have to explain the-

wait no she could not do that, that is impossible, that is not a thing that happens

He's standing stock-still and staring at the fruit, holding his breath.

From:

inourhead

Pyay resumes eating her peanut-thing.

From:

unblinkered

What did she just do? She... the first time, she turned an apple core into... a large, apple-core-shaped peanut, but... the peanut turned small and apple-core-y. She... swapped their properties? But... peanut-ness is complicated, it's not an amount that can be transferred between objects. The same goes for... waxness, and appleness...

It could have been... he'll call it "nanotech", even though he suspects it's more likely something unrecognizable enough to call "magic". But calling things "magic"... he doesn't like how that sounds. It appears to work with false ontological primitives, but...

But it could just be that her "nanotech" knows a pattern for peanuts and papayas, and can reshape things into those known configurations. Just... reshaping organic material on the molecular level.

...he hands her back the papayapple. They're going to have to do tests.

From:

inourhead

She seems mildly surprised to receive the papayapple, but after she has eaten up her peanut she takes a bite out of that too.

From:

unblinkered

And that's... edible? The... would there have been enough... raw material in the wax to...

He grabs- what does he grab- he takes a piece of paper and draws an apple, then tears it out around the outline, and gives it to her. He's not sure what she'll do with it, but presumably it'll produce... edible paper? Maybe? He needs more expendable objects for this.