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]

"I suppose," says Gloria. "Don't you dare lose track of her, if I'm going to be telling people about her and promising them there's something to see."

"Mouse sleep," says Sohng.

[unblinkered]

"Right, okay. Thanks."

Max hangs up. If she had something she was about to say, she'll... probably be very annoyed at him, so, no change.

"Uh- that's- she doesn't just do colors. She does... I don't know how much she does, but she can switch "sleepiness" and "awakeness" between her and the mice."

Liu gapes. "Those aren't quantities. What do you mean, she switches-"

"That's what I said! She apparently doesn't care! That's why it's confusing and I'm not just dealing with this myself!"

The two spend a few minutes exchanging confusions, and not producing any meaningful new ideas. They seem to be ignoring Sohng, and show no indication of changing the subject to "directions to the linguistics department" anytime soon.

[inourhead]

Sohng docilely finds a chair to sit in and studies her English notes.

[unblinkered]

After some time, they finish. Max obtains directions to the linguistics department (more the We Are Obligated As An Accredited University To Provide A Foreign Language Course department, according to Liu, but hopefully it will suffice).

"Pyay- uh, Song? We're... go school that teach English words, and study Nloggy."

[inourhead]

"Sohng," she confirms. She gets up and follows him.

[unblinkered]

The humanities buildings are, as it happens, on the opposite side of campus from the physics department. Max neglected to ask for road directions, and by the time he realizes it's going to be a longer walk than anticipated, he's already a good distance from where he'd parked.

For a moment, he thinks about how to ask Sohng if she's tired, and then remembers the mouse thing. She'll be fine.

Light rain- barely a drizzle- begins to fall.

[inourhead]

Sohng peers up at the rain, but not in a particularly mystified way. They must have that where she's from.

[unblinkered]

He looks at her, checking that reaction. She comes from a flat world, with no "day" or "night", but it has ordinary weather patterns? Perhaps... her world is an ordinary planet, and it's a lack of technology- no cars, no phones, what else don't they have?- that makes her think otherwise, and she's merely accepting Earth's roundness as another bizarre quirk of this dimension.

That's probably it.

He points. "Rain. Kweengow has rain?"

[inourhead]

"Kuigao rain, yes."

[unblinkered]

Right. Well, here comes something she may not have: it's around six o'clock, it's Daylight Saving Time, and it's starting to get dark. She didn't understand "day" and "night", earlier... a matter of not needing a particular concept, with sleep abolished, or a physical reality?

He points at the sun, peeking through the clouds near the horizon. "Sun. Kweengow has sun?"

[inourhead]

She flips through her notes, not seeming to care if they get a little drizzled on. "Kuigao has suns," she concludes, after a sufficient pause.

[unblinkered]

He winces at the notes getting wet- but judging by her reaction, wetness is a thing her mweelsrow or whatever can undo.

"Suns..." He doesn't know if she learned plurals, or if the S is some kind of mistake. He begins counting on his fingers. "Sun, sun, sun, sun? Not one sun? Two suns, three suns...?"

[inourhead]

"Suns," she says. "Suns, suns." Shrug. "Not one sun."

[unblinkered]

That, uh...

For a moment, he thought, hm, maybe the reason they think it's flat and the reason they don't have day and night are the same, maybe their planet's spin is in sync with their orbit, like the moon, and so the world seems to "stop" at an icy boundary...

But, nope. Nothing so simple. Some kind of binary star system thing...? Or...

Oh, they're here. The Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies. Conklin Hall. That's... not really what they're looking for, is it? They might be able to point them in the right direction, at least. There's got to be some linguists around. More resources than a middle school, at any rate.

Automatic doors open.

[inourhead]

Behold, a secretary-type.

"Can I help you?" the secretary-type inquires.

[unblinkered]

"I... yes. Do you have a directory of... I'm looking for someone here who's... I have someone here who doesn't speak English, but not- not Spanish or Portuguese- and we're looking for a... someone who studies linguistics, more generally. Are we in the wrong place?"

[inourhead]

"Yeah, the linguists are two doors down." The secretary-type points. "I think on the third floor."

[unblinkered]

Oh, that's good.

He leads her up the stairs- and, in the spirit of language learning, points out "stairs" and "door" on the way up.

"Song- linguists study words. Study Nloggy, teach English."

[inourhead]

Sohng - who has apparently quietly dried the damp notes on something when he wasn't looking - writes this down.

[unblinkered]

He notices. Song English, Pyay mweelsrow... they seem to switch off fairly frequently. He starts wondering how it works, in there, how they can be in sync yet maintain individual personalities.

...Insofar as they have individual personalities. Do they? He hasn't been trying to notice for very long. Song is maybe more relaxed and agreeable, Pyay maybe more focused and intense? He could just be seeing patterns where none exist.

There's a door marked "Linguistics Graduate Commons", two doors down from the stairs. He knocks.

[inourhead]

Someone who's either a young professor or a very run-down grad student opens the door. "Hi?"

[unblinkered]

"Hi! I, uh... have someone here who speaks a language, that..."

It strikes him that "a language we don't know" is marginally less likely to be immediately captivating to linguistics researchers than "a physics we don't know" was to physicists. How to get a foot in the door...?

"She... let's just start with... I don't know where on Earth it's from, and, let's say I need help identifying it."

[inourhead]

"Ooh. Okay, fun. Has she got any English?" she inquires. "Have you figured out anything about how it's structured, what sounds are in it...? Hey, Trevor, over here!"

[unblinkered]

"Uh, I haven't, analyzed it, no. I know a few words, but mainly I've been... just trying to teach her English, since I don't think there's anyone else around to speak... uh, she calls it 'Nloggy'. There's... I guess more oohs and ees-"

Trevor gets up from his seat, finishing off a glass of water. Short, round, pushes some of his too much hair out of his face.

"Yeah, yeah, I heard... look, just have her talk for a bit, I can probably get an idea of the language family and look it up from there."

Max looks at him skeptically. "Sure. Um. She hasn't said much in it since she realized no one else speaks it here, but... Song, you say Nloggy words?"

[inourhead]

Sohng doesn't immediately think of anything to say, but then shrugs and starts talking, slowly and clearly.

The first linguist fumbles for a little tape recorder belatedly.

When Sohng stops talking and blinks at them:

"I have no idea what that was. No clue whatever. Agglutinating, maybe? I think she was doing vowel length?"