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

[unmarred]

He smiles slightly.

Indicating each of the shapes in turn, he says things which sound very much like they might be his language's words for 'red triangle, red circle, red square, blue triangle, blue circle'. (The shape he is pointing at in each case gets a white border for as long as he is pointing at it.) Then, before he can get to it, the last shape is briefly highlighted and a weird-sounding voice from the desk says something that, in context, seems very likely to mean 'blue square'.

He makes a now-you-try sort of gesture at Holly.

[inourhead]

Oh. Okay. He has a... weird magic thing... that can pick up Nlaaki. Ooooookay.

Crystal takes over. "Lere puisro - lere fkiol -" Etcetera.

[unmarred]

The weird magic thing, with occasional helpful prompting from the short guy, starts learning Nlaaki from Crystal. The pattern seems to be: it shows her some things, gets her to label them, then shows her a new thing and says something about it that is supposed to make sense based on the vocabulary it just learned from her. (The short guy seems to have assigned himself the task of telling the magic whether or not it succeeded, because he watches for reactions and prods the desk in different ways based on whether she appears satisfied with its utterances. When she doesn't seem satisfied, the magic guesses again, and usually gets it right the second time.)

In this way, the magic desk learns quite a lot of Nlaaki in a surprisingly short time. (Its pictures can move, which helps a lot when they get to verbs - stylized stick-people walk and run and jump and climb and speak and exhibit various emotions at her.)

When it has amassed enough vocabulary to sustain a simple conversation, he prods it again and the shapes go away. He asks a question, and after a short pause the magic desk says: "How did you(singular) get here?"

[inourhead]

Crystal replies: "We don't know. There was a demon chasing us and it seemed to eat us but then we were here."

[unmarred]

The desk says something in the other language that includes the word 'demon', which is not part of the vocabulary she has taught it.

The short guy looks at her quizzically. He asks something which the desk translates as, "What is a demon?"

[inourhead]

"There are lots of kinds of demons," says Crystal, trying to restrain her vocabulary to what the magic table has learned. "We don't know what this one was."

[unmarred]

"Is a demon an animal?"

[inourhead]

"...Sort of. No. Do you not have demons here? Where are we?"

[unmarred]

"We are in a [untranslated word] travelling from [untranslated word] to [untranslated word]," apparently. (He smiles wryly at the obvious inadequacy of this answer.)

[inourhead]

"...Ah."

[unmarred]

"Where did you(singular) come from?"

[inourhead]

"We," emphasizes Crystal, "were in a forest running from the demon that ate us."

[unmarred]

He nods thoughtfully.

"How many of you(plural) are there?"

[inourhead]

"Two. I'm Crystal and she's Holly."

[unmarred]

"You(singular) started to be instead of Holly when you(singular) started to talk to the table?"

[inourhead]

"Yes. Do you want to talk to Holly?"

[unmarred]

He shrugs. "Does Holly want to talk to me?"

[inourhead]

"She didn't want to talk to the table. She'll talk to you if you want. But she was the one running from the demon so she's a little tired."

[unmarred]

"The table is not the most fun to talk to. Are you always one of you at one time?"

[inourhead]

"Holly's still a little awake. We're unusual."

[unmarred]

"Unusual because you are two? Or unusual because you are not always one of you at one time?"

[inourhead]

"...Second thing. All adults are two, where we're from. But if you don't have demons, maybe you just sleep instead."

[unmarred]

"Most people are one, here. I am one." He hesitates, then amends, "I don't know if I am one, but I don't think I am two like you are two or like your people are two."

[inourhead]

"We were three," she volunteers. "But Book moved out because he's a boy. Usually people start out one and then they move in together so they don't have to sleep. A kind of demon called a klaon eats sleeping people."

[unmarred]

"I might be zero, or one and a half, or three..." he murmurs, possibly to himself. Then he shakes his head and says, "Here there are no things that eat sleeping people, and no people who don't sleep."