Translation Fail Plot

[foolyoutwice]

Well, that was interesting, in a boring way. It's been a few days now of sitting on his skiff over the lake--over a writhing mass of magically-summoned fish and not-really-fish-at-all--but now the spell seems to be starting to wear off. The water below looks calmer, Loki hasn't had to throw any lampreys back into the water in a few hours, and the crowd of hungry shrieking seagulls that arrived on the second day is starting to thin out.

And the squid seem to have lost interest.

Which is nice. Because they've been grabbing his skiff every time he's tried to fly away from the situation, but now he's able to steer for shore, hop down to land, and make his way to the bar. (Because he's not a complete asshole (well he is, but whatever), Loki leaves the skiff far enough out over the water that the obsessed fish aren't flinging themselves onto the land trying to reach it.)

So....hey Milliways, WHAT'S UP? Can a slightly damp guy get a drink?



((It's been a week and the translation failure is wrapping up! It's been ridiculously fun to see all the threads coming out of this, I've loved it. Let's say tomorrow is the last day for new translation EPs, but obviously people can keep on with older EPs as long as they want.

Let's also say that the babel fish are starting to return to their normal ways, so there are more and more areas where the translation field works properly. But still some problems if you want!

And Loki still has Marvel-woo Allspeak going on, so the translation problem isn't a problem for him.))

Comments

[freedom_is_grey]

A supremely dusty woman and her dog are perfectly willing to buy him something.

Once he answers a few questions.

Ysalwen, who may have been keeping an eye out for Loki ever since talking to Baze, approaches from the left.

She is polite enough to stand far enough away that her dust-covered cloak and boots are unlikely to make Loki sneeze.

"You're looking . . . very moist, right now. Having fun?"

[foolyoutwice]

"Oh...great fun. Never been better. And how are you?"

A few days surrounded by fish hasn't really leveled him out any, but at least he's in a better mood than when he got to Milliways.


((I'm going to need to head out for 2-3 hours soon, apologies in advance for vanishing.))

[freedom_is_grey]

"Marvelous, really," Ysalwen says, only a little dry. "Tramping around dusty plains is every woman's dream, right?"

Then she laughs, covering her mouth briefly in order to try not to make herself cough.

"Though I do have to ask, because maybe you know -- why did you summoning away all the fish mess up the Bar's ability to translate languages?"

[foolyoutwice]

"Ehehhhh...did it? I haven't noticed."

If it did, well--oops! So sorry!

[freedom_is_grey]

"So you have no idea why translation involves fish, either?"

Damn. Now she's just going to have to look it up in the library.

Quelle horreur!

"Huh. Wait, have you just been floating over the lake on your skiff this whole time?"

[foolyoutwice]

"I can't think why it would," he says, somewhat truthfully. (Though now he's wondering about it himself.) "Are you sure it wasn't coincidence? I can hardly imagine that a little incident by the lake would trouble Bar's magic."

So it's probably not his fault.

"And--yes? The squid took a fancy to the skiff, and I didn't trust them to leave it alone if I abandoned it. So." Fishy camp-out.

[freedom_is_grey]

"I think your fish-summoning didn't just limit itself to fish in the lake. Though the pile of fish on the shore was very impressive."

Innuendo, what?

"And -- I'm sorry, did you try talking to the squid and asking them to leave your skiff alone? They're very polite, and I've never had any trouble."

[foolyoutwice]

"Well, you know what they say about the size of a man's fish pile."

The question about the squid makes him look faintly uncomfortable. "I did ask. But they...really wanted the skiff. The locus of the spell, you understand. So we came to a compromise."

(No, he didn't try talking to the squid. He yelled at the squid, though!)

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen laughs.

"Is that what you call it? Oh, I do hope nothing is actually silvery and wriggling. It seems . . . unpleasant."

Seriously, what?

"Did you let them climb into the skiff with you?"

Her smile broadens, eyes sparkling with interesting. (And amusement.)

"Did you take them for a ride over the mountains?"

[foolyoutwice]

"The squids? I did not. I don't give just any oversized invertebrates cruises on my private skiff." That's for people he likes!

"So--has there really been a problem with translation here?"

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen laughs quietly.

"Well, that's a wasted opportunity. For them, not so much for you."

Anyway.

"And. Yes? People have been playing a lot of charades just lately. It's . . . interesting."

[foolyoutwice]

"I wish I had known."

Not because it would have stopped him from trying the fish spell, of course. But it sounds like it was very funny. "I wonder what the connection could be to the fish. Not that I think there is one." Because it's not his fault. As established.

[freedom_is_grey]

She raises one eyebrow.

"Are you any good at charades?"

He's certainly got a mobile enough face for it. And good hands.

"Because I suppose we could have a charade night here and you'd get to re-experience it without the vague fog of alarm. As for the fish, it seems to make sense from observation, but correlation isn't causation, so I can't be sure. And it doesn't make very much sense when I think about it -- even with magic. Which, this being Milliways, means almost nothing."

[foolyoutwice]

"Well. I usually cheat at charades. By other people's standards. But by all means, let's try!"

he has great hands, thanks for noticing

[freedom_is_grey]

Ysalwen snorts.

"What kind of standards are those?"

Some games are meant for cheating. For instance.

"Boring ones, I should think."