Error 4639

[voidtreckermods]

Day Twenty Two starts as any other day onboard the Voidtrecker Express. The morning announcement and then passengers are free to fall back to sleep or get up and start the day. Breakfast is made. However not so long after the wake up call anyone near an ICP point will see it flash bright white.

A moment later there is a message. It shows on the screens for fifteen minutes and indeed anyone trying to use the ICPs for anything else will have trouble as it seems determined to be all that they can access. Then the screen goes white again. Bold text flashes up.

Error code 4639. Program must end.

The screen goes black and stays black. Every ICP on the train is down. That is not all. When passengers try and speak to each other they will learn that whatever it was that allowed them to understand each other has stopped working.

Hopefully that won't cause too much mayhem...

(OOC: Information and plotting for this event can be found here)

Comments

Nita OTAs

[unfavorableinstigation]

Dining Car (event start)
"Rogue Void Craft?" Nita said - well, mouthed, frowning at the ICP screen.

'It'd explain a lot,' she commented to the peridexis, finishing her last scribble of notes just as the ICP screen itself went on the fritz, then off entirely.

/The hell?/ Nita exclaimed, taken aback, using the Speech out of startlement. She also stepped back from the device.

/Everyone here okay?/ she added, glancing back and around to see who else was there. /At least I think that was just the ICPs.../

---
General OTA (mostly Standard Coach)

It didn't take too long for Nita to realize just how big the scope of the problem was. All communications had been knocked out - though whether the train had done that as part of its own freak-out, or was trying to prevent them from realizing something was up, she couldn't say.

But most of the written word was no longer readable... in that it no longer seemed like English.

It wouldn't be much of a surprise to find Nita sorting books by alphabet, or syllabary, or whatever they were written in.

People, of course, are free to drag her into translating for them if they so wish!

Books!

[aggressivelygood]

Sven hoped their little linguistic situation was temporary, because if it wasn't...they were all going to be in for a difficult few months. Or...years, more likely. He'd spent thousands of hours of his life translating religious texts, but the languages he'd worked with had been already known. Translation of dead languages was for scholars far above his humble station, and Sven didn't know how much use his skills would be where they had so many different spoken-languages to account for, and very little framework to work off of.

But assuming their problem did prove to be a long-term one, the books in the train's slightly miserable library would be an important key. He wasn't surprised to find Nita already on the case. He sat at her side and peered over her work so far, before taking a book from what appeared to be an unsorted pile and filing it atop of one of Nita's stacks.

"You probably can't understand me either, huh, Nita? Maybe I can still lend you a hand."

Webmind OTA

[iamnotgod]

Webmind was now extremely worried - not just at the claims of the Voidtrecker Express's illegitimacy, which it could neither confirm nor deny just now - but because having all of one's communication access blocked off was extremely familiar to him, and from extremely negative circumstances.

Information suppression was a serious topic to him, after all.

"I have been unable to restore power to the ICPs manually," he'd report grimly to those he found - first in English, then switching to other languages if they seemed to be ones he knew.

"But to find the best vantage point to address this problem, perhaps we should look below the floorboards as well, and see if any other systems are wired into the ICPs and are similarly suffering interference."

Perhaps the roster screen was one of those systems...

Re: Webmind OTA

[blue_ice]

"Agreed," Kaiba answered after a moment. His English was nearly perfect, with just a little delay that indicated it wasn't his native language. "If critical life support systems are at risk, we need to know now."

He crouched near one of the dead ICPs, frowning at it.

Sakura OTA

[grannyofthebolt]

Library Car

Sakura was in the library, trying to figure out how the ICPs actually work without one to take apart and see the enchantments or gearworks, still when seeing the bit about the stolen void ship she raised an eyebrow. Then the error code happened and she tilted her head.

"Error code yeeognge yeeogngn yeeogng yeeogngp. Program ahnythor zhro. Ahf' ah cahf ah'gotha?"

As the screen went black she grabbed a book then looked at the odd runes, letting out a frustrated breath as she grabbed her rod (broom handle she swiped from the cleaning area when doing her chores) and stood up.

Dining Car

Not understanding people was tiresome, she could use the magic she learned from dealing with visions, but didn't really know many people she cared enough to talk to to bother yet. So she is just in the dining car, fiddling with some left over bacon and maple syrup and sugar, curious if something she read about was actually a viable candy idea.

"Y' wonder if fahf ephaitaste any vulgtmnah..."

Dining car

[myblueskies]

Sorry! I don't know what you are saying! He spoke in Japanese, but then repeated it in Italian just in case!

Romeo went over to her regardless with a big smile on his face, so she knew that he was being friendly. He looked at what she was doing. Was she cooking?

[blue_ice]

hallways

Kaiba reads the message in full before it disappears, hurriedly copying it in his notebook in his business-meeting shorthand as nothing from the train's screens is ever permanent. His eyes widen further the more he reads, a cold pit of dread filling his stomach. Just perfect.

And then the error occurs. He braces himself for critical life support systems going down, but the air is still breathable, he's not feeling strange...there's just one key difference: the noise around him is a mess of different languages, rather than the unified hum he's gotten used to. He's well versed enough in most modern Earth languages to tell which language a person is speaking, even if he's only fluent in a few, but there are a few people he doesn't understand at all. And it's worrisome.

"How convenient. As soon as we receive a critical clue, we're hit with a Tower of Babel curse."

He's speaking Japanese, but will switch to English or Mandarin if anyone addresses him in those languages. He has his toolbox swinging at his side, and he's ready to investigate.

gaming car

After hours of work (and hitting the wall of frustration several times), Kaiba stops to investigate the games. They're intact, but even most games require some level of language to play. The Duel Monsters cards are in Japanese and many of the board games are in English, with a few others scattered throughout.

He's fiddling with a Void-native game, toy trains along an intricate path that can be operated by a push of a button. He can't read the rules, but he sure can admire the delicate handiwork on each playing piece.

"Games are said to be universal, yet most are not..." he says, his resigned tone obvious even to those who can't understand Japanese.

Mess with the cars on the board, or challenge him to a different game? A distraction from the situation might be welcome.

hallway

[oripyrothy]

"Ooooiii!" And there's the dulcet sound of a wanna-be punk screaming from their shared room. Soon enough following, Ifrit's head is poking out. "Hey, what the hell is going on!?"

Her speech? English. Accent is hard to place - more American than not, but not really directly mapping to any American dialect either. Still, it's English.

feel free to just mingle here if your character's in the dining car!

[spikelet]

Incoming Message - dining car
The first A-Qing knows about it, she's sat at breakfast with a spoon of sugary cereal in her mouth, and suddenly the room is abuzz. Something about the ICPs? Conversation spreads out, and she gets three more mouthfuls of cereal before she catches the idea that there's some kind of unexpected message or warrant about them. No point in going over, she won't be able to read it anyway. Which means...

"Hey!" She tugs on the nearest person's sleeve. "What's going on? Tell me!"

Lost in Translation - dining car
-- And, ten or so minutes later, the noise goes from alarmed-but-harmonious to alarmed-but-anything-but. What was a conversation becomes a buzz of unintelligible sounds and words, and she claps her hands over her ears to avoid getting totally disoriented.

"Now what's happening!" is her next demand, albeit this time in a potentially incomprehensible language.

completely lost

[lookslikeacinnamonroll]

Wen Ning hadn't looked at the message, either. He could have read it, if he wanted to, but he was more focused on eating his breakfast. Now, though, there's definitely a stir and poor Wen Ning and A-Qing are sitting there, blinking owlishly. Guess it falls to him to explain?

"I don't know... Everyone's talking gibberish all of a sudden."

kitchen

[magicurls]

Mami is worried about the situation, of course she is. But panic isn't going to help. The more technically inclined are on the case, so she sees it as her job to try to keep people calm.

Her solution: Making cookies. She appears to be trying to bake sugar cookies, and you'll find her rolling dough.

"Want to try?" She's speaking Japanese, but even if it's not comprehensible, her expression is warm and inviting.

Re: kitchen

[grannyofthebolt]

Sakura tilts her head at the offer and looks at the cookies, then points to the dough.

"Ahf' yog cahf?"

After the error, Gym, threadjacking enabled bc it's somewhere crowded.

[eyeslikeblood]

Having been tending to the kaihaku in the greenhouse when the message appeared, Gyousou hadn't thought much of it. Beyond mentally noting sections and phrases to query with the others, that was. He finished looking after the plant, and headed to the training gym.

When the screens cut off, he was startled... but still hadn't realised the extent of the problem. It was when he started paying attention to the conversations between others - or rather, the distinct monologues people were having at each other that only bore passing resemblance to the other - that he started to suspect something was wrong.

"Excuse me," he let his voice rise to the level he would have used in his throne room, a tone designed to be heard across a crowded room. "Can any of you understand each other?"

Re: After the error, Gym, threadjacking enabled bc it's somewhere crowded.

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel looked over and smiled. "Well, I understood that!" he said in Quenya.

Elfnein OTAs

[alchemists]

A. Dinning car - event start

[ The error code was completely new, it didn't even match up to standard computer programming as far as Elfnein could tell. The message that was before just raised red flags. ]

If what the message said was true then we're being considered criminals ? I don't see how we've broken any laws.

[ She was just talking out loud at this point after everything went black on the screens, not knowing that no one would be able to understand unless they spoke some form of Japanese. ]

--

B. Library car

[ First things first, different dictionaries needed to be found and useful phrases written down to help try and bridge the gap people now had to face. Elfnein already noted down a lot of different phrases in Japanese to help non-native speakers in a notebook and was going to pass it around once more sheets were finished. ]

English would be a good place to start, then maybe another system based off Latin? But the people that aren't from earth don't follow those systems of characters...

--

C. Misc

((ooc: if there's anything else you want to thread that I didn't write a prompt for let me know.))

Dining Car

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin has long since stopped paying attention to his cornflakes as he stares at the ICP, eyebrows furrowed.

“I don’t know,” he responds in English, then realizes the sudden language shift and switches over himself. “Wait, why did you stop speaking English?”

[mtsilver_conquor]

Event start - Standard Car
"The fuck? Criminals are behind this?!?" There's honest anger and fury in Eva's voice, and from the way her hands fist, also fear, though she tries to keep it out of her voice and off her face. Now is not the time for fear or panic, now is the time to think. "Ugh. What do you make of this?"

Yet, even as she asks that to as many people as she can, Roro's flicking up out of her pocket to take a picture or ten of the report. She can't be sure they were meant to see it, not if this seems like it's some rogue or criminal operation they're all on.


Fantasy Japanese times! - everywhere
Her plan to go find people and check in with her team is thoroughly scrambled when it becomes clear she can't understand most people on the train. Just those who speak some of the weirdest Yamatan (Read: Japanese) she's ever heard in her life.

"Well, at least now we know there's a translation effect," Eva mutters sarcastically as she makes her way through the train. Translation issues or not, she's going to make sure her team is fine. Or - as fine as fine can be while this is happening.

The same with her friends.

Every person in Orange, at least (and probably a bunch of others): "Hey, can you understand me?"


Note-taking- allover
When she's not checking on her team and friends, Eva can be found with paper and pencil in front of various bits of alien language, clearly trying -and having some luck- at copying the language. Or, at least pulling what looks like letters out of the words, and it looks like she might have deciphered her own name's letters at the very least, going from the kanji/hiragana below it.

It's no easy task though- and there's plenty of extremely creative (and maybe anatomically impossible)Germanic cursing to be had.

Roro is hovering around her, the phone 'frowning' at each curse, but otherwise, it's taking pictures or zooming in on said pictures for better views. Or maybe it's just hovering in front of her as she sits at a table and works from photos. "No, no, zoom in more-" That doesn't really help and there's another hissed curse. "Remind me to update your camera or something-" Roro bobs in the air, the order logged. "The Four, I need a drink or ten."

fantasy japanese

[everylittlesecret]

Orange may be a good color to wear, but Nari isn't someone who knows any Japanese. So when approached, she blinks a few times. Takes a deep breath before replying in English. "I'm gonna assume you just asked me if I can understand you. I can't."

At least she's trying to look sorry. Though it probably looks more like a forced smile. "I know the word Yakuza. That's it."

[bridgetothefuture]

The lengthy message is enough to get Sam to stare at the ICP screen for a long moment, until the screen goes black. "What the hell?"

He'll approach pretty much anyone, especially if they've spoken before. "Do you know what's going on?" He asks in English, because that's the only language he speaks. Might be inconvenient for anyone who doesn't also speak English.

[myblueskies]

"Sorry sir I don't understand!" He doesn't know what language Sam is speaking, but it isn't Japanese or Italian!

He looks pretty confused, it is all confusing. Why can't he understood. He's spoken to Sam before, he could understand him then!

Misa - OTA

[sensitiveapple]

Gym:

She'd actually gotten up early and went to work on her knife forms, this early in the morning. Her hair is up in some sort of complicated bun, but it's not her usual style. She doesn't know what's going on, as of yet. She doesn't even know that there's a problem. She's been concentrating on things she needs to do.

Dressing:

Misa is aware that something weird is going on. She can't fix it and the few people she's overheard talking, she hasn't understood. She frowns as she settles in with her sewing work. She wonders if she should go find... No. She'll be okay. She can do this. Settling into her work, she starts to hum a lullaby from Canto that should be familiar to others from her universe.

Wildcard:

Misa will, eventually, emerge to get something to eat. Come at her.

[dredefulchilde]

Later, Joss will wonder why he had assumed Misa spoke English when he knew, very well, that she was from a world not his own.

For now, however, he spots her in the dining car and rushes over to her as quickly as he can without spilling anything on his lunch tray.

“This is absolutely mad, isn’t it?” He asks, sitting down across from her.

Creed - OTA

[thebetterweapon]

Something isn't right. He knows it isn't right when his eyes snap open in the morning. There's a smell in the air, sounds....

Fuck.

The sounds. They aren't right, and he knows it. As he makes his way through the damned train he's stuck on, the babble of voices reaching him is familiar, but the sounds and the words aren't.

Double fuck.

Something's gone screwy. And this isn't going to go well. He places bets on when the first punch is thrown.

(Creed's all over the train. Pick a cabin, put him there, I'll roll with it.)

Some hallway somewhere

[goingthroughaphase]

As he makes his way through the train, he might catch Kitty pulling herself out from the train wall. As she takes a breath and leans against it, she glances around until she spots him.

"Oh, hey," she says, somewhat hesitantly. She still isn't entirely sure how to address him yet. She doesn't want to call him Sabretooth, just because of the bad history associated with that name. But calling him just 'Victor' seemed odd too. It'd taken her a while to drop the 'Mr.' from Logan's name, after all, but calling him 'Mr. Creed' or 'Mr. Victor' was also strange.

Kitchen | OTA

[laurefindil]

The report was interesting, but before he could ask anyone about it, the translation program stopped.

Well, that was interesting. Now there were a large number of angry/scared people on the Train. He thought a moment how best to help. He could probably only talk to four others. But there those who could talk to more and he knew there were some who immediately went into problem-solving mode. He nodded to himself, went into the kitchen and immediately started baking. Massive brain use required fuel and sugar comas would calm others down.

[Feel free to roll up some dough alongside, or just come steal a snack! You can also grab some and take it to others!]

[marriedanidiot]

She's always had an accent - she still speaks in the archaic Feanarian accent that she has steadfastedly refused to loose - but somehow on the train, it has never quite seemed that obvious.

Until now.

"Good even, my lord." She greets him with a smile. "Or whatever passes for evening. Would you mind an extra set of hands? I have hungry family to feed."

Because Feanor is almost over the moon with joy and is not likely to sleep or eat unless forced until this is over.

Reno | FFVII

[theturksway]

I. Thoughts Like a Minefield (Cabin 6-E)

Reno hated the morning announcement with a deep seated passion. Despite his best efforts to sleep right through it it woke him up every damn morning. It was like being back in training and being rudely awakened by a teammate or instructor and being told to report for early classes on the double. And he wasn't even military! Reno groaned at life for being awake too early and rolled over to ignore it and go back to sleep.

Except sleep had other ideas and Reno found himself tossing back around, trying to get comfortable and failing miserably. He cursed lightly under his breath. But right before he stuffed a pillow over his head his eyes caught an odd sight. He glanced at the flash of light from the ICP terminal in the room and stared at the text message there. His groggy brain didn't comprehend much but it seemed unusual.

He lay there staring at the screen for the full fifteen minutes, saw the screen flash white again, and then go dark. "Huh."

That was weird, his tired brain commented and then he closed his eyes and finally fell back to sleep.

Only to wake with a start another fifteen minutes later. "Wait, what just happened?" the Turk said as he scrambled out of bed and leapt at the ICP terminal. He waved his ticket at it and pressed multiple buttons but the screen remained black and still, dead. "What the hell?" he muttered under his breath. In a sudden hurry, the Turk got dressed in the stylized dark suit the spider had made him (blessed be the spider with fan-fucking-tastic taste in clothing) and tripped his way over to the door.

"What the hell is going on here?"

II. Bangin' on the Ceiling (Sleeper Carriage Three)

"Elena!"

There was loud banging on Cabin 3-B's door. A pause, another shout of Elena's name, and then more banging on the door. The redhead had no remorse about what he was doing.

He cursed under his breath as he recalled Elena's tendency to be an eager beaver that rose entirely too early just to get a morning workout done before even getting breakfast. (How did he even know this, sleeping in all the time? Well, that's what his partner was good for.) It was atrocious.

III. Something Coming Up Ahead (Dining Carriage - For Elena)

Another ten minutes passed as Reno high-tailed it past the training gym (where he peeked in to find other early risers but no Elena) and all the way to the dining carriage. He was studiously ignoring all the people around him as he made a beeline for his fellow Turk at the other end of the dining area. There would be time for questioning others later. Right now he had to get this party started with another Turk.

He sat down opposite Elena and leaned forward heavily onto the table, practically laying his head down on top of his arms as he looked intently up at her. (He didn't set his head down, that would doom him and he knew it. Now was not the time for more sleep as much as he wanted it.) "Did you see it? Did you read that message?"

She had to have seen it. He wasn't counting on it or anything but he knew she had to have been already awake and hopefully noticed it. It was Vital Information and the Turk in him screamed that this day was Important. Her own instincts should have alerted her to read over the message carefully, too.

For his own part, despite his sleepy mind at the time Reno had committed the text to memory out of habit whenever it flashed on the screen. Which was probably why his eyes hadn't left the screen the entire fifteen minutes it was up despite his want for more sleep. Thank the Lifestream for all that training to make shit like this automatic.

IV. Trouble to the Right and Left (Investigating - Everywhere Else)

Reno spent the morning conversing with Elena, sharing notes, hashing out the details, investigating a bit of the problem together. Turk stuff. But eventually they split up to investigate further separately. There was only two of them after all.

That was when Reno truly ran into the current problem plaguing the train other than the ICPs being down. He had heard the gibberish as he ran through the train earlier but had mostly ignored it. Now it was going to put a hamper on what he was up to though.

It was going to be an interesting game of charades trying to ask the other passengers questions. He brought a pen and notebook with him but he doubted it would come in handy with more than writing down his own notes. Which, frankly, wasn't likely to happen. He tended to just memorize as much as he could rather than write shit down.

He went through the train methodically, investigating as much as he could, examining ICP terminals and "talking" to as many people as he could along the way.

V. Wildcard!

[[Reno can be spotted anywhere on the train. He'll be investigating and doing charades with just about everyone. Until he grows frustrated. And there will be lounging and loud complaining in between investigating. So feel free to hit me up for anything! Plotting, aisuyoukai, PMs, etc.]]

[rookiemistakes]

Elena sits off to the side, two steaming cups of coffee in front of her and hair still damp from her shower. She’s bent over a notepad, studying whatever’s written on it with obvious intensity. As soon as she spots Reno, she slides one of the cups over to him. She’s made it exactly how he likes it: highly caffeinated, and so loaded with cream and sugar that he can’t really taste the coffee. (She takes hers black.)

She hands him the notepad. She had memorized the message too, but she wanted to get it down on paper while it was still fresh. Her normally neat handwriting is rushed and sloppy; she’d been too intent to write it out to worry too much about legibility.

“I saw. So, how does it feel to have been kidnapped by a rogue space train? Oh, and the translator’s broken, by the way.”

Piccolo | OTA

[shutupnail]

I. Obliviousness is Bliss

At first Piccolo didn't notice anything. Sure, he caught a glimpse of the nearest ICP terminal whenever it went stark white and then posted a text message. He barely stopped to note it though, expecting that he could go to the terminal after he was finished with his current martial art set and read through it then. Unfortunately by the time he finished and recalled that there had been a message, the text was long gone and no amount of fiddling with the terminal could bring it, or anything else for that matter, up on the screen.

That was when he noticed the panic spreading through the other passengers. He couldn't figure it out at first. Frowning, he listened carefully to the passengers, trying to catch snippets of what they were talking about so he could discover what the problem was. That was when he noticed it: they were having trouble speaking to one another. Like they couldn't understand the words that everyone was saying.

The translation from the train had never really been noticed by Piccolo before. He was so used to just understanding most people that it didn't occur to him that it was anything was different here. He never noticed that languages tended to default to one of his three preferred languages whenever he listened to other people. But now that he was concentrating he realized there were far more languages spoken on board the train.

Cautiously, Piccolo turned to the nearest person and spoke in their native language, whatever it was. "What's the problem here?" he asked, just to confirm what he thought was going on.

II. Universal Translator / Wildcard!

[[Piccolo can be dragged around the train for translation needs if anyone wants. He can speak all Earth languages and some DBZ alien languages. He also has telepathy which can be used as a universal translator. Note: Piccolo can (and will blatantly) read minds so let me know if they're speaking a non-Earth language and you want their mind read because I am not going to assume anything. If it's not okay but translation is still wanted Picc can simply take the language and nothing else from their mind if permission granted for that. He's most likely not to comment on anything he reads anyway (unless it pertains to current conversation). Plotting for more details, aisuyoukai, and PMs work, too. Have at me!]]

i

[lightsmith]

"Not sure." Whatever he sounded like to her ears, Scintilla answered in a language easily understood in turn. Ears pinned back and catlike eyes narrowed, watching the others carefully. She didn't comment on the discrepancy, like she was used to understanding others herself. "Something's wrong--maybe with the train, it's hard to say off the top of my head. I think someone or something mightn't have wanted us to see that message."

[lightsmith]

[a; dining car]

[She'd been eating breakfast like most when the ICP flashed, bacon stuffed haphazardly in her mouth as she read over the message. 'Void sickness' brought up a brief unpleasant memory, but the rest overshadowed it as a bigger concern. Just what did this train or whoever controlled it think they were doing, exactly? And more to the point, what did anyone else out there believe it was doing-?]

[There wasn't a whole lot of time to contemplate before the error message flashed, ICP going black. Well, shit. Hopefully someone thought to make a note of any of that. Swallowing her breakfast and turning to the nearest person, Scintilla spoke in some form of language understandable to anyone regardless of their current state.]

Hey--do you know what any of that might have meant? I haven't been here long, so I don't know what kind of inspection that was talking about.

[b; around]

[Out of everything, she'd never really given thought to the Echo's translation capacity. Sure, it had definitely been useful in the past, but it wasn't the sort of thing one actively thought about. But right now, she was exceptionally grateful for it.]

Are you alright? [She'd approach anyone looking particularly troubled by the lack of understanding, her own words understandable regardless. An omnilingual woman with cat ears and tail was probably not a strictly ordinary sight, but here we all were.] I can try to help, if you need it.

[knifewithnoname]

Her hand span around when she heard a voice that she actually understood. So far she has understood no one, the whole train turned into a mixture of noise that she can't even begin to make sense of.

She hasn't met this woman before, she thinks she had arrived on the last platform. Also she was partially a cat, which probably meant she wasn't actually from her world but that doesn't matter. She can understand.

"I can be understanding you." She smiled in relief, "Can you be understanding me?"

ronan | ota

[aluciner]

1. when the meaning is gone there is clarity [garden car]

Ronan is arguing with Chainsaw when it happens, in the middle of sitting on one of the benches trying to explain that no, he's not going to start actually sleeping and accidentally fuck everything up while she flies around overhead. The ICP flashing white is what catches his attention. That's really not good, so he's immediately at the actual ICP and, well. That's an interesting message, isn't it? What he decides to do with it is probably a weird action to take, but he's used to talking to power in the shape of forests for help so really what's the difference between a train and a forest in that regard?

«What do you want from us? I want,» Ronan says in slightly unsure but otherwise perfect Latin to the ICP panel, «I just want to understand. I just want to know the purpose.»

He doesn't get an answer, exactly, even as he's waiting for one. What happens is that the ICP displays an error message and Ronan can feel something shift. With a certain amount of dread, Ronan brings his hand to his face and wipes under his nose. There's black streaked across his fingers and isn't that just the way of it? Of course the nightwash would choose now to show up.

2. and it's easy done our little remedy [cinema]

His first and only thought is that he needs somewhere to dream. If he goes forward, there's likely to be more people. They're all probably in and around the dining car for breakfast, but he's hoping against all hope that nobody will really be in the theater this early in the day. Merry Little Voidtrain is going on the screen, and he's relieved it's not something he'd be expected to actually pay attention to. His concern about his own situation means he doesn't actually notice the language is wrong immediately. At first he thinks it's just because he's so tired, but then it dawns on him that it's just. Some completely alien language.

"What the fuck?" He's just tired enough that the reasons why he was trying to keep from drawing attention to himself slip his mind. "Is it supposed to be like that?"

3. since it all begun to its reckoning [wildcard]

[feel free to hit me up for plotting or something if you'd like to thread something different. basically ronan is going to dream something and then try to figure out who's fixing this issue. i'll also match format if brackets are easier for you!]

Re: ronan | ota

[longforgottenpromise]

He had noticed the man and the bird earlier. An animal was usually enough for him to push past his usual nervousness at approaching people but he had been distracted by the screen flashing white.

He read the message with a frown. He did not know of which inspection it spoke of but the whole report created more questions than it answered. He glanced at the man as he spoke, asking what the message wanted? Or the screen? He was unsure but before he could ask the screen flashed an error message and went black.

When he looked at the man again he was wiping something black from his face.

Not blood. It doesn't smell like blood, there is no dizziness or wave of sickness that should come from being this close to blood. Still it is concerning.

"Are you alright?"

Luckily he would be understandable, his nature of a kirin allowing understanding.

Garrett | Thief | OTA | CW: arachne (scorpion and spider descriptions)

[themasterthief]

I. Error Message & Reaction (Dressing Carriage)

Garrett was working on a simple project, seated at one of the vanity tables with no glass left in the place where the mirror had once been. He had tools spread out in front of him and one in hand as he fletched an arrow. It was nice and quiet, and just the way he liked things.

He had been there for about five minutes, having left the cabin immediately after morning announcement (because he never stayed in his cabin to sleep), when the flash of light caught his eye. His scorpion senses were immediately set to alert.

He got up and wandered over to the ICP terminal. He carefully read the full message, committing it to memory with ease, used to reading people's private notebooks and journals to get information from them and then leaving them right were he left them. This was definitely some interesting news.

Garrett was surprised when the screen then went blank. He couldn't get it to turn back on no matter what he did after that. Curious, Garrett Focused on the terminal and attempted to follow the wires and inner workings within to get an idea of what might be wrong. Unfortunately, he wasn't that great with advanced technology (give him a trip wire, however, and he was excellent).

He needed someone to tell him what he was looking at. Now it was a matter of deciding if his curiosity was peeked enough to go find someone worth talking to...

II. Wildcard

[[Anything! He'll wander around a bit listening to the Train of Babel and wonder if it's worth trying to talk to others about his idea. Catch him most likely on the ceiling. Yes, the ceiling. Here's my plotting thread for discussions, as well as aisuyoukai, and PMs work too. As a belated idea I remembered Garrett can see through walls to follow inner workings of mechanical objects so uh. that's a thing he could possibly help out with for those interested in How the Train Works™. Hit me, please!]]

Reaction (google translate is go)

[stealsyourheart]

"Garrett-san!"

Kaito waves at him when he spots him looking at the ICP.

"Sore wa kyōmibukai messējide wa nakatta nodesu ka?"

Sorry Garrett.

47 | OTA

[rieper]

I. The Beginning (Training Gym)

The hitman was always an early riser and today was no exception to the fact. He was already well into the morning training routine whenever the ICP error occurred. As observant as he was he didn't missed the flash of white and then the screen going to a screen full of text. He went over to the terminal to see what it was about and whether it required his attention or not--he did use the terminal a lot to field questions about training and other things if/when it came up so he was used to breaking just to come over here.

This was definitely not normal, he confirmed as he read over the message. He read it, memorized it word for word, and then called to others in the gym to have a look. This was something important the passengers were going to want to know, and investigate.

He stood back and watched as others gathered around to read the unexpected message as well.

After it went black the real fun began. 47 noticed it almost immediately. There was excited whispers and louder talking all around him thanks to the message. And suddenly it was all gibberish. No, that wasn't quite accurate. But it was suddenly all scattered into a plethora of languages, many of which 47 recognized from his early studies and further travels across the world. But there were also a few that he had no clue where they heralded from. Other worlds. Places not like Earth.

This was going to be an exercise in patience, he could already tell. Good thing he had that in spades and a plethora of languages up his sleeves.

II. Translator (Anywhere)

What started off as a normal day soon turned into a mess of panicking individuals and lots of chattering in various languages. Things were slowly straightened out as the calm soothed the panicked with patience, perseverance, and a lot of hand miming. Thankfully, too, there were people like 47 that spoke several different languages that came in handy. Better yet were those that didn't even need a common language to speak to everyone.

But no one could be everywhere at once and with the ICPs down there was no way to mass communicate with everyone. (Except, perhaps, through a few dubious individuals that 47 wasn't certain could help sooth the situation. But then he could be wrong.) So that left it up to some people to help translate words with others and create peace and unity between the passengers once more. Not that trouble was brewing just because of the sudden language barriers but frustration and panic was never a nice feeling (or a good work environment for someone less caring as 47).

47 volunteered a few times in various carriages to help translate for people who could not communicate very well but wanted or needed to talk to one another over what was going on.

III. Investigating (Anywhere)

In the meantime, the hitman was curious about the message just as most of the passengers was. He joined individuals that were investigating the ICPs from time to time to help fiddle with them (he was quite handy with a tool) or to catch up on what, if anything, was being learned by the whole process.

It felt like a bit of a lost cause considering how little they really knew about the train and the way it was designed and worked, but there was nothing else to do but try and figure it out. And there were plenty of intelligent people on board the train. Surely they could learn, especially now that they were properly motivated. 47 was used to desperate situations anyway. It didn't deter him in the least.

He didn't mind picking up a few new words and phrases in languages he'd never heard on Earth before, too. One never knew when one might end up in some backwater planet with little knowledge and a need to find a way to communicate with the locals. At least, it was entirely possible these days.

IV. Wildcard

[[The usual flair! Plotting thread, aisuyoukai, or PMs for ideas if you want to confer on them first. Hit me with anything!]]

[knifewithnoname]

She had been training as well, she had a whole mix of people who were happy to teach her new skills now and she also trained a lot by herself. She had to keep getting stronger, learning new things. She also noticed the flash of white and she moved over to the screen to read it, her face twisting into a frown. She remembers the inspectors, how angry Tony had gotten, how they had made her feel.

Then the screen went black and all of a sudden the other people in the carriage started talking in words that didn't mean anything. She looked around and then up at the man. "What do be going on?"

Kitty | OTA

[goingthroughaphase]

A. Dining Cart

[ That morning, Kitty is finishing up her own breakfast when she notices a flash from the ICP terminal. She doesn't think too much of it, and though she considers helping out, she also notices other people at the terminal taking a look at the screen. They could probably handle it, she decides.

Then there's another flash from the screen, before it goes black. And suddenly she realizes that the buzz of conversation around her is unrecognizable. She can pick up some things here and there, but many of the people around here are speaking in a language she doesn't understand. ]

Wait, what's happening?

[ Her words are spoken in English, so whoever is around her may or may not understand. ]

B. Throughout the Train

[ Throughout the confusion of the train, people may be walking through the halls to check on others in different cars, or may be near an ICP to determine if it's malfunctioning in some way.

So any person nearby might notice when a head suddenly pops out of the wall, or out of the ICP terminal. Kitty looks around a moment, until she notices another person. ]

Oh, sorry!

[ She speaks in English, but her expression is at least regretful, especially if she's startled the other person.

She's going to just start disappearing back into the wall or the terminal, unless the other person tries to talk with her. ]

C. Wildcard

((Feel free to come up with a different scenario if you'd like!))

[mynameisallen]

[Allen admittedly was used to rather odd things considering all he had been through.l Soi a magic head popping through was really not something to be surprised about. Allen himself was also speaking in English at least.]

Why are you sorry? It's not like I was doing anything that needed privacy or anything. I was just training.

[Odds were very likely he had been training without the top part of his uniform on. He found it to be rather bothersome if he was perfectly honest. But out of politeness he at least had from the moment it happened managed to put it back on the moment the situation happened.]

Najaran - OTA

[najaran]

Naja had missed the message all together. Gremlin, who she had been leaving out sometimes, had been around it but... even without the breakdown he had communication issues. It was also unclear if he could even read. But he had sat on the top of the ICP looking down at the message from above and behind, before scrambling over to Najaran.

For roommates

She fell out of bed with a loud thump. "OWWWWWWWW" She looked up and saw Gremlin as he launched himself into her lap. "Whoa, whoa..." she said, cuddling him against herself. "Any clue what is wrong with him?"

The man headed cane rocked a bit on the mattress. "Not a clue."

Najaran took a deep breath then got up. She settled Gremlin on her shoulder then grabbed Goligan. "Well, we're up. Might as well get breakfast...."

"And practice!" the cane protested as she hooked him to his holster on her belt so her hands were free. If she heard him, she ignored it. She was well practiced at it.


OTA

Najaran was heading for the kitchen, Gremlin on her shoulder, a man headed walking stick hanging off her decidedly not train issued wide leather belt. She was talking to the cane, who was replying, while the scaled creature fretted with her hair, shaken. What they were saying however... would come across as gibberish. To everyone. Except each other. Whoops.

[sos_pilot]

At the kitchen, Della was forlornly chewing on a piece of jerky, missing communication. A social creature by heart, being denied a simple conversation was a real downer.

She glanced up, noticing Najaran. Despite knowing they wouldn't be able to talk at all, she still offered a friendly wave.

Khary OTA - CW potentially all, because Black Jewels.

[sell_tickets]

Khary had been in the gym car working out from the moment he could leave his room without getting zapped back. He was almost back to the condition he'd been in before the last mission, but now that he was back into the habit of the expanded workouts like he had when he visited with Yasi, he saw no reason not to continue on non-mission days. There wasn't that much else to do, really.

So he would be in the gym car to start the day out. When someone came out he would finish his set - in this case practice forms with a long stick - and then appologize to them as a towel appeared and he wiped his face, unaware that his words came out as gibberish.

Spark/Gar OTA

[death_from_above]

Spark - morning/early afternoon
Spark had stretched and yawned and left his room early in the morning to see who he could convince to give him fish. If this was a Storm it should be nearly over, then he could figure out who all these people actually were. Since only he and Nita seemed mostly unaffected. Well, Nita thought this wasn't a Storm while still being herself. So maybe she was affected. Or maybe this place really wasn't the City. Maybe he really had just been ripped away from Adrien and Nino and... NOPE! He was a cat. Not thinking about that. He was going to be cheerful and chipper and maybe he could find that yummy whale person. Or Nita. Nita could at least bend him up a fish feast.

With a happy smile on his face, because he was determined to be cheerful, he headed for the kitchen...

Gar - late afternoon

Okay, so maybe this no one understanding each other was the right time to start letting Gar be spotted. When he could feign gibberish and not answer questions. It could be a fun way to get people to just accept this green eyed blond boy as though he'd always been there.

Plus, Spark was used to being underestimated as a cat. People rarely realized that the cat could understand every word they said. It could be fun. But now the people he spoke to were aware that he could understand many of them. So it would be Gar who would be underestimated. The hard part would be fighting the urge to pun, really.

But as Gar... he didn't have to keep up the cheerful act...

So Spark had found a quiet car that no one was in, closed it up and curled up to take a nap. Half an hour later when no one was around, the human teenager slipped out of the quiet car, leaving behind an illusion of Spark, still asleep on the bench. He used Bending to lock the door, and then headed out to explore the train on two legs...

Late Afternoon

[unfavorableinstigation]

That this was also a person Nita recognized did not sway her too badly, as she made her own way up to the Stores carriage.

But if she'd kept Conan's secret despite him not even remembering Nautilus, she wasn't going to cause trouble for Spark, let alone Gar.

"Ah, excuse me," she said, making way so he could walk past her. He could choose to talk to her, or not; there was no pressure.

Xion, part OTA

[nobodys_puppet]

Morning, locked to Axel Lea
Xion waited until their other cabin-mates were gone before getting out of bed and looking to Axel She still was not sure what to do with her day most of the time. So like most other days, the day started with her asking if he wanted her to go out again...


OTA
Same as usual, the small cloaked figure was wandering around, hood hiding her face, trying to just spend down the time until Axel would be alright with her just going back to bed. She couldn't find Roxas most days, and figured he was sleeping a lot. Which was not good. As much as Axel wanted her to leave, looking for Roxas was the other main thing driving her to go out. One day was so like the next in this place. It was as though all there was... was the castle where she spent her first year. It made her miss missions. They were at least something to do.

At some points, you might be able to find her sitting in a seat in some random carriage, looking at a brightly colored shell that was startlingly bright against the fingers of her black gloves.

[longforgottenpromise]

Once Taiki had figured out that something strange was going on he kept his eye out for anyone who looked confused, anyone alone, anyone who seemed to not share a language with the others on the train.

When he saw her alone looking at the shell he went over with a gentle smile. "Hello." He isn't actually completely sure how it is that he can understand and be understood by everyone, it is part of his kirin nature and something he shares with those registered as a sage. But he knows she will be able to understand him and he wants to check on her.

"That's a pretty shell."

[myblueskies]

Around the train

Well this was very strange! That message had been very worrying, because they hadn't done anything wrong so it wasn't good that they might be in trouble for being on the train! He remembered when the inspectors had come and how scary they had been. He doesn't want to think that they might have been bad guys, but he knows for certain that the people he knows on the train are good.

So the inspectors must be lying!

He doesn't have too much time to worry about it though because all of a sudden everyone is speaking lots of different language and there are a lot of people he doesn't understand.

"Hello?" He tries first in Japanese and then repeating the same in Italian. "Hello? Do you understand me?"

Standard coach

Talking to people when they didn't speak the same language as him was tricky! But he has an idea, so he is sat with his notebook in standard drawing pictures of things he thinks might come up in conversation, so that it will be easier to explain things.

This is somewhat... complicated by the fact that Romeo's drawings are not great. He is no great artist and they look like pictures drawn by a much younger child. Probably not that great as communication aides at all.

Standard Coach

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin sits down opposite Romeo and peers down at his artwork. “Is that an angry, er, potato?” he asks in his rather rusty and somewhat accented Italian. Fuck this translator nonsense. For about the fiftieth time so far this morning, the boy wonders if whatever nefarious powers that be had purposely shut it off in order to distract them from the fact that they are stuck aboard a rogue vessel that seems to enjoy kidnapping people, holding them against their will, and randomly turning them human after they’re murdered while forced to do its bidding.

(Yes, he’s still very bitter. Thanks for asking.)