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?
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what in the longdark spitting-pit is that
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
They are in a tiny room with grey walls and a grey floor. The room contains: a chair, and something that resembles a desk more than it resembles any other things (the chair is at it), and two weird-looking doors, and a narrow bed in a sort of alcove. Most of these things are shades of grey. Except for the chair, the furniture all merges seamlessly into the walls. It all conserves space very efficiently. Light emanates dimly from a grey panel on the grey ceiling.
There is a person on the bed, under a grey blanket. He is short, and shirtless, and sleeping.
There is a person on the bed, under a grey blanket. He is short, and shirtless, and sleeping.
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
Weird.
Weird, weird, weird.
The person's sleeping (and alive) - and it doesn't look like it was an accident; he's in a bed under a blanket - so they're probably under a dreamward, but it sure doesn't look like the one they grew up in.
Holly takes a step towards the... desk... thing to have a look at it.
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
The sleeping person ceases to be sleeping, and becomes extremely confused and alarmed instead. He curls up defensively in his little bed-nook and stares at her, hissing a question in an unfamiliar language.
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
Holly flings up her hands. "Huatrimri! Huatrimri! Ah - srenpuumhineniuple tu - huatrimri -"
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
He relaxes slowly, alarm fading into curiosity. And mutters something to himself, and gets out of bed, and opens a cabinet-like thing beneath the bed to retrieve a shirt, and prods the desk-thing while putting the shirt on.
Now there are ghostly glowing lines and symbols and figures hovering in the air above the desk-thing. The previously-sleeping person manipulates this incomprehensible array in incomprehensible ways.
Now there are ghostly glowing lines and symbols and figures hovering in the air above the desk-thing. The previously-sleeping person manipulates this incomprehensible array in incomprehensible ways.
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
Holly stares at it. "Kue...?"
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
He says something distractedly, most of his attention on the glowiness.
Then, having apparently manipulated it to his satisfaction, he untucks the chair from the desk and gestures from Holly to chair. Hovering above the desk surface is a sequence of shapes: red triangle, red circle, red square, and beneath them blue triangle, blue circle, blue square.
Then, having apparently manipulated it to his satisfaction, he untucks the chair from the desk and gestures from Holly to chair. Hovering above the desk surface is a sequence of shapes: red triangle, red circle, red square, and beneath them blue triangle, blue circle, blue square.
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
She doesn't quite know what she's supposed to do with that. "Kue?" she repeats.
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
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.
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.
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
Oh. Okay. He has a... weird magic thing... that can pick up Nlaaki. Ooooookay.
Crystal takes over. "Lere puisro - lere fkiol -" Etcetera.
Crystal takes over. "Lere puisro - lere fkiol -" Etcetera.
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
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?"
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?"
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
Crystal replies: "We don't know. There was a demon chasing us and it seemed to eat us but then we were here."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
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?"
The short guy looks at her quizzically. He asks something which the desk translates as, "What is a demon?"
Holly / Crystal
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."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
"Is a demon an animal?"
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"...Sort of. No. Do you not have demons here? Where are we?"
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
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.)
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"...Ah."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
"Where did you(singular) come from?"
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"We," emphasizes Crystal, "were in a forest running from the demon that ate us."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
He nods thoughtfully.
"How many of you(plural) are there?"
"How many of you(plural) are there?"
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"Two. I'm Crystal and she's Holly."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
"You(singular) started to be instead of Holly when you(singular) started to talk to the table?"
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"Yes. Do you want to talk to Holly?"
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
He shrugs. "Does Holly want to talk to me?"
Holly / Crystal
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."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
"The table is not the most fun to talk to. Are you always one of you at one time?"
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"Holly's still a little awake. We're unusual."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
"Unusual because you are two? Or unusual because you are not always one of you at one time?"
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"...Second thing. All adults are two, where we're from. But if you don't have demons, maybe you just sleep instead."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
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."
Holly / Crystal
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."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
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."
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"I noticed you were sleeping," she agrees. "Even though you're an adult. It was strange."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
He laughs. "That's the first time sleeping has been the strange thing about me."
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
Crystal giggles.
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
"I'm many kinds of strange," he confides.
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"We're only one kind of strange. But it's very strange. They called all three of us Holly till we explained."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
"I was called by someone else's name until just a short time ago."
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"Why?"
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
"Because I'm a [untranslated word]." He frowns at the desk, thinks, then elaborates. "The other person is Miles. Someone didn't like Miles, so he - made a second Miles. That's me. He called me Miles and taught me to think like Miles and act like Miles, and made me look just like Miles, but I'm not Miles. I... don't know who I am. But when I met Miles, the first Miles, he gave me a different name. Mark."
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
Crystal nods. "Holly came up with my name for me. She didn't like that everybody was calling me and Book by her name. Book named himself though."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
"Why was it Holly's name when people were calling all of you by it?"
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"We can't remember how we decided Holly was her instead of me. We were very little. They didn't know we were there," shrugs Crystal. "But it couldn't have been Book, it's a girl's name."
Mark Pierre Vorkosigan
unmarred
Mark smiles.
Holly / Crystal
inourhead
"Holly is in front a little more than I am even now and it was more obvious when we were kids," muses Crystal, "that might be why."