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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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inourhead
inourhead
She edges towards the door, apparently not interested in being shut up in a room with him whether he's still shouting at her or not.
unblinkered
"Hey! Where are you-" He tries to step down from the chair, but trips and crashes into another desk.
inourhead
She's going out the door, apparently, tentatively but not slowly once she no longer expects him to be able to obstruct her.
unblinkered
The hallway is spartan and dim- the lights aren't on, although sunlight comes through the window at one end of the hall. It's lined mainly with lockers, with various posters and notices covering un-lockered wall space. There are plenty of doors like Max's classroom door, spaced at regular intervals.
"Hey! Come back here! Where are you...!"
Hm, no, she is not listening to him, it seems. He disentangles himself from the desk and gets up.
"Hey! Come back here! Where are you...!"
Hm, no, she is not listening to him, it seems. He disentangles himself from the desk and gets up.
inourhead
She looks over her shoulder at him, but continues down the hall. "Tiim tupuumhitaoneniuple Nlaaki?" she calls.
unblinkered
He scrambles out of the classroom- and manages not to slip on the spilled joe from Brenda's. He congratulates himself on a bullet dodged, and goes after the perpetrator(?).
"Hold up! I didn't catch a word of that- plain locky? What's plain loggy?"
"Hold up! I didn't catch a word of that- plain locky? What's plain loggy?"
inourhead
She looks over her shoulder at him again, with a look of utmost "you have got to be fucking kidding me" on her face, unaccompanied by any further gibberish. She moves on, apparently looking for someone or something. "Tiim tupuumhikueniuple Nlaaki, raa?"
unblinkered
"There's that plain loggy again. Or- naloggy? Nloggy?" He plays around with the "nl" sound.
Near the end of the hallway is a large map of the United States.
Near the end of the hallway is a large map of the United States.
inourhead
"Sinpuumhineniuple Nlaaki, soo nlul. Tiim tu-"
She pauses at the map. She stares at it. She reaches out and touches it.
She rummages in her bag again.
She pauses at the map. She stares at it. She reaches out and touches it.
She rummages in her bag again.
unblinkered
"...She's some kind of delinquent geography nut...?"
How the heck does this connect to the un-vanishing act, or the mice, or the weird language? Max is failing to think of any possibilities.
How the heck does this connect to the un-vanishing act, or the mice, or the weird language? Max is failing to think of any possibilities.
inourhead
She finds what she was looking for. If he comes up behind her close enough to see and not close enough to prompt her to scurry away from him, he can see that she is also holding a map. The page she's trying to compare to the United States on the wall is also a map, complete with flocks of triangular mountains and blue-painted bodies of water. There is a big black blotch in the middle of it, and cities and political boundaries marked out around that. The United States is... not on it.
unblinkered
He does maintain this distance, and sees... what's that, again? He won a geography bee once, he should know this... the ink spill there, it might be blocking... the mountains must be...
...It just doesn't line up with anything he remembers, no matter how he looks at it. Add another thing to the confusing-and-unaccounted-for pile.
...It just doesn't line up with anything he remembers, no matter how he looks at it. Add another thing to the confusing-and-unaccounted-for pile.
inourhead
The girl is now peering at the insets of Alaska and Hawaii to see if she can find those. Nope.
unblinkered
He quietly walks up to the other side of the map, on the right, and points at the US.
"America," he says. Maybe he can get her to name the place on her map?
"America," he says. Maybe he can get her to name the place on her map?
inourhead
"A-me-ri-ka," she says slowly. She starts pointing at things on the map. "Kuigao?" A little political unit, south of the blotch. "Kloofmuur?" The blotch itself, apparently.
unblinkered
"No, I don't..."
His eyes light up. He holds up one finger, and runs into a nearby classroom. "Wait just a second!"
He comes out wheeling a globe on a tall stand. He gives it a spin, points at it, and asks "Kweengow?"
His eyes light up. He holds up one finger, and runs into a nearby classroom. "Wait just a second!"
He comes out wheeling a globe on a tall stand. He gives it a spin, points at it, and asks "Kweengow?"
inourhead
...The girl seems absolutely bewildered by the globe. She spins it. She finds America, and murmurs "...A-me-ri-ka." Eventually she locates Hawaii and Alaska too. Apparently there is no Kuigao here, and no kloofmuur either.
unblinkered
"What? You..." He points at her map, and then to the globe. "No Kweengow?" She must... have trouble finding...
inourhead
"Amerika." She points. "Raotfkiol." She pats the ball of the globe with both hands, describes a sphere in a separate gesture. "Kunue Kuigao." She points at her own map. "Kuigao. Kloofmuur. Slasmuug -" She smooths her hand over the map, then over the floor for good measure.
unblinkered
"...no. Look, I don't know where you're from, but the world is not-"
Wait. No. She doesn't understand what he's saying. Right.
"Rowt- rowtufk- rowt-f-kyole... sphere." He mimics the sphere gesture. "Flat... coonway?" He copies the smoothing on the floor thing, and repeats "coonway?"
Wait. No. She doesn't understand what he's saying. Right.
"Rowt- rowtufk- rowt-f-kyole... sphere." He mimics the sphere gesture. "Flat... coonway?" He copies the smoothing on the floor thing, and repeats "coonway?"
inourhead
"Slasmuug," she corrects, smoothing the floor and the map and the wall too.
unblinkered
"Slasmoog. Flat. Kweengow flat. Earth-" he taps the globe- "Earth not flat. Earth not slasmoog. Earth... rowt-fik-yole?"
The part of him that's demanding he ask questions is quieting down some, seeing the progress, but he's annoyed by how slow the process of learning languages seems to be.
The part of him that's demanding he ask questions is quieting down some, seeing the progress, but he's annoyed by how slow the process of learning languages seems to be.
inourhead
"Ert," she says, "raotfkiol..." She looks dubiously at the floor under her feet. Then she mimes writing.
unblinkered
Oh, that part is easy. They're in a school. He steps into the globe classroom- that'd be, what, Lansa's social studies?- and starts looking for looseleaf in the cabinets.
inourhead
When she is presented with paper and a writing implement she starts making careful notes in an unfamiliar alphabet, in two columns. She narrates helpfully - her transliteration of "flat" and "slasmuug" share a line, for instance - but other vocabulary isn't so directly translated (America has what looks like a short sentence in the column beside it).