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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 is looking at the drawings again. She tilts her head. She grabs a piece of paper. She draws the simplified map of her flat home. She draws stick people on it, each holding two sticks of chalk (she draws the chalk with chalk, to make it clear). She draws arrows from each of those people to new drawings of the same stick people with the chalk colors swapped.
She draws a sphere with the United States on it.
She draws people near it, holding chalk, and arrows that circle around to point back at the same drawings they originated at.
She draws a sphere with the United States on it.
She draws people near it, holding chalk, and arrows that circle around to point back at the same drawings they originated at.
unblinkered
Is that... it looks like she's got it? He's not sure if... the looping arrows are meant to imply... some kind of change of state, and not just things staying the same, then he's not sure what that would mean. But...
Okay. So. Probably not some kid pulling a prank, if they can magically transmute objects. There's less reason to doubt the teleporting-snake explanation.
But that means there's a parallel world with flat topography and switchy magic and snake monsters. He has to seriously inquire about this, now.
...And he can't do that.
Okay. So. Probably not some kid pulling a prank, if they can magically transmute objects. There's less reason to doubt the teleporting-snake explanation.
But that means there's a parallel world with flat topography and switchy magic and snake monsters. He has to seriously inquire about this, now.
...And he can't do that.
inourhead
And she can't help him. She shakes the drawing, as though she wants him to do something with it.
unblinkered
Max looks more carefully at the drawing. He's at a loss for what to tell her... well, she wouldn't want him to tell her something, he can't speak her language, but... does she want him to draw something?
He... turns her drawing around to show it to her, and slowly nods. Was it confirmation she wanted?
He... turns her drawing around to show it to her, and slowly nods. Was it confirmation she wanted?
inourhead
She tilts her head. She draws something else: a stick figure with a motion-blur of its head going up and down. She points at it and tilts her head again.
unblinkered
...Oh. So her world doesn't have the same body language. Um...
How do you translate the concept of "yes" and "no"?
He starts drawing a picture- two stick figures next to a cube, one of them pointing at the cube with a speech bubble containing a picture of the cube. The other stick figure is nodding his head up and down.
Halfway through, he realizes the problem- but finishes it anyway. Better to fail to communicate than to give mixed signals. He draws the same picture, but this time the first stick figure's speech bubble has a picture of a pyramid, and the second stick figure's motion lines are horizontal.
The problem, of course, is that if she doesn't understand nodding, she probably doesn't understand speech bubbles. He... draws little mouths on the stick figures, and draws arrows between their mouths and their speech bubbles. Maybe it'll get the idea across?
How do you translate the concept of "yes" and "no"?
He starts drawing a picture- two stick figures next to a cube, one of them pointing at the cube with a speech bubble containing a picture of the cube. The other stick figure is nodding his head up and down.
Halfway through, he realizes the problem- but finishes it anyway. Better to fail to communicate than to give mixed signals. He draws the same picture, but this time the first stick figure's speech bubble has a picture of a pyramid, and the second stick figure's motion lines are horizontal.
The problem, of course, is that if she doesn't understand nodding, she probably doesn't understand speech bubbles. He... draws little mouths on the stick figures, and draws arrows between their mouths and their speech bubbles. Maybe it'll get the idea across?
inourhead
...She draws a large speech bubble on a fresh piece of paper, and writes something five letters long in it, and holds it pointing to her mouth, and says, "Traas?"
unblinkered
...he nods. And then says "Tross". There are too many words for speech, and her meaning too uncertain, to try to give her an English word. He... thinks she's correctly interpreting the meaning of the speech bubble? If she's not, this could get confusing.
unblinkered
Okay, so... he points to his drawing of the nodding stick figure and says "yes", and his drawing of the head-shaking stick figure and says "no".
inourhead
She nods and approximately repeats "yes", then more ably does the same thing with "no" shaking her head.
unblinkered
Okay, so now that she-
He hears footsteps in the hall.
The other teachers are arriving- the students will be filing in within half an hour, and he'll have to explain what's going on to Gloria when she shows up in here. The impossible magic angle is not something he expected to have to saddle her with.
Half an hour, at most, is not enough time to teach an alien girl English and learn about her world and how it works. He's going to need to let Gloria take care of her, and she might find out about the swapping, and how's he going to explain this to her anyway, and if people find out, she'll...
Well, hang on. In stories, people keep the magic thing secret because they don't think anyone will believe them, or something, right? What would actually be the problem with telling the truth, here? He's pretty sure the government doesn't actually kidnap unusual people and lock them up in labs as test subjects. How would keeping this secret even remotely help?
So... priority number one, get her to cooperate and stay here and learn English, while he goes and teaches his class. So he'll have to explain...
He points at the strange characters she wrote in her speech bubble. "Word. Kweengow word." He grabs a random book, and points at a word in it. "English word." And another- "English word."
...one of those was actually a Spanish word, but he's hardly going to complicate matters with that.
He hears footsteps in the hall.
The other teachers are arriving- the students will be filing in within half an hour, and he'll have to explain what's going on to Gloria when she shows up in here. The impossible magic angle is not something he expected to have to saddle her with.
Half an hour, at most, is not enough time to teach an alien girl English and learn about her world and how it works. He's going to need to let Gloria take care of her, and she might find out about the swapping, and how's he going to explain this to her anyway, and if people find out, she'll...
Well, hang on. In stories, people keep the magic thing secret because they don't think anyone will believe them, or something, right? What would actually be the problem with telling the truth, here? He's pretty sure the government doesn't actually kidnap unusual people and lock them up in labs as test subjects. How would keeping this secret even remotely help?
So... priority number one, get her to cooperate and stay here and learn English, while he goes and teaches his class. So he'll have to explain...
He points at the strange characters she wrote in her speech bubble. "Word. Kweengow word." He grabs a random book, and points at a word in it. "English word." And another- "English word."
...one of those was actually a Spanish word, but he's hardly going to complicate matters with that.
inourhead
"Nlaaki word," she corrects, after a moment's thought, pointing at her speech bubble. "English word." Nod nod.
unblinkered
"Right! Yes!" Okay, so...
"Max teach Pyay English word." He points at the picture of Gloria. "Gloria teach Pyay English word."
"Max teach Pyay English word." He points at the picture of Gloria. "Gloria teach Pyay English word."
inourhead
She writes some things down. "Pyay, no, Pyay -" she picks up some chalk. "Sohng, English word."
unblinkered
...he doesn't have the slightest idea what she's talking about. Has he been calling her by the wrong name, or something? He was pretty sure of how he was interpreting what she said, earlier...
"Sorry- Song?" He points to her. "Gloria teach Song English word?"
"Sorry- Song?" He points to her. "Gloria teach Song English word?"
unblinkered
Right! Okay! That simple mistake is cleared up and resolved for good.
And... hm. He should teach her the word "means"- it'll simplify things for Gloria, probably. So... he needs some existing direct translation. He could use... what does he know... slossmoog, for flat? Did he tell her "flat"? He'll pick something else, now that he knows the name of her language.
He points at the stick figures for "yes" and "no", and says "Yes, no...", points at her, "in Nloggy?"
And... hm. He should teach her the word "means"- it'll simplify things for Gloria, probably. So... he needs some existing direct translation. He could use... what does he know... slossmoog, for flat? Did he tell her "flat"? He'll pick something else, now that he knows the name of her language.
He points at the stick figures for "yes" and "no", and says "Yes, no...", points at her, "in Nloggy?"
unblinkered
He's... not sure what soog or heetow are, but he can... probably ignore that? Coonway, that's what he confused for slossmoog earlier.
"Yes means taan, taan means yes. No means coonway, coonway means no."
"Yes means taan, taan means yes. No means coonway, coonway means no."
unblinkered
And... "Soog? Heetow?" He's not sure what those were meant to mean. Maybe she picked up some syllable and thought it meant "maybe"?
unblinkered
So... soog... she didn't answer that, so it'd be a part of speech... "and"? Yes taan, and hitao? Or "or". How does one... communicate logical operators?
Well, he could test one, and if she objects...
He'll need to teach "and" first, but that's probably easy. "Or" is the tricky one. He holds up a piece of chalk and says "chalk", and then a stick of gum and says "gum". Then he puts them down on the table next to each other, and says "Chalk and gum."
Well, he could test one, and if she objects...
He'll need to teach "and" first, but that's probably easy. "Or" is the tricky one. He holds up a piece of chalk and says "chalk", and then a stick of gum and says "gum". Then he puts them down on the table next to each other, and says "Chalk and gum."