bigapplesauce | Entries tagged with event: speaking in tongues

Bruce is in Central Park, taking notes on the rift and comparing to some data he brought with him, when it happens. There are people nearby, but they are ignoring him. After all, there isn't much to see, just a blandly dressed, professor type, reading from a stack of papers. He blends in well enough, something Bruce is grateful for. There are two, pretty ladies nearby, wearing exercise gear and talking about cameras on their cell phones.

Except, suddenly, the two ladies are either talking gibberish or in a language Bruce is unfamiliar with. He looks up, puzzled, and sees the ladies eyeing each other in confusion. One of them asks something, based on her tone, but the other shakes her head, frowning. Bruce shakes his head, since it isn't his business, and stares back down at his data sheets. They are meaningless. What was perfectly clear English moments ago, now looks like something typed by hitting buttons randomly on a keyboard.

"Excuse me," he calls out to the women, hoping one of them will be able to understand him. He gets up, taking a cautious step forward, but the women both back away, staring at him and each other warily. The taller woman turns and begins running away, putting distance between them. Bruce swallows, his heart rate rising quickly. If language is breaking down and no one can be understood, even writing...

Bruce moves down the path to an area where there are signs, posters and bulletins he read with easy disinterest earlier in the day. They are nonsense. Bruce tries to imagine what is happening, but nothing comes to mind, save someone might have drugged him! That is not good, though the breakdown of communication would be utterly worse. He shudders, feeling the Other Guy wrestling for control. Bruce fights.

Bruce might have won the conflict, but a man comes up to him and begins shaking him, speaking at him in a quick, pleading tone, his eyes wide with terror. Bruce shoves him away, but the man keeps coming towards him, his voice raising, becoming faster and harsher, until he is screaming. Bruce shakes his head again, tries to tell the man he can't understand him. The stranger grabs Bruce's arm roughly and that ends things. Bruce shoves him hard and moments later, it isn't Bruce. It's Hulk. Hulk roars and pounds the ground, waiting for things to start making sense again. The man is already gone, fleeing when he saw Bruce transforming.

[OOC: Sorry for length. Any and all are welcome.]

Current Date: February 5th, 2013

alwaysalright

The Doctor's in the middle of having tea when the ripple runs through the rift. It makes his hair stand on end and leaves him feeling a bit queasy, so it must have been a strong one. Better go check it out.

He abandons his tea half drunk, walking briskly back to the console room and skipping up the steps. He fiddles with the controls a bit, then pulls the screen over to take a look at it.

He continues looking for several seconds.

When the screen refuses to give him anything of meaning, he fiddles with more controls, but all it gives him is more gibberish. Then he hits the monitor, but that doesn't make any difference either.

"What's wrong with you today?" he asks, giving her a worried and confused nudge with his mind. "Eh?"

Current Location: The TARDIS, in the Ramble
Current Date: February 5th, 2013

edgar_sawtelle

Edgar doesn't realize anything is wrong at first.

He's been spending a lot of time in the base, and when he wakes up early that morning he has already decided to get out into the park for a while. It's barely light out when he leaves, and he doesn't pass anyone in the hallways. It's cold, so the park is empty too, aside from the few dedicated joggers here and there. But they stick to the paths and Edgar prefers to lose himself in the wooded areas. If he doesn't think about it too much, he can almost believe he's back home there.

Edgar sits on a stump and watches the sun rise while Almondine trots around, smelling every tree she can find and darting after things Edgar can't see. The sun is caught in the tops of the trees when she finally struts over to him, looking very satisfied with herself. He smiles and stands, clapping a hand to his leg to call her on as he heads back to the base.

It's once they're back in their quarters that Edgar realizes something's amiss. Having filled Almondine's water dish, he sits on his bed and grabs one of the books he's borrowed from the library from the table by the bed. He opens the book to where he had marked his place with a folded piece of paper and settles in to read a little before a late breakfast.

It takes him a few seconds to realize that he can't read what's written in the book. Frowning, he flips through the pages. They're all written in some sort of gibberish. He checks the spine to be sure it's the same book he was reading before, but there's no help there; whatever's written on the spine is just as unintelligible. Slightly concerned, Edgar checks the other two books he borrowed. They're also indecipherable, as is the small stack of scrap paper - used for communicating - he's collected over his time on the base, and everything in the small notebook he's been using as a sort of journal.

Almondine can clearly sense his growing confusion and she noses his arm. Edgar strokes her head, then signs to her: /I can't read./ Or he tries to. But the shapes his hands form don't make any sense, the motions they follow meaning nothing to him.

Edgar stares at his hands as if they belong to a stranger. He can feel his breath quickening, panic rising inside him, and he isn't sure whether he's going to collapse into the desk chair or start running.

He clasps his hands together so hard they hurt.

Current Location: Rebel base
Current Date: February 5, 2013, mid-morning

essentiallyharmless

Lucy lays in bed for a long while after waking up. Her motivation to do things hasn't increased much since she got here, or it seems to come and go in waves. Quite often she doesn't even go out, she just stays in and reads and drinks a lot of tea.

Eventually she reaches out and grabs her phone to check the time. Except it seems to be glitching - she can't read the numbers. The clock image however tells her it's just after nine. She taps through to glance over the headlines, but the writing is all messed up there too. That's odd. Whatever.

She drags herself out of bed and goes to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash a bit, then picks out some clothes. However, while pulling on a pair of jeans, her eyes catch the cover of one of the books she's been reading, and she realises that the cover of that is nonsense as well.

She grabs the book and stares at it, nonplussed. Flipping through it, she looks at random pages, the letters unrecognisable and bleeding together on all of them. Starting to panic a little, she throws the book onto her bed and starts going through her bookshelf. Every book she pulls out, it's more of the same.

She steps back and runs her hands through her hair, at a loss. She'll go ask Peter. Show him the book, make sure it's like that for him too and she hasn't just gone crazy.

She pulls on a top and cardigan and shoes, grabs a book, her phone and keys, and hurries out the door and heads towards his apartment. Turns out, however, it's quite difficult to find the right door when you can't read the numbers or the nametags. Thankfully she's been there often enough that she's fairly certain she remembers how many doors to pass to get to the right one.

She rings the bell twice and knocks hard on the door, hard enough to make sure he wakes up if he's asleep, and that he realises it's urgent.

Current Location: Rebel apartments
Current Date: February 5th, 2013

wildmage_daine

Daine trots through the park as a shaggy wolfhound, with Sarge and Molly at her side. It was probably cowardly of her to take a shape and flee the base, but not being able to talk to anyone was driving her mad. At least she can sort of talk to the People, though all she gets from them are feelings and impressions instead of words. Still, animals can get far more across without words than any two-legger can, and being in this shape, with her two canine friends beside her, feels enough like Pack to bring her some comfort.

She's unaware of the gathering at the fountain, but even if she knew about it, it would take some coaxing to get her there. Folk aren't often kind to strays, and she's not about to take human shape. At least when she's in an animal shape, not being able to talk to two-leggers feels normal.

Current Location: Central Park
Current Date: February 5th, 2013, early afternoon

bluesuit_handy

Andrew stretches and turns over, his back popping and his movements inadvertently pulling the covers off James's side of the bed and wrapping them around him. Fortunately, when he reaches over he finds the other side of the bed empty, so he hasn't actually stolen them from James. Wait, fortunately? Waking up without James there isn't fortunate, even if James sleeps so little that it's a fairly common occurrence. With a grunt to himself, Andrew sits up and rubs sleep out of his eyes. Now that he's awake, he realizes he can hear the shower running. Hasn't been that long since James got up, then.

Nothing to do, really, but wait. Blearily, he leans over to grab the remote off the side table before flopping across the foot of the bed and clicking the TV on and flipping to the local PBS. This time of morning, he should still be able to catch the second half of Sesame Street.

For a few seconds, he thinks he's having trouble hearing the television. As he squints and listens hard, though, that turns into the thought that maybe he's on the wrong channel -- or maybe they're having a skit in another language. It doesn't sound like any language he's ever heard, though, and when Elmo's segment ends and Big Bird has a chat with some kids in the alley, they're all making the same unrecognizable sounds. Worried now, Andrew takes a drastic measure and changes the channel, seeking out a news station. The hosts of the morning chat/news show chuckle and gesture over something they've been shown.

"Ahuyyak?" asks one. His cohost laughs and replies, "Nuunuunuu! Hrebhrahrah, usi bo."

"...James?" calls Andrew, eyes still fixed on the screen.

Current Date: February 5th, 2013

applesaucemod

Due to the crisis and inability to effectively communicate, by noon people have started to gather at the rift center at Bethesda Terrace in the park.

People from both Romac and the rebels, as well as people attached to neither group, are gathering together for support and a place where no one expects them to speak. Since maps can still be understood without words or numbers, many people end up being directed here as a gathring place.

Someone has paid for a hotdog vendor to give out free food, and several people are going around offering coffee and hot cocoa. The edge of the fountain is covered with blankets for people to sit on.

Post a comment with your character, and go tag other people!

Current Location: Bethesda Terrace, Central Park
Current Date: February 5th, 2013

applesaucemod

When the sun rises over Manhattan at 7:02 on February 5th, a ripple runs through the Rift and across the city. Rift activity monitors everywhere go haywire for a few seconds, before settling down as if nothing has happened.

However, everyone who's been through the rift or has been affected by it will find themselves unable to understand language anywhere but in their own heads. Letters and numbers will lose their meaning. Anything spoken aloud will sound like gibberish to the listener.

Telepaths and empaths will still be able to communicate through feelings and memories, but anything that relies on language will be indecipherable.

Romac and rebel operations will more or less break down, and a ceasefire will take effect. People from both groups will start to gather at Bethesda fountain around noon, sharing drinks and hotdogs. In the evening this gathering will evolve into a party, with an ecletic band of whoever happens to own instruments playing wordless songs with people dancing.

By sunrise tomorrow morning, everything will have returned to normal.

There will be event posts where everyone can tag in that takes place at Bethesda fountain. Anything that takes place anywhere else should have individual character posts.

Please tag all posts set during this day with 'event: speaking in tongues'. Feel free to backdate to this date to participate.

Current Location: All of Manhattan
Current Date: February 5th, 2013

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The Big Applesauce

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Page generated May. 29th, 2025 05:57 pm

The Big Applesauce

Entries tagged with event: speaking in tongues

[OPEN] HULK NOT LIKE GIBBERISH

[closed] What's the use of five billion languages now

Business as Usual

[closed] Bibliophile panic

Four Legs Good [Open to Multiple]

Ahuyyak?? [closed]

EVENT: Speaking in tongues - Bethesda Terrace at noon

EVENT: Speaking in tongues

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