[Event] Lost in Translation

[rubycitymods]

RUBY CITY EVENT
Lost in Translation

Hello, dear citizens.

In answer to several requests voiced over the past few months for an event like this one, we are happy to offer you a translation breakdown event, which is exactly what it sounds like it is! Once the event commences, the mechanism which allows everyone within the city to understand one another will begin to break down, affecting everyone at a different level, depending upon the individual. All involvement will begin from a similar starting point, but it is left to player discretion as to exactly how far the breakdown of comprehension develops.

The event will start on Monday, March 16th with a projected end date of Sunday, March 22nd. However, interaction by the city residents with one Chassie Barrows over the course of the event may have an effect on when it concludes.

While each affected individual will begin from the same start point, there are five possible stages to progress through at any speed the player wishes. PLEASE NOTE: No character is actually speaking nonsense at any level. It's the comprehension of what they are hearing that is affected.

EDIT: Reading comprehension may be affected up to stage two, resulting in hiccups in understanding but still leaving it as a viable means of communication.

Stage One: All affected individuals begin in the same place. There are occasional 'blips' of understanding that might simply be mistaken for mishearing something, as well as confusing homonyms that would otherwise be second nature.

Stage Two: As the problems develop and move to their second stage, full sentences are misunderstood or unable to be comprehended. This could still be dismissed as a bad day if the person has a habit of not paying attention, and proper concentration allows for normal understanding, but it is becoming more difficult to ignore.

Stage Three: At this stage, it becomes obvious that something is wrong. Even concentration doesn't help for any language that isn't already known to the listener, and the lack of comprehension begins to seep into those languages as well.

Stage Four: In stage four, there are massive issues with every language save for one, and not necessarily the individual's native language. It might be one that they only know fragments of, or one that they dislike speaking, but that's the only one they are able to fully understand if they focus on it.

Stage Five: The highest stage results in a full breakdown of understanding. All spoken words, even ones in the listener's native language, are little more than sounds that don't connect to the things that they signify.

Chassie will make her first appearance on the first day of the event. How she is received upon each of her appearances by the majority of those who encounter her will have a secondary (surprise) effect as a background to the main event.

Please use the designated comment in this post to ask any questions you might have, and also use this post for plotting! The comprehension breakdown has been designed to allow multilingual characters and those who may find themselves locked into canon CR to take full advantage of it, and we highly encourage the forging of new CR.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[rubycitymods]

Ask 'em here!

sign language/miming?

[leftmytower]

So, for stage five, that's pretty much moot to roleplay if sign language/miming are out?

And is written language affected? Even through the text system? If not, how does that work for non-Roman/Latin alphabet languages and the keyboard in the watches?

sorry for all the questions, hope i read carefully and they weren't already answered. c':

[rubycitymods]

Hi!

Sign language and miming can be used (since Chassie is a child and would likely very much enjoy watching this occurring), but it would be more like playing a game of charades! Since it doesn't require listening, and the things being communicated would still make sense within the individual's own head, it would still work.

Written language is affected, but to a much lesser extent. There may be some hiccups in reading comprehension but it is a much more reliable form of communication.

[arlathvhen]

In regards to worlds where the language isn't given a specific name, would it be up to the mun to decide if the language spoken is either analogous to English, or would be a completely separate language?

[rubycitymods]

That can be up to you!

[shwarm_after]

Sooooo.... does coding/programming count as a language?

[rubycitymods]

A written one, yes. The effect on written language is limited, but we all know how one small error in a code can break the whole thing...

[shwarm_after]

Perfect! Thank you <3

Music?

[operahouseghost]

If Erik is Stage 5, could he communicate via music or would that be affected since he'd need to write down a new composition? (Instead of playing.. IDEK "moonlight sonata" or some other classical piece he's got memorized?)

[rubycitymods]

He would still be able to communicate via music and write new compositions if he so desired. It may take a bit longer than it usually would.

[operahouseghost]

Thanks!

Re: QUESTIONS

[bythewaves]

a weird question but um. will it be like they're speaking another language entirely, in which case Mags will likely uh. want to study it, or is it more like say... you are trying to say "dog" and it comes out "cat" one time and "duck" the next?

EDIT: I ask because canonly Tolkien elves, particularly Mags' branch and his FAMILY ohdeargodhisfamily are fasicinated by language and like learning new ones and playing with their own

[rubycitymods]

It wouldn't be like another language - rather the lack of it.

For example, when the word 'chair' is said in English (the signifer being the word 'chair'), anyone who knows English will instantly connect it to what a chair is (the signified). At the highest stages of communication breakdown, this link between a word and what it means is broken down, making the spoken word 'chair' little more than a noise that doesn't connect to anything in the mind of the listener.

Re: QUESTIONS

[all_onis_are_true]

Does it have to be actual languages, or can it be something stupid like taking somebody's regular speech and running it through Google Translate back and forth a few times?

[rubycitymods]

If you're referring to the language they end up locked into understanding, should they only reach that point, it would be one that they already know (even if they only know a little of it).

[all_onis_are_true]

But if they hit stage five and the language in question is, say, English, then it would work?

[rubycitymods]

At stage 5, it doesn't matter which language they have been locked into understanding (on hearing, not speaking), since spoken words on the whole will no longer make any sense when heard.

Re: QUESTIONS

[kaylinneya]

At the end of the post, it says "The comprehension breakdown has been designed to allow multilingual characters and those who may find themselves locked into canon CR to take full advantage of it,"

I am not fully certain I comprehend what you mean exactly. I am playing Kaylin Neya, who in her cannon is fluent in:
Elantran/human (Which I have been playing as near synonymous with common/English) \
Aerean
High Barrani
Low Barrani (Both I am taking to be close to variations on typical fantasy elvish)
Leontine

She also knows a bit in the following:
Dragon (She can understand more than she can speak)
Norrinarian
and she knows some words in the Old Tongue, the language on her world that both shapes and creates life. In some cases the whole of races, in others individuals.


So I guess I also have the question of... how would/would the Old Tongue do ANYTHING she is used to while this is in effect? She is also covered in runes in that long dead (so they keep telling her, and then she keeps hearing it being spoken anyway!!!) language. On her world, a few scholars who have spent centuries studying it can read one or two of the marks, more or less... would they get harder to read under this? Or stay the same....?

[rubycitymods]

Not simply forcing characters to be locked into only understanding their native or first language (and thus being more likely to only look to canonmates for CR, particularly in the case of groups such as Tolkien-canon elves, who natively speak a language that no one else does) is the idea of that particular aspect.

Kaylin, then, might lose her understanding of all but one language that she knows, with that one not necessarily being the first one she ever learned, but it is only her listening comprehension that is affected. She may try to speak any of them, but they may not be understood by other people who hear them (even if they also know them).

The runes on her body, falling under written language, may become a little more difficult to read. Understanding of the written word isn't as heavily affected, however, so they won't become incomprehensible. Assuming that she already knows what they say, of course.

[kaylinneya]

She does not, lol. She knows one of them speaks to rebirth where it used to speak to death before it mutated, but that's all she KNOWS. Most of her work with her marks is instinctive, and only comes when she needs it. And often not even then.

Thank you for the answer.

Will she be able to LEARN the other languages if she works at it?

[rubycitymods]

Learning other languages over the course of the event is unlikely to be successful, though easier in the earlier stages.

This won't stop her from learning any afterwards, though.

[calmbefore]

For characters who are telepathic (like the Doctors are) would any attempts to try communicating that way work? Or would that be affected as well, if they tried to use anything like words?


Also, would using telepathy to communicate something like emotions work? Or general feelings that aren't precisely connected to words - frustation, annoyance, happiness, and so on.

[rubycitymods]

Telepathy would be a little easier than speaking out loud, but still frustrating! Conveying emotions and feelings would work fine. :)

[calmbefore]

Noted!

Re: QUESTIONS

[notsoitsybitsyspider]

Will this effect Arachne's ability to speak and understand her own and other spiders?

[rubycitymods]

That may depend! Does she communicate verbally?

[notsoitsybitsyspider]

It's a mix of clicks, body movement, Web design, and other non-verbal communication.

[rubycitymods]

Then she should be fine! At least when it comes to communicating with spiders.

[lifewithoutrest]

Please excuse my struggle with reading comprehension this week because I've read this several times and am still unsure about things.

So for the first two stages, is it just translation breaking down and if they concentrate, they can still put things together if the speaker is speaking a language they are familiar with? Am I understanding that right? So many languages.

And at stage three is when it starts to become a real issue for even languages they know, yes? That's where it really becomes obviously more than a translation issue and more of a comprehension issue?

But then at stage four, as long as it is that one particular language, they should at least recognize it if not understand it, depending on their level of fluency with the language in question?

And at five, they should just give up on understanding anything that's said to them, yeah?

I just want to make sure I've translated this properly into my language.

[rubycitymods]

You got it! :)

[scary_music]

Though there seems to be some implication of such, it's not stated outright, so I'd like to know for certain: Is it possible for some characters to still understand everybody else just fine through the whole event?

[rubycitymods]

Definitely! No one is obligated to be affected by what's going on.

Since it said we could use this for plotting... hope this is okay....

[kaylinneya]

Hi! So, Kaylin is new to the City and is still learning and finding her way around! She is used to a multiracial, multilingual culture, so while it will be disconcerting to not understand, she does learn quickly... and since she is used to this, and trained to do things like panic prevention and riot control, please feel free to use her as an island of calm in the madness. It might be the first time she's been used as an island of calm and/or sanity, so this amuses me greatly.

So this is going to be fun...

[neurotic_insect]

Dimitri is strictly bilingual, with Russian as his first and English as his second, although he is a telepath by nature of his natural abilities. I'm presuming by the time we get around to stage 3/4, we're looking at him being stuck in Russian and having to resort to using telepathy to convey ideas and emotions all at once. Definitely an event where mind reading comes in handy!

Ros would be back to her native Greek at that point, but Death... I'm not entirely sure how he speaks. Given that he's an anthropomorphic personification, an understanding of all languages is sort of implicit to his very being. Could it be said that a being who has no real native tongue would not be terrifically affected by an event such as this, or can we say that he might be found speaking a mix of all languages at once?