video; saturday

[sailorwings]

[The video starts focused on the space a few inches above Usagi's head, showing the obviously alien decor of one of the pod rooms on the ship. Someone is not quite sure how to aim the camera on her cool new communicator at the moment, but she corrects the angle a bit ham-handedly as she starts to talk. Usagi looks tired, and nervous, and she's speaking Japanese.]

Everybody? Are you getting this? I'm-- I think I'm some place pretty weird.

[She glances around. Yeah. Weird is an understatement. She lowers her arm a little, showing a wider angle: Usagi is seated, slouched, on the floor near where she emerged from her pod, with her transformation compact in her lap. She's got that 'about to cry' trembly face going on.]

And just--just when we were all back together again. Is this some kind of enemy? Could I just be having a nightmare instead?

Comments

[video]

[growingwild]

[she's not talking a language Briar understands, but her distress doesn't need a translation.]

You alright? Can you understand me? [He firsts asks her in Common - or 'English', as she'd see it - then repeats it in various languages: Trader, Chammuri, and Narmonese amoung others. Hopefully she knew at least one of them, or this could be a tricky conversation]

[video]

[sailorwings]

Ah--

[There's some boy in her communicator? Speaking English, and... And woah. Usagi goes from surprised to intensely perplexed, as he switches from 'probably English' to 'weird sounding English' and 'weirder sounding English' and 'maybe he speaks more than just English'. She still responds in Japanese.]

Who are you? How are you on my communicator?

[video]

[growingwild]

[Wonderful. She doesn't understand, and Briar's run out of languages to try. He scratches his head]

Sorry miss, I don't understand. [Then he winces, because how is she going to understand him saying that he doesn't understand?]

[video]

[sailorwings]

[Well, she gets some of that, at least. Usagi mulls over her response for a moment, before replying in pretty thickly accented English.]

That is English?

[video]

[growingwild]

[Aha! She does know Common! Well, some Common. Even if she's calling it by some other name. Briar shrugs]

We call this 'Common' in my world. Don't know what other places call it, but we can call it 'English' if you like. [he grins mischievously at her]

Video, hover for translations

[wrench_and_ruffles]

[Kaylee frowns. That's not English or Mandarin, that's for sure.]

You alright?

[And because it's worth a try, being common and all...]

Ni mei shi ba?

video

[sailorwings]

[Usagi's bafflement is incredibly obvious, even beyond the language barrier.]

What language is that? I don't...

[She switches to English. Or, at least, she tries, shaking her head.]

I don't... ah, uh, not English. Hello?

Re: video

[wrench_and_ruffles]

[Kaylee frowns. This is tricky.]

No English. Or Mandarin.

Coulda sworn these had a translator of some sort...

[Of course, explaining how to turn that on to someone who doesn't actually speak much English might be... tricky.]

Re: video

[sailorwings]

I'm... Uuugh, [Usagi really can't with the English words in her current state. Not that she's got a lot of English otherwise, really. She continues haltingly.]

My name is Usagi... I am... what is here? No?

[video]

[gtfostalker]

[That.

Is a girl that is about to cry. Which isn't something that Strelok is used to at all. One that speaks a language he doesn't quite recognize. Also, there's now video on his PDA, what's up with that? He fiddles with said PDA until he manages to turn on the video on his end, and responds in English. He's had the best luck with that, so far.]

Ah. Please don't cry, miss. Do you know English? Or...

[He asks more or less the same question in Russian and Ukrainian, and some very broken German. Something has to work, he hopes.]

[video]

[sailorwings]

[Usagi sniffles. She's confused, people are speaking English at her, but at least there are people here! So she's kind of trying to hold it together rather than just collapsing into a sobbing mess. For now. She takes another stab at English. English-ish.]

Hello? I can't English, too tough, do you... Japanese?

[video]

[gtfostalker]

[People collapsing into sobbing messes is the one thing Strelok can't actually handle, so the fact that she's trying to stay calm means something.]

Japanese? Ah, no... perhaps there is a translator on your PDA?

[He taps his own to indicate, the video jiggling in response.]

[video]

[sailorwings]

Huh?

[Usagi squints at the wobbling video, and then she just kind of taps her own video screen in response, but that is hardly effective, because she just kind of ends up jabbing the screen with her finger.]

[Video]

[kazeninaru]

[It takes a couple minutes for Haruka to scramble to get a response-- because she'd only been half listening to her communicator, because she'd been driving a tank of an all-terrain vehicle out in the mountains, not quite yet returned to what passes for civilization.

But respond she does, once the vehicle is stopped and she's tumbled out, to the protests and confusion of the other people within, with a hurried and shocked:]

Usagi??

[video]

[sailorwings]

Haruka! Haruka-san! You're okay!

[Now Usagi does really tear up.]

[Video]

[kazeninaru]

Yes, yes, I'm fine-- what are you-- how did you get here?

[She knows already. She woke up in one of those pods, the same as everyone else. But it's what comes out. Haruka is just pretty much so stunned to see her that it's made her temporarily stupid.

The more intelligent and pointed question comes next, though:]

Are you all right?

[video]

[sailorwings]

I just woke up here, I'm tired but I'm fine, how is everybody?

[She wipes her eyes. Yeah, jumping to conclusions there, Usagi.]

[Voice]

[nodavinci]

[Tony's Japanese is...passable, if pretty accented.]

No enemies. You're safe.

[For the moment. Until the next raid. Or dinosaurs. But he's pretty sure that won't go over well, even if he could figure out how to explain those issues without having to resort to interpretive dance.]

Do you speak English?

[Voice]

[sailorwings]

Hey, you speak Japanese!

[Hey, she'll take it. But she purses her lips and shakes her head.]

No, I'm so bad at English, I get the worst grades, it's so embarrassing. Are we, uh, are we in America? Everybody's speaking English.

[Voice]

[nodavinci]

Not a lot. This isn't America. We...

[Damn it, he doesn't know how to say 'stranded on an alien planet in what's probably an alternate dimension' in Japanese. It sounds crazy enough in his native tongue.]

We aren't on Earth. This...phone has a translator. You just have to turn it on.

[voice]

[sailorwings]

It has a translator? Wait, but... Eeeh, how do I make it translate? It didn't come with instructions.

[Not that Usagi reads instructions.]

video

[sadandsingle]

[Tosh remembers feeling much the same way when she first woke up on Verdana, and so she replies in fluent Japanese.]

It's not a nightmare - you're in a crashed spaceship on a different planet.

[...she's not very good at being reassuring.]

Are you all right?

video

[sailorwings]

[Usagi blinks, and then kind of whines quietly into her communicator for a moment.]

A--a different planet? .... Where? In the solar system?

[She sniffles. Well. Maybe they can all teleport home?]

video

[sadandsingle]

A different solar system, I'm afraid. Possibly a different galaxy. It's a planet called Verdana - most of us came from pods on the ship, just like you.

video

[sailorwings]

Another solar system? Another galaxy? But... How did we get onto the ship, in these... pod thingies?