duskofthegods_logs | Come here, pretty please... can you tell me where I am?

Entry tags:

Come here, pretty please... can you tell me where I am?

Who: Kara and You!
What: Attempted introductions
Where: Out and about
When: Early in the day
Warning(s): None

<Great. Where am I now?>

At least, Kara thinks as she looks around for some indication of how she found herself yet another strange place with no memory of arriving, this still feels like Earth. The sun is still yellow, the sky still that strange shade of blue. She doesn't really have anywhere to go, so for now she decides to walk.

As she wanders through town trying to get her bearing and to ignore the stares (these people wear such strange clothes, she thinks) it starts to dawn on her how quiet it is. She can hear a few voices, yes, but none of them belong to the people in her immediate vicinity. None of the people she can see are talking at all.

Her heart starts to pound as she pays more attention to the people. None of them. Nobody is saying a word. Why?

She steps in front of someone with a brief apology. They smile at her, but don't say a word. She stops them from walking on.

<Excuse me, but can you tell me where I am?> If this is Earth they won't speak her language anyway, but she wants to illicit some response. They blink at her, then smile again, apologetically.

How can she get them to talk? She puts a hand on her chest.

"Kara." Then she puts out a hand to indicate that they should share their name. They look dismayed for a second, then give that apologetic smile again and pull away. She has to force herself to let go. Her grip was starting to get too tight.

She repeats this process several times, with varying degrees of panic. Then it hits her. Somebody is talking. She can hear it. She just has to find one of those people.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The voice of someone nearby was definitely showing distress by the time that Kara got close. In English, a young woman in her early twenties was attempting to speak to one of the locals, who looked back at her in confusion. "Please, you must know where I am, and how I got here!" she said, before making a visible effort to calm her jangled nerves. The natives simply looked apologetic and hard-pressed to speak back at all, much less understand her.

She looked around frantically for a moment and her eyes lit on Kara, who was dressed differently from everyone else. "Excuse me! Can you help me?" She was looking almost desperate for a moment, her eyes darting to left and right, and visibly taking moments to get her nerves to calm down again.

<Oh, thank Rao.>

She's definitely relieved to see somebody talking. She was starting to feel like she'd lost her mind - not that the feeling was unusual since she had first woken up on a strange planet.

Relief quickly turns to concern. This poor woman looks even more upset than Kara is, and she's not exactly calm.

<I'm sorry, I don't know what you're saying. But it seems like you're just as confused as I am... and your heart is beating way too fast.> She wishes there was something she could... ah! She uses her hands to exaggerate her demonstration of taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. Just breath.

She was speaking, thankfully. However, this woman wasn't speaking a language that she knew, which was a problem. At least she was trying to speak and that was a definite start. Seeing the gestures, Elsa nodded and breathed in and out very slowly, making a very visible gesture that was intended to calm herself. Her fingers smoothed their way over her dress in an elegant gesture, and she closed her eyes, stilling her nerves.

She wasn't going to get answers by being nervous. Breathing out, she opened her eyes and pointed to herself. "Elsa." Switching to German, she decided to try one of the neighboring tongues. Maybe one of them would work. "Do you understand this?"

Kara smiles to see the woman taking her advice. At least she doesn't need to speak the language to do some good.

The new words don't make sense, but the gesture certainly does. Kara points to herself in turn.

"Kara." Then she sighs. This isn't a whole lot more useful than nobody speaking at all, but at least she's probably still on Earth, right?

<Not that I guess it really matters where we are. Where else am I supposed to go, anyway?> She starts to look around the street, hoping an answer will present itself.

"Kara." She said it right back to the woman, looking in the same direction that she was. She frowned, not finding any solutions immediately forthcoming, though there were a few of the structures that stood out from the others.

As she looked around, she coughed into her hand. The air quality in this city was awful, like breathing the ash and soot from an old forest fire that had passed by. How did the people live in these conditions? She looked back at the woman, sighing. She looked almost as confused as she already felt. That was a bad sign, wasn't it?

"Excuse moi. Parlez-vous francais?" It was a shot in the dark, but she doubted it right now. If that failed, they could look for answers in one of these buildings perhaps.

Kara doesn’t notice, of course, because although she still does out of habit she doesn’t really need to breath anymore. And the whole planet smells much dirtier than Krypton ever did.

She glances back when the woman speaks again, but with no clear indication of what she’s saying Kara is left clueless. Impulsively she starts to chew one thumbnail.

She’ll need a place to sleep eventually, right? She doesn’t feel the slightest bit tired. Or hungry, or thirsty. This is all still so strange to her. What does she even do now? Help people, like Kal-El suggested?

If she wants to help people she could start by figuring out why nobody in this city will speak. Maybe there’s some kind of religious celebration going on? There would be decorations or special services for that sort of thing, wouldn’t there? But how would she know?

She goes to the nearest sign, a triangular affair for a cafe, and puts a hand on the words before turning to face Elsa again.

<Can you read this? Is this your language?> Maybe Elsa can be her guide, if there are religious messages to be found.

No, she didn't think that would work. It wasn't helpful, but at this point she gave up on trying languages. Listening to the woman's attempt at speech, Elsa had no clue what the language she was using even sounded like. It was like nothing any dignitary had ever used while visiting the court at home. So, they would have to do this the hard way, but at least it seemed like they were in the same boat.

Following along at a polite distance, she looked at the sign and frowned at it. Nothing about it was clear, and the language didn't make sense. That garbled state was frustrating, definitely, especially when the girl asked a question. Reaching up and pinching the bridge of her nose, she shook her head slowly. "No, I don't know what you are saying. Are you asking what this is?"

No, this wasn't going to work. She held up a finger to try to get the girl to stop and look at her. She made a show of shaking her head and then said "No," before bobbing her head and saying "Yes." God, she hoped that gesture was mostly universal, and she really hoped that the girl understood what she trying to get across. You could do a whole lot with just a yes and a no.

She can tell by the look on Elsa’s face that the woman doesn’t understand the writing any more than Kara does. She frowns. None of this is going to work. What else can she do? Father would tell her to relax. Trying to hard to think of an answer just makes the right one harder to catch.

She stares a little as Elsa demonstrates a yes and a no. Is she trying to teach Kara her earth language? It would probably be just as easy for Kara to teach her Kryptonian, but... she droops a little as she thinks that there’s no point. No one but Kal-El speaks Kryptonian anymore.

“Yes,” she repeats cautiously, nodding her head, then “no”.

Alright. They had yes and no. This was important. Of course, understanding the questions would be a lot more useful, but that would take a lot more time than they appeared to have just yet. First, they needed answers, something that could help to clear up what was going on, how they had gotten here in the first place.

Elsa looked left and right and then pointed towards one of the largest buildings around. It had the look of a temple but she couldn't be sure exactly. "Do you want to look there?" Hopefully, even if the words weren't clear, the context would make the intention obvious enough.

Aha! That gesture she understands.

“Yes!” Wait, was that the right one? She turns to Elsa, suddenly uncertain, and nods.

“Yes?”

She nodded as soon as Kara said yes, and began to walk in the direction of the temple. The questioning yes received an encouraging nod of her own, and the queen was relieved that they were getting any communication done at all. It was hard, but they could do this.

And at least this temple wasn't far away.

And she's learning a new language, too! She would have had to do it sooner or later, after all. She follows Elsa, looking every which way as they go. Nothing really elucidates their situation, but it's all pretty interesting. And... quaint.

If she had not felt like she had just been abducted recently, Elsa would have found this a fascinating place to visit. As it was, she couldn't help but be nervous about it. Looking back occasionally, she checked to make sure that Kara was with her before turning back and focusing on finding the building.

"I'm not sure if we'll even find anything when we get there." After all, what if they didn't speak the same language either?

It's strange, getting used to all the quiet. There aren't really that many people here who still have some kind of verbal communication. Even sign language isn't getting through. Of course, it's language; a form of communication, and with the woman who was in that temple gone there would be none. Somehow they really had to fix this. You could only play charades for so long, and industry was kind of useless without communication. Same with a good chunk of tech.

Besides, the eerie silence was getting 'The Shining' level creepy.

When she did hear a voice break the silence, she quickly turned to the sound, head swiveling on high alert. It clearly couldn't be a local, and by the tone, they sounded upset. Probably a new arrival rather than an established kidnapee. Locating the voice, one that sounded all too familiar, she noticed the face of a person that she didn't expect to see. Granted, she wasn't from her world, but she was one of her people.

Without even missing a beat she went right in to give Kara a hug. "I can't tell you how good it is to see you!"

Naturally, her instinctive response is that this is an attack. She spins, ready to flip her attacker away from her (and possibly into the stratosphere) and manages to stop just short of doing Felicity serious harm when she realizes it’s just a girl, and not a terribly strong one. At least, not by solar-powered Kryptonian standards.

<Um, hello? Why are you hugging me?>

At the ... strange language, Felicity pulls back. Kara knew English, right? Felicity was pretty sure she did. She remembered her communicating and having an adopted human family. She'd met Kara's sister, after all.

Still, looking over this Kara there are slight differences. A harder look on her then the one she's used to and a confusion that she's sure Kara wouldn't have on seeing her.

So she points to herself, hoping the girl will get the gist. "Felicity."

Then she points to the woman. "Kara."

After that, she links her hands together. "Friends."

Kara's frown turns suspicious the moment she hears her name, and she takes a step back.

<How do you know my name?> And what on Krypton is that hand gesture supposed to mean?

She lets out a heavy sigh. Of course, she wasn't going to understand. This wasn't her Kara.

So she tries again. She points to herself. "Felicity, Earth one." She holds up one finger. "Earth two" She holds up two fingers. "Kara?"

The numbers just confuse matters more. Clearly 'Felicity' is the name, but is she saying she comes first? She's Kara's commander or something? She shakes her head.

<I don't understand. What do you want from me?>

She shakes her head too. This, this isn't working.

"Right, this totally isn't working. If I had something wot work with ..." She frowns, looking down at her hands. She should be able to do this. She can. Wait! Charades!

She holds up a finger. "One word." Please get it, please get it. She tugs her ear. "Sounds like ..." Ooh! Prop! She holds up a pen and points to it.

What.

Kara just stares. Is this girl insane? She thinks she might be insane.

Right, no charades. There's a heavy sigh as she bites her nail a little. Between the bridge of her nose, a crinkle starts to form.

"Come on Kara, throw me a bone here."

She considers the girl for a moment. At least she's stopped dancing around like a crazy person. She was trying to communicate something, some connection between them. How can Kara communicate that she doesn't know anything about a connection?

"Felicity?" It's only half a question, just to be sure she has the name right. Then she uses one of the two words she has successfully learned in English, not that she knows that's what it is.

"No." She looks vaguely apologetic, at least, as she shakes her head. That way even if it's not the right language some part of the meaning should be clear.

"I know that already." She's still frowning, the crease between her brows remaining. "But at least you aren't a Nazi, so there's that I guess." That would have been seriously bad.

There has to be a way to let her know that she's not going to kidnap her or something. Then again, knowing her Kara, this one could probably break her into little pieces without thinking twice. Then feel completely awful about it afterward.

"You know what, that's probably not going to work either."

On the plus side, Felicity hasn't tried to hurt her yet. Not that that means she won't eventually, as Kara has already discovered. Krypton does have hugs, of course, so she understands that although it was very weird, that was a display of affection.

After a moment's thought she looks around at the buildings around her with exaggerated movements.

<What is this place? Does it have a name? You can at least tell me that, can't you?>

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Come here, pretty please... can you tell me where I am?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject