[WORLD TWO | SIGNET MELTDOWN MINGLE]

[spellbindmods]

Who: Anyone!
Where: Everywhere
When: Day 197-200
Open/Closed: OTA

[ If you've never experienced that ear-splitting, spine-tingling, bone-crushing headache that comes with Qri doing...something...then you're in for a treat. It lasts for about an hour on the first day, though usually it fades after a while and things go back to normal.

This time, you aren't so lucky. As soon as the headache passes, you notice there's a certain something missing within you. You may not notice it immediately, but the next time you hear someone talk their words might be equivalent to gibberish. When you go to ask someone what's going on with your telepathy, you find that your words just circle your own brain, no one answering because the message simply can't be received.

This...may be a problem. Hopefully you know how to play charades. ]

Comments

[quakeitoff]

[well okay as much of a Good Boy as he is, the only word Keiichi caught there due to not being ready for English was "fuck" and he's not ENTIRELY sure how to take that. so, he just keeps rolling with the "HE MUST ALSO BE SURPRISED THAT SOMETHING WEIRD IS GOING ON!" assumption, and responds in hesitant English himself:]

Oh! English? Sorry, I don't know...

[and then adds, again in Japanese:]

Wait, aren't we supposed to be able to hear each other anyway? How did you do that?

[alienates]

[ why can this guy speak two languages and also why does he keep switching to the one karkat doesn't know? is he trying to play a joke??? karkat doesn't appreciate it. ]

Do you think this is goddamn funny or something?

[quakeitoff]

[well okay he didn't catch ANY of that but he can glean the UNIMPRESSED vibe. he holds his hands out placatingly and then pinches his fingers together to make the universal sign for "just a little" as he replies, again in shaky English:]

Sorry, sorry! I don't know English. Little...

[after, though, he sorts of taps where his signet would be if you could see it under the collar of his shirt while looking bemused, like. is this thing on???]

[alienates]

[ it's the tapping that makes karkat slowly realize what is actually going on here. ]

Oh my god, is the translator machine broke?

[quakeitoff]

["oh my god" he knows, and even though he's the one who floated the idea first, hearing it seems to make the idea sink in a little as a real possibility-- his eyes go wide and he says in English:]

I think...!!

[and then taps his signet again, making a motion with his hands as if snapping a stick in half after]

[alienates]

[ he taps at where his own should be as well, because finally this is the one thing they are both on the same page of. ]

Well that's a goddamn inconvenience. Not sure how we didn't see this coming. You have no idea what I'm saying.

[quakeitoff]

[he has no idea what you're saying]

[he nods anyway though, shifting through his limited English vocabulary to try and come up with a way to phrase the question he wants to ask-- he makes the "breaking" gesture again, and then adds:]

Um, um-- before?

[alienates]

[ this is all very unfortunate because karkat is fucking shit at charades, so there's a long moment before he starts tapping at his forehead. "headache" ]

You mean, when our think pans were hurting a lot?

[quakeitoff]

[that isn't what he meant but he can guess what Karkat THINKS he means, and that's SOME kind of communication, so he nods enthusiastically!!!!]

Yes! "Ouch!"

[alienates]

Ouch!

[ he repeats that, excitedly, because he UNDERSTANDS. ]