[video- evening of the 20th]

[princess_weia]

[It's late in the evening when Leia appears on the mirrors. Not ridiculously so, but late enough that a child her age should probably be in bed. Well, technically she was in her bed, she just wasn't sleeping. Or making any attempt to sleep. But yay technicalities?]

Hey, everybody. I've been wondering about something for awhile, and I kinda want to know what you all think. 

There's people here from lots of different worlds, right? Other planets, even whole other universes. So how come we can all talk to each other without having to learn each other's languages? And how come we can all read the books and signs and things here?

'Cause you all sound like you're speaking Basic to me, but if you're not from my galaxy, then you can't really be speaking it, 'cause there's no way you'd know it. And everything looks like it's written in Basic to me too, but that can't be what it really is either for the same reason; nobody here should even know what Basic is. So how could everything looks and sounds that way?

Comments

[abys_keeper]

I can always talk to everyone. [he peered at her and grinned] You're a tiny merling, far from home. Barely more than a pylop...or an egg.

[princess_weia]

[She's honestly not sure what a polyp is, but the context is clear. She gives a small, annoyed huff.]

I'm not an egg or that other thing; I'm five and a half.

[Which is totally not even close to an egg.]

I am the youngest Apprentice though. I was the smallest too, until Mrs. Brisby was brought here; she's a mouse, so she's really tiny.

My name's Leia; what's yours?

[abys_keeper]

[he knows it's years, but he's never sure how to keep track of years or days for that matter so he just smiles] You are a merling. Not an egg or a pylop. But that wasn't so long ago that you were.

[he has no idea what a mouse is either]

Is she a pylop maybe? If she's so small?

[he raises himself a little, always happy to answer this question.]

I'm the deep singer, from the place where the lantern lady swings her light and the lights in the darkness aren't stars but eyes. I'm the keeper of Aby's precious memories, of sunlit seas and dry air days, even though I hate land. So, I'm Keeper.

[princess_weia]

[Leia is impressed that he can even remember all that.]

Wow, and I thought that my title was really long. Yours must be the longest title ever! My whole name and title are 'Her Royal Highness, Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan.' But I like just Leia; the whole thing takes too long to say to use all the time.

Anyway, no, Mrs. Brisby's a grown up and has kids of her own. Mice are just really tiny normally.

And before, you said you can always understand people's languages? Even back in the world you come from?

(video)

[creepyoldguy]

[Holy moly there were a lot of kids here.]

Magic.

[Finger waggles.]

Same way they brought us here, I'd guess.

Re: (video)

[princess_weia]

Well, yeah I figured that. But I more meant what kind of magic? And how does it work?

Re: (video)

[creepyoldguy]

[The demon shrugged.]

Maybe they did stuff to all of our brains. Or, maybe they just warped reality.

[A small head shake. Hell, he didn't even know the technicalities of his own powers back home. It never interested him enough to study it.]

Does it bug you, or something, kid?

Re: (video)

[princess_weia]

Kinda? I mean I don't mind not having to learn a bunch of different languages, 'cause that's kind of boring most of the time.

But it's weird. And something did happen to our brains, I wanna know what it is. And what other stuff it might have done.

[She hasn't forgotten the strange emptiness she'd felt when she first arrived. She still feels it some times though only when she's paying attention, like she is now.]

[takeitsleazy]

I always figured it was the same quantum mechanics we used in the Neighborhoods, back home. Chidi spoke French, so he heard everyone speaking French. Eleanor heard English. I just hear ... well.

[cough]

I hear the language I grew up with, which predates the rest of them, so. I'm used to it. Good on you for noticing, though, that's pretty clever.

[princess_weia]

Thanks! Is your language like High Galactic then? People still use the High Galactic alphabet where I'm from, but nobody really speaks the language any more. Though some people still write things in it when they want to sound really fancy.

[takeitsleazy]

Sort of. I don't think humans even really know my language, though. It's only used by eternal beings.

[he scribbles a few glyphs in the frost on his window and holds the mirror up to it so she can see]

That's what my name looks like written down.

[not his Michael name, his real one, which is super weird and demonic and vaguely embarrasing, in the same way that really being a gloopy eldritch being several thousands of feet tall is]

[princess_weia]

Hmm... Nope I definitely can't read that, so that means the magic isn't working on it. But that bit on the end does kinda look like a backwards forn.

[Wait a second... if the magic didn't affect intentional writing in another language, then that meant... She gasps, then grins.]

I just got a really great idea! Remember back when we were fighting the witches, how we had a hard time trying to figure out how to send each other messages that they wouldn't see too?

Video

[woo_oo]

I just always assumed it was some kind of magic, like what brought us all here.

Incidentally, I do speak several different languages!

Re: Video

[princess_weia]

I do too! Well, a little bit of others anyway. My mommy and daddy want me to learn a lot more, but I think it's kind of boring.

And yeah, I figured it was magic too. But I was more wondering how the magic worked. Like, is it changing what we say, or only what we hear?

Re: Video

[woo_oo]

Hmmm... when you put it that way... Maybe it's a little bit of both, and a little bit of neither. There are languages that have words with meanings that other languages don't.

For example, there's a German word that means "happiness at the suffering of others". But other languages don't have a singular word that means the same thing.

Re: Video

[princess_weia]

[Leia nods.]

Yeah, there's lots of languages with words like that in them back home too. And some languages like Twi'lek sign language that humans and ducks don't even have the right body parts to be able to speak, and some- like Wookie language- that are really hard for us to speak because our voices don't work the same way as Wookies' do.

[video]

[serpentinthegarden]

Magic, pigtails... like everyone else said.

[ He paused then added. ]

But now that you mention it it's very, Tower of Babel isn't it? Think if the Castle were to collapse we would have to go back to actually learning all these different languages?

Re: [video]

[princess_weia]

Well yeah, I figured it was magic. I meant more how does the magic work? Is it part of this place, or part of us? Are the signs and things actually changing depending on who's looking at them, or do we just see them differently? That sort of thing.

And I don't anything about Babel Towers, but I know I definitely don't wanna find out what happens if the castle collapsed. If that happened, Mr. Dreamfinder and the others wouldn't have a place to live, and the magic mirror machine would probably be wrecked.

Re: [video]

[serpentinthegarden]

Humanity tried to unite and form a great city after the flood, wasn't meant to be apparently. They were all made to develop their own languages and they ended up having to go their own ways. The city collapsed, the tower fell down.

[ He spoke of the story like it was a bad memory but carried on. ]

Not sure about all that. You could try asking some one like Merlin or Dreamfinder but I doubt they could tell you anything that would make sense either. Maybe Aziraphale could find something about it in one of his books.

Re: [video]

[princess_weia]

[Yeah, Leia has no idea what flood you're referring too, Crowley, sorry. She kinda wants to ask more about it, but he doesn't seem to like remembering it, so she lets it drop.]

Both of those are good ideas. I'll be sure and ask them if they know anything or know where I can look to find anything about it next time I see them.

[Video]

[originaldragoon]

That is a good question. My guess is that it has something to do with the magic of this realm.

To me, it sounds like everyone is speaking the common language of my world, and the same thing goes for all the writing that I see.

Re: [Video]

[princess_weia]

[Leia nods.]

Yeah I kinda figured that. I was more wondering what kind of magic it was. Like is the magic on us, or just in the world? And if it's doing anything else besides just making it so we can all understand each other.

[blue_ice]

I don't have that ability innately. I've worked on visual and audio translation software, but it wouldn't work immediately and seamlessly like this does.

So as much as I hate to say it, it'd likely be a spell on this place, passed through the mirror?

[princess_weia]

[Leia nods.]

That's what I thought, yeah. I was more wondering what it was doing exactly. Like is it changing what we say, or just what we see and hear? And is it doing anything else besides making it so we can understand each other?

[blue_ice]

...I never considered that. Is there any reason to suspect miscommunication?

Any misunderstandings that are otherwise unexplained?