don't speak i know just what you're saying so please stop explaining don't tell me cause it hurts

[taxonmods]

WE DO IN FACT SPEAK AMERICANO. AND EVERYTHING ELSE.

Only with a lot less actual speaking for a while. As outlined in May's State of the Taxon, we’ve got a system glitch starting around midday on Sunday the 22nd.

An attempt by the aliens to stop the citizens from understanding the incoming radio signals will result in the characters losing the ability to speak - or indeed make any vocalizations - and the tablets will only support text transmissions. This will last through the 26th, with some residual effects lingering until the 29th.

List of details!

● At the start of the glitch, there will be a five minute period in which characters will speak gibberish, nonsense sounds strung together.

● After this, spoken communication will be shut off completely and tablets will default to text.

● Characters who know languages other than English will find themselves writing in that language or languages. They can stick to English with a lot of effort, but words or phrases will still slip through.

● On the 26th, verbal communication will be restored. Multilingual characters will still find themselves slipping into non-English.

● This will all be cleared up and normalcy restored on the 29th.

For characters who will be affected by the multi-lingual shenanigans, you can use Google Translate to muck up your tags, or denote things in other languages by bolding the text.

Questions? Plottings? Flailings? This is the post for 'em! Speak now or forever hold... you get the idea.

Comments

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? CONCERNS?

[taxonmods]

This is a comment. It is sticky and for asking ALL THE QUESTIONS!!!111!!11

[aintnoconvict]

Fitz is going to roll with this fairly decently. He'll be annoyed because it's ahrder to flirt via text, and his texting/end-of-glitch speaking will occasionally slip into Chinese, but he'll deal.

Glitch on the other hand will freak the hell out. Talking is his primary way to reinforce / sort through memories, it is a Big Deal, so he's going to be writing stuff down A LOT. Aaaand as he tends to freehand texting on the tablets (buttons can get overwhelming) he'll probably be doing some Picture Language Of The Ancients™ , which sucks since he doesn't actively remember it.

Shaking and crying and silently mouthing things forever, basically =(

[egregiouslypink.livejournal.com]

→ Dawn will be VERY ANNOYED by her lack of ability to talk (and probably carry around a white board) and then will be annoyed by the Tower of Babel effect but eventually will just babble happily away in all the dead languages.

→ Damon will make a lot of obscene gestures idk. Then he'll find himself speaking French and want to die, and will hole up with booze and try to be quiet or at least use Italian instead.

→ Sook and Faith will just be annoyed about not talking (...Sookie more than Faith) and then will be back to English since that's all they speak.

OTHER THAN THAT: I had some half formed ideas about Sook getting her telepath on, idk how. ANY INTEREST?

[prophecy-boy.livejournal.com]

This can only be awesome. Connor is going to be so frustrated, he has enough trouble articulating himself when he can speak! XD

[secretshame]

Willow will be swearing in broken, butchered Latin, since it is canon that she sucks at Latin. XD

Jenna will just resign herself to wearing a white board all week.

[biverbam.livejournal.com]

River knows Mandarin, Esperanto, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Turkish, German, Greek, Swedish, and Tobrik (which is a language she made up when she was 11 sob), plus other Chinese dialects. Anything that comes out in English will be both a miracle and probably very short sentences. And that's only if she cares enough to make sure she's understood.

...I will probably just stick with Mandarin and maybe others if they overlap with who she's talking to in order to save my brain.

[cheerioless.livejournal.com]

Considering the Spanish, or lack-there-of, Mr. Schue taught her, Quinn does not like this at all.

[entractes.livejournal.com]

This is pretty much the worst first glitch Kurt (and his French) could possibly imagine.

[smecker.livejournal.com]

Long is going to be all secretly SQUEE and then all publically 'How dreadful, if anybody requires a translator please let me know' (in 50zillion languages). God, what a troll.

Latest of all the Late, as always

[defenestration]

Adrian will be struggling not to fall into German, which will probably be easier via text than when voices get turned back on. He has a thing about people knowing his background. I'm headcanoning that he speaks Greek, Egyptian Arabic, French and Italian, because of his upbringing and the time he spent in the Middle East, plus being a freaking genius. He also probably can read Middle Egyptian and Coptic.

Mattie is all English all the time, and probably won't be much affected by the writing-only period either. Letter writing is clearly a lost art, here.