cancry | Experiment Log 02: Film Theory [Open]

Experiment Log 02: Film Theory [Open]

[Anyone passing by the theater in Limbo today, whether out of chance or curiosity, will find that it's running another one of its' "special presentations". In between the usual mix of random gibberish and actual films are two short clips, both featuring the same young girl.]

[Neither of them is a particularly long memory, but it's enough to see that the child in question is unmistakably a much younger Medic.]

[The first is a cheerful little memory, in it's own... unique way. At least the cat seems fine.]

[It's the second one where things get a little uncomfortable.]

[The source of the memories in question, once someone has eventually clued her in that she's getting another fifteen minutes of fame, can be found sitting in one of the theater seats and absently eating popcorn while staring at the screen, lost in thought.]

I didn't remember until I saw... Was the video the cause, or did it appear here because I was going to remember soon? [Thankfully, she doesn't seem too bothered by her personal business being shown publicly, but she does seem pretty wrapped up in contemplating it.]

[Alternately, if you show up later, you may hear a lot of thuds and clatters coming from the back.]

[Apparently, she's trying to get answers from the source by locating and breaking into the projector room. Her success is... mixed at best.]

[On the bright side, she left her giant bag of popcorn unattended. Free movie snacks?]

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Perhaps, in time, you may come to find that's what happened? Or perhaps the manner in which the two of you were special was harder to come by. There's no telling, currently, I suppose.

[He's just gonna get into a seat and sink way down into it. Sir. You're going to hurt your back like that.] But if I had to guess, that might be the issue. Resentment. In any case, she seemed to be having fun trying to cause you as much pain and damage as possible.

[Medic perches casually on the armrest of the next seat over, in the manner of someone who is sixteen and therefore fears neither God nor back pain.]

If she was angry about my powers, you'd think she'd know that trying to hurt me would be pretty pointless... I really don't understand what she thought any of that was going to accomplish.

Catharsis. She can't cause permanent damage, can't hardly kill you, but she can beat you as long as she wants.

Look at it this way: you could be an eternal punching bag. You wouldn't even complain or whine or cry about it, either, which would be sure to bring someone running quicker. She can take out as much aggression as she pleases, and you'll just let her.

Or, the flip side, she was overcome with rage and irrationally wanted to try and hurt you, to increase the severity of the beating until you gave a negative reaction, just to see you genuinely hurt.

[He scrubs a hand over his face.] I truly hope I'm wrong, of course.

[Medic shrugs awkwardly.] It's not like we can ask her, so it's as good as guess as any.

She didn't look very satisfied in the end, so... I think whatever she wanted, she didn't get it.

People are complex and complicated. There may be part of her that loves you still. [The book, after all.] Still, what a thing to suffer, even if you did not find it suffering.

[A small gesture, so little and so late... but that it happened at all still means something. God only knows what.]

I think it hurt da-jie more than me. ...Maybe that was why. [After all, if she resented one sister for having powers, why not the other?]

If it helps, I don't remember her doing anything like that more than once? Which doesn't mean she didn't, I guess, but... I think she mostly ignored me. ...They weren't all bad memories, though! We had a cat, that's nice. [The one with the cat was fine, at least in comparison.]

You may yet remember more pleasant memories! Like life, we have to take the bad with the good. Even if we don't have context for them.

I wonder if we still had Mianmian when I died? ...I hope someone's feeding her while I'm gone.

[On one hand, the odds of an already fully-grown housecat living another eleven years aren't super great. On the other hand, this is a cat that has been left around an unsupervised Medic for, apparently, multiple years. It may very well be immortal by now.]

You have a very interesting language. [listen this is all probably tower of babel shit and we can all understand each other but] I can't say I've encountered it before. I like the name for the cat. Very evocative. Onomatopoeia.

...oh, it kind of does sound like meowing! [She giggles.] I think da-jie actually named her after an author or a poem she liked- I don't remember the details very well, but I know it was something literary. It's really funny that it worked out like that, though!

The cat noise in Chinese is "miao", so it's really close either way- that's the other language in my memories, Chinese. I think not many other families where we lived knew it- plenty of people in the world did, but not where I grew up. So it sort of felt special, to use it for family. [She smiles, warm and wistful.] It was nice.

[There were better times, under all the pain and bitterness. It makes the worse times almost more jarring, in contrast.]

Language seems an odd situation down here, though I'm glad we all understand one another. Could you imagine if I was speaking--hm. Well, whatever languages I spoke, and you Chinese, and someone else a third?

That's the really interesting part- it seems like we are all speaking different languages, but it only translates one! From my perspective, I'm usually speaking English- but when I asked Ruin, he confirmed that English was a language he's never heard of before, even though he understands me perfectly well, and vice versa!

[She's so excited, she's making happy little hand gestures. There's so much scientific potential here.]

And then I tried speaking to him in Chinese, and it didn't translate at all! It seems like Purgatory created one "common language" for us all to share by translating whatever we speak the most, but if someone's multilingual it doesn't parse any additional languages, regardless of what those languages are! [A pause.] ...Which means I should probably get better about remembering to stick to one language for my research notes, otherwise it's going to get difficult to share them with people.

[The journals she's usually scribbling in are filled with pages of notes in both languages. She has a habit of writing horizontally in English and then vertically in Chinese so she can cram extra writing into the margins. It's verging on incomprehensible for anyone but the original author.]

Ah--ahhhh? [That's quite a lot. He blinks a few times and sits up straighter.] I confess that I have no knowledge of 'English' or 'Chinese' either. [is it just called LUCIAN is it calls EOSIAN nobody KNOWS there's LATIN NAMES and the insomnia signs are in JAPANESE-]

I believe I know other languages, but I hadn't thought to try them. No real reason to. Might be a bit rusty at them as well. But if I started writing something out, not in this...common denominator, it wouldn't translate at all? That is fascinating.

Let's try! [She pulls out her journal, flipping it open to a blank page, and holds out a pen for Chiron to use.] Just write anything you want, in a language other than the one you've been using so far.

Oh? You've put me a bit on the spot, but...

[He hums a little something, with a vague tune to it, and scribbles. It is very clearly Latin.

Deus dormit et liberi ignem faciunt, numquam extinguunt, ne expergisci possit.]

I think that's from a song.

[Medic tilts her head and squints at it.]

I don't know the words or recognize the song, but that looks a lot like Latin to me. I don't really speak Latin- no one does these days, it's a dead language- but a lot of medical terminology is based in it... [Is... is he from the past? DID THE PAST HAVE HOBO KINGS AND NO ONE TOLD HER???]

It most certainly isn't Latin. At least...we would not have called it that. But...curious that it's familiar nonetheless.

Could it be some kind of parallel evolution...? [She pulls out another pen and starts writing on the same page.] Here, let me know if this looks familiar to you:

That one's from a poem, I think!

[He does his own furtive squinting and blinks a few times when he pulls back from it.]

You know, it does appear similar to signage in a city I recall. Not as the predominant language, but certainly prominent--a bilingual society, perhaps.

Could we be from... alternate timelines? Parallel worlds? ...I think maybe we need a physicist, this really isn't my field.

I...don't know. I had presumed we might all be from the same world, or same...reality? Different worlds and times... Why else would we all end up in the same place?

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Experiment Log 02: Film Theory [Open]

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