week 1

[airlockedmods]

Week 1

[After the reveal of their handsome and well-dressed but stern-looking Overseer on Sunday, the Champions were left to their own devices in investigating the mall to their hearts' content. At around 10 pm every night the lights in all the shops will go down and the sturdy metal grates over the doors of the restaurants will go down. The stores will remain unlocked, though.

On Monday morning, a buzzing alarm chirps at them again from their PIPs at 7 am on the dot. There's also a pop-up message waiting for them: a notice announcing Xander will be holding office hours

Enjoy your week, Champions.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Comments

[helladoptera]

[ you have no idea how long i have been waiting to say this: ]

What book?

[ Guess what doesn't fucking exist in Life Is Strange ]

[misanthropicprinciple]

[I cannoT BELIEVE]

Uh, Catcher in the Rye? J. D. Salinger? I remember having to read it in an English class in college, some typical teenage bullshit. The main guy's name was Caulfield, too.

[helladoptera]

Huh. I've... never heard of that one. But cool that I have the same last name as him, I guess. Unless he's an asshole.

[misanthropicprinciple]

He was kind of an asshole. I don't really remember, I think I got annoyed a few chapters in and CliffsNoted the whole thing so I could read comics instead. It was still in English, it still counted.

[helladoptera]

I mean fair enough. [ She laughs a little. ] I did Sparknotes on The Crucible and now I'm rooming with a puritan.

[misanthropicprinciple]

--Oh my god, is that why she talks like that? I thought I was losing my mind. Jesus. My English isn't that good.

[helladoptera]

Yeah no, it's... the way she talks is super old. I barely know what 'dost' means.

[misanthropicprinciple]

I don't even know how the other Japanese people can make heads or tails out of it. There's no way they all majored in English.

[When your bilingualism gets in the way of your damn nanotranslators.]

[helladoptera]

Maybe it's... space stuff?

[ A beat. ]

Wait, have people been speaking Japanese?

[ ARE YALL DUBBED??? ]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Uh, yeah? I switch to Japanese when I talk to Natsuhi and Wakasa. Actually, Heart's Japanese, too, he's from Tokyo.

[Plus Choromatsu et al.]

Wait. Have you been hearing everything as English?

[helladoptera]

Yeah. I mean... everything I've heard, anyway.

[ Covers her eyes with her hand in exasperation. ]

I swear to God, if I'm just shuffling between weird powers now I'm gonna scream.

[misanthropicprinciple]

No, that... I'm sure if other people couldn't understand one another, it would've come up by now. Hang on, what do you hear when I say this?

[There's a shift, though it's hard to put a finger on what, exactly. Something tonal, or there's more information coming through about his level of politeness, or something. It's strange and subtle.]

Hey, do you understand what I'm saying right now?

[helladoptera]

[ That's. Huh. ]

"Hey, do you understand what I'm saying right now?" And you're coming in loud and clear, captain.

[misanthropicprinciple]

In English? Okay, well, this is one of the weirder things I've ever experienced. I, uh, switched to Japanese just then.

[helladoptera]

Weeeell, I'm hearing you in English. So there's... something going on here, for sure.

[misanthropicprinciple]

If it's some kind of power, it's probably one you share with a few others here. Maybe me, too. I haven't even questioned how many people I'm hearing in English, despite their not coming from England or America.

[helladoptera]

Well I'll tell you right now the only language I'm any good at is English. I know... a few words in other languages, but I don't even have a language elective to get a C in right now.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yeah, language education isn't great in the States, right? It's even worse in Japan, even though English is required all the way through high school.

[helladoptera]

It's... they try their best, but school funding is rough these days if you're not a sports program.

[misanthropicprinciple]

America.

[AMERICA.]

...Soooo, what was that about weird powers?

[helladoptera]

America.

[ AMERICA... ]

... what about weird powers?

[misanthropicprinciple]

You mentioned them before. Something about switching out powers, or something?