#plot relevant post | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

travelingreportersam · 5 months

Text

Summary: Sam, Xavier, and Narcissa decide to explore the caves around town to test Sam's theory about underground tunnels. Instead they find a portal that tossed them into a lake. Xavier shows the other 2 the portal leading from the tree to the bar.

@ghostsbrokenbyfairytales @backmaskcd

As he moved closer to the newspaper office, Sam blinked in surprise to see Xavier already there. "You actually came." It was more of a statement than a question

xavier was on his phone looking at whatever was on it that still worked while he waited for sam. he’d gotten there earlier than he needed to be but he wasn’t risking not being able to go. “course i did, told you i was. didn’t want to miss this.” he said putting away his phone in his pocket.

Sam raised a brow at the other. "And you're just doing all this out of curiosity?" What a weird guy. "Anyway," he pulled out the map he'd already marked, showing it to Xavier. "The marked places are potential caves to check out. I took the time to make sure they weren't just shallow inlets. If you weren't lying about knowing the woods well that could come in handy, since we have no clue where any of these tunnels could lead."

“yeah? why else would someone explore if it wasn’t for their own curiosity? and before you say to find an answer, sometimes things don’t have one so.” xavier answered with a shrug and glanced at the map. it was familiar enough and all the x’s were area’s he’d been around at least from what he could recognize. “oh yeah that’ll be easy, over twelves years of not being able to do anything _besides_ exploring when you’re bored makes it easy to navigate around.”

He looked to Xavier and back at the map, brows furrowing in thought. "Do any of these areas particularly familiar to you? Like that you've visited fairly recently?"

xavier looked over the map and pointed to one of the x’s. “that one, never gone in it cause the thought of going in a cave alone always gave me the creeps but i do know where that one’s at.”

Sam nodded, muttering to himself in Korean. Creepy huh? Often people felt the gi of an area without realizing it. That could be the one. "Alright, that'll be the first one we check then. We'll need to be careful on time. Of course there's a real chance of a breakthrough on some of these mysteries and it has to be the middle of winter."

xavier nodded and pulled out his phone once more. “it’s why i got this thing still, alarms still work, already have a couple set for an hour and two hours before sunset usually happens. just in case.” he could set more if he needed to but for now that felt like a good amount of time, depending on where they ended up by then. “so you’re another person trying to solve the mystery of huntsville then? is that how you ended up here or did that happen after you got stuck.”

Good, they were taking this trip seriously enough, something Sam could appreciate. Maybe it wouldn't be a trial in babysitting after all. "Yeah," he admitted as they started walking. "I noticed a large number of missing person cases leading to rural West Virginia and decided it would be my next big story." Sam glanced back over to Xavier. "I'm an investigative journalist. I usually travel as needed."

“must’ve felt shitty finding out you couldn’t leave again then but hey, least you got plenty of time to write your story, ya know, assuming you don’t die and all.” was that morbid to say? probably but xavier learned that it’s easier to be blunt rather than give a false hope. as they walked next to him they glanced to him now too, “so what other stuff have you written about then? anything i’ve missed out on the last twelve years that’s interesting?”

Sam couldn't help the chuckle. At least Xavier didn't beat around the bush. "Well, I'm going to try my best not to die. I at least have to make sure my sister is safe," his expression dropped at that. "Somehow she ended up in this town too. That's the part that feels shitty." Sighing, he shook his head and looked back to the other. "So are you from around here?" He gave a shrug at the questions. "Human trafficking, child soldiers, that sort of thing. Unfortunately nothing new in our world but something that is still important to give voice to."

“completely coincidental or followed you in?” xavier had heard about it a lot that siblings often got stuck here after going to look for the other or even the off chance of it being random. “oh yeah born and raised, never left this town and never got a chance to anyway. i was only fourteen when the storm hit so it’s not like i ever had a chance to leave even if i wanted to.” and that was something he’d come to terms with a long time ago. all his exploration he’d done wasn’t in hopes to find a way out it was mostly to cure his own boredom. “gross to hear things are still the same out there. somehow all those things make the creatures feel human.”

"Coincidental. She'd actually been here for an entire year before it fell on my radar....I...didn't even know she was among the missing." His expression turned solemn, the guilt still eating at him.

A sardonic smile made it across his lips as at Xavier's comment. "You know, I've said something similar before and you may be one of the first people to agree with me. Monsters are everywhere, these ones just don't hide behind a curtain of niceties."

xavier let his own expression soften and put a hand on sams shoulder. “you’d be surprised how many people are here for longer than a year and family _still_ hasn’t noticed they’re missing. it happens. people just assume they’re out living their life it’s not like we can tell them otherwise.” he hoped that would at least ease him a little bit.

they dropped their hand from his shoulder now and looked around them, making sure there wasn’t any hunter traps around since this was the woods. “yeah? surprised more people don’t agree with that considering there’s a murderer too. or murderers, wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more than one with how things have been lately.”

Flashing a sad smile, Sam nodded. He appreciated the attempt, at the very least. At the mention of murder his smile dropped and a sigh escaped him. "I imagine it's easy to get away with murder in a place like this. A friend of mine mentioned that the number of murderers and sociopaths you could run into here is exceptionally high. Can't help wondering if they're drawn to this place somehow."

As the forest came into view, Sam stopped, a thoughtful expression beginning to form. "Hey, do you mind if we take a small detour?" Not really waiting for an answer, he leads Xavier down a road. "I think we should bring my colleague. She would tear me a new one if she found out I didn't include her on the trip." A few minutes later they arrived in front of a residence as Sam knocked on the door.

She hadn't been expecting anyone - so Narcissa naturally assumed it had to be Lonnie or Sam bugging her. All the same, she pulled open the door, trying her best to maintain a stern face. "I'm an extremely busy woman you know - did you pencil this visit in with my secretary?" Spotting Xavier she quickly shook her head. "I'm just teasing Sam - I'm not that important. What's up?"

Sam raised a brow at Narcissa, a small quirk of his lips. "Oh, well if you're too busy then I guess you don't want to come join me, and Xavier" he nods toward the other, "in testing out my tunnel theory." He held up the map to sweeten the deal.

"Well, I do love a premade plan. Just a second - let me grab some stuff." Disappearing for only a couple minutes as she quickly gathered her camera and put on better shoes, she reappeared with a wide grin on her face. "Okay - fill me in."

“oh i can do that!” xavier moved closer with a smile. “xavier by the way, anyway, i was about to go in the crack, he stopped me cause it was just a rope and apparently you guys had gone in it already anyway. bummer. he talked about exploring the caves and i asked to join, he said yes since i know the woods and we’re starting with this one,” they paused to point on the map at one of the x’s, “because i know where this one is. he can fill in the why, i don’t actually know that part or maybe i do i’m in it for the adventure really and my own curiosity!"

As they started walking Sam nodded to Xavier's explanation. There were a couple details he would fill Narcissa on later, but they at least covered the gist of everything. "Considering some of these caves might open back up to some other part of the forest, I figured having someone who's familiar with the woods here would be pretty helpful. As for this particular cave, it was on a list of potential candidates I already scoped out. Xavier mentioned they never get close to that one because of how 'creepy' it is, so that seemed like a good starting point."

Narcissa nodded as they walked, taking in all the information. She was already getting excited; the more people she and Sam had on their side, the better. "Okay - don't love that the cave is creepy, but maybe that means something. I'm glad Sam stumbled upon you, Xavier - sounds like you're well versed in the caves. We're like a Mcgyvered myth busters."

“well i didn’t say the cave was creepy, i said it always gave me the creeps about going in alone. what if it’s got bats? we don’t have anything for bat rabies. cooties? there’s a word for it that i can’t remember.” at least xavier thought that’s what he said, or maybe that meant the cave was creepy he wasn’t sure, he wasn’t great at reading in between lines. “but yeah, guess it was a good thing he did considering i was already feet dangling in a pit. cant dangle in a pit in a cave… most likely.”

He waved a hand at Xavier's clarification. "Eh, semantics. The gi is off and that's all I care about. Also there's no cure for rabies so try not to get bit." Sam sighed at the reminder of how he'd met the other. All he could hope was that during this exhibition Xavier didn't prove to be a liability, even with their useful geographic knowledge.

Narcissa chewed on her lower lip, but nodded a little. "Okay; let's just be careful where we're aiming our flashlights and try not to talk too loud then; I don't want to deal with bats or get one caught in my hair." All the same, the excitement she felt was evident as she all but skipped along. "So you think it'll lead to the crack somewhere?"

xavier shrugged at sam waving him off. “there’s not really a cure for anything here so you’d be shit outta luck anyway but i’m sure there’s none. probably. i make no promises, i can tell you what’s in the woods but that’s about it.” turning to narcissa they pointed at sam, “that’s a him question i’ll zip it now cause i don’t actually know what his whole thought process is.”

Sam frowned, though a small blush coated his cheeks. Narcissa asked for his reasoning so he gave it. So sue him. He shook his head at the question. "I doubt it. We shouldn't be going that deep into the caves today, plus that was mostly just a hypothesis. I could be completely wrong." He glanced back to Narcissa with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we'll keep an eye on time. Xavier even set some alarms. Speaking of," looking back to Xavier as they entered the forest. "Do you know about how far we are from that cave?"

"Alarms are a very smart idea," Narcissa felt relieved at this idea, now that they would have time to protect themselves. "I don't know; I guess it's hard to say since they disappear during the day; but I guess anything is possible here, right?"

“why thank you.” xavier said with a proud smile, he definitely didn’t hear that a lot. “you could also be right, we won’t know until we’re there.” he paused now and took a quick look around to see where they’re at to give an answer. “from here i’d say… maybe a twenty minute walk? possibly thirty, just depends on where the hunters laid traps.”

He gave them both a tight smile. "Let's just hope I'm wrong. All I have in my bag is my camera, a little bit of rope, and a flashlight."

"Well, no matter what we encounter, it'll be a productive first day anyway," narcissa insisted, trying to boost Sam's spirits. "That's not a terrible walk."

“i got my fists and a whoooole lotta gusto.” xavier said with a wide smile. it was mostly to try and keep the spirits up for everyone but mostly himself. “nope not bad at all, i know where a couple of the other caves are on the map but they’re farther out. this one felt like the best option especially if we’re in it longer than we intend to be.”

Sam smiled, appreciating the two's attempts at lightening the mood. He could only hope he wasn't leading them to their deaths. The rest of the walk was fairly uneventful as the cave eventually came into view. Pulling out the flashlight from his bag, he offered it to one of his companions as he sized up the dark mouth. "Well, here goes nothing."

The walk was pleasant enough - and honestly the more time the three spent walking, somehow the more sure Narcissa felt about things. As they approached the cave, she pulled a beanie out of her bag, pulling it down over her ears. "Alright - let's see what's waiting for us."

xavier let narcissa take the flashlight and decided if they really needed to they could use the one on their phone, it wouldn't be great but it'd be something. "i'm following you guys so, after you two."

Looking back to the others, Sam took a steadying breath before walking into the darkness of the cave. He glanced around, keeping his eyes peeled for anything as he followed the natural curve of the rock. Rounding the first curve, Sam was about to say something when suddenly he was blinded by a bright light. Stumbling forward, he let out a startled yelp as his next step met with air instead of solid ground and his body came tumbling forward. Before he could comprehend what was happening, ice cold water enveloped his body. Scrambling to reach what he supposed was the surface, Sam gasped for air, looking around himself wildly. As his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he realized with shock that he was back outside in the forest, treading water in some lake. The cave he was just in was nowhere to be found.

Narcissa crept along behind Sam, not meaning to hold her breath, but it was hard - the excitement and anxiety were vibrating through her bones, and since everyone else was quiet, it was taking everything in her to not talk incessently about all the things they might uncover. However, this didn't last for too long - the bright light and cold water caused Narcissa to scream - though since she was underwater, no one could hear her. Quickly swimming to the surface, she let out a loud gasp, whipping her head aroudn to find her companions. "What the fuck??"

xavier was right, the cave really did give him the creeps and he was half tempted to turn back but having other people around did make it a bit easier. he was quite though, mostly afraid and small noise might do something but he felt like it got eerily quiet and couldn’t see where the two had gone so he continued forward anyway. that was until they felt like they couldn’t breathe anymore, looking around frantically until they looked up to see light so they… swam up? xavier got his head above water with a loud gasp and turned to see sam and narcissa there too who seemed just as confused. “did we just…” he looked down to his feet trying to catch a glimpse of anything off but saw nothing. furrowing his brows he swam to shore and hoped they’d follow behind. “i think i know what just happened to us.”

Following Xavier to the shore, Sam pulled himself up and offered a hand to Narcissa before flopping down to the sandy ground with a shiver. They were going to need a change of clothes ASAP. Looking back at Xavier, his eyes narrowed. "The hell did you mean you think you know what just happened?"

Narcissa followed Xavier, teeth already chattering. This venture had been a bust, and hopefully her camera hadn't been taken out of commission. It wasn't waterproof per se, but it had been through a lot. "Is it a paradox thing?" She managed to stammer out between her chattering teeth. She tried to wring out her hair and clothes as best as she could without taking them off, but it wasn't do much good to dispell the cold.

“well,” xavier had a look on their face like they wanted to admit something but wasn’t quite sure yet but eventually sighed, the longer he stood there the colder they were getting and they needed someplace warm. “i think it’s a paradox thing.. not sure though. i um, im pretty sure that was another portal, as in, i may or may not already know where another one is.” he finally admitted a bit sheepishly.

Sam immediately shot up, eyes widening. "Hold up, there's more of those? Does anyone else know about this?"

"A what?" Narcissa didn't care about how cold she was anymore - her entire focus was fixated on Xavier, excitement, terror and something else bright on her face. "Where's the other one? Where does it lead to?"

“no.” xavier said quickly at sam’s question. he wanted to keep odette out of it as much as possible so she didn’t freak out.. hopefully. “as far as i know there’s one more, it’s a tree. when you crawl through it, it leads you into the basement of the bar. that’s.. all i know but that one you can go back through unlike this one.”

Their reply made it obvious that wasn't true, but Sam wouldn't push the matter. There were more important questions, like "why haven't you told others? This is a massive discovery." He was shaking his head, mind going into overdrive on how he would write this. "Can you show us where the tree is?" Glancing down at himself and his shivering companions, he added "after we get changed."

Narcissa barely even noticed that Xavier was potentially lying - all she cared about was the fact that this was an anomaly that occurred in at least two places. "This is huge - holy shit, Xavier, that's incredible." She wanted to protest that they just go to the tree right then and there, but it would be much smarter to at least change before going. "You've done this before? Go back and forth between this other portal?"

“i uh,” shit he didn’t actually have an explanation as to why he didn’t tell someone, “okay fine. a friend of mine had it happen to them, they’re the ones that originally found it but i promised not to tell anyone because they were freaked out and thought they were going crazy and now im freaking out because i don’t want them involved or their name to be out their because they don’t need that stress and,” xavier took a deep breath in after realizing he was rambling and calmed himself down before continuing, “i just don’t want their name out there so i’m not saying who. that’s for them to say when they’re ready but yeah.. i can show you guys where the tree is.” turning towards narcissa they nodded at her, “multiple times. as far as i know i’ve been the only one to do it, i usually just go back through the vent so i’m not randomly coming out of their basement.”

He gave a nod, experession softening. "I won't add their name to the paper, I promise. You can also stay anonymous if you'd prefer." Standing up, Sam held out a hand to help anyone up that wanted it. "First, let's warm up and then we can take a look at this tree. I might want another look at that cave, but that can wait."

Narcissa easily took Sam's hand, letting out an almost relieved sigh. "Well.... At least we aren't as far away as I thought that meant we were." She admitted, turning to Xavier. "It's okay - I care less about your friend's name and more about investigating these portals - no offense to them, of course, but this is.... incredible. Even if now we're all freezing."

xavier got up on his own and brushed off whatever sand he could that was sticking to his clothes and gave an appreciative smile to sam. “thanks.” glancing towards the water they raised an eyebrow, “this one’s an odd one. i wonder if the other side of the portal is at the bottom of the lake and that’s why we can’t see it. i mean it’d be hard to tell anyway, the one in the basement just looks like a vent you’d never be able to tell if you didn’t know.” looking back at the two now their expression turned sheepish again, “sorry. yeah we should go do we can get changed, it’s too cold for this.”

"You'd think any portal would be odd." He mused with a raised brow. "But I will say it felt like we were thrown in instead of being already inside the lake." He turned back to the water, squinting as he tried to see any sort of difference, a shimmer or something. "Anyway, yeah, let's go. Last thing we need is hypothermia on top of everything else."

Back at Narcissa's apartment Sam paced back and forth in the blanket she's supplied, impatient for their clothes to come out of the dryer. "How exactly did your friend find that tree portal?"

The trip to Narcissa's place felt twice as long this time as the trio were shivering, but Narcissa quickly offered the other two towels and the few bigger pairs of sweatpants she had lying around her place before they got together to try to discuss what the fuck just happened.

"Okay so - portals." She had changed into a different set of clothes, already scrawling shorthand across a notebook. "Two of them - one you can go in and out of, now one that is also in a lake. How did you find the other one, and why did you think this cave would be one?"

xavier was sitting on the couch with the towel wrapped around his shoulders trying to warm up anyway he could. "well with what they told me it was like some alice in wonderland shit, there was a rabbit, they followed it, it went through the tree then so did they and next thing you know they're in the bars basement." taking a quick look at narcissa they shrugged, "i didn't. they're the one that technically did they just showed me. as for the cave i'm not sure, it always just gave me a weird vibe when i'd pass it during my explorations to the point i never wanted to go inside. only went this time because i wasn't going to be alone."

Sam continued pacing in thought, running a hand through his damp hair. "Do you get the same feeling from the tree? That weird, creepy vibe? If there's two in that forest that must mean there's more right?" What if...what if one of them led to outside? He wouldn't voice that thought, the hope it would place too potentially soul crushing. But...it was worth considering. He glanced back to Narcissa, stopping in his tracks. "Maybe we can try asking around, see if anyone else has gotten any weird feelings, canvas potential areas."

"Okay.... okay sure, sure," she was half listening and half taking notes, nodding along as they went - however at Sam's comment, her head popped up. "Look, I'd love it as much as the next person if there was a secret portal out of here, but that seems far more unlikely since literally everything about this town seems to be designed by whatever to keep us in - even transporting us to different spaces inside the paradox. Xavier, do you know how far the bar and the tree are? Like, a ballpark guess?"

"well... kind of? like with the tree it's not as intense but i still get an off vibe, even before they'd pointed it out to me, they basically confirmed it." xavier could never figure out why he got those feelings for specific things but never questioned it and just assumed the town in general probably gave people the similar feeling. "i uh, i don't know how far, if i had to take a guess maybe a half mile to a mile apart? i never paid attention to that actually so i guess that'll be something we take note of when i show you guys."

Glancing down at his watch, Sam nodded, muttering to himself. To the others he said, "our clothes should be dry by now. We should have enough time to check out this tree and snap a few pictures before getting home." He glanced more specifically at Narcissa, "unless there was something in particular you wanted to do."

"No - that sounds good for an initial investigation with the time we have left," Narcissa looked sadly at her video camera, which still hadn't been able to turn on since they got back. "I want to try to get this fixed before we go through the portal, anway. To really document it."

“i know someone who can fix that but he wouldn’t be able to do it in a day. my old roommate cyan, he’s a big tech guy. i can see if he has another camera you can use in the meantime?” it was the closest xavier could offer since he was gonna have to find a way to get his own phone fixed, hopefully. “actually, do either of you still have your phones? could use that to record.”

Sam's cheeks heated as he held up a hand. "Oh, um, actually," he glanced to Narcissa. "For your birthday I planned on fixing your camera. I still can...if you'd like. Uh...surprise?" He also shook his head as he riffled through his bag to pull out his camera. "No need. This puppy is completely water proof. It's been across the world and back and been my partner through it all."

"Well, someone needs to fix it - I'm not too bothered as to who," Narcissa playfully waved them off, an appreciatve flush blooming across her cheeks. "Anyway. Um, no, my phone camera got cracked when Sam and I went into the crack - Lonnie stepped on it. But it's fine, Sam can take the wheel on this one,"

“well in that case we seem set, im gonna put my clothes back on because i’m still freezing.” xavier said with a laugh and disappeared to go do just that. when he came back he sat down again and smiled, “fresh out of the dryer is always the best. i’m ready now whenever you guys are.”

He flashed Narcissa a grin. "Well luckily I could have been a professional photographer in another life, so the prints are in good hands." Sam followed Xavier to get dressed, chuckling lightly in agreement as he pulled on his own clothes. "Alright, let's head out."

Keeping an eye on the sky, Sam asked to Xavier, "how much further are we?" He cursed the fact they were still in the dead of winter. Everything would be so much easier if it was summer and they had ample daylight to spare.

Narcissa was almost jogging to keep up the pace - she wasn't concerned about falling behind, she was concerned about the daylight slipping away from them. "I guess worst comes to worst, we just dive into the portal and spend the night in the bar."

xavier was still walking but started looking around to figure out where exactly they were at. he’d done this so many times at this point he knew the route like the back of his hand. “not much farther away, it’s just past those ones up there.” they pointed to the trees in front of them and chuckled. “funny you say that, i’ve yet to see a creature go into the portal and i’ve tested it before.” it was a stupid test, of course because no one knew he was doing it and it could’ve resulted in negative results. “waited in the vent till the bar closed then just waited in the basement, i kept the vent closed just in case so maybe that was why but,” a pause and a shrug, “just went right back through when daytime came, it was like i was never there.”

Sam blinked, stopping in his tracks as he looked at Xavier in abject horror. "What the fuck dude? That...that might actually be one of the stupidest things I'd ever heard. What would you have done if they *did* go through?" Between them dangling over the crack and now this, Sam was genuinely concerned for the other's well being. Knowing they don't have the time to go into a full tirade of how utterly idiotic Xavier's little test was, he shook his head and continued onward, pulling out his camera in preparation. "We should have enough time to get back," he assured Narcissa. "All we need to do is verify the portal, take a couple pictures of someone halfway through it, and dip."

Narcissa wasn't sure why San was reacting the way he was - she would have done the same thing if she were them. "That's really interesting - maybe the animas know something we don't?" Nodding a little at Sam's direction, she perked up. "Can I be the halfway in person?"

xavier ignored the fact that sam stopped and only started walking backwards instead, "i don't know. die i guess? no risk no reward or whatever that saying is." they shrugged and turned back so they wouldn't trip over any roots. "you can if you want, i've been in it plenty of times. since you want to verify it starts becoming a tight squeeze the closer you get to the bars vent so keep that in mind when you wanna turn around."

Narcissa may have a point. Animals usually caught on to things faster than people, especially when it came to energies. He pinched the bridge of his nose at Xavier's reply. God there was a lot he could say to that, but all he settled for was "that was beyond stupid." Letting go of his nose, he looked to Narcissa with an amused smile. "Sure."

As they came across the tree Sam nodded to it. "You two can go in. I actually want to see what it looks like when someone goes through."

"We all do stupid things, Sam, c'mon," Narcissa pointed. "Rapelling into the crack was stupid, we just do stupid stuff with Lonnie as a lookout." She flashed Xavier a playful look. "He forgets what it's like to be impulsive sometimes, I think."

She examined the tree - it just looked like a normal tree, she didn't even feel any odd vibes. "Perfect - you can just film us like alice following the white rabbit."

“yeah sam, c’mon.” xavier couldn’t help but tease with a grin as they got closer. “well if he sticks around me he’ll remember cause impulsive is my middle name.”

he stared into it for a minute, it still was wild to him how a tree of all things led him to a basement but then again a cave just spit them out into a lake so he’s stopped questioning it. “so pretty much what happened to my friend.” he commented with a chuckle. “you sure you don’t want me to snap the pics sam? i’ve been through this thing plenty of times if you wanted to look for yourself.”

He sighed, shaking his head. Sam would like to argue that they were professionals doing a job, that they had experience and at least some form of a safety net while what Xavier did could have easily been a suicide mission, but it felt like the argument wasn't worth the effort. Not now, when their time outside was limited. "I'd rather be the one to take the pictures if that's alright. Plus now that I know this portal is here I can always come back." Assuming he would be able to find it again." Holding up his camera, he adjusted the focus until it was perfect. "Whenever you're ready."

"Someone has to be responsible," Narcissa grinned widely, but quickly circled aroudn the tree, just getting a good look at it, nodding a little to herself. "Well, it's now or never, right?" Her grin was a little more nervous now, but she gestured for Xavier to lead the way. "Narcissa, and Xavier, signing off. For now."

“yeah that’s perfectly fine, i was just making sure in case you wanted to go in farther.” xavier have a smile and waited while narcissa circled the tree once then nodded before finally stepping into the tree and continued walking forward.

Sam nodded in appreciation, snapping a few pictures of the two, keeping his finger over the button for the right moment.

Narcissa shot a nervous look back at Sam - her face was confident, but her eyes betrayed her actual feelings - before she quickly stepped forward to follow Xavier, taking a deep breath and resisting the urge to close her eyes just in case something bad happened.

“you guys good?” xavier asked as he continued, glancing back only for a moment since he knew they were going to get to a point where the space got smaller.

"Yeah," Narcissa cleared her throat a little as she followed them, face determined. She believed them, of course, but had to see for herself. "I hope we looked cool crawling in here."

xavier held back a laugh. “does anyone ever look cool crawling?” the closer they got to the vent they gave out a warning to sam and narcissa to let them know. “see the vent?” he pointed out and tried to move out of the way as much as he could for them to look.

"Well… probably not." Narcissa admitted. "But a girl can dream." She squinted to where Xavier was pointing since the lighting wasn't the best. "Oh - yeah!! And it's just loose for us to push?"

“yeah pretty much, you just gotta use a little force behind it but that’s it.” xavier said with a slight nod. “i’d show you but i don’t know if anyone’s in the basement right now, i cant tell.”

Narcissa was disappointed, but understood. "Right - well. This just means we need to come back another time to FULLY investigate."

#plot relevant post #musing #self para #but not really #ft. xavier #ft. narcissa #ghostsbrokenbyfairytales #backmaskcd

7 notes · View notes

project-sekai-facts · 5 months

Note

How are we feeling about ensekai’s emu3 translation!!! (I’m mad)

(if you remember the 3 whole posts i made when asahi got de-gayed on EN you'll know i am mad too and that this is probably going to get long)

i don't like to be too cynical but it was so obvious that they were going to change that line, i had a feeling since the event first released on JP and after the incident with Asahi where I went through and tracked down multiple other examples of EN removing queer subtext it became clear to me that in no way shape or form was "emu-chan really loves nene-chan" making it to EN without getting changed. what i didn't expect was them changing Nene's line after Luka's comment, which actually makes this whole situation far worse than many of their other instances of toning down queer subtext.

for anyone who isn't aware of what happened, in chapter 5 of the current Emu event, there's a scene where Nene, Rui and the Virtual Singers are talking about what would cheer Emu up. The vsingers all talk about how much Emu loves spending time with Nene, leading to the following exchange

If you look for them, any fan TL of this scene will be something similar to this:

Luka: ...Fufu. Emu-chan really loves Nene-chan, doesn't she? Nene: Th-that's nothing special...

EN's official translation is this:

So what's the issue? I'll start with Luka's part. In the original text, she uses the word daisuki, which can mean to "like a lot" or "love". It's a word you will see frequently in the idol/idol-adjacent genre of games, due to its ambiguity in that it can be read as either platonic or romantic when used towards a person, and often will be used in ambiguous situations so that it's harder to confirm the writers' intentions either way. so here, fans of the emu/nene ship could view the fact that emu loves spending her time with nene as more on the romantic side, but people who don't like the ship could view it as platonic and move on.

while they didn't translate daisuki directly, Luka's line still works, and still contains the ambiguity that works as ship tease in the original text. it's a perfectly fine localisation that still conveys the original intent. despite that, there is something to be said about EN's consistent refusal to translate daisuki as love in most instances when it's not used on An/Kohane (but then again, EN has literally teased An/Kohane on their twitter account so is it all that surprising?).

Here's some examples:

Aibou no koto ga daisuki de / he loves his partner -> he cares about his partner very much (The Power of Unity chapter 7 when Kaito is comparing Arata to Akito and Toya)

HARUKA-CHAN, DAISUKI DAYOOOO!!! / HARUKA-CHAN, I LOOOOOVEEE YOU!!! -> You're the best!!! (Dear Me, As I Was Back Then chapter 4 when minori is at an ASRUN concert. this one isn't actually that great of a localisation)

Honachan no koto daisuki dakara. Kore de iinda yo. / I love Honachan, so this is fine. -> I want what's best for her. And this is it. (Leo/need main story chapter 14 after Saki tells Honami she won't bother her anymore)

Minna daisuki de - taisetsuna tomodachi na no / I love them all - they're my dearest friends -> They're all amazing, and very dear to me. (Leo/need main story chapter 17. this isn't good either)

What's particularly amusing about that last one is that there's a second official translation for it that I assume was done by JP staff (since EN never promoted doing the Journey to Bloom subs like they did back when they provided subs for Petit SEKAI) that actually keeps the word daisuki as love.

Yeah. I love all my friends - and they mean the world to me.

It's a better localisation than the official EN team one.

Questionable localisation choices aside, Luka's line is fine and is actually in line with the original. The issue with this localisation very much lies with Nene's part, because that is an entirely new line.

In the original text, Nene's "that's just normal" or "that's nothing special" or however you choose to TL it, is meant to be her questioning Luka's statement, since all the things that the other vsingers said that Emu liked were pretty normal things like going shopping and playing video games with nene. To Nene, these things are normal activities for them to do together, so she gets embarrassed by the fact that Luka concludes from that information that Emu loves Nene. When I dissect it like that I think you can really tell what the writers were going for here lol.

"That's just us being friends" does still convey the idea that Nene thinks these activities aren't anything out of the ordinary and she isn't sure why the vsingers are picking these out as some of Emu's favorite things to do, but it's very different from the original line. "But those are just normal things we do together" is something I just came up with on the spot, but it's a lot closer to the original text and still conveys the same meaning. The fact they changed the line to "that's just us being friends" is, honestly, not even subtle that they're covering up queer subtext. The original scene was very clearly written in as ship tease, and EN mentioning "friends" for no reason, especially since the word nor anything close to it was not used in the original, is instantly a red flag because it's like the go-to for queerbaiting and censorship. This was intentional. There was no need for them to specify that the relationship is platonic, Luka's part is ambiguous for a reason so that fans can view it how they like.

Just to top all this off, here's Rin's original line just before that Luka+Nene interaction:

Oh, and! And! She said that playing games with Nene-chan is also super fun!

And here's Rin's line from the official EN translation:

That's not the same thing, but even more weirdly, the incorrect part (super fun->really loves) is a correct translation for the part changed in Luka's line. So, they can do it, they are willing to say "really loves", just not in the right places. Maybe because Rin's part is less personal than Luka's part? It's strange actually, this isn't the first time they've done this either. Off the top of my head I can think of an example from Shiho's Varied Kindness 2* story where they translated the word "suki" as really loves, despite that being much stronger than the original word used (and the fact that daisuki is used a lot in the Leo/need stories and it's incredibly rare if not entirely unknown for them to translate it correctly).

It's not subtle that they're trying to remove implications of the characters possibly being queer, they did it in curtain call and they did it in walk on and on, and multiple times before then too. And considering some of the content in this year's events and the amount of times they say daisuki alone, it's gonna keep happening. honestly i hate the fact that i keep trying to justify the translations in these posts. these translations are intentional. what happened in the curtain call translation back in october says enough. when a character who uses explicitly romantic language towards another guy passes as a straight character in the translation you know they're doing it on purpose.

oh and once again, it's only the EN server that has this issue. The scene in question was translated almost word-for-word on the TW and KR servers.

read fan translations. they're better than what EN gives us and people put a lot of effort into them.

#since the EN translation qualifies as a leak i am scheduling this to post when the event drops #asks #mod talks #i'm going to leave this in the tags because i don't want to make the post any longer #but something that's been really annoying to see recently on twt has been the gradual uptick of players saying that there's no queer #characters/subtext/etc in the game outside mizuki being trans. and i do wonder if EN's consistent habit of toning down #or outright removing moments of heavy subtext and other more ambiguous shiptease moments has anything to do with it.#that or people live under a rock because even EN keeps most of An and Kohane's relationship intact and there's still plenty of #moments that were impossible to edit or tone down due to being plot relevant or being part of longer interactions that wouldn't make sense #if part of it was changed. like the An wedding event.#eh maybe people are just ignorant.#but anyway it does bug me immensely that EN-only players are getting a censored version of the game. it's 2024. staff can do better.#also like i mentioned in the part about rin. they /add in/ things occasionally. so why the hell are they removing so much?

366 notes · View notes