Crackplot!
Nita is sitting cross-legged on the floor of the main room, with her book open in front of her, deep in concentration.
Whatever makes the Mansion work, whatever brings people here and keeps them here, whatever regulates the plothole and other such wonders, must make sense on some level. And Nita is prodding, very gingerly, at the fabric of reality in an effort to find where that level is. It is, if anything, more tricky than meddling with the hearts of worlds, but very gradually, she's getting an idea.
Until she pokes the wrong thing.
"Shit--!" Nita yelps, quite uncharacteristically, and flails at the air. "Oh, no, oh no no no, crap, dammit--"
What Nita has inadvertently done is break the Universal Translator, in such a way that not only are you no longer able to understand everyone, but you are yourself limited to your first language; those learned later in life are temporarily knocked clean out of your head. This applies to all forms of verbal communication, so writing notes won't work; we're stuck with sign language and mutual intelligibility. The effect covers all regularly settled areas of DF-land -- puppets who happen to be off wandering in the deep forest, or some such thing, may be immune -- and will last several days.
Whatever makes the Mansion work, whatever brings people here and keeps them here, whatever regulates the plothole and other such wonders, must make sense on some level. And Nita is prodding, very gingerly, at the fabric of reality in an effort to find where that level is. It is, if anything, more tricky than meddling with the hearts of worlds, but very gradually, she's getting an idea.
Until she pokes the wrong thing.
"Shit--!" Nita yelps, quite uncharacteristically, and flails at the air. "Oh, no, oh no no no, crap, dammit--"
What Nita has inadvertently done is break the Universal Translator, in such a way that not only are you no longer able to understand everyone, but you are yourself limited to your first language; those learned later in life are temporarily knocked clean out of your head. This applies to all forms of verbal communication, so writing notes won't work; we're stuck with sign language and mutual intelligibility. The effect covers all regularly settled areas of DF-land -- puppets who happen to be off wandering in the deep forest, or some such thing, may be immune -- and will last several days.