Subject: OT: Translator microbes and their ilk
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Posted on: 2022-05-11 21:39:21 UTC

Your mention of these got me thinking about how nobody has ever played with the question of PPC translators. Jay and Acy mention that there are spells and Universal Translators, and it pretty much stops there. Everyone uses the UT.

But there are so many options - and so many ways for it to go wrong! Universal Translators which fail at Hogwarts. Spells which fail in non-magical canons. Microbes which get caught by Star Trek biofilters. Babelfish which get affected by the disguise generator. TARDIS translation which can't cope with specific languages. I'm sure there are many more.

Unfortunately, the best way to play with this would be to pick one and make it a running thing in a spinoff, rather than try to slam every option into one big story. One possible option would be an agent who refuses any translator - and thus can't understand half of HQ, and has to actually learn the canon Common Speech (unlike everyone else). That could be fun, not as a major thing but just their character bedrock.

hS

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