i_speak_softly | Fifteenth Theory [Written/Voice]

[He's ignoring that whole other part about being bored.]

I know him; we arrived at nearly the same time. I haven't seen him in some time.

Do you know if he's all right? Where was he living?

[Huh, come to think of it...]

I don't know. We've only met a couple times.

Someone just told me he's been kidnapped.

If you see him, when he comes back - will you let me know?

Ah. All right, then. I'll do that, if you tell me who's asking.

My name is Donatello. I met Aros once when he was new here.

Hitsugaya.

I'll keep my eyes open.

What does that symbol mean?

[Smile.] It means that the world is wonderful, at every scale.

Oh. [Takato smiles softly.] That's a good way to think.

I'm sorry, I'm afraid I haven't heard from a man named Aros either.

Did you know him?

No, I didn't. If he's still around, though, I may still meet him. It's never too late for new encounters.

Is he a friend of yours?

Sort of. We only met once, but we had a lot in common.

Ah, such is the basis of a good friendship.

That symbol you drew, it's very interesting. Does it have a particular meaning?

It's a fractal. An image created by an iterative function. It means that, even in a small space, there are beautiful things to be found.

Not only beautiful, but great in number as well.

Exactly. [Smile. A like mind!] What's your name?

Gelda Nebilim. I'm one of the teachers at the school here in Luceti. And you are?

Donatello Hamato. Student of the multiverse.

[She chuckles briefly.] It's a pleasure to meet you, Donatello.

Likewise, Miss Nebilim. Do you teach any subject in particular?

Oh, I teach a bit of everything. There are only few teachers at the school, but many different subjects and skill levels.

That must be fascinating. Getting to work in so many areas...

It is fascinating. The students aren't the only ones learning something new every day.

[Laugh.] I'm sure. My brothers and I were a constant education to our father.

Is that so? What sort of person was your father?

...

Wise. Patient. Loving. Insightful. Everything.

Mm... That sounds like a perfect description for a father. You must miss him.

I do.

He's - he's not a was, though. He's an is.

Ahhh, I see. In that case, I hope you'll be reunited with him soon. In your home world, not this one.

Thanks, Miss Nebilim.

What about you? Who did you leave behind? ... If you don't mind my asking.

Just my students, I suppose. Though, three of them are in Luceti as we speak, the fourth having left this place recently.

Then you were a teacher in your own world too?

Yes, I was. I had my own private school.

[Cautiously, not meaning any disrespect:] A whole school with only four students?

[The last private school he heard about had five hundred students.]

Oh, no, you misunderstand. There were more than four students. Though, these four... They were always the odd ones out, so to speak. It was rare to find a time when they weren't together.

Oh, I see. Four special students. [His other thoughts on the subject are firmly buried under the lid of Things You Don't Say to Teachers.]

[Now now, they weren't troublemakers. They weren't mentally challenged, either.]

Two of them were young prodigies. I should count myself lucky that I was given a chance to teach them.

[... That was not at all one of the things he was thinking.]

Can... can I ask you a question, Miss Nebilim? As a teacher, which kind of student is more satisfying to work with? The kind who needs a lot of help to achieve a little, or the kind who needs a little help to achieve a lot?

Ahh, an interesting question. If a student only requires a bit of help to achieve a lot, there wouldn't be much of a challenge in it for me, now would there? A teacher's job is to guide a student and impart as much knowledge as possible on them. I suppose the kind who needs more help is most satisfying, to me.

[But the kind who needs less help goes so much further in the end...]

Thank you, Professor.

[Oh Donatello. It's not about how far the student goes. It's about whether they ultimately achieve what makes them happy.]

You're welcome, Donatello.

I've spoken with Aros once. He was taken by the Malnosso roughly a week ago.

Are you lying to me, Jay?

I've no reason to lie.

[And because he's feeling extra generous, he'll even give you the recording (http://prohacker30115.livejournal.com/1628.html). Lying is not something he does, Donnie.]

[... Well, that does sound like Aros being taken by the Malnosso.]

I'm sorry. Thank you.

[Is that an apology?? Wonders never cease. But none of that now. His work is done here.]

You're welcome.

Thirteen.

... Aros is only thirteen?

Huh? No. I don't know an Aros.

I was just counting how many times the triple-triangle thing showed up. Or alternatively, how many upside down triangles there are.

Er... no. Thirteen is only the right answer at the lowest level of analysis.

I didn't feel like counting all of the different triangles. I just found that one particular shape interesting.

[Broad smile.] Thirteen is the right answer, then.

I've heard thirteen isn't a lucky number, though. [And hey, he can prove it! That's how old he was when his dad left for war.]

I don't know, it's a prime and it's in the Fibonacci sequence. That makes it a pretty good number in my book.

[Okay he doesn't know what either of those are, having not studied math yet. But... he'll get there.]

I'm not the superstitious type anyway.

It's not superstition, it's math! There really is magic in numbers.

I meant the part about the bad luck.

But there's no mathematical correlation between triskaidekeia and ill fortune...

I think you're kind of missing the point here.

I think I've been missing your point since the beginning of this conversation.

I'm starting to think there never was one.

Is this a zero-dimensional conversation, then?

Mostly just amusing banter, actually.

That's one way to avoid boredom.

Hey, you spend days at a time on the back of a flying bison, you find ways to pass the time.

[Aaaaaaaaand the conversation suddenly veers off in a totally unexpected direction.]

A flying bison?

Yup. It's exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.

[Don is now busy trying to calculate the necessary wingspan to get a two-thousand-pound quadruped airborne.]

[After a long enough silence...]

It's magic. Or airbending. Whatever.

[... That's so much less interesting.]

It's a matter of how you look at things.

How do you look at things, Atsuki?

People interest me more than the world itself, I confess. Unless people count as part of the world.

Of course people are part of the world. One of the most interesting parts, I think.

In that case, I agree with you.

...What's that symbol? [He miiiight be sounding suspicious here.]

It's called Sierpinski's Triangle. Isn't it fascinating?

((Find the infinite fractal pieces of the Triforce, Link! XD ))

I - yeah. I've seen something sort of like it... what does it mean?

It means that chaos is deterministic. I drew this shorthand, by drawing an upside-down triangle in every right-side-up triangle, but the figure can also be formed by starting from any point inside the first triangle, moving halfway to any vertex, and repeating infinitely. There are other ways too. It's a fascinating insight into the universe.

Where have you seen it?

...Oh. [Yeah, a lot of those words just went straight over his head. They didn't really cover how chaos was deterministic in the forest.]

[Come to think of it, he's not really sure what 'deterministic' means.]

There's a symbol like that where I'm from... it looks like this.

[There's a rough drawing of a Triforce, with the three pieces shaded in.]

It was just a bit weird seeing it somewhere else.

Ah, a first iteration. [Resisting urge to explain further.] What does it mean in your world?

It's a... symbol of the Goddesses, I guess.

[As he speaks, he adds to the drawing, adding in arrows and the names of the Goddesses.]

This one is for the Goddess of Power, Din. That one's for the Goddess of Wisdom, Nayru, and this one is for the Goddess of Courage, Farore. And they can be broken into three - the Triforce of Courage, like that.

[He sounds a bit self-conscious.] Hyrule does a lot of things in threes.

Three has many interesting properties. It's not surprising that people adopt it as an auspicious number. My world also has a major religion involving a three-aspect deity.

Huh... we do threes and sixes, mostly. There's three Goddesses, three pieces of the Triforce, three Spiritual Stones... six main races, six elements, six transportation songs, stuff like that. And the sixes are sorta divided into threes, as well... the Kokiri, Gorons, and Zoras have the physical elements, and the Hylians, Sheikah, and Gerudo have the... the not-physical ones.

[Sheepishly:] I forgot the word Navi used for them. She told me all that stuff.

What's interesting about threes?

Do you know that three is the largest number your average sentient creature can count without actually counting? Also, it takes three instances for that average mind to confirm a pattern. So, to the intelligent races, two is not enough to be sure and four is too many to keep track. Hence, three.

I didn't know that! That's kinda cool. I didn't learn much about numbers in Hyrule... just how to add them and take them away. That's all I ever needed.

[His mathematical education ended at addition and subtraction? How sad...] What's your - line of work?

Well, ah... hero, I guess. But I grew up in the forest... we didn't need to learn a lot of numbers. So I'm not really good at them, now. [He definitely sounds a bit sheepish.]

I grew up in the sewer. I learned numbers because... because I could.

Did you - not have a chance to learn anymore?

In a sewer? [He, uh... sounds more fascinated than grossed out.]

Guess not... I was sorta... busy, ever since I left the forest. [A thoughtful pause.] Maybe I could go to that school? I didn't really think about it before... my writing's not too good, either.

It's kind of a long story.

I see... I've met some of the teachers. I'm sure they'd be glad to help you. -- I mean, if you wanted help.

That might be okay, I think... though, aren't schools for kids? I l-- I mean, I'm... eighteen, now.

I don't know about school, but education is for everyone. The teachers might be willing to tutor you privately, if, you know...

Heh... I think I've got lots to catch up on.

...Could you teach me about numbers?

Wh- me? I - I'm not really a teacher, but I could try...

[As if he didn't more or less teach math to all his brothers. He'd love to, really.]

Well, you just seem to know lots about it... thanks.

What's your name? I'm Link.

((OOC: Sorry about the slowness! Assignments, augh.))

Donatello. Do you want to meet at the library tomorrow, Link?

(('Sokay! I guess real assignments have to come before fake math lessons...))

Umm... [He sounds awfully hesitant.] Can it maybe... wait a bit? My friend got captured... the Malnosso... I've gotta wait until he gets back so I can help take care of him.

But after that is fine!

Oh, I'm sorry... I know some things about medicine, too, if your friend needs help.

I don't know what he'll be like, when he gets back... someone told me that sometimes people are fine, sometimes they're... not, really.

Sometimes they're very not. I hope it won't go that way for you.

...He better be okay when he's back. Otherwise...

[Otherwise... well. What can he do?]

Hmmmm... there's always new things to see, do and explore after all! But what do all the triangles mean?

The triangles mean exactly what you just said. It's all a matter of looking more closely.

Oh! Appreciating the little things in life and the like! I like it.

Yes. There's always something new to find. [Smile. Smart girl.] I'm Donatello.

And if something bad comes along, there's usually a silver lining in there somewhere too.

I'm Selphie!

One can hope.

It's nice to meet you, Selphie. [He really means it.]

You just have to look for it.

It's nice to meet you too. How's your playground coming?

Oh - very well! Are you planning to come to the construction party?

That's good to hear!

I didn't know you were having a party.

Maybe 'party' is the wrong word. It's mostly going to be work, but - I hope it can be fun too.

[Selphie giggles.]

Work can definitely be fun! But it does depend on what you're doing sometimes as well.

Like paperwork. Paperwork is never fun.

And who you're doing it with.

Paperwork? Is that like origami?

For sure!

You don't ever wanna do paperwork. It's evil!

But I don't even know what it is... [Anything he doesn't know about yet is automatically interesting.]

Paperwork... oh man, I never thought I'd be explaining paperwork but here goes!

Well... paperwork where I come from is pretty much filling out a bunch of reports about how well a mission we just completed was executed and each person from the mission has to submit one. There's forms to fill out and other things too.

Oh! Right. I've heard of that. I thought you meant something else.

Isn't it important to do, though? Lab write-ups aren't the most fun part of doing an experiment, but it's how you share your results with the scientific community.

Nope! Not at all.

It is but... I don't like doing it at all!

What do you do in your world, Selphie? What kind of missions?

I do a lot of things! Some of them aren't very pleasant though...

I'm a mercenary in an organization called SeeD. As for the missions, they vary from the liberation of towns to escorting Sorceresses!

That does sound more interesting than paperwork.

Way better than paperwork.

I was always bad at these triangle things. 51?

Tch. People always come and go so quickly around here?

No. Count again.

... Isn't that from a movie?

... 52?

What?

... Slightly closer.

I don't know, it sounded familiar.

Hm. No idea.

Oh. I didn't realize I was quoting something.

There are infinitely many triangles.

Oh. I could be wrong.

Oh. Right. Damn triangles.

Now I feel like I should be.

It's not only the triangles, it's also the squares, the points, and the loops! ... I mean, if I drew those figures.

I don't think I know any pop-culture quotes about triangles.

... Right. Infinite universe, always expanding. That whole deal.

The only quote I've got is about the Florian Triangle.... Come to think of it, I think that is the quote I already accidentally used.

It doesn't even have to be expanding! Any part of the universe is infinite in itself.

Um... I don't think I know that one. How does it go?

Hm. I guess so. Like the whole mirror facing mirrors thing.

"Do people always come and go so quickly around here?" Uh literally. The Florian Triangle is an area of ocean on the Grand Line that's completely dark. Pirates and other sailors regularly disappear never to be seen or heard from again and there's a lot of currents that when properly navigated take you out faster than just typical sailing.

Sort of like that.

Oh, that sounds like the Bermuda Triangle in my world. A lot of ships and aircraft disappear there. Strange currents, allegedly. ... I never heard of an area of ocean that's dark, though. Not counting the polar circles, I mean.

Aircraft??

Well the Grand Line is a really strange place. The Enies Lobby island is in perpetual sunlight. There's no night there.

Um... never mind.

You have flying ships?

... Something like that.

Huh. Your world sounds pretty interesting.

[Smile.] Aren't all worlds interesting?

Yeah probably.

Oho~

That was my reaction the first time, too.

It has a logarithm of log(3)/log(2) ≈ 1.585.

That's one thing you could say about it.

((I'm assuming this is true...? Mun never got that far in math.))

What else would you say about it?

(( This mun can only do stats for beans and runs away from any other type of math crying. However Neuro's very smart. Me I just wiki'ed it >.>. Cool stuff tho.))

I like to say that it's an attractive rep-tile! [Uproarious laughter.]

((This mun drew the above figure many times in her one and only college math class. ... And approves of wiki'ing things.))

...what? [He doesn't get humor as is, so no way was he going to get this!]

((Hahah! Wiki for the win <3))

[... It's not funny if the other person doesn't laugh.] Um... it's 'attractive' in the sense that other figures converge on it. And it's a repeating tile arrangement. Rep-tile. It's an attractive -

Never mind.

[Or maybe it's only funny if you're a reptile yourself.]

I see. [No he doesn't. Poor demon is completely lost.]

Sorry. It wasn't really that funny.

I apologize if I do not seem interested in marveling at the environment inside this damnable prison...

[Crud. He knew he should have filtered.]

Just because we're here as part of the Malnosso's experiment, doesn't mean that we can't learn things also. We might find something that could help us escape.

I have learned all I need to. As long as this barrier is intact, escape is not an option. Unless something drastic happens, the barrier is not moving. As such, my energies can be better spent on meditation, focusing my powers, and one day breaking through the barrier.

Alone if necessary.

Fifteenth Theory [Written/Voice]

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