Last Updated:
2021-07-28 07:00:07
MokouFriedChickenCare to give me Gems? It helps my motivation to do better. To those wishing to contact me, kindly do so in my Discord. I accept private messages. My server's a bit dead at the moment, but feel free to join anyway: discord.gg/NZA6Jun Conversely, follow me on Twitter @FriedMokou.
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The Least Common Denominator LXXIII.I Z Axis
Traveling... Oh, how I loved to travel. Well, assuming that I wasn't in charge of driving. And even then, it was simply a joy to just sit back, relax, and absorb the new sights and experiences. Soaking in on something new and novel will always be a guilty pleasure of mine. Whenever I skipped class, I'd just wander around the city walking around like a fucking tourist. If I was feeling extra wasteful, I'd board a bus and go to the next city over for shits and giggles. From there I'd either go arcade hopping or just find a bench in the nearby park and sit there thinking about how I was wasting my time and money being a stubborn idiot that's too afraid to even go to her own classes.Hehe... Heh.... Fuck, I just bummed myself out with that despite it already happening literally over two decades ago."So, we know our respective roles, yeah?"Our return
The Least Common Denominator LXXIII.II Z Axis
God help us...Taking my seat in front of the steering wheel, the wave of nostalgia that instantly washed over me felt far too sticky for me to shrug off. I haven't even driven for that long back in the old world. Having just gotten my driver's license before I croaked, my second-hand pickup truck probably didn't even manage to break five hundred kilometers in mileage. And yet, the feeling of having the power of an engine in my grasp still gave me a generous dose of adrenaline. There were no gas and brake pedals under my feet, unfortunately, but the feel of it all was something that I never thought I would feel a general sense of longing for.For fuck's sake... I feel like an old woman...My ears perked as the rest of my companions started filtering in. The various weights that they added to the vehicle made me shift a bit in my seat. A part of me
The Least Common Denominator LXXIII.III Z Axis
So far so good...The rugged feel of snow in the road transferred its crunchy texture straight onto the steering wheel as I cautiously guided us through the forest. With Lace giving me directions every so often, the travel away from our base had been smooth sailing so far. However, I just knew that problems would start popping up the longer we embarked on this journey. After all, despite everything that we've done to salvage the APC, it was, and will always be a prototype that almost shat itself from simply trying to run faster than forty kilometers per hour."How's the engine?!""It's fine, Sis!" Livia practically grumbled out amidst the roaring screams of the vehicle's mechanical heart. "Don't worry! I can handle this, just focus on driving!"I chuckled to myself as I turned my attention back on the road. I heard the
The Least Common Denominator LXXIII.IV Z Axis
The scandalous look of disbelief on Lace's face almost made me want to howl out in laughter. The shock, the fear; the utter look of horror that colored my co-driver's face made me both disgusted and elated at the same time. The sadistic part in me relished the emotions in display, while the masochistic side savored the self-inflicted damage I rent into my soul from the mere fact that I was even acknowledging the fact. I was so fucked... "I'm a horrible person. Huh, Lace..." I chuckled out. "Also, keep your eyes on the road, yeah?" I placed a hand on her stiff shoulder. She was struggling to barely keep still in her seat; her eyes flitting wildly between me and the path ahead as beads of sweat rolled down her cheek. The best part of it was that it wasn't even that hot due to the open hatch. These were cold sweats!
The Least Common Denominator LXXIV.I Photon Density
The fear of darkness was something inherent in the deepest darkest recesses of humanity. Despite all of the innovations made to stave it off, the fact that night and day still felt wholly different will never truly go away even if we somehow found a planet with perpetual daylight. Perhaps it would go away after a few generations living in a permanently lit area, but Nyctophobia will always be that ever-present specter in the back of every human being's minds for the rest of the unforeseeable future. Then again, this was me just waxing poetic again just to avoid confronting the fact that I somehow forgot to make a lighting solution for what was supposed to be a nonstop driving trip back to the capital. "What's wrong, Sis? Why'd we stop?" The APC had screeched to a halt as Livia killed the engine. What was once
The Least Common Denominator LXXIV.II Photon Density
Right. It's my turn to drive. With everything ready to rock and roll, I assumed my seat in front of the steering wheel as the engine raged behind me. A few seconds later, Love illuminated the way from where she stood outside. I could only assume that she was directly channeling her Essence to light our path, but for all I knew, maybe she was using her bow or arrows to lighten up the Essence drain a bit. God knows that doing Elementalism raw without runes to channel it wasn't good for any Num's reserves. Cracking my neck in anticipation, I flexed my back as I gripped the wheel with newfound purpose. My earlier meltdown wasn't going anywhere. Hell, my conversation with Lace wasn't even done yet, but I feel like I can keep going like this without any problems. "Let's get going, Livia!" "Got you, Sis!"
The Least Common Denominator LXXIV.III Photon Density
The roaring engine in the background made for a rather interesting backdrop as I made sure to keep my eyes on the road while Lace and I had another session of our heart-to-heart. Well, technically it was going to be her trying to break down my walls, but in all honesty, my walls already had a ton of holes in them that I didn't really bother covering up. It'll be laughably easy for her to poke straight through my defenses if she knew my buttons, and I wouldn't even mind it. The vehicle rumbled across rocks and snow as I let out a small breath. Lace was probably already bracing herself for something that will never come. I wasn't one to really go straight for the jugular, especially if I didn't really want it done to me in the first place. At best, I'll try to poke holes in her argument and that's that. I'm sure she won't get too offended by vagueness and cold reads. Meanwhile, I was an open
The Least Common Denominator LXXIV.IV Photon Density
"You did say earlier that you had your own baggage," I teasingly taunted the older woman. "Might as well share with it with the group, seeing as you already know a lot of mine." It was kind of scummy to use such an argument to force Lace to bare her soul like this, now that I thought about it. I was essentially guilt-tripping her to confess anything and everything she feared and worried about, and it wasn't even in the confidence of just me and her. We have Livia present now, and it was surely liable to mess up the chemistry somehow, seeing as Livia did hate Lace. I didn't know if she still hates her now, but it was sure to pop up in discussion sooner or later. "You're playing dirty, Leader," Lace nervously chuckled. "We weren't even finished with your own." "Times change," I shrugged in amusement. "Besides, isn't this bet
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- The Least Common Denominator
CV.V Cotangent
I don't even know what's happening anymore..."Huh... That looks far too complex even for you, Crimson," Phillipe snarked at my work. Technically Anne's as well, to be honest. "A square rune with that many parts? I don't think that'll work out in the long run.""You and me both," I rolled my eyes with the sarcasm of an overflowing dam. "Seriously, why are you here?""You're being annoying."I raised an eyebrow at the blunt delivery of his oh-so-important announcement. Giving him the best sarcastic inquisitive eyes I could muster, I let out a scoff as I began whatever this talk was going to end up as.'Right behind you there.'You always are, Ica. "And?"Phillipe smirked at me as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, "You're wasting
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.IV Cotangent
"Let's go crazy..."With a borderline manic whisper, I let my imagination cut loose as my hand moved on its own. Traps within traps, earthen sigils meant to sprout at a moment's notice, the world was my oyster as the goodies slowly accumulated with each stroke of my charcoal.'Don't get too carried away, Master.'I know. I'm not dumb enough to overload the thing before it even came to fruition.And that was the biggest risk to such a massive array as well. With so many moving parts, any wrong line or overlapping rune will pretty much make the whole thing explode. I couldn't stress it enough, even to myself. Do not make this thing more complicated than it already is.'And yet here you are having fun with it.'Don't test me, Ica. Or maybe I'll just assert me being
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.III Cotangent
Fiiiineee... You win, my precious Ica.The stuttering that ensued at the back of my head was like a soothing tune as I looked over my work. The communication arrays were gonna stay, as would the Essence storage runes at strategic parts of the palace grounds. Hmmm.... Wouldn't the communication arrays be two-way anyway? So why even bother with surveillance runes like last time?My hand moved to remove the minor additions I added on the dirt parts of the grounds, leaving me with more space to work with in terms of... well... anything, really. What kind of runes would even work on shaky ground? Dirt couldn't hold anything beyond the basic types of runic arrays. Anything more complex than a three-layered circuit would blow up instantly from the strain. I could maybe run- wait... why not just do that?The charcoal streaked across the outskirts of the pa
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.II Cotangent
*ruummbbllee...*The sound of a sputtering engine echoed from behind me as I drew up yet another set of circles on the board. While I kind of put the general purpose of the massive multi-circuit array at the back of my head, I really should try and solidify that stuff properly before making the main control array, shouldn't I...'Good thing you remembered that, Master.'I grumbled through the dull pain I was feeling at my knees as I focused myself back on the doodle that was supposed to be a defense system for the palace grounds. It was far too small of a circle, now that I thought about it. The size of the drawing did little to help me ascertain the types of circuits that I drew on it in the first place. Squinting even further, it felt as if I was reading my own handwriting from how jumbled and nonsensical it all looked with hindsight.
- The Least Common Denominator
CV.I Cotangent
Plans upon plans upon plans. I feel like I'm repeating myself whenever I say that I'm obsessed about things going right, and if not, to have plans to be able to properly react to the failure. Fool-proofing something small was easy. Doing it again for something on the scale of a war, however, was a completely different beast. The number of variables at play, hundreds to even thousands of moving parts to look over and take into account. The time, the weather, morale, even individuals that might have other ideas and could stray from the plans put into place... It was so much to think about that hours or even days of pouring over the relevant information wouldn't be enough to take everything into account into one's plans. And even if you think you somehow managed to achieve this impossibility, there will always be something so monumentally out of left field that could just absolutely destroy any and all plans along with its sub plans and
- The Least Common Denominator
Interlude XXXIX: Grigori
GRIGORI⬛⬛⬛*RRRRRUUUMMBBLLEEEE!!!! RRRRUUMMBBLEEEE!!!*"What's wrong, Lord Stone?! Finally getting tired in your old age?!"Grigori grumbled in annoyance as he found himself standing his ground in his self-made fortress. Truth be told, the former Prime expected his fight to be over over ten minutes ago. However, he severely underestimated his enemies' hidden tenacity and downright stubbornness."I'm just getting started, kid!" he boisterously replied. "I'm far from being done!"Still, even as he said those words, Grigori was beginning to feel more tired than he initially expected. His reserves were starting to run dry from the constant back and forth that the combined forces of Lords Breeze and Inferno were throwing at him. And that's not to mention the current
- The Least Common Denominator
CIV.IV Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛"So Lord Iron truly took care of the problem?"Olivia held her breath as she found herself taking in the state that the young Num was just found in. Broken, battered, and bleeding all over, Tesla had clearly taken a beating of a lifetime as her head lolled in her unconscious state, her face marred with cuts and bruises as her white hair was stained brown with dried blood."Damn... I guess the ranking in the Prime Thirteen's not a joke, huh...""Lord Iron's the Sixth, after all. Lady Static's the Thirteenth...""Fuck..." Olivia swore under her breath, her teeth gnashing as she watched the Imperials gawk at her fallen friend. "How the hell do I get her out of there safely..."The warrior Den tuned everything out as she focused on the unenviabl
- The Least Common Denominator
CIV.III Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*c..crackle....*The faint sound of electricity seemed to crackle from the distance as Olivia stood in the middle of her self-made carnage. The lack of common sense that she was witnessing honestly made her feel more irritated than amused as she slowly walked towards the panicking commander. Olivia had places to be, and possibly someone to save depending on whether or not Tesla could somehow relay to her that she was okay."No matter," she sighed. "You idiots wouldn't understand, I guess.""No!-"*SLASH!*With a quick step, the commander didn't even stand a chance. His sword fell with an unceremonious clang onto the ground as his head rolled off his neck like a piece of meat. Olivia didn't flinch as the idiot's terrified fa
- The Least Common Denominator
CIV.II Transistor
OLIVIA⬛⬛⬛*CRACKLE! CRACKLE! KRAKATHOOM!*Olivia ran through the streets of Mathema like a woman possessed. Wreaking havoc across every Imperial contingent she came across, lightning followed her path as she relied on Tesla's ever-encompassing presence to deal massive damage on the enemy while despite being outnumbered by at least a hundred to one. She knew that Her Sister would no doubt disapprove of her current tactics, but if it worked, then why bother changing it?"If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?"*KRAKATHOOM!*"AAHHH!!!!""IT BURNS!"With a smile on her face and blood on her blade, Olivia uttered her Sister's own words out loud as a reminder. Lightning crackled behind her, screams of her fallen enemies saturat
