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The Least Common Denominator LVI.II Precision
Mathema. On top of the shocking revelation that everyone around me was probably named after someone important in the mathematical world, the capital's ridiculously on-the-nose name didn't even faze me anymore as we entered its increasingly unruly streets. The fact that Imperial guards didn't even check our stuff due to the amount of work they still had to do only meant that they were ridiculously understaffed at the moment. It was a small miracle that I wouldn't take for granted, of course, but for a capital city to be in this much unrest, I kind of get the feeling that it was only a matter of time before the whole city would inevitably explode into a full-blown civil war.And wasn't that just the perfect opportunity to reconsolidate power."Where's the Princess?!""Where's the Emperor?!"The three of us weaved through the populated stre
The Least Common Denominator LVI.III Precision
*clang... clang...*The sun was shining from the windows as Livia and I silently sat on the couch waiting for the rest of our compatriots to join us. My legs were doing their usual thing when they're bored, which was to constantly move and jiggle up and down with energy as my eyes kept glancing at the setting sun out through the window. I promise I wasn't bored. Really...Even if Livia and I were sitting in this damn room for a few hours now.*crash... thud....*Truly, such a thing was but the machinations of current events. Not that I was blaming the protests still echoing outside despite the setting sun already ushering in the coming of night, but if Lace was supposed to be the one to break that fight up, surely she would've already showed up by now. I mean, maybe she had a few hiccups in whatever recon mission she wa
The Least Common Denominator LVI.IV Precision
Dinner has always been a quiet affair for me. Having been raised in a semi-oppressive household in my first life, the solitude of eating alone was more of a reprieve as opposed to the lonely image that it would evoke to anyone that would notice. It wasn't like my parents wanted to eat at the same time anyway; what with our constantly conflicting schedules and habits. I ate alone at a time far too early for normal people to eat. Meanwhile, my parents would always eat over an hour or two after me; the actual normal times that society deemed it to be breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was weird as a kid, but I just got used to it.Not to mention, it was healthy for the metabolism to eat at earlier times as opposed to eating late at night.This all changed in this world, however. With a loving set of parents and constant companions, eating had somehow become a lively affair at times
The Least Common Denominator LVI.V Precision
I almost heard a drop of sweat splash from right under my chin at how still the atmosphere had become. Arya stared at me with unrestrained amusement; her grin showing her barely contained giggles as she covered her mouth. Meanwhile, Livia just kept eating at her usual pace; probably not even caring so long as it came out of my mouth.But the worst part was the starkly different expressions adorning each of the twins' faces.Lace looked absolutely livid, as if offended that I even dared to broach the subject in the first place. The spoon in her hand had completely bent into a right angle as she just stared at me; her shock still etched on her face as her eyes bore straight into mine. Love had a much more mellow expression, albeit that only meant that my words had affected her enough for her face to have an actual expression in the first place. From what little her brows furled,
The Least Common Denominator LVII.I Westgard Rules
Even the best-laid plans have the capacity to fail... Or so I poorly recall if that was how that proverb went. Still, it was the most basic rule of combat and any other activity that might require careful coordination to properly work. Theoretical plans will always never be the exact same in application as opposed to the drawing board; the same reason why battlefield tactics existed as opposed to grand strategy. Quick thinking was more important in the heat of battle, while logical analysis was more for the bigger picture in terms of massive wars between nations. Then again, we weren't really so much fighting as opposed to just being casual rebels right now, but I'd like to think that we were being decent enough that it'd actually work when things really start falling right into place. Which was to say, was simply wishful thinking if I really took everything into account. <
The Least Common Denominator LVII.II Westgard Rules
I swear I could hear everyone's nervous heartbeats as we all collectively stared at our own bowls. Was it out of embarrassment? Shyness? Possibly even shame? Who knows? What's clear was that we were all acting like idiots simply because we had no fucking clue as to how to follow up Love's painfully broad plan. And while I'm sure that we all had our own ideas, the first one that stepped up to the plate made it apparent that we were once again biting off more than we can chew at the moment.We were too fixated on the bigger picture that we completely forgot how to start small."Shall I take the stand then, Sweetie?~"To the relief of everyone on the table, Arya stood up with a lackadaisical flare; her bowl of fried rice still in her hands as she circled around the table and positioned herself in front of the board. The mischievous smile on her face l
The Least Common Denominator LVII.III Westgard Rules
I watched as Livia wielded the piece of charcoal with a practiced proficiency. Scribbling on a part of the board that had little to no notes written on it, my sister seemed to have drawn something that wouldn't look too far out of place from an actual rune. Not that it was a known rune, I think, but from the way she punctuated it at the end, I'd think that it was more of a schematic than anything else."There," Livia beamed at me as she placed her piece of charcoal down. "This will be a part of the solution."Raising an eyebrow, I trained my gaze on the seemingly finished schematic as I wracked my brain to even piece together what the damn thing even was. I knew that it wasn't a rune, not with the way that it seemed to overlap constantly over itself. The way it was presented made me think that it was like... a set of gears?"I haven't managed to ma
The Least Common Denominator Interlude XXIV: Lace V
"Well, that was to be expected~"Lace didn't really know what she expected when she'd learned that her Leader had come to their place. While Love had warned her that such a thing was bound to happen sooner rather than later, she at least expected some semblance of a difference in terms of improvement regarding Olivia's mental state. And while the younger Den was no longer a raving lunatic that would attack her and her twin at the mere sight of them, she could still feel the unbridled animosity the brunette had for anybody that wasn't her precious sister."She didn't try to kill us, at least," Lace nervously chuckled.Looking at the remaining occupants still at the table, Lace sighed at the monumental task left for her due to Leader's absence. Already, Arya was shooting passing glares to her twin; the latter shooting her own glares back without a ca
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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
