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The Least Common Denominator XLIII.II Timed Mechanics
A new day, a new batch of problems to solve.The morning sun shone through the light haze of dust that seemed to cover this town as I walked through its open roads. Still didn't know the name of this place too. I should probably ask someone that if I ever remember to do so later. In the meantime... "Can I leave you later?"Lace turned her gaze to me as we walked, her knapsack of goodies jiggling at the sudden movement, "Why?""I'm gonna follow up on my lead yesterday," I explained, adjusting my own knapsack of goodies over my shoulder. It wasn't much, but metal implements were always heavy whenever they were plentiful. "I haven't really managed to crack the kid yet, unfortunately."We reached our designated merchant spot for this town. I didn't know how Love always managed to get us permits even back then, but I won't b
The Least Common Denominator XLIII.III Timed Mechanics
"Omu...rice?""Yep," I grinned. "A serving of creamy egg on top of fried rice."It was one of my favorite dishes to have fun with back in the old world. With the monotony of constantly having fried rice with egg every single day of my fucking life, I got bored enough to the point of actually bothering to learn to cook something new. And would you look at that, it was also during a time that I was pretty obsessed with watching cooking channels on the internet. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was flipping eggs like a champ, much to my mother's chagrin due to not liking runny eggs for breakfast.Needless to say, I became an expert on breakfast food out of boredom and necessity.Placing the plate of creamy goodness in front of her, I offered her a spoon before turning to look at whatever ingredients I had
The Least Common Denominator XLIII.IV TImed Mechanics
And as I walked through the valley on the shadow of fiery death, I will fear no heat stroke, for it was still a few hours away from midday. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that the temperature was at a pleasant thirty degrees Centigrade, but that was with me already having a distinct resistance against heat-based obstacles due to my own affinities. Realistically, it was probably already pushing thirty-five by now, and that would only rise from there the higher the sun rose throughout the day."And wasn't that gonna be fun for later..."Roaming the market streets with nothing but my own pocket money, I kept an eye out for a handful of ingredients in my mind as I aimlessly followed a crowd of fellow market-goers through their paces. I wasn't in any hurry anyway, seeing that I had only now just remembered how ridiculously long it took to make a decent demi-glace sauce was. Witho
The Least Common Denominator XLIII.V Timed Mechanics
Taking that as my cue, I quickly jumped into action as Bennie wiped the tears off her face from her previous failed attempts at a scrambled omelet. Good thing too, as I was actually starting to see the first wave of customers building up just on the other side of the street."Get the vegetables ready!" Bennie shouted out, her tone sounding strained as she flitted throughout the room. "I'll start mashing the rice!""Got it!"Nodding at Bennie's instruction, I sprang to work and brandished the nearest knife available. With a practiced ease, I made quick work of the vegetables offered up to my cutting board; my hands flying at a speed that would make any trained chef weep. I knew it was pretty dangerous. The speed that I was doing this was bound to make me lose a finger or something as the lightning-fast thuds echoed from underneath my fingers. Grante
The Least Common Denominator XLIV.I Fahrenheit
Patience. The unending virtue of the ultimate saint. As someone that's sorely lacking in this department, I had no right in lecturing anyone about this subject, let alone tell someone to just wait and let the chips fall down where they may lie when I, myself, had the patience of a fucking firework. Granted, my patience would be considered as pretty decent so long as it came to matters I didn't really give a shit about, but if it came to the stuff that really mattered, I was pretty fucking impatient to the point of leaving even my friends behind if it meant I got to finish faster. I supposed it was the reason why I always ended up going first whenever there were exams being administered; my stupid, impatient brain not even thinking twice before shading in an answer. And then I realize that I had shaded it wrong a few minutes later and I wouldn't be able to take it back. And in a world where even a single point could mean passing or fa
The Least Common Denominator XLIV.II Fahrenheit
Another day, another dish to make. Day two... or three, was it? of teaching Bennie how to make omurice was in the cards today. And judging by the meaty smell permeating the stall as I approached it, I'd guess that she took it upon herself to continue reducing the sauce herself."Good morning, Crimson," Bennie beamed at me, much to my surprise. "I took out the gunk that floated on the sauce when I got here. Then I put it on the stove to get it boiling again."I raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh wow. Good job, Bennie.""T-thank you..."Ignoring the faint giggling that seemed to echo from somewhere, I made my way to the demi-glace that was in the making while brandishing a ladle hanging from one of the racks. Giving the dark brown mixture a stir, the smell had improved considerably as the sauce seemed to have reduced down to
The Least Common Denominator XLIV.III Fahrenheit
Huh? For sale?Looking in Bennie's direction, I could only raise an eyebrow in suspicion as I spotted a man dressed in merchant garbs. He looked absolutely gaudy though, with some of the metal chains hanging on his necklace clattering with each movement. Gold earrings as well. Damn, he wore more jewelry than I ever did back when I had my eighteenth birthday.And god was he fat as fuck."I don't think you understand, girlie. You don't get to have a say in how I run my business," the man haughtily scoffed in her general direction, raising a chubby hand to his equally chubby chin as the rings on his fingers looked like they were about to pop at the sheer pressure his fat was exerting at them. "I shall buy this stall, as stipulated by my right as the leader of the merchant guild."Okay? Leader of the local merchant guild, a
The Least Common Denominator Interlude XVII: Bennie
Bennie didn't trust Crimson.As much as the older lady had helped her with her stall, as well as practically giving her another gold mine of a recipe in the form of this... omurice, the self-proclaimed sister of her mentor had done absolutely nothing that would ingrain herself into the young girl good graces. Well, maybe she already did that, actually. Maybe Crimson already made herself a space in Bennie's lonely heart, a space that Olivia had left all those months ago back when she was still there teaching her everything she needed to survive. Maybe...Maybe she didn't want her new big sister to leave just yet."Please... tell me..."Looking at her current mentor, the conflicting feelings that Bennie had for the woman in front of her swirled in a coalescence of apprehension and guilt as the desperation in Crimson's voi
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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
