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The Least Common Denominator XXXVII.II Sine
"E-Excuse me?"I was taken aback as what I could only describe as the ultimate soccer mom suddenly wedged herself in between myself and the kid I was trying to help. Beside me, Lace visibly scooted a bit to the side as I was left alone to deal with someone that was possibly an irate mother with a mean streak a mile wide.And wouldn't that be a surprise for someone that had to deal with shit like this for a good portion of her life..."You heard me!" the woman leaned closer to my face as she erupted with the intensity of a flowing volcano. "Keep you filthy peasant hands of my son!"I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the woman that was now cradling her kid like he's the national treasure. Then again- Wait... Did I hear that right?"I'm sorry, ma- err... lady," I unconsciously winced at my
The Least Common Denominator XXXVII.III Sine
Well, this was a rather rude wake-up call."What happened?"A sharp knock on the door in the middle of the night woke Lace and I up wide awake. We weren't expecting anybody so we were pretty cautious when we opened our door.So color us surprised when Love showed up looking like she fought straight through a fucking battlefield."An unexpected encounter," Love coolly answered, her bleeding arm being tended by Lace as I crossed my arms to listen. "Par for the course. But regrettably, my client died."Being a former Prime, we always expected Love to come home at almost exactly the same day and time she'd usually supply. If she said she'd be home in three days, she'd be here in three days, no more, no less. It had always been like this, even back up north when she first started doing this. The
The Least Common Denominator XXXVII.IV Sine
In the law of attraction, it was stated that if you will it to happen, the universe will conspire to make it come to pass one way or another. In a way, I'd guess it was just another form of confirmation bias that most of those self-help gurus constantly shove down their hapless victims' throats. Then again, I can see some truth to what they were saying. After all, if one were to always tell themselves that they'll do good today, then the likelihood of them doing said good would have a higher chance of happening mostly due to the fact that a good day will happen sooner or later, thus confirming their so-called predictions, which, in turn, would only make them bolder and thus increasing their chances for something good to happen again. It's... It's complicated, okay? Well, not really, seeing as I'm just really trying to tell just why I hate the damn thing so much.And to top it off, this fucking idiot in fr
The Least Common Denominator The State of Affairs III
Days had turned to weeks real fast as we found ourselves staring at more of the same in our trek towards the southern edge of the Empire. Signs of civilization had been scarce, as well as contact with the rest of the Empire in terms of actual news and current events. We had no idea what was happening anymore, and what we did know was probably weeks, or even months out of date in terms of relevancy and usefulness.In short, we were in the middle of fucking nowhere and we know fuck-all about what was even happening beyond our immediate vicinity.Granted, it probably wouldn't matter even if we did know that the Empire might already be on the verge of collapse as we speak. In the end, we were still just a party of three that had no clue as to what the final end goal of this journey will be. I had already said to myself that I was going to try and piece together the old me's past,
The Least Common Denominator XXXVIII.I Tangent
Traveling sucks.While it was true that it was the dream for those that feign 'wanderlust' whenever they post their philosophical bullshit on their social media, it was still too much of a pain for anyone that wasn't shitting money out of their ass twenty-four seven to just leave their nine-to-five and go wherever the fuck they wanted without consequences. It cost far too much for a single night out doing fuck all; buying overpriced drinks to go with your overpriced food with portions so small it wasn't even enough to feed a small child. And to top it all off, you still have to consider if you still have work the day after. Granted, it was still a decent change of pace for those that were just sick of going to the same damn places for what could be amounted as years, myself included; the amount of time, energy, and resources just made me slowly change from the normal bright-eyed idiot that couldn't sleep
The Least Common Denominator XXXVIII.II Tangent
The next few hours were predictably boring after our inevitable cry-fest. Emotions were aired out, my repressed insecurities given an outlet for some sort of release. In hindsight, I knew that I was just being stubborn in not needing the support earlier, what with me bawling my eyes out with Lace being the prime example of my laughable inability to lie even to myself. But I guess it was a given with my shallow personality, no?Well, it at least gave my heart some much-needed reprieve before it had to tackle the assuredly-heavy themes of walking straight into the center of my problems."It's.... something..."The distance from a few hours earlier definitely did not do this place justice, it would seem. Despite only having the last few rays of the setting
The Least Common Denominator XXXVIII.III Tangent
..............Huh? Where was I- Oh...I blacked out, didn't I... Well, that's just great. And judging from the burning pain and fatigue I was feeling throughout my body, I'd guess that I was probably also running a high fever just to put the icing on the metaphorical shit cake.With my body not really listening to me as I laid in silent agony, I didn't really know what else I could actually do beyond letting my mind wander again. That, or try and divine just what the hell was being done to my body as Lace assuredly tried treating me to the best of her abilities.Let's see... My last thought from earlier was poisoning... poisoning... Radiation poisoning? Was it even possible? How the hell would Lace even treat for something like it? I sure as hell didn't remember; my only recollection of it
The Least Common Denominator XXXVIII.IV Tangent
"How long do you think we have?"Time was relative inside a mindscape. Or, at least that's what I hoped was the case. It could've been minutes. Hours. Hell, maybe even days since I've found myself sitting in front of Ica bathing in the woman's warmth and presence. A part of me relished the feeling; that I was free to do absolutely nothing in the presence of someone that knew me in an absolute sense. No pretentious bullshit of hiding my more fucked up quirks and weird-ass tendencies."Who knows?" Ica off-handedly responded, her eyes not straying from the book that seemed to have just magically materialized in her hands not a few minutes ago. "It will all depend on how your body responds. I'm sure you're sturdy enough to survive, however."Sturdy, huh... "How so?"Ica slipped a thumb over her lips as she turned a page on
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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
