Sunday 20 October 2013

S6.184 - Old Friends?



The Story So Far: The personified math-tans have been cast out of mathematics. Seeking probability in order to return, Logan and his crew made it to Fractal City - but not without cost. As his group try to understand the fractal inhabitants, the other mathematical relations struggle to come to terms with the repercussions of losing a primary function.

Root stared at his girlfriend. "Um, Para, what are you doing?"

The blonde let out a breath, then reached up to adjust the hairband that held her parabolic rabbit ears. "Sorry. Been trying to automate this quick little psychic projection beyond the fourth wall for each episode. For the benefit of new readers."

"Wait, what now?!" Expona said. She leaned forwards at the table to look at Para, her leather outfit making faint noises. "That's incredibly disconcerting!"

Para looked back at the redhead. "We've been reporting on events in the human world for a while now. We've even commented on our own hit counts. This is simply a natural extension of that, don't you think?"

"No!" the exponential argued. "Talking to a reader is creepy and makes you seem like a stalker! What did you say anyway?"

"Nothing bad," Para assured. "It's just, it seems rude not to at least acknowledge them sometimes, now that I'm able to address them."

Maud cleared his throat. "Well, for those of us who aren't at that level of awareness, perhaps we can return to the matter at hand? Hm?" Everyone fell silent, and the modulus function shifted his gaze around the table, looking at each of the mathematical representations in turn.




Para, the second degree polynomial. Root, Para's inverse (for the positive domain at least) who was their resident computer tech. Expona, the redheaded exponential function, inverse to Logan. Elly, the ellipse, who had seemed a more sedate choice of conic for the group, compared to her circle cousin Circe. And Tangent, the younger sister of the trig twins - or at least, younger sister of Cosine. Now that Sine was dead.




"Cosine is going insane," Tangent murmured, breaking the silence. "And I can only think of one thing that might help." Tears welled up in her eyes, and she dropped her face into her hands, shoulders shaking.

Para rose, moving around the table to embrace the young brunette. "Root, go find Lyn," she suggested quietly. Tan had formed a close friendship with the line, given how they were both connected to slope.

"No," Tangent protested, quickly rubbing her eyes on her arm. "No, I've cried enough in Lyn's lap already. I'm here for a reason! I... I wanted Maud to gather all of you here in his bar to see if you had any better ideas, before... before I pitch in something that's from completely out in left field." She drew in a quick breath, her nose snorting. "So... so what are our options? How can we help an already emotionally torn Cosine deal with the huge increase in mathematical requests, now that Sine isn't around?"


There was a brief silence. "You mean aside from waiting until Logan and his group find probability, blast us back into our subject, and recover our child functions?" Expona clarified. Tangent nodded. There was another pause. "Well, I got nothing," the redhead concluded, looking none too pleased about the admission.

"What's your idea, Tangent?" Maud ventured. "Maybe that will spark something."

The young girl looked around the table at the other relations. She took in another breath. "It's..." She had to swallow once more before she could actually say it. "It's Versine. I think we have to find Versine."


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