S6.190 - Map Quest

SERIES 6 INDEX

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.

"Tha should get yer device workin' proper agin," Cotangent said, her accent coming across thickly in the heat of the moment. The engineer tossed her wrench onto Maud's bar. "How di' you break th' replimator anyway?"

"By creating a double bass," Maud admitted. "We'd never tried making anything that big before." He moved to test the electronic device.

"Those are th' instruments for us then?" Cotangent said, turning to look at Para, the only other function present. Cot gestured towards them, in a corner of the room.

String Theory

The bunny girl nodded enthusiastically, going over to grab one. "You were able to find ArcCot and the other reciprocal inverses?"

"Aye. They'd set up residence to th' southwest," Cot responded, accent now gradually becoming less pronounced. "They prefer ta keep ta themselves, but they'll come ta rehearsal this afternoon." Her attention turned back to the instruments. "All strings?"

"Mmm hmm!" Para held the double bass by the neck. "I'm thinking the different mathematical families should be different orchestral sections. Trig and strings, it makes sense when you think about the way they vibrate. You may have a natural aptitude!"

Cotangent rubbed her chin. "Could be something to that. Should be able to handle a bow, at any rate."

"Para! Para!" Lyn burst into the room, causing the parabola to set the instrument aside. "Para, I just realized..." Her eyes fell on Cotangent. "...absolutely nothing!"

The tall trig girl looked back and forth between the two polynomials. "Um? Somethin' goin' on?"

"No!" Lyn said definitively, only to immediately amend it with, "Kinda." Her eyes flicked to Para then back to Cot. "Writing out a map of our Purgatory is all. You know to the north is that fog, where my beta group spent time looking into other subject areas, yeah?"

"Aye," Cotangent agreed. "And to the south is the cliffs, and to the west and east, not much of anything beyond the structures that seemed to exist when we first got here."

"Along with the electronics within them, which you and Root managed to reactivate," Para reminded Cot as she approached them. "What's your point, Lyn?"

The line paused, choosing her words carefully. "Just that we're all living in a relatively similar configuration to how we were back in math. Consciously or not, it's like when we were 'injected' onto this range, the one-to-one mapping preserved our relative locations. With some variation, I grant, but don't you see what I'm getting at?"

Para exchanged a brief look with Cotangent, who shrugged. The bunny girl shook her head slowly. "No."

The line sighed. "If we were LOOKING for something - or someone - there's a natural hot spot where we might FIND it, relative to the bar here."

"Oh. OH!" Para realized. "Go tell Elly." Lyn nodded and dashed off, leaving Para to smile wanly at the trigonometric function. "The ellipse, um, lost a lot of her mystical crystals when we ended up here," the parabola explained, trying to think of an explanation that didn't involve Versine. "And she doesn't like replicating new ones. The vibe is different, or something. So we've been trying to think of a way to connect back with our subject area."

"Ah! Well, maybe music can help distract Elly, like with Cosine?" Cotangent offered. "For instance, ye could have her take up the trombone." Para simply nodded. She decided that, to avoid stringing Cot along, it was best to let the trombone comment slide.

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