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 Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:28 pm
Back safely in her room at last, Rairne flung herself on her bed and proceeded to howl into her pillows. As always, they smelled of some unknown plant, fresh and clean. Someone snuck into her room to tidy it up and change the sheets everyday. Except for the ash on the floor, this place certainly seemed rather clean. Some budding sense of self told her that she stood out like a sore thumb, and not because she was blind. The self-conciousness of teenage years was ripening within her at an astonishing rate.
That was on her mind, as well as poor Morpa, mean Finn-att, and all the other things that were wrong in her world. She was completely unaware of Arctang listening in with satisfaction to her emotional blubbering. To her, her life was just a complete mess. Amazingly though, after her cry, she sat up and wiped the wet from her cheeks... and felt better. Somewhat. More than she had expected. Maybe crying wasn't such a bad thing after all?
In the reprieve, she turned her attention to Eex' pack. She dragged it up onto the bed that didn't seem quite so high any more. Once atop the comforter, she dumped the pack out. Any clothing she haphazardly tossed off the bed. What did she need with ratty old man rags?
Discarding the bag, she then carefully began to spread out what was left. Amazingly, there was a bit of mony in the form of coins. She piled these together, knowing nothing of their specific values. There were some random bits of what must be jewelry, though why that old grump had them, she couldn't imagine. She'd have to have someone go through some of this with her, she was sure.
But lastly were her own things, as well as a few more random items. Her broken clasped purse was there, slightly ripped. A hole in the seam had let things dribble out, and thus was useless now. She tossed it aside and lovingly traced her fingers over the metallic scarabs she'd found long ago. Each was different to the touch, each intricate or rhythmically patterned. As she shifted, that familiar tinkling made her smile, and she scooped up the bracelet. It was too big to fit snugly around her own wrist, though she wistfully thought it might be fun to use as an anklet. She shook it and enjoyed the pleasant sound it made before putting it with the scarabs and moving on.
Her fingers encountered something small and light. Her fingers told her the slightly rippled thing was delicate, so how it had survived in with all this stuff, she couldn't imagine. Intrigued, she turned it over and over in her hands. It seemed... warm. She felt Arc stir with sudden sharp attention within her, completely different from anything else he'd done so far.
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Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 10:16 am
Sure that this was something important, she set it carefully aside and picked up the next object. It was rather unusual, a heavy metallic cube that felt large in her small hands. Each side of the cube had nine panels, raised on beveled edges. Eac panel held a raised glyph, which she could trace easily with her fingers. She followed the swooping and straight lines with her fingertips for the first three. It was only then that she noticed Arctang's rising interest. Her fingers paused on the third panel.
His intrigue around, he nudged her gently within their joined minds. "Don't stop," he urged intently. "I know what those are. Can y ou show me the others?"
Catching his increasing excitement, she complied by tracing the other six tiles on that side. But as she did so, something amazing happened. By 'listening' to Arc as she touched the glyphs, as her fingertips slid along the curving and twisting shapes, shining shapes took form in the darkness of her mind. It was clear and sharp, so very unlike anything she'd ever imagined. Marveling, she whispered, "What are those?"
He was so focused on what she was tracing, she startled him with her direct question. He hadn't been aware that he had been translating what she touched into a mental image she could percieve. He himself had simply been astounded that touch could communicate image this way. Now that he knew she could 'see' what he was drawing with light on the blank visual canvas, he reflected that this must be the first visual image she'd ever experienced. It had never occured to him to try and share visal memroies of his own with her. Perhaps that was something he'd do later on. For now, he had her perfectly appropriate question to answer.
"Thos are numbers. Those are my...." He paused for a moment, then amended his statement. "Those are our domain." He mentally opened his arms, including her in his description. She would be part of him, after all, therefore this was her legacy as well. "Ours is the realm of numbers, and what you are touching are how xome peoples of the worlds see and share them."
Curiousity of her own kept her attention on tose odd, writhing figures. Now that she thought about it, the curves and corners did indeed correspond with what she had touched. Another urgent nudge from Arc moved her to turn the cube and inspect the other sides of the cube. She kept track of what Arc traced into her mind, fascinated as the diety mapped out the entire cube into shining lines that touched and formed an almost touchable shape.
When she had finished, he began to pivot and spin the mental structure of the cube. The object frankly puzzled him. "These are from six different peoples, six different methods of counting 1 to 9." He continued to study his virtual model while she continued exploring the cube with her sensitive fingers. "But they are mixed together, and facing all different directions."
She slid the pads of her fingers beteween the beveled edges of the panels, frowning faintly. With a determined expression, she wedged a rough and broken fingernail in the slight space she felt between the two tiles. Yes, there was definitely a space there! She slid her fingernail along several such miniscule channels before stopping to ponder why they were there. It was as if they were seperated, but still joined. Still working it out, she tumbled the cube in her hands, hefting it and feeling how it moved. Something was... odd about it. Randomly, she gave one edge a savage twist.
She literally dropped it when the entire side of the cube shifted and pivoted with her twist. "It moves!"
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Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 10:58 am
"It did what?!" Without much thought, Arc slipped in and took over, reaching with small hands to pick up the heavy cube. The sensation of touch was a wonderful feeling to have for himself again, though admittedly it was odd, being so small. Ah well, the process was in the works to rectify that.
"How did you do it?" He turned the cube around and around, then following her cues, gripped and twisted. It was terribly awkward, with such small hands, but he managed. And indeed, the whole side pivoted and clicked back into place in a new position. Suddenly it all made sense!
"It's a puzzle! We have to solve it so that each side has the proper language of numbers in the proper order!" He disregarded the baffled feeling from Rairne, unconciously brushing her aside so that he could work. He kept his mental map of the cube up and active, having it move before he would mimick the move with the twisting, shifting cube.
So intent was he that he didn't know how long he sat there in her body, manipulating the puzzle cube continually. There was an odd gnawing and rumbling sensation within this body he occupied, but he ignored it as long as he could. An insistent prodding from the quiet corner he'd relegated Rairne to finally broke through his calculations.
"FOOD!" she practically roared at him, just as he turned his awareness to her again. Overwhelmed by her mental shout, his grasp on her limbs faltered and failed, and she was again in control of things. She was irritated, but not angry, it seemed.
"What are you trying to do, kill us?!" she demanded, tossing the cube aside onto the bed and scrambling down. "We gotta eat sometime, you know!" If either could have seen, they'd have been surprised that it was in the middle of the night now, all was dark and quiet. Well, it was quiet apart from the growling of the youngster's tummy. "The puzzle can wait," she told him sternly and marched herself towards the kitchen. Surely there was something she'd be able to find to eat without help?
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