7 - Kind of a Stream of Consciousness

[supercompacted]

So I think I might've made a break in my dimensional equation. I'm working on....twelve dimensions, now, and it's finally allowing me to really get that correct, almost-randomized shape of the City. I really need to calibrate my detection device, but I think I've accounted for the shift in p-dimensional subspace due to the relative warping of

Comments

[deformiwhats]

Freddles, take a breath between sentences. You make me dizzy and I've got the lung capacity of a small elephant.

[supercompacted]

I don't think I can. It figures the City would make me talk about how much I liked it through a curse. It can be really annoying sometimes. But did you hear that I'm up to twelve dimensions now? I think this is really how many I need, and it's probably going to take me decades and decades to work it out, but I'm on the right track!

How's your day been going, by the way?

[deformiwhats]

Oh, posh. I like it too and I don't make it much of a secret. Twelve, huh? Like uh, like the clock, maybe?

You know, peachy in the way that I told my barista about how I grew up. You'd think living here for awhile would keep a man from running away in terror after being told he was reduced to a cow in my world, you know? Even after I explained that I always had more interest in love over violence.

...Maybe that was why he ran crying.

[supercompacted]

Twelve like the clock! I almost never make symbolic connections like that, but that's exactly it, I bet!

...oh, dear. Sounds like you've had a much worse day than I have- but I haven't gone out nearly at all, since I realized I'm talking to myself way more than usual- not that I usually talk to myself, more just mutter when I'm working over a mathematical problem. I worry sometimes that I'm going to fall into that kind of behavior...you know, the crazy wall-writing behavior, so I try to pay attention to it.

I hope your barista gets that this is a curse thing soon. He must've been a newbie.

[ageoftheg33k]

You a physicist or something? That's some pretty heavy stuff right there.

[supercompacted]

I am, actually! I got through about half a program in graduate quantum physics at UCLA, and then I sort of fell in a dimensional portal, which effectively ended my schooling. I'm a fan of all sciences, but physics is my absolute favorite.

[ageoftheg33k]

Okay, I'm just gonna sit my self right down then because you're taking the proverbial cake right up in here. I'm like, I dabbled in chemistry and some other stuff but I'm not about to try to run with the big dogs.

[supercompacted]

Oh, chemistry is really great, too! Although it's honestly one of my weaker ones- I think I hit my low point around Biochem. Did you dabble in anything in particular?

And don't- I'm really not a 'big dog', maybe just a mid-size collie or something. Like I said, I never finished the program. And I do love talking science, and lecturing and teaching, the little bit I got to do.

Anyway, if you ever have any questions or anything about what I'm doing, just ask! I'm Fred Burkle.

[awillowywitch]

Wow, Fred! I think you got me beat on the rambling scale.

[supercompacted]

Oh, I'm not this bad, really! Well, not anymore, at least. I guess I did sorta used to be this bad. But I had been stuck in another dimension for five years at that point, so I claim that as an excuse.

[mad_still]

You don't want to go back?

[supercompacted]

I can't go back, but- honestly, if I had to make the choice, it'd be difficult for me. I wasn't exactly happy where I was. We were working for the organization we'd been fighting since I got back home, it wasn't exactly an ideal situation.

[mad_still]

It's better to keep it simple.

[supercompacted]

I think I'm pretty much incapable of keeping things simple today. Not that I'm great at it when I'm not cursed, but I'm better than this! I think this is the shortest conversation I'm having today, thankfully.

[horrible_penny]

Twelve dimensions. Wow. That's... about nine more than I'm totally comfortable with.

Cow-slave?

Fred... you know you can talk about all this stuff, right? Missing people? Not publicly, but... you know. You don't need to keep it a secret.

[supercompacted]

Well, it does get rather hard to imagine once you get into the fifth one, i can totally understand that. It's really interesting, though!

Yeah, after I got tossed into Pylea, it turned out the the humans there were used as menial slave labor- taking care of the horses, carrying things, cleaning things, that sort of stuff. They called us cows there. I didn't care for it much.

I don't know what good it's going to do, Penny. It's not like it's going to bring them back. We don't have any sort of control over that here. I wasn't trying to keep it a secret, I just don't know how to start or why I should bother. I can miss my friends on my own time.

[horrible_penny]

Pylea doesn't sound like a great vacation spot. I'm glad you got out of there.

Of course it won't bring anyone back, but it could make you feel better? It sounds dumb and you've probably heard it a million times, but talking things through with a friend can do a lot of good. It can't help anyone control anything but what they're feeling, but that's enough sometimes.

Plus? Commiserating over ice cream and movies helps take the sting out of a ton of problems.

[supercompacted]

Me, too. I really am. Angel and his group were the one who got me out, and I was so, so thankful for that.

Maybe it'd help. But I do want to avoid that today, because having to spill everything you know about a person isn't really that helpful when you're talking about missing them. I could definitely manage with some ice cream and a movie, though.