[Vinsue] One Cog Moves Another

[Vivian]

Vivian began squinting the moment she explained. Okay, x and y. Like coordinates on a map. He'd seen those before, in cartographer's offices, and they used it to pinpoint areas. So if X represented longitude, and Y latitude...or was it the reverse...then this was plotting an area on a graph. He blinked. It was so convoluted but he had the fuzzy idea of what she was talking about. He didn't pretend to understand it. He had a cartographer explain it to him once when he was bent over the desk, and honestly it gave him something interesting to think about while he was working other than the obvious. But this five equalling where the line crossed the y coordinate? That went entirely over his head. Weren't they just trying to find the coordinates? Why should he care what line crossed where? Wasn't this a single point?

He stared at her blankly. Wait, now she was talking about caterpillars and lengths? Could this be two things? He looked down at the equation, already feeling his brain tangling into knots. "How....how the hell does that relate to anything? I thought these were points on a map, not the growth of something..." he said helplessly. "I didn't think time had anything to do with it..." The rest of it went so far over his head she might as well have been speaking another language. Vaguely he could see what she meant but she wasn't so sure about how the numbers related to the concepts. She was so intelligent and learned. He never knew any child to speak the way she did.

Vivian looked at Vin up and down. "There's no way you're a child, not explaining things the way you do. You're a...oh what the hell are they called...the short folk. Halflings? We had a dwarf in the brothel named Ottoman for obvious reasons." He smirked. That was it, wasn't it?

He got up and offered her a hand. "C'mon, let's use the chalkboard in the den. Whatever you may be, genius child or smallfolk, it doesn't matter much to me."

[Vinsue]

She had completely lost her student again. She was used to learning more complex things around people who understand them. She suddenly felt so dumb she should have started with finding out what he actually knew. What if he can't count? Or if he doesn't know how to add and subtract. This could be a long stay. "Using a map these lines would be called longitude and latitude. On a graph they are called the x and y access," She said. Maybe she needed to change her approach. She knew just how she would do that once they got to the chalkboard.

She crossed her arms offended did he just call her a short folk. And he continued trying to find the right name. He obviously had no clue what he was doing. Then he called her a dwarf and her hand immediately bowed her head. As she shook it. "OK, stop guessing," she finally said. "Look, I am not a dwarf." She shook her head at the thought. "See, I have a head that looks too big for my body. Dwarfs have an appropriately sized head for their body." He explained he didn't care either way if she was a kid or not. "I never said I was a kid, you assumed it and I didn't correct you. I am actually a gnome." She said as she was led to the chalkboard.

"If you're still interested in learning I am going to see what you know. This is not going to involve the book. And don't feel bad if you don't know. I need to see where I need to start." She looked around for a chair and pulled it over to stand on then grabbed a piece of chalk.

"How high can you count?" She asked as long as he can count to 100 then he should be good on this for now.

As he gives his answer she would start writing on the board. She wrote a plus, a minus, a divide, and a times sign. Below she started to write simple equations. 1+1=_, 2-1=_, 2×2=_, and 4÷2=_. She would then hand him the chalk. "Salve what you can. If you don't know, leave it blank." She would say then remain quiet as she let him work.

[Vivian]

Vivian raised an eyebrow. Alright, so he was right about her not being a dwarf. A gnome! He’d never met a gnome! It made an alarming amount of sense though. Her head was a bit too large for her body. She was incredibly intelligent and had an attraction toward Artificing. If she was smart enough to go along with his assumption she was a child, she would do just fine as a thief. In fact she could probably use that excuse later, for a range of applications. They could easily take advantage. His mind began thinking of scenarios as they walked into Degare’s study and he quietly shut the door.

Vivian pulled out the man’s chalkboard, and offered her a chunk from the cup of chalk in the holder. “I can count to 100. I mean, only a few whores on the street charge more than that, and if they did they’d just tack on another number at the end of the first. One hundred and fifty. That sort of thing. I don’t know if that’s how you count properly.” He shrugged and grinned at her, watching her write. Alright, so he knew the numbers. The plus sign…that had to be addition right? He’d seen it before. So one and one. Two was one more than one. Thus, one and one was two. He wrote a two for the first answer.

He hovered over the next. That symbol didn’t look the same. The minus sign. Oh. Right. Taking away. Two take away one was one, following the same logic. He wrote a 1.

He tapped the third question. “There’s an x here. I thought you said you didn’t include any letters? Tricky.” He smirked at her. “And I don’t know what the fuck that is.” He tapped the sign with a minus and two dots. “Does this mean I subtract twice?”

[Vinsue]

He had not seemed upset about her fooling him into thinking she was a kid. That was a good thing. But he was thinking about something.

"Good. Counting is a very important step into math." She said. "And yea counting after 100 is basically saying 100 and then saying and 1. Starting the count back at 1. 101, 102, 103, and so on bit it's written like this." She roared 100 on the board then she wrote 101 and 102. "And after 199 you say 200." She again wrote the numbers on the board. "Then 201, 202, and so forth."

She watched as he answered the first two questions correctly then stopped at the 3rd. When she realized why she realized she probably should have used the dot but that was not too late to change. "This is a times symbol." She drew a line under the equation. "See how it floats higher than where the numbers sit? This can also be represented by a dot." She wiped away the x replacing it with a dot. 2•2=_. "And times are when you add the number to itself multiple times. So 2•2 is the same as 2 plus itself twice." She wrote two 2s on the board and added a +sign between them. "See? Now if it was 2 times 3 then it would be 2 added to itself 3 times." She then moved over and wrote 2•3= and 2+2+2= below it.

She smiled when he stated he had no clue what the other ment. This would be the hardest to explain. "That is a division sign. It helps you find how many times a number goes into another. The exact opposite of the times"

"Real world question I have 3 bags" She drew 3 circles on the board. "Each bag has 2 cookies in them" She drew 2 smaller circles in each of the bigger ones. "How many cookies do I have?" She said giving him time to count. Above each bag she wrote a 2 and than put a + sign between them. 2+2+2= "is one way you can write it. Or you can write it like this" She wrote 3•2=. "3 is the number of bags. 2 is the number of cookies in each bag." She would make sure he understood this before going to division.

[Salen]

Vivian

Artificing: Mathematics is the base of everything
Artificing: Engineering is structured on the laws of logic
Artificing: The blackboard is your ally
Artificing: Standing on the shoulders of giants
Mathematics: Addition
Mathematics: Subtraction
Mathematics: Multiplication
Mathematics: Division
Mathematics: Two things can have the same answer
Larceny: Using a child as a foible.
Larceny: Stuffing something up your shirt; basic but effective.
Larceny: Getting away from a crime scene
Charisma: C’mon, just a little theft…
Biology: Pregnancy hormones getting a bit out of hand.
Biology: Distraction can help reduce discomfort.
+4 more Generic Lores

Vinsue:
Artificing: Mathematics is the base of everything
Artificing: Engineering is structured on the laws of logic
Artificing: The blackboard is your ally
Artificing: solving a puzzle

Larceny: Using your shirt
Larceny: escape by playing sick

Deception: using assumptions
Deception: Acting sick
Deception: Acting like a kid

Teaching: starting point, what a student knows
Teaching: show don't tale
Teaching: the chalkboard helps
Teaching: pacince

Acting: going with the flow
Acting: kids are simple.

+4 Generic Lores.


Loot: Vinsue - 1 Artificing Book
Vivian - 1 Mathematics Book
Injuries: N/A

Points: 8 each, cannot be used on magic (Except for world magic)

Comments: Hey guys, make sure start a new post when you hit at 20, I gave you an extra 4 lores on top of your actual amount, but please try to stay with your post limit. Always start a new thread when you hit 20! Reiterated. Next time you will not get extra lores.