《Dismissing Darkness》Simple Geometry
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Ten hours is how long this took. Ten hours of work and I have shifted my energy requirements down into the realm of days instead of weeks, months or the years it would have taken with a stick figure. One point of energy is roughly a minute of time, so 1,440 energy in a day. Millions would not cut it for getting out of here sane. Thankfully, hunger is coming on slower than I would have thought. That or work is a mighty fine distraction. Not as good as a night of gaming to forget eating, but work and experimentation still works well to curb hunger.
In the course of that ten hours, I learned a whole lot. How much of this is applicable outside of this specific circumstance, and how much of this is there for the wrong conclusions, I have no idea. The fact that it has use in getting me back to places with food is the most important part of my learning though.
Lets go over the important parts as I’m waiting so that I can maybe make some use out of them when I get back and/or tell people how to get back from the dead in less than a few years. First off, the arrow between my name and the stick figure was super important, conceptually. What it represents is the fact that the rest of these lessons can be linked together if done correctly. Most of them, really, since some of them are a bit more self-contained than others, but the point still stands.
I say this because the extra fraction of a stable connection as the floating words call it does not directly help me, I think. It’s more a way to help me work through what works well and what is mediocre at best. Take, for example, the stick figure: lots of work to make it, especially to draw in the details and make it recognizable as me. It is certainly not the hardest way to connect, but it isn’t as good as some. The main draw to it is the fact that it was a concrete representation which helped immensely. My name, similarly, was relatively poor at providing such a strong link. By itself, it only gave five tenths of a connection. My last name only gave one of those points, but only a few people called me “Jackson”. The fact that two weak connections, my name and a stick figure of myself, were able to overlap to create one connection is important.
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The fact that I could get a similar energy requirement by substituting a hand-print for the stick figure speaks to the fact that stick figures are not that great of a connection type. Even by putting a stick figure attached to hand and foot-prints only took another zero off the number I had to hit.
What I needed were things that were directly connected to myself that were easy to connect together to layer the effects. Also circles. The circles were pretty important too. I figured that out when I was drawing another stick-me for a few tests. I started the circle and looked up at the floating words and was surprised that a circle by itself was actually better than a regular stick-figure. That took me down a less-is-more approach to how things should go from then on, or at least an awareness that messing up a symbol was worse than not having one.
Using somebody else’s name would reduce the connection if it were associated with the connection in any way, but without an association it would have no effect. Using someone else’s name, but contextualizing it in doing so, would increase the connection by a varying amount. The fact that I was captain McGreggor’s subordinate was less effective than saying that I was Buffy’s friend, but still more effective than writing that I was an acquaintance of Tom, one the biologists on the ship. Saying that I was the son of Tracy and Kole Jackson was one of the most effective links I could make via names actually. Beating out all the rest was referring to myself as Mike “Omnoculus” Jackson. Nicknames have power. Makes me wish I had a few more that I had gone by, but using Omnoculus as my tag for so long was probably why it held so much weight. Most of the people I knew called me by that or some slight variation. The fact that my real name was nearly as potent is a telling factor, especially since it was used so rarely.
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The next big breakthrough that helped me shave off a ton of zeros was pretty crude and pretty simple. Not thinking of the idea of a voodoo doll in my situation would have been stupid. Names were a good connection, but what about hair, or sweat, or most obviously, blood? I didn’t have any handy dolls lying around, and I didn’t really have disposable clothes to turn into a doll, especially with my artistic skills, but blood can work fine without any of that. So I gave myself a really hard scratch on my arm and let a few drops onto one of my better attempts at making a good connection. It happened to be more effective than anything I had tried so far, with one caveat: it still required a base connection to make it mean anything. A small patch of bloody sand means approximately nothing, at least to the resurrection committee or whoever is in charge of this sort of thing. Still, seven zeros is a lot of zeros.
From the original sixteen digits, adding blood to my worst possible attempt put me down to nine digits, and four to five digits would be reasonable to get out of here without going insane over a nagging hunger. That means I needed to create a symbol that gave me four or five decimal points of connection before blood, if that was how it works additively. I’m pretty sure that’s how it works, but my calculations haven’t been super exact.
Suffice to say, two circles nested inside each other, my name, nickname, and parentage scribbled in the median, and my hand print in the center, each part with a few painful drops of my blood was enough to drop the energy counter down to around three days at 4800 energy required. Assuming my math all holds up. Energy might be coming in faster or slower. My perception of time in such a realm might even be skewed. I might emerge into the realm of the living hundreds of years past the point I died at. Who knows? All I know is that I now have to wait days before I can get something to eat. That or keep working on making the requirements come down. I think my stomach might appreciate that.
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Transcendence?
Author's Comment: I was asked about reading my work on other sites. The answer is simple: Currently I am not active in any other networks than royalroadl.com. Only here, I correct mistakes and errors. If you read it anywhere else and have to pay for it, or have to deal with an annoying amount of advertisement, You Are Being Betrayed. You would do good if you make other people in that network aware of it. This is a free project of mine for the purpose of having fun. And if people try to make money with it you shouldn't bother visiting their website. The only one whom I actually allowed to have my work on his website is Armaell who invested the time to compile them into pdf. (http://armaell-library.net/author/andur) ——————————————————————————————— Reading Order of the Multiverse-Books ——————————————————————————————— Transcendence? is a novel about reincarnation, love, hate and war. And everything else that's included. It follows the main characters, as they climb to the top of their society. And lose their humanity in the process to become something beyond human. It's settled in the same universe as Until death?. It can be seen as a prequel. But I plan for it to be a stand alone book. Nobody has to read Until death? in order to enjoy Transcendence?. There will be cool chapters, sad chapters, romantic chapters and funny chapters. Of course there will be boring chapters too. I believe that some explanation is necessary in every novel. Though I hope that there will be more funny chapters. How a chapter turns out always depends on my mood.
8 213The Badger Dungeon
[Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] Dungeons. Everyone's heard of them. Sprawling maze-like places where you can find special objects that can't be found anywhere else in the world, train to become a great warrior or wizard, and slay dozens of monsters. Drops! Loot! Glory! What more could you want? Dungeons are places of danger and adventure, full of thrills and maybe even romance, where people enter as your normal and everyday person but leave as a hero. Even a child knows what a dungeon is! A dungeon is controlled and ruled over by its Dungeon Core, a mana crystal that's gained sentience, and with it a mind just as twisted as the home that it makes for itself. Dungeon Cores all have very simple wants and needs: to expand and to devour, and to that end, they'll do absolutely everything and anything within their power. Everyone knows that. Sometimes, though? Sometimes the Dungeon Core doesn't know that. Sometimes they wake up all alone, confused and with no clue what they should do, and find themselves quickly becoming the home to a family of badgers and other creatures. The Dungeon Core can be left struggling to figure out their role in the world and how exactly they're supposed to achieve it. They're really doing their best, and you shouldn't judge them for it! The badger thing was a complete mistake but there's just no way they can turn back and fix it so they're just trying to make do, okay?! What would you do in their situation?! Cover art was made with pixel assets from Szadi art and 0x72.
8 262Everyone is a Superhero! Apart from me
Welcome to Loktharma, where everybody is a superhero from birth. That makes Eugene De Lavet the most special of them all. At eighteen years old, he still has no clue what his superpower is. Loktharma has never been a fair world. There are Worldbreakers who were born to brandish the power of the universe, warp time-space, destroy lands and continents. There are Craftmasters who control the elements and terrorize countries with their might and wits. There are Commoners who are only gifted with power for the finer arts, architecture, military arts, or small-scale elemental manipulation. Even in an unjust world like Loktharma, there is always one constant: everyone is assigned a Flair since birth; the power to do something extraordinary. And then there's Eugene. He's been running around in a secluded forest since birth, training and sparring his ass off. While he can wield a blade better than most at his age, he certainly can't throw a giant boulder using the power of his mind, or turn his skin into diamonds. He has no Flair, no purpose for leveling up his stats, and no idea why General Rizeni Baggardo keeps him confined inside a forest for eighteen years. At least until Lord Pyro—the Craftmaster of Tailiah—unleashes his fury on the forest, searching for a treasure Eugene doesn't even know exists. On a frantic escape for his life, Eugene starts to realize he was a part of something he's been completely oblivious to until now. Along with his companions, Melodi and Azra, he travels the land and unveils the secrets of the world. [The story will be told primarily through the lenses of three main characters, with occasional side character POV chapters. It also draws inspiration from Japanese shounen. So only proceed if you're cool with these aspects.]
8 172Infested
In a world where Super human powers are almost guaranteed at birth, one boy was not gifted but rather plagued with the misfortune of the """"Zero Gene"""" case. Punished and tortured by those around him, just because of his mere existence, he uses rage and anguish as a fuel to claim his revenge on those who caused him such pain.*This is my first ever fanfic; if it turns out to be bad, I will delete and try to make a new story**Strong language**Fanfic inspired by venom from marvel*
8 89How To Survive Hell.... Kind Of
Have you ever woken up naked in a strange place? not sure how you got there? well i woke up in a giant bloody pit, I mean that literally, IN A GIANT PIT WITH BLOOD PISSING DOWN THE WALLS! so my day is not going great, the lava does not help either.Oh also the giant salamander.... and the beetles...oh yeah demon's too. Yippee. Fking greatOh look other naked people... i hope they are at least friendly... creepy eyes though.This is my first attempt at writing, have mercy upon me :3
8 181Merciful
(18+)Ali Ahmed Sheikh is a powerful businessman and simultaneous leader of one of the biggest criminal organizations. No one questions him, and what he wants is undoubtedly his. When the opportunity of defeating his father's greatest rival- Abdul Qadeer comes, he takes a step further and captures Abdul's daughter; Anaya. Ali's world is obstructed when he comes to know of a life that is vacant of felony and hatred- all in the mind of a significant woman.Anaya Abassi Qadeer is a virtuous woman, pursuing a career in educating the youth and following the footsteps of her righteous late mother. Anaya is unknown to the fact that her father is a criminal, but by the time she gets the hint it's too late- and she's caught in the world of sinfulness, and hostility all led by a remarkable man.Please be advised. This book does not romanticize abuse or toxic relationships in any way.
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