Daemon Rising, part 4b

[a1enzo]

[Due to the wonders of Millitime, this takes place the morning after this thread, yet at the same time is happening right now. Whoa.]


Contrary to his own expectations, Enzo slept pretty well last night. No nightmares, although he did have a weird dream in which Hex turned into a pile of nulls with Mike the TV's voice. At any rate, he's well rested and ready for some world-saving.

But first, breakfast. He's at the Bar, eating a large waffle with far too much Maple syrup. Frisket has a bowl of something you're probably happier not knowing about.


[Leading to a supply run, mass digitization and mission briefing, and divers excitement and alarums.]

[First two subthreads are plotlocked. Enzo, at least, would welcome greetings in the third.]

Comments

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Mary looks wise.

"It is only complicated because people make it complicated. Things are still true and not true; only adults often do not like to know about things that are true, because they are frightened. It becomes complicated because of all the pretending. Everything else is just as it is."

[a1enzo]

Enzo's brow furrows. That makes some sense... but there's stuff where that doesn't apply.

"'Not all variables are Boolean.'"

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Boolean?"

It sounds like a nonsense word to Mary.

[a1enzo]

"It's an expression. Boolean means it's got a value of true or false. But there's other variable types, ints and doubles and chars and strings, and they can have all kinds of values, y'see?"

It feels odd to explain something so basic, the way Mary might feel if she had to explain the concept of the alphabet.

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Mary files the word 'Boolean' away in her memory - it's a useful one - before turning her attention to the second half of the sentence, which dumped her back right in the realm of nonsense.

"Ints? Chars? I do not know," she says, stiffly, "what any of those mean. They are not words in English."

[a1enzo]

"Oh, those're short for 'integer' and 'character'."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"- characters are people in stories," Mary says, and inserts that into its place in the sentence before exclaiming, scowling, "It still does not make any sense!"

[a1enzo]

"Yeah, but they're also, like, letters and digits and punctuation and spaces and things."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"So they can be any letter," Mary says, a little impatiently. "What of it?"

[a1enzo]

"I dunno, it's just an example. Not everything's true or false."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"A is a," Mary points out. "A is not b. That is still a thing that is true."

[a1enzo]

"Well, yeah, once you've assigned a value, you can make a Boolean out of it..."

Enzo suspects they're talking at cross-purposes. It seems to be one of those culture clash things. He decides to try something a little more universal. Multiversal. Whatever.

"Look, what's a food you like?"

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Strawberry milkshakes," Mary says immediately.

[a1enzo]

"There're people who don't like 'em, right? Or they like another kind better?"

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Yes."

Mary's tone implies that anyone who likes another kind better, however, has fallen prey to the worst kind of foolishness - and as for those who don't like them at all, well. They're almost past redeeming.

[a1enzo]

"So 'strawberry milkshakes are yummy' or 'strawberry is the best kind of milkshake' isn't true, but it's not false either."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Blank look.

"But it is true."

It's just that everyone else is wrong.

[a1enzo]

"It's true to you. It might be false to someone else. It's neither to me 'cause I can't even drink 'em."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"But if you could," Mary says, confidently, "you would find that they were the best - because they are."

[a1enzo]

The debate rages for some time (or at least until the next tangent). At least she's managed to distract him.