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[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

Penny slipped in through the door, a dog at her heels. It had...been a while. Her steps held a new hesitance as she secured a chair, and her black bandages were replaced by something darker, thicker...and more structured. A coat, done body suit style. IT even had gloves, to cover her claws...and that was what she was still working through really.

On the table before her was an apple, and she took a moment to just pick it up, holding it, unharmed in wonder. She didn't think that delight was ever going to wear off. She was touching, and holding...and it was sheer joy.

Was it any wonder she'd found her life back home infinitely distracting?

She could only wonder so long though, so with a smile and last, careful tap against the apple, she freed her gloves and cut her snack into slices. Then it was on to homework...it was still far easier to dip her fingers in ink than use a pen. It was...natural.

Mathematics was the hardest subject for her, mainly because she had seen the world around her do too many odd things for simple numbers to define. But if she was to pass her O'levels, she'd need to figure it out. The top of her paper read Structure: Abstract Algebra in elegant copperplate. Under that the numbers began..and she was already butchering a few problems.

[Mun had a bad night at work and needed a nice character in. Slow is kind of a necessity given schedules. Apologies!]

{Tiny Tag: Penance}

Comments

[neveranyeasier.livejournal.com]

ooc: mun fleeing at the moment, but wanted to get a tag in, if that's alright.

Mahone pauses as he passes her table, glancing at the title of her homework.

(He notices her coloration first, then her garb. He takes neither to be unusual.

Briefly, he wonders how Cam's doing.

This is possibly the reason why his expression softens, and he doesn't seem quite so on edge as he usually is.)

"Test coming up?"

[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

[Tags are certainly welcome! As noted I'm headed almost straight into slow as the night catches up with me, so fleeing is just fine!]

She glanced up as the man paused by her table, pupil-less blue eyes somehow just as cheerful as any young woman's would be "Not yet..." she admitted, the words rattled and a translator on her wrist giving the words a heartbeat later.

"A quiz...next week? I just have to get the homework done right." she sighed, tapping the page very, very gently "Do you know math?"

[neveranyeasier.livejournal.com]

It's an odd effect, certainly, but not one that gives him cause for any serious concern.

"I'm not bad at it," he replies, taking a closer look at the page over her shoulder.

This is, perhaps, a little bit of an understatement.

"Which parts're confusing you?"

[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

She beamed at him as he leaned down to look at her work "Isomorphism?" she offered hesitantly, uncertain as to her pronunciation.

"Why do you have to find all the...variations...if they are all the same?"

[neveranyeasier.livejournal.com]

"Isomorphism," he confirms, nodding.

"It's more useful if you're dealing with a relatively unknown field of mathematics, but at this point --"

He smiles a little guiltily.

"-- I'd say it's largely busy work."

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

Xaldin hesitates on his way past, "Good day, Princess."

It pays to be polite.

[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

She jerked her head up at the greeting, hair rattling like wind chimes as she did so. He had called her that before. It wasn't...right. "I am Penny. I am mute" when confused, stick to the rote answers.

Once that statement was rattled and chimed, she lifted her hands carefully away from her homework in order to transfer her attention fully to the man "You have not been stabbed today have you?" yes, she worried.

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

"I am Xaldin, III of XIII, the Whirlwind Lancer. I am not mute." He offers a nod of greeting, then changes it to a shake of his head, "I have not been stabbed today."

[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

"I noticed" she tinkled, a wave of sound that the translator identified as laughter. "Hello, Xaldin. I am glad you have not been stabbed." she smiled easily, despite the crystalline face.

"You have a long name, like my godfather. Is it important to have such a long name or is Xaldin alright?" she asked curiously. Some people needed their titles for identification...so it was a valid question!

[sliceitwithwind.livejournal.com]

"Xaldin is perfectly fine, Princess." he says seriously, "Only members of the Organization call me III. I appreciate not being stabbed as well."

[mago_sonriente]

Someone sitting not too far away couldn't help but take a look at what she was doing. He didn't say anything, exactly, but he did make a sort of hmmmmm noise.

[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

She glanced up at him and blinked at the sound. There were any number reasons people made that noise around her, so it was only polite to ask "Yes?"

[mago_sonriente]

He pointed at her work.

"Sorry. I just..."

Don't let the pretty looks and the smile fool you, this wizard is a bit of a geek. He'd rather die than admit it, though.

"Know how tough that stuff can be."

[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

She was from a reality where some of the most brilliant minds on the planet (or off) could easily make a living as super models. So, yep, no fooling there!

She followed his finger to her problems, then smiled as she carefully nudged the page his way "If you know that, do you also know why anyone thinks it is necessary?"

[mago_sonriente]

"That depends on if you mean in the short term of the long term?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"I'm not sure I know what abstract algebra is."

[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

"That is okay..." Penny rattled cheerfully at the woman "I am pretty sure I don't either." Once her hand was safely lifted from the page, she looked around.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle blinks a bit at the rattling.

She smiles and introduces herself, "Annabelle Newfield, lately of an Earth in the 1930's"

[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

"I am Penny, I am mute!" she offered cheerfully, the rattling apparently being how she talked and the translator on her wrist turning the chime sounds to English.

"From...a lot of places and times but now I live in Yorkshire with my family." and that statement was very important, if the smile wasn't a clue.

[aeons_crackshot]

"Nice to meet you Penny. I'm glad that you're with with your family now."

"I've been to Yorkshire once or twice, but it probably wasn't your Yorkshire." She pauses for a moment, "I never thought I would be speaking of other worlds quite that casually."

[cloakitwithplot.livejournal.com]

It's the math that draws him over. It resonates with something long sleeping inside of him, usually roused only in times he would have been feeling anger and frustration.

Still completely deadpan, however, he points out - "I don't mean to interrupt, but- that one is wrong. And that one, you dropped the f too soon."

[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

There was certainly a great deal of math there! Only about a quarter of the problems on the page were wrong, or in the case of the math at hand, it was more like she did all the reasoning in her head instead of writing through the problem. This led to the occasional hiccup, like missing f's.

At his correction though, she smiled up at him "Thank you" she rattled cheerfully, the translator chattering to Zexion as she pulled out a fresh sheet of paper to recopy.

[cloakitwithplot.livejournal.com]

"If you write each problem out as you figure it out it will take a little longer, but you're less likely to 'lose' numbers and more likely to get a correct answer the first time." Zexion explained.

He'd have to ask about the coat. But... the math came first.

He was helping a Princess of Heart with what looked like math homework.

Zexion was going to have to tell Lexaeus about this later.

[kevlar-diamond.livejournal.com]

She sighed at that, resignation on her face "It is the same thing over and over. The same thing." that was the only complaint she allowed herself as she started writing things out the long way.

"Is this math ever used outside of books? I do not think most people will sit down and write out these forms as they go about...what ever they do..."

[cloakitwithplot.livejournal.com]

"It is used frequently in computer-based sciences, especially the more advanced ones." Zexion states, tilting his head a bit to get a better look at exactly what problems she was given. "Writing this out now is to teach yourself how it's done and ingrain it into memory so that when you need to use it later you do not have to write it all out from fear of losing numbers. Memorization through repetition - may I?" Zexion gestured to one of the other seats at her table.