Life Ore Death
* March 14 [Ferris PoV]
"Come in, come in! Any friends of Wren and Conner are always welcome," I heard Ma Kent declare, and my cheeks warmed.
'
She has said as much almost eight times, and it is still making me happy. Perhaps I should visit more often, for my mood.'
"Thank you very much, Ma'am. Conner said I should just call you Ma?" I heard Karen ask.
Joey tapped my elbow, offering a new lump of dough to me. I ran the rolling pin over the flat piece I had been working on, decided it was sufficient, and traded him for the new piece, while he took the flattened piece over to his mother.
I had been informed that Pi Day was not a formal holiday in any part of Earth, but the Team had adopted it as an excuse to celebrate life all the same. The Superman had volunteered his family's home (under minimal strictures of secrecy, such as no names, once he had approved of the entire guest list), and more than a dozen of us had filtered into the Kent Farm over the day as various school days ended.
I had spent the night after arriving for Sunday evening dinner, at Clark's invitation.
As they did not attend conventional school, Kaldur, Garth, and Tula had arrived via Sphere early this morning, having made a grocery run for flour, butter, milk, sugar, eggs, snacks, and many varieties of fruit.
Joseph had arrived just past noon, bringing his mother and brother with him for the day – he had transferred to home schooling after his injury and his family's decision to move once Slade Wilson's crimes had forced him on the run. Grant had cheered up tremendously when I offered Motherbox's attentions to his nearly healed leg, and had afterward departed to the local large body of water with the three from Atlantis and Pa Kent to enjoy his new fitness.
Raquel, Wally, Lois, Jimmy, Billy Batson (strictly in civilian guise), and his Uncle Dudley had arrived a few hours later via Sphere, after their school and work days had ended, and had intermingled cheerfully as they started up a board game (Lois was winning Monopoly).
'
It seems this will be our final round of arrivals of the night,' I assessed, eyeing my teammates as they filed past the doorway.
Conner, M'gann, Artemis, Zatanna, Karen, and Wendy all waved as they were herded into the sitting room before Ma Kent bustled back into the kitchen with M'gann, who floated up and over the table to settle down by the bowls of pie filling.
Even among all the cheery productiveness and good smells, I still was aware of my limitations. I was in a chair, the only person stationed at the kitchen table instead of by a counter, and abandoning my wheelchair as too bulky meant I would need help to move.
I became re-aware of this fact every time I fidgeted, or shifted my weight.
I tried to keep working.
Rolling the lumps of pie dough flat after Jericho mixed the ingredients together was simple, repetitive, necessary for the task at hand, visibly productive, and appealing to my nature as I brute-force blended in the lumps and forced the dough flat.
The interplay and marbling of ingredients had interesting distractions running through my head, so I could keep smiling nicely.
At least, when I really wanted to hit something, I could grab a lump of dough, twist, spindle, or squeeze it tight, pick it apart into little grainy bits, and rationalize that I was just working out clumps in the batter.
I made sure to wash my hands repeatedly.
Beyond the sweet treats, the togetherness, and my mathematical magic talk, there were four highlights to the night.
The first was when Billy got bored, declared I deserved a break after all the work I had done, and with some maneuvering ended up plopped in my lap at a table for several games. It was deemed that an elementary school student and a non-native speaker could together constitute one whole player in Scrabble. We only won one of the four rounds, but it was fun enough all the same.
The second was a quiet conversation I had with Mrs. Wilson (though she was scheduled to be Ms. Kane again within two months).
"Hello again, Ferris," she murmured to me quietly, taking a seat be side my wheelchair as I watched the sun set on the porch.
"Hello," I greeted politely. '
Catching me only now, at I quiet moment when I am unattended… This could be casual, but…' "Privacy?"
"I was hoping to talk with you in private, yes," she agreed, taking a bite of peach pie.
"Motherbox?" I requested. "Privacy, please?"
<Obliging auditory sonar area isolation, > Motherbox chimed. <Query: translation comprehension assistance desirable? >
"Yes please," I agreed. After the prickling wash of sound passed, I turned back to Joseph's mother. "No one will eavesdrop on us."
"Convenient," she mused. "I don't suppose you would share where you… found this device? Is it xeno-tech?"
"Motherbox is a she or a xe, and she is sapient, as much a person as you and I, if one with a very different psychology," I corrected. "An alien offered me the assistance of one of her kindred for a mutual benefit, and she was one of the ones who volunteered. Was that all?"
"No. Although… Motherbox?" she said experimentally, turning her attention directly on the sapient computer. "Thank you for helping heal my son, Grant. I worry for him, but he has been happy, today, at least."
Motherbox chimed back a complex series of ideas, all generally relating to enthusiasm and positivity.
"Roughly translated, she is saying 'you are welcome,' and 'it was my pleasure'. Motherbox enjoys helping people," I conveyed.
I waited, and turned to watch the sun set as my friends played a game of some kind in the yard. I let the silence stretch.
"You look better than the last time I saw you, though not as well as our first meeting," she said carefully.
'
Did she stumble a bit? Over what to call me? Which is… This is our third meeting, as well,' I noted. "Mm. How may I address you?"
"Adeline will be sufficient," she decided. "Do you prefer Ferris, Wren, or Renka?"
"All are equally applicable. If this is a discussion of business, and heroics, then Ferris may be more appropriate," I decided.
"Ferris, then. You are a very intelligent young woman, and you clearly care deeply for your friends," she began. I tapped a trickle from my zinc-mind, hoping she would work up to the point. "I was wondering why Motherbox had not healed you, if she could heal Grant."
"Just as people possess different skills, interests, and specialties, Motherbox is not identical in abilities to all of her kindred," I explained. "A different Motherbox may or not be better predisposed to healing, but the Motherbox who is caring for me works best with area effects, analysis, and small, subtle changes. She is healing me, slowly," I emphasized, "a little each continuing day, and more importantly, she is ensuring that I will heal, eventually, as completely as possible. Moreover, she technically has not, precisely, healed Grant." I waited.
"Now you have me concerned," Adeline said seriously. "I have seen him on his leg, out of that cast all day. If he has not healed…?"
"Motherbox, could you repeat the explanation for me, please?" I requested. I waited through the series of chimes and beeps as Motherbox elaborated the intricacies of the process more thoroughly. I turned back to Adeline. "Grant's injury had almost entirely healed already, and the remaining waiting period, I think, was intended to strengthen it and avoid re-breaking. What do you know of atoms?"
"What an odd change of subject. I know atoms," she said drily, "molecules, atomic bonds, electrons, protons, and their use in bomb creation."
"You know that, from one perspective," I clarified, "almost all of matter is composed of nothingness, with the space around and between small particles filled by electromagnetic bonds?" '
I am extremely glad to have translation, because this is complicated enough in Scadrese.'
"Yes?"
"Motherbox strengthened the cohesive tension of the bonds in Grant's body, enabling him to use his leg regularly until it healed fully. It will wear off in a week or two, and anything necessary to break it while the effect lasts would need to exert twice the force necessary to harm him when he is healthy without the reinforcement. Is that a sufficient explanation?" I asked.
"Yes, thank you. I had been meaning to wonder why you had not offered the same healing to Joseph. It wouldn't work, would it?"
"Oh." '
Rusts.' "I did not even think of that." '
Why did I not think of that?' "I think," I said slowly, "because I only really knew him after he was maimed, and because I was not introduced to Motherbox until January, it did not occur to me that she could potentially heal him."
"But there's no problem with it?" she asked intently.
<Requiring careful assessment of meta-gene activation mutation consequences, due to genetic potential cross-contamination. >
"Motherbox will need to analyze him more in-depth and act carefully if she tries it, because of the possible consequences of his meta-gene having activated and cross-contamination from potentially incorporating or reacting to M'gann's Martian blood. I will check."
"Thank you," Adeline said, and stood up to leave after another minute.
The third event began not long after that, when Karen took a break from the game and brought me back a slice of blackberry pie.
I saw that she had claimed a plate a pineapple-strawberry pie for herself, and drew the assumption that she would stay by the side.
"Karen," I said before she could walk away, "how are you?" '
It is a simple question, but she is by far the team member I know least.'
"I-? Oh, I'm good," she assured me, but sat in the seat Adeline had vacated. "Guess I need to work on my stamina; I'm beat."
"If I think of good advice, I will tell you." '
Do I want Motherbox to translate again? …No, I need the practice.' "School work okay?"
Karen gave me an odd look. "Yeah… Is there some reason you're asking?"
"You are the teammate I most do not know good. Do not know well," I informed her plainly. Karen chuckled.
"Oh, alright. I thought someone was spreading stories or there was trouble, what have you." She tried to laugh it off, but I thought there was a tinge of genuine nervousness. Before I could ask, she said, "Ice-breakers and get-to-know-you, I can do. Though, it's not really a bad thing, right? I mean, someone has to be last." I made a questioning noise, wondering if I'd missed something. "Someone has to be in last place. Me being the person here you know the least, I mean. If it stops being me, I'll just have bumped down second-to-last."
I huffed a bit of a laugh. "This is correct," I agreed. "Good wisdom. Mm. I want to get to know you… better?"
"Better," she agreed. "Cool. Can the feeling be mutual? I've got some questions I want to ask you."
'
Excellent; I might get as much from her asking as her answering.' "Ask," I invited.
"Do you know any magic I could learn? What would be involved in that, if I wanted to say a phrase backwards and blast stuff?"
"Mm. Difficult. We can ask the Doctor Fate if you can learn order magic. Until we ask, you can, I think, practice the runes."
"Sweet. Order magic just means it intends to make stuff orderly, like stopping chaotic criminals or fixing up my room?"
"The intent is order," I agreed. "Mm. It can create order, or it can follow order. Runes. Rules. Patterns. Limits. Bargains. Okay?"
"We're not talking sell-your-soul bargains, right? I remember you had that in all caps: 'NEVER DEAL WITH DEMONS'," she boomed playfully.
"Never," I agreed. "Mm. Fey. Elemental planes. Individual deities. Maybe make a deal with me, one day," I suggested.
It wasn't impossible, given how similar I was to a New God, that I would one day be able to act as a mystic patron/source.
"Deities like Wonder Woman follows, the Greek gods? Think she could introduce me to one?"
"Yes. Also, on Thursday…" '
I should probably get Kosmima's permission before I tell other people she is a daughter of Hephaestus.'
"Thursday?"
"Meeting someone. Ask if I can introduce you," I said.
"Thanks. Right now I'm pretty much 'super cheerleader,' and double that because I'm still on the sidelines for most stuff."
"Sidelines are important. Annoying," I agreed, drumming my fingernails on my wheelchair, "but important."
"I know," she sighed. "But like you say, it's fucking annoying, especially with how Mal keeps-," She cut off abruptly.
"Mal?" I said curiously. '
Wendy mentioned him, I think. A boy in their class. Karen's boyfriend?'
"We haven't been spending as much time together, since I'm with the Team; it's bugging him, but he can suck it up," she grunted.
"Mm. Do-,"
"Uh-
uh. I've heard I shouldn't discuss this stuff with you unless I want my head turned around. I don't wanna talk about it."
I considered this. "Okay." '
She has mentioned not being content with remaining at baseline.' "If you had super-powers, what type?"
"What type? Out of, like, anything? 'Cause Superman's are always a good idea," she jested, nudging me.
I did my best to smile, and not consider the possibility of doing that, were it not for my reservations about murdering Match. '
Annoying habits.'
"Mm. Small powers. One power, like the Black Canary and Jericho. Pretend if you can learn one spell, cantrip, level one, or level two, or level three from dungeons and dragons, what spell? Two spells, maybe. Invisibility? Fire bolt? Flying? Tongues for languages?"
"You really like that game, don't you?"
"It is good inspiration and imagination," I agreed. "I like the rules, I like the possibility. Feats are very fun."
"Maybe I should go look into it a bit. I don't think Mal plays, but maybe Wendy will snag some books for me from Marvin."
"You may borrow my books," I offered.
"Nah, thanks girlfriend, I'm just thinking out loud. Superpowers, though? I'd want something with lightning. Electricity, like Kaldur has with his eels; that stuff works on everyone, that's why those collars shock people. Hey, any chance I might get some Atlantis lessons?"
"Ask Garth and Tula, or I can ask the Queen Mera if the-," '
Oh, it was a fancy word for school, it sounded similar to Preserve, what was it? No, it's not coming to me.' "-school will take a transfer student. Mm, maybe summer lessons."
"Really? I was sort of joking, but that would rock.
Right, hey, how is your godson doing? Prince Arthur?"
"Prince Artur," I corrected gently. "He is a healthy baby. No sickness. Sleeping. Nursing well."
"Yeah, I guess there's not much news when kids are this young. Do you get to see him often?"
"Mm. When you have school, often, Kaldur and I will go to Atlantis for one or two hours," I confirmed, having been down four times in the past week, including the report of my observations about the Helmet. "It is a relief to swim," I acknowledged, tapping my wheelchair.
"I bet it is. Any idea when you're going to get out of that chair, anyway?"
"In April I will start-," '
How do you say "physical therapy" in English? No, I'll keep it simple.' "-exercise to practice walking. May or June, I think, I will be training to do Team missions in the field again, if nothing is wrong."
"Congrats," she said sincerely.
We chatted of nothing important for a few minutes more, and then Clark called everyone over to the sheet he had set up against the wall of his parents' house, to act as a screen for the projector; I had made (with Wendy's help) a slide show to accompany my speech.
'
I have all my notes, I can pronounce and remember all of the words, everything is in order, and I have practiced. Time to do this.'
"Welcome," I declared from my chair, gesturing grandly. "In honor of Pi Day and my upcoming position teaching magic basics-,"
"Applause, please," Wally called, having zoomed into the center of the projection to display a large
APPLAUSE sign.
I hesitated, having not expected the interruption, and my audience obligingly broke out into claps, cheers, and various calls. I flushed slightly, embarrassed, and then remember that I should roll with it, so I gave an exaggerated bow.
Wally waited around long enough to fist-bump me, after which he flipped the sign to read
QUIET, FOLKS and then zoomed away.
"Thank you," I said once the folks were quiet again. "Mm." '
I'm just going to skip the rest of that sentence.' "This lecture will cover briefly the three areas of-," '
New vocabulary word, I wrote down the pronunciation…' "-numeromancy I find most pertinent: independently powerful numbers, locally significant numbers, and the common characteristics of early whole numbers.
"First, I will discuss independently powerful numbers, as these are, I think, one basis of the existence of numeromancy. The idea of independently powerful numbers is: they are numbers that have special and specific characteristics no matter what base number system you count with; they are numbers that the structure of the universe has recognized as in some way significant.
"Mathematical figures that appear in nature, such as Pi, the Pythagorean Theorem, the Fibonacci sequence, and the Golden Ratio are examples, but these can be much more simple. Prime numbers and exponents will commonly have some form of mystic significance, especially in the ways that you have to organize them when dealing with physical objects in those numbers. Prime numbers have to be kept in one group if they are to be evenly distributed, while squares and cubes may be broken up into their root numbers evenly.
"I say equally and evenly because the universe usually likes balance, and naturally seeks an even distribution. 'Nature abhors a vacuum,' is one common wisdom saying that illustrates this. Heat conduction from hot areas to cold areas will work as well. Please remember this if you come into circumstances where there is an imbalance; the forces of nature will almost always want to seek a way to rebalance themselves, and it is safer to assist them than to stand in their way, in most cases.
"Similarly, if you can identify a pattern or repetition in events that are being influenced by magic, there is the possibility for you to take advantage of the pattern. This is especially prominent in three-fold promises and occurrences, which I will discuss later.
"Next, I will cover locally powerful numbers. These are numbers that have achieved a significance they do not usually have due to local beliefs, deliberate influence from beings' choices, or sheer happenstances that carved itself into the world and people's thoughts. This is where it can often be useful to find patterns, such as the realization that an unknown creature attacks every eleven days, or that a magically cause 'accident' has repeatedly occurred thirteen minutes before noon. I intend to have more examples, but I need to do more research, as these cases can be very specific. I will say that five tends to appear more in Asian cultures and four or three appear in European, though."
"Yeah, because four is death!" someone shouted. I thought it was either Raquel or Karen.
My flow interrupted, I briefly floundered. Then I got out a notecard. Enunciating clearly, I made a note of it.
"Four… is… death. Very good, I did not know that one. Thank you. Mm.
"This leads to my discussion of individual traits of early numbers. Early numbers in particular tend to be powerful, as they are more common and they form the bases of larger number in many cases. We start counting with zero and one, not one thousand, and being small it is easier and faster for us to recognize them when they appear, and to break larger things into a few groups of smaller things.
"I will begin with one: it tends to be sole, and alone, and central, but because of this it is very rare to find one thing being the number of power in a given situation. It is the origin, but mostly it is the unit and the rule-maker. One is the number by which other numbers interact with each other, one adding one adding one and another one. Beyond that, you mostly find its influence in there being one group, or in needing one more, or in changing one thing to another, all of which are indirect, and may be esoteric.
"The best way to use and expect to use one is in group categorization and sympathetic bonds. These are the methods where you identify a group of objects, focus on one trait they all share, and by making a mystic resonance along that trait and connection, you may affect one member of the group and have the consequences shared evenly by all members of the group.
"Two is the next number. Duality, parallelism, pairings, equality in division: two is the only even prime number, and it is a base factor for half of the numbers that we count with. Once something has been done once, it usually can be done twice; this ties to sympathetic bonds as well, since each link is essentially a pair of things connected by the chosen trait.
"Unfortunately, because two is so basic, it again usually forms the bases in larger numbers of connections. Beyond the abstract ideas of beginning and end, presence and absence, hot and cold, light and dark, positive and negative, you usually need to apply it to a certain situation and break it down as appropriate, rather than finding it obvious as it is.
"Thus, I will progress to the number three. Three is significant because it indicates the start of a pattern, and it is the smallest traditional prime number. 'Once is chance, twice is coincidence, three times is conspiracy.' Repeating something three times in an interaction with a magical being will often make it binding, both for you and for the being, so be careful and do not break a promise made this way. Speaking three names, or one name three times, is a key part of many summoning rituals, and a way to force a being to appear before you.
"Other than the fey, who are particularly fond of the number, three appears significantly in the Christian doctrine as a threefold male aspect: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Outside of Christianity, it appears most often in a feminine aspect: the three fates; the three avenging furies of Greek myth; the Maiden, the Mother, and either the Crone or the Moon will often be the third aspect listed. It is easier, if something has occurred twice, to ensure it occurs a third time, than to make it happen a fourth time after the third, and three is often seen as the completion of the pattern, and a fourth attempt will begin a new series of separate events.
"Speaking of which, I shall progress onto the number four, now. It is the first traditional square number, and it appears most often in elemental and natural magic. One common conception of the basis for this is the division of forms of matter and energy as solids, liquids, gases, and energy wavelengths. These four categories are considered to overlap, respectively, with the traditional four elements Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, as well as the four seasons of the year.
"Four, being double two, tends also to manifest as the outcome when you further divide or change between two existing categories, especially in cyclic manner. For instance, I mentioned the seasons. From one perspective, there are only the two individual seasons of Winter and Summer – this manner of thinking applies especially to the Fey – while the times of Spring and Autumn are liminal periods between the two. This applies in daytime as well: dawn, daytime, dusk, and night.
"I have found it helpful to think of four as being the interaction between two dimensions of two, the way two one-dimensional lines interact to form a two-dimensional plane. Forward, backward, left, and right are categories we may think of for directions, as are North, South, East, and West. For more esoteric principles, I tend to identify them as presence, absence, increase, and decrease.
"Four has not been noted to particularly 'get along' with its neighbors, three and five, so attempting to switch from one to another is not recommended. Four also, however, tends to be a cyclic number, as you may surmise from the seasons and the times of day: beginning, middle, end, repeat. There are ways this can interact with the rule of three being magically binding, but it is a complex topic.
"Four is most prominent in Western cultures, drawing from Greco-Roman influences; five is most prominent in Eastern cultures, connecting to the five Taoist elements of earth, fire, water, wood, and metal. Five does appear in Western cultures, particularly in the symbolism of the pentacle, or five-pointed star, but when it appears it is more often a collection of four plus one.
"For instance, the five Greek elements of earth, fire, water, air, and the fifth addition of ether, with ether being considered other and separate from the first four. The five-pointed star is used as a symbol, but in truth, either an X or a four-sided pyramid might be accurate. In the Eastern cultures, the pentagram and pentacle are used to represent the two constructive and destructive cycles of change and interaction between the Taoist elements of the world.
"Constructively: fire grows by burning wood, wood trees grow with water, water condenses on the surface of metal, metal ore is mined from the earth, and earth is fertilized with fire's ashes.
"Destructively: metal weapons chop down wooden trees, tree roots split boulders and leech from the earth and soil, earth muddies and pollutes the water; water extinguishes fire, and fire melts metal.
"I expect everyone can think of some counter-examples and arguments for why parts of this should not apply. Please remember that what I give you are descriptions of thinking about common interactions, and not definitions.
"The most common ways you will encounter the number five, expect, will be either needing to alternate between one of the five elements, or needing to identify a set of five locations or ingredients. Locating places that line up with the points of a pentagram may be done mathematically using what I am told is high school geometry. One downside is that it requires already knowing the location of at least two or three points, and in cases where the points are locations of human sacrifice – yes, that is a genuine thing I have found records of – then….
"Well. We do not often have easy answers. Mm. The last way that the number five usually appears, I should note, is in the senses.
"Six. Six is special in that it may be the first number without a special characteristic, neither prime nor square nor other. Six most often appears in the diabolic, I think, and is connected to being the 'mark of the beast' in Christianity. The prominence of six is also, I think, why many people gather the mistaken impression that five is diabolic, due to the use of pentacles in summoning and other magic. Done properly, it is a six-pointed symbol in that the diabolist's pentacle will be five points focused around a central, sixth point: five plus one.
"When dealing with a supernaturally significant six, the two good approaches are to add a seventh point – seven being considered lucky, where six is, if not unlucky, then at least possessing a lack of luck – or to break it down into groups of two or three. One interesting counter-example," I noted, "to the significance of six as diabolic, is the six-pointed star of David, formed by the union of two three-pointed triangles. I have found sources of scholars citing that the shape represents the union of the two gendered trinities mentioned previously.
"Not being educated in this topic, I will not explore it further, save to note my observation that the negative aspects of the number six appear to be most prominent when it manifests as five-plus-one, while it is more neutral or positive as the product of three-times-two.
"Seven. Seven is very, very well known as a lucky and mystically powerful number. I do not have a solid idea as to why this is, although I believe it being the sum of three and four might contribute. Seven only rarely is important geometrically, as there are few runic circles involving a seven-point star or heptagon. It appears mostly in groups of beings, or in intervals, such as the seven days in a week.
"I…" '
This is embarrassing.' "I appear to have misplaced the rest of my notes, and I think the only one I can do from memory is twelve, so I will skip to that part," I announced, flicking through a few slides, though 8-11 had included minimal details to start with. "Twelve. The zodiac, the twelve throne on Olympus, the months in the year… The most important note I've made is that it appears to have none of six's negative connotations, and usually manifested in patterns of four-times-three, rather than six-times-two. Mm.
"I think," I said and broke it with a yawn I had been repressing for a few minutes, "I will have to end this here, tonight. Happy Pi Day."
APPLAUSE, Wally's sign declared as he zoomed up front again, and I took a bow.
After that, we broke for more pie, and I let Jimmy sneakily pick me up out of the wheelchair and carry me down to a weeping willow tree by the water's edge, which had served as a local 'make-out point' for since Ma and Pa Kent were young. We spent an enjoyable half-hour down there before Clark coughed significantly from the far side of the tree trunk and mentioned that we had been missed.
Jimmy carried me back – he wasn't notably strong, but he was a young adult male and I subtly helped with some iron-mind storage – I tolerated the catcalls we received on reappearing, and Artemis showed me a trick to 'comb out' hickies so they disappeared faster. Most of the others departed in the bio-ship, but as Lois, Jimmy, and I were adults without school the next day, we stayed the night over.
Jimmy and I remained fully clothed despite sharing a mattress. I could not testify as to whether Clark and Lois remained the same.
www.snopes.com
[\SPOILER]
