Fantasy Cyphra | About Zeros

[Ambiloquous]

Cyphra

Zero.

A placeholder digit, an arithmetic symbol denoting the absence of anything, the additive identity, an oval standing on its shorter curve, and a mark invented by a bunch of post-primates who one day decided “you know, it would be nice to have a character representing nothing”.

While humans think that zero is a complex concept only understood by our very smart brains nurtured with the information inheritance of many smarter brains before us, studies have shown that everything from monkeys to bees have a notion of nil. That the idea of zero is unnatural and conceptualized by people and only people is an unfair way of thinking, but the symbol, the mathematical zero, is very much our own.

Now that a basic introduction to the zero has been completed, we will move on to why I have defined it to you. Yes, you, the one reading this. Perhaps you may be me, too.

Someday, somewhere, and somehow, a mathematician and mural artist named Cipher Ling changed the zero. Well, you might say, how do you know who he is and what he did if you don’t know when or where or how he did so? And I say, through the zeros, of course. You may now be confused and wanting to question my sanity, but you will soon comprehend my words when the zeros around you change the laws we all took for granted.

On Thursday, November 29, 2XXX, a school teacher named Lorelei Margaret Isa-Franke will create a portal to a dimension of thought-inhabiting demons. On Monday, April 1, 2XXX, a tattoo artist named Rochester Gosse will pull a pie out of his client’s back. On Saturday, May 18, 2XXX, a person — name unknown, likely encrypted — will turn themselves into digital strings of binary.

The one occurrence all of these events have in common, was that the protagonists will have written, typed or shaped the number zero down prior to their happenings. But not just a zero. Instead, a pattern, a symbol, a work of art created from the zero combined with another numerical symbol of quantity with a meaning beyond that of zero and a number. In the interesting case of pie, the number added was (𝜋), and in the event of binary conversion, the person most certainly included one (1). The one with portals to demons, I’m still not sure of, but perhaps once Ms. Lorelei Isa-Franke comes back from her newly found dimension, she can tell me through a zero or two.

You might have noticed that I haven’t at all written the numerical symbol zero, that I have been writing it down in letters the whole time. You might think, well, I think they’ve done it on purpose! And you will be right. I have been purposefully avoiding the zero in my message, for no other reason so that nothing nonsensical and magical will happen to this missive. If you haven’t already realized, I’ve sent this segment of knowledge from the future. The only thing connecting us is this flimsy letter you likely found in your mailbox or inbox or whatever box you use to hold communications from a fellow over yonder.

I’m simply writing this to inform you that your world has already changed. It will never be the same again. Love the zero, hail the zero, beware the zero. For it has crept into the nooks and crannies to modify the very fabric of our existence, and not even I am sure whether it will save or destroy us in the end.

0 0 0 0 0 0​

TL; DR.

Zeros have taken over the world, and they happen to be magic. Instead of rituals, chants and lengthy sessions of staring into a crystal ball, one can now simply use numbers to affect the world. Let's use the example of pie. Rochester Gosse wanted pie as he tattooed his client's back. His client's request happened to be that of the pi symbol surrounded by a circle of zeros. Those two things collided, and created a literal pie. For now to forever, a ring of zeros around a pi will summon pies. One might even change the flavour of pie depending on the state of mind they're in as they generate the design, and anything as innocuous as an apple pie to a pie with live alien parasites itching to eat our grey matter might appear.

0 0 0 0 0 0​

Hey, hello, Ami here. I’m not sure how much interest this will get, but don’t be intimidated by the zeros (it’s mostly for flavour, anyway). I found most of the info on the first page when I searched “what is zero”; which also means that none of this is fact checked with reliable sources and you might want to take it with a grain of salt.

This was inspired by a surreal(?) urban fantasy story about four-letter words. I got an idea after reading it and decided to make it an RP so that others would force me to write.

Guidelines

Word Quantity - Three sentences to multi-paragraphs, you do you. If you want to write a novella per post, go ahead, if you decide a really long one liner will make the best impact for a post, you do that too. That said, don’t write a one liner every time, that’ll make me sad.

Linguistic Level - As long as it’s readable. Little grammar errors, spelling mistakes, not knowing how to place a comma are fine, just don’t write blocks of crazy ungrammatical run-on sentences or something.

Post Schedule - Honestly, I’m busy, I bet you’re busy too (or maybe you’re not, you lucky duck), so once every two weeks seems alright. I was going to put a post per month, but I don’t even know if the RP will stay alive for that long. (Though if you like the sound of a month, tell me, I might just change it.)

Multiple Characters - Sure, go ahead, have at it. If you really can’t continue writing a character, I’m sure we could find an amusing way of killing them off or sending them to another dimension.

Tossing Ideas - Hell yeah, tell me what you think, what you want to see, what could be cool. I think the setting has a pretty wide range for whatever people would want to do, and I don’t have much of a plot (or any, I might’ve spent all my brain cells writing this interest check).

Leaving - I’m not a big fan of ghosting, but I won’t go chasing you down for it either. Otherwise, just tell me you want out, no reason needed, and I’ll be A-okay.

 

[Lekiel]

Cyphra

Zero.

A placeholder digit, an arithmetic symbol denoting the absence of anything, the additive identity, an oval standing on its shorter curve, and a mark invented by a bunch of post-primates who one day decided “you know, it would be nice to have a character representing nothing”.

While humans think that zero is a complex concept only understood by our very smart brains nurtured with the information inheritance of many smarter brains before us, studies have shown that everything from monkeys to bees have a notion of nil. That the idea of zero is unnatural and conceptualized by people and only people is an unfair way of thinking, but the symbol, the mathematical zero, is very much our own.

Now that a basic introduction to the zero has been completed, we will move on to why I have defined it to you. Yes, you, the one reading this. Perhaps you may be me, too.

Someday, somewhere, and somehow, a mathematician and mural artist named Cipher Ling changed the zero. Well, you might say, how do you know who he is and what he did if you don’t know when or where or how he did so? And I say, through the zeros, of course. You may now be confused and wanting to question my sanity, but you will soon comprehend my words when the zeros around you change the laws we all took for granted.

On Thursday, November 29, 2XXX, a school teacher named Lorelei Margaret Isa-Franke will create a portal to a dimension of thought-inhabiting demons. On Monday, April 1, 2XXX, a tattoo artist named Rochester Gosse will pull a pie out of his client’s back. On Saturday, May 18, 2XXX, a person — name unknown, likely encrypted — will turn themselves into digital strings of binary.

The one occurrence all of these events have in common, was that the protagonists will have written, typed or shaped the number zero down prior to their happenings. But not just a zero. Instead, a pattern, a symbol, a work of art created from the zero combined with another numerical symbol of quantity with a meaning beyond that of zero and a number. In the interesting case of pie, the number added was (𝜋), and in the event of binary conversion, the person most certainly included one (1). The one with portals to demons, I’m still not sure of, but perhaps once Ms. Lorelei Isa-Franke comes back from her newly found dimension, she can tell me through a zero or two.

You might have noticed that I haven’t at all written the numerical symbol zero, that I have been writing it down in letters the whole time. You might think, well, I think they’ve done it on purpose! And you will be right. I have been purposefully avoiding the zero in my message, for no other reason so that nothing nonsensical and magical will happen to this missive. If you haven’t already realized, I’ve sent this segment of knowledge from the future. The only thing connecting us is this flimsy letter you likely found in your mailbox or inbox or whatever box you use to hold communications from a fellow over yonder.

I’m simply writing this to inform you that your world has already changed. It will never be the same again. Love the zero, hail the zero, beware the zero. For it has crept into the nooks and crannies to modify the very fabric of our existence, and not even I am sure whether it will save or destroy us in the end.

0 0 0 0 0 0​

TL; DR.

Zeros have taken over the world, and they happen to be magic. Instead of rituals, chants and lengthy sessions of staring into a crystal ball, one can now simply use numbers to affect the world. Let's use the example of pie. Rochester Gosse wanted pie as he tattooed his client's back. His client's request happened to be that of the pi symbol surrounded by a circle of zeros. Those two things collided, and created a literal pie. For now to forever, a ring of zeros around a pi will summon pies. One might even change the flavour of pie depending on the state of mind they're in as they generate the design, and something as innocuous as an apple pie to a pie with live alien parasites itching to eat our grey matter might appear.

0 0 0 0 0 0​

Hey, hello, Ami here. I’m not sure how much interest this will get, but don’t be intimidated by the zeros (it’s mostly for flavour, anyway). I found most of the info on the first page when I searched “what is zero”; which also means that none of this is fact checked with reliable sources and you might want to take it with a grain of salt.

This was inspired by a surreal(?) urban fantasy story about four-letter words. I got an idea after reading it and decided to make it an RP so that others would force me to write.

Guidelines

Word Quantity - Three sentences to multi-paragraphs, you do you. If you want to write a novella per post, go ahead, if you decide a really long one liner will make the best impact for a post, you do that too. That said, don’t write a one liner every time, that’ll make me sad.

Linguistic Level - As long as it’s readable. Little grammar errors, spelling mistakes, not knowing how to place a comma are fine, just don’t write blocks of crazy ungrammatical run-on sentences or something.

Post Schedule - Honestly, I’m busy, I bet you’re busy too (or maybe you’re not, you lucky duck), so once every two weeks seems alright. I was going to put a post per month, but I don’t even know if the RP will stay alive for that long. (Though if you like the sound of a month, tell me, I might just change it.)

Multiple Characters - Sure, go ahead, have at it. If you really can’t continue writing a character, I’m sure we could find an amusing way of killing them off or sending them to another dimension.

Tossing Ideas - Hell yeah, tell me what you think, what you want to see, what could be cool. I think the setting has a pretty wide range for whatever people would want to do, and I don’t have much of a plot (or any, I might’ve spent all my brain cells writing this interest check).

Leaving - I’m not a big fan of ghosting, but I won’t go chasing you down for it either. Otherwise, just tell me you want out, no reason needed, and I’ll be A-okay.

While I'm not able to take you up on your offer, I thought you should know that you write really well

 

[Ambiloquous]

While I'm not able to take you up on your offer, I thought you should know that you write really well

Thank you! I'm glad this new style didn't make me sound too pretentious. XD

 

[Moomba]

seems interesting.