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geometropolis · 1 year

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grt3D episode 2: search party

the light dawned quietly on geometropolis, its presence only known to those awake to see its light. kite was one such shape, staring out of the window of her team’s cabin. she was quite lost in thought, ruminating over her team’s loss in the previous challenge.

i could’ve done more for my team, she pondered. i got too cocky with that attack of mine. and when rhombus hit me with that... weird... limb-removing ray? what was that? anyway... when they used that weird thing on me, and my limbs were gone, i got easily hit with the power of two and wasn’t able to do anything helpful the rest of the time…

kite turned back to see her teammates, who were still sound asleep. they were off in dreamland somewhere; hopefully, wherever that was, it was more pleasant than their cabin – it really was the bare necessities. there was little room and few luxuries, but kite didn’t mind. she was too busy thinking to care.

i just hope that none of us get out. someone from our team or helvetica is leaving today. even though i don’t know my teammates too well, i’m sure i’ll miss them. and anyway... what even happens to us when we’re eliminated?

kite glanced out the window again, and heard a subtle staticky noise, as well as... was that whispering? from afar. origin was roaming around, almost hesitantly. kite couldn’t really make out what he was whispering to himself, but she didn’t have much time to think about it - soon enough, a large flash emanated from him... and he was gone. kite briefly considered this in bemusement, but soon relapsed into her quiet contemplation.

…

“are you sure? they might find it annoying... especially this early...”

“OH WELL!”

“...so i should?”

“DO YOU WANT TO WRITE THEM ALL PERSONALIZED INVITATIONS TO GET UP, TWINKLE-SPRINKLE?”

origin was first rather surprised by möbius’ new nickname for him, but then considered the idea. “can i?”

“JUST DO IT.”

“yes, sir...”

origin’s speech subsided, as a large speaker appeared in his center. after a moment, terribly loud elevator music started playing from it.

“goody goodness!” circle exclaimed, having fallen off of his bed. “what in math is that?”

triangle groaned, glancing at him from her bed. “i’d be able to answer your question if i could actually hear you.” she got off and looked around. “ugh, it’s that big golden thingy again. come on, roundy.”

she started to leave and beckoned to her teammates. rectangle filed out after her and frowned. “don’t call him ‘roundy’... that isn’t nice...”

“you don’t mind, do ya?” triangle asked her yellow friend.

“nope!” he replied. “i quite like it, actually. it’s funny.”

“see?” triangle patted rectangle. “don’t fret, tango. hey...you don’t mind me calling you that, do you?”

square chuckled from behind and pushed the three out of the doorway. “come on, möbius probably wants to start things for the day. let’s not dillydally... or whatever.”

soon enough, a cavalcade of polygons (among others) arranged themselves in the field, looking in anticipation at origin and möbius strip. the former was still blasting elevator music.

“can you stop?” octagon called to him. no reply came.

origin edged a tad closer to möbius strip. “hey... moby... can i stop the noise now?”

“MOBY?” if a möbius strip could look incredulous, he sure could pull it off. “MOBY??”

origin edged back. “sorry, um, you just called me ‘twinkle-sprinkle’ earlier and i-“

“WHAT IS IT?”

“oh, can i stop the noise now?”

“YOU DO WHATEVER YOU WANT, PALLY!”

and the noise stopped. silence filled the field.

“so... um... we gonna... do something??” star queried after a moment, rather loudly.

“shhh!” heart pulled his arm.

“YEAH, LOL,” möbius replied, deadpan. “I’M GONNA PUNT ONE OF YOU SUCKERS TO KINGDOM COME.”

the members of yim yum and helvetica looked at their respective teammates morosely. all but pentagon, who likely isn’t capable of looking morose, and heptagon, who was struggling to shield his excitement.

“would you mind telling us where exactly kingdom come is?” oval asked, scratching his head nervously.

a möbius strip obviously doesn’t have eyes, and yet one can certainly give the impression of staring into your soul. möbius proceeded to do so, before retreating and sweetly saying, “YOU’LL BE GOING TO THE PARADOX!”

heptagon’s expression changed into one of distress. he thought they’d be going home.

“oh, okay, thanks,” oval replied to möbius strip, even though he had no clue what the paradox was.

“NO, I MEANT IT.” möbius insisted. “YOU, OVAL, SPECIFICALLY, WILL BE GOING TO THE PARADOX. RIGHT NOW.”

oval stepped back in shock. “what? oh?” he frowned and looked at his teammates. “gosh, i have to leave so soon...” he looked back at möbius. “is there any particular reason why i’m eliminated? a vote, or–”

“BUH-BYE!”

with that, oval started floating towards the buzzing origin - and his limbs suddenly disappeared as he stuck to him with a zhloop.

“golly....” oval looked at rest of the shapes in the field. “well, folks, it’s been nice working with you! i hope you all have a wonderful ti–”

and with a flash and a bang, origin and oval were gone.

heptagon bit his lip and furrowed his brow.

kite sighed, before approaching her remaining teammates. “hey guys... i suppose we didn’t do too well last time... if we work harder, i know we can–”

“we didn’t do well?” parallelogram raised an eyebrow. “sorry to be so harsh, but i think there’s one person here who needs to ‘work harder’.”

he squinted and stared at heptagon, who was now lying down again.

“come on, parry, give him a break–”

“he’s had enough of a break as it is.”

“...well, you can manage to cut him some slack, can’t you? come on, let’s not fight over this.”

“yeah, um, please don’t fight over this actually,” rhombus called to their cousin. “möbius is kinda waiting for you.”

kite gasped. “oh! oh i’m so sorry! please go on with whatever you were gonna say, möbius strip...”

“SHE KNOWS NOT TO CALL ME ‘MOBY’,” möbius muttered to himself, rather loudly. “AAAANYWAY, IT’S CHALLENGE TIME! TODAY’S CHALLENGE WILL BE A SCAVENGER HUNT.”

“ooh! sounds fun!” pentagon smiled.

octagon sighed. “but fewer rules than last time... alas.”

a pause. “IF YOU DON’T MIND,” möbius cleared his theoretical throat. “EACH TEAM WILL GET A LIST OF ITEMS TO FIND AND A CAMERA. AS YOU FIND EACH ITEM ON THE LIST, TAKE A PHOTO OF IT WITH YOUR CAMERA. ONCE YOU’VE FOUND EVERYTHING, COME TO TWINKLE AND SHOW HIM YOUR PHOTOS. THE LAST TEAM TO FINISH THE SCAVENGER HUNT WILL BE UP FOR ELIMINATION.”

heart and star sighed in relief in unison. “finally something less confusing!” they both said. “jinx!” they both said again, and chuckled.

droplet raised her hand.

“YES, MORTAL?” möbius addressed her politely.

“well... twinkle isn’t back yet, and we don’t have the lists or cameras yet either...”

“OH, HE’LL BE BACK. I’LL BE SURE OF IT.”

“um, what about the lists... or cameras...?”

and as she said each, möbius dropped them in the hands of a member of each team.

“BEGIN, I GUESS,” möbius muttered.

“nice! what a cool camera,” trapezoid chuckled to himself, admiring its specs (which weren’t actually very good, mind you).

“yikes! this is one bizarre list,” rectangle blinked incredulously at the paper that just manifested in his hand, given its contents. it ran like so:

MÖBIUS’ MARVELOUS MANIACAL MEGA... SCAVENGER HUNT THINGY (NOTE TO SELF: ASK TWINKY-DINK FOR MORE COOL WORDS STARTING WITH M)

1 - SOMETHING BIG AND GREEN

2 - SOMETHING PUFFY

3 - SOMETHING THAT MAKES THE SOUND ‘WFFFFFFFFTH’

4 - X

5 - SOMETHING THAT SMELLS BLUE

7 - A LONG DISTANCE

8 - MY WILL TO LIVE

9 - WHAT CURSIVE SOUNDS LIKE

10 - WHEN I ASKED FOR YOUR OPINION

11 - ITEM NUMBER SIX

square peered over his shoulder at the list. “... i can’t read this.”

“the first one says ‘something big and green’.”

rectangle’s brother nudged him smugly. “i wonder what that could be.”

rectangle blinked, and paused to think a moment. “...i’m green.”

meanwhile, hexagon was sitting down, plucking at her ukulele (which origin had been so kind to bring her from home, upon her request).

“could you please stop, hexagon?” octagon groaned. “i’m trying to find out how to make pentagon big.” she continued pacing around, chewing thoughtfully on her pacifier.

“mommy says i’ll be big when i’m older,” pentagon noted, stomping at the ground rather violently. “but i don’t want to be bigger. when you’re small, you can crawl into the walls more easily.”

trapezoid sighed. “well anyway, octagon, i don’t see how making pentagon bigger would help. she isn’t green green, she’s chartreuse.”

“chartreuse is technically still green, dummy,” octagon yelled. “and this is the only lead i’ve got, so shut it.”

hexagon turned around. “wait a sec, octy?”

“don’t call me octy.”

“octagon, could you grab pentagon’s right hand? i have an idea.”

octagon shook her head.

“please?”

“why?”

“pretty please?”

octagon grumbled and dramatically swung her arm around to grab pentagon’s hand, sneering. in doing so, she accidentally knocked into rhombus. “watch it!” she snapped, frowning at them.

rhombus wordlessly knocked into their limb remote, which, releasing a beam of light, removed droplet’s limbs. droplet had been sleeping, and the beam awoke her.

“huh… hey, heart! heart! i know what’s puffy!” she exclaimed after coming to her senses.

heart rushed over, rather out of breath. “really? thank goodness...”

“dreams! aren’t they so puffy and light?”

“yeah! but i don’t think we can take pictures of dreams, sorry… hey, where’s the camera anyway?”

“oops. storage full...” star tossed the camera over his head between his hands. “oopsie doopsie doop...”

“star, you know what i told you...” heart took the camera from his friend, and sighed once he began browsing through the photos. “we need this camera for the challenge, not for taking pictures of you... you might be awfully photogenic – i m-mean, heh, you might awfully want to take pictures of yourself right now, but we need this camera if we don’t want to be up for elimination.”

droplet glanced over at the two and blinked.

“oh, it’s fine,” star patted heart and smiled. “we won immunity last time, didn’t we? why can’t it happen again?”

“well, if we don’t look for anything–”

“shshh – you’re worrying too much. you should come relax with me.”

heart sighed and walked over to rhombus, looking forlornly at the list of items to find.

at the same time, kite was busy thinking – not like that’s anything out of the ordinary.

“i’d imagine cursive would sound like... very flowery, perhaps even slightly pretentious, language. i mean, i guess you could write anything in cursive, even crude things, but generally speaking...”

parallelogram toyed with the camera. “what difference would it make? you can’t take a picture of fancy talk.”

“...can’t you record a video on that?” kite asked, motioning to the camera.

“this thing? i think these cost a digit a piece.”

“yeah, it looks pretty cheap, huh. but oh well, we’ll make do... won’t we, heptagon?”

heptagon barely glanced at her in response.

“if you have any suggestions for any of the items on the list, don’t be afraid to tell us.”

he rolled his eyes. “sure thing.”

parallelogram groaned. “well then, if we can’t actually record what cursive sounds like, what now?”

kite thought for a second. “could we take a picture of actual cursive? i mean, if we can’t record anything, i guess cursive itself would represent its sound, right?”

“i guess so. d’you have a pencil?”

kite checked their nonexistent pockets momentarily. “sorry, nope.”

parallelogram tutted. “what now? i can’t write in cursive without a pencil... do you have a pen?”

“nope.”

“crayon?”

“would it suffice to say that i have no writing implements of any sort?”

“yes, even if the very fact would annoy me to no end… what now?”

the two sat there thinking together.

“okay!” hexagon exclaimed. “now trapezoid, grab pentagon’s left hand, ‘kay?”

trapezoid did just that.

“okay,” hexagon continued. “if i’m remembering correctly, if a shape is pulled at from both sides, they’ll dilate for as long as the force is being applied. pentagon, are you okay with a little tug? it shouldn’t hurt.”

pentagon grinned. “yes please!”

trapezoid looked at her with concern.

“okey doke,” hexagon started, pulling out the camera and kneeling down. “now… pull!”

octagon and trapezoid pulled pentagon in two directions at once – causing her to grow in size!

“woah!” pentagon gasped.

“perfect!” hexagon exclaimed after a moment of pulling. “stay right where you are.” then she snapped the shutter and grinned.

octagon approached to look at the photo, causing pentagon to snap back to her original, tiny size. as she handed the camera to octagon, hexagon picked up her ukulele again and strummed in satisfaction.

“this is...” octagon started. “actually really clever of you! wow!”

hexagon strummed again, even more satisfied now, smiling right up against octagon. “thanks! that’s especially flattering, coming from you!”

“oh, sh-shut up,” octagon looked away before hexagon could see her facial expression.

“...can i come back now?” trapezoid called, still holding pentagon’s hand. “did it work?”

“yeah! come see!” hexagon waved at the two of them.

trapezoid and pentagon joined octagon and pentagon and, upon seeing the result of hexagon’s idea, trapezoid patted pentagon on the head with pride. “good job, kiddo!” he said with a smile.

“okay, whatever, so hexagon’s plan worked,” octagon muttered. “let’s just get on with things. what’s next?”

“be polite, missy. and next is ‘something puffy’.”

“okay, ‘smelling blue’ is totally beyond me. whoever wrote these needs help!” triangle tried for the millionth time to rip the list in half, given its infuriating absurdity. however, rectangle snatched it from her again.

“they sure do. möbius lost all of these things and needs us to find them! that must be terrible, losing so many things at once...”

“well, they certainly lost number 6,” square scoffed. “cuz that’s nowhere to be found.”

circle grabbed the list and squinted. “could they hide it somewhere? is it really small or written in invisible ink or something?”

“well, a long distance shouldn’t be too hard to find,” triangle pointed out. “or rather make.”

“how?”

triangle abruptly grabbed rectangle, causing him to yelp.

“woah, dude!” square flared up. “what in math are you doing?”

“i’m gonna throw tango really far! to make a long distance between him and us.”

“you’re gonna do what?” rectangle cried.

“no way am i letting you throw my brother,” square said. “if you have to throw anyone, throw me.”

“or you could just throw me,” circle suggested. “i wouldn’t mind.”

“why are you so worried about getting immunity?” rhombus asked heart, absentmindedly returning droplet’s limbs.

“we don’t know what the paradox is. i don’t want to have to find out.”

droplet, now able to stand up, stood up. she turned and glanced at star, who was busy doing nothing. “i think this would be faster if we could get star to help us!”

heart chuckled sheepishly. “yeah... but star said he wants to relax, so it’s up to us to win the challenge.”

“can you relax with me?” star called. “it’s so boring without you.”

“sorry, star! i can’t right now!”

“ugh... fine...”

heart turned back to his other teammates. “okay, so, anyway, what could ‘x’ mean?”

“you’ve known star since you two were young, correct?” rhombus asked.

“hm? yes...” heart jumped back, rather surprised. “but wait! i n-never told you that.. how do you know?”

rhombus shrugged. “i can’t see why else you two would be so close. you have nothing in common.”

heart bit his lip. “...he’s a fun guy! star’s a nice person who likes people to be happy. i enjoy his company.”

“...i see. also ‘x’ implies a variable, an unknown, which makes your question about what it is kind of redundant.”

parallelogram started aiming the camera to be thrown at heptagon’s resting face.

“don’t!” kite exclaimed. “come on, let’s think.”

“i mean, huh...... hey, wait a sec!”

“what is it?”

“can’t we just take a picture of the words ‘what cursive sounds like’ on the list?”

“what? how? why?”

“i mean, ‘what cursive sounds like’ is indeed ‘what cursive sounds like’, right?”

“...yeah?”

“so we could hand in ‘what cursive sounds like’ for ‘what cursive sounds like’ and technically be correct.”

“yeah... yeah! yeah wait actually you are so right!” in her excitement, kite leaned over and hugged parallelogram.

“i-i am?”

kite retreated shyly. “y-yeah, you are... and wait, couldn’t that technically apply to all of them then?”

“‘something big and green’, ‘something puffy’, ‘something that makes the sound “wffffffffth”’.... yeah, it checks out!”

“not really,” a monotone voice interrupted.

“what? heptagon?” kite turned around.

“it can’t work for the last one, as item number six doesn’t exist.”

“what do you mean?” parallelogram turned to face him as well. “‘item number six’ is the same as ‘item number six’, right?”

“sure, but ‘item number six’ can’t be the same as anything if it never existed to begin with.”

“but... then...” kite bit her lip. “then our plan wouldn’t work for a number of them... nothing actually smells blue, and cursive doesn’t sound like anything, right? and i suppose if somebody were really down in the dumps, their will to live might not exist either...”

“‘my will to live’??” heart slumped, exasperated. “i don’t want to be psychoanalyzed right now! i didn’t sign up for this!”

rhombus paused, swiftly putting away their comically large clipboard. “...you didn’t?”

“we’re gonna be up for elimination, i just know it... we’ve only found two things... i’m so sorry, you two...”

“hey, it’s okay!” droplet patted him on the shoulder. “i don’t think anyone else is finished. betcha they’re just as confuzzled as we are.”

“i doubt that’s possible...”

rhombus blinked at him momentarily. “i think you do need to relax.”

“you ready?” triangle asked.

“i’m not ready, i’m roundy!” circle giggled as triangle held him up.

“yeah, okay.” and without another word triangle sent him flying south. “can one of you two take a picture?” she asked rectangle and square.

“well, we’d have to take it in such a way that shows the long distance,” rectangle noted, “so both you and circle have to be in frame.”

“what does that mean?”

“well, either i walk back really far so the camera captures both of you, or circle moves closer.”

“why should he move closer when i took an entire second to throw him?”

“fair… then i guess i just have to move back myself.”

triangle suddenly grabbed him again. “it’d be easier if i just threw you back instead.” and she did.

“okay folks, we’re down to number 5...” trapezoid eyed the bizarre list. “now, does anyone know what blue smells like?”

“is it supposed to smell like something?” hexagon was tuning her uke.

“hmm...” pentagon popped out of a bush. “would blue paint technically smell like blue?”

“i don’t think each color of paint has a distinct smell... it’d probably just smell like paint,” hexagon pointed out. “unless the different colors of paint do smell different?”

“it might depend on the brand of paint,” trapezoid suggested.

“it doesn’t matter either way!” octagon thumped her foot. “we don’t have any paint!”

“we certainly won’t have any paint with that attitude, octagon,” trapezoid chided.

hexagon sat and thought for a second. “do any of you have paint at home?”

octagon blinked at her confusedly. “y-yeah, but how does that help anything?”

“well,” hexagon stroked her ukulele. “i had my uke at home, and when i asked origin politely to get it for me, he did.”

octagon’s eyes widened. “who? oh yeah! twinkle, that infernal thing! you’re right!”

pentagon looked around, and spotted origin to the northwest. “and good for us, origin finally came back. möbius was right.”

“hey ory!” hexagon waved to him from where she stood. “could you come over here please?”

origin moved over to helvetica swiftly. “is there anything i could do for you?” he asked quietly, happily.

“whoa, i didn’t know it could talk,” octagon muttered.

trapezoid chuckled sheepishly. “hey bud, i think you need to ask origin yourself. the paint is at your house, after all,” he whispered to her.

“fine, okay,” octagon conceded. “twinkle, get me my paints from home.”

origin didn’t reply, but somehow appeared uncomfortable.

octagon grumbled as hexagon nudged her. “ugh. could you pretty please get my paints from home, origin? i would really appreciate it.” she glared at hexagon after this. “this better work,” she whispered behind clenched teeth.

“oh, sure, if you’d like!” origin replied. “thank you for asking so politely.”

and with that he flew off.

“we don’t even know if blue paint smells blue...” octagon sighed.

möbius strip watched the teams from far up north. in the corner of his vision he could see origin flying by, and groaned as he left the field.

“FOR THE LOVE OF GEOMETRY!” möbius cried. “I JUST GOT THAT DWEEB BACK HERE, AND HE’S ALREADY LEAVING! THIS CHALLENGE IS TAKING LONG ENOUGH AS IT IS! UGGGGGGH!!!”

heart glared concernedly at möbius from where he stood. “that guy is terribly loud.”

he looked back at the list and started to pace. “come on, heart, come on! this isn’t like the play in 3rd grade, no, this is something you can actually do... right?”

“hey, heart?” a voice called from the right of him. heart turned around to see rhombus sitting down by star and droplet.

“y-yeah?”

“i’ve looked over every possibility. some of those are literally impossible.”

“möbius strip wouldn’t do that to us, would he?” droplet asked them. “that wouldn’t be very nice...”

“oh, he totally would. anyway,” they turned back to heart. “we’ve tried really hard to find the things on that list, but we can’t. you really should take it easy.”

“but– we’ll–” heart stammered.

“chill out, bromide,” star shrugged. “even if, cuz of you, we win immunity this round, you’d be so darned tired for the next one you wouldn’t even be able to participate!”

heart did realize the truth in his best friend’s words, but still wasn’t comforted. “but if we don’t win immunity this round, i might not be there to even see it… i’ll be in some prime-forsaken place…”

“come here, buddy,” star got up and grabbed heart’s hand, before dragging him down to relax with the other two. “settle down.”

upon laying down, heart’s eyes started to close, and he chuckled momentarily. “dreams really are puffy, aren’t they...?” and then his eyelids became heavy…

“there goes our entire plan...” parallelogram grunted. “thanks a lot...”

heptagon blinked curiously at him, then shrugged and lay down again.

“oh, come now parry. we should thank him for contributing.” kite turned to heptagon. “you’re really smart, you know... you would’ve been a big help last challenge.”

heptagon didn’t reply.

“hm. well,” kite picked up the list again. “then i guess we can’t finish this at all, can we?”

“huh?” parallelogram moved up next to her.

“i mean, if we can’t submit the pictures of the questions for these because they don’t exist, then we can’t submit any pictures for them... cuz they don’t exist.”

“oh shoot... oh shoot, you’re right! dodeca-dang it!”

“what’re we gonna do now? i don’t think we can complete the challenge...”

“well...” parallelogram looked around for a moment. “then i doubt anyone else can, either. i think we’re good for now.”

“we should just wait? till when? i don’t think the challenge ends until 3 teams submit their photos...”

“oh well. i’d be happier relaxing here than doing another challenge.”

“really? i thought you liked it here after all.”

“sure, but not for the challenges.”

kite smiled but decided not to push the obvious question. she turned to heptagon. “are you happy we can relax instead of doing another challenge?”

he simply furrowed his brow.

“i mean, you didn’t seem too keen on competing last time, so i’d imagine you don’t like the challenges.”

heptagon simply shrugged again.

“TRIANGLE!” square yelled, glaring at her for throwing his brother. “WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR?”

“hey, i was just trying to make this quick!” she replied. “your brother isn’t as soft as you think he is. he’s fine.”

“well, you don’t know my brother that well…” square grumbled as he left to find rectangle. triangle followed.

rectangle had hit a tree while holding the camera, causing it to break in half.

“rectangle!” square exclaimed with concern. “are you okay??”

“yeah,” rectangle looked back at square, rubbing his head. “but the camera isn’t…”

“oh my prime!” triangle cried. “tango, what have you done?” she picked up the pieces of the broken camera, frustrated.

“it wasn’t his fault, triangle,” square seethed. “it was yours.”

“um…” rectangle furrowed his brow. “let’s just find circle, okay?”

“TWINKLE! FINALLY!” möbius yelled, startling the large golden shape as he came into view. “come over here, we have a challenge to wrap up.”

“oh– but–” origin stuttered. “i have something to deliver to octagon.”

“deliver? you’re no mailman. did i ever give you permission to do that?”

“sorry, no... can i just... can i just give these to her?”

“i’ll be taking those. what are they? paints?”

“yeah... and they’re also octagon’s...”

“well they’re mine now. once we finish the challenge put them away for me. OKAY,” he was talking much louder now, as if announcing. “WHOEVER’S DONE COME TO TWINKLE TO GET YOUR PHOTOS EVALUATED. REMEMBER, LAST TEAM FINISHED IS UP FOR ELIMINATION!”

he waited several minutes, and not one team approached his co-host.

“WHAT IN MATH IS TAKING THEM SO LONG?” möbius strip groaned. “i’m so bored! and i have things to do...”

origin sighed. “could i... see the list of things they need to find?”

“knock yourself out,” möbius threw one to him, somehow. “...hey wait, i never got you to check it over after i wrote it!”

“...when did you write it?”

“earlier this morning.”

“...i was in the paradox this morning....”

“oopsie.”

origin read over the list, and almost flashed into the paradox in surprise. “n-no wonder nobody’s finished...”

“WHAT IS IT?”

“‘when i asked for your opinion’? forgive my impertinence, sir, but half of these either don’t exist, or at least don’t exist tangibly...”

“WELL, WHEN DID I ASK FOR YOUR OPINION ON MY LIST, HUH?”

origin regarded his boss incredulously, but didn’t give the obvious answer. instead, he simply sighed and asked, “could we please end the challenge early? i don’t think this one was very fair...”

“OOH, AND WE PUT EVERYONE UP FOR ELIMINATION, BECAUSE NONE OF THEM FINISHED?” möbius cackled maniacally. “SOUNDS DEVIOUS! I MIGHT ACTUALLY BE STARTING TO LIKE YOU.”

“uh, n-no, i meant none of them would be... i mean, if th-that’s okay with you, of course.”

möbius regarded him incredulously and groaned. “UGH, YOU’RE SUCH A GOODY-TWO-SHOES. BUT FINE, TWINNY, IF YOU INSIST.”

“...i don’t insist, but yeah, thanks...”

and after a moment, the speaker appeared on origin again. möbius could easily be heard as it was, but he liked being a bit dramatic sometimes. as he announced the following, it was broadcasted through origin’s speaker…

“THIS CHALLENGE IS OVER. ALL OF YOU WIN IMMUNITY. BYE.”

and with that, möbius strip took the paints himself and departed, leaving 15 confused contestants and one awfully embarrassed origin.

“y-yeah...” he apologetically and very shyly addressed them. “s-sorry about all this... we decided that it was... that it was... impossible... to c-complete the challenge...” origin’s voice trailed off. he stayed in place for a few awkward moments.

“what a rip-off!” octagon yelled at him. and with that, origin immediately flashed away to the paradox.

heart woke up abruptly from the sudden noise. “...did we... did we lose...?”

rhombus turned and looked at him. “none of us did.”

“thank the primes!” and heart fell back asleep with a sigh of relief.

…

“hello, um, sorry about this.”

“no, it’s fine. you don’t need to apologize.”

“i should’ve explained to you what was going to happen. where you were about to go.”

“it’s okay, it’s okay…” oval assured him. “but now that i’m here, it’d be nice if i got an explanation.”

“oh, yeah, sure!” origin said. “welcome to the paradox... don’t really know why it’s called that, to be honest. it’s basically just a graph world.”

“ah, okay.”

“it goes on forever and ever... and all there is is this big ol’ grid. nothing more, nothing less.”

“hey twinkle – sorry, origin,” oval piped up after a moment, “could i have my limbs back?”

“oh, sorry, it doesn’t work like that here.”

“oh?”

“yeah, you can’t have limbs in the paradox.”

“bummer.”

“yeah... the paradox is like... the most basic version of our world. no limbs, no faces, just shapes.”

“...ah... so... what will i do here?”

“...proofs.”

“proofs?”

“you’ll be given proofs to solve while you’re here. you have to prove a certain shape is what it says it is. for example, um… prove that you’re an oval!”

“how am i supposed to do that?”

“i don’t know. i guess that’s what you’ll end up learning here.”

“well… i think i’m an oval… no, i know i’m an oval. so therefore, i’m an oval.”

origin chuckled. “guess you cracked the code… but yeah, you’ll be doing proofs. that’s what möbius strip wants eliminated contestants to do, anyway.”

“hm... do i have to, though?”

“i guess not... i don’t really care. and it’s not like möbius can come here and tell me what to do anyway. you can do whatever you want, really.”

“thanks, origin.”

origin paused for a moment. “you’re very welcome.” and then he flashed away.

#story #object novel #osc #geometropolis #geometropolis: race to the 3rd dimension #grt3d

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geometropolis · 1 year

Text

grt3D episode 4: shooting star

content warning: this episode contains depictions of guns/shooting. viewer discretion is advised.

“what time is it?” trapezoid yawned, checking the clock: 3:02 am. he had been roused by a strange noise outside, which he was going to investigate. the night was otherwise cold and silent, just like every other night in geometropolis…

as he was about to leave the cabin trapezoid briefly looked behind him – and caught a glance of pentagon’s empty bed.

“pentagon!” he gasped, and ran outside. he started searching far and wide – throughout the field, around the cabins, and soon made his way to the edge of the forest. “pentagon?” he called. he heard a rustle.

“gotcha!” pentagon exclaimed, jumping at trapezoid from behind a tree.

“PENTAGON!” trapezoid yelled.

the little shape froze in place.

“what in math are you doing out here?” trapezoid continued.

“i-i was just–” pentagon stammered, uncharacteristically meek.

“get back to the cabin immediately! it’s way too dark out for you to be in the forest at night – you’ll hit a tree! you aren’t safe here, all by yourself!”

“...b-but i’m not all by myself. you’re with me.”

“i wasn’t before! primes, who knows what could’ve happened to you! this is unacceptable. come with me right now.”

trapezoid grabbed her hand and started to bring her back to the cabin. the moment he looked back, though… he saw her crying.

“aww, pentagon…” trapezoid stopped walking and patted her on the head. “it’s okay, don’t cry. i’m sorry for yelling at you. let’s just get back to bed, okay? i can sing you a lullaby if you want!”

little pentagon dried her eyes but did not respond. she wrenched her hand from trapezoid’s and ran ahead of him back to the cabin, leaving him to follow behind. by the time he was back inside, pentagon was already asleep – at least, she was pretending to be so trapezoid would leave her alone.

“sweet dreams…” trapezoid said softly, before finally returning to bed himself.

…

“TWINKLE, TWINKLE, GIANT STAR,” möbius strip crooned, “WHY DON’T I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?”

“sorry, i’m right here!” origin said, rushing over to his boss.

“where were you?” möbius strip asked at a normal volume for once.

“in the paradox.”

“why?”

“...to keep track of the eliminated contestants.”

möbius strip again displayed his natural talent of conveying incredulity despite lacking a face. “there’s only one eliminated contestant.”

“...right.”

“...BUT NOT FOR LONG!” möbius strip’s voice regained its characteristic deafening quality. “GOOD MORNING EVERYONE! COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE~!!!”

“geez, dude, can you turn it down a notch?” parallelogram groaned, stretching his tired arms as he left his cabin. kite followed behind him, dragging heptagon by the foot.

“CAN I TURN IT DOWN A NOTCH? CAN ANYONE, REALLY?”

“that’s a good question, actually,” kite mused. “how much control do we really have over our habits? can we–”

“NO. YOU CAN’T. NOW SHUT UP.”

soon enough, all of the contestants had gathered in the field – all except circle. the remaining members of group two had distanced themselves from one another in the crowd.

möbius strip cleared his nonexistent throat and addressed the shapes. “IT IS NOW TIME FOR THE ELIMINATION…”

origin manifested a speaker in his center, which began to play a generic drum roll sound effect.

surely square will be voted out, triangle thought bitterly to herself. he cost us the challenge.

it’s triangle for sure, square mused. serves her right for being a jerk like always.

“AND THE ELIMINATED CONTESTANT IS… CIRCLE!”

everyone gasped. the members of group two gasped the loudest.

origin’s speaker vanished. he shifted uncomfortably.

“CONGRATULATIONS ON LOSING!!!” möbius continued. “NOW WHERE IS THE MAN OF THE HOUR?”

“he never left our cabin,” square said in an unsteady voice.

origin rushed over to group two’s cabin – and circle was indeed inside. origin knocked on the door, and circle went out to him with a morose expression on his face.

“are you okay, circle?” origin asked gently.

circle looked at him with tired eyes. “it didn’t work. they didn’t listen to me. they were arguing all night…”

“i’m sorry… hey… i’m here for you if you need to talk about anything…”

“...i’m eliminated, aren’t i?”

“HURRY IT UP, TWINKY!” möbius yelled from afar.

origin chuckled sadly. “yeah, sorry.”

“...good. i don’t want to spend another second hearing my frie–” circle cut himself off mid-word and corrected himself. “hearing triangle, square, and rectangle fighting and screaming at each other over nothing. if they want to hate each other i don’t want to be a part of it.”

“okay.”

and with that origin started buzzing, causing circle to float towards him and lose his arms and legs. then the two of them flashed away.

“did he just go to the paradox?” möbius asked himself. “yeah i think he went to the paradox... ugh, great, i forgot to ask him to generate the stuff for today’s challenge before he left! …HEY TWINKLE! I DON’T KNOW IF YOU CAN HEAR ME IN YOUR WEIRD LITTLE POCKET DIMENSION THING BUT IF YOU CAN GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!”

“i really don’t have enough ibuprofen for this!!!” heart exclaimed, exasperated.

and, just like that, origin came back.

“SO YOU HEARD ME???”

“...what? …anyway, i just remembered to give you the stuff for the challenge. so here.”

twinkle manifested a number of strange gun-like objects and gave them to möbius strip, before flashing away again.

“huh,” möbius mused. “SO YES: TODAY’S CHALLENGE IS A TURF WAR. YOU WILL ALL GET COLOR GUNS – WHEN YOU POINT AND SHOOT AT AN OBJECT WITH A COLOR GUN, THAT OBJECT WILL CHANGE TO YOUR TEAM’S COLOR. TRY TO CHANGE AS MANY TREES IN THE FOREST YOUR TEAM’S COLOR AS YOU CAN IN THE NEXT 20 MINUTES. THE TEAM WITH THE LEAST AMOUNT OF TREES THEIR COLOR WILL BE UP FOR ELIMINATION.”

he sent the color guns flying out among the teams. group two’s color guns were mint green; the cool kids’ color guns were baby pink; yim yum’s color guns were salmon; helvetica’s color guns were pale blue.

“OH YEAH. AND UM, DON’T SHOOT EACH OTHER. IT HURTS… AND THE COLOR STICKS TO SHAPES FOR, LIKE, WEEKS. IF YOU DO YOUR TEAM AUTOMATICALLY LOSES… OKAY, SO–”

“wait!” parallelogram yelled. “you gave our team four color guns, even though we only have three team members!”

“yeah!” triangle yelled back. “why do we only have three while they have four?”

“OOPS. OH WELL.” möbius didn’t seem to care.

“well, i guess that just means we have extra ammo,” kite pointed out. “hm… heptagon has started to help more in challenges! i think if we give him a clear outlet to help more, he might, well, help more…”

“what, you want to give him the extra color gun in addition to his own?” parallelogram asked incredulously. “i thought the both of us would get two each.”

“parry… he’s getting better. we should give him a chance.”

unlike he had on days prior, heptagon was not lying down with his eyes closed; instead, he was silently sitting and gazing at his teammates.

parallelogram looked at him and groaned. “fine. heptagon, you get the extra color gun.”

“wait, what?” heptagon blurted.

“OH MY GOD, ARE YOU IDIOTS DONE TALKING?” möbius groaned. “YOU ALWAYS DO THAT.”

“sorry!!” kite said.

“...OKAY. NOW, WITHOUT FURTHER ADO… BEGIN!”

origin suddenly appeared, with his camera lens.

“OF COURSE YOU ONLY CAME TO WATCH…”

heart instantly grabbed his color gun and set out for the forest. “c’mon, team! we gotta get started if we don’t want to lose!!”

“wait, heart!” star called after him. “you agreed you’d hang out with me today!”

“later!”

rhombus and droplet grabbed their color guns and joined heart.

“but…” star frowned and begrudgingly followed his team, led by the frantically determined heart. “you always say that…”

meanwhile, square just approached his brother.

“you better come with me,” square told him. “let’s stay away from triangle so she can’t ruin our chances of doing anything.”

“stop talking about her like that!” rectangle said. “triangle’s our friend.”

“no, she’s your friend. apparently. even though it’s her fault poor circle is gone…”

rectangle scoffed.

“now, like i said, if we just go ourselves we’ll do fine. come with me–”

“no.”

“what?”

“i’m going with triangle.”

“i’m not going anywhere with trapezoid!” pentagon exclaimed defiantly, clinging to hexagon as the team was about to leave for the forest.

“why?” hexagon asked. “he was just worried about you.”

“he yelled at me!”

“i didn’t–” trapezoid started. “okay, well, i did, but–”

“i’m not going with him,” pentagon concluded.

“well…” octagon pondered, “how about we split up, then?”

“i’m going with hexagon!” pentagon announced.

“okay,” hexagon chuckled.

“then i’m going with trapezoid,” octagon affirmed. “and hey, we’ll cover more ground this way. c’mon, trapezoid…”

trapezoid followed octagon into the forest, sighing…

“kite, are you sure this is a good idea?” parallelogram asked, shooting a couple trees and turning them salmon.

“yes. and stop asking that right in front of him! heptagon–” kite now turned around, “–how are things going?”

but heptagon was nowhere in sight.

“what did i say?” parallelogram spat. “he’s no good for anything! you shouldn’t have trusted him with such a big responsibility. and not only is he gone, but also two precious color guns!”

“sorry, i guess i just wanted to believe he was starting to care…” kite sighed. “but there’s no point in trying to look for him so we could get the color guns back. that’d waste so much of our time.”

“i guess you’re right…” parallelogram conceded. “and i’m sorry for getting angry at you. the anger’s for heptagon, and, well, he’s never there to receive it.”

“heh.” kite shot some more trees salmon.

where had heptagon gone?

“this place is so much better when nobody’s here,” he said to himself back at his team’s cabin. “hey, it almost looks like home!”

then he suddenly went quiet. heptagon was quiet for a while.

“hexagon, you’re so nice,” pentagon said. she skipped ahead of hexagon and shot a few trees, going “pew pew pew!” as she did so.

hexagon smiled and shot a tree herself; pentagon had already gotten most of them in the area. “i’m glad you think so! but y’know, trapezoid’s trying to be nice as well…”

“no he isn’t! he just gets mad at me for no reason.”

“i’m really sorry he yelled at you like that. that wasn’t nice.”

“so he isn’t nice! just like i said!”

“pentagon… he shouldn’t have yelled at you. but do you know why he was angry at all?”

“because i was here instead of in the cabin.”

“because you could’ve gotten hurt,” hexagon tilted her head and made eye contact with pentagon. “he was angry because he wanted you to be safe, and you weren’t.”

pentagon paused, confused. “why didn’t he just bring me back then, right when he found me?”

“well, he had to tell you not to do it again, right? so you wouldn’t come back here at night again?”

“...but i will. i need to.”

trapezoid and octagon weren’t nearly as fast as pentagon, but they still made good progress.

“i just don’t understand why she doesn’t understand me!” trapezoid complained as octagon shot a few trees up ahead.

“what is she, 10?” octagon replied. “give her a break.”

“listen, you of all people should know i babysit! little kids aren’t normally this stubborn!”

octagon chewed her pacifier slowly. “what, is she a normal little kid?”

trapezoid regarded octagon for a couple moments. “i suppose not… why?”

“do you know why she was here last night to begin with?”

“no, she didn’t tell me.”

“did you let her?”

trapezoid sighed. “i guess not…”

“bingo!” octagon exclaimed, shooting another tree. “she’s gonna come back here tonight no matter what you say, because she has a reason to.”

“i gotta go talk to her…” trapezoid said, turning to leave.

“okay, as long as you color some more trees blue on the way…” octagon muttered.

and now she was alone.

heart was busy shooting every tree he could see.

“you’re good at this,” rhombus noted. “you have good aim.”

“thanks! i have to.”

droplet wasn’t such a good aim herself, but it was the thought that counts. “how much time do we have left?” she asked. “if we have enough we might be able to do my plan!”

“we’re not doing your plan, droplet,” rhombus dismissed her.

“i think we’re a quarter of the way through…” heart replied. “wait, a quarter? for the love of geometry, we gotta pick up the pace! oh my primes!!”

“dude, we already have, like, a third of the trees pink,” star pointed out, having finally caught up with the rest of his team.

“that’s not enough! the other teams are probably changing our trees into green and blue and prime knows what as we speak!!” heart jolted around to look at his best friend. “...star… where’s your color gun?”

star blinked at him. “oh, that thing? i forgot it somewhere… whoops.”

heart glared at him. “...’whoops’? ‘whoops’? are we seriously risking our lives over a ‘whoops’?”

“whoa! since when was this a matter of life and death, buddy?”

“oh, i don’t know, s-since always? why, do you know what the paradox is? do you want to risk potentially being thrown into an alternate dimension which we’ve never seen or known of before in our lives and for all we know could kill us?”

“dude,” star took a step back. “it isn’t that big of a deal.”

rhombus rolled their eyes and walked away, shooting more trees. droplet’s eyes darted between rhombus and her other teammates; she stood still.

“why aren’t you taking this seriously?” heart cried. “why don’t you ever take me seriously?”

star didn’t reply.

“i only signed up for this… for this d-dumb show because you wanted me to! i don’t want to go to the third dimension, cuz i’m t-terrified of it, but i don’t want to go to the paradox either! at least i’m mostly sure the third d-dimension won’t kill me!”

“heart! just calm down!”

“...you always say that. you s-say that whenever i’m worried about anything. and look, now we’re gonna lose because i’ve spent all this time arguing with you instead of turning more trees pink…” heart cocked his color gun again.

“stop following me, rectangle,” triangle snapped. “don’t go parroting your idiot brother and saying circle’s elimination is my fault.”

“i’m not gonna,” rectangle snapped back. “we’re friends, triangle. no matter what square says.”

“screw him.”

“yeah… screw him. so how many trees have you gotten so far?”

“a heck of a ton. we have the second most now… all thanks to me.”

rectangle shot a few trees, turning them from salmon to mint green. “i can help too, y’know.”

“sure,” triangle said absently.

“screw her,” square muttered to himself. “lousy son of a–”

he then bumped into kite, who had been too busy thinking to be aware of her surroundings. she promptly apologized.

“hey, where’s the rest of your team?” parallelogram asked from behind her.

“i don’t know,” square replied coolly, “where’s yours?”

square walked past the two and shook his head. “at least they didn’t know oval well before they lost him. i’ve known circle since… since…”

“since forever?” hexagon finished for him. pentagon was holding her hand. “i’m sorry he got eliminated, square.”

“could you please leave me alone?” square moaned, turning back the other direction – right towards heart and star.

parallelogram dropped his gun in exhaustion. “this sucks,” he said.

“that’s the…” kite thought for a moment. “that’s the 13th time you’ve said that today.”

“because it’s true.”

“...right.”

“well? we’re the first team to lose a member, we practically only have two members now because one might as well not exist, and we’re currently losing, meaning by tomorrow that number will be down to one.”

“look on the bright side,” kite started, “we’re doing pretty well for a two-person team.”

“yeah, i suppose,” parallelogram smiled, “but unfortunately ‘pretty well’ isn’t good enough.”

“if only it were…”

“yeah, if only…”

trapezoid finally made it to the other half of his team. “pentagon!” he called.

pentagon frowned upon seeing him; she held hexagon’s hand tighter.

after catching his breath, trapezoid kneeled down beside her. “hey, pentagon… i’d just like to ask… why did you go into the forest last night?”

“i… i couldn’t just stay in the cabin all night.”

“why not?”

“i need to get all my energy out before i go to sleep. it was really hard to sleep the night before when i stayed in the cabin all night...”

“oh, i see.”

trapezoid looked towards hexagon; hexagon smiled at him, and trapezoid’s gaze returned to pentagon.

“...hey, i’ll tell you what,” trapezoid stood up again, “how about you and i take a walk in the forest together before bed? that way you can move around as much as you like and get all of that energy out while also being safe. what do you think?”

pentagon went over and held his hand. “if we start running around now i’ll get all the energy out sooner. c’mon!” and with that she took off at lightning speed, trapezoid in tow. trapezoid colored some more trees as he went, smiling.

octagon had been trying to keep track of how many trees she changed, but that number became fuzzy as her mind clouded over.

it’s always the three of them, she thought, chewing her pacifier methodically. trapezoid, hexagon, and pentagon… the perfect trio…

“heyyyy octagon!” a familiar voice sang from behind a tree.

“hey hexagon.”

“how’s it going?”

“fine. you?”

“good! thanks for knocking some sense into trapezoid. things are going a lot better now.”

octagon blinked in surprise. “what? i did that?”

“you sure did!” hexagon beamed, patting octagon’s shoulder. “and wow, that’s a lot of blue trees! they look so pretty, don’t they?”

octagon looked out at them. “yeah… yeah, i guess they do.” she smiled back. perhaps she was part of the perfect quartet, not just an addition to the perfect trio.

“rhombus, rhombus!” droplet called.

“stop saying my name,” rhombus groaned, turning more and more trees pink.

“can we please try my idea?”

“no.”

“but if we use our color guns to make someone else’s color guns pink, then they’d shoot more pink for us! it’d work!”

“if we shoot anywhere near somebody’s color gun, then we’re shooting dangerously close to their body. do you want to instantly lose for shooting someone? don’t be so naïve, droplet.”

heart, remarkably trigger-happy for someone usually so inhibited, kept darting around, changing trees to pink with shaky hands. star struggled to keep up with him.

“of course i tell you to calm down all the time, heart! because you’re always so worried about everything… for no reason! don’t you remember back in middle school, how much fun we had together? don’t you miss that? don’t you miss when things were normal?”

heart kept shooting. “shut up,” he said behind clenched teeth.

“what… what is wrong with you, heart?” star yelled.

“SHUT UP!” heart cried, swinging his arm around.

BANG!

star flew back. he was pink.

everyone froze at the sound, including heart himself.

“OOOOOOOKAY THAT’S ENOUGH FOLKS,” möbius cut in. “THE COOL KIDS LOSE. I GUESS.”

square turned as heart dropped the color gun and ran deep into the forest.

a few silent moments passed.

“hey, um, möbius strip?” parallelogram called. “who would’ve won if not for… y’know?”

“the cool kids.”

rhombus seethed. “i hate this team.”

…

“thanks for setting up the camera, origin,” oval said.

“of course! i wanted you guys to be able to see what’s going on in the challenge.”

the video recorded by origin with his camera lens was being shown in the paradox, live, in a little 10x10 grid.

the now faceless, limbless circle had been sitting quietly by himself upon arrival. now he translated over next to oval to watch the challenge as origin popped back into geometropolis.

“i hate my friends,” circle said suddenly.

“i don’t blame you,” oval said.

“i love them too, of course…” circle paused. “but i’m glad i get to be away from them. so i can hate them, if only just for a little while.”

“do you think they could get along again?”

“i don’t know. it’s not like it’d make much of a difference anyway… the four of us don’t hang out much anymore as it is. square and triangle could go on to despise each other for the rest of their lives.”

“you wouldn’t like that, would you?”

“no.”

the two watched on in silence. eventually, origin returned.

“sorry about the ending there. poor guys, geez…”

neither shape responded.

“we’re only, what, four days into the competition? and everyone’s already so on edge… it isn’t usually this early…” origin’s voice trailed off.

“i mean, they all really want to go to the third dimension,” oval noted. “well, except for heart. and heptagon. and i guess parallelogram too? but he seems happy to compete now that he’s had a few days…”

“the challenge is transforming all of us,” circle said in a monotone voice, “whether we like it or not.”

#story #object novel #osc #geometropolis #geometropolis: race to the 3rd dimension #grt3d

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geometropolis · 1 year

Text

grt3D episode 15: proof

the inhabitants of the paradox had given in and decided they’d do proofs to pass the time.

“it wouldn’t hurt,” parallelogram had said.

“okey dokey!” origin had replied. “so… who would like to volunteer to be proven?”

“me me me!!!!” pentagon had exclaimed, jumping up and down.

“okay… so pentagon, as you can see, is a regular pentagon. let’s name her vertices A, B, C, D, and E, going clockwise from her top point… now, if i inscribe a triangle in her, with vertices at A, C, and D–” with a flash a triangle appeared on pentagon, “–prove that this triangle is isosceles.”

triangle groaned. this is gonna be a long day.

and thus they all proceed to do proofs through the challenge into the night.

“pentagon and heptagon were annoying to solve,” triangle whined. “let’s do someone easy.”

“okay, how about you then?” rectangle suggested, nudging her.

“auugh.”

“sounds good to me!” origin said. “okay… so let’s label her top vertex A, right vertex B, and left vertex C… now, if side AB is congruent to side AC, prove that angle A is congruent to angle C!”

“...well, first we have our given information,” oval said. “side AB is congruent to side AC, because that’s given.”

“okay, then, we might be able to do CPCTC later on if we split her in half,” droplet suggested.

“WHAT?” triangle cried.

“she just m-meant a line that bisects you,” heart explained. “so angle A is bisected as well.”

“okay, so we’re making a bisector,” origin announced. “bisecting angle A, and dropping down to side BC on point… D.” this bisector then appeared.

“now that angle A is bisected, we have two new angles,” kite said. “angle CAD and angle BAD.”

“angle BAD?” trapezoid said. “i thought angle GOOD.”

pentagon chuckled.

“...then we can say that angles CAD and BAD are congruent, because that’s what a bisector does,” kite continued.

“and, well, we can use the reflexive property to prove that bisector AD is congruent to itself!” rhombus exclaimed. “which means that the two halves of triangle have a side, an angle, and a side in common!! SAS!!!”

“so the triangles are congruent,” heptagon said. “then you do CPCTC, and angles A and C are congruent.”

“hooray!!!!” origin giggled. “you got another one!!!!!!!”

“you people are such nerds,” triangle groaned. “and get this bisector off of me!!”

with a flash the bisector disappeared. “sorry! …okay, so who’s next?”

nobody spoke up.

“y’know, now that i think about it, proofs are actually really boring,” parallelogram said. “this stuff sucks.”

“you’re all very good at it, though!” origin pointed out.

“well yeah, because we’ve had to do it a billion times in school,” circle answered. “we all know how… even if we don’t want to.”

“really?”

“yes!” pentagon exclaimed. “and i hate school!!!”

“y’know, i got in trouble at school because i would fool around,” trapezoid said. “but that’s because it was so annoying! everything was memorization – memorize all of these equations and properties and whatnot! because that’s what your jobs are gonna be! equations and properties and whatnot!! and i had a horrible memory so every class was boring and stressful at the same time. living hell, that’s what it was.”

“yeah…” droplet concurred. “i get in trouble for doodling in class even though it’s the only way for me to pay attention.”

“wait a sec–” rectangle interjected, “i always thought i had all these fond memories of high school, but it’s only because square and triangle would convince circle and i to cut class. we’d just hang out and talk…”

“oh yeah!” circle piped up. “those were good times.”

“i only did well because i was scared my t-teachers would get mad at me if i didn’t,” heart admitted.

“does anyone here even like math?” oval asked.

after a moment, rhombus spoke up. “...i do.”

“i guess we shouldn’t be too surprised.”

“but i do wish it weren’t shoved in my face. it makes it a lot less fun.”

“okay,” triangle said, “so we can all agree that school sucks?”

“i guess so,” origin concluded.

“but don’t say that in front of the children!” trapezoid spoke in a hushed voice, gesturing towards pentagon and droplet.

“we already know it sucks!” they said in unison.

“...anyway, it’s not only school. our jobs are the same, it’s just that now we get paid to push pencils.”

“it isn’t all bad…” heptagon murmured.

“hm?”

“i mean… it’s kinda silly, but i like it. i like having a ‘boring’ life.”

parallelogram understood. “you don’t really find it boring, do you?”

“no. i don’t particularly enjoy math, but i’m fine doing it. it’s nice.”

“geez, you really weren’t the target demographic for this show,” triangle chuckled. “that’s unfortunate.”

“but as for the rest of you…” origin said, “no wonder you all wanted to win so badly. if i were you i’d do anything to get out of geometropolis.”

“so we’ve torn each other apart over it.”

“möbius strip definitely won’t let you guys forget it. sorry about that.”

“stop apologizing for him!” oval exclaimed. “goodness gracious, he’s messed you up as much as the rest of us.”

“how?”

“he forces you to do his bidding. that alone must not be fun, but especially for the eliminations? yeesh.”

“i mean… it isn’t that bad. i’m used to it at this point.”

“...what makes you say that?” parallelogram asked.

“i’ve been doing this for a long, long while. race to the 3rd dimension, i mean.”

nobody knew what he meant.

“anyway,” origin continued, “i suppose that’s it for the proofs. so what now? what are you all gonna do?”

“i’m not sure…” droplet said.

“well… you have the whole paradox to explore. you can do whatever you want.”

rectangle paused for thought. “...what do we want?”

nobody had a proper response to that.

“darn,” triangle muttered. “hey, what time is it?”

“i think it’s around midnight,” origin said. “we’ve been doing this for a while.”

“ugh.”

“i’m going to sleep…” heptagon mumbled.

“i mean, what is there for us to do?” oval asked. “we’ve already done proofs. we’ve already talked. we’ve already reconciled with one another a billion times over. there’s no challenge to watch… hey, origin, what’s tomorrow’s challenge? or… i guess… today’s? it is midnight.”

“um, there won’t be a challenge today,” origin replied. “möbius strip is gonna have me set up the stuff for the final challenge, and that’ll take all day.”

“so what will the final contestants do?” droplet asked.

“i guess they’ll be as bored as you guys are.”

“golly.”

“huh, i wonder who the final contestants will be…” rhombus muttered. “we didn’t see yesterday’s challenge, so we don’t know who’s up for elimination.”

“true…” trapezoid said. “as of now we have hexagon, octagon, star, and square. hey origin, what was yesterday’s challenge? if möbius tells you these things ahead of time you should know.”

“oh yeah,” origin replied. “it would’ve been a go-kart race. i wonder how they pulled that off without me making the karts…”

“so, hm, who would win at a go-kart race?”

“i would,” pentagon said.

heart laughed. “who of the remaining contestants would win at a g-go-kart race?”

“i mean, supposing they had to build their own go-karts…” kite mused, “droplet was the inventor. she had major influence on both star and square, so perhaps they had an upper hand.”

droplet nodded.

“at the same time,” rectangle pointed out, “hexagon and octagon are, respectfully… big nerds.”

triangle guffawed. “takes one to know one, tango!”

rectangle giggled. “you know what i mean. those two would be able to plan something smart, i’m sure.”

“they have been working well together!” circle added. “golly, helvetica always seems to pull through, huh?”

“indeed we do!” trapezoid concurred.

“because we’re the best team!!!!!” pentagon exclaimed. “i bet one of us won.”

“i wouldn’t put it past them,” parallelogram said.

the conversation didn’t end up going anywhere from that point.

“this is why i hate summer,” triangle groaned after a while. “at least during the rest of the year i have work or school or something to do. now we’re all stuck here doing nothing.”

“funny how this weird pocket dimension of nothingness evokes the same feelings as home,” rectangle said sadly. “why haven’t we all moved away?”

“we tried to.”

and then there was silence.

“triangle,” circle piped up after a moment, “if rectangle, square, and i didn’t sign up for race to the 3rd dimension, would you?”

“probably.”

“but you wanted us to sign up.”

“...yeah.”

“i mean, i only signed up cuz star w-wanted me to,” heart pointed out. “i could never just up and l-leave on my own.”

“but anyway,” rhombus said, “this would only be a vacation. 3rd dimension for a few days, and then back to geometropolis. say, origin, how long will the winner stay there?”

“uhhh i dunno,” origin answered. “möbius strip is in charge of that. he’s never told me.”

“but we’re presuming it’s temporary?”

“...i’d imagine.”

heart found this response unnerving.

“i knew someone in college who moved out of geometropolis,” oval said. “never heard from him again though. i bet he completely forgot this place existed.”

“were you friends with him?” droplet asked.

“no. i don’t think he had any friends, actually.”

“have any of your friends moved out?” kite asked.

“no… i guess not. not friends, anyway.”

“hm.”

“rectangle…” triangle murmured. “you know better than anyone how much square hated it in geometropolis. he could’ve moved.”

“well…” rectangle replied, “there’s probably a reason why he never told you guys. he’d never just leave you here.”

“screw us all, we’re too sentimental to get out of that hellhole,” parallelogram chuckled.

“hey, parry…” kite said, “at first you really didn’t wanna be here. why didn’t you sign up? what was keeping you?”

“i mean… well, it’s stupid. i was about to get a raise.”

“ah.”

“but i don’t care about that anymore. i’m glad i’ve gotten the chance to be here.”

“even though you hate the host and the way the show works?” origin asked.

“...yeah.”

“and even though you’re all bored as sin.”

“i mean…”

“maybe you should just go to sleep, parry,” heptagon muttered, having partially woken up. “none of you would be bored if you were asleep.”

“but i’d rather be awake to talk,” droplet said. “even though it’s far past my bedtime.”

“...and even though you’re all bored as sin,” origin repeated.

“i feel like you’re trying to prove a point, origin,” trapezoid said.

“i’m just trying to understand. do you folks like to be bored? or stressed out of your mind? both? i thought some of you guys hated each of those respective things. if you keep complaining about things, why won’t you change them?”

“there’s not much we could change,” triangle said. “in the challenge, or in here.”

“or in your regular lives?”

“or in our regular lives.”

“i mean, we do our best to change things for the better, when we can,” circle said, “but i guess in the end there’s only so much you can do. and you have to find a way to be content with it.”

“but you guys compared geometropolis to hell approximately a billion times!” origin exclaimed. “how could you be content with hell?”

“only the primes know,” kite said wistfully. “do we genuinely love our hometown? do we genuinely love this show? or are we just so used to them that we, chaining ourselves to one another, fool ourselves into thinking we love them?”

“ohhhhhhhhh!!!!!! just like borromean rings!!!!!!!!!!”

“...what?”

“oh, it’s a 3D thing. if i tried to explain it, it wouldn’t make any sense to you.”

“then how do you understand it?” rhombus asked.

“through my sister. she’s in the 3rd dimension… but anyway! i understand now: none of you are really connected to your current state, but through a proverbial brunnian link you are staying put. you cannot separate from one another.”

“...i guess?” triangle replied quizzically.

“whoever ends up going to the 3rd dimension will better understand,” rectangle said wryly.

“and who do we think that will be?” parallelogram asked.

“we’re still not sure of the finalists…!”

“but we will be in a couple of hours!” origin exclaimed. “i suppose you all should try to sleep: i bet this morning will be pretty crazy…!”

…

octagon lay in bed alone. she had never seen hexagon enter the cabin the night before.

“i swear i did not play hooky,” octagon sang to herself softly, “i just want to eat a cookie…”

she took the pacifier out of her mouth.

“i am a girl who’s oh-so sweet, but i just want a little treat…”

octagon held the pacifier with shaky hands and went silent.

“HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!” a voice sang. möbius strip, obviously, from the volume of his voice.

octagon jolted and fell from her bed.

“IT’S TIME FOR THE ELIMINATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

she stuck the pacifier back in her mouth and wearily trudged out the door. she met the other contestants in the field.

all except hexagon.

star yawned. “oh, origin, you’re back.”

the big shape indeed was. “yes, i am! good morning…”

“SO… SQUARE, OCTAGON, AND STAR…” möbius said, “ONE OF YOU WILL NOT BE ADVANCING TO THE FINALS. WHO WILL IT BE…?”

octagon chewed her pacifier tensely, her brows furrowing.

“enough with the stalling, möbius,” square groaned.

“FINE. THE ELIMINATED CONTESTANT IS… OCTAGON!!!!!!!!!”

“DAMN IT!” octagon spat, her pacifier flying out of her mouth. square, star, and origin edged back at the sound of her voice. “DAMN YOU, MӦBIUS! DAMN YOU, HEXAGON! DAMN YOU EVERYONE!”

möbius crept towards origin. “now, twinky dink, if you dare disobey me today i will defy every law of physics to kill you.”

origin gulped. “...okay.” and he began to buzz.

octagon’s arms and legs disappeared, just as they had the day before. she started drifting towards origin.

“i’m sorry,” origin mumbled to her.

without another word the two disappeared.

“SO WE’RE DOWN TO THE FINAL 3!!!!!” möbius announced. “BUT WE WON’T DO THE FINAL CHALLENGE TODAY.”

“why not?” square asked.

“IT’LL TAKE A WHILE FOR TWINKLE TO PREPARE. SO JUST… I DUNNO, JUST GO OFF AND DO WHATEVER YOU GUYS NORMALLY DO.”

square paused for a moment before running over to helvetica’s old cabin. hexagon was sitting behind it.

“hexagon…” square said. “she’s gone.”

…

“and origin will be back,” rhombus started, “in 3… 2… 1…”

“I HATE YOU, HEXAGON!” a voice suddenly cried.

“...octagon?” trapezoid was confused and concerned, seeing origin appear with his friend and teammate. “octagon?? what happened???”

she approached him warily. “...i bet you were using me just like her.” octagon’s voice was shaky.

“octagon, what are you talking about?”

“don’t play dumb, trapezoid! didn’t you see? didn’t you all see how hexagon left me for dead?”

“huh?” pentagon edged towards them. “what do you mean?”

“in yesterday’s challenge!” octagon spat. “we could’ve tied and both made the finals! but hexagon ditched me at the last second so she could win! …i thought we were in it together…”

trapezoid didn’t know what to say.

“...i thought we were friends…” octagon began to cry.

“i’m sure she just–” pentagon started.

“don’t make excuses for her! what, are you in cahoots with her too, pentagon???”

“i don’t understand…”

“she only became friends with me because she wanted to use me as a tool. did you do that too? did you, trapezoid?”

“...i’m sure that’s not what really happened…” trapezoid murmured.

“stop dodging the question! were either of you ever actually friends with me?”

“of course we’re friends with you!” pentagon exclaimed. “of course we’re friends!”

octagon seemed to not hear her. she glanced at the other eliminated contestants, who were all staring at her. with confusion? sympathy? “what are you all looking at?” she snarled.

they all averted their glances… except for circle. “i’m so sorry that happened, octagon,” he murmured.

she blinked at him. he did not approach, nor did he say anything more.

“but octagon…” trapezoid’s voice was low. “hey, why don’t you tell us the whole story?”

“...why don’t you know?”

“origin was here. we didn’t get to watch the challenge.”

octagon sighed. “oh, right. so, um… we had a go-kart race challenge and hexy – i mean, hexagon and i worked on our karts together. i thought we’d be able to collaborate well and make a good design – and we did! we’ve always worked well together. when it came to the race itself, the two of us were tied for first place the whole time. i knew this challenge was only supposed to have one winner, only one confirmed finalist, but… i thought that if we tied, maybe by technicality we’d both get immunity into the finals. i wanted us to be there together… so we stuck together – until star hit me with that weird remote thing, making my arms and legs disappear… of course, at that point i couldn’t drive anymore, and my kart stopped.” octagon’s breath caught. her voice trembled. “i yelled out to hexagon for help! but instead of doing something, anything, she just stared at me. and she left me. and she won. hexagon, my first friend in the world, betrayed me at the last second so she could win. she was using me. she was using me!”

trapezoid and pentagon were taken aback.

“what did…” trapezoid began slowly, “what did she say afterwards?”

“she said that she loved me. but i’m sure she was lying. she was lying.”

pentagon nudged octagon softly. “how about we rest, ‘kay?”

octagon sobbed.

“you have us,” trapezoid assured her. “i promise.”

meanwhile, the rest of the inhabitants of the paradox were discussing the coming finals.

“so our finalists are star, hexagon, and square,” rhombus said. “who are we all rooting for?”

“let’s go square!!!!!!!!” rectangle exclaimed.

“square! square!! square!!!” circle and triangle cheered in unison.

“hm,” droplet said. “i’m not sure whether to root for him or star. can i pick both?”

“sure,” rhombus replied. “why not?”

“how about you? who do you want to win?”

“...dunno. i think hexagon’s the most likely to win, but i’m not particularly partial to any of them.”

“i’m going for star,” parallelogram said. “he was a good teammate.”

“yeah,” heptagon agreed. “lovely guy…”

heart had been talking to himself. “i want star to win,” he finally announced, in a voice more confident – and loud – than he had anticipated. “i m-mean… i think star’s come a long way. i’d be really happy to see h-him find happiness for himself.”

“that’s fair,” kite said. “i for one am on the fence. i want to support hexagon, but…”

“you’re not sure about her?” parallelogram finished her sentence.

“yeah. for her to leave octagon behind is one thing, y’know, it’s just her desire to win in the moment, but i just can’t believe that it would be premeditated!”

“i suppose we can’t know for sure. what do you want to believe?”

“...i want to believe she was really friends with octagon. i mean, even for us it’s kinda disturbing to think that someone so nice and friendly and supportive would turn out like that.”

“y’know, ask me a week ago and i’d tell you that the competition could do that to anyone, even hexagon,” triangle said, “but now? no. i just can’t believe it.”

“i guess all of us cynics are being mind-controlled by all of these bright, sunshiney people,” parallelogram chuckled.

“i’m not a cynic! i was just guilty.”

“...what’s the difference?”

“anyway, i find it hard to have an opinion,” oval said. “i guess being co-host has forced me to be impartial…”

“i won’t believe that for a second!” circle exclaimed, nudging him. “your vote is on star, isn’t it?”

“...yeah…”

droplet glanced over at octagon, who was surrounded by trapezoid and pentagon. are trapezoid and pentagon rooting for hexagon? she wondered. how about octagon? i’m not sure if she has anyone else to root for…

“hexagon…” octagon muttered under her breath. “i hope you’re happy…”

“what was that?” trapezoid asked.

“nothing… nothing at all…”

#story #object novel #osc #geometropolis #geometropolis: race to the 3rd dimension #grt3d

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geometropolis · 1 year

Text

grt3D episode 13: softly spoken magic spelling

heptagon found it very hard to sleep, as he wasn’t tired in the slightest – star had let him nod off for the entirety of the day’s challenge. star, meanwhile, had taken the challenge seriously for likely the first time in his life, meaning that he was exhausted, and thus that he was able to sleep like a baby.

awake as he was, heptagon left the cabin and started walking around through the cool night. he strolled past the forest and the main field and even went as far north as the logarithm labyrinth. it was strange to see all of these places empty; in a normal context they would be full of his fellow contestants.

usually a feeling of unease would sweep over him. tonight, however, heptagon felt a strange feeling of calm.

we have a backyard like this at home, he thought. vast and gray and still, lined with trees…

eventually heptagon circled back towards his cabin, to see star standing outside the door with a pensive expression.

“hey, star,” heptagon said tentatively. “i thought you were asleep.”

“oh, i was,” star replied, not elaborating further.

“...good job in yesterday’s challenge.” heptagon joined his friend by the door.

“thanks.”

“a change of heart for you?”

star smiled tiredly, but earnestly. “i guess you could call it that. dude, something about being pink just makes me care about things.”

heptagon blinked and smiled back. “you look so happy. i’m glad for you.”

“i’m glad for me too. y’know… maybe it isn’t about me proving to heart that i’m worthy of being friends with him, right? maybe it’s about proving to myself that i’m worthy of being my own friend.”

“you aren’t friends with yourself already?”

star shook his head. “i’m only just acquainted with myself. but i’m finding out… i’m finding out what he likes.”

“that’s good.”

“it is.”

the two stood together for a while in amicable silence. at some point star turned to heptagon.

“have you been doing okay?” he asked.

“i think so,” heptagon replied.

“...hey, this show won’t go on for too much longer. you’ll go home and everything will be okay soon enough.”

“hopefully.”

“definitely. look, if i’m still alive after everything that happened then i’m pretty sure you’ll be alright.”

“i hope you win.”

“i hope you don’t!” star fistbumped heptagon. “i’m still tired as heck. i’ll see you tomorrow, ‘kay?”

“sure thing.”

star was about to head inside when he stopped. he beamed and rushed back over to heptagon, hugging him. “good night, bro!”

heptagon laughed. “good night!”

…

as per usual, origin and oval gathered the contestants early in the morning. the light of day was shining upon all of them, instilling in each and every shape a curiosity regarding what was to come.

“i’m sorry you guys lost,” hexagon told square and droplet. “you two have been doing so well.”

“thanks,” droplet replied, sighing.

square shot her a pained look and opened his mouth to speak.

“now don’t you start apologizing!” droplet chuckled. “everything’s fine.”

“no, it’s not fine,” square said. “look, if this show were fair, i’d for sure be eliminated, and both of us would be happy. but we know that’s not the case. there’s a 50% chance you’re going to the paradox instead of me.”

“yeah, it isn’t fair… but there’s nothing we can do about it. it’s certainly not your fault.”

heptagon shrugged. “i guess it’s safe to say that everything’s möbius strip’s fault?” he muttered.

“DID SOMEBODY SAY MY NAME?”

everyone jolted back. it was him. möbius strip had suddenly reappeared.

“m-möbius,” origin stammered. “sir, you’re finally back!”

“INDEED I AM!” möbius sang. “AND I SEE YOU’VE KEPT THINGS RUNNING SMOOTHLY IN MY ABSENCE, TWINKLE.”

origin sighed. i hoped i’d never have to hear him call me that again…

möbius translated past all of the shapes and stopped at oval. “WHAT’S THIS ONE DOING HERE? SHOULDN’T HE BE IN THE PARADOX?”

“oh, um, sorry, i needed a co-host for the time i was, um, hosting.”

“HOSTING? AT BEST YOU’RE FOLLOWING A SCRIPT. AND I’M GLAD TO SEE YOU’VE DONE ALL THE ELIMINATIONS CORRECTLY.”

“mhm…” origin sighed.

“OKAY. SO, TWINKLE, WHO LOST LAST TIME?”

“we did,” droplet answered. “square and i.”

“AH, GO THE DSTANCE. SO…”

“don’t we get time to talk?” square asked uneasily.

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? ANYWAY… THE NEXT CONTESTANT ELIMINATED IS DROPLET!”

droplet’s breath caught.

“droplet…” square murmured as tears formed in his teammate’s eyes.

“i’m okay, square, i’m okay,” she replied shakily, not making eye contact.

“you don’t have to be okay with this. i’m sorry it has to be this way.”

“no, it’s–” her voice cut off as she burst into sobs. square hugged her tight.

“Y’KNOW, TWINKLE,” möbius interjected, “YOU SHOULD REALLY SHOW THE ELIMINATED CONTESTANTS THE ELIMINATIONS. THIS STUFF IS JUICY!”

origin grumbled.

“OKAY, THAT’S ENOUGH WEEPING. LET’S GO, TWINKY! TAKE OVAL AND DROPLET BACK WHERE THEY BELONG!”

oval approached origin. “hey,” he whispered, “you know you don’t have to do what he says. you can fight against this.”

“i can’t fight against him.”

“yes you can. i believe in you, origin. we all believe in you.”

origin glowed briefly. “...give star the grapher.”

“what?”

“believe in me.”

oval nodded and quickly dashed over to star, his new-old teammate.

“hey, i need you to keep this safe for me.”

star blinked at him and glanced over at droplet. “okay. just keep her safe too, alright?”

oval smiled. “of course.”

soon origin buzzed and took him and droplet away.

the remaining contestants – hexagon, square, octagon, star, and heptagon – were still staring at möbius strip.

“GEEZ LOUISE!” möbius exclaimed. “YOU’RE LOOKING AT ME LIKE I’M A GHOST OR SOMETHING! LOL!”

“i wish you were one…” square muttered.

“OKAY, SO BIG NEWS EVERYONE: NO MORE TEAMS! EVER!! YOU’RE ALL ALOOOOOONE!!!!”

heptagon looked at star with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. square smiled.

hexagon and octagon had been holding hands. they separated their hands for a moment, before bringing them together again. octagon shrugged sheepishly.

“OR YOU COULD BE CLINGY IF YOU WANT. I COULDN’T CARE LESS. AND DON’T ASK ME ABOUT THE CABINS AGAIN. JUST STAY WHERE YOU’VE BEEN.”

soon enough origin returned with his camera lens. “are we ready for the challenge, sir?”

“INDEED WE ARE!” möbius strip addressed the contestants. “TODAY’S CHALLENGE IS A SPELLING BEE. YOU WILL ALL STAND IN A LINE AND, IN ORDER, WILL BE GIVEN A WORD TO SPELL. IF YOU SPELL A WORD INCORRECTLY, YOU GET A STRIKE. THE FIRST TWO CONTESTANTS TO THREE STRIKES ARE UP FOR ELIMINATION.”

“but then who’ll you decide who to eliminate?” star asked.

“EH. I’LL JUST DO WHATEVER I FEEL LIKE PROBABLY. THERE AREN’T TEAM ORDERS ANYMORE.”

“that’s reassuring…”

the contestants then lined up: heptagon, square, hexagon, octagon, star. heptagon and square glanced at each other knowingly.

“YOU RECORDING, TWINKLE?”

“...yes i am, sir.”

“SO LET’S BEGIN! HEPTAGON: SPELL SACRILEGIOUS.”

heptagon blinked slowly and smiled. “q. sacrilegious.”

“WRONG, STRIKE ONE! SQUARE, YOU CAN STEAL HIS WORD! SPELL SACRILEGIOUS.”

square smiled as well. “c. sacrilegious.”

“WRONG, STRIKE ONE! GEEZ, YOU PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS. HEXAGON, YOUR TURN. SACRILEGIOUS.”

hexagon glanced at square. “s-a-c-r-i-l-e-g-i-o-u-s. sacrilegious.”

“BINGO BONGO! THE GIRL HAS GOT IT! NOW, OCTAGON, YOUR TURN: SPELL FUCHSIA.”

octagon chewed her pacifier. “f-u…” star chuckled. octagon hesitated and glanced over at hexagon for help, but her friend was busy helping square.

“y’know, you’re really good in challenges,” hexagon was saying. “why’d you want to join the race to the 3rd dimension again?”

octagon knitted her brow. “...c-h-s-i-a? fuchsia?”

“GOOD JOB! NOW, STAR: SPELL SEPARATE.”

star made a popping noise with his mouth. “uhhh…. s-e-p-e-r-a-t-e? seperate??”

“WROOOOONG!” möbius strip yelled. “STRIKE ONE! HEPTAGON, YOU TRY: SPELL SEPARATE.”

“f-u,” heptagon said, causing star to chuckle again. “separate.”

“STRIKE TWO FOR HEPTAGON, CUZ THAT’S INCORRECT! SQUARE?”

hexagon looked square in the eyes. “you’re here for a reason. you should try.”

square shook his head. “r. separate.”

“STRIKE TWO FOR SQUARE! HEXAGON?”

“...s-e-p-a-r-a-t-e,” hexagon answered. “separate.”

“GOOD! NOW, OCTAGON…” möbius strip looked at her for a moment. “wait a second… YOU’RE THE ONE WHO SENT ME BACK, WEREN’T YOU?”

“what?” she cried.

“YEAH! YOU SENT ME BACK TO THE 3RD DIMENSION! HOOOO BOY, YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD GET AWAY WITH THAT LITTLE STUNT OF YOURS? I DON’T THINK SO! SPELL FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION, YOU LITTLE TWERP!!!!”

octagon glared at him incredulously. “excuse me?”

“SPELL IT!”

“hexagon,” octagon whispered behind clenched teeth. “help me out here, will ya?”

but hexagon was still talking to square.

“come on!” octagon seethed. “f-l-o-x-i-n-o-s-s-i-n-i-h-i-l-i-p-i-l-i-f-i-c-a-t-i-o-n? whatever it was you said?”

“WRONG! STRIKE ONE FOR OCTAGON. LMAO.”

octagon grumbled.

“i don’t know if it’s worth it,” square mumbled. “it’s all just so tiring.”

“but think about it,” hexagon said. “if you do win, you’ll get to go to a whole other dimension! that’s incredible!”

“but my friends wouldn’t be able to.”

“hm…”

“HEXAGON!” octagon and möbius strip yelled at once.

“huh? sorry.”

“SPELL FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION, PLEASE.”

“oh? okay. f-l-o-c-c-i-n-a-u-c-i-n-i-h-i-l-i-p-i-l-i-f-i-c-a-t-i-o-n. floccinaucinihilipilification.”

möbius strip was taken aback. “DARN. OKAY. UM, STAR, SPELL NAUSEOUS.”

“okay,” star said. “n-a-u-s-e-o-u-s. nauseous.”

“good job!” heptagon smiled at him.

“OKEY DOKEY! HEPTAGON. YOU HAVE ONE MORE STRIKE TO GO BEFORE YOU’RE UP FOR ELIMINATION.”

heptagon continued to smile.

“OKAY: SPELL BUS.”

“why does he get an easy one???” octagon wailed.

“bus,” heptagon said. “l-o-l. bus.”

“AAAAND THERE WE GO, FOLKS! HEPTAGON IS UP FOR ELIMINATION.”

“good job yourself!” star exclaimed, smiling back at his friend.

möbius continued. “SQUARE? CAN YOU SPELL BUS?”

“no,” square said. “guess i lose too.”

“square!” hexagon whined. “stop doing this!”

“YOU HEARD HER! STOP DOING THAT AND START SPELLING BUS!”

“n-o.” square closed his eyes.

“...AMAZING SPELLING FROM SQUARE! NOW ONTO HEXAGON!”

“what???” square and octagon both cried.

“just roll with it,” hexagon told square. “listen, i know your friends aren’t here anymore. and that sucks – trust me, i should know. but at this point, there’s nothing you can do to bring them back. so why continue to bring yourself down over it?”

“i just…” square bit his lip. “i’m just sad, okay? this game has taken away every friend i’ve had. i’m tired of this.”

“all of those friends would be so proud of you if you won. and you’d be proud of yourself.”

square looked away with half-lidded eyes. he said nothing.

“HEXAGON: SPELL PARAPHERNALIA.”

“p-a-r-a-p-h-e-r-n-a-l-i-a. paraphernalia.”

“NICE! OCTAGON: SPELL ONOMATOPOEIA. OR DON’T.”

“oh, i’ll spell it all right…” octagon grumbled. “o-n-o-m…” she nudged hexagon, who looked at her.

“a-t-o-p-o-e-i-a,” hexagon whispered, smiling.

“thanks,” octagon whispered back. “...a-t-o-p-o-e-i-a. onomatopoeia.”

“HEY, YOU CHEATED!” möbius yelled. “YOU SHOULD AUTOMATICALLY BE UP FOR ELIMINATION, YOU WORM!”

“hey, if octagon should lose for cheating, so should i,” hexagon piped up. “i’m the one who helped her.”

“UGH… WHATEVER. NEVERMIND. STAR: SPELL ACQUIESCE.”

“hm…” star said. “a-q-u-i-e-s-e? aquiese?”

“WRONG! STRIKE TWO FOR STAR!”

“darn.”

“OKAY, HEPTAGON IS OUT, SO WE’RE BACK TO SQUARE.”

“just put me up for elimination already,” square groaned.

“SPELL YES.”

“t. screw this. just let me be with my friends.”

“why don’t you want to be with your goals?” hexagon suddenly asked. “why don’t you want to be with your dreams? why don’t you want to be with yourself?”

square said nothing.

“...WELL, I GUESS SQUARE LOSES TOO?” möbius announced. “I REALLY WANT OCTAGON TO LOSE BUT HEY, WHATEVER. I’M OVER IT.”

origin sighed.

“OKAY, SO, THAT’S THAT.” möbius strip then flew off.

“hey, um, sorry about all of this,” origin addressed the contestants. “i realize you all must be experiencing major whiplash right now, as, well… let’s just say möbius strip’s hosting style is very different from mine.”

“it sure is,” octagon moaned. “he’s such a jerk!”

“but look, we’re both safe!” hexagon exclaimed happily, grabbing her hands.

octagon smiled, but looked askance towards square. square was still.

“desperately hoping i’m next on möbius’s chopping block,” heptagon told star. “i’m so close to getting out of here.”

“well, both you and square really want to get out. if möbius has been eliminating people to cause as much pain as possible, well, it’d happen either way.”

“that’s true.”

“not necessarily,” square said slowly.

“what do you mean?” star asked, turning towards him.

“i might’ve changed my mind.”

…

“wooooooooo!” heart cheered as droplet arrived in the paradox. “you did so well!”

droplet rushed toward him. “thanks… i just wish i could’ve done better…”

rhombus slowly approached. “hey, droplet.”

“hm…?”

“you…” rhombus hesitated. “you’ve done amazingly. i’m sorry i didn’t see that sooner.”

“yeah, you’ve been incredible!” triangle piped up.

pentagon giggled. “the two of us should hang out sometime!”

“i didn’t believe in you,” rhombus continued. “i’m glad so many other folks did.”

“well…” droplet replied at length, chuckling, “6th place isn’t so bad, right?”

oval translated over to kite and parallelogram. “looks like it’s really down to heptagon, huh.”

“well, now that möbius is back, i’m not sure he’ll be eliminated anytime soon…” parallelogram sighed.

“i guess all we can do is hope,” kite added.

“hope that origin grows a spine…” oval muttered.

the eliminated contestants found the challenge very entertaining to watch, as they tried (and failed) to spell the words themselves. mostly they marveled at how bizarre möbius strip’s lexicon was.

“is floccinaucinihilipilification even a word?” triangle exclaimed. “that sounds made up!”

“well, hexagon could spell it,” trapezoid replied. “it must be real.”

“then what does it mean?”

“floccinaucinihilipilification: the act or habit of estimating something to be worthless,” rhombus stated in a monotone voice.

they received exasperated, incredulous silence in response.

“what?” rectangle cried.

“you heard me,” rhombus replied mirthfully.

“hey guys, i know an even longer word!” pentagon exclaimed.

“what is it?” droplet asked.

“jghhjkopfdjihljbisojfnvbesononvbeojefnbpoepfnbvtpweonvojbpwv!!!! try to spell that, nerds!!!!!!!!”

kite pondered this for a moment. “...can you use it in a sentence?”

nobody was surprised at the outcome of the challenge: square and heptagon were up for elimination.

oval wasn’t having much fun. he just stared at möbius with contempt. “you have the power, origin. let’s see you use it…”

#story #object novel #osc #geometropolis #geometropolis: race to the 3rd dimension #grt3d

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