The Math Return Hypothesis

[Adelaide McLisk]

Add found that she still liked the student lounge. She'd always found it to at least be an interesting place, filled with interesting people to observe and catalog. She'd had a few meetings in this room in times past, meetings that she'd call "amiable," which was about as good as it got for Add. No, that wasn't strictly true: she'd had a few friends too, and they'd met here before. Add seemed to recall gathering around to share homework, with her needing the help of her friends to get through anything involving literature while they in turn turned to her for anything involving math.

So really, things hadn't changed much.

Add had been "invited" on campus by the same forceful officials that seemed determined to have drawn her to Kalispell to begin with. They had decided that Add needed more "social interaction," which she as used to by now. She'd pointed out her volunteer work at the rescue clinic, but even she had to agree that this suited her talents quite well. She'd work with a few struggling students on their math, utilizing her ability and providing advice. It sounded quite pleasant to Add, and she was certainly willing to engage with the students.

So she arrived for the appointment early, taking over one of the tables. She looked downright teacherly, with her red-brown hair pulled back into a high ponytail and a pair of glasses perched on her nose. Strictly speaking, Add didn't need the glass that often, but they were helpful when she needed to read for an extended period of time. She opened up the textbook that they had said belonged to the girl, pouring over the math and trying to see where there could be potential troubles. Strange, but it looked like this was math that she'd have expected for an Academy student. Wasn't this supposed to be another college student? The situation seemed so perplexing that Add just couldn't help but stare, which meant that she soon got involved solving one math problem after another. Of course, this meant she was so engaged that she forgot that she was supposed to be looking for someone.

Thankfully, Add couldn't have looked more like a math tutor unless she wore a sign around her neck.

[Ravenna French]

Raven sat on the floor of her apartment, smashing buttons on an xbox 360 controller. "DIE YOU FRIKEN ZOMBIE!" Her arms moving up, down, left, right, and diagonal, as she pressed the corresponding button.  Suddenly GAME OVER flashed on the screen repeatedly. "Ugh, stupid game anyways," she muttered. She tossed the controller away from her and stretched out, wondering what to do, when her stomach gave a loud growl. "Must be food time," she said. Jumping up, she made her way to the kitchen and opened the fridge. There wasn't much in there sadly but she had just enough stuff to make a decent salad. First she put the salad in a large bowl, added the little bit of spinach she had left, threw on some cheese chunks and just as she was about to add the Italian dressing she spotted the neon orange sticky pad note on the counter. 

"Don't forget your first math tutoring session! GL!" was sprawled across it, in her college counselors handwriting.

"Shit!"

Raven forgot all about the salad as she flew into her bedroom, coming to an abrupt stop in front of her dresser she pulled out (and put on) a purple tank top with a skull on it, some simple blue jeans, pushed her socked feet into her shiny, silvery, rainbow rain boots (even though it wasn't raining), grabbed her purse and ran out of her apartment, practically skipping down the flights of stairs - though once at the bottom she stopped for a minute to plug her ear buds in and turn on her music. She headed off to her tutoring session now with the sound of Thirty Seconds to Mars blasting in her ears.

She was late. Like only ten minutes late, but who knew what the tutor was like. Maybe she was the kind of tutor with a stick up her ass who got pissy because you were like only thirty SECONDS late. Maybe she was cool but annoyed at the lateness. Raven would be okay with that. Hell, even she'd be annoyed at herself if she was in her tutors shoes. She stopped inside the doorway, getting angry mutters from people trying to leave or enter, as she looked around for the tutor. She had no idea who she was looking for. Fortunately for her, she spotted someone who looked very tutor like. Well, more teacher like. 'She is a student isn't she? I thought tutors were students...'

With a mental shrug she walked up to the table Add was occupying, pulled out a chair and plopped down. She plucked out one ear bud, pulled her bag on her lap and gave the girl a grin. "Hi, I'm Raven. You're the tutor right? I mean, seeing as how you're looking at a book identical to mine and dressed like that you gotta be." Raven looked down into her bag and frowned. She had a small notepad, about 1/2 the size of a regular notebook, and a chewed up pencil but no math book. She let out a disgruntled sigh, pulled out the pencil and small pad and threw the bag under her chair. "I forgot my book, you don't mind sharing, do you?"

She looked at where Add was at in the book and raised an eyebrow. "Just to be safe, we better start at the beginning."

[Adelaide McLisk]

Add had figured that her student would show up late. It did match the probabilities perhaps a little too well: students generally didn't like to attend tutoring sessions, and those most likely not to like it were simultaneously those who were most in need of it. It wasn't as though Add had pressing business, so she didn't see a point in even altering her position, simply perusing the math textbook with something akin to enjoyment. She'd already uncovered one error, and she was considering writing the publisher about it. Then the door opened, and Add looked up.

The probabilities flew at her with nearly the same speed as the girl who dragged them along. Brilliant colored hair, outrageous clothes, yes, this girl definitely looked like she would need tutoring in math. It didn't take Add's gift to figure that Raven probably spent far more time living her life than stopping to think about things; which, oddly enough, was exactly the opposite of how Add functioned. She shot out words at such a speed that it mostly left Add sitting there blinking at her. She did shift the book so that Raven could get a better view of it.

"Yes, I am your tutor," she said, her voice nearly devoid of intonation. "My name is Adelaide McLisk," should she mention that she was required to do the tutoring just as much as Raven was required to be here? Or that she technically wasn't getting paid for this, because it was some sort of job training/social work that Add supposedly needed? No, that didn't seem like it was something you said to someone you just met. "Are you certain you wish to start in the beginning? Most of the information there is rather simplistic, though this book is something I learned back when I was much younger than you are now," Add frowned at the book, giving it a slight tap with her finger as if to reprove it for being so very simple. She then looked up at Raven, nearly willing her to speak. The probabilities would lock down into possibilities, and Add could figure out what was going on better then.

[Ravenna French]

"Adelaide, huh, that sounds like some kind of name a fancy rich family would use, no offense. My full name is Ravenna. Which is why I don't use it. Yuck." Raven replied, afterwords sticking the pencil in her mouth to start chewing on it again. It was an unconscious habit apparently. She pulled out the itouch and scrolled through her music, trying to find her study playlist. "There you are," she muttered under her breath as she clicked it and the music started playing, though she did turn it down a little more then usual. Math was a hard subject after all.

"Are you certain you wish to start in the beginning? Most of the
information there is rather simplistic, though this book is something I
learned back when I was much younger than you are now."

Raven raised an eyebrow at the woman, instantly taking offense, and leaned in close, her arms folded on the table. "Listen up girly, I'm not a smart-ass math whiz like you so obviously are. I was too busy having fun to give two craps about math," 'it doesn't help that numbers are just frustrating sometimes,' she silently thought, "but I won't sit here and basically be insulted because I'm not up to par. Yes I'm certain about the beginning, though I guess to save you some time, or maybe boredom, whatever it might be, we can just do a quick review, I'm sure I'll get by with that. Its not like I plan to do anything that involves major math anyways. If that doesn't work for you I'm sure I can find someone else."

The glare she was sending the girl was covering hurt. Math had always been troubling for Raven. It was while glaring that she focused on the girls aura. There was a lot of yellow. She saw that a lot in really smart people; the math and science geeks. There were other colors as well, but she wasn't' too sure how to apply them to this girl yet. She'd found that while the colors all had a certain meaning, they could be applied to each individual in completely different ways. It was kind of annoying actually.

[Adelaide McLisk]

"Adelaide is among the top thousand names for female children, unlike the name Ravenna, which sounds like something someone made up," retorted Add, surprisingly keeping most of the venom from her voice. It sounded more like a snooty robot or some other being that didn't believe in something as tawdry as human emotion was doing the speaking. The offered name and Ravenna's reaction to it caused several probabilities to coalesce for Add, and she soon found herself drawing them into sharper facts. "If you want, you can call me Add; a lot of people do."

Though she didn't usually have to tell them. The whole math thing plus her name usually made it a bit obvious. Add kept staring at Ravenna, not even really blinking, while the girl had her little tantrum regarding math. At first Add couldn't help but think of it precisely as that: a tantrum. She couldn't really read the emotional reasons behind it or anything. She could, however, see the probabilities hovering and sort of understand the basic math that went into Ravenna's actions and such. There was even a glare there at the end, which Add didn't understand in the slightest.

"I am here for you to use," she said, not sounding put out about that, "so it really doesn't matter that much to me where we actually start. I was just thinking that you wouldn't want me to assume that you were unintelligent, nor did I want to waste your time. But if you'd like, I can treat you as though you are an unintelligent being. Would it be easier for you if I spoke to you as though you were a child? I've been told that I have a tendency to do that anyway and that it is quite irritating," again, said in that same near monotone, with only a few inflections that sounded more like curiosity than anything else.

[Ravenna French]

"Well, Add, I'm sorry you have such a common name. It must be horrible for you. Ravenna is unique, like me." Raven grinned, though on the inside she was quite irked. She focused on her aura, trying to understand the mix of colors. Finally she came to a conclusion. Her tutor seemed confused. About what exactly Raven didn't know.


"I am here for you to use," Add said, "so it really doesn't matter that much to me where we actually start. I was just thinking that you wouldn't want me to assume that you were unintelligent, nor did I want to waste your time. But if you'd like, I can treat you as though you are an unintelligent being. Would it be easier for you if I spoke to you as though you were a child? I've been told that I have a tendency to do that anyway and that it is quite irritating."

"There you go again. You're talking to me like some kind of robot. Hell it sounds like you think you're some kind of superior life form or something." Raven let out a sigh. 'Switch tactics. It doesn't seem to be that she's intentionally being rude.' "Though I suppose you COULD be a superior life-form. You're beautiful AND smart. Not to many combinations of those." Raven said with a grin. She glanced at the math book on the table and grimaced. "If optimizing time is in consideration we could just skip math and go out on the town. See a movie, play a game. I've got tons back at my apartment. You should SO let me dress you, by the way. The whole teacher look diminishes your hotness."

[Adelaide McLisk]

Yes, it was unique, though Add wasn't entirely certain that she'd call Ravenna herself all that unique, at least, not more so than any other person. Everyone was unique in how they were just combinations of various probabilities lining up, but they were also all the same in that they were always just combinations of probabilities. Just because Ravenna's lined up slightly differently didn't make her all that different from most. However, Add figured it best to just continue on anyway.

Then came protests of Add speaking like a robot. The tutor just blinked at Ravenna as she said that; it wasn't exactly something she'd never heard before. Same with the whole 'superior being.' It didn't help that Add often did think of herself in that manner. Her intelligence put her above most, though she was also tempted to point out that the whole fact that they were mutants would likely put them above most of the group in and of itself.

And then Ravenna had to completely throw Add off. There was mention of Add's "hotness," which made the tutor look down at herself for a moment. She'd always figured herself as perhaps marginally pretty, a notch or two above average, but certainly not enough to be considered "hot." While she studied herself and thought, Add also listened as Ravenna tried to wiggle her way out of the session. "How would going out on the town or seeing a movie help you with your math?" she asked, looking back up at Ravenna. "Since neither of those activities are beneficial to the learning of mathematics." She paused for a moment, then looked down, "Also, what is wrong with the way I dress? Is this not how a tutor should look?" it had seemed fitting to Add, anyway.

[Ravenna French]

"You're right, none of that would help me with my math, but I don't like math and it doesn't like me." Raven said, letting out a heavy sigh as she slouched back in her chair. "Fine, lets do this. The sooner we get started, the faster I can get back to slaughtering zombies." She sat up again. "Oh and there's nothing wrong with how your dressed except you look like a nice, prim teacher. You're not. You're a student. and like I said hot. You don't have to dress skankily but you shouldn't be afraid to dress more your age and add some flair to the outfit. You'd have the guys, or gals, lining up to go out with you." Raven said, matter-of-factly. 'Though she'd need help interacting. She's so....stuck-up? Not sure if that's the right word.'  

Raven pulled the book directly in front of her and opened to the beginning. She flipped through it, scanning the pages, rather pleased to know she remembers most of the beginning stuff. "Well I know most of the beginning stuff it seems. It starts getting confusing with all this equation stuff." Raven pushed the book back between them, and tapped the page headed: Linear Equations.

[Adelaide McLisk]

Add was tempted to point out that math couldn't actually like or dislike anybody, on account of its being math and existing solely within the realm of human thought. However, before she could even say as much, Ravenna tossed out a comment that got Add's mind racing. She killed zombies? She killed zombies and somehow she thought that coming to a tutoring session was more important. That struck Add as being awfully dedicated to math for someone who claimed it hated her.

Then there was the bit about Add's wardrobe, which made her wonder. She'd always dressed for function rather than appearance, and she wasn't sure why it should be otherwise. If dressing provocatively got her more attention from "guys" or "girls" she wasn't sure she particularly wanted to do so. Better to just continue dressing as she was.

Ravenna did, it seemed, want to get to the math. Add was thankful for that, and tempted to go to linear equations, however...

"Are there really zombies about that need killing?" she asked, looking over at Raven. "Because I believe that an undead epidemic would be vastly more important than dealing with math, even if linear equations are most certainly important," also Add was convinced that if there was, in fact, an epidemic of zombies somewhere, she should probably be out there helping fight them instead of in here tutoring, even if she wasn't dressed in age appropriate attire (and Add was already making a mental note to examine those possibilities later).

[Ravenna French]

Switching to a focusing mindset, especially for something like math, was hard for Raven but she was in the mental motions of doing just that. Then Add basically blew up Raven's mental switching device with her questions and statements about Zombies. Her eyes bugged open wide, "O-M-G!" she actually spelled out the letters and the exclamation was loud enough to draw attention to them. She was shocked. If Add could see colors Raven's would be cycling through a bunch. Red, yellow, orange, green. Of course there were a range of feelings associated with those colors. In fact, it was enough that the different colors were starting to hurt her own eyes. She pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slipped them on. It dimmed the brightness, thank god. 

She leaned in conspiratorially to Add. "Not yet, but no doubt there will be one some day. Hell, look at all the drugs that are 'approved' by FDA. They claim it helps us but the potential side affects are like ten times worse. Then there's all this technology. People always have their faces glued to something. Phone, tv, game, tablet, computer. Of course, I'm victim to that too." Raven took a deep breath then continued, "The games I play can be considered training and preparation really." Of course Raven didn't believe all that crap...not a 100% anyways, but it was a semi-good argument.

[Adelaide McLisk]

OMG? Was that some kind of strange, tribal chant, possibly belonging to those that slayed the uprising zombie forces? Add was tempted to ask, but she knew that she couldn't afford to distract from the very important topic of conversation. Indeed, Ravenna seemed willing enough to at least offer some sort of explanation. Drugs, side effects, etc.

"Those are likely to produce some kind of strange chemically altered human who would possibly be infectious," agreed Add. She did some quick mental math, "though it is far more likely that we destroy our planet through global warming or possibly via nuclear winter. I suppose it could be that if humanity somehow managed to survive one or both of those catastrophes they could still suffer the side effects of some strange chemical warfare.'

Add was doing some more mental math when she caught the last little bit from Ravenna, enough to get her attention and refocus it back on her. "You mean your games train you for such emergencies? that strikes me as being very appropriate training," Add paused to consider for a moment before adding: "You could make the argument that preparing for such an inevitability could be more valuable than math."

And no, Add did not see a conflict of interest there at all. Not. At. All.

[Ravenna French]

"Of course they do. They train reaction time, give possible scenarios and prepares your mind for images you may witness in real life and trust me, it can get gruesome." Raven chewed on her lower lip as she thought about the games she had. "One of the newest ones is called State of Decay. I haven't pla...trained with it much yet but so far it seems more about surviving a zombie apocalypse then just killing the zombies, which in the long run is really what needs to be done. OH! Day Z is a brilliant one, super life like, but hard as fuck but probably more realistic in that you need to find food and water to survive not to mention watch your body temperature and such." Raven leaned back in her chair, staring up the ceiling. "Have you heard of Plants vs. Zombies? That's obviously a bit ridiculous, plants can't do much against zombies, but it does give an idea of how much defense would be needed depending on the number of zombies."

Raven lapsed into silence. 'Am I wrong for leading her into believing this...damn stupid conscience...maybe I should just stop fudging the truth. Its not like I'm a horrible person. Then again I never care what people think about me so even if Add found out the truth from someone else....but there's such a sweet innocent naivety about her kinda. On the other other hand she's also such a know-it-all.'

"We can always head back to my place. Or, if I remember right, this lounge has some consoles and games, but I can't remember exactly what games. Or we can just schedule a zombie-take-down training session for later."

[Adelaide McLisk]

Add listened intently as Raven explained these various simulations, weighing the options. It did sound as though they might be quite intensive, especially the ones that required you to keep track of your various supplies and the like. It did occur to Add that this was perhaps a much better use of math than simply engaging in more abstract theory. Not that she didn't appreciate or like theory, but she was thinking more in terms of Raven's own use. Clearly the other girl would never be in a position that would require advanced mathematical skills.

"It seems to me," Add finally said after Raven finished with her offer, 'that it would be a better use of your time if we engaged in these training simulations as opposed to studying math that will not likely be of much use to you. You are unlikely to engage in a situation that requires you to do advanced math, in fact, I would deduce that survival skills are likely more important for someone in your position than learning such a thing," Add paused to consider things, doing a little more mental math before nodding slowly.

"Yes, it does make a good deal more sense if we adjourn to a location that would allow us to engage in these situations," Add then began gathering things, before pausing to look at Raven. "Unless you have a particularly strong desire to learn and engage with advanced mathematics?"