reminded | No. 001 - Simple Addition [Written]

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No. 001 - Simple Addition [Written]

[It's about time to give this device a go. In neat, legible writing is simply the following:]

5 + 5 + 5 = 550

It appears I have my arithmetic out of sorts. However, it would be a shame to scrap the equation entirely. Can you help me correct it by adding a single straight line?

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[Okay, hold up, he's totally got this.]

5 + 5 + 51= 550
5 + 5 + 5 = 5-50
5 + 5 + -5 = 550

?? 5 + 5 + 5 = 550 ??

[...maybe not.]

[Maybe a gentle hint is in order? He admires the effort Red is putting in, though...]

You only have one stroke of the pen at your disposal, so your options are limited. It is only one small line, but it may just be enough to create something new entirely.

[Okay. Changing the numbers isn't working. Maybe the symbols...?]

5 * 5 + 5 = 550 [No, still wrong. Hmm.]

[What follows are more scribbled attempts. It takes a couple minutes and most of the page, and it stops for a while. None of them are correct, of course, but after that pause...]

1. 5 + 5 4 5 = 550 ?
2. 5 + 5 + 5 ≠ 550 ?

[A gentleman never loses his patience. Oh, yes. He knows you can do this, Red... eventually.]

Remember, only a single straight line. If you're finding yourself stumped, would you like a hint?

[Almost hurriedly, he uses one more straight line to cross out answer number two.]

I think it's #1?

[Oh, there it is.]

Exactly right. Option 2 isn't incorrect, but option 1 is more precise. Well done, my friend.

Yeah! Once I get started, there's no stopping me!

[He's just so darn proud of himself right now.] Hey, how about another one?

[That enthusiasm is his life's blood!!]

Why, I'm glad you asked. The next one I have in mind is normally done with matchsticks, but an illustration will have to suffice for our purposes:

Let us say this is a donkey. He wants to change his point of view, but he needs some assistance. Can you help him change directions by moving a single matchstick? Or a single line, as it were.

[There's a long pause before anything gets written.]

You lost me at "donkey."

You don't know what a donkey is?

[Well, that's new.]

Nope, never heard of one in my life. Guessing it's an animal, though... it looks kind of four-legged, if I'm looking at this right. [He sketches something that's... well, whatever it is, it's got four legs.]

[Very strange indeed.]

It can be substituted for any four-legged animal, or even someone crawling. Only note that the two bottom lines are limbs and the one in the top right corner is the head.

[If only your camera were on right now, Layton. Anyway, Red copies down the lines, adding his own sketch around it; again, it's fairly awful, but it resembles something boar-like.]

[There's no writing for a while; maybe he's doing this one off-journal? Finally, though...]

his attempt.

the left one could be from the front if the animal has big ears
same with the one on the right, but from the side

[Hmmm.]

Very creative. I give some credit to the one on the right, but the poor creature on the left seems to be lacking a jaw. However, there is an even more exact solution that preserves the animal's shape in its entirety.

[Another pause.]

it's turned around and running

[These are hard when you barely have an idea of what the animal is.]

[Layton laughs on his side of the connection, but of course there is no audio.]

I thought it looked like a rather impressive handstand, myself. Not quite right, but getting closer. You've chosen the right stick and the wrong location.

[Okay, that narrows it down! Let's see... he scribbles down more attempts, moving just the one line. He's crossing most of them out, though... eventually, Red just angrily scribbles out the rest of the page. With what little room is left, he draws a simple stick-figure dog-person holding its head in pain.]

I give up; give me one that's not about weird animals I've never seen.

[Aw, and he was so close.]

There's no rush. Perhaps we can revisit this another day, when we're more familiar with each other's fauna. Though if I may ask, what kinds of animals are you in fact familiar with?

Gius, birds, fish, insects. [There's small, awful drawings of each - the boar-like thing from earlier seems to be a giu, according to this. Red's drawn another simple dog-person in for scale, and if it's right, then all the animals seem to be quite large. Especially that beetle.]

[Hm... He stares at the drawing for a bit, wondering if the person is supposed to look like a dog or if it's just a very unfortunate drawing. He is very curious, but a true gentleman never pays mind to cosmetic appearances...]

I've never heard of a giu, but the others are familiar, if a bit larger than I'm accustomed to. [Or is the person just small?]

[~~why not both?~~ Okay, definitely not from Red's world then. Oh well.]

Yeah, everything grows huge back home because of the crystal, especially the plants! There's an island called Viszla that's really just one huge plant.

A plant island, you say? Fascinating. [Is that even physically possible? Not that he doubts Red's word.]

What exactly is this crystal? What property does it own that allows it to magnify growth?

Let me start from the top.

[Lots of rough drawings here. It seems to be a bunch of islands floating in the sky, having a variety of structures on them. One of them seems to look... vaguely like a giant plant.]

Almost everything floats back home, because of the crystal. It's also a fuel source. [A smaller drawing, looking like a pool of liquid dripping upwards. There's a circle floating just above that.] I guess it messes with living things.

[Floating in the sky? Now it's starting to sound outrageous. But... if it is true, then he wishes he could see it for himself.]

Most unusual. By my standards, at any rate. Did you live in the sky as well?

Of course! Me and another person captained an airship an' took on jobs for people on other islands. [Continuing with the bad drawings, here's said ship. It really doesn't look like it could fly normally.]

What about you? What's your world like?

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[written] auugh sorry i misread your previous tag

[written] it's fine! I wasn't too clear either

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