literature

Otherworlde PSI 101: The Sequence

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Amelia had completed her first assignment in PSI 101, which had only been complicated by the arrival of her slightly disturbing reflection in the Alternate Room. Now, she only had two more to go, and they did not seem like they would be too difficult. At the very least, they certainly would not involve a doppelganger showing up seemingly out of nowhere and seemingly cheerfully offering to murder the few friends Amelia even had. For now, Amelia just had to develop a meditative phrase that she could use to focus her mind in a state of peace even in stressful situations, like combat.

Professor Eden had suggested a name, or a peaceful memory, something that other people were unlikely to use but which would be instantly familiar for Amelia herself. But what could Amelia fall back on for serenity? She hadn’t even been around that long. She didn’t really have any exceptionally peaceful memories or associations she could make. Her entire life had been spent at Otherworlde Academy, a place of magic and chaos and darkness, and even the period of time for which Cressida had raised her before she was ready to enroll as a student was kind of… intense.

There had to be something, some kind of repetitive phrase, that would be able to keep Amelia’s mind at peace amidst everything strange and chaotic that went on at Otherworlde Academy. It had to be something organized and sensible, something… stable. Something that, no matter how much magic was being flung around or how much everything was falling apart around her, would always stay the same. Something objective. Something consistent and orderly, that not even the most powerful reality-defying spells at Otherworlde Academy could change.

Like, perhaps, a mathematical sequence.

What about the Fibonacci sequence? That was everywhere in nature, from flowers and leaves to patterns of storms and the growth of certain animal populations. Amelia could find example after example of it in the Beast Studies building alone. And even if the patterns in nature that used that particular mathematical sequence were twisted and altered by magic, the sequence itself would remain constant. Mathematics never changed. It was always there for you.

Amelia started reciting the sequence. “Zero. One. One. Two. Three. Five. Eight.” It… seemed right to her. This would, indeed, be the meditative mantra that she would use. And she could make it go on as long as she needed it to, as long as she could keep calculating the numbers, or repeat a section of it over and over.

“Zero. One. One. Two. Three. Five. Eight. Zero. One. One. Two. Three. Five. Eight.”

Amelia returned to the Alternate Room to practice it, over and over, just like she had practiced meditation previously in both this class and others. Her reflection, she knew, was watching her, but did not attempt to speak or interfere. Amelia just had to keep using the Alternate Realm to link her state of mental calmness and relaxation to her chosen mantra of meditation, no matter whether it was a forest, a desert, a beach, a tundra or even something like underwater.

“Zero. One. One. Two. Three. Five. Eight.”

It could go as long as she needed it to.

Amelia, after about an hour of quiet contemplation, walked through the shifting paths of the Alternate Realm, focused on her chosen sequence and only her sequence, using it to eliminate distractions as though they were no longer even there.

“Zero. One. One. Two. Three. Five. Eight.”

She exited the Alternate Room, returning to the campus of Otherworlde Academy itself, undaunted by the fog and the melting ice.

“Thirteen. Twenty-one. Thirty-four. Fifty-five. Eighty-nine.”

She walked to the courtyard, circling around the fountain and the fallen angel statue, paying no heed to the conversations and movements of her fellow students. Everything was focused. Everything was calm.

“144. 233. 377. 610. 987.”

She could cut it off after a few numbers or go for as long as she needed to ensure that she would remain in a tranquil state of mind. Amelia walked all the way to the Beast Studies building, opening the door and maintaining her calm walking pace through the hallways even as Cressida’s vines moved and animals screeched and hollered at her.

She could even repeat the sequence whenever she wanted, to ensure that she would not go too far into the calculations and accidentally snap herself out of her calm state.

“Zero. One. One. Two. Three. Five. Eight.”

She was calm. She was succeeding.

Perhaps things would be a bit different if she got into a fight or a real emergency, but Amelia had still managed to walk through the noisiest parts of the Beast Studies building while still remaining as calm as ever. Her meditation phrase was working. It was certainly a rather unorthodox one, but Amelia did have a tendency to be very scientific-minded and practical. What else would she fall back on to stay calm in a crisis besides mathematics?

She could always test her phrase of choice at some other time when things were a bit more heated, but she had done well so far. Amelia was quite proud of herself. She would have so much to tell her creator the next time she wanted to report in and let Cressida know how she was doing. She was learning so much, even if she happened to be in two departments at once, and she doubted that she would forget any of it any time soon. There were things that she did not think she would ever be able to tell her ‘mother’, like how she had severely injured Geoffrey for the sake of an assignment in the Medical Studies department, but she was sure that Cressida would always be happy to hear more news about her Psionics progress. She only had one assignment left, and she would be done with all of the Beginner-level classes in the Psionics department. Technically, she could have passed now, but she wanted to make sure she got everything done.

Then she could, perhaps, start to move on to the combat applications of the department. Weapons and fighting had always interested Amelia, even though she was more interested in observing the upcoming tournament than actually participating in it.

She was confident that even in battle, she could calm her mind with her new meditative phrase. It seemed like now, it would always be there in the back of her mind, echoing perpetually, until she needed it and it could rise to the forefront.

“Zero. One. One. Two. Three. Five. Eight.

Zero. One. One. Two. Three. Five. Eight.”
Amelia chose part of the Fibonacci sequence for her meditative phrase, because she's a huge goddamn nerd.

(And so am I.)

1104 words.
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