Pory Wants a Cracker (Solo)

The pencil worked its way across the page. Hurried equations showed their faces, and were solved. Shin didn't need a calculator. It was good practice using his head. Math teachers worldwide warned that over reliance on technology was a danger, that math students would become too dependant on computer chips and little black boxes to do their thinking for them. Come crunch time, they'd be unable to ponder the digits. Their minds would be too slow. That's why they needed to gnash their teeth on equations with pencil and paper, calculator-free. At least, that was Shin's thinking behind the number crunching he was doing on the page. He also had an active mutation that was a built-in calculator. That helped.

The calculator power was still new to him. Shin was uncertain how far its strengths extended. It seemed like it was good for brute force calculations. He'd tested it with various elements in his math text book. But things he didn't know, it seemed not to be able to ponder. It was strange. The triangle eyes and his brain seemed dependant on each other, as far as equations went. Shin supposed it made sense. In order to bake an apple pie, one had to first invent the universe. You couldn't skip the steps in-between, just to get to the flaky crust and filling. That's why, he'd gotten into the habit of daily studying. Or rather, nightly.

Whenever he couldn't sleep, Shin studied. Whenever he studied, he couldn't sleep. During his free time between shifts at the Full Circle and his work as Mansion Greeter, Shin also managed to bury his face in the text. He knew he'd be ahead of the class when it came time for mathematics. So far ahead, in fact, that after a few weeks of late night studying, Shin had moved on.

He'd dug into his texts on computer imaging and graphic design. It was difficult. There was a lot to get ahead in. He'd soldiered through it, though. It was good preparation. Good practice. At the time that he'd started all this studying, back in early March, he hadn't quite known what the final application of it would be (aside from spiffy tuxedoes, of course). Now, he knew. All that practice pondering matrixes and mathematics, all the difficult stuff that people needed skills in, in order to make 3D computer models... he could use it for non-tuxedo purposes. He'd still need practice, figuring out all the details of each shape. It'd take an hour or so of rapid calculations and work, but it'd work. All these skills from college would work. They'd aid him in the various projects he wanted to Volt Tackle.

One of those projects, Shin worked on today. He slid the pad of paper out of his lap, onto the floor, as he stood. The pencil went behind one ear. Shin rolled up the black sleeves of his shirt. It was time to get to working on the nitty griddy. He held up his palm in front of him, and focused.

He'd finished outlining the equations needed to form the most basic 3D model outline of the creature he could. It had taken hours. Now, they raced through his brain, fast as they could. Pinkish triangles appeared in the air in front of Shin, twisting through space and arranging themselves in the appropriate shapes. Slowly, the image of the origami crane came into being. The pink polyhedral body, blue stomach, blue triangular prism feet and a blue rectangular prism tail took shape. Next, came the pink, polyhedral head ending in the blue beak. Then, came the toughest part.

Shin focused. He really focused. He'd practiced this part before. Several times. Practiced it on the tip of his finger, been inspired by it, and practiced some more. The triangle-eyed Asian had been practicing this last part for the last month, in secret. Ever since he'd conceptualized it back in Abyss's body, he'd been dreaming of it. On restless nights, it'd keep him up. How could one make something rounded out of something that most certainly was not? Alcohol and Kealey had inspired another question. How could one make it into a spiffy tuxedo, after the fact? The answer: Geometry.

Beautiful. Simple. Astoundingly complex. With enough tiny shards, one could make up shapes with several sides, make polygons, octagons, dodecahedrons, and more. With enough effort, and brute force concentration, he could conceptualize an entire universe of shards. Endless practice, endless thinking. An infinity of math could work towards his goal. He'd need a lot of practice if he wanted to make this waking dream a reality, and do something as astounding as building a white tuxedo out of razor-sharp shards. For now, he'd start with the toughest part of this project. If a thousand angels could sing and dance on the tip of a pin, Shin could make hexagonal eyes.

Triangular pupils widened as the image in its entirety snapped into focus. Shin clenched his fist, wild grin spreading across his face.

"Porygon, I choose you![/color]

He'd said it. Now, his pink and blue origami crane Pokemon would obey. The pink crane snapped to attention, hovering several feet off the ground. Shin bent the tiny shards that made up the pixel arrangement in each eye so they formed a set of black carat pupils.

The pink origami crane smiled at him, in its best vague approximation of a smile.

"^_^"

"That'll do, Porygon-kun. That'll do." Shin was pleased. Now, all that was left was programming in its shard-based moveset. Yay.