Word: Infinitesimal

 

infinitesimal

[ in-fin-i-tes-uh-muhl ]

adjective

1. indefinitely or exceedingly small; minute: infinitesimal vessels in the circulatory system.

2. immeasurably small; less than an assignable quantity: to an infinitesimal degree.

3. of, relating to, or involving infinitesimals.

noun

1. an infinitesimal quantity.

2. Mathematics. a variable having zero as a limit.

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               Dave and Steve sat on a bench, looking at the few passing clouds. Neither man spoke, simply watching the clouds go by. They completely ignored anything else, even the other people around them.

               “Hey Steve?” Dave asked.

               “Yeah, Dave?”

               “You even think about it?”

               “About what?”

               “Everything.”

               Steve waited for his friend to elaborate. No such elaboration came. “Everything about what?”

               “Everything, everything. Life, the universe. You know, everything.”

               “Oh, like how Earth is just a tiny speck in an uncaring universe and we’re just motes of dust on the speck?”

               “Yeah, that.”

               “You know, I try not to think about that too much. My life is bad enough without the existential crisis of thinking about the vastness of space and our infinitesimal place in it.”

               “Yeah, that makes sense.” Dave said.

               Both men went back to silently watching the clouds. It seemed like there were more than there had been a moment ago.

               “Why did you ask that?” Steve asked.

               “Hm?”

               “What brought that question up? About thinking about everything. Not something you just ask out of nowhere.”

               “Gina dumped me.”

               “Ouch. Sorry, man.”

               “When she did, she said I don’t see the big picture. That I don’t think about the world at large. And that got me thinking about that sort of thing.”

               “And, what have you come up with?”

               Dave watched as a few more clouds rolled in. They periodically covered the sun, creating pockets of free-floating shade.

               “You know, I’m not really sure. I mean, I don’t get it. What was she talking about? Why should the world at large matter for guys like us? I mean, we don’t matter all that much, right?”

               “Sucks, doesn’t it?”

               “What, not mattering?”

               “Yeah. That whole tiny, worthless speck on a speck thing.”

               “Yeah, yeah it does.”

               Both of them sat there, thinking, or trying to think, about things so much larger than either of them. Neither could truly grasp at such things, but they tried. The now lightly overcast sky made it harder to do.

               “What do you think she meant?” Steve asked.

               “Who, Gina? I figured she meant I’m stuck here in my own little rut without really worrying about anything else.”

               “I guess that makes sense. But why bring that up? Not like guys like us can do anything else, right?”

               Dave nodded his agreement. Neither had the skills to really change the world. Neither wanted those skills. As the sky darkened, Dave wondered briefly if that was the problem. Maybe it was his insignificance that had led to their break-up. Maybe if he was more interesting, they would still be together.

               “Hey Steve?”

               “Yeah?”

               “Do you think it’s too late?”

               “For what?”

               “For us to become something bigger. You know, actually go from just two guys to two guys who matter.”

               Steve considered that for a moment. “Maybe. I mean, we’re not that old, are we?”

               “Definitely not.”

               “So yeah, why couldn’t we do something? Something bigger than us, right?”

               “Yeah. Something great. Something that’ll get our names in history books.”

               “Yeah, yeah. That sounds great.” Neither spoke for a moment before he continued. “Any idea what we should do?”

               “Not a one.”

               “Well, changing the world isn’t something you just do, is it? We’ve got to think and plan and learn some stuff.”

               “A lot of stuff.”

               “Okay, yeah, a lot of stuff. But we can do it, right?”

               “Totally. We can absolutely change the world if we really wanted to.”

               They sat there, thinking their new thoughts.

               It began to rain.

               Neither Steve nor Dave moved.

************************************

When dealing with people, remember what the Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy says about the population of the universe:

Population: None. Although you might see people from time to time, they are most likely products of your imagination. Simple mathematics tells us that the population of the Universe must be zero. Why? Well given that the volume of the universe is infinite there must be an infinite number of worlds. But not all of them are populated; therefore only a finite number are. Any finite number divided by infinity is zero, therefore the average population of the Universe is zero, and so the total population must be zero.

 

With this in mind, you don't need to try and please anyone, since nobody really exists. 

Word: Cunctation

cunctation

[ kuhngk-tey-shuhn ]

noun Archaic.

lateness; delay.

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               Jim threw opened the door and walked into the conference room. Those already in attendance were too annoyed by the man’s lateness to notice he was walking differently than normal. And even if they had, they would probably not have cared. Jim was disheveled and his suit looked like it had seen better days. But again, nobody cared. There was only one thing that really mattered to them.

               “You’re late.” Growled Mr. Hendrickson, the Chairman of the Board. “You were supposed to be here over an hour ago.”

               Jim flopped into the nearest chair. “Yeah, well, I’m here now.” He said.

               “You’d better have a damned good excuse, Mr. Willson.”

               Jim’s eye twitched. “An excuse? Oh no, I’ve got several. You want to hear them? You want to know why I’m late?” His voice rose just a little bit with each word he spoke. “Fine. I’ll tell you. I’ll tell all of you why I’m late. Let’s see, where do I begin. How about waking up? My alarm clock died during the night. Just up and quit working while I was asleep. Only reason I know that was because when I finally did wake up, it was displaying a whole lot of nothing.”

               “That’s it?” Mr. Hendrickson said. “That’s your excuse? You overslept because your clock didn’t wake you up?”

               “Oh no no no. That’s just the start. See, I only woke up about ten minutes late. Not terrible, right? If it was just that, I would’ve been here on time and ready. There’s so much more. See, when I noticed that my clock had died, I panicked. Didn’t know when I woke up, see? So I scrambled out of bed and my feet got tangled up in the sheets. I tripped and fell. Right into a side table.”

               A few members of the board winced, but nobody said anything else. Jim continued.

               “Of course, I couldn’t have hit it normally, oh no. That would’ve been too easy. I hit it on the corner, and this happened.”

               He rolled up his pant leg, revealing a bandage coated with blood. He lowered the garment, hiding the injury.

               “I don’t know how it opened up that much, but it did. I’m lucky I have plenty of bandages. But my long trip to work didn’t end there. Once I bandaged myself up, I got cleaned up as quick as I could, and ate quickly. That, in turn, nearly made me choke on a piece of cereal. Fortunately, it was only almost. I ran out to my car, and started pulling out. Which is when this happened.”

                 He pulled out his phone and showed the board a picture of a wrecked car. The entire rear of the vehicle had been caved in.

               “Idiot plowed right into me. I got lucky it was the back of the car. Well, obviously, I had to wait for the cops at that point. Took a bunch more pictures of the crash. Both cars, and making sure to show it was in front of my house. It’s a good thing too. See, the idiot who hit me was friends with the cops who showed up. Good friends. Apparently they get together and play cards or watch a game or something a lot. He hit me, and I end up with a ticket. Well, You can bet I spent way too long lodging a complaint against those two. We’ll see how it goes later. Once that’s done, I’m left without a car, so I have to take the bus.

               “It takes me awhile to hobble to the nearest bus stop. Guess what I see when I get there? The bus. Pulling away. I can’t exactly run on a wounded leg, so I don’t have much choice but to let it go. The next bus here is in two hours, so that’s out. It’s either walking, or calling a cab. And, well, bad leg, so cab it is.

               “I get what has to be the worst cab driver in history. He speeds, doesn’t slow down for turns, has no idea where he’s going, and curses enough to make a sailor blush. It should’ve taken fifteen minutes to drive here from where he picked me up. It took him half an hour. And I suspect that was on purpose to charge me more.

               “And then when I get here? I get stopped by security. I’ve got my badge, but they say I ‘look suspicious’, and get searched. I have no idea why. They just did. And I swear they took way longer than I had to.

               “And that, Mr. Hendrickson, is why I am late. Is there anything else you’d like to know?”

               Mr. Hendrickson was silent for a few seconds longer than he probably needed.

               “No, I think that’s sufficient. Let’s begin the meeting everyone, shall we?”

**********************************

Hopefully Jim here gets let out early, if only to go get himself checked out by medical professionals. That's something you should probably do right away.

Word: Neophyte

 

neophyte

[ nee-uh-fahyt ]

noun

1. a beginner or novice: He's a neophyte at chess.

2. Roman Catholic Church. a novice.

3. a person newly converted to a belief, as a heathen, heretic, or nonbeliever; proselyte.

4. Primitive Church. a person newly baptized.

*************************************

               King Derex of the Shadows sat on his throne, regarding the youth standing before him. The boy was no older than 15, and his inexperience showed. The boy held his sword like he had only started learning a week ago, and his magical energy was raw and unrefined.

               “Are you sure you want to do this, boy?” Derex said.

               “I…I am. I…it’s my duty as the hero to vanquish you.”

               Derex had to give the boy credit. He was braver than most of the other heroes that came before him. Although the boy was sweating and his arms were shaking, he still held the blade up, and his trembling feet did not move. Many others who claimed the title of hero fled long before they got to Derex’s throne room.

               “Really now?” Derex said. “You think you can do so as you are? Why, you can barely hold that sword of yours.”

               “It…it doesn’t matter. For the peace of the world, I have to fight. I have to win.”

               The boy shouted and charged. Derex signed and raised a half-hearted magical barrier. Against a properly trained hero it have about the effect of a few sheets of paper. But against this one it may as well have been an iron wall. The boy swung his sword over and over, each swing making it abundantly clear how little training he had received.

               Derex raised his hand to conjure a ball of destructive magic and kill the young hero. But he did not. A stray thought entered his mind as he watched. The boy was young and unrefined, but he was still a hero. All heroes had the potential for incredible power and skill, thanks to the reincarnating soul they shared. That soul also ensured there would always be a hero, since a new one would be born soon after the previous one died.

               Sure, it would give Derex a few years without having to worry about such interruptions, but it would inevitably return. But what if he did not kill this hero? What if he kept the boy alive? Oh keeping him in prison was out of the question. It would be a needless drain on resources, and heroes could be annoyingly resourceful when it came to prison breaks. But there was another option. One that would only work on a young, untrained hero.

               Any hero with proper training would be able to resist mental magic. But this one? It was perfect. He began casting the spell as the boy continued to strike uselessly on the barrier. The magic quickly finished and a cloud of shadow enveloped the young hero’s head. He stopped attacking and lowered his sword as his eyes clouded over.

               They snapped back into a focus a moment later and he looked around confused.

               “Where, where am I?” The boy asked. “Who are you? What’s going on? I…I can’t…I don’t remember…I…I don’t know…”

               Derex let his barrier fall and rose to the former hero, who was looking around himself quickly with eye quickly filling with fear.

               “It’s okay, lad. My name is Derex. I’m the king of these lands. And you are Selton, my apprentice in the art of sword and magic. You will be training under me in all things and become a champion of the people.”

               “I…I am? I will?” The boy asked. The name was something Derex made up then and there. But the rest of it was true. At least, it was now.

               “Indeed. It is understandable that you don’t remember anything though. Magic can be quite volatile if mishandled. Don’t worry, I will teach you to cast the spell properly in time.”

               “I…I see. I…I apologize for my failure.” The newly budded Selton said with a slight, and very confused, bow.

               “Think nothing of it. Now, let me take you to your room. You have much to learn, and much more to relearn, my young apprentice.” 

**************************************

You'd think when dealing with reincarnating heroes, more villains would want to capture them alive. But nope, it's always kill first, question later. Well, try and kill. It usually doesn't go super well for the villain.