Application for Unity (Discworld - Thief of Time)

[oneof_me]

((This application contains spoilers for Thief of Time (including the character's name, unfortunately...) ))

A woman appeared in the Sorting Room.

This was not, of course, unusual, but the way she appeared was. Most new arrivals to Hogwarts turned up in one piece. They didn't start out as a strange disturbance in the air, and a stream of

Comments

[cardarchitect]

"The ability to solve hypothetical problems is of utmost importance if one is to develop one's brain," Near says blandly.

[oneof_me]

Unity considers this. "Probably. I was never intended to have imagination."

[cardarchitect]

"Indeed? But it's hardly imagination to analyze the facts in your possession to draw conclusions about possible outcomes."

[oneof_me]

"The facts in my possession are incomplete. There are too many things I don't understand about humanity." She sighs. "I apologise."

[cardarchitect]

"Ah. Ignorance." He smiled very faintly. "Something you should work on, don't you think?"

[oneof_me]

"Yes." She nodded, solemnly. If she was going to be alive after all...

"Do you know who Albus Dumbledore is and who he would prefer to harass?"

[cardarchitect]

"He was the headmaster of the school at one point. Now he is... an adviser, of sorts. I admit I have not studied him closely enough to know what his tastes in that direction are."

[oneof_me]

"Then why are new students expected to know?"

[cardarchitect]

"Think of it as a personality test."

[oneof_me]

She sighs again. "I was never meant to have a personality, either. Or even to think of myself as 'I'."

[cardarchitect]

Interesting. Even more extreme than Near's upbringing, if it was true.

"And yet, you have developed a sense of self?"

[oneof_me]

"Yes. When I began - using - this body. We did not realise that the body... shapes the consciousness within it. It divides the universe in two. 'I' am in the darkness behind the eyes, and everything else is - not me."

[cardarchitect]

"Perhaps you should take up studying psychology."

[oneof_me]

"I've been studying my own. Ever since I realised that I had one."

[cardarchitect]

"Without a baseline to compare it to? That can't be as informative."

[oneof_me]

She nods. "You're right. I should learn more about human minds. Now that I'm no longer - otherwise occupied."