LJ Idol Season Ten: "The Big Zero"

[halfshellvenus]

The Big Zero
idol season ten | week 26 | 2030 words
The Goal Is Zerox-x-x-x-x

Comments

[favoritebean]

This was a very cute story.

[halfshellvenus]

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. :)

[i_17bingo]

You really put an awful lot of thought into what it takes to be a zero. This was really awesome, because I was never sure where it was going to go next, but when it got there, it made a ton of sense.

[halfshellvenus]

I actually had more about him-- two additional paragraphs on his nature (neither tending to be overly upbeat nor downcast) and the dangers of his multiplicative and divisive powers, but cut them because this was already pretty long! It didn't feel long as I was writing it, but the word count was higher than I expected.

OTOH, he was a fun guy to work with, which would probably surprise him. :D

Thanks so much for reading and commenting on this one!

[bleodswean]

Whoa! So much work, K! Some of your entries this season have really glistened with sweat!!! IMPRESSIVE! This was complicated and yet light, which is a delicious combination. I absolutely positively loved your illustrative asterisms!!! Those were inspired!

[halfshellvenus]

This really WAS a ton of work-- I wasn't expecting that, but the time spent getting it all ready to post (and formatted to make sense and be readable)...*thud*

The searching for mathematical symbols in a format where I could use them...

I had fun writing the story itself, and there was probably more I could have crammed in here but I was afraid of wearing readers out. ;) And potentially hurting their brains over the math, which I tried not to dive too far into.

So glad you enjoyed it, and noticed the details of things like the section separators. SO please the infinity sign did not require extra work. :D

[marlawentmad]

You did an excellent job of not alienating the non-math readers such as myself. This is absolutely delightful!

[halfshellvenus]

Thank you! I'd hoped the symbols and the text would describe the needed parts of what was happening, even if the reader wasn't all that familiar with the math.

So glad you enjoyed it, and that it didn't scare you. :)

[tsuki_no_bara]

this was so cute! i love how you turned numbers into actual characters, and the idea of an infinity sign being a zero twisted around so it could look at its own butt made me giggle. you write the best crack, seriously.

[halfshellvenus]

I've spent a lot of this season writing inanimate characters-- a frightening amount, possible!-- but it's been such fun doing it. Zero cracked me up as a character. Basic, hardworking, a little crabby but also good-hearted (overall, an even-keel kind of guy, which you'd probably expect).

And this is the second week I've had "butt" in a story. I think it's our inner 10-year-old. "Butt" is always funny. Even minions think it's funny!