Chapter 2: Duodecimal

Tau (τ, Τ) — ta/tem/ter
Witnessgender, Lubricantgender

Nu (ν, Ν) — niyu/kaniyu/kaniyut
Candidategender, Privilegegender

Theta (θ, Θ) — thon, thon, thons
Shepherdgender, Nudgegender

Pi (π, Π) — it/it/its
Geniusgender, Literalgender

Kappa (κ, Κ) — they/them/their
Burnoutgender, Surplusgender

Iota (ι, Ι) — fae/faer/faer
Shrinekeepergender, Fairygender

Zeta (ζ, Ζ) — ze/zir/zirs
Viziergender, Antagonistgender

- RZ UNVEILED -
RHIZOME games.magnaframe.duodecimal.base12

miniaturizedAdjutant [mA] — offline
topicalGrotesquerie [tG] — online
lamentationTallier [lT] – do not disturb
cherishableRelegator [cR] — online
armageddonBlind [aB] – banned

(3 tones ago)

miniaturizedAdjutant EXTRUDED AN ATTACHMENT [scout_leader_has_incoherent_politics.raster]

🌺×1

(3 hexaketons ago)

tG: ugh, *so* many prepz were @ my scene 2day, so gross.

cR: 😟 Aw, did you have a bad day @tG? Did they give you a hard time?

tG: na, prepz don’t give me a hard time, i give them a hard time >:]

tG: but the hot goth xi I was telling you about was looking at this total stuck up prep in my year.

cR: *gasps*

tG: yah

tG: but I gotta plan don’t worry. I’ll make tau pay. >:]

cR: 🌺 Oh! Just be careful!

tG: also lol, nice meme mA

tG: NOT!!

tG: >:]

cR: Aw, I like it! @mA I think your meme is good!

tG: its good if ur an oversharing sap w/ issues. @mA I think its cool that ur not like other kappa (or whatev tha hellz u have going on genderz wise) but u like overshare a lot. u gotta be more mysterious, like moi >:]

tG: one sec let me show u how 2 meme 2 extreme (w/o neurosis re ur guardian) brb

cR: Well, I think that the meme’s inclusion of context tailored just for our friend group makes it more effective!

cR: I loled!

cR: 🧐 They’re improving. 🤔

lamentationTallier SET STATUS TO online

lT: While The Rate Of Improvement Of Our Team Leader’s Grasp Of And General Skill at Memesis Is Significant, Given the Notable Lack Of Skills They Had To Begin With, I Suspect Memesis Capable Of Provoking A Few Lols Are Insufficient To Match Those Of Our Principle Rival Team’s Leader, Much Less Our Former Memetics Expert.

lT: Addendum: I Would Like To Post A General Reminder That Our Next Raid vs The Lyricist And Kaniyu Team Is In Approximately One Octphase.

lT: Addendum 2: We Have Not Practiced In Approximately One Hemiphase.

lT: I Trust That You Can Draw Your Own Conclusions, Regarding My Projections Regarding Our Performance During The Next Raid.

cR: I want to practice some more! I still think we have a chance! 🌺

lT: Also, Lol. My Theta2 Is Similar. The Frustration Evident In This Meme Is Familiar, Therefore Comical.

tG: HELLz no, were not gonna let armageddon back on the squad, im gonna let u have it when im finished w/ this meme (brb still)

lT: I Suppose That One May Have Been Given The Impression That I Was Implying That I Believe That AB, Our Former Memesis Expert, Should Be Reinstated To The Team, Given The Dire Probabilities Against Us Without Faer Incredible Memesis Skill.

lT: But, No, AB Needed To Leave.

lT: To Be Plain, My Suggestion Is That: This Isn’t Working. We Need To Find Another Plan If We Wish To Remain Relevant In The Magna Frame Gaurdhawk Competitive Raid Rankings.

cR: I still feel bad about that, I wish that we didn’t have to kick faer.

cR: I know that what fae did was so bad…, but, fae apologized! Fae could have gotten better. tG was so close to faer during the matches. And now aB is alone and might be getting worse without us to influence faer!

cR: What if fae hurts someone else? It would be our fault…

cR: 😢

tG: HELLz HELLz HELLz no. were not having this convo rn

tG: again

tG: faes just a phony liar.

lT: I Agree, I Think There Is Not Much More To Say On The Matter.

cR: 😞 Sorry.

cR: Lets talk about something else.

cR: Oh! lamentations, have you gotten the results of your Chrysalization application yet? You sent that eight phases ago, right?

cR: I mean, I’m sure you’d tell us if you did get it! I hope you get to chrysalize Pi and get off that horrible commune and learn so much at the university! 📜 📜 📜

lT: The Scheduled Data-Freighter Docked On Halite’s Space Elevator Approximately 3 Tones Ago. I Believe The Results Of My Application Will Be Transmitted Downthread To Me Shortly.

cR: *gasps*

cR: aren’t you excited?

lT: I Must Admit To Feeling Some Emotional Agitation.

cR: Well… I believe you’ll get to be Pi!!! 🕊️

tG: good thing u nerds are such losers or id think u were prepz.

topicalGrotesquerie EXTRUDED AN ATTACHMENT [meme(2).raster]

🌺×1 👍×2 🪦×2

cR: lol 🌺!

lT: Lol

- RZ INTERTWINED -
miniaturizedAdjutant AND RHIZOME games.magnaframe.duodecimal.base12

mA: lol

mA: tau moment

Zephto flips a toggle on the interface into the ‘zome, to bring it from a simple archival text transcript to full RZ sim. Base 12, Team Duodecimal’s private lair and mech hanger, dissolves into view around faer, and their RZsona strides into the garage like a solo pilot returning from an epic-tier raid. The huge command center windows frame a sweeping desolation of orange rocks and distant towering mountains, grey sky heavy with clouds.

Oh, why the hell not? Zephto activates the advanced senses in faer RZ and bumps up the background music from barely perceptible to fully immersive. Fae feels the grinding baselines of the hanger’s theme, smells the faint smell of engine grease, hears the whirring of the team’s mech cores set to idle.

🎶 Roundabout | Armored Core 2 OST

Magna Frame Guardhawk: The Victory might be a good game.

cR: miniaturized! Rude! 😡

tG: I told u, im not like other tau >:]

cherishableRelagator and topicalGrotesquerie are sitting around the lair’s massive planning table. Banners, recording the team’s dark-horse ascendance to competitive raid champions during the last hexephemeris hang alongside blown-up and comically oversized custom memes, mostly Zephto’s. cR waves to Zephto and smiles widely.

cR’s RZsona is a default Nu-gender brood royal costume that cR hasn’t customized at all, aside from a single 🌺 decorator in kaniyu hair, replacing the default’s shimmering tiara. cR likes to keep a low profile and guards kaniyu identity closely, a sharp contrast to most other teams’ flashy and boastful brood royal sponsors.

tG smirks at zephto from ter own gothic RZsona, which Zephto understands is what tG looks like in real life.

Other Magna Frame players might cringe at autoRZsonas, but Zephto, having once laughed at tG from faer own gremliny fantasy sona, has been experimenting with their own virtual look recently. It’s umber-clade like faerself, and features an iota-crown. It makes Zephto happy, though it isn’t something they would dare equip outside of Base 12.

mA: anyway, everyone shut up about former members of the team. i have something much more important to talk about.

mA: @tG, Well i’m not like other kappa either…

mA: and @lT, sorry, i think you just got second place…

mA: …

mA: now that I’m clear to chrysalize iota and iappa

tG: weh.

lT: What? How?

LamentationTallier emerges from underneath the mech part thon’s been tinkering with in the garage area of the lair. Thon fantastical neon RZsona as inscrutable as ever. Thon tail (actually a helper RZ daemon, grafted to lT’s RZsona – a prize for reaching max level in lT’s class) continues to keep its attention on the repair work that lT has been doing.

cR: Oh! mA! That’s great news!

mA: yea it wasn’t a big deal.

lT: This Feels Highly Irregular. Please Provide More Detail.

tG: mA probably just cried a lot til they gave them what they wanted >:)

mA: no crying involved

mA: ok maybe a little crying

tG: lol

cR: oh! miniaturized! 🫢

mA: but not in front of any authority figures

mA: i may have done a little cheating

mA: poor bio-sec to keep your slimes right out there in plain view right?

lT: Hmm…

tG: mayebs I underestimated u mini, u must be learning from my dark wayz

cR: Cheated? Ahh! You didn’t get seen, did you? 😱

tG: phfft ur such a rule follower cherishable lol. ur always like {{minimini I FORBID YOU from doin anything cool ever}} w ur ultrastrong royal memesis ;]

cR: I would never do that to mA! 😣 You know I don’t like to use memesis tG!

mA: ooof

mA: i think were getting sidetracked here from the cool story about how my gender was literally saved by a weird magic rz game that can do rz stuff irl.

Zephto takes a sip from the eternally steaming cup of grubstim juice set on the table in front of faer. Purely for show, of course Zephto has force-disabled the glitchy taste functionality of their RZ headset, which induces a persistent lemon-adjacent sensation in their geusic nerves when enabled.

mA: i literally put an actual real life plant into my inventory. my strifekind got assigned to “plantkind”? which sounds lame but is really cool, actually. i might try to change it later to try out other “kinds” but it turns out plantkind is really overpowered.

tG: wait

mA: also cr ill be careful. no memesis required :)

tG: wait UR PLAYING REGENT????!!!

mA: ???

tG: ugggghhh ive been talkin bout it 4 like the last hexephemeris, now I know u don’t listen to me silly kappa.

TG: regent is gonna be sooooo cool. And u got into the beta b4 me???!!!

cR: Oh, you’re playing regent too, miniaturized?

tG: FUCK, ur playing tooo cR?? whyyy didn’t you tell me??

mA: uh. yeah, I guess?

cR: Sorry tG! The beta is only open to nu and zeta so far and the game seems really dangerous so I didn’t want—

miniaturizedAdjutant EXTRUDED AN ATTACHMENT [regent_beta.ludo]

The ludocrystal glitters on the table before them, tG snatches a copy while lamentations, who has been standing still, Away From Rosetta, stirs and has thon demon tail scan the file.

lT: I Was Interrupted. The Nature Of The Interruption Is Unimportant.

lT: Shady Attachment. I’m Not Detecting Any Malicious Datalife On It, Though.

lT: Where Did You Obtain This, Miniaturized?

lT: You Described Its Gameplay As “Magical”. As Magic Is Fake, I Have Reason To Doubt The Veracity Of This Claim.

They’re all staring at faer across RZspace table.

mA: ooooof

mA: uh

mA: haha

tG: oh HELLz no, it was aB wasn’t it?

tG: fae was saying stuff about chrysalizing zeta and ze must have got a copy and gave one to you!!!

mA: i mean i may have accidentally answered an intertwine request from zir when i was super distracted.

mA: and ze may have used zir memesis to force me to install this file.

mA: also tg you just revealed that youve talked to ab too you must really be obsessed with zir

tG: grrrrrrrr >:|

tG: well, mini, now that ive got my wicked mitts on regent, ill show you all what a real gamer can do!

tG: it doesn’t matter that you all got the game before me, I’m gonna show u all >:]

- RZ DISENTWINED -
topicalGrotesquerie FROM RHIZOME games.magnaframe.duodecimal.base12

cR: bye topical 🙁

lT: I Continue To Be Distracted By Events External To This Rhizome. This “Magical” Game, While Engendering Some Interest From Me, Will Not Be My Main Focus For the Time Being.

lT: I Will Remind All Remaining Participants In This Rhizome That Our Next Practice In Preparation for facing the Lyricist’s team in the next raid will be held in approximately 4 tones.

mA: i hear you lt. well get some practice in. the duodecimals’ gonna beat em in a dozen ways, right? haha.

- RZ DISENTWINED -
lamentationTallier FROM RHIZOME games.magnaframe.duodecimal.base12

mA: oof.

cR: just be careful miniaturized, ok? 🌺

cR: I haven’t been playing Regent but a lot of my brood is, it looks really fun! But, and I know that you all are saying that I’m too overprotective, but regent can be really dangerous! There are already a lot of other brood royals playing, and they’re all really high-level already! Regent doesn’t just happen in RZ space!!

mA: i know me and tg always give you shit for being a worrygrub, but ur ok.

cR: phew! thanks mA.

mA: *waits patiently for more cherishable worry*

cR: 😝

cR: Ok, one more: I’m worried about armageddon’s involvement, you know how fae – I mean, ze – can get in over zir head and make things go out of control.

mA: yeah

cR: Being a regent nominee 👑 is a dangerous and important role! I think the game really is magic. 🎩

cR: Lots of chimera will want to tell you what to do! Don’t listen to them and follow your heart ok? 💚 Even if its me or aB.

mA: both you and aB think this game is *destiny* or whatever. idk, maybe its just a game?

cR: Maybe it is! Games can be fun ➕ important, I think.

mA: well, since you havent played regent yet, do you want to be a noob with me? We can tag team tG and aB together!

cR: Sorry, I don’t think I can. It sounds like fun to play with you, but…

mA: but what?

cR: 🫥

mA: ???

cR: I think I have to go now, too! Talk to you in a few tones! ⏱️ ⏱️ ⏱️

mA: ok, see you cr

mA: just be careful ok? 😏

cR: lol! Bye mA!

- RZ DISENTWINED -
cherishableRelagator FROM RHIZOME games.magnaframe.duodecimal.base12

And Zephto is left in the RZspace hanger alone, fae lets the BGM track finish its next loop, smelling the simulated pretrichoir of the coming grey rain and letting faer eyes wander over the pipes and fans embedded into the lair’s walls, listening to the faint hum of machinery and the clank of the team’s collection of laboring RZ daemons.

They realize that their real body is feeling hungry.

- RZ DISENTWINED -
miniaturizedAdjutant FROM RHIZOME games.magnaframe.duodecimal.base12