A/N

"Italics" = thoughts

Bold First Sentence = Random 1st sentence from a random book selected by a friend

This chapter's sentence is from: The Austere Academy , Lemony Snicket

To those who reviewed, or tagged my 1st story to follow or as a favorite THANK YOU! I am new to writing and any help or encouragement is soooooooooo appreciated nyhahaha.

Disclaimer: I do not own any works by Lemony Snicket or the characters of MGLN.

Let us begin...


{MGLN~MGLN~MGLN}

Chapter 2: Relativity

If you were going to give a gold medal to the least delightful person on Earth at this moment, you would have to give that medal to a person named Nanoha Takamachi, and if you didn't give it to her, Nanoha Takamachi was the sort of person who would snatch it from your hands anyway.

It's not that she was an unhappy person, or that she lacked a kind heart, or even that she was disliked. No. She was the opposite of that most of the time. Nanoha was loved by those who knew her. All who met Nanoha admired her for her kind and caring nature as shown in the way she always was the first to give a lending hand.

She was quite popular on her college campus where she was a math major, considered in fact a mathematical prodigy. As she walked about campus she had a smile for everyone. Even her math professor, Dr. Jail Scaglietti, (who truth be told, really was the least delightful person on Earth sending a chill up her spine when ever she was near him) received Nanoha's gracious smile.

Its just that the way she went about living her life, well it was a bit explosive at times. Where the anger came from she could not say, but for as long as she could remember it was quick to rise to the surface whenever she felt an injustice; she had a knack for finding injustices. At these times those nearby to her would shutter with fright, duck and hide. You just did not want to be on the receiving end of her wrath. This earned the caring young woman a nick name she was not too fond of, "The White Devil". If ever she found out the person who gave her that nickname she would proceed to immediately give them divine retribution by busting their ass, 'I'll make them see stars.' Nanoha thought.


It was the wee early hours of morning and Nanoha was particularly grumpy. She had stayed up late working on a paper for her English lit class that wasn't going so well and now she had a headache to show for it. Her paper's premiss was the "Theory of Relativity in James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake". Nanoha felt she had discovered a parallel between Einstein's understanding of time and Joyce's fiction.

'In physics,' Nanoha thought, 'we measure time in fixed units on a linear progression and this is the basis of scientific description of reality. Didn't everyday life seemingly follow this concept? The face of a clock ticking away hours, minutes, seconds, and the pages of a calendar, ripping off as each day, week, month passes, is the system of time humans live by' she observed.

'Still, there is something about Finnegan's Wake...' she muttered to herself as she negotiated her way around a fallen rubbish bin that had been set out for early morning collection.

In Nanoha's eyes Joyce's work gave another description of reality; a reality much aligned with Einstein's. According to the famous scientist, such a linear progression is not compatible with the real nature of human temporal experience. The mind never perceives reality as restricted to the present; on the contrary, the past events and experiences (as well as imaginary projections into the future) merge together with the present to co-exist. For Einstein, events did not occur one after another along a single progression, rather, they coexist as parts of the time-space continuum.

It was this idea that Nanoha was making about Joyce's writing that was giving her such a hard time. "Hmm, was that another perception on how time passed", Nanoha thought, "hard time, easy time." What Nanoha saw in Joyce's words were characters for whom the past, present and future ceaselessly flow together, but in her paper she was struggling to get her ideas across.

When the clock chimed to indicate it was already after 3 a.m., she shrugged and stood up from a table strewn with papers, books, her laptop, and one framed photo of her family. She squeezed and gently massaged the bridge of her nose with her right hand as she reached up with her left to pull her chestnut hair out of its long single pony tail which quirkily enough she had originally tied to one side. Her body ached like it was already 6 a.m., and her mind had blanked out no longer aware of the past, present or any possible future the time-space continuum might hold in store for her. She plopped down on her bed's pink comforter still fully clothed, and fell into a fitful sleep. So, when the phone rang at 5:13 a.m., and the manager of the coffee shop where Nanoha worked part-time asked her to come in early to open up because once again the regular morning person had called in sick, she was a bit ticked off. Still her sense of responsibility made her agree to the extra shift.

Groggy from lack of sleep Nanoha rushed out her door on her way to work. Under her dark blue jacket she wore her waitress uniform, a baby blue one piece with white trim and a hem that was rather more on the short side then she was comfortable in. She was thankful that the early morning air was cool and crisp enough to warrant wearing her jacket. White stockings adorned her toned legs, completing her outfit a pair of white tennis shoes with pink laces. She carried a bag that held a change of clothes and her laptop so she could head straight to the University after her shift at the coffee shop ended. Tying the bag down on the back of her bicycle, and her long brown hair with it's reddish high-lights back into its side ponytail, she was off down the road on her way to the water front where the coffee shop was located.

Even in her tired state, as she cycled along the edge of the road, Nanoha's mind went back to the paradox she had met in writing her paper.

"If the universal constants are precisely balanced, such, that life, could not exist otherwise, then just how can the past, present and future overlap? What if the idea of parallel universes were real and in each were the same universal constants. Next," (and here is where Nanoha's mathematical mind became excited at the possibilities and probabilities) "... take those constants out hundreds, millions, even trillions of decimal places and minuscule, almost infinitesimal differences between the constants of each universe would be there - resonances of a quantum "multiverse", meaning that each resonance was unique. Wouldn't that mean if one could some how slice through a point within these multiverses one would encounter the past, present and future all at the same instant? Wouldn't this make time travel somehow possible?"

So lost in her thoughts, Nanoha did not see the sewer drain in the road just ahead. Her front tire suddenly caught between the rails, dipping down into the grate and slamming hard against a sharp edge. The handlebars twisted in her hands and sent her flying off her bike onto the ground at the curves edge. Her bike bucked like a bronco and shuddered for a moment before stopping in a leaning upright position, held up by the front tire now wedged into the sewer grate. Her fair skin became paler for a moment as she lay on her back in a state of shock. Shaking her head she took stock of her situation and a sigh of relief escaped her lips as she realized the soft grassy knoll that she landed on saved her from harm, the only bruise being her pride. She slowly stood up and brushed off the bit of grass that stuck to her coat.

"Damn," she cursed quietly under her breath. "these are my only pair, and I just bought them." Nanoha was looking at a run going the entire length of her white stockings on her left leg. Mad, but realizing there was not anything she could do about the state of her stockings, Nanoha looked up to assess the condition of her bicycle. Her bag had somehow managed to stay on the back of the bike although it hung off the side almost ready to spill its content. Thinking of her laptop, she quickly went over and readjusted the bag, securing it back into its proper place. Next she yanked the front tire out of the grate, and her hopes fell. She had a flat tire.

"Damn", she said again. She wanted to blast the person who decided to install a grate in the road just there.

"I so want to break something now... Nyhahaha," she laughs as she mutters to herself while scratching her chin, "I guess I already did." She looks sadly at her busted up tire.

Just up ahead was the entrance to the waterfront park and the coffee shop was not too far past it. If she hurried and cut through the park, she could still make it to work on time. "What to do with the bike", Nanoha thought. "I know, there is a small picnic area that is not out of the way, it's a bit secluded but there is an old bike rack there. I could get around easier if I lock my bike up there and come back for it later. Hmmm, that's what I will do then."

Nanoha smiles to herself, as she can't stay mad for long, and heads for the park, her bike in tow.


{MGLN~MGLN~MGLN}

a/n: I worked hard to try and make this chapter connect in some small ways with the prior. I think this need to make connections will grow with each chapter. I have no idea what the next chapter's beginning sentence will be, so I look forward to that challenge.

I am open to reviews, suggestions, corrections, etc. Thank you!