((So I'm here to attempt gig's sadistic yet thoroughly optional INT training. In summary, Tao has been given a rubix cube. The following DC's must be achived in order: 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, referring to each side of the cube that is solved. You can add the INT mod to the roll, but for Tao that's 0 so the rolls represent the actual dice check. For each unsuccessful attempt, the DC goes back down to the previous value, which means that bad rolls can easily undo the entirety of your progress.
In the academy, Tao got up to 12, so must now roll a 14 at the onset. The following 81 (!!!!!) rolls were generated in the academy and can be locate
here.
This post will cover all of the rolls already generated. If my brain isn't reduced to mush, I'll then continue until I solve this damn thing. In any case, this should make for a good XP grind, which I'll happily collect once I graduate. Note that this sequence of posts only qualifies for actual XP because the lesson is optional, Tao isn't required to be doing this.
And for those of you who are about to laugh at the sheer volume of seemingly pointless posts that are to follow, I remind you: Naruto learned the Rasengan by playing with balloons. No reason Tao can't get stronger by playing with a plastic puzzle cube.))
((Needed DC:14, Actual DC: 14))
Tao made his way to the hillside looking over the Jidouka household, rather absent-minded in his fiddling with the rubix cube in his hand. The large pack he wore made travel somewhat cumbersome, considering that even in his short time at the academy he demonstrated everything from a portable freezer to a working tea kettle housed in various compartments throughout the giant mass of burlap and canvas. In fact, if he had ever concentrated on the sheer mass he was lugging around all the time, Tao might just end up as strong as he was smart.
((Needed DC: 16, Actual DC: 16))
Through luck, or some cruel joke initially designed to mimick as much, Tao found the cube to be a little more than halfway completed by the time he'd arived to the top of the hill. The air had the faint hum of the seemingly innumerable electrical generators the Jidouka kept throughout their grounds. The sound, pleasing to some and unnerving to others (and certainly the last thing a stray insect would ever hear before firey death), put Tao at ease as he'd long since grown accustomed to it. His hair stood up a bit as it met the ionized air, and the puzzle became a little bit more complete.
((Needed DC: 18, Actual DC: 15))
Tao had returned to a state that he'd experienced multiple times in the academy. The puzzle was nearly complete. There was a feeling that success lay in only a few more permutations of the device. Just rotate one edge a few times, or maybe rearrange the center column, or was it the center row? Indeed, success was only a few rotations away. The problem, of course, was that even at this stage there seemed to be a near infinite number of actual paths to take. One of those paths was successful. Every other one would bite Tao in the a**.
((Needed DC: 16, Actual DC: 15))
The bite hadn't been quite as painful as it had been back at the academy. Granted, the air was hotter there, and the reliable buzz of electric fury didn't massage Tao's ears the way it did here. He was still rather calm, more or less confident that he could turn this around. Just... carefully re-rotate into the previous position and... well, no that wasn't quit the same arrangement now was it? Tao frowned and scratched his head, but then shrugged, feeling that he'd probably just make things worse if he dwelled on it too hard. He continued to rotate the puzzle, determined to succeed.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 4))
One bite was annoying, the second one threatened to offset the comfort of familiar surroundings. The puzzle still seemed to be a little over halfway completed, but the halfway mark was only good if you had come from the other end. Going BACK to the halfway mark was frustrating to even the most stable of minds, and it was difficult to categorize Tao as "stable". Tao was used to intellectual challenges on paper, requiring nothing more than the occassional Laplace transform or antiderivative calculation to solve. That a tiny mechanism consisting of interconnected plastic could present such an obstacle was baffling, to say the least.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 18 ))
Obviously, the cube was mocking Tao at this point. That was the only logical explaination. When Gig-sensei told Tao that the rubix cube was simply an inanimate puzzle, the teacher had certainly been a straight-faced liar. What existed before Tao was little more than a demonic entity, whose power had only compressed into the tiny volume of malevolence he now held in his hand.
Tao vowed that the moment he solved this monstrosity, he would crack it open and claim that mighty power as his own.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 18 ))
There was progress. But of course that was a tease. All part of the almighty Rubixinomicon's grand and nefarious scheme to drive men mad. Yes, the rubix cube was an alias. Surely no inanimate object was capable of this level of refined evil. Now the exact name of this demon was probably some conglomeration of syllables that no human toungue could pronounce without tying itself in a not. Rubixinomicon would suffice, and that was already hard enough to pronoounce.
Then again, maybe Tao was just getting a little paranoid.
((Needed DC: 16, Actual DC: 4))
Whatever caused the human mind to hope had questionable motives at best. After all, when the chips were down, many a ninja would likely say that their powerful feelings of hope were what got them out of a seemingly hopeless situation. Then again, that same emotion was what allowed the strong to exploit the weak and to keep naive and impressionable ninja pursuing an impossible goal, wasting time and lives in the process.
Right now, the cube was making Tao hope a little. And that was just mean.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 5))
And why was hope so cruel? Because the very second you screwed up on the stupid rubix cube, it was dashed and battered like a sledgehammer through glass. Tao made a misstep, and lo and behold managed to make the kind of negative progress that now marked his attempts at taming the beast that lived within the cube. Tao coudln't help but to laugh a little bit. After all, the situation was kind of funny. His overactive imagination was seeing demons in the toy, after all. And of course, if Tao was laughing, he wouldn't be quite as able to cry.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 15))
And so the laughter continued. Intensified, even. Another misstep had sent the cube back to half progress, and it was not looking good. Tao kept getting to the point where he could JUST see the light at the end of the tunnel, and then the tunnel caved in and committed him to a slow death due to oxygen deprivation. And all Tao could do was the obvious: set a complex arrangement of explosives throughout the rubble and blast his way through. Now, that did clear a path and allow progress to be made. But it also made the tunnel as a whole unstable, and could become the kind of progress that only ended up causing more work in the end.
Still, Tao envied the lucky miner who only had to blast through solid rock. At least they didn't have to deal with the cube...
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 8 ))
Ah yes, there was that hint of improvement again. Why not? And just like that, Tao was halfway done with this thing again. He paused for a moment, reaching for a drink, not quite tasting it. He just needed something to cool off a bit. "There really is no way that this is going to lead to anything but disappointment, is it?" he asked the cube. The cube remained silent. That was an awfully rude position for a malevolent cube-beast to take. Tao frowned, and continued on with his ordeal. After all, there were only a few quintillion more combinations that could be made with this thing.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 6))
As progress once again evaded Tao's efforts, he resisted the urge to wedge a kunai into the center of the cube and just twist until all of the blocks popped out. Knowing the psychopaths that were usually in charge of such tasks, there was probably some kind of awful sleeping gas or laughing powder embedded in the center to disuade students from taking such an easy way out. Tao didn't think that Gig-Sensei would accept his "alternative problem solving approach," even if he wasn't certain that the cube was booby trapped.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 19))
Progress took yet another step backward, this time seemingly hailed by the left wing of the Jidouka household erupting in thick black smoke. To most clans, this would be cause for alarm and almost certainly a sign of enemy attack. For Tao, it just meant that his dad was pursuing one of his more abstract theories, the kind that just might work if you can convince the arrangement that gunpowder lacks combustive properties. Tao just sighed, and wondered if a life in the lab conducting meaningless experiments was really such a bad way to go, considering the "training" he had to do as a ninja.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 2))
He hadn't completely screwed up the cube yet, but Tao could feel his concentration slipping. He shook his head side to side, gave his cheeks a smack, drew some equations in the sand that he THOUGHT might contribute to his progress, but he had the sinking feeling that he was in for a particularly nasty ordeal in the near future. He took a deep breath and decided to proceed, even though he was now shifting paranoia away from the cube itself, and was wondering if Gig-Sensei was simply screwing with him when he handed out this "assignment".
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 1))
And sure enough, the cube was becoming more and more randomized in appearance. Tao kept trying to rotate the cube, wondering if he had any strategy at all, but quite honestly he was guessing at this point, and not for the better. There absolutely had to be some kind of method to the madness of this little toy, but so far it had completely eluded Tao's sensibilities. He gulped hard and continued, both frustrated and saddened that the stupid plastic cube was getting to him the way it was. He had to be better than the cube. Or at least find a way to destroy it.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 9))
Tao just sighed in dejection as he held up a completely randomized cube. Painful as it was to admit, Tao had completely undone any progress that he'd once enjoyed on the mighty rubix cube. He had been to the point where he just KNEW that it only took a few more turns to complete the cube, but now he was as far away from solving the puzzle as he'd been when he first started the challenge.
"Well... things can't get any worse, I guess," muttered Tao, finding only the very thinnest of a silver lining in this case.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 1))
The cube did seem to get a little bit more ordered, but in his currently heavily depressed state, Tao was sure it was nothing but luck. He squirmed a bit and continued to rotate the various sides of the cube, still aimlessly attempting to find some kind of strategy to this thing. He reached for another drink and continued to turn the evil cube, to the point where he was sure he was forming calluses on the tips of each of his fingers. By the end of this, the cube would certainly be solid color.
Red.
Because someone was dying for this.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 7))
Just as Tao thought, the little bit of order he'd brought to the cube was undone yet again, returned to its utterly random, chaotic mess. Tao put the cube down for a moment and stood, running a quick few laps around a nearby rock formation. A part of Tao did want to scream from the hillside, though that would probably just set off one of the Jidouka's stupid and unnecessary alarms. The family may have been rich, but the money was locked deep underground and they never really did seem to display any of the useful inventions. Tao was pretty sure that all of them were in his sack.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 1
cool )
Tao reached down and picked up the cube once more, and got back to work. It looked so innocent, fitting easily in one hand and so light that he couldn't even feel the weight. That such a tiny and insignificant toy could be the source of such pain and misery was one of the great unsolved wonders of the world. Even worse, whenever Tao finally finished this stupid thing, the toy was so light that he could chuck it square into Gig-Sensei's skull and it probably wouldn't even hurt. The irony was so cruel that Tao almost felt like crying.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 4))
Once again, there was a hint of progress. A tiny, insignificant, belittling tease of progress that did more to anger Tao than to make him feel any better. "You little a*****e cube, you're just going to set me up and tear me down again, aren't you?" he hissed, struggling not to foam at the mouth. "Well I have news for you. You have power now during this assignment. But the SECOND I get through with you, I'm going to find the largest rock I can lift and smash you to dust!"
He wondered if the cube was intimidated.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 20))
The cube responded by returning to a state of perfect chaotic nothingness. It was intimidated the way the desert was wet. And if Tao didn't know any better, he could swear that the little yellow spot that he'd noticed just now had winked at him. Tao wanted to rip that non-existant eye out of its socket and crush it in front of the cube's still-working eye. Which would work just as well as any fake eye could, but Tao sure would feel better to do that much damage.
"Deep breaths..." he muttered to himself. "You're better than the cube, you're better than the cube..."
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 10))
There was another bit of progress, a single side completed. Tao paused to stare at the solid wall of blue in front of him. He clenched his eyes tight and just hoped, beyond hope, that when he turned to look at the other sides of the cube all of the other colors would magically follow suit and line up properly. He dug his fingers into the cube, and tilted it to the side, only to see multicolored madness. He sighed and continued to twist the cube, focusing on making as much progress as he could, and tried not to let it get to him as much.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 20))
Tao's teeth grated together a bit, noticing that the randomness of the colored blocks appeared to be falling into a more orderly pattern once more. It had been quite a while since he'd been even near the halfway point of the cube, and Tao couldn't help but to feel a slight bit more relieved at his own mental abilities. The stupid cube almost made him despair in pure madness, but then again it also inspired him to continue onward even when the odds seemed clearly against him. He twisted a bit faster now, and a bit more hopeful.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 1))
The cube was about halfway completed now, but then again this was still the most dangerous step. It all became so much harder at this point, because losing your way now could lead to an arrangement that was even more random than whatever you had started with. Tao was learning this lesson well now, though he still was shaky on how exactly to avoid these missteps. He took a deep breath and continued onward, the hope teetering on a razor's edge. He was either on a roll, or had just set himself up for failure yet again.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 14))
He made a bit of a misstep, but it didn't feel catastrophic. Tao was still in a good position, with the cube more solved than unsolved. It was still possible to turn it all around and complete the cube, and then of course return to the academy grounds in glorious fashion. In the meantime, Tao's skull throbbed, sweat trickled down his brow, and his heart beat at an irregular rate, and all of the focused hate that his thirteen year old body could muster was centered on the cube that rapidly rotated between his fingers.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 8 ))
He sighed, not quite sure whether or not to be happy or depressed at the minor level of progress he'd made in the past few moved. He was about halfway there again, but halfway was just about par for the course for him. He was scoring a D at best, which was torture compared to the A's that Tao was used to. He sighed and continue to twist the toy, twisting his head side to side and prepared for the worst.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 5))
The worst happen. It could have been... well, worse. Tao frowned as even the phrases he turned were becoming muted and unfunny as all he could think about was the cube. His fingers were actually hurting at this point, each minor movement of his digital joints met with tiny sounds of snapping agony. Tao barely felt it, to be honest, but that's only because his mind was most likely lost at this point.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 9))
The worst got worse. That was how clever Tao was at this point. The worst... got
worse. And if that wasn't bad enough, Tao actually giggled to himself as the thought went through his mind. To an outside observer, one might even make the claim that this contest, which was designed to stimulate the mind, was actually making Tao stupider.
"Yay puzzle game," he muttered.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 8 ))
Honestly, the fact that the cube had yet again returned to complete randomness was almost comforting. Tao was no longer trying to make some failed attempt work, he was free to pursue the puzzle at a new angle. It didn't matter that he still had no idea what path to really take, but by the time this whole ordeal was over, Tao was pretty sure he'd be able to write a master's thesis on all things rubix cube.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 18 ))
And so the progress began yet again. This time it was with neither hope, nor dread, nor paranoia, nor anger. Nope, none of that emotion this time. There was no place for emotion in the world of the almighty rubix cube. Tao just stared at the cube with dispassionate and unloving eyes, taking neither joy nor misery in his task. All he could think of was that this cube had to be finished, and he was more than content to work until eternity (or at least until he passed out from hunger) to complete his task.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 7))
He tilted his head to the side as there was a little bit more progress in the path of the cube. Tao didn't really care. He could be completely random, or just at the very edge of success, and it wouldn't really matter all that much. This WAS a game of skill, but if you lacked the skill, it was more or less a game of chance. And now Tao understood that, so it no longer made any sense to let his emotions get in the way.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 12))
And so when there was a bit of a setback with his latest sequence of movements, Tao was similarly disaffected. This was now a game of perseverance, and with the drinks and rations that Tao had on his person (and how close his own bathroom was, in any case), Tao was still reasonably sure that he could outlast the cube. Then again, the cube needed none of the things that Tao did, but he tried not to focus on that.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 10))
Progress followed setback again and again and again in this perverse dance in which Tao was engaged. It was like an abusive relationship, where one party visciously beat the weaker member, but was just nice enough and just tantalizing enough to go along with the whole "I just fell down the stairs and landed on my eye" excuse. And right now, Tao was rubbing his eye and grumbling a bit.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 6))
The cube went back a bit, which once again just seemed to be all part of the game for Tao. You got organized, you got close, you got disorganized, your a** got smacked down again. It was almost fun. As though without the innumerable setbacks, the game wouldn't be as much fun. Even if "fun" really wasn't the word to use in this case... but there didn't seem to be any other words that fit.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 11))
The cube just lay motionless in his fingers as Tao noticed that once more, the colors on the cube were completely randomized, and it was as though all of his actions over the past several hours had been meaningless. Maybe not meaningless, but the end sum of his actions hadn't resulted in any real progress. Tao was learning about himself and learning to focus his rage, but as far as the cube was concerned, he might as well have never touched it.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 11))
Tao squinted at the cube, licking the roof of his mouth as he noticed that he had, at least, gone from pure random to... not all that random, at least. There was no reason whatsoever to think that the progress made in this particular run would be any different than the dashed hopes of so many runs before, but at least no one could deny that in the moment of making progress, you felt better than when you were descending backwards.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 17))
He stretched his legs, turning a bit to rest against the nearby rock formation as he focused on the cube. A few more of the colors had fallen into place, which he paused to look at for a few moments. The current pattern actually did seem rather aesthetically sound, and it was a shame that he had to keep going if he wanted to win the game. He shrugged, and turned the cube once more, destroying that momentary pattern for ever in favor of another one.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 14))
Tao crossed his legs, wiggling his toes against his sandles as he circled his thumbs for a bit on the cube, taking a bit of a break as he noted that he'd reached the halfway mark once more, and just smiled a bit. The cube was ALMOST endearing at this point. He was repeatedly ******** by the little cube of doom, but at least the cube was consistently awful. Tao could respect that, in a way.
((Needed DC: 16, Actual DC: 17))
Tao took a very deep breath, noticing that he was getting closer and closer to a uniform arrangement of colors. He cocked his jaw side to side, staring into the cube's depths and thought about just how gorgeous that cube might look once all of its sides had a constant color on each side. He tried not to dwell on it, but he couldn't quite purge that thought.
((Needed DC: 18, Actual DC: 1))
Tao just stared at the cube... it was almost complete, which in the past had made Tao extremely nervous. And hell, he was still nervous even now. He was either really close to being finished, or maybe he was just going to head back to pure nothingness thanks to a few screwed up rotations. But not rotating the sides meant that the cube was going to get nowhere... so he continued on, not quite hoping, but not quite emotionless now.
((Needed DC: 16, Actual DC: 9))
He just... couldn't help but to sigh. Tao was a proud human being, but even he couldn't deny that he was actually a little bit saddened to see the randomness returning to the cube, indicating that whatever the correct path may have been, he hadn't picked it. He put the cube down for just a moment, grabed a rock, and chucked it toward his home. He then reached to grab the cube once more, planning to continue even if it was pointless.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 10))
Tao bit down on the inside of his cheek, growling darkly as he looked down at the increasingly maligned cube. He reached into the pack, and just pressed a switch. A melody filled the air, powered by some electronic music maker another of the Jidouka ancestors had managed to invent by mistake over the years. He kept going, but really, he already knew where this was going.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 8 ))
By the time Tao had half mangled the cube back into a random mess, the music was starting to echo along the cliffs. Iwagakure had about as much technology as any of the other major ninja villages, but he was pretty sure that they still had to syphon their audio systems through massive speakers, rather than the pinhead-sized speaker in the portable device he now enjoyed. Sadly, the enjoyment didn't transfer into the cube.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 9))
Things were certainly going to get worse before they were going to get better. Though even that comment was optimistic, as it implied that there was a "better" to come later. So far, nothing about this whole experience had suggested that it would end in success. Tao wasn't one to succumb to hopelessness, but he was realistic. This was going to happen again and again, and MAYBE a success would happen at some point.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 17))
Of course, that success would have to follow the cube returning to complete randomness once more. It was not wholly unexpected, but it still had teeth to it.
Tao stopped looking at the cube. Instead, he rested his head against the outcrop and looked up into the cloudy sky, while slowly manipulating the cube blind. At this point, it was unlikely to have any worse results than what he'd done so far.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 7))
Tao continued to twirl the cube between his fingers as he bobbed his head to the music, humming along. No one knew who composed the song, and it didn't have any particular significance to Tao in any way, but it still gave him comfort to listen to it. After all, even a Jidouka got irritated with that incessant electric hum in the background. It was nice to hear something that changed it up every now and then.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 19))
Still oblivious to the results of his rubix manipulations (he'd improved momentarily, only to backtrack rather quickly), Tao stood and aimlessly walked about the edge of the cliff. Once or twice he nearly slipped, and though he was looking forward to the day where he could climb sheer ledges with the pull of his chakra alone, he wasn't quite at that point yet. This cube wasn't worth ending up a bloody smear across the ground below.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 1))
Tao slowly circled about his pack, which was nearly the size of the rock outcrop and arguably the size of most trees. Trees were something of a rarity about Iwagakure, not completely out of place but uncommon enough that most learned to climb rocks rather than climb a trunk. Tao looked at his possessions, as he continued to manipulate the cube, wondering how he would lug this thing around when he was assigned his first mission.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 4))
Tao twirled about on one foot as he blindly mangled the cube into a further state of randomness. He was truly going for the one in a million shot. Except that this wasn't one in an million. One in a million would be approximately 43 trillion times better odds than the odds that Tao currently faced. If the law of drama said that one in a milion shots happened one in ten times, there was still only a one in 430 million chance. Tao... did not like those odds.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 2))
Tao looked down at the cube, and immediately thought better of it. It was back to a state of pure randomness again, and there was no need to dwell on that fact. Just keep turning the cube, that was the ticket. Tao just hummed along with the tune, and continued to not quite dance, but you couldn't call it "walk" either, along the edge of the cliff, retreating only as his own sense of self-preservation kicked in every now and then.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 16))
Tao twisted the toy a little faster now, trying to go through as many permutations as possible in the vain attempt to solve the puzzle. From a distance, it almost appeared as though he was performing hand signs. Perhaps a rubix cube jutsu was not entirely out of the question? It could be some kind of genjutsu, one where the victim is forever trapped in a forest of multicolored blocks, and can't escape until he arranges them all...
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 17))
Tal fell on his back, and held the cube up to the sky. All he could see was a silhouet of the block, as the rays of the sun cascaded around the edges of the block. He continued to twist the rubix cube, not quite able to see what he was doing as the rubix-eclipse (ribiclipse?) obscured most of the colors on the cube. However, he liked to think that he was slowly getting closer.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 8 ))
Tao rolled over on his belly, not terribly concerned about the dust that now smeared its way all over his jacket. He was used to coming out of his family's lab coated in axel grease (or other types of black stuff), so the dirt was positively clean by comparison. He yawned, feeling the hours encroaching upon him as he stretched out on the ground, still blindly twisting more permutations out of the cube.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 7))
Tao kicked his feet a bit, rocking his side to side as he continued to rotate permutations out of the rubix cube, blinking a bit as some of the dust got caught in his eyes. He slowly rose up to sit indian-style, craning his neck side to side, still twisting the toy, still struggling to get it to the point where he could claim his victory. Even if it was by luck.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 12))
The cube may have still been completely random, but Tao was having fun just goofing off outside just twisting the cube and wasting some time. After all, had he been at home it was likely he'd be put to work with transistors, or perhaps be forced to take another differential calculus exam. And right now, the last thing on Tao's mind was derivatives, or anti-derivatives, or any in-between-derivatives. He was just playing a game, and it was more or less fun at this point.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 14))
Tao looked down, noticing a cube that wasn't particularly close to finishing, but it was becoming quite a bit more ordered in appearance. He looked back up again, having more fun manipulating the cube rather than concentrating on the results. He rose to his feet, staring up at the sky once more as he gently kicked the rock outcrop in front of him, working out the kinks in his joints as he did so.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 16))
Tao held one section of the cube still, and continued to rotate the other two sections, sort of changing up his method of manipulating the device. Really it wasn't anything different than what he was doing before, but at this point Tao was more amused with twisting the cube in different ways rather than trying to actually accomplish the goal of the puzzle itself. He kicked the rock with his other foot, another yawn escaping from his lips.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 16))
Tao kept holding down on one part of the cube, rubbing it against his hip to rotate it further as he lifted his left arm up to stretch. He switched hands and did the same with his right arm, getting some stretching in while still manipulating the cube to get all he permutations out. For a moment, Tao regarded the possibility of outright missing a completed cube due to his lack of attention, but the possibilities of that were so low that he didn't let it bug him too badly.
((Needed DC: 16, Actual DC: 14))
Tao looked down, and given the level of order to the arrangement, he found himself rather close to finishing the puzzle. At this point, however, Tao was aware enough to now that a high level of order really didn't mean much, so he didn't get his hopes up. He just kept twisting the cube, yawning softly, wondering just how close he'd get if he kept this up. The song changed on the miniature music player once more, playing another song whose history was a mystery to the boy.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 10))
Tao rubbed his feet together, tilting his head side to side as he casually looked down at the rapidly changing pattern of colors on his cube. It would become ordered, then disordered, again and again. He wondered if there might be a pattern to his movements, as if he was subconsciously directing the pattern. If that was the case, Tao had every intention of dragging his subsconscious out and beating it visciously, since it could at least have the decency to direct the cube in the right direction.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 20))
Tao grimmaced as he took another step backward, and his body followed suit. Every time he made a misstep in his strategy, he took a step backward, and every time he got a little bit more order out of the puzzle, he took a step forward. He was careful not to stray too far away from his pack, or too close to the edge of the cliff, but he still managed to leave quite a set of tracks in the dust through his movements.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 11))
Tao tossed the puzzle up into the air, taking the opportunity to stretch his spine out a bit before catching the puzzle and going back to work attempting to iron out even more permutations on his quest for rubix glory. He leaned back, resting just on his heels, before making his way back to mimicking the progress he made in the puzzle in the dirt. After a while, he had shrunk a couple of inches as he managed to displace quite a bit of dirt.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 2))
The toy really couldn't be blamed, not for the unnecessary wear on his sandals nor the possibly unnecessary strain on his mental facilities. He turned and climbed out of the dual tracks that he managed to dig himself in his movements, and returned to sitting on the rock outcrop, resting his feet on the top of his pack. Yet another explosion rocked from the Jidouka household, this time probably an appliance malfunctioning.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 8 ))
Tao reached down and took yet another drink from his pack. He never quite questioned how he never seemed to run out of provisions, and yet he couldn't for the life of him remember the last time he actually bothered to refill it. Surely the mass of all those drinks should be overwhelming, but Tao was still able to lift the pack. Maybe this was yet another of the Jidouka inventions... it was hard to tell exactly how many inventions he'd stuffed in there. Tao stopped musing, and continued to work on the puzzle.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 4))
He yawned a bit, utterly unphased that yet again he'd managed to reduce all of his progress to nothing, and once again sat with nothing more than a completely random puzzle in his hands. He scraped his heels on the top of his pack, not really worried about damaging the junk that was inside. It wasn't junk to Tao, but in that pack he carried around more luxuries than most of his classmates enjoyed, and in that regard Tao didn't seem to worry about damaging it.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 8 ))
Tao chucked a rock off the cliff, before manipulating the cube once more, watching as the rock descended at a steady acceleration of 9.81 meters per second per second. He tried to calculate the speed the rock may have achieved at the moment of impact, and wondered if the momentum of that tiny rock's impact would drill through a human skull. And immediately after the fact, Tao wondered why his thoughts had turned so macabre. He blamed the cube.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 20))
Tao licked a bit of sweat from his upper lip, and took another swig of his juice before returning to the cube in earnest. Surely by now he was making some headway. It felt as though he'd spent hours on this particular project, days even. In fact, Tao had only been out there for maybe ninety minutes or so, but one would be amazed at how slowly time passed when you were staring into a puzzle box that made you want to jump off a cliff.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 5))
And at that point, Tao figured that for a puzzle that likely induced more than one suicide in its users, perhaps lounging at the edge of a sheer cliff wasn't the greatest of location choices. But it was too late to change now... but only because Tao was feeling lazy and didn't feel like moving anywhere else. He was strong enough to resist the rubix cube's suggestions to just make that leap to repay for all his failures, or at least he thought as much.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 8 ))
Tao looked out over the cliffs about the village as the sun began to dip downward. Early evening was approaching, and soon it would be sunset. Tao wasn't quite sure if he was really going to spend the entire day on a rubix cube, but as the minutes passed that seemed to be an increasingly popular possibility. He shrugged, content that he had nothing better to do today now that he'd passed all the required lessons.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 10))
Tao looked down at the puzzle, which was no closer to being solved now than it had been since he'd started, which right now seemed almost like an eternity ago. By now, the tiny player had already looped back to the first song. Tao was now whistling it unconsciously, much in the same way he was unconsciously twisting and positioning the cube, slowly approaching his way toward success.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 2))
Tao tilted his head back, rapidly twisting the cube faster and faster as he worked his way closer. He kicked his feet as they were suspended from the rock to his bag, sort of bobbing about to the beat of the music as he was in a purely goof-off mode. There was nothing productive or really meaningful about his actions, he was just happily twisting a piece of plastic, and if he somehow solve the puzzle in the process, then that was just gravy.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 9))
Tao breathed heavily, starting to feel the weariness of the continual ebb and flow of progress and crushing, irritating failure with the stupid cube once more. He really wanted to get this thing finished soon, but knew that no matter how much he wanted it, his ordeal was purely a matter of luck at this point. Oddly, he did feel like he was getting smarter in an abstract way, but for now he wasn't able to focus it into anything useful.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 19))
Tao kicked a piece of the sandstone loose from the outcrop as the cube once again reduced itself to a random mess of colors that to Tao was now the very image of failure. Random blocks of colors that spelled out an ancient language that read "kill yourself." Tao was thinking more and more about the ******** idea he'd considered earlier, but his own pride kept him from sinking that low.
((Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 6))
Tao whistled a bit, shielding his eyes as the sun lowered to about his eye-level. He turned about, dragging the pack with one foot to face the other direction while he continued to work the cube. There was something odd about sitting at the edge of a cliff, but not looking over that edge. Like you were sitting on a chair and one of the back legs had broken off, and he could fall back at any moment. Tao tried not to focus on it.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 1))
Tao was nearing the end of his stamina. Not that working on a rubix cube was a terribly calorie-burning activity, nor did it require even the slightest bit of chakra, but the strain it put on his skull was almost as bad. He could feel his eyes starting to get heavy, and the headache had gone from a dull pulse to a more commanding pain that felt like his scalp was pressed to an iron. And still, he continued on.
((Needed DC: 8, Actual DC: 8 ))
Tao grabbed his pack, and hoisted it up over his back. He continued to manipulate the cube as he began to wander aimlessly throughout the village. He bumped into several people, not bothering to say sorry or even acknowledge the impact, just trying his hardest to finish the puzzle before returning to the academy.
(Needed DC: 10, Actual DC: 20))
He signed, making little if any progress, still repeatedly coming to the point where he'd make quite a bit of progress before a few missteps crewed it all up again. Tao wasn't sure if the lesson was to learn to deal with failure, or to overcome setbacks and persevere even when faced with an insurmountable obstacle. Tao wasn't sure if he'd grasped either, at this point.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 16))
Tao turned down a few alleys, not really paying attention to where he was going. It was rare that he just walked about the village, spending most of his earlier years on the Jidouka compound and not really bothering to ever explore his home village. The Jidouka didn't really fit in with the village anyway, since most of its members weren't ninja, but Tao did hope that he could personally make a better impression. He continued to twist the cube, bringing it to a bit higher level of order.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 3))
Tao made another turn, and looked up to see that the sky had dimmed considerably. He sighed in irritation, looking down at the cube. As nearly-complete as it was, it was becomming increasingly obvious that this cube wasn't going to be relenquishing its mysteries by the time night fell. He turned in the direction of the academy, still working on the cube, and walking slower than he needed to.
((Needed DC: 12, Actual DC: 15))
As the academy loomed closer, Tao made a few more frantic movements with the rubix cube. The next academy lesson was still a long way off, so there was still time to finish up the cube after a little bit of rest, but still Tao was used to learning the lessons quickly at this point. The idea that he might have to take a little longer to overcome this one hit him with more than a little bit of bitterness.
((Needed DC: 14, Actual DC: 17))
Tao stood at the very outskirts of the academy, making one final attempt at the cube. He looked down, and noticed that while the cube was far from complete, he was still far from the state of complete randomness that he'd been hitting again and again previously. He smiled a bit, feeling strangely optimistic. He decided to take a break for now, and placed the cube in his backpack before returning to the academy.
((Exit to the academy, next needed DC: 16, then 1
cool )
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