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The primary and secondary arcs of this story, character development, and how different changes span certain parts of the story.

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What the heck is even happening?

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Concept: I threw mental darts at a dartboard with character information and got a naive and socially inept femboy logician straight out of the ivory towers of academia who's trying to create a new formalism from scratch.

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We need to freaking populate this universe...

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Concept: Diehard academic debate champion with a double major in philosophy and political sciences who actually has made it her entire life's mission to disseminate awareness and erudition to the whole world.

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Concept: Basically, an influential personality on YouTube who has more money than they know what to do with but is actually if arrogant a genuinely okay person.

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Ian doesn't yet have a proper character story, so I need to make one. I'm basically treating them all like I do my OCs, they all need to have their stories planned out from birth so that their actions make (some level of) sense based on what their life experiences are.

First off, we give him the typical "prodigy" vibe, I want to emphasize his blatant disconnect from reality, so thus we make him pretty much the golden child. In order for this to be the case, first of all, first actual character detail! He's an only child.

I think he's skipped at least one grade. Or hey, how about we have him test for a GED after middle school, then just straight up teach himself high school, take college courses online until a college actually lets him in (at 16). Basically, we want to make him used to being the exception. He can get anywhere he wants to be, essentially.

Next, we need to further justify his dismissive idea of the average person. I'll give him the sort of thing where his interests are utterly misaligned with anything people his age are interested in, which he takes to mean that nobody is interesting at all. That could explain some of it. He tries to talk to adults, but they dismiss him or don't seem to care either, and kids his age are all talking about stupid trendy things. So, he takes that to mean they're all not worth his time.

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Potential Character Interaction- Marcos interviews Ian?

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Potential Character Interaction- Marcos interviews Ian?

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Marcos's entire thing with his YouTube channel is that he gets involved and learns the gist of things that he shouldn't really be involved in, so he's practically a reaction video to real life. Thus, with the whole crisis around ZFC I feel like he would end up getting at least a bit involved.

What if he interviews Ian though? That would be freaking hilarious- their personalities are literally the opposite.

Here's just the start, I guess...

Marcos: Um, chat, what's a logician?

Ian: You could just ask me...

Marcos: Okay, xXMRCsSuperfan10Xx says it's... someone who spends their life professionally splitting hairs in order to state the obvious.

Ian: That is nOT TRUE-

Marcos: Is it?

Ian: It's not! It's absolutely not!

Marcos: Not even a little?

Ian: I don't know what your chat is blabbing on about, how much they want to suck your-

Marcos: WHOA! What did I do?!

Ian: Insulted my profession! That's right, I bet there are people right now watching this stream who daydream about s-

Marcos: This stream is NO LONGER PG! You're gonna get me demonetized, I can't bleep you live!

Ian: That's your problem, not mine!

Marcos: Okay, okay. Please stop.

Ian: Fine. What was it you wanted to ask me? And... how much should I dumb down the answer for you and your viewers?

Marcos: No LaTeX in the transcript, please.

Ian: That's a tall order. If you're not interested in the equations, why are you even asking? I'm not going to explain this shit to someone who's never going to do anything about it.

Marcos: Woah, rude.

Ian: Woah, correct. If you don't understand this, either learn it the right way or forget about it.

Marcos: FlyingPigs917 says "you're interviewing an elitist prick".

Ian: I respond, "I'm being interviewed by a useless random."

Marcos: ...Wow. Say that again to my 20 million subscribers, will you?

Ian, leaning towards the camera: I'm being interviewed by a useless random.

Marcos, narrating: The interview was NOT off to a good start. (Ian: I'm right here!) I'd somehow wound up getting insulted twice in the last two minutes, and was beginning to wonder if doing this was a good idea to begin with.

Ian: Just start asking, okay? I'll stop being a prick. Crosses his arms defensively

Marcos: Okay, fine. What's ZFC exactly?

Ian: ...Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory plus the Axiom of Choice. It's... basically a language in which theoretically, only the truth is grammatically correct.

Marcos: And why exactly did news anchors pause their politics for a minute and start talking about... "set theory"?

Ian: It's broken.

Marcos: What do you mean, it's broken?

Ian: It's fucking broken.

Marcos: Stop swearing, for the love of- augh, whatever! Can you just speak English for five seconds!

Ian: I am speaking English.

Marcos: You know exactly what I mean.

Ian: Okay, fine. It's broken, meaning that even though it's supposed to only be able to tell the truth, people have figured out a way to make it lie.

Marcos: That's not good.

Ian: No, no it isn't.

Marcos: And why is that important?

Ian: W-what do you mean, why is it important? Our entire reality just collapsed in on itself!

Marcos: Everything seems fine to me.

Ian: Could you say something more belittling?

Marcos: Could you say something more hypocritical?

Ian: ...

Marcos: Didn't think so. Okay. Can't we all just get along?

Ian: Probably not.

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So basically, someone finds a contradiction in the ZFC axioms and chaos ensues. For mathematicians, this is a disaster of epic proportions. For laymen, this is Tuesday.

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The story has two main arcs, the first being the mathematical journey to create a new axiomatic system, and the second being the public's slow realization of the scope of the issue, and perhaps increasing awareness.

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We also need to have each character change throughout the story, based on what they experience and how they react to it. Think of the historical fiction unit- the character's internal traits and motives conflict with the external environment, pushing the character to respond in a certain way.

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I think like, similar to a lot of famous YT channels (ex: MrBeast, Stokes Twins sometimes) he has a bit of a schtick of having more money than he knows what to do with. Like, he just throws money at things.

That said, he was originally a reaction channel, so he also has this thing where he kind of commentates everything. Like, he'll be livestreaming and start narrating to the camera, and everyone will look at him like "seriously?" It's quite possible that he might do this in everyday life by accident.

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He's a little bit egocentric, but he exaggerates it in his online persona for comedic effect.

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I don't really know exactly what Claudia's backstory should be. She can't be as sheltered as Ian, but she's also rather naive as to how the world works and has a bit of a savior complex in terms of fixing the problems she sees. She doesn't want to be this way, but at the moment, she is. So, she basically tries to see and incorporate every single viewpoint and creates an increasingly complex model of humanity in her mind, one that at this point has become a digital project that she updates to current events, pinning them to a virtual globe and highlighting their connections. (She didn't code this, and honestly has to keep relying on people to add features for her, which is ironic.)

I feel like it's possible that her life might have itself been affected by politics. I can't decide how, but that seems plausible. It wouldn't explain her idealism, though.

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"Wouldn't it be nice if the news anchors would stop talking about what the candidates are doing and start talking about what their policies are?"

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He does videos where he tries to get sort of the scoop on everything, while keeping running commentary and an exaggerated personality. He annoys the shit out of a bunch of news media by somehow money-ing his way into interviews or whatever.

Claudia is actually one of his subscribers, but only because he doesn't have any political opinions, just sort of rolls with the punches, making him coincidentally a good source of information, in his own way.

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Concept: Ian's former teacher and present colleague. The stabilizing element and the 'normal' academic, not extremely well-acclaimed nor obsessive as Ian is but still an acknowledged mathematician. She's a topologist, by the way.

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Is she doomed to corruption if she does manage to succeed in politics? What with her modeling society and thinking she can fix everything, it's quite possible. Still, she's an extremely introspective person, and worries immensely about the idea. Perhaps this alone grants her some protection. I don't know if it will be sufficient.

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New System and Nature of Contradiction 1

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New System and Nature of Contradiction 1

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I would like for a system to be introduced in which self-reference can be engaged in freely without self-contradiction. I would want to see a more powerful system erected in its place as well.

I will not be directly explaining the nature of the contradiction, as such would lead to violation of mathematical rules. I would need to make up some explanation plausible to laymen, but I find such an idea appalling. Instead, I will depict, I will sketch the contradiction through the emotions of the people reacting to it. It would be reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's characterization in the description- too esoteric to quite nail down, but you feel them like you know them.

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This should be her Arc. She goes into politics finally but almost loses sight of her motives. When she finds her old website, she remembers.

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"The world's foremost logician and a professor at Lazurite University. His dreamy, effeminate appearance and demeanor belie his mercilessly exacting nature as an academic. 'An honor to work alongside, but a horror to work with.'"

Likely first impression: "Shy, awkward, and unapproachable. What happens when a child prodigy is treated as a prince by everyone and never sees reality."

Likely final opinion: "He's completely unyielding in his pedantry, and it's not an act of pretense. He doesn't even register anyone as a peer, let alone an equal."

It’s said of him that “his harshest criticism is his highest praise”. Meaning, he bothered to evaluate you by his standards, even perhaps those to which he holds his own work.

Backstory:

Ian's parents were distant, occupied by work. From a young age he was treated as a prodigy and pipelined into many advanced programs, where he was surrounded by adults and treated as one of them. He came to respect only those who would never coddle him, often his harshest critics. This meant subjecting himself to constant criticism, naturally, and so alongside a growing interest in mathematics he wished to "be certain and never wrong". He read widely and became fascinated with textbooks in formal logic. Academically and socially he learned distrust and distance. He also took after his mother, a fashion designer, and became enchanted with often "cute" and feminine clothing such as that which his mother came up with. This he was never rebuked for, so he remains oblivious to the oddity of his personal style. At fourteen he took a calculus class, and within a week, he was overwhelmed not by workload nor concept but by uncertainty. At risk of a total mental collapse of the star student, unsure what to do, his teacher began to show him methods of real analysis. Ian describes this as “the greatest thing ever done for me”. It was within a framework as close to perfect as possible that Ian tentatively continued. He began ignoring other aspects of life, enraptured by and captive to formality. No intervention was staged, and by 15 he was enrolled in Lazurite University studying mathematical logic. He is rumored not to have left the grounds since- untrue, but in some respects accurate.

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I made a microcosm of academia and the outside world, that being a college town around the fictional Lazurite University, which in lore was founded by Desmond Lazurite in 1908 with the stated purpose of being focused entirely on pure mathematics, somewhat in honor of Hilbert’s program (when I made this, I had no idea lazurite was an actual rock, so it’s not relevant).

About the university, it’s kind of implied to be at the forefront, and I think in the world building Lazurite may have known Hilbert personally (Desmond Lazurite was not a prominent mathematician himself, more of the eccentric rich patron type who is barely tolerated by those he takes interest in, whose flurry of letters of interspersed quackery and reverence are printed on paper too expensive to ignore- but it's a long story and he wasn't infamous and wound up getting along anyways). Desmond himself isn't actually all that important to understanding the story, in fact he often tried to keep his own eccentricities far away from his actual projects. He's not a mythical figure, more a trivia question, and the story doesn't have really any discourse or conspiracy around him- despite being the 'mysterious patron' archetype he was super transparent.