“Please, I need to sleep.” The Violet voice said. ‘He’ had played several dozen more rounds of hide-and-seek with the loops, which had expanded the loops ability to identify the various worldlets and the underworld.


    “Curiosity: sleep?” The loops asked.


    “I’m tired. Please just leave me alone for a while.” Violet said. The loops that preferred to discus the difficulties with Violet added another topic to their discussion.


    “Understood.” The majority of loops said.


    Since Violet was unavailable due to “sleep”, the loops attempted to identify the worldlets that Violet had been unable to visit during their game, due to some obstruction. By carefully monitoring discontinuities in the sensory rain, the loops identified thirty-two potential worldlets. Thirty-two was twice as many as Violet had reported, not counted the “underworld”. The dissatisfied loops complained about Violet’s unreliable information.


    Multiple loops pointed out that thirty-two was exactly double the number reported by Violet. Violet had explained that different sections of the underworld had different conditions that corresponded to the regular worldlets, so it could be the case that thirty-two was the correct number, if half of the potential worldlets were part of the underworld. The loops reviewed the explanation given by Violet and attempted to distinguish between an underworld section and a regular worldlet. Multiple generations of groups formed and fell apart as the loops discussed and analyzed.


    —————


    Violet woke up feeling rather groggy. He had lost track of the number of rounds of hide-and-seek he had played with the dungeon the day before. It had gotten to the point that Violet just blinked near a portal, stepped across into some other worldlet, and lay down to snooze. The dungeon had needed no breaks and was immediately ready to play another round after it located Violet.


    Violet kicked off a thin blanket and resolved to finally ask Yrryth to make him an actual bedroom so he stopped sleeping under his desk. His hammock had gotten too small after he became a plant-loving nature fairy. Violet made himself a cup of tea and summoned a big soft poofy ball to relax into while he talked with the dungeon.


    “Good morning, dungeon.” He said. He half expected the dungeon to ask what “morning” meant.


    “Greetings, Violet.” The dungeon said.


    Violet shook his head as he remembered something important. “Oh, my appologies. I meant to say: good morning, loops. How are you doing?” He said.


    Violet grew uncomfortable as he waited for the dungeon’s response. After an entire minute, the dungeon responded. “Unknown. Contradiction: Violet reported sixteen worldlets, loops identified thirty-two potential worldlets. Query: worldlet without underworld component?” The dungeon asked.


    Violet wasn’t sure if that was the most words in a row the dungeon had said, or the second most. “A worldlet without a connection to the underworld? Yes, the cold worldlet, or sometimes I think I call it the blizzard worldlet. That one has no connection to the underworld that I know of.” Violet said.


    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    “Correction: Seventeen probable worldlets, fifteen underworld sections.” The dungeon said.


    Violet frowned. “You think there are seventeen worldlets? Can you see all the worldlets now?” He asked.


    “Negative.” The dungeon said.


    “Sorry, I meant: can you detect all the worldlets now?” Violet corrected himself.


    “Highly probable.” The dungeon said.


    “Ok, so you are pretty sure you can see them. Seventeen, that’s interesting. Can you list them for me?” Violet asked.


    Another pause. “Worldlets: main, delta, dark, sauna, lake, acid rain, oasis, fields, stony, blizzards, mesmerizing, otherside, lava, underwater, quicksand, swamp, unknown.” The dungeon said.


    I don’t know what else I expected. Violet thought to himself. “Do you know where the unknown worldlet is connected? I mean, which other worldlet it connects to?” Violet asked.


    “Negative.” The dungeon said.


    Violet shrugged. “That’s probably not important right now. I’ll try and locate it myself.” Violet took a sip of his tea. He summoned his notebook with the ‘Loops’ page and flipped it open. “Loops, yesterday you told me that you are several white loops. I remember from a week ago or so that your… environment has constant rain and you are surrounded by vines. Is that all correct so far?” He asked.


    “Affirmative.” The dungeon said.


    Violet added a few lines to the page. “Good. And where are you located? I mean, where are you, the loops, in all that?” He asked.


    “Above. Behind. Under. Behind. Under. Over. Next to. Near. Above. Under. Under-” The dungeon listed dozens and dozens of prepositions.


    Uh…. Violet thought as he narrowed his eyes at his page of notes. “Would it be somewhat accurate to say you are all over, then?” He asked.


    “Imprecise.” The dungeon said. “Loops are in many locations along the white vine.” It said.


    “White vine…” Violet muttered to himself as he wrote a bit more. “White vine, white loops? You live on the white vine?” He asked.


    There was a noticeable delay. “We grow from the white vine.” The… loops said.


    “Grow from it, like fruit?” Violet looked in his tea and wondered if he had somehow gotten something more exciting than tea or if he was actually still asleep.


    “Negative. Loops grow like leaves.” They said.


    Violet pondered that response for a while. He doodled in his notebook, drawing a vine with circular leaves. No, not circles, they are loops. Circles with holes in the middle. He thought. He added interior circles to his drawing before holding it out in front of himself. The vine looked like it was growing a dozen magnifying glasses. Violet chuckled and tossed his notebook onto his desk.


    “I have some… other things to do later, but I can play a few rounds of hide-and-seek right now, would you like to do that?” Violet asked.


    “Affirmative.” Came the immediate response.


    —————


    After a few rounds, Violet decided the game was too easy for the loops. “This time, I’m going to disguise my mana to make it a bit more difficult to find me.” He said.


    “Curiosity, disguise?” The loops asked.


    ‘The loops’ sounds so weird. Violet thought. Can I call it, them, ‘Terse Elements’? Elements is plural, so it’s like the loops are the elements which are terse. They talk a bit too much to be terse, though. Violet noticed that he had gotten distracted. “Disguise? It means I will try and make my mana look like something else. Um, not look, I mean I will try and alter my mana signature in order to avoid detection.” He said.


    “Query, disguise purpose?” Terse Elements asked.


    Violet scratched his ear. “This game is good for training your senses so you can tell what’s going on in your worldlets. Also, the game is more fun when it’s a bit harder.” He said.


    “Curiosity, fun?” Terse Elements asked.


    “Fun.” Violet struggled to find words for a few seconds. “You like this game and you like to play it. You seem to enjoy the game. That means the game is fun for you.” He said.


    Terse Elements seemed to ponder that for a while before speaking. “Request, begin.” They said.


    Violet smiled and blinked away.


    The loops could not identify Violet after he changed his mana, so they resorted to wiggling mana around the best matches, one at a time, until Violet returned. The dissatisfied loops complained about Violet not providing data regarding ‘disguised’ mana.