First Encounter with Itzamna

[Jhana and Markel arrive abruptly in a huge underground cavern. They dust themselves off from a hurried entrance. It definitely has ruins; it is not immediately clear what they are for. It looks similar to Grand Central Station. It is lit by a faint orange, snapping glow. The glow comes from fallen cables and weird nooks in the wall]

Jhana: (slack-jawed amazement) Wow.

Markel: (Not impressed, looking around suspiciously) Alright, looks like we're getting close to civilized territory.

Jhana: Oh, good. We can finally get back on track. Okay. Which way do we go?

Markel: (shrugs) I didn't say I knew where we were.

Jhana: What? I thought you said we were back in civilized territory.

Markel: Also didn't say that. Look around. Does it look like anyone's living here? There are trees growing in the middle of the floor. No, this is just another kind of tunnel system. It'll have dead ends, cave-ins, and all sorts of fun stuff waiting for us. (he shakes his head with his hands on his hips, then smiles and claps his hands together, looking at Jhana) Alright, well let's get started! (He walks forward without waiting for her)Jhana: (Looks at exasperation at Markel, hurries after him.)

[There is clearly an opening near the top but the staircases have all collapsed. As Jhana walks to where Markel is standing she passes into a circle drawn in tile on the floor. The tiles shake a bit and then a ghost layer peels off the top, forming a probe that follows Jhana as she stops next to Markel. They start talking about how to get up.]

Markel: Well it's too tall to get up there in one go. The rope isn't long enough.

Jhana: What if we got up to those ledges there? We could get up a piece at a time--

Markel: Yeah, but look, some of those ledges are crumbling. I wouldn't trust my weight on that--

[Suddenly the ghostly probe, with much noise and flash, whips around, expands, and congeals into a pair of triangle shaped eyes. Markel and Jhana whip around and see this. Markel squeaks and drops to the floor in fear. Jhana flinches to shield herself, sees the eyes aren't moving, and relaxes. She raises her eyebrows at Markel. She jerks her thumb at the eyes.]

Jhana: What's with the--

Itzamna: (crazed) Hah! Yes! Finally! (eyes animate to match expressions) Give it to me! Give give give! (It moves toward Jhana)

[Jhana stumbles back out of the circle. The eyes flash as they meet the edge of the circle and a buzzer sounds. They look exasperated and retreat back to the center of the circle.]

Itzamna: (seems to realize there are people nearby. Clears throat) Um. Excuse me. (Looks around abashedly, then seems to come up with another idea. Turns back to Jhana with look of hellfire). Young mortal. You come to a dangerous place. In this realm lie only madness and doom. But fear not, warrior. I, Itzamna, God of this World, Lord of the Caves, Deepclimber, and Protector of the Dead will guide you through this purgatory.

Jhana: (Looks at Itzamna for a moment, then back at Markel with a very confused look on her face).

[Write this bit in later]

Itzamna: Alright, look. It'll be fine. Just use the survey maintainer tools on those hooks of yours. Up ahead's part of the station maintenance area; you can redirect some of the fuel feed tubes to get across safely.

[Jhana and Markel look at each other and then back to Itzamna]

Jhana: Station maintenance?

Markel: Angle measuring?

Itzamna: (Rolling eyes) Oh. Right. It's been years since we've used those schematics. Um... (his eyes cast around) There. That's a bit of good luck. Give me a sec.

[He indicates a sheltered nook off near the edge of the room. Jhana and Markel walk warily in its direction. A path lights up from the circle where Itzamna's eyes are floating to the nook. It begins to glow, flickers a few times, and starts chugging.]

Itzamna: Well, go ahead, put them in.

Jhana: What?

Itzamna: Your grapplers!

Markel: (sheltering his grapple protectively) No way.

[Everyone is startled as a loud banging starts on the far side of the room. A blocked door starts rattling and dust falls from the ceiling. Loud, angry voices can be heard.]

-hurry dialog goes here-

-explanation of equipment goes here-

(All of this is accompanied by an animation)

Itzamna: Okay. Hrm, what's a good way to explain this... Alright, let's start with a line segment. Two points in space and the shortest possible distance between them. Now nail down one of the points. If we rotate the point that isn't nailed down, woohoo! We made a circular sector! Follow me so far?

Jhana: How're you doing that... is it some sort of reflection of--Markel: (looking back nervously at the door) We don't have time for this. They're going to be here soon.

Itzamna: (Rolling eyes) Understand?

Jhana: {Dialog choices}Oh. Yes.Not really... can you repeat that?

Itzamna: Good. Jhana: Do the segments have to be the same length?

Itzamna: Of course not! No matter how big the circle gets, it's still divided into 360 parts. Doesn't matter if you have a circle the size of a flea or a circle the size of the universe--the angle is always measured the same way. It's always a the same representation of how far apart the segments are. That means that you can have a tiny segment on one side and an enormous segment on the other side and still have the same angle in between as if they were the same length.

Jhana: Why 360?

Markel: Really? We're doing this now?

Itzamna: Well it's actually a pretty interesting question now that you mention it.

Markel: Oh, good, of course it is.

Itzamna: The funny thing is, nobody knows for sure. There could be a number of explanations. One possible explanation is that some of the early calendars also used systems with 360 days. It might be that some of the ancient calendars used a circular system and the circle was divided into 360, one for each day. Of course, 360 is also just a very pretty number. It can be evenly divided into pieces of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 10, 14, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120, and 180. Phew. Give me a sec. Yeah. When you don't have a fast method of dividing complicated numbers, it definitely helps to have a number that can be divided into nice, pretty, even chunks.

Jhana: Well if it's such an arbitrary system, why use it? Why not use something more... I dunno... relavant?

Itzamna:   What if the measurement is between two numbers?