On Family Complexity Theory

Author's Note

This is a lengthy story, more than 50.000 worlds. It's emotionally charged, heavy on descriptions, dialogue, self-reflection, and BDSM references. Though it is often humorous, full of friendly teasing and banter, you may find some parts more intense. Please note that any BDSM references which are based on my personal perspective on power exchange relationships. If you're seeking a quick or light read or you are not into 'Incest/Taboo' or 'BDSM', you might want to skip it.

Lastly, as non-native English speaker, and despite my best efforts, there may be some errors. Thank you for your understanding.

Chapters

1. A Gal Extraordinaire

2. Gimme a Ticket for an Aeroplane

3. Until I See a Cretan Peak

4. Power Dynamics 101

5. Debugging Feelings: A Programmer's Guide to Oneself

6. Love, Loss, and Hot Chocolate

7. Experimental Dynamic Systems Theory

8. A Possible Kill Screen

9. Python Lessons

10. The Chessboard of Life, or "What Trust Is"

11. Still a Better Romance Than Twilight

12. The Honey Badger

13. The Temple and the King

14. Moonlight Sonata

15. On the Beach

16. So, This Is Paradise

17. And Nothing Else Matters

18. On Differential Manifolds

19. The Shape of Things to Cum

20. Сыграем

21. Que sera, sera

1. A Gal Extraordinaire

Since the late '70s, I have had five female cousins: three from my mom's side and two from my dad's. In the mid-'80s, my mother's youngest brother--or rather half-brother, since my grandfather remarried after my grandmother died--left his family to start a new one with his mistress, something my mom and her other brother couldn't accept, and we cut all ties with him. In the late '80s and early '90s, he had two more children: first a boy named Manolis in 1989, and two years later a girl named Andrianne, or Andie, as she preferred to be called.

In 2007, my uncle sought reconciliation, and we finally met our two cousins for the first time. Manolis was eighteen at the time, and Andie was sixteen. She was strikingly beautiful, unlike my other cousins who had a more girl-next-door appeal, such as my cousin Liz, whom I mentioned in another story. Andie developed a fierce crush on me that she couldn't hide. Though I found it amusing, I was careful to keep her at a distance; not only was she my first cousin, but she was also underage. It wasn't easy, she was--and still is--a gal extraordinaire; it's like God had ten gifts to give out, and being a busy day in heaven, He said, "Screw it" and gave them all to Andie!

As I mentioned in my other story, I passed my university entrance exams on my third attempt due to struggles with physics and chemistry. I was very-very strong in mathematics; in fact, on my first attempt I was one of only three in the country to score a perfect 160 though this wasn't enough, as the University of Crete's School of Computer Science is highly sought and requires top marks for admission.

Andie, despite being extremely bright, struggled with Euclidean Geometry. My uncle asked if I could help her and so for the next two years I became her tutor. Her crush on me grew even stronger, but I managed to keep her at a distance while ensuring I didn't hurt her feelings. I started genuinely liking her and her deadpan humor very quickly. I became enamored with her mind; she is easily the brightest person I've ever met--and I've been privileged to meet many extremely bright people in my life. Last but not least, I won't lie, cousin or not, she is drop dead gorgeous.

Anyway, as it happened--and to my disappointment, because I truly believe she could excel as a mathematician--she chose to study computer science. The best school in Greece for this subject is the University of Crete's School of Computer Science, so she decided to follow in my footsteps. Although I don't consider myself a great teacher, my tutoring was effective. Her issue wasn't a lack of understanding of Euclidean Geometry, but rather a lack of interest in how it was taught in Greek schools. The truth is, Euclidean Geometry requires a level of abstraction and mathematical maturity beyond that of an average sixteen-year-old. Consequently, the material taught is very simplified, which is where she lost interest.

You see, having an IQ off the charts, Andie was anything but average. The problem wasn't her; it was her teachers, who simply couldn't keep her mind engaged. Although I studied computer science, my true love has always been mathematics; in fact, my doctorate is in complexity theory. What I managed to do with Andie was share my passion and love for mathematics, and the rest followed naturally, like water flowing in a riverbed.

What I did was very simple: she loved puzzles and mind games--if you haven't played chess with her, you have no idea what humiliation means--and I showed her that Euclidean geometry is just a mind game with specific rules. Definitions and axioms, based strictly on formal logic, lead to theorems. We didn't stop at Euclidean geometry; I also explained the basic principles of hyperbolic and elliptic geometry. I told her that mathematics doesn't hide any intrinsic truth; with different rules, you can create different games, each absolutely true within its own context, just like Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries.

Well, two months after her eighteenth birthday, she was born in late March, she succeeded, and spectacularly so--she aced the exams and, as we found out in late August, she passed with the highest marks, ranking first in her school and earning a scholarship. Our uncle took us out for a family celebration and two days later, Andie asked to take me out for some drinks. I didn't think much of it; after all, I had taken both of my cousins out for coffee on multiple occasions, and Manolis for drinks as well.

When I went by her home to pick her up and saw her, I gasped. By the gods, she looked like she had stepped out of a magazine; she was stunning, and though the dress was quite modest, it subtly accentuated her figure. While she wasn't built like Lizzy, Andie was also a track athlete--400m hurdles--and her body was also quite beautiful, with lovely proportions. Whereas Lizzy was blonde and statuesque, Andie, in comparison, was just 1.67 meters tall, with jet black hair reaching down to the middle of her back and wisps framing her eyebrows. Her eyes were dark brown, and she also had a girlish charm, but not in a girl-next-door way; unlike Lizzy's, Andie's face could be envied even by supermodels.

"Sorry I kept you waiting!" she said after entering my car filling the air with the intoxicating scent of her perfume.

"No worries, Andie," I replied. "You're not the first girl that had me waiting, though you being my cousin makes it easier to forgive!" I teased her, and she playfully stuck out her tongue and made a "brrrrrrrr" noise, making me chuckle.

"Now that we are on the same page, where to go?"

"You asked to take me out, so I'm all ears!"

"I don't know any good place for drinks," she admitted. "Not too long ago, I was underage, did you forget?"

"And the sun rises from the west," I joked. "How dumb do I look to you, miss?"

"'I'm pleading the fifth!"

"Well, while you do have the right to remain silent, if you don't speak, this would most certainly be very boring, because you are supposed to take me out!"

"Okay... let's go to the 'Crypt'!"

"It's kinda early for this. At what time are you supposed to return home?"

"Anytime I feel like, what kind of question is this? I'm not a kid anymore!"

"Well, I'm your cousin, Andie. It would be rather awkward if I were to return you home very late!"

"Nonsense, mom and dad know that I want to celebrate with you, and frankly, they feel safer with you taking me out and returning whenever we feel like it than with John."

"Your ex-boyfriend?"

"Yup!"

"It's a pity that you broke up with him; he's a very good boy!"

"He is, but the heart wants what the heart wants, and John wasn't included."

"Then why..." I tried to ask, but she interrupted me.

"As my favorite cousin says, 'fake it until you make it.' Well, I tried, and it didn't work. Shit happens, yada-yada-yada."

"Well, you made John wiser!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean love is great and all, but without a healthy dose of cynicism, it's a recipe for disaster."

"And was there someone that made you wise?"

"Yup, that would be Rita, my first girlfriend. Anyway, let's get going because they'll start wondering why the hell we are still here. It's very early to go to Crypt, so I'm taking you for a coffee."

"I asked you out!"

"Be that as it may, I'm the one driving!"

"Sir, yes, Sir!" she mocked.

"Attagirl. So... do you fancy coffee by the seashore?"

"You da best! So, what happened with Rita?"

"She was unable to bear the strain of long-distance and we broke-up when I went to Crete. Anyway, when are you going to Heraklion?"

"Classes start on the 24th of September, so we are going to Crete in early September. I need to find a place to stay!'"

"I'll give you the phone numbers of my former landlord in Crete. Who knows, you might be extremely lucky and find the place I lived available."

"Well, a friend of Manolis is also a student at the University of Crete, and he says that in two to three years, the campus in Knossos will be closed permanently. Only mathematics and computer science are still in Knossos; all the others are in Voutes."

"Yeah, you're right and they are late, it is 2009 already and physics and biology are located in Voutes since 1994."

"I don't care, I'll have my V-Max, so I won't need to use public transportation to get around."

Well, actually, it was my uncle's V-Max, but he had promised to give it to her if she managed to pass the exams, and she didn't just pass--that year, she passed first, having the highest marks. My uncle loved motorcycles, and Andie learned to ride since she was twelve, so yes, on her 18th birthday, she was quite experienced to handle such a 1700cc, 197-horsepower beast.

"Andie, you need to be very careful driving that beast, Cretans are by far the worst drivers I've ever met; they are maniacs!"

"I will, Kostas!"

We bantered until we arrived at the place I had in mind, a very cozy café at Vari, with a spectacular view. It was early so we managed to find the best seats, and though the coffee could be better, if just for the view, it was worth it. Trying to keep her at a distance, initially I intended to let her sit first and then sit at the opposite side of the table, but I would lose the view, so I finally sat beside her. We ordered our coffees and while she leaned to me, and generally gave all the signs a girl shows when she is interested in you, she behaved herself.

"So... how do you feel that you'll be away from home?"

"Excited and frightened, to tell you the truth, bust mostly excited. It's the first time I'll be completely alone for more than a weekend."

"Well, I promise you that these will be the best years of your life!"

"You know, Manolis says exactly the same thing!"

"Hahaha, I bet he loves his student life in Salonica!"

"Oh, yes!"

"Well, he got your dad's car, and you got your dad's motorbike. What's left for my uncle?"

"His fondest memories and his pride for his children," she replied casually, almost making me choke.

"Do you want to kill me, or something?" I asked her, wiping my tears after I finally managed to find my breath.

"If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead already!"

"How so?"

"I would have worn a different dress! Trust me, I have some much more revealing!" she said, and I froze.

"Andie..." I tried to say and then she burst out laughing!

"Got you!"

"I WILL STRING YOU!"

"It's your lucky day, I'm wearing a string!" she replied with a straight face, though her eyes glimmered teasingly.

Well, I managed not to have a heart attack, I suppose that this counts as a win.

"You'll be the death of me!"

"Well, I can't help myself, you paint a target... I just can't help it!"

Thankfully, she stopped making these not-quite-innocent innuendos, and the time flew by. Around 11 pm, we left to have our drink. The Crypt was an incredibly atmospheric bar at Vrilissia that played only hard rock and metal. Its decor was gothic, featuring even the figure of Flamefang, Elric's dragon from Elric of Melniboné, hanging from the ceiling. Built with stone and wood and playing amazing music, it's no wonder it was usually packed with people. When we arrived, we found only one barstool available. I let her sit at the barstool, and I stood next to her.

Sometime later, we managed to find a table to sit at, and we had a splendid time. In fact, we were the last patrons to leave, after getting some quite angry looks from the DJ, who also happened to be the owner of the bar and one of my friends. I suppose that night sucked to be him. In any case, we went to Mavili Square to eat at one of the best cantinas in Athens, and when I finally returned Andie to her home, it was well past 5 am. When we arrived, I got out of the car and walked her to the entrance of her house.

"Thank you for taking me out tonight!" I told her, making her chuckle. After all, I was the one who drove her all over Athens. "Please, next time try to find less subtle ways to kill me. I'm not against more direct approaches," I continued, turning her chuckle into laughter.

"Your funeral!" she said, and taking me into a hug, kissed me passionately in the mouth, making me freeze. She chuckled again. "You asked for it!"

Well, she was right... I did.

2. Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane

Unfortunately, the place I lived in when I was a student was not available, but Andie managed to find a great modern apartment downtown, very near to Lions Square. Not only that, but the apartment building had a closed parking space for her motorbike. I have seen photos and videos of her place; we communicated through MSN Messenger and Skype. The night we went out, she had asked for my advice on taking classes, and she followed it to the letter. By the end of her fourth semester, she had passed all her classes in mathematics and physics, allowing her to devote herself full time to purely computer science courses.

In July 2012, I was scheduled to present a paper at a conference organized by the Institute of Computer Science (ICS) in Heraklion. Since I was going to be in Crete anyway, I called Andie to let her know and to ask if she would be there or if she had plans to return to Athens for the summer; after all, my visit would be after she finished her sixth semester exams.

"Hey!" she replied smiling my skype call.

"Hello Andie, how are you?"

"Buried in a monitor, trying to debug my compiler!"

"Ouch, languages and compilers, I feel your pain!"

"To shift or to reduce, that is the question!" said, making me chuckle.

"I share your pain; operating systems and languages and compilers made me hate programming! At least I had to write a C compiler, what's this year?"

"Fucking Java, can you believe this? Not only we have to write a compiler for a freaking virtual machine, but it must also be just-in-time! I hate my life!"

"I hate Java!"

"Did you catch the Java era?"

"What do you think, Andie? Sure, I'm older than you, but I didn't catch the punch cards era, come on!" I replied, making her chuckle.

"And why do you hate Java?"

"Oh, my hatred is not limited to Java, I hate every object-oriented language! Back in my day, we had a stack, a register file, and memory measured in KB. Real programmers write assembly! Then we learned about C and pointers, and all hell broke loose!"

"I'd like to see writing a compiler in assembly!"

"Well, for your info young lady, I actually have done this, in z80 assembly nonetheless."

"What?"

"Yes, on my CPC-6128!"

"Why the hell did you wrote a compiler?"

"Well, it's a long story. First, I tried to write a monitor in pure BASIC, just to demonstrate Locomotive's BASIC power, but disassembling even a small part of the memory window was abysmal. So, I wrote a small disassembler in assembly. I was fascinated watching in real-time how the machine worked, how the registers changed values, how the entries on the stack pushed and popped, how the program counter changed, how the instructions were executed one after another. That's what made me want to study computer science."

"Why didn't you tell me that when you tutored me?"

"Because I wanted you to focus on mathematics. Anyway, then I decided to build my own language, simpler than BASIC but faster and easier to compile into machine code. I didn't get very far, after all, I was just a fifteen-year-old boy, but the simplistic language, though not mature enough to write complex programs, was quite fast for simpler tasks."

"Ugh-uh."

"Anyway, at university, I learned Pascal and C, and I really love C. But for some reason, my mind appears to be incompatible with object-oriented programming. Though it enhances abstraction in theory, I don't know... I prefer the abstraction of mathematics!"

"Well, debugging the freaking compiler makes me wish I'd followed a different path!"

"I share your pain, kiddo. Anyway, I called you because I'll visit Crete in early July, I'll present a paper at a conference by ICS."

"Wow! That's great!"

"Well, if you like complexity theory you're gonna love it!"

"Um... I hate complexity theory with the same fervor I hate compilers, my excitement was about seeing you!"

"Ouch, that hurt... scientifically!"

"Well, you survived our goodnight kiss, you'll survive this!"

"You're never going to let this go, are you?"

"Not in a million years! You probably changed all the colors in the visible spectrum, and maybe even some in the invisible one!"

"Anyway, will you be there in early July, or do you plan to return to Athens?'

"Are you crazy? Who in their right mind would leave a beautiful island in the summer to return to Athens? Did you when you were a student?"

"Well, you got a point, though every summer I returned for one or two weeks!"

"So do I, but I'll be here till the end of August, I have my part time job at ICS after all!"

"That would be great. Oof, I missed Crete. I missed the souvlakis, I missed the chocolate at Utopia, I missed Hijaz, I missed Azteca's..."

"Well, if you can manage, take your leave of absence after the convention, and let's tour Crete with my bike. After all, what's the point of having a touring bike if you don't tour?"

"What? Haven't you already?"

"Of course I have, I try to tempt you!" she replied chuckling.

"Well... Your cousin is a bit of a wimp, he's afraid of motorcycles!"

"Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"

Unknowingly, she struck a chord. That's exactly what Lizzy had told me. My head filled with memories of that beautiful summer of 1996, the best summer of my life. I sighed, as I never stopped longing for Lizzy and the magical month we spent together--a doomed relationship from the very beginning that we lived to the fullest and made her the absolute benchmark against which I measured all other women ever since.

"Kostas?" she asked nervously.

"Sorry..." and I bit my tongue, managing not to call her 'Lizzy'. "It's very tempting, very tempting indeed!"

...as Lizzy had replied when I suggested to come and visit me at Crete, after her breakup.

"Ooh... please, please, please try to make it happen! I would love to spend time together, last year with Manolis was a blast, we toured the whole freaking island."

"Well, it's very tempting... but wouldn't be better having a vacation with your boyfriend?"

"My ex-boyfriend is mourning his monumental stupidity; I hate the jealous, insecure guys."

"Okay... Well, why the hell not... I mean, it's been a year and a half since my divorce".