[IC] Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

[Forsythe]

Listening to the conversations around her, Diamond was starting to notice the room was filling with human wreckage that wasn't just her. It filled her with a twisted sense of schadenfreude. Compared to them, her own problems seemed bearable. she didn't understand how Sapphire had not yet requested a duel with Shiro and beat the living crap out of him or die trying, or for that matter what did Oswald see on that abrasive husk of a personality. How did that team not yet fall apart? Probably the influence of the other two members and the clashing duo giving a wide berth to each other whenever possible.

Speaking of teams, theirs did not look like a shining example either. True, the swaps were hardly their fault - none of them were because of injury or anything - but if she was to be honest, there was no team. Up until the last few days, Diamond could hardly even notice Oswald, and at this point he was her teammate the longest. Emerald she liked, but that wasn't hard to do for anybody but the Blunette. And - whatishisname, Cobalt? - she seemed to frighten him despite being the one being aimed at. If that was a replacement for Marcus on the leader position, then Gods be with them on the next mission. There was no team, there were 4 people living in the same room.

She caught sight of what Emerald was doing and figured this class was as good as anytime to pass along messages, and scribbled one on a piece of paper. Folding a plane of her own, she cut a wedge to the bottom of it. She put the rubber band that held her ponytail together between her index and thumb turning it into a makeshift slingshot and launching the plane with it in Oswald's direction, watching it get stuck in his hair.

Message

Hey, what do we do about the swaps? I'm getting about as much of a team vibe from us as a meeting of a vacuum cleaner with a garden hose on an operating table. Is the new guy assigned as our leader? Because that seems like a baaad idea, he's avoiding me ffs. Can't have a man without balls in charge, no way no how. I'm not good at this team thing, but we need to do something about this or we'll be picked apart the next Friday, last one was too close for comfort already. Thoughts?

[Abillioncats]

Emerald Felicia - Math Class -

Emmy had stopped listening to the conversation going on around her, people were acting like butts. So she intently focused on crafting as many paper airplanes as she could fit on her desk. Once she had a dozen or so she picked up the first one and threw it, sending it flying around the classroom. With a little help from her semblance the airplane flew up toward the ceiling, till it was high enough to be out of everyone's reach. The plane began to fly around in circles around the room, then she made it do a figure eight, then a few loop de loops.

It was certainly more interesting than listening to people insult each other, sheesh.

[Ryonara]

Soon another paper airplane, made of red paper, flew by and struck Emmy's airplane. It than began to fly around and dominate the airspace, zipping around back and forth, diving down and narrowly avoiding crashing only for it to rise up at the last second. And despite all it's tricky maneuvers it never once landed.

Mean while Ebon was casually reclining in his seat playing with his SCROLL, surfing the web and such. He didn't pay attention to the drama around the room, since none of it involved him or his team. He found a video which made him chuckle. "Heh... Bakaro..."

@Abillioncats

[Kaithas]

Amy sighed, wading through the wreckage of desks to Shiro and dropping the backpack on his desk. It fell with a clattering of metal on hardwood. "Hey, Goofus Lynx. I think this is yours. Hope you don't mind that I looked in it, had to get your name off of something." She did fell bad for him, but... Couldn't afford to be out of her seat for too long. Last thing she needed was to be caught in the insult storm.

She returned to her seat, shaking her head, feathers still spiked up. "I took some calculus," she said in response to Ben's question. "Had to do it to get some of the physics right for the Fury. Unfortunately... It's applied... and I doubt this class will be taught in it..."

[Sho Minazuki]

Jack Orpheus | Math Class

"Aaauugh, maaattthhhh...", he groaned. He really showed it, he took his sweet sweet time to get to this class, and by the time everyone was in, he was just entering the classroom. It wasn't that he was bad at this or anything, it was just... Boring. It's all numbers, there's no leeway, everything is too decided for his liking. He took his seat next to Luke, who seemed to be shivering. He wasn't really listening at the time either, so he didn't notice the sharp commentary from the little lady in one of the other seats.

"Huh? Luke, you that scared of math too? Is the AC on too high? Why're you shivering?", he inquired as he slumped into his chair. Unenthusiatically and sluggishly, he pulled his notebook out for class as he waited for a response. It was strange seeing him move in such an imprecise way.

[Onarax]

Napoli Fiordilatte - Math Class

Sapphire's outburst elicited little more than mental chuckle from Napoli, he had dealt with a lot worse and the young huntress was obviously still in a bad mood. Although if there really is a silver spoon keeping me from sitting down, why does she then want me to take a seat? She said I couldn't herself. Actually more importantly, can I sell that silver spoon, isn't the value of silver on the rise these days. I could probably put the money to good use. I mean, I could ask her, but... A single glance told him all needed to know about how bad an idea that was, that said he did make a mental note to find someway to apologize or at least figure out why she despised him so much. It wouldn't do to be making enemies on his first day of classes.

And then Gratia had a little outburst of her own, right on time. Gratia-tous swearing, check. Flat voice, check. Irritation, check. Evil glares, check. Honestly the only thing missing so far is a sucker punch to the gut. For his part, the sniper paid little heed to the beginning of the outburst, letting Gratia make an ass of herself before responding.

"Hey now," Napoli chuckled as he leaned back into his chair, "At least I didn't require a forfeit to win. Full marks here, one might even say I Rode it to the bitter end. If you really wanna complain about the fight, go to the professor or my partner. Since I'm well aware you care so much." The last few words were laced with a mocking tone.

It's kind of hard to disappoint someone that's dead. This response however did not reach anyone but Napoli, and if Gratia's words had affected him in any way, it didn't show.

Leaning over to the side, Napoli diverted his attention away from Gratia for a moment. "By the way Signor Schwarz, I told you so. Like I said, stay away from this one."

[Crimmy]

Gratia Mindaro - Mathematics

"I let your daddy do the caring for me."

Gratia leaned forwards once more, already moving to open up the heavy textbook lying on the desk before her. Her fingers rapidly flipped through the pages, the flitter-flutter of paper distracting her from the rest of the room. She really didn't have the fucking patience to care right now, no matter if it was some ego-filled comment from ... the cheese-eating member of the team sitting beside her, or if anybody else wished to receive her attention. There was no need for her to deign herself to socialise in a fucking maths class - all that was necessary was to take down any notes and complete any assigned work.

So there was the calculus section of the book.

Material she was already relatively familiar with.

Beacon's textbooks, however, seemed to prefer functional notation over the Leibniz that was far more common back in her homeland, but personally she actually considered the former to be far more streamlined and simpler to use. One could only go so far in defining u and v in order to master the chain, product and quotient rules before it became all too boring to undertake. Mathematics was far more tolerable if one cut down on the amount they needed to write.

>The graph of f(x)=x^3 - 4x^2 is as shown.
>>Find f'(x)

That was simple. F'(x)=3x^2 - 8x.

>>Find the gradient of the tangent of the curve at the point (2,-8).

A tangent's gradient would be the rate of change of the graph at that point. The Mistralese huntress would simply need to calculate the graph's gradient at x=2 in order to obtain her answer.

F'(2) =3(2)^2 - 8(2)
=12 - 16
=-4
∴tangm =-4

>>Find the equation of the tangent at the point (2,-8).

A follow-up. This was ... excessively simple. But then again, it was admittedly the second week of the semester (and her first as an exchange).

y-y1 =m(x-x1)
y-(-8) =-4(x-2)
y+8 =-4x+8
y =-4x

>>Find the coordinates of the point Q where the tangent crosses the curve again.

y=-4x and y=F(x)=x^3 - 4x^2
∴-4x =x^3 - 4x^2
0 =x^3 - 4x^2 +4x
=x(x^2 -4x +4)
=x(x-2)^2
∴x=0, x=2
∴F(0) =(0)^3 - 4(0)^2
=0

∴Q is (0,0).

[Krayzikk]

Ben acknowledged the tap on his shoulder with a slight nod, eyes locking onto Sapphire after her little temper tantrum. BASL's usually laid back leader was alert, his gaze was sharp, and he was not smiling. He leaned forward in his chair, clearing his throat by means of preamble, and directing his focus towards her.

"Hey, Gemstone." He pointed with an unusual choice of finger to get her attention, and kept it there once he knew he had it. Insulting people for no reason, whether it got under their skin or not, was not something he was going to tolerate. "Lay off. No one wants to deal with your salty little tirade. We get it, you've got a chip the size of the damn continent on your shoulder. Doesn't mean we want to listen to it. So kindly be quiet."

He turned to face Luke and Shiro, facing his shoulder towards Sapphire as a clear dismissal of whatever she had to say, and gave a wide, friendly smile. The proffered hand was, ironically, the one previously used to hit Lauren repeatedly in the face. Its purpose was much kinder now. "You're Shiro, right? Great to meet you. I was just talking to Luke about your match. I'm Ben, from Bastille. This is my team. Bunch of jokers, honestly, but they all mean well."

Ben took the paper and pencil from Luke, passing it along to the next person in line.

[MULTI_MEDIA_MAN]

Oswald Connolly- Math class

Oswald couldn't help but chuckle at Sapphire's response. "Yeah, they'd probably build monuments to your sacrifice." Grabbing at a pencil, Oswald grimaced and got ready for class to begin. He was dreading every second of the mathematics class. He'd already proven....less than adept at the subject.

Ben's chastising went over his head, as he wondered what he would spend that evening doing. Without an evening class, he had a bit of free time on his hands, and he was wondering what it would be best spent on.

Suddenly, he felt something his his head. Reaching up to grab it, Oswald perked an eyebrow when he saw that it was a paper airplane. Unfolding it and reading Diamond's note, he frowned before writing a response and launching it her way.

Note

For now, we have to deal with it. Hopefully he'll prove to be less....emotionally fragile than he seems. Fighting for your life tends to bring out a different side to some people.

[Crimmy]

Gratia Mindaro - Mathematics

Finally, it seemed as she had made it to the questions that were slightly more challenging than previous ones. She had been finding it utterly droll engaging in such repetitive pen strokes and finding no fulfilment in them. Gratia ... enjoyed the struggle. It was obvious that she would arise triumphant, but she hated a lack of challenge.

>If f(x) = (4x^4 - 12x^2)/3x then f'(x) equals ...

And .... it was another simple question. Why did she even bother?

f(x) =(4/3)x^3 - 4x
f'(x) =4x^2 - 4

>>Find the stationary points of f(x)

f'(x) =4x^2 - 4
=4(x^2 - 1)
=4(x+1)(x-1)
0 =4(x+1)(x-1)
∴x=-1, x=1

f(-1) =(4(-1)^4 - 12(-1)^2)/3(-1)
=(4 - 12)/-3
=-8/-3
=8/3
∴(-1, 8/3)

f(1) =(4(1)^4 - 12(1)^2)/3(1)
=(4 - 12)/3
=-8/3
∴(1, -8/3)

It would likely be a wise decision for her to progress onwards to chain, quotient and product rules.

[KabenSaal]

Bing bong, bing bong, Combat was over. Mokuren smiled at Skyra, and then fled with great haste from the hall, the conversation deviating to a point she really would rather keep buried in a pitch ditch, and occasionally stab with a pitchfork of fire and Noble Man-Eater Bugs. Fleeing was a much better open, one she did with great gusto, not really paying attention to what class was next, until she had arrived, taken a seat, and opened a text book. She then read the first page, and got a few questions.



Mokuren stared at the page for quite some time, and then casually drew Sarasagi and started hacking the book into paper-y chunks with the sharp end.
"Die foul spawn of all that is evil!"

[Plank Sinatra]

Lauren Negasi

Lauren had dropped out of the argument after Gratia's eye-poppingly hateful [and soon-to-be-viral, thanks to handy Scrollwork on the boxer's part] rant at her teammate had taken BASL and Luke by storm. Now she was sitting quietly between Ben and Amy, trying not to nod off as the chatter around her faded into a dull buzz. For all she knew, it was 4 in the morning, she was zoning so hard. Only a tap on the shoulder kept her from closing her eyes and resting her chin on her chest in peace.

When she opened them, Ben had placed a couple sheets of paper and a pencil atop her desk. About to turn and insist defensively that she didn't need the prompting to jot down dumb formulas, she caught sight of Schwarz, who nodded understandingly at Shiro. That made much more sense.

Tearing off a sheet of her own paper, she pushed the note taking supplies with the tips of her fingers down to Shiro with a grin.

[HereComesTheSnow]

Jack Orpheus | Math Class

"Aaauugh, maaattthhhh...", he groaned. He really showed it, he took his sweet sweet time to get to this class, and by the time everyone was in, he was just entering the classroom. It wasn't that he was bad at this or anything, it was just... Boring. It's all numbers, there's no leeway, everything is too decided for his liking. He took his seat next to Luke, who seemed to be shivering. He wasn't really listening at the time either, so he didn't notice the sharp commentary from the little lady in one of the other seats.

"Huh? Luke, you that scared of math too? Is the AC on too high? Why're you shivering?", he inquired as he slumped into his chair. Unenthusiatically and sluggishly, he pulled his notebook out for class as he waited for a response. It was strange seeing him move in such an imprecise way.

@Sho Minazuki

Luke Schwarz--Math

Satisfied that the apparent pariah of a faunus was duly taken care of, he turned back to Jack, who in a very Jack-ish manner had plopped into the seat on the other side of him without his notice. This, unfortunately, diverted his attention away from Napoli, the fencer's comment falling on deaf ears as a victim of nothing more than circumstance.

"Oh, hey. Not really, but I've heard some horror stories. Was more about everyone leaping down eachother's throats just now. Bad vibes, y'know?"

Flipping his pencil idly around his thumb, he waited for class to start proper.

"If anything, Math's probably the only thing I'm close to good at. Certainly better than fighting." he said, with a slightly embarrassed smile. "So I'm hoping this ends up being one of the few I can hold my own in."

Not aiming for the top, by any means. That was begging to crash and burn into a disappointed heap.

...But I should at least do better than destroying my textbook.

Try as he might, he still had real trouble getting Mokuren. The fox faunus was not only an enigma, at times she almost seemed to be actively trying to confuse those around her.

Only time, he supposed, would tell him her secrets.

"Hey, uh, Mokuren?" he called over to the fox faunus in a decidedly diplomatic tone "That's not evil Grimm Runes or anything. It's just a math textbook."

It can't hurt you.

Physically, anyway.

[Suku]

Cian Kuze

Math class was something she was ok with while not the best she did decent enough all things considered. Plus one thing that remains for certain was it would be a haven for her now after the combat class went the way it did. She was never one to hate someone but at times Professor Goodwich really came close a good strategist knows when they been beaten. For Oum's sake it was practically a given she would lose with her own style of fighting compared to Gratia's and her semblance. Shaking her thoughts she decided to focus back on her math something to distract her mind with rather than the obviously unbending even though wrong judgment of Goodwich. Letting her mind fall back and try to figure out the numbers she let out a quiet sigh and muttered under the breath "one of the best or not she obviously has no idea on how stupid it would be to continue a figt that one would lose anyway."

[Lady Seraphina]

Sapphire Rode - Math Class

Sapphire smiled at Oswald's comment before Ben tried to get her attention with his middle finger. Nothing that he said really bothered her all that much. As he spoke she gave him a silent and scathing look before returning to her books. In fact that only thing that had really annoyed her about his rant was the fact that he'd called her 'Gemstone'. Saph she didn't exactly like but didn't mind, Saphy she could barely tolerate, Blue she could easily ignore but Gemstone? That was just insulting.

Ignoring that and what Napoli said about sticking his fight out the the end, (there had barely been a fight, he'd just stood there and won cause of a misplaced swing and some bad aura levels, it hadn't lasted longer than two minutes) Sapphire pulled out a sheet of loose leaf paper and began to sketch. She'd had a rough idea for this over the weekend but flushing out exactly how it was supposed to work took time and a fair amount of loose sheets of paper.

The device she was trying to create was meant to be worn on the hands and feet. When it was on it would emit a tripolymer that would form around any object no matter the shape. The central area of the polymer would then recede creating a vacuum between the device and the surface it was touching. The practical upshot of which was that it would allow anyone to stick to any surface at a seconds notice and detach again as needed. Because it was a vacuum that kept the device in place it could handle almost any weight. It was meant to aid Sapphire in her acrobatic maneuvers and give her more options in battle on any kind of terrain. Now that she thought about it the device might also be able to act as climbing gear. She'd look into it further when she got a prototype made.

As Sapphire was going through this in her head Mokuren started to hack up her book. Sapphire wasn't exactly sure what was up with that girl. Not that they'd have much contact but from the little she'd seen of the fox faunus in classes it seemed that either she was mentally handicapped, had some form of brain damage, or just wanted everyone to think that she did. Every time Sapphire saw Mokuren do something strange she wasn't exactly sure which of the three it was. Surely someone with psychological damage wouldn't be admitted to Beacon. Maybe it had happened since she'd been accepted. Perhaps she'd gotten her head knocked around during the first mission last Friday. Who could say for sure.

Sapphire looked up from her drawing and turned to face Mokuren. "You know you have to pay to replace those and textbooks cost like 7000 Lien."

[Guess Who]

Robert Fallson - Math Class

His offer to help having gone unnoticed, Robert shrugged and returned to his seat to stare at the paper in front of him. "Wha- What is this? Are those... letters?! Why are there letters? I thought this was Math? Make up your mind, is this Math or English? Ugh, this is horrible," the defeatist said as he slumped in his chair. "No. No, this is no time to give up. I will get through this. I shall prevail over this obstacle! I shall-" Our hero never got to finish that sentence though as the dogfight going on above took its first casualty. Emerald's paper airplane, having been knocked out of the sky by Ebon's, was now on a crash course straight toward Robert's face. "OWW! Why me?!" he shouted as the tip of the plane hit his right eye head-on, just narrowly avoiding his glasses which rested above his nostrils.

The red-haired teen, his eye now watering from the earlier impact, looked back down to the problem at hand. He was pretty sure that he had seen problems like this before, despite his earlier complaints, but he just couldn't find anything useful in his eighteen year old mind. "Can't I just go back to bed? At least there'd be a whole lot less danger of getting injured. And I still have Practice today! What's-her-name is probably going to rip into me yet again for something that is, I admit, something I deserve to be yelled at for." Robert let out a sigh. "I'll just do what I know and be done. You can't fault me for trying," he said as he began to work on the page in front of him.

[Sho Minazuki]

Jack Orpheus | Math Class

If anyone turned back to Jack you would distinctly see him falling asleep after finishing this day's material at record speed... Given he got a bunch wrong, but they were all simple mistakes and he wasn't really into it. He wanted Math to pass by as soon as possible, and sleeping was one of the most effective ways to do this. Hopefully. He didn't really care about the snarky comments all around him, they were background noise to him. He just didn't want to be in math.

"Luuuke, wake me up when this class is over", he entrusted this task to Luke, before falling asleep completely.

[HereComesTheSnow]

Luke Schwarz -- Alarm Clock

Sending Cian a brief wave, he frowned as he looked back down at his leader.

It wasn't like he didn't get the sentiment. Far from it, actually. Junior year he'd dozed off dozens of times, and had recieved the sharp reprimands for each with little more than the token grumble.

But.

His grades had also suffered, and he'd even had to stay late once for remedial sessions. That, he knew would be far more tortuous for Jack than anything the actual class itself could be. His next actions weren't out of any misplaced sense of justice, and certainly not in the interests of being some teacher's pet. Instead, he simply wanted to look out for his fellow man. He knew full well how high Beacon's standards were... Genius or otherwise, sleeping was asking for trouble.

"Come on, man." he pleaded, shaking his leader by the shoulder, albeit not in an overbearingly rough manner. "Try and stick this one out."

[Sho Minazuki]

Jack Orpheus | Math Class

Try as Luke might, Jack was fairly obstinate in sleeping this one out. It didn't help that combat class was actually a fair bit taxing this time around. He had to go pretty much all out. Jack simply groaned in response until he fell asleep completely... Before Luke managed to actually wake him to which he responded,

"Is it over...? No...?", he sat up and looked around, and not a thing had changed, so he slumped back down again. Jack's grades managed to stay within the class average for Math, but that was since he never reviewed the material, looked over it once and that was it. He made loads of silly mistakes which was why he never excelled in math, but he showed he was capable.

[harinezumikouken]

Kuhaku Shiro - Mathematics Class

Shiro's ears perked under his hood as Gren literally took his seat next to him. Immediately perking up, Shiro removed his hood to free his silvery-white ears and smile as he sat up. When his armored compatriot posed his question, he didn't have an immediate answer for him. His eyes flitting away momentarily as he picked his words carefully. It wasn't like he was about to admit he had a psychotic episode/panic attack and had to conduct an emergency medication. Speaking of..

His ears and tail stood straight up as a brief moment of cold fear washed over him. He had forgotten to put away his secret little orange pill bottle. Swallowing dryly, he would have to remember to return to the dorm as soon as possible to put it away properly. Last he remembered, he left it open on the bathroom counter. Stuttering and sputtering, he hoped his simple answer would appease his friend.

"U-uh, I-I y'see th-the..."
He sighed and offered a weak smile.
"Mondays. Am I right?"
He chuckled nervously. Habitually scratching the back of his head.

At that moment, a familiar feathered faunus came by his desk and dropped his pack on his desk with a cantankerous clatter. Looking up at her, words caught in his throat as his eyes were graced with the student's lovely choice of attire. He held his tongue though and tried his best to maintain eye contact, hoping he didn't come off as rude or creepy for silently staring at her. Thoughts flip-flopping again when she mentioned she had gone through his things, he frantically stuck his head into his bag and rummaged around. "Crap! I didn't leave any extra 'supplies' in my pack did I?" How many bottles did the doctors prescribe him with anyways? First chance he got, he would have to tidy up his things and organize them.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he quietly thanked her as she walked away. Unsure if his words were heard. Frowning, the moniker she addressed him by confused him slightly. Goofus, sure. But Lynx? "I'm a Tiger though..." Odd. Continuing to go through his things, he let out an exasperated sound as of course he had everything but basic note taking gear. With perfect timing, a voice behind him caught his attention and he turned 'round in his seat. It was a fellow student from a different team, graciously sharing his own paper and writing utensils with him. Smiling, Shiro reached behind him with gloved hands and received the pen and paper.

"Yeah, I'm Shiro. Nice to meet you too, Ben. That match was pretty fun between Luke and I. But, I seriously need to work on toning it down and work on my hand-to-hand skills." Looking at each member of Team Bastille, he gave each of them a warm and friendly grin. Softly saying 'Hi' and 'Hello' to each of them. "Your team seems nice and fun." Kind of like his own, save for one toxic team leader. No, he couldn't think like that. She was probably really sweet deep down inside. Deep deep down. Maybe core of the earth deep. But, it was somewhere down there. Right?

"Stop being nasty, Shiro!" He thought to himself, shaking his head.
At that moment, Mokuren interrupted his self-reprimanding by viciously hacking away at her assignment. "Uh." Blinking and then snickering, he couldn't help but be entertained. "Yeah, I feel the same way." he figured. As he started to turn back around towards the front of the classroom, another member of Team Bastille had torn out some more paper to offer to him. "Oh!" Reaching for the extra note paper, he stopped for a moment. He had a bad habit of staring into people's eyes silently. He didn't recognize the darker-skinned gal, but slowly accepted her gift anyways.

"Th-thank you.."

"Man, I see new people every day. It's going to be rough trying to make friends with all of them.." Neatly gathering his things, he wondered what exactly was the attrition rate and expected graduating percentage of Beacon Academy? Setting his pack on the side of his desk, he stared at the blank paper for a moment.

"Basic paper, huh?"
Rather archaic. He'd rather take notes on his Scroll.
Ears and tail perking again, he reminded himself. This was the perfect moment to ask Gren!
"Oh! Gren! Hey, I just remembered. My Scroll broke during our first mission and I'd been meaning to ask you if you could maybe hook me up with a new one? Something told me you could help me out with that."
Looking around himself, he ducked low and lowered his voice for Gren.
"Also, when did Beacon have so many pretty ladies?"
Uncertain if his whispers were quiet enough so that others couldn't hear.