Mr. Brick stopped talking, so the classroom fell silent and suddenly the conversation Imp and Trouble were having was the only sound. And yet, it had continued on.

Suddenly, Blue Bee leaned over in the middle of their conversation as Noah was about to open his mouth again, and whispered rather harshly: "Noah, shut the fuck up." Blue Bee was fuming--it seemed that Leapfrog's antics had been getting to him. Noah looked back like he didn't even remotely understand this reaction.

That was the moment when Hunter put his hand up, the only person in class to put up a hand or respond to the teacher at all. Someone laughed at him in a sharp, insulting manner.

OOC: Hunter, please mark a condition. :)

Hunter and Sage, who had been through things most of the other students could only imagine, recognized the legitimate and intense frustration in Mr. Brick's face.

Mr. Brick gently put the glasses back on his face and said, "Let's try again tomorrow, mhm? I hate to assign homework, but--bring in questions one through twenty one from your books. Dismissed."

Trouble huffs but stands up, resigning herself to a night of struggling with math. She grabs Noah's arm, gently, before he can walk away though.

"Hold up, you never answered my question." Trouble pauses. "And Imp's right, if there are any scratching noises we proved it wasn't her."

OOC: Now I'm intrigued about this rumor about our hallway being haunted

Hunter gingerly stands up, gathers his things, and quietly leaves the room.

OOC: Marking insecure makes sense to me.

Imp scrunches her face for a moment, torn between following after Hunter or sticking with Hestia to hear the gossip. She sighs and goes after Hunter, hoping to make sure the hecklers didn’t get to him too bad.

“Hey! Hunter wait second. Imp wanna talk.”

OOC: If Sage followed Hunter, then let it be assumed she’s chasing after her as well

Sage remains seated for a moment and after about half the class has filtered out he quietly approaches Mr.Brick and asks if he can stick around to do the newly assigned homework.

OOC: They ain't getting stuck with this shit after school.

Noah stepped around the desks and right in front of Imp (although the effect here of cutting off Imp was wholly unintended). He seemed excited to explain.

"Yeah, no, it's got nothing to do with Imp."

Blue Bee, obviously frustrated, took the most direct route out--completely cutting off Imp all over again and shouldering through their group, ramming against Noah in the process.

"There's a real ghost in Hawthorne Hall. Sometimes at night you'll hear scratching--not Imp--and then you'll see them in a window."

Noah smiled, although the character of the smile was hard to decipher. Was he full of it or not? Who knew? (Some would add, who cared?)

Blue Bee popped out in the hallway after Hunter, likewise storming off. However, he avoided ramming Hunter in the shoulder.

Mr. Brick quickly acquiesced to Sage's request. "Well, that makes just a few of your class who are responsible. Then again, back in your day, they still taught a sense of responsibility, I suppose. It's not all bad, I suppose."

Mr. Brick knew he was rambling, truthfully.

Trouble raises an eyebrow at Noah, wondering if this is another prank or not.

"Alright, then how about tonight you show us. If there's a ghost why not go ghost hunting tonight."

Trouble smiles a bit, thinking that if Noah is a liar he'll back off at the aspect of having to prove it.

OOC: Poor Imp, just trying to comfort Hunter and keeps getting cut off :,(

Imp looks irritated. When he blocks her path, she cuts him off right back and snaps forwards a bit, hissing at him. She scampers around him, and more determinately makes her way to Hunter.

OOC: hehehe im scared
This message was last edited by the player at 14:18, Thu 09 June 2022.

sage sits in the corner and does homework.

Noah seemed perplexed, at best, as Imp cut through.

"What the heck was that about?"

He looked to trouble, frowning just a bit.

Imp, of course, caught up to Hunter before long, as Hunter was crossing the door out of the school building, opening out onto a courtyard which was still cold at this hour of morning, with a fountain in the middle of the courtyard which was running but had multiple leaves floating in each tier.

In the classroom, Brick continued speaking to Sage, scratching his chin as he contemplated matters.

"It's just...what do you think? I need to get through to these kids, break through that thick layer of...of irrational dreaming that tells them they'll never need basic life skills. They all think they're going to be famous heroes, b-," he paused, giving the impression he was about to say something highly critical, "But, well, life just isn't sunshine all the time. Some of these kids are going to end up in office jobs, dammit."

A pause.

"Sorry, not supposed to swear in front of the students."

OOC: Summer is hell, I've had a headache since summer started, hopefully the pace will pick up now despite my chronic illness.

Trouble watches Imp head out of the room in a rush, not quite putting together the pieces as she shrugs.

"I'm not sure." Trouble turns to Noah. "But what about it? Want to go ghost hunting tonight?"

Hunter was to the point, almost curt with Imp as she caught up with him. "What did you want, Imp?" He said, rubbing his forehead. He looked a tad uncomfortable, not only from the events in the room, but also from his headache spiking up.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:28, Thu 23 June 2022.

Imp kinda flinches a bit at his tone. Her ears are pinned back, and her mouth scrunched as she tries to figure out her words. She can’t quite meet Hunters eye.

“Imp…. Imp wonder if Hunter ok? Imp also want apologize for…. Imp? Noah? Brick? Imp feel like something wrong and not sure what.”

OOC: I’m here for Imp being socially inept.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:11, Fri 24 June 2022.

Sage looks to the side and after taking note that everyone else is gone he says

“It…It’s ok Mr. Brick I-I get it sorta”

They sigh deeply

“I guess, I don't know, guess everyone thinks they’re gonna be someone special. That they’re gonna change the world, ya Know? It’s not really till that reality hits you in the face, that you realize… it’s not always gonna be that way.”

She awkwardly chuckles

“And I can’t really speak for others but, getting through to most teenagers is like smashing your head against a wall. Sometimes it’ll break but most of the time you’ll break before it does. Hmm”

Sage looks back down at his paper

“ OH um by the way I-I’m pretty sure I got this question right, number 12, but i just want to double check before I move on to part B.”

Sage proceeds to show a rather messy but accurate sheet of math homework that is steadily being worked on quite quickly in fact.

OOC: Dialogue Stress

Hunter sighs, "Just be careful how much you clown around, regardless of your intent, that can encourage others to misbehave. And remember, we're here to learn ok? Most importantly..." Hunter takes his hand off of his forehead and places it on Imp's shoulder.

"Everyone here worth a... darn... wants you to succeed, okay? So try your hardest to do so. Unfortunately, that might mean having a bit less fun. I promise it will be worth it in the long run."

Hunter smiles at Imp, and then winces, placing his hand back on his forehead.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a rather nasty headache."

Shouldering roughly through the groups of students leaving the classroom, cutting off multiple other students on the way out, Imp finally caught up to Hunter to check in.

OOC: Has Imp ever been lectured to? Does Imp perhaps react negatively to being lectured to? :)

***

Noah looked at Trouble and shrugged.

"Hell yeah!"

He threw a high five Trouble's way.

***

Mr. Brick nodded sagely, contemplating what the student had told him. Looking over her work, Mr. Brick told him, "Yes, this is all right, but here, you can simplify these two steps like this...see?"

OOC: Just give me the heads up that this scene is over and I can write a scene transition for y'all, I sure can.

Ooc: scene over for me

Trouble gives Noah a high five, silently skeptical.

OOC: I'm good with that scene being done.

OOC: I'm finished, unless Imp would like to add anything.

Imp looks like she thinks hard about what Hunter said, then nods once coming to a conclusion. Imp then copies Hunters motion earlir by putting her hand on his shoulder, rather clumsily.

“Ok, Imp understand. At very least, Imp try not be… *deeserup-tehve*. Hope head ache goes bye.”

She bounds off to her next class.

OOC: Imp has definitely been lectured at- and whether she reacts well or not highly depends on who it is and her preexisting thoughts on them. Like, Hestia or Hunter might be able to get away with it, but other folks might not. Also yeah, she’s done now.

Note: she’s trying to say “disruptive”
This message was last edited by the player at 14:22, Thu 30 June 2022.

The gang split for the short break between classes, but before long they found themselves in the underwater, softly lit classroom of Princess Arizella, who taught English here. As the class came in, she stood there chatting with an old school friend from the team known as Next Gen. Being an upperclassman, the Clique only knew him as the New Golden Marvel. Like all the best and brightest, his clothes were all even branded, showing the trademark gold with a black V shape starting at his lower chest, inside of which was filled with a darker shade of gold.

"And it's ridiculous, right? I mean, he's trying to swim but the water's only three feet deep."

NGM was laughing along. Suddenly, she realized her class was about to start, and she sent NGM on his merry way.

The Clique had complicated feelings about the Princess Arizella, known in the super-hero community as Cutlass (she wielded the Buccaneer Blade, made from the weapons of the Ghost Pirate Court). Not the least of things likely influencing opinions of Arizella was her very public feud with a younger hero, Blaze, who had done repair work on her Buccaneer Blade several times in the past. What actually happened was a mystery, but the fall-out became everyone's business.

She wrote the words "METAMORPHOSIS" and "FRANZ KAFKA" on the board. (It was a whiteboard, of course, because that was less dry than a dusty blackboard.)

"Alright, class, we read some of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Can anyone tell us about the themes of this book? Anyone? Imp, maybe you could tell us about Gregor Samsa's transformation into a monstrous vermin?"

Next, "GREGOR SAMSA" with an arrow to the word "UGLY." Princess Arizella smiled, apparently being sincere. But the comparison still hurt.

"Or, Trouble, you could tell us something about the connection to ancient Greco-Roman literatures. Isn't it true that the ancient Hephaestus was thrown off of Olympus by his own mother, Hera, for being ugly, much like Gregor Samsa was shut up in a room for being ugly?"

This time was definitely on purpose, but no one else in class picked up on it.

OOC: Everyone in the classroom roll to take a powerful blow, and on a fail, choose your options with the fact that you're in class in mind.

Hunter, buckle in.

***

Well, actually, Hunter wasn't in class. His headache grew, and grew. It was head-splittingly painful, and suddenly Hunter found himself in a dark corner in a part of campus he didn't recognize.

Suddenly, the rosewood wall before him began to melt, its highly polished surface and dark veins running away. A face in the muck of it all: Hunter's father, or maybe someone else.

OOC: what do you do, Hunter?

Trouble doesn't even deign the question with an answer, just abruptly stands up, seething, and storms out of the classroom without another word. She doesn't know where she's going, she just knows that if she stayed any longer she was going to hit the teacher which wouldn't be very heroic of her. She knows she'll probably get in trouble later for walking out of class, but she refuses to stay in a classroom where the teacher was subtly insulting Imp. However, in being so mad, she forgot to try and grab Imp so that Imp wouldn't have to be in that classroom ... whoops.

OOC: Trouble rolled 13 using 2d6+1 with rolls of 6,6. – 13 I decided to choose the "you must remove yourself from the situation: flee, pass out, etc" option and have Trouble storm out cuz fuck that teacher-

Hunter's knees buckled, and he fell onto them, hands gripping the sides of his head. He swallowed a couple of painkillers a few minutes ago, shame they didn't act that quickly. Hunter looked towards the face in the walls, he was hallucinating, right? This was just another unfortunate side effect of that piece of metal lodged in his brain, right? Still, he addressed it.

"You... you're not real... you..." The very act of speaking was agonizing in Hunter's current state, each word more strained than the last.

"What... do you want?!"

Sage can feel their face flushing mostly with embarrassment and confusion and a little bit of disgust. I mean she's a teacher but she's acting like a highschool bully . His thoughts begin to race with what he should say or do if anything. This is promptly interrupted by the sound of Hestia’s chair scraping against the floor as she storms out.

She glancing to the side only manages to catch sight of the purple tips of Hestia's wings disappearing behind the hatch.


Sage then proceeds to slowly raise their hand

“I-I’m sorry but since Hestia clearly can’t…respond I-I don’t mind, Miss Princess Arizella.”

 Sage takes a pause seeming more than a bit nervous, then finally deciding (internally) fuck it.
He’s responding.

“While I don’t fully see… well I guess I do see the connection between Hephaestus and Gregory, though I do believe there are some differences that make them just different enough that I wouldn’t think at first to connect them, but obviously you do.”

They sputter a bit

“I think one of the themes I see reflected in Kafka’s Metamorphosis is both the limits of sympathy and maybe the alienation of one's self from others, due to things that are outside of our control.”

She signs

“I-If I were to relate this to Hephaestus I’d say that they were both cast out for reasons outside of their control. In Hephaestus’ case this was um his messed up leg…s? I believe. And in Gregory’s case this was his metamorphosis.”

“However both of them were cast out in spite of their strengths in Gregory’s case this is his ability to make money and support the family through all these hardships and in Hephaestus’ case he was cast out despite the fact that he was an amazing smith… He  designed umm Hermes’ winged helmet and sandals after all.”

“Once things did not align with how other people viewed things should be, such as Hera’s view that Hephaestus should be a child with perfect feet, and Gregory's family’s view that he was no longer worthy, they were both cast aside despite all they had done or could do.”

Sage stutters a bit more

“O-Of course as previously mentioned in the world of Metamorphosis another theme is the limits of sympathy which only occurs to Gregory due to the fact that he’s unable to express himself and that is why he’s eventually driven to death. It’s not simply because of his looks it's because he can not be understood.”

“Which in my personal opinion reflects greatly on how in our world some people are unfairly discriminated against simply because they can not be understood o-or people choose not to understand them.”

OOC: 15:11, Today: Sage Finch rolled <orange>4 using 2d6+1 ((2,1)).</Orange>

The moment the teacher smiles, Imp starts to snarl looks like she’s about to lunge forward and bite the teacher, but seems to be interrupted by Hestia leaving the room suddenly. This snaps her out of it, and she also scurries out of the class too while Sage is speaking. She does, however, use her tail to “accidentally” swipe stuff off of the teachers desk with a small “oops”. When she’s out of their sight, she drops to a more comfortable all fours and trots after Hestia.

Today: Imp rolled 10 using 2d6+2 ((6,2)). She removes herself from the situation. Fuck that teacher. I imagine that Imp spilled this worlds equivalent of Starbucks on the teach.