Description: *Season Three, Episode Eighteen* Captain Kurk has landed and has an earwig problem, meanwhile the student brigade of students are studying studies of stew. This all makes sense later on in the episode, or it doesn't. Also if you consider the relativity of worm holes, you'd find . . . dramatic pause. . something. If you miss this episode you'll probably be more sane because of it. The exciting filler episode of Red Verizon Razr M0M0. Man those bots didn't integrate well into the job market.
It's been a very windy day here at Southtown. A certain class at Pacific High's been certainly feeling it, given this week's general assignment as defined by the Board that oversees what's being taught across all their branches. Being an international school, these are often adjusted to account for the local cultural flavor.
Mr. Rust (or "Rust-sensei" if one is hot off the heels of their Japanese class) and his class, at least those that have actually bothered to attend to it today, are all outdoors to experience the breezy weather for themselves. He's not presently in uniform, having been outside and working long enough between different periods that he's worked up enough of a sweat to do without the usual long-sleeved undershirt.
"All right. For those of you who aren't aware, or decided to start showing up for class just today," and they know who they are even if Pacific is lax about attendance, "there's a festival coming up on the 15th. The '7-5-3' Festival, or 'Shichigosan,' will be here by Thursday of next week. Your Japanese language teacher and World Cultures instructor, neither of whose names I don't care to remember at the moment, are all getting their homeroom classeses ready for it too."
He paces back and forth between the students lined up, almost as if he were a drill instructor. That's how a lot of students think of him, somtimes, especially around dangerous tools. "We're going to be helping build small wooden booths for a local shrine. We'll be doing this - and have been doing this - for the better part of this week and most of the next. We went over the material about properly measuring and cutting wood to the exact measurements we needed. I've already assigned those of you that came into teams of three. You all should already have copies of the blueprints. I'll be building one over here in case you need assistance."
This particular period's only begun, but so far it looks like it'll go without trouble since none of the infamous Pacific Resistance have decided to grace him this period... but will it?
Probably not. Not to contradict the 'good' fortune, lets be real here, when a certain late 'student' comes rushing in the door, trailing a bunch of papers, looking suspiciously blank as though she were just playing pretend student.. things are starting to look a little bad for teacher. Let us first consider the student. She is dressed in all red and while not necessarily against school rules, not that the suspicious figure knows, she just supposes it isn't - it IS not the uniform. If there is one, she supposes there is. Next item on the agenda is her age. Too old. Next item on the agenda is all she has is papers to trail, make a mess with and a broom. Last item on the agenda .. well there is no last item.
The 'student' rushes in, finds a desk, sits down, adjusts her shades, smiles, writes a run on sentence, and says,
"Sorry I'm late teech."
She's totally going to pretend as if she belongs or as though she didn't stick out like a sore thumb. She does though. She really really does.
Not only does she stick out, but she seems to think being slightly delinquent would make her fit in more. So in addition to coming in late, she makes a paper airplane and throws it. But then to offset her delinquency, she also places an apple on teacher's desk. . . slightly used.
While the class is presently happening outdoors, the teacher in question actually did decide to drag his entire desk all the way from the indoors classroom out here. This is likely more for personal security reasons to make sure that delinquent students didn't decide to invade the classroom and take certain items of interest from it. It also gives him a nice, even place to write things on a bit later so that he doesn't have to go back and forth between here and there.
A much older extra desk used for guest observers from the Board, also, somehow found its way out here. It is likely more so Rust could fix it up in his spare time. For all of Pacific High's opulence and generous funding, sometimes little things such as that escape the planners. Most of the classrooms will get a new secondary desk for that purpose later in the semester despite the lack of need for such for most of the year.
As the late 'student' takes her seat, this already draws the attention, ire, and maybe a little bit of suspicion. "Don't think I've ever seen you in my class before," he says as a little paper airplane whizzes by, makes a mad swerve, and somehow embeds itself into a once-bitten apple. "I need your name and homeroom class."
"Naerose Delphine!" Exclais the witch perfectly happily and then is like, "My homeroom is Marshall." She assumes it's named after the homeroom teacher and she ltiterally made up the name on the fly.
"I just transferred into this class." She lies! But she smiles really broad while doing it. She looks over her broom and then over the people around her and then at the taecher, she's totally pulling this off. She kicks her feet up too, a little more relaxed, less likely to draw attention.
As the students present split into teams, four of them total with three each, they all look about themselves confusedly at Naerose's presence. The presence, more than the lazy, laid back attitude she is displaying that has been known to set the teacher off at times.
"First I ever heard of you," Rust replies as he takes a couple steps closer. Given that he hasn't commented on the name 'Marshall,' she may have successfully pulled a name right out of her... hat? Ass? Asshat? And now only leaves one particular bit of uncertainty in the whole matter. "Are you a senior year student?"
"Yep!" Exclaims Naerose with the blissful ignorance you only get with someone who just answered a question they didn't understand. This was not unusual for Naerose, who usually felt very confident doing just that but it sometimes sent people for a loop. In the present course, being obviously in her twenties, this answer would probably be the only correct answer. . . Except then this is southtown, which such school success stories as Kyo, the 'King of fighters' and even more so, king of being held back in sschool. Well into his twenties.. did he ever graduate high school? Ever? At least in Naerose' clothes she could probably pass for someone from that sort of excentric world.
"So Teeech, when do we start working on vehicles? Cause I totally brought mine in today." She has nothing that could possibly pass as a vehicle.
Confusion and suspicion dance all over the teacher's face. He didn't hear about a transfer student, she does look a little old to be here, she's prancing around without the faintest idea as to what she's supposed to be doing... and seems enamored with doing something she wants to do as opposed to what they're doing right now.
In other words, a lot like the rowdier rich kids that go here. Most of the pieces fit together, if not all. As to not disrupt class any further for the time being, and to also keep a careful eye... well, no real other choice otherwise.
"That's next semester," Rust replies after a while, turning his back and making a shrugging motion as he heads back over to his own pile of lumber, nails, and other important tools. "Now get out of that chair and get over here. You got a hell of a lot of catching up to do." He turns back. "And I mean a hell of a lot."
"Er.. right.. " The witch says and gets out of her chair over to where Rust is with the sort of motion suggesting that she already got in over her head. There is no bounce to her step, just a sort of lumber, she isn't thrilled to be doing it, more like.. apprehensive. Everything is coming together, the pieces fit, this woman is afraid of what is going to go on here, will he actually make her do work? Homework too? This would be.. Unthinkable! Why did Naerose think this would be a good idea to sneak into a shop class in order to trick the prof into fixing her scooter which was vandalized during the Jinchuu tournament. She probably should of snuck into a college level class.
"Hey, how long till next semester?" Asks Naerose as she peers over what looks incomprehensibly like junk to her.
"Cause I can't wait to get working on my scooter."
"I'm not gonna lie here. By the time you're all caught up, the way you just introduced yourself to me, you're going to be looking forward more to when this one /ends./" Rust is not actually the hardest teacher in school. He's just a man of a working background now teaching at a school populated largely by kids with silver spoons in their mouths.
He chooses not to really comment about working on the scooter since there's the whole festival thing the higher-ups really want the school to have ready ASAP as he starts pulling long strips of wood in place. "Okay, I'm going to give you the short of this. There's a Japanese festival centered around very young children of certain ages happening in about a week's time. A bunch of classes are doing things for it - Mr. Marshall's probably told you about it. We're building wooden booths for a local shrine."
He nudges a toolbox with a top-quality hammer that hasn't seen much use yet, along with a whole set of galvanized nails. "Do you know how to use a hammer?"
"Totally!" The witch is like, awesome, she gets to hammer, "And I even have my own safety goggles, to which she probably refers to her shades. Not exactly up to par by most people's standards. She picks up the hammer and looks over the set of nails. She's totally ready to get to work. Although more like a Zoolander goes to the coal mine sort of get to work, less so then a real worker sort of person gets to work.
"It's hammertime Dun dun dun dun Waaaa aaaaah, she's a very freaky hammer waaaa waaaa." Yes, the witch totally breaks into song, she apparently likes to sing and then ... picks up a nail and prepares to pound it into the board. Where? Why? Is there method to this maddness? Well yes, she wants to get her scooter fixed for free.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Rust holds up a hand as he then pulls two other pieces of wood closer. She seems awful eager to actually work, finally. Probably more than the trio of students who all attend football practice that seem kind of lost about where to begin. "First, you got to make sure everything's lined up. Since these are all going to stand on paved ground, it doesn't have to be perfect but if you get it all crooked, you're going to have to start over."
He gets to arranging the pieces of wood in an optimal position to be hammered together. "Okay. See where my hand is holding it? Start here." He gives the arrangement a small shake to call her attention while she's off bursting into song. This is probably going to lead into slapstick.
"Aye-aye!" Cries the witch and aims the hammer for where Rust's hand is. She figured he said aim there right? So it must be where he wants her to hit with the hammer.. And whose to say she doesn't just do it right this very instant, right.. right. If Rust doesn't move his hand, it maybe hammered, if he doesn't place a nail there, she'll just hammer wood, if he gets angry, she will pout. Currently the witch is having fun, of course how long can you maintain the attention of someone like her..? With a task like hammering nails? Probably not as long as you can maintain it hammering hands and who has a hand..?
"Like this teech?" the witch asks,
*WHAM!* The hammer comes down on the hand of the teacher. It's a familiar sound to the students, given that some of them in the past have shown the same clumsiness in attempting to construct things themselves. Many give pause - it sounds like that blow should have cracked something, broke a hand, and elicited a yell of pain.
It doesn't. Rust just pulls his hand back like not much happened. "Could've been your hand there," he says with a straight face as he realizes that she kind of needs a little more guidance here. Most of the students get back to work. He grabs another nail and presses his palm down on it. Somehow, it pushes itself a short ways into the wood, far enough that it isn't as difficult for him to hold.
"Try again," he says. "Gentler. Hold the hammer closer before you do it when someone holds a nail. You get better accuracy and less injuries. Medical bills add up."
Unless you're rich like a lot of these kids here are, natch.
Not rich, a fighter, now if you want to know about costly medical bills.. You have to consider fighter health insurance. VERY HIGH premiums. Naerose on the other hand does not go with that really. She's not into the paying health care bills, she's a young immortal as they call them, twenty somethings that never pay for health insurance. This was a perfect time to consider .. or reconsider starting. Unfortunately this might not end up happening. She misses the board entirely with her over eager hammer brother style swing and hits her toe instead when she drops the hammer. At first she's just like.. huh. then she's like.
"IT HURTS!"
"HEY! Closer! I said--" Rust tries to interrupt her before she goes and does it.
COMBATSYS: Rust fails to interrupt Overeager Hammer Swing from Naerose with Words of Caution.
...Er, wait, disregard that line above.
He actually winces as she somehow manages to not only miss the boards and nail entirely, but to /hit her foot/. This is a whole new level of fail that not even one Howard Rust, in his years of doing stuff like this for a living, can fathom ever actually happening even in the most clumsy and incompetent workers' hands. Everyone stops work at Naerose's scream of pain. At least two, both female, giggle at her misfortune. Kids are cruel.
"Can you wiggle your toe? Did you break it?" Rust, showing professional concern (and generally more of it than the kids, at least, who are nonplussed by this new 'kid' entirely), stands up from holding everything in place for hammering. "You need to walk to the nurse's office?" It isn't the first time someone has managed to injure themselves in class, but at this level of clumsiness would be a first.
"Ahh ahh," The witch ways while holding her foot where she dropped the hammer, because it's all hurt.
"I .. I think so.. But I Dunno how I'm gonna get home with a damaged scooter and my mom is gonna be so mad at me. Er Dadio." She figures people day that dady-o? thing.
"Is there anyway I will be able to get home with my scooter broken and my toe broken too?" She says with what would likely be wide eyes if she didn't have dark shades in the way.
"Your family lives nearby, huh." Rust wonders why she goes here as opposed to the happy fun hive mind of fighting spirit where they turn virtually any and every pursuit into some kind of method of killing someone. She's certainly got some energy to spare, no doubt. Since it's very hard to walk with a broken toe, he tries to bring an arm around her shoulder to help her walk, if she even really does need it. (If she wants to keep the act up, at least.)
"Calm down. The campus has a good doctor. We're going to have to call your parents about this injury too. School policy." He's also interested in being given an opportunity to ask the principal and Mr. Marshall as to how the hell he didn't even hear about a new transfer that'd be taking his class.
Err. The jig is so totally up.
"Hey what is that person doing with that saw!?" The witch asks and points at another student behind Rust. She doesn't wait even a moment though to turn and make a break for it, holding her broom of course and more then ready to use it if she has to. She figures a short stint should get her up to say a second story window.. Though arguably a fighter could probably jump that high, or climb that high fast enough that her little trick would hardly earn her even a head start. Still, she figures it is worth a try. Only if necessary. Unfortunately scooter still = broken.
"I didn't bring any saws out here." The teacher reasons but, otherwise, seems to fall for this trick hook, line, and sinker. He has his head about half-turned around when Naerose decides to break for it. Howard Rust is not a very fast runner, nor does he seem to carry much of a method for throwing anything at her with most of the tools a handful of yards away from where they are.
"Wha-- hey. Hey. HEY! GET BACK HERE!" He's unable to prevent the gap from widening as he looks back towards the kids. "We got an intruder on campus, get to safety and don't fuck around, got it?!" By the time he turns back to the direction Naerose is running, there'd be quite a distance. His right hand is already on the would-be 'hilt' of the pipe he has crammed through a ripped pocket in his tool belt.
If she chose to run off the campus grounds entirely right now, she could probably get away. Running /towards/ the main building, her chances less considerably. There's absolutely no way he could catch up to her now unless she arbitrarily decided to slow down and let him reach her.
Well it IS the witch's intent to actually get away, though her running is a bit scatter brained and kind of random, it is not slowing. She is going to have to find a way. . Eventually she finds her scooter in the parking lot by running around the building. Meanwhile the whole time she goes she's totally like:
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" with her arms flailing in the air.
She gets to her scootre, gets ons and starts pushing it down the street as fast as she can, still screaming, but with no arms flailing this time, that would be totally counter productive.
Various students and faculty look upon the source of the screaming, the panicking Naerose, with puzzlement. Some end up getting shoved aside with her arm flailing. Howard Rust is... well, one can't say 'not far behind.' Just saying 'behind' might be better. Even with her scattered running patterns he's not able to match her running speed.
After being helpfully pointed towards the direction she's went both by the result of her chaos and people pointing fingers in that direction, he chases all the way down to the parking lot. He's there just in time to see Naerose out on the streets, escaping into the distance with a scooter in tow. No wonder she was talking about one a lot.
What a mess. Rust once again shrugs his arms, lowers his head in a sigh, and heads back indoors. He is going to get in big trouble for not catching onto any of this sooner, he bets.
Log created on 10:23:54 11/07/2007 by Naerose, and last modified on 13:39:22 11/07/2007.