[Last Time, on Battle High: Our heroes were notified that their first fight of the midterm tournament would be wednesday night, against the third lowest ranked team in the school. They were provided with a helpful dossier on each enemy fighter, and were notified that they would be fighting atop Fight Tower, at midnight. That'll be fun.] [Then, Hope and Karasu went up there to test the footing. Okay, really they went up there to have it out, and boy did the fur fly. And the shingles, too. Karasu tried to kill Hope, but Hope got all angry and did some funky shit, and they nearly killed each other.] [In other news, upon awakening monday morning, it was discovered that Karasu was missing. This in itself was not unusual. What WAS unusual was him also cutting classes all day monday. His teachers were not pleased, especially the health teacher, who seems to hate you all.] [She gleefully notified you that a major test would be had at midterm, leaving you roughly three weeks to study for it, and anybody who failed would be put into remedial classes. Hope you've been studying, kiddies.] [You're done with classes for the day, and everybody seems to have a whole lot of studying to do, because in addition to the health test, there will be tests in ALL your classes, though only your evil teacher seemed to find it funny.] [You've all retreated to your room for post-classes fun, games, studying, showering, and otherwise preparing for whatever you'll be doing tonight.] [It's only noon, but because of the midterm tournament, you won't be fighting this afternoon. [Session... START!] * Ao-Lang is sitting at the table, looking over her biology text and checking her notes. She's muttering about Karasu and how he's a stupid ass who will bring her grades down, though. * Kairi , having taken care of cleanliness and food, is busy alternating between poring through the stack of open books to his right and snacking on the high-carb, low-nutrition garbage to his left. * Hope is sittign on the floor, staring at one of her books like she expects it to get up and bite her. * Isaac has the book open and is flipping through it idly. ~So, what are the four stages of Mitosis?~ * Karasu isn't even there @_@ * Mariah is strewn out over the couch, following the crowd and working on biology. "Man..." * Ao-Lang answers without really thinking about it: "Prophase, metaphase, anophase, telophase." .. right. And it's like... ~Mmmhmm.~ * Mariah raises her hands and acts out a vaguely strange-looking handgesture. "Prophase... anaphase... metaphase... telophase!" ~Now, what order do they go in?~ .. well, prophase is the first and telophase is the last. If I'm remembering this right. ~Uh-huh.~ * Ao-Lang scribbles down another note. "Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Metaphase, then anophase." Isn't it pro-ana-meta-telo? Or am I mixing up ana and meta? I don't see what this has to do with fightin'. ~Meta's before Anaphase. And it has a lot! How else do you expect to break someone's joint in five different places if you don't know how it will properly heal itself?~ It's supposed to turn us into well-rounded students instead of purely musclebound idiots, Hope dear. If I wanted to be a well rounded student, I woulda stayed in regular school. Then why don't you drop out of this one? ~I wish I could have stayed in regular school...~ .. look, I don't think this is anything to argue about. Let's just study, okay? * Ao-Lang glances at Isaac, then goes back to her notes. * Hope shoots Ao a nasty glare, but taks Mariah's advice and returns to staring at the book. ~Okay, so what about Meiosis? What's that for?~ .. creating sex cells, right? The DNA doesn't replicate, so you only get half of it... ~Yup. Meaning human sperm and eggs have how many chromosomes in them?~ .. 23 each. Right? * Mariah pages a few pages forward in her textbook to check. ~Right again! You're good at this.~ ^^ Nah, I've just been reading too long, that's all... * Isaac spins upside-down and flips through the book some more. * The front door opens and Ryo pokes his head in. "Hey, anybody in here?" * Isaac grins. ~No! Go away!~ * Ao-Lang turns from her work. "Don't you-" She stops, then smiles. "Oh, hey Ryo." * Ryo takes that as his cue to walk all the way in. "Hey, whatcha studying?" * Isaac floats the book to an angle Ryo can see. Hey, bio. Fun. I hate that class. -- yeah, we're cramming for the heath exam. * Ao-Lang shrugs. "Yeah, well. Joys of mitosis." She tosses her pencil onto the table. * Mariah sets the book down. "What's up, Ryo?" Oooh, reproduction. Oh, not much, really. I just got tired of studying. Tell me about it. * Ao-Lang tilts her head. "Yeah? You wanna do somethin'?" Yeah, I get you... * Ryo walks up behind Ao and does a quick little shoulder massage. "I mean, come ON. We're here to fight, not to be bookworms." See, this guy knows what I'm talking about. * Ao-Lang starts to say something, then stops and more or less melts into the shoulder massage. "Damnit, Ryo." Every minute I spend studying is a minute I coulda been getting good enough to beat my next enemy. .. yeah, we should do something. If I look at these chromosome diagrams for one more second I'm going to die. ~Then I guess you wouldn't want to know the exact angle to strike at a sword in order to break it in half with a minimal amount of effort, allowing you to use the same strike to hit your opponent with?~ * Ryo continues mercilessly massaging Ao's shoulders. "Wow, you really needed this." Actually, I already know that. I just couldn't tell you the actual angle, because I don't think about it. Besides, breaking a guy's weapon is kinda... lame, doncha think? ~Hey, you can hear me? That's cool! Not many other people can.~ ^^ * Ao-Lang humphs a little, but she's far from making him stop. "Still an advantage." Hmm? I'm pretty sensitive to spirits, yeah. ~Yeah, but I recall Dimitri doing it to Mariah's staff. It is a legal tactic.~ Just means they gotta avoid it next time. Just because it's legal doesn't make it right. But any advantage you need to win, I suppose. Well, it's a decent tactic. You just have to know how to avoid it. ~Uh-huh.~ Like I said, if you really need the advantage, I suppose. It's not something I'm going to do, though. Last time I tried breaking a guy's weapon, he turned out to be better without it. Which is why.. I really need to get those halves shod. I've heard really good things about tonfa sticks. * Ao-Lang lets out a light sigh. Yay massage. "Who was that?" That crazy dragon dude. I forget his name, but he liked to breathe fire. Used a giant scimitar. * Isaac snickers in people's heads. .. he sounds kind of familiar, but I may be thinking of someone else... ~I think I saw a record of him fighting against Hope?~ Hmph. That whole breathing fire thing is pretty freaky. I mean, who'd've thought he'd take after a dragon THAT much? I'll beat him next time. I hope you've got a new trick or two. .. I think we all do. * Hope laughs. "You better believe it." Better believe he does, too. Speaking of dragon-boy, I hear your girlfriend's slated to fight his team, Mariah. Thursday evening, on the wall. * Ao-Lang snickers. * Mariah looks briefly morally indignant. "He's a..." Then the last part sinks in: ".. on the wall?" Hell, why not. We're on the roof. Yeah, right on top. Gonna be a tight squeeze, ten people all fighting up there. ~Wow, that sounds... interesting.~ We fight tomorrow night, and those bastards from Wukong 102 fight tonight. I feel really sorry for Sun-Tzu 101. They're meat. *** Yu-Mei has left IRC That's just wild. And yeah... Yeah, it's a rough schedule, isn't it? So is Wukong 101, actually. That Spider-dude tried to punk Marcie last night. She didn't take kindly to a strange man ambushing her in bed. And the schedule seems pretty solidly anchored in darkness. Not a single fight in an arena, either, from what I've heard. ~Sounds like they want to teach us how to fight in adverse conditions.~ Wow -- how badly did she hurt him? Yeah. Wonder how much stake Battle High's got on this midterm. I guess a whole lot. He's in the hospital. No telling just how bad, but rumors of him dropping out are all over the place. Marcie really wanted to kill him. * Mariah shakes her head. "Yeah, I bet... man, how embarrassed is he?" I don't think he's awake yet. He's probably going to be withdrawing, though. Now that he's been punked once, people are going to be on guard. Seems that every team he's fought against, somebody's been punked a night or two before the fight. .. and he didn't get that people would notice? Ain't very bright, is he? * Ao-Lang grins. "That's someone too stupid to be in this school." I hope he drops out. He shouldn't be allowed to do that. That's what I said. She tried to kill me when I went in, though. Kento had to punk her himself to keep her from killing the guy. Kept screaming about me trying to kill her. * Ao-Lang lets out a faint mmm as Ryo gets a rough spot. "Yeah, that's her." .. yeah. * Kairi offhandedly holds his bag-o-junkfood Ryo's way. "Snack? They're bad for you." Hey, thanks, man. * Ryo grabs a Hero-Snack from the bag and munches. "So, Biology, huh?" Unfortunately. * Mariah nods. "Yeah. It's just... head's still swimming. Maybe I should go get some practice in." * Ao-Lang looks ever so slightly put out that Ryo stopped to munch, but she glances at her notes. She seems a little less driven to work on it now. ~Yup.~ * Kairi shrugs. "I'm more into physio, but the whole of it's... alright, if a bit brain-twisty at times." Somebody start quizzing. I'm tired of Tanisha's droning teacher voice. I think we could all use some practice. Get out minds of Mitocloria and Smileyphases or whatever. ~You want to this time Ao?~ Sorry, but if I don't pass this test, my team will kill me. Your rankings are based in part on your team's average on tests. -- oh, right! I guess we should study. Even if it kills us... * Ao-Lang picks up her notes. Ryo can see that they're disturbingly complete. "Yeah, sure." She flips through them, then snickers. "Knew it." Wow, even your notes are pretty. I dunno if study can kill, but I wouldn't like to see if it were possible. * Kairi gives Ryo an odd look for that comment. .. well, I don't think it *will,* but it *feels* like it. Or maybe it's just Bio. * Ao-Lang laughs. "That's gotta be the worst flattery I've ever gotten." Studying CAN kill you. My little brother died in a cram school. -- really? I'm so sorry! ... guh. That's... sorry, Ryo. * Kairi lets his face fall, caught nice and off-guard by that one. Sorry to hear that.. ... * Ryo grins. "Kidding!" ( Ryo, even. ) * Isaac just bursts out laughing in your heads. ~Geeze, you believed that?!~ Jeez, I didn't think you guys would actually believe that. * Ao-Lang reaches back and thwaps Ryo on the shoulder. "You're gonna give my teammates a collective heart attack. It'd be damn funny, but then I'd have to fight on the roof by myself." ... hey! * Kairi frownpouts at RYo. * Mariah frowns. "Hey! Be nice." Man, you better stop pouting like that. Some barbarian will mistake you for a woman and ravish you. You shoulda seen him run up the mountain in the skirt and heels. ~THAT was funny.~ I've heard tales. I'm glad I missed it, really. * Kairi blinks a few times. "... wait, hu---hey! Don't tell everyone about that!" I might've had to leave Ao for you. * Ryo smirks at Kairi. * Isaac grins. ~And why not Kairi?~ ... uh? ~I even got pictures.~ ^_^ * Kairi brainlocks slightly, not at all sure how to take that. * Ao-Lang cracks up. * Mariah just shakes her head. "Not even gonna start." * Ryo looks down at Ao and makes a little handwavy motion as he nods at Kairi questioningly. * Isaac blinks. * Ao-Lang grins evilly at Ryo before making a vague so-so motion with her hand. I have a feeling what's being not-said. You're both evil. * Ryo looks a little sheepish. "Sorry, Kai. I didn't know." * Ao-Lang snickers. I'm not. I'm just not occupied with staring at backsides like some people. So there. Happy? Well, it's not like you've got a frontside to stare at. * Kairi scowls. * Isaac frowns. ~Isn't that enough?~ * Mariah just keeps paging through her biology book. She appears to be Having None Of This Conversation, No Sir. So. If I can't stand my roomies, I may as well study with y'all. * Kairi quickly perks back up. "You're always welcome to come on by, Ryo." ~I don't see why not.~ ^^; Good! Let's get our study on. -- oh, sure! The more the merrier, right? Too bad Karasu isn't here. I bet we're missing some serious melodrama. * Ryo withdraws his hands so as not to distract Ao-Lang too much. Let him do what brooding people do. Maybe he'll come back and remember where he left his sense of humor, I dunno. * Ao-Lang glances at Ryo, then tilts her head to the chair next to her. "Bet it's hiding in the VCR somewhere." He still hasn't turned up, then? In that Charlie Chaplin tape? Bastard is probably off torturing animals. I dunno. But he can take care of himself... at least, he keeps telling us that. Harsh. What'd he do to earn that? Said Hope's not fit to be leader. ~I'm worried about him...~ It's probably in the tape, yes. * Ao-Lang eyes her notes and flips through them. Oh. I figured he dumped her. I heard soemthing about them coming down angry off the roof. Well, that's never good. * Ao-Lang snerks suddenly. "You thought they were dating?" .. yeah, how'd you get that idea? What are you, an idiot? Half the school had 'em pegged as secretly dating, mainly because they seemed to hate each other. * Ao-Lang laughs. That's... * Kairi helps himself to a chuckle as well. "If dates involved lots of broken bones and maybe a few foreign objects, I could see it." ~Well, according to anime physics, that makes sense...~ * Mariah looks incredulous for a moment. "That's just strange." Well, damn. I guess that means I gotta break Ryo's arm a few times. No thanks. I prefer my lovin' tender. * Ao-Lang grins. "Says the guy who wanted to beat me up my first day." * Ryo quirks an eyebrow in Mariah's direction. "Though if what I hear about Arthur is any indication..." ~Yeah, I know. It's like you fight for LOVE AND PEACE!~ Hey, I had to test you. See if you really belonged here. You DID skip from the lowest school to the highest. .. what *about* Arthur? Nothing! Nothing at all! Oh, *whatever.* * Mariah smirks. ... wait, huh? * Kairi leans forward. "Do I detect juicy information?" ^_^ You, Kai, are the most clueless boy on the face of the planet. It's okay, he's been.. you know. In a coma. * Ryo snickers a little. ... hey, that's mean. ... So he wasn't this bad when he first got here? ~Hehe.~ * Kairi rolls his eyes and returns to his studying of biology and terribly unhealthy junkfood. ~I could let you know Kairi, but then you'd feel stupid.~ ^^ .. so, uh... Where were we? Meiosis, right? ~Yup!~ ~Now, Meiosis has five stages, not four. What's the extra stage?~ * Ao-Lang nods, going back to her notes. "Yeah, meiosis." There's a pause, then she looks at Ryo. "Why aren't you guys getting along, anyway?" No dodging the question, Ao. And I just got tired of Tanisha's teacher voice. Isn't there.. oh, I want to say another metaphase. * Isaac thinks. ~Actually, I don't remember qui- Yeah, there's another metaphase.~ I'm stumped. But I forget what happens in it... splitting of gametes? * Isaac nods. ~It's pretty much a second metaphase to thin the chromosne count down to 23.~ * Ao-Lang snickers. "Well, you're in luck. Isaac doesn't have a voice." But I'm sure he'd do a teacher voice if he could. ~Shh! What do you know?~ And he'd drone in your head and you couldn't shut him UP. Please don't. ~Don't what?~ Don't drone on and on in my head when I can't get you out. ~Okay, okay... And I'm getting bored of cells anyways. Anyone up for a game of chess?~ ^^ .. chess sounds fun! .. I never thought I'd say that, but... * Ryo laughs. "Okay, no more studying tonight. Who wants a fight?" * Ao-Lang throws her notes onto the table and stretches. "We got magic juice left, right?" Chess, *then* a fight... I could do that. I think so... * Isaac flies through the floor, then pops out from underneath a bookshelf where his set is. It balances pricariously on his head before he catches it and flies over to the table so one of the fleshies can have a comfortable seat. If not, the peps'll bring more. * Ao-Lang nods. "I'm up for a match, Ryo." She hops to her feet and smirks. "And I take winner of this chess game, too." * Mariah sets her book down and heads over to the table. "Got it!" I guess I'll watch. * Isaac dumps the pieces out, having them dance to their position on the chess board. .. I should learn how to do that.. * Isaac smiles sheepishly. ~It's not much, but I've been practicing.~ * Ao-Lang snickers. "Good going, Isaac." She puts her notes away and goes to put on her boots, then stretches as she heads to the training room. * Ryo follows a short distance behind Ao-Lang, admiring the view. "I hope you're nice and loose now. Hate to win because you're too stiff." Well, it's a good thing to practice! * Ao-Lang looks over her shoulder with a grin. "You'll just have to give me another if I lose." * Isaac makes a move, speaking exclusively to Mariah. ~So, what do you think is up with our team mates?~ * Mariah moves in return, responding in thoughts. ~ I don't know. I think Hope and Karasu are just angry at each other, but... I wish I knew where Karasu was. I wish he'd left a note or something. ~ Hey, no prob. ~So do I... You all have me worried.~ ~You all can continue your lives on your own, even if you do drop out of battle high. But what am I going to do?~ ~ I just wish I knew what was going on with Ao-Lang. She's so angry at me, and I don't know why... ~ ~Um, with Ao-Lang?~ ~She's nice and all, but she's also up-front. She doesn't try to act nice at all. Maybe that's why she doesn't like you? Because you try and act nice?~ ~ I guess. I don't know... it's just really frustrating, because I'm doing everything I can. ~ * Sounds of fighting come from the training room. * Isaac hmms, and threatens Mariah's piece. ~I don't know what to say.~ * Mariah thinks for a moment before moving the piece out of threat. ~ Me neither. I'll just try to avoid her.. as much as I can. ~ ~That won't work, though. We're stuck together.~ * A dulled scream of "WHITE BLAZE!" comes from the training room, followed by a dull thud. ~Sounds like they're going at it.~ * Hope yawns, half-asleep. * Isaac advances his piece forward. His pawn's now forking two of Mariah's pieces. ~What about me? Do you still think I'm 'Wow a psychic!'?~ * Ao-Lang is heard not too long after: "Chaos Stream!" *Another* thud occurs. ~ .. Why would I? You're what you are, and I just need to accept that... and yeah, they're fighting pretty hard, aren't they? Sorry, a little zoned-out here...~ * Mariah responds. * Ao-Lang opens the door with a faint smirk. She's singed and bruised, but walking and not in that bad a way. In her arms is a thoroughly electrocuted and wet Ryo. She sets him on the couch and wanders to Hope's room to get some juice. ~Yeah, but when you first 'heard' me, you were... anxoius, I guess? I suppose it's nothing though.~ * Ao-Lang returns with said juice! She walks up to Ryo, kneels next to him, and pinches his nose with a grin. ~ It probably wasn't about you. I've just kinda been anxious since I got here.~ * Mariah glances back at Ao-Lang and Ryo. ".. wow." ~Oh, that's a relief.~ ~I could help teach you a few things on how to fight if you want. It seems to be the best I can do under the circumstances.~ ~ I'd really appreciate that... Arthur's probably going to want a rematch soon. I need to figure out how to deal with his armor~ ~ * Ao-Lang waits until Ryo opens his mouth to breathe, then cheerfully pours the horrid concoction into his mouth. * Ryo sits up, sputtering, spitting the horrible juice all over Ao's shirt, which was already nice and wet. Hope it's not white. ~I know how to cut through armor, if that'd help. Sound waves are very good at going through it.~ Augh. Jesus, Ao-Lang. ~ Sound? That's a good idea... ~ * Ao-Lang rocks back, but it gets on her anyway. "Watch where you're spitting!" (Has Mariah left herself open yet? ^^) * Ryo takes a good long look. "Sorry." He doesn't sound very sorry at all. * Ao-Lang doesn't miss a beat. "You're just sorry it wasn't white." She takes a swig of the juice and makes a face. "Ugh." That too. You're better than the last time we fought. * Isaac takes her piece, guarding his pieces so that Mariah has to sacrifice her queen or lose. ~Check.~ ^^ * Ao-Lang smirks at Ryo, then ruffles his hair. "Yeah, but it wasn't fair. No swords or armor." Hey, I can't haul those out just for practice. * Mariah sighs and moves for the queen sacrifice. "You're pretty good at this, Isaac..." Then how do you practice with 'em? Sometimes I use training versions of the swords. ~But anyways, it's about the sound in the air. Sound is just subtle movements in the air. By moving it in such a way, you can cause the blade and armor to resonate at the exact same frequency. When that happens, hitting a weak point in the armor will result in even greater penetration.~ ~And thanks. I try.~ Next time I come over, I'll bring 'em. The armor, though... it's for really serious fights. * Ao-Lang grins. "It's a deal." [Session... End!]