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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 8, 2023 1:29:08 GMT
Utena tended to have more brawn than brains, but even Bella had to admit that this test coming up was probably going to be a doozy. It could draw on anything covered in the last semester, especially hypothetical questions about what you would do in certain situations. Making split decisions in the field was important, but any answers on paper that came back worrying usually resulted in extra work with teachers. They wanted to make sure students were trained to make decisions that would save as many lives as possible. The twins had come up with the idea of having a study session at the Coffee Cafe, and had decided to invite some friends too. So, coffees in hand, they snagged a booth near the back and managed to fit their drinks amongst the notebooks and textbooks.
"They should be getting here soon, right?" Bella asked, gazing past Utena towards the door.
"Relax, Zuko and Riku aren't the type to bail last minute," Utena said reassuringly before taking a long slip of her latte. She hoped the caffeine would make her feel ready to tackle this.
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 8, 2023 2:49:52 GMT
The door opened, and Riku entered the cafe with a black duffel bag slung over one shoulder. He had just enough time to shower after practice before meeting Utena and Bella for a study session that before, he would’ve simply “forgotten” about in favor of either shadow work or socializing, depending on the light that day. Beneath his sweaty gym clothes were his laptop, some notes with a few doodles in the margins, and the textbooks that should have counted as weights. He saw the twins in one table with coffees and waved before ordering an herbal tea and coming to join them.
“Perfect timing,” he greeted them. He took a seat next to Utena and leafed through the bag, pulling out his school supplies. “I’ll be right back, just got to wash the rest of the gym smell off my hands. We don’t need that distracting us from reciting PEMDAS till our brains explode.”
As Riku slipped away to take care of his gym smell, Zuko exited from the cafe’s kitchen, hanging his apron back on the designated sgelf, the shift done. When Bella had invited him to the study session, he had no idea what to think. She was his friend, and usually more than one person showed up to those. A knot in his stomach formed, which continued to tangle itself as he doctored his coffee to his liking. He found the twins nearby and sat down by Bella. When he saw the books, Zuko’s face fell. Right. Studying. He had forgotten his stuff.
“Good to see you guys again. Well, by see you guys, I mean, in a non school setting. But…wait does this count as a school setting? We’re not on campus…” He slumped down, the overthinking turning his brain into mush.
“Hey! You’re here for the study group too, huh?”
Riku had come back from the bathroom and hadn’t recognized the raven haired young man slumped over. At least, not until the acquaintance looked up at him. That scar? Yikes. Hard not to miss or avoid looking at. But books and covers and all. He extended a leather gloved hand “I’m Riku, a friend of the twins.”
Zuko looked from the gloved hand to the silver haired boy extending it. Nothing seemed too bad about him. He said he was here to study, probably just as lost and overwhelmed as Utena, Bella, and him. He took it and shook it firmly. “My name’s Zuko. I guess I’m also a friend of the twins.”
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 11, 2023 23:41:05 GMT
Riku strode in with confidence, looking like he'd just come from a workout, and his first statement pretty much confirmed that. "Ew, gym smell, gross," Utena joked with a laugh. She wondered if he had been practicing that volleyball/tennis combo he'd told her about. What was it again? BamPow? She'd been meaning to try it for herself sometime, Riku made it sound like fun.
Zuko approached the table a little more reserved, but Bella still brightened up at seeing him, even with him tripping over his words a bit. "I'd say it's a hybrid," she said. "Popular with locals, but still frequented by students enough that it's practically a part of campus life."
The boys introduced themselves to each and other and Utena figured she'd cut right to the chase. "Okay, time to get down to business," she said. "We've got some ground to cover, but teamwork makes the dream work, right?"
"Utena, we're studying coursework, not going into battle," Bella said. Her sister was sounding like a war general.
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 12, 2023 1:21:10 GMT
After the boys released hands and Riku reclaimed his spot next to Utena, she took the reins and set them to work. Bella chastised her sister for treating it like a war game.
Zuko opened his book quietly and scanned the page number for the assignment. The good news was they didn’t have to do all the problems. The bad news was these questions were written probably a while ago. He read the first problem out loud;
“A rectangular prison is 3 times as long as it is wide. It’s going to be surrounded by a wall…”
Riku looked up from his note writing, “And some third world country will pay for it.” He was met by Zuko’s withering scowl before returning to his writing. “Sorry, had to get that stupidity out. Go on.”
Zuko reoriented his eyes to the text and continued. “..be surrounded by a wall 22 meters wide. Find the dimensions of the prison if the area of the wall is 22,000 feet.”
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 14, 2023 2:50:48 GMT
Utena snickered at Riku's joke, although it earned him a look from Zuko. He definitely seemed to take things seriously. Although to be fair, math wasn't Utena's strong suit, and she thought seriously for a moment before speaking out loud.
"So...we normally find the area by multiplying the width and height..." She drew a large rectangle on a sheet of paper. "But we don't have that, so we need to work backwards." She paused for a moment before adding "Or is it different between 2D and 3D objects?"
"You're thinking of surface area," Bella replied. "Not quite the same thing." Although to be fair, math wasn't her strong point either.
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 14, 2023 4:20:43 GMT
 Riku looked at the page number that Zuko had read from and quickly flipped to it using his shadow magic. “Well, it doesn’t say that the object is 3D, so we can ignore surface area.” He drew a rectangle inside of a box on a notebook page and wrote down x and 3x on the respective length and width. “So we’re solving for x” “What we do know is the area of the wall,” Zuko scribbled the given area in a tiny box that he scratched out below. “And we also know the width of the wall. So that means we have the length left to find.” He added margins to the wall, writing down that measurement. “So we need to combine the areas and then subtract the area of the wall from the area of the prison.” |
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 17, 2023 17:10:53 GMT
"Ugh, this is already making my head hurt," Bella groaned.
"Hold on, Let me set this up," Utena said, scribbling a bunch of calculations with x's and 3's.
"Oh, so then we just multiply all those and we get the answer?" Bella asked as she looked over Utena's shoulder.
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 17, 2023 17:52:51 GMT
The boys looked over at Utena as she began writing.. The series of numbers and letters were suddenly beginning to look familiar. The whiteboard has these exact formulas on the board.
"Yeah, but we need to multiply them in a certain order," Zuko mused. He began copying some of Utena's equation scribbling, focusing on the equation where there was only one x. "okay so 2.5 plus 2.5 is five, meaning..." He wrote down:
(3x +5) (x + 5) = (3x)(x) + 265
Riku looked at the equation. "Hey, looks like we can get rid of one of these, since the invisible one is there." With hs writing, th equation became
(3x +5) (x + 5) = 3x + 265
"And...well, we've gotten this far."
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 19, 2023 1:53:01 GMT
"Okay, we want the x on one side and the numbers on the other, I remember that," Utena said, looking the paper over. "So...how do we get rid of that 265?"
"I think we have to get rid of the parentheses stuff first," Bella replied before taking another sip of her coffee. "Which means distributing numbers." That was how it worked, right?
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 19, 2023 4:32:54 GMT
“Yeah, something about like terms…” Zuko mused. But as he stared at the problem, his left eye - the scarred one - started to ache. This happened whenever he was reading or staring at something written in a small print. He carefully pushed the paper away and looked down briefly.
“Oh yeah! We have x’s on this side, too. But…” Riku pointed to the parentheses. “What was that one word? The one that told us which order? Pendant? Basically solve those first?”
“But how?” Zuko asked, massaging his temple. “We can’t solve for x in those.” But then he remembered Bella’s like terms thing. “Wait, we can. Just multiply the numbers that kind of match. 3 times 1 is three…so we just have the 3x…”
Riku began scribbling down as Zuko talked out the solution. The :x stayed, and the 5s were multiplied, meaning the problem was now(
3x + 25 = 3x + 265
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 27, 2023 2:53:20 GMT
Zuko looked like he had a headache. Bella knew she looked the same way when she was looking at print for too long. She sipped her coffee, quietly thinking for a moment.
Utena, meanwhile, scribbled some more. "So if we subtract the 25 from both sides and then divide by 3..."
Bella glanced over. "Wait, wouldn't that get us 0 = 240?" she asked.
"Okay, that's weird," Utena mused. "I don't think it's supposed to do that."
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 27, 2023 6:14:01 GMT
“Hang on. The zero should still be an x,” Riku reached over to Utena’s scribbles and pointed over. “Meaning we found x. So I guess we just plug it back in?” The truth was he was feeling fatigued from so many pieces. What was it with math and not explaining things straight. At least they solved for x. That’s all that was required, right?
Zuko shut his book smartly. The slap was satisfying. “I give up. If I do any more, this paper’s going to become a pile of ash.” He reached and took a sip of his drink.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Dec 29, 2023 22:11:37 GMT
"So x is 240?" Bella asked, looking at the equation again.
"I'm good with that, at least we have an answer," Utena replied. She wasn't sure how much this would apply out in the field anyway. If she ever got stuck in a prison, she'd be focusing on how to bust out, not how big it is. "Maybe we should move onto some ethics questions. Teachers like to use those for essays." She pulled out a list of potential topics for the essay questions. "Okay, the situation is this: You've got a hostage tied down to train tracks."
"Classic," Bella joked, thinking of old Western movies.
Utena laughed a little before continuing. "They're stuck with a magnetized metal that super strength cannot overpower. Meanwhile, a train is fast approaching. Describe how you would go about saving the hostage."
"Oh, I see what they're doing here," Bella said. "They want us to describe if we find a way to move the hostage or stop the train before it gets too close."
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Post by zuyuri on Dec 30, 2023 4:13:08 GMT
The boys both let out a sigh of relief when Utena changed the topic of study. Essays were the bane of all writing assignments. Who could want to write a super long paper? Wouldn’t just telling people verbally what to do count?
“Is there any information about where the train is? Like is there a bridge or a tunnel?” Riku asked. “Because those are some outside forces to consider.”
“I’d want to find a way to keep the people safe,” Zuko mused, cupping his chin with his hand. “Both the hostage and the train…” The train had way more people on it. Or maybe the sane depending on what kind of train it was.
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Post by angelofmusic1992 on Jan 3, 2024 0:09:40 GMT
"Hmm, doesn't say," Utena said, looking at the question again. "If I had to guess, I'd say the tracks are on the ground, like the same level regular car traffic is."
"If I had to come up with something, I'd use vines to try and pull the train to a stop," Bella replied. "Although I guess some passengers on the train might be thrown forward, like when you slam on the brakes of a car."
"I think we just have to find a solution where everyone lives instead of just unscathed," Utena pointed out. "Someone's bound to get hurt in these things. But better to have a broken bone or some bruises than be dead."
"Yeah," Bella agreed. That was a good point. Superheroes weren't perfect, even if people thought they were. There were bound to be some minor damages, no matter that they did. Heck, insurance companies around town probably went crazy every time a monster stomped through and wrecked buildings and vehicles.
"Unless I have a heat ray or something that can melt the metal that's binding the hostage, I'm screwed," Utena commented. "My sword's pretty handy, but it's not that good."
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