HereComesTheSnow

A Certain Unique Academy

Shinjiro Karasawa

"Yeah. Mage?" he replied succinctly, casually. "Don't you sit pretty close to me?"

He'd not really begun the socializing aspect that typically came with the first week of school, nor had most of the others in class. Simply sticking to the acquaintances he'd made during the system scan had been enough to tide him over while he adjusted to Hybrid Academy's unique methods of teaching and structure and all that.

"We'll see, Hat-chan. We'll see." he replied after a beat, registering her words of encouragement a second later than normal.

A Certain Unique Academy

Shinjiro Karasawa

He glanced sideways.

"Yo, Aria." the young man said in passing, before his purple oculars returned to the girl known by the moniker of "Hat-chan", green Gekota merch playing off her golden hair and eyes as well as any Packers fan could dream.

And narrowed, questioning for a moment whether her last statement had been a jab at him, before deciding no, that wasn't in Hat-chan's style of doing things. So with that being the case, he answered truthfully.

"Haven't had one since before I moved here," he replied, still a stone wall to her attempts at coercing money out of him. "We were smart enough to break it off when I left home, and we were like, seven. I'm not dealing with shipping fees for someone I keep up with about once a month."

Being addressed directly by a female, slightly anglophonic voice to his right, he turned to meet the mage's curious gaze and offered a shrug.

"Academy City's a weird place. You never know what you'll see here as a part-time job. Could be plenty like her across this district, let alone the whole city."

A Certain Unique Academy

Shinjiro Karasawa

He waved his hand in the negative, not one to be moved by the idea of heatproof mittens when his body would generate the warmth fine on its own.

Thusly, eliminating the the need for mittens.

"No thanks, not into that stuff. It's aimed at girls and all that, gotta keep my manly image intact." he explained, dropping the mittens back into her box full of merchandise, whereupon they were swiftly snatched up by other, less heat-oriented students of Hybrid Academy. "An' you didn't answer my question." he continued, ignoring a pair of sour glances thrown his way by those who would TOTALLY not stand for somebody slandering Gekota, and would undoubtedly take to Twatter once they bought their matching Gekota phone cases.

"What's the story with this one?"

A Certain Unique Academy

Shinjiro Karasawa

Luckily for Hat-chan, Shinjiro Karasawa was indeed fluent in shitty handwriting.

"Ge...ko...ta." he spelled out with narrowed eyes and a puzzled frown from behind a small group of predominantly female students that had clustered around the nameless young girl's small frame.

Unluckily for Hat-chan, not everyone at the Academy could say the same, as many students simply marched by without sparing her a glance.

However, that wasn't to say she was having a complete dry spell, these customers aside.

Luckily for Hat-chan, those interested in Gekota Merchandise had functioning eyeballs, and were capable of discerning the contents of her wares by giving the wares themselves a momentary glance, and often rushed over.

He drew up to her, coincidentally standing next to one of his classmates, who was receiving a quick rundown of the pricing scheme from the young businesswoman.

That's pretty cheap, he mused.

Unluckily for Hat-chan, Shinjiro Karasawa had no interest in Gekota Merchandise beyond the sheer spectacle of the sight.

"Hat-chan," he stated flatly, his rough and casual Japanese creating a sharp contrast in tonality with her archaic diction as he took in the event that was unfolding before him. "Does the Gekota Franchise seriously have you selling these out here right after school, or is this just somethin' you're doing on your own?"

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Luke Schwarz -- Under Fire

!

Ahoge standing tall and alert in that typically Luke-ish, expressive way, and his eyes narrowed as they slid towards the Hawk Faunus, teeming with indignation.

"You don't know that." he adamantly sot back, obfuscating the truth with a frown. "And even if I was, that's a terrible reason to be out here! What did I do to deserve more risk?"

As they drew up to the truck, in the back of his mind he knew she was playing him. Searching for this very response, a frantic defense of his status as a man. The corners of her mouth twisting upward in a playful smirk gave it away.

And on the front of his mind, he accepted her challenge of verbal sparring whole-heartedly! As JMCL's closest thing to a diplomat, he wasn't to lose a war of words with his peers, no matter the context!

You won't manipulate me so easily, he vowed as he was being easily manipulated playing along, as the pair began working on the guts of the truck, keeping their ears open--

THAT'S THE PHRASE I WAS LOOKING FOR!

--for any incoming threats.

A Certain Unique Academy

Shinjiro Karasawa

Any prospective needler or nuisance would find Shinjiro lounging in his seat in that oh-so-typically ruffian way-- Feet propped up on his desk, arms folded behind his head, and eyelids closed as he gamed the system, using the last few minutes of free time at the end of the day's final class to get some decompression in. Some relaxation.

Some time for his fuckin' brain to stretch and yawn after a long day of work. S h e e s h.

At the bell's tone, the purple-haired esper calmly swung his legs off the desk and back onto the floor, lifting his bag and heading out with all due haste.

That being a leisurely walk. Sure, school was rough and he preferred not being in class to being in it, but rushing out after a long day'd only serve to make him more tired.

And screw that.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Luke Schwarz -- Brewing Storm

Virgins don't die in horror movies!

A response to Desire's words that he dared not utter aloud. A response that many could qualify for, but felt the pains of an unspoken stigma that made their admission an embarrassing one. And while he took a small amount pride in the fact that he was somewhat self-aware, moreso than quite a few of his peers, some social habits simply died hard.

But more importantly than all that:

I have to say my piece on this.

As a second opinion from our team.

"I'm sorry, Leader, but I think we should go with Ben here." he replied, meeting the flighty speedster's eyes with his own. "Splitting from the herd's just inviting the Grimm here to be more bold about attacking all of us, especially once we leave eachother's sight. The power we have in numbers would be suffering a severe blow. One team of four or one team of three is a lot less threatening than a team of seven."

He motioned to his ear, tapping the lobe twice. "You remember the earpieces we had last mission, right? We don't have access to constant contact with everyone now, and that's just asking for somebody to get into a 'we're at soup' situation. Two walkie-talkies between seven people isn't much to work with, and it'll be much harder to keep track of everyone's position if something happens."

He folded his arms, cotton and steel weaving together across his sternum, expression morphing to that of a wizened sage. "And, you know, like the others have been saying: Splitting up's always what they do in horror movies. And they always die." he raised an armored finger, gesturing to the height and stature of his point. "We should abuse this knowledge."

It was right around then that Cian piped up, reminding everyone that they needed a battery for this to work.

"Right, I'll head out and grab it. Who's coming with me, and more importantly, who'll be watching us?" he asked.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Radio comms? Well, the team leaders have walkie-talkies to contact IFRA and Goodwitch on the airship, and one another. That's about it, unless someone in armory made radio headsets.

Also, Gingerboi is totally gone. Time to dig into that waiting list.

@Lugubrious

We've gotten earpieces in the past.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Luke Schwarz -- Puzzles

"It would only take a second, but that's a big door."

UUUU.

However, he definitely heard her point about the battery being of dubious energy content. The tone spoke of experience, experience that he, a lover of bicycles who had never ventured outside of his own school district before Beacon, never had the pleasure to acquire. It certainly seemed very much along the lines of something he would do. If his battery was still providing power to the car fine, he would have no reason to worry about it, or even remember it was a factor in his hypothetical car's performance.

Not the most pragmatic person, am I? he noted wanly in light of this. Nonetheless, what was important was that he got her point.

Back to the topic at hand.

"We don't all have to tinker on it though, right? Couldn't some of us watch eachother's backs? I'd like to think we're all a bit less hapless than the average horror movie cast..."

An honest question, asked with no disrespect.

Well.

None to non-fictional characters.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Luke Schwarz -- Brewing Storm

Grimm already, then.

He wasn't sure what he expected, really. He'd have liked to believe he wasn't the type to be so delusional as to believe they wouldn't be running into Grimm early and often after reading the mission summary, so there wasn't any point in trying to act as if it wasn't what he'd (been) signed up for. Even so, something about the knowledge reaffirmed the point that this mission was S-Rank. That it was dangerous.

That there's a real chance we could be... rather, we are walking into a nest of them, and could lose somebody.

...

No.

That wasn't happening.

"So what's the verdict? You want to look for a alternate route, or try to locate a alternate power source?"

He blinked, tearing himself from some anime-esque inner monologue about refusing to let the fear of danger stop him or a solemn vow to do his level best to protect them all with his life, and looked out towards the area again. An alternate power source...

His eyes kept finding themselves drawn back to that one mangled truck. The hood roughly torn off, inner workings of the engine exposed.

He blinked again, and it dawned on him like it does upon one who's just figured out a puzzle in a game, all at once in a manner obvious enough to make one wonder why he didn't immediately know.

"Do you think the battery from that truck would provide enough juice?" he asked.