Stern Algorithm

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@Zelosse

Since I left Catherine's backstory pretty empty and vague, I was wondering if it's OK that she was an elementalist terrorist that broke out of her organization and became a crime lord? A young wind elementalist who was convinced of Elementalist Superiority, enlisted, and used as a weapon against non-elementalists. However disagreements with the leadership would cause her to leave the militant group only to then use her natural talent, cunning, and charm to build her own little criminal empire until she was finally taken down by Kano and other teachers. She sold Kano intel on elementalist terrorist groups for amnesty. She's more-or-less reformed and plays along quite nicely, but she has a strong desire to nurture independence in her students rather than discipline, believing that everyone has a right to be selfish, within reason. It also explains her calm confidence and potentially snobby nature (which has yet to be shown). Maybe some of the other teachers still fear and/or hate her, since she gives elementalists a bad name.

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@Stern Algorithm Hmm, would it be better for Hargreaves to answer Lyra first before Vera responds? What do you think? :)

@Raptra

Go ahead and respond.

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I think I sort of arbitrarily just made flying a super-difficult thing in my post.

For anyone who's curious, Catherine's take on flight involves the idea that elementalists are a reference point and manipulate their element with respect to that point of reference (themself). But since everything is relative, Catherine shifts her point of reference to the air surrounding her. Thus instead of moving the air, she let's the air move her. It's like instead of picking up and carrying a ladder (in which user moves object) she is climbing the ladder (object helps user move). That's what I meant by metaphysical in my post. I hope I didn't just make life super difficult for anyone who wants to fly, but like Catherine said, different people have different approaches, Catherine's approach primarily gives her the ability to hover, to not generate exhorbitant amounts of wind when she's flying, to not have to rely on what she's wearing (like a wingsuit), and to have very fine control of her position and velocity. Turbulence will still affect her though, like someone kicking a ladder when there's someone on the ladder. Bad times.

EDIT: There's a reason she teaches philosophy.

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"Ah, uhh." Lyra stared dumbly for a while. "Oh, ma'am. Sorry, I'm just wondering how did you manage to do... that. Flying. It looks so," it took her an uncertain second before she found the word, "improbable?"

@Pseudo Stygian

@Raptra

There were two kinds of air students in the world, those who wanted to learn how to fly before learning anything else without realizing how much training was required, and those who were so grounded in 'conventional science' as to deem human flight impossible. But this girl had said 'improbable' rather than 'impossible'. Catherine smirked, almost evilly, this young student having piqued her interest with that one word. "It is rather mind-boggling, isn't it?" She asked rhetorically in a voice light as air and clear as wind chimes. "But you're right, flight isn't easy, nor is it intuitive. Some can spend a lifetime and never truly master it, and each person finds their own approach, whatever comes easiest to them or whatever makes the most sense to them. My own approach is a bit...on the metaphysical side. But you have quite the gift yourself; sound is not an easy aspect of air to master, but it seems you might have the knack for it. Oh, but I am getting ahead of myself, my name is Catherine Hargreaves. Formality will require you to call me 'Ms. Hargreaves', but as long as you're not in my classroom, feel free to call me Catherine."

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So I just realized that I don't know if the students have had classes yet or not. I'm beginning to assume not, but in my first post, I hinted at the fact that ShiZhen had sat in on Ms. Hargreave's class. If students have not had classes yet, then I'll just get rid of that segment since it doesn't affect anything really.

In my most recent post, I assumed classes had not yet taken place, so Catherine, who would be everyone's homeroom teacher, doesn't yet recognize Lyra and Vera. So I'm already contradicting myself :P

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ShiZhen looked behind her as a a girl with purple hair came into the crowded room, whose seemed to have a strand of hair burning. Without thinking, ShiZhen reached out with her still-moist hand and snuffed out the tiny flame. It was a reaction based on instinct, having taken care of younger siblings. The girl was soon followed by an ominous figure, who showed the nurse his arm with the hand apparently having been severed. ShiZhen let out a small whimper and covered her eyes with her hands. She had taken care of small cuts, bruises and skinned knees,
but never anything like this. That's a sparring accident? She thought to herself. Since her own power was nothing but an inconvenience for her, it never occurred to her that the manipulation of the elements could be so dangerous. She broke out in a cold sweat...or so she thought. She was gathering moisture from the air again as droplets coalesced on her body and began dripping onto the floor, creating a puddle beneath her that some might have misinterpreted as another natural response to fear. She grabbed Jake's sleeve, "J-Jake! Wh-what's going on?" Looking back at the arm in horror, she saw it reform magically, the headmaster explaining his position and intent to 'welcome' them to the campus. ShiZhen noticed, with some sympathy, the girl with purple hair running out of the infirmary. ShiZhen was too afraid to leave Jake's side at the moment. She looked at the headmaster, wiping some tears of shock from her eyes, though given how wet her arm was, she merely redistributed the moisture. "S-so th-that was j-just a trick, right?" she asked, trying to find some happy excuse to escape from the horror that she had just witnessed, looking to the nurse for validation.

@Zelosse@Lord Orgasmo@Aquanthe@KRAZY J@Aiyanna

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AS Catherine hovered over the school grounds, making her presence known as a way to inhibit unnecessary rough-housing or belligerence; people, especially children, usually behaved better when they knew they were being watched. In her scanning of the area, she noticed two girls gazing up at her. She didn't recognize the students, so she assumed they were newcomers. She floated down to them with a mature grace, smiling. "Welcome to the Academy," she greeted, gauging their body language to see if they had any questions or merely wanted to be left to their own devices.

@Pseudo Stygian@Raptra

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@Stern Algorithm
Where's Catherine floating again? Kanako is heading to the rooftops and I'm wondering if she can see her too.

@Hammerman

In my mind, there is a large grassy open field in front of the main building, like a quad, as some people call it, which I assume is where most of the students are gathering, deciding if they want to go to one of the more element-specific locations.

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I wouldn't mind letting Catherine be everyone's homeroom teacher. Even though I put her down as teaching philosophy, few high schools (at least in America where I live) actually teach philosophy so I might have her also teach math/logic as a prerequisite to her higher-level elective philosophy courses.

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Show of hands. How many kids are in the infirmary? I'm thinking of debuting who runs this school.

@Zelosse

ShiZhen's in the infirmary.

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@Stern Algorithm Have you seen 'Kemono no Souja Erin'? Not many people have, and it's a bit sad! It's such a great but unfortunately underrated series.

@Aiyanna

Yes. They set up an interesting history that revolved around an unusual relationship between two animals that came to symbolize different aspects of the ruling classes, and how forgetting the natural relationships between these animals resulted in a massive sociopolitical ordeal. A very unique world to say the least.