It never gets easier - Social - Ailene / Arturo

[Deleted]

There was a loud bell that rang out across the school. Even those walking outside the buildings or otherwise at the parking lots could hear it. Near the center of the university there was an older tower with a large bronze bell there. Having long since swapped out the parts necessitating a human and instead being automatic, the bell now rung 10 minutes before the hour as well as on the hour. A veritable sign of when to get to classes and when classes had started. This bell was the first signal that the classes were going to start. Thankfully Arturo was already on his way to the classroom for his 3rd class. His previous class had been let out early due to his professor having to pick up their child for one reason or another. Which meant he'd been given time to go get coffee. He smiled softly to himself as he held the warm plastic cup between his hands.



Absolutely perfect. Sweet and with just a hint of bitterness on the back end. I'm glad the woman at the counter knew I'd want the white chocolate special. Still, that was a bit surprising to see that she guessed correctly. I must go there more frequently than I realized. It matters not, I'll keep going back as long as they make good coffee. It'll be the only thing that gets me through College Algebra. Ugh. No matter how many times I go through college, no matter how many times I'm shown the math it never sticks. If there's any real vampires in this world, its every math class on any college campus. That stuff just eats away at my will to live as well as my brain power. Arturo sighed to himself as he continued walking. He lost himself in his mind as he continued to complain and grown a bit more and almost stepped into the double doors for the building he needed to enter.



Thankfully his eyes caught his reflection, and he stopped a couple steps before, then stepped back and pulled open the door. A quick glance behind him to see if someone else was there. A few females were grouped up behind him, he tilted his head and waited for them with a neutral expression. Once the first grabbed the door he walked in made his way for the stairs on the right side of the hallway. He wasn't ready to start another math class. And he hated that no matter what degree he was going for, the schools always made him do math classes. It was incredibly frustrating. He shook his head as he went up a couple floors and finally found himself on the 4th floor of the building. A quick glance down each side of the hall to see which way had the numbers ascending. He needed to go to lecture hall 473.



He nodded as he saw the numbers rising on his right side and continued walking until halfway down the hall and saw the room he was looking for. He flung open the door, seeing his professor a small man, darker skin and balding setting himself up at his podium. He nodded in his direction before walking up the side of the room and looking around to find a fairly open space. He really wasn't fond of having others around him as they tended to gossip more so than learn. And he struggled enough to focus on math as it was. Towards the top and conveniently close to the walkway was a few rows that had no students sitting around. Praise be. That's where I'll be sitting. Arturo quickly made his way up the stairs and walked to the first available seat. Then pulled out his algebra textbook, a notebook, several pencils and a sharpener. He knew he would be the odd one out for not bringing a laptop, but he really needed to write the equations out. He just hoped he'd be able to keep up.

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{Clothing reference image}


Same dark pants but grey and black boots. Think military style but with the collar under the pants.

[Ailene Haschiro]

"Mélusine! Come on. We're going to be late at this rate!" The Fullbringer's voice roared throughout the room and beyond it. Ailene skittered around the room while tending to several tasks. A toothbrush poked outward just above her lips, her gaiwan was heating up the tea and several books lay on the countertop. Clearly, she was in a bit of a rush. For what reason you may ask? Today was the start of the new school semester! Having just enrolled a few months ago, Ailene wanted to do her best to make a good impression.

This was not the first time that the girl had attended classes. During her time as the Septima Espada, she had audited several courses. World History, Epidemiology, Anatomy & Physiology, and many more. One time, she had even attended as an official student, but that was quickly ruined by a surprise attack by some Captain of Soul Society. Ailene's soul still seethed with anger at being denied the opportunity to enrich herself. This time, however, she was human. There was no reason to be assaulted by some upstart Shinigami or even a Quincy. Besides... she'd have help this time.

Almost on queue, the draconian familiar came from the door. She yawned, stretching her wings and tail. Cracking her neck from side to side, Mélusine stared at Ailene and snarled softly. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. I don't know why the hell you even bother..." Ailene rolled her eyes. "Watch. Here it comes." "We were once Espada. Fabled legends that parents told their children about at night. We can arrive whenever we please." The Fullbringer paid her companion no mind as her superiority complex made itself known again. Instead, Ailene poured herself a cup of tea. Afterwards, she'd run to the washroom to finish her daily hygiene. 

Returning to the tea room, the girl quickly finished packing her bag and took a moment to drink her tea. She was ashamed over having to rush but, alas, it couldn't be helped. Setting the cup down and washing it out, Ailene slung her back over her shoulder. Sliding her hands along her dress, she straightened it out. Once more, the girl wore one of her favorite dresses. A stunning combination of black fur, purple fabric and yellow highlights. It was quite form-fitting and complemented her hair quite well. She was finally prepped and ready to go, locking up Rēgīna with Mélusine in tow. 

---

Getting to the University took less time than Ailene had anticipated. Not only did they live closer than she remembered, but they had the benefit of supernatural agility. Both of them using Bringer Light allowed the pair to reach campus in record time. As they drew nearer, Ailene slowed down and briefly stood at before the University. Memories came flooding in. She briefly took a step back before Mélusine arrived. The Spirit stared at Ailene for a moment, noticing her hesitation. "What the hell are you waiting for?" 

Ailene sighed briefly and turned to her companion. "Perhaps it'd be better for you to go back to Rēgīna, Mélusine." Initially giving her a blank stare, the dragon's features sharpened. Needless to say, she was upset. "What the fuck do you mean?! You wake me up early... rush me... and now say that I should go home?!" Ailene shook her head. "I just don't want the drama of dealing with Soul Society. I can blend in easily, but you... well. I mean, you know what I mean..." 

The dragon snarled, staring at Ailene with intent. After a moment, her snarl lowered to a growl. "Fine. Give me a moment." Dissapearing in a brief column of light, Ailene frantically looked around. Mélusine was nowhere to be seen. The Fullbringer scratched her head for a moment as she echoed her partners' words. "Give her a moment? Okay, I guess..." 

---

Arriving in a nearby alleyway, Mélusine briefly looked around to see if anyone was around. She couldn't sense anyone significant. "Well... guess I finally get to try this out..." Taking a few steps forward, the dragon curled up in a shadow and focused her reiryoku. Bending it to her will, she began to encapsulate herself within it. After a few moments, it formed a sort of chrysalis with Mélusine inside. Within this beating orb of shadows, Mélusine kept a mental image. Facial features, skin tone and some other things. Focusing once more, the chrysalis suddenly burst!

---

Tapping her finger, Ailene sighed. "Did she leave? I can't sense her energy. Well... it was for t-" Interrupted by a hand touching her shoulder, Ailene squeaked and turned her head. A head of bright-blonde, jagged hair filled her vision as she locked eyes with someone. She was frozen still for a moment until the woman spoke. "I'm not going to be told by anyone where I can and can't go. Am I clear?" Ailene was shocked. Taking a step back, she got a good look at her. "M- Mélusine?" The familiar smirked. "In the flesh." The Fullbringer couldn't help, but blink rapidly. "B- but.." Her voice was interrupted by the sound of a bell. "That's the queue for us to go!" Mélusine bumped into Ailene, practically forcing her into the Unversity. Needless to say... she had so many questions!

As they walked through the halls, Ailene looked at the schedule. "Hmm." Shortly after, Mélusine perked up. "Well? What's our first class?" Her tone was certainly boisterous enough to fill the hall and have a few eyes looking at her. Her eyes briefly scanned the crowed as she roared, "The fuck you all looking at?!" Their eyes all widened, and they quickly looked away. Ailene couldn't help, but scoff even as she counted the room numbers. "Ah! Here we go. Lecture Hall 473. Intro to Algebra." Mélusine scoffed knowing that this was going to be beyond boring!

Entering the lecture hall, Ailene briefly had a look around. Seemed that people began piling into their seats. Some of them pulled out laptops, others simply chatted with one another. Pondering on where to sit, Mélusine would make that decision for them. Sitting towards the top of the room, Mélusine took her seat or more accurately, two seats upon throwing up her legs onto another. Ailene shook her head and took a seat next to the blonde-haired woman, pulling out several items. A notebook, a pencil and a calculator. Offering Mélusine a pencil, the woman declined and simply took to relaxing. Ailene simply groaned and muttered below her breath. "Oh... this is going to be a rough semester..." 

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{Ailene's Outfit}

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{Mélusine Shadeborne Appearance}

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{Shadeborne}Technique Name: Shadeborne

Technique Class: 3 

Technique Type: Cinematic General Spiritual

Usable By: Fractured Spirit

Technique Element: N/A

Technique Cost: 200

Description: Given her draconian form, Mélusine recognizes herself as a sight to behold. However, as she learned from Talia, sometimes subtlety has its own advantages. Sometimes it is necessary to become a wolf among sheep. Using her status as a living Fullbring and a touch of reiatsu, Shadeborne allows Mélusine to effectively forge herself a body. Upon touching a shadow, Mélusine can momentarily wrap herself into a chrysalis. While within this chrysalis, she has to focus on an appearance. This form must be humanoid and will usually not have any animalistic characteristics such as claws, horns, etc. Every other feature such as skin tone, hair color, and even clothing is limited only by her imagination.

This form effectively acts as a gigai, giving Mélusine a physical body to interact with others. While using Shadeborne, Mélusine's spiritual signature is always suppressed. Those with an ES of 200 may sense the underlying spiritual energy. Given the composition of the form, each rank in Shadow Magicks increases this ES requirement by 200. Conversely, ranks in Anti-Stealth reduce this ES requirement by 200. Even if this ES requirement can't be reached, Mélusine may flare her reiatsu, allowing those in close proximity to sense her. 

How to Use: Touch a shadow, focusing it into a shell, while keeping an appearance in mind.

Drawbacks: Utilizing Shadeborne requires an input of 200 reiatsu; 100 for the chrysalis and 100 for shaping it into a body. Despite the ES requirement, sensory techniques of equal class or higher may still sense her suppressed spiritual energy. Upon assuming a form, Mélusine would have to utilize Shadeborne again, cost included, to change it. Despite the natural suppression, utilizing reiatsu in any capacity does not hide those flares. These shadows provide no protection and any damage to this faux body will be reflected on Mélusine once Shadeborne is dismissed. Despite sharing a soul with Ailene, this technique is entirely inaccessible to Ailene and still takes up a cinematic tech slot. 

Made By: Mélusine

Reserved?: Yes

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Arturo was finally settling into his seat enjoying his moment of silence as there were some rumblings amongst the students but mostly contained to their clicks. Arturo, notably not being involved with any of them. He grabbed his coffee and sighed quietly just glad he could enjoy it in near silence. Until he couldn't. He heard someone yelling outside and almost choked on his coffee in the process. Namely from the surprise of hearing someone yelling. He managed to swallow his gulp of coffee but not without some difficulty. Some even managed to slip out his mouth and land on his shirt. He frowned some as he took a napkin he'd gotten to try and clean himself up. Who the fuck needs to yell like this at 10am?! They should have already been here for a couple hours! Besides its a college, everyone watches you. . . . everyone watches you. . . Nope. Nope. NOPE. I'm not going down that mental train."

He took a deep breath and prayed to whatever god there may be that the aggravating individual wouldn't be in his class. And for a moment the silence returned, and it seemed like all was well. His prayer answered in kind. He was going to return to being content. . . . And then the door opened up and he knew at a glance that the blonde was the person who was yelling. The woman was already frustrated and while Arturo could sympathize, he wasn't fond of some meathead stalking around like she owned the place. Probably some sports "superstar" or rich kid. . . That last one is actually calling the kettle black. I stand by it however. Even if I am a rich kid myself you don't need to cause an uproar over math. . . Though it is a waste of time. . . Hmm. . I'm torn here. Ughh fuck you blondie.

Arturo watched as the pair walked into the classroom and around. It was immediately noticeable that the other was already disappointed in their companion. They must have been a pair. Perhaps they were dating? It didn't matter but it was a curious thought if true. They seemed like polar opposites from how they held themselves. Perhaps that's what made them good for one another. Arturo mentally slapped himself as he let that train of thought derail. Not his business. Not his concern. He had to face against the boss monster called "Algebra". And he already knew he was going to lose. Speaking of losing he realized almost immediately he forgot an important item. His calculator. Arturo deflated some visibly as he searched his bag and found nothing.

He'd have to hope the professor was willing to let him use his phone for the practice problems. Or whatever he would have them do in class. That or explain things by writing up the equations and such for him. He didn't exactly have much faith in that, but he hoped, nonetheless. Without realizing it he muttered to himself. "What a way to start this class. . . Ugh. . life really is harder when you're stupid." Arturo immediately downed the rest of his coffee as he saw the professor finally set up with a projector that showed his computers screen and the time. One minute from starting. Arturo pulled his face down some and just accepted his fate for this class. With a pencil in hand, he opened his notebook to a clean page and stared at the professor praying he didn't look nearly as dead as he felt given the classes subject.

[Ailene Haschiro]

Ailene could hardly believe how much she missed sitting in a classroom. Sure, math wasn't her favorite subject but she was at least somewhat proficient at it. The girl looked over at Mélusine for a few moments. Despite her excitement, she was curious over this new form that the draconian familiar had taken on. It seemed almost designed to be the anthesis to herself. "I wonder how long she's had the ability to pull off this little trick..." No amount of pondering would get her any closer to the answer. Perhaps she could just ask Mélusine later.

Her attention returned to the classroom once more as the lights dimmed ever so slightly. Several machines began to whir as a projector screen slowly slid down from the ceiling. Turning on the projector, the Professor addressed the entire class. "Good morning everyone and welcome to Intro to Algebra. My name is Professor Emmons. I'm glad to see so many new faces in this course today." Ailene smiled brightly and wiggled into her seat. Mélusine, on the other hand, yawned loudly and gently rested her head atop her hand. She'd click her tongue ever so slightly as she looked around the room.

The classroom was divided into three sections with several rows each. Handing a piece of the paper to each section, Professor Emmons briefly explained, "There should be an attendance sheet going around. Just make sure your name is on any one of the three sheets and you'll get your daily credit for attending." He'd look around the room briefly for any looks of confusion. For one moment, he'd lock eyes with Mélusine as she practically laid in her seat. Pushing his glasses up, he'd give her a scorned look. Ailene tapped her fingers nervously. She knew how Mélusine was. She'd likely have something to say! Thankfully, however, no unruly comment would come. Instead, the blonde-haired girl simply scoffed and muttered under her breath, "What a fucking idiot..." 

"Hmm. Everyone direct your attention towards the screen. We'll go over the Syllabus and expectations. Afterwards, we'll go over some basic algebraic equations to start." After a few minutes of notetaking and listening to grading and late policies, the roster would eventually reach Mélusine. Without a second thought she passed it on to Ailene. She wouldn't sign it. She didn't even give it a glance over. Ailene simply rolled her eyes and briefly looked through the list for her name. With her pencil in hand, the girl wrote her signature in impressive cursive. After all, it had refined over several centuries. Looking behind her, Ailene offered the sign-in sheet to the man behind her. Smiling at Arturo, she'd speak softly, "Here you go~"

Going over the syllabus for half an hour revealed much about the course. They wouldn't be graded on homework, but solely on exams instead. The homework was simply intended as practice and would be collected only to be returned later for feedback. Professor Emmons had Office Hours from 3 - 4 PM on Mondays & Thursdays. There students could ask questions and seek help for any topics that they did not understand. Finally, he laid out the exam policy and integrity statements. As expected, cheating was a no-go!

After answering any lingering questions, it was time to delve into the content of the course. For the first chapter, they'd go over square roots and exponents. Effectively serving as the most basic of algebraic equations, the Professor went over the simplification of square roots. Listening with intent and jotting down pertinent steps, it did not take very long to understand. The same would be the case for Laws of Exponents. Once more, it was difficult at a glance, but easy once you knew what you were looking for. 

The Professor blazed through all of it pretty quickly. This was all review after all. Many of the students were from different walks of life and as such, he had to appeal to each one of them and establish a baseline to work off of. The same would be true for the following chapters. Scientific notation and linear equations would be quickly covered as well. After about thirty minutes or so, the Emmons paused as he put up a few practice problems on the board. There were several clusters of questions that all related back to concepts they had just discussed. "Here's a few questions to get you started. I'll be here for questions but rely on your fellow classmates. Your peers are excellent resources in any stage of learning." Ailene nodded and began tackling the questions passionately. Mélusine, by this point, had already fallen asleep and began to snore ever so softly. Clearly one of them was having a better time than the other!

[Deleted]

Arturo gave a dull greeting to the professor. Not really for the sake of being rude but that the professor was never going to hear him anyway. Not from being as far away as he was. He'd have to yell or speak up loudly to be heard. Still, he did jot down the name of his professor. Given he'd been to college several times already, he always blended names from various college and thus had to make sure to write the names down so that he could be certain of who he was being taught by. He hummed near silently to himself as he watched the professor and listened to them speak further. He wasn't certain if they were monotone or simply just being "authoritarian" given they were the teacher. Regardless he found himself getting mildly drowsy despite the coffee he'd drank earlier. He groaned mentally already realizing how aggravating this year was going to be.

Still once the attendance paper came his way he nodded and thanked Ailene. Not having been unaware of Melusine's blatant disregard. As he signed his name on it, he couldn't help but think to himself. God what a lazy woman. She seriously isn't even remotely concerned about what is going on. . . Which I don't blame her. . . this math has never helped anyone as far as I'm concerned. But even still She's going to be frustrating to deal with. I can already tell. Note to self, move away from them tomorrow. Arturo had to get up and walk towards those further down in his row so he tried to be as quiet as he could while the professor was going on. Once he got back to his seat, he jotted down some notes over the way this class was handled. And he about cried tears of joy hearing the homework didn't matter.

It did in the grand scheme of things. But really what was important were the quizzes and exams. Truly a blessing. This meant he'd have more time for other subjects if push came to shove but it also meant that he NEEDED to do the homework that much more so he could ensure he was going to do well on the exams. If he didn't. . . ooph. He'd yet to fail a math class yet but that didn't mean he hadn't come close a few times. For the time being though he needed to focus on the remainder of what they were saying. However, as he looked around from time to time, he saw Melusine asleep. He swore he could feel his frustrations growing. But he needed to push past it. She wasn't his concern. She wasn't his problem. He just had to ignore her. . . . Or try to but her snoring was going to make that difficult at best. And the professor didn't seem all that thrilled at the prospect either.

Once the actual class started, he furiously wrote down everything that was presented on the screen. He had to ask questions every now and again and some of which he wasn't exactly proud to ask. Nor were his peers if some of the looks he was given were any indication. But someone had to be the idiot in the class. Every class had them, so for this semester, he'd be that guy. He just hoped he'd be able to manage when they got to the practice questions. By the end of the lecture and beginning of the questions Arturo was down half a pencil. Having gotten to the wrong answer by every means known to man and god above. He did eventually, with the assistance of the professor writing out things step by step get to the same answer but he had to rewrite most questions twice to see where he fucked up.

His lack of calculator didn't help him any. Even though he had a smartphone it wasn't the same. It just didn't have everything he needed for this class. And thus, some of his numerical screw ups were already readily apparent to how they came about. He sighed into his hand as he rubbed his face. "Never again. . . NEVER AGAIN will I forget the calculator. If I thought this was hard the first time. . . then its unbearable without." He groaned mentally as he finally finished writing up the explanation for each and looked back up to the screen. Here were the practice questions for the class.

Time to attempt to do them on his own. He certainly wasn't about to deal with blondie McSnores-a-lot. And while the other was tempting the fact they seemed a paired package was enough to deter him from commenting or speaking to Ailene. He wrote the base equations down and the slowly but surely began to work on the questions. He knew he'd mess them up, mainly on the computational side, but if he could get the method down, he'd be golden. At least that was his thoughts. If the process was understood he'd be able to do these correctly when he was on his own with a calculator. So, with that in mind he trucked on despite the avid display of emotional pain he was going through while working on these questions.