2014.04.05 - Welcome to the Academy, Penny

There's a new face in the student center, Penny Arkwright is sitting on a couch near one of the low tables, apparently looking through some library books. The teenager is looking at several of them at once, occassionally flipping pages, and frequently taking notes on her paper notebook. "Hmmm." She sighs, "Should've realized that wouldn't work without..." She grabs another book and starts flipping through it.
As he walks into the student center, Perrin is in his school uniform. He pulls at the tie muttering while carrying at lease 20 books with one hand, all balancing perfectly. He looks annoyed as he moves to a table and sets the books down. He looks towards the kitchen and rubs his flat stomach. He shakes his head and plops down in his chair and grabds the first book. He opens it and begins to read.
Wally is hanging out in the Student center during his down time. He is there to be a supervisor and to get to know the students. A few early misfires with students has made the fledgling teacher have to rethink his approach.
Wally notice a a student he hasn't seen before and decides to go up to introduce himself. "Hey I don't I have seen you around before. professor West, and you are?" Wally says to Penny, giving a smile and offering a handshake.
They are the Five-in-One and at this school they are that legendary students that everyone hears about. Straight-A's in all their classes. Advanced Classes. Prize Students of the Headmistress herself. The 'In Crowd' that is only them.
Then there are the other things you'd hear, the haunting of the school that was a massive prank by them. The fact that terrorists attacked the school during their birthday party. That they bully students sometimes, other times the nicest people you could ever meet. And that's where the names come in, "Children of the Corn," "The Freak Shows," "Pod People," and the ones they seem to accept the easiest, "The Stepford Cuckoos." Heck there are even rumors that there is a sixth one, apparently they were seen with a sixth one at the Valentine's Day dance.
Regardless of all that, the Cuckoos make their presence known the second they walk into any room, five beautiful, identical girls, walking in lock-step never saying a word. Dressed at the moment in the school uniform of the Academy, blue and brown argyl sweater, white shirt and black skirt. Each one of them has eleven piercings up the sides of their ears each with a small ring in them. Dark eye shadow and eyeliner mixed with very pale lips as their makeup. They stop near the piano in the student center and look around, their eyes doing a quick scan around the room.
And then along comes Julie... She' possibly the only student never seen in the school uniform or civil clothing on campus, as she uses her Teacher's Assistant status to wear her hero costume. And possibly one of the few that prefered to fly at times. Zooming into the room she kept a trail of rainbow behind her. As she turned around and ended on a sofa, she waved at the Cuckoos "You should start wearing different colored headbands or scarfs..." she greeted them, then lifted a hand at Perrin "Any news from Wanaheim or Asgard?" Next then she greeted Flash with a smile. "All flashy?" And last the new one. Penny. "Hey, you must be new. I'm Lightspeed."
Penny Arkwright looks up when she's addressed, and shakes Wally's hand. "Penelope Arkwright, please call me Penny." She glances to the books again, "Can you maybe help me with a little physics problem I've got?" Then, when the Stepford Cuckoos come in, she glances up at them. "Huh. Quintuplets?" She asks, looking at Wally for conversation. And Julie comes by as well, and she moves her hand over to Julie in a handshake. "Penny Arkwright."
As if he could senses the women walk into the room, Perrin looks up from his books and presses his lips into a fine line. He has been avoiding them for some time. The Asgardian Sorcerer does not understand them one ounce. His stomach growls againt and he looks at the kitchen. He mutters a few unknown words to most and a plate of fruit, cheese, and a bottle of Coke appear in front of him. He turns the page of his book before he sets it in the air before him. It floats there as he eats, watchin the scene unfold while pretending to read on the Civil War.
Wally's smile widens and says "Sure I'd be happy to help anyway I can"
Wally looks when Penny mentions quintuplets "Oh hey Girls how are you today!" Wally says as he waves over to the 5 in 1. Then is attention is snapped back to the conversation "yeah they are interesting. Oh Hey Julie what's new?" Wally greets Julie as she shows up. Wally is all smiles today.
The Five-in-One gave an little odd look to Julie Power as she sped past them. Normally they would probably have said something but the way she was flying around the room it was probably pointless unless they locked her down and stopped her. The Cuckoos didn't really care much for the concept of individuality. They were individuals for sure, just they preferred their more joined state. And In their opinion if any one couldn't tell them apart, that was their fault. The people that cared about them could, and that's all that really mattered to them. It wasn't their fault that others couldn't notice the subtle differences.
They give a glance over to this new student Penny and subtly reach into her surface thoughts, they aren't looking for any secrets or even what she's thinking, more they are just getting used to her mind. Like a handshake of sorts.
Perrin does however get a slightly longer look. Last time they interacted with the Asgardian they offended him somehow in a way that they weren't exactly sure of. They were well versed in the customs and concepts of many ancient cultures, including the ones that Asgardians seemed to had influenced. But considering their own weaknesses with the social norms of even modern society they have no idea what they may have done. Of course they freak out everyone really so....
Good Point. One of the Cuckoos sits down and starts to play "La Campanella" as the other four start to head over to the Teachers and new student. They walk in perfect lock-step as their fifth member plays the piano with the skill that would make many professionals jealous.
When they arrive over to them they say in a perfect melodic unison, "Greetings Penny, we are the Five-in-One. Ms. Frost told us she had recruited a new student, we have yet to meet."
"Wally wally wally... can't he keep someone's identity at least halfway a secret?" Julie scolded the other teacher with a slight smile, picking some jelly beans from the pocket and tossing them over to him. The Cuckoos earn a smile from her as they close in, a gesture asking them to sit on one of the seats. Turning in the seat on the sofa she sighed, waving at Perrin eventually. "Kymellia to Asgard and Wanaheim, can you read me? Have a seat with us, it's Friday evening."
|"Five superficially identical girls showing no immediate signs of personal identity, calling themselves Five-in-One. Interesting, must observe. Possibly sharing a single mind. Almost certainly have some means of nonverbal communication."| Is only one of many surface lines of thought that can be plucked from Penny's mind. She thinks faster than most people do, far faster. "Hey Five-in-One."
She then points Wally at her physics problem, "I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to use this efficient forcefield tech offensively, and I have a few ideas, but..." She sighs, and points at her calculations, "I can't seem to do it without sacrificing more energy efficiency than possible. I still have a couple ideas, but I'd need to read up on theory. Do you know anything about the Alpha Ray Shaping Hypothesis?"
The Student Center is getting a bit crowded, as the Asgardian stands, he looks at his table and waves his hand speaking in Anicent Norse, "Room." And the entire contents on the table fade away to nothing. As he looks over at Julie, the blonde bow bows deeply and says, "Thank you kind Mistress for thy offer to feast with you. Alas, I must master my lessons or the Head Mistress will only have 5 straight A students. I will retire so I can master the understanding of your Civil War." He looks at the Cuckoo's and says, "Five in One." He bows to Wally and gives the new student a wave, "Welcome thee to the Academy. I will make thy self known to you another day."
With that, Perrin throws his hands up into the air and is gone in a flash of blue fire.
It's rare when the Cuckoos encounter someone who actually tries to understand them. Congratulations Penny, you just past the first test. To what ends? Only Five-in-One know. So they broadcast into Penny's mind in the same melodious voice of unity, though oddly enough their mental accent is more neutral American English while their speech cadency is more like a London British dialect.
|"You are correct, Penny. Our minds are telepathic and allow for immediate non-verbal communication. You are incorrect in that we do not share a single mind. We are five minds made one, specifically evolved to link together."|
The four girls sit down with the new student and the staff all while their fifth member continues to play the piano to perfection, "Thank you for allowing us to join you all," the five said together. Yes the five, even the one playing the piano is speaking even though she's a good twenty feet away now.
At the arrive of some of the five in one Wally first greets them with a smile then looks rather confused when they didn't respond to his greeting. He looks at them and is a bit taken off guard by their lack of response to him, then is just confused but not wanting to point anything out verbally.
Wally shrinks back when scolded by Julie, "sorry sorry, ...'lightspeed'." he says as he catches the jelly beans and pops one in his mouth.
Wally then looks over at Penny's problem "hmm I think I've read up on that let me take a look. Hmm Yeah I think I could help you out with that when you have soem time"
"Is it alien Tech or just an equitation?" Julie asks, a smile on the lips, trying to take a look at the stuff from her position. "If Wally can't help, we could ask Tony, he is a genius in such, but he might just incorporate your design in is next respec." Not that tony ever did that, that was much more something Hammer would do. "Liszt, right? Etude number 3 of the Grandes etudes de Paganini, g-sharp minor? It's nice, though I prefer Chopin."
Penny is a little bit startled to hear a voice in her mind, |"Uh. Hello. I see. I hope you can pick this up."| She isn't used to telepathic communication, at all. |"That's very interesting, I hope I can learn more about how that works sometime."| Because learning! In between what she's actively trying to think towards the Five-in-One there's plenty other stray thoughts and ideas, it's all very fast, and fairly structured. Everything is analyzed, hypothesized, and otherwise thought about.
Meanwhile, she doesn't comment on this mental exchange verbally, "I've found some articles on it, but I haven't been able to find the paper. Based on the articles I think it might help me with this problem, but... there's really no way to be sure without reading the paper. Scientific reporting is so unreliable." She sighs when she says that, "Have you read the paper? And do we have JSTOR access here?" Then she hears what Julie has to say, and the Five-In-One might very well notice the mental equivalent of a fan-girl squee. "Miss Frost told me he teaches here. I hope I can learn a lot from him."
Wally twitches at the mention of Tony. "Yeah I think I can help. Tony, might not be around for a bit. you know. But I am the science teacher here I think I can help out." Wally says mustering a smile. Wally still a bit sensitive about the recent events.
As Wally started to read Penny's paper, "Mr. West is a very smart man in his own right. The teachers of the Academy are the best of the best. Mr. Stark could be of help as well, he always like a challenge." only one of the girls said. The first sign that they might have different priorities and personalities for those who haven't spent much time with them, "Don't discount Ms. Frost either though, while she might not look it. She is a genius of engineering and physics in her own right."
|"Your mind is very complex. That is interesting to us. We will look forward to any shared learning that can be achieved"| the five voices of the minds of the Five-In-One broadcasted into Penny's head. They were being serious, they found her mind facilitating. Now they had decided there was much to learn about her as there was for her to learn about them.
At Julie's mention of what they were playing the girls said in unison, "An excellent ear Ms. Lightspeed. We have a love for Chopin as well." And with that the one at the piano starts playing "Scherzo No. 2 Op. 31"
Please page Talia al Ghul for details. [Fri Mar 28 19:01:09 2014]
Julie moves a finger in the rythm of the energetic tune, holding out a hand for the notes "Can I have a look on that? I am not an expert, but maybe there is a similar design I know." she asks her, smiling a bit.
That twitch is noted, and Penny's head turns a bit to observe Wally. |"Does he have any issues with Iron Man?"| Might not be intended as a question to ask the Five-In-One, though something that comes after certainly is. |"You said you were five minds made one, right? Only one of you responded there, was that a sign of independent operation? Do you have names of your own?"| Then, after another couple unrelated trains of thought, |"Thank you, I look forward to that, too."|
Penny shows her notes to them, it's college physics, with a bit of experimental physics. She's certainly been trying to keep up to date. "I've been doing some experimenting with Beta Ray Shaping to create forcefields, in theory Alpha Ray Shaping should work even more efficiently, but I've yet to find any good ways to do Alpha Ray Shaping, the paper supposedly covers a way, but the articles are very useless. The notes mainly focus on pebble-sized objects that manifest a razor-sharp forcefield edge.
Wally is still a bit uneased about the whole situation Tony's death and the event surrounding it. Wally took them hard. Harder than most. Wally lost friends and had to deal with letting people down, with not being there when people needed help. He still feels awful and in many ways blames himself. He still feels odd when tony is mentioned he knows tony is back but he has still yet to dare to talk to him.
Wally shakes things off and thinks over the things Penny says. "Hmm yeah It's tough to get around the energy effiecency problem. Usually you need a tremendious source of energy to pull these things off but I think you are on the right track here Penny. Just maybe you need to futz with a few things in your calculations here." Wally says as he mentally starts running an insane amount of mental trials and retrials of the problem trying to pinpoint the problem.
|"Iron Man died recently, I'm not sure Mr. West is aware that he has since returned to life."| The minds of the girls shared |"As for our own operation. We are individuals as well as a joined psychic gestalt. We have names. The one who just spoke was Sophie. The one playing the piano is Irma. The rest of us are Phoebe Celeste and Esme. Our gestalted nature protects us from external interference from other telepaths and the ability to communicate faster than any being alive is capable. But we have our own personalities and desires. Three of Us have significant others, though it is complicated."|
As smart as the Cuckoos are though, they are a bit over their head in these things. Given an hour or two scan the minds of the three participants they would be able to keep up, but they know right now they are more a hindrance than a help to the conversation being had.
As such the four stand back up and say in their beautiful melodious voices, "Thank you all for having us join you even for this short time. We apologize for a rapid departure but we wish to help Irma focus on her playing. Our original goal was to perfect certain pieces of music and merge the styles of several composers to make a new original composition to give as a gift to a loved one in Japan."
Julie Power says, "Alpha radiation.. that are helium cores or something... but shouldn't you try to smooth out those edges to enhance stability? It might be just like a pudding - if you want chunks, add more flour, if you want it smooth, add suggar and emulgator." Julie ponders, sighing as she remembers Friday is a bit.. out of duty. "Thanks, girls. You were awesome at the piano. And I really hope to hear your own compositions.""
|"I'll try to learn to keep you apart."| Penny replies mentally, as she turns to focus on the problem. Before she focuses on that, however, she adds. "I hope to see you around, Sophie, Irma, Phoebe, Celeste and Esme. Good luck with your music, Irma, I like your playing." She adds before she turns to Julie, pointing at the other bits of the calculation, "If I have the energy to shape this properly, stability shouldn't be an issue. It all comes down to energy ultimately." Then she glances to Wally, "Futz with which things?"
Wally takes a second to react as he is engrossed in his calculations. Wally isn't as smart as people like Tony Stark or Reed Richards but he can keep up with them by the sheer fact that his brain goes as fast as he does he can try and fail as many times as needed to find the right answer faster than it takes them to think it through the right way.
"Um, Yeah you aren't far off I think play with some of your variables here and you may find something. but then again you could use a different power source but I'm assuming the point is to do it with alpha wave?"
Julie Power says, "Like I said... not my field entirely... I have a test to grade still, so see you in the office later, Wally?" Julie told aas she handed back the notes. "See you in class, Penny.""
There's some thought about what Wally says, "Well I'm just most familiar with beta ray fields, and alpha ray should be fairly similar. Beta ray is just not going to work with the power sources I'm trying to restrict myself to. I could look into other forcefield generation methods, and I probably should take the time to familiarize myself with them better." Penny replies, and as a kind of afterthought adds, "See you in class, miss Lightspeed."
Wally smiles and nods "sure when ever you want. ...lightspeed" Wally has to fight a a chuckle when he says her codename.
"I'd say work it out a bit more on your own I like that you are trying to challenge yourself on this level and I would like for you to come by my class room during off hours and I can help you with this if you still like. But you are close maybe try this" Wally then takes a pen and scribbles in a few changes that get Penny a lot closer to her goal but not quiet. Wally doesn't give her the anser outright wanting the young student to have the experience of getting there herself.
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