Keep Calm and Drink Tea(Class/Closed)

Dareios chuckled to himself. What a sort of place he has gotten himself into. Teaching the kids, the new generation of hunters. It was a good 30 minutes before class started, so he went about setting the whole thing up. He placed coasters and cups on every single desk, which totaled at about 20.  He looked into his scroll and looked at his attendance. He looked through medical records to try and find any people allergic to anything, and nothing came to mind.

He looked over behind his desk, to where he had a small oven set up. He put a tea kettle on and filled it with water. He had many flavors of tea ready to be had,  and that was why he was less worried about electrons. There was honeyed tea, cheery tea, all sorts of favored tea.  

He was smiling. He was going to have a group of young children to teach, as they're brave enough to come here. Maybe not as wise as himself, or some of his friends, but certainly brave. He started the kettle roughly ten minutes before class started, as it was full, and the water would be of properly heated water for tea. He hoped these children drank tea. Tea was wonderful.

Rhyolo walked around the campus, trying to find his next class. He wore his Red sleeveless hoodie along with his black cargo shorts. He then looked at the tike on his scroll and saw he was going to be late. Rhyolo the curses under his breath as he ran to his destination. He was supposed to have a class taught by a Proffessor Dareios, and it was supposed to be on combat training. But once the young faunist got to class he was surprised. He was in the door, catching his breath, when he saw the cups of tea there at the desks. His tail then moved as he wondered if was in the right room. He also took note her was the only one here besides the man, who seemed to be the teacher. The teenager then looked at the man and asked, "Uhm, sir? Are you Proffessor Dareios? Because I think I may be in the wrong class."

Valerie had many studies dedicated to great academic prosperity in her future, however, when she was registering, she selected one class out of what seemed to be pure necessity to a person like her. An entire lecture dedicated simply to mastering zen, inner peace, and keeping calm was something that she had to take if she was eve going to beat back any portion of her left from her past life in Anima. She eventually found the correct room in the correct hall but the door was blocked by some guy that apparently never learned that it was impolite to have a conversation in a doorway, although this blocked her path, she was still able to scan some of the room around him. She saw cups and coasters on each of the desks, and could clearly hear the telltale whistle of a kettle on the stove. Valerie blinked once, then twice, and for an instant there was a literal twinkle in her eye as she slipped past the guy in the doorway with unnatural speed, barely nudging him and seeming to almost materialize in a seat in the front row, although most could see that this wasn't the case, she was just too excited. She smiled brightly from her seat with her eyes closed as she slightly tilted her head and cheerily chirped "Hello Professor. My name is Valerie Fenix. Such a pleasure to be in your class." If this class was anywhere near as enjoyable as it looked to be, she would be ecstatic.

If Maestus was going to learn how to actually cooperate and behave like an actually decent member of society, she was going to have to change the way she's been acting at school so far.  It hasn't even been a month and she's gotten into two fights, one of which didn't need to happen at all if it wasn't for her short temper.  Although she hesitated at first, she knew her father was going to want her to join a class that could help her maintain at least some control over her actions, so she signed up for this class.

Walking through the campus was still a bit annoying for her, the sound of her claws just barely clicking against the ground was frustrating.  If this kept up, she figured that she was going to do horribly in this class.  Walking to the door, she saw some younger looking person standing in the doorway, blocking her entrance.  Instinctively, she pulled him out of the way so she could enter.  As she walked in, she immediately realized that, in a class for keeping calm, she aggressively pulled a stranger out of the way without warning.  This seemed like a bad sign.  Looking around, she got another bad feeling from the way this class was set up.  It looked like the professor was going to make tea for his students, including Maestus. The thing is, Maestus is an android.  She knows that she doesn't need to eat or drink, but she can.  She never really has before.  She doesn't quite remember how. After pausing for a brief moment, she finally introduced herself.

"I'm Maestus." That's all he needed, right?

This class, starting before most others had for the school year, was one Richard had debated taking for quite a while and was on a subject Richard found most interesting. As much as Richard hated to admit it... he had, well... emotional troubles. It wasn't typically on the negative side, the sadness... much more often the anger, but when it came to the emotions traditionally viewed as positive Richard intentionally shunned them even more-so; one in particular. Richard had been denying himself love above all else, love of material possessions and love of people in particular. For it was through the severing of such ties that the greatest of the negative emotions broke free, those which would lead to a hunters demise. Such emotions had no place on the battlefield and so limiting them to a minimum was the ideal... but Richard had to know if there was an easier way to do so. He despised to admit it but refusing to form bonds was difficult sometimes.

Making his way toward the classroom he was accompanied by the chimp Sanzaru, now taller than Richard himself when it stood on it's hind legs but as was typical it traveled on all fours. The monkey had white fur coating it's body save for it's palms, inner ears and face. It was dressed as normal, a yellow shirt and red cap coupled with blue jeans and black formal shoes. It was simply happy, glad Richard was willingly going to a class for once rather than being pried from his bed and tossed in. That said, he did appear as though he had just been. Richard was dressed in his usual, scruffy, combat attire. From bottom to top; Thick black leather boots, baggy trousers, a baggy grey sweatshirt, and a jumper style hoodie beneath it. Topped by his scarf, now longer and thicker than previously to better hide his equipment. No hat graced his head today though.

Entering the room after a woman whose hair he would not approve of for a hunter, the chimp almost going to contact her only for Richard to frown and tsk at him. Entering the room they would take a seat at individual desks, the monkey arguably more polite and proper than Richard. Neither calling out a greeting or the like.

Dareios watched children stop at doors, get taken away from doors, and even one or two sat down. One of the children had even brought a monkey. Perhaps a therapy monkey? That's what he was going to assume until he was told otherwise. He grabbed the kettle and started walking around, filling the cups.

"Hello! I'm happy you've introduced yourselves. My name is Dareios. I'm an old man who used to be a hunter. It was a wonderful time when I could still go about hunting. Now I'm too old, all I'm good for is teaching you children how to take care of your emotions."

After pouring water in all of their cups, he pointed to his various teabags of various flavors.

"Come grab whatever flavor you want. It's all for you guys, while you tell me your various stories."

He smiled and went to grab his chair and put it in front of his desk and sat in it.

"I'm here to listen"

Valerie stared at her cup of hot water for a moment. She picked it up and with all the speed that she had sat in the desk with, she practically teleported up to the front desk and dumped the heated water back into kettle, gingerly setting her cup down. She sifted through the tea bags and muttered plainly as she looked. "Orange Peel extract, Chamomile, Good Night Dream...." she muttered on and on before gasping and pulling one out "... French Vanilla Black..." she squeaked out with excitement and placed the bag inside of her cup and picked up the kettle and poured the water over top of the bag and whispered wistfully. "Remember that the best teas are served which water poured over top of them when steeped individually." she smiled as she walked back to her desk with her stance straight and staring straight forward, looking as prim and proper as any formal individual and sat down, sipping her tea and smiling.  she smiled as she walked back to her desk with her stance straight and staring straight forward, looking as prim and proper as any formal individual and sat down, sipping her tea and smiling.

Richard, with a glance and nod toward Sanzaru, rose with water in hand and made his way toward the front desk. The monkey mimicked this, almost burning it's hand at one point, but walking alongside Richard on it's hind legs alone. This would give the rest of the class a good look at the chimp... assuming they didn't think him some strangely furry faunus and ignore him. Regardless of others analysis of himself or the chimp, Richard's eyes had been drawn to the lecturer himself. Giving him a good scan, his wrinkled yet kindly face registering in the short faunus mind. He certainly didn't appear in his prime, age had done him some real favours... it didn't appear to have robbed him of his basic functions either. He would most probably have been more muscular in his prime, though robes hid the required aspects to confirm this and made him look quite pudgy. The chimp next to Richard appeared to roll it's eyes, catching Richard's line of sight and understanding what he was doing. It was quite well versed in Richard's encounter protocol by this time. Instead of joining him in analysing the old man it simply reached forward, grasping at a bag (Unable to tell itself but it would be the Honey tinted bag it grasped) it would cover the top of it's boiling cup before lowly bowing to the man and making it's way back toward it's chair.

Finally coming out of his analytical stare, fairly certain he could defeat the man in open combat in a forrest or otherwise... semblance pending. He would half nod to him, not quite politely but more-so as he didn't know what particularly to do or say. Picking up a cherry flavoured bag he would drop in his cup before turning and beginning to make his way back to his chair. It was then that he would make notice, not of the girl he had walked in behind nor the muscular boy at the front, but an android who's name he had missed... assuming them just to be another regular student. But oh had he been wrong. Oh so wrong, that looked fun and interesting and useful and... and... and... could he beat that in open combat? He wasn't certain he could beat that. Granted, he had never seen them before and had no idea how experienced they were and had no way of externally guessing strength based on appearances of those covered in metal but... but...

This data had all rushed to Richard, but he had stood still and staring for a good couple of seconds now. A light in his eyes which had not been present in analysing the old man, nor frankly anyone for some time. Though only the ape would perhaps know that, sipping it's tea... borderline eating the bag and leaving it no time to brew... leaves beginning to spill into the water. Regardless Richard let out a small nod to the android, deeper than the prior one before quickly making his way to his desk... attempting not to stare but to simply compile all of his data. That design... were those antlers like things pointless, or did they have a reason to be there. Was this android, this person, designed to look the way it did out of logic or to simply... look cool? Either way this almost seven foot machine, or... maybe they were simply an armoured person? He hadn't considered that. Richard had only come across a couple androids, one that ludicrous pun spewing robot, and those he had experienced were more clearly mechanical. Not to mention, showing up in a suit of armour to drink tea would be odd... was this person a robot? Richard was beginning to lose himself to thought; staring down into his brewing mug.

Maestus wasn't even present in the classroom for longer than ten minutes, and she already had two things to worry about.  One, she was an android. Androids do not need to drink, so participating in this class was going to be awkward for her and probably those around her.  Second, there was a man much shorter than Maestus who seemed to size her up for a moment, the way she does to potential threats.  She shook her head, realizing that this way of thinking is what she was supposed to work on here in the first place.  Maybe he was just curious.

After the man nodded at her, she simply nodded back, testing out how much her patience would take her.  Normally, her response would be to step closer and stare them down until they looked away, but again this class was to help her get over that primitive thought process.  Turning away from him, she walked over to the selection of teas only to be stopped by her lack of knowledge on anything relevant to this.  Humans can drink water, but what do the leaves do?  Do they make the water taste different?  Do they give the people that drink the tea different nutrients? Maybe it's a secret that only they know.

After staring at the tea for a good ten seconds, Maestus finally gave in and turned to the professor.  "I have no idea what I'm doing and I don't know how to drink anything.  Please just choose one for me."  That sucked. This sucks! Normally she's used to impressing people or scaring them, but for the first time she was embarrassed!  Hopefully this didn't ruin whatever this class had to offer her, she wouldn't want to miss out on even more opportunities for being an android.

He swiftly whipped up some tea for Maestus before handing it to her. He was not one to tell stories. Except, not really. He was one to tell stories. He was one to tell many stories.

"Let us hear the Tale of the Dragon. I was about 20 when I was sent to take down bandits, and let me tell you, I was capable. I was stronger, faster, and maybe even a little bit taller than I am nowadays. It's a darn shame that I'm not as fit as I used to be. Anyhow, they decided to take a hostage. I had one thing to tell them.

That was a bad move.

The tale of the Dragon is this. When a man who walks into your room, with flaming hands and an angry look on his face, you don't just hold your hostage tighter. You let go. That was one of the reasons why I was known as the Dragon, now... tell me any stories you may have. Unless you wish to hear more ramblings from an old man."

The old man smiled, cheerily.

Valerie sipped her tea and stared at her reflection in the cup. She thought for a moment. When did she even begin drinking tea? It wasn't back then, no. The Valerie from Anima would have rejected her today 10 times over, in fact, it was difficult to tell if the reflection she saw was the real her or if she was really putting on an act at this point. She pursed her lips as she heard the old man's last few words and looked up from her tea. "I'm a medical major here. I'm also a first-year." Valerie began. She figured that it was for the best that she begin before something inside her forced her to back out from this. "But, I'm not taking first-year medical classes, I've already been to some personal tutorings with Doctor Omo, although I'm not sure if he even knows why I'm in such advanced classes. To be blunt, the reason why I'm even at this academy is so that I can gain full certification and credentials for graduating another program that I joined before I came here. I'll spare the details, but in essence I'd be a first-responder for extremely dangerous areas such as war zones, disaster areas, predicted grimm attacks, things of that nature."

She held her hand up and displayed the golden wisps of her aura, then standing up and moving toward Richard's desk, speaking the whole way. "The reason I wanted to take this class is because my semblance is based on my mood, as well as being incredibly effective for protecting people or treating their injuries. That is to say, that's what it does when I'm calm." By this point Valerie was standing right next to Richard and gently touched his hand, enveloping him in that golden light as it intermingled with his own aura, attempting to allow the others to grasp what she meant more easily. When she pulled her hand away, she began walking back to her desk as the light on Richard slowly dissipated over time.

She took a seat and another sip of her tea. "I do have a problem, however, with keeping my temper in check. It's a problem that stems from my far past, which... I'd rather not get into. When I'm angry or upset, my semblance becomes much more offensive, but I lose the ability to do my best work as a medical professional. I suppose that will have to suffice for a story, unless of course any questions are had." She punctuates the ending of her point my taking a rather blank sip of her tea, and intertwining her fingers after setting the cup back down.

Richard, having turned before he could notice the return of the machine's nod, continued to stare down into his brewing mug as the old man spoke and then the young woman. He was much too busy, lost among his thoughts, it was too little to late when the girl made contact with his hand. Almost on an impulse Richard would snatch his hand away, reaching under his scarf and grasping at one of the many crystals attached to it's underside. Teeth baring slightly through his lips, his vision now lightly clouded by this golden hue, it would take a good few seconds of frowning in the girl's direction before he'd lower his hand and turn back to his drink. The grimace would remain on his face until the girl stopped talking... finally looking up from his drink to the old man he would see the warm smile and cheer in his eyes. Repulsive, disgust shook through his body... but of what little he'd heard of his speech and the girls he knew he had to talk. But he wasn't going to stand.

Waiting until the light had completely dissipated Richard would sigh, a stupid smirk growing on the monkey's face. Raising his hands from their position around the cup, without blinking, Richard would draw his claws. Unlike most faunus claws, like that of a cat, these did not simply elongate or emerge from beneath his nails. Rather, a strange sight for all who could see, lines would form down his fingertips like the seams of a stitch before from each would flick out white coloured hooks. This was probably most clearly visible to the girl next to him and the man sat directly before him. The robot's view would pend their current position. It was then that fingers would fly, claws folding in and out as a series of intricate symbols were formed through the faunus fingers and hooked claws. Upon ceasing this display he would withdraw all ten of his claws and heave another sigh.

"This language we speak here is not my first. I come from a small, low-tech, forrest island off the south coast of Vacuo. The island is divided in two, half of the forrest has been cut down to make use of the fertile land... a scarcity in Vacuo, plants can grow on this island common to the likes of Vale; thus it's main export is food. However, that half of the island was taken from the native group. The group I was a part of, who wanted to keep things as natural as possible. This happened long before I was born, but the clear divide between the two sides was... troublesome." Richard would tap rub his forehead, not particularly comfortable with talking at length... but he would continue. "They communicated as I showed you, I think their reasoning is best surmised in one of your common phrases... actions speak louder than words? The idea that if you want to communicate something you must dedicate to it, s-sarcasm and the like... concepts I do still struggle to wrap my head around, were never used. Regardless, being a forrest nation defending from Grimm would be difficult I'm sure you could understand. Not to mention with their limited understanding of aura and weaponry, relying souly on the dust d-deposits in the island's caves. So... I th-think this is why he came through at least, a hunter was dispatched in order to aid briefly in our survival efforts."

Richard would awkwardly laugh, those intent on looking to him as they listened would notice he was slowly going a darker and darker shade of red. Sinking deeper in deeper behind his scarf. "To surmise the elders did not like him, child me thought he was the coolest thing in the world with his bright colours and weaponry... in h-hindsight he was quite the idiot hunter. He ended up teaching myself and little else, but a few months after he left the village burned down. Fire dust from an attempt at cooking had set alight one house after another after another. After a scuffle with the law, a struggle to assign blame for the damages, I made my way to Vacuo and eventually met up with him. It was there I received my spoken name, I was put into a care home, and began to learn the spoken word alongside various other intelligence. Eventually he recommended me to learn to hunt, I ended up here."

His scarf was now up to his nose, the chimp was chuckling in it's seat, "The point is, I have ret-retained some of my mentality from my days in the tribe... but in this setting it is becoming... difficult. There was a saying, roughly translated, rely only on the bare necessities to forget worry and strife. It is a ph-pihlospohy that derives itself from the idea that if you have few possessions you have nothing to lose, possessions both material and emotional. If you cannot lose anything, you have no reason to feel negative emotion, thus grimm will not be attracted but... here I am struggling not to get attached to people. Something I most certainly do not want to happen. It is my opinion that attachment to people, and the severing of it, is the thing that drives Grimm most. If I lose a L... someone I care about in battle. The battle is lost. I have lost my home and way of life, so currently I really do have nothing... but I keep coming close to gaining. I wi-wish to control that..."

And with that Richard would stop talking, red in the face, and down the entirety of the tea in an attempt to fortify himself. The chimp now truly guffawing.

A bit surprised, Maestus took a moment to think about what the shorter man was talking about and to think about what she was going to say next.  When she signed up for this class, she already didn't expect tea to be involved, and she didn't expect people to start talking about what they were doing before they showed up here or what they were doing here at all.  This was going to be a bit awkward to keep up with if this kept going on, but Maestus was never the type to give up at such a slight change in plans.  Turning to face the rest of the class, she prepared herself to talk about what she was doing before coming to this academy.

"Hello.  I'm Maestus, an android. " It was a start, but she was a bit worried about what they thought of her voice.  She sounds like the average woman but  every word feels unnatural to her peers. "I just joined this school this year and I'm a tech major, despite my combat focused design." She hesitated a moment before speaking again, unsure of how much she could tell them about herself. "I used to live somewhere else, but living with me around is very... draining.  I don't age, but my father did, and I didn't want to be a burden to him, so I came here.  He was the one that taught me how to actually interact with other people, which used to be a problem for me decades ago.  If you can believe it, I used to be even more of an animal than I am now.  Even though I have learned how to talk with another person instead of running or fighting, I'm not that good at it and my anger usually gets the best of me.  So far, I've had two experiences that stemmed from my anger, both of which I'm unsure about my feelings toward."

She stared at her cup of tea for a moment, thinking about what to say as she went. She was basically improvising now.  She held her arms out at a bit of an angle, letting her claws extend out, and activated her semblance to show it to the others.  Her claws began to glow a warm molten metal color and left a faint trail as she slowly waved them around.  She felt that her claws were much cooler looking than the other shorter student's. "Even though my power comes from my fury, I want to be able to choose when I get to that breaking point.  I don't want to hospitalize anybody when they haven't done anything to deserve it yet."

There wasn't anything else that she felt comfortable talking about around others.  She sat down as a signal that she was done talking and looked at her cup.  "I think I forgot how to drink things.  I know I can, but I forgot where my 'mouth' is."

He listened, slowly, sipping on his tea. As the stories went on, he felt the room get more and more serious. He could feel it, especially in his old bones. He didn't mind, though. It's what happened when you asked the questions he did. He would wait till the three were done, before taking a deep breath and getting ready to address each of them.

"Valerie. I must agree, that Doctor Omo is a character of questionable attention to detail usually. However, He's a doctor and renowned at that. You're under quite the tutor. Alas, that's not truly the deep problem. I'm not an expert; let us disclose that now. The thing about me is I'm an old man who's seen everything, and I've seen some things an awful like the lot of you."

He took another drink of his tea, and continue.

"Your problem is that, in such a field of feeling yet unfeeling, you're torn between which side you want to be on. I understand that this semblance you have makes it terrifyingly difficult to do things all the time. I never had that problem, so I can only understand it to a certain point. Something you must ask yourself before we continue this self-reflection for you is this: How do I wish to protect people?"

He sat his cup down before looking over to Richard, and his long story and explanations.

"Mr.Lionhart. I can't say that I know what it's like. To have to deal with any of that, but I have some significant advice that comes with a little story about someone I knew."

He sighed, this time a seemingly weary one.

"It's a tale of a Mr.Orange. Yes, We're going to talk about my son. He was separated from me when he was very young, when we crashed into the middle of nowhere. We could've sworn he was dead, so we left him. However, by some god's will, he woke up. Alone. In the shell of an airship. It had to have been terrifying.

However. He was picked up by a wandering group of nomads, a lot like what Richard described. However, I know for a fact they aren't the same. As those he was picked up by were ended a long, long time ago. It was... well, Let us not talk about that and continue with the relevant story."

He put his right hand to his chin, and questioned where exactly he wished to go. He knew.

"My boy was a fantastic man. He grew up to become a fantastic human. He grew up. That's the thing about it.  He grew up in that sort of romanced setting. Richard, you must understand something."

He stood up and walked toward Richard, his eyes entirely serious.

 "You've lost everything. Think about it this way. You can't go any farther down. You don't have to lose what makes you, you. What makes you the man you are. The emotion you hold deep in your heart. That, ironically, is what makes you strong. It's what makes you able to be a huntsman. I'm not one to say that you can't be, that you can't lose all things so you have nothing to lose."

He got up and moved back to his seat, to address Maestus.

"Maestus. You're a unique case. Your power stems directly from your anger, just like Valerie. I carry the same advice to see you from richard, expect slightly different. Imagine that rage as a sort of ball, and then squish that ball. Do that whenever you get angry, and I think you'll do quite fine."

He looked across the classroom.

"If you have any questions, other then where Maestus and the mouth problem for I do not know the answer, you may ask at will."

Valerie idly stirred her tea with her finger as she thought, and thought, and thought. Without looking up from her desk, she piped up in a quiet voice, characteristically out of character from the way that she had just spoke to them, but loud enough to signal that she was trying to keep their attention. Shaking her head, "No, that isn't right at all. I know what side I want to be on, I know exactly who I want to be. I know how I want to help people, and I refuse to ever harm anyone that doesn't deserve it." Valerie hooked her teacup with a shaky hand as she slowly lifted it up to her face.

"Who I want to be, is not who I am. It's an ideal of what I should be, but I don't think I can ever be her. Not completely." Shakily she sipped her tea, slowly setting it down back on the table, as it just barely slips out of her fingers, not spilling but making a clattering noise as the porcelain strikes sharply against her desk. She stares at the cup and looks to her hand for a long moment, before balling up a fist and slamming it against the desk with gritted teeth, causing the cup to tip on the desk, revealing that it was empty for who knows how long. She lifted her hand up to see that the shaking had ceased and her aura began wisping black from it for a moment before turning gold again.

"I want to heal people; physically, mentally, and spiritually. I can't do that very well, because my anger controls me. It's a symbol of who I used to be, but I'll never be that way again if I can help it. But being like this...."

She very gently picked up her cup and righted it again, looking quite upset that it was knocked over in the first place.

"... I'm not sure if I can."

Turning up his nose Richard frowned, unlike Valerie he wasn't quite so kind in his blunt disagreement "That's the point. I don't want to gain, I want to stay at zero. Gaining would mean I did have something to lose, be it something simple like wealth or more... complex like a loved one or companion of sorts. And there's degrees and stuff even to that and like... I just want to know if it's possible. If I can live with the bear necessities." He would sigh, "If I can chose not to grasp and be prickled on the paw, but instead forever chose to use the claw. If I can chose not to be hurt albeit at the cost of minority hurting others by pushing them away."

Then Richard would slump down... but the chimp would raise it's hand high into the air; as if to ask a question. Upon approval from the lecturer he would proceed to reach down with the table and make a series of taps, one of two types. Some would be short, little tappings of the nail, while others would last longer. This could be identified best as morse-code. The monkey communicated something roughly equating to; "I think the idiot just really needs to lighten up." Garnering him a frown and a snarl from Richard.

Maestus's head twitched to the right a couple times as she began to get frustrated with how this class was going.  When she signed up for it, she thought it would actually be a huge help to her, but now it was starting to seem like this was going to be a waste of time.  I mean, really?  "Imagine that rage as a sort of ball, and then squish that ball."  It took a ridiculous amount of effort not to snap at this old man.  The source of her rage was too complex to visualize as a ball, and just imagining a ball getting squished wouldn't help her calm down.  She's tried everything she read about anger management from the books her father had, and none of it worked so far.  In an effort to prove her teacher wrong, she tried doing what he said.

Looking down, she tried to visualize her own anger in the shape of a ball.  Nothing.  Now what? Was she supposed to squish nothing?  She angrily muttered to herself, "Forget it."  In her frustration, she extended and retracted the claws in her hands and feet repeatedly.  If nothing happened that would benefit her soon, she wasn't sure what she'd do.  She knew that starting a fight here wouldn't end well at all, seeing how she'd probably be viewed as a threat and would then be jumped by everyone in the classroom.  Getting destroyed by a bunch of her classmates just because she lost her temper would definitely disappoint her father.

Listening to how the other students responded, she started to notice that she wasn't the only one that wasn't quite happy with how things were going.  After she listened to Valerie's response, she turned her attention to the shorter student.  After listening to his explanation, she watched as the chimp raised his hand, apparently wanting to participate.  Curious as to what the pet was doing, she paid full attention to whatever it was the chimp was going to do, and wasn't disappointed to find her answer.  Maestus was created with some essential knowledge, like communication and how to move or fight, so she immediately recognized that this pet was actually speaking with the teacher in morse-code.  Needless to say, she was impressed.  This animal was obviously more intelligent than what she first thought, and even had a sense of humor.  When she first started living with people, Maestus had quite a tough time wrapping her head around humor and sarcasm, so this seemed like quite the feat for an animal.  After coming to understand what was happening, she couldn't help but laugh a little out loud, probably loud enough for her classmates to hear.  At least she experienced something positive here.

He knew that it wouldn't be that easy. If it were, these children would not be here. He had even chosen to let the monkey be chosen in class, who decided to be a comedian and insult it's owner, which was not helping this case. Instead of laughing, a distinct face would make it's way to his face. It wasn't quite a face of anger, more sadness. These kids clearly had something wrong with them and it was going to be hard to get deeply into their problems.

"I understand that you might not like what you're hearing. I understand that when facing your anger, you just get increasingly frustrated. It's hard and I get it. I was an angry guy at one point. I conquered this anger a long time ago, and that's what we're here to do. It's not an instant process."

He took a deep breath, he knew this was going to be a hard thing to hear. It was something Valerie already knew, and he was sure that Richard knew deep inside.

"Would you be willing to listen to a long, long story from me that explains something? If you don't want to, or you think that it'd frustrate you, I won't do it."

The first part of this process was getting their permission and listening. That might help some of them.

Valerie took a deep breath and looked around the room. A room filled with angry people seemed like it was a boiling pot just waiting to overflow to her, but regardless of what their teacher looks like, she was sure that he could handle any one of them if it really came down to a fight. She sighed as she thought on her decision to take this class while she got a short break from her regular courses. This was obviously a good call as far as she was concerned, especially in light of her recent encounter with Ormu again, but she couldn't help but wonder how she would handle it the next time that her past came back to bite her.

For now, that seemed like a very far way away from where they were now, and what was happening now was more important. She looked up just as Dareios asked to share a story, to which she nodded with a smile in the hope that maybe he could give some insight from experience rather than direct advisory as it seemed more likely to help her.

Hearing the robotic woman laugh behind him Richard's rage would grow only further it would seem a number of those in the class did understand morse code. The monkey would clap and laugh with the robotic woman at the back however as his eyes traced back to the old man, finding no such smile on his face, the ape would rapidly smack out the likes of "I'm sorry, it's just real tense in here and I don't enjoy that." Richard would run a hand through his hair; "I mean... long as it addresses me wanting to avoid worldly possessions and relationships I don't much care how you relay the information."

Richard was not amused in the least, knowing the apology was not directed toward him... starting to believe that this class was a waste of time, just like the others he had been to. He'd give it this lesson, if it picked up then great! If it didn't then that was just too bad.

After laughing with the surprisingly smart monkey for a moment, Maestus looked around at the faces of the others to see if they found this situation as amusing as she did.  Apparently not, as she was getting a rather stressed out vibe from everyone else. "Oh, are we not laughing anymore?" None of the other students seemed like they wanted to even crack a smile, so Maestus assumed that what she had done was inappropriate or just too unusual.  She started to feel a bit uncomfortable and decided to sit down, hoping the pet was listening as she clicked one of her claws against another, relaying the message of "That was humor right? I hope I didn't do something I shouldn't have."

After communicating this to the ape, she turned her head to the old man after hearing him ask to tell a story.  She simply replied with, "If you think it'll work out."  She wasn't quite sure about this class, but the happy feeling that she received from what she hoped was a joke made sure that she still had at least some patience left for this story.

"I'm happy you're willing to listen to an old man. Let me start when I was roughly 25. I was young and I was raring and ready to go. As ready as in any man could be in my position. I was a young buck who had all the power in the world, even more than some of you in here. Darn age has taken it away from me. This story isn’t about that. This story is about my mentality back then.

That was the bother. I used to have the idea that, ‘hey, I can go off on my own and live by own ends, I shall have no connections and nothing to do with people.’ It worked well for awhile. It was wandering through life at the highest of speeds, but then there’s a certain point. You hit a certain type of wall that; deep down you knew you’d hit. It’s the wall that was just there since the start and that you thought you could jump.

I certainly couldn’t. I lacked the ability, in all ways, to jump the wall. There was a single part that I couldn’t cut. I had my mother, she was still alive at the time. Gosh, she was a lovely woman. She was the one connection he couldn’t cut.”

He took a deep breath. He was quite sure that this Richard boy had that connection somewhere. He might not even realize, but there was almost always that connection that somehow had trouble severing; almost always a parent or teacher. After taking that deep breath, he’d continue.

“Well, when I was 25, she died. When you have that mentality, it hurts you. It really, really hurts you. Even if you don’t have the connection directly in your head, you’re going to hurt. Hard. I agree one doesn’t actually need material things. Well, not when you’re young. When you get old like me, your bones hurt and suddenly you want things to sit on that aren’t the hard earth.

I had to deal with the anger of a lost person. It was hard.”

It was at that point where he fell silent for a few moments and looked towards the students. He wished to see if they had any questions so far.Once they asked said questions, he'd be ready to answer them.