Sigma

The organization mostly helps kindergarten through ninth grade students, but it also helps adult immigrants learn English, and helps regretful high school dropouts get their GEDs.

I volunteer as a tutor for the Learn to Read Council.

@@Midnight_Aurora Sigma looked at the spell instructions written on the sheet of paper, and immediately became uneasy at the fact that the pegasus was asking him to perform a spell. "I don't think you understand." Sigma said, trying his best not to sound frantic. "I mean, I really can't perform magic. I've had countless tutors fail at teaching me so much as simple levitation. I don't know why, but I just can't grasp the most basic of spells, even when most unicorn foals are able to perform them." Sigma looked down at the floor in shame; explaining his ineptitude to ponies was never any fun. Though, he felt that something else needed to be said, so he forced himself to look back up. "That stallion with the could-care-less attitude; he knows how to pick locks, so I don't think the absence of a key is going to prevent us from getting in to the next room."

Fair notice: I'm going to edit one of my posts and make it to where Sigma tries to wake up lightning with a hoof stomp instead of a magical pop. The latter doesn't suit Sigma because he's currently inept when it comes to magic.

@@Little Red @ Sigma saw what just went down, and let out a sigh. "Same product; different packaging." the unicorn thought to himself. All he could do at this point was help search the next room when the door opens and hope the teacher considers him for the extra credit. @@Midnight_Aurora Sigma turned to the pegasus, and shook his head with an already defeated expression. "I'm sorry, but I don't know a lot about magic." the unicorn told her. "Or at least, not in practice."

Whoops, editing time! yay

@ Sigma did his best to conceal a scowl, and then closed his eyes to think for a moment. He knew right off the bat that this stallion was gonna try to be a problem, but the response he got wasn't what he was expecting. "Hmm, am I being unfair to the others?" he thought to himself. "Well, I gave a good argument against the plan of having everyone introducing themselves, so I at least addressed it properly. I think the only person in this room I've been unfair to so far is the pegasus in the back, and I'm addressing her right now to make up for it. No, I think this stallion just has a talent for getting under ponies' skin." "Listen," Sigma told him. "I want you to forget how smug you think I am, and simply ask yourself this: does the plan make logical sense to you? If it does, then it would be unreasonable for you to not go through with it simply because you don't like the pony pitching the idea, and it's not like I'm using you to do things I can do myself. I have absolutely no idea how to pick a lock!"

Sorry, I didn't realize your character asked Sigma a direct question earlier.

@@Midnight_Aurora Sigma looked around to see if anyone besides the eccentric mare were actually going to follow his orders (he would've been impressed with himself if someone did). Amongst the view, he explicitly noticed the strange little contraption for the first time. Before, he wrote off the device as being a small project of the teacher's with no intelligence beyond scripted responses, and decided to ignore it, but if that pegasus (who's been paying more attention to it than Sigma has) is anything to go off of, then it's capable of actually thinking. "That's really impressive." Sigma thought to himself. "Maybe this school will live up to its reputation after all, and that it just came off at a bad start." Sigma then looked at the pegasus beside the contraption. Magical auras, was it? Sigma didn't know much magic, so he couldn't judge the probable effectiveness of the plan, and originally decided not to explore the idea further, but maybe that was short minded of him. One thing's for certain, that pegasus in the back row seems to know more about this particular situation than he does. Sigma walked up to her. "I personally like my way of doing things better, but that could just be a cognitive bias." he explained. "I think I accidentally ignored a question from you earlier. What was it again?"

Sigma observed the commotion going on around the room as what was once progress regressed in to accusations, bad plans, and claims of not caring. "I need to regain control of the situation." Sigma thought to himself. "All right, first off, allow me to say this:" Sigma started. "The plan of introducing ourselves isn't going to work for the obvious reason that the teacher can easily fake a name. With a roll call sheet, assuming everypony in the class is present, we'll be able to call everyone to roll and pick out the pony who's name wasn't called, who will be the teacher. If the teacher tries to impersonate one of the other students while everypony is present, the actual student will call her out. However, if it turns out that someone is absent..." (Sigma thought for a moment.) "We'll just have to formulate a new plan." "Now!" Sigma yelled authoritatively. "Everypony, go look for a roll call sheet as well as a key, except for one of you..." the white unicorn muttered. @ Sigma turned to the bad-mouthing stallion, and stomped his hoof in an attempt to wake him up. "I'd imagine an impolite, carefree individual such as yourself would know a thing or two about picking locks." Sigma mused. "If you successfully pick the lock to the other room, then you'll help our chances of finding the roll call sheet."

All right, I'm back. What happened in the roleplay? Did Sigma suddenly pass out and leave everyone to find the teacher themselves?

All right gus, here's an update on my situation. I'm gonna have company over today and tomorrow, so I won't be able to participate until later tomorrow. I'm sorry.

I'll be back, real life problems.

"Ah-ow!" Sigma let out at he was startled by the eccentric mare before hitting the wall behind him. The stallion then continued to rub the back of his head and address the mare. "You can throw accusations all you want, but we won't know who the teacher is until we find evidence." Sigma stated sternly. "There weren't any pictures on or in the desk, but I have a new idea. The teacher almost certainly has a role call sheet; every teacher does, and even though I didn't find it in the desk, it has to be somewhere in this room or close to it. Will you help me look for it?"

@@Little Red Fair note with your last post: there wasn't any pictures on or in the teacher's desk; the person orchestrating the challenge said so.

@@bronislav84 All right, before I continue, does the teacher have a role call sheet in her desk?

@@Little Red Sigma gave out a cheerful giggle. The mare seemed a bit... out of it, but she was funny nonetheless. "All right, I guess our results will determine who's methods are more effective." the stallion said to the eccentric mare before trotting over to the teacher's desk at the front of the room. "Hmm, no pictures on top of the desk." Sigma thought to himself, thinking that this is where the pictures were most likely to be at. The unicorn continued to thoroughly search the desk, and still found no pictures. "Darn." he thought to himself. Sigma then tried to formulate a new plan. "Ah, I know!" Sigma thought to himself. "Most teachers have a role call sheet that they use to check and see if any students are absent. If I find a role call sheet, and systematically check students off that list, then the teacher will be found through process of elimination." Sigma then proceeded to try and find a role call sheet somewhere in the desk.

@@Little Red Fair enough, I'll wait some.

Sigma listened to the challenge, thinking "That's pretty odd... Maybe the teacher's trying to make the first day of school fun." @@Little Red The white unicorn walked in to the room, and observed a mare flying close the the ceiling; staring at it intently for some strange reason. "Excuse me!" Sigma yelled to the mare, trying to catch her attention while waving his hoof. "I don't think it's very likely that we'll find any evidence from the ceiling. Think about it this way: The blackboard says that A, we have to find the teacher, and B, one of the students in the classroom isn't like the others. It's reasonable to think that the teacher is hiding in plain sight amongst the students. If we search her desk for any pictures, we may be able to identify who she is." Sigma yelled, hoping that the mare was paying attention. "Do you want to search the teacher's desk with me, or would you rather stare at the ceiling?"

Sigma peeked his head in to the engineering room. The students, who at first had to deal with botched schedules, were now complaining about a missing teacher. "By Celestia's mane, how did this school get such high ratings?" Sigma asked himself with a worried expression before looking around and asking. "Is this the right class? Am I late?" "I get the feeling that my time would be better spent at the school's library..." Sigma noted, thinking to himself that nothing is going to get done today due to the confusion that's encompassing the school. "If this teacher ends up being a no-show, I'll pitch the idea to the principal so I can spend my time reading instead of wandering what to do."

It's currently Sunday, June 14th where I'm at.

Heh? wazza-goin-on-eh? Seriously, I'm confused.

@ Sigma sat and observed the commotion as students galloped out the door and hurried to their supposedly correct class as quickly as they could. Amongst the mayhem, he also observed that some students were claiming that they were in the right class block. "Hmm, how could that be...?" Sigma asked himself. If the schedules really were messed up as some students were claiming, then there's nothing he could do to fix the problem. However, messed up schedules isn't the only possible explanation for what's going on. Sigma raised his hoof to call attention to the teacher "Excuse me ma'am, is your clock set to the correct time?"