July Story Post: Calculus of Love Chapter 2

Universe: Save the Day, created by Zia
Artwork by the excellent Leo Magna (You should go chek out his comic Perceptions .)

Word Count: 5,349

Hey folks! This is the rest of "Chapter 2" of Calculus of Love. These scenes follow the parts where Stratagem visits the Super-normal Affairs Division, and then the Freshman Orientation scene, and make up the first half of the chapter, and this is the rest of the chapter.It features our two main characters meeting for the first time, and of course its love at first sight! Not really, but Stratagem does make an impression.

And tell me what you think, if there's something I messed up, and what you'd like to see more of with these characters. More to come on this!

***

After their Introduction to MIT class with Dr. Stratus was over, Tina followed Joseph out of the Simons Building as he made his way across the older section of the campus, heading for one of the campus food courts where his meal plan would allow him to grab lunch before his afternoon class.

At first, the raccoon was confused by how the wolf would swerve off to explore some alleyway or hallway, but soon Tina was pointing places out for them to explore. The MIT campus was littered with things to poke their noses into, and between the two of them, Joseph was sure he’d seen spotted everything interesting along their path.

“This place is really beautiful,” Tina said as they wandered across one of the larger green spaces.

“It really is. I read all about it, but being here is so much better. I just wish I could see more of it,” Joseph said, looking around and smiling. “I wonder…” the black wolf looked up, his white cheek stripes standing out more as he pondered a decorative ledge that ran along the side of one of the buildings. Then he looked back at the quadrangle, at the crowd of milling students and the old buildings across the way, and presumable the river beyond. The wolf looked back, judging distances.

“That would make a good spot to see things.” Tina mused, her eyes following the wolf’s gaze. “But there’s no railing, so probably no way up- whoa!“

Tina’s tail fluffed out as Joseph dropped his bag, took a short run to build up the moment he needed, and scaled up the side of the building, using the decorative brick work as hand holds to reach the ledge. “Take a picture!” Tina called up from the ground, laughing as a couple of their fellow students gave a few whoops and clapped at the wolf’s stunt.

The ledge offered a very pretty view of the quad, and definitely had no normal access route. The roof had a slight pitch to it, and there was debris and dirt all over the place. Joseph mentally put it on the list of places he could go if he needed a little privacy, snapped a couple quick pictures, and rejoined Tina on the ground.

“Well, the Bronx sure taught you some skills.” The Jersey born raccoon offered her fist to the wolf for a bump, and then cooed over the picture of the view on the wolf’s phone, “Niiice shot. How long you been doing Parkour? That was at least a ten foot vertical.”

“About six years,” Joseph said with a shrug as he grabbed his bag and made a guess, “What about you?”

“Two so far, but I couldn’t pull off a vertical climb like that.” Tina jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “ Not without something to ramp off of.”

“The trick’s to ramp off the wall itself,” Joseph said, gesturing at the wall as they began to walk again. “Come at it from an angle with the right speed and you can use those fancy brick sticking out as steps. Really crappy steps but still, it works sometimes. Or you end up on your ass, which…” the wolf shrugged, and Tina laughed. Ending up on your ass was the price of admission when it came to doing parkour. “I can’t manage more than about ten feet though.”

“Still, a ten foot vertical is impressive.” Tina’s ringed tail swished and she flashed a masked grin at a rhino faculty member who was glaring at them as they went by. Judging by his stormy expression, he had not been as impressed by the wolf’s display as Tina was. “Might want to be more cautious about who spots you scaling their precious architecture though.”

“Yah, probably a good idea,” Joseph said, flashing his best sheepish smile and waving at the rhino, who snorted and went on his way, unable to complain about something the wolf was no longer technically doing. They made their way to lunch, ate, and compared notes on their classes for the week. Besides the Intro to MIT course, they also shared Statistical Analysis later in the afternoon. They parted ways, each heading to their next class.

***

Statistical Analysis was in another large auditorium classroom, and Joseph arrived early enough that there were not many people in the room. He took a seat in third tier of desks this time, near the left hand side, leaving an open spot for Tina to join him. It was stupid, but from this seat he had an unobstructed path between his seat and two of the room’s doors without having to worry about clamoring over the long, communal desks that formed each row of seats. Not that they would provide much difficulty, Joseph was pretty sure he could run up or down the tiers of desks like they were a staircase, leaping from one desktop to the next, but still.

Instead of Tina joining him like he expected, the person who sat down beside him was his roommate Kent. “Hey Joe, didn’t expect to see you much today. You get up early?” The big bull smiled a little sheepishly as he settled into the chair, which was not quite big enough to hold him gracefully.

“Yah, I wanted to explore a bit before my orientation class. You have yours yet?”

The bull nodded firmly, pursing his lips, “Just finished it. Had a real super scientist, Dr. Carson Donovan.”

“The inventor of the force field?” Joseph said, perking up his ears.

“That’s the one. She gave one hell of a demonstration.” The bull had a slightly haunted look as he shook his head. “Who did you have?”

“Dr. Stratus, who did not look like I expected him too,” Joseph said with a grin. “No frizzy hair, burned fur, or anything.”

Kent gave a deep laugh, “Weird, I always assumed that guy would be one old crispy critter by now. He do any tricks for you?”

“Nah, what did Dr. Donovan do?”

Kent tried to explain what the Doctor’s demonstration had been, but it was hard to describe. She’d done something with force field to generate a plasma bubble, and then used a personal force field device to go inside the plasma bubble. However she’d done it, Kent and the rest of the class had been suitably amazed and frightened by the display. Tina came in at some point in the discussion, waved at Joseph and Kent, and took a free seat further down the row from them. The classroom was mostly full by the time Kent finished at three o’clock, and their professor had yet to join them. The students continued talking, and the sound grew as the minutes ticked by.

“Good afternoon everyone, please settle down,” called a deep and commanding voice at six past the hour. Joseph looked up to see a European badger who was the very epitome of the cliché of an Ivy League professor heading for the central podium. He wore a bright white shirt, a blazer with elbow patches, and carrying a large and very old looking, black briefcase. He wore a pair of wire rimmed spectacles on his muzzle, and even had on a small red bowtie. The noise dropped as people began to settle, and as they did the badger took a large stack of papers from his briefcase, set them on the podium, and then doffed his blazer, hanging it on a hook on the wall beside the blackboard.

Joseph blinked in surprise as the badger turned back to face the classroom. Beside him, Kent gave a low whistle, “Whoa. He’s a stud.”

“Yaah...” Joseph replied, and the wolf had to suppress a whine as the badger flashed a slightly sheepish smile at the class. He was apparently aware of the effect taking off his jacket had, and had done so in order to get the surprise out of the way first. Most badgers were bulky and broad shouldered, sure, and with the blazer on Dr. Bernadette had appeared to fit that mold. Stalky, blocky English badger, nothing special. But with his jacket off, it was now very clear that this badger lived not in a burrow, but at the gym. The sleeves of his dress shirt bulged noticeably, as did his pectorals, and the shirt looked tailored to fit his expanded frame.

Joseph's leg began to bounce and his pants were now suddenly feeling a bit tight. This man is much too hot to be a teacher, the wolf thought.

“Isn't there a law about professors being crusty old men?” Joseph muttered as the badger pulled a piece of chalk from his pocket and turned back to the board giving the class a perfect view of his firm muscled ass as he wrote on the chalkboard, “Statistical Analysis, Mathematics 1031, Dr. Samuel Bernadette.” Joseph took note that the badger's pants were stretched taut over a butt that you could bounce a quarter off of, a testament to the fact that Dr. Bernadette did not skip leg day.

Joseph suppressed a sigh, his eyes watching the way the badger's rump tensed slowly against the fabric as he moved, his short tail neatly groomed as it swished slowly to the left then right as he wrote across the board... Joseph shook himself as Kent made a soft huffing sound and shifted his legs.

Before the two younger men could say more, Dr. Bernadette turned back to the classroom and cleared his throat. It was a soft sound, but the whole room was now quiet enough for them to hear the stoic looking badger in his button down shirt and pressed slacks. "Good morning class, I am Dr. Samuel Bernadette, and I'll be your instructor for Statistical Analysis." The stocky badger gave the room a warm and broad smile that flashed across his face like a lightning bolt. "Now that you know my name, let me ask yours. This will be the only time I call roll. While I do not require you to come to class every session, I am keeping track, and you will not pass my exams without being in class." He picked up the large stack of papers from the podium, which he handed to the first student in the front row.

"This is all the information you'll need on homework, exam dates, and projects for the term. So while you pass those around, let's introduce everyone. When I point, tell me your name. And be warned, I will remember and use whatever nickname you tell me." The badger pointed his piece of chalk at the student sitting in the front row on the far right, and people began saying their names in order as the papers passed from paw to paw. When someone on the second row gave a nickname, rather than their full name, Dr. Bernadette asked the deer to confirm their real name for him, which surprised Joseph a little. Had the badger memorized everyone’s name beforehand? When the badger reached the third row, Tina called out, "Tina Turner," which caused some people to giggle, but since Dr. Bernadette didn’t challenge her on it, that must have really been Tina’s name.

Joseph called out, "Joseph Baker" when he was pointed at, and then the wolf turned to look at Tina. When she met his gaze, the wolf dramatically lifted an eyebrow, and mouthed at her, “Really? Tina Turner?” and the corners of his muzzle pulled up in an amused smile as the roll call proceeded.

The raccoon's masked eyes rolled dramatically and she mouthed back, "I know, I know," waving him away. Joseph was about to make a comment to Kent when Dr. Bernadette cleared his throat with purpose.

"Alright everyone!" The class settled down and turned their attention back to the badger. "This class is about statistics, and I'm sure you assume that means lots of tedious calculations. And while that's true, today's lesson is about what statistics is not. What you can actually prove with good statistics, and what you can use statistics to only make a good guess at being true." The badger, in a rather practiced way, began drawing on the black board behind him.


Joseph began taking notes, alternately watching the badger and scribbling away in a notebook. Dr. Samuel Bernadette was starting the class off with a very advanced lesson in the difference between the theory and practice of statistics, and how it applied to real world things like game shows, meteorology, and earthquakes. It was a problem that Joseph knew was near the back of the textbook, far too advanced for the first day of class, but that didn't matter. He wasn't going into detail on the difficult stuff. The badger was using the highly advanced problem to demonstrate each of the topics he would be covering in each class and what would be on the three exams.


It was a really interesting way to lay out the schedule for a semester and Joseph, like the rest of the class, was getting really into the details of the problem. There were a few votes on what people thought a contestant on a particular show should do. They went over the classic Monty Haul problem and how something as simple as that scaled up, or rather failed to scale, to more complex situations. The badger called on people, encouraged them to ask questions, and actually talked to the class rather than just lectured. It was the most exciting class Joseph had ever been in.


Joseph suppressed a sigh, his eyes watching the way the badger moved, the way the fabric of his clothes bunched or strained under pressure from his muscles. Dr.



And the badger was smart. There was no way he could have truly planned out a class like this. Too many students were suggesting things, and he was working their comments into the problem by hand. The math was getting damn complicated, especially to work out on the fly, and Joseph had already been through the textbook cover to cover. His professors were supposed to be smart, this was MIT after all, but the badger was doing this in his head while leading the class at the same time. That was fascinating to Joseph, and he found himself drawn to the badger.


And besides, all of his other teachers had only stretched their shirts around the waist line. Dr. Bernadette’s shirt was tight because the badger had some real muscles under there. It was clear to Joseph that he wasn't the only one in the class to notice how attractive the badger was for a teacher. A couple of the girls had the dreamy smile on their face that mirrored the look on his own, and Tina looked positively star struck. Kent was wide eyed and staring at the badger and the board, no longer taking notes. Everyone was paying rapt attention to the badger at the front of the class.


***


At the front of the classroom, Samuel happily worked out the equation on the board. This was a good class so far. The students were eager and there were several promising pupils out there. The raccoon Tina in the middle of row three was razor sharp, and the wolf Joseph at the end of the third row had obviously read much further in the textbook than most first year students did. Samuel hoped he was friends with the bull Kent who was sitting next to him. The poor Kansas boy, if Samuel judged his accent correctly, looked completely lost.


Samuel smiled as he guided the lecture, coaxing the class to give him the answers he wanted so the equations made sense and the lesson was instructive, rather than just a jumbled mess. This was how a Monday morning should be spent, teaching excited young minds, not striding into the S.A.D. to find a


That was the worst part about being Stratagem really. Samuel often wondered if he was spending his time in the most profitable way possible, tracking down gunrunners and mafia types, when he could be shaping the next generation of scientists and engineers. How much better would the world be if he could inspire young that young bull to become the next Norman Borlaug or Marie Curie? Then, he would find and stop some serial killer hunting children or stop the latest super scientist with an axe to grind with the world, and Samuel would change his mind.


Still, teaching kept him grounded. The students listened to his instructions and were paying attention. He didn't know why Dr. Everett complained so much about how disruptive his students were, Samuel's students didn't seem to have any trouble paying attention to him.


Samuel loved teaching this class with the first years. They reminded him why he became a teacher. He smiled and pointed at the wolf in the third row again, this time asking a trick question. Well, more a math pun really. These kids were proving to be as smart as he hoped; maybe some of them would get it.


Nobody had an answer, but the wolf Joseph sat really still for a couple seconds. Samuel’s eye was drawn to him because of how totally still he became, as if he were holding himself in place deliberately. Then the young man barked out a laugh and gave the answer, making sure to stress the joke. Samuel smiled, a bit thrown that he couldn't deliver the joke himself, but the whole class was laughing just like he wanted them to be. The badger grinned, "Well done, and that gives us," he turned back to the board and plugged in the answer, and he was pleased to see that most of the class diligently wrote the answer down.


***


Once the class was over, Joseph gathered up his things and paused to stare down at the podium where Dr. Bernadette was packing up his things, a smile on his face like he was happy how things had gone. Joseph wanted to go talk to the professor. He wanted to get to know a man who was that smart and yet that handsome. He just had to come up with something to say.


“You wanna go talk with him, don’t yah?” Kent said from behind. The wolf glanced up, and then back at the badger. “Got the hots for teacher on your first day,” the bull laughed softly, careful to keep his voice down so the other students filing out didn’t hear.


Joseph felt his ears grow hot, and he glared up at the bull as Kent loomed beside him. His first impulse was to deny it, but then he remembered how Kent had reacted to the badger, and the kiss from the night before. He blushed even harder, ears splaying out, “That obvious?”


“Totally,” the bull snorted. “And why not? The dude’s jacked. Go for it man. He’ll say no, but what does that matter? He ain’t got a ring on. No harm in getting shot down.”


The bull’s casual tone made Joseph feel better about the idea. “Okay, okay, but what do I say? The guy’s like, twice our age,” Joseph said in despair.


“Go ask him something about the math in the lesson you didn’t understand.”


“But, I understood it… all…” Joseph trailed off, and once again his ears burned as the bull rolled his eyes.


“Course you did. Well, at least you can explain it to me later than. For now, just go, before you miss your chance to be teacher’s pet. He’s leaving.”


Ears burning, Joseph jumped into motion, slipping past the crowd of students milling about by the front doors and following Dr. Bernadette out the small side door not many people were using.


The wolf had expected to have to run, or at least jog, to catch up with the badger because of his head start, but instead Dr. Bernadette was standing just outside the lecture hall talking to a tall tiger in the hallway. The big cat was elderly, with gray fur peppering his cheek ruffs and head stripes, and he had the air of someone important about him.


The tiger certainly dressed the part. The older feline was in a full suit and power tie, and had their air of a school administrator about him that set Joseph on edge. Only the square spectacles he wore made him look like a fellow professor. Joseph lingered at the edge of their conversation, not wanting to interrupt them.


"I'm sorry," Dr. Bernadette said in a slightly flustered way, "but I really don't think I can accomplish this for you Martin. This would be a massive undertaking." The badger sounded truly agitated by whatever they were discussing, but he was showing deference to the tiger.


"Look Samuel," the elderly tiger said, his voice the understanding fatherly sort of voice that Joseph always found annoying. "I know what your schedule is like. You've been a part of my department for over fifteen years now. We’ve always worked around it, but I need you to publish something this year. Specifically, I need you to be head researcher on at least one paper, and co-write at least two others this year." The lanky tiger held up a paw to forestall the badger's response. "I know, I know, what I'm asking is extreme. I am well aware of the time you spend assisting other researchers in the physics, chemistry, and engineering departments and that you are the mind behind half of the papers which come out of our own department. I know all about how the paperwork gets in the way for your actual research."


The tiger's tail flicked back and forth once as he looked down at the shorter badger. Despite the differences in height, Joseph realized with a start that Dr. Bernadette looked a good deal stronger than the tiger, even when you accounted for the feline’s age. "But I am the Dean of Mathematics and I have responsibilities to the department just like you do. Between the new administration and the state cutting our funding next semester, I need to have ways to justify our budget." The dean pushed his spectacles farther up the bridge of his nose and gave a wan smile. "Including the parts with your name on them, and that means I need you to publish research papers to keep our funding intact. Pick any topic you would like, I don't care what it is, just produce something with your name on the top of it." The tiger softened his words and body language some as he added, "Please, Samuel."


Samuel’s defiant pose slackened somewhat and he sighed. He had the look of someone who has had all his arguments defeated before the debate even began. He looked at the ceiling, rubbing at his chin in thought. "I will see what I can do. It won't be anything groundbreaking, I simply..."


The Dean waved away the objection, "Pedestrian research will be fine, Samuel." The tiger patted the badger's shoulder, smiling a toothy smile. "Not every paper has to redefine quantum mechanics or set theory. I just need you to publish something. And leave your name on a few more of the papers you ‘help out’ on this year, will you?" The tiger's head tilted and he smiled brightly. "Don't make me order you to do it."


The threat was clearly a joke, and the badger gave the tiger a wan smile back. "All right, all right, I'll do it Marten. I don't know how I'll find the time but I will." The tiger smiled and patted Dr. Bernadette’s shoulder again before walking away. Samuel seemed to stare at the floor in thought for a moment before taking out a smart phone and rapidly doing something on it with a look of intense concentration.


Joseph shifted his footing and coughed softly to get the badger's attention, the weight of his bag moving from one shoulder to the other.


Samuel looked up with a sharp jerk of his head, and there was a moment where Joseph was subjected to one of the most intensely searching looks he'd ever seen before recognition, and a smile, lit the badger's face. "Ah, the young man who knows his Bayesian trivia." Samuel said as the younger wolf hitched up the bag he had slung over one shoulder. "What can I do for you Mr. Baker?"


The wolf's muzzle broke into a smile that matched the badger's, "Hey, you actually remembered." He had assumed the professor’s boasts about remembering everyone's name were just a kind of joke, a vague threat to get people to come to class. Apparently it hadn't been.


***


Samuel continued to smile as pleasantly as possible as he slipped his phone into a pocket to conceal the screen now that someone was close enough they might see it. There was an incoming message from the base, but it wasn't marked urgent and he would have to rearrange his entire schedule later anyways. Whatever maintenance needed to be done would have to wait. "Yes, of course Joseph. Now, what can I do for you?"


The black furred wolf did his best to smile. "Well, um, maybe I should ask what I can do for you? I was going to ask if you knew of any teaching or lab assistant jobs that were open, but maybe now you need one yourself now? I know that's not the sort of thing that's usually open to freshmen, but I kind of need the money, and your class was really interesting…" The wolf paused for a moment, swallowed, and added, "And if you're going to have to do a paper, well, being your research assistant sounds like a lot fun."


Samuel raised his eyebrows and a bemused smile crossed his face. Well, this was as unexpected as Marten’s demand had been, and very forward. He rarely had students ask him directly about becoming his teaching or research assistant. Was he truly that good on a first day of class? But Joseph was right, the timing was fortuitous. He was going to need the help if he was going to publish something by the end of the year, and he didn’t have anyone assigned to him by the department.


The badger hadn't had any teaching or research assistants in years, and he hadn't been able to keep them for long when he did. Once upon a time the math department had seemed determined to assign him some new poor soul each semester. Most of them quit after a few weeks of rapidly shifting schedules, missed appointments, and all night research sessions caused by his double life as a superhero. Even those who suffered through his twisted scheduling left once they realized that he wasn't going to be publishing any formal papers they could put their names on. Now, after nearly twenty years as the math department’s most eccentric professor, the secretaries didn't even bother trying anymore.


It had never mattered much to him though. Being Stratagem was a full time job, and his life as a professor often took a back seat to being a hero. Samuel had very little time for formal research, and without an assistant he didn't have to lie quite so much about his activities. Having the Dean insist he go through the full publication process rather than just help out his fellows was going to get in the way of a lot of his more, extra-curricular, activities.


The badger smiled slightly, eyeing the black wolf with the white stripes on his cheeks. Perhaps Joseph was right. An eager assistant might be exactly what he needed to slog through all the reams of paperwork the badger hated so much. And Joseph was certainly an eager beaver. Based on the answers he’d given during the lecture, Joseph had read and understood most of textbook before his first day of class.


"Well, I suppose I do have to get something published now..." Samuel said, gauging the young man's reaction. "I had been considering doing some research on an advanced regression model of Dr. Taberson's work in statistics. See if I can find a way to resolve his theorems. Do you have any experience with his research?"


There was a momentary pause as Joseph held himself still, a flicker of expression on the wolf’s face that was unreadable, and then he said, "Do you mean Steven Taberson, and his work on probability matrices?" Joseph’s eyes were suddenly bright, and his smile returned at full force. "I've see a paper discussing his theory and the results, but not the underlying work. That would be interesting to work with." The wolf grinned, and did a poor job of controlling his suddenly wagging tail.


Samuel’s eyebrows rose, a little impressed the wolf knew what he was referring too. "Well then Mr. Baker perhaps we can work out something. I must warn you though, I have a very busy schedule, and our research times will be… erratic. This will be a lot of extra work for you for your first year here at MIT." Samuel waved a paw in warning as he saw the wolf begin to grin. "I will also need to get the departments approval." It was a formality, the badger knew, but he wanted the chance to check the boy out. He knew money would be have been set aside for his project before the Dean had even come to talk with him, and it would probably be enough to allow for him to have a student researcher. Maybe this would be workable after all.


***


Joseph kept right on smiling at the badger, who smiled back at the young man's infectious excitement. "Odd hours is just fine with me professor, and I promise I’ll have plenty of time for my classwork. Here, let me just give you my number." That sent a little thrill down Joseph's tail. Alright, so he wasn't exactly asking the handsome badger out, but it was close enough. He would get to spend long nights with the badger working on something that was truly interesting.


It really would be too. Joseph had found out about Taberson's research when a columnist had applied it to baseball statistics a few months ago, and the ram's theory was fascinating. Well, it had been to Joseph anyways. And working closely with Samuel sounded fantastic.


Samuel typed the wolf's phone number into his phone, sent the wolf a text message to confirm it was right, and then quickly sent an email to the dean requesting an assistant. Once again, Samuel wished he could wear the advanced goggles he wore as Stratagem all the time. Their built in computers and augmented reality interface would have allowed him to simultaneously apply for a grant to do the research, apply for time on the school's super computers so the work would look official, and begin the paperwork for a teaching assistant, all while starting the dozens of other little tasks that would be required to publish the resulting paper. He would have even been able to do a background check on Joseph with little more than a wave of his paw.


Instead, he'd have to let the department handle the hiring process and arrange for the computer time later. The emails required to start the paperwork to request an assistant took only a few moments however, but it still felt slow using the touch pad no matter how advanced his smart phone was. He slipped the phone back into his pocket and smiled at the wolf. "Well, I've sent the Dean an email requesting it, and if the department approves it we should be able to start next week. I'll phone you to set things up."


"Great Professor, that sounds wonderful." Joseph held out his paw, and Samuel shook it firmly. The badger was a bit amused by the way the wolf shook his paw eagerly with both paws.


"Please Joseph, call me Samuel." The badger said with a smile, adjusting the small spectacles on his muzzle.