May Event and Intro Log

[magicademymods]

May Event and Intro Log DAWN OF THE FIRST DAY May I Have This Dance? Though Diatu Magicademy has its share of social events, few capture the attention of the student body quite like the Twilight Ball -- that magical once-a-year dance that crosses the change of day into night and is given over entirely to the dance itself. The focus is not on political visitors, rival schools, local government, or hitting up alumni for money; it is entirely about the pleasure that comes from accompanying a charming and attractive person onto the dance floor and cutting the proverbial rug. It is entirely possible the Twilight Ball is beloved because the general student body is aggressively amorous, but no one admits that out loud. With the dance on the horizon, the mission of the day becomes finding a partner -- or asking the prettiest or nicest or most tsundere to the ball before anyone else does. The Sundered are particularly popular by virtue of being new, so students may find themselves fending off invitations or even crowds of people interested in being seen on their arms. Even the younger Sundered have a few people in their age group who'd like to pretend they're just as adult as the older students. To avoid the mob, one strategy is to find someone else in dire straits and agree to be their date, thus giving both of you protection now and then. Another, stranger, vastly more unorthodox strategy is to actually ask someone out legitimately... if you've got the guts. (The third strategy is to go with Headmaster Birony, who has been occasionally heard to bemoan loudly and publicly that she has nobody, HINT HINT. But who could possibly be THAT desperate?) Love Is In The Water Love potions are absolutely, positively, one hundred percent forbidden, on the grounds they tread far too close to the supremely black Curriculum of Dictation. This ultimate and unforgiving ban is every bit as effective as Anastara's rules limiting the speed of carts in the street to a horse's walk. So, yes, there's love potion in the water. Someone spilled an entire bucket in the river. These things happen. Luckily, as diluted as it is, the potion doesn't reach the levels of obsessive compulsion that the worst of them can; a person drinking a unfortunate draught instead simply finds themselves attracted in a weird and sharp sort of way to the first person they lay their eyes on, for a period of about thirty minutes. Diatu Magicademy is an inclusive and progressive institution, and consequently these potions affect and can target all manner of beings, from ducks and wolf-shifters to robots and dragons. They are pretty convenient about failing to bring about really skeevy pairings, though, so don't worry about being Hot For Professor. Special Delivery (aka the Least Embarrassing Prompt, which is a sad state of affairs) A quick, easy, profitable way to make some money this time of year is by delivering messages, packages, parcels, and treats to students who've caught the eye of another. Whether anonymous or gloriously identified, small token of esteem or bristling bundles of roses and chocolates, the population of the Magicademy takes particular delight in letting others know their feelings. Not always positive feelings, either -- glitter-bomb rejections have only recently begun to diminish in popularity, being replaced by Pie-To-The-Face spells. An enterprising student who adds their own spin to this hallowed ceremony of delivery can make bank; singing and performance are popular ways to enhance a message among Valhudor students, and a recent trend finds quartets delivering acapella harmonies to the recipients of love notes. But simple note hauling can still be worth your while... so long as you don't find yourself delivering a creepy confession from a weirdo to one of your dear friends. What are the odds of that happening, though? Research On the Sundered With the arrival of the Sundered come those wizards engaged in research on their presence here, now set to investigate what brought them here and how to get them home. All newly-arrived Sundered students are asked to meet with representatives of the research team, to introduce themselves and relate what they will of their homes. In addition, the team requests samples of blood, hair, and skin -- carefully magically collected, and the researchers will sign in the presence of the Sundered a Glyphed contract that forbids them from using the samples for a purpose they know will be harmful. (They quite understand your reasons to be suspicious of this collection! And they will not compel anyone who refuses even given these conditions.) This month, however, the research team informs its applicants that there is no magic being performed. Instead, they ask you to participate in partnered interviews, in which two Sundered compare their worlds and ask each other questions while the researchers take notes. They explain that they wish to find commonalities and differences between worlds, in the hopes that this will help them identify a larger pattern in how the Sundered were brought here. How is this bad enough to merit earning a reward this month? As it happens, the researchers who sit with the pair have an Intimation Crystal, which shines red every time someone speaks to deceive in its presence. Lie or omit information or cover with half-truths and the interviewer will ask you to go back and try again -- and they encourage you to speak on everything you can. You might end up venturing into dark or unpleasant territory in these interviews... DAWN OF THE SECOND DAY Welp, This Happened A quiet weekend morning is abruptly quiet no longer. With a tumultuous shuddering and an eerie, whistling roar, the first tendril of a far mightier being surges out of a wall on campus, venturing into the cloud-shadowed outdoors for the first time in its existence in this plane. Then, like a cloak shrugged off, the outbuilding it emerged from rises up only to crash to the ground as the Sundered creature rises up to claim it glory. It is a nightmare, a horror. A terrible, indescribable thing as large as a small building —a shapeless agglutination of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of light. For some inexplicable reason, it is colored in bands of purple, black, and gold, and several parts of it sprout white feathers. That's the bad news. The bad news is that this existential threat to reality does not go unnoticed, nor unchallenged. Mere moment after the Sundered creature makes it presence known, a cold wind begins to blow. The temperature abruptly drops thirty degrees, leaving those around in a clammy and miserable chill that feels like they've passed their whole body through one of the ghosts of Makerion Keep. This estimation is not too far wrong, for the pale off-white dragon that emerges from the clouds above is translucent and ethereal, save for the shining eyes of coldest blue that fix on the beast like pinpoints of fire. What a ghost dragon is doing here is anyone's guess, but when it opens its jaw to unleash a withering cone of necrotic energy at the Sundered creature, it demonstrates plainly that it will not brook this interloper on its domain. In other words, Diatu Magicademy is now home to a kaiju fight. That's the bad news. The BAD news is that both these creatures are, by their very nature, incredibly resistant to magic. So even as the professors spill out and split duties of getting students to safety and fending them off, the two beasts barely notice the arcane energy flashing through the air as they begin vigorously brawling. Thank goodness this is a weekend, or else you'd all have some serious trouble getting to class on time. Wonders Await? Diatu Magicademy is open to you in all its glory. But maybe you should deal with that mess first? We're just saying.

Comments

[treno_nobleman]

He nodded again, offering a pleasant enough smile for however long it might last. This didn't have to be as much as his mind wanted to make it out to be. They were only required to talk about the worlds from which they hailed, nothing more or less.

But if it turned to paths more personal, the crystal would know. The color would change. It went both ways, but how would the crystal know? He eyed it briefly, considering a test.

"Yes and no." An easy enough question. He didn't have to turn it into an intentional lie this time, so he followed through with it. "Where I am from, Gaia, magic is learned for the purposes of healing and defense and offense. There are few in betweens. There are also no complex words or phrases or objects of focus needed to employ a spell. They are simply there at a call, in some people."

He shifted in his seat, getting a little more comfortable with this. "Then there is the land and the people, of course. We were much more diverse. People were different shapes and sizes, some covered in fur and feathers, others like you and me." A soft sigh. "There is so much to that question. Perhaps, if you could ask something a little more specific? I know not where all to go with that, but I could talk to you for days and not cover it all."

[unswervingcompanion]

The knight listened. This was easier for him to learn than having to do this by a book. Stories fascinated him and he'd spent hours listening to Jasper. He could learn anything easier with a person telling the story instead of through binding and parchment.

But after Kuja had finished about the spells, Hendrik nodded. "That is the way that magic works in my world as well." And by no means did the man think that this would be a one-sided conversation. Stories were meant to be shared after all.

And as the other man wanted something more specific he nodded, realizing. "I apologize. Then I should ask what life was like specifically for you since that is what you would be more familiar with."

Hendrik sat up straight and didn't move much at all. He didn't want to make any moves that might seem threatening or alarming as this other man did not know him at all. So he gave and showed respect.

[treno_nobleman]

Already, he had a few questions in mind to ask the man once he was finished with his own answering. How long that would go on, he wasn't sure. The rules for the interview were only such that they needed to ask and answer honestly, though to what true purpose, he couldn't say. Curious, he thought, that the people conducting the experiment thought the Sundered might have similarities in their worlds. Had they not already noticed some similarities in their own world and those of the Sundered?

He could think on that all day, and had. This wasn't like before, with Chaos and then with Spiritus, where the world was barren until a memory triggered an illusion of someone's home. Those had been... interesting experiences.

He sat in kind, upright and proper as was his manner, fingers loosely intertwined on the table in front of him. "I'll tell you of how I lived until the last few months of my time in my world." Those were times he was not proud of. In retrospect, he wasn't proud of much, but it was the least damning of his story. "I owned an auction house in one of the larger cities often frequented by nobility and the wealthy. Many of the items for sale were ones I had purchased myself or found in my research that no longer had any use to me, but I spent much of my time overseeing a secondary business with small operations all throughout the continent. The city where my auctions ran was a hub of activity for many a royal, so you can imagine how word spread with the way they gossip." Really, it was all they ever did. He hated it, but it had its uses.

"To be frank, it was horribly boring, but the parties were a necessity. Make an appearance here, speak with someone there. Soon enough, I was one of the wealthiest men in the nation."

He had been watching the crystal in his peripheral vision. No change yet, and he hadn't expected there to be. He had not yet tested it. Perhaps with the next question. "Is that a fair answer?"

[unswervingcompanion]

Hendrik was fascinated. In his mind's eye, he saw the things that the man was describing and how much of a hub of activity all of this must have been. So he nodded as Kuja explained, wishing he could see this.

And that was the first time that he noticed the crystal. He had no idea how long it had been sitting there or how long he had not seen it. And he also wondered why it was there. But that didn't matter so much as making sure that he paid attention to his host.

But after the other was done speaking, Hendrik nodded again. "That is a fair answer. It must have been something to have such wealth amassed from your idea." That was his backhanded attempt at a compliment, not knowing if such a thing could be taken well by this man. After all, they didn't know each other.

Hendrik continued to sit straight because that was how he was taught to sit. Long meetings of royals such as Kuja was describing required proper etiquette and patience, especially from the commander of the Royal army. He had to set the example to which he most certainly did.

[treno_nobleman]

He hadn't yet had a chance to test the crystal, but that time would come. He was in no particular hurry. "It was satisfying and allowed me a comfortable life, but it served its purpose and that was what mattered."

What that purpose was, he didn't want to say, and with no questions to follow that up, Kuja nodded and gestured to Hendrik. "Not for lack of another subject, but since we are here to compare worlds, I'd like to pose the same question to you now. What was life like for you in your world?"

Oh, they could go like this for hours, and a part of him was genuinely curious as to what they might have in common besides that they had been dragged into this place without a say in the matter.

[unswervingcompanion]

He nodded to the explanation and that the lifestyle served its purpose. Hendrik knew all about that.

And when he was asked about his world, he saw no reason to at least speak about himself and what he'd gone through.

"Back home I was a knight of Heliodor and commander of His Majesty's armies. I lived my life out serving his Majesty and taking care of my men."

His head lowered slightly. "But then our world was plunged into darkness and I arrived here." The knight wasn't going into who the Luminary was or what his purpose was.

[treno_nobleman]

There was a similarity, he thought, though it could have been any number of worlds that had knights and kings and armies. It was a parallel to be drawn, but one too vague to mean anything, to him anyway. They weren't conducting this interview of each other for his own research, but even he had taken a small interest in it no less.

But that darkness seemed to resonate with him. Hadn't his own world seen something like it before he was drawn away by Chaos? Hadn't Spiritus's world seen something similar before he was drawn here? So he pressed lightly. "A darkness? Of the world threatening sort, perhaps?"

[unswervingcompanion]

He nodded. "Is that something that you are familiar with as well?" If Kuja was familiar with that, could that mean his world was under attack by Mordegon too? Was it possible that Mordegon could traverse worlds?

All of this thinking and over thinking was giving the knight a headache. But he wanted to know more of what Kuja knew of this. Mayhaps somehow together they could solve this riddle that plagued both of their worlds.

[treno_nobleman]

Now they toed a subject Kuja had been trying to avoid ever since the first god took him from Gaia. He hadn't been pleased to find himself under a new master, but at the time, without his memories, he hadn't known why. As they came back, he grew less and less inclined to fight for Chaos, but it wasn't the god that turned on him, it had been his own, unwilling, similarly deposed allies.

"Yes. The worlds I knew came under threat from a man named Garland, and one of them was ultimately destroyed." A half truth. Still, a glow off to the side caught his attention; he looked over and saw the crystal had begun to shimmer accusingly with a bright red color, as they had been told it would. So it worked. Under the table, his tail tip twitched in agitation as he debated what to say next.

[unswervingcompanion]

Garland...that name didn't sound familiar to Hendrik at all. But while Kuja was speaking, he still tried to search his memory banks of anyone that Jasper had read to him about with all of those books his former friend had in his possession.

His head shook again as nothing turned up in his mind. The knight's eyes then noted the crystal changing color, but didn't mention it because he was still working on what he'd heard. Mordegon and Garland were not the same names or even close.

"You had said worlds. How many have you been to?"

[treno_nobleman]

Unaware of what went on in the man's head, Kuja turned his gaze away from the crystal to watch Hendrik instead, sure he would say something about the lie that had been detected. His glance flicked over to the researchers; they whispered to one another, and one looked at him, but looked away again and wrote something down on her papers. But Hendrik said nothing, and Kuja let that bullet slide past on its way into oblivion, quietly relieved.

"Four in all. There were two I knew first, what you might call my home worlds, and then the two that the gods Chaos and Spiritus brought me to, for their own purposes." The illusions of their home worlds as battlefields weren't significant enough to merit mentioning with regard to Hendrik's question, so Kuja took another switch. "What of you? Have you seen other worlds?"

[unswervingcompanion]

"That is amazing." And Hendrik really is amazed, this man isn't one to lie. That was his former friend Jasper who lied, but that man wasn't here.

Mental images raced through Hendrik's head as Kuja mentioned the other names, still for some reason straining to hear Mordegon's name come up during the conversation. But it hadn't and that was that he supposed.

But when the tables turned again and it was his turn to answer, Hendrik didn't hesitate. "I have only been to two. This one is my second world." And it did seem weird to say such a thing, but it was true. What you see is what you get with this knight.

[treno_nobleman]

Thinking back on his first exploratory mission to Gaia, it had been all business, all about the end goal. He had taken an interest in the world around him, secreted away to consider in the minutes before his sleep. Being pulled away to Chaos's heel, and later to Spiritus's had been no joyous time, and he hadn't enjoyed the company he was bundled with, but away from them, he might have liked to wander and see what the illusions from other worlds would show him. Factories spewing green smoke, cities that seemed to be made of crystal, vast fields of flowers he had never before seen.

So maybe it was amazing, in a way, to have been to more than one world. As frustrating as those experiences had been for him, it hadn't been all bad, and even the parts that had, he knew few others who could claim to have set foot off their own world. The Sundered he knew here numbered but a small handful compared to the thousands who lived still on Gaia.

"This must have been quite a shock to you. I assure you, it gets no better." He lifted a hand as if to wave it away. "It is always a shock to close your eyes, feel that odd, ethereal rush, like a current too strong to swim against, and look up again to find you are not where you once were."

[unswervingcompanion]

The only thing that Hendrik had been grateful for upon first arriving was seeing that his oath sworn charge was here and unharmed. After that, the knight tried to settle into his studies, but he couldn't figure out the rhyme or reason for being here.

Then he met others and learned that there were those that were way worse off than dealing with another world, even if that seemed hard to fathom at first. But it was a reminder to Hendrik that when he'd gone around collecting survivors after the World Tree fell that there were others always less fortunate and the same went for when he was a knight of Heliodor.

"I had not the time to consider what it would mean to be in another world." This was admitted with a shake of the head. "And though most would return, I have found that others would stay here." Because here things were better for them.

[treno_nobleman]

Kuja's eyes tick downward for the briefest, telling moment. From the start, he had had his own agenda in this place. It wasn't a matter of if he would meet that end, only when, and he was determined to see it through. But beyond it, return to Gaia hadn't been a question on his mind. The where never mattered, only the what. So he thought.

"Will you return home, then? Once this is all over, and assuming the delightful people in authority here can help we Sundered to work out what went wrong and send us back, will you choose to go home?"

It wasn't quite on the interview list of approved questions, but it piques his curiosity, and he has a passing interest in what this man wants to do. And it makes the interviewers squirm, which he is delighted to see.

[unswervingcompanion]

The knight opens his mouth and rethinks for a moment. His head then goes down slightly and gives the answer that he has to. "I must return. Things are unsettled and unstable, and there is much more work yet to be done." This answer silently pained him as a woman with long dark hair here passed through his mind.

Hendrik didn't know if it was possible yet to save her, but he was trying everything he knew and was asking around in different ways when he didn't. He just hadn't found the information that he was directly looking for. But if he could bring her with them, so much the better because he totally would.

His eyes slide over to the interviewers who look uncomfortable, but he's not sure why they're looking that way. With a mental shrug, the knight turns back to his companion.

"And what of you? What are your plans?"

[treno_nobleman]

True to its fashion with these interviews, the question had been turned back around on him, and Kuja knew his response before he ever let the words leave his lips. But it would be another partial lie, and he knew before he ever said it that the crystal would call him out on it.

"I just don't know. It may sound strange to your ears, but there is little that holds my interest strongly enough in any of the worlds I have been to that I would be willing to say yes, I will stay here or no, I should leave. I go where I must from here. Beyond that, I have only one goal."

And it did. As soon as he had said his piece, the crystal began to glow, softer this time. But he had been able to skirt the full truth before and he wondered if he would again. The interviewers began to whisper among themselves again and Kuja ignored them.

Perhaps he was throwing off their results, but there were things in his memories that he yet did not want to discuss at length, and the best way to do that was not to bring those topics to light at all. He couldn't entirely avoid it, but neither was he being forced.

[unswervingcompanion]

The knight shook his head. "That does not sound strange to me." And again Yotsuyu and her plight came to Hendrik's mind. She was dead in her world, and there was nothing to go back to, save the void of death and nothingness.

He too though had to go where he must, which was back with the Luminary and save their world from Mordegon's hands. Jasper would need to be dealt with as well, so there were definitely things he must do back home.

For his part though, the knight wasn't going to worry about the interviewers or the crystal. He was more interested in hearing the tales of the man in front of him and the people using them as test subjects could just go home.

[treno_nobleman]

Perhaps he had thought wrongly of the man, or maybe it wasn't so strange not to want to return home after all. Wasn't that what so many wanted though, a place to return to? All any of the warriors he knew from Materia's lot wanted was to protect that world or to go home. Spiritus's champions? He hadn't know most of them well enough past their intentions in that world directly to care.

He gave Hendrik an appraising look, hummed quietly, and looked away. "I wouldn't know. It seems both of our worlds either are or were in turmoil before our arrival here, however that was. Maybe that much was what the magic that brought us here drew out. That guess is as good as any, but with nothing behind it, a guess is all that it is."

[unswervingcompanion]

"Are." Hendrik answered for his part. But the rest of it had him looking questioningly at the man in front of him. It was a point of view that he hadn't considered and didn't really think on since he was so wrapped up in protecting the Luminary, trying to rescue Yotsuyu from her plight and keep an eye on the rest of his friends like Webby and Louie.

All of that was like having a full-time job and then some. But if this man didn't want to go home, then maybe they could figure out a way to make people stay that didn't want to leave. Allies could be found in the most unexpected of places.

"Then do you believe there is a way to prevent people from leaving should they not wish to go home?"

[treno_nobleman]

A good question, one he wished he had an answer to, and a glance at the researchers seemed to indicate they were just as clueless as he was. He had expected no better. They wouldn't be here right now if any of them knew what they were doing. Trapped by incompetence. Oh, how he loved it.

So much so that it was giving him a headache. Kuja lifted a hand and rubbed at a temple in an attempt to soothe the ache. "It is a guess, but a logical conclusion. If they brought us here once without knowing how, and we are not the only ones who fell victim to that magic, then it stands to reason that it could be done again even if a means was found to reverse all of this and we could be sent home."

But what did he want? He didn't know. Damned if he did, damned if he didn't. For his own part, he had no promising horizon. Hendrik, he felt, likely did.

[unswervingcompanion]

The knight wasn't really pleased with this answer, through no fault of Kuja's. He had looked over at the researchers as well and made a definite line face at them. Well so much for hoping there was an easy end to this constant plague of an issue in his life.

He sighed. "Then if we are on our own, I suppose searching through places unfamiliar may yield clues as to how to best accomplish this."

Hendrik had to go home and protect the Luminary while he was here. But while he was here he would stop at nothing to ensure that Yotsuyu could stay and be safe. Or, if somehow a way was found for her to come with Eleven and himself, that could be a thing too.

[treno_nobleman]

All he had were conclusions based on nothing more than following the dots. He didn't like it any better than Hendrik did, but what more could be done? His thoughts on that would take him outside of the academy, but there was the concern that the magic within them now would overwhelm him and start to behave as negatively as they thought it might.

"I had a notion to venture beyond the academy and begin my search elsewhere. There is that foreboding warning they gave us all upon arrival that the magic in us from this world may cause harm if we don't learn to harness it, but I wonder to what extent would we be able to push those boundaries, if it will react so violently at all?"

[unswervingcompanion]

"Venture beyond the academy?" This had the knight's full attention. He hadn't formulated a definite plan yet, but it sounded like a good idea.

His blue-green eyes slid over to the researchers, wanting to ignore their presence but wondering if discussing all of this openly would get them both into trouble. So Hendrik was silent for several long moments, pondering this over and turning it over in his mind.

Would there be risks? Well certainly there would be. And maybe it be best to discuss this at another time away from their 'keepers'.

"I propose we have this conversation away from this place at another date." He would offer to team up with this man if their interests were aligned.

[treno_nobleman]

Kuja had stopped paying attention to the researchers some time ago. They knew enough to know he had his sights set elsewhere, but he didn't care. The truth would expose itself either way, and if he had to stir the pot a little to get it out, well then, he would.

But he was more than happy to indulge Hendrik and meet him in another place if the man insisted. He nodded pleasantly. "I would only be all too happy to join you in that. There are conversations that yet need to be had, and I would be truly surprised to find that they had not already been held before this."