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

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

May I Have This Dance?

[Oh, you bet your ass Jecht is laying low for this.]

[He's way out of his element here. Sure, he enjoys being a manly man who men want to be and women want to be with, but these guys are all kids! And this is one time when being as awesome as he is can really backfire. Man!]

[So he slinks along a corridor to class -- figuring that's where no one will look for him -- quiet and careful as he can be. Which ain't very.]

Research on the Sundered

Ugh. [Jecht's arm seems permanently attached to his neck, the way he keeps rubbing at it and trying to work his muscles loose by leaning his head left and right. He woulda preferred a spell or some disaster over this, damn it.] So, uh, you don't have blitzball on your world, huh. What kinda things do people actually do for fun then?

This Happened

Awww, hell.

[Look, he's not gonna like it. Not without Auron here to back him up with that sword, and especially not with Braska's Aeons to even the gap. Heh, if the three of them were together again, they'd have this problem mopped up in no time flat...]

[But it's just him. So that's what he's got.]

[Balling up his fists, Jecht takes a breath, then steps forward towards the two brawling titans.]

May I Have This Dance? (You Will Dance. With Me.)

[darkenedmoon]

Where do you think you are going? [At least the imperious tones are familiar? You suck at sneaking, Jecht. Not that Yotsuyu is an amateur; she'd looked for him elsewhere, but since he wasn't in his usual haunts, she'd checked the halls of academia. And lo and behold...

Yotsuyu folds her arms over her chest and almost glares up at him.]

A person might think you were trying to avoid her.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Jecht starts so violently he nearly bonks his head off the wall. When he processes who it is, though, he relaxes with a sigh of relief, straightening up and letting the tension out of his shoulders.]

Scare a guy half to death, will ya? I was afraid you were a kid fangirl for a moment.

[darkenedmoon]

I? [Jecht just earns a Look at that. Her next words are droll, if anything.]

I, a child. And a...fan girl. Perhaps by some definitions of the word, but not by the one I think you mean. Why in the seven hells are you sneaking around, anyway? One would think...

[One would think he was scared of being caught. Well. Perhaps. She had not expected him to be cowed by...a dance. In any case, Yotsuyu has pounced first. Her tones now brooks no argument.

In the matter of that dance...have you a date, yet? Because if you do not, you are attending with me.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Jecht stares at her for a minute, then slumps with relief.]

Oh, man! [Running a hand through his hair, and chuckling, he looks up back her.] Why didn't you tell me sooner? You woulda saved me lot of grief!

[darkenedmoon]

[At that, Yotsuyu sighs.]

Did you miss where I could not find you? That is why I did not tell you sooner, you imbecile! I looked for you as soon as I saw the announcement!

[She rolls her eyes and tosses up her hands.] While I certainly do enjoy tormenting you, I did not do it this time on purpose, else I would have taken more enjoyment from it!

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

I'm a lot of things, but sneaky ain't one of them. Can't believe it took you this long to find me. [Jecht shrugs. He knows perfectly well he's not that competent in skullduggery!] Anyway, great! Going with you's super and a load off my mind.

[darkenedmoon]

This was my last resort. I had not thought to find you in classes, of all places. Since you usually try so hard to avoid them. In truth, if you were hiding, I figured you might just stay in your quarters. Since the teachers are also there, you know, it is not as if children are allowed in, all will-you, nill-you, you know.

[Yotsuyu also uses her quarters as a place of refuge, and there are not many who bother her there, so it only made sense to her. And of course, going with her was super.]

Oh, good. That must have been stressing, to have a load on your mind.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

So I actually outwitted you for a while, huh? [Look, Jecht isn't calling himself stupid... but he knows Yotsuyu has a mind more devious than his for sure.] That's one for the history books!

Research!... this was bound to happen >CCCC

[treno_nobleman]

[Oh... Oh, so this was who he had next been paired with?.......... That certainly wasn't what he had expected. But at least the man wasn't asking for a fight. Unless he considered fun to be a brawl. Kuja held his tail close to him anyway, just in case.]

I'm sure I don't know what blitzball is. [Or, for that matter...] Fun hasn't been a priority of mine on Gaia. I was always at work in business in one form or another. Now and then, there would be a ball thrown by someone; I heard it said that those were fun, but I rarely took pleasure in them when I did attend.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Brawling's pretty fun, what's not to like about it? But without a glimmer of recognition, Jecht scowls. Because of course there was no blitzball where this guy came from.]

Hmph. So no major sports at all, huh? Nothing that everyone stopped to see, anyway. Pretty lousy world, if it's not any fun.

[treno_nobleman]

[He doesn't like that scowl and gives no indication of such. Jecht doesn't seem to recognize him, or at the very least, he wasn't letting on to it. Really though, would the man even think to hide any such familiarity?]

[He could neither agree nor disagree with that observation though. He hadn't had much love for the people of Gaia, but some of the things they could create... It wasn't enough to be offended about, and he didn't care to protest.]

I don't care much for sport. The city where I frequented would hold Tetra Master tournaments - a card game - that could get quite competitive. There was also a facility where one could do battle with monsters captured from the Mist. Safety was never guaranteed, of course. Other cities would let the creatures run free through the streets once a year, or one could watch performances put to the stage.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Wait, they let monsters run through the streets!?

[Jecht's trying to imagine this, using fiends he'd fought back in Spira. Not a good look. Even the real weak ones, flans and bugs and stuff, could pack a hurt for people who weren't prepared. And they just brought them in and ASKED people to get hurt?]

[treno_nobleman]

[He shrugs lightly. It's every bit as absurd as it sounds, but he had seen the runs a few times and not been fond of them.]

They say they're weaker monsters, but I never understood the entertainment to be found in watching beasts destroy something simply for the fun of it. There was nothing to be gained, nothing to be lost. All of the profit ever found in it were from the apothecaries that offered potions and remedies.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

And building repairs, I bet! [Must be something else to it. There'd been plenty of messed up stuff in Spira that people just accepted, since the reasons for it were real secret. Sounds like the same thing here.] Way too much danger of someone getting hurt. Uh, someone not involved anyway.

[treno_nobleman]

[A soft sigh.]

Yes, that. I was only ever witness to it twice myself, but it was a dreadfully boring event. Some people like it for the danger and the very real possibility of injury. I suppose I am a bit jaded, having fought and killed worse than the creatures they captured for all of this. Mindless slaughter.

[He shakes his head and turns the question around, even though he finds no real intrugue in it.] You spoke of blitzball. What is this?

Research

[plusfivedex]

[Kamala laughs a bit, shrugging.] No blitzball. Sorry. But what people do for fun depends on their tastes, really. But me? I like movies and books. Oh! And video games. I'm not bad at video games at all!

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Okay, I guess question one is, what're those?

[Nope. Not a thing, for either Spira or Dream Zanarkand.]

This Happened

[daughterofclay]

[Jude was on her way from a bakery, as may be obvious from the brown bag of buns she's carrying in her arms. They are so fresh as to still be warm and they are going to go fantastically with the smoked Gouda and bottle of wine she has stashed away back at her dorm.

Because it's the weekend, you know.

She is, therefore, less than pleased when two giant beasts erupt out of nowhere to start a battle royale in the middle of campus. A quick assessment of the situation reveals 1) that it's probably best to stay out of this, and 2) the presence of an idiot.

She pauses, bag in arms.]

Hey! [Her yelling just barely carries over the beasts' battling, even though she's only a few feet from him.] What are you doing?!

[Because it looks like he's going in for a fist fight, and, well...]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Heh, hoping something I got can hurt one of these things. [He slows down just a but to answer the question, but stopping for a chat ain't gonna save anyone's butts.]

[daughterofclay]

In your fists?

[She calls it after him, ignoring the niggling voice in her head that's telling her to scoop up her buns and keep going, because this really isn't any of her concern.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

I got some things -- [Jecht sticks out an arm, showing the bracelet that stands out brightly against his skin.] They do a thing...

[A little effort, a little focus, and then Jecht's abruptly on fire. Except the fire doesn't appear to be hurting him. Magic!]

Everything hates fire, right?

[daughterofclay]

[That's...

Okay, that's impressive. So impressive that she almost forgets about the fact that they might be standing a little too close-- that is, until a many-eyed tendril or a mis-aimed energy discharge strikes the roof of the building behind her. Immediately, shingles and broken glass rain down on--

Well, on where Jude would have been standing if she hadn't thrown herself out of the way just in time. Just as she rolls back onto her feet, hand instinctively on the hilt of her sword, there is a low, ominous, inorganic groan.

And then the building starts collapsing onto itself in horrifying slow motion.

...Unless the fire protects him from falling bricks, this might be a good time for both of them to get moving.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Aww, hell.]

[Well, he's lucky in one way. These bracelets don't just do fire, they're a four-classical-elements deal. Useless for anything except stuff surrounding him directly, so it's not like he can pop up a wall of stone or something to hold back the building.]

[About all he can do is switch from fire to earth, swathing himself in stone like one of four people who are deemed fantastic -- then shove himself in between the building and the girl, so it smashes off of him instead of her.]

[And, uh, brace himself, because this is probably gonna sting.]

[daughterofclay]

[What even--

There's literally no time to look a gift horse in the mouth. She know she's not going to outrun the falling building. Instead she skids to a halt and then moves closer towards him, folding herself down to hunker behind him, arms locked above4 her head to protect it best she can.

It's only a breath until they're enveloped in a storm of dust and noise. She feels impact rock her -- both of them, because she's pressed right against him. Her eyes are squeezed shut. Small debris rains against her, catches in her hair.

It probably takes only a few seconds for it to be over. It feels longer.]