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

Re: Research on the Sundered (Miss Clef, do ya, kid?)

[gender_neutral]

"As I had previously said, had you been listening and in any way comprehending the simple and basic common spoken words coming out of my delicate elven mouth you would naturally have come to the proper conclusion on your own, presuming of course an intelligence or wisdom modifier that was not in the negatives. As, like many here, you have clearly made both of those your dumpstats, let me speak more plainly. It does not matter to me in either way which of those you chose to answer as my interest is not in any way shape or form the point of this particular example. I am simply to ask you questions about your world and you about mine so that those who claim that this is their field if study who have, however, as of yet utterly FAILED to spend the requisite XP to craft a proper spell to return us all home, can hopefully gleam what knowledge they can from these experiments to perhaps add a basic circumstance bonus to their next roll when they attempt once more the epic spell crafting feat needed for a mass return planar shift spell."

Re: Research on the Sundered (Wake!Link is pointing and laughing at this Link)

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link blinked.

"I have...no idea...what about half of that means."

His crystal backed him up on that statement.

Re: Research on the Sundered (ROFL)

[gender_neutral]

V looked very close to pulling out hair in frustration. Whose hair remained to be seen.

"If you understood EVEN half of that, I think I might just die of shock," Ve said, dryly. Then looked to the researchers. "Is there something I have done to offend you that you keep pairing me up with people who have taken intelligence as their dumpstat and fail to have even a rudimentary understanding of basic Common?"

V's eyes narrowed upon seeing the researchers nodding off. "I am something less than amused that thia running gag has transported here with me."

Re: Research on the Sundered (ROFL)

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Wow. You are rude."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Charisma is not my main stat, no. I have as high a modifier there as I need for my spells, I see no other requirement for such a stat."

Willard, the familiar, pecked V lightly on the face. The bird at the moment looked like a robin who tried to tar itself to look all black.

V's teeth ground. "But I am ATTEMPTING to see the value in other people...." was grumbled out, reluctantly. "Stupid character development," that last part was muttered.

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"People tend to like being around people who don't insult them? Just a thought?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Why do I have to care if people like being in my presence? We come together for common goals, but other from that I would much prefer being left to myself to study on the rare occasions when I am given the opportunity to choose my own activities."

There are reasons V's spouse is about to file for divorce, okay? Not that V knows that yet.

"Did anyone else just get the feeling there was an ominous monologue happening off panel?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"That sounds kinda awful. I don't think anyone would really choose to be alone...."

Link blinked.

"Off panel?"

Re: Research on the Sundered (Jaded Clef.)

[gender_neutral]

"Why would I wish to be otherwise? What aid can most people grant when it comes to furthering my education at this point? What can be added by their presence to counterbalance the time stolen that could be spent pouring over a hitherto unread tome?"

Re: Research on the Sundered (Link is unimpressed, lol)

[sevenyearsasleep]

"You could just use time travel."

Re: Research on the Sundered (Link is unimpressed, lol)

[gender_neutral]

"And I presume from the way you said it with such causal ease that you are about to explain to me exactly how that is to be achieved?" The crystal indicated a lie which V thought was redundant. The sarcasm was clear enough, thank you.

Re: Research on the Sundered (Link is unimpressed, lol)

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Mm-hm. Ocarina music and a sword."

Hey, look. Link's crystal isn't changing color.

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"That is hardly explaining," V said, dryly. "The Bard has access to both and as of present has failed to show even the slightest of aptitude in combining them, and please do not give him the idea of blow darts out of a wind instrument, listening to him sing is bad enough as it is."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Oh, well, both my Ocarina and sword are ancient magical artifacts."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Yes, and?"


What decent level adventurer didn't have a masterwork or two somewhere at any given time?

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"So, that's probably why I can use them to travel through time. Oh. That and whole being the Hero-of-Time thing..."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Clearly you are not the bard of your party. Do you always tell your stories in moronic sentence fragments, or is this interview just special?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"You said you didn't really care to speak with me. And you're kind of a jerk."

Red crystal this time.

"Oh. Yeah. Uh. You are definitely a jerk."

The crystal went back to normal.

"So...why would I bother trying to explain stuff to you? You're stuck up."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"BECAUSE THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS INANE EXPERIMENT!"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Yeah, and I've learned lots about other people's worlds. It was fun! You don't care about my world, and you haven't said anything about your world, so, why bother?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"If you actually somehow hold the secret to time travel then SHARE IT." Someone might be seething. Time was a power even the soul splice hadn't offered.

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"I told you, I use the Ocarina of Time. Certain songs have different powers. One of those powers is Time Travel, another is changing day to night, another can make it rain--"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

V's teeth were clenched and words forced their way through. "No, you said you have a magic Ocarina and Sword. You said nothing about how they were utilized."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"I'm not sure you'd understand."

That...that might be a smirk.

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"I HAVE A HIGHER WISDOM MODIFIER THAN YOU HAVE FOR A STAT! I REGULARLY TELL THE FORCES OF SCIENCE AND NATURAL LAW TO SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP! MY COMPREHENSION WILL ONLY BE LIMITED BY YOUR INEPT EXPLANATIONS!"