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

[sevenyearsasleep]

"No offense, but, I'm not entirely sure you should be trying save...reality...you don't really seem well equipped for it."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Of the two of us, I assure you I am the far more equipped party member."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Party member?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Yes, I am the primary spell arcane spell caster for my party."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"What 'party' are you talking about?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"The Order Of The Stick. While that is clearly an intro for a splash page, I do not feel like posing alone. There is myself as the primary arcane spellcaster, as I said. Master Thundershield who is the divine spell caster. Sir Greenhilt is a Fighter, and the current leader. There is Miss Starshine, of course. And her boyfriend the Bard. There is also the halfling."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Oh...okay."

Yeah. He had no idea what most of that meant.

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"I assure you that most of us are more than capable of protecting reality." Mostly, from the rest of the party.

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"What's reality?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"............................................"



V is momentarily at a loss for words. One moment please.


"............................"

"Reality," V said ince wits were gathered, "Is the compilation of all things that are, across all worlds and all planes of existence." V fully intended to avoid crayon art for explanations, but could not resist pulling out a purple quill and marking on the wall. "There are some theories that say that reality can branch, and by that theory there are two kinds of reality to discuss." V drew a line on the wall in purple ink. "According to this theory reality is like a straight line; that is, until someone makes a decision. For example I decided to stay in the library and read rather than come here and participate. Like a stick, that line now branches." V drew two branches off the end of that stick, making a sideways V. "We are here," V said, tapping the top most branch. "in this one," the lower branch was tapped, "I have less of a headache."

V returned to the higher branch and drew off of that, two more branches. "Here you read the paper and I was probably arrested because no one on this plane can take a joke, and here" tapping the other, "I am drawing on the wall to explain splintering reality theory. Now in this theory these," V circled the end points of each branch "are all realities, separate. However..." Vi circled the whole drawing, "THIS is Reality, an existance that encompases all realities and splinters. It is that Reality, with the capitol R, that we are charged with saving. Largely because we are the only ones to hear what the issue is and not want to harness the reality destroying power for our own ends. Any questions?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"So are you saving it for the people or because its destruction would eat into your study time?"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"Both!" Nothing wrong with that. "Besides, the threat itself is FASCINATING! Imagine how much I can learn while closing the rifts? How much Soon and the others learned when they had first closed the rifts! And between the two, maybe I can even learn how to keep the rifts closed so that petty rivalries cannot sunder them again!"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"I dunno. I'd never been to school until I came here, so I don't really get what's so fantastic about learning. Unless it's about other people."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

This was what happened when people let stats limit backstories, clearly.

"While schooling is a fascinating opportunity for those in a position to partake, it is far from the only way to learn. It is not even the ideal way to learn for some people. But learning is part of everything! You learned to walk and talk, presumably even at the same time. Is that not a fantastic feat?" Given your clearly NPC level stats. "Everything you know how to do, you learned at some point. Without learning you'd still be a babe in arms unable to do for yourself. That is what is so fantastic about learning!"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"That's just survival. You don't adapt, you die." Link was raised thinking he was a freak for even having been an infant. And that aging was a weird and wrong thing to do.

"The things that are really impressive are how alike everyone really is, even though people look so different. And that you can follow stars to find your way. And that there are birds who can lay you an egg for breakfast and peck you to death by lunch time."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"ALL OF THOSE ARE THINGS YOU LEARNED!"

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"By talking to people. Not by reading or going to class."

Also, you are super loud.

"Why do you care so much? It's not like it's a personal insult."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"There are a lot of ways to learn, but there is no reason to malign learning itself because you are disinclined to classes."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"If it makes people unpleasant and snobby like you, I'm not sure I want do anything other than malign it."

Okay. That was a personal insult.

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

"No, that would be the result of my low charisma score and the fact that I dislike most people. Present company very much may choose to feel included in that."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"Likewise."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

V shrugged. Didn't much matter. "We aren't here to be social or like each other. We are here to answer and ask questions so as to provide information that will hopefully sid in our return to our respective homes so that I can resume my critical mission to save the fabric of reality itself, and you can do whatever it is that you do when you are home, though I suspect it has much to do with bludgeoning yourself over the head."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"I've been saving my homeland. The only thing I've bludgeoned to death was a dragon."

Re: Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

For a moment there was a bit of darkness in V's eyes. Pain? Guilt? Anger? Hard to tell. "You? An adventurer?" V asked haughtily, to cover the speck of genuine emotion that did NOT warrant sharing, thank you very much.

Re: Research on the Sundered

[sevenyearsasleep]

"No. Hero."

Link's tone made it clear he wasn't bragging.

"I'm the Hero of Time and I was in the middle of fixing things when I ended up here."