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

[nobodys_puppet]

"I... do not understand," she said softly. "What is a dance?" Partners like when she and Roxas work together? Was it some sort of practice or training thing?

[noasark]

It's honestly the shock of the question, which keeps him from reacting in an especially visible way. He manages to not even choke- it's quite the achievement he would like to think.

He takes as much advantage of it as possible, by immediately Ruining it.

"...You don't know what a dance is?" he repeats, raising a brow.

[nobodys_puppet]

She swallowed a bit and hunched her shoulders. Was he going to attack her like the other bullies for being different? For not knowing? "Am I supposed to?" she whispered, waiting to be struck, ready to run if she had to.

[noasark]

If bullying is what Xion fears, Noa is fortunately not going to do that. Actually he opens his mouth, and then closes it, because honestly-

"...That's actually a good point," he mutters, tapping his chin. "...I don't think it can be something you're 'supposed' to know, unless you've been signed up for it without your knowledge..."

Well! "It's...something like a sport- mostly it's an art, but it's active enough I would call it a sport."

[nobodys_puppet]

She stopped looking quite so ready to run but now she was even more confused. "Like a sport, but an art, but active enough to be sport?" She needed Axel there to explain this all to her. What was a sport or an art? She was guessing a sport was like fighting, since he said it was active, and that would explain partners, wouldn't it?

[noasark]

"Ahhh...yes, more or less." He probably should have explained it better. Well.

"It's turning motion into art- you move, typically with someone else, in a way that proves enjoyable to do, and watch. Does that make more sense?"

Have fun.

[nobodys_puppet]

And still more confused. "An... enjoyable way to move? And to watch? While moving? Or watch when someone else is moving that way?" She still didn't know quite what art was....

OH BOY

[noasark]

"Both. If you're dancing properly, you're having fun- and if someone else is dancing properly, you'll have fun watching~"

He has no idea what he's in for, challenge-wise.

[nobodys_puppet]

"I don't think I understand?" She thought she might know what fun was. Maybe? She wasn't fully sure. But she still didn't know what dancing was. So it was making this whole thing confusing. Well, more confusing. "How does one dance properly? Or not properly?"

[noasark]

"It's subjective." He answers it easily, and casually, as if he were describing the weather. "All art is- I suppose unless you particularly cared about everyone's subjective opinion, the answer would therefore be 'whatever feels right'. ...Or something along those lines," he mutters, frowning.

"I admittedly grew up with a number of rules on it, though I'm not certain they were the best rules now..." Certainly, it was how to dance 'that way', but who knows how that applies here right?

[nobodys_puppet]

"So...." she was trying to put this together in her head, but nothing was making any sense. "A dance is moving your body in a way that is fun, and has rules but the rules are... subjective? And somehow this is a sport or an art? And you need a partner to watch your back? What kind of mission is this?" She. Was. So. Confused.

"What are we fighting? Or is it recon?" Generally though she was only given a partner for fighting missions once she knew what she was doing. So maybe just combat? But combat wasn't fun... if she understood the word fun correctly, and she wasn't sure she did. So all of this was just really... confusing. But if she could find out who was giving out the missions... there hadn't been any b efore, but now that Saïx was here....

[noasark]

For a bit he's starting to nod, and then-

Uh. "....It's neither?" He blinks, caught entirely off guard. "...This has nothing to do with...Combat, it's meant to be recreation. ...Though I suppose it's still a 'mission' given that people want us to attend..." the boy mutters.

"The idea is that attending will be 'fun' though, not that we'll be...fighting or anything along those lines."

[nobodys_puppet]

"Who assigned the mission? Why would be be given a mission for... fun? Am I misunderstanding what fun is?" From someone else that last question could be said with a sneer or a snort or similar? From her? She genuinely seemed to think that she had misunderstood fun.

[noasark]

"Presumably whoever organized the dance...though it wouldn't be considered a 'mission' in their terms. Most people use missions to refer to professional obligations- this is an obligation, certainly, but I suspect if we told anyone it's a 'Mission' they'd tell us to lighten up," he huffs.

To be fair, he wouldn't call it a mission either. He's just using the term because he guessed Xion finds it more familiar.

That said.

Hhhhhhoooooooboy. His brows both rise a fair bit. "...That would depend on what you define 'fun' to be."

Wow, just checked the script, the word is actually never used around her

[nobodys_puppet]

Now she was even more confused. "Myu definition of fun may or may not be wrong based on... what my definition of fun is?" she was really trying to figure this out, she was. And then she frowned. "Lighten up?" That sounded like something Xigbar might say, didn't it?

rip...

[noasark]

He shakes his head. "Mnnh. Only somewhat, I would think. ...though I suppose if your definition involved violence, people would be inclined to call it 'wrong'..."

He should probably give up on the technicalities. "Ahmn. First- 'lighten up' is a phrase," he explains with a shrug, resigning himself to explaining Everything He Says. He'd feel bad making fun of this, by this point. It's not funny, it's kind of sad. "People use it when they think others are being too serious, and expect them to be more optimistic about things. Back to 'Fun'... You asked if you were misunderstanding what it meant. What did you think it means?"

I love this thread so much, just so you know. Hope you are enjoying too.

[nobodys_puppet]

"I think that Axel said fun was..." she closed her eyes, thinking, trying to remember. "Those kids who had summer vacation, that they spent all those days off having fun together. And that... spending time with your best friends... is fun?" She tilted her head, thinking about it. "None of that has to do with... moving in a way that some people might... enjoy watching?"

ITS GOOD STUFF

[noasark]

"Hnnn...it does and doesn't- who knows, they could have spent time dancing with their friends," he hums. The boy shrugs.

"Fun, to describe it clinically, is when you do things that make you happy. It could be playing a game, it could be dancing, it could be reading...it could even be doing nothing at all, provided you enjoy it. It could be with, or without someone else. All it has to be, is something you're happy about doing- and then you'd be having 'fun' while doing that."

:D

[nobodys_puppet]

She frowned a bit, considering. "I am a Nobody...." Not even a real Nobody. "I don't have a heart. Don't... you need a heart to be happy?" she asked, softly, looking at her gloves.

[noasark]

This explains so many things, and yet also Nothing at all.

"I'm assuming you mean metaphysically," he starts fairly quickly, crossing his arms. The idea of having 'no heart' is admittedly not as unfamiliar as he'd like it to be.

A computer after all, doesn't have one either. "It's hard to be alive, without a heartbeat. ...But the question I would have is 'what is a Heart', where you're from? ...What is a 'Nobody', for that matter?"

He will let her answer- but only after he adds a little bit more. "Personally, the thing about emotions is that you can't have one without being able to experience the other somehow..." he hums, closing his eyes for a moment. "...You don't come across as emotionless, after all."

[nobodys_puppet]

She shook her head a bit. I am a Nobody. I do not have a heart. I cannot have emotions. Not real ones. Just... emulations. Apparently Nobodies can grow hearts but... I'm not a normal Nobody, so I can't do that either..." she said softly. "Most Nobodies are made when a heart is removed from a living person who is strong enough to become more than just a Heartless." She touched her chest with one gloved hand. "There is no heart there. Not like there is for Somebodies. Not even a memory of a heart, for me. I've never had one. Never will."

She was mostly giving information, not feeling sorry for herself. It was just how things were. She wasn't like the other Nobodies, she hadn't longed for a heart because she had no memories of having had one, so she couldn't miss it. She knew Roxas had been the same, that way, even though he did have a Somebody, he hadn't recalled him. Hadn't remembered being alive."

[noasark]

Alright. Sounds a bit like some sort of homunculus, a synthetic human situation, to Noa. (That's Pretty Neat, Actually)

It's easy enough to keep the interest off his face given what they're talking about.

He makes no effort at all to hide a bit of smugness that comes when she finishes. "If you're not a 'normal' Nobody," he begins, "How do you know you can't develop a heart? If your emotions are emulations, you'd need a base to emulate from- you said 'most' are made by removing a heart- which implies you weren't. And implies you don't have that base..."

He pauses, and adds- "...Which would mean you'd have to be creating the things you call 'emulation' on your own. I can't really call that 'emulation', by that point- I can only call it 'real'."

[nobodys_puppet]

Those questions.... were a lot like what what Axel said to her sometimes. And she still didn't have an answer. "I... think I am probably emulating Axel. Lea now that he has a heart again. He was the one who made friends with me and Roxas back in the Organization. He used to have a heart, unlike me. But how could I regrow something I never had? Was never created to have?" she asked, softly. "I don't even have the memories that Namine used to create me anymore."

She closed both hands over each other in the general vicinity of her stomach and looked down, shaking her head. "I am just what is left of a broken puppet. A failed experiment. I can't even do what I was created for. Not that I would ever work for Xemnas or Saïx again but... I am of even less use now... than I used to be," she whispered. "And the only real thing I could do to help anyone... I did already."

boythisgotlong

[noasark]

"That sounds like an excuse," he snorts, fairly certain in his own theories. "And naturally it means you're not 'regrowing' anything. You're growing it- from scratch~ Completely new, and all yours!"

The positive mood dies down, and his expression fades. For a moment he is quiet. "...It's strange to say this," he eventually admits, "...But beyond the idea of experiments, I don't believe you're the only one left with that sort of thing to deal with." It's far from the same as simply dying and no longer being dead- as being groomed for one thing, and no longer having it (or perhaps not so different at all).

It rings just closely enough that he can't help but empathize however. It's a strange feeling, and he's not entirely sure what he should make of it.

"If you don't plan to work for them, or be a puppet to them, then I would say it's better that you're not 'of use' to those sorts, wouldn't you? To be 'of use'..." ...

"...Hn!" His gaze turns to the ground. "I'd much rather be doing my own thing, than be 'of use' to someone. Being 'of use' means the only reason I'm there is because they can use me for something. We were talking about friends earlier, weren't we?" he adds, only barely glancing back at Xion. "Friends don't use each other, as far as I've learned. Help each other, certainly, but if you're only around someone because they find you 'useful' that's not a friendship."

He's still figuring out the idea of friends granted, but... ...Well.

Perhaps he should admit that. "...It's not exactly a topic I'm well versed in," Noa mutters, looking at the ground again. "...But I know at least that much now. None of us were 'supposed' to be here, but we are now. What we could do and can do has changed. If you want to help people- to help, not to be used," he adds pointedly, "Then I wouldn't think focusing on what you could do before will help you in the long run. Learning about what you can do now, and could do- that would be better, wouldn't it?"

...He's said a lot. Perhaps too much, he ponders rather anxiously. Yet he can't hold back one final bit. "...It's a new start. ...Not a lot of people get those..."

It is awesome! (Also, love that icon name) (PPS her hood is still up,, despite the icon)

[nobodys_puppet]

Grow a heart from scratch? Could... a replica even do something like that? She wasn't sure, and there wasn't anyone she could really ask, given that she wasn't going to ask Saïx. Axel... well sometimes Axel saw things the way he wanted to see them, rather than the way they were. He had said as much himself.

But... how should she go about creating a heart? How did one do that? How could she learn?

When he said that she wasn't the only one to deal with things like this, she looked up from her hands to look at him again, startled. She watched him as she listened, letting him say everything he seemed to need to say. By the time he was finished, she was looking at her gloves again. trying to figure out how to reply to all that.

"Axel said that we are friends... because he likes spending time with us. And.. Roxas and I like it too," she said softly. "But they've both done so much to help me, and I've hurt them so much, so many times... I want to be useful to them, to do something for them. But... without what I used to be able to do... what value do I have?" she asked, then in a whisper. "To anybody?" She didn't mean that part to be heard. HAdn't even meant to say it.

Her hands clenched together. "I know.... that most people don't get to come back after they die, most Somebodies. I'm not sure why I'm here but... Axel is here too. And... And Roxas will show up at some point... I know he will. But I know that just... wanting to be with them is selfish," she said, softly. "But even if it is selfish... I still want it. To go to the beach with my friends on a day off, like we promised. To be able to help protect them... like they've always helped and protected me."