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

[goingbythebook]

May I Have This Dance?
[This world was entirely strange and new, despite having taken a little time to get used to it. He quickly fell into the "School" routine if nothing else, going to classes and doing his homework. It was just now that homework involved working magic. He heard something about an upcoming dance, but spent little time thinking about that. There were spells to perfect and books to read, and besides he'd been here such a short time no one outside of being from his home would even know him. Who would ask some random kid to a dance?

As it turned out, a LOT of people.

Huey, as a Sundered and as a decidedly different sort of Sundered, garnered more attention than he ever would've expected. While back home he was normal as could be, here among mostly what consisted of (to him) very strange people, HE was the one that was different. And more than a few found that interesting, exotic even. So Huey was finding himself fending off questions left and right from fellow students his age, and even a little older who found his intellect-beyond-his-years intriguing. It was more than a little duckling, still overwhelmed from being here in the first place, could really bear on top of everything else.

Which is why you may find a small streak of Eiather robes-and-red go by, escaping some voice shouting "We'll talk!" from the corner behind him. Might be in the library, might be in an otherwise quiet classroom (in there getting practice?), might even be outside but either way Huey is dashing past, and is going to take cover under the nearest desk, table, or bush to hide. Looked pretty stressed, might want to help him out.]


Research on the Sundered
[Hah, if there's one thing Huey Duck was good at, it was RESEARCH. Eagerly signing up for the chance, he listened intently as the idea of the partnered interviews was explained to him. The crystal got a note of interest, particularly as Intimation was his own house's alignment, but he quickly went on to other things. Gotta think of some good questions! He found a clipboard and wrote down the first several... dozen... things that popped into mind, and the very moment he's partnered up with someone else...]

Hi! I'm Huey Duck. I have just a few questions for you. What's your name? How old are you? How old is your world? What's the solar system like? Are the other sentient creatures in your world like you, or are there different species? Does magic exist? Do you have a job? Have you ever gone to school before? Have you ever gone to magic school before? What is it about you that you think got you into this world? Into the house you're in? What about your familiar? What's the technology like in your world? Who invented your lightbulbs?

[Luckily this is the point where he stops to BREATHE. Better stop him now- and pick a question or two -or he's just going to keep going.]


Wonders Await
[Throughout anything else- other than watching the giant monsters fight but hey, those're problems for other threads - Huey can be found doing whatever you might expect for such a studious young man like him. If you need help with homework he's your guy, even if it's just pulling study materials. There's spells to be practiced and, if anyone's game to going down to the rings, a whole new world to explore. Heck, you might even find him in the library, either cross-referencing between a school material and an unfamiliar tome called the Junior Woodchuck's Guidebook, or uh. Reading a book on stopping addiction...?

Either way, this is as per usual the wildcard prompt, so anything goes.]

Research

[shiningkindness]

[It takes a moment for Fluttershy to answer, mostly because ANOTHER ADORABLE DUCKLING OH GOODNESS.

But also those are a lot of questions, and she doesn’t know how to answer all of them.]

It’s nice to meet you, Huey. My name is Fluttershy, and I’m 17. I...think the world is a few billion years old? Our solar system is the Milky Way, or at least a version of it, with eight planets...or nine, because some people still count Pluto. Humans in my world do look like me for the most part, though humans can look very different from each other.

Magic didn’t used to exist in my world, until it was brought in from another world that’s connected to mine. I work in a Pet and Grooming store at the mall, though I also do volunteer work at the local animal shelter.....unless you mean a job here, in which case no. I do attend high school back home, but it doesn’t teach magic. I’m not entirely sure what about me might have brought me here, or assigned me to Eiather. My familiar is a land whale named Ballet.

At home we have smartphones and all sorts of tech. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.

[goingbythebook]

[As soon as she started answering, he started scribbling. Every note was carefully taken down- have to flip a page, hold on -and each question filled in. Looking back over what he had so far, he laughed lightly.]

Wow, Fluttershy! You're the first one who's answered everything.

[Mmmm, knowledge. Hugging the clipboard to him, he smiled up at her.]

There's quite a bit on there that sounds rather similar to my world back home. What's working at a pet store like? And- ooh! You said you were in Eiather right? That's my house!

[Squeeeeee HE FOUND A HOUSEMATE and so early, too! His tail might wag a little at this like a happy little farm duck.]

How do you like it so far? And what do you mean when you say "land whale"?

[shiningkindness]

[It helps that’s she's had a lot of practice with “questions all at once”.

Though her smile brightened when he mentioned his house. Also cuuuuuute.]

Oh, you’re in Eiather too? That’s great!

The pet store is nice, but I prefer working at the animal shelter. Being here has been interesting, though.

A land whale is like a regular whale, except they swim through land instead of water.

[As she spoke, Huey might see a dorsal fin starting to circle around where they were sitting. Luckily Ballet had taken on her smaller form.]

[goingbythebook]

[We're sorry, everything else is on hold as A DORSAL FIN comes out of the ground and takes a turn around him. Huey does a reasonable impression of an owl as he tries to watch it the whole way.]

Whoa! [And excited Someday Scientist squee in 3, 2, 1...] That's incredible! I'm sure the actual answer is "Magic did it" but I would love to be able to investigate the physical changes acted upon the land to give it the fluidity it needs for that to happen! Ooh I wonder if there are any changes in physiology between an ocean whale and a land whale to allow it to do that!

[...Questions about Fluttershy's world? What questions?]

[shiningkindness]

[She doesn’t mind at all, especially since she loves talking about animals anyway.]

Maybe! I know there are a few differences already. Ballet is normally about the same size as a regular orca, but she’s able to shrink down to be smaller. The smallest she can be is about the size of a large pillow.

[goingbythebook]

Intriguing! [He finds a spare page and makes some other notes.] Now I just want to investigate other people's familiars, some of them seem really interesting!

[Letting the pages fall, he saw the first one and all of a sudden remembered what he was SUPPOSED to do.]

Oh yeah. [Sheepish throat clear, and he looked up.] Do you have questions for me?

[Since it's supposed to be a back and forth and all.]

[shiningkindness]

Me too! I’m actually learning to try and talk with other familiars.

[.....oh right, they were supposed to be doing something.]

Um....well...Oh! You...wouldn’t happen to be from the same world as Webby and Louie, would you?

[goingbythebook]

[Gonna put a pin in "talk to familiars" and answer the rest.

He positively lit up at that and nodded.]

Yeah! Webby's my friend, and Louie is my younger brother. [Folding in his thumb, he held up three fingers.] We're triplets, with our other brother Dewey between us.

[shiningkindness]

Oh wow, you’re triplets?

[Cuuuuuuuuuuuuute.]

But your other brother isn’t here?

[goingbythebook]

Yep, we sure are! And as the older brother, I look out for them all of course.

[Her second question caused the briefest dip in his smile, but he puffed himself back up immediately. Nope, nothing sad about this! Not to a stranger anyway.]

No, not yet anyway. But I have a feeling he'll appear eventually! And even if he doesn't, there's plenty to do here otherwise, and.. I have Louie.

That's good enough for now.

[shiningkindness]

[She seemed to notice that, though, despite the brief moment.]

That’s true...still, I can kind of understand how strange that must be. I have a group of friends back home, and we did everything together, especially when magic started leaking into our world and we had to learn to use it and stop a lot of bad things from happening.

One of my friends from back home, Sunset Shimmer, is here, and I’m so glad that she is. But I still miss the other girls too.

[goingbythebook]

Yeah it's... really strange.

[He seemed to answer her before really knowing he was. One arm got tighter around the clipboard, the other hand rested on top.]

I'm still not really used to anything here at all. There's nobody like you in my world, it's all other ducks, and dogs, and things like that. I thought that was normal but- it doesn't seem normal here.

Now there's magic, and a whole WORLD I'm not used to, and on some levels that's really great because I love learning new things! That's why I like going on adventures with Uncle Scrooge!

Except this time, there is no Uncle Scrooge. No Dewey, no Launchpad, nobody else except me, and Louie, and Webby. Lena's here too, but she's more Webby's friend than mine and...

I dunno.

[shiningkindness]

[She offered him an understanding smile.]

I know...it can seem so...overwhelming, right? Especially when you're missing some of the people who would usually help you through it.

[goingbythebook]

Yeah. Overwhelming is a really good word for it.

Then people keep hounding me because of some dance, so I offered to help out with this just so I could get my mind off it, but so far you're the only one that's answered all my questions.

I don't know yet if I really fit here.

[shiningkindness]

Well...I can't really answer for you. That's something you'll have to figure out for yourself.

But maybe just give it a bit. It sounds like you haven't been here very long, so just try to take things a day at at time, and see how things go from there.

[goingbythebook]

[He thought about it some, then nodded and smiled.]

Yeah. I haven't been here long- [Like, what? Two or three days, tops?] -so I just need to remember to take it slow. The unknown's not so bad, not when it can still be learned about.

[shiningkindness]

[She nodded.]

Right. And there are plenty of people here to help you too, if you needed it.

[goingbythebook]

[He laughed some.]

There sure are.

[He smiled at her, then held the clipboard back out and looked down at it.]

So, you mentioned earlier that magic suddenly started appearing in your world? What was the catalyst of that?

Research on the Sundered

[stillnewatthis]

[Luckily, Orisa's short-term memory is flash, not biological, which means she can parse the statements, prepare answers, and forget none of them.]

Hello! My name is Orisa. If you include time spent in this world in age, I am five months old. Current scientific estimates place the age of Earth at 4.543 billion years. The solar system consists of a G-class main sequence star orbited by eight known planets -- four terrestrial, two gas giants, two ice giants -- as well as countless smaller objects. The other primary sentient species on Earth is humans, much as it is in this world. Horizon Moonbase is occupied entirely by sentient gorillas, and one such gorilla as well as a hamster also live on Earth. Magic does not exist in any known capacity on Earth. My job on Earth is protector and defender of Numbani and people in general, while in Diatu I am currently delivering messages as part of the ongoing romance celebrations. I have not attended school, as the majority of my knowledge was programmed into me by my creator, along with further updates as necessary. This precludes your question of going to magic school as well. I believe that I may be fairly unique as a very new human-made omnic, which may be why I was selected for here. My artificial intelligence is forged in mathematical calculations, so being in the House associated with Modification magic is not surprising. I do not know how to describe the technology relative to your own world. Lightbulbs are primarily associated with Thomas Edison due to his refined and viable product and associated infrastructure.

[Orisa, for her part, does not need to breathe.]

[goingbythebook]

[There was quite a lot of excitement to be had about finally facing this robot. Even if Louie hadn't mentioned her to Huey beforehand, he still would've been excited. A robot! Confirmed artificial intelligence! Not only that but she was a fighter and, here anyway, another wizard like him; plus being all of 11 her design was awesome.

As such he hung on her every word, evident by his quick like the wind notations as she spoke. Don't start a fire with the tip of that pen, Huey.]

Incredible! I don't know where to start!

[The clipboard is practically hugged to him as he looked up with a brilliant smile.]

Thank you for being so thorough in your answers, I'm sure this'll be a huge help!

[stillnewatthis]

It is my pleasure to be of assistance! [Orisa loves few things more than to help people... though she never expected it would be through information! There is so little she knows compared to people who are older and wiser than she is.] I have met fellow ducks who I presume are from the same world and location as you, so I feel I may already know some things you might say.

Research on the Sundered

[gender_neutral]

Just a few? Well odd as this one looked, at least it was someone that seemed at least close to V's base intelligence score. Questions were often a sign of a high Int after all. Well, no. Not all questions, as the bard had proven time and time again. But for a baseline, most of these questions were fairly reasonable at least. So V would make a reasonable effort to answer them.

"My name is V, as for my age, I believe that I lost track after the first few centuries. We could check my bio page, but that has not been updated in some time. One moment." There was a pause, then a head shake from V. "No, the characters page has not been updated since Miss Starshine borrowed a diamond from herself. Neither my age nor my alignment are listed. As to the age of my world and what the solar system is like, as both of those questions inevitably lead to crayon drawings and secrets of unfathomable horror, I would prefer to refrain from discussing them at the present time. There are many sentient species in my world though individual sentience may vary. Especially in the case of certain halflings and humans whom I could think of with appalling ease. So that is hardly an or question. Yes there are others in a loose sense who are like me, if by like me you mean elven wizards, as well as different classes and races available. Of course magic exists, both here and in my world, we would not be here without magic, after all. And as for in my world see my previous answer where I identified myself as a wizard. As to my job, again, see wizard. In this case I am the primary arcane spell caster for the adventuring party known as the Order Of The Stick. I will choose to pretend you did not ask if I have attended school, rather than to acknowledge the question and the inherent insult to the hundreds of years I have spent studying to make the laws of physics sit down and shut up. Ways I can teach you if you attend my classes here, incidentally. As to a specifically magical school, I think that answer is as of now obvious to anyone with a positive modifier for Int checks, so I will not waste time or breath by answering it. As I understand it, we each came here based upon an unlucky roll of the dice, or perhaps a lucky one. I do not think any virtue or failing of mine lead to my being here specifically, as luck itself is not a modifier. I mean, there are inspiration points, but not until five and we haven't updated since three five. Which I might complain about perhaps, except I think that we were all relieved to utterly skip four. As to my specific house, I could not say, if there is any unifying factor to the houses I have yet to discover it. What about Willard specifically did you want to know? I suspect he got into my house because that is the house that I am in, but I rather doubt that was what you were actually asking, so you shall have to clarify your query before I could properly answer it. Technology in my world is more magic than tech, though if you wanted something built I would recommend asking a gnome. As to lightbulbs my world does not have them and I have been too busy researching spells that will be of some use to our quest to consider spending time on something that is so inane. Perhaps once all my spells have been restored to me, and the threat to reality resolved, perhaps then I might, might consider returning here to look up who created lightbulbs, but I rather suspect that shall not happen."

V also has the capacity for much speech without pause for breath....

Dance

[nobodys_puppet]

The bullies were attacking someone else? AGAIN? He had just run past her own hiding spot behind a bookcase on his way to under a table. She hesitated, then swallowed, stepping between him and... there wasn't anyone there. Then... what in the worlds...?

Confused, she turned to where he had run and knelt down, peering under the table. Her face, already shadowed from the hood she wore, was even harder to see as she studied him, confusion pushing aside fear for the moment.

"Who was attacking you?" Bullies? Heartless? Dusks? Saïx? There didn't seem to be any threat that she could sense, but if she needed to fight, she needed some idea of what she was fighting, and how much trouble it would get her into.

What little he could see of her would tell him that she was human. Her voice would give him female, and she sounded like she might be about his age or a little older. But that was about it. She wore a black coat, zippered all the way up, that went to the heels of her black boots. Black pants, black gloves, and a raised hood.

In May.

wonders await

[woo_oo]

[At the library, Webby is RIGHT UP IN HIS BUSINESS, trying to read over his shoulder.]

Hi Huey! Whatcha' reading?