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]

[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?

[shiningkindness]

Well, a magical artifact from the world connected to mine as brought into my world, and even when it was taken back, my friends and I started being able to use it. It first started when we would play music, but then it happened whenever we showed our true selves.

[goingbythebook]

Okay, several questions.

[He counted off on his fingers as he recited.]

There's a world connected to yours? What sort of magical artifact was it? Why is music involved? And what do you mean "your true selves"?

[shiningkindness]

[She nodded.]

Apparently. It's a world filled with magic, and some of us have counterparts that are a kind of pony. For example, my friend Twilight Sparkle's counterpart in that world is an alicorn, Princess Twilight Sparkle. We actually met Princess Twilight before meeting Twilight from our world.

Princess Twilight had a magical artifact called an Element of Harmony, which was part of other Elements that she and her friends, our counterparts, used to protect her world.

Music was another way we could express ourselves, which was kind of why the magic would flow through us when we played. But the magic would take on a transformation, what we called "Ponying Up", when we showed the truest part of ourselves.

Like...one of my friends, Rarity, loves making outfits for us, so much so that it caused her to Pony Up. It was only later that we realized that it was because she was expressing her Generosity.

[goingbythebook]

Wow... That sounds incredible! I wonder what it would be like to meet a counterpart of yourself?

[He's just making more notes, don't mind him.]

What about you? Do you know this quality of yourself that causes you to Pony Up?

[shiningkindness]

Um...Kindness...I-I think?

[Really, she knows what it is, but she hates saying it because she doesn't want to sound like she's showing off or anything.]

[goingbythebook]

[Two scrapes of the pen as he underlined Kindess.]

I could see that! You've been really nice this entire conversation.

So, what's Ponying Up like? And is there any bad magic in your world?

[shiningkindness]

It's...interesting. The magic kind of flows through us and fill us with energy, and we gain pony ears and pony tails. Twilight, my friend Rainbow Dash, and I also get Pegasus wings.

There...were some Sirens that used their magic to feed off the negative emotions of people. And some people end up consumed and overwhelmed by the magic and do some...bad things.

[goingbythebook]

Hmm... So it's not all sunshine and pureness of heart, then. I suppose magic has dual sides, just like everything else.

[He tapped the pen like a weighing seesaw, looking at the paper.]

In my world, I never really knew magic existed until I met Uncle Scrooge. Even then, most of it was bad. Demons, kelpies, money sharks, and shadows coming to life to try and tear my family apart...

[Weak, barely-humorous chuckle.]

Not much that's endeared me to the idea. So it's nice to see good magic for a change, in the school and what it sounds like you're familiar with, Fluttershy.