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

[shiningkindness]

Right. My friend Sunset Shimmer is also in the same house, and I know she'd be happy to help out too.

[goingbythebook]

Oh, your friend's in Eiather too? That's really cool- [He's not jealous at all shut up NO YOU SHUT UP] -I'll have to look out for her!

[shiningkindness]

Oh yes. She's really great. She's smart too, and she knows a lot about magic.

[goingbythebook]

She does? But she's from the same world you are, right? Has she done more Ponying Up than you have?

[shiningkindness]

Er...well, we technically came from the same world. But she's actually from the other world, and came to our world.

[goingbythebook]

Oh!

Wwait wait, how is she from the other other world, and your world?

[shiningkindness]

I mean...she came from the other world, but now lives in our world. So she's as much a part of it as I am.

[goingbythebook]

Well no, that's not what I meant.

How did she come from her world to your world? I thought magic didn't used to exist, but interdimensional travel seems pretty magical to me.

[shiningkindness]

Well, our worlds are connected. And I guess there was a portal in that world that leads to our world.

It...probably is magical in nature, but since their world had magic, it makes sense that the portal had opened on their side.

[goingbythebook]

Huh. So when you mean connected, you meant literally connected. And Sunset came through that portal at some point, and started living in your world?

[shiningkindness]

Yes. That's...what happened.

[That sure is a glow from the crystal.]

[goingbythebook]

[He looked at the crystal, staring at it for a moment. Oh right, he'd gotten so caught up in the questions and all that he'd forgotten entirely about it. Had it glowed any before...?

Well it certainly was now, so might as well do something about it.]

Okay then, what really happened?

[shiningkindness]

[Glancing at the crystal, she sighed.]

W-Well...Sunset Shimmer...miiiiight have been the one who...stole Princess Twilight's crown and planned to use it to turn the school into her army so she could take over the other world.

[goingbythebook]

She what? And she's here?

[A moment of panic, before-]

Wait, but... You called her your friend. What... happened?

[shiningkindness]

She used to be mean, but she's different now. After we stopped her from taking over both worlds, she turned around, and she ended up being the one to figure out how to stop the Sirens when they were trying to take over.

She really is a good person.

[goingbythebook]

[He was quiet a few moments, and maybe some others might be doubting Sunset's motives. That she really had turned herself around, that she wasn't just luring people into a false sense of security.

Those people weren't Huey Duck.]

You know, Lena is a lot like that. She... got mixed up in Magica's shadow war- [The crystal flashed, and he sighed] -as the agent I mentioned before. But she worked to save us all in the end, and it was only because of her intervention that we were able to get Magica's artifact away from her.

I admittedly, don't know her that well but I know she's a good person too.

[shiningkindness]

[A bit surprised, she then smiled.]

She sounds really nice.

[goingbythebook]

You'll have to meet her sometime.

[He thought a moment, tapping his beak.]

I wonder if she knows Sunset. Sounds like they might have a lot to talk about.

[shiningkindness]

Maybe. Sunset is always good at finding people who were like her that need a bit of help.

[goingbythebook]

I'll have to ask Lena next time I see her, then. And I'll keep an eye out for Sunset too, like I said before.

[He smiled, then looked back at the clipboard. Let's see, anything else here?...]

[shiningkindness]

[Well, Huey's asked a lot of questions. Now it's her turn.]

So, tell me a bit about your world. You've mentioned a bit about what magic is like there, but it sounds like it's not really that common.

[goingbythebook]

Not particularly, no. I didn't even know it existed until recently!

[Soft laugh]

Then all of a sudden I find out Scrooge McDuck, the adventurer of the ages, is my uncle- well, great-uncle to be clear -and now we all get whisked away on adventures with him! Some of them have been pretty harrowing, but for the most part I've really been enjoying myself, out there solving mysteries.

[shiningkindness]

Oh wow...that sounds really exciting.

[And dangerous, but if he's enjoying himself...]

What kind of adventures have you been on?