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

[darkenedmoon]

Not necessarily! They also have an image to uphold! However, I am willing to help you do damage control--as in they will not damage the hair and the beard too much! If at all! [Because how dare they!]

No, I think we find one or two outfits you can tolerate wearing, and those are your...uniforms, for formal things. And yes, thus you tell them that it is part of your image, and run with it. It is not as if you are not good at that.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Outfits I can tolerate wearin' don't have shirts! [This, then, seems to be the point of contention. But he's also pretty sure bala-inlota players are like blitzball starts back in Zanarkand, they can get away with anything if they've got some fame to back it up.] Gonna be bad enough getting some nice robes for the ball. But that'll be one, right?

[darkenedmoon]

Yes. That will be one. I am also thinking of something else that it shirtless, if you must know! It is not as if I am not aware of your distaste for them!

[Though the gods know he'd look just fine in a shirt, if the color suited. Or so she thought.]

No. My next thought was a vest, perhaps, and slacks. Still no shirt, but something that still covers lightly. I do not think they could argue that. Something that might match your current trousers, as well. [Yotsuyu nods decisively at that. Yes, she knows her fashion sense is good, and he could both pull such off, and likely, tolerate it.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Vests are kind of a bit.... I dunno. [He doesn't have the words for what he's thinking, but he waves a hand to indicate himself. You really think it'll work, Yotasuyu?]

[darkenedmoon]

You do not like shirts, and they could try to put you in worse. [She glances up at him, brows arched. Then, she snorts.] It is not like you to be so uncertain! If I did not think you could pull it off, I would not have suggested it.

[Yotsuyu has at least picked up that real friends don't set other friends up to be embarrassed in public situations. She might let him look like an idiot elsewhere, but when it came to something as important to him as Bala-Inlota? No, that would be going far too far, in her mind.]

Nor should it chafe you like a shirt might.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Open vest, right? [At least give him that much! He's already groaning and giving on airs like a kid being asked to comb their hair when they'd just spent an hour getting it properly mussed.]

[darkenedmoon]

One button, at most. Start with it open, if they try to negotiate it close, stand firm at one button! [She nods at that, and then offers up a smile that isn't quite as sweet as she seems to think it is.]

I think that should be tolerable, no?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah, yeah. I don't like it. Gonna make that clear and loud, damn it. [Sulk, sulk. She had a point, at least in that he'd probably have to work them up to what he wanted. So she could interpret his lack of counterargument as agreement.]

[darkenedmoon]

I know that. If I were in charge, being well aware of your distaste, I would do what I could to work around it. I am not. Therefore, you must deal with it. [Yotsuyu would say 'suffer', but, well.]

I am trying to help you. [For once.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

You hear me tellin' you to shove off? [He knows it's help, damn it. Expecting him to take it with good grace is asking too much! The point is he's taking it!]

[darkenedmoon]

[Yotsuyu's first thought is to be angry--not everyone earns her help, after all--but a moment of thought, and she realizes that she's as like to be just as prickly, were she offered help in a time of discomfort. So she lets it go.]

Very well, then. Do you wish me to choose things for you? I imagine you might like visiting a tailor once, than being dragged all over creation and trying things on. I think I can size you accurately.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Not that I don't trust you, I know you'd do just fine. But I feel like I probably oughtta be involved. [Just as a sort of self-respect thing. He's trying his best to get out of stuff, but totally fobbing off the task on Yotsuyu is a step too far for his pride.]

[darkenedmoon]

[That had her lifting her brows at Jecht, but if that was the way he wanted it, Yotsuyu wasn't about to argue with him. His words were compliment enough, truly.]

Do you want to come with me, then? Perhaps not now, but in the evening, after your practice is over? We could get it over with, and then have dinner?

[It wasn't as if she hadn't gotten a raise, after all.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah, I gotta have you there. I need an outside eye on this sorta thing! [And dinner's a nice little hook for a guy who likes his food, so she's made the sell no problem.]

[darkenedmoon]

Oh, please. As if you could not spin whatever you chose. [Yotsuyu waves a hand at that, dismissively. He brags about himself, and then has doubt about whether or not he can pull an outfit off? Please.]

Well, I shall be at practice, so I suppose I shall see you then. [Besides, she had a class to get to.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Heh, damn straight you will. I'll be the incredible one showing everybody up! [He thumps his chest with his fist, all ego and pride once again.]