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

Agreed.

[hotheadwarmheart]

He nodded solemnly, then shifted his hand to hold hers properly when she grabbed his sleeve. "That's part of why Sundering magic was made illegal in the first place," he said. "It's generally unstable and hard to control. The spells that brought us all here are no different; they could eventually wear off like Sora's did and send everybody back where they came from."

"We'll all probably have to go back eventually, honestly, whether it happens that way, or deliberately when they figure out how to send us back. None of us really belong here. But I'm sorry that Sora vanishing was how we had to find out that it could happen like that."

[nobodys_puppet]

"And... I would go back to being trapped inside Sora and you... would forget me once one of us was back?" she asked in a whisper, her fingers closing tightly over his.

Congratulations, Saïx, you are no longer the scariest thing in the room. Her eyes closed as her knees threatened to give out. This was all temporary. She... should have known it. She was not created for good things.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Most likely," Lea said. "But you know what? This might not be a permanent arrangement, but neither will be you being trapped and me forgetting. Because I'll be getting both you and Roxas back. I don't know exactly how yet, but I made you a promise and I'm gonna keep it. I'll always be there to bring you back. Always. Got it memorized?"

[nobodys_puppet]

Her lips twitched ever so slightly, but her eyes closed. "How can you keep a promise you don't even remember making, Axel?" she asked, softly.

[afterthemoon]

"Because Lea's stubborn..."

It's kinda hard to have a private conversation when Isa's sitting right there. Just sayin'

"You three will be reunited. This isn't a meaningless platitude, I risked everything to get you and Roxas back for Lea. It worked and I have the Keyblade scars to prove it."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea can't help but smirk slightly. "Yeah," he said. "Apparently we all get to participate in kicking Isa's butt back home. That's actually how he wound up being recompleted for a second time." A process Lea didn't envy him for having to go through twice.

"Though I'd still know, even if he hand't told me about that," he said. "See, right before I woke up after being recompleted, I had this... I don't know whether it was a dream or some kind of vision or what. But Roxas was there, and we were talking on the clocktower like we used to. And he said 'You made us a promise. That you'd always be there to bring us back.' And even if I couldn't remember exactly where or how I'd made the promise, I remembered I'd made it. And how important it was."

"And like Isa said, I'm stubborn," he said. "Once I get set on doing something, it's almost impossible to stop me. And Isa ought to know; he's the one that had to stop me more often than not when we were kids and I was about to haul off and do something stupid."

[nobodys_puppet]

Except that didn't add up, because... "You wouldn't have remembered me either," she said to Saïx, trying to hide how shaken she was. Though she did want to hear more about that dream. At sunset sometime. And she still was not letting go of Axel. She didn't buy that Saïx would go out of his way for them. But that he would have no cause to remember her... that was a hole she could and would poke in his phoney story.

[afterthemoon]

"The heart never forgets."

That was all the explanation he was willing to give in the moment. After all, if she was refusing to believe him, why waste his time when he knew nothing he could say would possibly convince her? Besides, they were veering pretty hard off the topic at hand.

He gives Lea a tired look.

"In any case, we still never addressed the actual issue at hand. Do you trust Lea's judgment, or not?"

[nobodys_puppet]

That sounded sneaky and evasive. But... maybe that was real? How could she know? It wasn't like she knew anything about hearts. Well, except that she didn't have one herself. But that was about it.

She answered the question, sort of, but to Axel and with one of her own. "You said you've been wrong before, what... what if you are now?" she asked, softly. She considered a moment then leaned back on her heels slightly, still holding on to him. "Why don't you ask the questions, Axel?" she asked, softly.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea shook his head at the question about him potentially being wrong. "Not about this," he said. "I've known Isa for close to twenty years now. And especially now that I've gotten my heart back? I'd know if he was lying to me. Trust me, I've had plenty of time to learn to read his varying degrees of line-face."

Him ask the questions though? What should he ask? He didn't know what Xion wanted to know, or what information might help convince her that Isa was on the level. He just knew his old friend. Wait... that was it! "Alright," he said before turning back to Isa.

"Hey, Isa," he said, "remember that time not long after we joined the Organization that I accidentally set your coat on fire? While you were still wearing it?"

[afterthemoon]

It's always when you're getting a drink of water when something like this comes up, isn't? Isa very nearly does a spittake. That was just about the last thing he was expecting to be brought up in a conversation like this.

"Yes, despite my best efforts to forget about it."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea grinned. "Yeah, you were jumping around like a rabbit on a caffeine high trying to get it off," he teased. "And here I thought you were paying attention when they taught us 'stop, drop, and roll'."

[afterthemoon]

"People tend to not think straight when they're panicking," Isa replies. "Which, by the way, you're not really one to talk. Since I seem to remember you panicking way more than I was."

Just imagine two teenage boys freaking out and scrambling to try and put out the fire, and you've gotta a pretty good idea of what went down.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Well yeah, but I was panicking productively," Lea said. "I was trying to find a bucket of water or a blanket to throw over you. Big difference."

But yeah, both of them had been freaking out. And meanwhile Xigbar had been having a laugh. Because Xigbar is a jerk.

[afterthemoon]

"... You were running in circles." Isa deadpans.

[nobodys_puppet]

"..."

Stop drop and roll? What? And... was it really accidently? None of this made sense. And none of this... sounded like either of them. She was so very confused.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"...OK, yeah you've got me there," Lea said. "But I did find a blanket to help smother the fire, eventually. So I get some points for trying at least, right?"

[afterthemoon]

Isa laughs.

"I suppose I have to give you credit there. And at least that was the only time you ever accidentally set me on fire like that.

The furniture in the castle, however..."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Hey, is it my fault they went with wooden furniture at first?", Lea said. "Though not even the Couch Incident can compare to that time I accidentally torched half of Vexen's research notes and got banned from his lab for a year. It's a good thing the castle itself was mostly stone and metal or we'd all have been in trouble there."

[afterthemoon]

Isa chuckles a bit more.

"... Banned for only a year? Are you sure you're remembering that right?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Weeeell, they might have said 'permanently', but after about a year everybody mostly forgot," Lea said. "So it still counts."

"And remember that time not long after we both hit our 20s that Xigbar dragged us both out to that bar in Port Royal?", he asked. "I learned to love and then hate rum in the same night- despite not having a heart at the time to properly feel either of those things- and then you had to deal with me being super hung-over the next day."

[afterthemoon]

"... Did you have to bring that up?"

Isa rolls his eyes so hard that they may as well have rolled out of his head.

"You're really good at remembering incidents I'd rather forget. There are some things that aren't meant to be memorized."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"To be fair, I don't actually remember much of that night beyond a certain point," Lea said. "About the last thing I remember clearly is that guy with the funny accent singing really off key about somebody named Jaunita. But I remember you leaving me off of the mission roster the next day, and leaving that aspirin and bottle of water by my bed."

[afterthemoon]

"Yes, well, I...I wasn't about to put someone on a mission when they clearly weren't in the condition to go on one. Even I wasn't that heartless back then."

And yet, the hesitant way Isa replies, the slight color rising in his cheeks at the thought of that memory. It's clear that Isa wasn't just thinking pragmatically that day.

He worried about you, Lea, even back then.

[nobodys_puppet]

None of this made any sense. Not just the fact that she didn't know some of the words. Saïx laughing made no sense. And it was kind of creepy to boot. But Saïx not giving someone a mission... because they weren't up for it? And... why did his face change colours? She was so very very confused. But also... despite the fact that Axel was right there... somehow... it was like she was alone too.