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

[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.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah, after that night I wasn't fit to to much besides lay in bed and groan," Lea said. "But once my head stopped hurting enough that I could think again, I really appreciated it."

"Really between things like that and all the trouble we got into as kids, you looking out for me probably spared me from a lot of injuries over the years. If not for you, I'd have probably taken every stupid dare anybody threw at me."

[afterthemoon]

"Yes, well...

somebody had to make up for the fact that you have zero impulse control."

Though he sounds annoyed, the look on his face makes it's clear he's really just teasing.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Hey, I have impulse control! ...Sometimes," Lea said, also clearly not really annoyed. "Though yeah, probably not as much as I should have, even back then. Like remember that time our class went on a field trip to the city water works and that one kid tried to dare me to climb over the guardrail around the edge of the overlook while the teacher wasn't paying attention?"

[afterthemoon]

"Especially back then. Twelve year olds aren't known for their well thought out decisions. And I remember bailing you out before you got in trouble... or hurt yourself."

There's a pause, and a gentle smile tugs at Isa's face.

"... and if it wasn't for you, I know I wouldn't have gotten out and socialized as much as I did. You did quite a lot to bring me out of my shell when I was younger."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah twelve year old me was... maybe not the brightest," Lea said. "So thanks for being the relatively sensible one back then."

"And yeah well, I couldn't just leave you sitting there by yourself, half hiding in your over-sized sweaters. I could tell you needed a friend, and since you weren't about to go looking for one, I decided I'd come looking for you."

"Honestly, it seems to be a bit of a trend," he said. "Me bringing people out of their shells. Or trying to, anyway. And speaking of which..."

He turned his attention back to the rather lost-looking Xion. "You doing OK there, Xion?", he said. "Didn't want you to think I forgot about you in all this."

[nobodys_puppet]

She kind of was starting to think that maybe he had. She looked up at him from under the hood, unsure what to say or do. None of this made any sense. Was... that really what Saïx had been like before? Did losing his heart really change so much? If so... If so then what she had blurted out, what she hadn't fully realized till she said it earlier was true.

She didn't want a heart.

Not if it would change her that much. There was so little inside her that was... her. How could she let something just invade her body and change what little she had? Her hands closed into fists at her sides as she looked away, swallowing. Axel worked so hard to get his heart back. It was what everyone in the organization had wanted. Everyone but her and Roxas, because they were the only ones who couldn't remember what it was like to have one. Roxas couldn't remember being Sora and she had never been a Somebody to begin with.

Her legs felt weak under her. She didn't know if Saïx really had his heart back or was acting. Pretending. He could have memories without lying, he could still be talking like this without setting off the lie detectors, right? She still didn't know if who he was now... was scheming to hurt Axel. And her. But....

The difference between who he was before he lost his heart and who he was when she knew him... it was too much. Too different. Axel said he had been different too, but that she and Roxas had seen the part most like who he was before. There didn't seem to be any difference between Axel and Lea to her. He was still one of her two best friends. But what if he was right that she could grow a heart or whatever? Or someone tried to help and found her one and she changed? And everything changed?

Her knees were having trouble keeping her upright. She knew this sensation. This was usually when she blacked out. And then Roxas could be stronger for a while, so it would be alright. And she'd wake up to seashells on her bed and her friends waiting for her.

Except that Roxas wasn't here. And she couldn't abandon Axel now. Not when either he'd be alone or... or with Saïx who might or might not still be a scheming Nobody. Not when that meant no one would leave shells on Roxas' bed anymore. She couldn't black out now. She couldn't.

Her knees gave out from under her as she fought back the blackness, one hand to her head. She wouldn't pass out. She wouldn't.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea honestly wasn't sure what response he'd expected from Xion, but her crumpling to the floor like that definitely wasn't it. Even the observer jumped up in alarm at the sudden collapse but Lea held up a hand to keep him from running off to summon help.

"Hey," he said gently to Xion, "it's gonna be alright, OK? I'll take you back to the dorm."

To the alarmed observer, he explained, "This sort of thing has happened to her before... kinda. Usually when she's mentally overwhelmed. It doesn't happen often and she'll be OK once she's rested a bit." The observer reluctantly nodded, but still looked concerned as Lea turned briefly to Isa.

"I'm gonna take her back to the dorm; I think it's pretty safe to say we're done here," he said. "I'll talk to you later, OK?"