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

[stillnewatthis]

"That is fundamentally insufficient data," Orisa replied. "As well as an insufficient reply. My statement was that you are adhering to one specific definition when multiple can apply. Furthermore, your definition is excessively narrow. 'Speed' is first defined as 'the rate at which someone or something is able to move or operate'. Nowhere in this definition is physicality implied, but you appear to be tying it to physical capabilities rather than permitting further application of the word to rapidity of thought. In addition, while words are vital for communication, their strict definition is not necessary nor obligatory to successful communication. Their meaning can be altered substantially by connotation, vocal inflection, implication, inference, and nonverbal cues."

[gender_neutral]

V leaned back slightly, impressed, and retaliated with enthusiasm.

"Ah, but aspects of connotation and nonverbal cues vary widely between cultures and races even on a single world. Implication, separately, is based upon a mutual history. The same can be said for inference. What is of more use would be context, however until just this moment, you spoke in such short word bubbles as to leave your speech utterly lacking in anything that could be said to contain context. In reality optimal long term communication between two people is reached by a mutual adherence to being loquacious while listening to the other's verbose offerings, and an increased shared experience set."

[stillnewatthis]

"As a combat omnic, I must disagree categorically with your assertion. In combat and other circumstances, optimal communication is achieved by a mutual understanding of personality and expectations. In these cases, effective communication may be conducted without a word being spoken."

[gender_neutral]

"You are agreeing with my point, not contradicting it."

[stillnewatthis]

"Please provide further input." No logical analysis she could perform equated the two ideas.

[gender_neutral]

"As I said a few panals ago, the need for precise definitions and longer explanation increases in direct proportion to unfamiliarity. As it has been made painfully clear to me by this point and perhaps I wrongfully presumed that it was made clear as such to you as well, those of us from varying worlds here have vastly different levels of understanding of the core fundamentals of reality. There are some I have met here who seem unaware even that we are in a web comic, and you in particular seem to be using a different set of core books than I am when it comes to base stats. Pathfinder, perhaps. Or you could simply be mistaken. Given this it becomes obvious to conclude that we absolutely must establish a central set of definitions to which we must strictly adhere. As of current I have found the most convenient way of addressing these definitions is to use the cliche but useful example of a tomato."

"However in combat, were I with the Order Of The Stick, where I rightly belong, Sir Greenhilt can succinctly command us in battle, and those of use with positive modifiers to our intelligence can understand him. For example should he ask for buffs, I know precisely which incantations he desires me to cast upon his person. More, I knew enough to prepare such spells in advance the night before when I went into my trance during our long rest."

"But even within a group known to each other as well as ours, there can still be miscommunications when words are not properly used. For example the unfortunate incident before we faced the lich at the first gate, wherein Sir Greenhilt declared that we should go down a level, by which he meant that we should proceed down the stairs to the next floor of the dungeon, while Miss Starshine was thrilled that it was time to go up a level, by which she meant that we had gained enough experience from the prior session to gain new skills and abilities. Unfortunately, coming into the argument that ensued rather late myself I inadvertently added to the confusion When I entered the panel excited about my new spell level and Sir Greenhilt thought that my comments were a request to spell out, as in to state the letters that form, the word level."

"Returning to the primary point, however, as I, and apparently you were saying, with familiarity, often shortcuts in speech can be used. And of course language will always degrade itself to the service of low humour, despite the best efforts of some to maintain some level of integrity. As with the argument over the term level. The further from familiarity one goes, however, the more rigidly one must adhere to base and literal definitions of crucial words where are core to fundamental understanding and communication."

"You are now, of course, no longer confused. Unless I need to take twenty?"