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

[magicademynpcs]

"Oh, let's meet outside your place. Me coming in, well, what would people say?" Headmaster Birony fans herself to get rid of all the vapors they'd be giving others by proxy. "And if I got too close to the dance unescorted I'd have to make all the people who thought I couldn't get a date writhe, WRITHE in WOEFUL AGON--"

She glances up from her curled fingers, then quickly sweeps the mad light from her eyes and wild grin from her face to adopt a sweet if coquettish look. "I meaaaaaan, people would think I was unescorted and I'd have to break their hearts by telling them they were wrong! And that would be tragic."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea... blinked at that bit in the middle, but nodded. "Right," he said. "So we'll meet outside the Ka dorm about... I dunno, half an hour maybe, before the ball starts? That outta give us plenty of time to walk over from there."

"And also, do you have any idea what color of dress you're gonna be wearing?", he said. "Cause I wanna do this right and get you one of those..." He trailed off a moment, the word briefly escaping him. "You know, those little things of flowers that you wear? ...A corsage! That's it. I wanna get you a corsage, and if I know what color you're gonna be wearing, I can order something to match early on and avoid the rush."

[magicademynpcs]

Headmaster Birony hums a little tune that sounds like it belongs to a dance, then swirls her arm around herself. An image of a bright crimson dress appears over her, and she turns to show it off. Little surprise she picked this one, as she wears it very well indeed.

[hotheadwarmheart]

OK, Lea can't help it; the combination of the dress itself and its sudden appearance garners an impressed whistle from him. "Very nice," he said. "Love the color." And it would likely be very easy to get a matching corsage made too, which was a bonus.

[magicademynpcs]

"Of course you do. I know what I look good in, which is everything," the Headmaster says as she folds her hands behind her back. She is doing a magnificent job of highlighting just how young she is for the job, it must be said. "But this is a classic. A variant of a court gown I used to wear back when I had the old title. I miss that..." Now she brings her hands around to press them together like a prayer, looking up. "Surrounded by wizards, you just don't get to see that particular horrible wrench in a person's eyes when they realize you're both an incredibly hot girl and an incredibly powerful wizard all at the same time. It's like you can SEE their loins and their brains fighting right behind their eyes!"

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea just kind of quirked an eyebrow at that last bit. "I'll just... have to take your word for that," he said. "Since I've never been either of those things and most likely never will be."

"But anyway, just to be serious for one second?", he said. "While I've got you here, and before I get back to schoolwork and let you get back to keeping this place from actually exploding, I just wanted to say thanks for the little doodle you signed my entrance papers with. I dunno if you intended it or not, but it made me laugh, and... well frankly, I really needed a laugh just then. So... yeah. Thanks."

[magicademynpcs]

"Aww, I'm touched." Headmaster Birony presses her hands together and tilts her head to lean her cheek against them. "The way I see it, if I have to sign a million things every day, I'm at least gonna have fun with it where I can. So laugh all you like!"

[hotheadwarmheart]

"That's what I figured," Lea said. "And part of why I decided you were a reasonably cool person."

"Anyway, I figure we both have things to do, so I'll see you the night of the dance, if not before, OK?"

[magicademynpcs]

"You BET you'll see me then. If you can look away I'll eat my hat!" She won't be wearing a hat, fortunately for all concerned, but still! Headmaster Birony drops Lea a very unHeadmasterly wink.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea was unsure what to make of that wink so he just gave her a little farewell wave in return. "Alright," he said. "Later then." And with that he headed off slightly more confused than before, but at least confident that once word of this got around, his problems with people pestering him for dates would be solved.