July Event Log

[magicademymods]

July Event Log A Reading Rainbow Though the publication is ordinarily drier than dry toast Modified to be drier than dried toast, this quarter's issue of Thaumaturgy Today is all the rage around campus. The reason: a series of advances in motile spells! Easier and more powerful than those found in your standard book of spells (any grade), these spells achieve their power by specificity. One spell for lifting fruit, one for lifting laundry, one for lifting books, the list goes on. Though Professor Loshakle is deep at work writing a blistering reply criticizing every nuance of these spells, outside of his wrathful gaze the spells flourish as people practice them on everything they can. Copies of the issue are easy to get your hands on, if you want to give these new spells a whirl. On the other hand, your stuff or you yourself might fall victim to the spells of other students, whether by mistake or cruel jest. And woe betide those not human -- since no spell explains how to lift an anthropomorphic duck or a robot, for example, enterprising students are particularly eager to come up with one on their own, and there's only one way to test such things... It's Raw, You Donkey! There was an incident. Mistakes were made. Rice balls were detonated. Puddings were animated and sent on rampages. A cheesebread was found lodged in Makerion Keep, sunk to a depth of three feet in the walls. Whatever happened, and no one seems to have details... the Great Hall is closed and no food is being served. So... what're you going to eat? Several pop-up stands have emerged, as enterprising students try to cash in, but that costs money and who knows how the quality is. Headmaster Birony keeps showing up with pies, having made several savory ones that taste really good, actually, but can you really live on pie alone? (And do you really trust Headmaster Birony?) Some students have taken to the ultimate last resort: cooking. As it happens, the skills of the chef and of the aspiring mage are not exclusive in principle, but generally learning the one means little time to devote to the other. Faced with an oven or a grill, can you muster up the capability to make something edible? Or will you burn the water and turn bread back into grain, and thus have no choice but to avail yourself of pricey booth cooking or Cam-pies? Of course, the Great Hall will PROBABLY be open again soon, you might be able to last until then... The Defense Association In light of certain recent activities, like horrible monster attacks, Professors Trammel and Kith have teamed up to provide self-defense lessons to students who so desire. Purely optional, this extra class at the end of the school day promises study in shields, wards, basic attack spells, and mobility spells (because sometimes the best thing is to run like heck). Needless to say, these classes are quite the adventure! Students find themselves in dueling circles quite frequently, expected to carefully deflect each other's spells. Hopefully you've got the knack of it; the practice spells they have taught you don't cause any harm, but they sting like the dickens! Research on the Sundered Conflict. Conflict seems to be key. As near as the researchers can tell, all the Sundered lead lives that are simply not ordinary, and their experiments in conflict from last month produced results they didn't expect (as you all have learned) but that are most promising. Professor King herself has taken the lead on this experiment, and she warns anyone who volunteers that it is likely to be very dangerous, and they will be taking this very slow. They are, she explains, going to try to bridge the gap between you and the world you came from. A SMALL bridge, a proof of concept, no portal home and celebrations yet. But they hope it will work, and be the first step towards getting you back where you belong. If you agree, they get to work. Any student who undergoes this process immediately regains a power of their choice. It does not have to be on their application, and you do not have to provide proof during AC. It's here now. Only if you do not have a power to regain, you may regain an item instead. The price? For the next three days, you will be haunted by visions of your greatest enemy, your most hated foe, or the person you least wish to see in the world. Perhaps you hear their laughter in the darkness of your room at night. Perhaps you see a fellow student as them. Perhaps they are taunting you from just behind your shoulder... Whatever form it takes, for three days, you will be at their mercy. Or the mercy of your own mind's imagining them. Or perhaps a combination of the two. Who can say...?

Comments

The durable kind, or the sort you have to replace every few days?

[paradoxical_personality]

"That should take care of that, until Odin can deal with you." Hel congratulated herself mildly on a job well done. Still, she was a little curious about that nonsense Ymir had been spouting. She also had a bad feeling that her companions in her dimension would wish to follow up on it first before deciding on anything. So she would in fact discuss it with them first.

"Since you made it here, the separation between dimensions must have weakened, I just need to find the portal home."

That was when she noticed the little irritation by her legs. She recognized it as Cliff's familiar but it was unusual to see it by itself. ".... Unless you want to go in the bag too, leave the robes alone."

luckily he's the durable sort

[nomoremistergneissguy]

Yes, Hel, think about the fact of how weird it is to see Rounder without Cliff. Focus on that.

But he had her attention now, so Rounder had stopped tugging on the robes. Instead, he waved his arms at her. Focused on him now, too? Good.

He tapped at himself, then pointed at the bag. Then waved his arms agitatedly. Hey, charades!

Good thing

[paradoxical_personality]

Allowing the makeshift sack to sit on the ground, she held firmly to the top that was holding it closed. At least Rounder, knew when to quit, but then he started making all these gestures she was supposed to decipher.

"You.... do want to go in the bag?" Hel quirked an eyebrow at that. "I know what I said but I don't really have time to play games."

"Why don't you find Cliff?" Oh Hel.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

Rounder waved his arms in a definite "no!" gesture when Hel asked if he wanted to go in the bag. No, no. Not unless she was going to drag Cliff out of it, first.

When she told him to find Cliff, his gesture was nothing short of a facepalm. If he'd had a face, that is.

Instead, he turned his attention to the bag, and gave it a tug. Maybe he'd have to try learning how to write. But that assumed Hel could even read Cliff's kind of writing--but she still went to school here, so there had to be a common language...

Ugh, this was frustrating!

[paradoxical_personality]

"So you don't want to go in the bag. That's the first thing you've said that makes any sense." Since personally, she couldn't see the appeal in it. What was to enjoy about being nearly suffocated and essentially frozen in time?

Hel's eyes narrowed as she scrutinized the next reaction. Exasperation? Why?

"As far as I know there's only one cloth of infinity, and I'm not just going to hand it over." What could a round rock creature possibly want with it anyway? What benefit would it be to him? "Yeah I know.. as items go it is kind of stupid, but it still has it's uses."

[nomoremistergneissguy]

That's another negative, Ghost Rider. If a marble sphere could huff, Rounder would definitely be doing that right now.

He spins in a little half circle, tapping one finger against his surface. Another 'if he had a face, he'd scowl' moment. More charades then, Rounder supposed.

He made movements as if he were searching for something (OR MAYBE SOMEONE), high and low. And then he pointed to Hel's cloth sack as if he'd found it, if he could only have what was in the bag.

Dealing with delusional people was no fun. He'd leave it up to Cliff in the future--if the doofus could avoid getting himself captured.

[paradoxical_personality]

Hel was tiring of these games. If she was going to make an attempt to return to Asgard and reunite with the others it would have to be soon. Not that there was an guarantee that Ymir hadn't arrived here in the same manner as everyone else.

"You have one more chance before I leave you here." So Rounder had better make it count.

"The only thing that's in the cloth is an enemy from my dimension." ... but it looked like the only way to prove it to the mineral-brain was to loosely open the top and tilt it over. Ymir would still be trapped with that little opening, so she opened it but before she could angle it for the familiar she looked notably perplexed. The delusions having faded for a moment, it was not Ymir who she saw in there, but Cliff.

"How in Helheim did he get in there?" After a further search she didn't see anyone else in there with Cliff so she reluctantly let him out of the bag. "That would have been too easy..... Ymir must have tricked me." Also, sorry, or something. It's implied, maybe.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"Oof. Did anyone notice what hit me?" Cliff was trying to downplay what had happened through humor, really, but he arched his brows at Hel. "You okay?"

Yep, sorry was implied. Even Rounder just gave Cliff an affectionate and gentle whack on the calf. A sort of 'glad to have you back, dumbass', that the human accepted with good grace.

"Yeah Rounder, I'm fine, no harm done!"

[paradoxical_personality]

"Nothing hit you, I stuffed you into the infinity cloth," Hel replied matter-of-factly the humor temporarily lost on her. "I will be, once I find Ymir and detain him. The problem is- is that he'll be expecting me to use this now..." Raising the cloth into the air for emphasis.

As familiar and master exchanged pleasantries, Hel debated her next move, not having caught on to the fact that she was having hallucinations.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"Um...who's Ymir? And why did you think I was him?" He didn't know much in the way of mythology at all, having no such thing on his world, so Cliff was more than a little lost. He knew something wasn't quite right, but putting his finger on it might take a little bit.

"I could always try and play decoy. If he's being annoyed by yours truly, he might not expect you to get the drop on him." Hey, Cliff thought it might work...

[paradoxical_personality]

"Ymir is the person whose been stirring up so much trouble in my realm, trying to trigger Ragnarok." As far as she knew at this point in time anyway. She left out the details about how Ymir was supposed to have come into being at the same time as Odin and the two apparently did not see eye to eye. Honestly, by this point Hel would have been surprised if he did know anything about the Aesir and such of her world. Most people didn't seem to know about it.

That suggestion, caused an unsettling glimmer in her eye. "You may be on to something." Though no offense, she wasn't sure why Ymir would detain his aims to fool with someone like Cliff. "What can we do to convince him that you're some force to be reckoned with..." She puzzled over this briefly.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"Well, if I had my powers back...I mean, complete control of earth?" The element, not the planet--not that Diatu's land was called Earth anyway. Still, that was the best thought he could come up with at the moment...not that it'd work.

Which was a real pity.

"Not that I'm a terrible slouch with what we're learning here, I aced all my midterms." You're a nerd, Cliff, of course you did...

[paradoxical_personality]

Hel shrugged at that, and flipped one of her pigtails over her shoulder. Mastery over the ground, apparently wasn't as impressive to her as control over life and death. "It's what we have to work with..." In a bluffing sense since those powers had been stripped from him.

"So it looks good on paper, but how are you at casting in practice?" Hel also excelled at her midterms, she wouldn't have accepted anything less so she did feel that she was somehow better able to access Cliff's progress.

"I'm assuming that Ymir will be cut off from his powers too, so that will be to our advantage."

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"Hey, I did have practical midterms, too, so it wasn't all just looking good on paper. And Professor Loshakle doesn't let anyone slouch." Much less a Sundered like Cliff. He might not have gotten perfect marks, and he'd admit to that, but he wasn't inept, either.

"Even if he's not, I think I've got enough Sundering under my belt to give him problems. Or get away from him and get him into your clutches." Which he assumed was what Hel wanted.

[paradoxical_personality]

Hel couldn't help it, she smirked in spite of herself. It was amusing to see Cliff standing up for himself, in a good way- not in a oh look at the pathetic mortal way. "No- I suppose Loshakle doesn't." That much she would allow. Feeling a little more confident on what Cliff professed she was ready to continue with their scheme.

"Sundering...?" That stilled her for a moment. "What do you mean?" That formerly forbidden art was still a bit of a mystery. In what manner was he utilizing it?

"Good. The only problem is now, that I don't know where Ymir is holing up. He may not even still be on campus."

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"I've learned how to give myself a bit of a head start with it. I'm not going to send myself home with it--" Oh, how he wished! "And I have to be able to see where I'm going, but it's teleporting short distances, I guess, to quantify it."

He'd even impressed Professor King, with that trick.

"Well, if we don't at least try to look, he will slip through your fingers, and that's just no good," Cliff said, shaking his head. "We've got to at least try."

[paradoxical_personality]

Hel was a little dubious about Sundering herself and who should be delving into it. An Aesir would be one thing, specifically her, so she wasn't sure she liked hearing that Cliff was looking into it. Whoever had cast this sundering business in the first place might have done it accidentally so the widespread use of the art could be more disastrous. Still, she bit her lip and left off the commentary. Besides, they could use some teleportation.

"Then we're going to have to split up to cover more ground.... You'll know him when you see him. He looks like a young boy with short aqua-colored hair. He's always wearing a white hooded robe with a yellow lining but the hair is long enough to be visible below it..... also he has a manacle attached to one of his legs."

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"True...you can't really mistake that, can you?" Cliff shook his head. "I'll keep an eye out. I mean...I probably should still go to class, but I can probably skip Etiquette."

He was pretty meticulous and he tried to be careful with his Sundering. He would never say he was one of Professor King's star students, but he tried not to be a slouch either.

"She trusts me. I'm not supposed to overdo it, and I'll do my best not to, it's sort of an...ace up my sleeve, I guess?"