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

research

[blue_ice]

Seto is hearing the same voice, if not quite the same words. He's been convinced by now that it's a trick, and he's trying to resist, but that's harder than it sounds. As he's trying to shut the voice out on his way to the dorm, he spots a familiar head.

"Noa."

You never lived up to him, Seto, the voice taunted in his ear. The poorest possible substitute, a failure in every way.

He growls and kneels in front of Noa, trying to gently get his attention---but that's not too possible with his eyes and ears closed. After a moment, he reaches and touches his arm gently.

"It's an illusion. He's dead. Don't listen."

This...could end very badly.

[noasark]

"NH-!" Noa, perhaps predictably, jumps when touched. He uncovers his ears and breathes rapidly, looking first to Seto in terror and then a little ways behind him. "Hihh...hhhhaaahahaaa..." It's a broken laugh, a false laugh, and not really much of a laugh at all, that escapes him. "Even knowing that... ...Illusions always manage to feel so real, don't they..?"

He was the master of it after all.

[blue_ice]

"I know. That's how we met."

Kaiba takes a shallow breath. He wouldn't ordinarily touch him, as the definitely not touchy-feely guy he is. But even his solid holograms don't feel entirely real, so he thinks maybe keeping a hand on his wrist will help. His gaze is serious, but even as exhausted as he looks there's a glimmer of compassion there.

"But he doesn't own us anymore. Remember that."

[noasark]

It does help. Somehow- Noa closes his eyes again, as if that alone would block out the sounds of what he thinks he hears.

"He... ...I didn't think I'd see him, somehow," he manages with a hoarse swallow. As if somehow he didn't have nightmares, or 'enemies' to fear.

[blue_ice]

There's so much he could say. Too much to say. But that admission from Noa comes as a surprise.

"He didn't come to mind as an adversary?"

But why would he? The evil man had treated Noa far better, at least at first, and even after being abandoned Noa had been desperate to win him back. Even at the end, father and son had still been intertwined. Kaiba tightens his grip.

"You're better than him, Noa. You're free. You don't need the cruelty he calls parenting."

We don't need him, he thinks.

[noasark]

"I don't know if it clued in," he bitterly hisses, "But it wasn't exactly a very drawn out moment of time for me..!"

There is too little malice in his words for it to mean anything however.

For the most part...

"...That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt."

...For the most part he finds himself mourning the memory of what he thought he had.

[blue_ice]

Kaiba doesn't flinch. He's used to their spars by now, and neither of them can really be at their best with the looming spectre in the distance. He presses his lips together and listens, hovering at first.

But when he hears the pain in that voice, suddenly he understands. Kaiba's stubbornly avoided acknowledging his own pain until now, but faced with a look in the mirror, he can't. He shuffles forward the slightest bit and grips Noa's shoulders.

"I know...believe me, I know. You're not alone."

And after another moment of thought, he very stiffly attempts to give his stepbrother a hug. It's...kind of awkward and pointy. He's very out of practice. The voice tells him that he's terrible at this, that he's nothing, but he only closes his eyes and holds tighter.

[noasark]

Noa's breath catches with shock, and if there is one thing he can't ignore it's that. He knows how distant Seto tends to be. Frankly the only one the other has likely tried to hug is Mokuba, and that's a fact his brain cannot ignore.

(And quietly, briefly, he wonders if Mokuba is why the other participated because with this sort of act there's no way he isn't participating himself.)

And then between all of that Noa breaks. While the voice of his father spits about him falling so far from where he was and what he could have been, sneering in the background, he breaks, unable to forget about the times they had also gone boating, or talked about how horse riding had gone, or even simply sat down for a quiet round of chess.

The boy's eyes water, and then begin to overflow, a quiet, half-restrained sound the only other proof of it.

[blue_ice]

Seto's heart clenches painfully. He'd had no idea it could still do that. No matter what had been in their past, they'd still lived parallel lives, were still stranded together...and he still cared. At first because Mokuba cared, but now...

He couldn't ignore his stepbrother's cries. He tucked Noa's head under his chin and clutched him tightly, as if such an action could protect him from the effects of the spell.

He wasn't the best at comforting words...but this he could do.

"You'll be fine."