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

[nomoremistergneissguy]

Cliff got up and got the guy a glass of water, at least. He didn't know if anyone else had headache powder or anything like that around, but he tapped Rounder lightly on the top of his sphere. As if he knew what his master wanted, he offered up a small envelope.

"Here, I don't know if this will help, but you look like you could use it anyway. Headache powder. It's my mother's recipe, so mostly powdered willowbark with a little peppermint. Still tastes pretty bad, even with the mint, so it's best if you just knock it back and then drink the water."

He tried to keep his voice down, because it wasn't as if there weren't others trying to sleep. He couldn't just let the guy suffer in silence, though.

[fatedsacrifice]

Noctis had the palms of his hands over his eyes trying to banish Ardyn's visage from his mind. That oily snake voice was hard to shake from the memory.

The quietly spoken tone seemed to get through to the king and temporarily halted the insanity. And so blue eyes strained at the other man, fighting to focus on the words being spoken. Once they registered, he nodded gratefully.

He couldn't help a small laugh at the instructions though, and if he didn't know any better, this man was sent by Ignis himself. So he gave another nod, taking the concoction. Noctis really appreciated such a kind and thoughtful gesture.

"Thank you."

[nomoremistergneissguy]

Cliff chuckled a bit at that, but it was a warm and amused chuckle, not judgmental or malicious in the slightest. He gave the man a polite not.

"It's the least I could do, the very least! Not like Rounder doesn't have a few things tucked away, too." Though most of it wasn't headache powder. He was quite useful, however. Too bad he couldn't heat water for tea, though.

"You doing a little better?" Cliff wasn't terribly certain he ought to try the headache powder on an empty stomach, and it wasn't as if he didn't have a snack or two tucked away with Rounder for later, either...

[fatedsacrifice]

Blue eyes looked over to Cliff's familiar and just observed. And here he'd thought all familiars were cats like his. Here he learned something new every day.

After a few minutes, the king nodded gratefully because this guy had just saved his ass so to speak. Quietly opening the envelope, he looked from the powder to the man who had handed it to him. He then closed it, thankful someone had been kind enough to try and assist him.

"Ya, I'm good." And he was going to stop there, but Ignis had drilled manners into him, or had tried to, rather. "Gonna walk this off and not wake anyone up. You're welcome to come."

It was the least he could do to show his gratitude.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"Sure, I don't mind. Fresh air might do me good." And put him back to sleep easier, when he eventually returned to his bed. Cliff just glanced at Rounder, who stealthily slipped onto the bed, then rolled down the sheet to land on the floor, near soundlessly.

"He's pretty heavy otherwise, but he's learned a few tricks." This one was especially good, considering it wasn't going to wake up the rest of the dorm. He just slipped that day's robe over his night robe, and nodded towards the door. After you, sir.

[fatedsacrifice]

The king nodded and got up. His blue eyes looked over at Rounder and had cringed, thinking it was going to make a ton of noise, but somehow it hadn't. Giving another nod to Cliff, Noctis waited for the other to get his robe on and then heard sir.

Sir? Well, he wasn't one to go putting on airs or anything else. As he'd said he'd 'rather be in the obituaries.' and ironically enough now he was back home. But these thoughts were fleeting through his mind as they headed outside.

The fresh air felt good and at least he wasn't flailing or being haunted anymore, at least not for the time present. That was definitely a good thing because Noctis wasn't one for embrassment, especially in public. Stars were out and so was the moon, and so they gave him something to focus on.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

Cliff just chuckled quietly. "Yeah, surprisingly light on--whatever passes for feet, huh?"

He hadn't really spent a lot of time here just listening to the night and looking at the stars and the night sky--Cliff spent an awful lot of time studying just so he could keep up. It wasn't as if he were really dumb, just--his mind was somewhat plodding compared to his mentally agile sister, as an example. So just being able to do that for the moment? That was unusually calming, at least for him.

"Do you recognize any of the constellations up there?" It was more an idle question, but on his part, Cliff sure didn't. There wasn't really anything here that reminded him of home. He didn't give in to the homesick feelings very often, but tonight they just seemed extra sharp.

[fatedsacrifice]

The 'whatever passes for feet' got the slightest smile out of Noctis. That wasn't easy for a guy whose life had pretty much been directed for him and then managed to end up having a vision of one of the men who's driven him.

Looking up at the night sky, the king looked and pointed with a nod. "If they're anything like the stars back home under the same names, that long one up there's a dragon." And doing this brought Ignis sharply to mind, how many times they'd snuck out of the Citadel to stargaze. It was one of the reasons he'd taken up astronomy here too. Then there were times the advisor would bring a blanket and they'd look at books with a flashlight when they were supposed to have been asleep.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"We have a dragon too...not in the same place, though, it's...over there?" Cliff squinted. "I can see the Maiden's Tears from here too, but that's not right..."

He really was not sure why he could find all of his world's constellations in the night sky over Ascelion. It wasn't right, and yet Cliff supposed it probably had something to do with Sundering. He never had really had that much passion for it but this was really making him think.

"But yours are here too? I wonder if other people's are. That's...a bit unsettling." And it sort of made him want to pick Professor King's brain if he ever got the opportunity.

[fatedsacrifice]

Blue eyes tried to see what Cliff was looking at but he had no idea. But even sitting here and straining to see something that he had no idea what he was looking at or for was infinitely better than being asleep and dreaming of Ardyn.

Turning to look at the other man with what had been asked, he nodded and replied. "Yup." It made him curious certainly but he wouldn't question it all that much. Weird things happened to and around him and while Noctis knew he wasn't the center of the universe or anything, he would just accept some nice things to happen.

Like stars and stargazing.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

It was kind of weird, not being the quiet one in a conversation. It was new and Cliff wasn't sure he liked it--mostly because he'd always been uncomfortable being the one talking. He knew he wasn't terribly charismatic or convivial, not like his twin sister.

Kind of made him miss Katya, too, even though at home, they were usually at odds with one another. Cliff guessed the old adage was true and that absence really did make the heart grow fonder...

"So point a couple more out to me. Maybe I ought to get a book from the library." It might explain why the night sky here was so weird, at least. And maybe he could pick up Astronomy at some point. They definitely weren't going to keep him stuck in Etiquette classes forever...

[fatedsacrifice]

Blue eyes searched the skies at the other's request, but he smiled as he did so. "A book's good, and they offer a class on astronomy here. If you're that interested, you might want to take it if you've got room in your schedule."

He then pointed at one of the ones the professor had recently taught the class about. "That one there is Ursa Major and the other one is Ursa minor." His finger went between the two constellations.

"They said Ursa is Latin for bear."

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"Well, if they ever let me out of Etiquette." Cliff laughed at that, though. It was likely to happen, sooner or later. Came from being the son of a monarch and having a mother who'd drill niceness into you, come hell or high water.

"What's Latin? I mean I figure it's a language, but I've never heard of it...those don't look much like bears, though. More like soup ladles."

Still, the other guy's mind seemed to be off his nightmare now, and so it was all to the good in Cliff's book.

[fatedsacrifice]

Noctis smirked. He was lucky, he had Ignis. If he ever needed a clue on anything to do with Etiquette, all he had to do was ask his advisor. And then he had to endure withering looks when he didn't follow what he'd been painstakingly taught.

He was about to comment on the language when he couldn't help but laugh a little at the bit about soup ladles. He shook his head. "Something about a big dipper and I think they said a little dipper too, so it doesn't sound like you're wrong."

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"Huh, who'd've thought?" Cliff laughed at that. He could relate about the etiquette stuff--he didn't have an advisor, just certain family members. His brother Eiros was kind of a stickler, too. Probably came from being a queen's advisor, or so he'd guess.

"I still think it's kind of surreal to see all that...all those stars and knowing that some are from your world and mine. Like I said...who'd've thought?"

Certainly not Cliff himself!

[fatedsacrifice]

"This place isn't anything but weird." Noctis observed while shaking his head. Looking back up at the stars now, he thought of the people he'd met. Due to his journey being a secret and not being able to be open about who they were hadn't made him miss out on the opportunity to meet and talk to people. Even Dino in Galdin Quay knew who he was though he fortunately didn't say as long as the four men did his running for him.

However, the ability to connect with anyone like this or others had been impossible due to always constantly being hunted down by the Niflheim Empire. And then he had a thought.

"Wonder if that means they're connected."

[nomoremistergneissguy]

"Connected? Here? Maybe..." It was a strange thought, and yet, why else would all the stars he knew of be here? Including ones from others' worlds? Not that he'd been able to ask anyone else he knew about their stars yet, but it was sitting in his mind and if he got a chance to, later, he probably would.

"It's not that much stranger than where I live, really, but...no, wait. The magic's weirder here than it was there." There, magic and even elemancy had its own laws and rules, and the magic here just...didn't really seem like it followed anything coherent.

Not that Cliff had noticed, anyway.

[fatedsacrifice]

"Magic is weird here, it was pretty much straight forward back home." Like, gathering it from rocks and putting it into magical flasks. The way it was here was definitely a far cry from what he was used to.

Noctis didn't have a solid idea as to if the worlds were connected or not, it was just the only thing he could think of. Wouldn't be a bad thing if they were though. Shrugging it off, he looked up at the sky again. "Guess we might have to ask to see if the wizards here know."