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

[nobodys_puppet]

"If I let him get that close he could turn me into a Dusk!" Or worse.

[noasark]

"And would he normally have to get close to do anything else then? Anything at all? What has he done other than speak?" Noa asks, grimacing as he tries to ignore his own illusion.

[nobodys_puppet]

"Attacked you, apparently," she muttered under her breath, braced.

[noasark]

"Except I didn't feel anything, see anything, or..." He waves a hand.

"Nothing happened to me. That's my point." It's a lot easier to ignore Gozaburo while he has this conversation, so he pushes on. "You saw what you feared- but I didn't experience anything."

[nobodys_puppet]

"But that makes no sense. Why would I see him if he wasn't here? And if he is here and I let my guard down..." she was finished.

[noasark]

"Because that's what an illusion is. ...Take it from me- they were my...specialty, not too long ago."

Nothing like setting up a Virtual Hellscape to make it clear when things are fake.

[nobodys_puppet]

"I don't understand." It seemed like she was saying those words a lot, since Axel arrived here.

[noasark]

"An Illusion is something that looks real, and sounds real- but isn't. No matter how much it appears otherwise. If there is something only you- and only you can see, and hear, and it doesn't appear to genuinely be harming the things around you in the moment... ...then that is all it is.

"An illusion of something terrible, meant to scare and worry you."

[nobodys_puppet]

Actually she pretty much had illusions figured out. "What did you mean they were your specialty?" She clarified. "And why now?"

[noasark]

"Ah." Well.

An awkward cough as he looks to the side. "...I might have been stuck in one long enough to....break it..."

And turn it on everyone else.

Shhh it's fine.

[nobodys_puppet]

Oh look, her favorite words again. "I don't understand."

[noasark]

"....If you're burned enough, you learn rather quickly what causes burns, don't you? ...It's like that. I learned enough about how a fake world could be made...so that I could never be fooled again."

[nobodys_puppet]

"Something that is fake but can hurt...?" Like herself?

[noasark]

"That's a bit inaccurate. It's more...something that isn't actually there- something that nothing can truly touch, or feel... ...it can still hurt emotionally."

He raises an eyebrow, glancing to her. "We're here. We're real, and interact with others, and can interact with others. But I can't see what you're trying to protect me from.

"And you can't see the image of my father, telling me I've failed him."

[nobodys_puppet]

"And the two... aren't the same?"

[noasark]

"Not at all." Hmmm.

How to explain... "...Think of it this way. You can have a phone. You can also have a 'fake phone', one that maybe doesn't work, and only looks like a phone. But that 'fake phone' is still an object that people can see, touch, and feel. It's not an illusion. It's real.

"Does that make sense?"

[nobodys_puppet]

She shook her head, trying to remember PHONE from the books that Axel gave her. The problem was she saw so many different things marked as phone in different books that she was confused even when she remembered the images.

"Not to me," she said, still eyeing Xemnas who was pointing out that it didn't make sense because she was too stupid and broken to learn.

[noasark]

"Ahh." Hmmm.

"....A...fake flower then," he offers. "Even though it didn't grow from the earth, and even though it was made by other materials...it's still there. Plastic or otherwise, it still exists."

[nobodys_puppet]

"Like.... a replica....?"

[noasark]

"A replica is similar, yes. It's tangible- there, and real, in its own way.

"It might not be the same as what it was made to copy- but it has its own existence, and purpose for the world. Including most often happiness."

[nobodys_puppet]

She felt like this got very specific once she asked about replicas. But she was focusing on Xemnas, because she was still reasonably sure he was actually there. Maybe. Probably?

[noasark]

Silence.

Silence, outside the illusary curses, goes on for a while. And.

"We're still here," he hums. "...See what I mean? Whatever we're seeing, it won't hurt either of us. ...Not physically."

[nobodys_puppet]

"........"


He was right, but at the same time... how could she just... ignore Master Xemnas even if he probably wasn't actually there?

[noasark]

"...I've sort of been wondering, what would happen if our ears were properly plugged. Covering them didn't seem to work after all."

At this point, he's just talking to distract himself.

[nobodys_puppet]

She shook her head. She'd rather face the fear head on, on the off chance it was real, or that... "Even if they aren't real now, what if they become real?" Ah, Xion. Ever the optimist.