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

[daughterofclay]

"Okay. Can you keep shielding me?"

She begins humming; she's not very musical, so it's not the most melodic of hums, but it'll do. Now all she has to do is to focus onto the spot Orisa seems to be focusing on -- presumably the spot where this Doomfist is -- and look like she's concentrating. It feels silly, like she's a child playing pretend, but it's also not the first time she's had to do something like this.

Although usually she's the one pretending to be fooled by illusions, not pretending to cast them.

Either way, once a breath or two pass, she taps Orisa's flank with her fingers, and then begins moving backwards, her eye on, er, "Doomfist". Presumably the illusion would be moving with her, if one existed. Presumably, if Orisa moves with Jude, so will the ghost.

And if this complicated plan works, they will at least be able to exit the courtyard. Jude has a place in mind where they may not be disturbed for a while, if they can make it that far.

[stillnewatthis]

Yes, this was an excellent plan as far as Orisa could see! She began backing up slowly, a state which would doubtless give Doomfist confidence to see her retreat. Every dozen seconds or so, she jerked her left arm forward to fire a strange little object at the ground, which erupted into a wide, curved shield as soon as it touched down. Clearly, Orisa took her duty to protect Jude very seriously.

she basically spends all her time in the garden tbh

[daughterofclay]

She's not surprised -- everything she knows about Orisa suggests that the robot (Omnic?) is kind through and through. It's touching, though, that she's so careful about keeping Jude safe.

It also makes Jude feel bad about deceiving her, but that's not new. Lying to friends doesn't generally feel any less greasy just because it's necessary.

Regardless, she has a mission too. There is only one place on the island that Jude knows to be both empty and generally harmless; it's become a bit of a sanctuary for her lately, the place she goes to train and study and be away from people.

She's talking about the Palace Garden. Thankfully, they're in a spot of the Academy that's not too far from one of the garden boundaries. Jude picks up speed as she goes, half-running, trusting that Orisa can keep up (after all, she has the advantage of four legs). If everything goes well, Jude will soon duck behind a dusty, unused building, and rattle down a badly maintained set of stone stairs. At the bottom of these, an overgrown wall looms.

"Inside here," she'll gasp at Orisa, before clambering swiftly over the railing. She's hoping Orisa can vault her way up -- but if she can't, then breaking the crumbling wall down shouldn't be much of an issue.

[stillnewatthis]

Orisa followed in a surprisingly graceful flurry of action: fire off a few shots, deploy a shield against counterattacks, run sidelong after Jude. If Doomfist were really there, he'd be getting kited masterfully.

By the time she reached the railing, Orisa had a full head of steam going. Her intent was always to half-climb, half-leap over after Jude... but a couple tons of omnic mass and physics conspired against her, and she crashed through the wall with a force and fury that would make the Kool-Aid Man feel inadequate.

[daughterofclay]

"Oh sh--"

She ducks and rolls on pure instinct. The wizardly way of handling the flying debris would've been to Discover slab of rock to shield her, or summoning a pure energy barrier using Thaumaturgy, but the wizardly way isn't quite quick enough for Jude's liking. As it is, she avoids being hit by most of Orisa's wrecking ball performance.

In the aftermath, she'll wipe the dust from her face and peer into the mess of stonework, dirt, and plant as she struggles to her feet.

"Orisa? You okay?"

[stillnewatthis]

"Yes! He has not engaged me yet!"

What else would she have to worry about? There'd been a slight bump but nothing serious.

Orisa whirled, flinging out another shield to protect the pair of them, except --

"He is gone!"

[daughterofclay]

Oh shit.

Ohhhh shit.

Looks like the jig is up. Jude inhales, then raises both her hands in the air (in what she dearly hopes is a calming manner) and makes her way across the rubble, so she can stand between Orisa and the newly-created garden entrance.

"Orisa-- I need you to listen to me. Do you trust me?" She puts as much urgency as she can into her voice, trying to shift Orisa's focus back to herself and off any possible pursuit of Doomfist.

[stillnewatthis]

"His disappearance is at odds with all sensory input analysis," Orisa mused to herself, before she turned her attention -- if not her gaze -- to Jude. "You have my trust and respect, although please get behind my barrier."

[daughterofclay]

Jude does not move, mostly because doing so would unblock the way.

She does, however, step forward.

"This Doomfist -- he was never here. He's an illusion, or a ghost. I don't know which, yet."

[stillnewatthis]

Now Orisa looked down at Jude. Her eyeshields swirled, then narrowed, but rather than anger they gave the yellow lights of her eyes a more confused appearance.

"Please elaborate."

[daughterofclay]

"Well, you're-- You're the only one who saw him." She thinks. She's pretty sure.

"At least, that's how it was with me. They only appeared to me, and I don't think they could really hurt anyone else."

[stillnewatthis]

She tilted her head slightly.

"You are saying that you did not observe him through any means? But you were assisting me against him!"

[daughterofclay]

Ah, yes. About that.

Jude has the decency to look slightly sheepish, though only for a moment; she almost immediately tightens her jaw and squares her shoulders.

"I wanted to get us somewhere less busy."

[stillnewatthis]

Orisa understood the logistics of that, but...

"Why did you not simply tell me?"

[daughterofclay]

"I didn't know whether you would believe me. This seemed safer."

She shrugs, and finally lowers her hands. She didn't like lying to Orisa, but it's not like she wouldn't do it again.

[stillnewatthis]

Orisa considered that, simulating all possible outcomes to the perceived scenario.

"You are correct," she said after a moment. "Your course of action was correct. Thank you for assisting me."

[daughterofclay]

That's not the reaction she expected -- and though she should be relieved, she's...

"You're not angry with me?"

...feeling weirdly off-kilter about it.

[stillnewatthis]

"While I am not pleased to be deceived, I calculate that I would most likely have not listened to you, since most outcome analyses would have concluded that operating as if Doomfist were real would be the response with the highest probability of safety and security for all concerned. Therefore your decision was correct. Becoming angry over it would only be a matter of pride, and I cannot learn and develop if my pride prevents me from accepting my own mistakes."

Orisa was very logical about this sort of thing, in her cheerful way. She knew what mattered. Jude had helped her fulfill her primary function!

[daughterofclay]

That explanation gets Orisa a mild, if slightly rueful, smile.

"I wasn't pleased about deceiving you either." She pauses, looks away, and then adds, quieter: "Thanks, for understanding."

[stillnewatthis]

"You helped me fulfill my purpose when I was in danger of unknowingly violating it. Thank you, Jude!"

Life, Orisa thought, was not a very complicated mess like so many people seemed to think it was.