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

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Nice to know I'm not the only one," Lea said with a sigh. "Man, these three days can't go fast enough; I haven't even felt like having ice cream since this started. I mean, it's probably not a good idea to be up on the clock tower while we're seeing things, but still..." Still, if Lea didn't feel like getting a sea-salt ice cream fix, you knew things were rough.

[twilightskey]

"Really?" Roxas looks at Lea with a disbelieving look. "If it's making you not want ice cream, it must be bothering you."

He pauses, shifting on his feet for a moment. "You wanna talk about it?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea sighed. Did he want to talk about it? Not particularly. But he did need to, at least a little.

"It's like they know what I'm afraid of," he said after a moment. "I don't know whether it's the magic, or the fact that they're in my head, or both, but they know exactly what to say to get to me. So even if I know they're not real, and that responding to them will just make me look like an idiot, well..." He spread his hands, indicating what had just happened.

[twilightskey]

"...it still makes you wanna hit them and tell them they're wrong, right?"

Roxas doesn't use a ridiculing tone, but rather one of understanding. He could see why it would be hard; after all, he's been going through the same thing.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah," Lea said with a sigh. "I hate that they can get to me like that, even as illusions. Partly because I know it'd be giving the real deal exactly the kind of reaction they'd want, and partly because... partly because I hate how much they scare me."

He paused before continuing, a bit quieter. "They make me feel like I'm still that helpless kid who had to watch his best friend get his heart ripped out without being able to do anything to help."

[twilightskey]

"It's not your fault for feeling like that, Axel. Honestly... I'd be surprised if anyone didn't react to them."

He looks up sharply as Lea explains about his younger days, and can easily guess who he's talking about. Surprise fills his face.

"Axel..." He's never heard Lea talk about his time becoming a Nobody before. It's a bit shocking, really.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah... I haven't really mentioned it before," Lea said. "Honestly, I try not to think about it, and most of the time, I don't. But... yeah, that's why Siax was Number VII and I was Number VIII; his heart got taken first, if only by about a minute or so. And when that's the last thing you're really able to feel for about a decade... well, it leaves an impression."

"Sometimes it seems like I'm always trying to protect people, and then failing at it," he said.

[twilightskey]

Roxas could only stare for a few seconds, shocked. He'd never heard the full story about how Lea and Isa got turned into Nobodies, so to hear it like this... it was really shocking, and sad.

"I'm... really sorry. I had no idea." Of course he had no idea, but that wasn't the point, not really. He frowned,

"...For what it's worth, I don't think that's entirely true. I mean, you protected Sora when he needed it. And you were there with Kairi in the Keyblade Graveyard..." Even if... that hadn't happened to Lea yet.

[hotheadwarmheart]

The shock was understandable. Lea had never really talked about his past much as Axel, and especially from later in their time with the Organization onward, had been too wrapped up in dealing with the present and helping his friends to give that part of his past a great deal of thought.

Until now, at least, when this whole business forced him to think about it. "Thanks," he said, managing a small, grateful smile. "Really. Logically, I know I'm probably not as bad at it as I feel like I am, but... that doesn't stop me from feeling it. One of the downsides of having a heart."

"Like I said before, all this had better be worth it," he said.