August Event Log

[magicademymods]

August Event Log Speed of Lightning, Roar of Thunder The latest rage in Diatu: portable lightning generators! These little spheres, compact enough to be held in the hand, can launch a miniature bolt of electricity out with flair and pizzazz and surprisingly nonlethal effects. Getting zapped is like getting bit by a horsefly, not much worse. Naturally, all sorts of sports and pastimes have grown up overnight. The new sports of Lightning Tag, Lightningball, and Zap Each Other With Lightning Till Someone Collapses Because We're Tough Guys Dammit routinely break out on campus, while people who think they're funny can't go ten seconds without bolting someone's posterior. So what's your role in this? Eager participant? Sportsman? Buttzapper? Or is your idea totally new and wild? And Break the Laws That They Should Fear A rash of thefts plagues Anastara and the Magicademy both. Nothing huge, nothing heavy -- little things, like food, jewelry, trinkets and knickknacks... because the perpetrators are rats. Large and obviously clever rats, who have somehow wormed their way through defensive enchantments and mundane security both with the fearsome tenacity of their species. Look around at just the right time, and you might spot a rat scrambling for the safety of the caverns, something clutched in its jaws. Maybe something of yours? The Cry Goes Up Both Far and Near Finals draw ever-closer, and right about now students start realizing that maybe they don't understand this or that; maybe they could do with some outside material; maybe a second viewpoint would come in handy. Thus this week brings the Diatu Book Exchange! Outside of the Great Hall, students of all sorts brings books they no longer need and exchange them for books they do. The Book Exchange goes past merely scholarly works, though; time has grown it to encompass books of all sorts, from genre fiction and unlikely stories about seemingly ordinary kids attending an engineering boarding school to comics to philosophical works and more. Come to trade, browse, or lust -- there's something here for everyone! Research on the SUNDERDOG! (Sunderdog!) SUNDERDOG! (Sunderdog!) The research team has learned one important thing: Conflict is the key. The Codification of Sundering is the door. Somehow, of late, something has changed the nature of Sundering magic. They do not know why or how, but the very existence of the concept of Sundering magic now causes summoning anomalies that focus on other worlds, resulting in the transport of the Sundered here. This is, well, bad. The Codifications should not be slipping, not unless something has the power to completely overwhelm the entirety of human thought and will... To test theory more deeply, this month's Research has the Sundered locked in a room with another Sundered, a pair of chairs, and nothing else. The goal is to observe the warp and weft of magic around them with minimal interference from any other source save perhaps each other. So who did you get shut in with, and how long can you just sit and talk without going crazy?

Comments

[cometophobic]

It took a moment for it to sink in that she was the one being addressed, before Marisol looked up over her shoulder at the other girl. At first glance it would have been difficult to realize anything was missing, since although she lost one bangle and one earring she still had other bracelets and she usually wore both earrings in the same ear. She was one of those people who liked a little asymmetry in her adornments. It was a little embarrassing to admit that within the course of one day she had lost something precious to her- so it came down to a slight quandary, she could either tell the truth or concoct another reason for why she was shuffling about on the floor peering into small holes.

"The next convergence of untapped magical energy." Saying it as though she were some sort of expert on the subject. "Magical institutions are always filled with pockets of it. It stems from all the novice practitioners not having full mastery of their abilities yet. Their stray spells leave a residue and when collected it's perfect for bolstering your own power whenever you need it."

A low, but very slow voice chimed in from just inside the hole in the wall. Tha....t's.................not......... what.... To muffle the contradictory voice, she casually cupped her hands over the hole while still looking to the stranger and her handsome cat.

[hyperdrivemonalisa]

That was a good one--logically Isabel knew that the tale was likely true, but why wouldn't the teachers--most of them seemed nice, except for Professor Loshakle...

The girl's confusion was fairly evident on her face, so she made no response for the moment. Chaos, for his part, sniffed at Marisol's hands, though he lifted his head, ears and whiskers pricked forward, as if he heard something. What, precisely, was anyone's guess.

But he took off like a shot across the grass towards a clump of bushes that were shivering ominously. Isabel's eyes widened as she watched her familiar's random pursuit, then shrugged.

"I wonder what's gotten into him?" Cats. They did whatever they wanted, and everyone else just had to live with them...

[cometophobic]

Marisol was quite pleased with the explanation she'd concocted. It sounded so feasible to her, that she wouldn't have been surprised if it was true.

She looked a little pensively at the cat, who seemed to be questioning what she was doing anew. If she were not busy blocking said hole she might have reached over to try and pet it.

"It's hard to say, but there must be something over there that he fancies." She followed after the cat with her eyes, but may no move to follow.

[hyperdrivemonalisa]

"I suppose. He does what he wants anyway..." For the most part. If Isabel really needed him, Chaos was fairly reliable--even being named for what he was.

He spent long enough rustling the bushes to make Isabel somewhat concerned, but he came back with something in his mouth. Something shiny. And he looked rather self-satisfied, as well. Smug, even--though that was entirely a catlike thing as well.

"Give me that! What have you even got?" Isabel asked, bending down to grab at whatever the familiar had in his mouth. There was a bit of a struggle going on, and he even gave a displeased yowl, but eventually relented. She wiped off the cat drool on her robe, and gave the bangle a look-over--but it was nothing she recognized.

"Does this look familiar to you?" Isabel asked the other girl. "Definitely not mine, though something tried to run off with my bracelet earlier, too..."

And Isabel shuddered to think what that might have done, had the rat thing actually ended up figuring out how to use it...

[cometophobic]

"That seems normal," For creatures vof the small four-footed type. "You have to admire their sense of freedom."

It did take her cat a considerable amount of time to return, but it didn't seem as if he had ever been in any real danger. Surely, he would have yowled if he had been. Marisol caught sight of the shiny object but couldn't make it out until it was removed from the beast's jaws.

"I would say so." Holding out one of her wrists, to show off some bangles of a similar design. Though how it got over there...." She started to explain until this girl mentioned that it happened to her too. So this wasn't some kind of let's haze the new girl thing by stealing her stuff. "Could I have it back please?" She held out her hand for it, forgetting to block the hole. Then her familiar crawled out of the hole, twitching his antennae. The walking stick bug sat there watching the exchange.

[hyperdrivemonalisa]

"Or his sense of adventure, I suppose." Or his sheer lack of self-preservation, which Isabel isn't about to mention. Then again, with his sheer size and the inch length claws (at least), Chaos probably had never been in any serious danger.

Even if it had been a 'haze the new girl' sort of thing, Isabel wasn't the type of student to participate in that sort of thing--not that the other girl could really know that.

"Of course, he's just proud that he found it, and I'm not that big of a jewelry sort of person. Even if I was, I'd want help finding ones sort of like it! I wouldn't take yours. That's not right." That said, she offered the bangle back to its rightful owner.

Any normal cat might pounce on the walking stick--Chaos, not being a normal cat, just gave a 'mrrrp' of greeting to the other familiar.

[cometophobic]

Marisol kept it to herself how much she appreciated the concept of a sense of adventure. Her opinion of Isabel's familiar heightened as well. Ideally, she'd never be on the wrong end of his claws.

True, the new girl had no way of knowing about anyone's behavioral habits or ethics here. It was all very new to her.

"As well he should be," Smiling at that as she doled out the compliments to the beasty. "I could have been looking for it all day, and never even found a hint of where it could have gone off to." Gently accepting it, she slid it back onto her wrist. Then she looked to Chaos imploringly,"I don't suppose you saw a hair clip over there either, did you?"

Jenghis issued his own greeting though... it took a few moments for the whole word to formulate. "Hell.....ooo."

[hyperdrivemonalisa]

"Did...that just talk?" Isabel's eyes widened at the walking stick. That sure sounded like a 'hello'...Atem's familiars were unusual, but they also didn't talk, to her knowledge...

Chaos, in response, just sort of flopped and rubbed his face with his paws. "That looks like a no," Isabel said. "D'you think you want to go look around again? See if you can find it?"

The Maine Coon sneezed and got back to his feet, then shook himself. "He seems game, so he'll go patrol again and see...and you startled me, so hello to you, too."

That was to the walking stick. She hadn't meant to be rude, but Isabel certainly had been caught off guard. Chaos delicately leaned in to sniff at Jenghis, a greeting of his own, and then wandered off, tail held high, to do as Isabel had asked.