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

[woo_oo]

What - no!

[Webby pops out of her hiding place.]

Put that back down!

[stillnewatthis]

Oh! Hello, Webby!

[Put it back down? Orisa analyzes this for a moment -- then her eyeshields pop down into harshly-angled slants.]

I hope you are not the picnic thief.

[woo_oo]

No, this is for catching the thieves! I'd never take anything that wasn't mine.

[stillnewatthis]

Oh! Then would it not be superior bait if it were set up, rather than tipped over? I do not know who would steal a picnic that looks like this.

[woo_oo]

It's not the picnic itself, it's the cheese! The thief is a rat!

[stillnewatthis]

Oh. [A brief database call occurs.] Do you mean that literally or figuratively?

[woo_oo]

Literally! You know, gray fur, long tail, squeak squeak?

[She'll even mime the long teeth with her fingers.]

[stillnewatthis]

I know what a rat is, but I also know that someone who stole from you would be a rat no matter what their species.

[woo_oo]

Oh! ... Aw, that's sweet of you to say!

[stillnewatthis]

It is not sweet, it is a fact! I will assist you in recovering your stolen belongings. [This sentiment might be easier to appreciate if Orisa didn't accompany it by snapping open the vents on her fusion driver to reload it.]

What is missing?

[woo_oo]

[Uhhh hang on-]

Before I tell you... you're not going to hurt the thieves, right?

[stillnewatthis]

Do not worry, Webby! I am programmed to avoid lethal injury, and would not choose otherwise in this circumstance!

[Is that reassuring?]

[woo_oo]

[for this one individual?]

Oh, that's a relief! The dead can't learn, after all!

[stillnewatthis]

I concur with your analysis. So, will you tell me now?

[woo_oo]

They tried to take my bow!

[She points to it - there's a hint of a nibble mark!]

[stillnewatthis]

That is inexcusably bold! [Lethal force might be called for here after all!] I will definitely assist you! How may I do so?

[woo_oo]

Well, I'm trying to lure them here with the food into the basket... but this might be taking too long. Do you think it's enough food?

[stillnewatthis]

They have been taking things, not food. So they do not seem to want food.

[woo_oo]

Wait, really? That's a bummer.

[But she'll go to the cheese and pop it into her mouth.]

Well, at least I now have extra energy for the job.

[stillnewatthis]

[That comment makes Orisa regard Webby with a confusion borne out in how her eye shields spin briefly.]

I have never observed you with a lack of energy. I would describe energy deficiency as the danger you need least worry about, in fact.

[woo_oo]

It never hurts to have a little extra fuel in the tank! That's what Launchpad told me. Although it was before the fuel tank exploded.

[stillnewatthis]

That is an incorrect statement, Webby! Fuel has mass and consequently increases the power required to transport that fuel and the volume it takes up. This makes for a practical limitation on the amount of fuel that is suitable for any given use.

[woo_oo]

Are you saying Launchpad was wrong?

[Quick mental montage of LP being... LP.]

... Fair enough.

ANYWAY!

We need something really valuable so the thieves won't be able to resist trying to take it!

[stillnewatthis]

Do you possess such a thing? I am concerned that anything valuable I may possess is an integrated part of me. I cannot sacrifice my Tobelstein reactor even if it is offline!

[woo_oo]

Hm... The only things I have of value are sentimental, and I don't think that's the aim.

Maybe we can borrow something from someone?