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

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah, yeah... [He's starting to get excited about this idea. It's defensive so he's gotta give it an offensive twist, but that's easy -- when suddenly a guy stumbles and colored smoke shoots out of his shoes, no way anyone can mistake that as a signature technique.]

Ha! I get a variant where they pop when I snap my fingers or something. Then at the end of the play once the goal's made, I do that and everyone knows how I got through 'em all.

[darkenedmoon]

[Yotsuyu is amused, but also pleased--this has Jecht more interested in magic, if slightly, and he's thinking for himself. She only planted a few seeds, and they seem to have found fertile soil to grow in. Normally she'd make a snarky comment about it, but she doesn't want to salt the earth here.]

That is a good idea, yes. You should perhaps ponder what else you might do. Crimson sparks. Something. Showy, because that is you, but nothing that might cause a fire.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah, they got too many plans for fire. [Jecht might not think of other reasons fire should be avoided...] Sparks and smoke and symbols maybe. Huh, but that'd be tricky, wouldn't it?

[darkenedmoon]

Yes. But not impossible. Discovery is not Modification, you simply must speak the proper words with the proper inflections. [Though Yotsuyu is well aware of Jecht and how well he's done with his studies. Or not done, really--she was the one tutoring him through midterms, and she's going to be doing the same through finals, she is certain.]

I imagine four words or syllables; one for the sparks, one for the smoke, one for the symbols, and one for red or crimson, as I imagine that is enough of a signature color for you. No?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Uuuuuugh. [Starting to lose its appeal, here, but despite his groan of protest he hasn't given up yet.] Guess I gotta go look up all that stuff, huh?

[He doesn't think for a second she'll do it for him. He imposes on her enough as it is!]

[darkenedmoon]

Yes, you must. If you become completely lost, I will aid you, but until then, 'tis best if you do it yourself. You will be more invested then, no?

[Where he is wrong: Yotsuyu likely would if he asked, however, she really does feel Jecht would be better off doing it himself. Besides, he works for his bala-inlota and blitzball anyway. How is this different?]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah, yeah. [He knows the score. She's always gonna try to make him do the work... and by now he's starting to feel a little guilty and a little unmanly, what with the work she's already put in. So he might protest, but he's gonna do it with just that.] 'Course you'll keep an eye out for other stuff, right?

[darkenedmoon]

"Yeah, yeah". [It's tossed back at him, somewhat mockingly, but Jecht really ought to expect that out of her, by now.]

Of course I shall. I do look forward to seeing what else you might come up with, but if something seems...like you, I shall let you know.

[This is Yotsuyu. He may end up buried under a pile of notes and diagrams, and regret his life choices!]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Heh, thanks, Tsu. You're the best.

[Uh-oh. A NICKNAME REVEALED.]

[darkenedmoon]

[Just this face for a long, long moment. Enough to make Jecht squirm.]

What was that, now? [Oh no, you didn't.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

You're the best?

[darkenedmoon]

No. Before that. [Narrowing her eyes, now.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Thanks?

[darkenedmoon]

That is not the sum of what I heard. As well you know. [As her annoyance grows, she folds her arms over her chest. Really, Yotsuyu might be less angry if he'd just come out with it, instead of playing the innocent. Jecht does it so poorly.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

So... the 'Tsu' part, huh? [Yeah, don't mind him idly rubbing at his neck.]

[darkenedmoon]

Yes, that part. Explain yourself, if you would, please? [Really, she's trying to give him some benefit of the doubt. Generally, Hydaelyn is not a place where one gets nicknames--'Witch of Doma' was an epithet at best and a curse at its worst, not that Yotsuyu doesn't know she deserved all of it. But look! He even earned a 'please'!]

You are not attempting to tease me, are you?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

If I was, you'd know it! I ain't subtle about it. It's a nickname! 'Tsu' sounds like you.

['Yotsuyu' sounded a lot... harsher than the woman he knows?]

[darkenedmoon]

I do not understand how. Though I do know that Gosetsu--this one's namesake? [With a light touch to the serpent who is usually coiled around her waist.] He named me 'Tsuyu' when I lost my memory. To protect me, I should guess.

[And yet when she'd regained her memory, how angry she had been. Yotsuyu had refused to accept the old samurai's kindness--though had she the choice to make again, she might very well change her mind...]

I do not see how there is any difference. Save brevity, I suppose. I'd not thought you would need that. 'Tis not as if we've had many battles to fight, here.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Trust me, it's a hell of a lot easier. [Three syllables down to one? And those three syllables practically seem to fight each other! This is way better.] Besides, it means I like ya.

[darkenedmoon]

You like everyone. That means nothing! [Unlike herself! There are people here she does not like, save she keeps her mouth shut about such things. Though the annoying jump of logic in Yotsuyu's mind pipes up with "he does not give nicknames to everyone." She just makes a small face at that, though.]

I cannot do the same for you, I can think of nothing that would work. [And she won't be mean enough to nickname him with something she's used as a derogatory epithet in the past, so no 'oaf', for example.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

I don't like everyone. [He can name one or two here, for sure.] And why give me a nickname? 'Jecht' is just super-easy to say on its own!

[darkenedmoon]

You could have fooled me, then. [It sort of feels as if he has fooled her--so damn easygoing, acting like nothing bothers him. Save...there was a time or two when she has seen him afflicted, and that is likely the only reason she isn't snarling at him.]

So it is not necessary to reciprocate?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Jecht winks at her, lifting one arm to nudge her shoulder more lightly than he seems like he should be able to.] Just keep comin' around and everything's good.

[darkenedmoon]

Jecht. You know where I live. Should I, for some reason, stop coming around, as you say, would you not simply hunt me down? [Droll and dry as the Sagolii]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Ha! You got that right! [Y'know, assuming she hadn't made her reasons clear or anything like that.] You're stuck with me!