March Event and Intro Log

[magicademymods]

March Event and Intro Log Golem On The Loose The rain never stops. Water and mud track all over campus. Diligent cleaning golems stomp about, mopping and scrubbing and polishing and then going back to do it all over again, and again, and again... One of them seems to have had it. The renegade golem bursts into Kedrigan Hall -- interrupting classes and disrupting labwork to furiously seize students and scrub every last scrap of mud and dirt off of them. All the halls have been locked off with "Under Cleaning" signs, and anyone who enters them meets with the golem's wrath, as it violently plays a pre-recorded message about not interfering with groundskeeping and deploys a giant claw-like tool to grab the interloper and put them back on unforbidden ground. The professors, who are after all completely immune to the golem's attention by its very design, seem to think this is a good learning opportunity for students. Is it? Horrible Spell Doom? "Are you sure you're ready for the test on Advanced Gaseous Discovery?" one upperclassman asks the other. "Of course I'm sure," the second says confidently. Whipping out a wand from a holster on her belt, she sweeps her wand through the air gracefully, pronouncing several Osmarian sigils as she draws them. Probably. "See, that's a blue cloud--" Said blue cloud, which puffs into being as the last syllable left her lips, abruptly doubls in size. Then it doubles in size again. And again. The upperclassmen, who have been in Diatu for several years and know exactly what this sort of thing means, don't hesitate. Not even stopping to share a glance between them, they run like crazy, leaving the growing cloud behind just as classes let out and students begin to enter the halls. But... surely it doesn't have any weird and wacky side effects, right? The Bala-inlota Parade (aka The Non-Horrible Prompt) To celebrate the start of the Bala-inlota season, Anastara spares no expense. The great parade and associated festival stretches the whole weekend, and the whole city puts on their colors and turns out for the fun. Enterprising vendors sell food, drinks, and souvenirs ranging from small and crude figurines to magical constructs that shine field displays onto flat surfaces so you can watch the action up-close! (Good luck affording that, students.) Practically any sort of entertainment you could want appears on the streets and canals of Anastara, and food and drink flow freely. Research On the Sundered With the arrival of the Sundered come those wizards engaged in research on their presence here, now set to investigate what brought them here and how to get them home. All newly-arrived Sundered students are asked to meet with representatives of the research team, to introduce themselves and relate what they will of their homes. In addition, the team requests samples of blood, hair, and skin -- carefully magically collected, and the researchers will sign in the presence of the Sundered a Glyphed contract that forbids them from using the samples for a purpose they know will be harmful. (They quite understand your reasons to be suspicious of this collection! And they will not compel anyone who refuses even given these conditions.) This month, the team has developed a Sundering spell that they warn is crude and unpolished, because the Curriculum is so unpracticed. They hope it will connect to your home worlds and establish a magical link they can build off of to open further passages. No promises! And to those who do undergo this spellwork... it has a certain side effect of confusion, as brief images from your home world flicker across your vision for a few hours afterwards. Wonders Await Diatu Magicademy is open to you in all its glory. Have fun!

A Special Note

If you thread out one or more scenes based on the confusion from "Research on the Sundered", respond to the comment on this post with a link to that thread. The results of this will be revealed next month! (It is, we're afraid, not a regain, lest your participation be based solely on that hope!)

Comments

Golem on the loose

[stillnewatthis]

Right!

[Orisa stomps dramatically up to stand at his side, but rather than any magic, she brandishes the awe-inspiring fusion driver that is her right arm. Livid green energy charges into it as as she brings it online.]

[Kaiba, now is your chance to reconsider how bad an influence you are being to this young and impressionable omnic!]

Research on the Sundered

[stillnewatthis]

Lena!

[Orisa takes the shortest and swiftest path to protecting Lena -- she steps straight over her so that Lena is beneath her body, surrounded by four legs. Down there, she can't see Orisa's narrowed eyes glowing bright red, but she can perhaps see or feel the omnic sweeping her fusion driver left and right swiftly.] Who is terrorizing you? I shall not permit this!

Research on the Sundered

[stillnewatthis]

"Hello, Peridot!" Orisa said brightly as she spotted her friend in the hall -- but then she processed the Gem's blank expression and lack of motion, and slowed to a halt before passing her by. "Peridot? Are you stuck in a loop? Pause function!"

Golem on the loose

[stillnewatthis]

"Distract it?"

Orisa's eyes snapped wide at the command, then narrowed as her quad-eyeshields slid closer together. Disconcertingly, they rotated 180 degrees as she turned her attention from Louie to the advancing golem.

"Very well! I will protect you!"

She thrust out her right arm, and the fusion driver that comprised it hummed with a livid green light before its three barrels began pumping, systemically discharging a withering column of packeted projectiles like a veritable firehouse of ammunition.

Research on the Sundered

[stillnewatthis]

Excuse me.

[Orisa leans around the corner, verifying with her eyes that her auditory processors had accurately identified the noise. A quick further scan confirms no structural weakness in the wall or evidence of a portal or egress.]

There is no one in that wall. I do not believe the person you are addressing can emerge from it.

Golem on the loose

[stillnewatthis]

Oh, hello!

[Speaking of students dumped on the ground to be cleaned -- his comrade in this sentence is a robot that probably oughtweighs the golem and definitely has more legs than it. But Orisa merely sits there, her brief attitude of forlorn dismay interrupted by the chance to say hello.]

Have you violated protocols as well?

Wonders Await

[stillnewatthis]

[Orisa is quieter than most people expect -- which is not terribly quiet, but not the massive thudding tromp a huge hippotaur robot probably seems like she should have. Which means she can get closer than "same city" without being obvious about it, explaining how she managed to witness this feat.]

You have created copper! How remarkable! On my world, that would be a most impressive feat!

Horr

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Rather than answer right away, Jecht slowly cracks a huge grin -- then begins to laugh, hard enough that he finally has to bend over, propping himself up with a hand on one thigh while pointing at her with the other.]

You're the -- you're the bluebird of happiness!

Bala-inlota Parade

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Well hey, who's he to say no?] Heh, ain't much for dancing, but I'll give it a shot.

[Besides, he feels like celebrating. Might not be blitzball, but this parade's a reminder he's getting out on a field again. Why shouldn't he cut a rug or whatever? So he takes the girl's hand, careful because his aren't small.]

Golem on the loose

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Hey!

[Don't ask where Jecht got a Bala-inlota ball -- he's probably not supposed to be carrying the thing around -- but without warning, the heavy old thing whips through the air and beans the golem straight in the face. Or what passes for one. Jecht hits the ground after his big ol' aerial kick just in time to catch the ball as it bounces straight back to him.]

[shiningkindness]

[She gives an understanding smile.]

This is Ballet. She's a Land Whale.

[Said whale gives a rumbling reply as she cruises through the earth, leaving it undisturbed around her as she glided through. With her partially above ground to keep the both of them on her back, Yugi might notice that she seems roughly the size of a car.]

[shiningkindness]

[The sound of the Golem crashing to the ground has Fluttershy looking back, and soon the whale comes to a stop so they could see who had saved them.]

[outofyourshadow]

[She seems to have calmed down even just during the short trip to the dorms, so she manages a faint laugh at that as she nods.]

It's...a real pain.

[darkenedmoon]

I am looking for general disaster reversal...from what little I have picked up so far, there should be something broad that might also take care of your...issue.

And then if it does not, that is when we try something more specialized. But do you really want to be a test subject for this? I had thought that we were being prepared for next time, and you were going to suffer through for now.

[Really, Yotsuyu doesn't begrudge him trying anything if he wants to, but his reluctance of before doesn't have her trying to cram any potion they brew down his throat, even if it's not brewing yet.]

Here, I know you are not an alchemist, but this looks promising. [She slides the book over, open and bookmarked to a potion called 'For Reversing Milde Magick'] I worry about the archaic spelling, but it was a student spell that was cast, and I also worry about bringing to bear something too powerful, without need.

[outofyourshadow]

[The shadow that falls over her as Orisa stands above her, even for protection, seems to have the opposite effect as Lena's breathing quickens, and she grips her head in her hands.]

N-No...! Don't send me back...!

[darkenedmoon]

[Nor was Yotsuyu inclined to let it keep up. At least she could draw her geometrical diagrams one-handed, hike up her robes, and keep up as best she could without drawing the golem's ire by getting muddy herself.]

I do wish I could choose which limb I bind! You have my apologies, Lena!

[Which doesn't stop her from continuing her binding spells. Binding both its arms at least makes it topheavy and prone to falling on its face, from the way it moves, but Yotsuyu isn't prepared to Discover a rock or Modify the ground in front of it to trip it.]

Be careful, but you may be able to trip it now at least! I do not think that it will get up from that!

[woo_oo]

[Correct again, because she gasps in wonder.]

Is he a werewolf? Or a... metalwolf, I guess?

[darkenedmoon]

"No land of the dead I know, sadly, no. I of all people should know it, I was at peace before I arrived here!!" Yotsuyu laughed at that. She normally didn't let it out that she'd been dead on Hydaelyn, but right now...well, anything to snap this girl out of it. And she didn't recall being in one of the seven Hells, so she had been at whatever peace someone like her could have.

"If this is intended to save my skin, my dear, this is the most minor of things I have ever done in my life to do so. No. You are under the effects of a spell, and making an absolute fool of yourself. We are on the grounds of Diatu Magicademy. Do you recall anything?!"

Mostly, she's using the grace she learned as a courtesan to dodge the girl's attacks, since in truth, it would not be right to harm her when she wasn't in her right mind.

"I have been despised by many in my time, girl, I promise you. You are merely the latest in a long line. Come now. Certainly this will gall you later, when you remember what you have done." If Yotsuyu herself were performing such ridiculous acts, it certainly would gall her.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

Really, he's just kind of--himself. He's the only one like him--we have normal wolves, too, but the Bladewolf is the Bladewolf, you know?

[He's not the Endless, to quantify Uncle Blade better than that. Maybe if he ever did decide to intern with the guy, but that felt kind of awkward.]

He can't turn into a human, so he's a metal wolf, yeah.

[nomoremistergneissguy]

He stares at where the rabbit was gently coaxed away from taking off by something underground. There weren't any signs posted on campus about anything dangerous...

He isn't the quickest, but he also isn't slow. And with his own example of odd familiar right there, he arches his brows when Fluttershy returns.

"Thank you," Cliff said, accepting the water first and taking a few sips, still keeping an eye on that rabbit. He even reaches out to grab it and settle it closer to him when it tries to move away again. At least it doesn't do anything more than continue eating the grass. That's okay.

"Say...you don't happen to have a weird familiar like Rounder, there? Something underground?"

Exploration

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

They might share a House, but Jecht didn't live in the old castle, so no surprise they hadn't run into each other before now. With nothing better to do, he turned to face the kid instead, leaning one arm lazily on the wall behind him. "Sure. What's up?"

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[One big, powerful hand reaches out to grab the kid by the head.]

Hey. Knock it off.

[Jecht figures the kid's gonna hurt himself or someone else without some interference, so time for him to step in and if nothing else take the blows, right?]

Bala-inlota Parade

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

"Hey!"

Jecht, on the other hand, was totally into this. Decked out in team colors and carrying a Bala-inlota ball that who the heck knew where he'd gotten it from, the older guy was all grins and boyish enthusiasm. So seeing someone looking like she'd had an extra bowl of Grump Flakes this morning...

"What's with the sour look?"

Golem on the loose

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Some things you just don't stand, and that includes this sight in front of him!]

[Now if Jecht was infamous for something in the blitz sphere, it was his shooting -- but that just meant his tackling skill got underestimated. He can take and give hits like the champ he is, and right now that skill needs to come into play.]

[A heel cracks into the golem's head, and believe it or not, that bare heel wins. The golem reels back as Jecht drops out of his kick to land on the ground.]

Hey, you okay?!

listen these things just happen sometimes,

[thirdpint]

[Sora jerks to a sudden halt at the voice, as though he hadn't even been aware that anyone was around (much less that he was hitting them), and just like that all thoughts of the Actually Important Matter at Hand are gone. Heartless who??]

Spar? Oh, sure! [...HOLD ON] Wait, no! I mean, um, not right now, sorry. I'm sort of in the middle of--

[--actually, upon looking around, it's suddenly like the heartless just sort of up and vanished. He scans the ground for the telltale pools of shadow, but... there's nothing, or at least not as many as there had been just seconds ago. Aw, man, did he lose them because he got distracted?]

--okay, that's weird. They were just here, I swear!