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

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Huh. Well, then let's get out of its sight! Maybe it'll pull off if we ditch it!

[Hard to imagine this girl pulling off something so wrong she needs to be chased down like this, so Jecht's gonna believe her.]

[shiningkindness]

R-Right...!

[Ballet starts speeding up, rising a bit more out of the ground to give him room to hop on if he chose to.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Okay, this is pretty crazy, but what the hell. Jecht leaps for it before Ballet can get too far away, landing on the whale with a grunt and dropping a hand down for stability.]

[shiningkindness]

[Once he was onboard, Ballet speeds up even more, trying to put more distance between them and the Golem still hot on her tail.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Man, I hate runnin' from things! I'd rather fight it.

[Not that he's hopping off. Ain't gonna put this girl in danger.]

[shiningkindness]

W-We need to do something to distract it...!

[Something to get it to stop chasing them.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

It's supposed to be a cleaning thing, right? Maybe we should make a mess!

[Yep, he's encouraging this! Clearly!]

[shiningkindness]

O-Oh...! That's a good idea!

[Look, she'll take anything to get the scary Golem to stop chasing them.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

All right, uhhhhm... [One idea on how to make a mess occurs to him immediately and he just as quickly shoves it down, because no way is he mentioning it to her.] Can we knock something over?

[shiningkindness]

U-Um... [As they were moving, Fluttershy then pointed out to something some distance ahead of them.] Oh, there's a trash can!

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Awright! Swing by it! [Jecht shifts his weight to one foot, readying a heck of a kick. If she's worried it'll hurt his bare foot -- don't.]

[shiningkindness]

[She nods, and with a touch to Ballet's fin, the land whale curves to swim towards the trash can.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Jecht winds back, then kicks the trash can as they sweep past. Hard; it goes flying, whirling as it does so that trash spews out in every direction, raining all over their surroundings.]

[shiningkindness]

[The Golem gives what might sound like a dismayed cry, and starts following the trash can as it flew past, cleaning up the trail of garbage as it goes.

When the Golem heads in the opposite direction, Ballet begins to slow down.]

...I almost kind of feel sorry for it now.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah, right up till you think about what it would've done to ya. [Jecht drops to a knee to get his balance back, especially as the whale's velocity shifts.] What did it think was dirty on you?

[shiningkindness]

I...I'm not entirely sure. I don't think I'm any dirtier than normal.

[Which, even on closer inspection, she didn't appear to be. The whale underneath them might have a bit of dirt around her, though.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah, exactly. [Whatever that golem was thinking, it couldn't be good. But rather than dwell on that, Jecht just looks down, at the whale he's still kneeling on.]

This really your familiar? It's more like an Aeon than a dumb owl.

[shiningkindness]

[She's not sure what an Aeon is, but she nods anyway.]

Mm-hmm. This is Ballet, the Land Whale.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Okay, that raises a hell of a lot of questions.]

...How did you luck out? I got a stupid owl!

[shiningkindness]

[She frowned.]

What's wrong with an owl?

[Asked as if "owl" and "land whale" were both the same somehow.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Ain't really cool, you know? All he does is fluff up and go 'who'.

[shiningkindness]

Well...have you tried asking him to do anything else?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

He does all the usual things. Fetchin' stuff and taking care of little things. But he doesn't zoom around through the ground while I ride him or anythin' like that!

[shiningkindness]

[Ballet gives a low sound that rumbles through the ground, and Fluttershy's frown deepens a bit.]

Well, maybe not. But I'm sure he does things that Ballet can't do either.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Fly, I guess, but he ain't much. [Jecht shrugs. Truth is he doesn't really mind having an owl as much as he pretends, but it conflicts with his cool image, so he's gotta put up a front.] 'Less your girl here can fly too!