August Event Log

[magicademymods]

August Event Log Performance of a Lifetime Valhudor, ever eager for a chance to take the stage, has launched a flash-theater campaign across the campus. Wherever students might gather, be it the Great Hall or the Promenade or the Library of Starchime or whatever, there a play will erupt, acting out the tumultuous events of the Three Dragon War. The director-ringleaders, with all the ethics of Captain Lominia, don't hesitate to shanghai students into the feature itself. Usually, these roles are that of Cowering Student #1, Useless Faculty Member With One Shoe, or Comedy Relief Pratfall Victim, and you're expected to mostly just sit there, ad-lib a little, and generally make the actors playing the Three Dragons look good. Do you behave just to get it over with, or take your role into your own hands for a little revenge? Or perhaps you're determined to take the role of a dragon and make this play your own! Alternatively, you might be looking to cash in on the bounty for the safe return of their performing surface to Brindavil Theater. These students, unfortunately... took the stage. The Great Familiar Audition With finals coming to a close for many students and graduation (or flunking) at hand for many, the cycle of academic life comes full circle once again. Airships discharge students into Anastara, the local schools send their best and brightest up the street, and the constabulary once again has to stop that creepy guy who keeps trying to kidnap school-bound students with a 'magic' train on an alleged, misnumbered 'platform' made of paper mache. And with these students come beasts of all shape and size, eager to audition for the role of familiar. Consequently, the campus is absolutely flooded with owls, cats, snakes, rats, and more, all looking for their in with a wizard. Unfortunately, they're just animals, so sometimes this results in unintended hilarity results. There's nothing quite like opening your dresser only for an unexpected snake to pop up and offer you your underwear, unless it's two snakes each offering you half of your underwear after a furious territory dispute ended in a tie. Owls deafen everyone with incessant hooting. Swarms of rats establish packs and engage in dance-fights, probably to catch the eyes of Valhudor students. The cats are oddly the most tolerable potential familiars, since they just wander around pushing stuff off of surfaces and demanding food and attention, the same as they always do. Familiar-cuckoos appear, making every effort to rub out the competition and take their places in order to get fat and lazy off the hard work of their 'master'. Also for some reason a corgi has a shiv and knows how to use it, so you better give him your sausages right now, huh? No, no one will ever believe you. The Food Cartening Though Anastara's restaurants get most of the culinary glory, a true Anastaran will tell you that the food carts of the city are as fundamental to the city as the island of Ascelion itself. When pressed, said Anastaran will reluctantly admit that no, if you take the food carts away the city won't engage in unsupported freefall, but the truth is that as a city of trade, commerce, and tourism, the food carts really are quite amazing here. But which one is the best? Famous chef Rodden Grimmslay wants to know the answer, and has issued a challenge to ever food cart: register for Cartfest, where the offerings will be put to the taste-tests of both the chef and the city at large! So welcome to the celebration, where food styles from across the Tenscore Kingdoms fill the air with competing, delicious scents and merriment abides. (The breweries are probably the real financial winners here.) Hailfight When you ask a wizard if they are capable of controlling the weather, they will engage in a long, rambling explanation of wind currents, tides, cloud albedo, size and effort, the breakdown of order, and any number of other factors that complicate the issue. When you ask a student if they can control the weather, they say, "sure," and with a wave of their wand cause the falling hail to focus directly on you. When, aggrieved, you point out that you hadn't meant it like that, another wave of their wand sends the hailstones that had just hit you back into the air to pelt you again. With a fierce hailstorm rolling across Ascelion, battle rages across the campus. From mean-spirited surprise attacks to hailstone chicken to almost literal war zones complete with bunkers, artillery support, and the occasional gas attack depending on what was for lunch, most students just can't resist playing with the hailstones and their magic. Whether you're in a duel, hunkered down in the trenches, a victim of a cheap shot, or an active instigator... you can probably get away, but only with skill and panache can you seize victory! (Many years later, linguists will identify this as the root derivation of the otherwise nonsense phrase 'hail, seizer'. Little Tenscore Kingdoms etymology lesson for you all there. Free of charge. Don't say the mod team never did anything for you.)

Comments

[burningbrighter]

familiar audition

"Where's Fluttershy when you need her?"

Sunset is currently surrounded by unhappy pets, trying to gently disentangle them. She'd volunteered at the Canterlot shelter a few times, but she couldn't talk to animals! She wasn't the expert!

She was holding a wayward guinea pig with a sack of gold coins in its mouth. She gently plucks it out and replaces it with an apple slice.

"...you know, I don't think stealing's going to get you an owner."

hailfight

"Is this---really---necessary?"

Yes, yes it is. Sunset's hunkered down behind an ice wall, a carefully crafted umbrella in front of her. She's trying to cast some fortifying spells on it so she can cross, and the simple green umbrella is now made of a much more solid canvas. She peeks out at the flying hailstones, nearly gets nailed---and it's back behind the barrier.

"...why is teleportation forbidden magic? Could really use it right now!"

Familiar Audition

[whose_son_am_i]

"The right person would probably find it funny." Said a voice behind Sunset. Loki had so far managed to avoid familiars crowding him. That might be because Einar--a 3ft long deep-green snake--was curled around his shoulders and neck. As much as the two eyed each other warily and were getting to know one another.... This 'wizard' was taken.

[burningbrighter]

"Yeah, and I guess it's pretty cute."

The guinea pig sniffles appreciatively. Sunset gently sets it back down and sighs, watching as her very own floating eyeball with octopus arms and a monocole floats over to investigate.

"This is Monarious, by the way. He says he's pretty powerful, but he can't really see. So we try to avoid him doing too much."

[whose_son_am_i]

Loki inclined his head in greeting. Einar shifted his own attention, tongue flicking out in curiosity. Raising an eyebrow, half of his mouth quirked into a semi-smile. "Do you mean that he is powerful, and he can't see it?"

[burningbrighter]

Sunset laughed at this observation. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I've only ever managed to figure out how to use the healing, because we can get focused in an emergency. But most of the rest of the time, we're just stumbling through life."

Monarious answered with a put-upon huff. Sunset smiled and shook her head. "Trust me, you're probably better off with your serpent friend."

[whose_son_am_i]

Einar's tongue flicked out once more, and black eyes glittered at her.

"We shall see. I am...unused to pets." A faint hiss, and Loki turned his head to eye his familiar. "Or familiars, since apparently you're touchy about that."

[burningbrighter]

"...me? Not really. Familiars have a little more work to do, but where I'm from, pets are really involved in their owners' lives. They're just as smart as us, I've never doubted it."

Well, she's a unicorn. But other than that.

"Do you need any help with care? My friend who's great with all pets isn't here, but I bet I could find some books."

[whose_son_am_i]

Loki hadn't actually meant her with his comment--more it was addressed to Einar. But it was interesting to know. "I'm sure I can find books too. Mostly it is simply getting used to each other for now. This is Einar, and I am Loki of Asgard."

[burningbrighter]

"...huh. Sounds like a pretty important place. You had a lot to do? Exciting adventures?"

Come on, it has to be interesting! It sounds that way.

[whose_son_am_i]

"It was the most prominent of the Nine Realms, and guardian thereof the same."

Hailfight

[phoenixwiz]

“I am also thinking the same thing as well: I can’t teleport away from the hailstorm at the moment,” Harry admits to Sunset while he is hiding from a fairly built ice wall he made from ice magic.

By this time, Harry is slowly making good progress with ice magic, though he has not sure of how to defeat the hailstones so far. Maybe he could use kinetic magic or fire magic right away, but there is so much hail that he doesn’t hav enough time to fight back. Somehow, despite the chaos, a little pygmy owl pokes its head out of the familiar pocket of his magic backpack.

[burningbrighter]

"You used to teleport too, huh." Sunset really missed being a unicorn sometimes. She glanced at him with a worried frown, then noticed the little familiar.

"Oh no, did your owl get hurt?"

[phoenixwiz]

“I happen to have kinetic magic back in the last world I was in: teleportation is among the abilities I have on hand as a part of it,” Harry explains to Sunset while avoiding a large hailstone flying towards him by ducking.

The little pygmy owl hoots at the hailstorm in fear, wondering if it will ever end. Harry could see that this little owl needs some help in overcoming said fear.

“Oh, don’t worry about him: he’s okay physically but I think that he’s more scared of the hailstorm than anything else,” he reassures her.

[burningbrighter]

Oh, the poor thing. Sunset's heart goes out to it.

"I'd offer my pet as reassurance, but Monarious is pretty scary if you're not used to him."

And speaking of him...he appears over Sunset's shoulder. A giant eyeball floating behind her, sporting eyeball-tipped tentacles like some kind of floating octopus. It waves a tentacle and ducks behind Sunset.

"If I can summon a shield we can get through. Did you learn anything like that yet?"

[phoenixwiz]

“Well, I could also cast a Protego charm as well to keep us safe from the hailstorm,” Harry tells Sunset, “That’s one of the spells that I learned from my old school. Hopefully I can still be able to use since I haven’t got the chance to use it while I was in Avalon.”

The pygmy owl is a bit surprised to Monarious’ form at first but he did eventually calm down when he sees that the floating eyeball is just waving at him and his master in a friendly manner. Harry, in the other hand, is used to see and learn a lot of mythical and magical creatures back home, so seeing a floating eyeball isn’t too strange for him anyway.

[burningbrighter]

"...so you've already been to a magic school before coming here. And another land of magic? Wow, you've really been around! Does it get confusing knowing that many types?"

Hey, a girl's gotta ask.

[phoenixwiz]

“Yeah, that is right: I have been to a magic school before coming to Avalon and here,” he confirms it, “In Avalon, my magic have been replaced into kinetic and later elemental magic upon arriving there, but when I ended up in here, I get to keep the magic of my world and Avalon magic.”

Hailfight

[sweetsummerchild03]

"Maybe it's like a test? See if we can counter whatever magic is making it hail, or find a way to cross the school without getting hit?"

It kind of sounded like training simulations she's done.

[burningbrighter]

"...yeah. Most of the tests here aren't the kind with pencils and notebooks."

Sunset stares up at the storm with a small frown.

"Back home, pegasus ponies used to kick the clouds away. Think we can make enough wind?"

[sweetsummerchild03]

June's face lights up suddenly. "I can make wind!" She reaches into her robes, and a light breeze drifts by as she slowly pulls out a wand. "I found this a while ago! Making wind is all that it seems to do, because I can't do other magic with it. And I have to be careful with how much I move it, otherwise I might blow down another building."

When did - actually, maybe it's better not to ask.

[burningbrighter]

Perfect. Sunset smiles at it.

"If it's that strong, it might be enough to clear the path for us. Think we can do it?"

[sweetsummerchild03]

June nods eagerly. "Yeah! I'll give it a try! Just tell me when!"

[burningbrighter]

"All right, let's go for it now. Blow the hail away!"

Sunset crouches into a running position, eyes facing forward and wand at the ready. She can give them some extra cover if needed, hopefully.

[sweetsummerchild03]

With a nod, she gestures with the wand, creating a strong gale that pushes back the hail.

"GO!"