Let The Games Begin

[magicademymods]

February Event and Intro Log Orientation Week/Magic Mayhem The campus of Diatu Magicademy stretches out before you, confused and chaotic and surging with energy. Where are you headed? To your dorm or suite, to get settled? Maybe you need some food now? Wherever you head off to as your first stop, you have to deal with the snow. Helpful or proud students are passing out various magical remedies to get you where you need to be -- umbrellas with a nasty tendency to dump snow directly onto other people nearby, an iron tube that projects fire but appears to have no off switch, snowshoes that keep you slightly too high off the snow and thus provide no friction for stopping... Familiar Follies Familiars do not harass or harm each other as a rule -- but that doesn't mean they have no pecking order, and the week of Orientation finds them all jockeying for status and position as suits them. This can take the form of pranks, displays, competitions, or simple physical assertiveness towards each other. The goal is simply to be seen as superior by the student body. New wizards especially may find themselves surprised at this behavior of their familiars... 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 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.) Furthermore, they request to perform a few spells on you for testing purposes. It is, quite regrettably, possible that if you consent to this testing, you will come away with a temporary side effect -- a slight change of hair color, traveling two steps for every one you take, one hand moving about a second behind the arm it should be attached to, or being ridden by a penguin. No need to worry, these changes won't last more than a day! Wonders Await Diatu Magicademy is open to you in all its glory. Have fun!

Comments

[logdates]

Peridot wanted to shout; to lash out... But she could imagine Steven telling her to be calm. Pearl chiding her if she didn't. Garnet helping her let things pass.

She took a deep breath and said, "Let's just go gemstone shopping, then." Though the annoyance was clear in her tone, she did manage not to yell, or lose her temper.

[gender_neutral]

"Very well."

V is used to that level of frustration from companions with lower intelligence and wisdom scores.

[logdates]

Peridot shook her head, starting off without bothering to gesture for V to follow. Either they would or they wouldn't.

She did, however, pause for a moment to say, "You're infuriating, you know."

[gender_neutral]

V was following. "For some reason, people keep telling me that..."

[logdates]

"It's because you are," Peridot pointed out, bluntly. Were she a little more self-aware, she might wonder if this was what the Crystal Gems had felt like, first dealing with her. But - for the moment, at least - that thought didn't come up, at least not in any part of her consciousness she was paying any mind. "You know, you're - you're annoying."

[gender_neutral]

"Better annoying and intelligent, than annoying and idiotic, at the least."

[logdates]

At that, Peridot stopped in her tracks quite suddenly, and spun around to glare at V.

"Are you talking about me? Ugh! You can't just decide someone's stupid because they don't know about things from your world! It really isn't-"

That was when the awareness hit. She really was - or had been, she had to believe it was a case of had been and not still was - just as bad as V. Wasn't that right? Peridot didn't enjoy having to face that particular reality, but there it was. She sighed.

"Oh my stars."

[gender_neutral]

"Actually I was talking about the bard in my party back home. As well as any number of recurring nuisances. If you wish to see yourself in what I said..." Well that was on you was it not?

[logdates]

Peridot sighed again, and shook her head. "You know something? You can pick out gemstones yourself," she muttered, before turning to her familiar. "Cornelius, let's go."

[gender_neutral]

"Very well, though I am uncertain as to why time was wasted on traveling together if that was not what was going to happen..."

[logdates]

It really was like looking in the world's most annoying, troubling mirror.

"Yup. Me, too."

And that was all she said before heading off, although as she did, a part of Peridot couldn't help thinking - she hadn't been beyond help. Maybe V wasn't, either.

Thank you for the thread.

[gender_neutral]

"Well that was rather odd," V remarked to Willard, before resuming their journey to search for a shiny. "At least that is two less people with whom XP must be split, I suppose."

"And shineys," Willard pointed out.

V sighed. "Yes, and shineys."