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

[darkenedmoon]

I suppose that if I had been trapped for a while, or even...facing judgement, I might be eager to do things again, as well. So I cannot blame you.

[She doesn't even sound grudging, for a wonder.]

So what are you thinking of doing?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

I'm a guy who plays sports. [And a legendary guardian, and a monster, but he'd prefer to carry on neither of those legacies here.] So I'll study what I've gotta, play what I can, and enjoy.

[darkenedmoon]

I suppose if there is a thing I can help you with, study wise, you may let me know and I shall do what I can.

I also suppose that I can do my best to support you. It is what...a friend does, yes? [She's still very uncertain about it all, but Yotsuyu is fairly certain that she shouldn't be stinting on who she calls a friend.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

We'll see. Stuff like this comes easy to me. [That's the claim he makes, anyway. The appearance of a natural gift is part of his pride and his cultivated mystique. Never let 'em see how hard you work to be good, and it comes off as more impressive.] The math stuff sounds like hell, though, ain't gonna lie. If you're any good at it, teaming up might help a lot.

[darkenedmoon]

We shall see. I...will attend classes, and see what happens, I suppose. [As she hadn't given much thought to what to do if she had a blank slate. She does now. She's still not quite ready to think about it, though.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Jecht nods -- solemn, though definitely not somber.] Yeah, not much else we can do, huh? Take it as it comes and keep on headin' forward.

[darkenedmoon]

Yes. That seems to be all I can do, at least. So be it. [Yotsuyu can be the solemn one. Most of her bad memories are surfacing, and she's doing her best to just shove them down and ignore them. They happened, but they're not Jecht's fault. They were just speaking to one another...]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

And leave everythin' else behind us!

[Jecht jerks a thumb over his shoulder like he's tellin' his memories to get the hell out. No time or place for them here, damn it!]

[darkenedmoon]

Perhaps not everything, in my case. But yes, a great many things.

[Yotsuyu's greatest fear was to forget what she had done and thusly fall back into old, bad habits...if she was given a new chance here, she had to grasp it with both hands and make the most of it. But she can agree with at least some of Jecht's sentiment with his motion, and so she nods.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah, some of it won't ever let go, but... That's how it is. Thing is, it isn't here now.

[Either the good or the bad. All they got is what they brought.]

[darkenedmoon]

No. And some things...are not important, any more.

[Not being in Doma...she felt little need to be so harsh. Yotsuyu was certain that old habits might still out, but she could try to change. That was what the old samurai had wanted, no?]

So I should let them go.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yeah! Now you're talking! [Shove it all behind and forget it! And really hope that nothing happened here to cause him to become the core of an all-powerful world-breaking monster! Yeah! Eh heh... ]

[darkenedmoon]

[Well, the Kojin mirror is not here, so she figures her chances of summoning Tsukuyomi are...about nil. For which she is somewhat thankful.]

I think I shall always be more serious than you, however. Someone has to be!

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

[Jecht chuckles, a low and rough noise.] And I sure as hell don't wanna be. So you keep that title.

[darkenedmoon]

You should at least try to think, though. Even the silliest of mummers may have a brain, you know. And I do not believe, though I expect you to say so, that you have taken so many blows to your head that it has wasted away!

[Yotsuyu sniffs at that, delicately. If he needs someone to make him think, well. She's up to that particular challenge, as well.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Thinking's overrated! Gettin' out there in the blitz sphere, you don't spend all your time thinking! You act! Go with your gut!

[That's the image he cultivates, after all, or part of it -- like his knack for the game's so good he doesn't need to plan or calculate or train. Part of the mystique and all.]

[darkenedmoon]

We are not there all the time now. Do not be foolish! [Yotsuyu's voice is like a whipcrack, now, and her visage somewhat stern. He's cultivated a bit of fondness in her, and she knows all too well what arrogance brings.]

Or the...what, Bala-Inlota pitch, either? Damned if I know the proper term. I trust that your instincts serve you well in your games, but do not think it translates everywhere. You do not want to die again, do you?

[That last is a low-voiced hiss. Because she's fairly certain he doesn't want it bandied about; neither does she. She doesn't want to die again so soon either, thank you, so it's as much for her own preservation as his.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Hey, I got good instincts! [Jecht holds up his hands, both to forestall her and to protest her claims.] And I know how to fight too, so don't think I'm just gonna keel over out of nowhere tomorrow!

[darkenedmoon]

Instincts are not everything. [She turns away from him, now, annoyed. Why are all men so stupid, in the end? Ugh.]

But I suppose now you will tell me they have carried you this far, and so you shall just be fine. As you will, then.

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Well... they ain't been perfect. Things kinda worked out all right in the end, though. [Jecht chuckles without much humor, fingers working on the back of his head through his hair.] But parents're supposed to raise their kids better than they were, so I guess I got that right. Somehow. Luckily.

[darkenedmoon]

What is ever perfect? Even the plans that seem perfect can go awry. [Boy, didn't she know that to be the truth. Hers certainly had gone straight to the seven hells. Yotsuyu raised a brow at Jecht, then.]

You had a child? [Yes, perhaps a bit incredulous.]

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

Yep. Crybaby of a kid, some days I wondered how he was mine. [But Jecht's smile and the unusual softness in his voice spoil his harsh words.] Still crying at the end, too. Didn't suit him. He got all big, but didn't put on any muscle at all!

[darkenedmoon]

Mayhap his mother had a more soft heart than you. And he inherited that. [Her brow remained arched. Still more than a bit incredulous, there. But his tone, well. There was no mistaking it.]

Did you not have much of a hand in raising him?

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

We got separated, ten years ago. I... ended up somewhere he couldn't go. Not back then, anyway. It wasn't my choice! [Don't think for a second he wanted that, lady!]

[darkenedmoon]

Calm yourself, did I say it was?! [He earns a slight scowl at that, but Yotsuyu shakes her head. And her next words are by no means hesitant.]

No. You are full of yourself, but...I do not think you would willingly abandon your own child. If there was a way you could have gotten back to him...I think you would have taken it.