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

Eiather Dorms - lmk if this isn't okay!

[logdates]

Peridot was in the common area of her Eiather dorm, and the door there was left open so dorm-mates and general housemates alike could enter as they pleased. This kind of hospitality wasn't exactly common for her, but she was working on that sort of thing. And besides, it was only logical - her familiar was literally made of flame; the weather was frigid. She didn't really get cold, as a Gem, but she figured it only made sense to share Cornelius, so to speak. So when she heard someone walking by, she called out to them without looking over.

"It's warmer in here, if you want!"

Re: Eiather Dorms - lmk if this isn't okay!

[burningbrighter]

"Really? Thanks!"

Sunset and her eye-tentacle-creature make their way inside, spotting a roaring fire... or was that a familiar? She sat on the closest chair, pulling her jacket tighter around herself.

"So...housemates, huh? Hi. I'm Sunset Shimmer, and this curious guy is Monarious," she said warmly, one hand curled around a tentacle to keep him from going too far.

[logdates]

"It's no problem," Peridot responded, and nodded her own greeting. "I'm Peridot, and this is Cornelius."

She regarded Monarious with curiosity, but soon realized there was something about Sunset that struck her as even more interesting. She paused, looking her housemate up and down a few times, before pointing out, "You're very colorful. I like your hair."

[burningbrighter]

Sunset grinned, twirling part of her hair around a finger. Monarious liked to explore it too, which had caused some interesting side effects earlier. But she had him well under control now.

"Thanks! Yours is pretty neat too. So...I don't know if you're like me, but were you magical? Before all this?"

[logdates]

"Thank you," Peridot said with a smile, feeling quite proud of herself. After all, her hair - her entire form - was something she'd created. At the questions, she shook her head.

"I'm not magical. I'm just not a human. But you - you already had magic before coming here? That's interesting. It should give you an advantage learning the magic here."

[burningbrighter]

"I'm not sure...we're all starting from the beginning. But I guess it helps to believe in what's possible! It sounds like it's based on logic, though, and I think I've got the hang of that."

She leans back, considering if this is something she should reveal...but there were so few of them, it might help her fit in?

"I'm...actually not really human either. I mean I am, right now, but I was a unicorn before. Magic gets pretty weird sometimes!"

[logdates]

"I suppose. I don't know anything about how this works - but logic is definitely something solid to work with, so that's good."

Peridot paused, looking Sunset over more closely. "I don't know what a unicorn is," she finally admitted.

[burningbrighter]

"Yeah! So it's not so bad."

That gives Sunset pause. She hadn't been expecting to explain that today.

"Okay, do you know what a horse is?"

[logdates]

"A horse?" Peridot echoed. She had to think about it; but the name sounded familiar... Yes. That was one of the 'farm animals' Amethyst had taken the form of back at the barn. "Mmhm. I do."

[burningbrighter]

"All right. Back where I'm from...I'm a special, magical kind of horse. The main difference is that we have horns on top of our heads."

She spots a scrap of paper pinned to the board and grabs it, sketching a very pencil-drawing unicorn.

"There are other kinds of horses. The ones you're used to are the most like earth ponies. No special powers, but they're good at gardening. And then there are pegasi, they have wings."

[logdates]

Peridot's eyes widened a bit - that was actually quite interesting. She regarded the sketch, then Sunset herself, and tilted her head to the side.

"But why don't all horses fly and have a horn to defend themselves with? It certainly sounds like that would be an evolutionary advantage..."