April Event and Intro Log

[magicademymods]

April Event and Intro Log Plants Off The Path Green grass and radiant flower gardens bracket all the major walks on campus, and fragrant scents fill the air all around. Note the key words "major walks" there. Move off the common paths and onto 'shortcuts' or less frequented areas of the vast campus and things are quite different. Here, the plants grow just as experience with this chaotic and often dangerous school would lead you to expect. Broad-leafed stalks stretch upwards, petals unfolding to reveal long jets of fire instead of a sensible stamen. Bushes have large toothy mouths, and viciously swallow anyone who comes near (though they are still just bushes, and the victims end up on the their other side just a few scratches worse for wear). A tree grows quills instead of needles; another sprouts paper airplanes instead of leaves. An extremely aggressive pitcher-plant wanders the pathways, mugging students at knifepoint. It's a jungle out there. Bullies, Of Course Surely a Magicademy, with many students already adults and with such an emphasis on learning and control, wouldn't have those who used their magic for such petty ends as making others suffer? Uh-huh. A pack of bullies with more spell experience than wisdom has banded together to take delight in the suffering of others. They overtly pick on the small, the meek, and those with less magical skill; they torment the larger, the bold, and the powerful in secret. Worse, they are the clever sorts of bullies, who go out of their way not to get caught and not to do anything that can't be played off or explained away. Maybe you attracted their attention by looking weak enough to pick on. Or strong enough to need to be taken down a notch. Or weird enough that you were the Other and thus lesser. Or pretty/handsome enough that you needed to look less attractive so they would look more so. They are pretty good at justifying picking on anyone, really. Are they pestering you by magical tripping or property destruction? Playing keep-away with your class books? Better be careful how you respond; their fathers might hear about it. Wind At The Docks (aka The Prompt Where You Don't Get Mugged) The winds of spring bring something of a dark pastime to Anastara -- dockwatching. Aware that a sudden blast of air can rip across the island at a moment's notice, crowds gather at the docks with the air of those expecting spectacle. All too often, they are rewarded -- in the wake of a sudden wind, airships list violently, or bump into each other, or desperately pull sails and power up their flotation cores to avoid a worse collision. Curses fly through the air, and sometimes even spells. With luck, the audience might even see a pair of vessels engage in an all-out air duel, as two captains driven by pride or vengeance refuse to back down. Now, to their credit, the assembled people aren't heartless. If a ship truly looks to be in trouble, or if it's smashed to the ground or into a dock, the people of Anastara don't hesitate to help those on board to safety or ensure that they don't go down with their ship. But mostly it's watching the chaos. It IS quite a show... 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 Glyph designed to detect any influence of the magic on you. Painted on your arm, it will shine with a bright light when a Sundering effect attempts to influence you. They explain that they believe the Sundered are still subject to either the spell that brought them here or new ones, because they have detected remnants of Sundering magic in the wake of students who have mysteriously disappeared. They ask only that you report back when it lights up. Problem: when the Glyph erupts, either because of the Glyph itself or the spell it has detected... those who bear it find themselves no longer where they started. Perhaps they find themselves in a classroom late at night. Or the wrong dormitory. Or in the Great Hall in their nightshirt. Or for the utterly lowbrow amongst you, a restroom occupied by the wrong gender. Whatever the case: sorry. 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 some sort of regain this month!)

Comments

Research

[areasontohope]

It was a really nice day out so Yuki decided to get outside and read. He wasn't studying right at the moment, and the sun had peeked out. So he figured it would be nice to go outside, sit and read a book.

He'd finally found the perfect spot and the sun felt nice and warm so he opened up his book and started to read. That was, until something or someone came crashing down on top of him and the book went flying.

Yuki opened up his eyes and saw that a girl had crashed in on him and for one moment he panicked, thinking that he might transform so at first he struggled. Even if the curse had broken back home, that didn't mean that it was broken in this place. But no transformation occured and he was thankful that he couldn't transform anymore so he relaxed, even if just a little. If he had transformed, that would be another mess besides the one that had already just happened.

So for a few moments, he didn't even know what to say and blinked up at the girl's response. But Yuki quickly mentally composed himself and still tried to gently move.

"Hello." He tried to move a little bit more and then asked a question. "Would you mind me asking what spell you just cast?"

[burningbrighter]

"Guh!"

Um. What. She definitely did not mean to fall on top of the poor guy. She shoved herself off, rolling onto the stone and sputtering as she tried to fix her hair back in place, smiling awkwardly at the housemate she didn't recognize.

"That wasn't my spell. It was one the researchers placed on me...they're trying to find out what's happened to the Sundered students who've left us."

[areasontohope]

Once she moved Yuki started brushing the dirt off of his clothes along with straightening them. He was pretty thankful he couldn't transform here and that's what went through his mind as his eyes looked around for his book. Who knew where that went, but he'd just have to look for it and he most certainly would.

Turning back once the other spoke, Yuki wasn't sure what Sunset was talking about. "Researchers?" This made no sense to him. "How is that supposed to work exactly?"

[burningbrighter]

"Ah, you haven't run into them yet? You might want to avoid them. They're older wizards who cast all kinds of weird spells on the new students, trying to learn more about the magic that brought us here. This month's spell has a teleport side effect, apparently."

She sounds fairly casual about it, which might trigger some warning bells. Isn't this new school great?

[areasontohope]

"So they're using students as their test subjects." This wasn't happy news and this place just got stranger and stranger. And these thoughts were coming from a person that used to transform into a rat.

The casual tone did ring a warning bell, like the time Miss Honda had gotten bitten by Kisa and tried to play the pain off like it didn't hurt at all. It was when she tried to be calm that made Yuki really worry. And this seemed like one of those times.

"And I'm sorry, you said this month's spell? So this means spell events happen every month?"

[burningbrighter]

"Yeah. They're always trying something different to get to the bottom of the mystery. Some of the effects are pretty cool, but they can be really inconvenient. So you just want to be careful around this time of the month."

She shrugged a shoulder. "It's optional, and they wouldn't knowingly hurt you. It just gets weird, like a lot of things here."

[areasontohope]

"They're trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of how we got here? Would they really care about that?" Yuki just isn't quite sure how this crazy place worked yet. And if he had his way he would just sign right up to go home and this would all be over.

And as she went on, he felt like his head hurt. "So how are we to know when these events are happening?" This place was weird enough without extra added weird.

[burningbrighter]

"Yeah, because then they can send us home and not have to deal with all these random students from other worlds at their school anymore." Sunset wished most of the world was more welcoming, but that was the way it was, it seemed.

"And you'll know when you see the researchers in the main hall looking for volunteers around breakfast. My advice? Don't volunteer, and just hide out as long as you can."

[areasontohope]

Her words give him food for thought. "I see." So maybe the wizards weren't trying to pull people here willingly and something else was going on to make that happen anyway. And he'd have to see what he could find out in that regard.

Breakfast was a sort of chore because even in this world, Yuki was definitely not a morning person. But he wasn't about to volunteer anyway because who knew what havoc they could cause. Maybe they'd even turn him back into a rat, and that was definitely not on his list of things to have happen again to him ever.

So instead, he just smiled. "I'll definitely keep your advice in mind, thank you."

[burningbrighter]

"No problem! Welcome to the school! I'm sure I'll see you in class sometime...it's really not as scary as it sounds. But I definitely recommend staying with a group when you can."

[areasontohope]

Yuki wasn't sure whether or not anyone would really feel welcome here, but that was yet to be seen as was whether he could stay in a group. But he nodded.

"Thank you, I'll try to see what I can do."