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

[puzzlers]

Y- Yeah. It'd been getting a bit heavy. Oof. And Yugi isn't that strong to start, so Spyro might have felt him start to tremble. But a sigh of relief follows the dragon getting out of his arms. "I'm Yugi. It's nice to meet you. I hope nobody's given you trouble yet. While all the sundered are usually not half bad the people of this place can get a little, uh, testy." Aka, there are a decent amount of bullies here.

[holdyourhorns]

"Yeah, I noticed." Spyro tries to maintain a straight face or even a fanged smile through his answer, but it's pretty strained.

"It was nothing that didn't get handled for now. I'm Spyro and this is Burn." He gestures to his toad familiar. "Nice to meet you too."

[puzzlers]

"Did something happen..." He tilts his head, but as he tells him that it's been handled he trails off, not sure he should push the subject if Spyro isn't interested in it. "Burn, huh," Yugi smiles at the toad. "Nice name. Here, let me introduce you to my familiar." He digs his hand into his pocket to remove three dice, which he promptly drops onto the floor in between them to reveal a ???, ???, and fish - and then as the dice unfurl this creature appears. "This is Peregrin! and Peregrin this is Spyro and Burn."

Peregrin doesn't seem all that interested in the toad, but he does approach Spyro to look him up and down. "Have you gotten a chance to explore the campus?"

[holdyourhorns]

Woah. Spyro pulls back like a surprised cat but then comes forward again to examine Peregrin as curiously as the clearly chimeric familiar is examining him.

He's very impressed.

"Oh yeah, more than enough for getting to all my classes. But I'm down if there's any place cool you think I should check out...!"

[puzzlers]

Peregrin is just as interested in looking at Spyro, so he doesn't mind being examined, but that's only because he's getting to look at the dragon. He's never seen another on campus and he'd only managed to chance into a dragon once, so this is definitely interesting. If only he could talk!

"I haven't found much on campus, but there's some interesting stuff in the first few rings of this place, which is kind of like the town surrounding this place. Oh, what house are you in?"

[holdyourhorns]

"In the town huh?" Sounds like a bad idea for him. As for the question about his house, Spyro's about to point to the singular article of clothing the school acquiesced to being his version of being in 'uniform', but oh wait that's back in his suite. Oh well.

"Huh, forgot I took it off... it's Valhudor! Where all the fun is."