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]

[ he doubles over to catch his breath while nodding his head. ] Yeah, I- I'm fine. Now anyway. How about you, Pere- [ he looks back at his familiar who doesn't waste a split second leaping at her to show his appreciation. he's currently a bat cat hybrid, so he's not too big, thankfully. ]

What was that anyway? That spell was absolutely crazy!

[outofyourshadow]

[Surprised, she just manages to catch the familiar, giving it an awkward pat.]

Uh...you're welcome.

[Yugi's question has her pausing, trying to think of how best to answer.]

Just uh...something that I picked up.

[Not...technically wrong.]

[puzzlers]

[ he takes the pats and then goes back over to yugi. ]

I need to learn something like that! I, admittedly, have been practicing mostly defensive spells, but if there's a group of bullies like that roaming around the school, then I might need to up my game.

[ and just generally be craftier. ]

But thanks, Lena, seriously. That was awesome.

[outofyourshadow]

[She manages a small smile.]

Hey, I couldn't just let them get away with something like that, could I?

[puzzlers]

[ he looks over his shoulder in the direction they had come. ]

I just hope they learned their lesson and will stop picking on people, because if this is what they decided to do to me, then I can only imagine what they're doing to some of the other students.

[outofyourshadow]

Hopefully...but I somehow doubt it.

[Something like that probably won't stick with them for very long. If anything, she might've just made it worse for some poor other student who had the misfortune to come across them while they were angry.]

[puzzlers]

[ he tussles his own hair with a sigh, because she's probably right. ] Do you think there's anything we can do to try to keep them from harassing anybody else? I'm not sure how effective the teachers are going to be, since they already seem to have trouble dealing with the craziness that happens here.

[outofyourshadow]

[She pauses for a moment as she considers that.]

If this place had better technology, I'd say trying to catch 'em in the act. Record them doing something to take to the headmaster or something.

But unless there's a spell like that, I've got nothing.

[puzzlers]

...that's not a bad idea, but, yeah, [ he lets out an exasperated sigh. ] give the lack of technology that might be difficult, and I don't think our word vs. their word is even worth trying and they know that. I met one of them in the first ring and they tried something then too.

I wonder what kind of magic a spell like that would even fall under... [ but he could probably ask a professor. ] I get the feeling bringing something like that up is going to raise a few red flags. [ like why do they want to learn a spell like this. ] It feels like we're caught in a dead end.

[outofyourshadow]

Yeah. It especially doesn't help that we're "Sundered", so people are even less likely to believe us.

[puzzlers]

Yeeeeah. It's like we're the bad guys, and we didn't even ask to be dragged here.

[outofyourshadow]

Right? It's not like we had any choice about it. It's not like we used their forbidden magic or anything.

[puzzlers]

I wonder if there's going to be anything we can do to change our image.

[outofyourshadow]

[She sighs.]

We'll just have to play nice for now. Do things their way until we find something better.

[And she hates that, because this isn't even any of their fault, and yet they had to prove that they weren't the bad ones? How unfair is that?]

[puzzlers]

Yeah... here's to hoping that once we make a name for ourselves here we'll be able to turn some of this around. [ he doens't like it either, but he'll play by the rules until he's able to change things. ]

[outofyourshadow]

[She nods.]

Yeah...nothing else we can do but try, right?

[puzzlers]

We got this.

[ he gives her a smile. ]

And when we do turn things around they're not going to see it coming.

[outofyourshadow]

[With a chuckle, she nods.]

We're gonna knock 'em out.