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

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Heh, well you never know," Lea said, smiling. "Not everybody is that nice about it when asked a question that 'everybody' already ought to know the answer to."

He made a noise of thoughtful acknowledgement at the explanation before taking a moment to watch the boats himself. "Hmm, yeah I guess," he said. "I don't really see enough entertainment value in it to draw this much of a crowd, but that might just be me."

"My name's Lea, by the way," he said after a moment, turning his gaze back to Noa and offering the boy a handshake. "And since you just discovered this too, I'm guessing that you're- shall we say- from 'out of town' the same way I am?"

[noasark]

"Ahh, fair point," he hums, not really considering the fact that if it were something he felt obvious, that would probably be exactly how he responded.

Noa shrugs at any rate- "Mmm, it's mostly entertaining when the mages on board start shooting spells at each other. Otherwise it's more relaxing than anything... ...Noa," he continues, responding to the introduction and taking the hand easily to shake. "And quite right- I arrived within the week in fact." Barely even gotten started in his classes, he has.

He's going to shoot through his Physics, mark his words

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Hopefully when that happens it's more entertaining than the one-on-one magic 'duels' I've seen," Lea said. "Just standing in one spot throwing spells at each other really isn't my style."

He nodded though as he was informed of Noa's recent arrival. "An old friend of mine back home just recently arrived too," he said. "Which ended up making things a lot more complicated for me and my friends who are already here, for a variety of reasons, most of which would take too long to explain." Their lives have been really weird, Noa.

"Anyway, are you settling into your classes alright since you got here?", he said. "I don't think we share any, or we'd have probably seen each other before now."

[noasark]

"Hmm? They don't even move?" he questions with a raised brow. "That doesn't sound like much of a duel..."

His thoughts are brought to a halt in favor of other matters however, and Noa blinks as Lea talks. "Oh- good to see I'm not the only one encountering familiar people," he remarks honestly. "...Not so good that it made things complicated, but," the boy determines with a shrug and a sigh, "That seems to be how things go."

Believe him, Lea, it might not be Quite as complicated...but boy is 'hello I tried to murder all of you and then sacrificed myself' getting close to it.

"I wouldn't say that," Noa starts on the classes matter. "I haven't quite gotten into all of them yet- I needed to take time to properly choose outside the required first year courses. I'm all registered now of course..." But he Is curious now. "...But it doesn't hurt to compare... Which classes are you in, then?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

"I know, right?", Lea said. "I mean yeah, they move enough to cast the spells but that's about it. Just basically try and knock the other person down- or potentially knock them out, or worse in more serious ones- while you both stand in one spot. It's stupid."

He nodded in agreement with Noa's assessment of the situation surrounding the arrival of familiar faces from home. That did indeed seem to be the way of things.

"Well in the morning, I have Sundering- because it's required for people in Ka house- and Thaumaturgy - because it's the closest to how magic works where I'm from," Lea said. "And I left myself a free period there in the morning for studying, catching up on homework, or whatever else I might need to do."

"In the afternoon I have History of Wizardy and Law- both of which are required courses for Ka and both of which are generally as dry as the chalk used to write the lessons on the board- along with Music and Forging. Music is alright; I mostly took it because I figured it'd be an easy grade, but it's actually kinda interesting. The only class I'm really into though is Forging; it's nearly all practical work, and very little of the theoretical stuff that they insist on putting in other classes."

[noasark]

The boy snorts, obviously agreeing with the sentiment but not feeling much else relevant to say on the point. Instead, classes.

"Mmm. My required course is Fantastics- from there I'll be taking Intimation and...Thaumaturgy as well, I might see you then," he hums approvingly as he continues. "As Fantastics is musically based, and Intimation involves religion of some sort, the hope is to blend all three via literal use of hymnals eventually." It's a lofty goal, but maybe he'll succeed?

"After that... Music is also required, and it seems I'll see you there..." Noa mutters, though he raises an eye given it's the same course Lea mentioned as being a (hopefully) 'easy' grade, "...Along with Physics, and Glyphics. Theory can have its merit at times," he defends from there with a shrug. "You can't always have something ready to demonstrate after all. It's a matter of if the theory is taught properly." Theory can be engaging as far as he's concerned.

Though he's probably out of luck getting anyone to believe him when things like Physics are involved.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Maybe," Lea said with regards to seeing each other in Thaumaturgy. "Assuming we have it in the same time slot. Though fair warning, the teacher for Thaumaturgy's a jerk, to the point that I'm already thinking of changing to something else after this semester just to get away from him. That, and the class itself isn't quiet what I was expecting."

Lea's initial assessment of Music had been based on the music classes he'd had as a kid in school, which were generally more music appreciation than anything else. Plus it gave him something else sort of artistic to do without having to regularly interact with the math-obsessed lunatic who called himself the art teacher.

He nodded. "Yeah, I know some people really enjoy dealing with theory," he said. "I've just never been one of them. Maybe it's because it wasn't taught properly, like you said, or maybe I just don't see the point of it most of the time. Like, if I learn a spell to say, shoot a fireball, all I really need to know to do the spell is what words and movements to use and how to aim it so it doesn't hit the wrong target. I don't need to know why you wave your wand in a particular way to do it, how the fireball is actually generated, or who was the first person to ever do the spell. It's not necessary, you know?"

[noasark]

"Seriously..." He's going to learn the hard way, but for now he's at least able to dread it a little. Wrinkling his nose, he pays attention to the debate of theory versus practical instead.

"Hnn...It might not be, but it could be if you wanted to alter the spell after all- though you're right, knowing who did it first is far from the best thing to be tested on," he huffs. "But if you know why you need to do something to get a certain result, you can chance that for a different one, without worrying about if it'll blow up in your face."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Yes, Noa will learn. Unfortunately.

As to theory vs practical debate, Lea made a thoughtful noise. "I don't know," he said. "If I wanted to do a spell with a different effect, I'd probably just go learn a new spell. That's how most people have to do it back home anyway."

"I guess the problem with me is that a lot of the lessons at the school assume that the people going there are planning to make a career out of wizardry," he said. "And I'm... really not. Here or back home. I'm mostly just interested in burning off enough magic that I don't explode, or experience whatever other horrible death they claim will happen if we don't learn to control this world's kind of magic. So I'm not really sure why I'd need to know the theoretical side of things."

[noasark]

"Hah!" Alright, that earns a bit of a laugh. "The drawbacks of the laws of reality changing on us, I see!" He's still smirking a bit and shaking his head, even as gruesome ways to screw it all up are brought forward.

"There's nothing waiting for me back in my world- so I'm fairly keen on seeing what I can do here. Some of the schools of magic seem like they could over lap- it could be interesting to see if they can, and what happens. For someone going back to where they came from, I suppose that wouldn't have a lot of use though," he acknowledges with a nod.

"It would hardly work the same after all. If it even worked."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah," Lea said. "On both counts. I've noticed a bit of that potential overlap myself, so it'd be interesting to see if you could do something with it. Who knows; maybe being from outside this world would even give you an advantage when it came to developing new kinds of magic. Give you more of an 'outside the box' viewpoint or something."

"But me? In most of my classes I'm just doing enough to scrape by, which is fine by me. I don't wanna get left behind or anything, but at the same time... well, frankly it's boring having to sit through a bunch of discussions about stuff you don't care about. I probably spend more time trying not to fall asleep and doodling in the margins of my note paper than anything else during most of the theory portions of classes."

[noasark]

"Better not get caught doing that..." he remarks dryly, giving a shrug all the same. It's hardly his business if someone chooses to do poorly. Especially if they're open about it.

"But I think I understand what you're saying at least. ....You'll probably have more time for your own thing that way too," Noa snorts. There's a fairly large gap between dedicated homework completion and 'scraping by'.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea chuckled slightly. "Well it wouldn't be the first time honestly," he admitted with a bit of a shrug. "I used to do the same thing back in regular school in classes I didn't like. I know it's kinda a bad habit, but as long as I'm passing the classes, I don't really see how they can make somebody write notes and stuff."

"I have started having study sessions with a friend of mine," he said, "but we don't tend to get nearly as much studying done as we probably should. They tend to turn into 'random conversation sessions' pretty quickly more often than not."

[noasark]

"I'll admit, I didn't have a very typical classroom experience..." To put it extremely lightly. "Having classmates at all is new..."

He raises a brow as Lea explains his 'study habits', falling into quiet thought for a moment.

"....Perhaps you should get another involved as well..?" Not necessarily Him, but. Someone with Focus.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"You were a homeschooled kid, huh?", Lea said. "Can't say that was really common back where I was from, but I can see how this whole thing might be extra weird to you then."

"And yeah, that might not be a bad idea honestly," he said. "I mean, not that I don't like just handing out with him and talking, but I feel a little bad calling them 'study' sessions when they're kinda anything but, you know?"

[noasark]

"Mmm. More or less. I suspect at a certain point, the 'homeschool' label can't completely apply..." Fancy Rich Tutors do that.

But hey! Noa chuckles. "Then consider it on the table. I can't say it's a firm agreement until you ask him obviously, but it it's worth doing that much."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea chuckled too and nodded. "I'll try and remember to ask him about it next time then," he said.

"Anyway though, in the meantime, I've gotta be getting on with what I came here for in the first place," he said. "There's some Forging materials with my name on them a few docks down."

[noasark]

"Mnh- well, good luck then," Noa decides with a nod. He's not into forging himself but...well maybe later. "I'll see you another time."

And wrapped!

[hotheadwarmheart]

"See you around," Lea said, giving Noa a wave as he turned and headed off down the docks.