diatuooc | Test Drive #2

Test Drive #2

That Wand Is a Wonder!

You pulled down a book from a tall shelf in the Library of Starchime and promptly got hit in the head by a wand that was resting atop it. It looks innocuous, a cylinder of wood, but as soon as you pick it up, light streams out of the end. The barest motion is enough to make fantastic colors, and with a gesture you send light streaming across the library!

Light is all it does, right? Right?

Pranks for the Memories

Diatu Magicademy is a school -- one with different social groups, different Houses, different classes, different levels of experience... in short, pranks are inevitable. The latest one to make the rounds is the Sticky Glyph: step on a certain mathematical rune and the next person you touch sticks to you like glue. Casually brush against them, shake their hand, bump backwards into them -- however you did it, you have a new friend now, like it or not. The glyph wears off in about an hour -- do you wait it out, ask for help, or try to undo it yourself?

The Dueling Club

One of the more popular magical clubs, the Dueling Club is precisely as it sounds: wizards crossing spells, each trying to be the one to 'defeat' their opponent. How to do that varies by the sort of duel -- knocking your opponent off a platform, or getting them wet, or just good old rendering them unable to keep dueling. Less experienced students, like you, get the "water duel" treatment. Use your spells to get your opponent off of their stool in a small pool of water before they do the same to you! Losing means soggy shoes and a laugh at your expense; winning means pride, respect, and a chance for advancement into the club's informal ranks.

Chimera!

Transporting chimera is highly illegal without proper permits -- which is precisely why smugglers do it, and precisely why smugglers are valiantly struggling to extinguish their airship, while the beast responsible ambles down the gangplank and people flee like crazy. A small chimera, its shoulders are about shoulder height to a man. The goat head jabs at the cargo and building it passes, the lion head maintains a watchful forward guard, and the dragon head has taken the "burn it all, burn it all!" approach to greeting its new circumstances.

This is your chance to be a hero, and save the city of Anastara from certain doom at this beast's claws, heads, horns, and fiery breath. Or your chance to run like heck and hope it doesn't notice you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dueling

How had V gotten egged on into doing this? No idea. But there the Elf was, standing easily on a stool - that elven Dexterity boost occasionally had advantages - with what looked like... well... it looked like someone took a bright yellow oversized finch and tried to make it look like a Zapdos, using way too much tape and painted cardboard. And the thing was resting on V's shoulder awkwardly, being a little too big for that perch, its card board spikes like a more annoying version of Sora's hair during a hug.

Having finally figured out most of the basics of how Willard's abilities worked, however, V was more than willing to put up with this minor annoyance. As it was not doing actual harm, it wasn;'t cutting into V's meager pool of hitpoints, so it was mere flavor text and could be ignored.

What couldn't be ignored, was this ludacris duel. "If you are giving me ten seconds to prepare before being destroyed my me arcane might, then lo, know this in those ten seconds that have been allotted. You may utilize the same span of time as well to flee if you should wish to do so. In fact I heartily advise you to avail yourself of that opportunity whilst it is still available. For while my youthful seeming appearance might cause you to suspect that I am as young as you are, I am, as can be told by my delicate elven, in fact, an elf. As such, we retain much of the grace and beauty of our youth well into our 8th or 9th century. So while I clearly look as young as you, I have spent my considerable life dedicated to the arcane arts, and have, as recently as a hundred strips ago, been spending my time in the company of an adventuring party, leveling up and gaining more and more spell slots. I have myself gone toe to toe with an epic level sorcerer and I emerged alive. He. Did not."

Okay so that one, while being completely true was more than a little dishonest. V only barely survived, and that more due to luck and aid than anything else. As for kykon being dead at the end of the duel... he was. He was also dead at the start of it. He was dead every single time he trounced the Order Of The Stick. He was a lich, after all. But there was no need for this oddly deformed kid to know that just then.

"And while in my own storyline I am in fact working to learn self control and to use the appropriate amount of force for a given situation, and no more, know that this place has altered my spell slots to a point where only by consistent practice and experimentation shall I have any hope of knowing my current power levels well enough to hold back suitably so as to not damage you past the ability of a cleric to easily heal without diamonds. So flee while you can, before I set upon you one of my still not fully tested class abilities! Have you any words of surrender before we begin?"

Now were V the sort to pray, and to do so for something as petty as this rather than say, giving the gods strength to hold against the snarl, V might have prayed to avoid a running gag, such as the speech before a spell putting the foes to sleep, or Thog's irritating "Talky man talks too much". However, V was not the sort to send pointless please to the deaf ears of gods who choose only to listen to those who dedicate their lives to their service and as such had to simply hope that the comic had evolved past such predictable gags. V was sadly aware that it probably had not.

It might also be of note that not once has V drawn a wand or any other sort of weapon.

Within the first few seconds, Riku had tuned out completely. Having spent so much time around Maleficent and her cronies, he'd learned the dangers of monologuing, and the advantages it had always given to their opponents - usually, his best friend. This, of course, meant that if Sora ever showed his face at the Magicademy, Riku would staunchly deny ever having internally played "What Would Sora Do" ... but at the time, it seemed entirely appropriate. He replayed his last few class lectures in his head. Three components. Right. In his notes, he'd called it "the hiss". Sight, sound, and semantics. He knew plenty of spells from home, he just had to think of the Thaumaturgical equivalent, some sort of gesture ... right. There had been four triangles on one page, for the elements. They'd do.

He tuned back in just in time to hear "words of surrender", and smirked.

"Just this one: Reflega!"

He swished a fast upright triangle, cutting it through with a final horizontal slash of his wand. A gust of heavy wind rushed forward, following the motion of his arm.

Willard, the familiar, jumped in the path of the spell, wings spread to give it a wider area, and thus reduce the impact.

"Very well, V said, voice muffled by being behind the large bird. "Let me reply thusly. QUICKENED LIGHTNING BOLT!"

For a moment, nothinging. The Willard caught on that V was talking to him. Right. He opened his mouth and issued a torrent of lighting bolts at Riku's stool.

Test Drive #2

Since my other kiddo is a spoiler for ya, and you already have Sho, have V.

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