Mod Account for Diatu Magicademy ([personal profile] magicademymods) wrote in [community profile] diatuooc2021-07-23 03:56 pm
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Test Drive Reloaded! #1


Test Drive #1




Welcome to Diatu (I Like Swords)

The Arrival Hall is all aflurry with activity! No one had expected so many Sundered to suddenly pop up, the staff find themselves desperately scrambling to keep up with the influx, and a bunch of new arrivals find themselves hanging out in the Hall lobby, waiting to be seen, sent home if possible, or counseled and prepared for student life if not. Rumors run like wildfire: some people believe they've been kidnapped by aliens, a worryingly persistent suggestion that this is a setup for a murder-tournament keeps circulating, and one or two nutcases insist that a dragon tinkered with the rules of magic and now they have to study at a magic school to survive. Pie stocks are grievously low, and thought Headmaster Birony herself appeared and began violating the rules of space and time to summon pies from the future, a second Headmaster Birony with an eyepatch, several war scars, and a wild hairdo appeared and promptly yelled at the first Headmaster for stealing her pies. A pie fight erupted. Pie stocks are even more grievously low now.

Still, here's your chance to talk to your fellow arrivals. Or aggressively attack the nearest target in an outrage (they set up a target dummy and labeled it VENT AGGRESSION HERE, and are trusting you guys on the honor system). Staff don't have time to talk, but they promise they'll get to you soon!

A Day In The Life

The sun is bright, the air is warm, a cool breeze blows across Anastara, clouds keep drifting directly through the island and engulfing people... it's summer on Ascelion, and the day is ripe for learning. Or as ripe as Diatu Magicademy ever can be -- though no one would trade the character and charm of the lively campus for some stodgy, regimented school more interested in forcing students into the mold than encouraging them to be their best, sometimes conditions in the Magicademy are a little inconvenient.

A toilet in Kedrigan Hall keeps clamping onto the butts of those who attempt to use it. Thus far, half a dozen students have been freed from its clutches by their friends, while reports of singed buttocks have increased twofold. (Yes, only twofold. Think about that for a minute.) Staff are on the lookout for a prankster rather than a commode, so as of yet the treacherous toilet has gone unpunished...

Not far away, a group of cleaning golems has occupied the promenade as part of an ongoing strike. As they possess only rudimentary intelligence, they believe this involves seizing objects from anyone who passes nearby and hurling them at a set of bowling pins. Meliandre Tomekin, Head of Groundskeeping, has set up shop across the Promenade; any student who wanders too close gets a big block of ice shoved into their hands, along with instructions to hold it still while she shows those reprobates what-for...

In the Great Hall proper, school clubs and activities have, as was inevitable, escalated competition for new students to yet another level which only isn't a war crime because it isn't part of a treaty yet: they've conscripted geese. Horrible geese, to be precise, who dispense flyers for various clubs with less subtlety than a nuclear holocaust. Some of them fight for dominance, others have teamed up to pin down innocent students and stuff leaflets down their throat, and one has a wand and is somehow casting Discovery spells?!

A Forgery!

"I tried a mass-Forging technique," the older student says, showing off the briefcase full of identical wands and a sign that says 'FOR $ALE CHEAP'. "Some of them are exactly what I intended, they self-correct runes, but the rest, well.. . I don't know, I can't tell, and I'm not really interested in finding out one by one, so... you buying?"

All sales final. No refunds. Caveat emptor. As for what the wands do, well... there's a reason he answered with an ellipsis when asked. On the other hand, maybe the effect isn't too terrible? Maybe it's even beneficial! Maybe the wand shoots out rainbows and muffins! Or maybe it just animates and strikes you vigorously about the head and shoulders...

Three Dragon War

Someone, we're not naming names, canons, or the color of eyes and the dragon to which they belong that forms said person's obsession, may or may not be indirectly responsible for the latest game craze sweeping Anastara: Three Dragon War, a collectible card game that features players as dragons, deploying spells, creatures, and Sundered against each other to destroy each and avoid the machinations of the Third Dragon. The awesome thing about the game is that the Third Dragon comes in all different forms: classic bundled-with-the-starter-pack Ire, super-rare Anastara Diatu, suspiciously-rare Cam Birony, ultra-common Large Eagull, and more. The concept of an outside force adding randomness to the battle and being manipulated in turn by cards means Three Dragon War is the hottest card game that's come along since the last card game that was the hottest that had come along came along.

Face-to-face, you find yourself in a duel over these cards and the magical images they summon. Can this untested deck come through if you believe in it? Or are statistics and probability actual things that actually happen? Dragon Battle! Jiao Long Fu!

There's One in Every Test Drive

Not every magical disaster is caused by some wayward student you don't know. Many of them are caused by you instead. To wit: you're on the spot in one of the magical labs, being called on to demonstrate a technique more advanced than others you've mastered so far. Failure is expected, and the wards should prevent any injury to others from a miscast spell. But will the sparks of your magic just sputter out and die? Or will you inadvertently mispronounce, misform, misshape, or miscalculate in a way that brings chaos to you and your lab partner?

(You could also manage to succeed in casting the spell, but that isn't very fun.)
ronstadt: art by Grindark Studios (craydar activated)

[personal profile] ronstadt 2021-08-02 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Just a fan. Had a pretty good vinyl collection going at home. It was kind of my payday treat, you know? Survive another hellish week in occult book retail hell, buy a platter. Then I switched jobs and it just turned into more of a hobby than a survival mechanism.

[his Craydar goes off ever so faintly at the mention of the tape thing, though, and he raises an eyebrow]

Wait, back up. Did you say any tape turns into the Best of Queen? Is that like ... an on-purpose spell or did it just happen?
protectiveink: (OH NO)

[personal profile] protectiveink 2021-08-03 12:58 am (UTC)(link)
Sorry, Ronstadt...if you were trying to reassure her...that last bit didn't. Roisin scowled a bit. "Great. Doesn't make any damn sense tae me, then, considerin' th' one who put 'em on me also put th' damn demon in me. Most of 'em. Some of 'em I just got copied when I could." With some special additives to go in the ink. Like holy water. It'd burned like a bitch when she'd gotten those tattoos, but it'd been worth every ounce of pain to make sure Haage was at a disadvantage.

She did look a bit mollified when he mentioned his own problems. Rosh shook her head. "Can't think any o' that was particularly comfortin', even in light o' me own troubles. 'Least this place ought tae help with it all, I'd think, aye?"

Well, assuming they ever got to class and all.
ronstadt: (disco mystic)

[personal profile] ronstadt 2021-08-03 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
"That's just fucked up, if you don't mind my sayin' so." His eyes widened when she shared about her tattoos. "Do you even know why they did it? Tell me they at least got your permission first."

He was a little too disturbed by that particular train of thought to loop back around to his own story and his hopes for the Magicademy. Forcibly possessed, tattooed ... if all of that had been done against Roisin's will, Ronstadt hoped whoever had done it never showed their face in Anastara, or they'd have ... well ... something coming to them. Whatever nastiness he could learn to be capable of. Maybe they'd just met, but he was a modern man with some pretty strong opinions on consent.
protectiveink: (she screm)

[personal profile] protectiveink 2021-08-03 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
"Dinna mind ye sayin' so, aye, it is, an' no ta both. Dunno why they did, an' they didnae even ask my permission first, much less receive it."

Really, he'd have to stand in line, Ronstadt would. Roisin would like to slowly roast the man who'd claimed to be her father. She'd figured out by now that it was highly unlikely that he had been, nowadays, but she had no way to pursue that. Especially not in the Tenscore Kingdoms. But if she ever made it back to her Earth, well!

"Still, ain't like ye had anythin' ta do with it, so..." She shrugged.
king_of_egypt: (Impish)

[personal profile] king_of_egypt 2021-08-03 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
[Ineptitude!? You're not making it any easier to resist unleashing the power of the Millennium Puzzle on you. J/King since he would actually find the humor in this]

Somehow, when you say it the position sounds infinitely more trivial, but I assure you they were the best in their craft.

[Leaning to one side, he tried to peer at what she was writing but alas the height difference placed him at a firm disadvantage]

Sounds reasonable so far. [A pause] Do we really have to attend classes daily? I was thinking more along the lines of every other day, or maybe three in a row and with the occasional four day weekend.
wagerofloki: (017)

[personal profile] wagerofloki 2021-08-03 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
She managed to keep her mouth shut for once as she listened to him. The whole place sounded like a dream, really. Somehow some part of her knew that no matter how hard she imagined she wouldn't be able to really capture its beauty. She'd never seen stars (choked out by the city lights), never seen waterfalls (but she did know the ocean), had never even heard of the Bifrost before.

"I can't imagine open space inside a city... Night City's real packed tight. Gotta be." She paused, frowning a little. "Bein' honest, can't begin to picture what you described. Asgard sounds like someplace out'f some pretend world." She believed him, but it was just so far out of her experience she struggled to comprehend it.
ronstadt: (in a weird place now)

[personal profile] ronstadt 2021-08-03 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
"Motherf--" He bit down on the curse, realizing that he probably shouldn't drop an MF-bomb on new company. Or in a school, for that matter. His nostrils flared as he took a deep breath to shutter his temper.

"That's ... B.S.," he said with a guilty look around the hall. "I didn't, no, but ... I'm sorry it happened, for whatever that's worth. I don't know much magic yet, just how to sense it in a really, really annoying way. But once I start learning, I'll share whatever I got. You know. In case it helps."
whose_son_am_i: (poker face in shadow)

[personal profile] whose_son_am_i 2021-08-03 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
Loki turned and leaned his head on his upright knee, blue-green eyes watching her for a moment. "Would you like to see it?" Entirely serious in his question.
wagerofloki: (035)

[personal profile] wagerofloki 2021-08-03 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
"If you're not human then what the fuck are ya?"

She continued to be as brazen as before. Either she thought he was lying or she was a fool. (Both. It's both.) As far as she could tell? He was definitely a human. Very eccentric, but still human.

"'Course I'm human?" She sounded a little irritated. "You keep talking like there's somethin' else here but you're not givin' me anything to go off of." The huffiness subsided. "Still waitin' to wake up'r for this trip to end."
wagerofloki: (020)

[personal profile] wagerofloki 2021-08-03 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
Her distrust flashed in her eyes as she sharply turned to look at him.

"How can you do that?" There's an involuntary move to cover the jack in her hand, as if she was afraid of a virus or something.
whose_son_am_i: (Thor-3/4ths profile thoughtful)

[personal profile] whose_son_am_i 2021-08-03 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
Loki simply uncoiled one hand from around his knee and held it palm up. A small display of fireworks coalesced up from the upturned palm. "Like this." A pause, and an amused smile. "Relax. I won't hurt you. I have no reason to."
wagerofloki: (082)

[personal profile] wagerofloki 2021-08-03 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
Her brows raised and eyes actually widened some at the display. There was almost a child-like wonder on her face, but it lasted only a moment before she looked up to him and she remembered herself. She did her best to play it cool.

"Yeah, I'd like to see."
whose_son_am_i: (Thor--Casting an illusion)

[personal profile] whose_son_am_i 2021-08-03 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
Loki didn't laugh, but did give a slow blink at the child-like wonder. So, for all the hardness he sensed in her, she still held some innocence. Unlike him--he'd never be innocent again.

Shifting from his semi-curled up position, Loki moved to spread his hands out. It was harder here, his own magic much weaker than that of this world's own. But he could still do this. Taking a breath in and out, summoning his memories---before an illusion of Asgard formed in front of them. As if it were a film on a screen.

Asgard as it had been, and no longer was. And never would be again. Loki shut his yes, as he felt them begin to water. He would not show weakness or tears.
wagerofloki: look ok i know karla souza's too old to be a teenager but just like roll with it please (Default)

[personal profile] wagerofloki 2021-08-03 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
wagerofloki: (110)

[personal profile] wagerofloki 2021-08-03 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
For the first time, she actually turned towards him. She folded one leg up and rested it flat on the surface of the building, her other still hanging over the side, and she turned so she could better look at the illusion he conjured. She was too engrossed in the illusion to notice the way he closed his eyes.

She pointed to the palace, speaking in a small voice, filled with wonder. "This place reminds me of the pipe organ in a church that Padre sometimes let me stay in if the weather was bad." She gave the name of the church, not that it mattered, the Spanish rolling out of her mouth with well-practiced ease.

Her hand returned back to her lap as she looked at it. "Asgard looks really beautiful." She couldn't find anything else to say, too engrossed as she looked at the illusion and let her mind wander into what it would have been like to grow up and live there. How her life might have been different.
whose_son_am_i: (poker face in shadow)

[personal profile] whose_son_am_i 2021-08-03 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
He was listening, and opened his eyes again when the wetness had passed. Fortunately it passed quickly, and he dismissed the illusion. "....Thank you." Loki was kind of surprised to find he meant his words.

It had been a long day however, in a string of several long days recently. Several painfully long days.
serpentinthegarden: (I always drive ninety)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-08-03 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
It just happens... like chocolate melting when you leave it on the dash for too long.

[ Is that weird? Come on! This happens in everybody's car, right?? ]

Anyway it's Mp3s now, isn't it? Only collectors really go for vinyl anymore.
wagerofloki: (100)

[personal profile] wagerofloki 2021-08-03 04:02 am (UTC)(link)
There's a sort of awkward quiet between them, but Val spoke up. She found herself earnest enough it surprised even her.

"Do you want to see Night City?"
whose_son_am_i: (poker face in shadow)

[personal profile] whose_son_am_i 2021-08-03 04:04 am (UTC)(link)
That had him raising an eyebrow, blue-green eyes studying her carefully. "If you want to show me, I would see it." Perhaps it was the earnest-ness with which she asked.
wagerofloki: (016)

[personal profile] wagerofloki 2021-08-03 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
Val fished into her pocket and pulled out something that looked like a smart phone. On the back of it was a popsocket with a little bee with pink hair. She tapped on the screen a couple of times, then spoke quietly to it.

"Agent, flythrough'f Night City."

She held the Agent like Loki had held out his hands. He would be able to see the way the screen was severely cracked, but it still projected a hologram just fine. The Agent would show a flythrough of the city, with large buildings with neon signs in some of the flashier districts, to tightly-packed neighborhoods with trash in the streets, and even adverts that were holographic and reached into the sky. There were people everywhere, from all walks of life, scurrying to and fro to where they needed to be. The division between the rich and the poor was obvious and incredible - three guesses which side of the divide Val was from.

There was a somber expression on her face as she watched the projection. She was finally accepting that this wasn't a dream or somehow all in her head. She was finally accepting that she wasn't going to be waking up at home.
Edited (fixed a link) 2021-08-03 04:18 (UTC)
temptationaccomplished: (after you!)

[personal profile] temptationaccomplished 2021-08-03 04:17 am (UTC)(link)
He made a noise of agreement along with Crowley's claims of magic up to snuff, like one humoring their spouse in a long disputed and defended contention. Learning magic from the ground up, sort of the human way, was a very humbling experience. Crowley would find out soon enough.

"Perhaps." They were approaching the restaurant now, and Aziraphale stood aside at the door to let Crowley enter first. It seemed appropriate, after all, as Aziraphale had done the asking out this time. "To which house do you belong?"
serpentinthegarden: (Calm plotting)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-08-03 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
Not giving her anything to go off of? Well, he could change that easily enough! Without so much as batting an eye his head alone transformed into some sort of demonic terror. An all black manifestation of what looked like a eldritch abomination of hell hound and serpent with gnashing teeth and massive jaws. He snapped viscously in her direction, never actually making contact, and then just as quickly he morphed back into his ever so charming self again. He assumed that would be proof enough of what he was about to say.

"Demon actually."
serpentinthegarden: (I always drive ninety)

[personal profile] serpentinthegarden 2021-08-03 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
Just as he had always done he stepped through the doors much like a lady at a ball, but he paused right beyond the entry to wait for Aziraphale to catch him back up... taking the time to point out the best looking table to the maitre d', or whatever passed for one here, so they could stake out their dining location.

"House? They give us a free house?"

Crowley you see had been rather used to getting his orders transmitted directly into his mind and hadn't really bothered to actually listen to much the teaching staff had said about such matters. It had all seemed pretty trivial in the wake of the end of the world and his best friend had broken up with him anyway.
temptationaccomplished: (smug bastard)

[personal profile] temptationaccomplished 2021-08-03 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
How dare Alec suggest he was anything but a wonderful, sentimental, important memory. They were family.

"Other things can happen, though. Some people are just meant to be together, right?" And he knew here he was appealing to some romantic part of Alec's heart, the part that had supported him through everything in New York, the part that continued to believe that Anthony and Fell were ridiculously meant to be. "Even without memories... they will still find each other and form new ones. Anthony and I did."

Maybe, if they don't immediately take to each other, he can give them a little friendly nudge.

"Crowley will like you. It might be different, but that doesn't mean it will be bad."
phoenixwiz: (Sneaky Little Fella)

[personal profile] phoenixwiz 2021-08-03 04:56 am (UTC)(link)
“Yep, that’s definitely correct,” Harry nods in agreement, “I remember that my old acceptance letter from my old school had two pages much like the letters we got have 17 pages. It does sound a little similar to Latin, although I haven’t practising my world’s magic in so long, it’ll definitely take me a while to do it justice.”

He does try his best to pronounce as accurate Valhudor’s name as much as he can, though he wasn’t sure if he’s doing it right.

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