diatuooc | 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.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Divinely imparted knowledge, I think," he surmised from memories that felt closer the longer he lingered here. "Asking questions of this world's Goddess, receiving answers- that sort of thing. I remember.. this world has a few Gods, and the Goddess held a benevolence similar to Yggdrasil's."

Her name started with an R. He'd actually worked in the temple before, as an acolyte. He'd kept quite busy then- however long ago that was.

"..For the others, I know Hendrik is here somewhere, but I haven't seen anyone else, I don't think."

"Well, hopefully I'm not that, because it sounds like a lot to have going on in your head." He should probably look into what magic would require of him. Did he have to carry a big wand, or was he going to be playing a harp or doing a dance? His own magic seemed so simple by comparison: throw an earth glyph under some baddies, watch them get hit every time they so much as think about hitting someone.

"And Hendrik's on our side, right? Or did he not get that memo yet?" If time could pull shenanigans, it stood to reason it could have pulled them here from whenever. And Hendrik would be a dangerous enemy in such a small place.

Eleven smiled, almost certain Erik wouldn't end up in the same place. He'd never been the devout sort.

But he examined his friend for a moment, looking for something. That had been an odd way of asking after the situation. 'Yet', like he already knew- or suspected- a flux in time somewhere.

"He's sworn to me," Eleven assured. There was a time he hadn't known that, himself. "But ah, what do you remember, from our world?"

Erik tapped his chin, as if trying to remember. In truth, he was trying to figure out the best way to tell what happened without recounting the worst of it. If somehow El didn't know yet, he didn't need to know yet. There was no sense burdening him with all that, especially since it wasn't like they could do anything here anyway.

"Well, we beat Mordegon. You got his big bad sword. Why, what do you remember?"

The answer fueled more questions than he knew what to do with. When? He was desperate to ask, as though that would make anything clearer. The first time, or.. was there a second time, yet? He had yet to experience it himself, but that didn't mean a great deal. Goddess, when had his life grown so complicated as to involve alternate dimensions and timelines? A headache threatened.

More pressingly, what could he say that wasn't a lie? But that wasn't the whole truth? Would Erik believe him if he told him? The words came haltingly.

"I remember.. leaving everyone, after everything.."

Edited 2021-07-25 05:30 (UTC)

Did he know? Or was there a time, sometime after it all, when El would leave them again? Maybe the Luminary had to merge with Yggdrasil (weird, but he could see it happening), or El went home back to Cobblestone, or just decided to heroically go off on his own. In any case, it sounded almost filled with some regret.

Erik put a steady hand on El's shoulder and gave a squeeze in reassurance. "Buddy, I know you. You wouldn't leave everyone without a good reason. And I know us, too--you can't get rid of us that easily. So wherever you went, whenever, you better believe we'll be there too. It's never going to be goodbye, not by a longshot."

The words caught in his throat. He remembered them; the last things he'd heard before he lost sight of the world his companions belonged to, swept away in a rush of time and memory.

Eleven settled beneath Erik's hand with a soft smile. "You're right. And here you are on the other side- just as you'd said you would be."

In that smile, he knew. El knew. They both knew, and even though somewhere, sometime, there was an Erik who was a lucky enough bastard to know what it was like to succeed without losing a teammate, at least El didn't have to carry that burden alone.

And wasn't that what Erik was sent to do? To help his friend, the Luminary?

"See? Exactly. You should really listen to me. I know a thing or two." His expression softened. "Hope you gave her a hug from all of us. Just...don't tell her I said that."

Eleven glanced down, feet shuffling. But there was relief and gratitude there, in the relaxed set of his shoulders that this wasn't a secret he needed to keep. "I haven't.. I haven't made it there, yet, but I promise I will. I was just- I broke the sphere, and now.."

Well, he would be fairly concerned that the Timekeeper's warnings had come to fruition, but if Hendrik and Erik were here, then..? Well, they weren't supposed to have come with him.

"I'm not really sure what's happened."

"We'll get you back to where you need to be, trust me. This isn't the timestream thing, I'm sure. We saw you vanish."

The Timekeeper had warned them that any number of things could go wrong, but this place was nothing like any part of their home Erik had been to, and with all their adventures, he had seen a lot. There was no way the two were related, right? Right? It was just a weird coincidence.

"In the meantime, how about you show me around? Somewhere without geese, preferably."

Eleven nodded, taking heart in Erik's confidence even as he mourned once again the necessity of leaving them all behind. But time and varying dimensions were considerations for later.

"Yes," he agreed with a smile, and began to walk. "The courtyard is usually nice. Hendrik and I sparred there a lot between classes. There's also the temple district and the edge of the island has a wonderful view of the lands below."

Test Drive Reloaded! #1

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