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

He's quick to adapt. Its not as if this is the first time he's been to an entirely new world. Its....strange. And he's not sure entirely what he wants to do, since world domination has lost its appeal. He's not even sure he's upset he's been taken since an existence as a shadow isn't the best.

Better now, with acknowledgement, but still. Not the most thrilling.

He has a lot of existantial questions and isn't prepared to deal with those. So he works on just fitting in. Well, fitting in in a way he'd enjoy.

He's also very good at catching pies that miss their targets and use them for his own ends. Its hilarious to get people with pies from above, but he does miss at times.

And then he sees who his errant pie almost hit. Already done with the hijinks, and looking so like-

Him. Because it is him.

There's a clatter of a pie tin not far from Vio as he just stares because-

Because existantial dread he can blow off. Vio, a whole lot less so.

If Vio had been expecting an answer to his question, he didn't get it. No, the clatter managed to draw his attention. Mostly because of how close it was. Maybe he was the target after-?

Eyes widened, his brain taking a few seconds. There's...there's no way, right? What were the odds that both of them were here? "Sh-Shadow?" Dare he hope this was real?

Maybe this place wasn't so bad after all.

Was it a trick? A cosmic joke? Was he being punished?

Rewarded??????

Vio wasn't looking at him like he's ready to kill him so maybe?

The shock is clear on his face, but after a few moments, he's quick to try and cover it up because this is Vio! He should be cooler than this!

"I almost hit ya there! Not losing your touch, are ya?" He asked with a teasing grin.

But judging by how much his clothes were twitching, there's more bravado then normal.

He's...actually here. And not mad? His own shock lingered for a moment longer, before he gave a small chuckle. "Not at all. Merely..." He glanced back to the surrounding chaos. Overwhelmed? Overwhelmed seemed right, but he's not about to admit that. "Getting used to all of this.

"Have you been here long?" Long enough to get a pie, from what he understood of that situation. This place was weird, but he's happy to see a familiar face around.

Shadow's feelings were a mixed bag. On one hand, he got betrayed. On the other hand, he gets WHY he got betrayed. On the other, other hand, he wonders what it was that let Vio do that and if it could happen again. On yet more hands, gotta respect the play.

And on the very first hand ever, the only reason any of that happened at all is because he wanted Link's attention and acknowledgement and Vio was still his favorite of the four.

They seemed to have accepted him at the end, but that could have been just a kindness of a hero, so now he was in a state to not know exactly where he stood when he WASN'T dying.

So out of all the confusion, the priority was figuring out if....something positive could happen with Vio now.

Because even if there was hurt, he also didn't want to burn that bridge if he didn't have to.

"This place does seem to compete with the chaos of those three, huh? But a wider area," Shadow said, looking around with a thoughtful hum.

"Couple of hours. Figured if I was gonna be somewhere new, might as well have fun, right?" he said with a shrug and a pause, a flash of uncertainty. "Harmless fun." Not....burn forests fun.

As long as they weren't on opposing sides, Vio was sure- if he knew those worries- that the whole betrayal wouldn't happen again. His duty had been to Hyrule first, but they're not in Hyrule. And there's no reason to be enemies.

"Yeah." He looked back at the crowd, raising an eyebrow. A smile on his face, to accompany his amusement. "I might prefer them, actually. There's so much going on."

At Shadow's answer, a small, slightly worried hum escaped. "Harmless." He repeated. Which, to Shadow's credit, throwing pies was mostly harmless. Might as well join in on the chaos for fun, huh?

Not that he'd try it. He'd rather a book and quiet spot.

Shadow considered that. "Well, I do prefer 'em." It was an admission he would have never dared made as the bad guy. But he had enjoyed watching them, even if Vio was the one he felt the most similar too. "But can't complain about it derailing the panic of the kidnapped. A hard right and maybe it'll be easier to get the what's and why's later with the broken fear."

"Yep," Shadow said, rocking back and forth on his feet, a hand reaching for Vio, before he quickly puts them behind his back. "Its funny to see those involved not know where the pie came from, and outright hilarious to see the panic go into confusion. They're all so dumbfounded," he said with a giggle. And its not like pies could cause real harm.

Especially for the guy who doesn't get how cream or cherry up the nose would hurt. At least he's aware to not throw it hard enough to cause damage with the pan.

"Though if ya want to do something else, I could...join ya?" It was more question then offer.

Edited 2021-07-27 22:20 (UTC)

True. If one was to learn what’s going on, you can’t be running around like headless cuccos. Compared to that, the senseless chaos was better.

He saw that, Shadow. Wary still? Though, not for unreasonable reasons. As pleased as Vio was to see Shadow again, he couldn’t deny that things are…awkward.

“Mm.” Glancing back at the crowd, Vio couldn’t say he agreed on that being funny. He couldn’t say he disagreed, either. “I suppose.” He’d at least smile, thinking on it.

Oh? Vio’s arms went behind his back, now looking at hall. “I do wonder if they have a library.” As he spoke, he looked back at Shadow, a smile smile on his face. “Perhaps we could go look.” Assuming no one stopped them.

Awkward was right. Shadow knew he had been the villain from the start. While there had been parts that hadn't wanted to hurt Zelda or the Links as much as the dark forces wanted him to, thete was also definitely parts that did. Anger and resentment were powerful things. There was fun in destruction and power.

And anything doubts or weakness was buried deep. He didn't know if Vio had even suspected Shadow was more then anything he projected. He was certain at least the other three were blindsided by his heel turn. Maybe even the princess.

Then again, Zelda would be the one to figure out how much powers her words had. Now whether the others ever learned about that...well, its hard to know how to act when one decided to dramatically betray their boss and seemingly sacrificed their life for the people they tried to kill.

He definitely perked up as Vio looked back at him and smiled though, relief and eagerness flashing across his face before he puts on something more amused. "Shoulda known, really," he said. "But books are interesting and I got some good shots in already," he said, heading for the exit. "Lets see if this academy is worth anything."

Edited 2021-07-31 19:40 (UTC)

Test Drive Reloaded! #1

The ptetodactyl screech I made-

YOOOO!!!

My friend laughed after they saw my reaction to the link, but its been forever since I saw a Vio!

I honestly thought only me and my friend were the only Links on here, so I get the excitement! :D

I've played Shadow on and off for years. I even just apped him to Voidtreckers. 4th Wall enabled.

Oh neat! I just started writing Vio this month. Gonna check out Voidtreckers. :D

I like your Vio so far! Let me know if you post to that TDM, I can past the link around. :D

Thank you! I’ll keep that in mind!

=D