diatuooc | Test Drive #3

Test Drive #3

Lightning Crash

The weather over the floating island of Ascelion during spring months is best described as "hellacious"; its elevation puts it right among the worst of stormclouds and fuels their thunderous fire as they sweep past it and electrically scrape against its sides. Rain is frequent, but lightning is almost constant, along with thunderous rumbles that roll across the city and the open spaces of the Magicademy like waves.

But today is particularly bad. Webs of electricity crackle through the sky, jumping from cloud to cloud or grounding themselves on towers of the Magicademy angrily. None of them seem to endanger the students, but there's a first time for everything, isn't there? As titanic fury threatens to tear the sky in half, do you risk stepping into the outside? Does the infrasonic rumbling trigger fear or terror in your gut, as such deep waves are known to do? Perhaps you've learned a spell that will protect you. Or perhaps you've poorly learned a spell that may or may not protect you...

Wand Wrong Way

The rumors around campus speak of a small and musty store deep in the Merchant District, on a side road to a side road, where only those in-know go to find items that would surely draw too much notice if displayed publicly. Powdered dragon tail, eye of sphinx, swords Forged with magic-cutting spells, and most valuable of all, the Gateway Wand. Surely this legendary wand, in which the full power of Sundering hums, could get you and your friends back home.

Rumors are pretty lousy with directions, though. The Merchant District offers ample chance to get lost, to get distracted, or to stumble down the wrong alley and find hoodlums all too eager to extract "tolls" from the lost and seemingly helpless. Does your adventure become disaster? Does this rumored shop even exist?

Pantalones Giganticus

At its heart, Modification seems like the most simple of schools. What could be more simple than arithmetic? Therefore, Modification also has the steepest and most shocking learning curve of all, as it rapidly balloons to more complicated mathematical expressions, more variables in the formulae, and above all more chance for error.

So really, the mistake is an honest one. Any hurried student, probably in their third or fourth year of study, could accidentally introduce an unnecessary factor into their equation. That is probably why your pants are now sized for someone four times large than you. (Not four sizes. Four times.) Worse, this has happened to EVERYONE -- the entire population of the Magicademy, student and staff and faculty alike, are trundling around in blown-up bloomers, too-large trousers, not-conveniently-sized knickers... you get the idea.

Now the bad news: to fix the error in formula and restore your pants to normal size, someone else has to get in them with you.

Labwork

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

At least some aspects of this world aren't entirely nonsensical.

[ It's really unsettling, how alike they are in some ways. How many times has he made the same haughty declarations in mathematics and modification? ]

Yes, but. More to the point:

As a physics genius, surely you know how to draw the lightning away from yourself?

[Physical was bad enough, but everything else? ~~Hey Gozaburo what the heck?~~

Somehow, Noa manages to not choke. He does, however, freeze, and grimace again, and then scowl. No hiding that one.] ...Naturally that wouldn't be necessary with current protections, [he grumbles, unable to keep from looking back at the sky again.]

...The school is hundreds of years old after all. It wouldn't exactly benefit if their students were at risk in every thunderstorm they had...

[He hates this. A lot! Behind him is a chirping mew of sorts as his cat nudges his legs. If he's so sure of everything then go!]

This school is very willing to tolerate risk. Most of us have fallen ill due to a magical side effect several times already.

[ He exhales, clearly Done with this blasted school. But he starts drawing a glyph in the air and muttering regardless, and the end result is a pyramid-shaped barrier, extending high above their heads and touching on the ground far away. ]

That should provide any stray strikes an alternate path of least resistance. Now let's go.

[ He's doing this for his reputation by proxy, Noa, not you. Don't get the wrong idea. (Yeah right.) ]

It what-

[This is news he DOESN'T LIKE-

Though the shock of the news certainly isn't enough to make him miss THAT. The glyph appears, and in the quarter-second it takes to log the sight away (modification is interesting to study, even if he won't likely get to give it a practical shot)] I-

It wasn't as though I needed that..! [he huffs, moving forward anyway once his cat starts batting at his ankles on top of it all.] ...Besides that, are you even in the same building for your next class...

[What him, worried? Never. Same deal as you Seto, it's just a matter of reputation and not being responsible for someone else's problems. (...Totally.)]

We usually recover from the ill effects within a day. The school considers that acceptable. I don't.

[ He strides forward purposefully, eyes fixed ahead. ]

It's the other way.

[ A pause. ]

But I've been building the Kaiba name from nothing in this world. I won't let you risk our reputation over something so avoidable.

And I'd suggest focusing on shielding spells first, given what the school is willing to look past.

Ugh. What a waste, [he remarks in the face of the school's 'acceptable' standards. If there is any acknowledgement that they've agreed on things, he'll deny it furiously.

...

Especially after that.] Tch. As if I would want to do anything to tarnish my own name, [he growls, even as he fingers the medallion ocarina around his neck. Intro classes to fantastics- small instruments first, larger later, so it's this thing instead of a violin for now. ~~Alas~~ His eyes are briefly glued to the glyph, his mind thinking over what he little he knows there, and what he's learned thus far for himself.]

...The 'advice' is noted however, as much as I'm fine without.

[Hmm, which notes would equate to what calculations...he moves his eyes to look ahead every now and then, but if he can figure out how to recreate That spell on his own, this will be way easier.

...

Even if it takes a few days.

...At least they're just about at the building.]

I wouldn't expect anything else from you.

[ They really are too much alike. He almost has to laugh as they reach the shelter of the building.

He eyes the ocarina and Noa's robes with mild interest. ]

Fantastics. Why doesn't that surprise me?

Good, [he says before stopping himself- and he's still smiling (though perhaps somewhat more honestly the longer it lasts) after Seto's question.] I did study music in...my childhood after all, [he hums, carefully avoiding 'in life'. It's more for his own sake than Seto's though. Think of things as 'in life' is just.

Weird, now that he's alive now.] It's not quite my instrument of choice but...

[He'll pause, testing a few notes- it's far cry from a shield spell, but he's got...Something? Forming over his hand?

It's a start.] ...It'll do for now.

[Hey, he managed not to slip any barbs in that last remark.]

[ Kaiba nods his stiff approval. That is definitely not his preferred branch of magic, but if it works... ]

I expect I'll see you later. And in dueling club, eventually.

[ It's a risk, to offer a challenge...but perhaps they can meet it on better terms now, as he's done with Yugi and Atem over the last months. ]

[What can he say- he's sick of numbers, and would probably just end up resigned to the matter if he were in Seto's house.

But this is a far better first meeting than he could have ever anticipated. So he nods, even if his brows raise at that last remark.] ...Dueling club?

[...Would he...enjoy dueling, he wonders, if he gave it an honest try? As something that wasn't just meant to show off his skill against someone else's in a vengeance ploy?

...

He supposes he'll have to think about it now.] ...I expect I will then, [He decides, pausing at the entrance of the building as they prepare to part ways.]

...

Thank you, [Noa manages to add, if not awkwardly.] ...Not that it was for me, obviously, [he continues with a mild huff. Image, image! ...For both of them if anything.] ...but I...suppose I needed to get moving. ...As do you.

[That is as much thanks as he is giving, he even said 'thank you'! (And also, Seto really does have to get going he suspects...)

....The maine coon meows a little more pleasantly at Seto's own cat. They both appreciate it, trust her.]

Test Drive #3

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