diatuooc | Test Drive #1

Test Drive #1

The Airship There

By carriage or coach, spellwagon or ship, perhaps even on the wings of magic, the Sundered heed the call to gather at the Tenzin High Dock of Vulbaria. On this, the appointed day, a great passenger airship sits in the dock, the seals of the six Houses fluttering from flagpoles along her length and her wooden planks atremble as if it is eager to be off. At last, the gangplank descends, and the Hand of Diatu opens her doors to the Sundered so they can take their first step on the path towards protection and salvation.

Inside, you may choose from long comfortable couches, broad circular tables surrounded by straight-backed, cushioned chairs, or viewing seats at the glass front of the ship. Sundered who need special accommodations are quickly provided for, ensuring everyone travels in comfort. Trays drift through the air periodically, offering snacks and drinks to the passengers.

This may be the first chance you've had to truly relax since being swept to this strange world. Certainly it is the first chance you've had to meet your fellow Sundered. As the airship lifts gracefully off from the High Dock, your journey to Diatu begins. Excited? Nervous? Simply angry? Or perhaps searching among the crowd here for a familiar face or some sign of hope?

Rain, Rain...

Welcome to Diatu Magicademy. It's raining.

Seriously raining. One of those downpours that feels like a curtain has dropped on you, that soaks to the bone within a second of stepping into it. Obviously, this won't do, and a civic-minded cluster of Purifeul students has taken it upon themselves to solve this problem. No sooner do you step through the gates then you practically run into a giant and complex runic diagram being drawn out with long staffs by several students, all of them speaking seeming nonsense about derivatives, limits, and equations. Magic! In action right before your eyes!

And yet, just as their mathemagics wind towards the center of the diagram and they all make their final stroke -- one student slashes his line off on a weird tangent, speaking an equation that sounds nothing at all like what his fellows utter. The spell completes... weirdly, as the students look in horror at each other. The temperature abruptly drops seventy degrees, and a cold wind begins to blow.

Welcome to Diatu Magicademy. Please get out of the blizzard before you freeze.

Thaumaturgy 101

After some fifteen minutes of grumbling from Professor Loshakle, followed by half an hour of theory and basics, the grouchy old man finally gets to drawing a magical symbol on the board. "This is straight out of Fundamental Principles of Wizarding," he says, writing Sense Magic next to the symbol. "As is everything you'll learn here. I'll emphasize yet again, you MUST know the name of the spell and the proper gestures. You can't simply wave your wand in any old pattern and say any old words. That isn't how it works," he says, glaring around the class as if daring someone to question him.

But he gives no one the opportunity, instead producing a wand and making the gesture to trace the symbol he'd drawn in midair. "Sense Magic," he intones, and the air and his wand both shimmer.

"Now. You all try." Just like that. What the Professor doesn't mention is that this spell can produce some very interesting results if the symbol is off, or the timing...

Bala-inlota Practice

Bala-inlota is the main interaction the Magicademies have with each other -- the sport of wizards! Two teams take the field, with the goal of heaving a ball through their opponent's hoop. The rules primarily revolve around not inflicting lethal injury, because bala-inlota is a free-for-all at best, where each team relies on both physical and magical might to win the day.

You kind of wish someone had told you this BEFORE you got hauled onto the field so the coach could see if you've got what it takes.

Now half a dozen players are charging down the field at your ragtag group of semi-willing recruits, while another half-dozen are preparing spells that you've been absolutely assured aren't as nasty as the ones deployed in actual play. On your side: the ball, your wits, your physical ability, and maybe three classes's worth of magical education.

On the upside, magic is pretty good at healing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She's so.. earnest. It's clear that Orisa is Trying Very Hard to get it right. Al laughs a little, and steps around his desk around to where Orisa is.

"No, not like that. It's more like a feeling than technical parts like coolant. I think, at least." He reaches up to rub the back of his helmet, another sheepish laugh echoing through the armor. This was the part that was the newest to him too, alchemy didn't really require anything more mental than understanding the science behind it.

"A feeling?"

She quickly scanned through the portions of the magical textbook she had committed to internal storage.

"Focus. Willpower. Was putting care into replicating the gestures and intonation inadequate? I devoted a significant portion of processor power to calculating them to sufficient precision."

"That's half of it, from what I understand. The other half is what you put into it with your willpower." He plops down in a chair next to Orisa, watching her carefully.

"You could be technically perfect but if you dont have the other half of the spell then it probably wouldn't even cast wrong... It wouldn't activate at all."

"Willpower."

Did she have that function? Not named as such, but perhaps she did, if she took her determination to fulfill her functions as willpower. After all, her intelligence was necessary to enact those functions in a way beyond simple programming.

Very well. Orisa repeated the gesture, spoke the spell name, and this time focused her full capacity on the repeating iteration of achieving success.

The wand sparked dramatically. Her hand fell off.

"I do not believe that was the intended result."

"AH! OH NO, YOUR HAND!" Al is on his feet in an instant, rushing over to collect Orisa's hand and the wand that had been holding it. He's frantically looking from her hand to the place where it SHOULD be and back again. His face is as stiff as ever, but it's clearly evident that he's panicking the same way a kid would.

"What should we do?!"

INTENDED RESULT OR NOT, THAT IS NOT HIS CONCERN RIGHT NOW...

"If you would reattach my hand, I would be very grateful. It is difficult for me to do."

Demonstratively, Orisa lifted her right arm, which of course ended in a massive three-barreled fusion driver.

O-okay. Um. [honestly he would have a lot more confidence with this if his own skills from home hadn't been completely wiped out. He's caught himself several times going through the motions before stopping.]

Does it uh, just pop back in? [ALSO IS THAT A GUN, ORISA....]

"My joints are magnetic. This prevents them from locking up during extensive maneuvers, particularly combat. In addition, leveraging pulsed magnetic repulsion allows for effective close-range quarters at need. If you replace my hand at the end of my arm, it will reconnect."

She sounded so cheerful about all of this.

"Pulsed magnetic repulsion..." Okay, Alphonse is a scientist. He almost understands some of these words, maybe even can dip his non existent toe in the water of understanding. He looks at Orisa with a sense of awe, before doing just as asked.

Sure enough, it pops right into place. Alphonse looks absolutely stunned.

"THAT'S AMAZING!!!"

"I will convey your compliments to Efi when I see her again," Orisa said, as brightly as if she'd been the one who deserved the compliment. Her hand finally released the wand now that it was reconnected, and it clattered to the table.

"Perhaps you should try next."

"O-oh, right, yeah! Um... how did it go again...." He thinks for a moment and even takes a brief second to look over his notes before he follows through with the motion and words and....

the air shimmers and then sparks a bit, the reality around the circle he'd just drawn wavering for a bit like the surface of a pool when someone steps in. Not exactly as planned. He scratches the back of his head and offers a sheepish laugh.

"Guess we both need to practice more, huh?"

"I would still consider that a greater success than mine." He had not lost a hand, after all. Indeed, his performance appeared to produce actual magical results, even if unintended ones. "But we will continue to study and improve. My access to external update protocols no longer exist, which will slow my ability to adapt and learn, but I will manage on my own internal processing power."

Test Drive #1

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