Test Drive #1

[magicademymods]

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.

Comments

[burningbrighter]

And that was something she understood too. She'd been the queen of jealous rage...even after reforming. She tapped on the ground, mulling over how best to discuss this.

"But it's not like you have to do it, right? I know old habits are hard to break. But it wasn't your fault."

[bridge_princess]

She'd been about to say something when her jaw clicked shut. She was thinking about what the girl was saying. Admittedly, this was more than 'old habits,' considering she'd been this way for over 600 years by now. But the question did come up in her mind 'do I need to?' She wasn't sure if she'd ever bothered to ask herself that question. She simply was what she was. Fault probably didn't even enter into her mind that much as a rule. But she couldn't answer that question, not here, for reasons that were painfully obvious from the lack of her powers.

"I... don't actually know." That wasn't easy to admit, but somehow it felt right to admit it. "And it doesn't matter here. I don't have my powers, and I heard that powers like mine are forbidden in this place. So, I suppose I don't have to be jealous."

Her head turned, chin propped up on her knees as she looked over at Sunset. "Doesn't mean I'm not jealous of you right now, though."

[burningbrighter]

"I'm sorry. I know that feeling hurts, no matter how much you try to pretend it doesn't."

Sunset isn't sure what else to offer right now. "But I really hope it gets easier. But...yeah. I know it's hard to have hope too, when things have been one way for a long time."

[bridge_princess]

"Not as much as you seem to think. Forbidden powers, or left in old hell with the other detested scum. This's probably a better place to hang my head than the underside of my bridge," she started to say, though her eyes hardened. "Though it's my bridge, damnit, so nobody better get any ideas while I'm gone."

She snorted and chuckled a little. Nobody would. They knew better than to take that way from her. Besides, who really wanted to be the princess of a bridge in hell, honestly? "I envy that you still have hope, even if it's for me. I'll pass on it. I prefer certainties, but I remember what it felt like." Centuries gone by, but she remembered. It was part of the torture of what she'd made herself, even if she couldn't actually remember anyone's name from back then.

She looked off and sighed, managing a little smile. "I'm not going to stop you, just so you know, if you keep trying to cheer me up. But just don't say I didn't tell you so when it blows up in your face."

[burningbrighter]

She really was that hopeless, huh? Sunset sighed, reaching up to squeeze her necklace in a silent prayer as she often did.

"I'll just say we'll see about it. I can be pretty stubborn when I want to be."

[bridge_princess]

Absolutely, utterly hopeless, but not completely impossible. Stubbornness helped a lot at times. She closed her eyes and sighed, reaching up to scratch the back of her head. "Parsee. My name's Parsee. That's what you were going to ask next, wasn't it, Ms Stubborn?"

[burningbrighter]

"It was! Good one." A part of her suddenly missed her ability to read minds, but it wasn't too big of a deal. She'd get by.

"Anyway, I'm Sunset Shimmer, pleased to meet you Parsee."

She offered a hand and a tiny smile.

[bridge_princess]

"Just kind of figured you hadn't asked yet," she said, staring at the hand being offered. Westerners shook hands, but she'd never bothered to really get into the bowing or shaking hands things, regardless of culture.

She stared for a second, swallowed and then reached out. The hand-shake was pretty damned limp-wristed, but it was there. "We'll see about pleasure."