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

The Airship

[shiningkindness]

It really wasn't any of her business, but the comment was just enough of a distraction from her freaking out that she took the chance, overcoming even her usual shyness to speak.

"A-Actually...it's modeled more after a...ship on the water than a spaceship."

[logdates]

Peridot looked at the human - probably? - with clear confusion, alongside a hint of annoyance. "There are waterships? Is that an Earth thing?"

[shiningkindness]

"I...guess so? Though I suppose there could be other places that have waterships." She was almost tempted to pull out her phone, but remembered at the last second that there was probably no wi-fi here.

"At least back home where I'm from, there are all sorts of boats and ships for the water. I'm not sure if any of them are quite this big, though."

[logdates]

"Hmm." Peridot considered this. Water obviously had important uses for organic life, and so finding a way to move on and through it was actually pretty clever - or maybe it was just such a necessity, she thought, that even humans could come up with it. "Well, I'm sure if there were bodies of water on Homeworld, there would be waterships there, too," she decided, her tone haughty - though in the back of her mind, she couldn't help thinking that she was already lousy at being a Crystal Gem. Still... Just because she could see the value of Earth, and liked a handful of its inhabitants... She didn't have to turn into Rose Quartz or anything.

[shiningkindness]

Her words confirm Fluttershy's suspicions that Peridot was probably not from Earth, and she couldn't help feeling more curious. "So there isn't any water where you came from?"

[logdates]

"No," Peridot responded. It probably could have been left at that, but even if she had defected from the Diamond Authority's side and could never go back to Homeworld again... She couldn't help feeling proud of her home. She relished the chance to talk about it, even smiling a little. "There's no organic life on Homeworld; nothing that needs water. Everything is highly efficient like that."

[shiningkindness]

Most people would probably question whether Peridot was really from a different world or not. However, considering what Fluttershy had been through, the idea of different worlds didn't really affect her.

"Oh wow, really? So what is everything made of, if there isn't organic life?"

[logdates]

"Life on Homeworld is created. It's a highly complicated process, but if I have to dumb it down, I'd say... You inject a rock with life. And the results are, clearly, amazing," she concluded with a smirk.

[shiningkindness]

"Oh wow! That really is amazing!"

For most teenagers, the words might sound a bit sarcastic. But Fluttershy finds it genuinely interesting.

"So where you're from, are you made with any kind of rock?"

[logdates]

"Yes, that's what I just said," Peridot pointed out, but she couldn't help grinning with pride when Fluttershy agreed with her.

"And not... Any kind of rock. Gemstones."

[shiningkindness]

"Gemstones? Oh wow!"

It was too bad Rarity wasn't here with her. She probably would have loved to meet someone made out of a gemstone.

"So what kind of gemstone are you made from?"