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

Airship

Thena was still trying to figure this place out, and if this had anything to do with her brother or the cursed vaults. But this...magical creature...? didn't look like anything professor Kettleburn had ever taught them about. She considered asking the girl what she was, but decided that would probably be rude. However she was also kind of desperate to know...

So she found a way to ask without asking. Maybe Penny was starting to rub off on her....

"Is this place really all that different from your home?" she asked, choosing the option she thought showed the most empathy while still working towards knowledge. She could learn a lot about the person by asking about where they came from. More Penny less Merula. Always a good choice.

Webby, always eager to make new friends, instantly turned around, all smiles and sunshine. "Kind of! I haven't scoured every single inch of the world yet, so I can't say with 100% certainty that there's nothing like this where I'm from... but it's still new to me!" She finished cheerfully, clicking her 'heels' together.

She then thrust her hand forward. "Hi, I'm Webby!"

Certainly different from any magical creature she'd ever read about in temperment. Except maybe a Niffler or a Puffskein. But who ever heard of a talking... well okay, she did look a bit like a niffler, but she didn't think tossing food at her was going to help. Maybe a knutt if she shined it up?

"Well, my parents always said that one of the greatest joys of travel is learning. Hello, Webby, I am Thena Starling." And she waited, braced for the the questions that always followed her name these days. Questions about her brother. She had questions about him as well, but she was more than a little tired of people asking about him first, as if she herself only mattered because he went missing. Because of the cursed vaults. There was still so much she had to learn to find him.

"Nice to meet you, Thena!" With that, Webby went back to the glass, wanting to see the sights while having a pleasant conversation at the same time. She was oblivious to the tension that revealing Thena's name brought.

"Is your world anything like this? You seemed kinda used to this. Are you some sort of traveler between dimensions? That would be really cool."

Well that was different, and a relief. She walked over to the windows as well. "I am not used to this, simply absorbing it all. Have we traveled between dimensions, then? Do you know the spell to get us back?" Rowan was going to lose it until Thena taught her the spell.

"Oh, no, this is all new to me. I've only really traveled to other worlds by complete accident. Like the time me and and the boys got stuck in a horror movie. But it was kinda fun being a vampire for a short while."

As usual, Webby had no idea what her memories sounded like.

"And this time, I'm 85% sure this wasn't any of their faults. Or mine. Or Scrooge's Or Gyro's." An off-hand shrug. "But until we find a way back, this should be interesting!"

Thena was giving her a slightly odd look now. "Vampire?" Was it too late to back away slowly?

Probably.

"Oh, yeah! Louie used this new invention Gyro made - without permission, of course - and we got stuck in this movie about Vampires versus Bigfoots. We got fancy duds and everything. But once we figured out the movie tricks, we managed to get out and everything was back to normal... except the movie ended as a comedy, which if you ask me, was an improvement."

Another shrug. Just another day in Duckberg.

"Wait... bigfoots? Like Yetis?" she asked, trying to make sense of any of this. She at least knew from yetis....

"Yep!" Still astoundingly oblivious to other people's shocked looks, her eyes stay on the glass. "Makes me wonder what counts as mythological creature in this world."

"Not sure I would count a yeti as a mythological creature. A magical creature for sure," after all, it was Professor Kettleburn who was in charge of them. "Aren't mythological creatures ones no one has ever actually seen?"

"I guess it depends on your definition." Which certainly was interesting to think about! She cupped her chin in thought. "So, if we find a mythological creature, it's no longer mythological? Neat!"

"I....I guess so. I wonder if my textbook has a definition we could use to distinguish magical creatures from mythological ones..."

Now that was new information - she suddenly whipped around. "You've got a textbook about this kind of stuff?"

"For care of magical creatures? Of course. We're studying nifflers and porlocks right now." She wondered how her little Gyoldy was doing. Hopefully her friends would take care of her animals for her and keep notes until she got back.

Say goodbye to your personal space, Thena, because Webby's now all up in it.

"Can I see it? Can I can I can I, pleeeease?"

It was a little startling, but she knew the allure of an unread textbook.

"I would let you borrow it if you could, but it is up in my dorm room. I don't have any of my textbooks with me." she sighed and looked out the window. "I wish I did, I suspect that Transfiguration would come in handy here." Or maybe a charm? Hmmm....

Test Drive #1

Re: Webby Vanderqauck | Ducktales 2017

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