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

[bridge_princess]

Parsee might have been a human being, once, but that was a long time ago. Of course, the only visibly obvious sign of it was the pointed and elongated ears she had, poking out from her blonde tresses. "Well, if you're going to ask a stupid question, you're going to get a stupid answer," she muttered, raising an eyebrow and looking down at the green skinned person levelly, her tone nice and dry. "Might as well say what you meant in the first place, since you went and opened your mouth."

[logdates]

Peridot's frown became an outright sneer as she regarded Parsee more closely. Stupid? That was a ridiculous claim; she was a Periot, after all. Logic and intellect were important parts of her ability to carry out her usual objectives.

"I don't have anything to say to you" she said simply, matching a glare to her sneer. Clearly, making new friends was going to come as easily to her here as it had on Earth. Which was to say not easily at all.

[bridge_princess]

Parsee grunted and her head whipped to the side when the woman sneered at her. Was she looking down at her? Well, it wasn't like she was wrong to do that was it? Anyone in this class had at least a thimble full of magical talent and she didn't have any place in here, regardless of what they'd told her to get her to come here.

"Think you're better than me, eh? That confidence ticks me off," she muttered, glaring at her out of the corner of her eye. "Makes me jealous." Ugh, everything made her jealous.

[logdates]

Peridot's sour expression breaks for a moment, replaced with one that walked a line between baffled and pleasantly surprised. She had effectively come across as confident? It wasn't always an act, but here, in this strange place and situation, it largely was.

"I think the obvious solution to that would be for you to be confident, too."

[bridge_princess]

So, she was still talking to her, was she? Parsee harumphed and narrowed her gaze as she regarded the strange looking, short little gemstone for a moment. "Confidence would require me to be good at something," she said, snorting. She waved her hand with wand caught between her fingers. The gestures were as sloppy as her clothing. "Sense magic." Her tone was as blase and non-committal as she could manage. It was almost like she was intentionally sabotaging the spell.

A second later, her hair was on end, a puff of smoke going everywhere and there were flowers sprouting from the tip of her wand. Her face was as non-plussed as before. "See?" Not that she expected Peridot to do a lot better, though. Chewing on your wand couldn't be good for making it work properly.

[logdates]

Peridot watches, indeed unimpressed, as Parsee puts what sure seemed like minimal effort into her spellwork. She considers her classmate's words, before finally stating in a very dry tone, "I think you're pretty good at being difficult."

Still, she isn't ready to try the spell herself. Though she does pick up her wand, she simply spins it between her fingers, considering if it'll be more embarrassing to not try or to fail.

[bridge_princess]

Parsee plucked the flowers easily off of the tip of her wand and let them collectively fall to her desk. "I suppose I am good at that, yes. It's one of my many, charming qualities." The sarcasm just oozed out of her tone while she checked the wand to make sure that it was intact. She understood that she had to learn this stuff if she didn't want to detonate like some mana bomb, or whatever they'd warned her about. She wasn't in a hurry, though, since she didn't really value herself or others for that matter.

"You're not exactly being a star pupil yourself, you know."

[logdates]

At first, Peridot just watches the flowers with some interest. Plants really had caught her interest in her (relatively) short time on Earth... But the flora isn't important now, she reminds herself. Neither is this weird person, although... She has also captured Peridot's interest, in all honesty. She's never met anyone with this kind of attitude. It wasn't Amethyst's laidback approach to life, this was actual carelessness, in the most literal sense.

So, instead of responding to the comment about her own behavior as a student, Peridot leans on the desk between her own and Parsee's - paying no attention to the protests of the student who was seated there.

"You're very strange. I don't understand you."

[bridge_princess]

"Why would you want to?" That was the only thing that came to her mind when Peridot just came out and said something like that. Of course she wouldn't understand her already. They'd only just met, even if Parsee didn't think she was that complicated of a person to understand. But it was the interest in her, the curiosity that set her off. She was immediately suspicious of it, after all. Who ever wanted to bother trying to understand her better, really?

She tapped her wand on her desk, utterly ignoring the protest of a student who was now shifting to another desk to get away from the conversation. They actually wanted to practice their wand work.

[logdates]

Why does Peridot want to understand her? That's an easy one. Understanding something - or someone, as is the case here - makes them easier to deal with in every way. And Peridot, in particular, finds understanding someone to make interacting with them far more comfortable.

So, really, it was a shame that understanding others didn't come naturally to her in the slightest.

"I like it better when I understand things," Peridot finally answers, her aggravation starting to return.

[bridge_princess]

"Oh, so you're one of those sort of people. The ones who nose their way into everyone's business, aren't you?" Total fabrication and assumption out of her addled mind. She grunted and glowered at the green-skinned creature, her arms coming up and folding in front of her chest. "You're not going to like what you find out if you understand me, so why bother trying? Nobody ever likes learning about me."

Well, that was sort of true anyway. Most people did find her to be kind of odious and unpleasant company back home, not that she made it any easier to learn. "You're the sort who doesn't listen when someone tells you not to stick your nose into it, aren't you?"

[logdates]

She blinks, backing off slightly. "Wait, what just happened?"

Peridot stares at Parsee for some time, trying to figure out what - if anything - she should say next. "No?" she answers eventually, and meekly.

She's not nosy. She... Doesn't think she's nosy, anyway. She generally minds her own business and her own duties, after all. Generally. The memory of her disobedience to Yellow Diamond does come to mind, though, and she involuntarily shudders at the thought.

[bridge_princess]

Parsee had happened. She was a ball of unpleasant emotions wrapped in the left over shell of a person, who rarely reacted pleasantly to interest. But, as she saw Peridot back off, she eased somewhat, smiling almost a little grimly. "Not? Well, wouldn't be the first time I'm wrong. I'm just not used to people being curious about me. Nobody's ever curious about me back home. They know what I am, and they don't care." Why should they?

She looked over at the gem, wondering if she'd lost her curiosity suddenly, or if it was still there, under the surface. "Don't really like talking about myself much..."

[logdates]

Peridot's wand was still held between her fingers, and as Parsee went on, the stick found its way back into her mouth, and she was chewing at it again.

"Uh, wait... What you are? What are you, then?" she asked around the wood. "Are you... Something common? That could be why people don't care."

She didn't mean to be rude, or even know she was, really.

[bridge_princess]

"..." She reached out a finger and pointed at her wand when Peridot started doing that. It was the closest thing to a favor that she could be bothered to give right off the bat. She really didn't like talking about herself, but at the same time she knew better than to conceal it. If that satori, or Yukari happened to come here and found out a dangerous youkai had been posing like a regular girl, they'd be on her ass in a second, and that was scarier than most alternatives.

"Hashihime. Bridge troll," she said, which wasn't remotely what that translated to. A 'bridge princess' could be greatly honored by others if they valued their bridge. But, well, she was the princess of the bridge into hell, so it wasn't exactly like most people thought too much of her. "And no, we're pretty rare. Nobody with any sense would ever want to become one. You don't get to watch over a bridge for all eternity by making smart decisions in life."

[logdates]

"Oh," Peridot removed her wand from between her teeth when Parsee pointed to it, but didn't make further comment. That would mean admitting her embarrassment, most likely. Besides, she wanted to hear what her classmate was revealing.

"Wait, huh?" she asked when the explanation was done. Reluctantly, she admitted, "I've never heard of a troll before. Are all trolls stuck guarding bridges? And why?"

[bridge_princess]

"Hashihime. I was translating," she said, shrugging and glancing away. "And there are probably other things out there that watch different stuff, but Hashihime always guard long bridges. It's what we are. Bridge princesses, bridge trolls, bridge gods. Don't ever go calling one of us gods though. Gives pathetic things like me big heads we don't deserve." She snorted, grunting and setting her chin on her knuckles.

"I guess you'd call us a guardian spirit, sort of. But there's ways a human can become one." She knew that because that's how she had become what she was, she thought. It was so long and her memory wasn't that great. Maybe she'd gotten her memories mixed up with those of the one bridge princess that had ever been famous. Who knew to be sure? "Don't ask how, though. I'm not sharing a way to become competition. I don't need that right now."

[logdates]

Peridot blinked a few times. She hadn't heard of a Hashihime before, either, so that wasn't of much help to her. Honestly, most of the terms Parsee was using left her mind more or less blank, which was... Frustrating.

Not nearly as frustrating to Peridot, however, as was the implication that she was a human. That wasn't acceptable. (Even if Steven had turned out to be... pretty okay.) Through gritted teeth, she said, "I'm not a human. Don't get that mixed up."

[bridge_princess]

(Well, Steven was only half human, so...)

She raised an eyebrow once, looked at the gem a little more carefully and then grunted, nodding. "Yeah, that really should be obvious. You're too short, and humans don't come with green skin or gemstones in their foreheads. Won't happen again." Parsee frowned a little, reaching up to drag her fingers over her chin.

"I like your skin, by the way. It's a good color." Because of course little miss jealousy liked green. "So, what are you?"

[logdates]

Oh, that would have gone over okay were it not for the "short" comment. But with that having been said, Peridot is none too happy, and she's quick to snap at Parsee.

"I'm not too short!" She paused, then groaned and shook her head. "I'm not too short. I just don't have my limb enhancers." Or even those painted tin cans from Steven...

"But... Thanks, I guess? I'm a Gem - a Peridot, specifically."

[bridge_princess]

"Heh, not like that. Calm down," she said, snorting and finding the display a little more amusing than she probably should have. "I meant too short to be a human. You're just fine on height. Not like I'm a giant is it?" Admittedly, she couldn't be jealous of height, but that was fine.

Peridot, eh? So, a living gemstone in humanoid form. Some sort of spiritual existence maybe? she reached over and gave a cheek a poke, curious if she was as hard as peridot. "That explains the pretty shade of green then. So are there more peridots out there than you?" She had said 'a Peridot' after all.

[logdates]

When she was told she was 'just fine' on height, Peridot was quick to decide that Parsee might not be so bad, after all. She still didn't look thrilled to be poked, however.

"Don't do that again. And yes, there are... Lots of other Peridots," she said, a bit begrudgingly.

[bridge_princess]

Parsee nodded, coming to the conclusion that peridot must have basically been a race, or a type, a bit like how there were different sorts of youkai out there. She put her hands back on her desk and cocked her head. "So, what makes a peridot different from other gems? Assuming there's other gems that have bodies like yours."

Because, yeah, that totally seemed like a reasonable assumption right now.

[logdates]

"There are, but Peridots such as myself are far more intelligent than most other Gems," she said with pride. "Especially when it comes to engineering and mechanics."

[bridge_princess]

"Ah, so you're the brainy sort. Must be lucky to have all the smarts, especially with things like that. It'd make you real useful," she said, shaking her head. No, she didn't bother to say what she was. It was obvious. She wished she was that smart. "I think there's a class for math available, if you're not already in it."