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

"Number One?" she asked, confused and more than a little afraid. "Xe.... Xemnas?" She tried to pull away further, to vanish into the wall. This girl was Xemnas somehow? Was he... she.... they? was Number I about to destroy her? Was this all some sort of game?

She doesn't register "Xemnas" as anything, since it's out of her familiarity. However, she does indeed notice the immediate discomfort her announcement has made the girl. No, more than that, she's downright afraid. Did she not really look at Sakura's face before? It's true that when acting as Number 1, she wears makeup to look like a living human. Her real face is rather frightening, and perhaps she ought to remember that, though it stings a little to be treated with such fear.

"Sorry... I know I look terrifying," she apologizes, giving the girl proper space so as to not appear threatening. "I'm a zombie, so that can't be helped, but... I promise I'm not anyone scary."

"What?" she asked confused and startled. She swallowed, still pressed into the wall behind her. "You...." This couldn't be Xemnas. Couldn't be. But then.. what was going on here? "Number one, Xemnas. After Kingdom Hearts," she said, her voice hollow, as if repeating a fact to avoid the reality. Mostly she was trying to see how this person reacted. Was it possible that this wasn't Xemnas in disguise? But who else would call themself I?"

The girl starts saying some incomprehensible things, but it's clear that she is indeed terrified. Sakura slinks back a little, knowing that she can't do anything to change her appearance and likely the girl's opinion of her based on that. She wants to help... She honestly just wants to help, so why is it turning out like this? Should she leave her be? But she clearly needs... someone, anyone.

Anyone but her, maybe.

"Sorry..." she apologizes yet again. "If you really want, I'll leave you alone. But if there's anything I can do for you, all you have to do is ask! Okay...?"

Xemnas... wouldn't make that kind of an offer. This was going too far for a trick. Wasn't it? "It... is better if everyone leaves me alone..." she said finally. "And forgets that they met me."

Trick or not, whoever this was... was offering to leave. Xion couldn't allow anyone to have memories of her, or else this was all pointless.

Test Drive #1

Ty, and no worries about the edits. Sorry for the delay, am now at dad's so should be faster.

Np!! sorry for my own delay!

No worries. App posted. Terrified. Also that is totally a roman numeral one not an I at the end.

sorry this is so late!

No worries. Are we moving this forward into the game, or redoing their meeting?