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

[If it happened all the time then it likely explained her reaction. Nonetheless, he shook his head at her and made to continue moving.]

It's nothing. [At least, he hoped it was nothing. That what they were told was true and they would not become destructive with experience.] Was just thinking out loud.

[She debated letting him leave. Normally she'd have thought about doing just that long enough that he would already have been gone. But the word 'bomb' was kind of a serious thing. Parsee followed as he walked, raising an eyebrow and glancing at him.]

What about, exactly? It's not this flying death trap is it?

[He tilted his head a bit at her persistence.]

Flying death trap? You mean the airship? No, the airship is fine. Besides, my thoughts are my own. I don't need to explain them to you.

[While he normally would explain himself, given she isn't quite sure what he meant but she was also a stranger and he was already on edge. Revealing what had been going on back home wasn't something he was ready to do right now.]

I'll believe that when we land. Just my luck to crash on this thing.

[She snorted and shrugged, looking away while the two of htem walked.] And fine, you don't. If it's about that power inside me? You'd better hope they can teach someone worthless like me. I probably will blow up.

[Good news was, she wasn't assuming it was anything other than that ball of mana that she'd shown up in this place with. Parsee was none the wiser.]

It'd just be all our luck if we did.

[Hope furrowed his brows at her words.]

No one's worthless.

[Another snort. She almost sounded like she was amused. Almost.] You say that, but I pretty much am. Everyone's better off than me, and there's not much reason to keep me around. I don't know why they wasted their time.

But I'm here, so... whatever. [She looked him over, scrutinizing, curious briefly.] Why do you say nobody's worthless?

[he stopped walking and crossed his arms.]

Because I refuse to believe that anyone is worthless.

[He sighed and looked up, dropping his arms.]

I believed once that I was. That I would just hold everyone back. We weren't making any progress and then things happened to exacerbate the issue. [His brand suddenly progressed rapidly is what happened. He had been closer to becoming a Cie'th.] But they stood by me anyway. I wouldn't be here today without them and I know it is the same to them.

[He started walking again.]

Just because you don't see your own worth doesn't mean you're worthless.

[Oh, she was so jealous of him right then. The closest thing she had to a friend was some damned oni that stopped by her bridge when she was drunk and bored. Parsee's eyes narrowed and she grunted, listening and hearing him out before shrugging.]

Maybe that was true one day, a long time ago. But that person's long gone. Nobody's going to stick their neck out for me. Nice for you that you have that kind of friend, though. Kind of jealous. [Said in the tone of proclaiming water to be wet.]

[More than one friend actually but Hope refrained. Instead he merely shrugged. If she was going to pity herself like this, as sad as it was, he wasn't sure what he could do about it.]

The circumstances we were brought into is what brought together in the first place. I didn't know any of them a few weeks ago. [He paused at the steps to go down below, hand on the rail and eyes on his brand, partially covered by the yellow wristband.] When the whole world is against you, wanting you dead, all you can depend on is each other. I'm not sure that's something to be jealous of.

[Although he wouldn't trade them for the world at this point.]

[It was intrinsic to her nature, hard to stop for her. She did listen to him quietly, though, shrugging as he reached the top of the steps.]

They still care about you. It's something I don't know. [Her lips pursed in a frown.] But are they even here right now, or are you going to have to test and see about getting new allies like that?

No, they aren't. They're likely still back there, but the future is uncertain so that could very well change. In the meantime, yes, I will try to find new friends while I'm here. You and I aren't the only ones here in this situation, after all.

So. [He turned to her and held out his hand. He answered her frown with a smile.] My name is Hope Estheim. If you're okay with it, I'd like to be your friend.

[She stared at Hope in muted shock. The guy barely knew her and was offering to be friends, even knowing what she'd said already. It made her confused, not to mention suspicious.]

Parsee Mizuhashi, and don't you think that's a little premature? [She stared at his hand for a second, obviously unsure and uncomfortable.] How... how about just sticking to acquaintances and not getting ahead of ourselves.

[She offered her hand then, far more comfortable with that word. It came with less disappointment when they inevitably failed her.]

Test Drive #1

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject