Test Drive #5 Is Alive

[magicademymods]

Test Drive #5



Class Is In Session

The Metacurriculum of Glyphics contains within it the fine and honored art of potionmaking, in which glyphs scribed into a cauldron are distilled within a liquid especially prepared to hold the enchantment. The task is remarkably finicky, and thus not particularly utilized outside of the classroom; generations of teachers have been forced to deal with the question of "when will we ever use this in real life?!", to their inevitable despair.

A pinch of cilantro, a dash of goat hoof, stir carefully and apply liberal amounts of electricity -- and you foolishly used alternating current instead of direct. Rather than a Potion of Supreme Might, your mixture has turned a vile grey, and a dark spirit has arisen from it to tell you that your personal hygiene leaves much to be desired and that your soul is so black with sin no heaven will ever accept it. This is no good -- the syllabus explicitly states that profane manifestations of magic are only worth partial credit at best. Can you and your partner rectify your mistake before the professor pops by to see how you're doing?

Shady Business

"'Ey! You!" calls a voice from the Merchant District Alley, coming from the throat of a pop-eyed, scraggle-faced man that couldn't be a shadier character if he was real slim. On catching your attention, he motions you over. "Sees that you're wizard-likes," he says, rolling his words around in his mouth in a particularly rhythmic sort of way that doesn't disguise his inability to hold one accent for more than a phrase. "Well I've got summat'll knock your bonzer socks off. Behold!"

Sweeping one hand towards a ratty old table, he whips off a cloth to reveal a rack of weapons. Pointy swords, massive maces, warhammers that resemble the smaller historical version rather than the fantasy types one pictures dwarves with, a bow and arrows, a stiletto, any number of different implements of death. "Priced as marked," the shady guy says, "and sold as is. No refunds! Some of them are probably cursed, is what I'm hinting at. Full disclosure."

The price is so good, the risk of a curse might be worth it. Did you purchase the Sword of Flaming Death, or the Dagger of Wedgies-to-the-Wielder? Is the greataxe mighty and potent, or actually foil-covered chocolate? Choose your weapon wisely. We -- we recommend you don't pick up the one that causes you to attack the nearest person in a rage of bloodlust, but what do we know?

Etreia Day

Everyone looks forward to Etreia Day in the dining hall, that special day when the food delivered to students and staff comes from that landlocked nation deep in the Tier Mountains. Little cultural blending and spices unique to the deep peaks and valleys of the isolated country have lead to a unique and renowned cultural menu that everyone is eager to partake of.

The effect isn't magical, merely biochemical, but no one can deny that Etreian food affects human emotions significantly. Light sauces and dry-rubbed fowl are terrific for energy and mood, pushing the eater into a flurry of cheerful activity that their body will likely pay for later. Sour dishes and dark bastes produce solemn moods and inhibit playfulness. Spicy foods are something of a wildcard, pushing different people to different extremes, be they happy or sad, angry or joyous. To those who expect this, experiencing these different emotions is as much a part of the meal as the taste and texture of the food itself.

To those who don't expect this, well, it's a bit of a surprise.

Labwork

Not every magical disaster is caused by some wayward student you don't know. Many of them are caused by you instead. To wit: you're on the spot in one of the magical labs, being called on to demonstrate a technique more advanced than others you've mastered so far. Failure is expected, and the wards should prevent any injury to others from a miscast spell. But will the sparks of your magic just sputter out and die? Or will you inadvertently mispronounce, misform, misshape, or miscalculate in a way that brings chaos to you and your lab partner?

(You could also manage to succeed in casting the spell, but that isn't very fun.)

Comments

Mark Hunter | Pump Up The Volume

[hard_talker]

Flub Potion #9

Mark is new at all of this, but he's decent at math, so he's annoyed when the mix turns the wrong color, his nose wrinkling beneath his glasses. But he keeps it to himself - as his classmates may or may not have noticed he always does. The quiet brunette has barely spoken word one to anyone who wasn't a teacher ...

But when the spirit rises from the cauldron and proceeds to tear into him about the wrinkles in his uniform, the crookedness of his collar, and how his glasses need cleaning, something clearly sparks behind his eyes. Sure, this is a failing grade, absolutely, but he can probably fix it. Before he fixes it, though, he sees a rare opportunity: one to use this seemingly sentient thing as a punching bag of sorts. He sits up straight in his chair, and in a tone more pronounced than his usual mumble, he says, with a smirk: "Yeah? And you're ugly."

Mack the Knife

Mark hitches the straps of his backpack up a little higher as he eyes the peddlar's wares dubiously. "Yeeeeah, uh, no thanks," he says quickly, then notes you next to him looking them over, and his eyes widen in concern.

"Holy -- you're not seriously thinking about it, are you?"

Knives

[sevenyearsasleep]

Link is an optimistic soul.

"Hm? Oh, I don't know. They can't all be cursed. That would just be bad business. If you curse all of your customers, you have like zero repeat business, and no word of mouth." He grinned cheerfully.

"And besides, it's always good to have a decent supply of weapons at hand."

Flub potion

[inmyjellies]

Detective Pikachu is also new to this, but he's not one for failure either so he is slightly miffed as the potion changes colour. He stares at the spirit, wondering if the thing was for real, before he hears his lab partner's insult.

"Haha." That was somewhat sarcastic. Okay, mostly... entirely sarcastic. "Smart comments aside, kid, I don't think insulting the gross looking poisonous ghost is gonna turn it into anything useful."

Yugo | Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V

[bananaspeedrider]

A - Class Clown

"There’s nothing wrong with my hygiene! Or my handwriting!"

.. Well maybe the spirit isn’t wrong on one of those categories, but it’s not like Yugo has any clue whatsoever on how to fix this mess. So he chooses to argue because it’s all too easy for him to get worked up over a bunch of insults.

You as his lab partner probably could’ve trusted only this idiot’s math at most anyway.


B - FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

So what happens when one shoves a skinny teenager in front of a buffet? They challenge the phrase “all-you-can-eat” of course! And the count begins on how many different plates one might see Yugo stack up.

Perhaps you catch him near the start of things, wholeheartedly filling his first plate with reckless abandon and joyously scarfing it all down while still appreciating the flavors at the same time. “Man this beats even Tops food…!” He’ll mention to anyone in passing. “Does everyone always eat like this here?”

Maybe a few plates later he finally seems a bit sobered up from his initial excitement. Not horking down his newest plate of food, but savoring it more slowly as a side effect of looking lost in thought about something. (Or about someone?)

..... Or after this point, Yugo’s finally decided which dishes he likes putting into his black hole of a stomach the most. Maybe with morbid fascination one could encourage him to make it all the way to 23rds? Either way he’s gonna pay for this, with nausea again, an energy crash from overindulging in specific light-flavored dishes, or both.

Wildcard!
[Got something else in mind such as the aftermath of food fest? Come at me!]

B - FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD

[king_of_egypt]

Please excuse one mystified ancient pharaoh staring in disbelief at how such a skinny teenager could be consuming copious amounts of food. When he finally snaps out of it he decides two things. One, he's no longer hungry himself and two, "I didn't think there was anyone could could rival Joey's appetite." Not that he bothered explaining who the person was that he referenced.

"Oh... uh.. sorry. I shouldn't have been staring like that." Making a move to keep on walking by the table.

"Don't let me interrupt."

B

[hard_talker]

At his question about the habitual availability of the food, Mark looks up from his plate, a daub of sauce still at the corner of his mouth from the dish he was sampling. It looked vaguely Indian, and he'd missed good Indian food since his family had left New York. While it hadn't been korma or masala after all, it was still damn good, and he smiled a little.

"I haven't been here more'n' a week," he replied. "So beats me. But it's better than the cafeterias from home, that's for sure."

A

[inmyjellies]

"I dunno, you're the one who smells more like fuel than anyone around here," the tiny mouse frowns. Pikachu's choosing to ignore the spirit in order to pour over their book to see what the hell he's done wrong.

"Why is magic so hard? Why can't you just go bibbity bobbity and then boo it's done?" The mouse frowned. "Hey kid, do something useful and put the lid on that spirit, okay?"

A

[stingysting]

Rachel rolls her eyes. Of course she'd get partnered with someone... less than academically gifted. Yes. That was a polite way to put it. "Arguing with it isn't going to help. Maybe help me figure out how to get rid of it?

Noctis Lucis Caelum | Final Fantasy XV

[fatedsacrifice]

Etreia Day -

Noctis loves food and he always has, well except maybe not vegetables. So far those have been easy to spot, though there's no one else's plate to pile them onto. And besides, Ignis isn't here to admonish him to eat healthier.

Sitting by himself, blue orbs look the dry rubbed bird meat over and Noctis shakes his head. His words are spoken softly, but they can still be overheard.

"What I wouldn't give for your cooking again, Iggy."


Labwork -

Noctis is there working on creating this potion thing. It was so much easier back home when he didn't have to worry or even think about it. But he figures trying his hand at manually creating a healing potion couldn't hurt, right? It can't be as hard as he'd heard it was. Besides he'd always had trouble being normal and to create this was seen as a challenge to be normal.

However, just as he'd done on his journey, Noctis mispronounces a name and messes the whole potion up entirely.

A puff of smoke appears and on the chair where Noctis had been sitting is a cute green toad.

Etreia Day

[advocateofgenderequality]

"Iggy? What kind of funky name is that?"

Kazuma asks to himself as much as to the reminiscing man besides him. His remark is a bit muffled, as his mouth is quite full. One hand holds a fairly large drumstick, half eaten, while the other hand balances a plate with a piled mountain of various other foods.

"If an iggy can cook as good as this, then you musta been one lucky dude."

Etreia Day

[treno_nobleman]

Still new to this world and its more popular culture, Kuja had done his best to look into this whole Etreia Day thing and at least know what he was getting himself into. From his understanding, the food prepared was brought in from another region, and there was the fun in it. So something of an exotic nature, he'd gathered, though he hadn't liked the giggles the students hid as they wandered away, whispering excitedly among themselves.

He didn't like it at all, but he couldn't exactly deprive himself of sustenance until the day was over. For lunch, he had selected what looked appealing and healthy. It smelled delicious, as food here always seemed to do, but still he eyed it warily. As he moves to find a place to settle, he notices another student with the same meal and decides to stop and ask.

"How is it?"

Labwork

[hard_talker]

Mark had his nose in his textbook for most of Noctis' work, and misses the actual transformation entirely.

"Hey," he says, not looking up, "do we actually have to disembowel the mouse for the practicum in chapter two, or can we just toss a whole mouse in there? Because I'm really not comfortable with -- holy shit."

His eyes widen, and his knee-jerk reaction seems to be torn between panic and hilarity. Because frog. "Okay. Are you the toad or did it just ... switch places with you and you're in a bog somewhere?"

He realizes frog!Noctis might not be able to speak, and makes a face. "Er. Hop once for yes, twice for no?"

Labwork

[inmyjellies]

The chairs are too low for Detective Pikachu to see over the table, so he's settled on sitting on the table instead. He was watching the demonstration casually when suddenly there's smoke and now... no Noctis.

"Kid? Hey! Are you okay?" For a second, Detective Pikachu honestly thinks the guy may have killed himself or poofed himself away, so he scrambles to look over the table to see down at the chair.

"Well... that's something you don't see every day. ... Heh... nice to finally see someone's smaller than me."

Detective Pikachu | No spoilers if you don't want them!

[inmyjellies]

Class Is In Session

"Sorry, I'm a little gassy cause of all the caffeine. And that's not my soul, that's probably the coffee you see in my belly."

Well... maybe a big problem with the potion was your lab partner. For the average human, he's about calf height, small and incredibly not dexterous. He's been doing his best to keep up but... He's a Pikachu.

"It's not my fault I can't hold the electricity. If I remembered how to do it, I would have." Pikachu takes a whiff of the formula and makes a face. "Ugh... Kid, got any bright ideas how we can save this Muk soup? I'm thinking maybe a cup of roasted beans and a turtle husk."

------

Etreia Day

"Wow... look at this spread. It's really nice to know the world is so big and yet some of the food they cook looks exactly how people at home make it." Pikachu is too short for the chairs so, as usual, he's walking around with a cup of coffee in his hands, examining the plates as he walks.

"That looks sweet. That looks sour. That looks weird. That looks like a Psyduck lost its temper at it... and... ooo... what's this?" Detective Pikachu has found some tarts that look perfect for his coffee. He dips it in, takes a bite and then... turns around to see you.

"... Woah. Hey... Hey there, beautiful." Oh Arceus...

Etreia Day

[icameinlikea]

With a horrified squeak, Hammond dropped down into the cockpit of his mech and slammed the hatch shut.

"ERROR 503," the reverberant voice of the mech intoned. "SERVICE NOT FOUND."

Etreia Day (Spoilers are fine for me, I am also the Xion player and have seen the movie.

[gender_neutral]

V resisted the urge to scream. All the invitations to the dance where bad enough, but this open mockery was very nearly the last straw. A low charisma score meant many things, but beautiful was not one of them. The short stick figure elf turned to face the weird yellow rat thing.

"No," V said sharply. "Let's start with two reasons. One. I'm married with two children. Two. You are sort of creature whose monster manual entry I have never seen, let alone read. It was bad enough when the comic took a side path into the concept of origins of hybrid creatures such as owlbears. I utterly and completely refuse to even revisit the topic, much less become a part or the story behind some odd hybrid race. Should either of those reasons fail to be sufficient I assure you I have a third reason in my pocket that you will find convinces you beyond all shadow of a doubt that any and all amorous advances should be aimed elsewhere."

As usual, V had prepared explosive runes that morning.

Class

[nobodys_puppet]

You would think that Pikachu had lucked out, getting a partner for the class who was among the first of the sundered. Surely she would know exactly what to do, right? Sadly for him, this bully magnet has barely attended classes, and... well... it is hard to say which is more concerning... the gloves that look too slippery that she shouldn't even be able to hold a vial, or the hood so far down her face it is a wonder she could see. Not that she's shown any difficulty with either. No, her trouble seems to be focus. And an utter lack of a clue.

When he asked her opinion she just shrugged and looked down at her gloves.

Just another thing she was useless at, she supposed.

etreia, spoilers are fine!

[plusfivedex]

Honestly, this is one of the more normal strange things to have happened to Kamala. She is, in fact, more surprised to be called beautiful than to see a talking... Rabbit being? That is the part that has her looking super-awkward.

"Um... Hey, there."

Etreia Day

[afterhappilyeverafter]

[Saw the movie, so spoil away!]

At first, Rapunzel simply laughs in response to Pikachu's flirtation, though not in a mean way. (What kind of Disney Princess is mean to adorable "animals", after all?) He's a cute little guy - could almost give Pascal a run for his money on that front - and she crouches down to get on his level.

"Well, aren't you sweet? I'm Rapunzel, what's your name?"

Dewey | Ducktales '17

[couldabeenturbo]

Glyph Only I Hadn't...

Dewey stands by passively listening to the spirit go up one side of him and down the other, then surveys the mess in front of him.

"Neeehhhhh .... too much goat hoof?"

He hasn't noticed the current indicator yet, obviously. But he's surprisingly unphased by being yelled at...

Shady Business

Dewey rubs his hands together, grinning as he surveys the merchant's wares. "Boy oh boy, this was my lucky day! I bet at least one of these is enchanted. Wishes? Money? ... Crazy magic accent swapping? I mean, hey, that'd explain a lot, wouldn't it?"

His fingers hover over the table, twitching with excitement. "I just can't decide... What do you think?"

Etreia Everything From The Buffet

Dewey took a little of everything, then headed back to his seat, happily munching a little here and a little there.

"Holy cow, this is delicious!" He speaks with his mouth full, sauce flecking his beak, then takes another bite of something else. "Ooh, and so's this! O-hooooo. Maybe I should become a food critic! What do you think? A column on the bulletin board? Dewlinary Delights!"

He lifts up another forkful and gestures to it wistfully. "Ah! Such a fine bouquet. Beautiful presentation. But does the package live up to the wrapping?"

Shoving it into his mouth, he nodded vigorously, then his eyes widened as he realized he'd grabbed one of the spicier offerings. "Ghhk...!"

Etreia

[talkyourwayout]

This particular aspect of life in the Tenscore Kingdoms - Etreia Day and all that comes with it - is new to Louie, so he has no idea what his brother is in for. He just snickers at Dewey's misfortune, as any good brother would.

He even takes a sip from his own glass of juice, just to be a bit of a smug jerk. Hey, he can't keep the "evil triplet" title if he doesn't earn it, right?

"Some food critic," he teases, before looking at the juice with a little sigh. "I miss Pep."

That's good, Louie. Let your brother burn his beak off while you bemoan your favorite brand of soda.

glyph!

[woo_oo]

Considering the kind of stuff Duckworth yells at them, it's really not too shocking anymore.

"Really? I thought it could use more goat hoof. Like, maybe the whole goat."

Rachel Drake | OC

[stingysting]

Class is in Session

"Nooo!" Rachel groans as the spirit starts to rise up. Her shoulders droop and she sighs. Chemistry was one of her worst subjects back home, and somehow she's not surprised that potion making isn't any better. She glares at the spirit. "I beat worse things than you back home." Then again, those had been supervillians she could sic swarms of bees and wasps on. Magic is mostly a good compensation for not having her powers, but only mostly. And wasps would probably just go through this thing. She turns to you. "Any idea how to get rid of this jerk?"


Labwork

For someone who'd spent a decent amount of time as a superhero, you might think Rachel wouldn't have performance anxiety. But all the heroics and speechifying had been behind a mask, and that somehow made it completely different. Maybe if this was a spell she actually knew she might be more confident, but it's not, and so her hand is shaking and when she first opens her mouth, only a squeak comes out. She flushes bright red, coughs, and tries again.

There's a bright flash, and huge cloud of smoke, and a reek of sulfur. When the smoke clears Rachel and everything around her is covered in glittery dust. She tries to brush it off, but it just puffs in the air and settles back on her. "Glitter is the worst!" she grumps.

Labwork

[afterhappilyeverafter]

From the next station over, Rapunzel smiles sympathetically in the girl's direction. "Well, I think it looks nice on you," she offers. It's a genuine statement, but Rapunzel also figures that the glitter isn't really the problem here. She leans her elbows on the desk, chin in her hands.

"You tried! That's a big step. I can't get that one to work yet, either."

donald duck | ducktales 2017

[lifevests]

1. potion problems.

Well, that's probably the only result to be expected, between him being himself and the fact that he only begrudgingly even agreed to learn all this so-called magic. Who gets stuck with all the bad luck? Self-explanatory. Things progress in pretty quick order, honestly. Donald, for his part:

- Falls off of his tool with a loud startled shout. It's very quacky.

- Panics for two seconds until he realizes he didn't actually set the building on fire. Which is better than he can usually say! That's genuine pleasant surprise registering on his face.

- Not particularly stricken by the insults themselves, exactly, provided they're only directed towards him, Donald calmly goes about righting his stool. If anything, he looks like he just really wants to be taking a nap right now. He waves his arms through the dark spirit with every intention of dissipating it while he figures out what he even did wrong here.

- It's not successful, so he tries waving his arms through it again. Like. Four or five times. All equally unsuccessful, which is the point where he makes the journey from tired to outright worked up.

Which is a lot of process to get to the point of saying that Donald is hopping up and down on the table trying to make the dark malevolent spirit of his own creation catch these hands. Just an absolute... tiny storm of duck noises. It's a mess. It's not good. He hates this.


2. slim shady.

Donald is absolutely able to be found at some point at this shady weapons table. He has his arms crossed. He could only look like more of a disapproving parent if he were wearing a fanny-pack.

"There are kids here! You can't just wave anybody over to try to sell discount weapons to them! Are you licensed for that?"

Do people need licenses to do that in magic fantasy worlds? He sure doesn't know. Anyway, he could probably use stopping before he does grab a warhammer and try to chase this dude out of town, because it's better for Donald to not go to magic fantasy jail or whatever it is that happens here.


( whether or not a character understands Donald Duck inflections is up to player discretion 2019. wildcard prompts also welcome if nothing here takes your fancy! )

slim shady

[talkyourwayout]

Louie had followed his uncle over to the stall to watch the ruffling of feathers, but now that he's actually looking over the wares, he finds his priorities shifting. Some of these things look really valuable, after all! As he listens to Donald chastise the merchant, he even manages to find a khopesh. Looks and feels like it's made of bronze, at best, but hey - that's a start.

"Well, hello there," he says, picking it up and turning it over in his hands.

tidus | final fantasy x

[zanarkandian]

class

First big glyphics session today! Tidus is about as ready as he'll ever be, encouraging his partner with a big smile. He could stand to be less optimistic and more precise, of course, because now there's a grumpy spirit insulting him.

"Geez, who woke you up on the wrong side of the bed? Uh...heh. Guess that was me. Uh...?"

Do you help him or mock him? Both are valid choices here.

Etreia Day

Free food is always his speed. Tidus, of course, did not hear any of the warnings before diving right in, so it's no surprise when he's gobbled half a bird and promptly started on the cartwheels. He's laughing the whole way, and rather obnoxiously too.

Later, someone finally forces a spiced soup on him, and he can be found almost mumbling into the bowl, clutching it tightly. His brow is furrowed, and he finally looks up with a forlorn expression.

"Do you think whoever made this was lonely?"

...what?

wildcard: the sportsball one

Naturally, he's throw himself into Bala-inlota tryouts, despite his irritation at how this puts him too close to his old man. He can be found practicing magical counters as he lunges with the ball, passing it, kicking it...and flipping over an explosion.

He eventually crashes down onto the field, giving a thumbs up. Not bad.

the sportsball one

[hyperdrivemonalisa]

Well, at one point, she'd been told to at least try Bala-inlota, that she might have some talent. Although the fact that this new guy just did a flip over an explosion...Half of her reaction was concern, and half of it--well, she was pretty darn impressed.

"Dude, you had to feel that!! You okay?" Sure, five seconds earlier she'd been bellowing some musically inclined nonsense, about to yank him out of midair with the force rope her bracelet emitted, but that was a rough landing, and even Isabel had limits when it came to 'anything but killing each other'. Captain Lominia could cut her or eat her whole hiney, as far as she was concerned.