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

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."

[fatedsacrifice]

Noctis hadn't realized someone was sitting next to him as he'd briefly been reminiscing about the last time he'd camped out with the guys. But someone was indeed there with him now and a question had been posed so he nodded.

"It's short for Ignis." This was said with a fond sad smile. Ignis was the man who'd been at his side for ages, and who was always there no matter what. There was Gladio and Promto that had been at his side too of course, but they weren't the current topic of conversation.

Upon hearing the comment about the cooking though, Noctis nodded with a small laugh in his voice. "Ya, it definitely would be better than this." And even if he didn't give a voice to the lucky bit, he knew he'd been lucky in more ways than one. Aranea had even tried to snag hIgnis away as her chef, and Noct wasn't having it.

[advocateofgenderequality]

"Wait, Ignis? Iggy? Is it a fire spell or a puppy dog?"

Kazuma only seems to be half listening to his neighbor's statement, while the other half of his attention focuses on breaking down the pile of food on his plate.

"So it's a cooking fire spell?" Suddenly, he stops mid-bite as his eyes widen. "Or a dog that can cook!? And it can cook gourmet level food better than this!?"

[fatedsacrifice]

As the other tried to figure out what an Ignis was, Noctis held back a laugh and coughed into his sleeve. Thankfully when he'd arrived someone had taken pity on his lack of a right sleeve and tried their best to heal the burn marks on his right arm.

He was so thankful that he couldn't bring himself to tell them what else was physically hurting on him, like his chest. They'd helped him so much already, and he wasn't about to trouble them further.

So Noctis is amused as the other goes on, with his companion reminding him something of a cross between a young Talcott and Promto.

Finally though he decided to help the other out with a small laugh and a shake of his head. Ignis would be mortified and indignant if he could hear this, but Noctis was picturing Iggy as a cute puppy dog with glasses.

"Ignis is a person."

[advocateofgenderequality]

"Ignis is a people name!? What kind of parent would name their kid something so stu-"

Kazuma still contains enough tack within his food addled brain to stop himself.

"Wait, what's your name anyways?"

[fatedsacrifice]

Because Noctis is a king he's going to overlook the outburst about the name though there's still a stern look that appears in the blue eyes towards the boy.

Still, if he remembered right, he would still have the picture of the group that he had taken along with him from Prompto's camera roll. So he's searching for that as he gets asked his name.

"Noctis."

And a moment after that, he pulls out the picture of the guys. Putting it down in front of him, Noctis points with his index finger to Ignis as a very slight smile shows and then is gone just as quickly as it appeared.

"That's him."

[advocateofgenderequality]

"Whoa!" Kazuma points to Noctis in the photo. "Sasuke hair!"

His eyes widen as he looks over at Noctis-in-the-flesh once again.

"Then that means your like old-man Sasuke!"

Excitedly, his gaze goes back down to the photo. "And then blondie is Naruto! But then who's beefcakes in the back? Sakura?" He begins to burst out in laughter at his own suggestion.

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?"

/sliding NT canon into the background here because I can!

[fatedsacrifice]

Obviously his friends are nowhere around him and so Noctis stays by himself as has been a habit when he was a little boy. Carrots are placed on a napkin away from him but there's a dessert or two that's not too far away.

He's managed to eat a few of the uneaten spicy things but hasn't quite decided as to when those will fit in with the steak looking dish covered in a dark sauce.

Looking up from his food ponderings, blue eyes meet a brighter pair of blue. Silver feathery hair frames the face and for a moment the king stares trying to remember something.

But then he remembers a reprimand from Ignis that it wasn't polite to stare, so Noctis lowers his gaze although it's only momentarily.

"Don't I know you from somewhere?"

8DDDDD

[treno_nobleman]

He had asked the question, but with a more attentive look, he notices the vegetables set aside and the plate seems barely touched. One man's tastes were his own, but that didn't bode well for what he had on his own dish, as good as it smelled. There wasn't a concern that he would die if he ate what was in front of him, but he wondered if he might be repulsed.

And then he wondered what the man meant. The voice wasn't ringing a bell, and neither was the face. Maybe the eyes, but the man looked away and he still couldn't place it. The tail behind him swayed gently as he rolled the image around in his mind.

"I'm afraid you don't look familiar." Or did he?


(ooc: Taking this as if Kuja has only ever seen Noctis at the very end, when they fought in that mock battle, unless you had another thought.)

[fatedsacrifice]

Noctis waited, looking at Kuja with a more puzzled look. Flashes of memories came into his head but shook his head again.

The prounouncement gave the king nothing to go on, so at this point he had to shrug. "My mistake." He would've said 'my bad' but that was something he said to the guys, not to a complete stranger if that was the case. Noctis still believed he'd seen the man though he couldn't place him.

Many things had happened to the king, so maybe he had it wrong, but he didn't think he was wrong here. So he wasn't going to argue it, but a few moments passed and a name came to him. This was the last attempt he would make at this.

"I don't suppose the name Materia means anything to you."

(ooc: Yup!^^)

[treno_nobleman]

A case of mistaken identity here, in this place, was rare as far as he knew. Or it could have been. What were the chances that two people drawn from worlds far enough apart that they had never known about each other before now would find a former friend on a stranger's face? They had enough variety about them that he'd noticed some similarities - dark hair, light eyes, light skin - but that could have been any number of people on Gaia.

But the name did have meaning to him. He gave the man a new look, reaching for a name of his own that he didn't have for him. Then it hit him, eyes widening by slight only briefly.

"Yes, it does."

He wondered what the man would know of him. Kuja remembered the final fight with Materia's champions, the faces he had seen then. Not all of them were familiar to him from the cycles before it, but he had been too geared for the end result than he had cared about who he threw his magic at so long as they bore the light. They were there to lure out Shinryu, then to turn their fury on the dragon, then - hopefully - to return home.

To return Zidane home.

Kuja remembered the man now, but the resemblance was fleeting. "You were younger then, under her banner."

[fatedsacrifice]

Well there was some satisfaction on Noctis face when he saw the eyes widen a bit. And truthfully Noctis didn't know a lot about the man in front of him but it was just a teasing memory, something he barely half remembered.

But it brought to mind his adventures with the Warrior of Light and Cecil, who'd he told to call him 'Noct'. And as the king tried to place the other God's name besides Materia's, Kuja hit him with the truth.

Well there it was. He had been younger then. So Noctis self consciously raised a hand to put through his hair.

"Ya..you could say that."

[treno_nobleman]

He recognizes that embarrassment, though he has never known it himself and likely never would. Men grew old and feeble past a point, but this one hadn't reached that milestone yet.

Behind him, his tail waved slowly and was still, contemplating his next words. "I did. Is something the matter? I meant nothing of it, only that it has been some time since we last met." Even for him - Kuja had already been here in this place longer than a month, the days made longer still by his frustrations with it all and the monotony of too much free time and not enough access to information critical to his own research.

His eyes narrowed again in thought. The man had been Materia's warrior, but as of yet, there had been none of the expected hostilities, none of the aggression, none of the suspicious looks. "What do you recall of that time?"

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?"

[fatedsacrifice]

All of a sudden the world became smaller and the floor somehow looked to be a long way down. Noctis blinked and looked over at the man who had been his lab partner.

As the other man spoke, if toad!Noctis could sigh, he would've done so. This was a lesson repeated from fighting the daemon Marilith in his youth. No the results weren't as disastrous this time per say, but he'd gone off charging into battle against the creature when his friends were with him and he hadn't listened.

This was humiliating and definitely not a kingly thing to do, but toad!Noctis hopped once. And he had to make sure he didn't take a leap off of the chair while trying to reply. Hopefully he'd return to normal in a bit just like he did back home.

Hopefully.

[hard_talker]

"Crap."

Mark crouched down in front of the chair so that he wasn't looming over him, and flipped to the back of his textbook, looking for the index.

"Frogs, transformation of? Maybe? Curses, undoing?"

He rested the edge of the book on the chair so Noctis could have a look. "What do you think?"

[fatedsacrifice]

Even in toad form, Noctis noticed one thing. His lab partner was incredibly kind to bring the book down for him to be able to attempt to read.

Two front legs went up on the book to try to read what the other was trying to helpfully point out to him. And for his part, toad!Noctis was trying to read what he could, but then it felt like this time was running out of being this size, so he jumped off of the table and onto the floor so in case his transformation caused a fall.

So a moment later with another poof, a very human Noctis sat on the floor in the toad's place. Looking up at Mark now, he nodded.

"Just needed to wait a little while."

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."

[fatedsacrifice]

The first thing that registers to toad!Noctis after the transformation, is that there's a talking mouse on the table. And if that isn't strange enough, he could top that off with being called 'kid'.

Kid. Now that was amusing in it's own way but as a toad, nothing human sounding could come out of his mouth. All he can do at this point is blink up at the talking mouse and hopefully he'd change back at some point.

This place really was strange, and it was only slightly stranger than being older than this mouse thouught he was. But not even this place topped him being brought back to life.

[inmyjellies]

Look, names are hard. Pikachu remembered names pretty well these days but he had to learn them first, and honestly, he wasn't used to introducing himself on the grounds that he wasn't used to people understanding him. It was just easier addressing everyone as 'kid' and then getting corrected later.

The mouse tries to get off the table but he misses the chair and he falls straight to the ground with a hard thump.

"AH! Ow. Pain. I should have just jumped. Shoulda. Ow." Pikachu looks up at the chair and begins to try climb up so he can get over to Noctis. "Can you say anything? A croak? A ribbit? A rendition of 'Hello My Baby' by Michigan J. Frog?"

[fatedsacrifice]

Noctis winced as he watched the mouse fall. And if he could've helped the other he most certainly would've. However, current toad condition keeps him pretty much small and not at all very useful.

For the other's sake though he tries to say something though he has no idea who Michigan J. Frog is or the song that the mouse referenced. So Noctis decided that he'd try to find these things out when the time came to turn back.

He tries to shake his head, but that doesn't even seem to work too well.

[inmyjellies]

"Alright. So either you can't say anything or you've lost all your intellect and don't even understand me. Oh brother," The Pikachu shakes his head as he climbs up next to Noctis. Since they're both small, they manage to fit on the chair somehow, though there's very little leg room.

"Can I throw you on the table? I want to throw you on the table. Not that I have any interest touching your... mucusy body... but I need you to show me where and how you messed up, kid. Got that? Uh... tap your front leg twice if you did."

[fatedsacrifice]

Noctis isn't sure what this mouse is doing at the moment, but then realizes that the other is climbing up. And while he could definitely understand what was being said, he can't seem to make any sort of coherent human noise.

Once he heard the bit about being thrown on the table though, all Noctis could picture was the mouse attempting to throw him and the two of them ending up landing on the floor or worse. Neither of them were cats, so he figured they wouldn't exactly land on their feet.

So instead he hopped the very short distance onto the table itself, and went over to the book and empty flask, turning to look at the mouse expectantly.