Test Drive #7

[magicademymods]

Test Drive #7



Air Apparent

The fundamental principle of Sundering, that of breaching the barriers between here and there, often manifests as summoning. Simply open a portal and then bring through that which you desire to command. Today's lesson in the magic went slightly wrong, and now a strange creature called an "air imp" stalks around the campus, causing mischief wherever it can. Its powers are not terribly dangerous, but it is a trickster with the swift gusts of air it can conjure, and almost impossible to see since it is the very color of the air itself.

The faculty has made two important announcements. First, do NOT go commando under your robes while this thing is out there. Second, whichever student or group of students catches the imp shall earn five points for the Colormarch for their House or Houses, and shall be taught a special spell of Discovery personally by Professor Trammel.

This reward has the student body in a tizzy, and groups of eager imp-hunters stalk the campus after classes, each of them with a clever idea to get the prize for themselves. Quickly, find a partner and join them!

Only Shooting Stars

Thanks to some horrible twist of fate, a body-swapping magic has caught you in its claws and wrenched you into a form that is not your own. Perhaps you're a familiar now, a blobby owl or a sneaky cat. Perhaps you've taken over the body of that student next to you, who's now looking at you from the eyes that ought to be yours.

There isn't any easy answer for this. You're stuck, for the moment, anyway. All you can do is try to make the most of it... or just get through.

Another Fine Mess

The fervor of the day down Anastara way surrounds a shop that just released their new special product: Airsquiddlies. These curious little toys take the shape of a squid, and through some little trick of magic they catch the air when held up above one's head. Tethered by a string, they drift about a few feet up with their tentacles waving most realistically and slithering around to curiously investigate whatever, or whoever, they find.

By luck, you've managed to get one of these -- and as delightful as it might be, it does come with a couple of quirks. Has its tentacles gotten somewhere you'd rather they not -- a merchant's wares, the hair of a fellow student perhaps? Or maybe you're stuck dealing with a few people who are intent on getting their own Airsquiddly, any way they can since the stores are sold out?

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

Kaylin Neya: Labwork

[notamascot]

Kaylin sighed as she wiped the orange slime off her face with the edge of her sleeve. "I'm in one of the hells, aren't I? Doomed to try and fail to do this ridiculousness forever. Admit it. I'd feel much better if someone did."

[zanarkandian]

"Nah, you're okay!" Tidus offered cheerfully. "Don't worry about it. It's always rough the first few weeks, but you'll get the hang of it eventually. Even I did, and I barely passed my midterm."

He's very earnestly cleaning up his own smoke, letting out a low whistle at the ceiling lamp he's unintentionally turned into a large pickle. Food's always on the brain.

[notamascot]

"A pickle." Kaylin sighed again. "I'd take a pickle over orange slime any day." Though she had to wonder if, after being eaten, it might turn back to a lamp. That would be unpleasant.

"See the thing is, basically, I got pulled from a world where I was totally failing to learn magic to an Entire. Magic. Academy." And away from everything that made her even willing to attempt magic. Except here the whole dread consequences thing was a fair motivator.

Re: Kaylin Neya: Labwork

[immortal_cohort]

"If you are, kitling," Teela drawled, leaning back casually, clear of any mess, "Couldn't you have left me the ****s out if it?"

Re: Kaylin Neya: Labwork

[notamascot]

"Hey, I'm not the one who brought us here!" Kaylin protested. "It was someone here!"

It wasn't her fault!

This time.

"Besides, you could probably make a killing betting against me ever being able to master any of this stuff."

Aziraphale | Good Omens

[temptationaccomplished]

Labwork

My goodness, Aziraphale thought, well, he had never had a miracle go quite THAT wrong! Spellcasting was a different beast altogether, then. No Miracle ever required this much MATHS. What even was this mess? It smelt of rotted fish and a burned Bentley, was the color of turmeric if turmeric had been added to an iridescent bath bomb and subsequently exploded in a vat of tomato juice. And it was on his robes. And all over the floor. And dripping ominiously from the ceiling overhead. It was probably going to stain, to say nothing of the lingering stench. It was all rather like some of the messes Crowley described the baby Warlock making in his nappy, if a bit more...glittery.

Face burning with embarassment, giddy and nervous smile plastered to his face, Aziraphale stood in the middle of his self-created diaster at the front of the classroom, feeling all eyes on him and a judgement almost as imposing as Heaven's. Fine! No problem! He could take care of this! This was totally fine!

TO-TALLY FINE.

"Not a problem," he babbled, voice pitched high. He pulled up on the hem of his robe now heavy with the sludge and, waving off any concerns, added, "Definitely not a problem." Who was he trying to convince, the classroom or himself? "This- This is all very fixable!" With a panicked flourish of his wrist, he tried to vanish the mess entirely.

A whole two seconds of silence. Nothing happened. Oh no.

He frowned around a nervous laugh and tried the Miracle a bit harder, snapping forcefully this time—like one might push harder to a button on the television remote control, as if it would force the dead batteries inside to operate again—before remembering he simply couldn’t perform Miracles here.

"Oh, for Heaven’s sake!" he sighed with a despairing pout as he surveyed the mess. The pumpkin had absolutely failed to turn itself into a cart, let along the carriage he had ambitiously imagined for its fairytale fate. Did that mean he was going to have to clean it all up ...by hand?

He gave the class a pained smile. Perhaps someone might take pity on him.

[bearshermark]

Eleven grimaced. The wards prevented any harm coming to the other students, but the mess prevailed.

"My fault," he volunteered. He'd tried to help his fellow student but he wasn't any good with numbers really and probably steered him wrong instead.

He stood from his desk and plucked up a few towels as he made his way over. His robes weren't as much of a mess, but he'd still need to change after class. Eleven handed a towel to Aziraphale with some chagrin.

"Sorry. I'll at least help clean up."

Please excuse my utter lack of icons rn

[temptationaccomplished]

Aziraphale's expression transformed into a pleased but appreciative smile. He accepted one of the towels and made an effort to wipe primly at his own sleeves first.

"Oh, you certainly don't have to," he said with the fussy tone of one objecting to help only because that is the polite course of action, but who absolutely did not really want the help rescinded. "But thank you, dear boy. I'm afraid I mucked that up plenty myself. Any idea where we got it wrong?"

I'm so sorry, she's kinda mean

[darkenedmoon]

Yotsuyu looked down her nose at the man. Well, as best as one could when one was shorter. Her robes, as well, were spattered, and the stench--pfaugh, not even a dzo on a hot day was worse!

"My calculations were correct. I suppose the ingredients were imprecise?" Dry as the Sagolii. Yes, Yotsuyu was well aware that this was supposed to be above their skill level, but usually mathematical vectors simply did not...get this far out of hand!

She sighed, then. "At least I can probably get the stains out." Likely. Considering her House robes were base white, and she could not handle being stained or dirty if she could at all help it...

She's nice compared to some people this one's dealt with

[temptationaccomplished]

He was familiar with that kind of disapproval and disappointment. Aziraphale swallowed guiltily and looked elsewhere than at her judgment. My, the walls in here were a lovely shade of stone! He hadn't noticed!

"I suppose," he admitted, "I may have added some..." then hastily, "but I thought it would only improve the results, not--! ...this."

Oh, but he knew a thing or two about stains on light clothes. By which he meant he knew about getting stains ON light clothing, not getting them off.. at least not the normal way.

"But, yes," he added, flustered but feeling somewhat vaguely confident he could at least solve this problem for her, "isn't there a thing one could use...? Something like...bleach, perhaps?" The word came with a rise of inflection, as if unfamiliar with the word, or as if he wasn't wholly sure bleach was what it was called.

[marchmadness]

March Hare was late to class: A mix of having to adjust to attending classes for the first time in hundreds of years, and of not being used to the consistency of time here in the Tenscore Kingdoms. What he wouldn't give for a good pocket watch!

But no matter! He'd gotten there in the end, and there was no Queen of Hearts here to worry about enraging by being late. March Hare was smiling in an embarrassed manner as he opened the door to the classroom, but the sheepish expression was soon replaced with a look of mild shock.

"Goodness, did I miss something fun?"

[temptationaccomplished]

"Ah, yes, well I wouldn't exactly call it fun..." Aziraphale trailed off, turning to acknowledge the latecomer. And not finding him immediately around eye-level, he looked down, and down a bit more until he found a rabbit-like creature dressed in human-style clothing.

Curious! Would it be impolite to ask him if he was a rabbit by birth, or had been transformed into such by accidental or intentional spell? Undecided on the matter, he finished up with, "But you certainly missed something. Though I cannot say what, and I even had a hand in the matter."

I can't help myself... sorry..... >.>

[nobodys_puppet]

Xion looked up at the person having trouble, eyes peering through the shade caused by her hood, then she grabbed some towels in her black gloved hands and started cleaning up. Because someone was going to get in trouble for this mes, and she had a feeling it would be her. But at the exclamation she looked up again curiously. "Heaven?" she asked. What was that?

[temptationaccomplished]

There was a question in the young woman's [1] tone that implied a complete unfamiliarity with the concept of Heaven. This, at least in Aziraphale's limited 6000 year experience on Earth, was a bit of a rarity. For one, the intercontinental spread of the Abrahamic religions ensured that most cultures--and by extent, their people--had at least some vague knowledge of the concept of Heaven and Hell...whether they wanted to or not.

Secondly, and similarly, the dissemination of the English language over the ages meant that most people were at least somewhat aware of such a turn-of-phrase--even they didn't themselves believe in Heaven.

So, her question him gave him pause (in the middle of what was otherwise a no-good-very-bad-day) and he turned to her with a very perplexed frown.

"Heaven, yes. Do you mean to say you don't know what Heaven is?"

[1] young? Woman? she wore a hood, after all. For all Aziraphale knew, she could be an alternate form of Death. She probably was.

March Hare | OC

[marchmadness]

(ooc: Information on this OC can be found here for those who are curiouser and curiouser)

Another Fine Mess
March Hare had known straight away that he needed an Airsquiddle - it was every bit as curious and prone to get into things as he was! However, those traits were proving just as much a pain as a delight.

He'd taken his Airsquiddle to a class, and the toy was getting its tentacles into potion ingredients stored in the cabinet overhead. And so all sorts of odd things, from frog legs tocrow feathers, were falling down onto March Hare's head.

He was doing his best to be a proper and patient gentleman about it, which usually came naturally to him - despite the Madness. But when a chillingly cold liquid was poured over him, he'd had enough.

"What an absolutely manxome thing!" he shouted up at the Airsquiddle, teeth chattering as he did so. "Of all the wastes of money...! Maybe I should just let Nottingham have at you!"

The tuxedo cat sitting at March Hare's feet looked up with wide and eager eyes.

[couldabeenturbo]

Dewey looked up from his own station and pulled out one of the towels he'd learned to keep on hand.

"Here, dude. If you need a good temporary petrification glyph to keep it still, I might have one."

CHRONOS, hovering nearby, began to tick just a little louder at the suggestion that Dewey actually had any glyphs in his notes worth casting.

"C'mon, man, don't start."

Phalanx | OC

[pileofspirits]

→ Another fine mess

Faculty and students alike have their doubts about letting Phalanx get into anything even remotely volatile even on a good day--whether that be professors conveniently selecting other students for class demonstrations or students quickly finding partners before their ghostly classmate could choose them first--so, why anyone would have given them an Airsquiddlie of all things is almost beyond comprehension.

The normally unfocused and unpredictable being is now quite focused, but not on anything that would benefit anyone who happened to be around. Wandering down the avenue and eventually into nearby buildings, Phalanx's attention is focused solely upward on the maniacal squid gliding overhead, holding onto the string and grinning like a child as the thing gets its tentacles into anything even remotely interesting.

For anyone who might have seen Phalanx around before, the change in the creature's normally rather blank expression might be a nice (if mildly alarming) change. For everyone else, there is what looks like an eerily pale and bedraggled young man with layers of rags tied around and nearly covering up black-and-red student's robes, gleefully allowing the toy squid to attach to the faces of anyone within reach.

[couldabeenturbo]

Dewey had seen the new kid at the back of a couple of his classes, but not really paid him too much mind since he'd kept to himself. He had enough trouble keeping his own head above water with some of the coursework, and would rather die than admit to Huey that he needed help.

But seeing the new kid outside of class was another matter entirely, and he was bound and determined to befriend, especially since he looked like a kind of species he'd never met before. That was the best thing about Anastara, he'd decided: all the different kinds of people and creatures and ... stuff.

Even the thing that glomped onto his face before he could open his beak to say hi. The tentacles covered one eye, so he blinked out at Phalanx with the one that was unobstructed, and simply waved, undeterred.

He'd had weirder things stuck to his face, but not by much.

[healingincantation]

When Rapunzel comes across Phalanx, the Airsquiddly has - indeed - attached itself to a face. Just... Not a living one. No, the toy is pressed up against the face of a clock, and when Rapunzel sees this, she can't help laughing.

"I've been seeing these around lately," she comments, off-handedly. "They're pretty cute, huh?"

Owen Evers (OC)

[unluckyname]

Air Apparent

Telling a man of Owen's lineage not to go commando is like telling a bee not to go after clover. It does you no good. As such, the imp has pranked him at least three times, and it isn't even lunchtime yet.

The problem is, he doesn't seem to care. But at least the pancakes he's cooking at his lab station smell delicious?

[darkenedmoon]

How has the air imp decided to beleaguer Yotsuyu? By messing up her usually perfectly-coiffed hair into a snarled, tangled rat's nest, before she can Modify herself immune to its pranks. Or her hair, at least.

She gives an uncertain look to the pancakes, but manages to chuckle to herself anyways. "Honestly, if my arse looked half as nice as yours, I imagine I'd ignore the Headmaster's edict, as well. I can't think she'd complain if she got a good look, either."

[talkyourwayout]

Ooh, free pancakes? Hey, if it's something free, count Louie in. Besides, the imp is stressing him out - though of course he's far too lazy to join the hunt. The point is, he could use a relaxing bite, so he heads over to Owen's station.

"Hey there. Pancakes, huh?"

J.C. Delgado (OC)

[pureandtrue]

Another Fine Mess

Someone's Airsquiddle has gone up a tree, the string hopelessly tangled in the branches. Maybe it was yours. Maybe someone else just left theirs to hang there. But even if J.C. is new to magic, he is not new to Things In Trees. He's already a few branches up, artfully making his way to the toy, slow and steady. He glances down and waves.

"Some things are the same no matter where you go, huh? Stuff on strings just gravitate to big, rambly trees."


Labwork

He was trying to levitate and rearrange some objects on a shelf. It was supposed to be pretty beginner, or at least so he thought. Instead he'd ended up making a hole in the wall and one side of the shelf came unattached, dumping its contents on the floor. Things were mixing that shouldn't mix, and a hole was starting to bubble in the floor, as well.

He tried to inform the professor he could fix it, but she had folded her arms and said no tools or boards were allowed. No grout. No tile. None of his usual handyman skills. Magic, only.

The hole in the floor was getting wider as he fretted.

"But what if I make it worse??"

labwork

[blue_ice]

"Well it wouldn't be the first time that happened," Kaiba sighed, folding his arms. He really, really hated this school and its dubious teaching methods.

"If it makes you feel any better, we'll survive. No matter what horrific dangers get summoned to this school, somehow no one's died."

Another Fine Mess

[talkyourwayout]

Louie had been surprised when the man just went right after his Airsquiddle, but hey, he wasn't complaining. He was actually planning to hold onto the thing as a birthday gift for Webby, so having it stuck up in a tree wouldn't do at all. It already promised to be a nightmare to wrap.

But J.C.'s words make him laugh a bit, and he nods. "Yeah, just like a balloon or a kite. Uh... Thanks, though."