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."

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.

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.

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.

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?

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??"