Magic for mages, week one! (Student group B)

[Prof. Michael Freeman]

Prof. Freeman was well prepared for class. He was early, he had "Magic for Mages" written on the chalkboard (yes, chalk and not dry-erase), he had a plan -kind of-... He had "Magic for Mages" written on the chalkboard...

Maybe he wasn't as prepared as he had wished. Fortunately, he had tremendous experience in the arcane technique of "winging it". Now it was just a question of waiting for students.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Though he didn't have any magic at the moment, Less was certain he would someday. It was for this reason that he was attending the Magic for Mages class without actually being a mage. He had helpfully brought a few materials for wild magic spells. These materials mostly consisted of sticks of different lengths, a few focus stones, some catgut, and a frame for making disks out of ice.

As he sat down at a desk in the first row, Less Than Beta neatly arranged these materials and his notebook in front of him. "What is our lesson plan, Professor?" he asked.

[Shihab]

Shihab wandered in, his backpack slung over his shoulder in his usual nonchalant manner, his gait as confident as usual, and a look of interest, if not -quite- eagerness, on his face. He paused, just inside the door, to regard the classroom with a look of frank appraisal, which took a hit of disappointment for a moment.

"Aw. I was expecting something more arcane," he said, grinning a bit. "No stalactites, or braziers, or anything?"

[Prof. Michael Freeman]

"Stalactites, braziers..." Prof. Freeman mused. "All very useful for establishing an atmosphere of magic, but are they really necessary, do you think? We're here to talk about elementary theory, not great workings of the sort where such details become significant."

Noting Less's materials and question, he continued. "For the most part, this is going to be a very theory-heavy course. There will be a few practical lessons, and there is a lunar eclipse in a few months that I intend to take advantage of. I take it you have some magical experience?"

[Shihab]

Shihab frowned a moment, then nodded cheerfully. "Fair enough. And you're not long-bearded, insane, and wearing glittering robes. This is already looking promising."

He walked all the way into the room, and took a seat in the second row, nearest the window. Leaning back in his chair, he pulled out his notebook and pen, and dropped the backpack next to his desk, briefly glancing down to make sure it wasn't in a place that would hinder him from getting up (or between him and the window). He frowned briefly again at the professor's question, waiting for Less to answer.

[Susan Daunt]

Susan Daunt stepped into the classroom with ten watt smile and a happy hum on her lips, blue eyes dancing as she took in the chalkboard, her classmates, and last but not least, the teacher. He looked just like..!

The smile upgraded itself to fifteen watts and stayed there as she sat down next to Shihab with a cheerful wave, took out a binder and pencil from her backpack, and waited to be asked to introduce herself.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

"My pack uses wild magic, yes," Less answered. "I'm still low rank, so no one will be giving me magic of my own any time soon, unfortunately. I know the motions by heart, though." He began grouping the materials into sets for individual spells. The frame was set by itself on a corner of the desk, the largest focus stone and a strip of rawhide went on the opposite corner, and a stick and a small focus stone went on another. With the remaining two strips of rawhide, he began binding some of the sticks into a pattern.

[Prof. Michael Freeman]

"Interesting," Prof. Freeman said, watching the growing assembly take shape. "I'm not entirely familiar with wild magic, but hopefully this class will still be applicable."

"While we have a few minutes before class officially starts," Prof. Freeman said after checking his pocketwatch, "I'd like to start with introductions; the name you'd like to be called by, and your experience with magic."

[Shihab]

Shihab glanced around the class, and, seeing no takers, raised a hand in general greeting.

"I'm Shihab," he said, with an easy smile. "You can call me Shihab, or 'Lord Of All He Surveys,' whichever you prefer. My experience with magic's been mostly experimental, and almost entirely limited to shape-changing." He paused for a second, and added, in the same carefree tone, "I'm very interested in branching out, and specifically as concerns commu-- control of the elements."

[Prof. Michael Freeman]

Prof. Freeman raised an eyebrow at the 'Lord Of All He Surveys' line. This one was definitely going to be one to watch.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less raised his hand. "I am Less Than Beta of the East Tundra pack. A lot of people call me Less. I know the motions of the magic my pack uses, I can find focus-stones, I can smell magic when in wolf form -the latter is very useful for keeping track of spells-, and I have been researching theory."

[Susan Daunt]

"Susan Daunt," she followed up warmly, "I've had a lot of magic done at me, my family has to deal with a lot of magic and magic users, and I'd like to understand what my oldest sister and my uncle talk about at family dinners after collapsing another warp rift on patrol."

[Prof. Michael Freeman]

"I am Professor Freeman." Prof. Freeman said. "I have been working with magic since the Third Dynasty, and am responsible for at least some of the theories on which modern magic has been constructed."

"Miss Daunt, this class may not cover exactly what you want to learn. It is aimed at learning magic rather than learning about magic, and thus will be moving more slowly than my other class. On the other hand, if you find yourself dealing with the supernatural on a regular basis, you might want to consider remaining here."

[Aurora Lumina Robinson]

Jul 10, 2010 23:52:09 GMT -5 Prof. Michael Freeman said:

"For the most part, this is going to be a very theory-heavy course. There will be a few practical lessons, and there is a lunar eclipse in a few months that I intend to take advantage of. "

Aurora groaned audibly. All the classes that had neat titles in this school were boring. She'd thought that this semester would be different from the last one, what with classes with Ms. Callaghan and Astin not having worked out. But it seemed like it would just be more talking.

"I'm Aurora," the twelve year old with the wild waist-long red hair, silver dress and silver limbs pouted, slumping in her chair to exaggerate her disappointment.

She lit up a bit when she saw Verin and waved with a slight smile before remembering that she was trying to be pouty and went back to business.

[Herbert "Herbie" Skik]

Herbie practically strutted into the class, and stopped dead when he saw professor Freeman.

"I ken see dis is gon' be de most awesum class all year." He quickly picked one of the seats in the front row. "I's Herbie" - still pronounced Hurr-bay - "an' I do some hoodoo magic. It's sweet stuff." He wriggled his toes a bit, slightly annoyed by them. He wasn't wearing any shoes. "I ken even give meself legs, 'cus a tail's kinda hard to stuck unda de tables an' onna chair in 'ere."

[Verin Vetis Malphus]

((deleted and reinstated, originally before Aurora's post))

Verin walked into the classroom and picked a seat completely at random. Lucky for those around him, he was not sitting next to anyone. "Humans doing magic. Should be amusing, at least."

[Susan Daunt]

Susan's optimism remained undimmed, and she nodded understanding while scratching a note in a corner of her first page of notes, 'Mage-Knight Training? Mage-Knight Training!'. Could definitely be useful. And fun.

The crack about 'Humans learning magic' was filed under things to be careful about, Verin certainly *looking* evil, but then again so did a lot of the more extreme fashions she's seen.

[Prof. Michael Freeman]

"Your name, please?" Professor Freeman said, addressing Verin. He wasn't terribly happy about the 'amusing' line, and was already making a note to keep a closer eye on the half-demon than most of his other students. Especially if he already had some magical training, this would be one to keep an eye on.

[Verin Vetis Malphus]

"I'm Verin. House Malphus, not that that means much here. Or there, nowadays..." Verin looked lost in thought for a second. "I do whatever magic catches my eye. Mostly elemental, a bit of demonology. It's harder here than it is at home. Back there I could rain fire from the sky or start a storm on a whim. Now I have to content myself with pitiful little cinders."

[Shihab]

Shihab had rolled his eyes a bit at Aurora's groan-- he was all for learning quickly and without boring details, but did anyone actually expect magic to be easy? ...Aside from the demon-boy, apparently, who he glanced at, marking him as a future pranking target. Those wings were probably pretty sensitive, and with all the chains he wore... hmm. Especially since he was clearly disdainful of human abilities, and Shihab, looking very much like a human (superficially, at least), would probably be overlooked. He was hard-pressed to keep from grinning with glee, and contented himself with staring out the window, waiting for the lesson to start.

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

Less continued to work on his stick-and-rawhide contraption, and began to add some catgut as well in order to weave a pattern in the gap made by the sticks. It had taken his pack a very long time to design this wind-direction spell, and he wanted to make sure he got it right for if the teacher decided to use it.

[Prof. Michael Freeman]

A Malthus, and apparently one who associated more with his demonic kin than his human family. Great.

Prof. Freeman checked his watch again.

"Very well, then," he said, "let's get started. As I mentioned before, this course is going to be theory heavy, mostly relying on the canon of northwest European sorcery. There will be practical sections as well, so for those of you without mage-gifts, I have prepared amulets that will provide you with enough power for this class. I suspect that I should also add that abuse of magic, either yours or mine, will end in your dismissal from this class at least."

"Now," he continued, switching from legal-disclaimer mode to professor mode, "who can tell me what magic is?"

((OOC: You are quite welcome to have your characters arrive before class started still. I'm just trying to keep the proverbial ball rolling. Also, conflicting answers to the question are quite appropriate - as Prof. Freeman is about to explain, about the only thing magic isn't is cohesive.))

[Shihab]

Shihab very, very briefly entertained the thought of a serious answer, something deep and relevant and appropriate to the subject of magic, which was clearly a thing like unto music-- you could study it all your life, even eternally, and end with more questions than answers.

...Then he came to his senses, or the lack thereof, depending on one's perspective.

"Isn't magic just the metaphysical glue that keeps vampires and demons all sparkly and cute?"

[Susan Daunt]

Susan's hand shot up. Oh this was an *easy* one. Every Daunt worth his or her name knew that one.

[Prof. Michael Freeman]

"Yes, miss Daunt?"

((You are also welcome to assume that Prof. Freeman will call on anyone who volunteers to answer a question. Yes, he's old-fashioned enough to prefer hand-raises to shouted answers, but I see no need to actually play through the whole process.))

[Less Than Beta East Tundra]

"Magic is the means by which power influences the world," Less recited. "When the Brown God was murdered by the Red God's children, his breath became power and his body became magic. When it fell to the Tundra, both the Red God's and the Blue Goddess' children -that is to say, humans and weres- were able to use his body to control his breath, but only a few of the Green God's children, animals, were able to get there before it disintegrated."

[Susan Daunt]

(Ah, but Susan is Rural and has had the same old-fashioned kind of tutors.)

"Magic is the ability to tell the universe what to do and make it stick. Even and especially if the universe tries to kill you immediately afterwards," recited Susan from an old, old family lecture about exactly who fell under their authority. Which meant everyone special really as the Daunts saw it.

[Beau Boudreaux]

Beau almost literally jumped into the classroom. "Hey yall! Sorree I late. Dis place jus' so big I dunno which way is north! What goin on?" He grabbed a seat in the third row, with his typical, broad grin spread across his face.

[Verin Vetis Malphus]

"Magic's what happens when you take the energy of the world and turn it into pain and explosions. Win-win. I can wither a field if I try. It's a pity the energy eventually returns to the land. Don't know how that happens, but I'd like to stop it. Full recoveries disgust me. "

[Herbert "Herbie" Skik]

"No no, magic not like dat, mon. Magic's de stuff a de wild pleeses, dat makes de weird thin's work even if ya think dey never can. Hoodoo is wat meeks de witches call de spirits and de hexxers summon de beasts an' de curses. It's a bit a love from de world to de weirdness."

Herbie obviopusly looked very pleased with his own explanation, if it made any sense to other people was not relevant at all.

"It also lets ya meek thin's look less weird and more regulah, 'cus sumtimes stuff needs hidin' real well."