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Post by Prof. Michael Freeman on Jul 17, 2010 22:38:38 GMT -5
The blinds were closed over the windows today, darkening the room to a gentle shade - light enough to read notes, dark enough to make what was about to happen much more visible. On the board was written a single arcane character, a very simple light spell.
Professor Freeman moved an object on his desk, casually aligning it with the others just like it. Each of them were small amulets, made of silver, and encased in an antistatic bag. To eyes that could see, half of them (or so) were leaking magic, although isolated from the rest of the room by the silvery plastic. The other half weren't so much leaking as they were spewing magic - just touching one without protection would give a bit of a shock.
This was going to be an interesting lesson. He'd lectured on theory until at least some of the students were threatening to fall asleep, but now it was time to see who could put that theory into practice.
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Post by Susan Daunt on Jul 18, 2010 0:18:33 GMT -5
First in! That was Susan's main thought as she entered the classroom, swiftly replaced with a sense of fasinated wonder at the, aparently, magical materials on display. Oooooh. This was going to be fun. Or painful. or both.
Heeeeee. Didn't really matter which. "Good morning, Mr. Freeman," she chimed, slipping in behind a desk, "Are those magical items, or just pretty?"
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Post by Prof. Michael Freeman on Jul 18, 2010 0:54:41 GMT -5
"Good morning, miss Daunt," Professor Freeman said. "These are, in fact, magical. They are sources - for those of you who don't have mage-gifts, they will provide enough power for what we're going to cover in this class."
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Post by Beau Boudreaux on Jul 18, 2010 1:56:01 GMT -5
Beau walked into class, only the second student to arrive. He noticed a number of shiny objects on the desks and immediately went to pick one up for a closer look. As he reached, he looked at the professor and asked, "What dese do?"
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Post by Shihab on Jul 18, 2010 9:34:35 GMT -5
Shihab had missed his alarm and misplaced his watch that morning, and was certain he was late as he came sprinting down the hallway. As he neared the classroom, he heard quiet voices speaking quietly, rather than the intonation of a lecture, and breathed a sigh of relief. He walked nonchalantly into the class, trying to look as though his hair was meant to be in disarray, and what? No, he was always breathing a little heavily this time of day. It was done a'purpose, really!
He stepped into the room just as Beau picked up an amulet that was all but throbbing on Shihab's radar, and he raised an eyebrow, wondering if he'd have time to cover his face before the explosion.
"Er, good morning."
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Post by Less Than Beta East Tundra on Jul 18, 2010 10:40:11 GMT -5
Less bounded into the classroom, nearly running into Shihab, and promptly took his usual seat. After a perfunctory check around the classroom, he peered over at the amulets. "What are those?" he asked as he arranged his rabbit-skin bracelet so it sat more comfortably on his wrist. "Artificial focus stones?" As usual, he began removing material components from his bag and putting them together into spell patterns. Though they had never been used in the previous classes, it was good practice for when he went home at the end of the year.
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Post by Prof. Michael Freeman on Jul 18, 2010 11:10:13 GMT -5
Professor Freeman raised an eyebrow at Beau's forwardness.
"They're cursed, actually. I was going to discuss the theories of curses and curse-breaking, but it looks like instead, we're going to have an object lesson on why you always ask before grabbing things off the teacher's desk."
He paused for a moment to let his point sink in before smiling.
"They're sources - similar to focus stones, they store and provide small amounts of magical energy. As this is a practical class, they provide a way for non-mages to gain hands-on experience with magic."
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Post by Susan Daunt on Jul 18, 2010 11:14:07 GMT -5
Susan offered Shihab a smile as she considered whether or her family's bloodline counted as a good power source. Probably not and at worst, a little extra power couldn't hurt whatever basic trick these devices were for, right? Right.
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Post by Herbert "Herbie" Skik on Jul 18, 2010 13:01:44 GMT -5
"Ooooh, shineys." Herbie looked at the little objects. "Is dey cursed joolry? I've nevah seen dose before. Ah we gonna have a practice class?" He hoisted his backpack a little higher on his shoulder. If it was, this was going to be the best class of all time! He'd kept his hoodoo stick in his bag all this time, but maybe...
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Post by Verin Vetis Malphus on Jul 18, 2010 13:56:48 GMT -5
"Uh..." Verin walked into the class clutching his head. "This room is giving me a headache. Your artifacts are leaking, or are they meant to be doing that? Are they for the class? Let someone touch them. It could be amusing." He wanted to test the effects on mortals of exposure to raw magic. He hoped they exploded. Things usually exploded when it involved Verin and magic. Come to think of it, that was usually his fault.
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Post by Beau Boudreaux on Jul 18, 2010 15:41:37 GMT -5
Beau snapped both his hands behind his back. "Beau sorree. Not wanna get curse, jus' curious dat all." Beau cocked his head to the side as he looked at the objects. "Sooo...dese let Beau do dings he not already can do wit' da juju?" As he waited for the teacher's answer, he noticed that demon boy...what was his name...Verin maybe...walk in. Now there was someone he wanted to fight. Beau was certain he would win, but found that demon to be a little too sure of himself. Where did he get away being that mean to everyone?
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Post by Shihab on Jul 18, 2010 22:32:19 GMT -5
Shihab shook his head and walked into the room, taking a seat by the window. At Verin's comment, he looked over, and decided to forego good humor and tact for honesty.
"You're an idiot," he said bluntly. "No, I'm sure the professor of the Magic class has no idea the amulets are leaking magic, and while you seem sure all us poor mortals are made of china and will shatter at the lightest drop of your real power, Beau just grabbed one, and he seems to be just fine. So you can go ahead and shut up, because we're all sick of you detracting from the class we've been trying to learn in. If you know it all already, why are you here?"
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Post by Prof. Michael Freeman on Jul 18, 2010 23:43:52 GMT -5
Yet another class well on its way to chaos before it even began. Wonderful. Regardless, it was time to begin, and hopefully, those with ego issues would be out the door soon so Professor Freeman could actually teach the ones who wanted to learn.
"This week, there is a single assignment." Professor Freeman gestured towards the sigil on the board. "Cast this spell. For those of you without magical power, these amulets will give you enough."
Professor Freeman carefully separated the amulets, moving the stronger ones back and away.
"The spell is a simple light spell," Professor Freeman said. "Technically an illusion, as it produces light directly, and also one of the simplest and most useful spells for a mage to know. Once you've cast it, you're free to go until next week."
((As this is, obviously, the first time many people have used magic, this may be anywhere from relatively easy to practically impossible. Your choice for your character.))
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Post by Shihab on Jul 18, 2010 23:53:23 GMT -5
Shihab was glad he wouldn't need an amulet; playing with power not his own didn't appeal to him, much. He relaxed, closing his eyes, and began steadying his breaths, trying to clear his emotions before he tried any kind of spell. This was fairly easy for him, and he soon moved on to trying to block out other sounds and senses, which also came quickly-- the desert had been great training for that, he'd been good at ignoring sand, heat, and distant noises. With great care, he began shaping the power inside him, drawing it carefully into a thread, and concentrating on the sigil.
After a few breaths, the shape of the sigil was complete-- entirely inside his own core, but complete, nonetheless. He began to thread power into it, and soon, he had the power spell all put together-- and was glowing, a soft, reddish light, much like a candleflame. Eyes closed, concentrating, he was only certain of the glow in his own power, and unaware he'd completed an assignment of any kind.
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Post by Less Than Beta East Tundra on Jul 19, 2010 0:02:21 GMT -5
Less Than Beta approached the desk and took one of the closer amulets. He made sure to remove it from the bag before putting it on, mostly because he wasn't sure whether the bag would interfere with the spell. Magic was rather finicky like that, unfortunately. He carefully stepped around the desk to get a closer look at the sigil, then went to touch it. It took a bit longer than he would have liked to figure out how to get the magic out of the amulet, but when he did it took just a moment to transfer it to the sigil through his hand.
It wasn't a perfect glow by any means, but he was able to get the sigil to throw off some light at least.
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Post by Beau Boudreaux on Jul 19, 2010 0:12:41 GMT -5
Beau, never have done this before, was not sure if he needed the amulet or not. Regardless he ran up with his typical enthusiasm, grabbed an amulet and ran back to his desk. He returned to his desk and quickly drew the sigil from the board onto a sheet of paper. However, in his haste, he accidentally drew one section of the sigil incorrectly. He placed his hand on the paper and began to focus his juju on what he thought was the light conjuring spell. A ball of light began to appear, but instead of stabilizing, it shot off towards the wall. The ball of light ricocheted from the walls, ceiling, and floor before finally exploding against the back wall. Beau continued to stare at the back wall, jaw dropped, and slowly turned around to look at the teacher.
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Post by Shihab on Jul 19, 2010 0:19:23 GMT -5
The noise startled Shihab out of his trance, and he whirled towards the source of the sound, but without first dispelling the glow. He began to laugh aloud, leaning on his desk. Glancing at Beau, he shook his head.
"You should figure out how to do that in color! We could get some pretty awesome fireworks going with something like that, man!"
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Post by Susan Daunt on Jul 19, 2010 0:26:23 GMT -5
Susan gave Shihab, Less, and Beau big smiles for their successes. Okay. This couldn't be that hard. She had taken good notes. Soul. Power. Gestures. She was a Daunt, and the day she let mystic forces push her around, she'd have failed eight generations of ancestors.
The blonde-haired scion aquired an amulet and returned to her seat, carefully unwrapping the device and feeling the tingle of power running through her fingers as she set it it down in front of her. She held her hands above the device, took a deep breath and focused on the symbol on the chalkboard.
Will met power. Power flowed into form. Form began to birth into fitful, flickering light. A smile tipped into existence on Susan's lips...
And then the flow of power from the amulet was rudely augmented by a pulse from the well of power flowing through Susan's veins that normally powered her strength and stamina, blasting through the mental channels of the spell and turning the forming nightlight into short-lived road flare six inches from her face. She fell backwards out of her chair and onto the floor with cry of alarm and a thud, the rupturing magic crackling out of existence with her shattered focus.
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Post by Beau Boudreaux on Jul 19, 2010 0:30:13 GMT -5
Beau turned to Shihab, his smile returning. "Maybee we do dat a' da bonfire?" He laughed at the thought of making fireworks on his own. "Ok, Beau do dis righ' dis time." But his second attempt was stopped short as Susan fell backward in her chair. He immediately ran over and bent over her. "Cher! Cher! Yoo aigh'?"
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Post by Prof. Michael Freeman on Jul 19, 2010 0:35:09 GMT -5
"Control, mister Boudreaux," Professor Freeman said. Noting the mis-drawn sigil, he continued. "And attention to detail. You might want to consider using slightly less power, too."
Deciding it was well past time for an example, he continued.
"For those of you who have already gotten it to work, congratulations. Your assignment for the rest of the week is to keep practicing - you should be able to get to the point where you can cast it from memory, without drawn aids."
With a flick of the wrist, Professor Freeman cast the spell. A small sphere of blue-white light snapped into existence eight inches above his hand.
"As it's an illusion, you can decide where it goes and even what it's shaped like. For instance..."
With another casual gesture. Professor Freeman sent the light flying towards the back of the room, expanding and changing to a reddish glow as it went.
"Miss Daunt?" He asked, right after Susan's spell exploded. "Are you all right?"
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Post by Susan Daunt on Jul 19, 2010 0:42:36 GMT -5
Susan merely sat there, trying to blink the spots out of her eyes and faintly staggered from the discharge of energies. The first didn't help at all and the second cleared up enough for her to mumble, "I'm okay... I'm okay... Just..."
She shook her head, not wanting to stand up just yet, "...What I do wrong, Mr. Freeman?"
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Post by Beau Boudreaux on Jul 19, 2010 0:51:22 GMT -5
Beau grabbed Susan under the armpits and lifted her up, putting his hands on her shoulders to steady her. He grabbed a chair and set it under Susan. "Dere yoo go cher." He returned to his desk and looked at Freeman, "'ttention? Wha' Beau not do righ'?"
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Post by Less Than Beta East Tundra on Jul 19, 2010 0:54:57 GMT -5
Less snuck back over to his desk with the amulet still around his neck and pulled two strips of rawhide out of his bag. He spat on one and wrapped it around a leg of his desk, then did the same with other save for that he put it on a different leg. With a careful glance around the classroom to make sure everyone was distracted by Susan and Beau's respective light shows, he sent some power into the strips. A shimmering ward appeared between the two strips of rawhide. Less grinned when he stuck a hand in the ward and felt the spell tremor in response.
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Post by Shihab on Jul 19, 2010 0:59:05 GMT -5
Shihab visibly winced at the mention of the bonfire, and pretended he hadn't heard; trying to look inconspicuous is difficult when you're literally glowing. Jumping up when Susan fell, he looked at her, concerned, but sat back down as Beau came to the rescue, and she seemed to be fine.
He was impressed by Professor Freeman's display, still unaware his attempt had worked. "Oh, very cool! You make it look easy," he said with a rueful smile.
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Post by Susan Daunt on Jul 19, 2010 1:02:40 GMT -5
Susan thanked Beau before he left by squeezing his hand in a slightly bone-crushing grip, recovering her mental equilibrium if not her full sight yet. The Daunt scion tipped her head at Proffesor Freeman's direction, clearly awaiting and welcome to constructive insight.
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Post by Prof. Michael Freeman on Jul 19, 2010 1:14:10 GMT -5
"I think you may have done something right, Miss Daunt," Professor Freeman said. "You tapped a source of power significantly greater than my amulet... and, admittedly, let it get away from you. Next time, only let the spell have a little bit of power."
"And mister Boudreaux..." Professor Freeman walked over and circled the mis-drawn area. "Look here, closely. I'll look over the next one you draw before you cast it."
"Shihab... You seem to be glowing. It's an interesting object lesson in what happens when you don't specify what you want. The next thing for you to work on is control."
With another gesture, Professor Freeman called his magelight back to his hand, and shrunk it down to a pinprick of brilliance and glare.
"For example, it's much more useful when someone is shooting at you for all of you to not be conveniently illuminated."
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Post by Beau Boudreaux on Jul 19, 2010 1:40:28 GMT -5
Beau got a new sheet of paper and re-drew his circle, this time making sure he had it right. "Dis right?" He asked as he showed Freeman.
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Post by Prof. Michael Freeman on Jul 19, 2010 1:44:34 GMT -5
"That looks correct," Professor Freeman said, quietly casting a shield turned inside-out around Beau. "Give it a shot."
Hopefully, the shield would absorb anything that got loose inside. Reflection was also an option, albeit somewhat less likely.
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Post by Shihab on Jul 19, 2010 2:38:44 GMT -5
Shihab looked down at his hand, and jumped as he realized it was glowing. "Hah! It worked!" He laughed gleefully, twisting about to get a look at himself, greatly enjoying the effect, before with an effort of will-- significantly less than it took to set the spell up, he noted wryly-- dispelled the light and sank back into concentration again. This time, he ran into a mental block, trying to set up the sigil without touching his own core-- and stopped after the third try, the tension building in his temples.
"Professor?" he asked, frowning. "How do I get the... it's in me, the magic-- how do I pull it out? The theory we've learned makes sense for calling power up, but I don't understand how to take your own core and make it into something... outside. I keep trying to will it into a shape, but it just falls back into the core."
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Post by Verin Vetis Malphus on Jul 19, 2010 11:41:04 GMT -5
The sigil didn't help Verin much. To him, magic was a much more instinctive thing. Well, illusion magic wasn't his specialty but it was just a sphere of light. It could be done.
Verin took a little bit of the energy from the air, focusing it in his hand. He clenched his fist, and when he opened it again there was a small sphere of dim light. "There. I'd make it brighter, but there's enough light in here already."
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