fandomhigh | Intro to Magic, 5th Period (Week 5: 10/04/06)

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intro to magic

Intro to Magic, 5th Period (Week 5: 10/04/06)

"Here's the simple definition: What goes around, well, it comes around. I've got a handout on the material, but up on the board, there's a short bit ~~copy/pasted from the handout link~~ about karma that you guys oughta read. The handout's way Eastern philosophy, if you're into it."

On the board -
Karma is a sum of all that an individual has done, is currently doing and will do. Individuals go through certain processes and accompanying experiences throughout their lives which they have chosen, and those would be based on the results of their own creations: "karma." Karma is not about retribution, vengeance, punishment or reward. Karma simply deals with what is. The effects of all deeds actively create past, present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain and joy brought to others. In religions that incorporate reincarnation, karma extends through one's present life and all past and future lives as well.

"So, think about it. Cast a naughty spell or a curse? You may get karma slamming you for it. Heck, sometimes you get karma slammed back at you for things you didn't do, if you believe that whole 'sins of the parents will be visited on the children' thing. Which? Yeah, been there and done that, with a whole heaping pile of badness.

What I want you guys to do is group up and chat about karma. Or if you think karma doesn't or shouldn't exist? Talk about it. Some people do think 'do what you wanna and screw everyone else,' after all. But what I'd like you to do also is to talk about what kind of bad thing you'd curse your worst enemy with. Then come up with the karmic repercussions that fate could visit on you, write the whole thing up, and turn it in. Color me curious."

OOC: You do NOT have to write this up and turn this in. It's just something to give your character a focus for interaction. OTOH, if you'd like to, I'd have fun reading it.

I do not have gmail access during the day, so it's best to ping me in the OOC thread for this course if you need anything.

Course Syllabus & Roster

~~Wait for the OCD threads, please.~~ Ready to go!

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...

Lana Lang

Jude Lizowksi

Alphonse Elric

Ranma Saotome

Kinomoto Sakura

Edward Elric

Eric Weiss.

Agnes Nitt

...

Lana thought a lot about karma and found herself musing about what she could have possibly done to have deserved some of the stuff that had happened in her life. Then again... her thoughts drifted to Jim and from there she got rather daydreamy.

Jude snickered behind his hand for a while before elbowing Lana and informing her in a stage whisper, "You're startin' to drool, bra."

Lana looked up, startled, then blushed.

Jude chuckled. Mellowly. And kindly. He wasn't a mean guy.

Lana smiled at him a little shyly and mouthed "thank you."

"Welcome", he mouthed back, grinning. He folded his hands under his chest and pretended that he was dreaming in a lovelorn fashion, complete with fluttering eyelashes and a heartfelt sigh.

Lana threw a wadded up piece of paper at him. "Bad karma!" she mouthed.

Jude ducked and laughed when the ball of paper didn't quite bounce off his head, sticking to the fuzzies of his toque. He rolled his eyes upwards, looking at his new head decoration.

Lana giggled at his new decoration.

Jude sighed. "Karma," he mouthed, not going to remove it.

Most of the information on the handout managed to go right over his head, but at least Alphonse managed to get the general gist of it. Karma either made your world shiny or beat you over the head repeaditly depending on if you did good things or bad. Right. It sounded a little farfetched to him that some sort of force that did that existed.

That didn't keep him from thinking about hypothetical possibilities of Ms. Calendar's discussion questions, however. Alphonse tapped on his desk with his fingers with one hand and leaned his head on the other, staring thoughtfully at the board. Curse his worst enemy? He didn't have anyone he knew that came close to being considered an enemy, nor could he think of anyone he'd want to curse, or even do much of anything harmful to.

A slight frown formed on Alphonse's face as he averted his eyes back down to his paper.

And of course, Sakura gravitated toward Alphonse upon noting they were to discuss karma in groups; after all, she may as well stalk the Elrics.

She took it upon herself to flop into a chair beside him, backwards, leaning on the back of the chair. "Deep in thought, are we?"

"Sounds kind of strange to me," Alphonse said. He lifted up both his head and his eyes toward Sakura. "Everyone gets hit with both good and bad things, regardless of what they do." He paused, suddenly looking sheepish. "... Err, yeah, I guess you could say I am," he finally answered.

Sakura smiled. "I believe in karma to an extent," She said with a vague shrug. "...but there's only so much of what happens to a person that can be explained by what they've done."

"I don't believe things can be measured by what you do," Alphonse concluded. "At least, according to some... whatever karma's supposed to be. That's a system I don't think would work out."

Sakura shrugs again. "I just go with the flow."

"And I'm just being over-analytical." Alphonse shook his head and slumped it back down into his hand. "I agree with doing that. It sounds like a silly thing to worry about."

Sakura pat him on the shoulder. "You're thinking too hard," she chided lightly, and squeezed his shoulder.

"Well, we are in a class," he pointed out, smiling, then rewound in his thoughts. "... What about you? You wouldn't, er, curse anyone, would you?"

Sakura stared blankly at him for a moment before breaking out in fits of giggles. "Curse someone?" She asked incredulously between giggles. "Me?" She bapped him lightly. "You're kidding, right?"

"I- I don't know that," Alphonse answered, looking flustered. "... Or maybe I do, 'cause I couldn't see you doing that, either. But, well... people 'round here have done all sorts of crazy things."

Sakura smiled, and pat Alphonse on the shoulder. "I'm not cursing anyone," she said.

"I know, I know," Alphonse said quickly. The edge of his mouth quirked into a slight grin. "Or at least hope you don't plan to. I have no idea what your cards are capable of."

Sakura thumbed her chin in thought. "Well then sometime I'll have to show you," she said, grinning. "...Most of them are real tame; I'll have to leave a few to your imagination."

"You've shown me the Dash card," Alphonse reminded her. "That's about it. I dunno what the others do."

Sakura smiled, steepling her fingers. "There's element cards; Windy, Firey, Watery and Earthy..." She digs into her bag, extracting the cards and setting the ones in question out like Tarot and tapping to them. "Then there's more ... specific-use cards. Illusion, Create, Change..." She sets another few cards out. She frowns at Change for a good long moment, then moves on. "The cards I use most..." She taps Windy. "Windy, Fly, and Jump." She adds Fly and Jump to the cards on the desk. Soon, there will be no room left.

Card Seminar, whee!

Alphonse looked down at the cards with heavy interest; aside from the Dash, he vaguely remembered seeing only one other card (something to do with rain? It was hard to say, as the moment only lasted a few seconds), and something like this seemed, well... fairly amazing. It was very different from the other magical types he'd seen. If the name of the cards were as to-the-point as the Dash was-- which he remembered as being a speed amplifier-- then these cards? Were just... yes, 'amazing' was the only word he could think of to describe it. It truly was, to him, and it was rather ironic, coming from someone who had grown to really dislike magic in general.

But as far as Alphonse was concerned, Sakura didn't screw up.

Hoping she didn't mind, Alphonse turned some of the cards to face him and studied them closely. "Wow, you're lucky," he finally said, almost as a murmur. "These can do almost everything, can't they?"

Ranma deffinately recieved punishment his father deserved. This stupid curse for example. Ugh. Being a female is the worst thing ever... That's all he can think about at the moment.

Edward actually paid attention to this class, slightly curious. He glanced over the handout and one line in particular caught his eye and he nodded. "You reap what you sow," he muttered. "Sounds like equivalent trade to me."

Sakura rolled up her own handout and whapped Edward upside the head with it. "Alchemy and Magic are two completely different things," she scolded, and leaned forward to speak at his ear. "People don't normally blow up common rooms with magic."

"Well, not yet at any rate," Edward said with a shrug. "It's possible, thou,' just 'cause it hasn't happened yet...." He blinked for a second. "And don't hit me with that thing! "

Sakura made a face. "I think I'm afraid of you being in this class, because chances are, if someone does blow a common room up with magic in this school, it'll be you." She rested her elbow on his shoulder, shrugging. "Boys."

Weiss didn't put much stock in karma. Stuff happened. He doubted the universe had a way of judging its inherent morality.

...

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Intro to Magic, 5th Period (Week 5: 10/04/06)

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Pass Notes, Freak Out, Maybe Do Class Stuff

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After Class

OOC