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Magical Theory and Practice, Friday, Period 3

Today's workshop was being held in a classroom. There was a hot Renaissance Faire goth standing at the front of the classroom when the students arrived, and when they sat down they would notice that each of them had a flower and a rock sitting on their desk. "Good afternoon," Yennefer said to her students. "I am Yennefer of Vengerberg, and this is..." She glanced at her notes, and then looked again. "Magical Theory and Practice. Bit of a joke in the class description, I see." Or was it? "Well, we might get to that. We'll see how it goes. For now, I will tell you that while I am new to instruction, I am a sorceress trained in the school of Aretuza, and have been an advisor to the king of Aedirn for thirty years." Yep, she was older than she looked.

"Being as we all come from different realities here, I expect we also come from different magical traditions, and that sticking too closely to what I was taught might be completely useless to you, but I believe that in broad strokes much of that information continues to be true, based on the fact that I have been able to do magic since I got here, so I will teach you starting from that foundation. First, I would like to know what I am working with. Everyone will please tell me their name, so I can check them off this list, and what their experience level is with magic, and a little of how they know it to work, and then we're going to do a little exercise. Any questions so far? No? Good."

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Magically!

Were you hoping for magic weed?

"I'll start. I have already told you my name and experience level, and where I come from magic comes from harnessing chaos, which is the life energy of the universe. Some living things have a lot of chaos and some things have a little, but all of them can be used for magic. A mage can use their own inborn chaos to power a spell, or they can use a substitute: someone else's chaos, or the energy of an animal or a plant. Now who'd like to go next?"

After everyone had introduced themselves, Yennefer said, "Now, my instructor just gave me the rock and the flower and told me to lift the rock without touching it, and then I had to figure it out from there on my own. I've already given you more information than that. A hint, if you will. If you think yourself capable, using whatever magical method you are familiar with, lift the rock without touching it. Even if you do not think yourself capable, try. You might surprise yourself.

Edited 2020-05-15 17:00 (UTC)

She's here, if slightly intimidating.

The 'correct' method for lifting the rock: use the flower's life energy to power the spell. The flower will wither and die, and the rock will levitate several inches off the desk. Or whatever other method works for your character's magic.

The 'incorrect' method: use your own inborn chaos without knowing what you're doing and like, wither your arm or something else Yennefer will then have to fix.

Edited (added the solution to the problem) 2020-05-15 17:22 (UTC)

Mae Borowski

Mae looked around, wondering if she'd made a mistake signing up for this class. (Yes, she'd maybe been hoping for magic weed.) Was she supposed to know something about magic? Wasn't that what classes were for?

Maybe this was a dream. Was she wearing pants? She tried to surreptitiously check.

. . . Yep, pants on. Probably not a dream.

Well, inborn chaos was promising. Mae had tons of that!

"I'm Mae Borowski," she said. "Um. I have . . . no experience? Is that okay? But I like chaos!"

She had a connection to an elder god living under her hometown that occasionally drove her crazy, but she didn't know about any of that just yet.

Mae looked at the rock. She looked at the flower. She looked at her neighbor's desk as though she could copy their answer.

She was pretty sure 'lifting' the rock by kicking the desk hard enough to make it bounce a little wouldn't count.

Julius Heartstriker Quetz

Anakin Skywalker

Uh. Not really? Not that Julius had picked out his courses at all. He was putting the blame on this squarely on Bob's shoulders, thanks.

Oh god oh god. Julius had no idea how he was going to get through today without letting anyone know who - or, more specifically what - he really was.

"I'm Julius," he said, skipping his last name because he was pretty sure he was going to stumble over the fake one right now. His eyes were pretty steady on his desk. "Uh. I've had magic training for years now. Not super-great at it."

Mostly because he never wanted to give his more magically-inclined siblings a reason to think of him as a threat. Or competition. Murder of siblings was forbidden, but opening a portal to another dimension and leaving him there for a few hours? Totally fine.

"Uh, different, umm, people access magic in different ways where I come from. It wells up from the earth and certain people can access it and shape it? I guess? To make them do what they want. Other people, like, uh, me. Have a reservoir of magic that we're just born with. We can do stuff to make it bigger and stronger, and it increases as we get older," he mumbled.

Magical creatures all had that in common.

"Uh, there are other - entities? Out there. That do magic differently, like spirits and stuff. But I don't really know all of that."

Juillenne Milone (and Camden)

Oh this! Okay, even Julius could do this. It was a pretty simple spell, one of the first things they were taught.

He lifted the rock - harder than it should have been since he hadn't practiced magic since his official training was over - and the flower both, setting them to move about in a circle in the air.

And then basically forgot about them, waiting to hear what to do next.

"I'm Juillenne Milone, and this," she tilted her head to indicate the mountain cat sprawled under her desk. "Is Camden. She's my familiar."

"Where I'm from, most- but not all- people are born with a single gift. For example, I am a naturalist- I can control plants and animals. This type of gift is innate to who you are and runs in families. Low magic can be practiced by anyone and is done with blood and runes. It is forbidden on Fennbirn."

Not that that actually stopped anyone, they just had to be sneaky about it.

Edited 2020-05-15 18:11 (UTC)

The cat. Was talking. Well, that was a new one on Yennefer, but you met all sorts. "No experience is perfectly...okay, if I'm using that word correctly," Yennefer told her. "Everyone has or had no experience in everything at some point, which is why I'm trying to get an idea of the lay of the land, as it were." She gave Mae a little smile and said, "I like chaos, too."

...Well. That was quite a curse, wasn't it?

"It sounds like we have relatively similar ways of looking at magic, possibly," Yennefer said. "Perhaps you could stay after class so we could discuss the particulars." And that curse.

Juillenne frowned down at the rock and the flower, trying to puzzle out what to do.

Lifting the rock would be simple, with the war-gift. But Jules had literally just shared how people from her world only had a single gift, so how to explain...?

Oh!

She grinned as inspiration struck. Then used the war-gift to levitate the rock, while simultaneously reaching out towards the flower with the naturalist gift, causing it to shrivel and crumble in to dust.

There. It wasn't as if anyone here really knew what being a naturalist implied, after all. So that was totally feasible!

Edited 2020-05-15 18:17 (UTC)

"I'm Anakin Skywalker," Anakin said, smiling faintly, "and I've been a Jedi since I was nine. We refer to the lifeforce powering the universe as the Force, which is neither good nor evil. The intentions of the user decide if you are using the Dark Side or the Light."

"I must admit I'm not..." Yennefer trailed off, realizing what she was about to say, then, looking pained, pressed on. "I am not familiar with...'familiars.' And I would like to know more about this 'low magic.' What can it accomplish?"

Julius made a small noise in his throat, not unlike a small creature in the grip of a predator.

Look, he didn't know what it was about Yenefer, but she just screamed 'dragon' at him, even though she clearly was not.

"Yes ma'am," he said quickly. Because arguing would be a sucker's move.

Anakin was an expert at rock lifting.

He sent it rocketing into the air like a giant, giant showoff, then let it do looping figure 8's above his head.

Slightly?

Julius remained after the rest of the class left, standing in front of her desk. "You wanted to see me?" he asked.

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Page 1 of 4

Magical Theory and Practice, Friday, Period 3

Sign In

During the Lecture

Introductions!

Lift the Rock!

Talk to Your Teacher

OOC

Re: Sign In

Re: During the Lecture

Re: Introductions!

Re: Lift the Rock!

Re: Sign In

Re: Sign In

Re: During the Lecture

Re: Introductions!

Re: Sign In

Re: Lift the Rock!

Re: Introductions!

Re: Introductions!

Re: Introductions!

Re: Lift the Rock!

Re: Introductions!

Re: Introductions!

Re: Introductions!

Re: Lift the Rock!

Re: Talk to Your Teacher