fandomhigh | Bettering Your Community & Yourself, period 3

Jon nodded as people filed into the classroom, fidgeting a bit. He was in his standard first-day-of-class appearance, which meant he wasn't as strung out as he sometimes got, and his clothes were neat and professional, albeit his hair was a bit rumpled from his nervously running his fingers through it.

When it was time to start and he judged everyone had made it in, he cleared his throat and stood up straight. "Welcome. I'm Jonathan Sims, and I'll be teaching this course. Although I suppose it's less teaching and more a sort of guiding." He frowned. "I don't know we're likely to learn new things, so much as experience them. Though I could be wrong."

Look, he'd just told the moose he wanted to do something, anything, where he could teach on his own. He'd given up trying to turn in actual outlines.

"Anyway. This class is meant to involve bettering the community and ourselves, and in order to do that, we have to know what needs bettering. And we've got at least a few people here I haven't taught before. So, let's introduce ourselves, and along with your name, give me one thing about the community and one thing about yourself that you would like to better."

He cleared his throat. "As I said, my name is Jonathan Sims. You may call me Mr. Sims or Jon. I am from London in modern Earth. I would like to see if there's a way to make the steps less slippery when it rains, and I suppose I could get better at relaxing."

He nodded stiffly to the students. "Now you."

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"I would expect there to be some magical way," Jon said. Didn't you have Comprehend Languages, Lili? "You don't want my way."

Still that other Hasbro property, Jon.

"What is it, exactly, about harnessing the magic of death and ruling the undead makes you think, 'Ah yes, this will be excellent magic for reading foreign scripts,' darling?" Liliana asked, raising an eyebrow. "Furthermore, I do learn languages faster via magic, but I need somewhere to start. This is a foreign script in a foreign tongue. I need either familiarity with the alphabet or familiarity with the language to begin to make heads or tails of something. Honestly now."

And, because she was a teacher regardless of whether or not she was currently teaching, "What color mana would such a spell use anyway?"

"Oh." Jon blinked, not expecting the question. "Blue, I expect. But blue is adjacent to black, and it should be strong on an island, so I would think you would be able to make use of it."

Wasn't he a good student?

He was! Though he was still lacking in some of the basics. "Yes," she said, "I could access blue mana. In fact, I can draw upon any color of mana that I like. But why wouldn't it do me any good?"

Pop quiz!

Jon frowned. "I...am not entirely sure," he confessed. "If you aren't locked into one, I don't see why it wouldn't help."

She tsked at him. Someone clearly wasn't going over his notes from class. You know, that summer course from a half year ago.

"Mana is power, darling. Think of it as, say...electricity." Electricity with a philosophy. "But electricity by itself doesn't do much, you need to put it into something to properly harness that power. That's what spells are; a way to turn that power into something feasible. However, most spells require a specific amount and color of mana to cast. A spell that requires a single drop of black mana cannot be cast with an ocean of blue...and, conversely, an entire ocean of blue mana does me no good without spells that can use it."

"Ah. You don't know a spell to do that." Trust him to overlook the obvious!

"Precisely," Liliana said, though her face suggested that she didn't appreciate quite that phrasing. "The time and effort I have to put in to learn a new spell, or, even moreso, to create one is far better spent increasing my mastery over black, rather than splashing blue."

"But think of all the things you could learn with a spell like that!" Jon protested. "Even more black mana things, or...or just interesting things!"

Sorry, Lili. You knew Jon would be blue to the core.

She did. She didn't even hold it against him! Usually.

"Darling, you can say that about anything," she said. "About one book read instead of another, or one dish tried and a second ignored. But I prefer depth of understanding over a shallow one."

Jon huffed. Then he shook his head. "Well, I suppose that's more for me to read, then. I'll just have to resign myself to being an interpreter. Honestly, it's one of the least terrible things I can do with what I've got."

Liliana laughed. "Darling, if you ever develop the ability to manipulate mana, I'll bring you to Ravnica and invite you to explore all the libraries for magic spells that you'd like."

Jon grinned. "I would love that. But I suspect it won't ever happen. Still, I don't exactly mind reading whatever you have to give me."

Bettering Your Community & Yourself, period 3

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Re: Talk to Jon!

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