fandomhigh | Intro to Magic, 5th Period (Week 1: 9/6/06)

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intro to magic

Intro to Magic, 5th Period (Week 1: 9/6/06)

Jenny has cinnamon rolls, pecan rolls, and lots of other pastries and bagels in the classroom, along with juice and coffee.

"Please sign in, and take a copy of the syllabus that's on my desk, okay? First off, for those of you that know me, I'm Jenny Calendar; please call me Ms. Calendar. My last teaching job was at Sunnydale High, and my qualifications for teaching magic include having the subject drilled into me by my grandmother when I was way too young. I'm a technopagan, which means I like to mix magic with computers, and if you don't think that evolved out of a teenage rebellious phase, you're totally wrong. In addition to learning what to do with magic, I hope to go over what not to do with it.

Today? Introduce yourselves, tell us why you wanted to take this class, and give us your definition of magic. Not the kind of magic you see used in Vegas. On stage, anyway. Real magic, oogedy-boogedy stuff.

And then you can check out this handout on the elements. Not the periodic table of. Magical elements."

Set out on a separate table are a bunch of different items--runes, an I Ching set, Zener cards, a Tarot deck, small semiprecious stones and metals, dried herbs, salt, various books, feathers from different birds, paints and paper, fabrics with designs from many cultures. There are also a couple of laptops that are set up with various mystical programs running on them.

"Check out the tools of the trade. ~~Everything on the table is moddable, so long as there's nothing modded that will cause harm to anyone. Cool?~~ Nothing here will bite, and we're going to go into detail on a lot of these things later. If there's something you're particularly interested in? Lemme know. If I don't already have plans to include it in the class at some point in time, I can probably shoehorn it in. My office hours are pretty much gonna be on Wednesdays, if you need me. ~~Unless, of course, I get totally overwhelmed, in which case I reserve the right to have them on Thursdays.~~"

Course Syllabus & Roster

OOC: First note! I am at work, and though I should be good, if things get abruptly busy, I'll be slowplaying for a while. Secondly, while I do have the entire semester roughly outlined, it may change. If there's anything that your character would like to go into, or if you want to drop something plot-related in, give me a holler.

Also, 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. If you need something private, head over to Jenny's voice mail, as all comments there are screened.

~~Wait for the OCD threads, please.~~ Start posting whenever!

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Make the thread all collapsey. It's fun!

Agnes Nitt

Eric Weiss.

Alphonse Elric

Lana Lang

Kinomoto Sakura

Edward Elric

Ranma Saotome

Name, why you took the class, and what you define as magic.

Agnes stood up and nervously brushed off her hat, which she'd taken off and left on her desk just to avoid blocking other students' views. "My name is Agnes Nitt. I took this class because I'm a new witch back home and the other two are stingy about sharing what they know." At least not without having to ask and ask and ask.

"Magic is using force that isn't physical to get something done."

"Like words, you mean?" asked Jenny. "Or is it something else entirely?"

"Both. Sometimes words have a magic of their own, that's headology." Her hands fluttered in front of her while she tried to find the right way to explain something intuitive. "Other times, you have to give things a push, but it's not always with a spell or a chant or some magic crystal; sometimes it's just finding the crack in things and putting in a wedge."

Jenny smiled. "Sounds like a pretty apt way of putting it for me. Whatever you work with? It's a tool. It's not what creates your magic; it's what focuses it."

Alphonse looked a bit hesitant to say much of anything, but knew sitting and not doing anything wasn't going to help. "My name is Alphonse Elric, and I'm in this class because, um... -- but I'm hoping to make the best of it anyway. The only real magic I'm familiar with is the stuff floating around at Fandom, so to me it's like supernatural stuff that's able to do otherwise impossible things."

"Not everything that can be accomplished with magic is impossible by mundane means," said Jenny. "But some of it is."

"It seems like most of it is, but I hear about it more than I've seen it," Alphonse admitted. "Which isn't very much."

"So what've you seen?" asked Jenny, leaning back on her desk. "And what do you think of it?"

Alphonse thought, and then began to list off his fingers. "The first time I saw it was with one of my friends; she has a deck of cards that can do various things depending on which one you summon," he began. "Then there was the aftermath of messing up on a spell a little after that, and then a magic barrier of some sort, a binding spell... I think that's about all I've seen." He stared at his hand for a moment, wondering if he got them all, but shrugged it off. "Ah, it's... okay, I think. I guess because I'm not very familiar with it, I'm kind of wary of it as well."

"You should be wary of magic." Jenny smiled ruefully. "If you're not careful, it can come back and bite you."

Alphonse nodded once. "I've already had a few others ask why I am, but that's exactly what I don't want to happen to me."

"Hi, I'm Lana Lang. I took the Nature Magic workshop this summer and thought I'd like to learn more. Magic... I guess I kind of see it as stuff that can't be explained easily by modern science. Like Bel's shimmering or Kiki's ability to fly. I know there's supposed to be more natural stuff that even non-witches can do, but I don't really know much about it - other than what we learned in the workshop this summer."

"Lana!" exclaimed Jenny. She smiled welcomingly. "Welcome back! And you're right, there is--but sometimes it can be tricky. Remember the weird and freaky superpowers last year?"

"Yes," Lana said with a grin. "I'm really glad those went away!"

"Talk about Fandom weirdness," said Jenny, nodding emphatically.

"Eric Weiss. I'm related to Harry Houdini, and I'm just looking to learn a little more about the family heritage. Magic is... illusion. It's something that appears completely irrational to those who don't understand the trick. Those who do understand see that there's a logic behind it."

"Eric, hey," said Jenny, smiling at him. "Welcome to the class. You did realize that I'm not talking about stage magic, right? Though you're not wrong; there's a logic behind magic."

"Uh..." Weiss had a feeling that this class was going to be like programming his VCR. "So I'm probably not ahead of the curve, then."

"When it comes to stage magic, you've got me beat, hands down," said Jenny, grinning. "I'm thinking maybe for your final presentation, you could work that in? Kind of a compare and contrast thing."

"I'd actually have to be good at it first." Weiss grinned. "But yeah, sounds cool."

"Just come and talk to me if there's something you've got a question on," said Jenny.

Sakura stood up, and before she introduced herself, looked around with a smile. She paused and made a face when she saw Alphonse, then waved briefly. Clearing her throat, she began.

"I'm Kinomoto Sakura--" she paused. "--call me Sakura." She'd had a few instances where people thought 'Kinomoto' was her first name. "...I took this class to get another view on magic; I took a similar class during the regular semesters last year." She passed a funny look at Jenny. "I'll try to be here a little more, this time around." Shrugging, she put her hands in her pockets. "I see magic as ... well, a lot of things. For some, it's a way of life. For others, it's... something to be afraid of. For me? It's a card game, of sorts." She shrugged again, and sat back down.

"I do take attendance, after all," said Jenny warningly, though her smile was friendly. "But I'm glad to see you back, Sakura. I think we'll have fun together."

Sakura scratched the back of her neck. "Yes, well." She put one finger up, as if to make a point. "I'll do my best to not be a little 'AB' mark," She made quotation marks with her fingers. "on your roster." Another sheepish smile. "I hope this will be as much fun as Magical Theory was." She frowned, and added. "When I attended."

Jenny chuckled. "Glad you had fun when you were around," she said. "And I do hope to be seeing more of you. You're a good student when you work at the material."

OOC: *giggle* I hope so, as playing with you is fun!

Sakura brushed some of her hair behind her ear, and nodded. "I did, and I hope so too."

Edward stood up and looked around. "I'm Edward Elric, and before someone asks I'm his," he pointed at Alphonse, "Older brother. Kind of. Well, I am and I'm not." He paused, and actually had the gall to look slightly confused himself. "Don't ask. I, uh, took the class because I'm curious about magic and how it really works." Shrug. "Magic seems to be any action that breaks the law of conservation of mass, creating something out of nothing and manipulating elements in ways unlike alchemy."

"I'm not stalking either of you," Sakura commented blandly from behind her cards. She'd taken to hiding behind them upon realizing that she'd landed herself in the same class as both Elric brothers.

"Well, that's comforting." Edward crossed his arms and snorted at her.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Well good," she said, rolling her eyes and settig her cards back on the desk in front of her.

"Nice to meet you, Edward," said Jenny. "So you don't consider alchemy to be magic, huh? How come?"

Edward nodded his head. "It's not magic, at least not where I'm from. It's a form of science that utilizes natural energies to take apart and reassemble anything. It strictly follows the law of conservation of mass... matter cannot be created or destroyed, only modified."

"I'm Ranma Saotome because I thought it sounded interesting. And I don't really know what magic is by some deffinition..."

Play with the fun stuff.

Agnes picked through the items on the table, poking around among the herbs, some of which were unfamiliar and the tarot cards, which were also unfamiliar, but made a sort of intuitive sense.

Nanny would have had some scathing comment, but Perdita thought these were the sort of things witches were supposed to have.

Need to talk to Jenny privately and can't make it to her office hours?

IOW, the best place to ping me.

HI JENNY, HI!

(Just to keep up a wee tradition thingy.)

LUNA HI! *GLOMPS*

(Gotta love tradition.)

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Intro to Magic, 5th Period (Week 1: 9/6/06)

Sign-In

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Introductions & Definitions

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Tools of the Trade

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After Class

OOC

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