#magic school shenanigans

[stoneheartedkilljoy]

ALTERNATIVELY (or additionally), kellian/cadoras, 77

Green boy and Carny boy timez, love yoooooou This is Short and not very involved but that is because unfortunately it has spawned an entire fic in my brain which I will have to write some of. It is basically just a Strictly au with a ball at the end? Probably.

Once again, idk how to use grammar and also tenses are fake

77 - Test

The squeaking of chair legs against tiled floor breaks Kellian from his focus, eyes lifting from his notes to graze across the coffee cup that had appeared before him, taking in the green nail polish on the hand that proffered the drink to him. Cadoras slumps down onto the chair opposite Kell, a flurry of green energy that Kellian thought might just give him an immediate headache - Cadoras pushes the drink closer to him and shoots him a sheepish smile. 

‘Sooooo, I heard you drink your tea strong, and also that you could possibly help me with a dance piece that I have to learn for LARP,” the words spill from Cadoras' lips at an absolute rate of knots, his fingers twitching slightly on the table as he looks expectantly at Kellian's arched eyebrow as the tiefling lowers his pen to the desk and leans back in the chair. 

‘You’re correct on the first part, thank you, but the second will depend on what on earth you're talking about?’ Kellian can't stop the smile that tugs at his lips as he reaches for the gifted drink, almost grateful for the interruption to his mid-shift break despite the mountain of work before him. Cadoras launches into his explanation: ‘we’re hosting a battle, right, and at the end of that there will be a victory ball, and I am expected to lead the dancing, and while I'm sure I can dance I've been told you're great in the Art of War assessments and so would you-’ Kellian huffs out a laugh, trinkets on his horns jingling as he shakes his hair back and fixes Cadoras with a steady, bargaining look. ‘I’m not sure if I know dances suitable for a ball but you can test me on that if you want, on the condition that you help me with these maths problems because I am absolutely lost.’

[ghost-town-story]

FebruarOC Day 24: Xiasis

(This is the first snippet I've actually written for MSS, so just ignore the worldbuilding holes that still exist lol)

Xiasis rapped three times on the door, then stood back to wait.

A few moments later, Kageki opened the door. To anybody else, he probably looked ridiculously put together for how early it was, but Xiasis could see tangles in his dark hair and the sparkle of what was probably some illusion magic fading from his fingertips.

Kageki blinked a few times, then stepped aside to let Xiasis into his room.

“Good morning,” Xiasis said as they entered.

Kageki closed the door behind them, and Xiasis immediately saw the shift from his perfectly poised persona to the person he was in private. Which, at this time of morning, was sleepy and grumpy. “Awake with the sun I see,” he grumbled.

“Of course.” Xiasis couldn’t contain a grin. “Can’t waste the light, after all.”

Kageki grumbled and ran a hand through his hair, combing out the tangles but leaving it messier than before. “Why are you here so early?” he asked. “I know it’s our first day back but classes still don’t start until midmorning.”

“Which is why,” Xiasis said, reaching into their jacket and removing a book, “I thought you might want to spend the time until breakfast working on your personal projects.”

Kageki’s gaze immediately sharpened as he narrowed in on the book. “Is that…”

“I asked my mother, and she talked with a few reputable artificers that she knows, and they recommended a few books for Light runes specifically,” Xiasis explained. “Unfortunately, this was the only one I was able to find before the end of break.”

Kageki grabbed Xiasis’s free hand and kissed the back of it. “I knew there was a reason I liked you best.”

“I’m not sure if I should be flattered or insulted on behalf of our classmates,” Xiasis said, though they let Kageki take the book from their grip.

Kageki waved a hand carelessly, already flipping through the pages. “Take it as a compliment sunshine,” he said. “You mind helping me out with a few of these?”

“You’re going to test them now?” Xiasis asked. “You’ve had that book for all of five seconds—”

“And there is no progress without experimentation,” Kageki said, cutting them off. He set the book down on his desk, open on a specific page, then crossed the room to his trunk and withdrew one of his automatons. “Plus, I’m going to start out with the easy runes. Mother would have me cleaning every square inch of her shop by hand if I had something explode on me cause I rushed into complicated runework.”

“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel better,” Xiasis said dryly. “What do you need my help with anyways?”

“Powering the runes.” Kageki set the automaton down on his desk and started unscrewing one of the metal plates. Xiasis knew from hours of watching Kageki that he inscribed the runes on a removable plate, so he could easily try out different runes without building a whole new automaton every time. “I can power the Dark ones just fine, obviously, but from my understanding, Light runes will need Light magic to power them.”

“So what’s the point if you can’t even power the runes yourself?” Xiasis asked.

“Again, progress sunshine.” Kageki flashed them a smirk as he finished removing the old rune plate. He set it aside and grabbed a blank sheet of metal to replace it. “Finding somebody willing to power different runes for me is a non-issue in the long run. What could be an issue is…” He trailed off, moving various parts around on his desk as he searched for something.

Xiasis sighed, but grabbed the engraving pen they could see on the corner of his desk and handed it to him. “The whole “could potentially blow up on you” bit?” they finished.

“The usual dangers I could run into with experimentation,” Kageki corrected. “Not always explosions. Thanks.”

“Often explosions, according to our professor,” Xiasis countered, crossing their arms.

“Depends,” Kageki said, even as he focused on copying the rune from the book Xiasis had given him. “If you’re experimenting with Fire, nine times out of ten you’re probably going to get an explosion. My mother has caused a few implosions but nothing on the scale of some of the Fire artificer disasters I’ve heard of. Which is one of the reasons why I’m experimenting with Light runes first rather than any other.”

“Plus then you’d have to ask one of the others for rune books,” Xiasis teased.

“Oh no.” Kageki raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Can you imagine? I think Hali would give it enough thought, maybe Cyra, but Noelani would definitely forget I asked until two days before the end of break and just grab whatever book she could find first. And don’t get me started on Sylvain.”

“What do you have against him?” Xiasis asked. “You’ve had a grudge since we first started school.”

Kageki bit his lip and didn’t speak for a moment. He finished copying the rune, and quickly went to work carving a rune that Xiasis had seen on several other test plates.

“Sunshine,” he said, “how much competition was there for you to get into this school?”

Xiasis frowned, but they knew Kageki wouldn’t outright avoid a question, so they answered him. “Plenty.”

“We’ve both worked hard to be here,” Kageki said, glancing at Xiasis. They nodded in confirmation. “And, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the majority of our classmates have done the same,” he continued. “Except for Sylvain. It… irked me that I spent years proving myself worthy of one of these spots, and he walked in, admitted to putting in no effort, and proceeded to continue not putting in any effort.”

“Effort by your standards,” Xiasis pointed out. Kageki’s standards were much higher than anybody else’s, although he usually didn’t hold anybody else up to them.

“Did it look like he was trying much to you?” Kageki asked. Xiasis had to admit that he had a point there.

“He has gotten better,” Kageki continued. “Still not up to the standard I try to keep for our other classmates, but better than that first year. But, as Father always says, first impressions are everything.”

Kageki finished attaching the new rune plate to the automaton, then placed his hand over the Dark rune. “So, Earth runes are probably going to be the last ones I experiment with, if all goes well with this one. Ready to help?”

Xiasis was beginning to regret encouraging Kageki, but they moved to his side. “Alright.”

[wizardmafianinjapirate]

Madame Clemir had seen many troublemakers in her time. Being the Headmistress of a school for Witches kind of made one prepared for such things. But these three. Oh these three. More than once they had found themselves in her office, and though they weren’t troublemakers as such they were still a handful separately let alone together.

Her eyes roamed from right to left.

Sky was the first one, and the oldest. A Witch born in an area that was bone dry one second and then filled with snow the next, she was the biggest procrastinator Madame Clemir had ever met. She once put off her homework so much she ended up working for the merfolk just to get out of it and it took a week for anyone to notice.

Kes was the second one. A sarcastic Witch who had a thirst for knowledge and, as such, a knack for learning darker spells and an uncanny knowledge of Black Magick. She had once argued that Black Magick in and of itself wasn’t evil nor illegal. It depends on how you use it. Madame Clemir has never felt more irritated. She was right and couldn’t be punished for it.

The last of the three “Sisters” (because they were together so often they may as well have been) was Fae. It was hard to tell whether she or Kes was the shortest of the three but Fae was definitely the daydreamer. A Witch who conversed with Pixie’s and Flumpons (small rabbit like creatures that floated In the air), Fae tended to drift into her own world and would do anything to help her friends.

That included enchanting their garden into a forest that was always changing it seems.

“Whatever it is, I didn’t do it this time.” Kes piped up and Madame Clemir gave her an unamused look.

“Not directly no. However, the spell used to enchant our garden is one that only a teacher or you could have known.” Well. At least Kes had the decency to slip an inch into her chair this time. “Fae decided to create an enchanted forest, for whatever reason.”

Sky gave Fae an unimpressed look. “If you were going to do this you should’ve told me. I would’ve helped refine the spell with you.”

Madame Clemir sighed. “At least pretend you’re upset that she used this spell.”

“…The Pixie’s were feeling homesick,” Fae murmured, “I was only helping them out.”

“Personally,” Kes chimed in and Madame Clemir could only think Oh No before she continued, “I think what Fae did was amazing. Now we have proof the spell works and the Pixie might stop stealing everyone’s third ink pots.”

Sky nodded. “If we refine the spell, we might be able to stop the other students from getting lost.” And get out of class no doubt.

It was going to be one of those days Madame Clemir realized. She only hoped the aspirin would help her oncoming headache.

(so here’s a drabbleish thing for that Witch work I told you about. You can add onto this if you want? I wasn’t sure what type of Magick you and Sky would use so I went for a quirk instead lol)-Kes

The aspirin didn’t help.

She had hoped that when they told her they’d refine the spell Kes had known a counter to it that would at the very least reduce it’s size.

But no. 

It was just her luck that their approach to ‘refining’ a spell was experimenting on it first and that said experiments had resulted in the complete halt of classes in the corridors that surrounded the garden they’d managed to enchant due to the sudden appearance of vines everywhere. 

(Yes, everywhere, uptil now she’d been absolutely sure that vines did not, in fact, grow out of witches hats)

(Of course they didn’t. Elsewhere, inside the forest, Fae was high up on a tree laughing with the Pixie who’d helped her pull it off. She might have been a daydreamer, but when she wanted to, she managed to contribute to quite a lot of the mischief the other two caused on a regular basis)

The worst thing about the vines was that, try as they might the professors could not Vanish or Transmute them into something else and most of the students themselves were firmly against any harm coming to the plants their beloved seniors had helped grow.

As much as it didn’t make sense to Madame Clemir, the ‘Sisters’ had quite a following among the students of her school. 

Sky was the most popular. More than half the school was convinced that she was the best thing that had walked their halls since forever as she always had a kind word for everyone and was ready to help anyone who needed it. 

There were many students who had signed up for the tutoring she offered. Even she had been slightly worried about the sheer number as Sky had looked increasingly tired as the days passed. 

(But somehow, the number of students receiving tutoring had dropped drastically and Fae had looked very satisfied with herself for a week and she and Kes had all but forced Sky to miss a day of classes to sleep in.)

Kes was one of the people who the school adored and feared in equal measure. When she’d first started, everyone had been wary of her because of her fascination with Black Magick and avoided her as much as they could. 

Madame Clemir would never know exactly what happened, but one day she was sulking in a corner of the class and the next she was snarking at everyone within reach, tripping people up with small, previously malicious, spells alongside Sky and learning how to talk with the Pixie from Fae.

Now, she was one of the students who had incredibly great control of her powers and whom everyone in the school looked at with awe. Madame Clemir hoped that she never made plans to take over the world. With her powers and Sky and Fae ready to help her, she’d probably succeed.

Fae was the capstone to the Headmistress’s troubles. The girl was completely unpredictable. She would appear to be lost in the clouds one minute and the next she’d be in the middle of an intense debate with someone who’d made a (generally) stupid statement. As air-headed as she seemed to be, the school had quickly learned that she was a spitfire, who would snap at anybody and absolutely decimate anyone who hurt her friends. 

The younger students of the school especially loved her because she’d sometimes drop by their dorms with one of the Pixie or introduce them to the Centaurs.

She loved the three of them, honestly, she did, it was just days like today when she wanted to lock them up in the basement and throw away the key.

(Unfortunately, that wasn’t even a remote possibility as they’d probably manage to get the dwarves to bust them out or worse)

She sighed and went down to find a student who knew the three of them well enough to actually find and stop them from whatever they were doing inside their enchanted forest. But just as she reached the garden, the vines retracted and the forest seemed to shrink to a smaller size and the three of them emerged laughing with leaves in their hair and ran upto her.

“We told you we could do it Headmistress!”

“This is what proper application of Black and White Magick can do Professor, you’ll have to listen to me now!”

“Please don’t do anything to the forest! The Pixie are really happy with it and we could move it to a better location if you want us to!”

Madame Clemir just shook her head at them and they laughed once more before the rest of the professors accosted them, demanding to know which spells they’d used.

(Want to add?? YES??? I LOVED IT SO MUCH KES LIKE WOAH and this kinda ran away with me sorry XDD I have no idea what our powers would be though, maybe @skygemspeaks will? Sky look what Kes and I have for you!! )

[ghost-town-story]

Things I have discovered on this journey of hella worldbuilding I've been doing the past few months:

Fandom.com is hell due to ads. Especially on mobile

Fandom.com has very good lists of magic abilities/superpowers

I've been staring at it so much that magic will probably not feel like a real word by the end of the night lol

The biggest difference between what we call "magic" and what we call "superpowers" is the genre.

But! Progress is being made in some regards so yay for that

[ghost-town-story]

Trick or Treat? 🦇

The dragon dice of doom have chosen... treat! And the random WIP picker chose Magic School Shenanigans, so have a fun bit of worldbuilding:

Basically, in the world of MSS, the main distinction between the races is by magic, so Earth, Water, Light, Air, Fire, and Dark. The terms "human" and "dragon" are used as catch-alls for people with complicated, mixed ancestries who don't fit into one (or two) of those categories. The difference between dragons and humans is that dragons have wings, while humans don't.

Dragons are also separated into two sub-categories: "full dragons" who can shift into some sort of animal, and "half dragons", who can't. Dragon animal forms are chimeras due to the mix of heritages and it is highly unlikely that you'll find two dragons with identical animal forms, even among siblings.

[ghost-town-story]

FebruarOC Day 24: Xiasis

Xiasis was startled by the door to their room flying open with a bang. They yelped and whirled around. Kageki was standing in the doorway, his eyes wild.

“Haven’t you ever heard of knocking?” Xiasis demanded, clutching their shirt close to their chest.

“Did you know Sylvain is part Dark?” Kageki said, completely sidestepping Xiasis’s question.

“I’m sorry, what?” Xiasis shook their head. “If you insist on interrupting me, then close the door first and let me finish changing without looking.”

That got Kageki looking apologetic, and he closed the door behind him before turning away.

Xiasis sighed and quickly grabbed a clean shirt to shrug over their head. “Alright, what was this about Sylvain, and why does it matter to you so much?”

“Sylvain is part Dark,” Kageki said. Now with Xiasis’s unspoken permission, he crossed the room to collapse in an armchair, the one Xiasis had put in the most shadowy part of their room specifically for him.

“And that’s a problem why?” Xiasis asked, perching on the end of their bed to watch him.

“It’s not,” Kageki said. When Xiasis raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief, he insisted, “It’s really not a problem, per se.”

“That sounds like it’s a problem,” Xiasis said lightly.

Kageki huffed. “I do not mind the fact that he’s part Dark, whatever my opinions on the rest of him are,” he said haughtily. “It’s just…” He hesitated. “Sunshine, can you keep a secret?”

“Of course,” Xiasis said.

“I mean it.” Kageki looked at them, his dark eyes solemn and holding a weight that Xiasis didn’t think they had ever seen before. “If word got out…” He let out a long breath.

“Of course,” Xiasis repeated. “I would never dream of telling one of your secrets without permission.”

That pulled a small smile from Kageki. “Thank you,” he said softly. He hesitated for a long moment, then brushed his thumb under his eyes, a sparkle of illusion magic skittering across his skin.

“The reason why it matters so much is that I’m half Earth,” he admitted, looking at Xiasis with eyes that were suddenly green as the leaves of a forest.

Xiasis blinked. “But your parents…”

“I know.” Kageki sighed. “Father is not my father by blood. Mother used to have a relationship with an Earth man she met while at school here. She fell pregnant, he left her, and Father stepped up and agreed to claim her child—children as his own.”

Xiasis noted the plural.

“So when I and my twin brother, Rinji, were born, it was easy enough to hide for the sake of both my parents’ reputations,” Kageki continued. “Not that Father cared much about his, but he knew how important Mother’s work as an artificer was to her, and what damaging her reputation could do to her career. The real issue were my grandparents, and the fact that Rinji was more obviously Earth than I was. When we were only a few months old, my grandparents stole Rinji from my parents, and told Mother they had him killed. Mother… never wanted to believe it, and from the moment I was old enough to understand what happened, I didn’t believe it either.”

“So,” Xiasis said, once they were sure Kageki had finished with all he wanted to say, “you think Sylvain might be your brother?”

“I don’t know,” Kageki said with a huff. “It’s not like mixed heritage is a rare thing, I’m sure there must be quite a few Earth people with Dark heritage, it’s just…”

“This feels too much like a coincidence?” Xiasis finished. “Or there’s too many similarities between you and Sylvain?”

Kageki pointed at them. “Don’t you dare,” he threatened, though it was weak even by his standards with them.

“Visually,” Xiasis amended for his benefit. After all, with his eyes unglamoured and his hair mussed from running his hands through it, Kageki could almost pass for Sylvain.

“Alright, that one I can agree with,” Kageki admitted.

Xiasis hummed. “So what do you want to do?”

Kageki groaned. “Why can’t I just ignore this?” he asked.

“Because you wouldn’t have gotten into such a fuss if it was something you could just brush aside,” Xiasis pointed out. “And I know you. You don’t like to leave mysteries unsolved.”

Kageki gave them an unimpressed look, though Xiasis found it was much less intimidating when his eyes were forest green instead of shadow dark.

“So?” they prompted.

Kageki huffed. “There’s no proof he is Rinji,” he muttered. “So if I were to do something about this, that would be the first thing I’d need.”

“And how would you do that?” Xiasis asked.

Kageki paused, staring out the window. “Sylvain’s father would know. Should know.”

“Then next parents’ weekend, I’ll distract Sylvain and you can get his father alone to question him?” Xiasis offered.

“I don’t—” Kageki cut off with a sigh. “I am ignoring this issue sunshine.”

“No you aren’t,” Xiasis replied with a smile. “Just let me know when you’re ready for me to run Sylvain interference, alright?”

“I’m not going to—ugh.” Kageki shook his head. “Fine. If you insist.”

“Of course,” Xiasis said. They hopped up from their bed and bounced over to Kageki to press a kiss to the top of his head. “Anything for my angsty best friend.”

“I am not angsty,” Kageki protested.

“Whatever you say, my little prince of darkness,” Xiasis teased.

[ghost-town-story]

I have been struck with the sudden urge to add my Apocalypse kids to Magic School Shenanigans as background characters, so they can get a fluffy ending in some canon lol

Bc I was looking through my worldbuilding doc for MSS and saw a note that made me sad about Bear all over again lmao