daybreakacademy | WINTER TERM OPENING CEREMONY AND CLASS START

WINTER TERM OPENING CEREMONY AND CLASS START
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The snowfall has only intensified as Daybreak moves into the first day of Winter Term classes. A school-wide orientation will be held in the auditorium, followed by an open period where tours will be given to new students by student volunteers. After a noon lunch in the main hall, short introduction classes will be held where the syllabi will be distributed and professors can give a brief overview of what they’ll be covering over the term.

A. ORIENTATION ASSEMBLY

With a new school year comes a fresh address. The orientation assembly is one of the few times that the Headmistress and High Seer, Mila Duchene, speaks to the gathered faculty and students about their purpose and why they’ve been found and gathered here. About how Nightfall looms ever closer, and how together they will be the flames who light the coming darkness.

It is, in the manner of many orientation speeches, fairly long-winded. Those who have been here for more than a year have likely heard this speech before, though it’s slightly more urgent this time. Maybe it’s a good time to get to know the people on either side of you a little better while the Headmistress talks, because you’ll be here for a while. Or maybe you’ve planned ahead, and you have something to entertain you at orientation - much to the shared entertainment or dismay of others in your vicinity, perhaps.

Or you could actually be listening to the speech. It’s up to you.

B. SCHOOL TOUR

For students fresh to the academy, the sprawling nature and architecture of Daybeak Academy can be quite intimidating. Fortunately, helpful student volunteers have been tapped to help escort the new students around and give them a feel for campus. Student volunteers are typically chosen for both their experience on campus and helpful nature. While some scripts are provided, students are encouraged to ad-lib and put their own spin on campus and what they like about it. New students are, of course, encouraged to ask as many questions as they can to make sure they fully understand and familiarize themselves with the campus as quickly as possible.

C. SNACK STATION

During the first three days after the Holiday break, throughout the campus grounds are small stations manned by the kitchen staff and volunteers, the smell of hot chocolate, cider, and frying bread fills the air, stirring the appetite and promising warmth on this cold winter’s day.

Every booth has hot chocolate, some spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, others rich and creamy, but always with an option for marshmallows, peppermint bark or caramel drizzles - with non-alcoholic hot cider for those with an allergy to chocolate. For food options, naturally being France there are crepes of all types and beignets on offer, with jam- or custard-filled berliners, while those looking for a more savory fare will be treated to rissoles - a fried bread stuffed with minced meat or bechamel sauce and cod.

While the drinks are on tap and readily available, it may take a few moments to get the treats out, so might as well make conversation while a fresh batch is made.

code bases by tricklet

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Like I'm an amateur, I don't set alarms off.

*Except when she meant to, of course. Some pranks required a bit of brute force when it came to the alarms. Or she dropped a fireball on something not fireball-proof and things went how that normally goes. She leans the fireball in closer, keeping careful hold of it.*

What exactly are you working on?

[She rolls her eyes just a bit because it doesn't matter what someone intends when they are in the middle of an auditorium full of people and the faculty are on the look out. Anything could happen.]

It's a new Inscription for reverse engineering golems without damaging them.

[Never know when you want to take apart someone else's work to see how they made it.]

What's the fun in not damaging them?

*Totally the wrong audience for that sort of spellwork. The designs are okay though, not as artistic or flashy as Mal's usual work. But her work is strictly aesthetic. And criminal.*

I guess it beats sorting through the pieces after blowing them up.

*Mal!*

Because the school tends to limit your access to them when you break their golems without asking.

[She says as if she has experience with that.]

And blowing them up would defeat the purpose of going over its parts.

It would be so much easier if you just ignored their rules then.

*Mal answer.*

What? If you know what went into making them, and how they're made, wouldn't having the broken pieces be enough?

I prefer going around rules to flat out breaking them. Makes it harder for them to discipline you for it. Also, breaking rules is boring. Total lack of any kind of creativity.

[And she cannot believe this girl just said broken pieces are just as good as not broken pieces.]

I'm guessing you've never made a golem before, either, if that's how you view it.

Sometimes I go around rules, sometimes I break them, it depends on the rule, and my mood.

*She studies the pattern.*

Do you really want me to try? The more complex the magic, the more likely it'll go wild. I'm chaotic not insane.

[If she has any familiarity with runes, she'll notice the mix between Elder Futhark and Phoenician runes in the line and how some of them are laid one of top of the other. Doubling up the power.]

I never said you should try, but maybe don't say it like you know how it works. Golems can be simple, but others are intricate machines with a lot of parts and a lot of runes. You don't blow up a computer to figure out how it works. It ruins half the parts you need.

I blow up a lot of magical constructs, I can usually get most of the info I need. And whatever I can't, I'm just sure to mess up different parts of the next one.

*She shrugs with the arm not holding a small ball of fire. She knows how adjusting light ruins a working. Her understanding of individual rune scripts is limited, she works entirely in fae constructions when not potion making, but she's got a solid baseline understanding of magical workings. She knows what a line-up like that does. Even if she doesn't know how it does it.*

How are you handling control when you're doubling the power like that?

Golems work on magic and technology, not just one or the other. The more technology you mix in, the more complicated they get. Makes them stronger, but also harder to reverse engineer without damaging them.

[She has no problem saying any of this, as it's no secret. Anyone who takes the basic golem classes would figure this out.]

And I'm doubling the power because the Inscription has two separate functions. Deconstruction and reconstruction with a bit of a time rewind. It should take the object back to the state it was in before the deconstruction. But time manipulation gets messy, so I'm trying to invert a healing rune into it to use instead.

Healing magic gets weird when you do it to machines, why not try modifying a mending magic instead. They're easier to work with, since they're used to inanimate objects.

*She's a faerie, yes an evil faerie, but they share their godmothery counterpart's abilities to fix and keep house. Because her mother has no aptitude for cooking, cleaning, or sewing the long way.*

Like pieces of a Golem. Once you take it apart it won't be a thing anymore.

That could work... [She makes a thoughtful noise, using her oil wipes to clean one of the marker runes off her arm so she has the space to keep working.]

I'll have to throw in some Sumerian for that, then. Mending of materials isn't something that shows up in the two runic languages I'm using right now, but Sumerian I could use. Less power, more finesse...

Glad I could help.

You're still a nerd, but you weren't thinking that idea through at all.

That's not an insult and I'm thinking the idea through just fine. I've only been working on the concept since this morning. [Don't insult her process when it's still in the development stages.]

For this to work, I'm gonna have to rewrite the beginning of the inscription to mesh the cuneiform better, and add in more power because it doesn't hold the kind of heavy magic in comparison to the other two. Too many rune types on top of each other can make it unstable.

[She'll have to move runes around so the power is spread out more evenly within the circle, but she isn't worried. She knows she'll get it right. And she's definitely not saying thank you if she's gonna talk like that.]

WINTER TERM OPENING CEREMONY AND CLASS START

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