Introduction Incantation

Poppy

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[ Le-kzen Ta'driz ]

Le-kzen arrived a few minutes after Lochlann and Chloe. She usually didn't like being tardy, but it was difficult when her last class was literally several buildings away and you were wearing a really fluffy skirt that flew everywhere. When she opened the door, she immediately bowed in apology.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Corbie! My last class just ended and it was difficult to travel between buildings with such little time in between."

She observed the classroom... and saw a familiar face, plus what looked like a small plush toy that was harassing him? She didn't really get it, so she didn't ask any questions. She beamed at Lochlann and gave him a little wave.

"Hi Lochlann! I didn't think you'd be here. What a pleasant surprise."

She made her way to one of the seats, humming a small tune as she did so.
 

Invoker

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Alice looked to the time keeping device above her desk. "Mr. Cabyll-Ushtey, class is about to start. You may not be one of my students, but you've committed to spending this period here. I'll have you released if you will return to your seat and prepare for class."

Alice's smile did not cease as she chastised the not student. When she was eight Voldegra had told her that smiles seem to put humans at ease, and she tried to practice this lesson when possible now that she was spending more time out among them. "You're right, Chloe. Gaforgamarl is not a friendly beast, but I haven't commanded it to harm your friend. It's just making sure he doesn't skip our lesson."

With a tilt of her head, Alice uncovered the dark marks coiled under her hair at the edge of her face. "I don't know Shi Mei myself, but we both..." Do not speak my name. Please. The child fell silent. Voldegra sensed that concealing its name would not be easy for her. It did not blame the child. She had called it freely for nearly half of her life. "...have a friend."

Another student entered, this one wearing some sort of ruffled coverings that Voldegra was not certain were part of the uniform. Regardless, both it and Alice were so pleased by this fancy mortal attire that they were not concerned. Her swift bow pleased them as well. "Welcome. You're just in time."
 

ReD

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Lochlann could hear Chloe talking with Corbie, but he'd reached the stage of panic where he felt really detached from his surroundings. The smart thing probably would have been to lay perfectly still, but Lochlann had never really done the smart things. He scramble, trying to free himself from the beast on his back, but finding himself trapped was only working him into a further panic.

His face was pale white when Zen came in the room. Great. It was bad enough that Chloe had seen him this way, but now Zen, too? If he wasn't already panicking, that might have made him start.

He groaned and buried his face in the floor.

"Mr. Cabyll-Ushtey, class is about to start. You may not be one of my students, but you've committed to spending this period here. I'll have you released if you will return to your seat and prepare for class."

"I may...I may have made a mistake in coming here," Lochlann said, quietly enough that only Alice should be able to hear. "I would like to return to my seat and gather my things to leave, please."

There was a desperate quality to his voice, and maybe a bit of resignation. Lochlann had really been looking forward to this.
 

Kait

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Ms. Corbie’s constant smiling was either adorable or creepy; Chloe couldn’t decide which. Pretty neat that she had a demonic stuffed tiger, though. “Gaforgamarl,” the half-demon repeated the name to herself quietly. That might be a useful name to remember, if she ever actually learned how to use it. She found herself wondering why Lochlann would want to escape the classroom; what had happened in the few minutes before Chloe walked in?

Alice explained her relationship to Shi Mei, and Chloe nodded. “Okay, that makes sense.” Same patron demon lord. That’s why they felt the same.

She left her backpack by a chair one seat away from the new girl, in the front row of desks. Rumor had it she was one of the Drow, or dark elves that had recently started fleeing to Manta Carlos from the Underdark. Which was a real place. Go figure. Chloe gave the newcomer a glance and a smile, then turned to Lochlann, walking closer, ready to hold out a hand and help him up as soon as the hellbeast got off his back. Hopefully that much wouldn’t ‘shatter his fragile masculinity.’
 

Invoker

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@ReD

Alice gave a sharp nod toward the not student as she walked up to the front of the class room. "Gaforgamarl, discipulum solvi et mensam redi." The plush tiger's claws retracted slowly, perhaps reluctantly. It hopped onto Alice's desk and shrunk into Mr. Pudding's unaltered form. "If you insist on leaving then you may, but I ask you not to run away this time. And I will need to mark you absent."

Children were beginning to step into the room more often, taking their seats with the whispers and chat of mortal youth. Alice ceased her smile and adopted the look of calm precision her face fell into during her studies. "I think enough of you are here to start class, so welcome to Ritual Magick. I'm Alice Corbie. For those of you who have not already met him, this is my teaching assistant, Mr. Pudding." She swept a hand toward the plush tiger flopped on the desk beside her. "He'll be helping with my demonstrations and any magic you may attempt in this class."

Her outstretched hand turned from toy to business case. She lifted out copies of her notes and passed out the pages as she processed along the aisles of desks. "I'm giving you a brief discussion of the core principles and symbols used in post-Crowley ritual magick. A practical magician needs to commit such things to memory as soon as possible, but you can think of these as reference material for the moment."

When Alice returned to her place of prominence beside the desk, she stood and considered the youths before her. Most looked human, but a few were at least slightly something else. "I'm new to the academy, but I'm aware that we teach a wide variety of magical methods of which mine is only one. With this in mind, I'm curious what you expect to learn here with me. Do any of you have questions or thoughts to begin the lesson?"
 

ReD

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"If you insist on leaving then you may, but I ask you not to run away this time. And I will need to mark you absent."

Lochlann nodded. He picked himself up off the floor slowly, his body still tense and with the slight shaking that came from a sudden, horribly intense need to have something to drink right now.

He took Chloe's hand when it was offered, grateful for the help while his leg spasmed.

"Thanks," he said quietly, and then he returned to his seat. He was fully intending to just grab his stuff and take off, but a sudden jarring pain made him sit down and grip onto the side of the desk while he waited for it to fade.

Lochlann gave a sharp glare to the plush tiger as he was introduced.

Mr. Pudding.

Lochlann rued the name.

When she mentioned post-crowley and asked if anyone had any questions, he couldn't help himself--one slipped past his mouth before he remembered that he wasn't staying here.

"Does post-crowley mean we will be focusing on ritual substitution?" He knew there was a better way of phrasing what he wanted to ask, but he was struggling to grasp it. He couldn't even think of it in Welsh. He was thinking about a stuffed tiger being used to represent a real tiger, or the use of plants to represent an astral body. The idea of having to memorize tables of information was daunting.
 

Invoker

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So the not student wished to leave, but also wished to know things. This mortal confused Voldegra immensely.

Alice, however, was satisfied by his question. "No and yes. By post-Crowley I mean that we will be studying ritual magick as performed by and after Aleister Crowley. Much of his Magick in Theory and Practice will be class text here. I'll give attention to older forms as well, but the focus of the class will be modern magick. Ritual substitution is a related notion, though. Ritual magick relies on symbol and representation, formally known as the sympathetic principle. What is like or connected to something has a sympathetic link to it, and such a link can be used to direct magickal force."

Alice ran her fingers through her hair and pulled out a few loose golden strands. "A bit of hair or blood gives me a direct connection to the person it belongs to. As far as magick is concerned, my hair is me and I am my hair." She tucked the hairs into the breast pocket of her suit. No need to leave any more of herself lying around the school than could be avoided.
 

Kait

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Soon, Chloe was sitting down. She noticed Lochlann’s leg spasming and began to worry, nearly getting up again to ask him whether he was okay, whether he needed some pain meds or help going to the infirmary.

But class was starting. She had to stop talking now.

They were going to begin with a discussion about basic magical principles. Alice mentioned the Sympathetic Principle, and Chloe began to remember some of the things she saw in her first readings of magic textbooks borrowed from the library.

She raised her hand.

“About the sympathetic principle – you said your hair or blood would work. If I wanted to cast a sympathetic spell on you, for example. But what about things that aren’t really part of your body? Like a photograph of you, or something you used to own, or your true name?”

She vaguely remembered hearing that likenesses or possessions could work for sympathetic spells. The question about true names came from a hunch based on some things her father had said about names.
 

Invoker

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Names. Fitting that the demon child asked this. This was not the first time her concern for names had been demonstrated. "Anything connected to someone has a sympathetic link with them, whether strong or weak. More direct connections are easier to work with, so parts of a body or pieces of an object are best, but representations can be used. What matters is creating a clear link to the subject. Names give a special sort of link. A name lets you identify your subject, and if you don't have part of them then a name is the only direct link between the magician and the subject. "

Alice gave Mr. Pudding a gentle pat with a single finger, provoking a loud growl from the toy's throat. A few gasps escaped some students who had arrived late enough not to see him help Alice with the troublesome not student. "This is especially important for spiritual beings like angels and demons. In some sense the names of these beings are the beings themselves. You could try to contact them by specifying the sort of thing you think they are, but unless you have their name you have no hold on the particular being you are trying to reach."
 

Poppy

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Zen pulled out her notebook from her panda backpack and began writing down notes. Ms. Corbie, Post-Crowley, Names. All of these unfamiliar to her. She was familiar with magic from the Underdark. She tapped her pen on the paper, suddenly thinking of a question.

She raised her hand.

"Ms. Corbie, I'm not familiar with magick rituals on the surface, especially the 'Post-Crowley' kind, so can you clarify something for me? By directing 'magic' through a sympathetic link, do you mean something like casting hexes and blessings, or even enchantments, to a person or object?"
 
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