Gisk

Of Blood and Magic

Cassandra’s eyes widened suddenly as a hand glided over her shoulder, and dropped a scrap of paper. In the same motion, the hand raised up and its owner asked a question. This gave Cassandra a reasonable excuse to turn back and see who had dropped the note. It was a nice looking guy, close to her own age, with long hair. When she looked at the note, she smiled and after he had finished asking his question, she flashed a subtle thumbs-up over her shoulder to indicate the affirmative.

The lesson continued, and Cassandra had to scribble out where she had written “Alfonsi Model” at the top of her current page, and write “Varissean Model” underneath it, continuing her notes from there.

While this class would clearly lean more toward arcane magic, they were still focusing on how that would fit together with affinities. While an important subject to some, Cassandra felt her grasp over her element was as firm as she needed it to be at this point, and was wishing they would get onto a more generalized topic.

That is, until she saw the video of a mage being Consumed while utilizing a basic primary magic. Her eyes widened in horror; her tutors had never shown her anything like that. She had been able to shrug off the pictures of injuries and conditions caused by dissonant kickback. Maybe that was because they were still photos, and she didn’t have to witness the damage occur, but mostly this was because she figured she wouldn’t have that problem since her affinity was a primary.

When the floor was opened for questions again, Cassandra once again joined those raising her hand.

“So a focus cushions, or buffers the mage from dissonant kickback. Does it have any help to prevent resonant over-drain? Or is there like, maybe some kind of anti-focus that could stabilize the resonance to a manageable level?”

She went from dismissing the idea that she would need a crutch like a focus, to desperately hoping that such a thing would help her in less than a minute. The thing was, overextending her magic was exactly the kind of pitfall Cassandra knew she was likely to step into.

Of Blood and Magic

”Astorio,” Cassandra couldn't keep the bad taste she had for the name out of her voice. Of course, there weren't actually any Astorios in her study group, but it seemed she kept falling under their banner whether they were there to orchestrate it or not. ”I haven't met anyone in my group, though.” She finds know much of anyone, but again she obfuscated her social isolation.

”I guess we'll be…”

Whatever they would be, the group at large didn't find out, because at that moment the bell signaling the next class tolled throughout the campus. Cassandra was standing before the peel had finished echoing.

”Later, then! Lilie, I look forward to seeing you in the next class we have together. It was nice to meet everyone. Maybe we'll get a chance to eat a whole meal together later, she gave a practiced and socially appropriate giggle to cap it off. Expected pleasantries. Reiterate her connection to the group. Soft suggestion that she ought to be invited for the next meal time.

She made all of this sound quite natural, then ruined the effect by immediately turning on her heel and walking away without another word.

Cassandra made her way to the next class, her spirits lifted after what she thought was a very successful first attempt at making friends. She could do that again! Moreover, Lilie really did seem to enjoy her company, which warmed her heart more than she could say. Surely others would too?

Her teacher in this next class seemed a great deal more pleasant than Count Varis, though that might not be difficult.

Cassandra knew a little of what went into the lesson already, but found that she was getting a much more complete context than her tutors had bothered to provide. It made sense that, despite being trained early, they hadn't really touched on that much arcane magic. After all, it wasn't until just a few months ago that the lock on her powers had been removed, and she was able to access even just her own affinity.

She had been expecting a practical exam. Of course, what kind of school wouldn't have one? She had not, however, anticipated that she would have to take it with her partner. She would have to report this to Amaris immediately, lest she allow a scheduling conflict to develop. She shuddered at what Master Valius would have to say if that happened.

Cassandra honestly wanted to get on with the lesson, and so she immediately raised her hand to get the questions out of the way.

”Isn't it possible that more non-human have the capacity to use magic than we know about? Almost all of those examples of plants and animals were displaying Primary Affinities. If Secondary and Tertiary Affinities aren't used instinctively often, it might be that most plants and animals with a capacity for magic just never actually display any.

Of Blood and Magic

Cassandra
Dining Hall

To Cassandra's immense relief, Lilie answered immediately in the affirmative. She took another sip of her drink before putting it down on her tray, which she picked up. She scurried across the dining hall, dodging anyone who threatened her person space, and accidentally setting fire to one of the paper butterflies as it landed on her cheek and startled her. She kept hold of her tray and didn't break stride, trying to pretend that hadn't happened, and ignore any comments that were floating after her.

"Lilie!" upon reaching the table,she addressed the member of the group that she knew. Her entry point into the socialization. "Thanks for the invite, I didn't have any other friends in the hall." Make sure everyone knew she was already welcome. Downplay the fact that she was alone.

"How'd you meet so many friends so fast?" A mild complement and subtle hint that she should be introduced.

@Hero@Obscene Symphony@Trainerblue192

Of Blood and Magic

Cassandra
Dining Hall

Cassandra had grabbed some food, a burger and fries, with an energy drink from her own personal stash, in case that wasn't bad enough for her. Amaris was still nowhere to be seen, though to be fair what would she need to go to the dining hall for? Cassandra was trying to assume everything was natural, though she had a strange feeling she couldn't shake. The Countess's disappearance had just been so sudden, it couldn't help but feel ominous.

She did see a friendly face, however. Lilie had just enetered the hall. Cassandra had put her food down on a table on the periphery of the room, but after seeing her friend(?) from class, didn't quite sit down. Lilie was with friends, in a group already, and Cassandra didn't know any of them. She bit at her lip, and took a pensive drink from her can, then pulled out her phone. She tapped out a quick message.

can i sit wit u

A text gave Lilie the opportunity to give a soft decline, ignoring the message and perhaps pretending she hadn't seen it. To keep from causing offense. Cassandra was unthinkingly using her training in social navigation for exactly the opposite reason she had been taught it.

@Hero

Of Blood and Magic

Cassandra
Dining Hall

Cassandra got caught up in the surge of people, but managed to fall briefly in step with her vampire. They didn't talk as they walked, Cassandra didnt want to be the one to initiate a conversation, and Amaris had opted for silence for reasons of her own. Despite being shorter, Cassandra's stride took her a little ways ahead of Amaris, and so she looked back when they had reached the dining hall.

"I'm starving, and I think that... Countess?"

She was gone. It had been a short walk, but even so with their silence, Cassandra couldn't be sure when they had separated.

She bit at her lip. Should she have followed? Was there a que she had missed? She decided no, probably not. The Countess had been straightforward with her so far(or so she thought), Cassandra didn't think she would pull some bullshit test.

She continued, now nervously looking around, hoping she would see Amaris before too long and be able to join her.

Raindale University For Witches [+18]

"All night would be best," he said, cocking his head in some confusion over her antics. "But just make sure you can give me a reasonable expectation of how long. I dont want to be this close," he held up thum and forefinger barely a hair's breadth apart, "And then suddenly lose my edge."

When she proffered a hand, he shook, and pulled a battered leather wallet from his back pocket.

"You mean dollars or pounds? I've got some gold dollars from like eighteen fifty, if that suits your fancy."

Raindale University For Witches [+18]

Dana blinked at her, a strip of bacon halfway to his mouth.

"Alright, I'm getting called out by a spoon. I just like to eat things that are closer to their natural state. Bread takes so many different changes before you eat it. Movin' on. I want a owl's eyes, and a hound dog's nose." This was a simple enough request in general. Baby's First Magic, even. Except there was that pesky Law of Equivalent Exchange. "Trick is this: I can't lose my sense of touch, or my sense of taste. It can make me deaf, take away my balance, but I need to be able to feel and taste."

Senses were simple things, and typically when a practitioner wants to increase one, another has to be decreased in exchange. Like many pieces of magic, one could get the desired effect and then worry about the cost later, but Dana couldn't afford that now.

"Probably I could do it myself, but I can't risk accidentally numbing my hands or tongue."

Raindale University For Witches [+18]

Dana woke at the same time as the bell, but not because of the bell. He woke because this is the time that the school woke. For the first few seconds of his consciousness, he could feel everyone in the building rousing themselves. This only lasted the briefest of moments before he returned to himself.

His eyes fluttered openand he got out of bed, humming along as a Dolly Parton song played from somewhere else in the dorm. When he stepped outside, the rasping croak of Crow came from up on the roof, picking up the song from where it left off when the other student had left the dorm before Dana did.

He walked into the cafeteria, and piled a plate with fruit and bacon(he barely touched grains, personally), and peered around the room. He wasn't one to put much thought into where he sat, or who with, but he saw Imani sitting with Jo, and remembered he'd been meaning to speak to her.

Serendipitously, as he approached she was discussing exactly what he needed from her.

"So... I'm open for business, right? you two hear anyone needing any potion, you tell them to come to me, right? God knows I could use the cash."

"Well, gods know I have the cash to burn," he said as he sat nearby. "Think you can whip something up for me?"

Mainly he knew her through Imani, but her business made her easy enough to approach.

Of Blood and Magic

Cassandra of course was reasonably familiar with the treaty. In fact, she had a copy of it(or, most of it) back at her dorm. It was a subject that concerned her a great deal, though, and so she watched Count Varis with rapt attention.

As the lecture went on her eyes began to widen, as she was fighting her lack of seep to pay attention. She soon had a wild look in her face, and her pen was standing still.

When Varis brought up Solaris Pius, and its final exclusion from the treaty, Cassandra suddenly sat forward, brow furrowed. She had never heard of this practice itself, let alone the fact that it was considered as a part of the law.

The Starage Commandment was a point of particular interest. The Count was right, in that its existence had enormous symbolic significance. That was the part of the Treaty that ensured, in theory, that humans and mages(for they were separate in the Treaty) carried the same protections basically everywhere. Count Varis treated it more as a curiousity, dismissing it as a legal entity.

When the Count opened the floor for questions, Cassandra's mistress was actually asking the very question Cassandra herself was about to pose. She smiled at the coincidence. Though she didn't know what was going on in the vampire's head, it was nice to know that they landed on the same point without even discussing it. Of course, this was anecdotal, and could easily be a fluke.

Neither mage nor vampire got an answer, as the doors blew open with force, making Cassandra jump, nearly leaving her seat.

Cassandra raised her hand, but spoke without waiting for permission.

"Count Varis, were we all supposed to enter the room and anounce ourseleves? I think my tutors missed that particular piece of etiquette."

Raindale University For Witches [+18]

Dana

Name
Dana Allbright



Nickname
I’ll leave that up to his classmates
Age
22
Gender
Male
Sexual Orientation
Bi
Racial Orientation
Virginia, USA. British/Irish ancestry, but not important in his family.

_______

History
The Allbrights are an old family of witches, and known to the ordinary people of nearby Fredericksburg as a family of rich eccentrics. They are locally famous(or infamous, depending on where you stand) for remaining neutral during the American Civil War. The local legend goes that soldiers from both sides tried to visit them at various times during the war, but despite being a large home and property, no one ever found the Blue House where the Allbright family lived. It wasn’t seen again until years after the war ended, when a mail carrier who was new in town was being hazed by his new coworkers. When he asked about a large backlog of packages for the Allbright estate, they let him go try to deliver it to the missing house, for a laugh. Nobody believed him when he returned, bemusedly successful, until he was pressed and described the house and the patriarch of the family with eerie accuracy.

Habitually reclusive, and territorial to a fault, the Allbright family never got involved with witch affairs either. They traditionally taught their children at home, and Dana is the first member of the family to attend Raindale. His natural wanderlust was magnified by his rite of passage, and the forging of his familiar contract. Had he been born a few years ago, he might never have gone, but as luck would have it, the family’s previous patriarch died recently, and was succeeded by an uncle who was particularly fond of Dana. He indulged the young man, and sent him off to school.

Personality
Calm
Patient
Kind
Strong willed

Stubborn
Wandering
Aloof
Addictive personality



_______

Likes
Outdoors
Old Buildings
Cold Weather
Wildlife and anthropology documentaries

Dislikes
Overly sunny days
Laziness
Prudishness

Hobbies
Hiking
Gardening
Wood carving, and some simple carpentry

Fears
Scarecrows
Deep water
Wild fire(camp fires or fireplaces are nice, though)
Driving

Dreams
Dana wants to travel the world, climb mountains, walk in the ruins of ancient civilizations.

_______

Year
Second
Classes
Herbology
Elemental Magic
Soul Restoration
Necromancy

Specialization
The magic practiced by the Allbrights draws power from the land, through their connection with it. This does not mean necessarily the natural landscape only, but refers to what humans have built as well.
Their most powerful place is an abandoned church, and its adjacent graveyard where many Allbrights have been buried in the past. Dana has a branch from an ancient oak tree that grows among the tombstones.
He is a nature witch, who counts humanity as a part of nature.

Strengths
Can connect with and intuit his environment very well.
Is Sensitive to spirits, both dead and inhuman.

Weaknesses
Can be easily overwhelmed

_______

Familiar
Crow, the crow.
Like many witch families, the Allbrights have a particular rite of passage, though theirs isn’t the most responsible. Dana was given a special blend of plants with particular magic properties to smoke, and then sent walking from the back yard of the Blue House. Nobody knows what actually happened after that, least of all Dana. But his experience of it was as follows.

He came upon a country road, approaching out of the woods. It continued on forever, Dana walking unsteadily. He spoke with animals, but encountered no people, despite occasionally walking through cities, both modern and ancient. Much of this was experienced in a haze, but one event he remembers very clearly. He was walking past a corn field, but it was rotten most of the way through. There was but a single stalk still standing, and it was guarded by a scarecrow. Though he couldn’t describe it now, at the time it terrified him, “it was trying to kill me with its eyes,” he described shortly after returning. He doesn’t remember what he meant.

Dana was starving by this point, and though he originally ran as far and fast as he could, he returned, as it was the only food he’d seen on his whole trip. Summoning all of his courage, Dana charged across the field, and shoved the scarecrow over. It went down without any resistance, and Dana seized the last ear of corn. When he turned around, the field was covered with flocks of crows who had apparently come down from the sky after the scarecrow was deposed. They were picking at the rotting corn, apparently trying to find a morsel that was still edible. Dana sat on the edge of the road, but only ate a few bites of the raw corn before tossing it to a small family of the birds. After watching them eat, one of the younger crows hopped over to him, and dropped an old tarnished silver ring by his hand. Dana put the ring on, and for some reason felt like he ought to be getting home. When he returned, the crow followed him.