Magical Teacher Professor Landry! - Discussion 1: Not Really Normal
 

Right! Time to formally begin Magical Teacher Professor Landry! After a painfully long battle with a strangely pervasive writer's block, I've finally managed to get the game thread up.

Before we get to the question of what players should be doing in the thread (if you didn't guess already) though, here's a list of players and their profiles!

Jay Miles (Overcast), has a baseball bat.
Michael Jones (IHateMakingNames), loves nature, concrete and tennis!
Jackson Hall (Dracorion), wishes he was a better wizard.
Dalbhach Nuada (Krylo), some Fae sentenced to High School.
Dean William Hunter (krogothwolf), Scottish Dragon Rider.
Astarte Whitewrap (Armored Bishoujo), made a Mummy by her Mommy.
Bartholomew 'Andy' Andrews IV (DanteFalcon), he cheats.
Jin Ifirt (Menarker), he's a Genie. Are you surprised?
Sean Castevet (BardTheFifthLightWarrior), his mom was an Ice Person.
Johanna Imirsdotter (Arhra), is basically a giant snowcone.
Diana Tear (Steel Shadow), carries a camera everywhere!
Sao Opallios (Riin Whitewind), a water elemental tied to the school's river.

Right, for your first post, players will just need to find their way to Professor Landry's classroom in Building Q, first floor, room eleven. Also known as room Q-111. Yes, the other twenty six letters of the alphabet are also probably involved in the campus, but I won't be making a map for the school's grounds - that would complicate things needlessly as the game progresses. Locations will be added as required, but will remain vague, by and large.

Oh, and you can already be sitting in the classroom, if you like, when mysterious hazel-eyed NPC girl shows up.

Anyway, get to the room, toss a few thoughts in, maybe start a conversation - most of you know how this stuff works.

A few other points to cover before I forget:

Players may have been in the school for a little while, depending on their living arrangements. But this is, for everyone, their first day of classes.

Certain relationship characters (particularly parents and younger siblings) may not appear in the game often, since opportunities to bring them into the story may not come up much. For the first post, I'll let players control their relationship characters (not the Principle though, in Menarker's case), so if they want to include them in a short scene, they can. None of them are in Professor Landry's class though, that's a PC only thing. After this, I'll take over a lot of NPCs - but if you've got a scene in mind that you'd like to use them in without having me break up the post, PM me or something like that. Since I don't have a good idea of what they're all like yet, I'll probably say yes, for a while at least.

Dracorion, you and Krogoth will be rooming together. The dragon's not there though, so don't worry about that. She's staying somewhere else in the school.

Yes, there is a personification of Death sitting in the Teacher's Desk. The creepy black aura isn't actually an aura, its actually floating visibly in the air. Professor Landry is very strange! Wearing a Halloween Costume to the first day of classes, so unprofessional.

Oh, and try to specify which desk you're sitting in. There's five rows, each has seven desks in it. Chalkboard's on the front (this would be South) wall, door to the room's on the east wall - which is on the left side of the desks. West (right side) and North (back wall) are blank.

And, in case any of you are wondering, there is a GM generated NPC in your class! Actually, there'll probably be others, including Professor Landry, so get used to the idea of their being around. I'll post this one's bio (even NPCs have bios) a little later - probably when she says her name.

So, are there any questions?

Wow, our teacher is the freaking Grim Reaper!

It could only be better if Ninja David Bowie was also a teacher.

*Watches Teal pulls out a new sheet and scribbling madly this new wild and unsolicitated comment.*


Seat second to the window on the fourth row from the front. Jin would rather not recieve too much unwanted attention!

According to Teal's post, the second row where the mysterious girl is sitting is second from the back, so Jack's sitting in the fifth row, that is, second from the front.

Also, goddamnit krogo! I had this whole thing about Jack only just arriving at Amaranth and now you had to go and ruin it by ninja-ing my post! Now I have to go straighten up that mess you've made.

Thanks a lot, jerk.

I can change it dude! no worries.

Alright, I edited mine!

I don't think I mentioned any windows? If I did, I'm stupid since there weren't supposed to be any in the classroom.

Oh, and about your post, the Teacher's not talking. She might make some movements (stare at you and point, like in Drac's post) but she won't talk or leave her desk.

Professor Landry might not actually be taking attendance, by the way. She is writing something though!

Wouldn't that be the fourth row? There's only five of them, so he'd either be second from the front (fourth row), or in the front most one (fifth, counting from the back).

Things seem to beginning well though!

I guess I'll plop Astarte in the dead center. Middle seat in the middle row.

In other words, the 3rd row and the 4th seat from either side.

Sure, if ya wanna be all technical about it.

Well, that's because I'm in the middle of making a little graph, to ensure that we have a good idea of what's up.

Krogoth, I don't recall your character stating where he is sitting, unless I missed it in my fatigue.

EDIT:
Anyhow, I got a rough draft of the seating plan here! Done by respective color I chosen fairly randomly.


(Blackboard)
X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X (Door leading to class?)
X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X
(Back-wall)


So far we got Mysterious Girl, Jin, Astarte, Diana, Jackson and Bart. With Dean present but unknown where exactly. (Assumingly close to the mysterious girl due to him striking up a conversation with her.)

I will be posting. When I wake up. Somehow a half asleep post just screams bad idea.

Edit: Dibs on desk closest to the door.

Ok, edited the graph above to take your dib in consideration.

Conveniently enough, most of the students are clustering around the mysterious girl, although a few a bit farther away.

Both in and out of character, I have to point out that what you meant was concrete, not cement.

Edit - When I post, Michael will be at back row, 6th seat.

Cement is only a single ingredient of concrete.

Is everyone ok with how I put everyone on the chart? Or did I misinterpret anyone's request?

I guess I meant 2nd seat, since I was aiming for the other side.

Also, you have two teal Xs.

edited both. thank you.

It must be so very sad and lonely on its own!

I'll make the relevant corrections.

What matters most is player's placement relative to one another, really. But thank you for making the chart.

Jay is not going to react well to that Scottish accent. I can imagine they will be archenemies soon enough just because listening to Dean talk reminds him of the drowning of kittens.

Will get a post in tomorrow at some point.

Yes. Jack is supposed to be sitting on the second row from the front. You know, the one nearest the blackboard.

I'll get a post up some time. I'll choose a random seat for Sean, probably in the middle row somewhere.

That's cause he isn't sitting, he's lounging against the back wall right now. He'll sit when it's good and time! He's waiting to see who's interesting to sit beside.

Just so long as you don't sit by me.

You probably smell like lizard.

Lizard doesn't smell good.

Just for that, he is going to sit by you know.

Well, I edited seatings a bit to reflect the corrections.

Also, my posting times will be a bit reduced for the next few days as I'm going on vacation. You can still expect me to have time to post though twice or thrice perhaps.

I don't have internet right now, and due to not liking sitting around at free wifi places for awhile, I won't be posting till I get internet back. Just NPC Michael along if you need to advance plot while I'm inactive.

My fault for starting from a different character's point of view(every time I tried to write the wakeup from Jay's perspective it ended up just terribly bad), but I am indeed playing Jay Miles and he was the one who fell on his ass mere moments ago.

I do not know what it is you could possibly be referring to. There were no mistakes made, and certainly no edits. And if there had been mistakes they would have nothing to do with having read the post nearly 20 hours before responding to it.

No no no. It could only be better if Tesla's ghost (who is also David Bowie) was also a teacher.

Anyway, it is a little known fact that precise control over the structure and composition of snow and ice allows you to make the best frozen confectionary ever.

And that is Professor Landry.

The post took longer than I expected to write! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did coming up with the concept. It is very long, like my last one.

Hopefully, future GM posts will be shorter. Oh, and no, there was no supernatural aura around Professor Landry. How strange!

And yes, she is just going to point to each of you, shout "You!" And expect you to stand up, talk about yourself, then sit down. She may well ignore all your very good questions!

@Dante, your mind read did not trigger. It probably won't ever work if I get the feeling you're trying to make it work - s'almost a passive skill.

@IHMN, I left Michael's whereabouts vague, he might be away from class today, or maybe he's in the classroom right now. It'll be up to you to decide which when you can post again. He's not the only student away, and there's at least two NPCs who aren't there right now. New players (if any show up) may also use this as an excuse for not being here yet.

@Krylo, yes, Feathers is the Morrigan. Professor Landry can't tell bird genders! I wonder how she caught her?

Oh, and Professor Landry's Profile, which shall be updated as we go:

Name: Professor Rebecca Landry
Gender: Female
Aura: Black
Appearance: 5'9, slim and seemingly strong with shoulder-length auburn hair and dark brown eyes, which are usually covered with a pair of thin rimmed glasses. Professor Landry is rarely seen in anything other their her long, form fitting, white lab coat and pair of high-heels. She seems to dress casually underneath this garment, usually involving a knee length skirt and a single color top. No one has ever seen her wear pants.

Race: Magical (?) Human (?) Teacher

Abilities:
??? - Professor Landry's Abilities are a mystery. Like herself.

Bio: Little is known about the Mysterious Professor of Love and Fightiology, she has been on Amaranth's staff for ten years now, and claims to be in her thirties, but looks to be in her mid-twenties. She was educated in a normal human school, and is a graduate of a normal university - somewhere in Europe, according to the records. Beyond that, information regarding her before her arrival on the Amaranth Campus is scarce. Despite this, she seems to retain the Principle's full trust.

Edit: Ah, I wonder if I over did it a little?

I don't believe there is such a thing about overdoing it. Though I will say that the degree of dramatics did inspire Jay to be a little bit dramatic himself. If this is a measure of how you earn your grade in Love and Fightiology I figure he should do fine in the class.

Also he forgot to denounce the homosexual overtones. Though he is totally not gay. I am pretty sure anyway, not like any dudes have ever hit on him. Except Daniel, but he hits on everyone so he doesn't count.

Oh wow.

Oh wow.

I think... I think I'm in love.

As a small note, Jay and Dean are now officially born enemies. I can imagine that whatever goes on from here onward will only drive them to dislike each other more.

Is this because of the sport joke? :D

*slow clap*

He can't read his mind but the brown nosing seems to be an odd first impression to have about Jay. The Hockey thing isn't major, but as a desert dweller Jay doesn't quite have the respect for it I think Dean does.

But most of all that accent is like nails on a chalkboard to Jay. Every time Dean speaks a small part of Jay will want to bust his jaw so that he could shut him up for just a second. He can handle something light like Dalbhach's, but the full force of a Scottish accent is painful.

It was the part about counting on the Professor and knowing she won't disappoint that he takes as brown nosing.

He is just trying not to die.

Actually, while we're on the topic of people who dislike Dean, I predict that his and Jack's dormroom will be more like a miniature warzone.

And there it is. Jack can put aside his social awkwardness when he's really inspired. So it should be an extremely rare occurence.

Or maybe not, if Professor Landry's going to keep being awesome. Well, there's my plan, shot in the foot. I was going to have Jack be this TOTALLY TORTURED INDIVIDUAL BECAUSE HE CAN'T TALK TO PEOPLE AW GAWD WAH WAH and now it's gone to all hell.

Teal, I don't know what the separation is between rows. I'm assuming it's not so wide that Jack can't teleport between them.

I'm pretty sure you weren't suppose to actually teleport cause ya know, keep powers a secret and all.

And what's with this hate on for Dean? Man! Why is it going to be a Warzone? The Dragon won't actually be there, well, not much. And it'll just look like a puppy.

What, Professor Landry can teleport in, abuse smoke, tentacles, axes, thunder and exploding lightbulbs, but Jack can't do one silly teleport?

but at least she hid everything with smoke and such, so we could just think it was a trap door or something.

Yeah well, "one person-length" isn't very far. And since humans are stupid, maybe they can just assume that they blinked and missed him jumping down to the first row.

And he's just really really fast? Yeah I guess that's okay, but what if there was someone sitting at that desk though, you might give him a heart attack. Silly Jack!

I'd like to join this game; submitting my character sheet for approval. I wonder how much damage she'll take for being late to class.


Name: Sao Opallios

Gender: Female

Aura: Forest Green

Appearance: Sao appears to be in her late teens, and claims to the inquisitive and prying to be nineteen. While not media-beautiful, she is saved from mediocrity by her striking hazel eyes, which boast an amber hue around the pupil, which is pierced through and surrounded by a deep emerald. Her black hair is kept short, to better fit under a tight swimmer's cap. A deep tan covers her exposed skin, consistent with an originally pale complexion spending a great deal of time under the sun. At 5'6'', Sao is used to being of average height within a given group. While not muscular, her body is well toned, as if from years of swimming. Light, loose clothes seem to suit Sao best, seen in the medium- or long-length skirts she frequently wears. Usually worn with a silk blouse, it is immediately apparent to all that her favorite color is green - all shades of green.

Race: Undine

Abilities:

Purify
Element: Yellow
Level: 2
Effect: An ability that allows her to see impurities within liquids, and do something about them. With a touch, Sao is able to purify liquids, returning them to their natural states - the impurities within them are completely destroyed by this power.

Corrodere
Element: Green
Level: 2
Undine Version: A malevolent curse, creating a thick, clear liquid that oozes out of her pores. This liquid is highly corrosive in nature, and will quickly start to eat through flesh, cloth, and most metals. Sao's skin and clothes are immune to any corrosive properties of her Corrodere, but she cannot pass that immunity on to others.


Healing Stream
Element: Light Green
Level: 2
Effect: A benevolent curse, creating a salve that naturally regenerates an injury until it is healed. Any damage healed in this way will feel cold and wet until the wound has had time to heal naturally. The salve will self-replicate and spread from the point of contact, allowing the injury to heal faster and without Sao's constant supervision.


Meltwater
Undine Version:
Element: White, Yellow
Level: 2
Effect: While still young by the standards of other naiads, Sao is learning control over her dual nature. She is able to shift at will between a human form and a purely liquid state.
As she has refined her technique, she is now able to be more selective about which limbs undergo their watery transformation. More skill has also allowed her to re-form her limbs into their human shapes more quickly.
This ability should not be used around temperature extremes, as her liquid state is not immune to freezing or evaporation.

Sao is an undine, an immortal nymph mythically linked to water. Compared to her sisters, Sao is very young, only coming into consciousness after the founding of the Amaranth Institute. Her rise to consciousness and the founding of the Institute are closely related - it is only after a long period of worship, stewardship, or loving care that a body of water can call forth its undine's spirit. The tending of the Institute's ponds, fountains and streams by Amaranth's head groundskeeper fulfilled that need. Upon discovery, it was he that gave the burgeoning water spirit her names - Sao for the Greecian Nereid, and Opallios for the gemstone quality of her eyes. As the spirit of its waters, Sao heavily dislikes travelling away from Amaranth, but will if convinced it's in the benefit of her charge.

Clubs: Swimming Club, Choir

Relationships: Kirk Ashley, head groundskeeper of Amaranth Institute. Discoverer and sponsor for Sao's admission to Amaranth Institute, he works with Sao to keep the facilities' waterways healthy and beautiful. Kirk is a parahuman, a nature magi with a focus on plants and growing things.

Ah! Riin! Welcome.

Yes, Sao is approved. I'm pleased to have her. Already looked her over via IM, after all.

You can jump into the game any time - either she's late, or she's been in the room this whole time. She might even have arrived while Professor Landry was talking! Your call.

Your last post tells another story!

But let's not dwell on the past, because the future is where the world will be tomorrow! And Professor Landry is nothing if not open minded. Besides, your most recent post has pleased the crazy lady with a big axe, so be happy.

In fact, many of the introductions have pleased her! I am so happy that she was well received.

Alas, she thinks some of you are terribly boring as well. But hey! There's still another two hundred classes to redeem yourselves!

The rows aren't that spaced out, so he could probably pull off what he just did. Jump was a little bigger than he'd probably be able to manage in battle, but this isn't a fight, so he'd have more time to focus and do it right. However, he should still feel pretty tired right now. I'll expect him to be breathing hard or something in your next post, instant movement is almost impractically hard!

If players want to flaunt their powers, that's their call. I just wouldn't recommend it, unless you have a logical explanation for how you did it. Oh, and that little stunt would have made you glow pale blue while your eyes were closed - Human players would have only seen the aura for an instant (too fast to be sure they saw anything), but Parahumans and Non-Humans saw it as a steadily building light.

And all of you realize that there are some logical explanations for everything Professor Landry did, right?

Jay does, after all he is human and the idea that magic exists is just too silly.

Cool.

Cool!

You mean logical explanations or logical magical explanations? As soon as he's rested up Jack is going to be hypothesizing on Professor Landry's ability(ies?).

Tell me, what do trap doors, sugar glass and pyrotechnics qualify as?

Odds are good that someone with one ability has a couple more. Especially if they're older.

People learn new and develop old abilities as they age, you see.

Yeah, see, but maybe she has one extremely generalized ability with an assload of levels in it.

Muffled Boom+Flash of light: Pyrotechnics
Smoke: Smoke Bomb or a smoke machine hidden under a trap door that opened
Air Blast: High Powered fan? Or something similar. Or just her being really skilled with the damn Axe?
Teacher Appearing from nothing: Trap Door.
Strange Tectacle Thing: Movie prop of some kind.

Also, Teal mentioned that we saw no Supernatural Aura around her. So yeah..as far as we can tell she did nothing magical.

Okay, yeah, it's pretty obvious to me that it was all a show.

Unfortunately, it's not that clear to Jack. And can you blame him? He's in a magical school in a still relatively new to him magical world, the craziest teacher just pulled some wacky stunts and he's supposed to be looking for the rational explanation? Fuck no, he's thinking it was just magic.

Teal said it isn't just a Magical school as apparently there are non "gifted" kids at this school. So Jack probably would have been informed b his parents about this. Again, all she did it was obvious to Jack as well that it didn't seem to be magical because during the whole thing no aura was given out.

The only person who obviously did something Magical was Jack.

...Stop using logical and rational wrong.

In a world wherein there is magic, it is perfectly logical and rational to explain things with magic.

The word you are looking for is mundane. Looking for the mundane explanation, there are mundane explanations for everything, etc. etc.

I actually hadn't intended for the mind read to trigger.

I am extremely dissappointed that there's no website called www.Directortear.com.

Hm. Me too. If I find time I'll see about making something for her. Not buying a damn web adress though, so she'll have to make do with something smaller ^^

Blah, blah, blah I take forever to post.

Some of you may be wondering why there's no introduction for the mysterious girl. The Professor seems to have forgotten to point at her! She is as confused as the rest of you.

Oh, and yes, I do expect someone to try and answer Professor Landry's question. More than one of you can shout an answer out, by the way.

The comments I made about the flames of Professor Landry's passion almost being visible? Well, that's her aura. It is black. Those who are supernaturally aware will have seen it clearly! The humans will probably have only seen something black flickering at the edge of their vision while looking at her. Trying to look at it makes it vanish!

Like an optical illusion!

@IHateMakingNames, I wasn't sure if you were still interested, but I started a secondary scene out side of the class room anyway. There is a busty pale haired blond woman who is probably a vampire staring down your Mountain Lion. I'll put a bio for her up when more information about her appears in the game itself - here is a picture of what she's wearing as a top. The outfit in the south-east-corner, to be exact.

Fun!

I am. I figured Laudry would go pull him inside or something. But this wors.

I'm so happy it was well recieved!

I'll put a new post up within a couple hours in response to Krylo and whoever else feels like posting in that time frame.

Question: I realize Landry wasn't actually using her abilities, but did Jack get to see one of her abilities while her aura was visible?

Though, that would probably be too easy a way to find out, wouldn't it?

Seriously, Professor Landry needs to stop being so awesome. Now I'll have to make Jack super extra special shy to make up for it after the class.

So that's what, super instinctual? SUPA DARK

Sean is probably the most relatively sane one here. Also most boring.

Although I bet that answer will have some repercussions.

The interesting bit is that Landry can be a Professor with completely instinctual powers and not be a Parahuman.

I mean, she's a Professor. She's smart and obviously aware of her abilities, so why/how wouldn't she have learned to control them like a Parahuman?

The possible answers are that she doesn't want to (because she's all zen like that), or that she can't.

I prefer the latter because it's more interesting.

Just to point out: Dal never stood up. He slouched, then sat up straight enough to look around, then slouched again.

He's being very subdued about the whole thing. Like it's a geometry question.

Basically. White means perfect control, or something that is heavily related to refinement. Black is the opposite. Most people won't have pure black auras, but the ones who do probably will have passive powers, by and large.

Professor Landry's aura is pure black.

Where ever did you get the idea that she was smart? Professor Landry is probably an insane axe-wielding maniac with a teaching degree!

Her black aura implies that she doesn't know about her powers. Which could mean a lot of things!

She just saw Jack teleport from one row of desks to the other.

And she knows he didn't set up in mirrors in the room.

So yeah, she probably does know about magic.

I'm not sure if the mountain lion popping up is supposed to be Michael's magic in some sort of defense mode, or the big breasted vampire initiating it with her aura flash, or something else, so leaving what it does up to you.

Could be both.

She's probably a psychic vampire or something.

In light of the recent spike of activity, it seems reasonable to sit back and wait a bit, instead of posting tonight.

Won't wait too long, maybe give it another day or three (tops) but, if any one else wants to reply, you've got a little time. Just don't wait too long - rather not have a repeat of the last round.

If it takes you a long time, you could always write up parts as people post, then just save it somewhere. If a new person posts, you add or edit the post as needed, and when the time comes you just copy and paste.

I probably saved your life just now, Dante!

If my family is any indication, we Scot's love to argue about anything! So, Dean loves to argue about anything! He also might have a temper problem...just a little one though.

Man, Dean and Jack's dormroom is not going to be a nice place.

It can't be any worse then the classroom.

I feel compelled to mention that what Sao did could very easily be mistaken for an Aura Flare. No obvious effect, spoken with some degree of passion, etc.

While I'm on that subject of Aura Flares, the accidental kind, a lot of you have managed to make your own Auras appear with all your dramatic talking and impassioned anti-love speeches.

Here's a list!

Jay, during his introduction, his aura was flickering around him the whole time. It spiked a little when he picked up his baseball bat, and a couple times though out it too.

Jackson, you already know about his Flash Move. Aura was flickering during that introduction too though.

Diana, her introduction had a pretty steady black aura goin' on. Partly because one of her abilities was active, partly because she was into it.

Dean, during his first anti-love speech, his wonderful little aura was flickering. Would have flared a few times too, if I was reading it right.

Andy, his aura flickered when Jo slapped him.

So, while its totally possible people are using magic, this kind of class would make it hard to be sure unless something obvious, like Jack's Flash Move, happened.

I am trying this!

So emotion=aura flares/flickers then?

Sean must seem pretty human right now then.

There, so I fixed mine so Dean didn't think Sao used magic.

And it wasn't anti-love per say, it was pro-strength.

Understandable, seeing as how he was using his abilities to make his coat flap around at the time.