ooc Salem University OOC (Open)

[Passion 3,484]

This did not exactly played into my hand but gave me a few new cards to play.

And one's a joker.

I have a choice for Ley, which is actually based on all that transpired previously. She could go and attempt to stop Dru, but right now it certainly wouldn't be for the sake of University, as the faculty in her eyes is proving to be at the very least irresponsible and unsuited for work

Technically tho, if things went differently, I'd have her just do it for the sake of University so she can use it to achieve her goals. Right now she can hardly be bothered as to what happens with it.

 

But I guess it might be good time to introduce one of the summons.

[dragon4111 914]

@Denim&Venom

Umm there is a parking lot.

@Denim&Venom

Is that whole driving thing before or after Ghalan set the tank down and left it?

[Denim&Venöm 18,955]

51 minutes ago, dragon4111 said:

@Denim&Venom

Umm there is a parking lot.

@Denim&Venom

Is that whole driving thing before or after Ghalan set the tank down and left it?

It's after he left the classroom.

@Duality where is Salem again? Last I checked it was on an island with an undisclosed location. So why would there be a parking lot? 

[dragon4111 914]

@Denim&Venom

Alright better question how is she driving it when there is no traction?

[Denim&Venöm 18,955]

3 minutes ago, dragon4111 said:

@Denim&Venom

Alright better question how is she driving it when there is no traction?

No I mean she'll go back and get it later.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

5 hours ago, Passion said:

This did not exactly played into my hand but gave me a few new cards to play.

And one's a joker.

I have a choice for Ley, which is actually based on all that transpired previously. She could go and attempt to stop Dru, but right now it certainly wouldn't be for the sake of University, as the faculty in her eyes is proving to be at the very least irresponsible and unsuited for work

Technically tho, if things went differently, I'd have her just do it for the sake of University so she can use it to achieve her goals. Right now she can hardly be bothered as to what happens with it.

 

But I guess it might be good time to introduce one of the summons.

In a way Dru is actually having the same problem Ley is. She doesnt see the point of the class at all, especially with all the insanity that transpired. Difference is emotional regulation in Dru is a bit of an issue lol. 

I dont really think itd make sense for Ley to try and stop her. If anything they're kinda on the same page.

[Passion 3,484]

54 minutes ago, Buck Testa said:

In a way Dru is actually having the same problem Ley is. She doesnt see the point of the class at all, especially with all the insanity that transpired. Difference is emotional regulation in Dru is a bit of an issue lol. 

I dont really think itd make sense for Ley to try and stop her. If anything they're kinda on the same page.

Oh but there is one very good reason.

 

Publicity.

 

You've described in your post how everyone basically covered. It is not told that this has to be resolved by force, but standing up to Dru in her current rising state would definitely yield some renown considering how she is currently a little bit of feared across the campus due to her potential dangerous behaviours.

 

I am currently weighing however what I actually want to do now.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

5 hours ago, Passion said:

Oh but there is one very good reason.

 

Publicity.

 

You've described in your post how everyone basically covered. It is not told that this has to be resolved by force, but standing up to Dru in her current rising state would definitely yield some renown considering how she is currently a little bit of feared across the campus due to her potential dangerous behaviours.

 

I am currently weighing however what I actually want to do now.

I will point out though, thanks to @Duality 's stipulation that the Bracers that are holding her power back would Turn OFF if someone attacks her, you'd basically be fighting Dru at full strength. While Dru cannot initiate combat at full power, if someone initiates her they will trigger Duality's safeguard. 

Which is fine I suppose, but if this keeps up I don't think there will be a University left XD

[Duality 10,740]

12 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

It's after he left the classroom.

@Duality where is Salem again? Last I checked it was on an island with an undisclosed location. So why would there be a parking lot? 

To park all the cars that drive through the 'front gate'-equivalent portal. Dru rolled up in a limousine, after all. 

[Denim&Venöm 18,955]

13 minutes ago, Duality said:

To park all the cars that drive through the 'front gate'-equivalent portal. Dru rolled up in a limousine, after all. 

But if there are portals to walk through, why would anyone drive? Having a car being able to go through sounds like a security risk. 

[Buck Testa 5,505]

Actually Dru had an entourage of limos lol 

[Duality 10,740]

53 minutes ago, Denim&Venom said:

But if there are portals to walk through, why would anyone drive? Having a car being able to go through sounds like a security risk. 

The portals leading into Salem are all fixed-location, meaning those who live an unwalkable distance away from the external end of a SU portal need to be able to park either near the external ends or on University grounds (and since most external ends of Salem portals are in major cities, the latter is far cheaper). Only a handful of senior teachers who don't live on campus have secure portals linking directly to their outside homes; most teachers either live on campus or live near one of the buildings housing the external end of a Salem portal. It's not much of an increase in risk if your portals are already code-locked and surrounded by a level of security appropriate for what basically equate to magical embassies.

[Denim&Venöm 18,955]

1 minute ago, Duality said:

The portals leading into Salem are all fixed-location, meaning those who live an unwalkable distance away from the external end of a SU portal need to be able to park either near the external ends or on University grounds (and since most external ends of Salem portals are in major cities, the latter is far cheaper). Only a handful of senior teachers who don't live on campus have secure portals linking directly to their outside homes; most teachers either live on campus or live near one of the buildings housing the external end of a Salem portal. It's not much of an increase in risk if your portals are already code-locked and surrounded by a level of security appropriate for what basically equate to magical embassies.

Are these embassies known or are they and by extension the teachers true jobs hidden from the public? Does the broader world know of Salem and it's students? 

[Duality 10,740]

26 minutes ago, Denim&Venom said:

Are these embassies known or are they and by extension the teachers true jobs hidden from the public? Does the broader world know of Salem and it's students? 

The larger embassies are, certainly, although some of the smaller ones keep a lower profile. The broader world very much knows of Salem and its students.

[Denim&Venöm 18,955]

Just now, Duality said:

The larger embassies are, certainly, although some of the smaller ones keep a lower profile. The broader world very much knows of Salem and its students.

I imagine that's probably made those embassies and the student of Salem potential targets. Access to the largest collection of magical beings and supplies on earth? Who wouldn't want to acquire/ destroy that? 

[Duality 10,740]

3 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

I imagine that's probably made those embassies and the student of Salem potential targets. Access to the largest collection of magical beings and supplies on earth? Who wouldn't want to acquire/ destroy that? 

Indeed, but only the most foolhardy of mages or non-mages alike would attempt to break into a place with top-of-the-line magical security plus the largest concentration of combat-magic users on earth. Kidnapping of students has occurred in the past, for ransoming to Salem or breaking into Salem using their ID, but the University has several diplomatic agreements in place with local governments for such circumstances that allow them to immediately retrieve their students using very close to any means necessary (generally regrettable for the kidnappers), and security is tight enough that nobody can take the place of a student without sharing nearly all of their biological characteristics (excessively heightened emotion is also taken into account as part of standard security procedures to protect against cases of blackmail). The risk of actual malicious murder of students is why in general they live on campus and don't go out much, although not many mundanes have enough of a grudge against mages to try and kill someone with even fledgling combat magic (especially given how hard it is for any outsider to determine which students have only fledgling combat magic). Protective amulets are always available from the school administration, too, for any student who feels they might need it.

[Denim&Venöm 18,955]

@Duality

So, world building idea.

We've confirmed that ponies exist here. Not horse pelijae, ponies. So why not have Equestria exist too?

Granted it won't be the world power it is in the show. If anything it's a borderline 3rd world country, every city looking like ponyville. 

At least, that's what they want the world to think.

In reality Equestria is the most advanced nation on earth, having discovered and harnessed magic millenia before the world confirmed it and having the highest concentration of enchanted of any nation on earth, doubling the confirmed number of enchanted on earth.

And because of this, they kept their true nature hidden from the rest of the world, even to this day, debate raging within on whether they should unveil themselves to a more magic savy world. 

Citizens traveling abroad are sworn to secrecy. Only the highest mages know of the truth. 

Heck, we can even spin this so that Equestrians are from another dimension, the nation transporting itself to earth a millenia ago when everything was going to tarturus in a hand basket (discord, Sombra, tirek, etc). Heck, they could be the reason for the dimensioal incursions that inspired the school. 

So basically, Equestria is Asguard meets Wakanda. 

 

[Duality 10,740]

18 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

@Duality

So, world building idea.

We've confirmed that ponies exist here. Not horse pelijae, ponies. So why not have Equestria exist too?

Granted it won't be the world power it is in the show. If anything it's a borderline 3rd world country, every city looking like ponyville. 

At least, that's what they want the world to think.

In reality Equestria is the most advanced nation on earth, having discovered and harnessed magic millenia before the world confirmed it and having the highest concentration of enchanted of any nation on earth, doubling the confirmed number of enchanted on earth.

And because of this, they kept their true nature hidden from the rest of the world, even to this day, debate raging within on whether they should unveil themselves to a more magic savy world. 

Citizens traveling abroad are sworn to secrecy. Only the highest mages know of the truth. 

We can even spin this so that Equestrians are from another dimension, the nation transporting itself to earth a millenia ago when everything was going to tarturus in a hand basket (discord, Sombra, tirek, etc). They could be the reason for the dimensioal incursions that inspired the school. 

So basically, Equestria is Asguard meets Wakanda. 

This is some Illuminati-level worldbuilding. 

You could spin it one better and make Equestria have teleported here multiple millennia ago such that all Pelajae and magic users are in fact distant descendants of humans and some adventurous sojourners from among Equestria's inhabitants - starting with the more human-shaped among them (read: Klugetown-level anthros) and gradually progressing to a fully blended gene pool, with Equestria proper keeping itself isolated from the developing planet around it for the sake of a natural growth curve of humankind. I can't help feeling that you want Angelscape to be a secrecy-sworn citizen, however. 

[dragon4111 914]

@Denim&Venom

Might I tell you that tanks aren't street legal either so Miko would be in deep shit.

[Passion 3,484]

I would prefer to keep Equestria out of this RP. I fail to see what role or purpose it would fulfill for the sake of RP, story and world creation to actually have it here. One of the reasons I came here was because this was not Equestria related therefore gave me the opportunity to participate in different set of events and speak of different things other than ponies.

What logical reasoning is there to turn it into a crossover of sorts now?

[Denim&Venöm 18,955]

4 hours ago, dragon4111 said:

@Denim&Venom

Might I tell you that tanks aren't street legal either so Miko would be in deep shit.

They actually can be. You just have to replace the steel treads with rubber ones. Which Miko has. 

3 hours ago, Duality said:

This is some Illuminati-level worldbuilding. 

You could spin it one better and make Equestria have teleported here multiple millennia ago such that all Pelajae and magic users are in fact distant descendants of humans and some adventurous sojourners from among Equestria's inhabitants - starting with the more human-shaped among them (read: Klugetown-level anthros) and gradually progressing to a fully blended gene pool, with Equestria proper keeping itself isolated from the developing planet around it for the sake of a natural growth curve of humankind. I can't help feeling that you want Angelscape to be a secrecy-sworn citizen, however. 

Good ideas. 

Equestria could've been indirectly responsible for many a historic event, like the biblical flood, the midevil ice age, and even the bronze age collapse. 

We could say they took the places of a few countries. Equestria could have Greenland and the Crystal Empire Iceland. Could even be why we have our alternate history, like the Vikings managing to not only discover North America, but colonize it too, thanks to Equestria having a port for them to use. 

34 minutes ago, Passion said:

I would prefer to keep Equestria out of this RP. I fail to see what role or purpose it would fulfill for the sake of RP, story and world creation to actually have it here. One of the reasons I came here was because this was not Equestria related therefore gave me the opportunity to participate in different set of events and speak of different things other than ponies.

What logical reasoning is there to turn it into a crossover of sorts now?

I think it'll help cause this RP isn't very magical as it is. Right now it feels more like X-men meets RWBY. Incorporating Equestria could really expand on the mystisism of this world. Better balance out the magic with the modern. 

Besides, I doubt it'll change much. This is more for world building and future plot points. We still have only two ponies in the whole cast and the RP will still center around Salem. It's gonna be a while before we even start talking about Equestria and it's relation to the world, let alone visiting it anytime soon. 

[Passion 3,484]

7 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

I think it'll help cause this RP isn't very magical as it is. Right now it feels more like X-men meets RWBY.

Well, guess I need to say this now.

One of the reasons for it feeling not "very magical" is all the world building that's been done around the governments, laws, rules, diplomacy etc etc that has been established along the course of this OOC. It is basically a set of restrictions which force our characters to actually discard free use of magic for the sake of their own safety and not falling into trouble with the authorities. Nothing ever said that the development cannot go more fantasy styled, brimming with power characters capable of massive destruction. However, we've taken the other route as I understand so far based on world building. (Except of Buck's Dru, who just doesn't give a damn :D)

What exactly would you want to change actually to make it more magical? What are you actually missing? Because where you want to have Equestria injected, I want to have it surgically removed. One of the big reasons why I decided to join this RP is because it was cut off from MLP completely. And honestly speaking, I simply do not want to see those ties being made anew for no reason other than "because we can". Equestria's mysticism is not this world mysticism. Rather than transporting Equestrian magical rules to this world, I'd very much like to work upon creating this worlds own mysticism rathen than adapt something already preestablished.

What is the source of magic in this world? How is it connected to people who control it? How do non-magical people perceive it? Is it some some kind of set of points on the surface that emanate powerful energies? Or is it some kind of unknown being, chosing the ones who will receive its gift on the random? How was it discovered in the first place? Was that Earth a medieval fantasy setting with fairytale creatures which were later hunt down and went extinct? Are there still primal forces known to us from many movies, games and books in play; like dryads, elementals, spirits etc still roaming around?

Even something I've already discussed for pure fun with Duality, but it was not mentioned yet because I guess neither of us is in any rush for it. Elemental allignments. Something that would actually give our characters more essence in terms of their powers and who they were. Ley's alligned to dark magic, ergo her summons come from planes of rather monstrous beings which would instill fear and would be perceived as dangerous just based on how they look. Due to that allignment, I really see no reason for her, nor even point, to be able to summon for example some sort of angelic beings. Or even water elementals. Or whatever of the sort that does not fit her.

 

[Buck Testa 5,505]

Gonna have to agree with @Passion on this one on not wanting Equestria in this. It's got its own unique flavor to it that I quite like, and I'd rather it not be flooded with pony ocs and ruin the aesthetic. In fact I'd go so far as to say I'd rather ponies be not in it in general but that's up to Duality. It just raises way too many questions. 

Also, we're going to need to figure out how a fight between Ley and Dru would go at some point with Duality. Dru is very powerful and versatile, but I still don't really know what Ley's abilities really are besides summoning. There's also the whole 1% thing, which has been raising a lot of confusion as to what that actually means, cause I think Duality thinks its smaller than it actually is and might try to downplay Dru for a fight, which I'm not entirely okay with.  

[Denim&Venöm 18,955]

21 minutes ago, Passion said:

Well, guess I need to say this now.

One of the reasons for it feeling not "very magical" is all the world building that's been done around the governments, laws, rules, diplomacy etc etc that has been established along the course of this OOC. It is basically a set of restrictions which force our characters to actually discard free use of magic for the sake of their own safety and not falling into trouble with the authorities. Nothing ever said that the development cannot go more fantasy styled, brimming with power characters capable of massive destruction. However, we've taken the other route as I understand so far based on world building.

What exactly would you want to change actually to make it more magical? What are you actually missing? Because where you want to have Equestria injected, I want to have it surgically removed. One of the big reasons why I decided to join this RP is because it was cut off from MLP completely. And honestly speaking, I simply do not want to see those ties being made anew for no reason other than "because we can". Equestria's mysticism is not this world mysticism. Rather than transporting Equestrian magical rules to this world, I'd very much like to work upon creating this worlds own mysticism rathen than adapt something already preestablished.

What is the source of magic in this world? How is it connected to people who control it? How do non-magical people perceive it? Is it some some kind of set of points on the surface that emanate powerful energies? Or is it some kind of unknown being, chosing the ones who will receive its gift on the random? How was it discovered in the first place? Was that Earth a medieval fantasy setting with fairytale creatures which were later hunt down and went extinct? Are there still primal forces known to us from many movies, games and books in play; like dryads, elementals, spirits etc still roaming around?

Even something I've already discussed for pure fun with Duality, but it was not mentioned yet because I guess neither of us is in any rush for it. Elemental allignments. Something that would actually give our characters more essence in terms of their powers and who they were. Ley's alligned to dark magic, ergo her summons come from planes of rather monstrous beings which would instill fear and would be perceived as dangerous just based on how they look. Due to that allignment, I really see no reason for her, nor even point, to be able to summon for example some sort of angelic beings. Or even water elementals. Or whatever of the sort that does not fit her.

 

I'm not saying we take what we've made and ship it to Equestria. If anything we're taking Equestria and making it conform to the world we've already set up. It's not taking over, it's only becoming part, and a small part at that. Heck, Equestria wasn't even the only example of world borrowing I was gonna use. I had ideas for several whole nations made for other Pelijae. I was just giving pony ones a logical in for our universe, rather than just making them anthro-horses. We're not gonna have friendship lessons or Twilight Time shenanigans. If anything, Equestria would make a good contrast to how differently matters of magic and learning would be handled in Salem and abroad.

I guess what I meant when I said it isn't very magical is that we haven't really had anything to make it different from a super hero setting. People are getting very specific powers in the wake of dimensional wackiness. We don't really do incantations, hand gestures, use wands, potions, scrolls, books or familiars to cast spells. Our characters just do. Naruto and DBZ are more magical then what we have. There's nothing setting our 'magic' apart from super powers. The fact that we've further compounded matters by making everyone tied to a specific element or natural force has limited what we can do with this magical setting. What good are the teachers in this school if they only work for specific elements, elements that not every teacher represents or not every student has? We've backed ourselves into a corner, so the only way to keep the magic so to speak is through the world building.

In short, our game is kinda broken from the get go and I want a magical Wakanda for my horse people to come from. 

[Buck Testa 5,505]

@Denim&Venom I think you're missing something pretty big here. 

 

We are at this school to LEARN those spells and incantations and potions and scrolls and what not. Yes Dru doesn't say incantations and stuff for now, but that is specifically because she has no idea how. I've made that pretty clear in her characterization that she's really just winging it with her magic and that she's woefully uneducated in how it all really works, which has lead to a lot of dangerous situations. Dru is powerful sure, but she's going to school to learn how to control that power WITH all that stuff you mentioned. 

In other words, it's not magical yet because school hasn't really started yet. Once the students start learning the spells they'll start using them. I'm certainly looking forward to do that with Dru.