fandomhighdorms | Magic Reserves, The Preserve, Wednesday After Classes

Karla had been surprised how easy it was to catch the little naked baby-things. Apparently, you only needed to stand outside with someone for a little while before attracting a horde to come and shoot arrows at you. After several near-misses, the leaders of the Magic Reserve had a number of them and a few ideas for today's meeting.

"Kiss kiss," Karla said, jerking her thumb back at her shield, where the naked baby-things were milling about and pointing at the members of the reserves. They seemed quite good-natured about their captivity. "Today's activity is two-fold. The first thing we're going to do today is practice shielding. People are going to pair up and run from one side of the field to the other, trying to keep themselves and their partner from getting hit by an arrow, either by magic, ingenuity, or both. If you do get hit, the arrow won't hurt; instead, you'll find yourself madly in love for a few minutes, but it wears off quickly and we won't let you do anything stupid. That's a promise." Karla's mouth twisted a little. She really didn't like love potions, but at least with these little guys flying around, they'd all know what was wrong and why. "Which brings us to the second half of our meeting: dealing with friends when Fandom's whimsy affects their minds."

"It is probably best to make sure they are somewhere safe," Dolf tried. He was mostly lurking near Karla in hopes that that would help him stay out of the arrows' range. He was not fond of arrows. "Though sometimes that isn't possible. In that case you should probably keep them busy before they do something bad. This might sometimes be hard, so it is probably a good idea to talk about it, and to keep it in our heads at all times."

It wasn't strictly cowering what he was doing.

Tara wasn't cowering either, but the cupids got an askance look.

"And don't tease them about it, if they're sensitive," she suggested. "I get that it's tempting, but sometimes people just don't want to be reminded. Ever. I know it's tempting to film things, but I seriously think that's probably bad karma."

Even if it wasn't bad karma, it was still rude. Hilarious, but rude.

"Most of the time, people who are affected by Fandom don't try to do anything really crazy," Karla continued, "but people's feelings can be hurt or strain can be put on relationships and whatnot. An important thing to keep in mind is that those affected really aren't themselves and can't help it. Talking about things--either before or after an incident--may be very helpful, too. Open and honest communication usually is."

Glancing up at the shielded creatures, Karla nodded at the assembled members. "All right! Pair up and get ready to run!"

[Co-written with

life_inshadow and

swordsandsoccer. OCD ~~coming~~ up]

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The field itself is shielded, so only the people who are participating in the activity have to worry about getting shot at. Pair up and feel free to use whatever means at your disposal to keep you and your partner arrow-free. When you get to one side of the field, feel free to switch, and have the other partner protect you both on the way back.

Since it would hardly be fair to set up an activity and then not participate in it, Karla was there and happy to run a course with someone. She was less concerned about her turn at shielding and more worried about when she'd have to drop her shields and let someone else take care of it.

On the other hand, that was another reason for the activity, right? Trust?

"Hey! Need a partner?" Zack smiled and wandered over to Karla, trying not to look too twitchy about the little flying things.

Seriously, he didn't know if the arrows were magic or physical-based, but either way, there was ~~an app~~ a materia for that.

"Zack!" Karla looked up at him with a happy smile. "I'd love one, actually. Think you can outrun arrows of loooove?"

"I'm pretty sure I can handle it," Zack laughed, shrugging his shoulders lightly. "I've outrun way worse, after all."

This was the kid who could dodge bullets by doing a somersault. Honestly, now.

"How about you? Am I going to have to break out the materia to keep stuff from getting awkward?"

"You should be so lucky," Karla sniffed. "Whose shields do you think have been holding these little guys at bay the whole time?"

Zack bit his lip, grinning around it and shrugging.

"Well, I appreciate that, then. This meeting would get way interesting if you weren't."

Because, you know, Zack didn't already have UST with everything from perfect strangers to table legs.

"Yeah, I'm not all that fond of love spells as it is," Karla said, shaking her head. Even if it didn't already go against her peoples' views on consent, last year's debacle would have been enough to sway her. "But shielding is important and better to learn on these critters than real arrows."

"Nah, totally agreed, there," Zadk replied, nodding faintly. "I've got a couple of things that I can pull out, but they're all one-cast spells, and they're not really foolproof. But... a chance at warding them off is better than nothing, right?"

He pursed his lips a little. "I guess I could just try to knock the arrows out of the way for you, too. I'm quick enough, generally."

"I'd appreciate that," Karla said. "As much as I adore you, Zack, I'm not really all that keen on falling in love with you. ~~Wrong character.~~ I'm sure you understand."

"I have a girlfriend already," Zack replied, laughing a little. "You're nice and all, but I'm into a totally different kind of girl, already."

Yeah. The sort that could commune with flowers and heal people.

... Wait.

"That is one of the places it would get awkward," Karla agreed, dimpling a bit. "My boyfriend's another. I think we can agree love-potions would be a bad plan."

"Right," Zack agreed with a laugh. "So, how do you want to do this, then?"

So many options! Wall spells and running like hell and knocking arrows around oh my!

"You first?" Karla said, grinning. "See how well you do at protecting l'il old me?"

Leda looked for a partner. It was going to be interesting trusting someone to have her back.

Alex found the idea of today's activity kind of fun. Twirling her wand in her hand, she tried to think of some spells that could provide good protection from the albeit cute yet potentially annoying flying cupids.

Magic Reserves, The Preserve, Wednesday After Classes

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