Fandom High Dormitories

Karla and Warren had celebrated their return to their proper forms in the way that many teenagers would find appropriate: they'd headed back to the modern mainland, found a toy store, and bought a gaming system (or three). Along with the games they bought to go along with said system, they also picked up a few guitars, a keyboard, a drum set, and two microphones.

Once back in the rec room, the rest of the afternoon had been spent setting up the systems and buying every single song available for the game. Waiting for them to finish downloading actually took longer than the initial setting up, even taking in Karla's attempts to 'help'.

But now the system was set up, the songs were ready, and the instruments prepared.

Fandom High? Get ready to rock.

[Open for anyone who wants to play. not_a_parakeet modded to an ungodly degree with permission! Just a warning about SP and Karla's threads--I will be AFK all day, but if you're willing to wait until Thursday that's fine by me.]

The roof was the traditional place for brooding, and so, after the walls of her room had finally gotten stifling, that was where Karla had fled. As much as she hated to admit it, the weather was a bit of a draw as well; she wanted to rail and curse and demand gray skies and rainy days to match her mood, but she couldn't deny how nice the sun felt. It couldn't really lift her spirits, but they might have been slightly lighter after she'd been sitting out for awhile.

[Open like a roof, though warning for emo. It's likely that information about Raven will come out in conversation, so please let me know early on if this is not okay.]

The Reserves were kind of fidgety today. Karla, at least, was filled with a kind of nervous energy that made it hard to keep still. This would be a nice break from her current state of constant near-exhaustion, if it hadn't come with all kinds of, well, emotional distractions. The kind that made it hard to concentrate.

Mostly--since we're all being honest here--because her libido was racing along faster than a NASCAR driver. And she didn't even get that reference. ( snipped for sexy honesty? )

"Thanks for coming," Karla said, once everyone had assembled and had a chance to grab something to eat and drink if they were so inclined. "So, those of us who were on the island a few weeks ago remember that great chunks of the island went missing before we were able to set everything aright--including most of the town and all of the restaurants. We were lucky that it didn't last long enough for there to be a food shortage--" in part because the cafeteria had remained, even if people would argue whether the cafeteria had anything that counted as edible in it "--but the point is there could have been. Considering most of us can be described as two-legged locusts, that would have been a serious problem."

"There are any number of reasons why we might get cut off from our usual supplies: an invasion, a trip that doesn't goes as planned, a bout of Fandom weird, whatever. But there are ways we can prepare without wringing our hands and bemoaning our fates: specifically, we can learn some basic skills to let us live off the land if such a thing ever happens. Hunting, gathering, knowledge of edible, medicinal and magical plants are all useful bits of knowledge to have and might serve to keep you and your friends alive should something unexpected happen."

It took Dolf a few seconds to realise the attention was now on him. It hadn't been more than a few weeks since the last time he'd had to speak before a large audience like this, and while they were vastly different people... he scraped his throat. "Hi, I'm Dolf," he started, "I'm here to lead Support Services from now on. Uh," and now that that was out of the way, he did feel a hint of nerves. Not so much because he didn't know where to go with this, but because he hadn't been here for all of these invasions, and he wasn't sure yet what to prepare for.

"...Like Karla said, it can be very important to know what you can eat," he segued, at last. "Some might already know what is good and what is not. Some might not. Meat is also important, so is hunting. If you are under attack, or have to come up with food yourself every day--" he struggled against the English language a little. "--it is important to know these things." He leaned down and picked some leaves off the ground. "This, you can eat, if you smash it enough," he said. "Other things can make tea. There is lots in the forest to be found if you're really hungry. Not just meat, but the plants. It takes work to recognize sometimes, but it's there."

He closed his mouth, exhausted with the language, but then opened it again to point at a few random plants around them. "Edible. Poison. Uh--" He blushed. "...don't try that."

Only then did he send a questioning look in someone else's direction. He'd completely forgotten about his nerves, and now he wondered if he'd said too much.

Tara didn't think he'd said too much, but it felt like time to step in. "And, um -- people who do magic can find supplies here, too." She knelt to pick a flower. "This one is in most protection spells. The bark of that tree helps find lost objects. And the red berries on that bush over there make a good base for love spells. Not that I think people should do love spells."

Karla shook her head at Tara's last comment and stepped forward again. "Yeah. Definitely avoid the love spells. But, no matter why you might find yourself out in a place like this, it's filled with things you can use to keep yourself fed, healthy, and stocked up on spells. So, today, we're going on a scavenger hunt in the Preserve. We've got some lists of common plants, herbs, and fungi that can be found in most similar areas. See what you can gather and harvest and bring it back to compare."

[Hold on for OCD up! Co-written with the wonderful life_inshadow, swordsandsoccer, and trigons_child.]

By now, Karla was used to throwing parties at school. The set-up was easy enough: lots of food, lots of drinks, lots of games and activities, lots of space. There were some streamers and balloons up, mostly because Karla was trying to remind everyone (or, at least, herself) that this was supposed to be a happy occasion.

Really. It was. At least, that's what everyone kept telling her.

The important thing to keep in mind was that there would (probably) be no repeat of her last sixth floor party sadly. She had gone the safe an glitter-free route this time. Clad in her new pajamas, Karla waited for her guests to arrive.

[Yay for slumber parties. For girls only (and our honorary girl for the evening), up early for great SP justice. Please hold for OCD up!]

By mutual agreement, Karla and her parents decided not to talk about about what was going on in Glacia and why she was here at Fandom. They still wished to know and were biding their time; Karla had pretty much decided that telling them would be a waste of time. All they could do was feel bad about it.

Instead, they had spent the afternoon handwavily wandering around the island, with Karla pointing out fun places to hang out and explore. Her father was intrigued by all the modern technology and would have been happy to spend several hours in Karla's dorm, fiddling with the lightswitch, her ipod, and her laptop. Karla's mother, however, wanted to meet more of Karla's friends. Having been on the island for over a year now, Karla knew the best way to lure people into one place.

Several orders of takeout later, the sixth floor common room was filled with dishes from Il Pollo, the Lobster Hut, Ching Tai, and, of course, Pizza Planet. She couldn't let her parents come to Fandom and not try pizza!

[Open for any night-owls!]

There were two tables at the front of the meeting today. The first held the requisite snacks and drinks that people expected from their meetings, but the second was covered in skeins of silk, hollow wooden frames, a few small baskets of dried plants, some salt, candles, incense, and a few books.

"Kiss kiss and thanks for coming," Karla greeted when it looked like everyone had assembled. "In the past, we've talked about the different kinds of magic there are. My Craft differs from Tara's magic which differs from Raven's powers. But even a single witch or magic user may need many tools to cast the spells they know. Some spells can be accomplished with a thought or by will alone, others may need somatic and verbal components to be spoken aloud or specific hand gestures. And others still need materials. Again, because there are so many different kinds of magic, what materials are needed for a spell or ritual will vary from person to person and spell to spell--" she gestured to the second table "--but oftentimes, there is a bit of overlap."

"At home," Tara added, "you need ingredients for just about any spell, unless you, um, kind of go overboard with power. But that'll just drain you. And besides" -- she shrugged -- "most burning herbs smell kind of pretty. Helps you focus while you're chanting."

"Incense and candles also are sometimes a helpful aid for meditation," Raven said, "which can aid in focusing your powers, as can something like my chakra." She touched her fingertips to the red jewel on her forehead, then continued. "My healing gifts do not require any sort of spell components, but other spells I know do need some sort of object to focus them on, an item for the magics to be contained within." She swept her hair back so that the glow of her earrings could be seen. "These were originally simple gold earrings, but I have attached a spell of light to them. For the spell to be most effective, they had to be of pure gold and finely crafted. The better the quality of the item, the more powerful the spell."

"It's important to learn and understand some basic spell components," Karla continued. "On the one hand, if we're under attack and need to cast a spell, knowing what items are at hand will give you a better idea of what spells can be cast. Knowing the difference between rosemary and rue might be vital, especially if the magic user casting the spell can't be with you when you're collecting the materials for the spell. And, should you ever be in a position to observe an enemy spellcaster, it's good to know a little bit about what they're doing, too. Will knocking the candle over interrupt the spell or just alert the caster to your presence? If you scuff the summoning circle, will you send the evil demon back to its hell dimension or just let it loose on Fandom?"

These were some pretty important questions, okay? No one wanted to deal with ravening demons on the loose.

"So today, we're going to spend some time talking about some of the material components to our spells. Then, we're going to talk about where to find those components and the best ways to interfere with spells that rely on them."

"They kept telling me I'm not allowed to say that you'd find the stuff I use to make magic at 'Dite's," Emmett added with a grin. "So this is me not saying that, and just shutting up and listening this week."

[Co-written with the amazing life_inshadow, trigons_child and hazlehurstmiss. Please wait for the OCD is up and has been for awhile. *facepalms* Many thanks to ancientbschamp for pointing that out to me.]