.... ...... What I have so far Spoiler: Make me stooop The sky is blue, the desert is neverending, and the beings that exist between our plane and the next are particularly lively today. Welcome, new students, to Sage Canyon Academy! Hello everyone! I’m Erin Eller, vice-secretary of the Sage Canyon Academy Student Council! I’m sure many of you are wondering why some girl is speaking to you from a rusty antique radio you didn’t even know you owned- and look, I get that. It was SUPPOSED to be President Lex, but they were all “Erin, I have a date tonight so you need to do the new student broadcast!” and I was like “Um, I already filed all the student club reports for you,” and they were like, “But Erin, this will be a good opportunity for advancement and to prove yourself to the administration!” and I was like “that’s what you said about the nargle wrangling, but Ms. Kielbasa didn’t even notice!” but by then they had left me locked in the student council room with a list of important things to mention and some passive aggressive comments about my accent, soooooo here I am! Hi kids! First order of business- at 6 AM sharp on September first, leave for your nearest Greyhound bus depot. Let the first two buses come and leave and pass you by, then go to the figure asleep on the nearest bench and tell them you’re a new student. Their eyes will open, but there will be nothing there. Clenched in their hand will be what looks like a coupon for dog food, but it’s actually your ticket! Rip it from their rigid grasp and take three steps to the right, then one forward, then two to the left, and then jump in front of the bus that will be speeding towards you! It sho-will, it WILL stop an inch of two from you. Then you get on, present your ticket to the driver, and make sure you’re not going to fall off the bus when you topple backwards, fast asleep. By the time you awake, blinking and rubbing your eyes against the glare of the afternoon sun, you’ll be at Sage Mountain Academy! First years should gather next to the lake and resolutely ignore the waving tentacles beckoning you to join them in the depths as you wait for the first year representative to show you around the school and to the Mess Hall. As new students, you’ll have to find a mentor. This can be kind of tricky- I remember the first time I had to pick a mentor, I managed to choose someone who actually didn’t exist at all and didn’t even realize it until halfway through the year! Usually mentors are chosen during orientation, which is held on the second day of school, but you’re given a week to make sure you find someone who’s right for you. Here’s a few tips to choosing a mentor who’s going to help you in school, in life, and in slaying your dream copy, which is the traditional fifth year examination. First: Do they sometimes flicker like a candle? Do they cast no shadow? When you look into their eyes, deep enough that you can almost see the back of their head, is there a small seed of pure darkness, blacker than black, like a whole in the fabric of existence? Then they’re on academic probation! Choosing a mentor who’s an exceptionally poor student will probably not help you out much! Second: Don’t choose someone on the student council. I know I seem friendly, personable, and extremely unlikely to eat you, but if you tried to look straight at me you would probably be blinded, and the sigil of the council would be seared onto your tongue! Only fifth years and up- who have defeated their dream copy and therefore have no interlopers seeing through their eyes- can perceive the student council. Third: If you’re really stumped, sing out the song inside your soul. Let the notes that make up YOU float from your lips and dance throughout the hall. Listen to them drip from the walls and pool in the corners. If you sing it purely and without hesitation, someone will respond with a song the perfect reverse of yours. That is your perfect mentor. And if all else fails, just kind of huddle in the corner and I’m sure some kindly student will take pity on you and offer to be your mentor. Hope this helps!
Also, I am in favor of just a bunch of different antagonists. Some bureaucrat trying to shut down the school b/c of nexus point/headmaster, a con man, secret wizard agents looking for a criminal, a researcher, some malevolent force from one of the other worlds, ect...
I had not even thought about that. I feel like the school's main color should involve sage green suggestions? coyote (grey? brown?) turtle (green? brown?) raven (black? purple? blue?) eagle (orange? yellow?) jackrabbit (brown? grey? white?) bear (black? brown?)
I think we settled on the buildings in the cracks, with bridges running in between buildings, and a river flowing underneath (with river monsters) Can't remember if there was also a building or castle on the surface level though.
Basically, the school is the grounds for a massive ever-growing complicated messy fight. I love you, this is perfect.
My vote: coyote: Grey turtle: Green raven Black eagle Blue (for sky) jackrabbit White bear Brown Also, maybe the people trying to remove the headmaster are the same type of bigot who discriminate against werewolves and other nonhumans in HP canon?
yes. they're masking their bigotry with "concern" for the children. the headmaster just bemusedly watches and if they get too irritating, bats them aside like so many flies.
I bet they have it out for the students too, since they're obviously "corrupted" by the eldritch nature of the school.
The kids from the nearby towns get most of the attacks, cause even the bigoted bureaucrats know that they really shouldn't try anything about the headmaster without a plan. Not to say that they have very well thought out plans. (Their plans are basically on the level of "Let's kidnap a dragon!" but worse.) maybe it's like this massive underground lake, in a cavern or something that the school is attached to and so looks down onto?
there's a reason some of these kids came from hogwarts (i'm assuming that the headmaster's attitudes towards werewolves and the like are like, "Oh, huh, hello!") it changes places with the Whims Of The Thing
Spoiler: hello Hello students. My name is John Arian. I was once a senior, and then I graduated, gazing deep into the abyss of my soul, and ceased to be a being made of spinning atoms and empty void. This does not stop me from communicating to you, however. I was a Raven, and you are also a Raven considering these words are spinning in your mind like stars.
Ok so, so far we have the bigot bureaucrats (ok seriously that word needs to stop with the vowels, JFC), researcher gone bad, the perpetual malevolent force from other worlds... also - a con man? secret wizard agents looking for a criminal? A school full of students that, in a large part, don't respect authority when it's demanded? ...
Really what I want is, at some point, wacky Home Alone shenanigans but in a magic school full of magic kids on a nexus point between dimensions.
*comes down into the common room* "guys, where's the headmaster? what's going on?" *cops burst into the room* *the prank war of 2015 begins in earnest*
"Rrrm, yes," the little portly suited man said, looking again at his clipboard. Everything he said seemed to require more commas than strictly necessary. He took a drink from the goblet on the table. "Yes, hrrm, it looks as though, hrrm, all, er, dark and eldritch creatures are to be summarily stripped of authority, err, here, immediately" In the resulting uproar, almost no one noticed when he abruptly turned into a large canary.
