Honey, I Shrunk The Magic Class - Log 1
Feb. 20th, 2017 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_daytripper posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsIt's a magic class day like any other. Until it isn't.
"Oi, you lot, settle down. We're losing class time." Amanda dumped one of her heavier magic books down on the desk with a bang to get the attention of the somewhat rowdy group. Then again, it was mid-winter vacation, and here they were in class. "I've got something fun for you today, something which a couple of you have tinkered with already."
Clea was sitting the closest to Amanda with her hands clasped together in front of her. Magic class was one of her favorite classes as she wanted to expand her knowledge in the field. "Does it involve going outside?" Magic may be her favorite but going outside was also a good idea as well.
"Does it involve running around outside?" Stephen asked hopefully, it was too nice a winter’s day to be stuck inside. "Wait wait," the teen held up his hands and grinned at Amanda, "Are you going to teach us to play the magical equivalent of Shaolin Soccer? Cause that would be pretty awesome!" He always found magic a little easier if he had something to focus his power through, and making a ball jump around with various magical powers sounded like a great way to spend the day to Stephen.
"Or flying?" Megan piped up. Design school was out for the break and doing something outside seemed like a lovely idea.
Amanda's expression had fallen somewhat as the suggestions were made. "Note to self, don't try and talk up the lesson, just teach it," she muttered mostly to herself. "Actually, we're going to work on size changing magic. Making things big, making them small, that sort of thing." At the slightly crestfallen expressions, she added. "Once you get the hang of it, we can head out to the quarry and you can turn boulders into pebbles."
Topaz was sitting on a desk, legs crossed under herself, chin resting her hand. "Shrinking's fun," she supplied helpfully, subtly trying to build up Amanda's ego. Unfortunately she was the oldest person in the class at this point - she remembered the lessons they'd done in the old world. Even if she tried not to think about that too much.
"Ooo." Clea perked up, maybe they could help Cata become her normal size again. "I like this type of spell. It is complex and deeply woven into the object or being you are trying to shrink. Steve and I have accidentally destroyed things from trying this. Even with Cata it was hard."
"In our defence it was mainly trial and error, and we blew most things up when we tried out a spell on them, or turned them green, there were a lot of green rocks hidden around the woods of the camp ground," the teen reminisced. "What do we practice on before we start on those boulders?"
"These." Amanda pulled a plastic bag out of her book bag and held it up. It was full of plastic green Army figures which she'd bought at the local toy store. "You'll be working on making them bigger and then shrinking them again, and since they cost a buck a bag, you don't need to worry about explosions and the like."
Megan's pink hair shifted as she tilted her head and eyed the bag. "I've never tried this kind of spell before," she said aloud as she considered the possibilities. "You know what would be so cute? Taking regular-sized foods and making them tiny. Actually, making any regular-sized thing tiny."
Topaz caught the bag as Amanda tossed to her. Looked like she was the one passing them out. She pulled one out to examine it as she passed them around, noting the rather sharp tiny plastic bayonets some of them were holding. "Just make sure all you do is shrink them and accidentally blow them up," she said pointedly, mostly to Stephen, as she gave each kid an army man.
"Well, it's not like I can turn them green," Stephen pointed out hefting the figure and grinning at Topaz, "I promise not to bring them to life, on purpose anyway, though no promises about us not ending up with life sized army men statues."
Clea turned her head toward Steve, "Don't jinx us! I don't want to imagine what they would look like being taller than us." She took a green man and looked at him. "His face is half melted. Bloody nightmares for weeks!"
"All right, let's get to work." Amanda held up her own plastic figure. "Now, the thing to remember is..."
***
"...Nice job, Megan, I think you've got it. Clea, give it another go, this time with a bit more power, you're nearly there." Amanda was walking around her students as they worked the spell. A puff of smoke and an exclamation from Stephen made her snort. "Topaz, I think Stephen needs another Army bloke." A clap of the hands brought up her shielding spell around the smoke before it could set off the smoke alarms, and another gesture moved it towards the open window.
Topaz was having her own fun with the army men - she had swiped a few and was marching them around on the desk, watching them fight each other. When Amanda called her name she waved a quick hand to disable all her men and snatched one up to hand it over to Stephen.
"There you go."
"Amanda, oh good, I was hoping to find you here," Billy's voice came from the doorway, followed momentarily by his figure. "I wanted to..." he paused, realizing they weren't alone. He glanced around the room, taking in the activity. "Shrinking stuff? That's pretty cool. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."
"Look Billy, my army guy has his own toy army guy!" Megan exclaimed. "I wonder if I could make one even smaller..."
There wasn't time for anyone else to say anything, as the tendrils of chaos magic heralding Billy's arrival mixed with Amanda's shielding spell, the animation spell Topaz had used on her figurines, the residue of Stephen and Clea's magic and the shrinking spell Megan was casting. There was a POP of in-rushing air, the room spun and distorted sickeningly and then a disorienting jerk.
"Ow," muttered Amanda to herself as she picked herself up off the floor. "Is everyone all right?"
Billy started to get up, then paused to let the vertigo pass. "Woah, what happened? Did we teleport somewhere?" he asked as he looked around, trying to get his bearings. "Where are we?"
"I...I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Stephen noted pushing himself to his feet. The teen made a show of petting himself down, "everything's attached and working," he reported holding out a hand to Clea, "You ok?"
Clea barely got a squeal out when the sudden rush came and went. She was sitting on the floor and looked up as she reached up to take his hand but her eyes went past him. "Bloody hell. Is that....MY BAG? WE ARE TINY!"
Megan, who had been staring up at an impossible world, reframed what she was seeing in this new context. "Oh you're right! We've shrunk ourselves. And our voices sound weird."
She flew to the top of a desk. Sure enough, there was plastic Joe, looking huge and horrifying with extra plastic bits around his limbs and not-too-distinct facial features.
Topaz felt like someone was squeezing on her head. She groaned, rubbing her temples as she looked around. "What the hell?"
Megan's admiration of plastic Joe was rudely interrupted as he was batted aside by...other soldier men. Joe tumbled to the ground, and Topaz's head snapped up to see the army men she'd been animating before hopping off the desk, tiny weapons reared and ready to attack.
"...Fuck."
"Oh bloody buggering hell." Amanda groaned as she looked at the oncoming plastic army. "I'll never live this one down. All right, I can fix this. Bunch up and I'll do the counter spell."
They gathered close around the eldest witch and waited as she did the reversal spell. Nothing. She did it again, hand movements a little more forceful. Still nothing. Amanda swore under her breath, certain words she tended not to use in front of her students, and tried one more time. Nothing. And still the green plastic men, twice their current size, approached awkwardly on their plastic bases, like snowboarders without snow. "Houston, we have a problem. I don't have enough power to do the counter."
"I knew I shouldn't have gotten out of bed today, Let me try," Billy said. He turned away from the army men, trying to focus and put words to a spell. "I want us to return to our proper sizes again." Nothing. He tried again, and one more. "Ok, new plan. I want to take us to the library," he chanted, taking the first safe place that came to mind. Again, nothing. "Not. Good."
"Guys," Stephen whispered urgently reaching out to tug Amanda's shoulder and turn her around, "I think we have a bigger problem than magic power, much bigger." The teen pointed at the advancing plastic men. "They don't seem to be too happy with us for bringing them to life."
Clea backed up from the advancing men, "Stop." She moved her hands to complete the spell and was able to freeze one of the men in its tracks. "Bollocks. Well, one down another half a dozen to go."
Megan popped back into the air. She summoned her magic, but it wouldn't come. She could feel it pressing against her soul, but it felt somehow too thick to pass through to her. Her dust rose to the surface of her skin, reacting to her need to defend herself.
"I can't use my magic either," she said shaking her head. "Shall we find out what my dust does to animated plastic?"
Nothing was the rather obvious answer to that question. The plastic men didn't even react as the dust settled on their tiny green bodies. Topaz ducked as one swung a plastic bayonet at her head, waving a hand automatically to disable it. Doing this one at a time wasn't going to work.
"In light of any other options that would involve fighting, may I suggest we run?"
"Head for the door," was Amanda's response. "We should be able to squeeze underneath where they'll get stuck. Then we can try and get someone's attention and work out a way to fix this mess." She glanced over at Billy. "You and Topaz go first, I'll cover us from behind."
Billy nodded, and crackling electricity appeared around his hands. "Well, at least that still works. For all the good it's likely to do to plastic." He looked over to Topaz, motioning that he was ready, the started his sprint toward the door.
Stephen waved a hand at the nearest army man watching in satisfaction as the green man's bayonet started to bubble and melt rapidly dissolving into a green goo which started to creep up the toys rifle. "Ladies first," he noted turning to make sure Clea and Megan had started for the door before he started moving that way himself.
Clea started moved to the door in a run, "Is it just me or does the door seem farther away than normal?"
"It feels..." Megan began as she zipped toward the door - and was there almost instantly. "Like a dragonfly would feel?" she said, momentarily stunned with surprise. Her tiny wings seemed amazingly fast. She dropped to the floor and wriggled through the crack on her belly. "C'mon, you're nearly there," she urged from the other side.
Topaz skidded to a halt at the door. It was closed, of course, but the gap at the bottom was big enough that they could just crawl under. "Clea, Stephen, come on, you first!"
Stephen slowed to allow Clea to reach the door first before dropping to the floor and wriggling his way underneath the door. "You know, this feels just like camp again with the obstacle courses, I thought we came here to get away from that."
Clea started to wiggle under the door as well, "No. We came here because we shrunk Cata and caused chaos for that reality show. And now we have shrunk ourselves and chaos is following us! It is karma." She reached the other side and stood up.
"Welcome to my world," Billy said wryly. "Chaos follows me everywhere I go." He crouched beside the door, watching the approaching army while the others crawled under. As he waited, he worked at forming a small shield. He didn't think those plastic guns could shoot anything, but you never knew. He glanced at their progress throughout the door, then called out, "Amanda, ready!" before shimmying under himself.
The blonde glanced over her shoulder and nodded. She'd picked up a paperclip from the floor and was using it as an over-large weapon, swinging it at any plastic figure that got too close. Now she dropped it and sprinted for the door, rolling underneath it and fetching up against huddled group. "Topaz, we're gunna talk about you thing with animating stuff," she said, puffing slightly as she picked herself up. "But not now. Now we..." She frowned as a sort of roaring noise, unnoticed before while they were distracted, suddenly registered. Amanda looked past her students and associates and her eyes widened.
"Oh, FUCK!"
That was all she was able to get out as from around the corner came the bogglingly large shape of the cleaning lady's faithful upright vacuum cleaner. The shrunken-down group tried to flee, but the machine's progress was inexorable and the hall so very, very long. There was a faint blur of light from a shielding spell, and then the group was gone, sucked into oblivion.
"Oi, you lot, settle down. We're losing class time." Amanda dumped one of her heavier magic books down on the desk with a bang to get the attention of the somewhat rowdy group. Then again, it was mid-winter vacation, and here they were in class. "I've got something fun for you today, something which a couple of you have tinkered with already."
Clea was sitting the closest to Amanda with her hands clasped together in front of her. Magic class was one of her favorite classes as she wanted to expand her knowledge in the field. "Does it involve going outside?" Magic may be her favorite but going outside was also a good idea as well.
"Does it involve running around outside?" Stephen asked hopefully, it was too nice a winter’s day to be stuck inside. "Wait wait," the teen held up his hands and grinned at Amanda, "Are you going to teach us to play the magical equivalent of Shaolin Soccer? Cause that would be pretty awesome!" He always found magic a little easier if he had something to focus his power through, and making a ball jump around with various magical powers sounded like a great way to spend the day to Stephen.
"Or flying?" Megan piped up. Design school was out for the break and doing something outside seemed like a lovely idea.
Amanda's expression had fallen somewhat as the suggestions were made. "Note to self, don't try and talk up the lesson, just teach it," she muttered mostly to herself. "Actually, we're going to work on size changing magic. Making things big, making them small, that sort of thing." At the slightly crestfallen expressions, she added. "Once you get the hang of it, we can head out to the quarry and you can turn boulders into pebbles."
Topaz was sitting on a desk, legs crossed under herself, chin resting her hand. "Shrinking's fun," she supplied helpfully, subtly trying to build up Amanda's ego. Unfortunately she was the oldest person in the class at this point - she remembered the lessons they'd done in the old world. Even if she tried not to think about that too much.
"Ooo." Clea perked up, maybe they could help Cata become her normal size again. "I like this type of spell. It is complex and deeply woven into the object or being you are trying to shrink. Steve and I have accidentally destroyed things from trying this. Even with Cata it was hard."
"In our defence it was mainly trial and error, and we blew most things up when we tried out a spell on them, or turned them green, there were a lot of green rocks hidden around the woods of the camp ground," the teen reminisced. "What do we practice on before we start on those boulders?"
"These." Amanda pulled a plastic bag out of her book bag and held it up. It was full of plastic green Army figures which she'd bought at the local toy store. "You'll be working on making them bigger and then shrinking them again, and since they cost a buck a bag, you don't need to worry about explosions and the like."
Megan's pink hair shifted as she tilted her head and eyed the bag. "I've never tried this kind of spell before," she said aloud as she considered the possibilities. "You know what would be so cute? Taking regular-sized foods and making them tiny. Actually, making any regular-sized thing tiny."
Topaz caught the bag as Amanda tossed to her. Looked like she was the one passing them out. She pulled one out to examine it as she passed them around, noting the rather sharp tiny plastic bayonets some of them were holding. "Just make sure all you do is shrink them and accidentally blow them up," she said pointedly, mostly to Stephen, as she gave each kid an army man.
"Well, it's not like I can turn them green," Stephen pointed out hefting the figure and grinning at Topaz, "I promise not to bring them to life, on purpose anyway, though no promises about us not ending up with life sized army men statues."
Clea turned her head toward Steve, "Don't jinx us! I don't want to imagine what they would look like being taller than us." She took a green man and looked at him. "His face is half melted. Bloody nightmares for weeks!"
"All right, let's get to work." Amanda held up her own plastic figure. "Now, the thing to remember is..."
***
"...Nice job, Megan, I think you've got it. Clea, give it another go, this time with a bit more power, you're nearly there." Amanda was walking around her students as they worked the spell. A puff of smoke and an exclamation from Stephen made her snort. "Topaz, I think Stephen needs another Army bloke." A clap of the hands brought up her shielding spell around the smoke before it could set off the smoke alarms, and another gesture moved it towards the open window.
Topaz was having her own fun with the army men - she had swiped a few and was marching them around on the desk, watching them fight each other. When Amanda called her name she waved a quick hand to disable all her men and snatched one up to hand it over to Stephen.
"There you go."
"Amanda, oh good, I was hoping to find you here," Billy's voice came from the doorway, followed momentarily by his figure. "I wanted to..." he paused, realizing they weren't alone. He glanced around the room, taking in the activity. "Shrinking stuff? That's pretty cool. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."
"Look Billy, my army guy has his own toy army guy!" Megan exclaimed. "I wonder if I could make one even smaller..."
There wasn't time for anyone else to say anything, as the tendrils of chaos magic heralding Billy's arrival mixed with Amanda's shielding spell, the animation spell Topaz had used on her figurines, the residue of Stephen and Clea's magic and the shrinking spell Megan was casting. There was a POP of in-rushing air, the room spun and distorted sickeningly and then a disorienting jerk.
"Ow," muttered Amanda to herself as she picked herself up off the floor. "Is everyone all right?"
Billy started to get up, then paused to let the vertigo pass. "Woah, what happened? Did we teleport somewhere?" he asked as he looked around, trying to get his bearings. "Where are we?"
"I...I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Stephen noted pushing himself to his feet. The teen made a show of petting himself down, "everything's attached and working," he reported holding out a hand to Clea, "You ok?"
Clea barely got a squeal out when the sudden rush came and went. She was sitting on the floor and looked up as she reached up to take his hand but her eyes went past him. "Bloody hell. Is that....MY BAG? WE ARE TINY!"
Megan, who had been staring up at an impossible world, reframed what she was seeing in this new context. "Oh you're right! We've shrunk ourselves. And our voices sound weird."
She flew to the top of a desk. Sure enough, there was plastic Joe, looking huge and horrifying with extra plastic bits around his limbs and not-too-distinct facial features.
Topaz felt like someone was squeezing on her head. She groaned, rubbing her temples as she looked around. "What the hell?"
Megan's admiration of plastic Joe was rudely interrupted as he was batted aside by...other soldier men. Joe tumbled to the ground, and Topaz's head snapped up to see the army men she'd been animating before hopping off the desk, tiny weapons reared and ready to attack.
"...Fuck."
"Oh bloody buggering hell." Amanda groaned as she looked at the oncoming plastic army. "I'll never live this one down. All right, I can fix this. Bunch up and I'll do the counter spell."
They gathered close around the eldest witch and waited as she did the reversal spell. Nothing. She did it again, hand movements a little more forceful. Still nothing. Amanda swore under her breath, certain words she tended not to use in front of her students, and tried one more time. Nothing. And still the green plastic men, twice their current size, approached awkwardly on their plastic bases, like snowboarders without snow. "Houston, we have a problem. I don't have enough power to do the counter."
"I knew I shouldn't have gotten out of bed today, Let me try," Billy said. He turned away from the army men, trying to focus and put words to a spell. "I want us to return to our proper sizes again." Nothing. He tried again, and one more. "Ok, new plan. I want to take us to the library," he chanted, taking the first safe place that came to mind. Again, nothing. "Not. Good."
"Guys," Stephen whispered urgently reaching out to tug Amanda's shoulder and turn her around, "I think we have a bigger problem than magic power, much bigger." The teen pointed at the advancing plastic men. "They don't seem to be too happy with us for bringing them to life."
Clea backed up from the advancing men, "Stop." She moved her hands to complete the spell and was able to freeze one of the men in its tracks. "Bollocks. Well, one down another half a dozen to go."
Megan popped back into the air. She summoned her magic, but it wouldn't come. She could feel it pressing against her soul, but it felt somehow too thick to pass through to her. Her dust rose to the surface of her skin, reacting to her need to defend herself.
"I can't use my magic either," she said shaking her head. "Shall we find out what my dust does to animated plastic?"
Nothing was the rather obvious answer to that question. The plastic men didn't even react as the dust settled on their tiny green bodies. Topaz ducked as one swung a plastic bayonet at her head, waving a hand automatically to disable it. Doing this one at a time wasn't going to work.
"In light of any other options that would involve fighting, may I suggest we run?"
"Head for the door," was Amanda's response. "We should be able to squeeze underneath where they'll get stuck. Then we can try and get someone's attention and work out a way to fix this mess." She glanced over at Billy. "You and Topaz go first, I'll cover us from behind."
Billy nodded, and crackling electricity appeared around his hands. "Well, at least that still works. For all the good it's likely to do to plastic." He looked over to Topaz, motioning that he was ready, the started his sprint toward the door.
Stephen waved a hand at the nearest army man watching in satisfaction as the green man's bayonet started to bubble and melt rapidly dissolving into a green goo which started to creep up the toys rifle. "Ladies first," he noted turning to make sure Clea and Megan had started for the door before he started moving that way himself.
Clea started moved to the door in a run, "Is it just me or does the door seem farther away than normal?"
"It feels..." Megan began as she zipped toward the door - and was there almost instantly. "Like a dragonfly would feel?" she said, momentarily stunned with surprise. Her tiny wings seemed amazingly fast. She dropped to the floor and wriggled through the crack on her belly. "C'mon, you're nearly there," she urged from the other side.
Topaz skidded to a halt at the door. It was closed, of course, but the gap at the bottom was big enough that they could just crawl under. "Clea, Stephen, come on, you first!"
Stephen slowed to allow Clea to reach the door first before dropping to the floor and wriggling his way underneath the door. "You know, this feels just like camp again with the obstacle courses, I thought we came here to get away from that."
Clea started to wiggle under the door as well, "No. We came here because we shrunk Cata and caused chaos for that reality show. And now we have shrunk ourselves and chaos is following us! It is karma." She reached the other side and stood up.
"Welcome to my world," Billy said wryly. "Chaos follows me everywhere I go." He crouched beside the door, watching the approaching army while the others crawled under. As he waited, he worked at forming a small shield. He didn't think those plastic guns could shoot anything, but you never knew. He glanced at their progress throughout the door, then called out, "Amanda, ready!" before shimmying under himself.
The blonde glanced over her shoulder and nodded. She'd picked up a paperclip from the floor and was using it as an over-large weapon, swinging it at any plastic figure that got too close. Now she dropped it and sprinted for the door, rolling underneath it and fetching up against huddled group. "Topaz, we're gunna talk about you thing with animating stuff," she said, puffing slightly as she picked herself up. "But not now. Now we..." She frowned as a sort of roaring noise, unnoticed before while they were distracted, suddenly registered. Amanda looked past her students and associates and her eyes widened.
"Oh, FUCK!"
That was all she was able to get out as from around the corner came the bogglingly large shape of the cleaning lady's faithful upright vacuum cleaner. The shrunken-down group tried to flee, but the machine's progress was inexorable and the hall so very, very long. There was a faint blur of light from a shielding spell, and then the group was gone, sucked into oblivion.
