[video - intro]

[havesomedeath]

[The video shows a white-haired young man, wearing some kind of robes. He hums quizzically and smiles.]

Y'know, I'm pretty well-versed when it comes to magic items, but I've never seen anything like this before. A journal that talks back? Definitely a new one! I kinda wish I'd thought of it myself, but oh well. The ducks are a nice touch!

I wonder how this happened to my journal, though...

Maybe one of the other mages used it for an experiment and then left it here. People leave important stuff lying around all the time.

Or maybe... I actually found a cursed item and by opening and reading it, I just doomed myself to a really horrible death! [He sounds pretty casual about that possibility and, if anything, his smile actually brightens a little.] That'd be something!

...

Or maybe it was just a fluke earlier and I'm sitting here talking to myself like a crazy person. It wouldn't be the first time, ha ha!

Comments

[everything_is_dangerous]

Really? That's interesting. I don't think I've met someone who does that often before.

But yes. They're possibly the community's way of keeping things interesting... which I suppose would go some way toward explaining why they get less frequent when people throw community-wide parties. It's a bit of a roll of the dice - sometimes it transports us to an amusement park, sometimes it transports us to a mall full of undead horrors.

[havesomedeath]

I'm not surprised. I don't know what it's like in other worlds, but even here it's not exactly a popular branch of magic!

Sounds like things are never boring around here! I can't wait to see some of this in action. [He has no idea what an amusement park is, but he... guesses it must be amusing, considering the name, so whatever.] Especially the undead horror thing... That sounds like tons of fun!

[everything_is_dangerous]

Mm. Well, there are a few rather prosaic things - sealing magic or sending people to sleep or some such - but oddly the people best with them are the healers. I really hope Sister Serra never gets her hands on some of those.

It wasn't especially, actually. [Leila would really rather not discuss her experience there, but it gave her a fresh new set of nightmares.]

[havesomedeath]

Healers, really? That's new, that kinda magic is more of a dark mage thing over here. Healers mostly just stick to staves!

Huh, why not? [Sorry, Leila, Henry is... not so good at taking a hint.]

[everything_is_dangerous]

Well, they are staves. Staves can actually do things besides just heal, you know.

Because nearly suffocating is a thoroughly unpleasant experience.

[havesomedeath]

Mhm, I know that! I don't think I've ever seen staves that can send people to sleep, though! That'd be way easier than the curse I use to do that!

Ooh, I can see why that wouldn't be as much fun. Still, better than completely suffocating, right?

[everything_is_dangerous]

Really? Hm. So you have magic staves, but not ones that cause sleep. That's... interesting. Then again, I'm not sure I've heard of 'dark mages' before. Would that mean you use dark magic, then?

Marginally, yes. The amusement park incident being shortly afterward helped.

[havesomedeath]

Yeah, that's right! Dark mages use both regular and dark magic tomes, though personally, I stick to dark magic more often than not. And we can use curses, like I mentioned before. They're a little more complicated than just using a tome, though!

What is an amusement park, anyway?

[everything_is_dangerous]

It's a thing they have on Earth - that's a world with a lot of versions the community connects to. It seams to mean there are a lot of various rides and cheap souvenirs. Specifically this was a water park, which means lots of pools and enormous slides with water running through them.

[havesomedeath]

Hmm... Sounds interesting, though it's a little hard to imagine since I've never seen anything like it! But it does sound fun!

So the community, it'll just teleport everyone to exciting places every now and then, huh? I hope it happens again soon, then, I'm getting really curious!

[everything_is_dangerous]

It's a bit rarer than just inflicting viruses on people right where they are, but yes.

Hmm... Let's see, October is next month, isn't it? I suppose that means Halloween is coming up at the end of it. I suspect you'll enjoy Halloween.

[havesomedeath]

Haha, really? That sounds promising! So what is it?

[everything_is_dangerous]

It's a holiday - from Earth, again. The community seems to like Earth and celebrates a lot of its holidays. Halloween is either a harvest festival or something to do with evil spirits, I'm not entirely sure which.

In practice it means spooky decorations, dressing up in costumes, and lots of candy. If the community itself doesn't play around with it someone will usually throw a party. And it's at the very end of next month.

[havesomedeath]

Spooky stuff, costumes and candy? Sounds like the perfect holiday to me, sign me up! We don't have anything like that here!

I can't wait until the end of the month now, this'll be great, ha ha!

[everything_is_dangerous]

It does get rather interesting. If nothing else people are usually generous enough that it's not hard to get a worldhop to a community-wide party - someone will probably wind up throwing one, assuming the community itself doesn't do something.

[havesomedeath]

That's awfully nice of them! I'm guessing most people don't have the power to travel through worlds on their own, huh? I mean, it sounds kinda tricky!

[everything_is_dangerous]

I would assume it is. Generally the people who can do it have powerful magic or very advanced technology at their disposal.

[havesomedeath]

Hm... I wonder if I could do it, then! I'm pretty good with magic, so I might be able to figure something out!

[everything_is_dangerous]

Hmm, I suppose all you could do is try. Though experimenting with worldhopping might get dangerous.