Welcome to Gaia! ::

[Gonna proceed now as if Lian has been seated, so as not to hold up.]

Finally the class was ready to begin. Nodding to the class, Raven picked up a long wooden pointer from the side of the chalkboard and brandished it like a wand. "Good afternoon, class. My name is Professor Millner. Welcome to the world of magic. Spellcasting is not easy by any standards, but hopefully you will all learn what is required to succeed in this first semester. I expect you have all read the posted rules. If not, please do so on your own time. All infractions are punishable; this is, after all, a potentially dangerous class for those who don't pay attention.

"Now that we have that out of the way, we can begin." In teacher-mode, Raven smacked the blackboard with the pointer. "Many things are required for the casting of spells. Each spell differs, of course. However, there are three things, three elements one could say, that are absolutely necessary for any spell. Can anyone name one?"

Gabby listened attentivily to Professor Millner as she spoke, making sure not to miss a word. Whoa, could magic really be dangerous? She shivered slightly at that thought, that hadn't crossed her mind yet! Of course she had known that Magic wouldn't be easy to learn but dangerous? Oh well, she'd just have to pay very close attention. The only problem Gabby had with that was that distracting her didn't take much effort.

Gabby giggled softly when she saw that the Koala girl had shushed her dragon and she gave the other girl a wide smile. The elements of magic, huh? She pondered over the question for a few more seconds before blurting out: "Yes! I think, I think that you have to want it real bad! Umm, and of course with that you need to try hard and work hard. Practice lots and lots. I think mommy calls it focus, when you want to do something real bad and you cannot be distracted by anything else." There, breath, long answer.

Silenias had been listening to Raven just quietly. He was pondering over the things in his own way. Not surprised when Gabby spoke up, he glanced toward the teacher. "Mrrr.."

The brass dragon settled back down on the floor. This was no fun. No fun at all. Why couldn't he talk? Why did he even have to come if he couldn't talk? He sighed and flicked his tail a bit. Boring.

Alaqua, however, was rather happy that the teacher wasn't mad at Bob for talking. Now she wrote down will on her paper, then went back to thinking about what another one of the elements could be...

Lucía is very nerves, she should have studied before coming to class, she doesn't know about that the teacher is speaking , but it seems that Ala's dragon and Gabby know, wow. Lucía begins to take notes in her notebook.

she begins to write Focus mmm it seems logical, if you want to make something you need to concentrate, be something physical or mental. now she begins to think that more can be what you need, " sorry teacher cannot imagine that it can be" she said a little sad.

She was right, she was really right! Gabby beamed at miss Raven and grinned widely. She hadn’t worried about being wrong or making a fool of herself, but nonetheless being right felt good! She quickly scribbled the word ‘focus’ and ‘will’ down in her notebook before she looked around in the class. The other children were being so awfully quiet! Why weren’t they just blurting out their random thoughts? That was what she was doing as well! She had just been lucky that she had guessed correctly.

Silenias was surprised that none of the other children were speaking up as well. Sure, Gabby was a bit too much of a blabbermouth, but the teacher was now asking for answers.

Gabby had to think hard. The first answer had been simple, but thinking up another one? Would you need something to practice magic or was it all in your mind? Gabby’s eyes widened as she listened to Raven’s short lecture. “Ohh. Is that what you need as well, miss Raven, dare to do the magic? Not be afraid to try?” She tilted her head and thought over her answer again. Well, it sounded kind of silly, but at least she had tried to give an answer again.

Alaqua frowned. She didn't want to guess and then be wrong. She'd look stupid in front of the other students. And she didn't want that. But the teacher was wanting them all to guess, even if they were wrong. So the girl thought for a moment, listening to the other answers. Well, magic users had wands, didn't they? Would that be an element? She didn't think so... "Uh... the magic words?" Ala finally ventured, a bit hesitantly.

Bob was now very upset. Everyone else was getting to talk. Even that silly girl of his. He huffed and flicked the tip of his tail in his frustration.

That got their minds going. With a smug grin, Raven took the first statement first and went through with her cross examination. A few of the answers weren't bad. Some were downright silly. It was an odd group, for certain.

And that first girl was silly enough to think that she would give away an answer like that. Raven tilted her head, then shook it. "You're not right, but you're not exactly wrong either. Daring is certainly a part of magic, and it would be difficult to perform much of it without taking risks. However there are some spells, generally elementary ones, that are so simple one doesn't need to do much, and they don't have to expect much either. Furthermore, the more experienced one gets, the more they can just know, without guessing, that a spell will take. And that in itself is an important step in furthering oneself in magic."

The next boy's answer was a common misconception, one she was actually glad to have the chance to clear up. "Brains, as you put it, are always helpful to have, and not just for magic. But if they were absolutely necessary, you wouldn't have idiots blowing up their own labs, or falling under their own spells. While it helps to know what you're doing, even if you don't, something could still happen. Usually something disasterous, and always something unexpected, but the magic would still work... just not the way you wanted it to. It's dangerous to be armed with magic and not the intelligence to use it properly, but all the same it happens frequently. Not, however," she added, "in my class. You will know what is expected of you." And she would drum it into them, if necessary.

"Magic words? No, they are certainly not always required. The Some spells are activated by incantation. Others have certain motions instead, or potion catalysts. Talismans and such are always active, and needn't be activated, though they do need to be recharged from time to time. And then for more complicated spells, even if you incant from dawn until dusk, if you're missing another key aspect of the spell, nothing will happen. Or at least, nothing you want to happen will happen. Those of you who eventually advance to the class on advanced ritualistic magic will discover spells with literally dozens of components, be they mental, physical, literary, kinesthetic, solid, liquid, gaseous..." Raven trailed off, suddenly noticing that she was rambling. How had she gotten so off topic? "But I digress. The short answer is that no, magic words are not always required. Indeed, there are very few words that could truly be classified as magical in origin... but no."

And finally, the cattish girl. "Visualization... now, that's actually close. One must visualize in order to experience the spell working prior to it taking place. But there's more to it than that. For example, a blind person couldn't be said to truly visualize, but could still cast spells as well as a sighted person. Now, when you visualize something, what are you really doing?"