Once an isolated and dying township, an influx of academics, adventurers and thrill seekers have made Scalvoris Town their home. From scholars' tea shops to a new satellite campus for Viden Academy, this is an exciting place to visit or make your home!
At the beginning of Vhalar Alison Jeeve, Defier and Associate Professor of History and Theory of Magic at the Institute of Metaphysics in Scalvoris, had suddenly decided to play the part of a torturer. Neither Victor Amielle nor any of the other assistant researchers knew what the reason for that decision was, and whether she was simply bored or had some sort of terrible mental illness, but they all suffered equally.
Gone were the trials when Victor had shared Alison’s food, joked with her or been amused by her behaviour that was so unlike anything that he had ever witnessed in a teacher. She did not give him any more ancient tomes to study either – accompanied by the warning not to touch them with his bare hands lest he damage them. Instead she had decided to drive his colleagues and him mad with theory.
She suddenly seemed to be convinced that statistics were an essential part of science and that the people that were working under her needed to be familiar with things such as the scientic method or how to formulate hypotheses (‘Women find Zanik attractive.’, she had insisted, was not one).
For that reason Victor found a thick book with a brown cover on which the words “Statistics” had been printed in bright red letters on his desk one morning. He did not approve. He had a minor problem with authority anyway – unless he was in charge in which case everything was fine – and he did not appreciate that particular subject in the least.
At least, he thought as he flipped the book open, took his quill and dipped it into a vial of black ink. I’m getting paid for reading this. Maybe I should take notes in order to be able to memorize the contents of this book here more easily in case Alison has lost her mind completely and decides to hold an exam as well, as if we are all school children than adults.
word count: 336
Appearance
Due to one of his Awakenings, Victor's eyes glow with a soft silver light.
Items
Victor owns a Ring of Reversal. He's always wearing it, unless stated otherwise.
The scientific method, Victor wrote in his notebook. Is the process by which science is carried out. It involves formulating hypotheses and then carrying out studies in order to determine whether the original hypotheses were correct or not. The steps mentioned below are not fixed, meaning that you do not have to go through them all or in the same order every time:
1. Ask a question
2. Formulate a hypothesis
3. Make a prediction based on said hypothesis
4. Test the hypothesis
5. Analyze the results
He briefly paused to take a drink from the glass of water that stood on his desk as his mouth was beginning to get a bit dry and then he continued to write, A hypothesis should at least implicitly have the structure of a conditional sentence, and it should be possibly to falsify it. There are two kinds of hypotheses: null hypotheses and alternative hypotheses. According to the null hypothesis there is no difference between groups respectively no relationship between variables while the alternative hypothesis states that there is.
He looked up for a moment to see what his colleagues were up to, noticed that they were busy reading as well – and probably being subjected to similar kinds of torture – and then he turned the page, dipped his quill into the vial of ink again and continued to take notes.
Qualitative studies stand in contrast to quantitative studies. The aim of qualitative studies is to explore unknown phenomena as well as develop new theories and scientific models. To conduct a quantitative study there must already be theories and scientific models pertaining to your research topic available at the beginning of the research process. Quantitative studies are, among other things, used to verify previously formulated hypotheses.
He was just about to move on to the next chapter which dealt with testing hypotheses when the door to the office opened and Alison Jeeve herself stepped in, clutching a couple of books to her chest. She looked … well, she looked as if she had an incredibly guilty conscience, and she walked straight towards Victor’s desk. He put the quill down and waited for what she had to say. He was, he had to admit, slightly puzzled by the look on her face.
What was the matter with her?
word count: 383
Appearance
Due to one of his Awakenings, Victor's eyes glow with a soft silver light.
Items
Victor owns a Ring of Reversal. He's always wearing it, unless stated otherwise.
Alison set the books down on Victor’s desk and then took a seat on the edge of the desk (she generally seemed to prefer to sit on desks and tables rather than on chairs and benches, like normal people). Having that done, she pulled a box of sweets out of the pocket of her pants that had yellow and nearly neon green stripes. “Want one?” she asked.
Victor shook his head. The last time she had given him candy, it had tasted so intensive that he had had a coughing fit.
“Okay!” Alison said, shrugged her shoulders and tossed the candy towards one of the other assistants who caught it with a thoroughly surprised expression on his face before she turned to face Victor again. “I wanted to apologize to you. Actually I wanted to apologize to everybody here. I’m just sitting on your desk because these books here are for you.” She pointed at the books that she had set down on his desk.
“Somebody complained about me. They claimed that I’m not strict enough and that I shouldn’t fraternize with my subordinates. They claimed that I let you do what you want and that I don’t teach you anything. I was worried that they were going to talk to the dean. I think they want my job.” She made a face. “So I decided to make you learn statistics. I thought that would put an end to the complaints.”
“I’m sorry about that, by the way. I hated statistics when I went to university. I mean, a minimum of theory is necessary if you want to be a roper scientist, but nobody should have to learn an entire book by heart.” She paused and took a deep breath. “I’ll talk to the dean myself and ask him what he thinks of my work so far. And I’ll buy you all a beer after work today!” She raised her voice as she said the last sentence. All around Victor people started to cheer. Nobody was mad at Alison anymore.
Alison stood up and was about to leave when she realized that she had forgotten something. “Oh, right, the books!” she exclaimed and blushed. “I said that they were for you. I have a job for you, Victor Amielle. You are my assistant, so you are going to assist me!”
word count: 398
Appearance
Due to one of his Awakenings, Victor's eyes glow with a soft silver light.
Items
Victor owns a Ring of Reversal. He's always wearing it, unless stated otherwise.
As he heard that, Victor closed his book and put it away. “What do you have for me?” he wanted to know.
“Oh, you will find it interesting!” Alison said excitedly. She was in a much better mood now that she had gotten her apology out of the way. “I’m currently researching how Awakenings differ between different branches of domain magic and asked a colleague to procure a couple of books on domain magic for me from Viden for that purpose. I didn’t know that nearly all Eidisi research documents are written in the Ancient Language, and my colleague didn’t bother to enlighten me either. Maybe he thought that I speak the Ancient Language?” she mused and shrugged her shoulders before she continued, “Anyway, you are the only assistant that I could find that speaks the Ancient Language. You do speak the Ancient Language, right?” Alison asked doubtingly. She suddenly was not all that sure anymore.
“Of course I speak it”, Victor replied quite proudly. Learning it had been a challenge since the Eidisi were very protective of their language. “I’m not fluent in it, but I think I’ll manage with the help of a dictionary. What exactly do you need from me?”
“Thank you! Thank you so so much!” Alison exclaimed – so enthusiastically and loudly that the other assistants turned around and stared at her for a moment before they turned back to their work. The young professor took the books and handed them to Victor. “I just need you to look through them, see if you can find anything on Awakenings and briefly summarize it in Common so that I will be able to read it as well. I’ll be right over there at my own desk in case you need anything from me!”
With that she walked away, leaving Victor to inspect the books that she had given to him and start translating the relevant passages. Alison had been right. He found the topic very interesting. At the beginning of Saun he had reached a new level of proficiency in his chosen magic. The changes that had been barely noticeable at first were much more pronounced now. Curious glimmering cracks had been to appear on parts of his body.
He did not find that change unappealing at all, and he was not particularly worried about what it meant for his soul – on the contrary, he was excited about the increase in power, and fascinated by how his body and the way he perceived the world changed – but still, he could not help but wonder what exactly would happen if he continued to practice magic and improve. What exactly did it mean to awaken and to reveal, and could you control the changes to some extent?
1.560 words.
word count: 467
Appearance
Due to one of his Awakenings, Victor's eyes glow with a soft silver light.
Items
Victor owns a Ring of Reversal. He's always wearing it, unless stated otherwise.
No warning needed: this was a great little thread! (Teach me Ancient Language, please?) I enjoy Victor’s internal thoughts as well as the way you write dialogue. I’m curious about Alison’s motivations …
Victor Amielle
Points
XP:
10 | These points cannot be used for magic.
Fame:
N/A
Loot
N/A
Injuries + Overstepping
N/A
Knowledge
Skill Knowledge:
Linguistics: Translating with the help of a dictionary
Research: The Scientific Method
Research: Characertistics of a Hypothesis
Research: Null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis
Research: Qualitative Studies
Research: Quantitative Studies
Other Knowledge:
Alison Jeeve: Fraternizes with her subordinates
Ancient Language: The language of the Eidisi
Ancient Language: Nearly all Eidisi research documents are written in it
History and Theory of Magic: Awakenings differ between different kinds of magic
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Because of his Competency in Empathy magic, Pash exudes an aura of calm emotion that is always "on." While it's not strong enough to overcome extreme emotions and it also loses strength the more people he's around, it's still up to you how that affects your character in whatever situation we're in. PM with questions!
