clio-of-hesiod

[clio-of-hesiod]

Falling Action || Magnifiques

Takes place: May 2025 Summary: The Magnifiques convene and discuss what to do when it's revealed they are not going to get credit for their classes and study with Professor Sanchez @blight-magic @ariel-the-undiscovered @clio-of-hesiod

DEVYN:

Things had been pretty hazy since they exited out of the book. Not in the way they had been hazy during their wish. That was like an endless fog with vague shadows moving in the distance, only to be gone when you looked at them directly. This was more like a thick, humid heat, where everything was visible but suffocating nonetheless. His mind was clear but the events that surrounded him were heavy and obtrusive.

They’d spent their time apologizing to who they could and giving space to those they couldn’t. They didn’t want to center themselves with everything happening, but that was hard when the hammer was coming down right on top of them.

It came in the form of an email. The first few days were vague with what was going to happen with their classes. They’d signed up for an exclusively Salvador schedule after all. But then the email went out to everyone in their ex-professor/ex-king’s classes letting them know that as their classes couldn’t be complete, they would not be able to garner credit for them.

Another semester down the drain. They were already so far behind.

It wasn’t long before the texts came in from their friends and they agreed to meet in the library. Entering again gave them a vaguely nauseous feeling, as they remembered how giddily they’d navigated this space before, eager to please a man who would ultimately betray them. Was all of it really wasted? Was it all for nothing?

They slipped into the little adjacent study room that the Magnifiques had called home for nearly a year now. Some of their friends were already there and they waited for the subtitle spell to be cast before giving a subdued greeting. “Hey guys. How are things?”

AMITY: 

On top of everything, Amity was failing.

She stared at the email from Pride U’s administration for what felt like an hour, until the screen went fuzzy, her eyes burned, and Amity realized she had started to cry again. With tears dribbling down her face, she had shut her laptop quickly, grabbed a change of clothes, and darted into the shower so no one else could hear her. It didn’t make any of it better. Sure, her other classes were fine, but an incomplete meant that she couldn’t graduate. She’d have to repeat the semester. 

And what sucked the most was that Amity’s work in Professor Salvador’s class was good. Her notes? Her outlines? Her annotated bibliographies? Even the creative collaborative project everyone poured themselves into. She believed in that writing more than she believed in any of her fanfic, and it was original stuff. Even with Magnifico gone, Amity had clung to the fact that she was still a good writer. His magic might have given her infinite ideas and inspiration, but it didn’t give her her talent. 

And now none of it counted. 

It pissed her off. 

She got out of the shower steaming– the heat from the water painting her skin red, her eyes puffy but no more tears to shed. Amity grabbed her phone. At that point, the group chat had already gone off. She added her agreement to the chorus, ready to take back what she had worked so hard for, professor or no professor. The anger fueled her to the library. She and Kleo got there first. 

“Things will be much better once we fix this pile of selkidomus scat,” Amity growled. “There aren’t even that many classes until revision starts! There’s got to be a way for us to push back.” 

Out of the corner of her eye, Giselle nodded solemnly. 

ARIEL:

If Ariel could just lay on the floor and do nothing she would- but she couldn’t, it was unfair! Unjust! And she planned to use her voice for good now!

Except what did she prove, who would care? No one would.

“What if we just made another professor look at the work. Shove it in their face until they can’t do anything but mark it and tell us how wonderful we are.”

Hey she didn’t promise her voice would be any smarter.

DEVYN:

Devyn wanted to believe it was true. It was the kind of thing that they’d have eagerly jumped on merely a few weeks ago. If there was something they wanted to do, they would be able to do it, no matter what. They just had to put the effort in. Except they had put the effort in and it had been used against them, taken and twisted into something it wasn’t supposed to be. They had been the ones to “fix” it but they had nothing to show for it, and they certainly couldn’t reveal their involvement lest they make the situation worse. What was there to do?

With everything that was happening, it was becoming more clear that sometimes it didn’t matter how much you worked, how much you wanted, or how much you wished–sometimes, bad things just happened.

It was a mindset that they weren’t used to and were having a hard time wrapping their head around. It was almost reminiscent of that first year of college, when everything had gone horribly wrong, and they had no choice but retreat back with their family and lick their wounds. Were they really going to do that again? Were they doomed to this cycle?

Their brain latched onto Ariel’s words. “We have it. We have the work. Maybe if we submit it to the department, along with the syllabus, they’ll know that we did it?”

AMITY: That should be enough, except they all knew that Professor– that Magnifico’s syllabus had been bare bones. This was an ‘independent study,’ which made it difficult for any third-party to truly assess them. That was Amity’s fear anyway, when it came to shoving their work in the administration’s faces and demanding their credits.

But maybe if they put in a little more effort.

“We could go another step,” said Amity. “Maybe we could also write…process papers. You know, something that talks about what we learned and why those skills are valuable. Like, research skills, critical thinking and analysis, and literary craft. We can show our work, but also explain our work.” 

ARIEL:

Now that was a brilliant idea. Ariel wasn’t afraid of a little more work and when you had to prove something you had to dig your heels in and go for it. It was a brilliant plan and she wasn’t surprised that Amity had come up with it.

“Yeah I think so- We can pull all of our sources show the research process that it wasn’t just a simple project or one that we could half ass. We put a lot of time and effort into this.” Ariel sat up to start writing notes, anything she remembered from the process all the way back to the beginning of the semester.

KLEOPATRA:

Kleopatra hadn’t said anything. 

She had nothing, really, to say. It felt difficult to care about losing out on a semester of work—when they’d almost destroyed the town and everyone’s lives. Maybe they deserved to repeat a semester. It felt like a fitting punishment. Especially for Kleopatra. After all, she was the one who had started this ball rolling. She had let Magnifico manipulate her—and, then, manipulate all of her friends. 

Maybe they hadn’t really learned anything at all. 

As the voices rose and fell around her, that was all she could think about. 

What was the point of trying to say any differently? 

“The administration might just say no because he wasn’t even a real writer. How could he have taught us anything?” she said quietly, staring down at her own blank notebook. For once, all her inspiration had ran completely dry. 

DEVYN:

Devyn nodded enthusiastically at Amity’s suggestion. The work itself was one thing, but the administration would likely appreciate them going above and beyond in submitting even more work. They couldn’t possibly say no to that, right? Ariel was already taking notes and Giselle was already thumbing through past materials when Kleo spoke up.

They deflated slightly. Although there was an air of determinism about them, there was also the incident that was hanging over all their heads. One that they couldn’t fess up to, and one they wouldn’t be able to explain away in a process paper.

“They don’t know he wasn’t a real writer,” they pointed out sheepishly. Despite everything that happened, there was no official explanation for it. A Plot of Wishes and Words was a series that still existed, written by Salvador Sanchez, who was, as far as anyone else knew, their teacher. Whether he “became” Magnifico or why he disappeared after the incident, none of it was verifiable and likely couldn’t be used against them.

But that didn’t dissipate the distaste that sat on all their tongues. Because that wasn’t the point.

The point was that they’d all been tricked and manipulated. Everything they thought they had been working for was a lie. Whatever growth they thought they had experienced had happened under false pretenses.

That didn’t mean it didn’t happen, though.

“And even if he wasn’t a real writer, we are. This study wasn’t him teaching us, it was us researching for him. Everything we did, everything we wrote, we did that,” they signed, emphasizing the “we”. “He took so much. But he can’t take that.” 

AMITY: Amity frowned at Kleo’s point.

She didn’t necessarily…agree. Yeah, technically proving Magnifico was…Magnifico, from the book, would be hard to do. Pride U might be magick-friendly, but it was a mundus institution at its heart and there was no actual physical evidence that proved Sanchez was Magnifico in disguise. Less hard would be proving he was a fraud in general, though.

But like Dev said, they were real writers. And showing their work, explaining their work, proved it. They’d let their talent speak for them.

“You’re right. Dev’s right,” Amity said. She met Kleo’s troubled gaze. “It was an independent study, technically. He might have overseen us but we did all the work. The least we can do is try, and if Pride U takes away the credits then… well, fuck them! But they can’t without us putting up a fight.” 

ARIEL:Ariel was always up for a fight, it was the little sister in her that wanted to be heard and made sure she wasn’t lost in the background.

She would do exactly that now and fight until she couldn’t.

“I’m up for a fight. I’ll get my boxing gloves.” Ariel teased with a wink, maybe it wouldn’t cheer up Kleo but she was already in a better mood.

KLEOPATRA:

Everyone shook their heads. They denied that they hadn’t learned. That they hadn’t grown.

And, maybe, there was some truth to that. She wanted to believe that. She wanted to think that everything they’d done the last year meant something. It just was hard. She felt like she was in quicksand, everything slipping around her. There was nothing sturdy to grasp. 

But Devyn reached out their hand, Giselle hers, Amity, and Ariel. All of them stretched out towards her. 

All Kleopatra had to do was grasp them back.

So, she did. 

Her head bowed and nodded. She laughed, a small, breathless laugh at Ariel’s comment. Her head shook. And although her voice wobbled, she spoke: 

“Okay. Yeah…you’re right. It–it isn’t all a waste. We still learned something. It was our writing. And it is really good.” That, she did believe. “We’ll just have to compile it all.” The stack of paper alone would be impressive, she already knew. “We will have to be organized and prepared to argue if we get push back.”  Which, personally, made Kleopatra a little sick to her stomach. She wasn’t good with authority. 

“But we can do it. If–if we do it together.” 

[clio-of-hesiod]

"Mim and Su aren't going to care," Kleopatra scoffed.

Linnet was sitting close. Maybe closer than she intended. Kleopatra's bed was not the shitty usually uni mattress. It was an expensive, fluffy twin bed that she had bought and swapped her other mattress out with. (She had shrunk it down and put it away in a drawer to switch out after the school year.)

Their shoulders knocked. Linnet was warm. And she smelled like the earth. It was more comforting than it should be.

Still, she was far too optimistic about Kleopatra's prospects.

"I'm sure they think we deserve it."

@euterpe-of-hesiod

Let Me Try || Lore

[clio-of-hesiod]

"Not to PrideU," Kleopatra snapped right back.

She didn't want to hear Linnet's gumdrops and rainbows view of things. Why was she even talking to her at all?

Still, she didn't kick her out. Or even tell her not to sit on her bed with her outside clothes. Not that Linnet had sat down, but Kleopatra could see her eyeing it.

"They aren't giving us the credits." Kleopatra wasn't someone who got mad about things. She had learned a long time ago to just go with the flow of her sisters and cousins. Ever since she had been little: they had dressed her, done her hair, told her who she could and couldn't be friends with. What she could and couldn't do. And Kleopatra hadn't argued. Because she loved her family. They had doted on her in turn. Their soft, gentle water witch.

And now, she had betrayed them all for nothing.

If she was mad at anyone, it was herself.

Tears gathered in her eyes, as her headache beat a rhythm with her heartbeat against her skull. Her hands came up to cover her face.

"It was all so stupid."

@euterpe-of-hesiod

Let Me Try || Lore

[clio-of-hesiod]

Kleopatra wanted to be annoyed that Linnet was checking in on her. But...she was only grateful. Because her friends had been part of it. Which was nice...there was camaraderie there. But everyone else had other people: Devyn and Ariel had their families. Amity had Mim and her other friends that she'd had way longer than any of the rest of them. People who cared and wanted to check in.

Kleopatra didn't have any of that.

She had her family, but they were countries away and they were all angry with her. Rightfully so.

And she didn't have any friends in Swynlake. The ones she did have, she had pushed away at the start of everything and they weren't the kind of friendships to weather the test of time.

Yet, Linnet was standing in her room now. Checking in on her. Not because she particularly like Kleopatra, she knew, but because she just had a big heart--and a nose she liked to stick into things.

She was grateful anyway. She felt like a geyser a moment from bursting. Her migraine was pressing against every part of her skull, turning her brain to soup, making her feel dizzy and nauseous and unfocused. The pain was everywhere. It was so easy for tears to spring to her eyes.

"He wasn't a professor. And all the work we did was pointless," Kleopatra said, her voice wobbling, but still how able to scathe.

@euterpe-of-hesiod

Let Me Try || Lore

[clio-of-hesiod]

Kleopatra didn't know where to go from here.

She had had a trajectory before. A future that was so tantalizing that she had abandoned her family for it. A family who was now furious at her and not speaking with her for an entirely different reason. And she was considering going home for the summer.

Maybe her family had been right and Swynlake wasn't good for her.

She was too stupid and naive to be on her own.

And her head was killing her.

Kleopatra had been laying on the bed, the room dark, a cool washcloth over her eyes when the knock sounded at the door. She considered not opening it, but there was a little tug, somewhere behind her navel. The kind of feeling that you didn't ignore when you were a witch.

So, she got up and made her way to the door.

"Oh," she blinked when she registered who was at the door. "Uhm...okay." She stepped aside, letting Linnet in and closing the door softly behind the other girl.

[outfit]

@euterpe-of-hesiod

Let Me Try || Lore

[clio-of-hesiod]

It wasn't like Kleopatra had started the rain.

Even if it did feel that way.

She felt lost and uncertain. If there was one thing that she had always excelled at: it was school. In her opinion, she was a middling, at best, sorceress. And she wasn't as pretty or enigmatic as some of her other sisters and cousins. All she had had was being good at school. Good with books. Good with studying and research...

But she hadn't been very good at that--was she? Otherwise she would have realized who Professor Sal was before he revealed himself. Magnifico.

She had been wandering aimlessly so, when the rain appeared, it surprised her. And she was so upset that the little charm she usually cast to keep the rain off her wasn't even considered. When someone called her name, she glanced up and, without thinking about it, trotted over to Senora Madrigal.

"Thank you," she said softly, ducking under the umbrella. Pepa smelled good and her body was warm, this near to Kleopatra's own. She bet that Pepa gave really good hugs.

[outfit]

@letitrain-letitsnow-letitgo

Under my umbrella-ella-ella || Open

[clio-of-hesiod]

"Yes," Kleopatra said.

That was what she was thinking had happened. It...would make sense. In fact, it was exactly like King Magnifico did in the book. He acted like a beloved king, but...in truth, he was just hungry for power and willing to do whatever it took to earn it.

There was a framing, of course, that he did this to protect Rosas and the people...and there was an argument to be made there. But Professor Sal was not Magnifico. His motivations had nothing to do with some kingdom...

"I dunno...maybe it is just because, well, I miss my family, but something doesn't...feel quite right and I just had to say something. It's been bothering me for a litlte while now."

@enchantedtomeet-giselle

Everything You Ever Wished For | Giopatra

[clio-of-hesiod]

NAME: Lady Kleopatra Schreiber of Ingary

HOMETOWN: Kingsbury, Ingary OCCUPATION: King's Apprentice

YOUR WISH: To stay in Rosas and be the king's apprentice. WHAT YOU GAVE UP: The ability to leave Rosas' boarders. YOUR UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE: Her family has forgotten about her...

LOYALIST/REBEL/OTHER: Loyalist turned rebel.

BIOGRAPHY: King Magnifico's power and infamy extends far beyond the borders of Rosas.

That was why her mother, the Countess of Ingary, sent Kleopatra, her youngest daughter, as a dignitary to the island country. She wanted to have her raise up in the ranks, and that is just what Kleopatra did. She wanted to become a favorite of the king's. She wanted to earn herself a wish.

She finally did--

But it came at great sacrifice.

Not that any of that matters to Kleopatra Schreiber, PrideU student from the real world.

This is all her fault, or so she feels. And it is her job to fix it. Along with her friends, the Magnifiques. They are missing one of their ranks and it will take all of them to come together and right their wrongs...

[clio-of-hesiod]

Kleopatra thought that Giselle would be upset with her. Blame her. After all, she had been the one to encourage them all to do this. She had done it first--and told them that it was okay. The guilt was pressing down on her. She could feel it from all sides.

Giselle's comment, though, cracked her chest and allowed some of the pressure to release.

She smiled. She probably wasn't supposed to, so she stopped after just a second but--

Gosh. What a relief.

Though, the guilt was still there, of course. Gnawing.

"He didn't want to, I don't think," Kleopatra said, still speaking very softly. "Price magic...well, the deals make the sorcerer who bound them more powerful. Each time they get a wish..."

@enchantedtomeet-giselle

Everything You Ever Wished For | Giopatra

[clio-of-hesiod]

Open the Book || [Magnifico + The Magnifiques]

In which Magnifico's spell worked...[takes place: May 1]

@enchantedtomeet-giselle, @blight-magic, @devyn-morey, @clio-of-hesiod, @ariel-the-undiscovered

[cw -- none? some manipulation]

|| || ||

MAGNIFICO: It had worked!

Ah, Rosas. How he had missed it. His fine clothes, his jewels, his wife. All these pretty, familiar things were back with him and he was so glad. While there was certainly things in that other world that he appreciated (social media, hello?!) -- now that he had brought the town into the story, they could create it. Surely someone in that stupid town understood how the internet worked! Could get them cell phones. And if not, Magnifico would discover a different, more magical way of doing things.

Maybe that was the way to go anyway…

What was he talking about?

“Ah, my Magnifiques,” Magnifico purred as his students filed into the classroom. He had found their choice of nickname hilarious, considering. They hadn’t even known. But oh, they were smart. There had, probably, been some part of them that realized it. 

“Please, sit. I am sure you have many questions but let me answer a few from the start: yes, Salvador was just a facade.” No point getting into the whole “murdered and stole his identity thing.” That was a messy business, Magnifico did not want to talk about it. “You can refer to me as King Magnifico, or Your Majesty. Unfortunately, we can no longer go by an affectionate nickname. It would undermine me to my subjects, you see. But don’t fret, you five still hold a special place in my heart.”

He put both his hands over his chest and smiled softly at them. “After all, you helped make all of this happen.” He spread his arms out to gesture, abstractly, at all of Rosas. 

|| || ||

[link here]

|| || ||

[clio-of-hesiod]

"When I was a little girl, price magic was a scary story that we would be told as a cautionary tale," Kleo said softly, her eyes falling guiltily to the gnarled old wood of the table they were sitting at.

"Price magic...it's--well, it is great. Usually for a time. But--whatever you wish for...the world demands balance. It demands payment." Giselle knew this, because she had presumably given something up to make her new wish come true.

"But...it is more than that. Usually, there is unintended consequences. Things...that make it worse. And--I think...I think mine is that my family has forgotten me since I left them first," she said the last part very quietly.

@enchantedtomeet-giselle

Everything You Ever Wished For | Giopatra

[clio-of-hesiod]

"I was thinking that too!" Kleo said with a smile, feeling eager. The creative energy crackled through the air. It felt almost tangible, like Kleo could touch it. As if it guided her pen across the page as she continued to scribble notes.

"Hm...well, if we focus on raw magic, does that make the sorcerers much different from Gifteds?" She wrinkled her nose, but then tried to smooth her expression out. "I suppose that's not a bad thing. It allows us more freedom than sticking within the bounds of sorcery."

@blight-magic

Building Blocks || Klamity

[clio-of-hesiod]

Linnet grabbed her and Kleo's vision flashed white for a moment. Her head, which was already throbbing a little with a headache, cracked open and she felt slightly nauseous.

There was a flash of a memory--her sitting with Linnet, washing the dirt down the drain. It was gone before she could blink but it left her standing there--struck dumb. She felt sick to her stomach and confused now too.

"You--you can't do anything." She pulled her arm from Linnet's grasp. "I have to go."

She darted away, disappearing into the foot traffic and to her dorm so that she could crawl under the covers.

@euterpe-of-hesiod

Eulogy for Nobody () [Lore]

[clio-of-hesiod]

Kleo hesitated.

She hesitated not because she didn't think she was right, but because she did. And if that was true, it meant that she had made a mistake. One that might not just affect her life, but the life of so many of her friends. They had made wishes together, but Kleo had done it first.

And if the others realized that she had led them astray...

Looking at her notes, her eyes traced the familiar curve of her own handwriting. The words on the page talking about collaboration and the creation of stories.

"I don't know," she said, just as softly as before. In fact: perhaps, even softer than before. "I...think something has happened to my family. I...think the wish might've caused it. None of them have spoken to me since I did it. I thought they were mad at first but...not a single one wished me happy birthday." Her eyes glimmered with tears, despite herself.

@enchantedtomeet-giselle

Everything You Ever Wished For | Giopatra

[clio-of-hesiod]

"I mean--I am not going to say no to that," Kleo smirked, feeling pleased with herself and her magic.

Her lessons had been put on pause, more or less, for the time being. Not only was she far too busy with Magnifico's class, but her mother wasn't breathing down her neck anymore. Not to mention: Senora Madrigal's family was having some struggles of their own at the moment. She wasn't heartbroken about it.

But she did still love her magic. She was a proud water witch. (And it was good that she didn't have time to think about what else might be going on.)

"We could add some complexities to it, with subspecialities and things like that too--like mud or...lava? Combinations. Would we want to corporate iron sorcerers?"

@blight-magic

Building Blocks || Klamity

[clio-of-hesiod]

Dreams - The Cranberries

I want more Impossible to ignore Impossible to ignore They'll come true Impossible not to do Impossible not to do

And now I tell you openly You have my heart so don't hurt me You're what I couldn't find A totally amazing mind So understanding and so kind You're everything to me

Oh, my life Is changing every day In every possible way And oh, my dreams It's never quite as it seems 'Cause you're a dream to me, dream to me

[clio-of-hesiod]

Kleo had wondered that before.

She wondered that about her mother. Who had always seemed so sure to Kleo. There had never been a moment where she had doubted her mother or her convictions. She was as steady as the Earth that she had started out with. Even as a full blown Weather Witch now, she was calm and steady.

Professor Sal was like that.

Calm. Steady.

Always had a smile and the right word to say. The only difference was Professor Sal's calm and steady was more like a gentle summer breeze. There and gone again. Playful but transparent. If you looked close enough, it disappeared. You could not hold it in your hands.

"I dunno. There are different kinds of confident. Real confidence, foolish confidence." Kleo shrugged. "Not that I think Professor Sal is a fool. I just...sometimes I think his confidence can cloud his judgement a little, you know?"

She said it quietly, like he might appear from behind the wall and catch them gossiping.

@enchantedtomeet-giselle

Everything You Ever Wished For | Giopatra