The Beanies were traipsing along the streets, humming joyfully. They had caught wind that there was a magical picnic basket that could conjure food and basically allow them to have picnics anywhere they wanted, so they've done their darnedest best to save up enough Solars for it as quickly as they could. Now that they finally had enough, they made their way to Yasaka's Summer Shop... Only to learn that the shop was only open during summertime.

"""(Nooooooooooooooooo!!!)""" The Beanies cried out to the heavens.

So now the Beanies were walking aimlessly, their ears flapped forward and their heads and arms hanging low in despair. Demony found this entire fiasco to be quite amusing and scrumptious. Though of course, these were the Beanies we are talking about. It wasn't long before something broke them out of their reverie.

An elderly woman noticed the trio walking down the street and couldn't help her curiosity. "Oh my, did something happen, little friends?"
The Beanies stopped one after another and looked up at the old woman, though they were still much too depressed to say anything.
"Might I interest you in some magic?" The elderly woman conjured some Light - just a simple Novice spell practically anyone with the affinity could do with some practice, but to the Beanies it might as well have been fireworks with how their faces all lit up at the sight of it.
"Pretty!" "Wahhhhh~!" "Oohhhhh!" The Beanies each reacted to the Light spell in genuine awe. Behind them, Demony gagged from the sudden influx of positivity emanating from the Beanies.
"Well, you're in luck, little friends," the elderly woman smiled warmly and pulled out a colourful flyer with words the Beanies couldn't read. Noting the Beanies' quizzical expressions, the elderly woman took the initiative to point them in the right direction.
"The Crown is sponsoring beginner magic classes. Walk down that way until you see a Y-intersection and turn left. Keep walking until you see a building with this logo on the flyer."
The Beanies took the flyer and thanked the elderly woman cheerfully, then hopped along excitedly down the instructed pathway to the designated building.

A triton wakes up in the middle of an alleyway awakened by the sounds of hustle and bustle nearby. A nonchalant yawn comes from his mouth as he stretches and gets up throwing his sleeping bag back into his backpack. A feeling would wash over him as he stood by, “There was something I had to do today wasn’t there?”, he questioned as he tried to remember. It wasn’t until he spotted a nearby poster on the wall that he remembered.

“Dammit that’s right, I was supposed to go to this mentor teacher job thing today. What time is it?”, he looked up realizing it was mid-afternoon, “Oh boy I’m super late I knew I shoulda woken up earlier but eh the extra sleep was worth it”.

He then walked towards the building he was told to arrive at a brisk normal pace unlike how someone normally would be after realizing they were late to work, the triton had no particular care or rush. Vonoros would push the door open only to see some old dwarf fella at the reception desk writing down notes. He didn’t even look up at Vonoros just saying, “You’re late, the other tutors already took their students out to teach in the city. You might as well go home young man, doesn’t look like anyone’s gonna come in this late. Don’t even think you’re gonna get paid for wasting our time”.

"Come on I-", however before Vonoros could finish his rebuttal the door behind them would open as a strange sight walked in.

---

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Let's get down to business
Participants: Two or more
Location: Anywhere
Post Requirements: 5 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +1 Renown
Description: Charon has experienced a wide array of conflict and difficulty over the last three years, with worldwide crisis popping up every few months. The need for strong, brave heroes has rapidly been increasing and the Crown is starting to feel the strain, as military groups are being stretched thin. Capable heroes, adventurers and guild members are being asked to help train a newer generation to help combat the problems that plague the nation. Help by teaching another, be it how to use a weapon and fight, how to cast powerful spells, or how to quietly navigate a dangerous area. Maybe you yourself are the one getting trained, hoping to step up and help defend Charon! No matter the skill set, it will only benefit the land to have more able bodied heroes!

Demony pushed at the door handle and kicked the door open with its two legs. It would normally leave the Beanies to open the door by themselves, but it too was deeply interested in the "magic" that old lady had spoken of, needless to say for much more nefarious reasons than whatever the Beanies had in mind. The Beanies were entirely oblivious to that, of course, and thought Demony was being nice to them, which made for even happier Beanies.
"Hello! We're here to learn magic~!" Star shouted aloud as they looked around to see a largely empty building and started to feel just a little insecure if they had perhaps gotten the place wrong. The Beanies couldn't read, after all, and it was far from the first time that people decided to mess with them who didn't know truth from fiction.
Goody made their way to the reception and hopped up the desk. "Um, Mr. Dwarf? We heard there were beginner magic classes here..." Goody alternated between putting their paws together and moving them away horizontally, their ears flapped forward and staring up with sparkly eyes that seemed like they had a layer of water over them, causing them to glisten.
Chili wasn't sure what to do, so they just stood at the entrance alongside Demony.

The old dwarf was entirely stupefied by the sight that unfolded in front of him, removing his glasses in disbelief to wipe them and putting them back on. The Beanies were still there, though, so he took off his glasses yet again, this time to rub his eyes. And still the Beanies did not disappear into thin air.
"...You handle these fellows and I'll pay you what you're owed, young man." These mysterious toy bears? and a cat? smelled like trouble, and the old dwarf wanted no part in this.

Vonoros chuckled at the sight he saw before him, three little bears who talked and wanted to learn magic. It truly was an amusing thing, especially considering his luck, he was about to be out of a contract, and there in front of him came his new student. He looked up and down three white bears alongside a shadowy creature nearby. They seemed partially harmless, especially with their kind and nice tone. If they were who he had to teach today then it sure would be very strange but also fun.

“Alright old man, I’ll teach these new folks just make sure to have my payment when I come back”.

The triton then turned to face his new proteges as he said, “Yo little bears looks like I’m gonna be your new magic teacher. Names Vonoros Jedath you can just call me Vonoros though, I ain’t some sort of magical ultimate ancient wizard or anything but I do know magic well enough to teach it some things”.

After going over introductions Vonoros would open the door in front of him and start heading outside calling out, “Alright fellows follow me and we can get started on teaching you some magic. First we gotta find a good area where we can do spells without hurting anyone or messing anything up”.

"""Yay~!"""" All three Beanies raised their arms in joy. Demony was also pleased to learn that it was not going to be a waste of time.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Vonoros!" Goody bowed at the old dwarf and hopped down the reception desk to come to the front of Vonoros, then introduced itself with a hand wave. "Goody is Goody!"
"I'm Star!" Star jumped into the air to emphasize their presence just a little more.
"Chili here!" Chili put their hands in front of their snout like mimicking a shout, then gestured towards Demony. "And last but not least, Demony." Demony had no desire to be any more social than it had to, so it simply twitched its ear in response.

"""Okay!""" the Beanies responded in unison to Vonoros' instructions and followed their new instructor for the day.

En route to wherever they were going to be doing their learning, our quartet of strange fellows thought about what they would want to do if they had magic. Goody had admittedly embarrassing dreams about possibly being a magician and calling themselves Goody Goodini. Star would probably aim to learn utilitarian magic for the most part, especially the types that would allow them to do things irrespective of their size. Chili wants that Create Food magic they happened to see the other day as well as fire, ice and water magic to make cooking easier. Demony... was certain there was destructive magics and daydreamed about the carnage it could possibly cause with them. None of them considered the possibility they might not have the affinity for magic.

Anyway, Vonoros soon stopped, indicating that they have arrived at their training grounds.

The little fellows seemed like a nice bunch at least it would make the whole teaching thing a whole lot easier. Vonoros wasn’t usually all for teaching others, especially considering that mostly what he had to teach was for getting rid of people. But it didn’t hurt to just teach these little guys a few magic lessons. Sure his main thing was ice and snow but the fundamentals he could teach would at least set them on the right path.

“Alright, fellas nice to meet y’all Goody, Star, Chili, and Demony was it? Looks like I got a decent number of students to teach today, everyone trying to keep up with my pace”, he called behind him as he maneuvered through the busy street of people. The triton kept an eye out for his new pupils making sure that they were behind him before finally making it to his destination. It was an empty part of town that had been abandoned after an old monster destroyed most of the houses. It was a decent flat wide area that would be perfect to serve as a training ground.

He stopped and turned around, “Okay now that we’re here let’s get right into it, magic’s a really easy thing. Sure you hear those scholar types blab on and on about arcane formulas, math, and all those textbooks but lemme tell ya, it’s not that complicated”, he leaned against his quarterstaff as he chuckled, “Magic’s a feeling, an emotion a vibe, let the magic flow through you and gather throughout your body”.

He held his hand in front of him, “The first lesson we’re gonna do here is creating that spark, I want you guys to close your eyes and just picture in your head what you want to do with magic. Your desire, your wishes, try to detail it and sketch it in your head”.

The Beanies and Demony all listened to Vonoros' explanation intently, hoping to glean whatever insight they could about the wondrous gate to new possibilities that is magic. The explanation felt pretty vague and the four had no idea what to make of it, really. Oh well. If that's what Mr. Magic Instructor is saying then the only thing they could do is try.

Star looked around at their surroundings for anything that could help serve as proof of concept, finding a little pebble light enough for them to lift on one hand. They closed their eyes and focused on imagining the pebble floating into the air. Something appeared to well up within them, then nothing.

Goody's mind went to the Light spell they saw just now. It was pretty, and Goody was used to generating light for their needs! ...Wait, they were? Goody was 100% certain they've never used magic before. They could feel pockets of energy around their body, but it felt like they were stagnant, as though obstructed, or the connectors were missing.

Chili imagined an elaborate set-up where they would create an egg, freeze said egg, then boil said egg with fire before rapidly cooling it with running water, and was dancing around thinking some ritualistic movements might help. Chili felt nothing but embarrassed, however.

Demony imagined itself turning into a shadow and hiding in plain sight like it did so very often under... Goody's hat? What? Why would it be hiding under that insufferable cretin's hat? No matter, it begun lowering its stance to meld into the ground... but of course it still remained solid.

The Beanies were now mighty depressed once again. It seemed like magic might not be their thing as the three got together to commiserate with one another. In fact, they got this underlying feeling that magic was never supposed to be possible for them.

Vonoros waited watching his students try to muster up some sort of arcane energy of any sort. However nothing came from them no sparks nothing, it was even worse now because the group seemed sad and disappointed about their failure. This wasn’t good, if they were to just give up here he wouldn’t get paid.

“Hey guys it’s alright okay? I’ll be honest and tell you a secret, I wasn’t particularly good at magic when I started either. I had a tough time connecting the dots and steps together when I was a kid. You guys are beginners and it’s foolish to think you’d cast a spell on your first try. I just need you guys to keep trying, that’s what matters really”.

He stopped leaning against his quarterstaff and stood up straight, “But then again, just telling you to do magic without an example seems pretty dumb on my part. Let me show you how I can do magic”.

Vonoros placed his quarterstaff back in its sling and held his hand out closing his eyes as he spoke, “I for the most part am a cryomancer, my magic is basically centered around ice, snow, and general freezing things. Right now I’m going to cast a spell. I am picturing the result in my head detailing it and detailing it until it’s my reality”, he then started gathering ice magic into his palm using his other hand to shape it into a long ice spear (1).

The triton held it out and showed the beanies the chilling result, "Pretty cool right?".

---

1. Ice Spike

The Beanies were tightly huddled up, their bodies in contact with one another as they listened to Vonoros' words. It was a realistic statement, certainly, and the Beanies absolutely had the capacity to understand it wasn't necessarily going to be easy. The Beanies were just a little too dispirited to summon the motivation needed to try again. Then they saw the ice spear shaped into form by their teacher.

Seeing the way the ice spear was formed in Vonoros' hands, the Beanies' minds all simultaneously veered into the thought of making ice-cream with their own hands. It was then that they felt a surge of energy course through each of them, as though they were one instead of three. The Beanies immediately noticed the slight change in their energy, and startled little creatures that they were, they moved away from one another in reflex and looked at one another.
"Ice-cream?" Chili asked.
""Ice-cream!"" Star and Goody replied.
The Beanies tried to channel their desire for ice-cream to reach that magical spark Vonoros spoke of, but no dice. They wondered if that whole experience they just had was nothing more than a collective delusion when Demony smashed the three Beanies together from behind with their paws and the zing returned. Demony would've been content for the Beanies to be depressed, but the latter had inadvertently proven their potential for magic. This was an opportunity it could not afford to have the Beanies miss, not when the potential for so much more rested behind this knowledge.

The Beanies moved away from one another, tried channeling magic and felt nothing. Then they moved to be in physical contact with one another and some energized vibes would undulate all around their bodies. Nowhere near fully-realized magic, but they now had something to work with.

"""Thank you Mr. Vonoros!""" The Beanies jumped in joy and gave their thanks to their teacher in unison.

After holding the ice spear and showing it to the Beanies, Vonoros would turn around and threwit at one of the abandoned buildings. He figured he didn’t need it anymore and that it’d be a good demonstration of its offensive power. It made a loud crashing sound as the spear struck through one of the building’s walls. With that his point had been made, the beanies had seen what magic could do and Vonoros watched with eagerness as they tried to recreate his attempt. He stood back and held his breath as they tried to place energy and copy his motions. However, their attempt to summon ice cream had failed, nothing appeared.

Though something did happen, the first embers of magical ability shone as the three bears huddled together summoning energy around them. They had officially done it, it wasn’t a clear spell or great magical power but they had made the connection to the arcane. That was something he could work with at least, they had the vibes and the spirit for this.

He crouched down and gave them a proud smile and fist bumps all around, “Woah little dudes, you had a great wicked start. It’s obvious to me that you guys have some potential for this magic thing together”.

The triton then placed his fingers on his chin as he thought of what else he could show his students. Most of his spells and abilities were more of the wicked and brutal type but there was one spell that was fun and easy.

Vonoros called out, “Okay guys I need y’all to pay close attention”, crouching down and holding his right hand out. He then covered it with his left and started charging magical energy into his hands. A faint azure light enveloped his hands as a small water bubble would come from his palm (1).

---

1. Bouncing Bubble

The Beanies watched the spear stab into a building, the loud sounds reverberating in the surroundings. Demony was impressed by the solidity of the ice, as well as the manner in which it was thrown. Vonoros, despite his casual-seeming demeanour, felt very much like someone who could be a threat.

The Beanies, not possessing the kind of wariness Demony harboured, simply thought that it was awesome, if scary. Definitely wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that spear. Stabbies are no goodie.

The Beanies did their best approximate of a fist bump, lacking actual fists and all, and waited eagerly for further news, if any.

They then watched as the small, glistening water bubble appeared from Vonoros' palm, gently wobbling from the hand's natural shifts in position. Chili, ever the curious polar bear, attempted to stick a paw into the bubble before being stopped by Star and Goody pulling them backwards.
"Chili-plush! It's water!" Star chided Chili angrily.
"But it's magical water! Maybe it won't make us wet!" Chili retorted right back.
"Um, Mr. Vonoros? What does this bubble do?" Goody, hoping to avoid the sparks of argument turning into a burning fire, quickly interjected to ask a question and redirect the two's attention to their instructor.

Vonoros chuckled as the three bears looked on with wonder and amazement, “Yes guys it is magical water indeed but it will make you wet if you touch it so be careful. I was going to mess around and throw it at you guys to hit you with its real effect but decided getting you guys wet would not be cool”.

He held out for a moment explaining, “So this is a pretty simple spell, however, what it does depends on the user’s intentions. So if I view you as an enemy this bubble does some water damage as it hits you, however, if I view you as a friend then this bubble heals you”.

The triton juggled the bubble in his hands, messing around mostly, “That’s the thing about magic that matters a lot, your intentions. Certain spells have different effects depending on whether they're an enemy or a friend in your eyes. Sure getting hit by a bubble as it splashes isn’t the worst thing but it serves as a decent distraction against enemies. You have to be a versatile caster if you guys ever come into combat, there are tons of wild rogue mages that you’ll come across. Bad guys with bad intentions who don’t care if you’re a cute small group of bears”, he would warn.

“But hey that’s why I’m here right?”, he says with reassurance, “To at least give you guys some of the basics so you don’t get caught off guard. But hey to continue our little lesson here let’s do something new, I’ve shown you guys the power of ice and bubbles and how they can help out but what if I should show you the effect of putting magical energy into your own body?”.

The triton would walk back a few feet before touching both of his legs as he placed magical energy into his jump.

“Alright dudes watch this”, he yelled before jumping up towards a tall building nearby. Normally what would happen to a regular person was they’d fail pretty immediately and look like a clown. However, instead of that Vonoros’s jumped three times (1) his usual distance. He landed right on the edge of a building nearby only needing to pull himself to get on top of it standing away from the beanies.

---

1. Long Stride

"Awwwwww..." Chili was now slightly deflated, though that was largely due to Star and Goody being right to stop them rather than not wanting to get wet.
The Beanies listened in wonder about how some magic could harbour different properties based on their intentions. That sounded way more convenient than indiscriminate science! The Beanies didn't like the idea of combat much though, and their worries clearly amplified when Vonoros warned about 'bad guys with bad intentions'. The people of Sol City have been mostly nice so far aside from a few incidents, including attempted Beanienapping, the Beanies having their minute sizes to thank for their capacity to skedaddle away from many troubles. Oh, and there were assorted groups of meanies trying to steal their wagon, enough that they had to rig the wagon to stay firmly in place no matter what and lay annoying traps to make them rage quit. (They also had to paint the entire wagon in anti-fire coating.) Demony had little interest in those "certain spells" though, it wanted destructive chaos and it knew well the Beanies would very much focus on non-harmful spells as much as possible, like the kind-hearted creatures they were. Ugh. Why couldn't the magic system in this world be the completely indiscriminate kind?

The Beanies would redouble their focus on their instructor. Learning magic was indeed important as Vonoros was iterating to them and they watched intently as he cast his spell and jump high up a building. The quartet were absolutely impressed by the feat, the Beanies for the ability to do big jumps - big jumps are fun! - and Demony could definitely see itself making use of it... Then it remembered it hadn't had any luck with magic thus far. None of that spark the Beanies had was manifesting in it, and it began feeling resentful.

"Oh, oh! What's this spell called?" Star shouted up at Vonoros, playing representative for their fellow Beanies.

“Pretty cool huh? I know it’s not a ranged or elemental spell but it is important to have these types of tricks up your sleeve. It’s good to get away in a tight pinch or advance against your opponent. Magic doesn't just affect the world around us but it can also affect you. You can use magic to alter your appearance or strengthen your muscles. Just like the spell I just used, it makes the bottom of my foot infused with magic. To answer your question Star, it’s called long stride usually but to be honest you can name your spells whatever you want. You can call it jumpy jump or whatever you feel like it’s still gonna do the same thing. Magic can be used for lots of different things not just your usual elemental power, heck I know of spells that can create food or camp fire. All of that to say magics a big wide world of possibilities little dudes”.

Vonoros would then touch his legs again and jump (1) down landing right behind them safe and sound with no injuries to his feet.

“Now the way I do it was pretty simple, I gathered magical energy into my hands then touched my legs transferring that magic and causing my jumps to be higher. How about you guys try it? Don’t focus on recreating the attempt or not okay? I just want to see you guys give it a try and at least copy the technique. All I want from yall is good vibes and decent tries alright guys”, he would say cheering them on as he watched.

---

1. Long Stride

"'Be strong enough to win despite your enemies.'" Huh? Where did Star hear that from? Goody's ears would twitch at the quote too, as though it was something equally familiar to their ears.
"Oh, um, Goody agrees that being versatile is important! Surviving to live another day is a victory in itself, or something," Goody wasn't sure what they felt so flustered, but they thought they had to say something.
"Create Food? Camp Fire?" Chili hadn't noticed Star and Goody's sudden distress and latched onto the foodie-related spells like the gluttonous polar bear that they were. "Chili know what they wanna learn! Though Chili can definitely find use for Jumpy Jump too!"

Anyway, the Beanies would get together and imitate the technique as demonstrated by Vonoros, though all of them moving to touch their legs while maintaining physical contact turned out to not be effective in this case. Weird.

"Oh, how about Goody put Goody arms around Star and Chili, then Star and Chili touch legs?" Goody suggested.
"But then Goody's legs won't get touched. Would it even work?" Chili questioned.
"Star-plush thinks it might make sense if we have to act as 'one' for magic to work, so Star-plush says we should try it." Star replied rationally. Chili shrugged, and they went into action with Goody putting their arms around Star and Chili's backs, then Star and Chili each moved their outer arms to touch their legs. They could feel the magic flowing into each of their legs, which was weird in many other ways and definitely a mystery but oh well. A success is a success!

"""Yay!""" The Beanies rejoiced yet again. It was then that Demony loomed over the Beanies. It had had quite enough of Beanie joy and burning with smouldering envy, it proceeded to attempt to sit on the Beanies.