Bonus Episode 5: Studio Art

MR. DONOVAN (archived from the pilot): I haven’t the faintest idea. But I suspect you’ll have an easier time of it on a campus full of mages than I will sitting here at home.

JENNA: (under her breath) What is in here? What did you leave for me to find? Is it some clue about where you went? Some secret knowledge of the school that I can use to survive here? Why did you leave a book I can’t read?

CREDITS: Electromancy, bonus episode five, Studio Art.

[knock on the door]

ELLIE: Hey, Jenna?

JENNA: One sec. [she hides the book under a mattress.] Come in. [door opens.] What’s up?

ELLIE: Oh! Nothing in particular. Did you finish the book yet? 

JENNA: What?

ELLIE: For Oswerian?

JENNA: I haven’t started it yet. 

ELLIE: Oh. Well, um, there’s a quiz tomorrow on the first six chapters, so-

JENNA: I’ll do it in the morning. Or I won’t- those quizzes are multiple choice so it's really easy to guess the answers well enough to get a B.

ELLIE: Uh, okay. Don’t you want to get an A though?

JENNA: I should. Probably. At my old school I really cared about my grades. But here-

ELLIE: Here if you’re really good at magic they probably won’t let you fail literature or care if you have a B, a C, or a D. Right. Whereas I actually have to study. 

JENNA: That’s not what I meant.

ELLIE: It’s true, though. Good on you for figuring it out already. Will you study with me sometimes though?

JENNA: Ellie, I’m not going to suddenly turn into a D student. Even if it doesn’t matter, that’s just- not in my nature. I’ve just got a lot of other stuff on my mind right now, okay? 

ELLIE: *sighs* Okay. Anything you want to talk about?

JENNA: Not really. 

[beat]

JENNA: I do have a random question for you though.

ELLIE: Shoot.

JENNA: Do you have a lot of friends outside the Electromancers?

ELLIE: Oh, I mean, I guess it depends on what you mean by a lot? And also what you mean by friends? I have a lot of people I’m friendly with, but I think some of them are just hoping I'll let them cheat off my quizzes. I used to sit with this group of faunamancers because they were allowed to have pets- you have to study an animal like really well to learn how to copy it plus, like, not letting them have animals around would be horribly cruel given the way they are like- faunamancers. So I would sit with them just to like, pet their cat or whatever they had that week but then I started dating one of them, this boy Cory, and he would turn into a bunny rabbit and curl up on my lap and he was so soft- anyway, Cory and I broke up and I couldn’t sit with them anymore because it was too awkward, which sucks because I miss the kitties! But that’s on me, I guess. I got greedy.

JENNA: When was this?

ELLIE: Oh, about two years ago. Cory was my first boyfriend. I guess it was just puppy love. In his case literally. 

JENNA: So, since then-

ELLIE: Well, when I was dating Amal I was like almost cool with the Electromancers- not, like actually cool, but, like Amal is a 5, that’s a coup for a 2. And then we broke up and it was super awkward-

JENNA: Did you ever have a group of friends where there wasn’t a boy involved?

ELLIE: Oh, yeah. Hmmm. There was a bunch of 1s and 2s from all different aspects I used to go around with when I first got here, but we all just kind of fell out of touch cause we don’t really have classes together. I miss some of them, though, especially Kayla. 

JENNA: Who was Kayla?

ELLIE: Oh, she was this photomancer. She used to use illusion magic to help us test out different hairstyles. She was so cool and fashionable and pretty. She was also a 2, but, like, making hair longer or shorter is a pretty simple illusion to do. She saved me from getting a pixie cut that would have looked real bad.

JENNA: *perking up* A photomancer? Do you think I could meet her?

ELLIE: I wish, it would be so fun to hang out the three of us. But she graduated last year. She was a couple years ahead of us, I only met her through the newspaper.

JENNA: We have a school paper? 

ELLIE: We did. For a while… There was an incident. It’s a long story. Kayla and I were just copy-editors so we weren’t involved with the drama, but…

JENNA: Okay, at some point I have to hear this whole story.

ELLIE: Well, you’ll have to find someone who was more involved with it. I only know the very basics, which is that it ended with the faculty advisor getting sacked and the editor-in-chief getting sent away.

JENNA: Sent away where?

ELLIE: Uh- No one knows. Every so often an older or like more powerful student like really, really messes up and they get sent away. Everybody’s got their theories, but, um…

JENNA: Some kind of mage prison?

ELLIE: Maybe. Let’s not.. hey, why do you want to meet a photomancer anyway?

JENNA: It’s… not important.

ELLIE: Okay. Well, you might try talking to Pem. They don’t have, like, a lot of friends, but they do take advanced art, and there’s a bunch of photomancers who take art because developing a good eye or something helps you make better illusions. 

JENNA: Oh, cool. That makes a lot of sense, actually.

Is Brynn in that art class too?

ELLIE: Oh, you’d have to ask Pem. 

[transition music]

JENNA: Hey.

PEM: Hello.

JENNA: Is that for class, or…

PEM: Just for fun I guess. 

JENNA: It’s very detailed. I like the feathers.

PEM: Thanks. 

JENNA: I didn’t know you were taking art, until Ellie told me.

PEM: I usually work in my room - fewer distractions. But it was nice out today, and not windy enough to keep pulling the paper up.

JENNA: What are you drawing, anyway?

PEM: Griffon.

JENNA: Okay, I don’t know a lot about magical creatures, but don’t griffins have, like, lion parts?

PEM: Sorry, Griffon is a faunamancer in my class. He posed for my initial sketches- in owl form, obviously. So it’s an owl, but his name is Griffon and he’s actually a boy. A freshman. 

JENNA: Is he cute?

PEM: As a human? I- a little. I mean- he’s nice enough. But not nice enough to- we’re just friends. He’s really cute as a bird though.

JENNA: Wow, you and Ellie. Both into the faunamancers I guess.

PEM: I wouldn't say into. He's just… nice.

JENNA: Do you have a lot of friends in your art class?

PEM: Not exactly friends. But no one there bothers me, which is pretty cool. 

JENNA: Ellie said it was a lot of photomancers.

PEM: Well, yeah. They have to take drawing. For everyone else it's an elective. So - it’s gonna be dominated by them.

JENNA: All photomancers have to take drawing?

PEM: Well, not if they’re clearly seer track. But if they have any aptitude for illusions they do, same way we have to take extra physics and the biomancers have to take, um, well, biology. Magic is no good if you don’t understand how to use it. The teachers are harder on them too, they don’t really care if I can draw cause it won’t help me… wherever they send me, after this.

JENNA: Gotcha. So, you don’t have any photomancers in that class that you’re particularly close with?

PEM: Well, there’s Brynn.

JENNA: I meant, other than Brynn. How does Brynn get on with the other kids in her aspect anyway? 

PEM: Oh, they hate her. Well, most of them do. They respect her, I mean, and they’re happy she wins duels for them, but… Brynn is really good at illusions. It’s not the same as Electromancy- well, actually it is kinda the same. There’s power and there’s talent right? Power is how big an illusion can you make? How many people can you confuse at once? Talent is… is it detailed? Is it convincing? A level 9 photomancer like, say, Ivan- he could make a bigger forest than Brynn, but if you were standing in hers you’d have no idea it wasn’t the real thing. Brynn’s got umbramancy, which no other photomancer has, and that makes certain illusion stuff way easier for her, like if a photomancer wants to go invisible, they have to actually make an illusion of whatever is on the other side of them and take into account the perspective of the observer so it’s basically just, like camouflage. But Brynn has umbramancy so she can just… vanish and paint the illusion over herself. So that helps a lot. But she’s also just really, really good. On the talent and control level. And she refuses to be cozied up to or to cozy up to anyone else, like since she got here. So no one quite knows what to make of her.

I’m sorry, that was probably way more than you wanted to know.

JENNA: No, it was really helpful.

PEM: Are you… looking for a photomancer to help you with something? Because I’m sure a ton of them would do it just to be in your good graces. I mean, even if you don’t take the top spot from Lucas you’ll be here for two years after he graduates and, well-

JENNA: It’s… a little more complicated than that. Um, thanks for your help Pem. I’ll let you get back to your drawing.

(narration) I haven’t given up on you mom. I’ll find someone to translate that diary… I just need to find someone I can trust with the contents.

END CREDITS: This episode was written by Nathan Comstock and featured Azul Nova as Jenna, Austin Hendricks as Ellie, and Sena Bryer as Pem. Sound design was by Olanrewaju Odatayu with music by Thomas Dwyer. This episode was originally recorded as an incentive for our crowdfunding campaign last year, but we’re releasing it now because season 2 is almost upon us! That’s right, you’ll have the first episode of season 2 in your earbuds- or whatever you listen to us on-in just two weeks! Tell your friends, and make sure you tune in! We missed you.