Kerry O'Shaunasey
December 03, 2011 12:01 AM
Beginner Care of Magical Creatures Lesson by Kerry O'Shaunasey
Kerry had decided to hold his Beginner’s class out in the clearing as well, though the day wasn’t quite as nice. The reason for this was that there were actual animals involved this time. There were what looked like porcupines hemmed in a makeshift pen. Two were rolling around and making little grunting and yipping noises as they wrestled playfully. The animals were surprisingly large, probably weighing between 30-40 lbs each. Kerry watched them with a grin for a moment. He thought they were pretty adorable.Kerry was dressed as he always was, muggle jeans and button down shirt, with a black wizards robe worn open over them. He wore study black boots on his feet. They were very likely a muggle brand, as they clearly weren’t dragon skin leather. His hair was worn long and pulled back in a low ponytail. It was outrageously red, a deep color with no suggestion of brown that would have otherwise made it auburn. Despite the intensity of the color, it was clearly natural as the rest of him would have screamed ‘ginger’ even if he had been shave bald. His skin was pale, with a smattering of freckles scattered over his friendly face, and his eyes were a light blue.
He had small weatherproof cushions for his students to sit on while he gave his brief lecture before the practical aspect. He waited for all of his students to arrived, then turned his attention to them, instead of on the porcupine like animals.
“Welcome Care of Magical Creatures. For those of you who are first years, welcome to the magical world. I hope you’re finding it wonderful and exciting. My name is Kerry O’Shaunasey, but please, call me Kerry.” He knew it wasn’t what other professors did, but he had moral issues with the use of titles. “And I’ll call you by your first names.” He smiled. “Now, today, we’re learning about a native North American magical animal, called a Arrowspine. As you can see they’re nearly identical to porcupines. Arrowspines are where the legends of porcupines being able to ‘throw’ their quills comes from. Ordinary porcupines cannot actually throw their quills. The quills pierce the skin only on contact. Arrowspines can literally launch their quills at a foe from a distance of about five feet. Arrowspines are prized for the venom that is contained at the tips of their quills. This venom in low doses causes extreme itching, and in higher doses can act as a paralytic… that means it can paralyze. The effect of the venom lasts about an hour. Its speculated that short duration of the effect is simply to distract or paralyze an attacker while the Arrowspine makes it’s escape.”
“Arrowspines are also more intelligent than porcupines, and can be trained to guard homes, and retrieve. Like porcupines, they love salt which is what occasionally draws them into contact with muggles, as they go onto farms where there is horselicks and the like. They, like many magical animals are capable of speech, usually short phrases they’ve overheard, rather like parrots. There is no evidence that this is actual conversation, more like an echo of something they’ve heard. My mother has one that does a perfect imitation of a goose honking,” He shrugged, it was weird, but he had a muggle friend who had a parakeet that perfectly imitated the sound of her microwave, which was every bit as weird in Kerry’s opinion. “I haven’t heard any of these ones talk yet, but who knows, there’s always a first.”
Kerry went over to the pen of arrowspines, and picked one up rather like one might pick up a rather rotund cat, and settled it against his shoulder like a baby. “Now, I’d like you to work in pairs or small groups, and first I want you each to take a arrowspine. Don’t worry, they can’t hurt you, they’ve been humanely dequilled, and they are enchanted to nutralize any remaining venom resin and soften any remaining barbs. They’re not soft to the touch, like a cat or dog, but they’re no more dangerous, though if you treat them poorly, they may bite or claw, just like a cat or dog. They’re heavy, so if you can’t lift them, I’ve got some salt pellets in this bucket,” he indicated a bucket suspended on a pole so the arrowspines couldn’t immediately access them. “take a couple, and lead it along, it will follow you happily to get the salt pellets, and stay close in hopes of getting more.” Kerry smiled at his students. “Observe them for a while, and I want each of you to draw a picture of you arrowspine with as much detail as you can manage and write down some observations about their behavior. If you need help, just raise your hand.”
With that, he turned them loose to form groups or pairs and pick an arrowspine to observe. The animals were playful and sweet for the most part, though they didn’t put up with too much mistreatment. Kerry wasn’t too worried. He’d handpicked each of these arrowspines, and all of them allowed themselves to be handled, rolled over, and have their feet and paws touched. A few of them even played fetch.
(Site rules apply to posts. If you need Kerry, say so in your tag, happy posting!)
Subthreads: Not what I was expecting... by Ephanie Lucore, Aladren with Waverly Canterbury - Pecari, Ephanie
Is class over yet? by Attoria Covington, Crotalus with Paul Bennett, Crotalus, Attoria
The difficulties of trying to be a lady.... by Theresa Carey, Pecari with Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus, Theresa
I feel indecisive right now... by Alicia Bauer, Aladren with Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren
... by Angel Shield - Teppenpaw with Jade Owen
Do they bite? by Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus with Alexandra Devereux, Crotalus
I prefer my nature this way. by Mellie Goodwin, Pecari
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Kerry O'Shaunasey
Beginner Care of Magical Creatures Lesson
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Kerry O'Shaunasey
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Alicia Bauer, Aladren
December 12, 2011 7:36 PM
I feel indecisive right now... by Alicia Bauer, Aladren
Theresa Carey, Alicia noted dispassionately as she settled herself onto a cushion with a quick smile at nothing in particular which felt necessary, was wearing a hat again. Alicia was going to have to keep an eye on that. If she started a trend, became the first person in their year to start one, then that could destroy the position that Alicia was working to develop in the first year class. And Alicia did not want that to happen.If Theresa started a trend, then Alicia would have to start a better one, and who could tell what people were going to take to? She never would have guessed that there might be a trend for very young, informal, jeans-wearing teachers, but first there had been Anne at home and now there was Kerry here at Sonora. She wondered if having not so good hair was part of the trend, too; Anne’s was too dark, and a lot of the time she didn’t do anything with it, and this guy’s was both all long when Alicia didn’t think that looked nice on men and was a color that was either a bad dye job or evidence that he needed to get to the salon and get one right away.
She had never seen a porcupine outside of maybe one cartoony drawing in a board book when she was very small and had never heard any legends about them throwing their quills, so that part of the lecture didn’t help her, but she looked at it with interest at the mention of it parroting back what it heard. That was something she’d read about in a few books, but she’d never seen anything do it in real life except people. She wondered if maybe it would talk for her.
Wondering about that, though, was put aside in favor of wondering about whether ‘each’ of them meant each group or each individual student. Touching or leading the arrowspine wasn’t going to bother her on its own, she was as indifferent to that as she was to touching the potions ingredients, but what might other people think about it? That was the same problem she had with calling the professor Kerry; it was one thing with Anne, who was barely out of college – had been in it when she became Alicia’s tutor, in fact – and was her uncle’s childhood friend, for goodness’ sake, and was only a tutor because of that, but he was an official professor, so she didn’t know what her peers might think if she used the informal address here. Just as she didn’t know what they’d think if she had no problem interacting with the creatures, since she’d observed that girls were supposed to be very squeamish. The lack of that expectation was one of the few things she could see that might have been good about being a boy.
Just as she was starting to feel a little uneasy, though, a thought came to her. Making the conundrum work in her favor wasn’t impossible. She’d ask one of her classmates, and then she’d respond to their opinion the way they seemed to want her to, but be careful not to seem too enthusiastic about anything, in case she was with a strange person and everyone else was still watching her. Then, if she found out they were strange, she could say something about how she’d been humoring them later. That was a brilliant plan, and she didn’t see how it could go wrong. With a moderate smile, concentrating on the fact she was uncertain, she turned to one of her classmates.
“Do you think we’re each supposed to get one, or one for each group?” she asked, looking at the arrowspines for a moment before looking back to the person she had selected. “I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t listening closely enough – “ embarrassment, she was embarrassed, just a little, in a laughing way – “but I didn’t think – he was really clear about that.” She had just caught herself saying ‘professor,’ which annoyed her. What if they had a strong preference for calling him one thing or another, and she got it wrong? She had to be better than that, or she'd get nowhere in life. A girl who couldn't always watch her tongue at every moment never would, Gramma Alma said.
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Alicia Bauer, Aladren
I feel indecisive right now...
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Alicia Bauer, Aladren
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Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren
December 14, 2011 1:08 AM
I can be decisive enough for the both of us by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren
The weather had begun to turn more towards winter, something that wasn’t too terrible in the desert but it did put a chill in the air. With that in mind Kitty tugged a warm woolly violet sweater on before Care of Magical Creatures class seems it was outside most days. Soon, I’ll be in the higher years and we’ll get to see the more dangerous creatures Kitty thought as she skipped out the doors. She was glad for the sweater when a cold breeze danced though her long black curls.Humming happily Kitty made her way to the clearing. She plopped down on one of the cushions and crossed her legs to get more comfortable, glad that she hadn’t worn a dress or skirt today. Usually Kitty wore jeans anyway on the days she had CoMC class. Dresses and skirts were fun, but not really practical when chasing animals around. Curious blue eyes landed on the new professor, she supposed that seems the old one was now the principle it made sense that they’d hire someone new.
He looked pretty friendly, and Kitty thought his hair was quite bright and lent itself to that image. A grin tugged at her lips when he invited them to call him Kerry, it always seemed like the best teachers did that and Kitty couldn’t wait to see how he ran his classes. As he lectured Kitty turned her attention to the large creatures in the pen. They did look a lot like really big porcupines and though Kitty had only seen them in zoos, one of her friends had a pet hedgehog that was actually rather friendly.
Maybe when I grow up I’ll have one of those for a pet Kitty mused as the professor talked about what good pets they made. The fact that she wasn’t allowed to have pets at home made Kitty long for the day when she could have her own home and fill it full of pets. Not that her dad would ever be able to come over, but she’d still be able to visit them and that would just be good enough.
Kerry invited them to interact with the Arrowspines and Kitty stood up, she’d taken a step forward when the girl next to her spoke. “Usually it is one animal per pair, but last term we had a different teacher so Kerry might be different but we can start with one and if we’re doing it wrong I’m sure he’ll tell us.” Kitty chirped helpfully. Her fingers itched to pick up one of the large friendly animals and she gave the other girl a bright smile. “Do you want to work together? Oh I’m Kitty by the way.” Kitty asked, and introduced herself as well seems the other girl was unfamiliar to her.
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Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren
I can be decisive enough for the both of us
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Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren
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Alicia
December 16, 2011 9:43 PM
Um...no, I think I'm feeling better now. by Alicia
At first, Alicia just noticed that Kitty didn’t seem to have a problem with calling the professor by his first name, which meant that for this class, anyway, Alicia would be calling him that, too. That was what she was really after more than actual knowledge about what they were supposed to do with the creature, and it was a little safer to have this conversation with a second year than another first year, at least at first, because they were less relevant to her. Then, though, she was completely distracted by the other girl introducing herself, as though they hadn’t met.“I know,” Alicia said a little flatly, realizing she had done that but making no effort to correct it, though she did blink rather than just stare blankly at the other girl, since that might be construed all wrong. She’d realized at the Feast that this girl wasn’t really her kind of person, but this was…. “We met at the Opening Feast. Remember? I’m Alicia Bauer.”
She noticed her arms had crossed defensively at her waist and she quickly did correct that, putting them back in their proper places by her sides and trying to shut down the paranoid idea that it was possible that she really was that forgettable and everyone she thought did like her and was with her outside of her own dorm room wouldn’t even remember who she was next week. And, all other concerns set aside for a hypothetical second, after even just all the time she’d spent on each person she worked with, she found the thought of that even less palatable than the idea of Theresa Carey setting a trend with her stupid hats before Alicia could think of one and so becoming, in at least one area, the leader of the year.
When she did take everything else into consideration, which she couldn’t help but do, the idea of being unimportant was enough to make her almost feel sick, so she refused to even admit to the possibility. This whole school was hers for the taking, and there was nothing whatsoever that Kitty McLevy could do about that, even if she did have the wrong idea that Alicia was just some random first year from a group of them right now.
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Alicia
Um...no, I think I'm feeling better now.
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Alicia
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