Incomprehensible on Charms

Professor Aaron McKindy

February 01, 2011 8:51 PM

Babelfish, anyone? [Years V, VI] by Professor Aaron McKindy

With the missing year of students, Aaron McKindy had ended up incorporating his classes a little bit differently in the last couple of terms. Ironically, this term his course structure—at least for the first half of the term—was more similar to the initial lessons he had taught at Sonora all those years ago than anything else. An odd thought. After all, at the time he had not (knowingly, anyway) been a parent, he was a more-or-less confirmed bachelor (if you ignored the uncomfortable semi-existence of Declan Chatterjee in his life), and he was new to teaching. Now, not only had Aaron taught at two schools and fired from one, but he had also ended up married and with a handful of fostered children. Actually, the Tennant family—although Aaron had legally taken his husband’s name, for purposes of teaching he had kept his own—had expanded to the point where they had moved out of the apartment off of Pearl Street and into an actual house not so far away in Aurora, Colorado. Since then, things had calmed down a little bit, though. With Kat and Abby off at college most of the year, and both Melody and Cooper now enrolled in Sonora, the house had been rather quietly left under Jessie’s supervision during the week.

It wasn’t that Aaron didn’t trust his biological daughter, it was just that she had a tendency to exhibit a rather significant lack of judgment when certain questions came up. Her judgment tended to be particularly lacking when questions along the lines of ‘can I raise a kelpie in the bathtub’ and ‘will it really hurt anything if I keep the baby dragon here overnight’ came up.

Anyway, Jessie had managed to secure a crate full of Babble-Tongue Toads for him, and Aaron was thankful to his daughter for that, despite the Christmas card that came with it. Since he had informed the stubborn girl that she was not permitted to kidnap Jera to South Africa to ‘pet dragons’ over the holiday to ‘make her feel better’ about her mother’s illness, he only hoped that the card was her way of payback. Not her way of demonstrating that she planned on going anyway.

Dressed in his usual jeans-and-a-t-shirt with a tophat made of bright pink bubbles, the professor placed one Babble-Tongue Toad on each desk. The creatures looked at him balefully with their golden eyes. One or two chirped and bounced as he placed them down, trying to lick him with sticky crimson tongues that Aaron artfully avoided. The creatures were harmless, but as a general rule, Aaron didn’t like being licked or nibbled by animals. It gave him the feeling that they wanted to eat him.

Around the time class was supposed to start, Aaron propped the door open. Greeting each student by name as they entered the classroom, he directed them to pick the seat of their choice before the class began, reminding a few of the less social students that yes, that did mean they would be working in partners today. The dark-haired Italian had always made it a point to know at least a bit about each student, and now that he was Head of Pecari House, he had even more reason to keep an eye on them. After all, the most rambunctious ones tended to lie under his jurisdiction, now.

“All right,” the black-haired, grey-green eyed man said once everyone had arrived. “Today we’re going to continue our case studies of ‘natural’ and ‘synthetic’ magics.” And for once, both groups of students were going to learn something new; it was difficult to teach one year-group that was to test and one year group that had already tested at once. “You should each have a Babble-Tongue Toad on your desk. Please be careful with them. They are a particularly mature batch, and I’d like to be able to keep them around for a few years.

“Can anyone tell me what the Tower of Babel is?” Aaron asked. One of the students threw an answer back, and the man nodded. “Right. Do all the sixth years remember last year, when we studied Cones of Silence?” It had been an interesting lesson and one that had gone with questionable success, requiring Aaron’s intervention more than once to prevent anything too catastrophic from happening. “This next example of natural and synthetic magics is going to be something similar. In addition to the mythical/Biblical tower, there is also a spell nicknamed Tower of Babel. What it does, in essence, is projects a field within which it becomes nearly impossible to eavesdrop on the person holding the spelled object, or who has been spelled themselves because the listener will hear the conversation in a language that it s not his own.

“Babble-Tongue Toads have a very similar ability. When you are holding a Babble-Tongue Toad, a similar field is extended, although it is a larger one than most spells accomplish. The listener in this case will hear the conversation in one of the languages the Toad has heard and assimilated. Juvenile Babble-Tongue Toads are frequently found in Muggle international airports, actually, because they are attracted to the sounds of different languages. The largest Babble-Tongue Toad farm I know of is actually in a small basement room in the United Nations,” that wasn’t too relevant, but Aaron really did like these creatures.

“I want you guys to work in groups of two and experiment with the success rates of each method—the Tower of Babel spell can be found on page 427 of A Professional Approach to Advanced Charms--and make notes on your observations. By next class I would like a two-thousand word analysis on the pros and cons of each system, as well as qualitative data tables of your observations with both the toads and the spell. You can go ahead and start, but feel free to shout out of you need a hand with something,” the pink-tophatted man said. The class began to clump into the usual groups and he returned to his desk, where a single, juvenile Babble-Tongue was sitting disconsolately in the crate. The little fellow seemed to only be familiar with the English language and was therefore useless for this particular lesson. Aaron would have to rectify that for future years.

|OOC|
The rules. Follow them. Need me, tag me. Feel free to be creative with the languages the toads know and that sort of thing, just don’t be too out there. Enjoy!

Subthreads:

Do we put them in our ears? by Daniel Nash II, Aladren (and Head Boy) with Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw (and Prefect), Daniel the Head Boy, Andew

Incomprehensible by Charlotte Abbott with Jose Hernandez, Pecari, Charlotte, Charlie, Jose Hernandez

0 Professor Aaron McKindy Babelfish, anyone? [Years V, VI] 0 Professor Aaron McKindy 1 5

Daniel Nash II, Aladren (and Head Boy)

February 03, 2011 12:37 PM

Do we put them in our ears? by Daniel Nash II, Aladren (and Head Boy)

Daniel returned the professor's greeting with a polite one in return and went to take his normal seat in the middle of the room. He regarded the frog - toad? Definitely toad, he decided. He regarded the toad uncertainly. Charms was not usually prone to having animals on their desks, but Transfiguration made it normal enough that Daniel sat down with only a sigh of resignation.

Faced with an unfamiliar creature in a school for magic, Daniel was careful not to touch it as he readied himself to take notes. The toad hopped onto his notebook, which simultaneously gave him more room on the desk for his books and made it much more difficult to actually take notes.

Daniel did the best he could given that the toad wanted to sit right in the middle of the page, but he managed. Unfortunately, someone else got to answer the Tower of Babel question first because he was distracted by trying to get the interfering Babble Tongue Toad (and what, he wondered, was Quentin making of that creature name?) to shove over just a few inches.

Once Professor McKindy mentioned what touching them accomplished (and gave no warnings about side-effects) Daniel took the opportunity to hoist his toad up and depositing it down on the page he wasn't currently attempting to fill with the day's lesson notes. After that, he was able to get the rest of the information down with relatively less fuss.

Having heard the person in front of him get warned that it was a partners class, he wasn't too surprised when they were told to pair up and he turned to the person sitting beside him (carefully chosen to Not Be James). "Partners?" he asked, almost rhetorically. In five years at this school, he'd never had anyone say 'no' to that question. (He was not counting the time Quentin had gone into a literalist spiel about the difference between the syntax of 'Are you willing to be my partner for this lesson?' and whatever less precise version of the question he'd actually asked.)

"I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or not that they're toads instead of fish," he commented with a nod toward the creature that was still planted firmly on the other side of his notebook. "But I guess they're used to confuse not to translate, so it's not the same thing." It occurred to him that his new partner may have no idea what he was talking about, so he added quickly, "In the Hitchhiker's Guide - a muggle book - the characters had babel fish, which people could stick in their ears so they could hear what everybody was saying in their own language."

1 Daniel Nash II, Aladren (and Head Boy) Do we put them in our ears? 130 Daniel Nash II, Aladren (and Head Boy) 0 5

Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw (and Prefect)

February 03, 2011 8:28 PM

Ear? Don't be silly, ever heard of 'a frog in your throat'? by Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw (and Prefect)

Andrew wandered into Charms. This was not his favorite class, but it wasn't his least favorite either. He took a seat near the middle of the room, and glanced over the critter sitting on his desk. They were studying frogs? In charms? Well, I guess there's a first time for everything, he thought to himself.

He listened to the professor's speech, and took notes. He seemed to be having more success than Daniel, who was sitting beside him. He considered himself lucky. Daniel was the popular one, it was natural that the frog chose him.

It did catch him a little off guard when Daniel asked to be partners. Partnering up was nothing new, but he was pretty sure that Daniel had never asked him to partner up before. Daniel was... well, Daniel. He was just, Andrew.

"Sure." Andrew replied, then he smiled as Daniel referenced one of his favorite Muggle books. "Not quite the same, but close. I wonder if they would cancel each other out?" He paused and thought about it for a moment. "No... the fish translated whatever it received directly into the person's brain as something they could understand. The toad translates the speech midair from the sounds of it. I wonder if there is a counter-charm to do what the fish does..." Andrew's mind started to wander far from the task at hand. He forcibly snapped it back to attention.

"Sorry. The toad seems to like you, do you want to go first?"

2 Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw (and Prefect) Ear? Don't be silly, ever heard of 'a frog in your throat'? 145 Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw (and Prefect) 0 5

Daniel Nash II

February 04, 2011 9:38 AM

Right. My mistake by Daniel Nash II

The Not-James seated beside Daniel was one of the fifth years. They hadn't really worked together before in or out of class, but Daniel knew the guy's name, if only because it had been announced at the Opening Feast this year when the Prefects were named. He knew it. It was . . . a two syllable name starting with a vowel. Daniel really did know this. Eric, or no, Arthur - no Arthur was on the Quidditch team - Andrew! Yes. Andrew. With a last name that made him think of Alexander Hamilton.

The specific surname itself was escaping him at the moment, but he decided it probably didn't matter immediately and it would come to him later.

Turned out Andrew Something-To-Do-With-Hamilton had read the Guide. And he was giving waaay too much thought to how a fictional creature would or would not be affected by the Toads. Daniel was almost drawn into the theorizing himself, but fortunately Andrew redirected, before the sixth year could start arguing that it would be far more efficient to simply cancel the toad's translations rather than have the toad translate and then have the fish/counter-spell translate back.

He gave his head a quick shake to clear it. "Right, sure," he agreed to go first and picked up the toad and held it in his lap. Not really the kind of animal he would have chosen to hold, but it was a lesson, and Daniel was willing to hold a toad for the sake of learning.

"So do you understand me, now?" he asked, and a serious potential problem with the toad method occurred to him. "Actually, what's the point of the toad disguising your words if nobody can understand you? Do you pick a toad that translates to a language your conspirator understands? Or," he grabbed Andrew's hand and held it against the toad as well, "do we both need to be touching it for the secret conversation to be understood? And what exactly is its 'range' for - if I shout does that mean the people next to me can't understand what I say, but those at the far side of the room can?"

He put the toad back down on the desk (on the notebook, since it seemed to like it there and Daniel had no immediate need of the pages). He wiped his hands on his robes, and asked without touching the toad, "So how much of that did you get?"

1 Daniel Nash II Right. My mistake 130 Daniel Nash II 0 5

Andrew Duell

February 04, 2011 6:26 PM

No worries, at least it's not an octopus by Andrew Duell

Andrew watched as Daniel picked up the toad and started babbling in some language that Andrew didn't understand. Not only did he not understand it, he didn't even recognize it. It didn't sound like any language he'd heard before. Not that he'd really heard a lot of different languages.

He was caught off guard when his partner grabbed his hand and put it on the toad. His first instinct was to pull it back, but then he realized what Daniel was doing. Would they be able to understand each other if they both were touching the toad? Andrew noted that there was not discernible difference in Daniel's speech. That was a little disappointing, what possible practical application could this creature, or the charm have? Maybe the charm worked differently.

After Daniel put the toad back on the desk, Andrew told him what he had heard. "It was all gibberish. I couldn't understand a thing. Even when I was touching it as well. Hmm... that does make sense though I guess. From what the professor was saying, the toad makes the listener hear another language. I'll bet while we were both touching the thing, we'd both hear that same language. If neither of us knew it though, it wouldn't do much good. Should we try the charm?" He pulled out his textbook and glanced over the appropriate page. He grimaced a bit, Charms were not his specialty.

"Maybe you'd better cast it on me. Hmm.. I wonder what would happen if we'd cast it on the toad..."

2 Andrew Duell No worries, at least it's not an octopus 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Charlotte Abbott

February 10, 2011 3:18 PM

Incomprehensible by Charlotte Abbott

It was usual for some classes to have animals on the desks, but these classes were usually transfiguration - occasionally DADA - and while Charlie had heard rumours that Professor McKindy's pink bubble hat was actually made of transfigured frogs, she was a little surprised to see a large collection of toads in the charms classrooom. Shrugging off the surprise - the unexpected tended to happen at Sonora - Charlie took a seat and petted the toad while she waited for class to begin. It was sort of cute, really, and as she'd gotten older Charlie wasn' nearly as squeamish about things like toads as she'd once been. Sonora was responsible for that, especially CoMC classes. She had dropped the subject now, after only obtaining an Acceptable on her CATS, but handling weird and wonderful creatures had encourgaed her to appreciate even the funny-looking ones.

Once Professor McKindy began talking, Charlie left her toad alone for a while to take notes. "Impressive," she told her toad when she'd disocvered his trick (or her trick, she really couldn't be sure). She thought it must be a handy creature to have around if you were conversing with someone in a crowded space and didn't want to be overheard, but she wasn't quite sure how the spell or the frog worked in that respect. Did both people in the coversation have to be holding the toad? Was there a spell to go with the Babel spell that made it possible for at least one other person to understand? It didn't seem like either were especially useful if nobody could understand what you were saying. Ah well, she supposed that the point of the class was to find out.

It was another work in paris class, the sort that Charlie liked best because the professors were basically giving the students an excuse to chat while they worked. Turning happily to the nearest person who hadn't yet claimed a partner, Charlie said, "Is it okay if we work together?"

0 Charlotte Abbott Incomprehensible 135 Charlotte Abbott 0 5

Daniel the Head Boy

February 11, 2011 4:28 PM

I don't think I <i>want</i> to know where that goes by Daniel the Head Boy

Daniel was disappointed that all of his perfectly logical reasoning had been completely unintelligible to Andrew. Of course, the part about being able to be understood while they were both touching the frog proved to be false, but that was how the scientific method worked. Not all hypotheses were correct.

He wasn't sure how much of it was worth repeating - he was used to needing additional takes on set, but this wasn't the same environment and Daniel didn't care much for repeating himself here. He decided if Andrew really wanted a translation, he could ask for one, and if it became important later, he'd repeat it then.

Until that time, though, they'd move on. "That's fine," Daniel agreed to Andrew's suggestion and took out his wand. "We're supposed to be comparing the range of these things, so I'll cast the spell on you, and take the fr-toad with me." He'd nearly called it a frog, but years of exposure to Quentin made him correct himself to the more accurate label. The rest of his speech was no doubt not up to Quentin specifications, but some glaring mistakes had become habit to fix.

"We'll both say something, and we'll nod if we can't understand each other, then we'll take a step back and repeat the process. That sounds feasible, right?" The toads surely couldn't translate nods on the fly. That wasn't verbal.

"Okay," he raised his wand, pointed it at Andrew, and cast the Tower of Babel spell at his partner. Then he picked up the toad again, took a step away, and asked, on a whim, "Can you hear me now?" with the same inflection as that Verizon guy.

0 Daniel the Head Boy I don't think I <i>want</i> to know where that goes 0 Daniel the Head Boy 0 5

Andrew Duell

February 11, 2011 6:32 PM

Trust me... you don't. I looked into it once. Big Mistake. by Andrew Duell

Andrew wondered for a moment what exactly the ranges were for these effects. Daniel said something that he couldn't understand, but he was right next to him at this point. As per the experiment, Andrew nodded his head. If these ranges got to big, how far apart would they have to be? The room was large, sure, but would they be able to get far enough away?

The experiment would show them. He took a step backwards and asked his partner, "Am I making any sense to you?" It was at this point that he realized another potential use for the spell. Not to have secret conversations, but to stop someone from communicating directly with others.

2 Andrew Duell Trust me... you don't. I looked into it once. Big Mistake. 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Daniel Nash II

February 14, 2011 3:50 PM

I'll take your word for it. by Daniel Nash II

The words coming from Andrew's mouth were obviously French. He didn't know a lot of French, but he knew enough to be able to recognize the language. He wondered if the charm chose French because he had a passing familiarity with it, like the toads only translated to languages they'd been exposed to. It would make the charm somewhat more useful if it did select a language you at least had a chance of understanding.

For example, Daniel knew that Andrew had a prepositional phrase that meant 'to you' at the end of his sentence, and he was pretty sure it started with a first person present tense conjugation of the verb 'to be'. So Andrew was asking if he - was doing something - to Daniel. Probably.

"You're talking French," he told Andrew, from the same distance, then took a step back and asked again, "Can you hear me now?"

1 Daniel Nash II I'll take your word for it. 130 Daniel Nash II 0 5

Jose Hernandez, Pecari

February 16, 2011 12:33 PM

Comprehending that I don't comprehend by Jose Hernandez, Pecari

"Oo! Frogs!" Jose exclaimed as he walked into the Charms classroom. Charms was definitely one of his favorite classes normally, and the addition of frogs this lesson gave it the additional excitement of working with critters that CoMC (another of Jose's favorites) and transfiguration (not as fun, generally speaking) often had.

He took a seat without really paying much attention to who was nearby (the vast majority of his friends were still down in the intermediate level of the subject) and found himself beside Charlie Abbott. He'd liked her during the play rehearsals last year, so he grinned at her and said hi, before taking out his books and stuff for the class.

By the time his spiral notebook, self-inking quill, and wand were ready and willing to go (the quill was temperamental and sometimes took convincing), Professor McKindy (who Jose had liked from the first time he'd seen the bubble hat) began the lesson. It didn't take long for him to reach the conclusion that babble tongue toads were cool.

At the end of the lecture they were instructed to break into a pairs (a warning that Jose had not received when he'd cheerfully greeted his Head of House upon arrival), and Charlie beat him to the punch. "Sure," he agreed readily when she asked if it was okay to work together. He grinned, "That is, if you're not worried about me growing up and kidnapping you and keeping you in a tower." Remembering another tower had been mentioned already that class, he added, "Possibly a Tower of Babel."

0 Jose Hernandez, Pecari Comprehending that I don't comprehend 0 Jose Hernandez, Pecari 0 5

Andrew Duell

February 17, 2011 8:33 PM

Re: I'll take your word for it. by Andrew Duell

It occurred to Andrew that they weren't anywhere near far enough away to hit these ranges of these effects. How were they supposed to work anyway? What were these spells even used for? "I'm going to try and back up farther, we..." he stopped, realizing that Daniel probably couldn't understand a thing he said. So, it was time to experiment again. Did this only work on the spoken word? He thought it should, the professor said it affected how people heard you, not the communication as a whole.

Andrew pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled a note on it quick.

I'm going to back up farther. We can't be anywhere near
the range of this spell. I have no idea what language you
are speaking, can you understand me at all?

He stepped forward and handed the note to Daniel then moved away a few feet to get some good range. "Alright, how is this?" By the professor's explination, Daniel should be able to understand him before he could understand Daniel. If the toad did have a longer range than the charm.

2 Andrew Duell Re: I'll take your word for it. 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Daniel

February 18, 2011 1:34 PM

You're taking my word for what I'm taking your word for? by Daniel

"You're talking-" Daniel abruptly stopped trying to verbally answer Andrew's written question, huffed irritably, and scribbled his own response under Andrew's writing.

You're speaking French. That's my second best language after English. I think we're getting close to the edge of the spell's range, though, because I heard 'All right' in English, though the 'how is this?' was still in French. Daniel realized he was implying he understood French far better than he actually did in the note, but he didn't want a written record of something he couldn't do very well. Besides, he'd understood 'how is this?' perfectly well and felt pretty proud of that fact.

He closed the distance again, handed the note to Andrew, and took several steps back beyond his original position. "Can you hear me now? Is the toad still blocking you from understanding me?"

1 Daniel You're taking my word for what I'm taking your word for? 130 Daniel 0 5

Charlotte

February 20, 2011 12:04 PM

Comprehending that you don't comprehend by Charlotte

before last year, Charlie had only really known Jose in a Quidditch opposition capacity. He'd been Assistant while she had, and though he'd been named Captain a year earlier she'd still been on the Crotalus team a year longer than he'd been at the school. They'd shared some classes but somehow Charlie hadn't ended up working with him before. From rehearsing the group play for the concert last term she'd gotten to know him a little better and was perfectly happy to be working with someone who almost certainly was no opposed to chatting while they worked - in fact that was sort of a requirement for this class. Jose consented to work with her, provided she wasn't concerned about being kidnapped in a manner identical to that of her character in the concert play.

"If your growing up is a pre-requisite to my kidnapping then I doubt I'm in any danger for the foreseeable future," she quipped back, unable to keep a straight face as she teased her partner. He'd started it. Besides, the whole situation of Charlie's in-the-play character wasn't too bad. Admittedly the kidnapping and being held prisoner part had room for improvement, but in that scenario Daniel hadn't been prepared to let her go. Okay, he'd been somewhat ~~crazy~~ crazier than normal, but then his character had been created by Grayson Wright.

"So, where do you want to start?" Charlie asked Jose because otherwise she'd have to make the decision, and really she didn't mind either way. "Toad or spell?" As if hearing her request (maybe he did understand? Stranger things had happened) the toad on Charlie's desk hopped back onto her notes again, and then onto her textbook. Maybe it was his way of telling them to ignore the spell because he was sure he could do a much better job. "You'll wait your turn," she told it. She wasn't about to let amphibians tell her what to do, even if she was too lazy to make her own decisions. There were limits.

0 Charlotte Comprehending that you don't comprehend 0 Charlotte 0 5

Jose

February 22, 2011 1:53 PM

Getting that you get that I get that I don't get it by Jose

"Ha," Jose retorted as she implied that he'd never grow up and made a face as though he were offended, though he wasn't at all. In all honesty, it was something of a compliment in his opinion. "Call me Peter Pan, and I move up the timetable." He was fairly sure she'd know who Peter Pan was.

As for where he wanted to start. . . Jose shrugged and watched as the toad made its own opinion known. "I guess we could let him have a go," he suggest despite her scolding it to wait its turn. "I'd be bored, too, if I just had to sit there while a couple humans tried to cast magic at each other and started blabbering." He grinned a little, "Least we can do is hold the guy while we blabber."

"Besides," he added with a particularly large grin, picked up the toad and turned it to look at her, and asked, "How can you say no to a face like this?"

0 Jose Getting that you get that I get that I don't get it 0 Jose 0 5

Andrew Duell

February 22, 2011 7:19 PM

umm... yes... by Andrew Duell

Interesting, Andrew thought to himself as he read Daniel's note. Daniel had cast the spell, and it made him speak the language that Daniel knew best, other than English. The toad on the other hand, caused you to hear one of the languages that it has heard. Could the caster pick what language they wanted if they knew multiple? It was times like this that Andrew wished he had learned another language like his father had suggested. Times like this didn't occur that often though, so it didn't make to big of an impact on him.

As Daniel stepped back and muttered some nonsense, Andrew shrugged in response and wrote on the note they've been passing back and forth.

I still can't understand you. The toad must have a much longer range than the charm. Since you can understand me

Andrew stopped writing halfway through the sentence and crumpled up the paper and took a step backwards. "I still can't understand you. The toad must have a much longer range than the charm. How about we just keep moving apart, and you keep talking and I'll let you know when I can understand you.

2 Andrew Duell umm... yes... 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Charlie

February 23, 2011 11:47 AM

Confirming that I understand the above by Charlie

"Peter Pan?" Charlie repeated. "Fair enough." If she didn't sound impressed that it might be because she wasn't. She loved the story of Peter Pan, it had been one of her favorites as a child, but the concept of a boy who refused to grow up was just sort of infuriating when you thought about it for too long. Like, Wendy had been right there and all he'd had to do was follow her hime, but no he wanted to remain immature and free of responsibilities forever. That scenario reminded Charlie of so many boys that she'd met in her life-time that it was uncanny. If only boys would learn that they'd become more attractive if they grew up then perhaps the Petern pan syndrome as she liked to call it would become a thing of the past. It was a pretty thought.

Luckily, Charlie wasn't trying to date Jose, she only wanted to work with him, and if he was content to not grow up then in this scenario it would only help (to prevent the afore-mentioned kidnapping). He seemed keen to let the toad take its moment of glory, and Charlie had to concede his point - if she were that toad she'd probably be bored right about now. "Besides," Jose said, grinning as he took a hold of the toad and face it towards Charlie. Then he said something else and she had no idea what it was, because he was suddenly talking in Portugese or something. He seemed pretty pleased about whatever he'd said though, as he was grinning from ear to ear.

It was funny, so Charlie laughed. "You're talking gibberish," she told him. "Or you're babbling, in fact." The toad was still sort of looking at her from where Jose was holding it. "That's a face only a mother could love," she commented, though at the same time she stuck out a finger and tickled the toad under what would pass for his chin. "I wouldn't kiss that even if it did turn into a prince," she added.

"So, the toad works," Charlie concluded. "You want to try moving back from me and talking and we can see how far the effects extend? Not that I want to get rid of you or anything."

0 Charlie Confirming that I understand the above 0 Charlie 0 5

Daniel

February 25, 2011 11:25 AM

Just so we're clear. by Daniel

For a moment, Daniel was confused as to why Andrew would crumple up their note and toss it aside before letting him see what the Teppenpaw had written. And then Andrew started talking, and Daniel realized why the note had ceased being necessary. It was moments like these that he was sharply reminded that he wasn't actually a genius and he wondered if the Aladren badge on his robe was as much a lie as the clothes he wore when he played Nate Bealer.

That Andrew had made the same mistake didn't make him feel any better. Andrew wasn't an Aladren.

Fortunately, though, there was a class lesson to focus on, and Andrew had requested something that Daniel would have no trouble providing.

"Believe me," he said, taking slow backward steps as he spoke, "I can keep talking for as long as you need me to talk. If I run out of things to say, I can start reciting lines. I'm really very good at memorization. In fact, maybe I should start repeating the last chapter we had to read for this class. It seems more appropriate than one of the Street Beat scripts. So Chapter Thirteen." And he began to recite the previous night's homework's introduction.

This skill, after all, was the only reason he could keep up with the actual geniuses in the class.

1 Daniel Just so we're clear. 130 Daniel 0 5

Jose Hernandez

February 25, 2011 3:57 PM

I know you know I know you know I know I don't know by Jose Hernandez

Jose was fairly certain Charlie was telling him the toad was making him speak a language rather than her claiming he was babbling English gibberish, though without the toad's ability thrown into the mix, he wasn't sure her comment would have been any different. She reached out a finger an cooched a coo at the toad while saying something like "That's . . . only a . . . could," something. Half the words were in some foreign tongue while she tickled the critter, and the rest came out comprehensible when her finger wasn't actually touching the critter.

He couldn't help but laugh, reminded of early communication attempts between the Pierces and the Hernandezes, and wondered if he could learn this other language that way, just like he'd learned Spanish in a similar mishmash of foreign to familiar until the foreign finally started to be familiar. They'd probably need many more hand signals in the early stages, though.

She stepped back and spoke in full English again - well, he heard full English again, which was the important part. He took a few steps back of his own at her recommendation, and said, "So, I'm talking. Do you understand? Estoy hablar en Español. Comprendes ahora?" His Spanish was still sub-par for a guy who was half-Mexican but he though he'd correctly said I am talking in Spanish. Do you understand now? His accent was probably horrible, and his grammar was probably lousy, but he was sure it was enough to get the gist across to his Hernandez cousins.

"Did it change how I sounded when I switched languages?" He realized that question wasn't going to get answered and remarked, "You probably still can't understand me."

1 Jose Hernandez I know you know I know you know I know I don't know 149 Jose Hernandez 0 5

Charlie

February 28, 2011 12:38 PM

I know all of that plus more besides. by Charlie

It was quite amusing, watching Jose go on in a language that may or may not have been Portugese. His voice didn't even sync with his lips - it was like watching a badly dubbed show in a foreign country, something Charlie had done once many, many years ago when her parents had taken them to Mexico for a week on vacation. Then she'd been able to pick out a tiny amount of Spanish, and now she was able to pick out bits here and there without understaning the whole. She'd never learned Portugese, but whatever Jose was speaking sounded fairly similar to Spanish without actually being Spanish. He said something that sounded like 'cuando', which Charlie knew meant 'when', and then something that sounded like 'linguas' that almost certainly meant language. It wasn't sufficient to understand what he was saying, so charlie took a couple of steps back herself, and eventually heard in English, "... probably still can't understand me."

"Yes!" she exclaimed loudly. "Just here, this distance, I got the last part of your sentence in English." She wondered whether they would have to measure the distance between them, and decided that while knowing a specific distance was not a requirement, they would need to know whether the field of the toad extended more or less than that of the spell. "Don't move," Charlie instructed Jose, before carefully walking over placing one foot directly in front of the other, heel touching toe of her cute flat black ankle boots, counting her steps as she went. "Twenty and a half," she said reaching Jose. Then she took a couple of steps back again because the toad was giving her the evil eye. "So now do we need to see if the spell creates a wider field?" she put her question to her partner. "I guess there are other ways in which each might be better, like the variety of different languages in stock, how long the spells last, and all that sort of thing." She looked at Jose and, realizing he was still holding the toad, she said, "I'm going to take toady before you reply so I can understand you." She held at her hands to accept the toad, which she would then carry back to her desk so it could continue to sit on her notes and textbook.

0 Charlie I know all of that plus more besides. 0 Charlie 0 5

Jose

February 28, 2011 1:41 PM

I bow to your brilliance. by Jose

Jose stopped, both moving and talking, when Charlie announced she could understand him again. She measured the distance in Charlie-feet, which were almost certainly smaller than the standard unit of measure calling itself a 'foot' but as long as Charlie's feet didn't grow or shrink before they could test the spell's range, it wasn't going to matter.

He placed the toad into her waiting hands, and answered, "Yeah, I guess the spell's up next. You want to cast that?" As the sixth year of their group, she had a mildly better chance of getting it right than he did. "Or do you want to be the one not making any sense this time?"

After a beat, he continued, "But backtracking a second, for the toad, I did put in some Spanish in the middle of my babbling. Did he make that sound any different, or did it all seem to be in same language? Just curious."

0 Jose I bow to your brilliance. 0 Jose 0 5

Andew

February 28, 2011 8:27 PM

Yeah, I just got a little confused there for a moment by Andew

Andrew listened as Daniel started backing up. He wondered how much more range the toad would have than the spell. The distance that Daniel was walking now would be the difference. The distance between the two of them at the start would have been the range that they had in common. Nuts. They should have had a tape measure, then they could have properly measured the distance. Maybe there were charms that could do likewise. Maybe Daniel knew one.

An seemingly end of gibberish seemed to roll from Daniel's mouth. Andrew had no idea what he was saying, but he kept on going. He had to hand it to the Aladren, there is no way that he could keep talking like that. Suddenly, when Daniel was halfway across the room, Andrew recognized an English word. A few more broke through, and then it was all understandable. Andrew raised his hand to signal to Daniel that he understood. He also made a mental note of where he was when the first word came through, and where he was standing. Once Daniel had stopped talking, he asked "Do you have a good way to measure the distance?"

0 Andew Yeah, I just got a little confused there for a moment 0 Andew 0 5

Daniel

March 02, 2011 10:40 AM

I see that, Andew by Daniel

Daniel stopped talking and moving backwards when Andrew said they had reached the distance where the toad's influence ended. He eyed the intervening space between them, tried to make an estimate by eye, and guessed, "About fifteen to twenty feet, maybe?"

He looked over and saw Charlie counting her steps back to Jose, and decided that was brilliant. "Hang on. Don't move." He also began counting one step after another, placing one foot directly in front of the next so it would be the same length every time. "Twenty and a half," he said after a short interval, his last foot hovering in the air between them without enough room to be put down between their toes and his hand grabbing onto a nearby desk for balance. "Now we just need to measure my foot and multiply by twenty point five. That should be close enough."

He stepped back so he could actually stand properly and not be uncomfortably close to Andrew. He held up a crooked thumb such that his nail was facing the ceiling. "Have you ever measured the last bone of your thumb? Mine was a little under an inch when I was ten." He looked at it, but had no basis for comparing it to its size six years ago. It still looked like his thumb. "It's probably just over an inch now, so unless you've got an actual ruler or something you know is an inch, we can estimate again."

1 Daniel I see that, Andew 130 Daniel 0 5

Charlie

March 02, 2011 10:59 AM

I bask in it. by Charlie

Charlotte carried the Babble-Tongue Toad back to her desk, and some how managed to place him down while simultaneously extracting her textbook so she could turn to the requisite page and look up the Tower of Babel spell. Jose has asked if she wanted to cast the spell, and she said, "I don't mind casting it," as she briefly read up on what she would need to do.

She paused to look up at Jose as he asked about Spanish. It was a great idea to think of speaking a different language to see if it had made a difference. However, "I didn't notice," Charlie replied. "That's not to say that it definitely didn't make a difference," she added to be thorough, "because largely it just sounded incomprehensible to me. I could pick out words that sounded familiar, but they weren't in context and if I had to make a guess I'd go with Portugese, but it could have been any other vaguely Spanish-sounding language." She shrugged. "We could try with a toad that only speaks languages we're familiar with, like English and Spanish," she'd guess Jose's Spanish was better than hers if he'd been speaking it happily in the classroom, "but then we'd have to find the right toad." It sounded like an interesting experiment, and would no doubt get them a few bonus points in the write-up, but Charlie wasn't sure how much time they had or even if such a toad existed amongst their professor's collection.

"But back to the spell," she said, grinning, not wanting Jose to feel like she was dismissing his awesome idea, but feeling like they ought to at least complete the set assignment before they conducted their own experiments. "It says here," she was back to reading the textbook, "that you can cast the spell on yourself, then nobody close will understand you, or you can cast it on an object, then whoever is holding the object will be babbling." The professor had said as much, but the book went a bit further to confirm something Charlie had already presumed about the spell. "If two or more people are holding the spelled object they ought to be able to converse normally," she shared with Jose. There seemed to be no way to test all theories simultaneously - they would have to do this part of the class in stages.

"So," Charlie said, lowering her book and grinning back at Jose. "You want me to cast the spell on you, or on me, or on an object first?" If he decided to go with the object idea then they'd have to check it worked before the both held it, she thought, but she stopped planning past that and let Jose answer.

0 Charlie I bask in it. 0 Charlie 0 5

Jose

March 04, 2011 12:09 PM

And well you should. by Jose

"Okay, I guess cast it on an object. We've got the most variety that way. Here, hang on," he opened up his bag, rifled through its contents, and eventually found what he'd been looking for. He pulled it out with a triumphant grin and showed the baton to Charlie. He planned to use it during Quidditch practice that evening as part of a Chaser drill, which is why he had it with him on the off chance he didn't make it back to his room before then. "This should work."

He put it down on the desk in front of her, balancing the very green stick vertically on one of its very orange rubber ends. "It's for my balance practice," he explained his possession of the object to forestall any ideas she might have that he had aspirations of becoming a cheerleader or something. As a rival captain, he wasn't going to mention its additional usefulness in eye-hand coordination drills. Quaffles were all well and good, but if you could catch a flying stick, it made catching a large round ball comparatively much easier.

"So we'll do the spell on the baton. You'll hold it and say something so we know it works. Then we'll both hold it and talk, to prove the spell actually has a useful application. Then we'll figure out its range. After that, if we still have time, we'll see if we can find a Spanish-English toad to confuse by speaking two languages." He grinned at her, kind of hoping they'd have time to do that.

0 Jose And well you should. 0 Jose 0 5

Andrew Duell

March 05, 2011 6:15 PM

Someday I'll learn how to spell... someday... by Andrew Duell

Andrew watched carefully as Daniel stepped back towards him to measure the distance. Daniel took about seven steps between his ending location and the point at which Andrew noted previously where Daniel had claimed to be able to understand him. So, that meant that the toad's effect took the twenty and a half steps that Daniel counted while the charm took seven less than that, thirteen and half. Now, as Daniel had stated they had to figure out how long each step had been.

"Umm..." Andrew eyed Daniel's thumb with a fair amount of uncertainty, "I might have a ruler in my bag. Let me check." Andrew dug around in his bag, he was almost certain he had one in here. Naturally it'd be a strange thing to use in charms class, but it still might be in here from his last experiment. There it was! He pulled it out and presented it as dramatically as he could. "Found it!" He started to hand it over to Daniel, but stopped and tried to clean off the scorch mark that had been left on it. He was met with little success. Oh well. "Here you go, how long are your feet?" He handed the ruler over.

2 Andrew Duell Someday I'll learn how to spell... someday... 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Daniel Nash II

March 07, 2011 11:48 AM

That's good. Never stop learning. by Daniel Nash II

Daniel blinked in surprise as Andrew actually did produce a ruler from his bag. Huh. He thought people stopped counting those as standard school supplies after second grade. Though, to be fair, his older brother Luke used to say he needed one for his trigonometry, and that would have been around this year, he guessed, but Sonora didn't teach that.

He accepted the ruler, and sat down into one of the chairs, and wondered if his feet were more than the twelve inches a standard ruler could easily measure. As he brought his left foot up onto his knee and held the ruler to it though, he saw he needn't have worried.

"Eleven and a half inches," he told Andrew the verdict. "We can almost round that and just call it twenty feet. Twenty-one feet, if we want to round up, because my feet aren't quite a full foot."

1 Daniel Nash II That's good. Never stop learning. 130 Daniel Nash II 0 5

Charlie

March 07, 2011 12:42 PM

And well you should, too. by Charlie

Jose opted for an object first, and rather than just pick something readily at hand, like a textbook or quill or something, he seemed to think it necessary to go searching in his bag for something. When he pulled out the baton, Charlie gave him a look that must have vaguely said, 'I am amused, but why do you have a baton in your bag?' Regardless of whether he interpret her look, Jose answered that the instrument was for his balance practise. Having seen his balancing act at the concert last year, Charlie took this information at face value. "Fair enough," she said with a shrug (though she still looked fainlty amused he was carrying such a thing).

"So we'll do the spell on the baton. You'll hold it and say something so we know it works. Then we'll both hold it and talk, to prove the spell actually has a useful application." Jose started. While he continued talking, Charlie half-listened and half checked the spell.

"Yes, confusing toads sounds like a very valid use of our time," she joked, because actually in this context it could be very valid. First thing's first, though, Charlie aimed her wand at the baton, and incanted the spell. Returning her wand to its pocket in her uniform robes, she then picked up the bright baton and said, "So did it work? Can you understand me? Oh, and what language am I speaking?" It did occur to her that if the spell had worked (and she had no reason to suspect it hadn't; she usually got charms right first try) then Jose wouldn't be able to understand her, so the second and third questions were fairly pointless. However she didn't see them harm in saying a little more than just the basic question needed, so Jose could get the effect of her babbling like she'd watched him do earlier - it only seemed fair.

She thought this spell might be very handy for future conversations in the Cascade Hall - on more than one occasion she and Lita's had to lower their voices, and sometimes they'd even had to abandon conversations to just continue them later in their dormitory. As nobody else was in the sixth year Crotalus girls' dorm then this was actually fine, but in the case where they couldn't return to their dorms, or whatever they were discussing was urgent, or maybe Charlie was sharing secrets with someone other than Lita, then it would be helpful to know this spell to avoid being overheard. She was presuming that the spell created a language entirely unfamiliar to the listener, but if she was inaccurate in this guess it might not be quite so useful - for example if she were speaking Spanish then Jose might be able to unerstand her anyway, even though she was no longer speaking English.

0 Charlie And well you should, too. 0 Charlie 0 5

Andrew Duell

March 08, 2011 6:31 PM

This PSA brought to you by Nash and Duell Assoc. by Andrew Duell

"That sounds right," as he quick did the same very quick estimates in his head as well. Andrew then took his notebook and scribbled down the results. "From what I could see, it looked like you took seven steps from the point at which the spell lost its effect and the toad did. Which means..." He did some more calculations in his head, "it's a little over 6 and a half feet difference between the charm and the toad's effect." He also scribbled this information down in his notebook.

"Okay," He looked back up at Daniel, "so, what else do we need to do?"

2 Andrew Duell This PSA brought to you by Nash and Duell Assoc. 145 Andrew Duell 0 5