Professor Light
April 07, 2012 11:11 AM
A Whole New World {Intermediate} by Professor Light
Caesar spread his arms, azure robes rippling down his tall frame, smiling brightly through his thin hazel beard at the incoming third, fourth, and fifth years. “Welcome back from summer!” He walked around the large turkish prayer rug he’d gotten from his journey to Istanbul, visiting Italian cousins who’d settled there. “Please hand me your essays,” Over the summer they’d been instructed to write a fifteen hundred word essay on parchment comparing the various forms of magical transportation and taking a stance on which they believed was the most efficient method, the safest, and which was easiest to perform or create. “and your extra credit if you did it.” A simple creative piece or memoir about the summer they’d spent. “Good to see you all.” He continued smiling, past tortures flooding his memory, delighting his mind.“Now we’re going to get right into work, a project that will consume most of the semester.” Caesar dumped the essays handed to him on his desk, briefly counting them to see if he’d gathered everyone’s. Sometimes it almost disappointed him that everyone at Sonora seemed like such good students. No one to do battle with, argue against, a fallen student he as the shining professor could lift up and save. And no detentions to serve, that was the biggest bummer of all. “Over the summer you should have all included magic carpets as a form of transportation. Can anybody list for me some of the types of charms needed to create one?” He waited for his students to list Levitation charms, Navigation charms, and Weight Capacity before nodding and moving on. “Okay, good. Everyone, gather around the carpet. There’s enough room for us all.”
The classroom had always been sizeable, but seemed nearly endless with the adjustments made specifically for the intermediate class. The posters of favored Italian Quidditch and California Quodpot players had remained, flying in and out of neighboring scenery, as well as the picture of Caesar parents in one photograph and his sister Ava Marie in another. The book shelves had been raised off the floor, however, lining most of the classroom walls, stretched out to compensate for the levels of shelf missing underneath. The semi-circle of wooden stairs and seats made to look like a seminar had also been temporarily removed, leaving the classroom with light streaming through the windows, and posters of his favorite wizard bands nodding to the beat of music only they could hear. The floor was now free to breathe, save for the shoes covering the students’ feet, Caesar’s desk, and the nine by thirteen turkish prayer rug laid to rest on the ground.
“This course will cover all methods of transportation. By the end of the year I hope to have you all making portkeys. We’re going to be starting with carpets, which remains the preferred method of flying in the East despite the increasing westernization there with the European companies attempting to export their brooms.” He looked fondly on the carpet he’d bought. Besides the vivid vision of red and gold patterns that twisted, curved, curled to paint a picture, tell a story, it also held the hands of the women who’d made it, and the bright smile and exuberant hand motions of the man who’d sold it, and it held the hot mediterranean sun that Caesar had hid from, leaning against cold stone and drinking apple tea with newfound Turkish friends and merchants who were patient with him, patting his shoulder and helping him to enjoy the process of finding the perfect carpet.
“Third years, you’re going to be responsible for casting one of the levitation charms. This is more than a simple wingardium leviosa.” He flicked his wand at one of the shelves, a silent Accio bringing a small empty dish into his free hand. “Proficiscor!” He made the shape of a crescent moon, starting with the top and then curving down and then a sharp drag down the air as if the moon had a string pulling it at the bottom. There was a flash of violet light and then Caesar pulled his hand away. The dish began to fall. Inches before crashing, Caesar parted his lips. “Ascend!” The dish ceased its fall, rotating above the ground, as if caught in space. “The carpet will not lift off the ground until you proclaim the key word. To cast the spell correctly - fourth and fifth years step away for a moment - to cast the spell correctly, I want the third years to group around each corner of the carpet. Good.” He repeated the crescent motion with a sharp downward drag, and then the pronunciation of the charm, Pro - fik - is - core. “You must keep in your mind the code we will use. It is important that you all keep the same code, Ascend. It could be any word of course, it could be beans or chocolate or something completely nonsensical. As long as the word is connected to the spell. We shall use Ascend.”
“Fourth years, you shall work on weight capacity. We need the carpet to be able to hold all of us without collapsing. Today you will learn Fulcit vestis which is a spell specific to carpets or rugs, blankets, or any garment.” Caesar stepped between students and pointed his wand at the rug. “Simply point, your arm must be straight and locked, very stiff. You will feel something akin to... I’d say a shudder. Maybe a ripple going through your body. Very mild, nothing dangerous, it shouldn’t hurt although it is common for inexperienced wizards to feel a little drained after casting the spell a few times.” He indicated dishes of candy squeezed comfortably between books on his shelves. “Take a break, take a chocolate if you need to. It will help immensely.” He resumed his position. “Spread your feet apart, take a strong stance, bend your legs. This charm borrows our strength, mimics it, gives it to the rug, and then returns what it has copied back to our bodies. It is an odd sensation. Fulcit vestis!” Blue light streamed from his wand tip, a ripple of invisible energy passing from Caesar into the wood, through the light, into the rug. Something like a black bruise appeared on the rug where Caesar’s spell had hit it, appeared visible for a few seconds, and then disappeared. “If that bruise doesn’t appear then the spell hasn’t worked, hasn’t strengthened the rug. Go around, mindful of your neighboring third years, and practice the spell on your own spots of carpet.”
He turned to his oldest students. “Fifth years, you are in charge of navigation for today. Ideally we’ll all be able to take a ride, and when we do I want us to have the ability to steer. Before we can steer, the carpet needs to understand the concept of direction. So we must teach it.” He rolled back his sleeves, and summoned the still rotating dish to him again, stepping away from the third and fourth years gathered around the rug. “Cast Septentrionalis on the northern side,” He pointed, a portrait of his favorite philosopher Dalia Torrez grinning on the wall. “Austellus on the southern side,” He pointed, Arizona light pouring from the window. “Vesper on the west and Ortus on the east.” He directed them to both. “The wand motion is the same for all. A clockwise circle,” He demonstrated. “State the incantation and then counterclockwise circle. Septentrionalis!” The rotating dish stopped still in the air, blue light pulsing around it before seemingly absorbed. “Austellus!” Orange light pulsing, absorbing, done. “Vesper!” Purple light pulsing, absorbing, done. “Ortus!” Green light pulsing, absorbing, done. “Any questions?” He raised his voice for the class. “Alright, get to it!” He began to walk around the class, ready to offer his assistance to anybody who needed it. ‘Another fun year. Welcome back, all.’
ooc: Since there are no assigned partnerships and everybody’s just walking around, feel free to post as if this were a quidditch thread, with everybody contributing and interacting with whom they would like so long as you are clear where you are and when. And without having to wait for posting order, just reply and post when you can. Any questions IC or OOC just tag Caesar, remember to write your house so I know whom to give points to, and have fun!
Subthreads: Snakes on a plane by Sullivan Quincy, Pecari with Jhonice Trevear - Pecari, Sullivan Quincy, Sully
That's Where I Am by Maximilian Joshua McLachlan with Renée Errant {Crotalus}
I prefer the old world usually by Fae Sinclair, Crotalus with Arnold Carey, Aladren, Fae
Yay! Let’s explore! by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren
Sounds frightening. by Valerie Lennox, Crotalus
Fine with me. I need out of this one. by Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus
0
Professor Light
A Whole New World {Intermediate}
0
Professor Light
1
5
Sullivan Quincy, Pecari
April 07, 2012 6:20 PM
Snakes on a plane by Sullivan Quincy, Pecari
Sullivan was not an ideal student on the best of days. Returning after a long summer, barely able to remember a simple wingardium leviosa (no, really, he'd tried to use it last night to put away some of his things, but he'd forgotten the second word of the spell and had to look it up), the third year Pecari had little hope of excelling in today's class.When he was asked to turn in an essay as soon as he arrived, it got worse. He had totally forgotten about the assignment. He scrawled out a quick statement about magical transportation as they were being collected with his name at the top and a single sentence ("Flying wagons and are more uncomfortable than brooms but hold more people.") as his 'essay' and hoped he'd get maybe a Dreadful instead of the guaranteed Troll for not turning in anything. He doubted it, though.
Especially since that one sentence hadn't mentioned magic carpets, and Professor Light seemed to have expected them to bring up magic carpets. Even given more time and words, Sully wasn't convinced he would have thought of them. He'd really only run into flying wagons and brooms so far. He'd heard about portkeys and floo powder, in a vague sort of way, too, so he probably would have gotten around to mentioning them at some point, but until just now, he had thought magic carpets were just something Disney made up when they animated Aladdin.
He kept his hand down as they were quizzed about the types of charms that went into creating one, though he felt kind of dumb when someone said levitation charms because now that he knew that was one of the answers it seemed obvious. He didn't feel as bad about not knowing the other two.
Sully reluctantly moved in around the flying carpet when everyone was instructed to do so. He really wasn't good with flying things. He'd pulled an A in Flying Lessons, but that wasn't saying a lot. It just meant he had managed not to crash and die while making a tedious and ungainly trek from one end of the Pitch to the other and back. Even if Jhonice hadn't been on the Pecari team already, Quidditch was not in his future.
He was glad there were a fair number of other third years in the class, because he was sure if levitation was solely up to him, the rug would never leave the ground. He really wished it was just a simple wingardium leviosa because he could do that one, most of the time, when he remembered the words for it.
A more complicated one that required him to think of a different word entirely while saying freaky latin words at the same time seemed well beyond his capacity. Still, he wasn't stupid enough to make a fuss about it, and tried to remember what he was supposed to say and think.
Unfortunately, he lost track of the latin word while the professor went through what the older kids were supposed to do. It started with the letter p, he was sure of that.
So when they were told to start, Sully sort of half listened to what the other third years were saying and then joined in with crescent-like sweep of his wand and a shout of "Prosthetics!" and all the while he thought, *Up!* because his brain had translated the more difficult English word to a simpler one and he had spent most of his first year shouting that at brooms to get the same desired effect.
The bit of carpet he was aiming at didn't so much as lift its fringe a little.
0
Sullivan Quincy, Pecari
Snakes on a plane
0
Sullivan Quincy, Pecari
0
5
Jhonice Trevear - Pecari
April 07, 2012 7:00 PM
...and Bugs on a Carpet? by Jhonice Trevear - Pecari
Jhonice had naturally arrived for Charms class early. She had learned however, if she got into the classroom first everyone else would decide where they wanted to sit relative to her, instead of her deciding where she wanted to sit relative to them. So, she waited in the hallway, causally hidden and watched the other students arrive. She had been debating if it was time to enter herself, after all if she waited to long all of her options would be gone, when she spotted Sullivan. She grinned to herself and discretely followed him into the classroom.She handed in her essay when the teacher asked. It had been an interesting exercise, and more thought provoking that she had initially thought. There were quite a few details to take into account. For example a broom was much more quiet and stealthy for more covert and long-term surveillance operations, while the portkey wasn't much good for following a subject but made for an excellent escape method should you be detected. The flying wagons were much to noisy for most applications, except for trapping your subject for a long-term interview that they could not escape from. There were many more points along these lines, and she was sure that Professor Light would appreciate her analysis.
As the professor directed the students she scribbled a quick few notes as to what they were doing, then looked around for Sullivan again. He had moved to one corner of the carpet, so naturally she moved to the same corner and gave him a large, friendly smile. She then turned to the carpet, “Proficiscor!” she commanded while mimicking Professor Light's wand motion and keeping the command word 'ascend' in her mind. She was rewarded with a similar, but not quite as bright, flash of violet light.
Charms was a great class, she was already getting some ideas for how she could use this one in particular. Sully seemed to be having some difficulty, the clever Pierce, trying to feign incompetence to strengthen the charade of his lineage. She would play this round with him, she would show him that he couldn't hide from her. "I think your pronunciation is a little off, try it again."
2
Jhonice Trevear - Pecari
...and Bugs on a Carpet?
209
Jhonice Trevear - Pecari
0
5
Sullivan Quincy
April 09, 2012 9:15 PM
Scorpions might be more interesting by Sullivan Quincy
Sully jumped a little when he realized Jhonice had taken a position near by. His eyes widened and darted around but there was nowhere to hide. He was stuck. Worse, she had seen his less than stellar attempt to levitate the carpet. At least she had pointed out what he'd done wrong, though his pronunciation would have been his first guess anyway.Unfortunately, he still didn't know exactly what it was that he was supposed to be saying. He was going to have to ask someone for help and Jhon was the most obvious candidate.
Well, he had tried to keep things civil at the Fair last year with her, when he'd been presenting Henrietta and trying to demonstrate he was a good trainer in the hopes of winning the Hippogriff raising competition. Today, he could try something similar in hopes of passing the lesson.
So he swallowed his pride and asked, "What was the spell word again? I forgot."
1
Sullivan Quincy
Scorpions might be more interesting
207
Sullivan Quincy
0
5
Jhonice
April 10, 2012 8:56 PM
So, Sully supports scorpions? by Jhonice
Oh... he was being really clever now. Sullivan was trying to get information out of her very subtly, pretending to not know what was going on just to put her to the test. Well, she could play that game as well. Jhonice smiled and accentuated each syllable of the magical command for him, "Proficiscor. The trick is to keep the command word 'ascend' locked solidly in your mind while you say it." She tapped her index finger gently against his forehead. "The spell won't work otherwise, especially if a few of these spells are being cast in conjunction. They all need to match."Jhonice thought about leaving it there, but then she pressed her advantage. "Did you get a chance to review some of these charms over summer? There are some really interesting things that you can do with charms." She had done quite a bit of research over the summer while working on her essay and trying to figure out all the different uses for traveling charms. Now, what had he been up to over the summer? Secret Pierce meetings no doubt.
2
Jhonice
So, Sully supports scorpions?
209
Jhonice
0
5
Sullivan Quincy, Pecari
April 10, 2012 9:46 PM
I was just thinking a lot of girls would scream by Sullivan Quincy, Pecari
"Proficiscor," he repeated slowly and carefully. And the secret think-word was Ascend, not Up, so he was glad she mentioned that too, even if it wasn't what he asked about. "Profisciscor," he repeated again, more to himself, to commit it to memory. Ascend, he thought. It even made sense that the thinkie-word had to match for all the different charm castings to mesh right. He didn't remember the Professor saying that part, but he was willing to think that he'd just missed it.He pointed his wand at the carpet one more time, sweeping it through the half-moon and casting "Profisciscor!" and thinking, not simultaneously, because his brain wasn't that coordinated, but only a few moments later, *Ascend!*
Sully's attempt was rewarded with a little twitch in the carpet's fringe. He was happy with that.
Turning back to Jhon, he grimaced a little at the thought of doing work over the summer. His old books had been thrown in the closet. The new ones had been thrown into the bottom of his trunk, the first things to be packed for the current school term. Not even one of them had been cracked open. "Nah, I was busy playing video games."
0
Sullivan Quincy, Pecari
I was just thinking a lot of girls would scream
0
Sullivan Quincy, Pecari
0
5
Jhonice
April 12, 2012 8:33 PM
Would you like it if I did? by Jhonice
Jhonice watched as Sully tried the spell again after repeating it to himself a few times. He got it close, but there was still something off about it. It was his wand motion, that was it. "You need to wave your wand around a little more precisely. Think of tracing out the shape of a balloon," she curved her wand around in the half arc. "A balloon that can only float up once you let go of the string," she jerked her wand down upon reaching the bottom of the arc.Video games? Luckily she knew what those were, Andrew had made sure of that. She honestly didn't much see the point in making little people dance around on the television device. Especially when everything would just go berserk, he had claimed that was because she was getting excited and messing up the system or whatever he would go on about. She considered herself lucky that he hadn't tried to get her to play them more often. Sully liked them, did he?
"Just video games? Did you do any traveling or anything?" She was sure he had been hanging out with the Pierces, and she would get that information. Maybe it would help if she shared some information, "I got to play with my new baby cousin. She's really, really cute."
2
Jhonice
Would you like it if I did?
209
Jhonice
0
5
Sully
April 12, 2012 10:53 PM
Nah. It's the multitudes screaming that's fun. by Sully
He corrected his wand motion as she showed him and tried casting again, "Profisicor!" He realized the word wasn't quite right even as the spell failed again. "Profisiscor!" he tried again, saying it quickly, in the vain hope that maybe Jhonice hadn't noticed the mistake. This time, the fringe and the edge of the carpet lifted off the ground.Not bad, he thought. It was more than he'd gotten from wingardium leviosa the first day that was introduced.
"Mostly just video games," he agreed, knowing this was a good thing. There had been one trip out to California to visit Simon's family, but there was no chance at all that he would be telling Jhonice about that.
He shrugged in disinterest at the mention of a baby. He was thirteen. As far as he was concerned, video games were way better than crying creators of poop. "Karen's Sims had babies," he offered, just to continue the conversation. "Karen's my sister," he added. "She's older," he pressed, realizing that this was an opportunity to defend his case of Not Being a Pierce. "She was born before Mom met Simon, too. Like was I."
0
Sully
Nah. It's the multitudes screaming that's fun.
0
Sully
0
5
Jhonice
April 14, 2012 11:47 PM
You have to start somewhere, right? by Jhonice
"She must be older if she's having babies." Jhonice replied to Sully's odd comment. She was going to have to make a note that Sullivan's older sister married someone named Simms. She'd also have to dig into this Simms family to see how they fit into the grand scheme of things. If the California pierces were letting one of their own marry into the Simms, they must be fairly important. What does Sullivan know about them?"Are they cute babies? Girls or boys?" This was a good line of questioning, she could lead into just about any lineage inquiries from here. Except, he tried to lead her astray bringing Simon into the conversation. She knew that story well, she just couldn't understand why Sully so fervently denied it. Obviously Sully's mother and Simon met years ago and he vanished mysteriously into the night. Then later when they met again, and were brought together by the magic that Sully had inherited from Simon. The Pierce had decided to do what was right and finally help raise his son.
It was a little strange though, Sullivan usually avoided bringing up Simon. "At least as far as you know." She gave him a winning smile, someday he would have to admit it to himself. She really didn't know why he was so adamant about not being one of the Pierces.
2
Jhonice
You have to start somewhere, right?
209
Jhonice
0
5
Sully
April 15, 2012 12:57 PM
Yeah, but if there's only one, it's just loud and piercing by Sully
"What? No!" Sully exclaimed as he realized Jhon's misunderstanding. "No! Karen's only fifteen! She's not married and she doesn't have kids! The Sims is a video game, not a guy! The little characters she controls like a god are the ones having babies, not Karen!" He shuddered a little at the thought of his sister having children. Granted, his mom hadn't been more than five or six years older than Karen was now when Karen herself was born, but those were an important five or six years!He glowered at her comment when she cast doubt upon his own knowledge of who his own father might be. The worst thing about it was that she was right. He didn't know thing one about who or what his dad might be except that he hadn't been around during Sullivan's memory. Or Karen's, which extended a little bit farther than his did. He found it mildly reassuring that Jhonice just assumed Karen was his full-blooded sister. On days they when weren't furious with each other, he and Karen held the same assumption - more out of personal preference than actual probability - but a guess and a hope was all it was based upon.
Still, he was reasonably sure his dad was not Simon. Mom had said - well, he hadn't actually asked her (he and Karen had decided between them that they weren't going to ask any questions about Dad) - but she hadn't said Simon was and Sully thought that was the kind of thing she would have brought up if it was true. And she had said Simon had only started working at the casino about ten years ago, and that she'd met him at the casino, so therefore the earliest they could have met was ten years ago. It just didn't work.
In all truth, Simon was far better than some of the ideas that he and Karen had whispered together. Sully wouldn't even mind having him for a dad, except that he liked Simon and didn't believe he was the sort of guy who would make Mom raise two kids all by herself.
Shaking his head to clear it, Sully suddenly remembered he was supposed to be levitating a carpet and shot another spell at his edge of the thing. This time, between the previous attempts and this one, and possibly the help of the other third years bombarding the carpet with their own spells, Sully's carpet edge rose an inch or two off the ground and even stayed there. "Whoa," he said in unfeigned surprise, "It's working!"
0
Sully
Yeah, but if there's only one, it's just loud and piercing
0
Sully
0
5
Jhonice
April 17, 2012 9:09 PM
Pierce-ing? Hmmm... by Jhonice
Jhonice stared at Sullivan for a moment to see if he was just pulling her leg. A video game where you controlled little people like a god? That didn't sound like the games that Andrew had tried to get her to play. In those games you just ran about killing things. Maybe he was just covering for his sister, creating a clever ruse to throw her off track. No, she would not fall for it. These Pierces were a crafty lot."Okay, so it's a video game where you can make families and do things with them?" She was leading him on, she could trap in him this. "How does that work exactly? Do you make them all? Where do they live? How do they meet?" She had many, many more standard questions. If Sullivan felt more comfortable answering these questions behind the facade of some sort of made-up video game, then so be it. She could work with that.
She watched as Sullivan fired off another shot at the rug and got a response out of it. "Yes! Looks like you're getting the hang of it." She turned to the rug and spoke out forcefully, "Ascend!" Her section of the rug fluttered and rose off the ground. "See, simple." She smiled at him.
2
Jhonice
Pierce-ing? Hmmm...
209
Jhonice
0
5
