A Sea of Red to Meet the Eye on Charms

Professor Wright

November 16, 2017 1:36 PM

Beginner Charms: Now You See It. by Professor Wright

Gray was in a good mood as he entered the Charms classroom for the Beginners class. He had, in a decidedly odd mood, dashed off a short story back in early October, revised it with a fever in the middle of the month, and then submitted it to a journal. The thing had actually been accepted. Aside from resulting in extra money (which was always pleasant and welcome), it had also amused him – apparently, the key was working when he was mildly ill, because he thought he had done better work at other times and had much more difficulty getting it printed.

Since he had gotten something printed one way or another, though, he was in a good mood as he greeted the first and second years. “Hello, everyone. I’ve got your quizzes finished, and I was happy overall with them.” He picked a student in the front row and asked them to pass the quizzes back out.

“You may notice, as you get your quizzes back, that you don’t see any grades on them,” he continued. If they didn’t notice this, they weren’t paying attention, which meant he would have to a point wasted his time by marking all the quizzes, which had inspired him to create this lesson. They needed, he reasoned, this spell anyway, so at least he could make them at least briefly see their marks and his comments on this particular quiz. “By the end of class today, that should no longer be the case. Our lesson today is on the charm aparecium.”

He wrote that word on the board and underlined it with the chalk. “Those of you whose parents are witches or wizards have probably heard the word Apparate before. That’s a very advanced charm adults can use to travel instantaneously from one place to another. This spell isn’t much like that, even though they sound the same. They sound the same because they’re both from the Latin word for to appear. Apparition makes people appear in a new place. Aparecium reveals words that are hidden on a page – as your marks and comments are now on these quizzes. You have to tap your wand twice directly on the page and speak firmly and clearly, but remember – the more writing there is, the more effort it takes to reveal it. Your homework will be to copy out the comments I made on your quizzes and turn them in to me tomorrow.” At least he’d get some feedback through a few more heads than he might have otherwise.

“If you finish the spell and your homework early, start reading pages 112-115 in your textbook for the theory of the relationship between charms of appearing and charms of motion – or read that first if you find knowing the theory first helpful. As usual, raise your hands if you have a question for me and stay on task, and go.”

OOC: Welcome back to Charms! The rules are still the rules: at least 200 words, watch your spelling and grammar, tag me or flag me down in Chatzy if you need me, and more creativity will lead to more points. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Quiz, right. by Gary Harper with Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus

A Sea of Red to Meet the Eye by Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari with Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus

16 Professor Wright Beginner Charms: Now You See It. 113 Professor Wright 1 5

Gary Harper

November 19, 2017 9:42 PM

Quiz, right. by Gary Harper

It was time for charms class once again, and as had become his habit, Gary got to class early. He took a seat in the front row of the class and unpacked his books, notebooks, wand and writing utensils. He then proceeded to scribble notes into a notebook that had nothing to do with charms or any of his other classes. He referenced another book or two that were similarly unrelated to any sort of classwork during this process. He liked the bit of quiet time in the classroom to do some of this work before everyone else arrived. Once the other students began to show up, he quickly packed those books away, just leaving the ones related to charms.

After greeting them, Professor Wright handed Gary a pile of papers and asked him to pass them out. Gary set to the task. He had honestly forgotten about the quiz until this moment, he did notice something odd about the papers though as he worked distributing them back to the students. The professor's explanation cleared that up though. After handing out the last paper, Gary sat back at his seat with his own paper and looked it over. He was doing okay in the class, and Professor Wright's comment about being 'happy overall' didn't stir up any concerns. This wasn't his best class, but it certainly wasn't his worst either.

His main problem for these spells was the power source. He could get the somatic and verbal components were easy enough to comprehend, but he couldn't figure how those alone were causing such drastic effects on reality. There was more to it, since a 'muggle' doing the exact same things didn't cause the desired effect. The only explanation that he had been able to come up with so far was that these beginner level spells were mere cantrips, and perhaps the later ones they would be learning would draw more heavily upon the caster. Once that became a factor then it would be explained to them, perhaps the professors though such information now would just muddy the theory when it wasn't yet relevant.

Anyway... on to see what marks he had gotten on his quiz. He considered doing the reading first, but decided to give the spell a try and fall back on the reading if he couldn't get it. Tap the page twice and speak firmly and clearly...? Was this a charisma based spell? Did he need to convince the invisible writing on the page that he had the authority to read it? Maybe, this could be a type of dispelling action to counteract the charm that Professor Wright used to make the writing invisible. That gave him another idea, if the professor had used the standard lemon juice based invisible ink, all he needed was a small flame. He doubted that would work in this case.

Gary tapped the paper and spoke with as much authority as he could muster. Naturally nothing happened. He tried again, nothing. Sighing he picked up the book and flipped to page 112 to begin reading. Maybe he just wasn't pronouncing the work quite correctly.

2 Gary Harper Quiz, right. 1404 Gary Harper 0 5

Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus

November 22, 2017 2:49 PM

I guess I don’t get a sticker... by Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus

Jasmine was a less than stellar student, coasting along at solid As. She wasn’t exactly in danger of failing anything, as she leaned closer to the E side of the A spectrum
rather than the P side, but she rarely pushed herself enough to tip her quality of work into exceptional territory. Charms was actually one of her better subjects, as she sometimes got lucky and landed an E on a test or assignment. On one notable test, a little extra effort and a genuine interest in the topic had even resulted in an outlier O, that she really hoped Professor Wright didn’t expect her to replicate any time soon. Uncle Daniel got these ideas in his head that if she did amazing once she should be able to keep on being amazing, and it really didn’t work that way in her experience. With luck, Professor Wright would just be happy she was able to be amazing at all.

She got back her quiz that Gary was handing out, and flipped through it once, frowned, and flipped through it again. There were no markings indicating she’d gotten anything wrong, but neither was there a giant star commemorating the incredible occasion. She should at least get a “wow!” for an accomplishment of this magnitude. In point of fact, as she looked for her well deserved sticker a third time, she began to realize her paper almost looked like it hadn’t been graded at all. . .

Professor Wright explained the mystery and Jasmine deflated in disappointment. She hadn’t gotten everything right. (Probably.) She just couldn’t see the corrections yet.

As he explained the lesson she nodded in annoyed impatience as he reminded them all of the apparation spell. Of course she recognized it. It didn’t even occur to her that her own mother would have been one of the people who thought the idea of a person vanishing and appearing somewhere else was completely foreign during her first year, because it was such a commonplace thing at home now that Jasmine simply couldn’t comprehend anyone not being familiar with it.

Finally the professor got on with it and told them about the spell they were actually working on today. Jasmine took a few sparse notes so Uncle Daniel would have nothing to complain about if he flipped through her Charms notebook this summer. Which he would, because he was nosy like that.

When he finished talking, she closed the notebook (she had muggle variety notebooks because Mom felt they were an essential school supply, and they came with unicorns on the cover so Jasmine wasn’t going to be a magic snob about it) and put it aside. She drew her wand and tapped it against her quiz, twice, and cast, “Aparecium!”

Nothing.

She pouted and addressed her neighbor, a boy whose name she thought might be Gary. “I hope he put a lot of writing on the tests of people who are actually good at this, otherwise it’s not fair to make it harder for people who already have trouble.” Of course, Gary was an Aladren, so he might disagree with this opinion, but he hadn’t gotten his marks revealed yet either, so maybe he wasn’t as skilled as his House badge suggested and would commiserate.

1 Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus I guess I don’t get a sticker... 1397 Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus 0 5

Gary

November 26, 2017 6:30 PM

Stickers are overrated anyway by Gary

Gary pulled his head out of his book as the Crotalus girl next to him sent a comment his direction. Apparently he wasn't the only one in the room having some difficulty with this particular charm. To be fair, the analog he'd recognize it as is a third level cleric spell. However, if memory serves him correctly, that one reveals everything that was invisible within a five foot radius of you. This must be a much simplified cantrip version that only can reveal hidden text on paper. The reading had been helping him figure out how this spell was supposed to work, maybe he could put it to practice now.

He had to give the girl some credit, her logic made sense, and yet was paradoxical at the same time. "You make a good point, but there is a flaw in that logic. The students not doing as well would the ones having the most problem with this, and thus incur the most marks on their paper that they would need to reveal." He thought for a moment then continued, "From what I've been reading and the professor's instructions, success with this charm isn't necessarily a matter of just proper pronunciation and wand movements." He had learned early on to stop referring to those aspects of spell casting as somantic and vocal components.

"This spell is also a question of magical power, will power, or whatever else you want to call it. If it is harder the more writing there is to be revealed, then logically there must be a power aspect that can vary." He considered his paper again. The previous attempt he had only done the wand action and the spoke the word, and assumed that would be enough. If he was right, he would have to add something else into the mix. He gave the girl a smile, "Let me try that again."

Gary focused on his quiz paper once more while trying to summon up any kind of mystical power he may possibly possess. Then he tapped the paper twice while speaking the word with clear authority, he imagined sending all of his 'summoned' power through his wand and into the paper. He could feel something happen, he wasn't sure what, but it was definitely something. The professor's writing came clear on the quiz, there was about as much as he figured there would be. It was another E.

"See, just like that." He showed her his paper with an encouraging smile, "Your turn now. You can do it, once you have the motions and pronunciation down, you just need to channel some power into it."

2 Gary Stickers are overrated anyway 1404 Gary 0 5

Jasmine

November 29, 2017 4:25 PM

If they have unicorns on them they’re not by Jasmine

Jasmine frowned slightly as she was accused of having faulty logic. She hadn’t been using logic. She been using hope, prayers, and optimism. Gary clearly believed in a rational world rather than the ideal fair one she’d been imagining. Aladrens. “I meant,” she huffed in impatience, “that it would be more fair if Professor Wright wrote novels of praise on the good students exams and just marked the answers wrong on the struggling students’ exams, so the spell difficulty matched everybody’s ability level. I didn’t say that’s what he did or that it makes sense for the markings on a normal quiz.”

Then Gary started speaking Aladrenese and Jasmine got completely lost and mostly just understood he was saying something about putting some oomph behind the spell. Why he didn’t just say ‘You need to put some oomph behind your spell,’ she had no idea and suspected the answer had something to do with why he was an Aladren and she most decidedly was not.

He tried it with oomph and it worked and there was a nice big E on the top of his paper. Obviously. Because he was an Aladren, and even struggling Aladren didn’t get mere As. She sighed and turned to her own paper and hoped he didn’t think she was dumb when he saw her grade.

Okay. Oomph. Got it.

She tapped her paper with her wand, twice, clearly spoke the incantation, and put oomph behind it.

She shrieked a little bit as gray smoke poured out of her wand and her paper darkened and smoldered at the edges, but she had a good solid A clearly legible on the top of her lightly toasted quiz, and markings explaining where she went wrong, so it wasn’t a complete failure. “So, too much oomph, then?” she guessed.

1 Jasmine If they have unicorns on them they’re not 1397 Jasmine 0 5

Gary

December 03, 2017 2:30 PM

You may have a point there. by Gary

Gary was taken back by her response to his analysis of the quiz situation. Was she mad? Luckily for him, she explained, and he could see her point of view. "That would make sense, and he may have done that..." his voice trailed off as his brain started to assess that situation. Unfortunately, when that happened, his voice kicked back in without him really thinking about it. "However, that wouldn't necessarily give him a good basis to work from from. To eliminate as many variables as possible, he should have used the same amount of markings for each quiz. That way he could properly assess each student's progress." He realized what he was doing and cut himself off with a quick, "Sorry".

He watched Jasmine as she completed the charm, and gasped quietly as her paper nearly caught on fire. He didn't know how she did that, there wasn't any type of fire components in that charm. He was mildly impressed, she had found a way to work that in through pure willpower. "That was great!" he exclaimed, "You not only revealed your results, but you added an extra heat based component into the charm. How did you do that?" Was it possible to mix and match the charms that they had been learning for more varied effects? Perhaps that's something that they would learn in later years, but this girl may be a natural at it, and could do it without official training. He'd have to keep an eye on her and see if he could figure out how she did it.

2 Gary You may have a point there. 1404 Gary 0 5

Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari

December 07, 2017 12:01 PM

A Sea of Red to Meet the Eye by Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari

Quizzes. The thing Parker hated more than taking them, was getting them back. He always knew that the red marks would be there. Whether he was in magic school or non-magic school, the results of quizzes were always the same. Red, as far as the eye could see. The fact that Charms was not his best class, not his worst, which was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but definitely not Herbology (which as Cleo, with her smarts, had predicted would be his best one).

Parker had been distracted as of late, as he was wondering how he could make a map of the Labyrinth for the Garden Adventurers that he had thought up before break. He could always draw a map, but that wasn’t all that exciting, not he felt that there must be some way to make the map fun and exciting. Make it… magical.

Professor Right seemed to be in a good mood, which was nice and as the tests were handed back Parker stared at his page for a second. There was no red. No red at all. He was excited for a second before he realized there was also no score.

As he listened to Professor Right the hair on Parker’s neck stood up. Wait, there’s a way to make words appear on a page, and a way to make them disappear?

Parker imagined the library and all the books there that might have notes in them he could use and also on the map itself. If this was a simple charm, maybe there were more advanced charms that would only work with one particular person’s voice, like certain devices in the non-magic world. After Professor Right said you could start by reading the theory first, Parker laughed a bit to himself.

How could theory help with practice? he thought.

Tapping his wand twice, Parker lowered his voice a bit, “Apare cium”. Red words faded onto the page and then off of it. Parker closed his eyes, there was a lot of it.
He took a deep breath and spoke again, this time the red opened up onto his page, almost as if someone had cut an artery on it. He took another deep breath and began to copy down the comments Professor Right made. This might be a while.

He looked around to see how much red was appearing on other student’s papers. He wanted to see if his was the only one that looked so… red.

41 Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari A Sea of Red to Meet the Eye 1402 Parker Fitzgerald, Pecari 0 5

Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus

December 27, 2017 5:23 PM

Sorry to hear that by Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus

So far, things were going good for Peyton at Sonora. She'd made a best friend-well, okay, best friend outside her own family, so now she had three best friends-her very first day. She was tremendously relieved to have Jasmine as a roommate too. After all, Crotalus was such a mixed bag of people. Peyton didn't know any particularly mean Crotali currently at school though Ryan's cousin Kelsey was more than a bit intimidating. However, she was a seventh year and didn't really pay much attention to Peyton.

The first year did miss Sophie though. Last November, Peyton's sister-in-law had given birth to an adorable little girl named Charlotte. Charlotte Peyton O'Malley. The Crotalus felt so proud and happy to have her niece have her name as a middle name.

Of course, there was still the elephant in the room. Eden Manger. Her siblings' sister. Peyton didn't know what to feel about her other than wary. It was perhaps irrational, as the older girl had done nothing wrong. It was just that....well, in some ways, Peyton felt she was competing with her. Like she had to be as good or better than Eden so their mutal siblings would like her as much.

It was sort of like....a new baby had been born or something. They'd known Peyton since she was born, Eden was new to them. Their brand sparkly new sister. And Peyton was old news.

Were the boys feeling like this about Charlotte?

And she didn't want to feel this way, she really really didn't. Peyton didn't like the idea of trying to be better than someone because it felt so mean. She didn't want to be the mean kind of Crotalus!

Professor Wright handed back their quizzes, explaining why they didn't have grades on them. Which Peyton thought was quite a clever way to introduce a lesson really. She took out her wand and did the motion. "Aparecium"

Briefly Peyton noted part of a letter, which looked like the bottom part of an E. She smiled to herself. The Crotalus wasn't a stellar student but she was better than average. Of course, Potions was her best and favorite subject because it was like cooking and baking and Sophie was the teacher.

She was about to try again, when she caught Parker Fitzgerald looking at her. Or more specifically her paper. Was he trying to compare? Peyton didn't know the Pecari well. To be honest, she hadn't gotten to know her classmates much. She had Vlad, she had Ivy, she had Jasmine and that had been her social circle so far. It would be nice to get to know others, she supposed. It was such a small class that it would be good if they all got to be friends.

Still, if Parker was the competitive type, that might not work out. "Um, can I help you?" Peyton asked, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

11 Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus Sorry to hear that 1403 Peyton O'Malley, Crotalus 0 5