Professor Pye
February 15, 2016 8:37 AM
Intermediate Defense (Years III, IV, & V) by Professor Pye
Alfie loved and respected his colleagues. Well, he wasn’t sure if he’d go so far as to say that, but he did (at the very least) care very much about their well-being and so he had taken the liberty of establishing a weekly “night out” because who didn’t like to party? In his humble opinion, all the members of the staff needed a good, stiff drink after dealing with the adolescents all week long and so he had determined Friday evenings as the time for this. Which meant he needed to start planing for tomorrow night and quick! Nevertheless, as his wristwatch ticked to eight o’ clock, it was time for him to put aside his plans for the weekend and start the class.The previous week some of his advanced students had come to class as each other, due to the new Potions professor's class project. This had given him the brilliant idea of using the leftover potion to create his own lesson for the intermediates. Not all his intermediate students would be continuing on to the advanced potions level but he wanted to be sure that all the students graduated Sonora with at least a working idea of how polyjuice worked. It was impossible to know when they would next encounter polyjuice potion and as such he wanted to give them some basic instruction in identifying the real from the fake.
"Okay, everyone take off any jewelry, house insignia, or indicative markers of who you are and put them in your bags, please," Alfie said once all the students had arrived.
The class before he instructed everyone to come wearing their robes and had divided each level into two halves. Each half had to create a secret question and answer that they had to submit to him. Then he had created two separate lists for each half--students who would give a hair, and students who would drink the potion so that there would be two of each person in the class. He himself had the master list so that by the end of hour (in case there were lasting effects) he could sort out to the next professor who was who.
The point of this lesson, he told the class, was to use previous knowledge in order to identify who was the false copy.
"As a bonus twist for the fifth years," he added with a smile. "I have given some of the false copies the secret question. So you'll have to offer more than just that interaction as proof of finding out who is who. In a real wartime situation your faction could have a mole and as such, you'll have to know your partners well!"
He clapped his hands together with a smile and nodded. "Great, let's start then. If you are not going to be taking the potion today please bring put your hair in one of the vials, label it with your name, and then go wait in the hall until I call you back in. Everyone else please form an orderly line." Alfie had already decided who would receive whose hair and had a list which he then used to call forth the other students once the room was empty of the true copies.
"I'll put out the lights and on three you are to drink the potion. When the lights come back on I'll resize your robes if need be and then once everyone is sorted we can call everyone else back in."
Once everyone was satisfied with their appearances, Alfie let the rest of the class back into the room and opened his arms. "Right, I want you to all form your groups from last class. False copies, your job is to convince everyone you're the real thing while true copies your goal is to create your full team without any false copies in it. Have fun!"
OOC: Regular posting rules apply though we'll hold this class in a Quidditch Pitch/Challenge style of thread since anyone can talk to anyone else. Below you will find the "master" list so that you know who should be who :)
Names on the left = gave the hair, names on the right = person who received the hair. (Note: I used the active list that the Donovan's author so graciously provided for the yearbook surveys, so thank you Yearbook Staff for that!! :) ) The students on the left hand side are a team and must group up together.
Third years:
Owen -> Kelsey
Gia -> Andrew
Charles -> Jax
Ginger -> Alistair
Caelia -> Sammy
Lauren -> Barnaby
Jemima -> John S.
Fourth years:
Araceli -> Aiden
Diana -> Tobi
Scarlett/Savannah* -> Makenzie
Liac -> John U.
Uzume -> Joella
*Because there was an odd number, Alfie would have let one of the twins decide who to give the hair and then there would be three students who look alike and the Fourth years have to decide which are the two real twins and which of the "triplets" is the imposter.
Fifth years:
Chaslyn -> Olivier
Oliver -> Ji-Won
Jacob -> Lionel
Lena -> Clark
Subthreads: I am absolutely not a spy. Trust me on this. by John Umland, Aladren, I think.... with Clark Dill, definitely Aladren
I am me as you are me and we are all together by The Real Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw with Alistair Johnson, Crotalus
Just call me Caelia! by Sammy Meeks [Pecari] with Jamie Park, Pecari
Nothing to see here... keep on walking. by Jax Donovan, Aladren
Stressed to the point of Nausea by Lena Westley, Aladren
Hmm... by Kelsey Atwater,Crotalus with Barnaby Pye, "Jemima Wolseithcrafte", John Spencer, Aladren, The Real Jemima, Teppenpaw
The third twin by Makenzie Newell [Crotalus] with Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw
It's real for me (desperately seeking Kenzie) by Araceli Arbon, Crotalus with Tobias Reinhardt, Teppenpaw
OOC - please read! by DH Skies
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Professor Pye
Intermediate Defense (Years III, IV, & V)
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Professor Pye
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Kelsey Atwater,Crotalus
February 18, 2016 4:51 PM
Hmm... by Kelsey Atwater,Crotalus
Kelsey felt a bit odd about the whole Defense lesson for today. She didn't really want to be someone else or have someone else be her. What if she had to be in the body of someone who wasn't pure or have someone like that in hers? The thought was truly stomach churning.Still, the Crotalus would never let on that it was something was bothering her. She had a tendency to not really be emotional as after all, a lack of self control showed poor breeding and Kelsey naturally had excellent breeding. She didn't create scenes like some people would and would hate to have some thing like that damage her flawless reputation as the ideal pureblood lady. That meant not visibly showing emotional distress no matter how she felt inside.
Of course, the idea of someone else in her body doing such a thing bothered her immensely. If someone hurt her reputation, she'd have to do something about it without doing more damage to it herself. Kelsey was not about to let someone get away with destroying her. Though quite honestly, it would be impossible for anyone who wasn't a pureblood to fake her general proper mannerisms. She didn't even think the pureblood boys could manage it.
As it turned out, she didn't have to worry about this because she would be in the group taking the potion. Still, she sincerely hoped she'd turn into another pureblood. Being in the body of someone who wasn't would make her feel dirty.
Cautiously, Kelsey took a sip of the yellow-a somewhat subdued shade of yellow, but still yellow-potion. It tasted...rather pleasant. She had a feeling it must have come from one of the Teppenpaws. Please let it be Jemima .
That wasn't to be the case. She began to grow and her hair got much shorter. Certain things were missing-not that they were all that big anyway-and a certain thing that no proper young lady should ever ever think about was uncomfortably present.
Kelsey reached into her bag and pulled out her compact, her fears realized when the face of Owen Brockert stared back at her. She did not want to be a guy and the fact that he was a distant cousin of hers made her feel even creepier. But at least he's a pureblood .
As she went to get her robes resized-they were uncomfortably tight, much tighter than anything that the third year would normally wear, because it wasn't appropriate for young ladies to wear tight clothing-and the others came back in, Kelsey was struck by another issue. Owen-like most Teppenpaws-was hopelessly nice-and to everyone. Not that she considered herself a nasty person by any means, but she didn't know if she could fake Teppenpaw. Especially with people who weren't pure. Though she didn't know who anyone was right now except for the real Owen.
The easiest way to make people think she was the real Teppenpaw boy would be to attach herself to one of the Jemimas. Unfortunately, if it happened to be the real one, she'd figure out that Kelsey wasn't Owen in ten seconds flat.
She sat there contemplating what to do until someone approached her. "Oh, hello there." Kelsey replied in a friendly tone that she hoped wasn't too over the top and fake. She placed a warm smile on her face.
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Kelsey Atwater,Crotalus
Hmm...
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Kelsey Atwater,Crotalus
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Barnaby Pye
February 21, 2016 8:44 AM
...my sentiments exactly. by Barnaby Pye
Barnaby wanted to know what exactly his brother was playing at, giving them all each other's hair. He had been tempted to share his particularly arbitrary secret question and answer with his group while they had been working to come up with one as he was certain his classmates weren't nearly as clever as he, since correctly answering that the First Goblin Wars incited riots in the watermelon trades because of a misrepresentation of the strawberry as the best fruit by the leader of one rebel faction was not something that most people would likely get. However, not only did he know his classmates wouldn’t understand the significance nor the symbolism of his fruity ways, but he also knew he as venturing a little into the ‘absurd’ if he was looking at things from aToday, however, he was masquerading as one of his classmates. Fortunately for himself he had always been rather observant for his age. Unfortunately for him, he most recently been distracted by a dark, curly head and had been slacking when it came to keeping note of all his classmates' most recent behaviors so if he were to get, say, Andrew Carey's hair, he wouldn't be able to do much else other than 2nd year Andrew Carey which, fortunately for him, wasn't likely as Carey was one of the ones destined to take the potion. On the other hand, as he sipped the polyjuice potion assigned to him and a rather good yet unusual taste touched his tongue, he was interested to find that while he became shorter and his hair grew longer and darker he was disappointed to see how it lay straight. His hands, too, were not the right size and did not have that particular freckle which he knew could be found just there. A glance in the classroom window showed a very Asian looking face staring back at him and Barnaby tilted his head, watching as the hair shifted and a creamy neck was exposed. Interesting. He raised his new, more delicate hand and took pleasure in the Lauren Song in the window that imitated his move. He had never really considered polyjuice potion before. It was…satisfying, to say the least, in it’s efficacy and Barnaby noted it’s usefulness for the future.
He cleared his throat and tried out his new voice to himself. “Hi, I’m Lauren Song,” he said quietly, listening to see how his voice had changed. Though his accent was gone, his brain had still caused him to pronounce his words in that crisp manner that he usually spoke in. Then, he remembered that Lauren Song was one of those girls, the bubbly sort with friends and he nearly smashed his head into the wall. This didn’t bode well for him, he was not a social person aside from his antagonistic remarks to Jax and Gia Donovan and the brief friendship he’d had with his other roommate in the first year.
Murmurs of spells around him alerted Barnaby to the impending arrival of the donors and the real Lauren Song and so he, too, raised his wand to make the necessary adjustments, pleased that he had not needed to ask his brother for help. Little good that would have done, Alfie likely would have made the collar of his robes so tight that he choked or, at the very least, had angry red marks around his neck for days to come—his older brother was not very subtle in his ways, Barnaby thought viciously as he found himself a new position in the classroom and readied to mingle with the additions of the real students. He would need to distinguish himself from the copies somehow and so had transfigured a broken bit of quill into a bobby pin to push some of his hair out of his face. A small detail like that wasn’t something that many copies likely would have thought of, Barnaby thought. And though he wasn’t sure if Song actually wore bobby pins, it was incongruous enough to be unnoticeable at first glance while also working as something that she might have had on before entering the class yet had also forgotten about when asked to remove distinguishable markers since it really wasn’t that eye-catching of a hair ornament.
It was a glance towards Clark Dill that had Barnaby anxiously thinking about the sorts of shoes his female classmates wore. He could remember varying types of shoes but nothing that stood out to him as particularly Song and so instead kept the black color of his shiny, black oxfords and transfigured them to appear more feminine. He couldn’t remember if he was supposed to know this spell or not yet, but he also didn’t really care—it was something that Tarquin likely would have gotten upset with him about as his friend was very paranoid about everything, including appearing smarter than he was in class because he didn’t want any professor taking a special interest in him, but Barnaby wanted to win. He wanted to see if he was able to properly infiltrate himself into a group, if he could fool people’s closest friends into thinking he was the true copy. He needed to know how good of an actor he was, to what degree he needed to perfect his skills. And then, he needed to learn how to brew this marvelous potion which would one day be incredibly useful to Tarquin and himself. He’d have to write to his best friend right away, he thought, the moment he got back to his dorm. He would have to use their coded language, of course, and since they had never discussed the possibility of polyjuice before he would have to rely on Tarquin’s on the spot thinking ability, but he had confidence in the younger boy.
He turned to the closest person to him, Owen Brockert as it turned out, and gave them a glittering smile. “Hello,” he said jovially, doing his best to sound like a chipper third year without a care in the world. “Weird class, isn’t it? But it’s kind of fun, too.” Owen was one of those who had given a hair, he remembered, so there was a chance he was talking with a fake, which made him feel better since he was almost sure that Lauren wasn’t super close with the other fakes. He was very glad that the first person he had to fool with either Owen Brockert or not but most definitely not Ginger or Jemima since he needed some time to figure out how to be a perfectly nice Teppenpaw before he tried to fool his new face’s best friends and roommates.
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Barnaby Pye
...my sentiments exactly.
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Barnaby Pye
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"Jemima Wolseithcrafte"
February 22, 2016 4:38 PM
What do you mean? by "Jemima Wolseithcrafte"
Waking up early had never been difficult for John Spencer, but he had loathed it the first few weeks after the midterm. Travelling between England and Arizona wasn’t fun though Jack was enjoying the new experience of living somewhere else. It had been difficult to adjust his first year, but he was used to it now. He liked his coursework and his room-mate and having his common room hidden away in the library and the large, delicious meals in Cascade Hall. He wanted to make more friends and play Quidditch, but the challenges were giving him some opportunity to observe his older classmates instead. As he’d expected, his cousin was not leadership material nor a team player.When Jack walked into class, Professor Pye told them to dress down until they were all practically wearing the same thing. He was wearing his robes like Pye had asked, standard black just like everyone else, and removed the leather-banded watch he always wore. He wasn’t sure what the point was, but he knew it would have to do with identification. With brown hair and blue eyes standing at an average height, Jack didn’t really stand out in any particular way, except that he was a British wizard at an American school. Still, unless there was some sort of change in his appearance…
That was it. Jack’s eyes lit up at the possibility. Taking a Polyjuice Potion sounded like fun, the sort of academic fun that Jack enjoyed, not like searching for an exit in a formidable maze on a broom. He was one of the lucky ones to stay in the classroom when Professor Pye split them, and Jack eagerly jumped into the queue. Most of the witches had left the room, making it a high possibility that he would transform into a witch, but Jack really hoped to turn into a wizard.
It was exciting, taking a potion like this, but then Jack received his vial and felt ill. He was going to turn into Jemima Wolseithcrafte. He could feel his heart thumping a little quicker. When the lights were switched off, Jack uncorked his vial, held his nose and drank up. He could feel the changes happening in his body immediately and he shivered until his body stopped convulsing both inside and out. Once it was finished, Jack transfigured a sheet of parchment into a mirror and took a good look at Jemima Wolseithcrafte’s face.
The peers he knew best from his class were Barnaby and Jemima, and even then he didn’t know Jemima that well. He knew quite a bit about her family since Adam and Francesca were best friends, but that was the extent. Copying movements and particular idiosyncrasies to convince everyone else was going to be difficult. From what he knew, Jemima was very close with her room-mates, Teppenpaws Jack didn’t know at all. He adjusted the size of his robes and shoes, glad now that Professor Pye had ordered them all to wear the same thing. The only problem would be shoes. He transfigured them into flats he’d seen Charlotte wear often, hoping these were shoes Jemima would wear as well.
The other half of the students returned and Jack felt nervous. Would he be convincing enough? He couldn’t help but look for Jemima, attempting to surreptitiously observe her movements now that he had to be her. Still, it would not do to simply stand around and wait for someone to approach him. Jemima was outgoing like he, so Jack decided to act as though he were trying to figure out who the imposters were as well. That’s what Jemima would do in this situation, wouldn’t she? And from what he’d seen in class and in the dining hall, Jemima seemed to have some kind of affectation towards Owen Brockert. That’d be easy to fake: find Owen and convince him that he was she.
He walked over to Lauren and Owen, an odd pair to see together, hoping that one of them was an imposter. It was nerve-wracking, attempting to be someone else like this. “Hi Lauren, hi Owen,” he said with a smile. Did she bat her eyelashes? Jack felt a little ill at the thought of flirting with a wizard, but he tried to ignore it. Jemima was confident and that was easy enough to emulate even in another person’s body. Lauren said something first and Jack nodded. “This is fun, but it’s super weird seeing myself walking around. You guys probably feel the same way. So I’m supposed to ask you guys the question my group came up with, right?” He had no idea what question the group of ‘real students’ had come up with together, so Jack decided to wing it and go with his own. It would have to be very general and vague. If they were ‘real,’ they would catch him immediately. If not, they would be exposing themselves, though figuring out that they were imposters wouldn’t do much for him. I’m brilliant, he thought before opening his mouth.
“What is the best thing about Sonora?”
OOC: Using the further clarifications from the OOC board.
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"Jemima Wolseithcrafte"
What do you mean?
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"Jemima Wolseithcrafte"
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John Spencer, Aladren
February 22, 2016 6:25 PM
OOC: Clarification for points. (nm) by John Spencer, Aladren
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John Spencer, Aladren
OOC: Clarification for points. (nm)
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John Spencer, Aladren
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The Real Jemima, Teppenpaw
February 22, 2016 8:08 PM
One, two, three birds with one big, friendly stone! by The Real Jemima, Teppenpaw
Jemima bit her lip as they waited outside the classroom. She had sometimes played spies with Francesca and Theodore, when they were all still at home. Theodore and Francesca always won. They always knew how to intercept her and Ingrid’s messages and break their secret codes. Looking back, it was probably just the same old story of her and Ingrid’s life… Francesca and Theodore were better because they were older. They had probably done ridiculously simple things that she herself would be more than capable of coming up with, like sneaking in and hiding behind the curtains and then not jumping out and yelling ‘HA!’ (which is what she and Ingrid had always done and now, looking back, may have been a mistake, as what they thought was Francesca and Theodore’s secret code had then always mysteriously changed by the time they intercepted any of their messages….). Nonetheless, she had long lived with the worry that she might be a terrible spy, and so today had something to prove.However, she didn’t want to win by cheating. As they lined up in the corridor she didn’t try to exchange any extra information, or remind people of facts about herself (and really wished that Ginger wouldn’t share that particular one about herself. Jemima had been taught that such a situation would be a source of deepest shame, and it made her uncomfortable to hear Ginger talk about it so openly and casually, because it might make people think her friend was dirty - she knew it was meant to make her feel that way, but she tried to just not even think about that because she didn’t want to be ignoring what her mother said or thinking bad things about her friend, but that would all be a lot easier if Ginger just didn’t shout about it). She trusted that she and Owen would be able to spot the fakes a million miles off. She was pretty confident about sorting out the Laurens and the Gingers too.
She considered her tactics for working this out. Just going and asking the questions was kind of boring, and didn’t really prove anything about her ability to be intuitive and read a person (and hence prove she was a good spy really), plus some of the fifth years had the security questions. This was as big a problem, given that she was predominantly concerned with trying to find her friends, but she might have to interact with the older students too - or cunning fifth years who identified other fakes might pass on their security question to them. She also wasn’t sure how seriously any of the fakes were taking this, or in what spirit - whether they saw it as a class assignment, or were going to get into the role of spies. She didn’t want to get too carried away with interrogations if they didn’t see it as a game, because then they might not realise she was playing a part and get upset. Or think she was being mean, which would be un-Jemimaish, and then they might put her in the fake group! She would have to use her Teppenpaw wiles to her advantage, and kill with kindness.
The opportunities came thick and fast as the groups mingled, which wasn’t surprising given that there were six people she wanted to interview - seven if she counted her other self, but she was rather trusting her friends to provide the same service to her that she was to them. Ginger already seemed preoccupied with talking to herself, although one of her was decidedly more bouncy, whilst the other one look a little off put. Given that Ginger hadn’t seemed particularly disturbed by the experiment at hand, she had a strong suspicion which was which. An Owen was talking to a Lauren. Both of them looked a little bit ill at ease but that wasn’t really out of keeping with either of their personalities. She thought this was a fun lesson but from watching the other people waiting in the corridor, she had realised not everyone felt the same. Still, here was the opportunity to kill two birds with one big, cuddly stone. At least, it was until she joined the mix. Or rather, her evil identical twin. Still, she had nothing to fear, seeing as she knew she was the real her.
“Anyonghaseo, Lauren-y” she grinned, putting her arms around the other girl and silently judging her on the quality of her return hug. She gave a pause to assess the fluency of this Lauren’s Korean and how flawed she looked by having to do so, opting for the slightly more formal version of ‘hello’ in order to give a few more syllables to trip the other person up. The person could be a good mimic, but she thought it was a pretty tricky word to get right - Lauren had had to tell her it several times before she’d picked it up. She had approximately two other Korean phrases that she’d picked up over the years that she could resort to if these tests left her in doubt. Plus, she realised, the occasional Japanese word from going to sushi restaurants or totally made up nonsense that she could also try out. Both of those would confuse the real Lauren too, of course, but probably in different ways. She couldn’t quite say what ways, as she’d never tried talking to Lauren in Japanese or a made up language (although the latter totally had to be something they tried later - she bet they’d still be able to understand each other) but she was confident that she would know the difference when she saw it. She was too distracted by the fake Jemima to notice the minimal change in Lauren’s hair, even though it was something she normally might have picked up on.
“Hi Owen,” she also smiled, giving him a hug too and assessing for quality. “How’s the story going?” she interrogated, in the most upbeat and friendly tone imaginable.
“By the way,” she added, to the fake Jemima, whom she’d overheard a little as she approached, “You might want to work on your American accent a little more if you want to pass for me.”
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The Real Jemima, Teppenpaw
One, two, three birds with one big, friendly stone!
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The Real Jemima, Teppenpaw
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