Nathan Xavier
April 09, 2019 11:42 AM
Beginner’s Herbology: This stinks by Nathan Xavier
Nathan Xavier hurried into Greenhouse One several minutes late. It was very rare for the Herbology professor to not meet and greet every student by the door as they arrived, so he was a little worried that they might have already wandered off, thinking class had gotten cancelled. Fortunately, as he entered, he saw most of them seemed to still be present.“Sorry,” he apologized, a little breathlessly. It had been a long fast-walk/run from the apperation barrier to the greenhouse. Dora had a her first high fever today, and he’d been worried enough about it that he popped off check on her over lunch, even though his mom had assured him she knew perfectly well how to care for sick babies. The seven month old had indeed seemed to be somewhat improved since that morning, but he was still glad he’d gone, so he didn’t have to be as distracted during his afternoon classes as he had been for his advanced students that morning.
“My apologies for being late. Your essays from last week.” He waved his wand and the pile of graded homework on his desk dispersed out to their owners. He preferred handing them out as each student arrived with a personal comment, but he’d missed the opportunity for that today, and this was quicker. “Overall, I was very pleased about your thoughts regarding the relative merits of different fertilizers, but please check for any comments I may have added and come to my office hours tomorrow if you have any questions.”
“Today, we’ll be running an experiment to see actual results of how fertilizer helps the plants, so we will all be planting some mixed flower seeds, including both magical and non-magical varieties. Aladrens will be fertilizing theirs with mooncalf dung. Pecaris will add dragon dung compost,” as he spoke, a piece of chalk wrote what kind of fertilizer students from each house were expected to use. “Crotali will use a plant waste compost made mostly from the hedge trimmings and weeds pulled from the Gardens here at Sonora. Teppenpaws will use the muggle fertilizer in that box there,” he pointed out a large yellow and green container labeled ‘MiracleGro All Purpose Plant Food’.
“You will each plant a pot of seeds, fertilize it, and label it with your name and House. You may chat together with whomever you like as you work, but make sure you use the right fertilizer for your House. Once you’re done, write a short a hypothesis - that’s an educated guess - about which House or Houses will see the best results in their flower pots. It only needs to be a sentence or two long, and it won’t be graded, but I will collect it and hand them back once the flowers begin blooming so you can check how accurate you were.”
The enchanted chalk also added these directions beneath the House assignments, using simple words and phrases so even those students who struggled with English should hopefully be able to puzzle through what was expected of them.
“You may begin.”
OOC: Welcome to Herbology! I hope you brought gloves and nose plugs today. If not, your student does know by now where to find extras in the class supplies cupboard. House points are awarded to class posts based of length, creativity, realism, relevance, and writing quality rather than your student’s displayed skills, knowledge, or behavior.
Subthreads: If perhaps not in the way I'd expect. by Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw with Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw
Story of my life recently. by Jessica Hayles, Crotalus with Allegra Brockert, Crotalus
Duh by Topaz Brockert, Aladren with Felipe De Matteo, Crotalus
What's German for poop? (Hilda) by Sophia Priory, Aladren
1
Nathan Xavier
Beginner’s Herbology: This stinks
28
Nathan Xavier
1
5
Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw
April 14, 2019 5:36 PM
If perhaps not in the way I'd expect. by Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw
Katerina was surprised not to find Professor Xavier waiting for the Beginner class at the door, but she did not start to become concerned until he became actually late. Everyone was slightly behind schedule sometimes, no matter how hard one tried to remain on the straight and narrow way, but actual lateness? Professors were not supposed to be late, and this one was her Head of House. Teppenpaws were especially not supposed to be late. Was something wrong?She was just beginning to toy with the ribbon tying back her blonde hair when Professor Xavier appeared, out of breath but apparently intact. She managed to put her hand up and catch her essay before it could smack her in the face or fall onto the table, and opened it without much anxiety. She expected good scores and usually got them, especially on homework assignments like essays, where she could carefully work out every aspect of the paper - grammar, spelling, vocabulary, synonyms, shapes of her English letters, and even how she spaced her words and lines across the parchment. One of the things she feared about Intermediate classes was how they were supposed to be so much more demanding than her Beginner classes - she worried that she might not have time to do everything so well, and that a less polished appearance might cause the teachers to give her lower marks.
For now, though, her grades were adequate and she had to pay attention to something else in order to follow what Professor Xavier was telling them to do for today. Her blue eyes started to widen with horror when she heard that Teppenpaws were supposed to use Muggle fertilizer - Muggles didn't even have magic to take care of themselves, so what kind of fertilizer must they use? - but then narrowed again as she frowned in confusion at the thing which Professor Xavier pointed at. It was...a big box, of some shiny material, with a colorful front. She read through the letters, sounding it out. Mir...no, that meant neither world nor peace in English. Mir-ah-clay Guh-roe? Gro, that would sound like 'grow,' but 'grow' had a 'w' on the end. And 'miraclay'...'miraslay'? What?
She approached it cautiously, then recoiled as soon as she saw the box's contents. It did not look like fertilizer, and it did not smell like fertilizer. It looked almost like a box full of tiny, badly cut light blue sapphires, or maybe blue topazes of some kind, and it smelled like....
She did not know what it smelled like, other than 'unpleasant.' The smell of regular dung was unpleasant, too, but in a different way. This seemed to burn at her nose, which she covered with her hand, her mouth twisting as she looked back at the box.
"Euggh," she complained, reluctant to touch it.
16
Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw
If perhaps not in the way I'd expect.
1418
Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw
0
5
Jessica Hayles, Crotalus
April 14, 2019 8:11 PM
Story of my life recently. by Jessica Hayles, Crotalus
The greenhouse was not a part of the Sonora campus which Jessica thought many people would have expected her - with her almost transparent complexion, pale red hair, and dainty manners - would have favored. It was full of smells, and dirt, and the occasional bug, and sometimes plants broke off and emitted who knew what kind of sticky fluids. It was often hot, the sun amplified by the glass panes meant to keep the plants alive in winter. It was true that Jessica had always loved flowers, but far more plants in the greenhouses here had spines or hideous appendanges of unknown purpose than had particularly appealing blooms.None of that, however, mattered much to Jessica anymore, because of what the greenhouses did have: things she could see and smell and touch. Real things, solid things. No one jabbered at her about stupid pointless feelings nonsense here, or told her to just imagine things hard enough to make them happen. When Professor Xavier gave her a direction, she could follow it, quickly and without any bafflement as to the purpose of the order or even how to do it. The greenhouses were an oasis of sanity in the midst of the nightmarish rest of the school. When Professor Xavier greeted her each day, he often got at least an attempt (sometimes she was too unhappy to quite pull it off, but she almost always tried for the kindly, non-jibberish-spouting Herbology professor) at a smile from her, and she was pretty sure that she had never even fantasized about trying to shove a magic wand down his throat, the way she did at least once a week with Hawthorne and Wright and especially Skies....
Today, however, he was not at the door, and Jessica, absorbed in reading her latest library book, didn't even notice he was late until he half-ran into the room, looking flustered.
She caught her essay, accustomed by now to papers flying about as though they had wills of their own, and tucked it away without looking, accustomed now to getting grades which made her want to crawl under the porch and die. She didn't get grades like that in this class, as a rule, but it was best to just avoid looking at anything. She stared straight ahead, through the person across from her and at nothing, until a single word caught her attention: experiment.
Words, of course, didn't always mean what they should have meant here, but that one was promising. Even when it seemed to involve interacting with fertilizer. She ground her teeth when the Teppenpaws got the Miracle Gro, with which she knew she could have gotten consistent and consistently good results, but compost wasn't the end of the world. Especially hedges and weeds; she didn't expect anything too horrible to be lurking in that, though she would certainly wear gloves before touching anything. If any such thing got under her nails...!
A hint of the old contempt flashed across her face when he had to explain to sixth and seventh graders what a hypothesis was - she thought her nine-year-old sister probably knew what a hypothesis, along with the rest of the basic scientific method, was, and Mara went to public school! A good one, of course, but still a public school - but she suppressed it quickly. Of course Miracle Gro would work the best; it was regulated and carefully standardized and formulated, not a complete - with all respect to the Aladrens and Pecaris - crapshoot in the dark, the way the efficacy of everything else would be. However, the question was, should she actually write that down? What did they want to see?
The answer to that question would, of course, be helpful for more than this assignment. If she could just figure out what they wanted to see, she could put on a mask of being that thing and then she wouldn't get bad grades and then....
And there she went again, forgetting that there was, for the moment, literally no reason for her to even exist. Her parents had given up on her, and she was already so far behind that by the end of the year, it would be next to impossible for her to ever catch up at an even remotely competitive school. Earning privileges (because Skies' mind was so limited that she thought that even a minimal education was a privilege to be earned; in light of that, Jessica supposed she should be glad the woman was progressive enough to seemingly accept that soap wouldn't give her the Black Death and that she could therefore bathe often enough to refrain from stinking up the dining hall during meals!) didn't matter anymore. So was there even a point to caring what they wanted from her anymore?
Except avoiding punishment, of course; things could always get worse. There was always that.
She realized she was scowling, and tried to force her thoughts away from the hated Transfiguration teacher. She had to think about flowers. Jessica liked flowers. Flowers were beautiful, and also real, things she could plant and get a good grade on. Mommy and Daddy probably still wouldn't like it if she failed everything. No - she didn't want to think about Mommy and Daddy. Just flowers, leaves bobbing and swaying at the slightest disturbance, the way light looked going through petals and leaves...
Emerald shields against a sullen sky/ arch up and cover both low and high/ block the wind and muffle sound/ protect the briars and death's caps spreading on the ground.
She went to get a planter. Here was something she could do. Simple task, mechanical as eating or bathing or dressing herself in this sack. Putting on her gloves was probably the hardest thing she would do today - she had to think to do that, focusing so she didn't put her thumb in the wrong spot. Once they were on, she set about her tasks, going to get soil, then plant compost to mix with the soil in her pot. Once that was done, with only some wrinkling of her nose, she returned to a bench to plant the seeds.
"I wonder what sorts of flowers we'll get," she remarked to another student. "I hope it's something colorful."
16
Jessica Hayles, Crotalus
Story of my life recently.
1442
Jessica Hayles, Crotalus
0
5
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw
April 15, 2019 8:33 PM
I don't even know what to expect. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw
The fact that Johana Leonie's English had gotten better was certainly not enough to save her from confusion in basically all of her classes. Herbology however, was both the most likely to see her messing something up, and her favorite for that reason. While she might go the entire class period without understanding something in Charms or Transfiguration, she was much more likely to mess up on a practical lesson like she might find in Potions or Herbology. In Potions, though, that usually meant danger. Herbology, at least for now, was the safer choice, and a favorite of hers.Today's lesson, once it began, was an exciting one for Johana Leonie. She had spent her life on the line between magic and muggle worlds, and her homegrown lifestyle meant that everything that could possibly work as a fertilizer had been tested at one point or another by somebody she knew. This was a lesson that she knew how to do in German, so it gave her a significant leg up in English; all she had to do now was figure out what the heck was happening.
She knew the name of her own house by this point, and got bits and pieces of what Professor Xavier was saying about what her house was meant to do, so she followed the student Dorian had told her would be nice (and who had thus far proven reasonably nice at the very least), catching up to her at the box of . . . whatever that fertilizer was. She knew it was a muggle product, but she couldn't exactly tell what it was. Looking at it more closely didn't help and smelling it was certainly a bad choice. She winced away from the smell and agreed with Katerina's assessment.
"That's smellt bad," she said. "Do you know what das means?" she asked, pointing at the label. "Miracle grow?" If nothing else, she was pretty confident she could read the words. She knew what grow was, and since English seemed to chop everything up and off anyway, it was probably one of those sorts of things. Like when people said "tonite" or "donut." She hated when they said that.
"It is okay that I work with you?" she confirmed, not entirely sure whether they were supposed to work together at all, and even less sure whether Dorian's friend that she only sort of knew would be interested in working with her anyway.
22
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw
I don't even know what to expect.
1432
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw
0
5
Katerina
April 17, 2019 9:33 PM
Fun with languages. Expect fun with languages. by Katerina
Mir-ra-cle. Mirakl. There! There it was! The word was almost the same between the two languages, though she thought it might be used slightly differently in context. She had forgotten how strangely the English character 'c' could be, had assumed it went with the 'l' instead of being a sound to itself, a transition between other parts of the word."Ja, ist in Ordnung," said Katerina with a smile and in heavily accented but smooth enough German. It was on the next sentence, which involved saying something she had not learned among common pleasantries, that she struggled more. "Das ist..was macht...blumes gut sein," she said slowly, inelegantly, working to put as much of her actual thought into German as she possibly could.
It was no small task for her; she had wanted to learn more German, but had not had had time before she had come to Sonora and been cut off from most formal study of languages altogether. She did not, however, flinch. When she had first started studying languages, she had not wanted to speak, and when Anton Petrovich had compelled her to give oral reports, she had done so with tears running down her face. This had continued for months, her teacher ignoring the weeping both during her speech and during the merciless criticisms of her grammar which had always followed. She, too, had ignored her own crying as much as she could, ashamed of herself over it. Eventually, she had learned to keep her eyes dry and her face smooth, and if she still intensely disliked knowing her grammar was bad, she didn't let it show.
She did, however, add "mein Deutsch - nicht gut," as something akin to an apology for the damage she had no doubt just done to Johana Leonie's language. It is what makes flowers be good was the next thing to baby talk, but how should she have known she would someday need to discuss Magl gardening things in German with a first year? Even Anton Petrovich might have forgiven her the lapse in syntax and vocabulary. Perhaps not publicly - to his pupils' faces, Anton Petrovich was extremely short on sympathy, and not much less sparing with compliments even for a perfect performance, something which made praise all the more valuable on the rare occasions it materialized - but maybe in his notes to her Mama, anyway.
16
Katerina
Fun with languages. Expect fun with languages.
1418
Katerina
0
5
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
April 18, 2019 6:44 PM
Across the board! by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
Johana Leonie beamed at Katrina, remembering why she liked the girl so much, when she got a response in German. Katrina's German was about where Johana Leonie's English was, maybe even better, and it made her feel like she knew something special and valuable to hear somebody else have to try so hard."Danke," Johana Leonie said, pouring her gratitude into her voice. "Es ist dünger? Die Blumen werden schön sein," she decided, looking at what they had to work with. Now that she knew for sure that it was fertilizer, she was confident that the rest of her statement was true; these flowers really were going to be beautiful.
"My English is nicht good," she said. "Do you not worry. Ich verstehe."
With her brother planning to attend Sonora the following year, Johana Leonie felt the onus to work hard to be helpful for him when he arrived. Beyond that, she hated to think that she hadn't improved at all, while he'd been taking this whole year to improve his English after Johana Leonie had warned her parents how difficult everything was without it. He would certainly have a leg up, and she would take every friendly face and willing conversationalist she could find.
"Moy russkiy ochen' plokhoy," she added for good measure, although it was hardly a pretty sound with her accent. She hadn't needed as much Russian as English in the healing work of her family, but there were those who came to them for help, and she liked to learn key phrases like Where does it hurt, can you understand me, do you have any candy, do you like music, I suck at your language, and other important phrases. As it turned out, the sounds for being in pain were pretty universal.
"What color flowers magst du?"
22
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
Across the board!
1432
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
0
5
Katerina
April 21, 2019 10:07 PM
We can start with fun with homophones. by Katerina
Katerina's eyes widened in surprise when Johana Leonie suddenly spoke Russian. Dorian spoke Russian - sort of - and Tatiana spoke Russian, of course, but even hearing 'my Russian is very bad' from someone else was a surprise, and not an unpleasant one. She had come here to learn, and so she tried to avoid speaking Russian or even thinking in Russian, but there was no denying that it was good to hear it unexpectedly. Sometimes, she thought she didn't miss speaking Russian so much as she missed hearing everyone else around her speaking it."Ich mag Gelb," said Katerina, still working slowly in German. "i - ach, und - " she corrected herself, starting to say 'and' in Russian before remembering that it would make no sense to Johana Leonie - "und rose, und lila." She smiled suddenly. "You know the English, 'red'? You say 'rot' in German? If I say 'rot' po-Russkii, this means 'mund'," she said, pointing to her mouth just in case she had the word for 'mouth' wrong in German. It amused her that the Russian word sounded so close to the English and German words, while meaning something very different. "Po-Russkii, the color, it is krasnyy," she added. "Welche Blumen magst du?"
16
Katerina
We can start with fun with homophones.
1418
Katerina
0
5
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
April 22, 2019 6:26 PM
I feel so validated! by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
OOC -- As usual, full disclaimer that I'm using Google and Google Translate and promise nothing by way of linguistic accuracy.IC --
Johana Leonie felt like she might break into dance in that moment. Not only was Katerina entirely patient with her poor Russian, but she was making every effort to use German, and she was excited to talk about the fun things that came with multilingualism (although Johana Leonie would hardly consider herself proficient in any more than one language).
She was practically beaming the entire time Katrina spoke, and she hoped it was encouraging at least. "Das ist gut!" she told the girl. "Ich mag auch Gelb, Rose und Lila. Ich mag auch Rosa," she added, wished she were wearing anything pink today. "It is odd when the words are the same but they are not the same," she managed in English. "The mouth is a little red, oder...?" she asked, the German ending slipping oddly onto her English question.
"Krasnyy," Johana Leonie attempted, the word feeling odd in her mouth. "I can say, Po-Russkii, Kakogo tsveta eto bylo? Meine Eltern sind Heiler," she explained with a laugh. "The people with hurt or sick lose very many things."
Suddenly, the sheer hilarity of what was happening struck her. "We must sound like we are angry. Nein... verrückt... we are mad? That is odd im Englisch. We must sound like our minds has gotten lost, als wir alle po-russki, Deutsch, und Englisch sprachen." The mixed sentence, We must sound like we've lost our minds, speaking Russian, German, and English all together, made Johana Leonie's head spin and she giggled.
22
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
I feel so validated!
1432
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
0
5
Topaz Brockert, Aladren
April 23, 2019 5:45 AM
Duh by Topaz Brockert, Aladren
Midterm had really sort of sucked. Topaz's mother was driving her crazy. Mother kept gushing about how "sought after" her older sisters were. Emerald could choose between Winston Pierce and Victor Callahan while Ruby had Dean McLachlan and Dorian Montoir vying for her. Though personally Topaz thought Dorian might be more interested in Tatiana. Or he, like her sisters had "options." and was going to choose between them. To the Aladren, the logical solution was for Ruby to be with Dean and Tatiana to be with Dorian. Even though Dorian was probably better suited to her sister than the Pecari.Truthfully though, Topaz didn't really care. Her problem was that now Mother would expect her to be "sought after" and have her pick of suitors!
She really resented the lot of them right now, Ruby, Emerald, Mother, Dean, Dorian, Winston and Victor. If it wasn't for them all, she wouldn't be under pressure to do the same. Honestly, why couldn't they be happy with Topaz as she was? She was smarter than all her siblings and cousins, even Emerald and Isla. She was the one who got Biggest Brain in the yearbook! Her sister had only gotten Most Likely to Be Found in The Library. Which was an admirable thing, she had to concede but not as good as Biggest Brain.
But her parents, sheesh. First they wanted a boy and she was a failure in that attempt and now Mother wanted her to be someone guys flocked around. True, Topaz was only thirteen but before long, she was going to be expected to have multiple suitors like her sisters.
She thought about the boys around her age. There were only two in her class and one was Slimey, who was not only a half-blood but a Pecari . Topaz was not about to marry one of those . Fortunately, the two third years in that house were also unsuitable with one being impure and the other being her distant cousin.
As for the rest, well, Topaz didn't see herself with a Teppenpaw either so she probably wouldn't end up with Nathaniel Mordue. He'd probably end up with Allegra or Caitlin or Katerina. The Aladren could imagine Sylvia wanting her cousin to marry one of the Gardenia Girls, but probably not her.
That just left Heinrich Hexenmeister-who, to his credit was an Aladren-whose social status she was unclear about or Julius Astley.
And the thing was, Topaz wasn't all that interested at this point. If she became so-or more likely, when she was forced into it-she was going to have strict criteria. First of all, he had to be almost as intelligent as she was-to hope someone would be as smart as her was unrealistic and in the very unlikely event someone was smarter than her, well, she didn't want that either-and of course being a pureblood of good social standing was a given. Topaz was a Brockert , she couldn't marry some peon.
That was all she really had so far, because quite frankly she didn't really think about it all that much. She had better things to focus on.
Like Herbology. Not her favorite but still interesting and when Professor Xavier mentioned the word experiment, Topaz perked up. She lived for experimenting.
Of course, when she found what the experiment was, she was highly disappointed. This wasn't going to be something where she got to use human subjects. And to top it off, Aladrens had to use mooncalf dung! So basically Topaz would be dealing with poop . She wasn't the squeamish sort the way some of her sisters and cousins were-she imagined that Amethyst and Esme would cry if they had to work with any sort of excrement, of course odds were neither would be in Aladren. Or Pecari. In fact, they'd probably be Crotali who had it easy, probably because of all the princessy types in it-but still, ew. She was glad that she had a good top of the line pair of gloves.
Then again she could think of uses for dung. Most of which involved roommate torture. Or sibling or cousin torture. Maybe she could get some into Emerald's bed as revenge for the older Aladren girl being "sought after" and putting pressure on Topaz to be so too. The rest would be harder being that they were in either Teppenpaw or Crotalus and in Dean's case, didn't go to school here.
Topaz put on her gloves and got her supplies. "This is disgusting." She remarked to the person next to her.
11
Topaz Brockert, Aladren
Duh
1427
Topaz Brockert, Aladren
0
5
Felipe De Matteo, Crotalus
April 25, 2019 2:51 AM
To grow is to live. by Felipe De Matteo, Crotalus
Felipe always enjoyed Herbology, and wished very much that he did not have to work with his housemates. He was trying to be a nice, good De Matteo and be more sociable, as it was inappropriate to only ever talk to Zara, but it wasn't very easy when his housemates were exactly as snobby and awful as he was. He still felt a little bad that he and Jeremy had started the term off so worldly, but that wasn't going to be a point worth dwelling on unless things got really boring, which meant that Herbology was not going to be the place for that to cross his mind.Instead, Felipe resigned himself to pretending he wasn't as curious as he actually was. At least this way, he wouldn't have to talk about it with anyone. He could pretend it was irritating just fine, but expressing the fact that he enjoyed and being shut down was much much worse.
Carefully grabbing his supplies, casting a looking around for Zara and passing her a smile when he thought she was looking, and making his way away from the rest of his housemates, Felipe set to work. When an awful, albeit familiar smell wafted over him and a student began talking to him, Felipe turned to find that his luck must've really run out; it was a Brockert. This was one of the funny Brockerts with a name like a rock, too, but he couldn't keep them all straight. Opal? Pearl? Sapphire? It wasn't really very important. If anything, he was only really confident that names like Spodumene and Blue Zoisite were off the table.
"Yes, you definitely have it worse than me," he agreed, hoping this was an adequate way to acknowledge her position without having to actually talk about it. Then he chastised himself for being rude, and managed a small smile. "We can work together if you want. I don't mind doing that so much if you want to help me, too. We might learn something."
Felipe sincerely doubted he'd learn much about fertilisers; this was a topic he knew inside and out. Still, there was a chance and this was an important topic too, so he was eager to see how everything turned out. Besides, he might learn something about one of those valuable social connections everyone in his house seemed to care so much about.
"I'm Felipe De Matteo, of the Los Jardines de Plata De Mattoes," he said, having picked up the introduction for such interactions as these. Of course, his family members were the only Los Jardines de Plata De Matteos, but he was pretty sure that was the point. I'm Felipe De Matteo because I'm born to someone who also was a De Matteo. Surprise! Somehow that seemed ruder. "How can I help?" he asked.
22
Felipe De Matteo, Crotalus
To grow is to live.
1434
Felipe De Matteo, Crotalus
0
5
Topaz
May 04, 2019 4:03 PM
I prefer knowledge is power. by Topaz
Topaz cooly appraised the person she'd spoken to. She made it her mission to know about people, not because she cared about them but because knowledge was power and she had to know everything. The Aladren never knew what would be useful down the line.She was lucky that she got inside information.
Anyway, what she knew about Felipe De Matteo was that he was a Crotalus first year, from a foreign family of importance. He hung out with Zara the black Teppenpaw girl who apparently knew Topaz's roommate. She was not yet sure if he could be an ally or not. He should be, but even a tangential association with Ness made her suspicious and put her guard up.
Unfortunately, the fact that he was someone of reasonable importance meant Topaz had to be reasonably polite. Ugh. Sometimes, she really hated being a member of pureblood society. All the false cordiality so you didn't offend anyone when offending people came so naturally to her.
Not to mention it made it harder to know where people really stood.
"Yes, you truly do have the better of the deal." She said. It was surprising that Professor Xavier would give Crotali the least disgusting task rather than his own house. In fact, he had given them the one Topaz felt would be most likely to produce the worst results. She wasn't sure what Miracle Grow was but she doubted anything Muggles produced was as good as magic.
"I suppose." Topaz replied. "I'm Topaz Brockert, of the Western Brockerts." She introduced herself. He should know that, as she knew his name this late in the year. "I don't suppose there's much you can do that I can't but thank you for the offer." Topaz could have asked to swap tasks but while she lacked integrity in other areas, she did her own work. Plus, she wasn't a princess who was afraid of touching nasty stuff. The second year handled dead animals on a regular basis, for Merlin's sake!
"So, what do you expect will have the best results?" Topaz asked. She was capable of forming her own hypothesis of course but she might as well make conversation and see what he thought.
11
Topaz
I prefer knowledge is power.
1427
Topaz
0
5
Felipe De Matteo
May 05, 2019 3:30 PM
Who needs power? by Felipe De Matteo
Felipe nodded, acknowledging both Topaz' introduction and some of the suspicions she'd unwittingly confirmed for him: This particular pureblood was not a princess, and made no effort to be. While he wasn't exactly surprised, having heard more than enough about the girl to know that she was odd, even for her eccentric upperclass society, he was also intrigued. She probably wasn't very nice, but she was interesting at least."My pleasure," he said of having offered help.
He was quiet for a moment when she asked him what he thought would work best, as he suspected there was a right answer and an honest answer, and that they were not the same thing. First and foremost, he doubted she would've liked to hear about his experience with the success rate of many muggle products like Miracle-Gro. Beyond that, he wasn't entirely sure whether she was asking to make polite small talk while they worked, to avoid getting to know each other on any deeper basis (for any reason beyond just being anti-social?), or whether she was trying to get information out of him to make her life easier. There were so many questions in that one little question, and Felipe wrinkled his forehead a bit as he began working, letting the fact that he was thinking appear on his face, although he wasn't thinking about what she had asked him much.
"From my experience with agriculture," he began, not one to leave out his family roots, "I suspect that each fertiliser will have different success rates for different types of plants. I think we'll see different flowers bloom more successfully in some boxes than in others," he said. Then he grimaced, thinking of the poor plants getting the wrong type of fertiliser. "I also think the magical plants will not react well to muggle fertilisers, and vice versa," he said. "Although dung is pretty universal." He smiled at the Aladren, offering enough of a look of amusement that she could take it as an entrance into a more joking manner of address between them, or she could ignore it as his own little smile. It was clearly not a smirk, which was important when dealing with people like this.
"What about you? Do you work much with gardening or agriculture?"
22
Felipe De Matteo
Who needs power?
1434
Felipe De Matteo
0
5
Topaz
May 14, 2019 7:42 PM
I have plenty but want more. by Topaz
Topaz considered what Felipe had said. She guessed he had a point about Muggle plants responding to Muggle fertilizer as, well, they had to use something . Still, she doubted that it would work as well as magic would. Or that it would do much for magical plants at all. "Do you think the waste of magical animals would work better on magical plants though? Like dragon dung versus, say, cow dung?""I'm not all that into agriculture." Topaz admitted. " I mean, my sister likes flower arranging but I prefer taxidermy myself." She wondered if Felipe was going to be as judgemental about this as Ness was. Actually, most of her sisters and some of her cousins thought it was gross too but a lot of them were princessy types. Plus, they didn't think she was a monster because of it. Well, okay, Emerald seemed to think she was a monster-and Sapphire and Allegra were terrified of her- but taxidermy wasn't why.
Not that she cared a great deal about Felipe's opinion in the matter, beyond that it would help her figure out sort of what kind of person he was. Which Topaz could see as potentially useful information. And his opinion was of more value to her than some people's but even when she cared about someone's opinions, she didn't really care that much.
She went on. "I like to use magical stuffing so my creations move a little. Like, I really want to do a bird that will fly around my room." And annoy the dung out of my roommate "Oh and I like Potions." Especially poisons. "And Transfiguration."
"So what about you?" Topaz asked. "Are you into agriculture?"
11
Topaz
I have plenty but want more.
1427
Topaz
0
5
Felipe De Matteo
May 15, 2019 3:59 PM
I have far too much for my liking. by Felipe De Matteo
Felipe mushed his smile into something more civilised than a grin. He was thrilled to actually have an intelligent conversation about herbology and agriculture, even if Topaz thought it wasn't interesting. He considered her question while he worked."I think it might depend on the animal or plant in question," he decided. "I'm not sure what it is about dragon dung or cow dung that makes it work as a fertiliser, so it probably depends on that."
When Topaz acknowledged her preference for taxidermy, Felipe found himself nodding along. Perhaps it was the altruistic habits he was trying to pick up, or perhaps he really meant it, but Felipe thought that no one should be put down for their interests. So far, she hadn't put him down for his, so he wouldn't put her down for hers.
"My family does not hunt much, but I know some people who do. How did you get into taxidermy?" The fact that she called it taxidermy, over like stuffing murdered things, gave Felipe hope that she was an actual enthusiast and not just saying it to get a rise out of him. She seemed a little bit crazy, but that was fine with him. She was still more interesting than most of the people he knew. Except Zara. And Jessica.
Eh, so she was sort of interesting.
Felipe had never heard of magical stuffing and allowed his surprise to show on his face, fully aware that it was a flattering response to someone's greater expertise in a given area. "I had no idea that was possible," he told her, "although I suppose it makes sense. That's very interesting. They're all the way dead? Like it doesn't hurt them at all?"
She mentioned her other interests and Felipe nodded, mostly agreeing. "Transfiguration is a good skill," he acknowledged, not preferring to mention that he wasn't very good at it. Really, he just wasn't very interested in doing it. "I like Care of Magical Creatures and Potions," he said. "And Herbology. I'm more excited for the classes we can take in third year, though. I think that I'd like to take everything, so I have the best education possible."
He nodded, glad that she had asked about agriculture. "It is very important to my family. We maintain one of the largest farms in the area and provide work and resources for our people."
22
Felipe De Matteo
I have far too much for my liking.
1434
Felipe De Matteo
0
5
Topaz
May 20, 2019 12:12 AM
*is puzzled by this* by Topaz
"I mean, it's not something I think most people want to know a lot about." Topaz replied. Except that she wanted to know everything or as much as she possibly could. "I just bring it up because well, what you said about magical versus muggle fertilizers on magical versus muggle plants and the fact that my house is using a different sort of animal dung than the Pecaris are."She was a tad surprised-and pleased- by his reaction to the fact that she liked taxidermy, namely that he didn't say it was gross-which might have been because he was a boy, and didn't want to admit to any squeamishness but still-or tell her she was a bad person or that it wasn't a suitable activity for proper young ladies.
Of course, had Mr. DeMatteo acted all judgemental about it, that would have been his problem, not hers.
"Oh, I was reading a magizoology book once and it mentioned how animal are sometimes preserved in this method, whether it be in museums or hunting trophies.. I looked up more information on it and decided to try it out. My father doesn't take me hunting of course." Hunting was strictly a men's only affair. Usually her father went with her uncles and Uncle Eustace would have an absolute fit if Father tried to bring one of his daughters along, though it was entirely possible that Jasper would be welcome when he was older "But I have the house-elves trap animals for me. " This was not exactly true. Topaz generally tried to make her own poisons to catch squirrels and rabbits and such.
The Aladren continued. "Oh definitely." She nodded her head. She made sure of it.
Apparently, they had an interest in common. This surprised Topaz almost as much as his reaction to the revelation that she did taxidermy. "Do you ever try to come up with your own potions?"
She listened to what he said about his family and filed it away for potential future use. "Yes, mine employs a lot of people too."
11
Topaz
*is puzzled by this*
1427
Topaz
0
5
Allegra Brockert, Crotalus
May 22, 2019 3:17 AM
It could be worse by Allegra Brockert, Crotalus
Allegra's midterm had been really lovely. It had been nice seeing her parents and younger siblings again and having warm, cozy, family time. This would be the last time too, that it would be the six of them. By the time Allegra came home from school, she would have another little brother or sister.More concerning though was that this would probably be the last time that midterm was at all relaxing. Next year, she would probably have to start going to parties and meeting people and being impressive. She was,quite frankly, dreading it. Allegra was terrified of the pressure inherent in this. Terrified that she wouldn't be able to make the appropriate connections or find a betrothal. And that Topaz would and gloat.
On the other hand, she was terrified that she would and Topaz would not and make her miserable. Allegra didn't think her cousin really was that interested in getting married, having babies and being a socialite-actually that last thing didn't sound like fun to the Crotalus either-but she would hate for Allegra to beat her in some way.
It always came back to that. To being in competition with Topaz by virtue of being the same age. The Aladren tormented her own siblings too but only sometimes pestered Esme or Isla and never bothered with the little kids. Allegra felt she was never going to break free of this situation and she felt trapped.
She hated it. Half the time she felt like she couldn't breathe. She didn't want to have to worry and be anxious about Topaz anymore, but she doubted she could do anything. Topaz was brilliant and evil, Allegra was weak and pathetic. Even if the Crotalus could come up with a way to break out of this vicious cycle, it would be thwarted or worse, backfire completely.
Professor Xavier began the class and Allegra suppressed a groan. This was exactly the sort of thing she worried about. As glad as she was not to have to work with dung of any kind, her cousin did. Was Topaz going to take this out on her in some way?
"I wonder what sorts of flowers we'll get," she remarked to another student. "I hope it's something colorful." .
Allegra looked at the first year who'd spoken to her. If only to have such simple concerns! " That would be lovely." The second year said with a smile.
11
Allegra Brockert, Crotalus
It could be worse
1426
Allegra Brockert, Crotalus
0
5
Sophia Priory, Aladren
May 24, 2019 7:59 AM
What's German for poop? (Hilda) by Sophia Priory, Aladren
Since the beginning of the year, there had been two people in her class that Sophia had been interested in talking to. Well, technically she was interested talking to Bridget and Christabel too, but she meant people she wanted to talk to before actually meeting them, Hilda Hexenmeister and Johana Zauberhexen. Granted, Sophia could end up finding out that those people weren't really ones she had much in common with especially as one was a Pecari.The reason though that the Aladren wanted to meet them was that she had been learning German at home and they were native speakers, so she was eager to practice and improve upon this skill.
Sophia entered Greenhouse One. Professor Xavier was strangely absent. Usually he was here to greet them. She wondered if this was baby related. The Aladren knew babies sucked up a lot of time and energy. Lydia had. Lydia still did.
Still, the first year thought it was nice that Professor Xavier was such a hands on dad. However, she wondered why Professor Carter didn't do more since she was just a substitute professor and he was a full time professor. Not that a substitute was lesser in general because they had to know about every subject while regular professors could specialize in what their discipline was but Professor Carter had less to do since all the core class were filled.
Just when Sophia was beginning to think they weren't going to have class, Professor Xavier showed up. She wasn't sure if she was pleased about this or not. On the one hand, classes were generally interesting. On the other, she was reading a really good book at the moment. Or she could have gone and introduced herself to one of the German girls and practice the language.
Professor Xavier told them what they were going to be doing today and Sophia wrinkled her nose. She wasn't prissy and delicate but that didn't mean she wanted to work with poop!
At least though she could still approach one of the Germans. Bridget's roommate was working with the Russian second year girl, but there was still Hilda. Sophia went over to the Pecari. "Hallo, ich bin Sophia Priory von den Wisconsin Priorys. Schön Sie zu treffen." She greeted her and smiled. "I know some German, I'd been learning it before I came here. Unfortunately, I'm not fluent though so I'll probably be mostly speaking English."
She looked down at her materials. "Shall we see what type of dung works better?"
11
Sophia Priory, Aladren
What's German for poop? (Hilda)
1447
Sophia Priory, Aladren
0
5