Prof. Isis Carter
November 21, 2015 3:42 PM
We could use a good shrink [Years VI-VII] by Prof. Isis Carter
Isis had to admit, she was glad to get back into the swing of things at Sonora. The sense of structure here was remarkable, even for the permanent substitute, whose job was, by nature, fairly unstructured. She supposed she would miss this when (or if, since at this point it had been a full year) the school located a full-time Potions professor. Then she would probably go to actual substituting, which meant basically sitting around until something came up for a professor. Or maybe they’d let her teach an elective or something. Who knew?It was the first day of class for the Advanced students, but given that they would have known her fairly well by now, her introduction remained short. “Welcome back, guys,” she said in total. Isis definitely liked not having to introduce herself to her Advanced or Intermediate students at the start of every year; obviously, the first years needed to know who she was, but she just always felt like it was a bore of redundancy for the second years in the Beginner level classes.
“Let’s go ahead and get right down to it, huh?” Isis smiled to her class. It was definitely a smaller one, since not every class was mandatory at this level, but the intimacy meant that those here wanted to be here. That was always good for productivity. “We’re going to brew Shrinking Solution today.” The title of the potion appeared on the board behind her to reiterate.
“This potion has a good handful of ingredients, so now is a good time to see if you have all your ingredients ready for the year. If not, you know where to find more.” Isis always kept an extra supply on the counter, available for any student of any level who had forgotten or not brought enough of anything. “Your instructions are on page 127 of your textbooks, so please turn to it and get started.”
OOC: Here are your instructions:
Juice two Shrivelfigs and add their ruby blood to your cauldron.
Stir slowly.
Gently heat your potion.
Chop four daisy roots more finely and add to cauldron.
Add five hairy caterpillars.
Add well-shaken wormwood.
Stir vigorously.
Juice four leeches and add.
Stir slowly and with caution.
Shake rat spleen and add to cauldron.
Add a splash of cowbane.
Stir slowly.
Heat on a high temperature.
Wave wand in a particular figure.
You all know the rules by now, but since it’s the first lesson of the year, I’ll reiterate: no godmodding, 200 words minimum (I’d like to see about 250-300 for you since this is the Advanced), mind realism, etc. Creative and interesting posts win more points for your Houses. And as always, have fun!
Subthreads: You’re telling me. by Ava Fletcher, Aladren with Anonymous, Emery Kijewski-Jareau
I don't know, I think I have a pretty good handle on things. by Liliana Bannister, Pecari
That could be beneficial by Eleanor Vandenberg - Crotalus
I could think of a few things I'd like to shrink. by Leo Princeton
12
Prof. Isis Carter
We could use a good shrink [Years VI-VII]
31
Prof. Isis Carter
1
5
Ava
November 24, 2015 7:30 PM
Well, I do. by Ava
Ava let out a tiny sigh as she let go of Emery, mourning the loss of his warmth, the feel of his arms around her, and her forehead scrunched as he shrugged in response and didn’t elaborate any further in response to her question. Her heart panged as she remembered the empty seat she had seen and how she hadn’t gotten up to go to him, instead having a nice conversation with Arnold about art club, planning on looking around for him after they were done eating. Of course she wouldn’t have been able to find him—according to Emrys who had stopped by her and Arnold, presumably on his way back from the dorms, he had gone straight up to his room and his bed where she wasn’t allowed to go.She stayed silent, walking into the room without talking, but as they sat she made a sad face and squeezed his arm reassuringly, moving her hand up and down softly, keeping her grip firm to let him know she wasn’t going anywhere. “I voted for you,” she said quietly. “I wanted you to win. And I know Chloe and Emrys probably did too. And—” she cut off, sighing quietly and squeezed his arm again before letting her hand fall into her lap. “I looked for you during dinner, but one second you were there and the next you weren’t and then Emrys said you were in the boys dorms so…” she trailed off shrugging.
“I’m sorry,” she said again after they started their first assignment for the year. “I should have gone to check on you but seeing you so upset hurts and I think I wanted to pretend that everything was okay. It was selfish of me, and I’m sorry, and I care about you and I don’t want you to think that I don’t,” She shrugged, mimicking Emery’s movements. “We can start wherever but I should probably start keeping count of ingredient usage.” Since it was the beginning of the year each of their potions kits should have been full which meant they didn’t necessarily have to take inventory but Ava did anyway, beginning to carefully count of some of the ingredients. It was good practice for Healing school, she thought, and for her later profession when she’d likely have to make up potions for her patients.
As she took out a shrivelfig, one fell out of her kit and began to roll away so she reached out, her arm brushing against Emery’s as she did so, her cheeks flushing lightly. “I can juice the shrivel figs,” she said when they got to that part of the steps. “If you want to stir, I mean.”
10
Ava
Well, I do.
0
Ava
0
5
Emery
November 26, 2015 7:52 PM
You're the only one. by Emery
Emery looked at her hand as it moved on his arm. He was sure she meant that to be comforting, but he just found it frustrating. He liked Ava, more than he was willing to admit, and her little gestures were enticing and confusing to him. She was a friend and that was all that she was and it bothered him. His friends all had relationships. Chloe had one over the summer with Ben, but Emery was once again, left behind. He wasn’t good enough for anything or anyone.What was so wrong with him? Why couldn’t he just have one thing go well for him? Why was he always the one to lose what was important to him?
Her admittance to voting for him only upset him more. Even his own friends wanted him over Arnold and yet, Arnold still wore the badge. Stupid school and stupid voting system. His merits deserved it, not Arnold’s and his friends knew this.
“Yeah, well, you looked like you were having a good time celebrating with Arnold, so I’m glad I didn’t ruin the evening for you.” Emery commented when she mentioned going to look for him, an edge in his voice that was normally never there. Like he hadn’t seen them? He left shortly after the food had arrived. No one had bothered to look in his direction long enough to see if he were okay. So he left. “Must have really taken a lot to pull Emrys away from his darling Charlotte, especially since I didn’t go to the dorms right away.” He was being spiteful, he knew it, but he was feeling like his friendships were all one-sided.
“It was selfish of me, and I’m sorry, and I care about you and I don’t want you to think that I don’t,”
Was she trying to make herself feel better or him? “Whatever, it doesn’t matter anyway. What’s done is done.” He said, mumbling to words and sitting hunched over his book in order to avoid looking at her. He didn’t like feel angry, especially towards Ava, but he felt betrayed and reject by a school that he had put so much of his time and energy into. More so than that, he felt abandoned by his friends when he had really needed them and the excuse was that he had been in his dorm room bed.
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Emery commented when Ava suggested she did the juicing while he stirred. While he waited for her to do her part, Emery made sure the next step of the potion was set out and ready to go. This was the first potion they were going to be brewing that year and he didn’t want to mess it up because he hadn’t been prepared with all the steps. If Emery had taken a moment to look at Ava, he might have realized that she was blushing and his confusion over her would have only deepened. After all, what would she possibly have to blush over?
6
Emery
You're the only one.
0
Emery
0
5
Ava
November 27, 2015 10:30 PM
So don't push me away. by Ava
There were very few things that could get Ava to feel down. First and foremost, her father’s death day. Second, her problems with her mother. And third, being rejected by someone she thought as her friend. And, since it wasn’t any time close to her father’s death day and she had all but blocked the issues with her mother from her mind in an ill-thought-out attempt to be okay with the situation, the thing that was getting her down in that moment was Emery.The caustic tone to his voice caught her off-guard and she was completely taken aback. Unable to react for a few moments, Ava’s mouth remained open from what she had been about to say before closing it and blinking a couple times as Emery continued, mumbling something about it not mattering and what’s done is done. “Okay,” she said quietly, her voice cracking. She wanted to say more but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. The corners of her eyes prickled but she refused to give into the temptation to cry. She couldn’t give Emery the satisfaction.
Logically she knew that he was speaking out of his anger at the situation, not at her. Yet a small part of her couldn’t help but wonder if he was trying to send her a different kind of message about their friendship. Suddenly she wished she hadn’t asked him to partner with her for the year. She didn’t want to force him into anything that would make him even more unhappy than he already was because of the head boy situation.
So she didn’t respond and turned away from him slightly hugging her arms around herself, her shoulders hunched. Just the smallest of gestures, it was 100% an unconscious move on her part as though the barrier of her arms around her stomach would quell the nauseous feeling growing inside her, as though she could somehow physically protect herself from any other rude remark Emery felt like casting in her direction.
Nevertheless, he acquiesced to continuing their work on the potion and the arm brush still caused her to blush. Ava hated herself for that. Didn’t she have any self-respect or dignity left? She didn’t think so and so she silently squeezed out all the juice of the shrivelfigs and picked up her wooden stirring spoon and began to slowly stir the potion as required by the steps. “After I heat this you can add the daisy roots if they’re ready,” she said flatly, feeling rather stony.
She hadn’t been this at a loss for words in awhile. Arnold had been much easier to cheer up the night before, she thought as she silently stirred the potion. But she couldn’t be cheerful just then, everyone else was talking just fine but Emery didn’t really seem to be in the mood for conversation and Ava didn’t particularly blame him. Yet she had already done all she could, the rest had been out of her hands, there wasn’t much for her to do other than let Emery come round on his own.
10
Ava
So don't push me away.
0
Ava
0
5
Emery
November 30, 2015 7:22 PM
It doesn't matter anyway. by Emery
Emery knew that he had caused issues with Ava because of his attitude. He could tell it in her voice and her body language. It was obvious. There was a part of him that really wanted to turn to her and apologize for his behavior, but there was a bigger part of him that felt like he was entitled to his anger and to his own feelings of hurt. Of course, being Emery, knowing the selfishness of his feelings only made him feel guilty in the first place. It wasn’t Ava’s fault that Emery lost. She had even said that she had voted for him. But there were just too many Purebloods who didn’t like anyone else to have successes in this school and with the Headmaster being the leader of them, who knew whether or not the votes had been tampered with.And even with knowing that it was the Pureblood vote that bet him and not so much as Arnold, Emery still blamed the other Aladren for his lose. Arnold had everything already, including the money to get into college without worry of being a financial burden to his family. Why did he have to suddenly stick his nose into things and purposefully take away the only thing that Emery had worked so hard to achieve since he was eleven years old? This feeling that he had about his own friend was startling to him, but it was there and Emery could finally understand why it was the Chloe felt the way she did about Ji-Eun.
At her request, Emery made sure the daisy roots were as finely chopped as he could get them before dropping them into the cauldron and adding in the hairy caterpillars shortly after. He looked through his kit for the wormwood, but he couldn’t find any (granted, he wasn’t in the right mind to really think about his ingredients). “Do you have any wormwood?” Emery asked Ava, his voice held a hint of confusion in it as he searched his kit. He was getting frustrated that he couldn’t find his ingredient and in a small fit of frustration and anger, Emery shoved his kit away with an angry grunt.
This year was not going as he had wanted to it and it all started last night at the opening feast. Emery dropped his head into his hands and rested it there for a moment. After taking that moment and rubbing his face to try to easy the oncoming headache, Emery sat up with a sigh to focus back on the potion at hand. “I’m sorry for being rude to you.” Emery said, no longer having an edge in his voice, but sounding more like he had no purpose anymore. “But I spent so much of my time being there for you guys and it just seems like, when I needed someone, no one cared until it was convenient. It just… puts things in perspective.”
6
Emery
It doesn't matter anyway.
0
Emery
0
5
Ava
December 01, 2015 6:48 PM
So negative. by Ava
Ava blinked as Emery threw a fit over the missing wormwood in his kit and reached over to bring the offending box back to him before pulling some wormwood from hers. She measured out the appropriate amount of wormwood into a small, empty vial and began to shake it ‘well’ so that it could be added to the potion as Emery put his head into his hands. A moment later her pulled it up and apologized to her for his earlier behavior, his voice carrying a significant amount of defeat. Was it designed to get her to feel sorry for him? She wasn’t sure, but her heart panged just looking at how sad he was. Yet despite this, she couldn’t help but feel annoyed.“That doesn’t mean you have to snap at me,” Ava conceded, her voice sounding hurt but also concerned. She felt a little silly now thinking that his anger had been about anything other than the head boy badge and the situation that had evolved from that. However, she was also a little irritated now. How dare Emery think that they weren’t there for him too? There had been so much more than just him that night. Ava still remembered Arnold feeling bad about something he should have felt good about, she remembered Emrys’ girl drama aside that, she remembered seeing Chloe leave after a brief conversation with Ji-Eun and listening to Emery talk about how they didn’t care about him, it made her want to pinch her nose. It seemed like she was the only one in the group who wasn’t angsty about something and it made her want to scream. She couldn’t take the drama anymore. All she had wanted was a nice, cheerful last year with her friends. And now…now everything was ruined.
“I couldn’t help sitting next to Arnold. It’s not like I moved after I heard the news, I was already there,” she said, putting down the vial of wormwood. “I might l—but you know he’s my friend too,” she quickly amended, covering up the near slip she’d had in telling Emery she liked him. “And besides, you’re the one who looked away from me after the announcement,” she added in a rush, picking up the vial again and shaking it as she ranted. “What was I supposed to do? It seemed like you wanted to be left alone. And after that I had to cheer Arnold up because he was being all sulky which, you know, probably has to do with none of his friends voting for him because I have a feeling he knows we like you more” —well, perhaps not more, but the majority of them were closer to Emery than Arnold— “Then all of a sudden you were gone, and then Emrys gave me this look like ‘oh, don’t worry, I’ll handle it,’ and then he was gone and then he came back and said you were in bed already so really how was I supposed to come comfort you? It’s not like I could go up the stairs and climb into bed with you without some sort of consequence. Plus then Charlotte was gone and Emrys was mopey.”
“You boys really need to just get it together and stop being so melodramatic!” she wanted to say. “I wish that ridiculous badge had never existed in the first place or that there was some other overqualified person to have deserved it equally to have gotten the thing!” She hated that poisonous award that had infiltrated her special safety bubble. It was almost as if the Satori were back at Sonora stirring up feelings of resentment and mistrust amongst them—could Satoris do that too? She wasn’t sure… Ava also wanted to add the bit about worrying for Chloe and Ji-Eun but she didn’t know how much Chloe had told Emery about the situation and she didn’t want to betray her trust and so instead she said nothing. After all, Emrys had openly moped when he got back and they were no stranger to his mini-drama concerning the Crotalus girl and she thought that Emery ought to know that Arnold wasn’t the malicious sort. “The wormwood is ready,” she said as she added it into the potion. “You can stir it now, if you like.”
OOC: Mention of Charlotte leaving the table as discussed in an email with her author in which the author said Charlotte wouldn’t have waited that long for Emrys to come back even though she really likes him.
10
Ava
So negative.
0
Ava
0
5
Emery
December 06, 2015 7:02 PM
No, just reality. by Emery
Emery felt like laughing. Not a good laugh, but rather, one of those bitter – I can’t believe this is happening – sort of laughs. He had to defend himself for looking away? At the most humiliating moment of his entire life, he didn’t want the girl he had feelings for to see him feeling so low and that he is to be blamed for? That is the reason she didn’t bother leaving Arnold (was Emery supposed to feel bad about Arnold’s feelings?) to come talk to him? What sort of nonsense was that? Emery wasn’t allowed a moment to deal with his loss before having the expectation that his friends would come to him to make sure he was okay? But none of them came until they found it a convenient moment for them to do so. And what exactly did Arnold have to be mopey about anyway? He got the damn badge. He was set for life. It was Emery who had to figure his own stuff out now that he didn’t have that to help him.But the mention of Emrys being mopey did bring out a scoff in Emery. The two people who had everything they wanted were upset because of what exactly? “Sorry, but, I’m not going to feel bad for them. Arnold got what he wanted, he had no right to be upset. It didn’t really matter who voted for him, the badge was his whether he wanted it or not. And Emrys is always mopey about Charlotte. Why stop on a night where other people have bigger issues to deal with?” Emery stated. “And gee, Ava, so sorry that I didn’t want you to see me at the very moment of utter humiliation, so I didn’t keep eye contact with you. How utterly rude of me, I guess I’ll have to keep continuous eye contact just so you know that I’d like company.” Emery was angry again. She was making him out to be the bad person for expecting people to care enough about him to step outside of their happy bubble to spend a few minutes checking on him and then getting angry at him for being angry at them for not doing it?
“You know, you really don’t seem to understand how important this whole thing was for me.” Emery said. “Do you know how difficult it is to get into a decent University, especially one that has undergraduate programs for Veterinary school? You have to have top marks, plenty of extracurricular activities, and that something extra that stands out. On top of all that, it was going to help me get a scholarship because, unlike Emrys or Arnold, my family isn’t made of money.” Emery’s voice was low, but there was urgency to what he was saying. “They only have one income and most of what they have goes towards Angel’s medications, potions, and Healer visits. They have Ayita in college and me and Chloe going next year. I need that scholarship so that they don’t have to worry about paying for my education anymore. But that’s gone now because I’m not a God damn Pureblood Elite.”
He was packing up his kit and putting his notes in his bag while he was speaking. “I guess that really is the difference between you and me, isn’t it? Because I would have dropped anything and anyone to make sure you were okay.” He stated matter of factly, not caring if it made his feelings towards her more obvious. “I would do anything to make you happy. Stupid of me, right?” Emery stood up. “I’m going to work on this alone, you can have this one.”
OOC: Emery’s thought regarding the money status of Arnold and Emrys is only his opinion, I do not know if they are, in fact, rich.
6
Emery
No, just reality.
0
Emery
0
5
Ava
December 06, 2015 9:08 PM
Since when did reality become so negative? by Ava
Ava had never really seen Emery so bitter before in her entire time of being friends with him. He was wrong, so wrong about everything. She did care about all her friends equally (to a certain extent), that was true, but she would have done anything to make him happy, and that’s what she’d thought she’d done. She’d thought he’d wanted to be alone, she thought she’d expressed that to him twice already during the conversation. Didn’t he know how much it hurt to see him upset? Furthermore the way in which he spoke to her caused the tears to come back but she squeezed her eyes shut real tight because she really didn’t want to cry in class anymore than she was excited about making such a big scene in front of everyone on the very first day.As he stood up to leave, Ava reached her hand out, against her better judgment, tugging at his sleeve, urging him to take a seat beside her once more so that they could finish their conversation. “You can’t just leave class!” she exclaimed, incredulously, not wanting him to throw away his entire year because of a simple badge. The Emery she knew didn’t leave class before the assignment was done, he didn’t skip at all. And, because had spoke in an urgent whisper, she replied in kind, her annoyance gone and replaced with vague concern and exhaustion.
“Anyone who doesn’t want you is an idiot,” she said, trying to catch Emery’s eye. “So what if you don’t have the scholarship? I don’t have it either—I mean, I didn’t particularly want the badge, but my family doesn’t exactly have a lot of money either. My mom’s a Healer but spends most of the year doing volunteer work around the world, she rarely gets paid for it. My grandfather doesn’t work anymore but when he did, he was a fisherman. We’re living off a retirement pension and volunteer work so I know what it’s like to be struggling for money even if I don’t have a large family or lots of siblings like you.
“And trust me, I know exactly how hard it is to get into a decent university—I’m applying to Healer school, remember?” she asked, her eyes bright with tears. “I spent all of last year studying for the SATs to please my grandfather even though I don’t want to go to Muggle university. And—anyway, this is all besides the point. There will be other scholarships, other opportunities. Just because some school has their nose shoved so far up the pureblood asses doesn’t mean you’re worthless. You put down all of that feeling into your entrance essay, you’re in, you’re diverse. Schools like that. And, and—you, you’re well, you’re pretty much perfect the way you are. You’re an idiot if you don’t see that, they’re idiots for not seeing that. Please…please don’t be mad.”
She hated herself. She was practically begging him not to leave her, she hadn’t even told him that she liked him and already she didn’t know how to handle his being mad at her. Emery hadn’t been like this in all their years of friendship. It all came back to that badge. In the end, it was still that badge. And then the potion overboiled, because she hadn’t been paying it enough attention, just like their friendship. “Of course,” she said with a sigh, throwing up her hands and feeling completely defeated now. She’d known that their friend group was just too good to be true, the overboiled potion was like a stupid visual representation of how south all the friendships were heading. “Evanesco,” she cast, clearing the cauldron of the now useless potion and she turned back to her potions kit, going to take out two more shrivel figs but finding that some how she only had one left. Where had the others gone? It was only the first class of the year! Perhaps she hadn’t fully or properly stocked her kit?
10
Ava
Since when did reality become so negative?
0
Ava
0
5
Emery
December 07, 2015 7:55 PM
When people voted for blood and not merits. by Emery
Emery halted in his spot at Ava’s declaration. She had said it rather loudly and Emery hoped that no one was paying them any attention over their own potions. His green eyes glanced around quickly but he didn’t see anyone really looking in their general direction. Even so, he felt his ears heating up from embarrassment at the idea that they had been loud enough to draw anyone’s attention. There were certain people in this class whom Emery did not want knowing about how he was feeling over the loss of the badge.Her reaction was a little more than he felt necessary. He was only planning to move to an empty table and start a potion from scratch, not actually leave the class altogether. Emery wanted to graduate with all the necessary requirements in order get into a college. He might not have the badge, but he still planned on going to college, even if it meant that he would have to go part time and work a full time job just to pay for the bills.
To prevent any suspicions from Professor Carter, Emery sank back into his seat while Ava explained how she understood where he was coming from. Emery knew Ava’s history and her family life, but he never really considered her to be one of the struggling. Of course, thinking back on it, he probably should have. He knew her mother was a travel Healer in third world countries, so making money that was minimal. His mother had been a traveling Magizoologist who was part of a small research group that traveled around studying remote creatures. She said the pay had been nonexistent, but they didn’t do that work for the money. He should have realized that Ava would be in the same predicament that he would be, come the end of the year.
Her compliments were making him feel uncomfortable. These feelings weren’t terrible ones, he was flattered and embarrassed, but they were all around pleasant feelings. He just didn’t want to feel them right at that moment and he didn’t know how to respond to Ava telling him that he was prefect. His mom told it to him all the time, but she was his mom and he hardly took her to her actual word. But Ava… that had a completely different feel to it, especially because of his feelings for her.
He watched her while she took care of the ruined potion. He felt a little guilty about it since he was what caused her to lose her focus. Emery took pity on her and pulled his kit from his bag. “Here.” He said, giving her his shrivel figs. He smiled, the first one he had had since the start of the feast the night before. “Are you okay?” He asked. She had seemed rather upset when she ranted at him, he wanted to make sure she was okay.
6
Emery
When people voted for blood and not merits.
0
Emery
0
5