Professor Bastian Reiner
January 21, 2005 8:23 PM
Lesson One (with me): Solido Urna by Professor Bastian Reiner
Ah.So it seemed his eager first years, albeit halfway through term first years, were capable of entering the classroom in some semblance of order. Good. It would make life easier, even more so when they had learned to do so with complete composure. He really wasn't interested in seeing hand reenactments of the lastest pro Quodpot match.
Sitting at the desk facing the desks the students were now weaving in and out of in order to find their seats, Bastian Reiner only spent a moment or two lifting his eyes, not his head, to watch their progression, before returning to his notes. The text which sat open before him was worn to the point of disintegration, but were it not for its being in the possession of a wizard, it would have met its demise decades past. Having one last note to scrawl before he risked forgetting it by starting class, Bastian adjusted his wire rim glasses and put the final period down with a distinct thunk, his ears noting the pleasant silence overtaking the class as it was quickly followed by the even more distinct thud of the text being closed.
Carefully setting his quill to rest just to the right of his inkwell, nib away from him, as he stood, Bastian finally lifted his eyes to take in those of his students, taking just long enough with each to make sure they had no doubt he was indeed meeting their gaze. Even as he do so, his hands shifted the book and parchment to sit perfectly on the desk's surface.
"I am Professor Reiner," he finally broke the silence, his voice even, confident, and leaving no mistake as to how seriously he took... well... everything. "And this is Transfiguration." He slowly stepped back from the desk, making his way over to stand in front of it, only the light fall of his heels punctuating his steps. "Here, a missed movement, a slurred anunciation, can mean the difference between success," he slowly crossed his arms over his tan tweed waistcoated chest, "and a nightmarish garble of what once was."
Coming to rest, leaning against the front of his desk, Bastian's open cut sleeves of his brown wool robes pooled slightly beside him. "Therefore, there will be no horseplay in this class, you will, however, conduct yourselves approproately at all times." Eyeing a few who looked to be potential troublemakers, he added, "And if the term is unfamiliar with you, I assure you I have ways of teaching you exactly what it means."
Pleased with the introductions, purposely lacking any salutations as they tended to lower the tone of the class, he suddenly stood to his full height, pointing to the chalk board behind him with the wand he had slipped out of his sleeve. "Today we will begin with inanimate to inanimate tranfiguration. Until I feel you have successfully mastered such a simple level of change, we will not go on to animate and risk endangering any lives outside of your own."
AS the chalk began to draw a diagram of the phases of change they would be covering that day, he pulled a fresh piece of parchment from his desk. "Solido Urna. A rather handy spell at times, and relatively simple. I say relatively because even the simplest spells can go wrong. So, the basics...
Solido Urna... turning a sheet of parchment into an inkwell. Due to the close relationship between paper and ink, the movement is simple, a single tap in the center of the paper, like so," he demonstrated the movement, "afterwards, with the tip still pointing at the center, a clear Solido Urna," at which the paper first began to fold up at the sides, slightly twisting as it began to resemble an inkwell similiar to the pewter one already on his desk, the paper darkening until it appeared to be bronze. "The tricky part in this is the aim. It is common to forget to be precise in it, but even the slightest lean on way or another can greatly affect the change. As can your intonation, anunciation, and of course..." he grinned slightly and eyed a student closest to him, "conviction."
"So," he suddenly said loudly, causing a few to jump in their seats, "considering all we'll have to overcome, there is no time to waste. Get out a sheet of parchment and begin."
OOC: Hello! I (the author) am much nicer than Bastian. Even I approach him much like one would a pitbull. Anyways, points. Here's how I like to award.
IC points: Impress Bastian and he may award a few. That in itself is a feat. Course, he also has a tendency to take them away too.
OOC points: Get detailed people! Posts less than three paragraphs, three complete sentences each won't get points. The longer, more detailed, and descriptive, the more points. Keep the thread going, and I'll give more. No one likes a thread that dies after two replies. *L*
Also... the more creative, the better! I always leave room for mishaps and whatnot. Rarely does anyone get it perfect the first time, so please, show me how you deal with it, Okay? Make me laugh myself to tears and I guarantee points!!!
Any questions, just ask.
BTW, for my 'office', post here and put [office] in the subject.
*toodles*\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Subthreads: That's like that origami thing, dude!! by Stephen Baxter with Jenna F, Stephen, Professor Reiner
That didn by Mia with Professor Reiner
Transfiguration by Elizabeth with Professor Reiner
no troublemakers here... or not by Jenna H with Professor Reiner, Jake Santoro (Teppenpaw)
Solido Urna, got it. by Tally (Teppenpaw) with Professor Reiner, Tally
An inkwell of sorts... by Chrissy Mathers (Crotalus)
We think not, Jenna... by Sorrel and Ash Craven (Pecari, both) with Professor Reiner, Ash and Sorrel, Stephen
I think I smell something burning by Zack Dill (Alderaan, er, Aladren) with Professor Reiner
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Professor Bastian Reiner
Lesson One (with me): Solido Urna
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Professor Bastian Reiner
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Zack Dill (Alderaan, er, Aladren)
February 03, 2005 1:33 PM
I think I smell something burning by Zack Dill (Alderaan, er, Aladren)
As he had now spent half a year at Sonora, Zack was ready to admit that magic existed. He hadn't seen a whole lot of proof that he could do magic, but he was now willing to face the possibility that his Magic: The Gathering cards weren't the start and finish of his spell casting career. He had gotten a some water to drip from his wand, after all.So it was with less distrust that he pulled out his ridiculously expensive wand (73 freakin' dollars for a piece of wood) and put it on the desk beside his notebook. His normal ballpoint pen (which as far as he could tell worked far better than those irritating quills some people around here affected) waited impatiently in his right hand, tapping the notebook because Zack found it amusing to bounce it off the metal spiral of the binding.
Once the lesson started, though, he set point to paper diligently. However, unlike a normal student (or even a magical student), the letters written out on his page did not spell out any words remotely like those the teacher was saying. In fact, the notes weren't even in English. Or french, or spanish, or russian, or latin.
They were in a very unique cross between Tolkien's Elvish Star Trek's Klingon, and some words Zack had made up himself to fill in the blanks of his vocabulary from the other two languages. To his knowledge, neither the elves nor Klingons had ever had to coin a word for things like 'inkwell'. (Well, the eleves might have, but he couldn't think of it.) He made a note of the new words on the inside back cover of his notebook.
Though it was unlikely that anyone in the room besides him could read it, his notes were on-topic, precise, logical, and well-organized. Seated in the front row as he was, even if it was off to the far left, he risked the teacher looking down at his notes, so he was careful to keep them very neat.
After the lecture concluded, Zack put aside his pen and notebook (though the notebook was kept close enough for easy reference) and pulled out a piece of looseleaf from his bookbag. This he placed in front of him and picked up his wand.
He placed the tip of the wand in the middle of the college-ruled page, and screwed up his conviction (he figured that must be what was lacking in his spells so far since he didn't think his midwestern accent was messing up his ennunciation that badly).
"Solido Urna," he said, trying to believe that it would actually work this time. Because, really, paper turned into inkwells all the time, right? It was totally normal for something to turn into something else. Just like it was normal for there to be maze-like garden growing in the middle of the desert.
Some days, Zack really missed Detroit.
He wasn't really all that shocked when nothing happened. He pulled his wand away, then replaced it once more, trying again, "Solido Urna!"
And this time . . . this time something happened. But it definitely wasn't what was supposed to happen. At least, as far he knew, there weren't any inkwells that curled up into smouldering balls of smoking paper. He didn't think that was normal inkwell behavior even here.
He could hear a couple instances of 'Aquor' being cast behind him, however, so he might be wrong on that.\n\n
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Zack Dill (Alderaan, er, Aladren)
I think I smell something burning
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Zack Dill (Alderaan, er, Aladren)
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Professor Reiner
February 05, 2005 4:34 PM
Smokey the Prof by Professor Reiner
He had stood only a few feet away, watching as the boy pulled out... oh dear, notebook paper. Of all the ruddy things!Quickly he closed the little distance between them and just in time to see the abomination start to smolder. "Efflo!" he said, pointing his ebony wand at the smoking lump, the smoldering flame being snuffed out as quickly as he spoke the word.
"Mister Dill, most transfiguration spells are very specific to magical items, and cannot be substituted with purely muggle ones. Using that sheet of notebook paper, you were quite lucky not to go up in flames instead of the embers." Though his voice was only slightly laced with an edge, his message was still clear. It was a mistake the boy couldn't afford to make again.
Looking down at his notes, Bastian grinned despite himself. The boy was thourgh that was for certain, probably more so than any other, even if he only recognized one third of the scrawl on the paper. "One of the greatest works of wizarding history, and one of the few that managed to make it into muggle knowledge. Tell me, Mister Dill, are you as fluent in the high elven Quenya, or only the grey elven Sindarin?"
With an eyebrow raised in amusement, he awaited the boy's response. And judging by the look on his face, perhaps he didn't know Tolkien was one of them?\n\n
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Professor Reiner
Smokey the Prof
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Professor Reiner
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Zack Dill
February 07, 2005 1:15 PM
I . . . what? by Zack Dill
Zack looked up at the teacher in surprise as he was told that 'most transfiguration spells are very specific to *magical* items'. Well, why hadn't he said so before now? How was he supposed to know that there were more fundamental differences between looseleaf and parchment than the fact that one of them had lines on it? How could he know bleach and ink would make that much of a difference?Still, he was smart enough not to point out that he thought the shortcoming was in Reiner's lecture. He tried not to get professors angry with him.
As the man looked over at his open notebook, however, Zack resigned himself to a few minutes of translation, just to prove he was taking proper notes. His social studies teach last year had made him read two weeks worth before he believed that the notes were what Zack said they were.
"One of the greatest works of wizarding history, and one of the few that managed to make it into muggle knowledge. Tell me, Mister Dill, are you as fluent in the high elven Quenya, or only the grey elven Sindarin?"
Zack opened his mouth to start reading, but then his brain caught up to what had actually been said. Wait. What? Tolkien's histories of middle earth were real? He tried to open his mouth again, but found it already was, so he closed it and opened it again.
"I, yes, some, but," real eloquent, Zack, he mocked himself, you're fluent in English and no less than five fictional (or perhaps not so fictional) languages, but you can't string two consecutive words together. "Written anyway," he tried again, "and I don't know how great my grammar is, but yeah. I could probably pass for a two or three year old."
He looked down at his notes, the back up at the teacher. "It just didn't seem right to mix Quenya with Klingon." \n\n
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Zack Dill
I . . . what?
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Zack Dill
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Professor Reiner
February 07, 2005 4:06 PM
Well spoken.... kind of by Professor Reiner
"Klingon?" Bastian said, a look of complete confusion on his face before it quickly faded into one of understanding. "Ah...so that other garble has a name?" he laughed. "No, I suppose mixing Quenya with that would be sacralige.""As far as the grammar, from the parts I can understand, considering one has to make judgement calls on translating the Klingon, that you've actually got a rather good grasp of it, that is, at least the Sindarin components. The Klingon I have no experience with so for all I know, that may be the part that is lacking."
Looking over the notes once again, he coudln't help but start examining the 'Klingon' as the boy called it. It was a harsh tongue, that much was clear, though not as throaty as German. Interesting, really. Wonder where the boy picked it up from? He himself, had read about most of the wizarding languages, dead or not. He couldn't recall seeing Klingon before. No matter, he told himself, forcing his attention back on class.
"Go on and try again," he instructed, his eyes still scrutinizing the odd language.\n\n
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Professor Reiner
Well spoken.... kind of
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Professor Reiner
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Zack Dill
February 08, 2005 3:23 PM
requesting verification by Zack Dill
He smiled to himself in self-satisfaction as he turned away from the professor to rummage through his bag. It was good to know that he'd taught himself Sindarin with the same success that he'd taught himself physics and chemistry, even though Tolkien didn't come with 'Test Yourself' appendices to confirm you actually did understand what you thought you understood.He didn't really have a lot in the way of actual parchment, as he kept most of the blank stuff in his room, but he managed to find a rumpled sheet of it crushed down on the bottom of his bag. It had a early draft of one of his potions homework assignments written on it. Hopefully that wouldn't affect the transfiguration as much as the blue lines on the looseleaf. He'd used quill and bottled ink to write it, so it wasn't like there was any non-magical 'contamination'.
But, just in case, he looked up at the teacher and asked for verification, "Is it alright to use paper with writing on it? Or is the spell specific to blank pages?" It never hurt to check, and some teachers gave brownie points for it. After his first disasterous attempt today, he figured he couldn't be too careful.
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Zack Dill
requesting verification
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Zack Dill
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