Professor Lilac Crosby
August 05, 2011 12:00 AM
Solid as a rock [First and second years!] by Professor Lilac Crosby
“Grab something from the bin,” instructed the professor as the trail of her youngest students streamed through her doorway. A yellow plastic bin sat to the left of the door, containing small knickknacks, silverware, plush animals, and the like, all things under the size of about eight inches. “Quickly, please, let’s not waste time.” In all honesty the lesson was probably easy enough that they had time to waste, but Lilac did not want to spend idle time today. Her lessons had been that way for a while now.“Take your seats now,” she urged. Once everyone was seated--which, to her delight--didn’t take too terribly long, her grey eyes scanned across their faces as she began. “All right. Anyone not get a thing? No? Great.” She forced a smile. “Then we can officially get started.”
Producing a bottle of green nail polish from her pocket, Lilac glanced at the students. “This bottle is similar to the objects you all now possess. Small, simple, et cetera. It exhibits one trait that will change shortly.” She released her grip and let the bottle slip through her grasps, crashing into the floor and shattering, small bits of glass and the colored liquid resting on the ground. “It’s extremely fragile.”
Instead of cleaning it up--which she would do later--the brunette stepped around it, closer to the class, and revealed another bottle, this one the same shade of yellow as her nails. Wand aimed at the bottle, she incanted, “Duro.” The bottle in its entirety turned grey, and when she dropped it, it did not shatter. An edge chipped off, but it was mostly intact.
She bent down and picked it up, holding it up for the class to see. “Today’s spell, Duro, turns the object to stone. While at a larger scale the spell can be difficult, at the level we are, it should be simple enough to accomplish by a second or third attempt maximum.” Lilac tucked a stray curl behind her ear and tugged her the lacey end of the long sleeve attached to her ankle-length black dress. She had not felt like straightening her hair, but she had managed to brush it out a little better than it was naturally.
“Some of you may be thinking now, ‘But Professor, this sounds like more of a Charm.’ You’d be wrong,” she added on the end. “It is transfiguring the object before you to a stone. Sometimes the line between the two are rather thin.” The Russian glanced around at the class, just to make sure no one was asleep or too visibly confused.
“So! Feel free to get started, partner up, et cetera. Stuff we usually do.” With a final smile, Lilac said, “I’ll be, you know, around. Come get me if you need anything.” With that, she Summoned an eraser off of her desk, nonverbally transfigured it to a soapy sponge, knelt down, and scrubbed the green nail polish off of the floor by hand. It didn’t feel pleasant on her elbow, but it kept her busy.
OOC: Standard rules, lots of words, yadda yadda yadda. Tag if needed, IC feel free to either call Lilac’s name or go tap her on the shoulder. Have fun!
Subthreads: Do I look like Medusa? by Michael Grosvenor with Russell Layne, Aladren
Soft on the outside, hard on the inside by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren with Jessica Applerose - Teppenpaw, Kitty
CLASS CLOSED (nm) by Professor C.
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Professor Lilac Crosby
Solid as a rock [First and second years!]
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Professor Lilac Crosby
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Michael Grosvenor
August 05, 2011 12:47 PM
Do I look like Medusa? by Michael Grosvenor
Other students might have fidgeted with the bouncy ball, had they been the one to pick it out of the box. However, Michael knew how irritating other people’s fiddling could be and besides that, he was really far too busy concentrating to think of doing anything other than holding it firmly in his hand. He double checked the spell in his book before beginning. It was a habit he’d got into, if the Professor didn’t write it on the board, as mishearing the spell even slightly could have dramatic consequences. He flicked back a couple of pages, to see whether it gave any additional advice, as he felt just pointing his wand and hoping wasn’t a good tactic, and he didn’t really understand how or why this was supposed to work.’Elemental transfiguration is the oldest branch of the magic as it deals with natural materials, such as wood and stone. It was also essential for wizarding kind to master this kind of magic before they dared branch out into attempts at transfiguring living things. This means that such transfigurations are ideally suited to beginners. Transfigurations between natural materials are easiest, and objects should ideally be composed of just one material,’ Michael glanced at the small rubber ball in his hand, thinking initially that one out of two wasn’t bad, until he remembered that rubber came from trees. So, this should be pretty simple. He wasn’t sure whether that was encouraging or would just make failing feel worse. The rest of the notes seemed to talk about drawing comparisons and visualising change.
”Duro,” he cast, trying to visualise a small round rock. Looking back at the ball on his desk, it had turned from a lurid green to a natural, darker shade, though certainly not the colour of any rock he’d seen. Brushing his fingertips over it, it felt rough, like stone. Picking it up, he dropped it from a small height onto his desk. It bounced. Michael blinked in surprise.
“Strange…” he pondered, more to himself than anyone else. So, something could outwardly possess the features of the target but retain some of the properties of the starting object. He ran his fingers over the ball again to check he hadn’t been imagining the stony feeling. He couldn’t begin to get his head around how that could be possible, and he expected the official theoretical explanation would only make his head hurt more. He was just going to go with ’it’s magic.’
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Michael Grosvenor
Do I look like Medusa?
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Michael Grosvenor
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Russell Layne, Aladren
August 10, 2011 6:53 PM
Not my idea of her, no. by Russell Layne, Aladren
Russell didn’t dive at the bin for an object, figuring that too much hurry would make things less efficient instead of more in the class with everyone in first and second year going for the same object, but neither did he dawdle once an opening cleared up near the bin. He hoped it didn’t matter what sort of thing they were working with, because he ended up with a silver fork – or at least a silvery one; he couldn’t tell one shiny grayish metal from another reliably, which was something he supposed he would have to rectify before he grew up; though there was a spell to do it, Dad claimed he could almost always get it right by eye now – just reaching in and taking something with no more attention than was needed to make sure he didn’t cut himself on something. In the professor’s current mood, he hadn’t figured she’d be pleased with someone needed to excuse himself to the hospital wing for healing.He jumped when she dropped the bottle of nail polish, sending bits of glass here and there, not to mention the nail polish itself. His shoes were far enough away, though, not to be affected, which was good, since he was still getting the hang of the scouring charm. It was interesting to him, how some spells came more easily than others, but speculation about magic took a back seat when he was at school and therefore didn’t have many pairs of shoes to mess up. Plus, he really was partial to this particular pair of shoes.
The fork was slim, so he was guessing that would make it easier. At least, he hoped that would make it easier. Maybe believing it was going to make it easier would make it easier. He still didn’t know quite enough theory of transfiguration – or, more likely, not nearly enough theory of transfiguration – to be sure about that kind of thing.
Anyway. Nothing to do but try it. He took out his wand and said, “Duro.”
The fork shivered on the desk in front of him, then lost some of its sheen. He rapped it with his fingernails, and the sound wasn’t quite like metal. Not stone yet, but not metal yet. He wondered what it actually was. He didn’t think, routinely, of there being a state somewhere between metal and stone. They were, he had thought, just separate categories and that was all.
“Strange…” the boy in the next seat, a first year Teppenpaw with longer hair than his, said, looking at the ball he had.
“It’s not doing what you expected?” Russell asked. He wasn’t sure what help he could offer if it was needed, since second year wasn’t as impressive now that he was in it as it had been when he was a first year who felt not very different than he did now, but was prepared, in his position as the older and theoretically wiser second year, to do what he could.
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Russell Layne, Aladren
Not my idea of her, no.
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Russell Layne, Aladren
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Michael
August 15, 2011 12:12 PM
Good to know I don't look monstrous or like a woman by Michael
Michael had really just been talking to himself. He hadn’t even really identified that the boy next to him had spoken, as it had just been part of the general noise that he’d been trying to ignore. But as he glanced up from his work, he found the other boy staring at him in a way that suggested Michael was supposed to reply. As had happened so often this term, he found himself trying to perform a forensic analysis of the situation at high enough speed to reply. He thought back over what he’d said… He had said this was strange, so maybe the boy was asking what. Or he could have been asking for or offering help. As the boy was a second year Aladren, the latter was more likely. Or he could have just been introducing himself in order to strike up a conversation. Well, talking about his work would cover the possibility that he’d been offered help or asked what was strange, and he could throw an introduction in without seeming too odd. Hopefully that would cover enough possibilities that he’d hit the right one.“Oh, hi. I’m Michael,” he smiled. “And look…” he picked up the ball, “It looks kind of like what we’re going for, but,” he bounced it, “still has the properties of what it was.” Hopefully that had covered all bases. And seeming slightly surprised might make it make sense that he’d introduced himself first, if the other boy hadn’t asked, and he’d talked about his work in such a way that, if he was introducing a new topic, it seemed perfectly natural.
He tried to keep an eye on Russel’s face to lipread his response but without looking like he was staring.
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Michael
Good to know I don't look monstrous or like a woman
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Michael
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