Professor Skies
January 18, 2013 11:55 AM
Intermediate Transfiguration - a sticky situation by Professor Skies
Selina was pleased to be back for a second year of teaching. Teaching in a proper school was much more preferable, in her mind, than taking on individual tutees, many of whom were spoilt little brats. Plus you saw more change in a school. Her first year of RATS students had graduated, a new set of first years had moved in and in this, the intermediate class, the familiar faces had grown a little older, some beginners had moved up and some older students moved on. It was nice to watch them all progressing.“Good morning, class,” she called, bringing them to order once the bulk of the class seemed to have arrived. “Welcome or welcome back to Intermediate Transfiguration. For those who were here last year, some of this may sound familiar but I hope you don't begrudge your new classmates the overview.
“This is the block of your studies where you will work on animate transfiguration, that is those involving living things. Many people find this a daunting prospect. Mistakes happen but accidents rarely do, in that the creatures with which you are working are not often caused pain and are almost never permanently harmed by your actions. Imagine you are Transfiguring something into a stick insect, as we will be doing today,” she had deliberately chosen this not only as a relatively easy task but also because people got a lot less sentimental about insects than mammals and thus it might ease them into the idea of working on living things, “You must imagine that a hypothetical, fully formed stick insect exists elsewhere. When you transfigure, you are bringing forth elements of that creature but they still remain connected to the original whole. This is why part transfigured animals do not bleed to death or immediately go into shock. I am happy to discuss the theory further with anyone who is interested, or to address any ethical concerns that may remain.
“Now, to today's class,” she stated crisply, in order to bring back any of the older years who had let their attention wander during that familiar part of the lecture, “In my classes, there will always be a fifth year assignment and a third year assignment. Fourth years will usually be welcome to choose between them depending on their comfort level, although there may be times when I encourage you to move on, or set you a different task. That is not to say that third years may not attempt to explore the more advanced material. If you successfully complete your own assignment, you may begin to work on the harder task for the day. Or, if they will have you, observe and ask questions of those in the older years working on it.” The end of term feedback forms she had given to students last year had suggested that some of them were frustrated by having their class content capped, and thus – although she still firmly believed in differentiating the curriculum for the different years – she had decided not to impose such limitations this year.
“Today, the third and forth year task will be transfiguring sticks into stick insects. As the box comes around for you to choose a stick, consider how this choice will make your task easier or harder and choose accordingly,” there were more sticks than people, and so hopefully even those who received the box last would have a choice. “The forth and fifth year task,” (she had thought long and hard about how to label these tasks and although this name did not reflect her invitation that third years were welcome to try it, she had felt 'stage 1 and stage 2' or 'beginner and advanced' were both demeaning to those not doing the harder task, especially those forth years who wished to break themselves in gently, which was a perfectly valid approach), “is to transfigure a pot plant into a stick insect. There is some debate in Tranfiguration over whether living to living is harder or easier than non-living to living. Some hold that working with two complex organisms increases the work load, whilst others site the shared feature of animacy as reducing it. The middle path suggests the similarity of the life forms in question is what determines which of these is true and thus varies for any given pair. I am of the opinion that it makes it harder, in this case, although even if I am wrong, the pot plants are less physically similar to stick insects than the sticks, so should still give you an adequate challenge.
“The homework task for all of you will be to summarise that debate and the evidence for it, along with exploring any other features which determine the difficulty level of animate transfiguration,” she explained. Behind her, the chalk scribbled the details on the board, including a brief summary of the debate in question, for any third years who had stopped paying attention whilst she discussed the other task.
“The incantation for today is insecare, with the emphasis on the second syllable. You will need to use a short wand flick which runs parallel to your stick – for those using plants, obviously this will be vertical,” she explained, moving her wand up and down through the air, starting at her shoulder and dropping, “Those using sticks, I suggest using a horizontal movement,” she flicked left to right, “although if you find it easier to do it vertically – the other kind of vertically,” she added, to indicate that she meant away from their body, rather than balancing the stick on end, “then that should work just as well. It's whichever is most comfortable and natural for you, so have a play around first. Your desks are charmed to prevent the insects escaping should you be successful. Off you go,” she smiled, assuming that they knew to call on her or their neighbours if they needed help.
OOC – usual rules apply. Minimum 10 sentences, 200 words. Selina would stop any accidents before they get out of hand. Tag her in the subject line if you need her.
Subthreads: Sticky situation? You can say that again by Clara Abernathy with Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren
I think I'll call him Stumpy by Liam Ammon, Pecari with Aria Yale, Teppenpaw, Professor Skies
Less sticky than sickly. by Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus with Alicia Bauer, Aladren, Cepheus
I've seen worse. by Jorge Garcia, Pecari with Angel Jareau - Teppenpaw, Jorge
Stick into... whatever. by Michael Grosvenor with Eris Ackart
Stickier than syrup, I'd say. by Mellie Goodwin, Pecari with Gareth Whitebriar - Crotalus
It sure is. by Valerie Lennox, Crotalus with Brianna Japos, Crotalus
Not faring so badly by Henny B-F-R, Aladren with Melanie Lennox, Teppenpaw
Potentially my last Transfig class thread by Sully Quincy, Pecari with Professor Skies, Sully
Getting in just under the bell by Thaddeus Pierce, Aladren
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Professor Skies
Intermediate Transfiguration - a sticky situation
26
Professor Skies
1
5
Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus
January 19, 2013 11:25 AM
Less sticky than sickly. by Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus
The initial dread of coming back to study had worn off a bit as Cepheus walked into class. The thought of being in the same proximity as Theresa once more made his heart jump into his throat, but he tried not to think too much about it. He didn't want to look for her either, but his blue eyes scanned the room in search of her anyway. Almost blindly, he sat down at a desk and ruffled through his bag. He had one more year till his C.A.T.S., but he didn't think it was worth worrying about quite yet.A few Transfiguration lessons last year had dealt with live creatures and Cepheus had been sickened by it. It wasn't that he was a squeamish lad, but turning an animal into an inanimate object had set his teeth on edge. He certainly didn't want to do anything like that every again, though today it seemed like they were going to, only this time change a stick into a living creature.
Cepheus felt a bit like God in this class sometimes with the things they did. Instead of manipulating objects or people like in Charms class, Transfiguration consisted of changing one thing to another. Cepheus didn't know the complete properties of it as he preferred practical to theoretical, but he was sure there were complicated theories about the reasoning behind it. Magic was certainly a gift that he would never be able to completely understand.
He groaned when Professor Skies assigned a debate-based essay. He loathed those and had barely made it through the last term in this class with those sorts of essays. It was only because he had Aladren mates that he'd been able to survive and pull his way through. Now with no real Quidditch matches, Ceph would have more time to study and work. He'd have no real excuse this time unless he decided to join one of those blooming clubs.
At least the essay wasn't till he had time for it. The fun part came first. Ceph looked at the stick he had on his desk and decided to give it a go. "Insecare," he said with a horizontal flick, and watched as the stick grew legs. There were only three legs, however, and Cepheus knew he wasn't finished yet. It really did make him uncomfortable performing magic on helpless creatures even if they were only insects. "Insecare," he said again, emphasising the last syllable more and flicking his wand horizontally once more. It seemed to work well enough, and his insect grew another three legs, making the total six.
"That's right, isn't it?" he asked his desk-mate. "Stick insects have six legs?" He stared down at his flailing stick and muttered, "Too many bloody legs, if you ask me," loud enough for his partner to hear.
0
Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus
Less sticky than sickly.
0
Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus
0
5
Alicia Bauer, Aladren
January 20, 2013 12:11 PM
Poor darling. by Alicia Bauer, Aladren
Professor Skies was not quite a sentence into her beginning of the year speech when she revealed it was aimed primarily at the third years, but since Alicia had already been sitting up very straight and looking very attentive, she maintained the posture as the basics of Intermediate Transfiguration were gone over again, figuring that seeming to consider it important when staff members said anything could not hurt her and might even help her. This year, she was assuming that her every move would be subjected to a high degree of scrutiny as the staff engaged in whatever combination of conversations and backroom deals that resulted in six names being called at the next Opening Feast, so she had to think almost every moment about making an impression.Besides, for all she knew, the professor might slip something in there which was important just to see if they were paying attention (which was what, if there had been much of a chance of her ending up there to begin with, she would have done in her position) and Alicia would have hated to be the one who didn’t notice even if nothing had been at stake.
The discussion of animate transfigurations, both ethical and theoretical, was familiar, especially after the huge research paper she had poured her figurative blood and sweat and a good handful of actual tears into last year, but she did find out what they were going to be working with today a little earlier than she would have if she had let her attention wander. Her eyes flicked briefly directly onto Professor Skies’ face, really focusing on it instead of just looking in that direction, as she talked about the leveling of assignments and the new freedom to move on if they wished – nice for the third years, but she was sort of glad, in retrospect, she had done things the way she had last year; she felt she had gotten a lot further experimenting on her own than she would have dared in front of a teacher, plus now she would just look insanely talented when she tackled fifth year assignments without the usual beginners’ errors – but then her expression went back to brightly anticipatory for the rest of the opening address.
She copied the homework down carefully, trying not to estimate right now how much time she was going to have to put into it, and when the time for selections came, took one of the potted plants. Complete conquest or nothing.
“Insecare,” she incanted, her pronunciation precise and her walnut wand making a quick downward gesture, though it felt slightly awkward; she would have preferred to start with her wand at the bottom and then flick the tip upward, but she had copied the professor’s gesture. Later, she could play around and see if it worked as well the other way, since it had been suggested that the movement had a hint of wriggle room in it when Professor Skies had talked to the third years, but right now, she needed to do what was sure to work. She watched in delight as her potted plant, helped along by the practice Transfigurations she’d squeezed into the small amount of time since she’d returned, began to shrink toward the desk and stretch itself long at the same time, sprouting the beginnings of a few oddly-placed legs and taking on a brownish tinge at one end.
Not perfect, but not bad for a first attempt, either. It was on its way to what she wanted it to be. Her eyes were bright and her face almost glowing with satisfaction as she turned toward Cepheus, who seemed to be more conflicted about the state of his stick insect.
“I think six is pretty normal for insects, yeah,” she said, thinking back to things she had learned one place or another over the years. “I’m pretty sure only spiders have eight. That's when I'd have to agree that you gave it too many.” She repeated her incantation and got an organic thing which resembled an insect more than a plant, but which was still made of plant. Her expression as she looked the object over was merely one of mild professional interest before she turned back toward her friend. "It's thing like this that make me love Transfiguration. Nothing says 'welcome back from your summer vacation' like the question of how many legs a specific bug has," she joked. "How was your summer vacation, by the way? Did everything in it have the right number of legs?"
16
Alicia Bauer, Aladren
Poor darling.
210
Alicia Bauer, Aladren
0
5
Cepheus
January 21, 2013 4:48 PM
Make it go away. by Cepheus
It figured that Alicia would be working on transfiguring a more difficult object. He adored her, really, but he just couldn't always understand the incentive to doing more work than necessary in class. If he was doing something he enjoyed, he would certainly put more effort into it, but if he could get by and still pass the class, he'd do it. Besides, Transfiguration was one of those classes he didn't take as seriously as others. The only reason he hadn't dropped it as a fourth year was because his family expected him to continue taking all of these classes until he graduated. He couldn't be the patriarch and be uneducated in particular subjects.Cepheus acknowledged her attempt with a nod. She was brilliant at magic, he had to admit, and he believed it was because she put so much effort into it. Perhaps if Cepheus was more inclined to trying harder, he would become just as good. He couldn't remember why he had ever wanted to before, but the initial excitement at performing magic had dulled slightly. He loved it, of course, but it was a part of his every-day life; nothing all that special anymore.
He chuckled at Alicia's joke as he poked his stick with legs with his wand. "I'll have to get back to you on the legs, but everything else was good," he said with a smirk. He shrugged. "Nothing special, really. Went to London to visit my cousin, Adam. His mum, my aunt, wanted me to go and tell him all that he'd need to know before coming to Sonora. I think he's in Pecari now with my brother. I didn't have to go to France this summer. I was really chuffed with that."
Cepheus decided to make a last attempt before returning the question. "Insecare," he said, waving his wand once more, and then the stick stood on its legs and grew antennas. He smiled as the insect wobbled around. "Brilliant. And a bit nasty." He decided he didn't like insects of any sort; unfortunate since he lived in the country. "How about you? How was your summer?"
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Cepheus
Make it go away.
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Cepheus
0
5
Alicia
January 21, 2013 8:22 PM
*Vanishes the bug*. by Alicia
“Well, that’s good,” Alicia said when Cepheus said he was pleased not to go to France. She would have loved to go overseas more often, but that was only because she didn’t have relatives to stay with there. One of the chief charms of the idea of a trip to France was that no one in the family except her and Isaac would ever speak the language well enough to voluntarily go there, and her half-brother was someone she could tolerate because of his value anyway.She would, it occurred to her, as it so often did, turn seventeen just after they started their sixth year, so maybe she’d offer to spend that last summer vacation there if Cepheus did have to go see his relatives that season and they could both have a better time away from Sonora than usual. It was something to think about, anyway. She didn’t stand a chance of getting her hands on her full inheritance at seventeen, and would prefer for Jeremy to pay for her to go to college out of his pocket than out of her trust fund anyway, so she would have to keep up the semblance of ties that long, but he would no doubt be happy to throw in a vacation, too, especially if he thought it might lead to something else. Alicia could envision marrying Cepheus about as well as she could imagine being married to Derry Pierce – objectively, she knew they were both not unattractive, but it would just be all wrong and weird to go beyond that, and, more importantly, they would never bring the best out in each other – but she had no objection to playing on the idea if it got her more money and time away from the family.
For now, she gave her Transfiguration another tweak, bringing it toward animation, and copied his shrug when asked about her own summer. “Useful,” she said. “I couldn’t practice them all for real, of course, but I learned a lot of new incantations and wand movements, and I think I should be able to stay ahead of the professors in theory pretty well this year.”
She watched his transfiguration wobbling around and gave hers another go. She would have to start all over when it went back to being a plant, and once she got it back to an insect from there, she would have to start trying to transfigure it from the ground up, on her first try, instead of going through multiple spells to get the effect once. Each time it didn’t work, she would have to let it go back to being a plant before she could try again. It was, she had determined ages ago, the best if not the only way to make herself progress. “When I wasn’t reading or writing to someone, though, I occasionally did spare a moment to wonder...." She lowered her voice a little, so the conversation could, at need, be masked by those around them. "What did you think of that book they gave us at the end of last year?”
16
Alicia
*Vanishes the bug*.
210
Alicia
0
5
Cepheus
January 24, 2013 8:58 AM
It's not actually a bug yet, but I'm getting there. by Cepheus
Cepheus had complained to Alicia once or twice about his awful cousin Devon, whose family he had to live with there, and his equally awful French lessons. He considered himself fluent enough now, though he really didn't have anyone to practise with at home or here at Sonora. He liked France well-enough, but he'd rather be there on his own terms than forced to go.It was impressive how much motivation Alicia could muster up to study even during the holiday, and he merely smiled. "Perhaps one day you'll surprise even the professors with all your knowledge." He grinned at her and turned back to his work. "You could ask to transfer into the Advanced class next year. You've started studying for your C.A.T.S. as well, I presume?" He was half-teasing, but also half-serious. He didn't doubt Alicia would start something like that a year, if not two years before.
Her next comment was forthcoming, but Cepheus still allowed himself to think about it. He had expected her to be curious about it and had even expected her to ask sooner. "It was all right," he said, pretending to concentrate on his wand movement. "You and Thad got 'Most Serious', I remember. I thought it was rather fitting," he teased.
Ceph knew what she was really asking about though, or at least he thought she did. Why else would she bring it up? But he didn't want to give the information away so easily because he didn't really know what to think of it. That stupid book had brought up feelings and both he and Theresa had reacted a bit badly to it. He had figured himself out during the summer, but he had yet to talk to Theresa this year. Besides, Alicia could be on a completely different vein and he wouldn't want to be the one to bring up the uncomfortable subject.
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Cepheus
It's not actually a bug yet, but I'm getting there.
0
Cepheus
0
5
Alicia
January 24, 2013 10:39 AM
You'll make it. by Alicia
“Maybe,” Alicia said lightly, though she would never actually show the staff everything. Enough to keep her in their good books, to cement it in their minds that Alicia Bauer was a model student who should be held up as an example to the younger years, to make an impression, yes – but never everything. A light that burned too brightly stood too much of a chance of being snuffed out. His next suggestion, though, had her looking up indignantly. “Not as such,” she said about studying for the CATS. “But even if I had, I wouldn’t move up with the fifth years and leave the rest of you if you paid me. Ours is one of maybe two years in the whole school with anyone in it worth competing with.”Among other things, but she had never outright told her friends how much she cared about them. For most of her first two years, she had still been waiting for them to disappoint her, and last year, when her life had come as close to perfection as she thought it could have at that time, well, it had just never come up. Feelings weren’t a popular topic of discussion in her circle, not usually. They had other things to talk about besides each other; she thought that was just understood.
She laughed when Cepheus avoided her question. “Well, Thad and I think we’re very fun people,” she said. “It’s a subjective term.” She turned her head a little, so she could see both him and her transfiguration project. “Personally, though, I think a lot of the awards were inaccurate, at least for our year.” Anger and resentment flared up again as she remembered the third year girls’ section, but she kept it off her face. Learning to smile while she thought about stabbing somebody was something she had done so long ago she could barely remember it, because no one wanted to see someone who was angry, no one wanted to give anything to someone who was frustrated or offended or sad. Besides, she wasn’t really trying to talk about that, anyway.
This wasn’t the best place, and prying wasn’t a good idea, but she did owe him for that time he’d brought up her parents last year, and she just wanted to know, once and for all, two important things. One was whether or not she had to expand her circle to include Theresa Carey now (not pleasant, but it would have its compensations) and the other was whether or not she had really missed something as big as one of her friends jumping into the world of romance (a much bigger deal). “It felt like I was reading a yearbook from someone else's class. First I lost Most Logical to a Pecari girl, and then I find out everyone's dating people I totally did not think they were dating from the couples page. Including you." She gave him a teasing smile, hoping to thoroughly banish any thoughts he might have about her being jealous or something because she wanted him. "Was that for real? Because I have got to compliment you on secrecy if that's so. I like to think I know what's going on around here, but I never suspected a thing."
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Alicia
You'll make it.
210
Alicia
0
5
Cepheus
January 26, 2013 1:31 PM
You're an optimist. by Cepheus
Cepheus thought it was true that there weren't many as ambitious as Alicia in this school. There were others, but Cepheus didn't pay much attention to them or their study habits. He was glad that Alicia wouldn't even consider moving up a level. He highly doubted it was possible anyway even if she wanted to, but he kept that to himself.The relationship Thad and Alicia had were so close that Cepheus sometimes felt excluded. It could have been because they were in the same house and he was in another, but he wasn't sure. They were all friends, though, and Cepheus was sure of that. He didn't know how he could have survived living so far from home without them. At least, back when he had enjoyed living at home.
Alicia continued on the yearbook vein and Cepheus wanted her to drop it. He didn't want to talk about it here and now, but it seemed like she was heading towards that direction anyhow. The awards hadn't been inaccurate according to Cepheus, though he thought he should have been included in the 'Best Looking' category, but he could see why Alicia would have a few qualms with it. He thought she would be upset about not making 'Most Logical', and he was right when she mentioned it as one of the noticeable 'errors' in the book.
The moment she mentioned dating, Cepheus's heart jumped. He knew what was coming, but he still couldn't prevent his face from reddening. If he and Theresa were dating, he wouldn't have been so embarrassed at being caught. It was that his feelings weren't known to anyone that made it embarrassing. Cepheus turned away to focus on his stick again, trying to form words.
"There was nothing to suspect," he said. "We were never dating. Though I wouldn't have had anything to hide from you if I was." He glanced at her before turning back to his work again. "If you want to know the truth," he said, lowering his voice as his eyes looked around to see if anyone was listening in, "I think I might fancy her." He clenched his fists, heart pounding as he let Alicia in on his secret. "I didn't think about it till after that bloody award. I thought she might've liked me that way too, but I'm not sure any more."
That and the men in his family had forbid any sort of romantic relationship with her. "I don't think this attraction is going to go anywhere, honestly," he said, leaning back and pretending to be all right with all of this. "I'm just glad I can be honest about my feelings at the very least to myself and now you." He couldn't believe he had just told Alicia all that, but now it was out. "You don't like her, though, do you?" he asked, wanting to know if Alicia and Theresa were, in fact, feuding, or at least weren't fond of each other.
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Cepheus
You're an optimist.
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Cepheus
0
5
Alicia
January 28, 2013 2:17 PM
Not really, just very sure of my opinions. by Alicia
She knew she should first feel bad for her friend, first being thrown into the yearbook with a girl he wasn’t dating and thus risking a minor little scandal in pureblood circles before either of them even took their CATS and now having to endure this interrogation, but when she heard Cepheus’ answer, Alicia’s first reaction was something like relief. Maybe, just maybe, the comment about having nothing to hide from her could be taken two ways – maybe it meant she wasn’t important enough to bother hiding things from – but she refused to entertain that possibility, and as for the other part, it meant she was not already losing her edge. She was still on top of things. She had not begun to slip, to not do things right.She had not, Alicia knew, done everything she should have in school. She should have joined the Baking and Horse Lovers’ clubs when they were founded, despite her lack of both free time as it was and passion for either subject, instead of just planning to join them this year. If she had done that, then not only would she have had a year to get used to the extra demands on her time, but she would have also looked to the staff like she just enjoyed being busy, instead of like she was trying to stack her extracurricular deck in the hopes of impressing them when it came to award time. She might have also had a chance to figure out how to oust Waverly and Jade as their leaders – Henny was safe as the leader of the book club because she liked Henny, but there she should have proposed more officers and wormed her way into, if Thad wanted Vice President, being the secretary – so she could have had existing leadership positions to put her on her resume. She should have started a club of her own and worked up a school service project, too, according to the reading she’d been doing this summer. That she would have, under such a schedule, have probably had to start her homework every night sometime after midnight was not important. The point was that she had not been the absolute best.
Her one comfort, when she thought about that, was that the closest anyone came to doing better was Waverly Canterbury, and Alicia thought she beat her academically and in some social arenas as well. She hoped, anyway. At the very least, Waverly wasn’t direct prefect competition because she was a Pecari, and Head Girl was still anyone’s prize. She wasn’t feeling as totally in control of her own destiny as she had before the yearbook made her notice how rarely her name appeared under things and how little people apparently thought of her, but she still couldn’t stop believing in the vision she’d described to Thad at the Bonfire last year, the one where they were Head Boy and Head Girl and owned this school.
Right now, though, she owned a secret, and that was a little thrill in its own right, too. Her hand went toward her mouth of its own accord before she caught it and put it back on her desk when Cepheus confessed that though he didn’t have Theresa Carey, he did want her, and her eyes widened a little in spite of herself.
“Of course,” she said when he said he was glad he could be honest with at least the two of them about it. Then there was another question, though, one which she shrugged in answer to. “Honestly, I don’t know her,” she said. “Just from what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t want to date her, but I don’t have anything against her.” Except that she was a Carey, of course, another East Coast, old-blood girl who’d look down on Alicia even if she’d had a better family than the one she actually did. A girl who already had a future. Cepheus didn’t know about all that, though, and Cepheus didn’t need to know about all that. Being honest about her feelings was a one-way trip to living with her father, and she doubted, with no prospect of ever getting out, she would make it three days if that ever happened.
She remembered she was in class and quickly worked on completing the animation of her stick insect, her mind not on it at all. “If she was with you, she’d be my friend, too, then, I guess,” she continued on the matter of Theresa Carey. “And you two were friendly enough last year that I had my doubts when I saw the book. Why not ask her to the ball this year? You’ll never know unless you try, right?” Her tone was light as she used the cliché, and she paid a little more attention to her work as she raised her wand to it again.
16
Alicia
Not really, just very sure of my opinions.
210
Alicia
0
5
Cepheus
January 30, 2013 4:00 PM
Brilliant, you are. by Cepheus
It was becoming more and more difficult for Cepheus to concentrate on his spell work, but he didn't care nearly as much as he should have. He was relieved when Alicia said that she couldn't really hold anything against Theresa; the last thing he'd want was for there to be a feud between the two witches he liked.Cepheus usually prided himself on keeping up with how things were running at this school, but he had found himself falling behind more and more. This year was, perhaps, the worst with all this going on as well as his own troubles. He knew there were clubs, but he hadn't joined any. He had no interest in the Baking Club nor the Book Club, and Horse Club didn't sound very appealing either. Now if there was a Duelling Club of sorts, then Cepheus's interest might be garnered. But he certainly wasn't going to try and create one.
Alicia hinted that even she was suspicious by how close Ceph and Theresa had gotten last year, and Cepheus felt his face grow hot again. "I'm closer friends with you than with her and we didn't win any 'Best Couple' award," he said defensively. But maybe there was something between him and Theresa that he hadn't noticed before.
It was strange to hear his friend encourage him to pursue this relationship. He knew she was only saying this because she didn't know what was truly holding Cepheus back. Ordinarily, Cepheus would tell his friends immediately, but the words of his betrothal were stuck in his throat. It was too big for him to share with even his closest friends. He wanted to pretend that it didn't exist no matter how much it mattered. Maybe once they graduated, he would invite his friends to his wedding and pretend he was in love with Megan Brownbriar. But he had always been terrible at pretending.
"I completely forgot about the ball," he said honestly, following Alicia's lead and focusing on his stick bug once more. He poked it again with his wand. One dance wouldn't count as a date, would it? He was expected to dance with more than one witch and if he went solo there wouldn't be anything to suspect. If he happened to hang around Theresa the entire night, then maybe. Would his father refuse Cepheus just one date to the dance? He would have to write home and beg his father for just one date.
Cepheus didn't know how to answer Alicia, and so he worked on his project for a bit, succeeding finally into turning the stick into a live insect. It looked to be missing an antenna, but Cepheus couldn't bring himself to care. "Who are you going to the ball with?" he asked. If Alicia was thinking about dates to the ball already, then she must have someone in mind.
0
Cepheus
Brilliant, you are.
0
Cepheus
0
5
Alicia
January 30, 2013 6:08 PM
I know, but thanks for saying it. by Alicia
“Very true,” Alicia said calmly when Cepheus got defensive, looking at her stick insect thing as she spoke in case Professor Skies was watching. For once, something more interesting than her academics was going on in class, but she wasn’t going to advertise the fact to the professor if she could help it. “But most people, you know, if they’d just appeared in the yearbook with someone they weren’t really dating, they wouldn’t have been able to just calmly sit down and talk at the bonfire, so I had to wonder. Besides, some people just have couple vibes, and you and I probably just don’t.”Otherwise, if every girl-boy friendship had, she thought, she might have been in an awkward position. The kind that involved being perceived as someone with looser morals than she actually had. Both of her closest friends and almost all her other friends were guys. As far as she knew, though, no one had ever tried to say anything about it.
She looked up from her work again, surprised, when Cepheus said he had completely forgotten about the ball. How anyone could forget about that, even with the distraction the challenges were providing for them until then, was beyond her; it was the major social occasion of the year. There were the dresses to think about, and the dates, and the implications of everyone else’s dates, and…but maybe that was a thing only girls thought about. She should ask Henny, and maybe Ephanie, what they thought about it to see, if she got a moment to do that in; she could, she guessed, ask Thad, too, to see if males not thinking about it was also typical, but she thought that conversation might get a little more pointed than it really needed to at this point in the year. Maybe she’d grab someone else sometime instead.
“Well, now I’ve reminded you, so you’ve got no more excuses,” she said, and finally animated the pot plant. She looked at it with distracted pride for a moment before beginning to feel resigned to how much work it was going to be from now on, when she was going to have to try to turn it straight from plant to bug each time, without letting herself work on it through intermediate steps.
She wished it would go ahead and revert to its original shape, though, when Cepheus turned the questions on her. Fair was fair, but she wished the force field around her desk keeping the temporary stick insect from running off the desk would fail so she could have something distracting going on while she answered anyway. The universe wasn’t that kind, though, so she shrugged, turning her wand between her fingers.
“No one’s asked me yet,” she said. “I’m not really worried about it yet, though. I mean, it’s the first day of classes, right? I don’t think I really need to start panicking until at least February.” The insect began to slip back toward being a plant. "Insecare," she said again, to incomplete results, leaving her without that to work on until it went back to its beginning point again.
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Alicia
I know, but thanks for saying it.
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Alicia
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Cepheus
February 04, 2013 11:11 AM
I'm a sweet-talker. Haven't you noticed? by Cepheus
What Alicia said was true and Cepheus knew that. He just didn't like to be confronted with his feelings when he wasn't asking to be. If he and Alicia had any sort of couple-vibe going on, he couldn't tell. He could hardly tell his own feelings about Theresa for an entire year. Maybe he was just dense when it came to those sorts of feelings, but he knew he and Alicia had nothing going on. That was almost too strange to think about.It made Cepheus feel out of the loop once more when Alicia looked at him in surprise that he hadn't been thinking about the ball. He really was out of it and he needed to get back on track. Otherwise he would be looking like a fool all the time and his grandfather wouldn't like that.
Thinking about the ball made Cepheus not want to think about it. There was so much that could be implied there, so much to dress up for and so much to do. There were dress robes to buy, his hair to trim, his shoes to shine and, best of all, dates. In a completely sarcastic way they were the best part, of course. It would have been easier if Cepheus didn't have an attraction to Theresa Carey. If Grandfather had told him to ask Megan to the ball, he would have. Loathed it completely, undoubtedly, but he wouldn't have cared. But there was someone else now that he actually wanted to ask.
Alicia distracted the both of them by animating her plant, and he smirked. "Good job," he told her. "You're a natural." They were all natural witches and wizards, but he certainly did not have as much patience and concentration as she did to make a plant turn into a stick bug in the first class period. The distraction was welcome, too, from this strange, strange conversation.
If he didn't expect Alicia to go with Thad, Cepheus would have asked her himself. Though she and Thad weren't a couple, they were very close and Cepheus wasn't blind to that. He didn't have many other close female friends like Alicia here and usually that would have bothered him. Unfortunately, he had only one girl he really wanted to ask and the other he was expected to ask. He would have to make up his mind about that.
At one point in his life, he would have been happy to do his family's bidding. He had been, and still was, a little excited to take over the family business. He had grown up knowing that someday the Princeton Hospitals were going to be his to run and take care of and he didn't mind that. It was more of his personal life that his family was currently ruining and, now that he had a personal life, it was frustrating. He didn't like being forced into a life-changing event and auctioned off like cattle. He didn't care if all the patriarchs had done it before him; he wasn't them and didn't want that to happen to him.
But tradition was tradition, and the Princetons fully believed in upholding it to the very letter. Cepheus had no choice in the matter.
"You'll get asked," said Cepheus nonchalantly. "It's just a matter of time." He smirked at her and watched his stick insect turn back into a stick. "For me, it's just a matter of deciding who to ask. If you get too desperate, don't worry; I'll ask you." He smirked to let her know that the last bit was in jest, but he did mean it even if it meant taking two dates. Who was he to say no to having two witches to dance with at the ball?
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Cepheus
I'm a sweet-talker. Haven't you noticed?
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Cepheus
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Alicia
February 13, 2013 2:57 PM
Once or twice, maybe. by Alicia
Alicia allowed herself a brief, self-satisfied smile when Cepheus complimented her work. “Thank you,” she said. Her gaze, though, turned more critical as she actually looked over the plant, which still didn’t really match her image of a stick insect. It was an animated withered plant partially bent into the shape of an insect, with a back end which – misshapen because that was where the pot had been – almost looked more like that of a gigantic ant, which wasn’t pleasant for her to look at because Alicia hated ants. “It needs work, but I’ll take it for the first day back.” She shook her head. “It’s criminal how they want to keep us from using magic all summer. It’s almost like asking us not to breathe. Completely ridiculous.”Once again, the Muggleborns and the idiots and the other idiots who assumed everyone under seventeen – as though that were some kind of magic number; Kate was seventeen, and Alicia could run rings around her any day of the week – had ruined it for everyone. She knew what the reasoning was: the Muggleborn idiots, and the idiots who lived in communities where they could be seen, would want to show off in front of the Muggles, since most of them weren’t bright enough to realize that Muggles weren’t worth impressing, and then…Blood and fire, and all because children could not be trusted to act sensibly. There were flaws in the logic about the size of the front doors of Sonora, such as why they didn’t just seize Muggleborn children as soon as their abilities manifested instead of giving them years to have revealing accidents they couldn’t even explain in, but that was how those in authority thought.
Frankly, Alicia didn’t think the Muggles would believe if anyone told them, or even showed them. They would think it was a trick, like the Loch Ness Kelpie, or put it down to the influence of drugs or mental illness, or something. Because they were stupid. They had developed technologies which could destroy the world, but they were still, deep down, just stupid, half-animated lumps of clay. Which made it incomprehensible to Alicia why the old families, those with the real power, had chosen to stop fighting them now that they had finally decided the threat didn’t really exist.
“Your chivalry knows no bounds,” Alicia said with a smirk of her own when Cepheus promised to take her to the ball if she got desperate.
The idea of things being strictly platonic was, in a way, almost appealing – not having to wonder and second-guess and all that – but even that wouldn’t solve her real problem, which was how closely girls who went to the ball with the kind of boys all her friends were would be looked at by those complacent old families, who still weren’t complacent at all about certain things. Such as the rising power and funds of people like her stepfather, who might choose to bring up people like her on his coattails, opening the doors to a wave of them eventually becoming important at some point more distant in the future. Families didn’t just consider the present, and a precedent was dangerous. A handful of precedents, or at least things she’d been told had happened before, were why Alicia dreamed of being happy someday, and that was something those old men would do an awful lot to make her stop thinking about if they figured out she did. She could end up with every single person she even vaguely liked except Henny cutting all ties with her by the end of the summer if things went bad. "I'd do the same for you, but let's hope it works out a little better than desperation for both of us, hm?"
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Alicia
Once or twice, maybe.
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Alicia
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