Professor Skies
May 31, 2013 5:13 PM
Intermediate Class - let's twist again by Professor Skies
“Good morning,” Professor Skies smiled, as the intermediate class filed in. She hadn't minded covering for Amelia and, apart from minor incidents, it had gone off smoothly enough. Nonetheless, she was glad to have her feet planted firmly on the ground again, back behind her own desk, even if there wasn't much to distinguish it as being such, other than her in depth knowledge of what was contained in the impossibly capacious drawers.“For those of you who are new to Intermediate Transfiguration, welcome to your new class. During this stage of your education, you will begin work on the animate branches of transfiguration – that is, with living things. Some people struggle with this idea, or feel squeamish about it. I will discuss the theories behind it in more detail when we come to our first lesson with animals – for now, I will just state that current theories of how these Transfigurations work indicate that you are not causing harm or pain to any creatures involved. If anyone feels particularly strongly about this issue, or feels disquieted by it, I invite you to come and speak to me during my office hours.
“Today, we shall be working on plant transfigurations. Plants being living organisms are a useful way of bridging the distance between inanimate and animate work. As usual, this class is split level. Broadly speaking, the simpler task is aimed at third years and forth years who are still finding their confidence. The harder task at more confident forth years and fifth years. However, I am not going to stop anyone from attempting either task, depending on their personal comfort level. All of you will be working with ropes. Task a is to transfigure them into a common or garden vine - I have provided several books regarding plants for you to draw inspiration from. Task b is to transfigure the rope into Devil's Snare. Being a somewhat more lively plant, this increases the level of difficulty. In case any of your are unfamiliar with the plant,” the school, after all, did not offer Herbology, “I have provided some textbooks which describe it. It attempts to wrap itself around people but dislikes heat and light. Therefore, anyone who plans on tackling this project, please take one of these in addition to your ropes,” she indicated a row of jam jars in front of her, into each of which she poured a large dose of bluebell flames from her wand. “It will retreat from these but if anyone gets into difficulty, please send sparks from your wand or shout for me.
“The spell for a regular vine is Vinea and uses a twisting wand movement, like so,” she stated, demonstrating over a pile of ropes which instantly sprang into a well formed vine, with healthy leaves and even a bunch of grapes. Returning it to its original state, she continued, “For the Devil's Snare, the incantation is Laqueum Diablos Creo. You will need a similar wand motion but you should flick sharply upwards before each change of direction,” she explained, demonstrating once again.
“You may begin.”
Subthreads: Twist and... by Rupert Princeton, Pecari with Clara Abernathy, Rupert
Devil's Snare works...plain vines don't..what gives? by Carter Browning with Professor Skies
It's twisting, but not fighting back... by Aria Yale, Teppenpaw with Jay Carey, Aladren
Twisting uncomfortably by Waverly Canterbury - Pecari with Alexandra D'Alesandro, Waverly
Ropes to vines..right? Hmmm by Carter Browning
When did we previously do so? by Effie Arbon with Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus
Tagging Isabel by Amity Brockert, Aladren with Isabel Raines, Crotalus
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Professor Skies
Intermediate Class - let's twist again
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Carter Browning
June 06, 2013 11:14 PM
Devil's Snare works...plain vines don't..what gives? by Carter Browning
Carter got up the morning of the first class wondering what it was they were going to do that day. He grabbed a quick shower, got dressed in his robes and grabbed his book bag. He headed out of the common room and walked towards Transfiguration Class. He was really indifferent to it today for some reason. He walked into the classroom and found himself a seat after politely waving to the professor. He saw the pieces of rope sitting on each desk and found they piqued his interest slightly. What are we doing with those? he wondered to himself as he sat down. Once everyone had arrived for class Professor Skies began her mini lecture on the days activities. He was intrigued at the idea of turning the inanimate to the animate. The fact that they could choose between making common vines or Devil’s Snare really piqued his interest. He couldn’t wait to give that one a try. He knew that Devil’s Snare was slightly dangerous and he would have to be extra careful with it.Once Professor Skies completed her lesson instructions Carter walked up to her desk and retrieved for himself one of the mason jars of Bluebell flames. He took it back to his desk with him and sat down. He laid the rope out straight on the desk with the jar not far away and began casting the spell. “Laqueum Diablos Creo,” he cast as he did the wand movements, remembering the sharp flicks at the end of each movement. He pointed the wand at the rope with the last flick. He watched as the rope twitched a bit before it began turning green and slandering out. It sprouted small leaves and began winding its way across Carter’s desk. Carter snatched it up before it got any farther and watched as it slowly began to wrap itself around his hand and wrist. He reached for the jar with the other hand and held it up near the plant when it began to squeeze too tightly. The plant almost seemed to hiss as it retreated from the light in the jar.
Carter grinned like an idiot the whole time while he watched it move around. He watched fascinated as it retreated from the bluebell flames in the jar. He had never really seen Devil’s Snare be so docile before and kept an extra close eye on it especially since it was currently wrapped around his left hand. He moved the jar away from the vine and it began to tighten on him again. He replaced the jar and the vine slackened again just before it twitched a little and reverted back to the rope it started out as. He grimaced at the rope as it reverted back to normal. He had to give himself credit though, he had managed to keep track of Devil’s Snare for a short time without it going nuts. He knew he couldn’t attempt that spell again with the same amount of success. He had gotten a bout of a “Lucky Break” with that one attempt and was certain that it wouldn’t happen again any time soon.
He took the jar back up to Professor Skies and decided to try the mundane vine spell. He figured at that point there was no reason he shouldn’t be able to do the simpler spell. He went back to his desk and got ready to try the spell. He did the wand movements as instructed and said “Vinae!” as firmly as possible. The rope thinned out slightly, turned a green-ish color and then sprouted one leaf. It twitched on the desk for a second before it went back to being a rope. Carter scratched his head in confusion. “How is it I could get the Devil’s Snare spell to work, but the normal vine one fizzles?” he asked himself aloud. “Maybe I didn’t picture the vine I wanted good enough,” he mused still scratching his head slightly. He tapped his neighbor on the shoulder. “Can I take a look at that book when you’re done with it?” he asked politely.
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Professor Skies
June 10, 2013 4:32 PM
OOC - Advice by Professor Skies
Dear Carter,Thank you for contributing to the class. I would like everyone to be able to do well in my classes and have some feedback regarding your post to help you achieve this.
The Issues
1). A character being able to do a harder task and then struggling with the easier task is not very realistic. I feel you acknowledged this yourself within the post when Carter said he could not understand it. However, acknowledging something is not an explanation of how and why it happened, thus it remains unrealistic. Random luck is not an explanation.
2). Carter's age also adds to the issue, given that he is one of the youngest in the class. This is not the only time this has happened with one of your characters. You frequently write them as performing a spell in class first time, whilst other people – even those with characters who are older or who are written as being high-flyers – still take time to get a spell. This presents an issue for other characters in responding – if a class member two years younger than them is out-performing them at spells, how are they supposed to react?
Things to try in the future
These guidelines are the ones that relate to your post but apply to everyone else's writing as well.
If you cannot come up with a reasonable explanation for events, reconsider whether it's realistic to have them happen. Your character may not have the insight to explain everything but you can still explain things in the narrative and note that the character doesn't understand it, so long as events have been explained clearly.
When deciding how much for your character to achieve consider:
The point in the term (they are likely to do better by the end of the term than at the start)
Their position in the class (are they the youngest, in the middle, the oldest?)
The difficulty of the task being attempted
To make your characters' achievements more realistic, explain their strengths and weaknesses – if a class is a character's favourite, or they are described as having a particular skill in that subject, it makes more sense for them to do well in it (although this should still be in proportion, following the guidelines above). Results are also more realistic when there is a detailed explanation of how they have been achieved, e.g.:
Ok: Carter pointed his wand at the rope and cast the spell.
Better: Having taken time to make notes on the similarities and differences, and to clearly visualise the transformation, Carter pointed his wand at the rope and cast the spell.
Best: Describe the notes he makes, such as what he can think of that is similar or different, and/or describe the visualisation that he is playing through in his head.
If you want to write a new post for this class based on these guidelines, I will mark it as your 'first post' for this class. If not, I will mark your existing post and hope that you will bear this information in mind for the future.
All the best,
Professor Skies
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OOC - Advice
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Carter Browning
June 10, 2013 8:46 PM
thank you for the advice by Carter Browning
I apologize if I have created an unfavorable situation with previous posting. It was not my intention. After carefully reviewing my work on said posting, I fear I must agree with your assessment. I will redo the posting, hopefully sticking closer to the guidelines you have presented and hopefully my oversight will not happen again.
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Carter Browning
thank you for the advice
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Carter Browning
June 11, 2013 3:29 PM
New post is up by Carter Browning
I have the rewrite done and posted if you can help me delete the other one. Hope the rewrite works a little better for us both :)
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New post is up
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