Professor Skies
May 22, 2016 3:30 AM
Intermediate Theories - forbidden vs impossible by Professor Skies
“Good morning,” Selina greeted the Intermediates. “As you prepare for your CATS exams - which all of you are now considered to be doing, as you are in intermediates,” she added, lest any third years had taken this as a cue to nod off, “You will need to start learning how to answer the major theory questions of the core subjects, as well as demonstrating reasonable skills in practical magic.“In Transfiguration, two of the major questions are the limits of Transfiguration, and the borders between Transfiguration and other subjects, most commonly Charms. Today we are going to be looking at a subject that covers the first question quite succinctly, although there is the possibility of it coming into discussions on the second question too.
“Today, we will be looking at three subjects…. Food, money and the human body. I would like you to get into pairs or threes and answer the following questions,” as she spoke, the chalk moved behind her, adding the questions to the board.
“1. What are the magical limits of Transfiguring these items?
2. What are the legal limits?
3. What other things are limited by magic or by law in the field of Transfiguration?
“Fifth years, you will also write an essay this term on the impossibility of bringing back the dead, and whether this violates laws within Transfiguration or Charms. If you finish your classwork early today, you may start researching this.
“Chapter seven of your books will be helpful, and I have provided additional material from the library which has good sections on these subjects. You may begin.”
OOC - This lesson primarily deals with Gamp’s Law. I found this article, which I thought was helpful and interesting, though I’m not convinced by idea number 4 http://www.beyondhogwarts.com/harry-potter/articles/the-five-principal-exceptions-to-gamps-law.html
As we don’t know for sure what the other exceptions are, I have tried to avoid stating them as facts, and am very happy for differing theories to start flying around the room.
Subthreads: I don't believe in impossible. by Jack Spencer, Aladren with Alistair Johnson, Crotalus
In need of your ideas (tag Kira) by Chuck Fintoc, Pecari with Kira Spaulding, Crotalus
Stepping out of my comfort zone. by Lauren Song - Teppenpaw with Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus, Lauren
This sounds like a challenge! [Tag: Ingrid] by Louis Valois, Aladren with Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari
Those are synonyms to me [Tag: Jax] by Wu Peizhi, Teppenpaw with Jax Donovan, Aladren, Wu Peizhi
Not words I like to hear, those. by John Umland, Aladren
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Professor Skies
Intermediate Theories - forbidden vs impossible
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Professor Skies
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Wu Peizhi, Teppenpaw
June 17, 2016 1:48 AM
Those are synonyms to me [Tag: Jax] by Wu Peizhi, Teppenpaw
Overall, Wu had little opinion on Transfiguration class, resigning basically all her coursework to “occasionally inconvenient, but necessary”. However, today’s lesson did nothing but confuse her. She hated theory. There was so much she didn’t understand or had trouble conceptualizing. Not like practical work--that was great. A wand movement and incantation was the same in every language. Actually doing magic let her feel secure. Talking about it just frustrated her, as well as sparking some moderate self-loathing.Moreover, even the things she understood in theory were hard for her to express or expand upon. Wu was not an academic by any standards; her grades would have been firmly higher if the coursework was not done in English, sure, but even without a language barrier, she would not have been the top of her class. She was horrible at elucidation, trapped somewhere between her shyness and social custom that said girls should be seen and not heard. Whatever the cause, even when she knew what she was talking about, it almost never came out correctly.
She sighed heartily and turned to a neighbor, preparing to admit one of the most shameful things a person could: ignorance. But when she looked at the person beside her, she felt her heartbeat stall: Jax Donovan. Wu wasn’t sure how she had gone this far into class without noticing. Admittedly, she was running a bit low on sleep, and she’d just skirted into the class in time to not be considered tardy and had to take whatever seat was open, but still, she felt she should have noticed before now.
The Teppenpaw did her best not to be visibly disturbed by his presence. She didn’t want him to feel guilty, and she already felt bad enough about how much she’d been avoiding him and their other peers as of late. She wished they could see how much she missed them, but they were probably blinded by hurt. That was the worst thing about the whole situation: not the part where she felt emptier without them, but the part where they probably thought that she hated them or they had wronged her somehow. Gia, Sammy, Jax, and Laila were wonderful, kind, fun people. Wu was the one who was bad.
But beyond the now-typical discomfort she now felt around the people with whom she had spent the last two years, Peizhi had another reason to feel uncomfortable with Jax today. Her sleep last night had been polluted by a disquieting dream involving him. Really, she supposed what bothered her the most about the dream was how much her dream-self had not been bothered, if that made sense. She and Jax had been… alone in a rather small room. She dreaded to think about it, a blush already rising to her cheek; she was a young thirteen and quite innocent in general, so nothing had progressed beyond kissing. Even that, however, was enough to make her feel guilty and dirty.
She assumed it was because she missed him greatly. Wu had never consciously felt any feelings of that nature toward him, so by that logic, she supposed she was lucky her unconscious mind had selected him and not one of her female peers, because that imagery would have been something completely disruptive to her day-to-day life. As she understood it, Sammy had two mothers, which surprised her but led to no further reaction, but to see herself in such a situation even in a dream would not have been pleasant for her delicate psyche.
Despite her many reasons for discomfort with Jax, the third year was pretty sure it was too late to turn the other way to find another neighbor with whom to discuss. Her eyes had already locked in his; she could not turn away now. “D-do you, um…” she fumbled weakly, hoping the clearly troubled expression on her face would be accounted completely to her nervous nature and obvious ignorance. “Do you understand any of this? I feel very lost.”
In many ways, she added silently.
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Wu Peizhi, Teppenpaw
Those are synonyms to me [Tag: Jax]
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Wu Peizhi, Teppenpaw
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Jax Donovan, Aladren
June 20, 2016 5:20 PM
Forbidden will likely be my future with anything. by Jax Donovan, Aladren
Generally, Jax did not mind classes. He could usually get away with working by himself. On days where a partner was required, it was typically a practical lesson and he didn’t have to actually talk to the person he was working with, all he had to do was fire spells at them. However, every once in awhile the professors threw out theory or discussion work at them and he was stuck having a conversation with someone that he didn’t care for. Sometimes he lucked out and worked with someone he was comfortable with, but he wasn’t too sure about that today.When Peizhi had taken the seat beside him, he knew it wasn’t because she felt safe next to him or because she wanted to be there. He knew it was simply out of necessity seeing how class was starting and she had only just managed to make it into the room. Since she made no gesture to indicate she was happy to see him, Jax didn’t make any sort of fuss about it. She had spent the better part of the first half of the year ignoring them and out of sight of their group that Jax had been made to accept the fact that Wu was one of those people who either felt she was no longer in need of ‘lesser’ people to bother spending her time with them or she figured out Jax’s secret and was too nice to expose him so she opted to just stay away. Based on the look she threw his way when she realized who she was seated next to, Jax was tempted to choose the latter scenario. After that initial look, Jax was now grateful that he hadn’t taken that seat next to Peizhi in the library on the few occasions that he saw her there by herself.
He tried to not look angry or hurt over her clear distress with working with him that he noticed when she first looked at him but had tried to hide. In order to not seem so icy with her, Jax turned away and instead focused his gaze onto his book that lay on his desk, playing it off as though he were disinterested and taking the time to think about how to answer her. “We basically just have to discuss why certain types of magical are limited.” He tried to explain. “Things like, why we are unable to produce or replicate galleons.” He added. “Whether it’s because of the law or simply not possible.” He honestly wasn’t really sure if he could give an answer to that. These were things that he didn’t think about as they were just the way they were.
“I think there is a legal limitation to creating or replication money because the government has to keep track of the amount of currency that is currently in use for taxation purposes.” There was another word that he wanted to say, something about the value of it, but he couldn’t think of the term. He glanced up at Peizhi to make sure she was still sitting there before looking away again. “Also, if everyone were allowed to create or replicate money, no one would feel the need to work so our society would no longer run the way it currently does and money will no longer be of value. Something else would simply replace it.” He had spoken for too long and he wasn’t entirely sure that it had made any sense to Peizhi o if she were paying any real attention to him. But he had participated in the assignment, so at least he’d get credit for that.
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Jax Donovan, Aladren
Forbidden will likely be my future with anything.
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Jax Donovan, Aladren
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Wu Peizhi
June 23, 2016 4:16 AM
It's not a fun way to live, is it? by Wu Peizhi
Wu struggled very hard to understand. It wasn’t like being confused all the time was exactly fun--not that she had a lot of fun in her life, honestly--so she did what she could to alleviate her troubles. But they always built. She was always stressed. She was always confused. She was always… lost.This time, however, the effort went beyond trying to comprehend; she could hardly even pay attention to the words let alone process them. All she could do was look at him, her expression fairly blank as all the strain went on in silence within her head. She studied his features for any insights to his emotions. Was Jax okay? Did he miss her? Was he hurt by her actions (or, more accurately, lack thereof)? Another strange part of her brain--one that she begged desperately for reprieve--couldn’t help but glance idly over his lips, that disconcerting dream still present in her mind. They looked soft, nicer than he’d have wanted to admitted.
He spoke longer than she thought she’d ever heard him, evidently trying very hard to help her understand. That rather just made her feel worse that she couldn’t be attentive. “Jax…” she began weakly, leaving a tense pause between the end of his statement and the beginning of hers. “....Look, I am…”
“I am very sorry,” she forced out. Beneath the table, her small hands pulled into nervous fists, fingernails carving their names into her palm. “For, um….” She tried to think of the word Sammy used when someone didn’t show up. “Ditching?” she stumbled, unsure. “Things are very... complicated. I wish I could see you more, like before… but I can’t.” The contraction felt awkward, but she had seen that most people used them, and so saying cannot always felt awkward too. There really was no winning. It felt harsh, too, a finality she wasn’t willing to let linger too long. “I am so sorry. I hope no one is too missing of me.”
Peizhi almost felt like crying, but she swallowed the lump threatening to form in her throat; she was not going to cry, especially not in class. “But, uh, if not… If the opposite… well, I understand that, too. That would be better.” As much as she didn’t want them to be sad, the idea of not being missed felt almost worse, in a selfish way. Like she was nothing. She had always been nothing. Apathy was better than anger, in any case.
“...I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-.... This isn’t the place for-...” Her eyes caught briefly on his before she pulled away, finding apparent interest in the scuff on her left shoe. “I will not bother you anymore today.” Grades didn’t mean a lot to her, so getting a zero for not discussing the assignment was fine. For such a quiet little mouse, she sure had squeaked a bunch, and now all she wanted to do was go back to hiding in her hole.
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Wu Peizhi
It's not a fun way to live, is it?
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Wu Peizhi
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Jax
June 23, 2016 7:48 PM
It's the only way I have. by Jax
When she said his name, so quiet and mouse-like, he looked up at her to see if he only confused her more by what he said. She found to be ridiculous. Since she didn’t immediately follow up with any comment, Jax took that to mean that she hadn’t followed along with his comments at all. So now Jax had to figure out a different way of explaining what their class assignment was about. This was rather challenging because he wasn’t quite sure himself.Before he really had much of a chance to think about the assignment and how to better explain it, Peizhi began to apologize. He thought at first that she was apologizing for not understanding, but as she went on, it became clear. Jax was looking at her with his usual piercing gaze, somewhat softer than it might have been with someone else, but as she began to explain herself, his gaze grew icy. Peizhi had always been one of these girls that he wanted to keep safe. She seemed so fragile and meek. But now he felt himself grow angry with her. His nature was to protect those who he perceived to be weak, but his current situation had him wanting to lash out. It was complicated? Like she was the only one who was dealing with difficult things? Gia always told him that friends mattered, but maybe not as much if this was how Peizhi felt about it. Things were ‘too’ complicated for her to talk to them now. Whatever.
Jax closed himself off to the emotions swimming around in him. He had always liked Peizhi. Her quietness made him feel less like an outsider in their group of otherwise chatty girls. For her to suddenly decide she didn’t want any part of their friendship had stung. And her simple explanation that it was complicated did not satisfy or alleviate any of his anger or hurt feelings. Jax watched her closely. Although she looked uncomfortable and would not really meet his eye, she seemed genuine with her apology, but he still didn’t feel better about it.
He didn’t really know how to respond to her. She seemed to have made up her own mind. Whatever it was that was making her life ‘complicated’ it was apparently something to do with him and the others even if she wouldn’t outright admit it. If it was something else, he couldn’t really see why she would push them away because of it. “I’m used to people disappointing me anyway.” Jax said quietly. Peizhi certainly wasn’t the first person he and his sister encountered who decided they were not worth their time and Peizhi would not be the last. “I’d rather not be anymore of a complication for ou.” He stated, his voice colder than he had ever thought to use towards her, but when Jax was hurt, the anger was quick to flare up. “I’m sure the girls would like an explanation too. Gia thinks that she did something wrong to upset you and that is why you dislike us now.” Jax made it a point so that Peizhi would have to explain herself to the rest, he would not do that for her. His sister had a difficult time accepting things when they did not fit into her happy world. Gia would never accept that excuse from Peizhi.
“We still have to complete the lesson.” Jax said. He didn’t want to fail simply because of Peizhi’s guilty conscience. “If working with me is causing you an issue, then I will find another partner to work with so that you won’t feel upset. Otherwise, we can continue with the lesson, if that’s something you are willing to do with me.”
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Jax
It's the only way I have.
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Jax
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