Professor Skies
December 24, 2016 7:01 AM
Intermediates: progressing at a snail's pace by Professor Skies
“Welcome back,” Selina greeted the intermediate class. Now that they were this side of midterm, the possibility of CATS was probably seeming a lot more real and pressing to her fifth years. At least, she hoped it was. Whilst she didn’t want to scare any of her students, the exams were important, and took a lot of preparation. This was why the fifth years had been set a holiday essay, which she now prompted them to turn in.“Today, we are going to be practising inanimate to animate transfigurations, and all of you will be attempting this,” this was a fairly broad category of work, and had formed the bulk of the intermediate studies so far for the fourth and fifth years. The third years had largely concentrated on the opposite process but now they were in a new term, it was time for things to be stepped up a gear. Alongside this, Selina had been teaching theory. There were conflicting views when it came to transfiguring on living objects, and she touched on both sides, as arguing conflicting points of view was bound to come up in the CATS theory papers. However, it was clear which side her personal belief lay, and that was in the Theory of Vanishing Space. This held that, as nothing could cease to exist, vanished objects had to go somewhere. This space came into practise for all other Transfigurations. Rather than altering things at a molecular level, one pushed parts of the item, or creature, out into Vanishing Space, and drew something else forth to replace it. This meant that though the parts of the animal could become disjointed or separated, you were ultimately sort of joining the whole thing back together by the time you had finished, just somewhere else than here. There was a lot of complicated maths that one could learn, should they pursue theoretical transfiguration beyond degree level, but for now it was simply explained as a place where things could go. Sometimes, of course, students did produce less than savoury looking results from their transfigurations. Creatures who were twisted or damaged. Vanishing Space’s answer to that was simply that it was a case of mind over matter; Transfiguration relied heavily on visualisation, a student who was worried about harming the things involved was much more likely to bring forth something that was harmed in the process. It was the realisation of their subconscious mental picture of what would happen. Which, of course, didn’t make it less distressing or unpleasant, but it was something they had to learn to overcome.
“You’re all going to start with rubber balls, and third years you will be trying to make something nice and simple - a slug, or a snail if you feel like really challenging yourselves. Fourth years, please attempt snails, and I think you can guess where the potential for extra credit comes in,” almost all Transfigurations included some kind of design element, and snail shells would be a good way to differentiate between their work. As usual, the shelves at the back were stocked with relevant nature books - detailed did not always have to mean unrealistic, as Mother Nature was usually quite the artist, even when it came to such simple things as the humble snail.
“Fifth years, you’ll have noticed that your balls are being provided in a bowl of water,” she added, as she began sending one to each desk occupied by a CATS student with a wave of her wand. “No points for guessing that you will be working on fish.
“The spell for third and fourth years will both be gastropoda - your visualisations will be the key factor in making the difference, alongside wand movements. For slugs you need a slow straight movement, whilst snails need a slow spiral. Fifth years, you will be using the spell piscis and a small flicking motion.” Selina demonstrated all three spells, producing a snail with a black and white shell, and a shimmering blue fish.
“You may chat quietly with your neighbours, and please try to help each other out. If you have any questions or dilemmas, see me. You may begin.”
Subthreads: Fine fin fail by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw with Gia Donovan (Pecari)
I hope I survive this year. by Aislinn Nicolls, Aladren with Laila Kennedy, Crotalus
I wanna lick it (Tag Ben) by Kyte Collindale, Pecari with Ben Pierce, Pecari
Not really (Tag Daniel) by Kira Spaulding, Crotalus with Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus
How realistic does my snail have to be? by Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus
Well, a bit faster than that by Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus with Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari
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Professor Skies
Intermediates: progressing at a snail's pace
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Professor Skies
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Kira Spaulding, Crotalus
January 11, 2017 10:48 PM
Not really (Tag Daniel) by Kira Spaulding, Crotalus
One might think Kira would get bored in her classes what with getting even the hard lessons really quickly especially given she'd gone ahead and worked on spells above grade level. Quite the contrary, it gave her a thrill. She rarely got to feel good about herself, and any wand based class gave her a chance to shine.It wasn't without drawbacks. Kira was constantly afraid that if she attempted the harder lesson, like if she were to do what the fifth years did, others would think she was showing off and resent her. It didn't matter that there were others with a genuinely high opinion of themselves who didn't seem to mind showing how they were better than others and nobody seemed to care. If it was her, they'd assume the worst. Kira didn't know how or why it worked that way, but it did. Some people could get away with murder while others, like herself, would always be thought the worst about.
Unfortunately, today that meant she was going to have to give her snail an elaborate pattern since just making one was no big deal and she truly-unsurprisingly-wasn't all that artistic. Kira honestly would have rather tried the fish, but as a fourth year, she didn't feel she had a right to do so unless Professor Skies specifically gave her permission, something she'd never of course even have the nerve to ask.
Otherwise, if she took it upon herself to do the fifth year lesson, she might appear arrogant and make people feel bad. She didn't like being on the receiving end of that so she didn't want to do it to anyone else. Plus, they'd hate her and Kira felt like she didn't really have any wiggle room when it came this area. Though it would be immensely satisfying to be better than Kelsey, she felt she had to walk a fine line between doing what she knew she could do and not showing off. She longed to do the former, to feel she was capable of something, feel she wasn't the worst,inferior but she was terrified of the social consequences.
The best thing to do was to work with one of the third years. She could be better than they were without looking like she was showing off as older students were supposed to do better than younger ones. Of course, Kira still thought she'd be able to manage a snail better than some fifth years could manage a fish. Snails were obviously easier but the fact of the matter was, she was possibly the best Transfig student since Ryan.
She pushed that thought aside because it seemed too arrogant and she of all people had no right to be. Kira had literally three things going for her in life and two of them were things that either didn't matter to some people-she very much doubted the reason Sammy Meeks gave her a candy gram and seemed to want to talk to her on the wagon to and from Sonora had to do with her money and last name-or the ones they mattered to also had them and therefore, other than the fact that the line of heirs went through her immediate family and her mother was a Brockert,it didn't give her much of advantage with people like Caelia or the Fintocs-and especially not over Kelsey.
Still, that didn't mean she didn't want to be friends with them. For some reason, Caelia, Chuck and Daniel seemed to like her fine. Even though Caelia and Chuck liked others better. Daniel probably did too, she just didn't know what specific person he liked more.
Still, the other Crotalus was a third year so Kira sat next to him. First though, she took a look at her ball. It was plain red and obviously spherical. That wasn't too hard to figure out, it just needed to be flatter, more circular, but not too much so. After all snails were not...flat. So Kira visualized the snails she saw on the beach of St. Berylla's every year. The patterns on their shells were not necessarily what a muggle might see on a snail because this particular snail was native only to St. Berylla's and Livilia, all magical environments found on no muggle map. This sort of snail had patterns of swirling emerald green and sapphire blue applied daintily to it, as if painted but it occured perfectly natural. And on the plus side, the patterns were never complete duplicates, instead they were like finger prints, marking each snail as an individual, therefore her design couldn't be wrong.
Kira made the swirling motions with her wand, keeping in mind the snail she wanted to make. " Gastropoda " The lines weren't as vibrant as the Crotalus would have liked , but they were definitely spread throughout the snail's shell.
Satisfied with her results, she turned to Daniel. "How is yours coming along?" Kira asked.
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Kira Spaulding, Crotalus
Not really (Tag Daniel)
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Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus
January 21, 2017 7:32 PM
Cocky, are we? by Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus
Transfiguration was not the easiest subject. It required a lot of brainpower and concentration. Daniel put a lot of effort into his studies and it paid off more often than not, but sometimes no matter how much you read or how prompt you were with your homework, things didn’t go the way they were supposed to.Before coming to Sonora, Dan had believed that he had the brains to achieve great things. At home he was the smart one, the one they’d all predicted to be sorted into Aladren, but here he wasn’t at the very top of the class (or his year group). Daniel was likely among the top of the class but he had to fight to be there. He worked very hard to achieve the grades he wanted, and even then he was sometimes a little disappointed (although he knew many people would be envious of his grades). He was smart, he could do it, but it wasn’t ever easy and he was a fool for ever thinking that it would be. It could have been easy, if he was the sort to be satisfied with “decent” grades but Daniel had aspirations and was aiming for the top. He had to push for that.
Chuck told him that he took it all far too seriously, which Dan didn’t appreciate at all. He recognised that he was a few years off CATS yet but that didn’t mean that he could slack off along the way. The things he was learning now would all contribute to his CATS, so it was better to make use of the practising opportunities given to him so that he was as prepared as he possibly could be when the time came for things to really matter.
It was funny though, that he in his third year seemed to work so much harder and take things much more seriously than Chuck, who was facing his CATS at the end of the school term. But at the end of the day he supposed that Chuck didn’t need to do anything he didn’t want to. Chuck already seemed to have everything he wanted, whereas Daniel didn’t know exactly what it was he wanted. All he knew was that he needed to be successful so that he could really go places when he graduated. There was no way that he could spend the rest of his life living in Chuck’s big fat shadow.
Dan had been curious and had a peek at the essay that Chuck had been set to do over the midterm break but it was CATS standard, which he had to admit was two years too advanced for him. So instead Aunt Karen had set him an essay to write for her. Chuck had laughed at him for that. But then Gwen asked Aunt Karen to set her one as well, which had kind of shut Chuck up, and made Dan feel less silly. Dan and Gwen had always taken their tutoring so much more seriously than the rest of the Fintoc kids and it was nice to be able to do some work for Aunt Karen again over the holidays and show her how much they’d learnt at Sonora.
Daniel greeted Kira briefly when she sat down next to him, before turning his attention to Professor Skies as she began the class. He was keen to get on with the task, now that he felt quite practised and confident in turning animate objects into inanimate objects. Doing it the other way around was the next step up and Daniel looked forward to the challenge.
That was, until he remembered that Kira Spaulding was sitting next to him. Suddenly it was less about learning a new skill and more about how he’d look in front of her. What should he do? Go for the slug first because that was more likely to turn out right? Or go for the snail because that was the more challenging, impressive option?
Daniel stared at his ball, before closing his eyes for a brief moment. He needed to get his head straight. This was stupid. Kira didn’t care whether he transfigured the ball into a slug or a snail, right? He wasn’t used to having a crush on someone he shared classes with so the idea of them judging him on his academic ability was new to him. But Daniel was here to learn and right now he was overthinking things and jeopardizing his own education.
“Gastropoda,” Daniel muttered, sounding a little annoyed, as he pointed his wand at the ball. Instead of turning into a slug, the ball now presented itself as a misshapen rubbery blob. The Crotalus sighed.
Kira interrupted his miserable thoughts by asking him how he was getting along. Daniel poked the blob of rubber with his wand, lifting it off the desk to show her. “Not great,” he said with a rueful smile.
He glanced at Kira’s work and did a little double take. Okay, so she’d done a snail and given it a nice patterned shell. “Oh wow, nice job,” he commented.
“I- I’m not usually this terrible,” Daniel told her hastily, jabbing the rubber blob again with his wand. “I guess I’m just a bit distracted today.” Why did he say that?
“So, you, uh, like Transfiguration?” he asked, making a lame attempt to change the subject quickly in case she might enquire as to why he was so distracted.
Way to go Dan.
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Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus
Cocky, are we?
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Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus
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Kira
February 02, 2017 1:57 PM
Sure. And Kelsey absolutely loves Muggles. by Kira
Kira blushed when Daniel complimented her on her work. Praise was not something she was too accustomed to. What she was accustomed to was standing by ignored while others-mostly Kelsey- were complimented and honored. She gave a shy smile as she replied "Thank you."She was sorry to see that it wasn't going well for him though and she didn't know quite what to say. Kira wasn't usually the one comforting other and honestly, she hadn't grown up being comforted. Her parents way of doing so was to tell her she didn't have to do what she wasn't good at. Well, for the most part anyway, there were still some things she had to do that she was awful at like ballroom dancing.
And unfortunately, this fell in the category of things Daniel had to do. She couldn't very well tell him not to do an assignment! Plus, Transfiguration was an important part of magic.
Still, the younger Crotalus was her friend and she didn't want him to feel bad. It was not a pleasant feeling and Kira wouldn't wish that on anyone. "It's not that bad. I mean, yeah it's not a slug but at least you got some results. I can't imagine most people are doing better than that."
She gave an encouraging smile. "Like, try envisioning a slug. I mean, it's not that easy if you haven't really looked at slugs and what reason would you have for looking at slugs in depth? I mean, I'm not even sure the pattern on mine is accurate and I think it's usually a bit brighter on the actual snails." Maybe if Daniel didn't think hers were perfect, he wouldn't feel so bad. Being next to perfection and coming up short was a truly awful feeling.
"And, think of similarities and differences between the ball and slug...."Kira trailed off, her face growing hot. She was suddenly aware that she was babbling and being awkward again. And what if Daniel thought she was being bossy. "Sorry, I'm just trying to help, I'm not trying to like, order you around or anything."
Kira took a breath and sat back. "Yes, I guess I do really like it. It's my favorite class. I like Charms too. Just wand work in general." She didn't add that it was because she was good at it because that sounded like bragging and arrogance was not an appealing trait in a person.
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Kira
Sure. And Kelsey absolutely loves Muggles.
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Daniel
February 03, 2017 1:12 PM
I wouldn't advise that. by Daniel
Daniel didn’t like being told how to do things by a girl and it was especially humiliating because it was Kira. It was patronizing but he knew she didn’t mean it like that. She was just trying to make him feel better so he should probably suck it up and smile, because at least she was giving him the time of day. That had to mean she cared at least a little bit, right?The young Crotalus refrained from snorting when she inferred that he might not know what slugs looked like. He lived on a ranch back home so it was impossible to go through life without finding some slugs on a bucket that got left out or something. But again, that wasn’t the point and he shouldn’t be applying his normal reactions to things to this situation. This was different because it was Kira and he didn’t want her to think he got grumpy every time things didn’t go his way.
Daniel didn’t think he’d directed his irritation about his failings at Kira but he couldn’t help worrying that it had come across that way because she went rather pink and started apologising for giving advice. He was mortified, although at the same time Kira being a bit embarrassing was kind of cute (not that Dan wished embarrassment upon her of course).
“It’s okay,” Dan said hastily. “It’s helpful, honestly. It’s good to know you believe in me.”
There he was again! What an idiot. Did he just want to come right out and tell her how he felt already? Well, yes he kind of did but he for some reason he just couldn’t. It took a lot of guts to do something like that and he had no reason to believe that the feelings would be mutual.
“I like Charms too,” he smiled at her. It was his favourite subject, which she might be surprised by given his current practical disaster. “I think Transfiguration theory is really interesting though,” he added. Kira had specified that she liked wand work but Dan thought sharing his interest in theory would make him sound more intelligent. Intelligence was attractive. Daniel knew that he, for one, had always ranked it very highly. He didn’t need to be sorted into Aladren to continue to appreciate it.
The third year returned to glaring at the blob he had created. He would never admit to needing the help but Kira’s words of advice did echo in his mind and got his head back in the game somewhat. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what to do but he’d been unfocused so needed someone to prompt him to concentrate on what he was trying to achieve.
“Gastropoda,” Daniel tried again, pointing his wand at the object he was trying to transfigure and picturing the slug he wanted to turn it into.
And sure enough, the rubber blob transfigured into a bog standard brown slug. Not very creative but that didn’t matter right now. He’d done it, he could breathe again. Daniel turned to Kira again with a smile. “There. Check you out, professor,” he said teasingly.
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Daniel
I wouldn't advise that.
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Daniel
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