Professor Skies
September 16, 2017 12:44 AM
Beginners - rain, rain, go away by Professor Skies
October dawned with a spectacular downpour. Selina often questioned the wisdom and sanity of their Irish founders who had been so fond of their home climate as to set up weather charms in the desert school in order to mimic it - firstly because that was a ridiculous amount of work, and second because she frequently failed to see the appeal. She had planned a rainy day lesson, safe in the knowledge that one would come along sooner or later (though it would be typical of the Irish weather to be sunny throughout the autumn months just to spite her - until living with Sonora’s, she had never thought of weather as something that had much personality or intent, but the Irish type definitely did, and it was to be as sheer bloody minded and contrary as possible).“Good morning,” she greeted the beginners class, as they filed in and took their seats. “Hands up anyone who got wet feet this morning?” she asked, looking particularly at the Pecaris, who would have had to walk through the gardens to get into the main school building. “Rain is a common feature at Sonora, and even days that start out sunny here can quickly turn. So, today, we’ll be working on a very practical lesson, in order to help you deal with this problem. We’ll be making rain boots. We’ll be practising it on different types of shoe, as the most useful target for this, in case of a sudden rain shower, is your own footwear. I’ve got some regular boots for first years, and other types of shoes and sandals for second years,” she explained, waving her wand so that two boxes began to make their way around. In order to successfully navigate between the rows of chairs, they were about the size of a single standard shoe box, yet even by the time they got to the back row, the students would find them to still be adequately full.
“Remember to start by working out the differences between what you’re starting with and what you’re aiming to create. I’d like to see a complete transfiguration table from everyone, even if it seems straightforward,” she requested. Transfiguration relied very heavily on visualisation, and on the students being able to target their energy into the right aspects of the transformation they were trying to make. To aid this process Selina had her beginner students analyse the similarities and differences between the object they had and the object they wanted using a simple table, which listed all the features imaginable - size, colour, function, material, with two blank columns for them to make notes about these features. For the beginners, the main objective this lesson was going to be changing the material. As they were a few weeks into term, she hoped they were starting to get confident with this skill, although this required them to use it on a relatively big target. Whilst a pair of regular boots turned into rubber would work effectively as rain boots, and get them a passing grade, they might look a little odd, and so refining the appearance in some small and subtle ways would earn them extra credit.
“The spell for this is brasilenius, and you will need a swirling upward motion of your wand, like so,” she added, demonstrating by transforming a pair of brogues on her desk into a pair of blue boots patterned with clouds. “First years, don’t worry too much about design work, unless you find that you’re really getting the spell easily. Second years, as usual, it’s a way to earn extra credit.” Design work was always a good way to have older years in the classes stretch themselves - if the shoes they had were red, there was no reason why they shouldn’t make a pair of red boots. They were every bit as correct and useful as, say, a yellow pair. But being able to change the colour at the same time as everything else took extra effort and therefore was worth extra credit. Of course, if a student was struggling to get the spell down, colour was often a feature that could remain the same, and give them fewer factors to worry about.
“For homework, I would like you to try to find out the origin of the spell. I’d also like you to read up on Impervius charms, and suggest reasons why the Transfiguration you’re learning might still be useful or necessary. If you finish your practical work early, you can begin on this task.You may talk with your classmates as you work. And, if you have any difficulty, ask around or call me over. You may begin.”
OOC - welcome to beginners transfiguration! Posts are graded based on length, realism, relevance and creativity. Grading is done out of character, based on the writing skills you demonstrate, not how good you claim your character is at the spell. You’re a few weeks into term now, so this isn’t the first time your character has picked up a wand or attempted transfiguration. Enjoy, and have fun!
Subthreads: Glittery and jittery by Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw with Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari
Singing in the rain by Parker Fitzgerald - Pecari with Gary Harper
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Beginners - rain, rain, go away
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Parker Fitzgerald - Pecari
September 28, 2017 6:23 AM
Singing in the rain by Parker Fitzgerald - Pecari
The shoes squished as he walked into the classroom and Parker felt a bit like a wet dog or some almost drowned animal.The rain had started during Parker's now semi dialy walks through the gardens that surrounded the Pecari’s common room. He loved being outside surrounded by plants before he had to head into classrooms all day, and he was quite far away from the buildings when it had started pouring rain.
As he had run towards the common room entrance he made sure to jump in some of the larger puddles, luxuriating in the sheer oddness of a rainstorm of this kind in a desert.
It has to be magic. Parker had thought to himself Unless Arizona’s deserts are so different from the ones in Nevada, that they have freak rainstorms. But then it wouldn’t be a desert.
He had gotten carried and away with the puddle jumping though, and realized he might be late for class. So he ran towards the main building without stopping in the common room to change clothes.
He found a seat behind a bunch of balloons, and he smiled in the sheer satisfaction of having been outside in the rain, but he wished that he had been able to go back to the common room to change as water began to drip in a puddle under his seat.
When Professor Skies asked the students about wet feet, Parker laughed a bit and put up both hands. His wet clothes kind of sliding down his arms. He was sure there was some sort of spell that could dry him off, he just didn’t know it yet. Maybe he could ask someone on the Quidditch team later.
Professor Skies described the class and Parker loved it. He was less interested in the homework, as he saw being able to turn his shoes into rain boots at the wave a wand very useful already.
As the box reached him he looked in and pulled out a pair of old tan work boots that looked like they had some paint on them from somewhere. Parker took his paper and began speaking quietly to himself as he wrote.
“Size…,” Parker looked inside the shoe and couldn’t find a shoe tag. He picked up one of the shoes and held it to his own. It was a bit bigger. “Size: 8-8 1/2. Colour: Tan with white paint on them. Function.”
Parker looked at his shoes. The function could be for many things he assumed and shrugged his shoulders and wrote. “Function: To wear while working outdoors. Material.” Parker had no idea. He assumed some kind of leather or fiber blend.
Do they even have fiber blends in the wizarding world? Parker wondered. Parker tapped next to his sheet trying to decide what to write.
“Material: Lether”
First column was done. Parker looked around to see what others were writing in the second column to make sure he was right about making sure it was what he wanted the shoe to look like afterwards. Parker was still unsure about his magic abilities, so he never tried to go overboard and he wasn't quite sure what overboard was for this class. He turned to look at the paper next to him.
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Singing in the rain
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Gary Harper
October 10, 2017 9:58 PM
That's the spirit by Gary Harper
Gary had arrived early for class. He liked being early, it gave him some time to get his thing situated and get a little reading done in the text before class got started. So far, transfigurations was not looking to be his strong suit. He was getting the hang of it, but some aspects just eluded him. The class essentially was all about the transmutation school of magic as he saw it. Some of the other classes had mixtures of evocation, illusion, abjuration, and some conjuration, but this one was much more focused. That in itself wasn't the problem either, the problem persisted through all of the classes so far, but for some reason it didn't seem to bother him as much as it did here. The problem simply was the question, 'How in the world is this working?'As the other students poured into the class room, he read through the textbook trying to find the underlying forces behind the structural changes he was making to molecular structure of these objects with a flick of the wand and a word or two. He wasn't having much luck. The book focused much more on the procedures, the steps necessary to accomplish the changes, but not how or why. He knew they worked, he had accomplished some of them, but it still bothered him. Professor Skies began to talk, and he looked up not realizing the seats around him had filled. A boy (who Gary assumed had a name) in the row in front of him had some balloons, and the boy next to him (Parker maybe?) was dripping wet.
Professor Skies talked and Gary took notes. He would have to look up the information on the Impervious charm, one in the abjuration school he assumed with a name like that. The origin of the spell may give him some insight on the power of the origin, this will be some good homework. He'd have to hit the library, if he dug up enough origins of these spells, maybe that would answer some of his question.
When the box went past him, he reached in and grabbed a pair of fur-lined winter boots. He was going to turn this into rubber? This could get interesting. First things first though, the checklist. These had actually be quite helpful, and he scribbled down notes in the boxes provided. Size: 9, 12" tall, 10" leg diameter, 4" sole to top of foot. Color: Black, white fur trim, silver bootlace eyelets, inner lining red and blue plaid. Function: Retain heat, repel moisture. Material: Rubber sole, fabric sides, fur (probably synthetic), metal eyelets. Next he filled out the 'Change to' column. If the goal was just to make it rubber, a lot of this could stay the same. Size: 9, 12" tall, 10" leg diameter, 4" sole to top of foot. Color: Black, white fur trim, silver bootlace eyelets, inner lining red and blue plaid. Function: repel moisture. Material: Rubber sole, rubber sides, fur (probably synthetic), metal eyelets.
He immediately spotted one advantage, the winter boot was also designed to repel water, just not as well. He also wasn't sure how well it would work if he left the laces in, but he wasn't sure he was anywhere good enough to get rid of them yet. Maybe he could try and fuse the tongue and the main part of the boot together and let the laces alone but non-functional. So much of this magic was imagining what you wanted to happen. The word and wand wave had to be precise, there was no way to encode variations into those actions. They were just some sort of focusing point for the mental image you created. Or maybe a way to transfer that mental image onto the physical object...? So much more research was needed.
Leaning back in his chair, he noticed a small trickle of water making its way towards his paper. He wiped it away an looked at the wet boy next to him. He was looking at Gary. "Hey," Gary said in an attempt at a casual start to a conversation he wasn't sure he wanted to have. "How goes your boot?" He gave the boy who he was pretty sure was named Parker, but nowhere close to sure enough to actually say it out loud, a little smile.
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Gary Harper
That's the spirit
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