A Button in a Pebble Stack [tag Ness and Malikhi] on Transfiguration

Professor Skies

August 10, 2018 11:04 PM

Beginners - Button It by Professor Skies

“Good morning,” Selina greeted the beginners class, eyes travelling around the room to take note of the new faces. A lot of the surnames on the roll call were familiar, and not just due to the usual Pureblood families with a large influence in the school. Hopefully, that meant that most of the first years were having an easy time settling in, as they had older relatives to help them adjust.

“For our new first years, welcome to Transfiguration, and to the start of your classes at Sonora Academy. I am Professor Skies,” she smiled. Transfiguration for the beginners was every day after breakfast, and so this was always their first introduction to lessons and to using their wands. A little harsh, perhaps, given its reputed difficulty compared to other branches of magic, though hopefully their spirits wouldn’t be too dented if they got lack lustre results. In that sense, having the second years alongside might be a help - it showed how far they could progress in a single year. Though she supposed a year was a long time to eleven and twelve year olds…. “The first thing to know, is that Transfiguration is very difficult magic. It may take several attempts before you start to see results. You are likely to progress through each transformation by making small steps and alterations, rather than by being able to achieve a complete result in one go. Just remember, that even when it feels like you’re failing, you are still learning something. You need to learn to channel your magic, to have it respond to your will rather than your emotions, and all of this is good practise.

“Successful transfiguration comes from two things - one is clear visualisation, the other is respecting the laws and limits of this branch of magic,” behind her, the chalk wrote these two headings in elegant, looping handwriting.

“Visualisation is key. Picturing what you want your object to turn into, and how it is going to get there. Let’s take the classic example of a matchstick into a needle. What is similar about the two objects, and in what ways do they differ? Second years, you should all be experts at answering this type of question by now,” she added, wanting to rouse any sleepy older students who had tuned out on the assumption that this part of the lesson was not for them. Behind her, the chalk drew a matchstick and a needle, annotating them as suggestions came in from the students about their similarities and differences.

“Good,” Selina nodded, when she felt they had covered all of the important points, “So, thinking through the items - their properties - allows us to really concentrate on what it means to turn one into the other. It also allows us to find any common points - they are both long and thin, for example - areas where we can see a similarity, and help link the objects in our minds. That’s important, and it brings us on to point number two.

“There are a number of legal restrictions on transfiguration and laws of nature against which it will not work. We will look at those more throughout your time here at Sonora. In terms of laws of nature, the first thing to know is that it helps for there to be some similarity between the objects you are transfiguring. Some would say it is always essential, just as your power grows those connections can become more and more tenuous and abstract. To begin with, you will almost always work with objects of a similar size and shape to those which you are attempting to create. Finding those similarities is as key as finding the differences - identifying the differences allows you to see the work you have to do, but identifying the similarities allows you to know that it is possible.

“To help with this process, you will fill out transfiguration tables before you attempt to begin casting. These list all the ways in which you can compare objects - their size, their colour, their function etcetera,” she explained. A table with a full list of headings down one side and two blank columns next to these made their way to each first year, “Second years, you should be able to do this from scratch by now, but you may take a table if you wish. You may fill this out however you like. With pictures. With words. You may write in a language other than English. The purpose of these is to help guide your mental process. For you to show yourself what you need to do, though I will ask you to produce a neat, English version for homework so that I can check your working.

“The lesson today will be on pebbles to buttons,” as she explained this, a box made its way round the room, so that each person could select a pebble. There was some variation in the size and colouring but if anyone got too hung up about making their selection, the box would pointedly rattle itself at them. “You will first need to fill out your tables to describe what steps that transformation will require. When you are ready to cast, the incantation is Pangolus. The wand movement is a clockwise circle if you are right-handed. If you are left-handed, a counterclockwise variation is possible - it is generally considered less effective but this is balanced out if it feels more comfortable and natural for you to move in that way,” behind her the chalk scribbled this key information on the board. Selina held up a pebble, demonstrating the spell by making a pretty flower shaped button with shimmering mother of pearl inlay.

“Second years, challenge yourselves by removing your pebble further from its original state - change its colour, make a more pronounced variation to the size, or the shape, or include a nice pattern.

“If you are stuck, chapter two of your textbooks has more about transfiguration tables, whilst chapter three has more theoretical background to the subject. You may also call me over, or talk quietly amongst yourselves. You may begin.”

OOC - posts should be a minimum of 200 words and will be graded based on length, relevance, realism and creativity. If you have any problems (or are causing problems whereby a teacher would likely step in) please tag me in the subject line and give me time to respond. Selina would not let things get out of hand. Bear in mind that during their first transfiguration lesson, only Hermione managed to get any effect, and she was a freaking prodigy. We’ll allow you to go a little faster for the sake of having interesting things happen/variation between people but be prepared to not get very far very fast. If you have questions about the lesson or realism, then stop by chatzy or ask on the OOC.

Subthreads:

A Button in a Pebble Stack [tag Ness and Malikhi] by Evelyn Stones with Malikhi Hill, Pecari, Ness McLeod, Aladren, Ness McLeod, DH Skies

Let's just get on with it. by Julius Astley with Nathaniel Mordue, Teppenpaw

But what is 'it'? by Katerina Vorontsov with Heinrich Hexenmeister

13 Professor Skies Beginners - Button It 26 Professor Skies 1 5

Evelyn Stones

August 10, 2018 11:30 PM

A Button in a Pebble Stack [tag Ness and Malikhi] by Evelyn Stones

After a quick 'Malikhi, this is Ness. Ness, Malikhi,' Evelyn had taken a seat between them. Having missed breakfast due to her conversation in the library with Ness, Evelyn hadn't actually gotten to introduce them yet, and they'd only just managed to grab a slice of cake from Kir before making their way to their first class and meeting Malikhi there. Evelyn had apologized for missing breakfast but didn't get much more into it than that. She wasn't ready to discuss her library conversation with Malikhi and even if she was, she wouldn't have done so in class.

Evelyn wasn't sure if she was relieved or horrified. On one hand, it was great to know that Transfiguration was hard and that she shouldn't expect any results, but what if she never got any at all? How would they know if she was behind? Even just in reading the textbook, Evelyn could tell her nerves were slowing her down.

Sitting between Ness and Malikhi was a comfort, but only a small one. They hadn't really had the chance to meet properly yet and it was a bit... odd. She didn't want to feel like she had to choose a friend-- and in fact she refused to do so-- but couldn't tell exactly what either of them thought or felt about the other.

Staring at her transfiguration table, Evelyn found herself extremely grateful that she at least knew what was expected of her and what she should be doing. It was easy enough to understand the assignment, if not complete it. She considered the pebble that she'd taken, a misshapen black stone with a smooth surface, and peered at her paper.

"It's probably easier if we think of what kind of button we're going for, right? If I want a black button, then they have the color in common. If I want a button like hers," Evelyn gestured at Professor Skies' button, "then that's different. Right?" She asked the question aloud for either Ness or Malikhi or both.

This was their first class together and Evelyn was more than a little excited to see how they all worked. She knew herself of course, but thought it'd be interesting to see how Ness and Malikhi approached things differently-- or the same-- and how they worked together as a group. She looked between them, scooting her chair back enough that they made a small half circle almost.

"What do you guys think?"

(OOC, particularly for Malikhi: Because my calendar was all messed up in my head, I THINK this thread might be before the MARS room thread. That's what it looks like. But AFTER Ness and Evelyn's conversation in the library, which would've been this morning. Probably. Ish.

This is the first time Ness and Malikhi are meeting.)

22 Evelyn Stones A Button in a Pebble Stack [tag Ness and Malikhi] 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Malikhi Hill, Pecari

August 11, 2018 12:14 AM

Can we keep the buttons? by Malikhi Hill, Pecari

Malikhi wasn't particularly very happy upon arriving into the Transfiguration classroom. He had spent his breakfast at the Pecari table alone and in silence given that Evelyn seemed to be missing and he hadn't made any other friends yet. He didn't know where she was as he hadn't seen her in the Common Room that morning nor had he seen her in the hallways on his way down to Cascade Hall. He'd eaten his breakfast quickly, figuring that there was no point in dilly dallying about if she wasn't there and then had returned to the Pecari Common Room for his things.

When he entered the classroom for the first time, his mood lifted immediately upon catching sight of Evelyn's white hair. He quickly marched over to the desk at which she was sitting when he realised that she wasn't alone. She was sitting with another girl - at least, he was pretty sure she was a girl as her short boyish haircut confused him - and Malikhi swallowed thickly. An uncomfortable feeling swelled within his stomach, a feeling he wasn't familiar with. Nevertheless, he sat down in the spare seat on Evelyn's other side and let himself be introduced. As it turned out, this was the 'Ness' person that he'd been hearing about.

"Hello," he coughed, awkwardly. "I, um, saw you at orientation."

That was all he could think of to say. For some reason, making friends with Ness didn't feel as easy as making friends with Evelyn had been and, for a moment, he wondered if he could only make friends with girls who cried upon first meeting him.

He listened to Professor Skies's lecture and explanation, trying to understand the basic concept. It sounded like they had to find similarities between the pebble they had selected and the button they wanted the pebble to turn into. Malikhi's face screwed up in thought. How could he compare differences if he didn't have a button to look at as well? How could you compare something if you didn't know what it looked like?

He looked at his own pebble, which was smooth and a light blue but more triangular than circular. He didn't know any buttons that were triangular. Could you have a triangular button? He'd never seen one himself. He frowned at his pebble as if it had somehow offended him. Why did it have to be triangular?

Evelyn was asking something about colours next to him and he hadn't even thought about that. His pebble was a light blue, which was a good thing because he'd seen blue buttons. He had a shirt that had blue buttons. Okay, that was a start. In his somewhat messy handwriting, he scrawled the word 'blue' onto his table before deciding to ask Evelyn about triangular buttons.

"Hey, Linney... Do triangular buttons exist?"

20 Malikhi Hill, Pecari Can we keep the buttons? 1423 Malikhi Hill, Pecari 0 5

Ness McLeod, Aladren

August 11, 2018 6:50 AM

No, they will revert back to pebbles by Ness McLeod, Aladren

It had been a pretty intense morning. Waking up in a new place was always an interesting experience - that little moment adjusting and remembering where you were. In this case, it was a place Ness had longed to be for years and years, though the excitement was somewhat tempered by finding herself alongside a blood snob and a dead raccoon. The morning chat with Evelyn had been kind of intense, both in a good way, where they had reaffirmed the solidity of their friendship, but also in a kind of scary way because something really not good seemed to be going on in Evelyn’s personal life. And then there had been cake. It had been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster already.

Now it was time for their first actual ever class, and Ness was keen to make a good impression on all the professors, not to mention actually wield a wand for the first time and do real, actual magic. Well, first it was time to be introduced to the Pecari Slime Boy. Malikhi. Calling him Malikhi was probably better and a friendlier move. Ness had reservations, mostly based on the slime, but was willing to admit that there were enough unknown factors there that it would be unwise to judge. Judging before knowing was generally bad, and Evelyn liked this person.

“Hi,” Ness replied, with an attempt at a friendly smile, although a small amount of nervousness showed through. Malikhi didn’t seem full of enthusiasm about them all sitting together but it was hard to place whether that was some kind of active dislike of Ness or just… general first day nerves. Better to be generous, chalk it up to the latter, and just keep trying to be friendly. “Yeah… You too,” came the reply to his comment about orientation. There wasn’t really much more one could say to that… Luckily, the lecture began shortly after, saving them both from further awkward small talk.

The class was everything Ness had hoped for. Professor Skies was interesting, and Ness eagerly took notes of what the teacher was saying. It made a lot of sense too, although much of it was already familiar from what she had read in the textbooks. Although Professor Skies prompted the second years to contribute to the question answering, she did not state that it was exclusively aimed at them, and - wanting to make a good first impression - Ness’ hand was up, adding that both needles and matchsticks were human-made household items, feeling that that was a pretty good contribution as it was one of the less obvious features.

As soon as they got their tables, the Aladren first year began scribbling furiously, more or less expecting them all to work in silence until they had at least made notable progress with the task. Ness had already jotted down that the colour of both buttons and pebbles was highly variable, but that a button could have the colour of the pebble she had been given without looking out of place, and was just about to move onto ‘shape’ when Evelyn asked about the assignment.

“Right,” Ness confirmed, continuing to jot things down, a little confused, because Evelyn was basically repeating exactly what Professor Skies had just said to them, and they could all just be writing instead of talking because it was all pretty obvious. Ness noted down that the majority of buttons were round and that thus, as a first year, it would be best, on this occasion, to keep the main shape of the pebble (though it would need some minor alteration due to not being a perfect circle, and because the button would be thinner and flatter than the pebble - Ness briefly wondered whether that was tautological before deciding that no, it wasn’t because thinness referred to the overall depth of the object whilst flatness was whether or not it curved). Evelyn then prompted them both for more detailed opinions, and Ness looked up. “I mean, probably none of us can make a button like hers right now. We should be focussing on designs that have things in common with our pebbles already. That’s what she said to do,” Ness re-explained. The tone of voice was not impatient, because Ness didn’t really mind re-explaining things to people, most of the time, but it failed to conceal the fact that the Aladren thought this information was kind of obvious. “And yes, they do,” Ness added, regarding Malikhi’s question of whether triangular buttons existed, for all that the question had actually been addressed to someone else - Ness knew the answer, and therefore gave it.

“You prefer being called Linney?” Ness added, having noticed the nickname.

13 Ness McLeod, Aladren No, they will revert back to pebbles 1419 Ness McLeod, Aladren 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 11, 2018 4:41 PM

And so it begins.... by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn sighed as quietly as she could. She couldn't help sighing, but she could help whether it caused an issue or not. She wasn't even sure what emotion to feel first, although frustration and embarrassment were up there pretty high. She pressed her coral blue lips together and shoved a strand of hair that had escaped her bun out of her face. Her cactus earrings swung and she couldn't help feeling a bit prickly herself.

If she was honest with herself, she really admired Ness' enthusiasm and intelligence. She wanted to be more like that, but just didn't see how that was going to happen. Maybe if this was History of Magic or Muggle Studies she'd be more inclined. As it was, she was just a ball of nerves.

When Ness replied in such simple answers, she realized her question may have been obvious. Malikhi looked even more perplexed than she was and the whole thing was almost humorous. Not quite. But almost.

She giggled when Ness answered Malikhi's question about triangular buttons. She probably would've answered the same thing, but hadn't actually seen triangular buttons herself and thought it an interesting observation, if not a silly one. Malikhi was very straightforward and she couldn't blame hi for not taking another second to try and imagine a triangular button before asking.

Then Ness noticed his nickname for her.

"No," Evelyn replied. "Most people just call my Evelyn or Ev. That's just something Malikhi uses." Her smile was controlled: friendly enough to assuage any concerns about this nickname and to encourage Malikhi, but small enough not to seem overly excited or to over-encourage Malikhi. She wasn't sure why she was so careful, but it felt important.

"Ness has the right idea, I think," she said, not sure if she actually thought that. "Just filling it out as much as possible before we talk about it."

Evelyn tried to ignore both of her friends as she set her mind to the task at hand and hoped desperately that the whole term wouldn't be like this. Even the whole week.

Both fit in my palm. Both are hard. Both are common good luck charms and often found in pockets. Both are the subjects of my transfiguration today. Both are easy to lose. Both are shiny (sometimes). Both are good for crafts. Both are used in kindergarten.

She pondered that these similarities really weren't much about the items' physical similarities, and wondered if that was a problem.

22 Evelyn Stones And so it begins.... 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Malikhi Hill, Pecari

August 11, 2018 5:04 PM

I am not enjoying myself by Malikhi Hill, Pecari

Malikhi kept his eyes firmly fixed on his paper, his hair falling round his face as he scowled. If he'd have stared hard enough at his paper, there was possibly a chance that it would catch fire. He had very quickly come to the conclusion that he didn't like Ness, as he thought he probably wouldn't. Just because she appeared to know all the answers, didn't mean that she had to be so short and rude about it. It wasn't his fault that he didn't know that triangular buttons existed. How could somebody know that something existed if they had never seen it? He wasn't an all-knowing being.

He hadn't even asked her the question in the first place. It had been directed towards Evelyn. Who, he mentally added, was his Linney. That was why he was placated when she told Ness that it was his nickname for her. Hopefully, she would get the message.

He sucked in a deep breath, deciding to brush aside his issues for the time being and returned to his work. He had a peek over to Evelyn's sheet but hers seemed to make no sense at all. There was hardly anything on there about the appearances of buttons and half of the things on there, he'd never heard of either. He looked back at his own, mostly blank page. Then, an idea occurred to him.

He was wearing a shirt as part of his uniform.

To be precise, he was wearing a button-up shirt.

Suddenly feeling very pleased with himself, he looked down at his shirt and closely examined the buttons and compared the differences between them and his pebble. They didn't look alike but he had a starting point. Feeling better about himself and somewhat happier, he started to bullet point his thoughts.

Hard. Small. Smooth. A button has holes, pebble does not. Button made of plastic, pebble made of... pebble.

He glanced at Ness, momentarily annoyed again as he remembered her tone when she'd answered the question. Still, he supposed that she had, in a way, helped him. He jotted down another point.

Pebbles and buttons can be any shape.

20 Malikhi Hill, Pecari I am not enjoying myself 1423 Malikhi Hill, Pecari 0 5

Ness

August 11, 2018 11:50 PM

Really? What's not to like? by Ness

“Oh. Ok,” Ness nodded, with a slight curious hesitation as Evelyn revealed that the nickname was something only Malikhi used. The hesitation was because, like with most things, a bunch of follow up questions had suggested themselves (How come? And did Evelyn like being called that by him? And did she call him something different too?) and Ness was trying to decide whether to voice any of them, but they were in class and it was less important than what they were supposed to be doing, so with a shrug the subject was dropped and Ness returned to the paper in front of her.

Ness wasn’t sure why Evelyn had giggled over the answer to the triangular buttons question, but everyone seemed to just be getting their heads down and working quietly, and Ness felt reassured. Evelyn was kind of insecure, and had maybe just needed a little encouragement to confirm that she was on the right lines. And even Malikhi was putting pen to parchment, which definitely earnt him a tick in favour of using his real name and not ‘Pecari Slime Boy.’ Ness smiled, turning back to the task at hand, and feeling very happy with the whole thing. Quiet companionable working was definitely how the Aladren had pictured a good class going.

After a couple of minutes scribbling, and when everyone seemed to have more or less stopped, Ness broke the silence.

“So… I guess we can all say what we’re aiming for and how it’s similar and different than our pebbles?” Talking it through hadn’t been a mandatory part of the assignment, but Evelyn had seemed to want to, and Ness supposed that talking through their plans would help with their visualising, so it was probably a good idea. “My pebble is broadly round, which is the same basic shape as a button - well, most buttons, buttons are kinda like people and can be however they want to be,” Ness added, with a smile at both Malikhi, because his button was determined to go against the grain and at Evelyn because she would appreciate the thoroughly gay subtext of that remark, “though the button will be thinner - have less overall depth - than the pebble, and also flatter, in that it won’t curve as prominently. I will aim for a slightly convex button rather than type that has an indent in the centre so that it more closely mirrors the shape of the pebble. I will also need to create holes. I will aim for four holes - some buttons do have only two which would be less energy in terms of the transformation, but I find it harder to picture, my brain defaults to four, so I think the ease of visualisation will balance it out. For now, I will aim to keep the same colour. The main thing that will have to change is the material, as my button will be plastic. So, if I rank the main features in order, colour is the easiest as it’s the same, shape is in the middle as there are some similarities and differences, and material is the biggest change because it has to change entirely. One is natural, and one is man-made so that doesn’t help me, and I am going to try to keep that difference out of my mind, as it’s not something I need to consciously change, but as it’s a difference rather than a similarity, it will hinder rather than help me if I think about it too much. It’s good to say it all out loud,” Ness confirmed to Evelyn, as Ness regarded it as the Pecari’s idea to have done so, and waited expectantly for Evelyn and Malikhi to share their thoughts before they all began the practical.

13 Ness Really? What's not to like? 1419 Ness 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 12, 2018 2:38 AM

I've done it all wrong! by Evelyn Stones

Upon hearing Ness' thoughts on their task, Evelyn was convinced she'd done it all wrong. She really did care about her relationship with these two, though, so there was no room for lying about it.

"I think I...maybe approached it a little differently," Evelyn said, blushing. She held her parchment to her chest, hiding her transfiguration tables and then peeking at them to discuss her own answers. "My mom always kept little lost things or found things as 'good luck charms'. Obviously they weren't real charms," for lots of reasons, "but we always liked them anyway."

Evelyn didn't look up to see either Malikhi or Ness' expression, afraid as she was that they might feature ridicule.

"To change a pebble into a button, I'd need to change it from something found in a riverbed to something that fell off a shirt or a bag or something, since buttons come from other things. But really, you can find both in riverbeds, so I'll try to focus on that. It's almost as easy to find a stone among many others as it is to find a button that's been lost there for who knows how long."

She thought of some of the physical features Ness had described and considered these herself.

"My button will be about the same size as my pebble, sort of large for a button but maybe it got lost from a raincoat or something. And it will be a bit scuffed up, of course. My pebble is black so I'll probably make a black button, otherwise somebody else would've already found it on the riverbed."

Now she did look up, although she focused on the wood grain of her desk. "Buttons and pebbles are both small things, used for crafts, good luck charms, lucky tokens, all that, so they're the same sort of thing. They both point to the existence of something bigger. River stones show us that a river exists with a stony bed, buttons show us a coat or shirt exists where it came from. They're both very important little things, and I want to focus on that for my transfiguration."

Evelyn swallowed thickly. "Is that totally wrong?"

22 Evelyn Stones I've done it all wrong! 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Malikhi Hill, Pecari

August 12, 2018 4:33 PM

Everybody thinks differently. by Malikhi Hill, Pecari

Malikhi couldn't help but smile as Evelyn rattled through her thoughts and explanations. Somehow, it was just so Evelyn. She was somehow seeing beyond just the button and delved deeper, into the similarities and differences that weren't immediately obvious. It was fascinating and clever and, as a side note to himself, he thought her blush was rather cute. He grinned at her, hoping that it would reassure her.

"I think that's really good," he told her, seeing that she was doubting her. "Everybody's perspective is different and that's not a bad thing."

Deciding that it was his turn, he picked up his parchment and, in a bid to make her laugh, he overdramatically cleared his throat, as if to make a speech. With a wide grin, he began to relay his thoughts.

"Well, I'm hoping my button will be small and hard, like my pebble and, to make things easier, a light blue. I like the colour blue so I don't want to change it and that seems like too much effort. Like my buttons here on my shirt, I'm going to be aiming for two holes and, as I'll be trying for a similar shaped button, a triangle," he paused then, his eyes flicking up from his paper to look at Ness. He wasn't fond of her yet and didn't view her as a friend the same way he did Evelyn but she did help him, so he supposed it would be okay to give her a small smile. "And given that the button will be small and triangular, only two holes would reasonably fit on there."

He put his parchment back down and swept a hand through his hair, pushing it back from his face. This, as usual, served absolutely no purpose as it flopped back over his forehead and his eyes and a few strands were now randomly sticking up. His eyes flickered up to the two girls and he smiled, pleased with the work he'd done. Transfiguration seemed like a hard subject and the fact that he'd been able to come up with something - with the help of his own shirt - made him very happy indeed.

"Shall we give the spell a go?"

20 Malikhi Hill, Pecari Everybody thinks differently. 1423 Malikhi Hill, Pecari 0 5

Julius Astley

August 12, 2018 5:07 PM

Let's just get on with it. by Julius Astley

After the Opening Feast, Julius had been happy enough to be led to the Crotalus Common Room by the Deputy Headmistress no less. That was at least reassuring that the house he had been sorted into was worth something, if she was in charge of it. He'd listened to her speech quietly before retiring to his room without talking to anybody. All he'd wanted to do was unpack, read a book and then go to sleep.

The next morning, he'd woken up early, dressed himself in his uniform before grabbing his bag of school books and parchment before heading down to Cascade Hall for breakfast. He'd spent it in silence and ate relatively little, having just a couple of slices of toast. In a morning, Julius preferred to have a simple pot of tea which, to his utter relief, had been provided. He'd taken the time to flick idly through his Transfiguration text book, not wanting to be totally ignorant on the subject before going to class.

Upon arrival at Transfiguration, he was dismayed to find that all the desks had more than one chair which meant he was more than likely going to end up sitting with someone. With this in mind, he took a seat at the front of the classroom, hoping that anybody else would be reluctant to sit there in case they got picked on by the teacher more than anybody else. A ludicrous notion, he thought but if it deterred anybody from sitting with him and worked in his favour, so be it.

He listened intently to Professor Skies's lecture, writing down notes in perfectly neat cursive as she talked. When the box was passed round, he obediently took a pebble. It was quite thick and big, taking up a lot of his palm. He thought this might be a bit of a challenge as buttons tended to be much smaller by comparison. Still, there was no use staring at it like a goldfish as there were many other similarities between the two. With a sigh, he examined the table that had been given to him and began to work.

20 Julius Astley Let's just get on with it. 1425 Julius Astley 0 5

Ness

August 13, 2018 8:10 AM

And some are buttholes by Ness

“Different strokes for different folks,” Ness agreed with a cheery smile at Malikhi, “Unless the person’s “perspective” involves denying other people their basic human rights. Then it’s not really a perspective, it’s just being a butthole,” the Aladren added. On the whole, that was generally a friendly, liberal kind of thought, but it could get misappropriated all the time into thinking that you basically had to listen and give equal treatment to people who were committing hate crimes, and that was stupid. The comment possibly seemed a bit out of nowhere, given that they were talking about Transfiguration assignments, but Ness’ mind tended to connect everything back to the most important things in life, and to want to scale up any comment into an interesting debate. The comment had been said in a cheerful enough tone that it clearly wasn’t an accusation or a suggestion about anyone at their table’s behaviour. Just an observation.

“And of course you’re not totally wrong” Ness assured Evelyn, as she worried about her answer, “The majority of what you’ve said fits well within the boxes on the table - see,” Ness’s completed table was pushed into Evelyn’s line of sight, seeing as Evelyn was coyly hiding her own, “You’re talking about shape, colour and many of the other primary features,” Ness tapped the labelled boxes down the left hand side. “Even the stuff that’s more… your perspective can fit into some of these boxes. Like, ‘location.’ I mean, you’d probably need to expand your notes - you couldn’t just say ‘riverbed’ but if you explain why you think that, you might get credit for it. The main purpose of the whole thing is to help us with the visualisation, so anything that makes it make sense to you is a right way of doing it. Just when you’re handing your notes in for marking, you’ll need to make sure your thought process is thoroughly enough explained for someone else to follow.” Knowing one was right was a lot less comforting than knowing exactly why one was right and how to receive credit for it in a test or homework scenario. Thus, in the Venn Diagram of Ness, ‘providing emotional support’ and ‘explaining’ shared a seriously large overlapping proportion. How could anyone deal with a problem or feel comforted if nothing got explained? If nothing got explained, then there was no reason to feel better. It didn’t make sense to just say ‘there there, I’m sure you’re doing fine.’ You needed to back that up with solid evidence.

“Sounds good,” Ness nodded, both at Malikhi’s table contents and his suggestion that they try the spell.

Ness tried to push everything else out. That seemed to be a downside of having talked it through, as it was now necessary to get rid of Malikhi and Evelyn’s concepts of ‘buttons’ and focus instead only on one single idea of buttonness. That was harder than expected. Buttons were not a universal thing. They were diverse, a bit like people, and Ness liked diversity (excluding butthole people). It was hard not to start thinking about a whole rainbow of buttons, different shapes and sizes, different numbers of holes, some that went with shirts, some that went with trousers, some that could have come from any garment… Ness pushed them out, trying to make the one very solid, basic idea of a button come into focus.

“Pangolus,” Ness cast, trying to feel like it was somehow more deliberate than just saying it. Like saying it was going to make something happen. And also to keep focussing on that button image, whilst also focussing on magic flowing, and on moving and speaking… It was supposed to all fit together as one thing but it felt like doing four different things at once, and that was hard. It was unsurprising to find that the pebble had remained entirely… pebbular. Well. If at first you don’t succeed...

13 Ness And some are buttholes 1419 Ness 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 14, 2018 11:39 PM

Grooooss by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn breathed a sigh of relief and managed to stay relaxed as Ness spoke. Seeing Ness and Malikhi get along fairly well and each be friendly to the other made Evelyn's heart swell, and Ness' reassurances that she was not, in fact, a dunce, helped too. Of course, she was a bit nervous at the thought of being graded. She hadn't considered that side of things.

As Ness turned to make the group's first try, Evelyn took a second to write down some additional notes. She tried to be as objective as possible, taking notes on the size, shape, and color of her pebble and of the button she was imagining. She also did her best to make her notes coherent for Professor Skies.

Slowly and with as steady a hand as she could manage, she pulled her wand out. With her thoughts on the riverbed at home, where she'd found as many lost buttons as riverrocks it seemed. There was one that she remembered vividly, a hard plastic button with four holes. It was the kind that made her think of a day in kindergarten when they used buttons and glue to make caterpillar crafts. She'd found it nestled amongst the shiniest black river rocks, with shoots of white etching their smooth surfaces.

Evelyn closed her eyes and waved her wand. "Pangolous," she whispered.

When she opened her eyes, she hesitated a glance at her pebble and found that it now featured the tiniest hint of white. Evelyn leaned forward, positively bursting with excitement as she observed her meager transformation, and then suddenly becoming less excited when she realized the river water she'd thought of had apparently found its way out of her wand and was pouring from the end and all over her robes.

22 Evelyn Stones Grooooss 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Malikhi Hill, Pecari

August 14, 2018 11:52 PM

Uh, Professor? It's a bit wet over here (tag Prof. Skies) by Malikhi Hill, Pecari

Malikhi had been eagerly awaiting his turn to try the spell, so much so that he'd hardly paid attention to Evelyn's casting until it was too late. He just caught a glimpse of her pebble changing before water began to spurt from the end of her wand, not only dousing herself but her desk mates as well the desk and their notes.

His chair scraped back with a loud noise as he leapt up to try and move out of the way of the water but it was too late. His robes were just as soaked as Evelyn's now were and he was dripping steadily onto the floor. For a moment, he was too shocked to speak. Evelyn had told him that she wasn't very good at magic, that she was weak but if that was anything to go by, she must have had something inside her. In the next moment, laughter started to leap from his mouth and it filled the room.

"Oh, Evelyn!" he managed to get out through laughs. "I don't think you've quite understood the lesson. We're only supposed to transfigure our pebbles, not the whole room!"

He clapped a hand over his mouth in a vain attempt to try and stifle his laughter but it was no use. Normally, he was the disruptive one in class, causing problems and he'd expected his spell to go wrong and cause something to happen. As it turned out, Evelyn had beaten him to it. When he'd calmed down enough, he turned to look at Professor Skies.

"Um, Professor? I think we're going to need a drying spell..."

20 Malikhi Hill, Pecari Uh, Professor? It's a bit wet over here (tag Prof. Skies) 1423 Malikhi Hill, Pecari 0 5

Katerina Vorontsov

August 16, 2018 11:52 AM

But what is 'it'? by Katerina Vorontsov

It had never occurred to Katya to sit anywhere but the very front of the room until the moment she entered the Transfiguration classroom. Then she saw Julius Astley and her mouth thinned in irritation.

Well. He could tell her not to speak, but he could not even prohibit that, much less her sitting wherever she wanted. She marched to the front of the room and chose the available seat as far as humanly possible from his.

She was here to learn, she thought, not to teach boors how to be civilized. Or anything other than to learn, really. She had to dedicate herself to learning magic and perfecting her English – the latter perhaps to help teach her little brother Alyosha, but also to increase her own accomplishments when she came out into society when she grew up. English was an increasingly useful language, she thought, and besides, the more languages she could manage in, the more accomplished she was, and the more she would eventually be able to rub it in the face of the likes of Julius Astley without technically saying a word out of turn.

That day, however, was still a long way away, as Professor Skies clearly demonstrated. Tak mnogo slov! Katya copied down everything on the board and just hoped she could catch up with the rest, suddenly understanding why her sister’s daily kit contained reading stands and dictionaries. Katya absolutely did not want to bring out her Russian versions of beginner textbooks or her Anglo-Russian dictionary in front of people, but she could see how it would be much more convenient to have less pride about that issue. It wouldn’t be foolproof, though – at one point she knew she heard the words “ten you” said together, and she couldn’t think of a construction she had seen where that made sense in the rest of the sentence she had mostly picked up.

One phrase did, however, leap out at her with absolute clarity: write language other than English. She could write Russian on the chart. Thank the vesnas.

Except…everyone else would not write Russian. Everyone else would presumably write English. It was an English school. Even the headings on the sheet itself were in English. So she should try to write English, so as not to stand out to the professor as foreign, strange, unintelligent. She was not here to write Russian; she had only spoken Russian with Tatiana at breakfast because Tatiana had been in one of her wild, bright moods and had pretended she could not remember how to speak English before she had her tea. It was not polite for them to speak Russian when other people were about, and since Monsieur Montoir had so kindly shown her down to breakfast, it had been bad of Tatiana to immediately start talking to Katerina in Russian. Monsieur Montoir understood some Russian, it was true, but it was not his language – they should have spoken either French or English at breakfast, and Katerina should write English now. Suppressing a wave of bitter disappointment, she set her mind to the task.

Chapter two had more about the tables. All right. She would go to chapter two. She had most likely, she thought, already read this information – in her last month at home, Anton Petrovich had had her translating back and forth in her textbooks to practice her academic English. Yes, she knew this. She had made notes in the margins about especially difficult terms and what they meant in Russian. She also knew the word ‘button’ – that was what was on various items of clothes. Her second English book had involved a whole chapter just about words about clothes and parts of clothes, when she had been learning how to read. So pebble, that was another word for the stone….

Professor Skies had made a very beautiful button. Katya wanted to do something like that, but she was not sure her stone was best-suited to it. It was not a very pretty stone – plain and grey. It would be very difficult, and this was the first time she had ever tried to Transfigure something instead of just reading about it.

“Pan-glous. Pan-go-lus – Pan – I am sorry,” she added to her neighbor. “I hope I do not bother you?”

16 Katerina Vorontsov But what is 'it'? 1418 Katerina Vorontsov 0 5

Ness McLeod, DH Skies

August 18, 2018 7:32 AM

Right... It's wet, not hilarious by Ness McLeod, DH Skies

Ness did not think the lesson was going quite so well any more. It had been a lot better when they were all just writing things down because that part was easy. The theory made complete sense straight away. The practical, it seemed, was going to be a lot more challenging. Ness knew that being challenged was good, but… It had to be a challenge that was achievable, otherwise it was just depressing. Ness was trying to keep focussing on the project when a stream of water spewed across the tables - as in, both the actual desk they were on, and the carefully filled out transfiguration table.

“My notes!” Ness gasped, watching as the ink bled out into blurry illegibility, quickly snatching the textbook that had been next to them to safety. Ness felt a little bad upon realising that the source of the issue was… well, Evelyn, and that she almost definitely hadn’t meant to do that. Malakhi’s reaction though was totally uncalled for.

“Don’t laugh at her!” Ness snapped. Maybe Malakhi didn’t know how insecure Evelyn was about her magic, but even so that was no excuse to just start laughing in her face. That was just plain mean. Especially if they were supposed to be friends. “Everyone makes mistakes when they’re starting out,” the Aladren reassured Evelyn.

Before Malakhi had time to come back on that, Professor Skies was over at their desks.

“Well. At least you got your wand doing something,” she smiled kindly at Evelyn. It looked much more like a burst of accidental magic than anything else really, but doing something that attracted so much attention on their first day was potentially embarrassing, especially as the reaction from the boy next to her had been almost as attention-grabbing as the display itself, and she didn’t think a little bit of reassurance would go amiss. “It’s not that funny, Mr. Hill,” she said, her tone not really telling him off as such, but just reminding him that the volume level was a bit much for class.

She waved her wand, drying the desk and their clothes. Noticing some rather smudged notes, she also tapped these, returning them to their unsmudged state.

“Any particular issue I can help you with?” She suspected the answer was no but it seemed a prudent idea to check.

(OOC joint post as I write both characters. If Evelyn doesn’t ask for anything in particular and there’s no further signs of trouble, you can assume Selina leaves)

13 Ness McLeod, DH Skies Right... It's wet, not hilarious 26 Ness McLeod, DH Skies 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 18, 2018 3:49 PM

It's awful! by Evelyn Stones

In that moment, Evelyn might have died. She wished she could, although she wasn't sure that sounded much better. Maybe she just wished to vanish into a poof of smoke that everyone thought was totally amazing and not an accidental spurt of magic. She was twelve years old and couldn't keep the Niagra from her wand.

"I... I didn't mean to...."

Words escaped her. She was trying to make an apology to the professor and to Ness. Evelyn hadn't missed the frantic way Ness had scurried to retrieve the waterlogged books and notes scattered across the desk. Professor Skies had recovered them, but Evelyn couldn't help feeling terrible anyway. She also wasn't sure whether she was ready to laugh along with Malikhi. She appreciated that he found the humor in the situation...except that she was the reason everything was so funny.

The thought of asking whether she could just leave came to mind, but she thought that might be worse. At least if she went home now, she could tell her father that she definitely had magic. She couldn't say much more than that, though, and wasn't sure she'd be able to face his response.

"I'm sorry," she managed, barely above a whisper. "Thank you, Professor," she added as Professor Skies walked away.

Taking her seat at her desk again, Evelyn hunched her shoulders to avoid any invitation of comfort or contact. "I think I'm just going to work on this paper some more, I want to make sure that part is...uh... Makes sense and stuff."

And with that, she rested her elbow on the desk and placed her face into it, avoiding any sidelong glances as she picked up her writing instrument and began adding to her notes. Not that she could add much in this state of mind, but spelling and grammar probably counted for something.

Neither item, she wrote, trying to ignore the burning in her cheeks and eyes. is the other.

22 Evelyn Stones It's awful! 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Malikhi Hill, Pecari

August 18, 2018 4:24 PM

I was just... forget it. by Malikhi Hill, Pecari

Malikhi was torn between being embarrassed because of being told off by Professor Skies, angry at Ness because he hadn't been speaking to her nor asked for her stupid stuck-up opinions and Evelyn seemed upset so now he felt awful. After Professor Skies had dried the three of them and their belongings before going away, he sat himself back down again. It should've been his turn to cast the spell next but he didn't much feel like it, his previous enthusiasm having dissipated. He also didn't want to, just on the off chance that he actually got it right and transfigured his pebble into a button. It was unlikely but he didn't want to seem like he was rubbing it in Evelyn's face.

Anger swelled as he heard Ness on the other side of Evelyn. Who did she think she was? First of all, she was answering questions that he hadn't asked her and then, she snapped at him. It wasn't like she was perfect, more bothered about her stupid notes than anything else. She was a jumped-up little upstart who clearly had some kind of complex about needing to know everything in the whole world and instead of keeping it to herself, insisted on making sure everybody else knew that she knew stuff. Malikhi had been right to dislike her. His friendship with Evelyn had been absolutely fine until now. Now, with her in the way, he doubted that their friendship could remain as it was.

Malikhi was a positive person, normally. He laughed because it was better than crying. It had only been water, after all. What was that saying? 'No use crying over spilled milk'. This wasn't even milk! It was water, a completely harmless substance and everything had been easily dried and fixed, thanks to the Professor.

To his left, he could see that Evelyn was refusing to look at anyone and guilt surged in his stomach. On the other hand, maybe he had been a bit quick to start laughing - not that Ness had been right, the twerp, because the situation was still funny. He looked at his notes, in his scrawled handwriting, then back at Evelyn. Gently, he squeezed her shoulder to get her to look at him and slid his notes over.

"You can copy mine, if you want..." he murmured in a low voice, trying to keep know-it-all Ness from hearing. Then, he realised that could be read as he didn't think she was smart and needed more help and his eyes widened. "Not that you need them, I'm not saying that... I just thought..."

Oh, he was really screwing this up. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, turning his head away. "Just forget it."

20 Malikhi Hill, Pecari I was just... forget it. 1423 Malikhi Hill, Pecari 0 5

Ness

August 21, 2018 7:44 AM

Good idea by Ness

Poor Evelyn. Ness would have hated to have messed up a spell and have everyone looking, or have needed the teacher to come over to deal with the situation. But it was Malakhi that Ness really blamed for the fact that Evelyn was shrinking back into her shell. He seemed to try to reach out to her, but then promptly gave up and sat back. Nice. He had laughed at Evelyn, made her sad, and now wasn’t even prepared to deal with that properly. Whilst Evelyn’s head was bent, Ness tried to throw a ‘look what you did’ glare at Malikhi (although he mostly seemed to be looking the other way) before turning back to Evelyn.

“Hey,” Ness reassured her quietly, equally wanting to keep the conversation just between the two of them, and not involve Malakhi. “It’s ok, really. Look, last year, there was this whole thing where everyone’s magic went kind of out of control. Kir told me about it. So half the people in this class know exactly what it feels like to have that happen. No one’s judging you for it. Or anyone who is can shove it.

“You also can’t just never try magic again. It’s really not a practical solution,” the Aladren added because whilst Ness could be sweet and comforting, logicking a way around a problem made more sense. Not participating in class was just not a valid choice.

13 Ness Good idea 1419 Ness 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 22, 2018 12:16 AM

Facepalm. On the desk. Facedesk? by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn wondered whether it would be exactly as nice as she thought it sounded to just put her head on the desk and disappear. Perhaps her next bout of accidental magic would be to disapparate, although getting lynched didn't sound fun. She sighed, instead, and sat up a bit. Looking first at Ness, she spoke in as soft a voice as she could manage. She actually did pretty well, considering.

"Ness, I really appreciate you being so helpful and thoughtful. I sort of don't really want to be helped right now. I sort of want to be left alone and just kind of disappear. I really do appreciate you trying to help, and I'd love to talk more later about this, okay? Also, please don't be short with Malikhi. He's not trying to be hurtful. It means a lot that you'd stand up for me, though." She managed a little bit of a smile before turning her head again.

She looked at Malikhi without waiting for Ness' reply. She thought it was a very mature response and didn't want to hear Ness' response to it just yet since Ness always sounded even more mature, and she sort of wanted to win this one. Well. Maybe tie.

"Kai," she murmured, hoping her tone would draw him out of his shell.

She felt a slight brush of resentment at needing to comfort her friends when she was the one embarrassed but it would be better to just be nice to them than take out her anger or whatever else on them. She offered him a small smile as well, although her eyebrows were pulled together and she was quite sure she looked more like a mother than anything else. She hoped he didn't think so. Maybe she'd look like a puppy or a...she couldn't think of another cute animal that would be more exciting. Grindylow came to mind but that wasn't a good thing to look like.

"Kai, I'm not quite ready to laugh at this one, but I'm glad you didn't make fun of me. It's probably a little bit funny," she blushed. Did she really think that? "You know I love your sense of humor. Don't be short with Ness, either. I had a rough morning and Ness is just trying to make sure I'm okay."

Then she turned her face back to her paper and continued writing. At some point, she would need to say more, probably to both of them, but now was not that moment. Instead, she decided to enjoy the best of them both.

Nodding at Ness, she pulled out her wand again and took a breath. She nudged Malikhi with her shoulder. "Chocolate frog if it snows this time?"

She wasn't quite happy, but close enough.

"Pangolus," she whispered. And then, when nothing happened: "Thank Alisanos."

(OOC: Alisanos was an ancient Celtic mountain god/god of stone.)

22 Evelyn Stones Facepalm. On the desk. Facedesk? 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Malikhi Hill, Pecari

August 22, 2018 8:00 PM

I best give you a cushion if you're going to facedesk. by Malikhi Hill, Pecari

Malikhi was still quietly bristling to himself about Ness. He had his doubts that the pair would build a friendship like he had with Evelyn and he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to. She didn't seem to have a fun spirit and seemed rather sour and he didn't enjoy the company of people like that. If given the choice, he would've much preferred spending time with just Evelyn and away from Ness. He knew, though, that the option was not there. If he was to be friends with Evelyn, he'd have to at the very least tolerate her.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard Evelyn trying to pull him from his thoughts and he turned back to her, smiling slightly as she called him 'Kai'. He liked that it was her nickname for him and only her nickname. Nobody else had ever called him that and truthfully, he was happy to keep it that way.

He didn't interrupt her as she spoke, not wanting to upset her further. He felt that perhaps he'd caused enough damage by laughing in the first place and if his mother was here, she would've just told him to 'button it and listen'. He resisted the urge to laugh at the link between his mother telling him to be quiet and the fact that their lesson was all about transfiguring pebbles to buttons. He was concerned when she'd said she'd had a rough morning and wondered if there was more going on than a simple case of accidental magic. He hadn't seen her at all before Transfiguration and that fact that niggled at the back of his mind. In the end, though, he dismissed it and wrote it off as a simple case of her being embarrassed.

When she finished her small speech, he gave her a warm smile and a nod to show that he understood what she was saying and turned back to his paper. As a similarity, he wrote that both buttons and pebbles could be used as turns of phrase. Like his mother telling him to shut up and he'd also heard her say that there were 'plenty more pebbles on the beach'. He smiled, maybe he could also focus on that while he tried to cast the spell.

At Evelyn's nudge, he looked up and smiled as she bet him another chocolate frog. "I'll do you one better," he told her. "Two brownies. And you'll be fine."

This time when Evelyn cast the spell, nothing happened and it certainly hadn't snowed. He couldn't help but grin at her. "I guess I won the bet this time, huh?"

He turned to his own pebble and pulled out his wand. He cleared his throat and tried to make his mind clear, attempting to think only of what he'd written on his table. He took a deep breath and moved his wand in a clockwise circle as he enunciated, "Pangolus!"

His pebble shuddered slightly but then fell still, nothing having changed. A blush crawled up his cheeks. It seems that he hadn't been quite able to push thoughts of Evelyn out of his mind.

20 Malikhi Hill, Pecari I best give you a cushion if you're going to facedesk. 1423 Malikhi Hill, Pecari 0 5

Ness

August 26, 2018 8:52 AM

Feeling left out by Ness

What Evelyn was saying did not make sense. If someone needed help, why would they not want it? Ok, like, if it was a class assignment and they wanted the satisfaction of working it out themselves, but they weren’t talking about the classwork, they were talking about Evelyn’s feelings. The fact that Evelyn promised to talk about it later made the knut drop though. Even though they’d been keeping their voices down, it would make sense that Evelyn didn’t want to talk in front of Malikhi. He was so obviously awful at dealing with other people’s feelings in a sensitive manner. Evelyn’s argument that Malakhi wasn’t trying to be hurtful did little to soften the Aladren up. The fact that someone wasn’t trying to be a prize butthole did not negate the fact that they were being a prize butthole, and needed to learn to be a better human being. Still, Ness obediently (though with something of a sigh and some raised eyebrows) made the motion that lips were being zipped and then turned back to work.

Another attempt on the pebbutton yielded no further results. In fact, calling it a pebbutton - whilst fun to say inside one’s head - was probably not very accurate because it was definitely still very much only the pebble side of that equation. Evelyn was still bent over her paper, and Ness couldn’t care less what Malakhi was doing so long as he was keeping to himself. A quick side glance seemed to reveal that to be the case, and Ness felt satisfied that at least he had been given the brush off too, given that he deserved it far more.

Ness looked up, finding Evelyn was getting her wand back out. Which was… good. It was. It was excellent. But why was she laughing and joking with Malakhi, and not saying anything more to Ness?

“You guys are… gonna get brownies at lunch?” Ness ventured. That hadn’t been exactly what they had said, but the Aladren was unsure how else to join the conversation, to try to be part of whatever was going on here. “Though I guess we should eat something other than cake today,” Ness grinned at Evelyn, adding for Malikhi’s benefit, “My brother made a cake for his girlfriend’s birthday, so that was what we ate for breakfast.”

13 Ness Feeling left out 1419 Ness 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 26, 2018 4:59 PM

Never you! by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn turned when Ness spoke, and her face was full of a smile. She hadn't expected Ness to be interested in anything that involved Malikhi and was hesitant to push her friend to spend more time around the Pecari than was comfortable. However, it seemed that perhaps Ness wasn't so eager to draw a line between them.

"Yes!" Evelyn said, sitting up straighter and relaxing tremendously. "Yes, you should join us! We can eat vegetables probably, too, but yes! What do you say we grab brownies and whatever else for lunch and eat outside today?"

She thought for a moment to invite Ness to join them at the Pecari table, but doubted that that would come off as exactly welcoming. Getting the three of them together though, would be much better.

"I guess it probably won't be too rainy here if the weather is enchanted and we're in Arizona, but I'm so used to the Oregon weather that it seems a waste not to enjoy the last few days of remaining good weather! Old habits die hard I guess." She looked from Ness to Malikhi and smiled at them each, feeling warm. "I can't imagine anyone else I'd rather sit with than the two of you," she said.

It felt good to have friends. It felt...odd. She was pretty sure they were also supposed to like each other, but whatever. This would work, too. They'd probably grow to like each other, right? Probably.

"I bet there'll be more of those cheese sandwiches," she said to Ness, remembering their rather large stack of sandwiches at orientation. "And brownies," she nodded to Malikhi.

At least now the rest of a day that was sure to kill her wouldn't be so bad. Sitting through classes she was practically doomed to fail was less terrible if she got to eat lunch with her best friends part way through it.

22 Evelyn Stones Never you! 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Malikhi Hill, Pecari

August 26, 2018 8:21 PM

Do I have to? by Malikhi Hill, Pecari

Malikhi's mood seemed to be able to do nothing but go up and down today and at hearing Evelyn invite Ness to join them for lunch made it plummet back down and sour again. They'd spent time together that morning, eating Ness's brother's cake. When was he going to spend time with Evelyn on her own without some know-it-all sticking her beak in?

Then, instead of being angry, he then felt rather depressed. He knew that he wasn't normally like this. Malikhi wasn't a boy who disliked people. He much preferred to laugh and smile and joke around. It seemed, though, that Ness wasn't that kind of person. All he seemed to have been able to do is irritate her and he didn't know what else to do. People liked him. Or at least, he thought they had always liked him because he was an eternally cheerful person. He made people laugh, that's what he'd always done. His mother, his father, his friends back in England. Now, he was confronted with someone who didn't fit the pattern and he was very confused. Maybe people had simply put up with him.

He managed a small smile when Evelyn looked back at him, telling him that she couldn't imagine anyone she'd rather be with than him and Ness but he found little comfort in the words, filled with self-doubt. Maybe it would be better if he wasn't so... exuberant. If he wasn't so loud and exciteable and instead, toned it down. Clearly, it seemed Evelyn preferred somebody quieter than him, like Ness, as she had spent lots more time with her than with him. Maybe he was too much.

"Outside sounds good," he murmured quietly before falling quiet again. He really didn't know what else to say.

20 Malikhi Hill, Pecari Do I have to? 1423 Malikhi Hill, Pecari 0 5

Ness

August 28, 2018 8:52 PM

Yes, play nicely by Ness

Phew. They weren't trying to exclude Ness. The first year remembered times in elementary school when people had loudly and pointedly made plans without asking Ness to be a part of it. 'Yay, so it will be me and you and Stephanie. That's everyone right?' 'Well, I can't think of anyone else.' That hadn't sounded like the kind of tone Evelyn was using and Ness trusted her. Malakhi... Malakhi just seemed kinda constantly off, and currently Ness would trust him about as far as it was possible to throw him. But it was all ok, and Evelyn seemed happy for Ness to join, even if Malakhi seemed luke warm about the whole thing. It would have been inaccurate to say that Ness had no idea what his problem was. Ness had just been being Ness. But the first year knew that, very often, that did seem to be a problem for others. What it was harder to figure out was why.

"The weather is Irish, which means it could be doing anything minute to minute. But if it's sunny, I'd love to go out. I love picnics. They always make me think of Pride because that's always one of the family friendly events. Everyone tries to dye or charm as much of their food rainbow as possible. At least, the sweet stuff. Savoury things somehow shouldn't be rainbow coloured."

13 Ness Yes, play nicely 1419 Ness 0 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister

September 10, 2018 8:11 AM

'It' is a pronoun whose meaning changes by context by Heinrich Hexenmeister

Heinrich was glad to be in second year. There were a lot of other problems associated to this year, but being the older half of the beginners was not one of them. He had a handle on how most subjects worked. His English comprehension was getting a lot better. And he knew what Transfiguration Tables were already, and had already heard most of today's lecture about what Transfiguration was before. He paid enough attention to make sure he wasn't missing anything new for the second years, but he settled for understanding the gist rather than trying to translate every word.

Despite his improved English over last year, he still pulled out a German version of the textbook and laid it out on his desk. As the Transfiguration Tables were mostly for his own use, and the professor was ameniable to them being in other languages, he did not for a moment consider writing it in anything but German. He'd have to use English for the copy he turned in for his homework, but he could do the messy process of translating in his own room, where he could spread out his dictionaries and texts (both German and English) to make sure he was using the right word.

After he selected a pebble from the box, he pulled out a blank sheet of parchment and drew his own Transfiguration Table, as the second years were expected to do now. He provided German titles to each of his columns and rows. He obviously already knew those words after a year of getting a handout with them in English, but would match the content better that way. He'd always thought it looked a bit jarring to have the titles in English and the boxes filled in German.

He was still considering how to make a button that was different enough from his pebble that it would count as 'challenging himself' when his neighbor began working on her pronounciation of the incantation.

"It is nothing to me," he promised when she apologized for her effort. "Trying makes you better." He wasn't entirely sure about his sentence constructions, but he hoped they were close enough to get across his lack of offense and his understanding about how important practice was. Her own word choice was comfortingly simple, and he noticed an accent, much like Tatiana's, so he wondered if she was also struggling with the sheer volume of English surrounding them. "I am Heinrich," he introduced himself, deciding to leave of his surname. Russia was probably less likely than some other places to have heard of his parents' arrest and conviction, but there was no sense in taking chances.

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister 'It' is a pronoun whose meaning changes by context 1414 Heinrich Hexenmeister 0 5

Katerina Vorontsov

September 10, 2018 6:37 PM

I suspect context can make 'it' a real headache of a word. by Katerina Vorontsov

Heinrich. That was not a Russian name at all, of course – she had figured out reading history that someone Germans called Heinrich and the English called Henry, Russians would call Genrikh; Katya had practiced the ‘huh’ sound a lot, between English and German lessons, but it still never sounded quite natural to her somehow, a hurdle she had yet to conquer in her efforts to master languages far removed from her mother tongue – but both the boy’s name and his accent were European rather than American, and so among the more euphonious ones she had heard lately.

“It is nice to meet you, Heinrich,” said Katya, in the careful, formal English of one who knew the language primarily from books and dialogues with a teacher. “My name is Katerina Vorontsov.” She was pleased to remember not to include her patronymic or the last syllable of her surname, in the English manner. It seemed less pressing with another outsider, as someone else with an accent was less likely to force her to endure a second experience of being publicly humiliated in that way at least, but she was determined to get it right.

“I do not – remember you at Orientation,” she added, stumbling slightly as she tried to work around tense shifts and a verb she was not, in this moment, one hundred percent sure of. “You are a second year? What do you think of Sonora?”

16 Katerina Vorontsov I suspect context can make 'it' a real headache of a word. 1418 Katerina Vorontsov 0 5

Heinrich

September 11, 2018 10:55 AM

‘It’ is a headache. But not so bad as prepositions. by Heinrich

He smiled back at Katya. For a moment, Heinrich couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong with Katya’s English. It followed all the grammatical rules he knew, and almost could have come right out of one of his own practice conversations in the language. But he recognized something was off about it, but it took a few moments for him to realize . . . it was too perfect. Real native speakers were much lazier in their grammar.

On the one hand, it made him want to bang his head repeatedly on his desk because what was the point of having grammar rules if the speakers of the language didn’t use them??

On the other hand, he felt pretty proud of himself for being able to make this observation. He wouldn’t have been able to a year ago.

“Yes,” he confirmed, “I am a second year.” He recognized his own sentence had the same failing as hers; it was too perfect, with each word carefully enunciated as best as his accent allowed. Native speakers wouldn’t have phrased it like that, he was sure, or if they did, they would have blurred the words together more. He realized this was why he had found Masha, with her own accented English, easier to understand than, say, Michael DiCaprio, who used fast words and slang that didn’t make it into early vocabulary lessons.

“I like Sonora,” he admitted, a sentence he would not have used a year ago, even if he could have constructed it. Even now he wasn’t entirely sure of its truthfulness, though after this summer he could certainly see its advantages over a German school or even a European school. “The teachers are nice and have understanding. The English is the hard thing.” That sentence was not too perfect, but in the bad way that meant his vocabulary was failing him. “People talk fast. It makes it hard for friends finding.”

1 Heinrich ‘It’ is a headache. But not so bad as prepositions. 1414 Heinrich 0 5

Nathaniel Mordue, Teppenpaw

September 17, 2018 9:17 PM

That seems like a good idea. by Nathaniel Mordue, Teppenpaw

The classrooms at Sonora had not changed much over the summer, though some of the faces in the rooms had changed. Nathaniel had hoped that being a second year, one of the big men in his class, would make the knot between his shoulders ease up a little, but it accompanied him back to Professor Skies’ class as reliably as his own shadow: the knowledge that he did not just have to be good, he had to be perfect.

Realistically, he knew this was not possible. For one thing, no-one was perfect. For another thing, he had last year’s results to go by, and he had not been absolutely perfect. His mother had seemed pleased with him, of course, but – well, what did she have to compare him against? Jeremy? His father? By comparison to those two, Nathaniel thought he probably did look rather swell, though he still had some hopes of Jeremy improving with age – though if Jeremy was going to do that, he would have to do it quickly. He was older now than Nathaniel had been when their father had made such a public display of what a weak, pathetic excuse for a man he was. He really needed to grow up. It wasn’t good that Nathaniel thought Mama might be easier in her mind when his brother wasn’t with her than she was when one of her sons still was at home –

In – one, two, three.

Out – one, two, three.

In – one, two, three….

There was no point to thinking like that, to thinking about that. Jeremy still had time to improve. He and Mama were both fine, too, and would continue to be fine, whether Jeremy was here or there. And when Jeremy was here, he would have Simon and Sylvia and Nathaniel all around, much more than they were now, to set him good examples, so that would help him improve, too. And Nathaniel had an opportunity right now, as a second year, to practice setting a good example. He went to the front of the room and sat beside one of the first years.

The boy was a Crotalus, and Nathaniel noticed the details which made him think this was a member of his own social class. He also seemed focused on his work, which was a good sign. Nathaniel focused on his own, taking notes, abbreviated and dropping articles, in a neat, readable print he used for his school notebooks – not the formal penmanship he’d use for an assignment or a letter home, but something clearer for his own purposes. When they were asked to contribute to a discussion of similarities and differences between a needle and a matchstick, he raised his hand to add one – matchsticks and needles were both items he had no real experience with, but looking at the pictures on the board was enough to make that task easy enough to get the year off to a good start with.

Pebbles to buttons. Write the chart from memory and make a fancy button. He began drawing his table on blank parchment and was just filling in the headings when he heard the Crotalus boy sigh.

“Do you need any help with your Transfiguration table?” he offered. “I’m Nathaniel Mordue, of the Oregon Mordues – and a second year,” he added, to explain his presumptiveness in thinking he could be of assistance.

16 Nathaniel Mordue, Teppenpaw That seems like a good idea. 1412 Nathaniel Mordue, Teppenpaw 0 5

Katerina

September 17, 2018 9:53 PM

And tenses. Don't get me started on tenses. by Katerina

Heinrich used short, straightforward sentences. This was – at least when it wasn’t done for her benefit, as it clearly wasn’t here – a trait Katya appreciated in a person. His grammar twisted on itself a bit, but since the distortion wasn’t severe and the words were simple, she understood him, and felt an almost instant affinity toward him because of, rather than in spite of, this fact. He was like her, an outsider to this world.

“I agree,” said Katya. “The first person I see here – he was unpolite.” She did not dignify Julius Astley with a look in his direction. She had now met three other people who were not unspeakably rude and therefore concluded Julius was the anomaly and not worth her time. “But it is not – “ she wanted to say nevozmozhno, ‘not possible,’ but she couldn’t remember the English word. “The thing you cannot do,” she rephrased awkwardly instead. “You are the third nice person I see here.”

She was sure she was making mistakes in her English, veering so far away from the scripts she had learned in her practice conversations in an effort to express what she really thought. She considered another tactic that she hoped might both further please her new companion and distract from the imperfections of her English – a silly thing to be bothered by when his was just as flawed, but there it was.

“Bist du Deutscher?” she asked in German. She had always liked German, though she could not read it as well as English or French, the languages it had been determined for her she should study the most. “Meine Mutter kommt aus Russland, aber sie – war in Deutschland, einmal,” she added, with only a small hesitation over how to explain that Mama had spent time in Germany when she was young. Russian was the only language, she thought ruefully, where she could really say all she wanted to say, but there was no way to improve the others except to try, realize where she failed, study, and then try again.

16 Katerina And tenses. Don't get me started on tenses. 1418 Katerina 0 5

Julius Astley, Crotalus

September 17, 2018 9:54 PM

It means I can go back to wishing I wasn't here. by Julius Astley, Crotalus

Julius had been diligently filling out his transfiguration table, determined to focus on nothing but. He wasn't sure how he felt about transfiguration, still unsure as to its practical applications and until the point they became apparent (if they ever did), he was only going to do the work as quickly as possible so that he could go back to thinking about more important things - at the moment, these things were generally revolving around how happy he was (which he wasn't) and how long he had to let time pass before it was reasonable to write a letter home demanding that he be taken out of Sonora (this was posing a rather large problem. Two weeks? Three weeks? A month?)

He hadn't even glanced up at his classmate, neither wanting nor caring to know who they were and he certainly had no intention of making friends. He paused momentarily, the voice of his younger sister Aelia ringing through his head and he scowled at his parchment. Why did he need friends? What purpose did they serve? Was there really any practical use of having them? Was Aelia just being overly sensitive given that she was only six?

He was pulled out of his musings when he realised that he had gained the attention of his neighbour who seemed to think that he needed help. Julius frowned and lifted his head to look at his classmate and bark a retort that no, he did not need help thank you very much and could they please keep their nose out of his business when he realised that the boy had also introduced himself as Nathaniel Mordue.

Somewhere, in the back of Julius' mind, a bell rang. Suddenly, the voice of his father was filling his ears and he distinctly remembered him mentioning the Mordue family. He couldn't, however, remember the context nor anything else about them but if his father had deemed them worthy enough to mention, perhaps Julius had finally come across somebody who was actually worth his time.

"No, thank you," he responded, tackling the question first. "I was just thinking. I'm Julius Astley of the Californian Astleys."

If they had been standing instead of sitting next to each other, he might've stuck out his hand. Yet, having said that, the boy was older which technically meant that he was in a higher position and therefore, he had to be the one to initiate the handshake. Then, Julius decided that the etiquette on shaking hands didn't actually matter in this case given that they were already sitting next to each other and the maneuvering required to shake hands would cause far too much of a disturbance and they would both end up making fools of themselves which really wasn't acceptable. They were above everybody else so therefore, they had to behave accordingly. Instead, he settled simply for, "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

20 Julius Astley, Crotalus It means I can go back to wishing I wasn't here. 1425 Julius Astley, Crotalus 0 5

Nathaniel Mordue

September 17, 2018 10:24 PM

Probably not the most productive use of your time. by Nathaniel Mordue

Astley, California. Another western family, so Nathaniel recognized the name, though he was confident that their families were not close associates in any way. This was quite possibly a good thing – it made it less likely that Julius Astley would know the details of Nathaniel’s lineage.

It was enough to make his blood boil, when he thought about it too much – that he could not be proud of being his mother’s son because this entailed also being so closely associated with him. This was one reason Nathaniel avoided thinking about it very much. It was better to be calm. Much easier to get on with being the best he could be, and therefore further highlighting that he had been an anomaly, a freak of nature, something that could have happened to any family and would never happen to the Mordues again.

“Thank you,” said Nathaniel politely when Julius said it was a pleasure to make his acquaintance. “It’s a pleasure to make yours as well.”

He looked at the rather large pebble Julius had selected. Carelessness or ambition? “Transfiguration is one of the harder classes here, but it’s rewarding once you get the knack for it,” he said, hoping to encourage the younger boy a bit, however little he seemed to need it now. He hadn’t, after all, actually tried the spell yet. “Good luck.”

Now, having made himself sound so very wise to the ways of the world, he just had to not fumble the spell on his first day back, after a summer where he hadn’t even seen his wand….

16 Nathaniel Mordue Probably not the most productive use of your time. 1412 Nathaniel Mordue 0 5

Heinrich

October 03, 2018 4:03 PM

Oh, I am with you there! by Heinrich

German! She spoke German! Not perfectly, it was clear, but enough! Enough that it would have immediately gotten her an invitation to the ball last year, enough that his eyes widened in surprise and delight and relief, enough to lighten his heart and make him smile to hear his native tongue again, in this setting.

Enough to terrify the wits out of him.

Katerina was Russian, presumably, since she said her mother was from Russia. But the woman had been to Germany. Past tense, so not anymore, and possibly only once -hard to tell with non-native speakers - but Germany was apparently important enough to her that her daughter learned the language and was aware of that trip into Europe.

How long ago? Decades ago? Last year? If last year . . . if last year she couldn’t have missed hearing about the trial.

His smile faded and a fresh wariness entered his eyes. “Yes,” he told her, responding in his own language, but speaking slowly for her. “I am from Germany. You speak German very well. You have been there yourself?” he asked nervously, hoping for a negative because if Katerina had not gone it made it less likely her mother had visited recently. Though even if it had been years ago, she might keep up with current events, and that would be bad.

Though the hope he clung to was that Katerina had not already asked about the Hexenmeister trial. Even if Frau Vorontsov knew, she probably hadn’t told her kids about some German assassins going to jail. Who did that?

Of course, it may come back in the next owl post after Katerina tells her mother that she met a Hexenmeister from Germany.

“Your family has friends there?” he questioned, trying to keep it light and casual, like his life and future happiness didn’t lie in the balance. He doubted his success.

1 Heinrich Oh, I am with you there! 1414 Heinrich 0 5

Katerina

October 10, 2018 12:40 PM

Glad we're on the same page. by Katerina

Katya listened closely, glad for relatively short, straightforward sentences in German as well as English, and then shook her head. “No,” she said, also in German. “I do not go to Germany. Mama war – eine Mӓdchen.” She wasn’t totally sure that it was the correct word, because Mama had not been a very small girl at the time, but she had not been married then either. ‘A girl’ was close enough, describing that it had been a long time since Mama had spent time in Germany.

She was highly occupied with feeling proud of herself for carrying on a conversation in passable German (she’d be amazed if Julius Astley could carry on a coherent conversation in anything – including English, ostensibly his everyday language), but not so much that she did not notice that at one point her new friend had been smiling and that now he was not, and sounded wary. She filed away this observation, needing her concentration to not speak some bizarre hybrid of two languages at once, one of them most likely Russian and therefore not one she thought it was reasonable to expect a German to understand. Germany and Russia had a long, complicated historical relationship, but overall, she thought there were more Russians who spoke some German than Germans who spoke Russian.

“Es ist möglich, dass Mama immer hat Freundins,” she said slowly, then immediately realized she had almost certainly made two mistakes – one in scrambling German and English pluralization and another in where she’d put that last verb. She flushed slightly, hoping it’s possible that Mama still has friends was comprehensible. “Mama likes Europe, but Papa is in Alaska, so we live there, and I come here. Once I went to St. Petersburg,” she added, lest she seem too provincial. Sometimes she feared that all the languages in the world wouldn’t be enough to ever allow her to claim sophistication. She had seen how the girls in St. Petersburg laughed behind their hands at Anya…. “You have friends in many places?” she asked.

16 Katerina Glad we're on the same page. 1418 Katerina 0 5