This is not helping me take this seriously. on Transfiguration

DH Skies

January 26, 2019 12:27 AM

Beginners - Tea time by DH Skies

“Welcome, and welcome back, to Transfiguration,” Professor Skies greeted the beginners class, which comprised the new first years and the second years, who had already studied with her for a year. “You have already been briefly introduced to me as Deputy Headmistress Skies, but during class you may address me simply as ‘Professor.’” Admittedly, this was not a huge step down in the formality stakes, and indeed everything about the Deputy Headmistress suggested that informality was not particularly likely. She was one of the more senior teachers, now in her late fifties, and had taken great care to not look remotely near her age. The blonde of her hair was supplemented by that of a bottle, and however many lotions and potions she used, having lines on her face was inevitable. She was not intimidating in her manner, unless students were sensitive enough to mistake seriousness for that, but she certainly seemed like she would not tolerate any messing about.

“Transfiguration is the art of turning one thing into another. There are some other types of spells such as switching, vanishing, conjuring, and certain forms of animating which also form part of the Transfiguration curriculum, and studying why they are considered to be Transfigurations will form part of your theory learning in later years.

“Within the standard definition, turning one thing into something else, spells are divided up further around whether they involve inanimate objects or animate, living things. The simplest types of transfiguration involve inanimate to inanimate - turning one object into another object.” As she spoke, the chalk wrote key points on the board in an elegant, looping hand.

“We will be starting with these sorts of spells, and with objects that are more closely related - balls and pebbles have similar shapes, matches and toothpicks are both similar shapes and made of wood. In the coming lessons, you will be asked to make notes in advance of attempting the spell, comparing your objects on all sorts of features; size, shapes, materials, uses and so on. Today, we are going to do that all together as group. Second years, you are free to chime in here for house points,” she added, hoping that the mention of house points was enough to wake up any who had drifted off whilst she went over the basics.

“Today, our project will be to turn teacups into saucers, for first years, and saucers into teacups for second years. First, I’d like us to think through the properties of both these items, to help you imagine the transformations that need to take place.” Behind her the chalk drew a table on the board. Down the left hand side were listed things such as ‘material’ ‘function’ ‘shape’ with two columns, one for teacups and one for saucers. Professor Skies took contributions from the students until the table was filled out.

“Good. So, as we can see, there are some obvious similarities in the materials - both are made out of china, and in this case they share a use, being parts of a teaset. The main thing that is going to have to change is the shape. First years… essentially, your cup is going to melt, flattening out into a disc, whilst second years will need to draw your saucers upwards and inwards, and also pull a handle out of somewhere.

“Second years, your spell is Chavena,” the ‘ch’ made more of a soft ‘sh’ sound, and behind her the chalk helpfully wrote up both the spell and and its pronunciation, along with a little doodle representing the wand movement, “The spell comes to us from the Chinese, Chawan,” she added, doing her best to get a rising tone on each syllable and glad that, to her knowledge, the only Chinese speaker in the school was safely in intermediates, away from her terrible pronunciation, “where tone carries meaning. Luckily, it came into the English-speaking world via the Portuguese, who first brought tea to Europe, so you don’t need to worry about tone. You may read sources that tell you using a rising tone helps, and certain witches and wizards have always sworn this, but when tested, there has been found to be no significant benefit to performing the spell that way. The wand movement is a light, rising spiral, like steam rising from a cup.” She demonstrated the spell on a spare saucer, forming it into a neat, matching cup.

“First years, your spell is Latin in origin. As most Chinese teasets don’t include saucers, this spell is of British invention, which prefers Latin for most of its roots. The spell derives from the generic word for a plate or dish, so your visualisation is key in making it specific enough to apply to a saucer. On the plus side, you will find this spell is generally handy when wanting to make large, flatter objects of any number of varieties. The spell is Laminus and has a sweeping wand motion - in this case, with a slightly circular flourish, of about the size you want your saucer to be,” she explained, demonstrating the wand movement both on its own, and on a nearby cup.

Whilst she had been speaking, a box of assorted china had been making its way around the room, pausing by each member of the class, and rattling itself pointedly if they did not notice it or took too long about choosing. Thus, by now, everyone was equipped and ready.

“You may talk quietly amongst yourselves whilst you work. Raise your hand if you need any help. You may begin.”

OOC - welcome to Transfiguration. Posting here can earn you house points! Posts should be a minimum of 200 words and will be graded on length, realism, relevance (how well you deal with the class content) and creativity.

Posts are marked out of character, based on the quality of the writing, so a character who says they are doing badly but does so in a well-written and detailed way can still score full points. Remember that Hermione, the best witch of her age, struggled with Transfiguration at first, so please keep your character’s ability level realistic. That said, I feel I’ve given you an easier task, as your objects are the same materials, so there’s a little more scope for differing results.

You are being supervised, so if things are going wrong, Selina would step in before anything got terribly out of hand. Please tag me in the subject line if there’s something that needs my attention.

Have fun, have a go, if you’re unsure about anything, ask on the OOC or in chatzy.

Subthreads:

Ich verstehe nicht. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw with Hilda Hexenmeister, Pecari

I enjoy a nice teatime. by Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw with Evelyn Stones, Pecari

This is not helping me take this seriously. by Jessica Hayles, Crotalus with Felipe De Matteo, Crotalus

*shakes head* by Topaz Brockert, Aladren

13 DH Skies Beginners - Tea time 26 DH Skies 1 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw

January 28, 2019 1:52 AM

Ich verstehe nicht. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw

Johana Leonie was disappointed to find that everything was difficult. She understood very little of what the teacher was trying to tell them, and relied mostly on the drawings of the wand movements and the written word for the spell. She was also glad to find that the teacher pronounced it for them, although she couldn't help thinking there was probably another word for the spell in German.

Stifling a frown and doing her best to concentrate, Johana Leonie took a careful look around the room to figure out what precisely she was supposed to be doing. The fact that she and the other first years all had cups and the second years all had saucers made her think that they were supposed to transfigure their items into the opposite.

The lists on the board were hardly helpful as she couldn't understand most of the words on them. The word "tea" looked enough like "Tee" and sounded the same, so that one was easy, but of little help. She could also get "function" and "material," which was more helpful. She tried to think of how the two items were alike and different and pulled out her own piece of paper to think.

She had never spent much time on reading or writing, so her handwriting was bad, her spelling so-so, and her interest minimal. She took some time to draw the items instead, imagining what the cup might look like as it smushed down into the shape of a saucer. A saucer was just a really shallow cup with no handle, right? That shouldn't be too hard.

Holding her wand firmly in her hand and eyeballing the cup in front of her with a stern gaze, she thought of how many things she'd rather do than attempt what she was about to. Thinking of some of the horrific and gross things she'd seen at home, including some transfigurations gone horribly awry, Johana Leonie promptly decided that treating a coughing, sneezing, pooping baby was probably easier than this.

"Ich würde lieber ein Baby behandeln," she grumbled to herself. Looking up at the person in the seat beside her, she watched them work for a moment. "Laminus?" she confirmed with them, wanting to make sure she knew which spell she was supposed to be using. "Oder..." she glanced up at the board, forgetting the other incantation already. "Chavena?" It sounded German. All of it sounded German. But at least she'd be getting answers.

OOC: "Ich würde lieber ein Baby behandeln." = "I'd rather treat a baby."

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw Ich verstehe nicht. 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister, Pecari

January 29, 2019 10:56 AM

Danke, Bruder by Hilda Hexenmeister, Pecari

Hilda understood basically nothing of what Professor Skies was saying. A few words here and there jumped out as recognizable - or close enough to a word that she knew that it might as well be the same thing as far as she was concerned. But she expected to be entirely lost and was ready for it.

She had her German-English dictionary out, placed even more prominently on her desk than her Transfiguration textbook (which was in German), Heinrich’s notebook from two years ago, and her own much newer notebook. She also had her ink pot and quill ready, though her wand was safely tucked away in its arm holster until she needed it.

As soon as words started getting written on the board, she copied them letter by letter into her notebook, leaving plenty of room for translations.

The demonstrations made it pretty clear which were the incantation words, which she wrote down in phonetic German letters at the top of the page so the English/Latin/whatever spelling didn’t confuse her later and make her say it wrong. Well, more wrong. She was pretty sure those sounds would not be coming out of her mouth exactly like that regardless of how she spelled it in her notes.

She also copied down the wand movement as drawn on the board and described what she saw happen when Professor Skies did it, obviously in German for that part.

At one point, she was interrupted from her copying by a box of china jiggling at her. She looked around in confusion, saw Beatriz had taken a tea cup, and so she did that too before passing the box onwards. She figured copying Beatriz was a safe way to go in most things, as they shared a House and a year, so under most circumstances they ought to be doing the same thing, plus Beatriz actually understood English and therefore had a better shot at knowing what was going on than Hilda did.

Eventually the English talking and writing stopped. As everyone else set to trying the spell, Hilda set to translating the words she had copied. She flopped open her dictionary and started from the top of her notes.

Before too long she began to realize the teacher much have been explaining Transfiguration tables - a concept Heinrich had already explained to her when showing her his old notes for her reference (Hilda had never been more grateful of having a perfectionist know-it-all older brother than she was right about now) - and making an example for them all to follow.

So the short cut here was to flip though Heinrich’s notes to find the one he’d done for teacups and saucers. Ah yes, here it was.

She had only just located it and laid it out next to her own notes when Johana Leonie muttered something under her breath about babies and then questioned her about the spell. “Ja,” she agreed, pointing out that part of Heinrich’s notes. “Laminus changes the tea cup to the saucer,” she confirmed, speaking in German to her fellow German, as that was far easier for both of them to understand. “See, these are Heinrich’s notes.” She pushed Heinrich’s notebook over closer so Johanna Leonie could read it, too.

“Do you know what a Transfiguration table is? I think that’s what Professor Skies was writing up there on the board. Here’s my translation so far,” she added, pointing out her own bilingual notes with the literal German translations written under the copied English. “It’s looking pretty similar to what Heinrich has, but his sounds better.” His notes were also solely in German, which made them a lot easier to follow, too.

Heinrich’s English hadn’t been a lot better two years ago than hers was now, but judging by the differing shades of ink on his page, it looked like he had probably come back at some later point to make corrections on his original notes.

1 Hilda Hexenmeister, Pecari Danke, Bruder 1433 Hilda Hexenmeister, Pecari 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

January 30, 2019 12:14 AM

Danke, Freunde! by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

"You're my favorite person," Johana Leonie said, sighing gratefully and looking over the transfiguration table Hilda passed in her direction. A thought crossed her mind that she didn't particularly like, then, and she wondered whether it was foolish. She hadn't really gotten the chance to talk to Heinrich yet, and she couldn't help wondering if there was a reason for that. If their situations were reversed, Johana Leonie would want to meet the other German student. "Will Heinrich mind me taking advantage of the stuff he gives you?" Johana Leonie asked, hoping her phrasing made it clear that she was more worried about Heinrich's preference than anything else.

Turning to the task at hand, Johana Leonie offered her own attempt at a transfiguration table and the work she'd done so far - her few sparse notes - in an attempt to be helpful.

"May I?" she asked, reaching for the German/English dictionary. "I guess I'd best work on my English now! I was really hoping this wouldn't be quite so hard right from the beginning." She frowned, thinking again of Heinrich. "Are all our classes going to be this hard?" she asked Hilda, glad to have a friend. Then a new thought crossed her mind. "You said there are other students who don't know English when they come here? I think I want to meet them," she decided.

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen Danke, Freunde! 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen 0 5

Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw

January 30, 2019 5:18 PM

I enjoy a nice teatime. by Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw

Katerina was back at Sonora, and should have been perfectly happy.

She was a second year now, old enough to be one of Those People who knew the ropes around here and could therefore take care of the new first years and help them settle in. She had also, if she did say so herself, established herself well in her first year of school – she had friends (sort of), had started a club (even if it had caused a fight with her sister), and had done well in her classes despite the impediment of working in one of her non-native languages. Over the summer, she had, to her delight, kept in correspondence with a handsome, charming older boy, which had also given her yet more opportunities to practice languages. Her mama and papa were proud of her. She had traveled to Russia again, seeing a whole new part of the old country after the festivities surrounding her oldest sister Anya’s wedding. It had all gone just according to script.

It was just that Tatiana seemed to have even more.

While Katya had been left at home, stuck with Alexei like a baby, her sister had been allowed to go on two trips to America by herself, to visit young men no less. Tatiana had friends she didn’t seem to feel at all unsure of half the time – indeed, she acted as if she adored them, and like they adored her. Tatiana’s marks were not as good as Katya’s, and her languages were much worse, but she was still Papa’s favorite – still umnaya doch’, while Katya remained malen’kaya or malen'kiy tsvetok. Katya had thought that once she started school, her parents would finally really see her, and put her on the same level as Tatiana. It hadn’t happened.

And to add insult to injury, Tatiana didn’t even appreciate all this. All Tatiana wanted to do was complain about how she didn’t want to act like a lady, didn’t want to ever get married, didn’t want to remember to give things their articles in English and French – it was galling. The universe simply rained nice things on Tatiana and Tatiana just expected it to continue doing so indefinitely, when she even recognized that something was nice.

Jealousy, however, was not ladylike, and Katya did want to behave like a lady. Therefore, she tried to shove all that down and focus on her first classes of the year. She’d just try harder this year. With this resolution in mind, she had put the little brooch Sylvia Mordue had given her on her collar, divided her hair into three parts, back-combed two of them up and over each other to form a low pompadour she’d pinned into place with a pink bow, and used a little charm she’d found in the library last year to turn the ends of her blonde hair into big curls. A pair of small pearls at her ears and a matching strand around her neck later, she was ready to take on Transfiguration.

Comparing her situation last September to her situation this September made it very obvious to her how much her English had improved, but she was still grateful for Professor Skies’ chalk writing key points on the board in the background. She copied them down in English, in a neat but obviously slightly foreign script, and added notes around them in Cyrillic script, as it was still quickest to write in Russian and she had finally given up on taking all her notes in English during class.

Saucer and teacup were words she knew from learning to take tea the English way, so they didn’t trip her up as the chalk drew a chart (replicated precisely by her) on the board. She put her hand up when they were asked for contributions to the chart, feeling, as she had for most of the past year, a particular drive to impress Professor Skies, whose patience was sometimes tried by Katya’s sister in the language support class they both had to attend. When called on, said “For shape – both have the curve – “ she illustrated what she meant with her hand as she spoke – “but the flat bottom, and an teacup has more curve.”

Her words still carried a pronounced accent, but she liked to fancy it was less obstructive than it had been last year. And she didn’t, as Anton Petrovich would have said, sound like an English baby, either, because while she didn’t always get the right article exactly, at least she didn’t omit them entirely more often than not.

But enough of that. She had to make a teacup. At least the two objects were made of the same thing – really, this was not so much changing something as…changing the shape of something. That seemed to her to walk on the line between Transfiguration and Charms that Professor Skies had mentioned in the part of the speech mostly meant for the first years. Especially since…was china glass-like enough that it went through a liquid or jelly stage? She knew that glass had to be essentially melted to change its shape, which did not really change what the glass was, but she didn’t know as much about china. Ghzel was made from earthenware with glazes, and china was a different sort of clay, heated to make it harder. The British made their imitations of china with beef bones, which was – well, it was slightly ghoulish, but it did make pretty results. Mama’s mama had an English tea set, and the china was, Katya recalled, beautifully thin and smooth and glowing. Professor Skies would probably not know ghzel, and might not know the difference between china as it was made in Russia and China and china as it was made by the British, in which case she would expect British china, so the question was…did the British melt the beef bones? And was this actually relevant to performing this spell?

Probably not, she decided. Porcelain was clay, and clay was malleable – she would just have to imagine the saucer becoming its original self, taking away the heat. In a way, she thought she might have it easier than the first years did, as a flattish saucer was easier to imagine as a lump of clay than a teacup was, but perhaps that was only her imagination. Other people might find it easier to picture the other way.

First, however, she had to work on the social side of things. Americans would think her rude for minding her own business too much, so she put on her American smile as she looked over to her neighbor. “Good day,” she said. “I like your dish.” She had a small teacup printed in a light blue floral pattern, but expected the compliment to be returned whether or not the other person actually liked that. Americans always said these things. It was polite.

OOC: The term ‘American smile’ is apparently a Russianism referring to how Americans regard smiling as the ‘polite neutral’ facial expression when addressing/making eye contact with an unknown person. Traditionally this is apparently considered potentially rude in Russian culture – a neutral expression is neutral, neither smiling nor frowning, with smiling used to indicate genuine happiness or amusement, so if you have no reason to seem delighted to see someone, they may assume you find their appearance funny and take offense. Katya, however, did her research on American manners and so offers fake smiles and polite small talk as openers as a concession to her host culture as she understands it.

16 Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw I enjoy a nice teatime. 1418 Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw 0 5

Evelyn Stones, Pecari

January 30, 2019 11:14 PM

What about hot chocolate time? by Evelyn Stones, Pecari

Evelyn had a strained relationship with Transfiguration. On one hand, it was this class that had found magic erupting from her wand and proven at long last that she did have magic. It was also the site of Ness and Malikhi's solidification against each other and the start of a very uncomfortable triangle for Evelyn. She'd made a point of working with other students than either of her closest friends since then, and although she felt guilty doing so when Malikhi was as down as he was, she continued the habit. Sometimes, she even thought she saw him look grateful for the space.

Tea cups and saucers were the sort of dainty, pretty things that no one ever really owned. They were on the shelves of thrift shops, and in hutches, when anyone really had a hutch. Not many people really had a hutch, and not many people had china. After all, mugs were much better suited for coffee and the size made them perfect for tea when that was the drink of choice, too. Evelyn was fairly certain that Professor Skies would not appreciate this assessment and maintained her focus on how pretty the dishes were.

When the student next to her spoke up to comment on this same thing, Evelyn smiled at her and took in the appearance of her rose and daisy wildflower china with new appreciation. She sort of wished it had pigs or something adorable on it, but this was much more classy and she thought that she was probably supposed to be somewhat classy sometimes. When she realized it was Katerina who had complemented her china, she decided classiness was a good choice.

"Thank you, I like yours! Blue is my favorite Color," she said, gesturing at the lipstick of the same color that was painted on her lips. Her eyeshadow was pinks, and she thought it was a rather fortunate pairing considering their cups and things. "This doesn't seem so . . . so difficult as it did last year, right? Maybe it's just me . . " Her voice trailed off, betraying the insecure student that had first begun classes at Sonora. Changing her tone to something more positive, she indulged her thoughts a little bit more. "If we can make this work, I want to keep the cup," she laughed.

22 Evelyn Stones, Pecari What about hot chocolate time? 1422 Evelyn Stones, Pecari 0 5

Jessica Hayles, Crotalus

January 30, 2019 11:22 PM

This is not helping me take this seriously. by Jessica Hayles, Crotalus

The last time she had been in New York, Jessica had been slightly in the way, so Daddy had handed her one of his cards and deputized an employee to take her to the Met. In the gift shop, she had been taken with a little watch in an enameled case suspended from a long necklace chain, so the card had been used to purchase one, a purchase which now hung very far down her front and offered slight relief to the near-unbroken expanse of shapeless green sack she was being forced to wear.

Right now I should be in language arts, she thought as she popped open the case to look at the watch, forgetting to correct for the time difference between Arizona and Atlanta. Her eyes tried to well up at the images of her old school, her old teachers, and her old friends which flashed through her mind, but she blinked hard and pushed it down. She had never been able to stay pretty when she cried. She planned to get out of here as soon as possible, but for at least a little while, she was going to have to live with these people. She had to look her best, or as close to her best as she could get while she was wearing a sack and going around with air-dryed hair.

Instead of crying, then, she looked warily around the classroom, noting similarities and differences to normal classrooms. She wasn’t sure what was worse, the differences or the incongruities to the similarities.

The teacher, Mrs. Skies - Professor Skies; who on earth really called themselves ‘professor’? Jessica had met professors before, from multiple universities; most were simply addressed as ‘Dr.’ – was a subject of particular interest, and not only because she was an authority figure giving a lecture, trying to teach them something. She was also Jessica’s dorm mother (for the time being) – the person she was going to have to approach tonight to get this stupid scheduling situation sorted out. Which was why at one point, she bit her lip instead of raising her hand to ask why, exactly, anyone would ever, in the history of ever, bother turning a cup into a saucer….

This class, she suspected, she was going to have to keep. If she could convince her temporary guardian that she was a model inmate who could be trusted to stop doing the magic, she would have a much better chance of convincing the board or whoever to let her go home sooner rather than later. The liaison had worn them all down into agreeing she would stay until at least eighth grade, but Jessica didn’t think that part was in writing at all, much less properly notarized, so it wasn’t binding. For now, then, she was going to have to waste precious time doing something totally pointless. Her lip tried to curl as she took a teacup from the box. Waste was revolting; it was one of the reasons why they had had to come up with new packaging for the powder foundation compacts last year, to give the company a more eco-friendly image without compromising the appearance of the actual container. Daddy had a team figuring out what people would think of refillable lipstick cases, too, and whether or not multiple designs could be introduced to get people to buy more of them without appearing wasteful….

It was with extreme reluctance that she admitted to herself that at least the mini-lectures about how the magic words came to exist were sort of interesting. She enjoyed social studies most when they talked about history, though she knew she was supposed to care more about the parts about Financial Responsibility and other aspects of how the world worked.

She turned the teacup over in her hands. At home, tea was boiled with sugar, diluted a bit, and then served on ice in tall glasses. Mint and lemon could be added to taste. That was it. Teacups just brought toys to mind for her first, followed by charity events where people wore silly hats and long, long ropes of faux pearls. That thought did not help her address the problem she had with taking this seriously. She was missing at least a whole day of real classes to mutilate dishes?

It did not help that her first attempt to laminate the teacup didn’t work, either.

16 Jessica Hayles, Crotalus This is not helping me take this seriously. 1442 Jessica Hayles, Crotalus 0 5

Katerina

January 30, 2019 11:39 PM

Ooh, that is nice. by Katerina

It was always hard, Katya thought, not to stare a little at Evelyn Stones’ mouth. People who wore rouge on their cheeks and lips were one thing – apparently, Mama was not in step with the West when she strictly forbade her daughters to do any such thing – but blue? Why would someone wear blue there? Katya had read description of corpses’ mouths looking blue, but why would Evelyn want to look like a corpse, even if blue was her favorite color?

“Mine is pink,” she offered, pointing to her hairbow as evidence of this. In truth, she sometimes grew rather weary of pink, but Mama had coordinated most of her clothes and accessories and even jewels in that direction for as long as she could remember and so she accepted it. “But I like blue also.”

She thought about the task again when Evelyn asked if it seemed easier than before. “I think that true,” she said. They are made of the same material. How to say that in English… “These go with another,” she tried. “It has less change.”

Katya looked at the saucer in her hand. “I do-not think, that it last,” she said. “But we maybe have the time for a tea before it changes,” she added, as quickly as the mental effort required to put that sentence in English allowed, and tacked on another American smile, lest Evelyn think the stupid foreigner didn't understand that the laugh meant the statement had probably been more or less a joke.

16 Katerina Ooh, that is nice. 1418 Katerina 0 5

Hilda

January 31, 2019 6:13 PM

nichts gar by Hilda

OOC: As always when speaking with Johana or Heinrich, Hilda is using German unless stated otherwise BIC:

Hilda smiled when Johana Leonie declared that Hilda was her favorite person. The feeling was entirely mutual. She didn’t know how a foreign language could be fatal, but she felt certain English would have surely killed her this year if she didn’t have Johana Leonie at her side, allowing them to face that monster together.

She was a bit confused about the question regarding Heinrich though. Heinrich had given her the notes. What did it matter to him who she showed them to? “Of course he wouldn’t mind,” she promised, not seeing any reason at all for him to mind Johana Leonie using them. “He’s an Aladren,” she reminded her friend. “That means he is constitutionally incapable of not forcing knowledge on people.”

“Of course,” Hilda agreed a little while later, when Johana Leonie requested the use of her dictionary. She gave it a little nudge closer to her friend.

“I never figured it wasn’t going to be horrendously difficult right from the whistle,” Hilda admitted, but then, she’d had warnings. “Heinrich does say it gets easier. He’s a third year and almost totally fluent now. He and Uncle Karl had secret conversations in English all summer.”

That was a misrepresentation at best. First, she knew they were talking in English both to sharpen Heinrich’s skills and to acclimate her to hearing it all the time. Second, it wasn’t really a secret conversation when she was the only one excluded. Even Hans had contributed regularly and easily to the English discussions.

Hilda honestly wasn’t sure whether she was angry at her baby brother for being better at the language than she was, or envious that he’d only been four when they moved to America and so he was essentially being brought up in a bilingual household. He was sponging up English words faster than Hilda or Heinrich and he didn’t even have structured English As a Second Language classes forced on him like his older siblings did. She expected Hans would basically be a native speaker by the time he started here because that’s how he was learning it.

With her out of the house now, she wondered if they’d keep speaking German at all. Sometimes it seemed like talking to her was the only reason any of the Hexenmeisters used German anymore.

“Well, don’t know any is kind of a stretch,” Hilda admitted in response to Johana Leonie’s question about other foreign speakers. “Heinrich was sort of dropped into America with no warning, right after, well, you know, so he was probably the worst off Sonora’s ever seen, and I’m not much better even though I had two years to prepare.” She grimaced, not liking to admit to this shortcoming. “But there’s enough people that struggle with English that there’s a special academic support group for us, run by Professor Skies.” She nodded up to the front of the classroom. “We should probably tell her to sign us up for it.”

She looked down at her untouched teacup. “I should probably at least try the spell before we go drawing her attention though.”

She drew her wand out of its holster, holding it over the china. “Laminus!” she said, trying to get the sounds at least close, and circled her wand around it.

And nothing happened at all.

“Drat.”

1 Hilda nichts gar 1433 Hilda 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

January 31, 2019 11:02 PM

Es ist mir sehr viel. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Johana Leonie was not entirely sure that she felt better when Hilda's first attempt was unsuccessful, but she did at least feel better about Heinrich and everything else and she allowed herself to relax and why was everything so hard and it was going to be fine and she would just be nice and--

She forced her mind to reel back in.

"I'm glad," Johana Leonie said, hoping Hilda was right. She made a mental note to pay more attention next time Heinrich was around, hoping to notice something that could ease whatever tension there might be between them. Or perhaps she was imagining things? That was equally possible. She could hardly blame herself for having a poor read on peers when she'd only ever known the same people her whole life. She smiled gratefully at her friend for her kindness and reassurance.

"I think that's a good idea," Johana Leonie said of touching bases with Professor Skies. The thought of taking a class that basically meant she'd learn English, spend time with her new best friend, and meet some other people from all over the world was the best thing she could think of. She wasn't a particularly good baker and doubted there were a lot of ways for students to work on their culinary skills at Sonora, but wondered if her mother might be willing to send some homemade goods along for a group treat.

Finally, it was her turn to attempt the spell. She thought of how much her mother would love a cup or saucer like these, and wished she had some salt to throw over her shoulder for luck on producing the latter. She knew it was considered good luck to break ceramic, Scherben bringen Glück her father would always say. She doubted whether Professor Skies would appreciate the gesture for what it was.

Taking a big deep breath and thinking of all the things this pretty little cup meant to her and all the good luck she had with her family's magic (even if it wasn't any of this fancy stuff they taught in schools), Johana Leonie waved her wand. "Laminus," she breathed, letting her mother's smiling face fill her mind as if she were presenting a perfect tea saucer to her for Christmas. "Look what I did," she imagined saying. "Look what we can do."

She opened her eyes, not having realized she'd closed them in the first place, and found that she had managed something! Unfortunately, instead of melting the teacup into a saucer, it had simply fractured into pieces on the table. Johana Leonie laughed, appreciating the humor of the situation.

"Scherben bringen Glück," she said aloud to her friend.

OOC - "Scherben bringen Glück" is apparently a German superstition for good luck (because everything on the internet is true, right?) and I figure the Zauberhexen family's hedgemage ways would use that sort of thing often.

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen Es ist mir sehr viel. 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen 0 5

Felipe De Matteo, Crotalus

February 06, 2019 10:41 PM

Get yourself together, woman. by Felipe De Matteo, Crotalus

The day to day business of life at Sonora was still entertaining. With everything going on in his own house, there was hardly a need for some of the usual recreational amenities Felipe had had at home, and now he had the additional pleasure of beginning more practical lessons. The fact that transfiguration was one of them was thrilling. Paper and ink were hardly effective methods of teaching. They were much more suitable for note-taking, observation-making, figure-drawing, and plan-making. Felipe did all of these as Professor Skies explained what they would be doing.

He had taken care to sit next to a particularly promising Crotalus student. Since they were in the same house, Felipe knew who she was. However, he had not yet spoken to her. Granted, he hadn't yet spoken to most people. But this girl was different because she seemed so utterly disinterested in Sonora.

Felipe was the quiet type himself and appreciated the silence she offered, but when he realized it was not bred of any like-mindedness, he was less enthralled. Particularly because her obviously pitiful existence reminded whatever part of his insides were most wholly shaped by his legacy that he was supposed to be altruistic. Friggin' altruism.

Sending silent thoughts south, towards Mexico and his father and his lovely house that he suddenly missed much more than he had at first, Felipe tried to focus on his assignment. He worked on his transfiguration table as the girl beside him made her first attempt at the spell. Considering how utterly dreadful she looked in general, it was no surprise when it didn't work. Of course, she could've been perfectly put together and still not accomplished a task like this on day one.

Finally, he interrupted her.

"Excuse me," he said, turning slightly towards her and offering a polite smile. "You're Miss Hayles, right? Jessica?" First names seemed just fine but since all these Americans seemed particularly attached to their last names so far, he thought he'd try out both. "I'm Felipe," he said. He didn't, however, remind her that he was a fellow Crotalus first year student, that would come as necessary.

Felipe's hands were on his desk, with a quill and detailed notes scrawled in front of him. They did not brush his dark hair from his brown eyes, they did not attempt to smooth memories from the surface of the teacup the way Jessica's did, and they did not wonder what it would be like to brush the dew from Jessica Hayles' eyes when she looked up at him. Absolutely not. Although perhaps blonde wasn't always an odd color, however common it seemed to be among American girls. It really was such a shame that Jessica's expression didn't look at all pleasant on her face.

"Do you want to work together?" he managed, deciding that was the properly altruistic thing to do.

22 Felipe De Matteo, Crotalus Get yourself together, woman. 1434 Felipe De Matteo, Crotalus 0 5

Evelyn Stones, Pecari

February 06, 2019 10:50 PM

Creativity strikes at the most opportune times, like dinner. by Evelyn Stones, Pecari

Evelyn smiled. Like her sister, Katerina was kind. It didn't seem very likely that Katerina knew she was kind, as she was usually occupied with . . . well, with everything else. Evelyn got the impression that she was very much in her own head, a trait that the Pecari could appreciate.

"It looks good on you," Evelyn offered about the pink hair bow. She'd always sort of wanted to branch out into hair accessories but wasn't quite sure how to accomplish that. The necklaces and earrings were fun, but a really chunky plastic or resin headband would just sing. She stored the thought away for later consideration.

"Yeah, because they're both china?" Evelyn asked, familiar with her classmates having almost the right words for what they wanted to say. Between Heinrich, Katerina, and Tatiana, along with rare moments with other students, this was hardly unusual. If she was honest, Malikhi and Julius hardly could get their words to work sometimes either. She stifled a sigh; another thought to file away.

She wasn't sure whether Katerina was trying to be conspiratorial, the way girls in sleepover movies were, but she felt a bit like it and she offered a chipper smile at the idea of drinking tea from a cup that was slowly transforming back into a saucer. "We'll have to drink it fast then," she agreed.

Not sure where the best place to start was, Evelyn was proud that she didn't look toward Ness for help. The Aladren would've been a great resource, particularly since Ness enjoyed transfiguration especially, but she was trying to be a big girl. Or she already was a big girl and she was just trying to embrace it. In either case, she kept her focus on Katerina.

"Do you want to compare notes first, or just dive right in?"

22 Evelyn Stones, Pecari Creativity strikes at the most opportune times, like dinner. 1422 Evelyn Stones, Pecari 0 5

Topaz Brockert, Aladren

February 07, 2019 7:58 AM

shakes head by Topaz Brockert, Aladren

Minus having to deal with the self-righteous little snot that was Nessa McLeod, Topaz was glad to be back at school. Not that home was totally awful but here there was learning . Mother and Father didn't have Neal come around in the summer to give them lessons in academics and all the lessons they did have to take were the extraneous junk like etiquette and dancing.

Still, Topaz did get to do her taxidermy and experiments so that was fun. Over the summer, one of their family owls died-of old age-and she'd, um paid tribute to it's memory, by stuffing him and making his wings flap. Someday, the Aladren hoped to make one that flew around the room because not only would that show off her prowess at her chosen art form but would probably really freak her roommate out. And Topaz had always really enjoyed freaking people out and doing so to Ness was even better than doing so to Allegra or Sapphire. First of all, it was probably more of a challenge and secondly, she deserved it more. Her sister and cousin just got tormented because of proximity. Ness was a judgemental little creature.

She had other ways too, of taunting her roommate. Topaz had gathered from the other girl's manner of presenting herself and decor choices, that she was a lesbian. The second year had initially considered changing in the bathroom because well, she would not be expected to change in front of a male classmate who was into girls, but had decided against it based on the fact that she was not going to give Ness the satisfaction of getting to her. It was Topaz's room too, and that meant she had the right to dress and undress there. And decorate anyway she wanted too. (Ness was hardly going to win a decor fight when Topaz could easily go over her head if she complained to Professor Taransay and would get nowhere if she went to Grandfather, both because he was, well, Topaz's grandfather and because he himself had models of torture devices in his office as well as an actual Pear of Anguish) Anyway, this had the added consequence of Topaz's developing figure being there tormenting Ness knowing she could never ever touch it.

Anyway, now she was back in class. Transfiguration was a fascinating subject but unfortunately, they had to go over all the boring basic stuff that they'd covered last year for the first years, mostly the muggleborn ones since surely the purebloods and even half-bloods had to have some basic knowledge of this. This was the problem with Muggleborns, teachers had to dumb things down for them while the majority of the class sat there bored. And if any pure or halfbloods in class needed this information then their parents had failed them in terms of education. Even her parents-or rather her father-had made sure they had a certain amount of knowledge. Even though their tutors had kept on quitting before Father had decided to hire Neal, who seemed to have staying power. They'd gone through like, four during the time Topaz had been one of the pupils.

And they didn't even have to fill out their own Transfig tables. Honestly, the muggleborn first years were being ridiculously coddled here! Not that the Aladren had ever really needed the tables in the first place.

Topaz received her saucer which was white with gold trim and a pattern of pink roses, the sort of thing that would appeal to Ruby and her cousin Esme. The Aladren personally could have cared less about such things. A saucer was a saucer, to be used to keep tea from spilling onto table cloths, so what it looked like was unimportant. Of course, for this exercise, it was probably important to replicate the pattern on her teacup.

However, maybe Topaz would get extra credit if she tried to change the colors on the pattern. Like blue roses and silver trim. "Chavena" The result was a shallow white thing that was somewhere between saucer and teacup and could probably accurately be considered a small bowl. However,half the roses on it were blue and the rim was sort of....something between silver and gold. Rose gold maybe?

11 Topaz Brockert, Aladren *shakes head* 1427 Topaz Brockert, Aladren 0 5

Katerina

February 07, 2019 8:31 PM

Mama would not approve of creativity at dinner. by Katerina

"Thank you," said Katya when her bow was complimented.

She nodded, grateful, when Evelyn provided her with words. "Yes! This is what they are. And - the two piece, there are two - one cup, one saucer. They fit," she said, feeling it was clearer now.

She glanced at her notes. "I am not sure how much good my notes are," she said apologetically, pushing the papers slightly toward Evelyn's desk so she could see the mix of English and Russian which Katya had written in during the lecture. "It is easy to write in my words, when she says fast," she added, still with the apologetic note in her voice. She was in this place now, in an English school, so she always felt she had failed in some way when she fell back on Russian. It felt lazy and wrong. She didn't even like speaking Russian with her sister, though she had long since given up on trying to convince Tatiana to speak English with her. She supposed it was understandable; Tatiana had been unable to speak fluent Russian with anyone for most of two whole years, something Katya hadn't had to go through because Tatiana had come here first. "May I ask, what is 'dive'?"

16 Katerina Mama would not approve of creativity at dinner. 1418 Katerina 0 5

Jessica

February 08, 2019 11:06 AM

I'm trying to be cool, but I don't know how yet. by Jessica

A flash of slight confusion, followed by mild pleasure, crossed Jessica’s face when the boy next to her informed her that he knew her name. She recognized him as one of the other students who had been placed in the same dorm she had, but they hadn’t spoken before.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m Jessica.”

She wondered how he’d noticed this, among other things – mainly, how long he’d known about his condition and how, as a result, he felt about it. The social worker liaison person had kept talking about this as a ‘world’ with its own communities and culture, which made her think that some of them were like people who were born Deaf and didn’t want cochlear implants – which was fine for them, but Jessica didn’t think it was fair that the man had looked appalled when Jessica had insisted she had no interest in joining anyone’s pride movement and just wanted to get the condition under control and go home. She had no interest in being an inspiring story about the little heiress who had everything until one day she found out she’d had a spontaneous genetic mutation which meant she had to leave her whole life so she could learn to not be a walking, talking time bomb. Jessica hated inspirational stories. The stories themselves were all virtually the same and the characters were inevitably flat, forced to be cardboard cut-outs who weren’t allowed to have real feelings like normal people for more than a few minutes because that wouldn’t fit the narrative. At least she was allowed to feel whatever she wanted, even if she had to try to look better than she often felt.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she said politely instead when he introduced himself, her Southern accent extending the first vowel of ‘nice’ and softening the double vowel of ‘you’ until the word was almost more a suggestion of a word than a distinct sound.

She wasn’t sure what he meant by asking if they could work together. “I’m not sure how,” she admitted. “But I don’t really understand what we’re even doing – we’re just – trying to convince the teacup to turn into a saucer?”

Saying it out loud, she could kind of see how that was more impressive than she had initially thought. This was still a completely pointless task, of course, but if she could convince objects in general to stop being themselves and become something else – why, she could never get caught without a mirror or a pen again, in theory. Between that and the relatively interesting lecture, she thought that she would like to keep this class, if possible, when she got her schedule fixed, though just keeping organized had worked well enough for her for eleven years and counting.

16 Jessica I'm trying to be cool, but I don't know how yet. 1442 Jessica 0 5

Evelyn Stones

February 10, 2019 3:29 AM

Well Mama hasn't been to a Stones family meal yet. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn peered as politely as she could at Katerina's notes, doing her best not to look as enthralled as she was. Russia's history was a favorite reading subject of hers, and there would be so much more to read about it if she could just read Russian. Plus there were two alphabets (sort of) and that was just mindboggling. How could two sets of letters all agree with each other? Or did they not agree with each other? That was even more mindboggling.

"It's easiest for me to write English, too," Evelyn smiled. "I think it makes sense to use the language you know best. Would you--" she swallowed hard, and looked up at her classmate, away from the notes. There was a good chance she was about to be very rude and make Katerina feel like an outsider, but that wasn't her goal . . . she took a breath and took the risk. "Would you teach me? I would love to learn Russian."

Evelyn held her breath as she waited for the answer, trying to remember that they were supposed to be doing magic, not words. "You can look at my notes too, if you want. Let me know if any of it doesn't make sense, my handwriting is awful." She pushed her notes next to Katerina's and considered the girl's question. "It means a lot of different things, but I meant to ask whether we should begin right away. When you jump into the water to go swimming, and you jump in with your head first or hands first, that's diving. So it's like transfiguration is a swimming pool, and we're not going slowly." She was rambling. Why was she rambling? Why did she always rumble?

Being thirteen wasn't very fun if it meant she was still the weird kid she'd always been. At least she had some cool lipstick to go with the weirdness; she smiled at Katerina with an apology in her eyes. "Sorry, now I'm talking . . . I'm not really making any sense." She was going to say talking in circles but throwing out another idiom just didn't seem fair at this point.

22 Evelyn Stones Well Mama hasn't been to a Stones family meal yet. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

February 10, 2019 3:38 AM

Good thing, because that would just be exhausting. by Felipe De Matteo

Felipe smiled at her accent and then at her word choice. He wondered for a moment if she was unfamiliar with English before deciding it was magic she must be unfamiliar with. Somehow, the idea that transfiguration was the art of convincing something to be something else was sort of beautiful way to think about it. It was the way that farmers talked about coaxing harvests from the ground and that was definitely beautiful. So many beautiful things.

"A bit like that, yes," he replied, keeping his smile polite. He didn't want to make her think he was teasing her. "You'll probably have to use your wand instead of your words though," he joked. It was a terribly lame joke. It was the sort of thing his father would say to his sister and they were both pretty okay people though, so Felipe accepted it in stride.

"These are to help us think about what things we don't have to change," he said, pointing to the transfiguration table in front of him. "Like I know they are both made of china, so I don't have to change the material. I know they can both contain liquid, so I don't have to make holes or anything. But I know one has a handle and the other doesn't, so I'll have to do something about that." He frowned a bit, suddenly realizing how difficult it all sounded. He couldn't imagine living without magic.

22 Felipe De Matteo Good thing, because that would just be exhausting. 1434 Felipe De Matteo 0 5

Katerina

February 11, 2019 7:13 PM

...Yet? by Katerina

“Teach?” said Katya blankly, but not for once from a failure to understand the word used. She was simply slightly dumbfounded by the idea. She knew she had learned to write Russian, but she didn’t really remember how she had done it – or, truly, even much about learning to write English. Tatiana had badgered her way into English lessons first and Katya had therefore started having them when she was very small.

“I am not sure I know how,” she admitted. “My sister, she does teach her friend, though. She is good teacher. Maybe you ask her?”

She felt badly about essentially refusing a request – it felt impolite somehow, even if she really did not think she was equipped to meet it. Plus it would have been nice to feel like the authority in something other than watercolor painting and cross-stitching. However, she could not even imagine teaching someone how to write. Why, she’d have to teach Evelyn the alphabet, and writing Cyrillic was entirely different from reading printed books. Of course, so was English, sometimes – she struggled with reading handwritten notes from teachers sometimes because of the difference in script and printing in the English alphabet. She knew her own writing was not perfect, which was why she printed most of the papers she handed in to teachers instead of trying English script. She hoped to move into writing only script by next year, but so far, printing was still necessary.

She listened attentively to the explanation of what ‘dive’ was. A swimming word, used in an idiom; it made sense, and so she shook her head when Evelyn said that she didn’t think she was making much sense. “No,” she said. “I understand. This is a good – word picture.” She struggled with her vocabulary. “Is this a good way to say this?” she asked.

16 Katerina ...Yet? 1418 Katerina 0 5

Jessica

February 11, 2019 11:14 PM

I don't think it would be good to run constantly hot. by Jessica

Jessica found a smile when Felipe said that she’d have to use her wand – a concept her brain still seemed to skip over every time it was confronted with it; magic wands belonged to fairy godmothers, not her – instead of her words. “But you heard the lady,” she said, lightly joking as well. “It won’t work without the magic words.”

And then she was back to magic words. Magic words were a thing. Magic words were a thing she was supposed to use with a magic wand to cast magic spells to convince one dish to turn into another. This couldn’t be real….

However, unfortunately, the alternative was even worse. If this wasn’t really happening, then Jessica had actually lost her mind and was in an asylum instead of a residential treatment center for a freak genetic condition. Therapy could improve her ability to work around a freak genetic condition. If she was hallucinating all this, she really doubted there was much that could be done for her at all. So this had to be real, because the alternative was actually worse.

“I guess if you flattened a teacup out, the cup and the saucer might have about the same amount of china in them,” she said. “I don’t know – but if you just put a handle on a saucer, it would make you an awful shallow cup.” Which could have its advantages, but which Mrs. – sorry, Professor - Skies might not like very much.

16 Jessica I don't think it would be good to run constantly hot. 1442 Jessica 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

February 12, 2019 11:07 PM

Well, you're not wrong. by Felipe De Matteo

Felipe cocked his head, fascinated by the train of thought that seemed to have gotten lost shortly after leaving the station and simply choo chooed it's way from Jessica's mouth without heed. It was the sort of thing he'd been desperately missing at home and was grateful for at Sonora. Even if people didn't say nice things all the time, at least they said what they meant. Felipe wasn't sure he even knew how to say exactly what he meant, and appreciated Jessica's tone, shoulders, and eyebrows that said so much all by themselves, that she really wouldn't have had to talk anyway. But she did talk, and that was nice too.

He thought it was rather funny to think that the magic words were necessary to cast any magic. He was convinced now that Jessica did not know she was a witch until she found out she'd be attending Sonora, and the idea fascinated him.

"You don't need the magic words," Felipe said in a low voice, almost a whisper. It felt silly to offer it as a secret, but it sort of felt like it somehow. "I bet you've done stuff on accident before, right? You just have to convince it to change its shape and let your magic make it happen." Sitting up a little straighter and looking at Jessica as though she might be capable of doing exactly that, with or without any magic words, he added a caveat for good measure in his regular voice: "But the magic words probably make it a little bit easier. Keeps the magic going where you want it to go."

Thinking that the worst Jessica expected was that she'd conjure a freaking handle to attach to a freaking saucer was almost precious if it wasn't so aggravating. Well, so mainly it was both. He wasn't so confident in these sorts of magical arts, simply because he overthought them. Maybe he should take his own advice.

"What about people?" he asked. "How would I go about convincing you that you are a witch? I just have to make you see that you already are, right? So convince this piece of china," he said, pointing at the dish in front of her, "of what you already know it is." He finished by pointing at the piece of china in front of the closest second year, leaning on visuals to make a point. "Or maybe what you already know it can be."

22 Felipe De Matteo Well, you're not wrong. 1434 Felipe De Matteo 0 5

Jessica

February 20, 2019 9:07 PM

I rarely am. by Jessica

Jessica’s perfectly penciled eyebrows rose involuntarily as Felipe whispered that the magic words were not, in fact, necessary. They weren’t? So no abracadabra or bibbity-bobbity-boo. This was actually a bit of a relief, as she imagined that was going to help her take this seriously more easily than she otherwise would.

“I see,” she said. “I guess that does make sense, with what they said about how I would end up bombing the labs by accident if my parents didn’t send me here.”

Not that Jessica spent much time in the working labs, as it wasn’t safe and she couldn’t touch anything there on the rare occasions she did see the inside, but she did like it when Daddy took her to work and let her sit in on meetings about what was going on around the company, or when they went to the scent room and tested new offerings. She tried to shove the thought of not being there out of her head, not wanting to tear up again. She just had to get through this. She was tough enough to do it. She had to be, because if she wasn’t, how was she going to manage a corporation someday? She just had to wave the stick and will herself to have enough faith and trust and pixie dust to get through this and get released so she could get back to all that.

Felipe’s next point didn’t go over as well, because Jessica already knew exactly what the piece of china in front of her was. It wasn’t what they were supposed to turn it into, otherwise this would not have been a (bizarre, pointless) piece of work. “That is hard to get my head around,” she admitted. “Things usually stay what they are where I’m from.”

16 Jessica I rarely am. 1442 Jessica 0 5