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
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DH Skies
Beginners - Tea time
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DH Skies
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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.
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Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw
I enjoy a nice teatime.
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Katerina Vorontsov, Teppenpaw
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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.
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Evelyn Stones, Pecari
What about hot chocolate time?
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Evelyn Stones, Pecari
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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.
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Katerina
Ooh, that is nice.
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Katerina
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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?"
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Evelyn Stones, Pecari
Creativity strikes at the most opportune times, like dinner.
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Evelyn Stones, Pecari
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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'?"
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Katerina
Mama would not approve of creativity at dinner.
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Katerina
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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.
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Evelyn Stones
Well Mama hasn't been to a Stones family meal yet.
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Evelyn Stones
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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.
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Katerina
...Yet?
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Katerina
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