Advanced HoM Lesson Continued: Giants! on Mirage Chamber

Professor Flatt

June 11, 2009 2:34 PM

Advanced HoM Lesson Continued: Giants! by Professor Flatt

After the last student had entered, Henry stepped through himself, blinking in the diminished sunlight. The portrait opening fell into a sloped clearing. Densely packed fir trees blocked most of the sunlight, and distantly, cracking booms echoed through the pine. The air felt a great deal cooler than the hallway they had just exited, and he silently cast a warming charm over the group.

"Today, we're going to study the now non-existent Tuchitua Giant tribe. An indigenous tribe in the Yukon area of Canada, they were first stumbled upon by traders in the 1700s. The stories that traveled back sparked an investigation by wizards settled on Lake Winnipeg. After a hundred years of hostilities, further provoked by the discovery of silver deposits in their valley, much of the Tuchitua tribe died out. The remaining few were transplanted to a combined reservation in the Northwest Territories in the 1930s, and two weeks ago, the last surviving Giant from the Tuchitua died." Henry pointedly pocketed his wand, his voice having gained a sobering edge to it.

"We've re-created, to the best of our abilities, what the Tuchitua were like when first discovered over three hundred years ago. Yes, the re-creation is advanced charms work, but the Chamber's provided the Giants with as much autonomy as possible, in an effort to provide us with as life-like an experience as possible. If any of you are discovered while observing the tribe, your wand will be seen as a threat. Consider yourselves anthropologists, and try to have as little impact upon the Giants as possible."

With that final word of advice, Henry started toward the trees, his feet having traversed the vague path that led down the mountain side and toward the valley several times before. The hike was a short one, only a handful of minutes in length, and remaining quiet, he listened as the students conversed among themselves. As they drew near to the settlement, he cast a silencing charm over them, so that they could continue speaking without fear of discovery. "All right," he said, drawing to a stop. "At the end of this path, we open onto a river. Across the bank are the Tuchitua Giants. They number nearly 200 in total, with thirty adolescents and twelve in their infancy. I want you to break into groups, and being careful not to show yourselves, observe them. You'll find that much of our prejudices against Giants, while derived from their penchant for violence, can be ameliorated through understanding."

The main purpose of the lesson, along with the entire program Henry had planned for the school year, was to broaden his students' understanding of the various magical, sentient races. Giants by far had the greater stigma against them, and their current population worldwide numbered less than six hundred. He hoped that by observing a now vanished tribe, the students might eventually go into the wizarding world with a more tolerant attitude.

Before releasing them to the lesson, Henry withdrew a sack containing square cloths of varying colors. He handed out one to each of the students. "If you need me for any reason, press your wand to your cloth, and I'll come immediately. And so, unless you have any questions, you may begin."

OOC: Standard posting rules apply; I'm sure you know the drill by now. Feel free to create as much of the environment and habits of the Tuchitua Giants as you like. Points will be distributed based on content, creativity, and other intangibles. As always, Henry will be wandering around, so feel free to write him as having passed by, or crouching beside you. As a side note, the terrain is mountainous, and for those of you needing references on Giants, go here.

Subthreads:

Larger than life by Eavan Valentine

0 Professor Flatt Advanced HoM Lesson Continued: Giants! 0 Professor Flatt 1 5

Eavan Valentine

June 12, 2009 7:52 PM

Larger than life by Eavan Valentine

A history lesson without books? Eavan grinned and she shoved her things back into her bag. Her curiosity had been peaked. She managed to shove her orbes inthe bag as well, but with the way it bulged, she was glad Flatt Jr. had said to leave them behind. Eavan was left standing in her well worn khaki shorts, a purple t-shirt with little silver birds all over it, and her brand new sneakers. Her wand stuck out of her pocket.

The mirage chamber was amazing! She sucked in a deep breath upon entering and felt the cold ,pine-scented air enter her lungs. It was hard to believe that just outside this building was harsh desert. A cool wind threaded its way through the small crowd of students, but warmed suddenly. Eavan sighed in releif and waited for the goosebumps to retreat before paying any attention to what Flatt was saying. Giants! The other Flatt would've just shown some gruemsome movie about how giants tear up people and eat them. This was much better.

Eavan grabbed a sqaure cloth in red and headed off with a couple other students through a patch of trees.

"How cool is this!" Eavan whispered to the person closest to her, as though speaking any louder would cause giants to crash through the underbrush and attack.

0 Eavan Valentine Larger than life 86 Eavan Valentine 0 5

Helena Layne

June 13, 2009 9:42 PM

Literally. by Helena Layne

Helena had not signed up for Advanced History of Magic from any love of the subject. Instead, she had been thinking two years down the line, when she would have to seriously think about careers. Since her father was a career bureaucrat and her mother had spent decades in International relations, it was highly likely that she would spend at least some of her time working for the Cabinet or the Council, which required the ability to make a good, logical argument for her points that brought others around to her way of thinking. If Flatt-style History of Magic couldn't do that, nothing would. The whole class was a series of verbal brawls.

For this reason, she was somewhat put out about getting the new Professor Flatt. She'd quite disliked the old one - the man's cigars were revolting - but his liking for making the students argue was why she'd taken the class. When told her book, notes, and robes wouldn't be necessary for the lesson at hand, Helena raised her eyebrows slightly but went along without complaint. She was dressed neatly, but no more than usual; she saved the nice things for presentations, and she could risk more damage to her tan capris and short-sleeved, light pink button-down than she could to her uniform.

When she realized where they were going, she pulled a white tie from her pocket and paused to pull her hair up into the same ponytail she wore to play Quidditch. She'd never had a chance to go into the Mirage Chamber, but Geoff had, and he had described it as being exactly like being outdoors. With her brain going through several theories of why they'd have History of Magic in a room mostly used by the Advanced Care of Magical Creatures class, she stepped through the opening behind Professor Mims' portrait and shivered in the changed temperature for a moment before it warmed up again.

The cool moment was explained by the fact that they seemed to be in the mountains. Though no longer cold, Helena gave her arms an absent rub as she looked around at her new set of surroundings. Where were all that booming coming from?

Her eyes snapped back to Professor Flatt when she heard the word giants, and her mouth opened slightly in horror as she put two and two together. Geoff said things in here, as the name Mirage Chamber implied, weren't real the way things outside were real, but...Giants. When she was a little girl, she'd had nightmares for ages about what it would be like to be kidnapped by giants after being told that was what happened to bad kids by her grandmother. That had, of course, not been true, but she still thought it was part of the reason she fell into the role of 'the good one' when people typed her and her siblings. She had not wanted to be eaten alive by giants.

It wasn't real. She just had to remind herself of that. As many times as necessary. It wasn't real, and nothing here, in this room, could hurt her except the other students who had no reason to want to hurt her. She was the good one of their year, too, and tried her best not to make anyone mad at her. She thought she had largely succeeded in that aim, which meant she had every chance of walking out of here in just as good a condition as she had entered it. Lacking the means to take physical notes, she made a mental note never to go into anthropology.

She wasn't sure what ameliorated meant, but gathered from context that it was something along the lines of 'made to go away'. Whether or not Professor Flatt was right about that being possible was up for debate, but she was relieved to hear that all they were to do was observe the giants and not mess with them. She didn't want to figure out what they would do if, being projections, she got in their way. There was some question of how it would work - would it just sort of step through her, or would the safeguards mean it missed every time? - but she wasn't Aladren enough to really think about the issue now. Taking a purple cloth, Helena followed the first little group she saw that looked like it could do with a member.

The logical thing to do would be to find something to hide behind while they did their observation. If they could see the giants, real giants could have seen them, and all that the professor had said implied that the mirages here could do the same. Before she could suggest finding a large spot of brush or outcropping of rocks to take shelter behind to the group, a whisper beside her caught her attention.

Cool. Not the word she would have thought of, but...She was thinking about taking cover for survival purposes and going about a lesson pretending to be an anthropologist. That was kind of cool. "It is, isn't it?" she whispered back, also a little wary about raising her voice this close to the giant colony. She raised the volume to a loud whisper to get full group attention. "Hey, you guys," she said. "D'you think we should all stay low and stick together, or should we set up a...command post or something to come back to and spread out a little?"

16 Helena Layne Literally. 88 Helena Layne 0 5

Saul Pierce

July 01, 2009 2:32 PM

History Supersized. by Saul Pierce

Saul's academic abilities had never been stellar. He had some natural talent in Charms, a determination to master Transfigurations, a girlfriend in DADA, and he'd dropped everything else due to a lack of interest. Except History. History was unique in Saul's schedule. For one thing, he'd failed the History CATS. Flatt the Elder had allowed Saul to continue though, likely out of some perverse curiosity to see how Saul would mangle the subject next. Saul was not one to disappoint.

The New Flatt had given Saul a momentary flash of concern. Old Flatt liked Saul (or so Saul assumed - as much as Old Flatt was capable of liking any of the students, anyway). He suffered Saul's creative interpretations of the past without kicking him out of the RATS class. But the New Year had come with the New Flatt and Saul still had History in his schedule. Saul took this as tacit permission to continue his methods. Now having survived a fair way into term without having been asked to drop the subject or given a detention, Saul was secure in his place once again.

Of course, his grades were nothing to write home about (which didn't stop him for doing so anyway), but he wasn't taking this class to pass history. He was taking this class as a creative outlet. He was now Sonora's answer to Disney Movies. He and old Walt could retell historical stories with about the same adherence to accepted facts. Plus, he was getting a chance to really earn his Class Clown title.

The troll at the top of each returned assignment was quite incidental to the fact that Saul was sure he'd entertained the Professor and given him a break from the dry facts the rest of his class was plying the man with. (And, to be honest, Saul was half toying with the idea of failing all of his classes badly enough that he could return to Sonora again next year. He was well on his way to that end in both History and Transfiguration, but he was a little too afraid of the reaction he'd get from both of the school's O'Learies if he threw his grade in DADA.)

Today, he arrived with his usual punctuality (he skidded through the door, out of breath and with a few sticks caught in his hair from cutting through a hedge in the Gardens, with seconds to spare) and took one of the seats nearest the door. He was surprised and excited to learn they were going to do something more interesting than another lecture.

Divesting himself of his robe, he followed the rest of the class to the Mirage Chamber in his worn and faded jeans, a bright blue t-shirt that claimed 'I'm with Stupid ↑' in white print (a joke gift in honor of his CATS results that Saul hadn't really expected anyone to ever actually see, since he only ever wore it under his school robes, but he wasn't going to give up the chance to ditch the robes), and a pair of tattered converse sneakers.

He listened to New Flatt go over what they were looking at and what they were doing for the day's lesson, with no hint of his usual distraction. His eyes were bright and he was very nearly bouncing in place with his eager excitement.

Who would have ever guessed they'd get to participate in an interactive performance during History?!

As his classmates began to creep toward the Giant settlement, Saul was mentally going over his character, and he used his wand to alter his clothes (a trick Simon had finally taught him) into a jungle explorer sort of outfit. Improv acting was always easier in costume.

He was trailing a little behind Helena Layne and Eavan Valentine when he heard Helena raise her whisper loud enough for him to hear. "Command post, I should think, ma'am," Saul suggested, mentally assigning her character to the role of expedition leader since she was the first to offer some kind of group leadership. "We can observe the subjects from a closer range if we're in smaller groups."

Deciding he was best suited for working with imaginary props, and wanting to get as near to the illusions as he could, he gave himself the role of photographer and held up an invisible camera. "I'll try to get in close for some good shots of the giants, their homes, and their tools." He checked an equally imaginary pouch and nodded, "I have plenty of film, so I should be good on that front. But," he gave the giant settlement a slightly nervous look, "could I have someone come along to cover me or go for help, if they should hear the camera and come after me?"

Saul had no intention of getting seen by the giants, but he thought a real anthropological photographer wouldn't go out into a potentially dangerous situation by himself. That these giants posed no real risk was quite inconsequential. They were real to Tony Martin, photographer, and that made them creatures Saul Pierce, actor, would treat with greatest care.

1 Saul Pierce History Supersized. 82 Saul Pierce 0 5