I'm here. on Elective Hall

Professor McFarlan

September 27, 2007 1:16 PM

Fourth Years Class by Professor McFarlan

Because the fourth years would be doing quite a bit of independent work, desks replaced the recliners. On each desk was an enchanted candle that would illuminate the student’s parchment and textbooks but would not disturb the surrounding scenery. The crystal was reset as well. The classroom would appear to the students as an open, grassy field far away from city lights. Above was the night sky as it would appear to the inhabitants of North America around the twenty first of October of this year when the Leonid meteor shower would be at its showiest. Shooting stars streaked across the “sky” like angels falling to Earth.

Once the students settled down, Professor McFarlan stepped forward and addressed them. She loved all of her students, but it seemed that this class seemed to have a few more “issues” last year than the rest of the other years. She hoped that this year would be a more positive experience for them all.

“Please open your text books to page 83 and 84,” she began, with a meaningful sideways glance at Saul Pierce. “We will begin our studies this year with meteors and meteor showers. Meteor showers are some of the most beautiful displays one can see with the naked eye. There are eight series of showers that we can view in this hemisphere throughout the year. Falling stars have long held a well deserved reputation for bringing positive magical energy to the Earth.

“What you see above you is a replication of the Leonid shower. The Felix Felicis potion is more powerful with fewer undesired side effects when begun when the Leonid meteors fly and the final ingredient is added during the Eta Aquarids begin.

“Meteor showers are named for the constellations they seem to originate from, i.e. Leonids/ Leo, Geminids/Gemini, etc. Incidentally, wishing spells cast during in the presence of a falling star are more effective as well.

“I would like you all to get out parchment and writing utensils and answer the following questions:

1: What are the definitions of a 1) Meteor, 2) Meteorite, and 3) Meteoroid.
2: Name two meteor showers and the give the dates of their appearance.

“Now this last question is an exercise in thinking about the consequences of our actions. Wishing spells, while the caster may have the best intentions, can have dangerous after effects. I give you the example of King Midas who wished that everything he touched would turn to gold. He ended up both the wealthiest and the loneliest man in the world for he could touch no one that he loved ever again. With that in mind question three is if you could cast a wishing spell and it was guaranteed to work, A) What would it be? and B) What might be the unforeseen consequences of the spell?

“You may work alone or in small groups, however you are most comfortable. If you do choose to work in groups, please keep the chatter down to a dull roar. I will be at my desk if you’ve any questions. You may begin now.”

OOC: You know the drill. Two paragraphs minimum, the longer and more imaginative the better. Have fun.
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Subthreads:

Would you believe? I have the right page number by Saul Pierce with Briony O'Leary, Briony

Oh boy... by Adam Brockert

I'm here. by Morgaine Carey

0 Professor McFarlan Fourth Years Class 1467 Professor McFarlan 1 5

Saul Pierce

October 02, 2007 8:02 PM

Would you believe? I have the right page number by Saul Pierce

Saul's favorite part of the school day was walking into the Astronomy classroom. The Divinations tent was cool, too, but Saul had to grant that the far reaches of space just upstaged Andean mountainsides any day, especially since you could only catch glimpses of the mountains while the sky was on full display.

He was slightly disappointed today that they were on an Earthbound field instead of floating out in the vast vacuum cleaner of the heavens, but the meteor shower taking place over their heads made the grass underfoot worth it. "Cool," he said, walking further into the classroom and running right into a desk that wasn't supposed to be there.

Drawing his eyes from the crystal's display to the actual mundane details of the classroom, he was horrified to find desks and desk chairs where recliners had been last year. "Aw, man," he complained aloud, "We're gonna hafta write stuff." Even Saul could work out that logic.

He picked a desk at random and sat down on the much inferior chair and sulked for a moment, though he was soon distracted by the meteors again. The professor started talking, but Saul didn't pay much attention until he noticed her staring right at him. He sat up and focussed on her and she said, "page 83 and 84," with what might have been an extra emphasis on the page numbers, though Saul couldn't tell for certain. Her eyes didn't leave his until she announced that they'd begin the year with a lesson about meteors.

Saul turned to pages 83 and 84 right away so he didn't forget. He even checked to make sure the pages showing were actually about meteors and meteor showers. They were.

He paid attention enough to get that Leonardo (Saul's money was on Di Vinci, though it might be DiCaprio) had a meteor shower named after him and it came before the shower named after Ida Aquarius and if you brewed a Feline Felicity potion between the two, it would make cats like you even more than it normally would. Also, wishing worked really good during a meteor shower, and Saul was briefly distracted by trying to remember the words to the 'Star Light, Star Bright, First Star I See Tonight' rhyme.

He tuned in again when she mentioned King Midas, and when she moved on to talk about Question 3, he realized there were questions on the board and gathered answering them would be their assignment. While he still remembered the answers, he quickly pulled out a piece of parchment and wrote down the answer to question two.

1)
2) 2 meatieor showers are: The Leonardo Shower and The Ida Aquarius Shower.

And because it sounded funner than figuring out when those were supposed to be or writing out definitions, he moved right on to question three.

3) I would wish for lots of reelly good pepperoni pizza. And the bad stuff would be that I'd get so much pepperoni pizza, I'd get a stommack ayck and maybe even stop likeing it because everywhere I go - their's pepperoni pizza! And their! And their! And I can't get away from all the pepperoni pizza! And wurst of all, it'll go bad before I finish eating it all and thats terrible!

Thoroughly horrified a how badly a simple wish for pepperoni pizza could turn out, Saul got up and sought comfort from the first red-haired Teppenpaw girl he came across. His eyes wide with distress, he held out his parchment for her to read, and grieved, "My pepperoni pizza went bad."

1 Saul Pierce Would you believe? I have the right page number 82 Saul Pierce 0 5

Briony O'Leary

October 02, 2007 8:45 PM

It's a miracle :P by Briony O'Leary

Briony stopped mid-step when she entered the Astronomy room. Gone was the wide-open vastness of space, but rather replaced by a grassy field and night sky, complete with falling stars. It might not have been as spectacular, but it held a certain charm that she found refreshing. A gentle smile on her face, she found an empty seat among her peers.

Before Professor McFarlan began class, Briony already had her textbook and parchment pulled out of her book bag. When told to, she flipped to pages 83-84 and looked over the material, as the professor lectured, only pausing to glance up once in a while. The first two parts of the assignment was rather easy. It was all material within the book. The third, however, was not so.

She knew exactly what she would wish. She would want her mother back, the mother she had longed for all her life. She would never have lost her. But the possible consequences were horrific to think about. She might not be as close to her father. She might not have even come to Sonora. She wouldn’t know the people that she knew now. Would she have been different? It was a lot to take in.

Before she could write anything down, she heard a familiar voice, ’My pepperoni pizza went bad.’ Looking up, she saw Saul, her mood brightening immediately. She gave a sympathetic smile, “That’s terrible. Why did it go bad?”

Briony took the parchment from Saul and saw this written:

'3) I would wish for lots of reelly good pepperoni pizza. And the bad stuff would be that I'd get so much pepperoni pizza, I'd get a stommack ayck and maybe even stop likeing it because everywhere I go - their's pepperoni pizza! And their! And their! And I can't get away from all the pepperoni pizza! And wurst of all, it'll go bad before I finish eating it all and thats terrible!'

Looking back to Saul, she said with a grin, "Your pizza won't go bad. I promise to help you eat it."
\r\n\r\n

0 Briony O'Leary It's a miracle :P 75 Briony O'Leary 0 5

Saul

October 05, 2007 10:55 AM

It's right up there with mana from Heaven by Saul

Saul's mood brightened immediately when Briony smiled at him, and soared even higher when she offered to help him eat all of his pepperoni pizza. He grinned at her brightly, "Excellent! We can get sick and fat together and have adjoining rooms in the hospital! But, at least the pizza won't go bad!"

He sat down next to her, looked at her blank answer sheet and then reclaimed his own, which was still missing the answers to questions one and two. "So, partners?" he asked, waving the parchment so as to make it clear what he was talking about. The first two questions were fairly straightforward and even Saul could probably copy down the definitions and answers from the book without help, but they were boring questions and it would be more fun to work with Briony to do them.

He frowned at question one, a memory tingling at his brain, "Y'know, I think I copied these words down once before."

1 Saul It's right up there with mana from Heaven 82 Saul 0 5

Briony

October 05, 2007 6:34 PM

Does pizza count? by Briony

Briony giggled at Saul’s enthusiasm. He seemed geared towards odd thoughts, but it was part of what made him so endearing. Though, she would certainly hope not to get sick or gain weight, because she wouldn’t want Saul to see her like that, not that she thought he would care much since he was her friend. It was just she wanted to be viewed as more.

She nodded, as she pushed some of her red hair back. “Partners.” She tilted her head curiously. “Really? I don’t think I ever did, but I bet we could finish quickly, so we could have the rest of the class time to relax or talk or whatever.”

She really wouldn’t have minded spending more time viewing the shooting stars. It appealed to the whole helpless romantic inside of her. Not to mention, spending time with Saul was always a plus.

0 Briony Does pizza count? 0 Briony 0 5

Adam Brockert

October 06, 2007 3:53 PM

Oh boy... by Adam Brockert

When Adam walked into Astronomy, he was relieved to see the desks there. Even though he'd miss the comfort of the recliners a little, he certainly wouldn't miss the discomfort of the circle. Last year, it had caused him another panic attack. Adam really didn't care for those much. They weren't just physically uncomfortable but incredibly embarassing. He hated how he'd start to shake and hyperventilate. Everytime he had one, it just made it harder for him to face his classmates.

Not to mention that it was too many people around him or looking at him that triggered them in the first place.

He took a seat in the back of course, off away from everyone. Adam figured this would reduce the chance of panicking. Everyone would just hopefully go about their business and not pay attention to him. Well, he'd be okay with Pepper talking to him, maybe Allie or Briony. Still though, he wasn't entirely certain what they thought of him so it was best not to approach.

When Professor McFarlan announced what the assignment was and that they had a choice of working in partners or not,Adam grimaced. He was relieved to be allowed to work alone yet the fact that other people would be in groups made him nervous. Even though he, and possibly the Aladrens would concentrate solely on the work at hand-or try to, in his case- Adam was not naive enough to not expect that they would also have non-class related discussions. Particularily about the class loser who nobody would want to work with. (Never mind the even number of people in their class would techinically lead to everyone being able to theoretically have a partner. He figured that left over person would choose to work alone rather than with him.)

With a touch of anxiety still hovering over him, Adam turned to the work at hand. He quickly wrote down the answers to the first two questions as they were fairly easy, even though he did have to look up when the meteor showers appeared.

He froze up when he saw the last question. Did Adam really want his teacher knowing what he wished for most? That was a fairly personal question. There were two things that he wanted, an Invisibility Cloak and a girlfriend. Adam's gaze shifted to a random girl and then looked away quickly before she could turn and see him looking. He was beginning to notice the opposite gender more and more and the girls in his own year were some of the best looking ones...not that any would ever give him the time of day.

Still Adam wouldn't want to lie to his teacher. He felt wrong about that, so he quickly jotted down, feeling nervous about it the entire time, his answer to question three.

3. I guess what I'd wish for would be a girlfriend.

Now how could that go wrong? Well that was easy. All Adam had to do was think about what happened to Kaylie. He continued writing,

It could go wrong, if she happened to be betrothed to someone else or just plain decided she didn't want me anymore. Or she could treat me really bad or not be the right kind of girl for me. I suppose when wishing one needs to state things very exactly to make sure this doesn't happen.

Adam looked up, satisfied with his answer despite his embarassment, to find someone had approached him. He turned bright red and quickly turned his paper over so they wouldn't see his answer to the last question.

11 Adam Brockert Oh boy... 78 Adam Brockert 0 5

Saul

October 16, 2007 6:04 PM

Pizza always counts by Saul

Saul nodded, imbuing the answer with a great weight that it probably didn't deserve. "Oh, yes," he told Briony, "I think I did this assignment when we were supposed to be learning about comets." He looked doubtfully down at his bag. "I bet I still have it, somewhere." He used a finger to carefully ease the bag open enough to see the mess of three full years' worth of accumulation and detritus. He looked at the hopeless mess in dismay. There was no easy way to tell which crumpled parchment was the crumpled parchment he was looking for.

"Um," he said, giving her a slightly embarrassed grin, but he was pretty sure she already knew he was no Aladren so he didn't think she'd be too bothered by his lack of organization. "I think it'll be faster to just copy it again."

He summoned over his own book (still open to the correct page about meteorites) and quill, both of which he'd left over at his first desk before seeking out Briony. Turning the quill to his paper and looking at the book for reference, he copied down the appropriate definitions. The dates for question two were less immediately obvious (there being no bold face words to bring his attention to the appropriate spot in the text). "Where does it say when the Ida Aquarius starts?"

1 Saul Pizza always counts 82 Saul 0 5

Morgaine Carey

October 19, 2007 11:47 PM

I'm here. by Morgaine Carey

After taking a quick, cautious, and hopefully covert look at the floor, Morgaine walked quickly from the door to an empty desk. Real desks, like a floor that appeared solid, were welcome additions to the classroom, because her book wasn't steady enough to leave her handwriting readable if used as a hard surface. She had spent quite a lot of time wishing for real desks in this class. As she took out her book and parchment and ink, she started looking for signs of what was going to happen that she wasn't going to like at all.

She was soon distracted, however, by the display of stars. The sky simulation was actually quite pretty to look at on days when it wasn't under her feet. Three guesses said the topic of the lesson was shooting stars. Morgaine had never seen one herself, but she had heard they were good to wish on. Would a reproduction work as well? She glanced up at a flying light. What would she wish for? Wishes were sort of like prophecies in that they had a very messed-up sense of humor. It was better not to risk it.

Her suspicions about the lesson were quickly confirmed. The professor gave them a lot more information than she'd known coming in, but the important part was that she'd been right about what the class was about. Loading her quill with ink, she began copying the rest down into her notes in her long, narrow handwriting. Gwen had always said her writing looked like an old lady's. Morgaine had always called her sister's flourishing script illegible. She had never worked out just how their styles had ended up so different, considering the fact that they'd had the same penmanship tutor at the exact same time.

The first two parts of the assignment sounded easy enough, as it was just a question of looking the information up in the book. The only way doing that would take her more than ten minutes was if the definitions were all a paragraph or more in length. Before she could start to like the lesson, though, the third question was posed. Morgaine immediately looked down at her desktop to prevent her face from giving away her feelings on the matter. She had taken quite a lot of care to not give McFarlan more reasons to notice her in the room, and now wasn't the time to change tactics.

Morgaine wished for lots of things. She wished that she was pretty. She wished she didn't have to eventually marry some idiot and spend the rest of her life raising ungrateful and most likely crazy children. She wished her sister wasn't an idiot, that her parents weren't both terminally insane, and that Amber didn't exist. She wished she wasn't a Pecari, or at least that idiocy was more of an exception and less of a rule with her fellows. She wished she was someone else from somewhere else. None of those wishes were any of McFarlan's or anyone else's business.

It didn't take her practical side long to kick in. She had, after all, only two ways to react available to her: to tell the truth, which would be dumb, or to lie. She would make a wish up, think up the ways it would go horribly wrong if it came true, and be done with it. Smoothing out a fresh sheet of parchment, she wrote down her name, year, and House, and then began copying down facts. When she was done with that, she chewed on her lower lip for a moment while thinking and then quickly wrote down what came to mind.

I would wish to be the smartest person in the world. The problem would be having people bothering me all the time to ask questions and/or plotting my assassination.

0 Morgaine Carey I'm here. 81 Morgaine Carey 0 5

Briony

October 24, 2007 12:35 AM

Most excellent by Briony

Having grown up with magic, one would think she wouldn’t be surprised at how much clutter one bag could hold. Briony’s face mimicked the feeling, but quickly recovered at Saul’s grin and gave a reassuring one of her own. No one was perfect. Besides, boys were supposed to be messy. She would be worried if he was anally neat.

On her paper, she quickly wrote down the definitions while Saul did the same. She was reading over the pages to find out about the meteor showers when he asked about Ida Aquarius. Ida Aquarius? She looked over the pages again. She didn’t see anything about it. Maybe he meant Eta Aquarids? She bit her lip. She didn’t want to tell him that he was wrong and maybe hurt his feelings, but if she didn’t say anything, he might get it wrong on a test, which would be worse. It was such a dilemma. Maybe she could say it gently?

“Eta Aquarids starts at the top of the next page,” she stated softly, hoping not to draw attention to the fact that it was a bit of a correction. She wrote the name on her on paper and that it began in early May. “Most of the others are on that page too. I’m going to put Draconids too. It starts in early October and reminds me of Dracula.” That one should be easy to remember on an exam.

With this written, she looked down at her parchment. All she had to do was answer the last question. She really didn’t want to write down her true wish. She really didn’t want to write down her second wish either, because said boy was sitting nearby. Otherwise, there was nothing else she really desired. She supposed she could put something that anyone else might, something less personal, like how she wanted to be more outgoing, but that was a bit lame.

She should just suck it up and put what she really wished for. Glancing at Saul to make sure he wasn’t looking, she quickly wrote her original thought in regards to her mother. Finished, she turned her paper over. Feeling a little emotional, she took a deep breath, before asking in a falsely cheerful voice, “I’m finished. How about you?”

0 Briony Most excellent 0 Briony 0 5