Selina Skies
December 20, 2019 5:27 AM
Intermediates - Make It Snow by Selina Skies
“Good morning,” Selina greeted the intermediate students. “Coming around is an outline of the things we will be studying this semester,” she informed them, waving her wand to disseminate a stack of parchments. This listed module outlines including animate transfiguration (theory/practical), mechanical transfiguration (theory/practical), and limits of transfiguration (theory). “For those of you who have just moved up to intermediates, you should all know that you have the chance to take electives or extended studies. These can include subjects outside the core classes. Some are taught here and there are correspondence course options. You may take these up now or at any point during your course of study, though the later you do that, the more limits you will face in what you can take at exam level before graduation. If you have any questions about this process, please talk to a staff member, particularly Mr. Row,” strictly speaking, this information was not Transfiguration related, and had hopefully been discussed at multiple intervals with the students. However, it didn’t seem like it would hurt to mention it.“Today, we are going to begin our mechanical transfiguration unit, which is one of my favourites,” she added with a smile. The animate things came with a lot of worrying about the animals involved and a lot of competing theories and ethics. Interesting fodder for theory, but a headache when it interfered with practicals. This element of transfiguration had been somewhat niche when she started out but it had gradually been gaining momentum and she had been adding more and more of it in with no complaints so far. “In essence, this is a branch of transfiguration that looks at making moving things with complex working parts. We will look into the theory of that too, discussing how your knowledge of how something is put together affects your ability in this branch of magic.
“Today, we’ll be starting out with something a little simpler. Something that you should all understand the fundamental workings of, but which nonetheless presents a challenging problem for you all.” She placed a rubber ball on top of a small box on her desk so that it was easily visible from around the room, and with a muttered incantation and light, flourishing wand movement turned it into a little snow globe, complete with a castle in it. She picked it up to demonstrate that a little flurry of glittery snow did indeed appear when she shook it.
“Now, who can tell me why that might be more complicated than some of the things you’ve already made?” she asked. It didn’t seem like a very challenging question, and so it didn’t take much calling on people to get a clear answer.
“The incantation you will need for this is Globus Nivalus,” she instructed, “And you should use a swirling wand motion with a light fluttering gesture at the end. In version A of the task, you can just work on creating the ball filled with water and ‘snow.’ In version B, you can add a miniature scene. You may choose which to work on, or work through one and then the other. The goal of the class is for you to be comfortable creating something involving multiple materials and parts which must work in harmony but also independently. This will be a useful foundation for creating more complex systems, both in terms of pseudo-living things and more complex mechanical transfigurations.
“You may talk quietly with your neighbours, or ask me if you need any assistance. Please begin.”
OOC - welcome to Intermediate Transfiguration. Posts will be graded based on length, realism, relevance and creativity.
Subthreads: I suck less now! by Evelyn Stones with Jessica Hayles
Beautiful things. by Katerina Vorontsov with Felipe De Matteo
How I hate going out in the storm. by Nathaniel Mordue with Allegra Brockert
Do I have to? by Jeremy Mordue with Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
13
Selina Skies
Intermediates - Make It Snow
26
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Evelyn Stones
December 20, 2019 12:07 PM
I suck less now! by Evelyn Stones
The idea of taking more classes was one that appealed to Evelyn, because they were mostly not wand-waving classes. She thought divination might give her way more information about the world than she could handle, but Astronomy and History of Magic were exciting. She was pretty sure she could skip out on Muggle Studies. That being said, she wasn't doing as bad at her wand-waving classes either anymore. After months of Professor Wright's tutelage, and Evelyn's own increased effort to seek help from her other professors, Evelyn was pretty sure she could do some magic now. It wasn't great, but at least she wasn't exploding so much anymore. Probably. She was even pretty sure she'd get to graduate! Which made Professor Skies' comments about graduation all the more frightening and real. She was going to graduate someday, and have to pick a career or something. Ugh.Today's lesson seemed like it was specifically designed to prove that she was actually not doing good in her wand-waving classes, but also it was sort of beautiful. Evelyn's face lit up as she watched the demonstration and their task was explained; she loved snowglobes. She was pretty sure she wasn't going to be able to actually do the task set before them, despite the fact that she was now in her second year of intermediate classes, but that was okay. She was just happy to be trying at this point. Trying to make friggin' snowglobes. It was amazing.
She'd worn a rich plum lipstick today, with just enough eye makeup to make her eyes pop, but not to actually draw too much attention to herself. It felt like a good homage to the passing of summer and the start of winter, with a rich blustery color for her lips. She wasn't sure when the shift had begun, but she'd definitely shifted towards more natural makeup trends in recent months. Perhaps it was the number of people who had now seen her with no makeup at all, or perhaps it was that she was beginning to care a bit more about whether she looked pretty to other people, or maybe she was just really sick of attention. In any case, she was pretty proud of her look today, and she was glad it wasn't something so bold as to be distracting, because she needed to concentrate.
She would have loved to make a miniature scene, and immediately thought of old Scottish castles and things from her books. She thought of the haunted lighthouses on the Oregon coast. It didn't snow terribly often on the Oregon coast, but it sure would be beautiful if it did, and the lighthouses were sights she knew well. Perhaps she would give that a shot. But first, she wanted to see if she could even do the transfiguration at all.
The sheets they had used previously in Transfiguration to compare the pre- and post-transfigured items came to mind and Evelyn figured that would be a good place to start. Digging in her bag for a notebook, she made a quick table and began jotting down ideas. It was shorthand, as this was only for her and not to be turned in this time, but it did help some. The hard part was that snowglobes had a thin shell of glass, whereas rubber balls . . . well maybe it was hollow. That would help.
Evelyn turned to the student beside her, not looking up, and pointed at a tiny doodle she'd made of a snowglobe to help get the ideas flowing. "What do you think the little fake snow stuff is made out of?" she asked.
22
Evelyn Stones
I suck less now!
1422
0
5
Jessica Hayles
December 25, 2019 1:21 PM
You're a novelty, then. by Jessica Hayles
Jessica Hayles was not someone who was in the business of feeling small, as a rule, but she thought that Intermediate classes were going to try their best to make her feel that way. Worse, they were going to do so both figuratively and literally. Who in the world had ever decided it was a good idea to put eighth, ninth, and tenth graders in the same classrooms?Looking around warily at the fifth years, whom she had never shared lessons with before, she did what she always did when she felt intimidated and retreated. Sank into her own mind, allowing her outsides to become a hard, shiny, assertive shell - one that behaved like the person her father wanted her to be. She walked into the room as if she didn't have a care in the world, ignoring the knots in her stomach and her acute awareness that she no longer had a living ally here, and sat down, hoping this tactic worked better for her today than it had at the Opening Feast.
She was aware of Jeremy's presence, his and his older lookalike - she assumed a brother - and that Sylvia girl who swanned around Crotalus as though she personally owned the whole school. Which, in fairness, for all Jessica knew, she might more or less do. Jessica had always been able to walk like that back in Atlanta, knowing full well that her father had spent unholy amounts of money on her school and that her grandfather was willing to do favors for it at any time. That had made her untouchable. Here, as the littlest Mordue had demonstrated, she wasn't. She really, really, wasn't. And that sucked almost as much as not having a real tub all year and doing her homework with a lantern and what amounted to a flashlight during the winter.
She got out her new notebooks and pencil case, soothing herself by breathing in the scents of fresh paper and recently shaved cedar, and trained her eyes on Professor Skies. She kept her face almost composed as the woman decided to taunt her by talking about how now she could add real classes to her schedule if she wanted - now, when it had been two years since she had last formally participated in a regular class. How on Earth was she supposed to pick up with even sixth grade math when she had barely done long division half a dozen times in the past two years? She couldn't suppress a slight twist of her mouth at that thought, but otherwise refused to react. Refused to give the satisfaction, even as her stomach clenched again and her heart constricted to the point of what felt like physical pain as she thought about how things should have been.
It had been a long time since she had had a physical reaction to it all, she thought. Last year, she had thought she was almost beginning to accept it. Was it just having it thrown in her face again that was provoking it now, or her new awareness of how very much she didn't belong here, and never would?
Ambition is
glazed yellow, planted on whitened pulps
churned and smoothed, cut with blue
Scent of cedar - a gasp of pain
from a thing without a vein
or mouth to
The syllabus reached her desk, interrupting her composition and bringing her back to the class she was actually in. She fastened it into her binder without bothering to read it, instead preparing to take notes beneath the incomplete poem.
Mechanics had never been a subject she had found very interesting, but she had to admit that this didn't sound as dull and pointless as a lot of the stuff they studied in these classes. She could see how it could be useful. And, as much as she hated to admit it, entertaining. She flashed a smile, briefly, at the sight of the glitter cascading over the little castle in the snowglobe Professor Skies produced - she had always loved snowglobes, possibly not so much in spite of as because of the fact that it rarely ever snowed to any great degree where she lived.
She lost the impulse to smile, however, as Professor Skies went on about describing the tasks they could choose between. One spell - she was pretty sure that was literally near-Latin for 'globe snow,' even without a working knowledge of the language - with a pretty simple wand movement...to produce all that. Of course, the glitter would move on its own if she could produce a medium for it to move in - the mechanical bit would involve a person shaking the snowglobe she produced - but....
Technically, she thought, they had produced multiple materials before, like when they made teacups or whatever. Jessica was never quite sure if she thought Transfigured things were real or not - if they were what they looked like, or if they just looked like it - but a real dish was porcelain or china which then had inks or paints or other items applied to form patterns, then the whole thing was glazed. That these substances were separate was obvious from the way really old teacups and whatnot could craze, fine cracks appearing in the glaze even though the cup itself was basically fine. Even a pencil had multiple parts and substances in it - rubbery eraser, metal band, wooden shell, graphite center. If she thought about it that way, turning a ball into a snowglobe didn't seem that bad. The biggest difference, though, was that all those other transfigurations involved the substances touching each other, often being bonded together in some way, if they did in fact exist. Free-moving glitter would be an entirely new ballgame.
Another issue was raised by the girl in the next seat - Evelyn, she recalled. Jessica furrowed her brow in concentration, trying to remember what she knew about glitter.
"It could be a lot of things," she said. "I know...in natural...stuff, mica is shiny - some companies put it into highlighter palettes, or, well, single highlighters, too," she said, thinking about that. It was more than controversial to do so because of issues with ethical sourcing, but it was a thing. "And there's lots of metals and minerals that glitter, if they're cut - though you probably wouldn't use diamonds for a snowglobe," she admitted. "Maybe quartz. I know a lot of glitters - like craft glitters - are made of tiny little pieces of plastic, because that's super bad for the environment, so people are trying to move away from that...a plastic might be harder for us to make anyway, since it's such a processed product," she said, now thinking out loud more than answering Evelyn's question. She realized she was doing that and blinked. "Sorry. My dad talks about this stuff at supper all the time, so I probably know too much about glitter," she acknowledged.
16
Jessica Hayles
You're a novelty, then.
1442
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5
Katerina Vorontsov
December 25, 2019 10:02 PM
Beautiful things. by Katerina Vorontsov
Katya had had her share of frustrations during language support classes, but despite them, she still rather enjoyed Professor Skies' classes. The professor was direct and got to the point, which she preferred in an instructor, and the class material itself was something Katya enjoyed. Transfiguration was a challenge, but when she applied herself to it, she could produce something beautiful. It was rather like watercolor in that respect, really.Over the past month or two, Katya had thought more and more about whether she ought to make a second attempt at starting an art club. Since the Opening Feast - well, at least the part of that time she had spent conscious - she had been thinking about it more seriously. She wanted that prefect badge next year, and while both Dorian and Heinrich proved that being an international student was no barrier, she still preferred the security of feeling she had something to act as a counterbalance to what she imagined was probably seen as a drawback to her candidacy. She had hoped her association with the Gardenia Girls might give her some edge, but Sylvia's surprising failure to win the award, coupled with Sylvia's cousin and shadow being a new prefect who might well just fall down on the job at any time if last year was anything to go by, made her question whether that was enough, especially given the shadow she lived under. Her sister held attention like a single candle in a dark room. Katya had never understood it at all - she was the one with more accomplishments, the one who tried to be perfect - but it was what it was. She needed something to distinguish herself.
Whether that worked out or not, however, she knew she also had to do the best possible job in classes, too, if she was going to have any chance, so she focused intently on the professor as she began explaining the lesson and tasks for the day.
Mechanical transfiguration. A snow globe. Katya smiled, delighted, and almost clapped her hands like a child at the sight of the snow falling on Professor Skies' little castle. It reminded her of home, on multiple levels. For one thing, of being at home in winter, when it snowed on the village during the limited hours of daylight and the light there was became so bright that it could hurt the eyes. For another thing, the whole task reminded her so much of objects from home. At home, there was a strong tradition of things inside other things - matryoshka dolls, surprises inside fine Easter eggs. A snowglobe wasn't like that, of course, because it could not be opened and the parts were all in plain view, but it was in the same family, sort of - a beautiful object made of multiple beautiful parts.
Or perhaps she was just already a little homesick. That was always possible, too. Katya loved Sonora - loved feeling as though she was managing the world on her own, loved the challenges and the satisfaction of meeting them - but she loved her home, too. At home, it was simple. Sometimes it was infuriating, but at least there, she could just...be. Sometimes what she could be was 'overlooked' or 'underestimated,' but she didn't have to worry about sounding stupid or making an etiquette error. Plus, even after only one day back in the lower forty-eight, she already missed hearing the people she just passed in passing speaking Russian. There was something deeply comforting about knowing background noise was in her mother tongue, even if she didn't listen closely enough to pick out a word of it.
She decided to sketch her design before she tried to Transfigure anything, and so put away her quill and took out a piece of pencil. Ink drawings were much harder to work with and to correct if she drafted an idea she didn't like, plus the pen ran out of ink too quickly. A pencil was better for this, when she wasn't sure what her final design would be.
After her reflections, she wanted to try to recreate something of home in the snowglobe. It would be a complicated project, though, she knew. The more pieces she added to the basic design, plus creating the tiny particles of false snow, the more difficult it would be to complete, and she thought her inclinations might cause her extra problems even if she used relatively few pieces inside. In the west, beauty was about simplicity, refinement. At home, things were often much more colorful and detailed, especially in anything meant for specifically decorative purposes. A miniature building would be quite the undertaking, and then more than one...
There could, she thought, perhaps be a middle ground between the two extremes. A single bright figure - like a candle in a dark room. One flower placed just so, instead of a whole bouquet....
She began to sketch a rose, then a basket of daisies. Both good ideas. Then she thought about snow and Russia and single figures and thought of Snegurochka - the Snow Maiden. A single figure, in something like traditional attire, in the midst of snow...though it seemed a bit wrong to have Snegurochka without Ded Moroz, which brought her right back to the issue of doing too much.
Hesitantly, she began to sketch a rough female figure, taking a moment to draw a curve above the head to represent a kokochnik and then beginning to fill in part of the figure's dress with snowflakes. The face was a few strokes of graphite, essentially featureless. Next to it, she began drawing Ded Moroz's staff, then put her pencil down with a sigh.
"I have too many ideas," she said to her neighbor. "Which snow-glob will you make?" Maybe if she heard what someone else had in mind, she could rule out something, or take the time to have a flash of inspiration about something better than all her ideas so far, or just work out why one of her ideas was better than the others.
16
Katerina Vorontsov
Beautiful things.
1418
0
5
Nathaniel Mordue
December 26, 2019 1:38 PM
How I hate going out in the storm. by Nathaniel Mordue
Breathe. Just breathe. It's okay. It's over.It'll never be over. Not anymore.
But we'll all pretend. They're pretending. They gave you the badge, didn't they? They're going to pretend last year didn't happen. I have to pretend it didn't happen.
In...one...two...three....
Out...one...two...three....
Whose idea was this stupid exercise anyway? How does not breathing for three seconds either way help anyone?
The most annoying thoughts were always the ones that seemed to come from outside the swirling vortex of misery that composed the majority of Nathaniel's mind at any given time, he thought. He could almost get used to his thoughts racing, or else struggling to get through fog, but there was always that little corner that felt as though it were watching someone else suffering, and commented. It didn't feel like it had anything to do with him at all, but he knew it was his own thought - he was not insane, no matter what Dr. Greene and Uncle Alexander tried to say, or whatever Dr. Greene tried to convince Uncle Alexander, or...whatever. That wasn't the point. The point was that he did not hear voices that weren't real. He was not mad. He just wished to decapitate himself sometimes, was all.
He ran through another of Dr. Greene's exercise - grounding, she called it. She said it was helpful for people who thought they were about to have panic attacks. Nathaniel did not think he had panic attacks, but when his thoughts began to race, like rats in a box getting nowhere, he couldn't deny that it helped. A little. So he did that. He could feel his feet inside his shoes, the strap of his bag cutting into his shoulder, his robes brushing the tips of his fingers where they hung down. He couldn't focus too much on things he saw - not while walking - but he could hear the voices of classmates around him, the sounds of their footsteps on the floors, the sound of his own footsteps on the floor. He could smell something vaguely floral - someone overdoing it on the perfume, perhaps - and something waxy, presumably a cleaning supply. He could still faintly taste his last cup of coffee, which had tasted a lot better when he was drinking it than it did right now; he ought to take the opportunity to brush his teeth again between classes, he thought. A practical step. There was something he could control, right there.
He sat down in Transfiguration and resolved to pay attention. No matter what else was going on, or was going to go on, the staff had chosen to give him another chance. To pretend that last year had never happened and to let him pick up where first-semester-fourth-year Nathaniel had left off. He had to live up to that opportunity. Even if it was just to spite everyone who thought he had gone quite mad and couldn't do it.
Anger. There it was. His old friend and helpmeet. He'd show them. At least as long as he had to. It was all going to be okay. As long as he could stay angry, he could shut out distractions. Most of the time, anyway. Enough.
He could still feel his heart give a few uneven, unnaturally slow and violent throbs, though, when Professor Skies began to talk. His old friend and helper - the one who was, indirectly, responsible for the current situation. If she had not agreed to help him last year - to pass those letters on to Sylvia and Jeremy...Well, it would have all been different, wouldn't it? He would have been someone else. He would have had to throw his weight as a prefect around just to get his own family to stay within shouting distance of him, if they would even do so then - and also assuming he had gotten through the summer without going to prison, of course, or getting placed in a Facility instead, if he had used his altered mental state as an excuse for murdering his stepfather and his mother had still loved him enough to pay the bribes that would be necessary to get officials to accept that. Would things have been better or worse with Jeremy? As it was, his brother would speak to him, if more or less forced anyway, but in that other situation...at least Jeremy would have still known that Nathaniel kept his word, that he could be trusted, and would have known that he had options. Now...well, as far as Nathaniel was concerned, all that was still true, but he couldn't exactly explain it to Jeremy. Or anyone, really, but especially not Jeremy. Jeremy wouldn't understand.
Yet, he reminded himself. Yet. Jeremy didn't understand yet. Someday, hopefully, Jeremy would grow up enough to understand. Which reminded Nathaniel of another practical problem - the fact he needed to figure out what had happened at the Crotalus table last night, and probably proceed to tell Jeremy off about it....
Without fully realizing it, he had sunk back into himself, lost in his thoughts. He was aware of Professor Skies' voice, but only very, very distantly; he couldn't hear a word clearly. The room had melted into an abstract watercolor, hues without form, diluted and largely meaningless. That corner of his mind which sometimes commented on how stupid the rest of him acted these days was still there - trying to point out to him now that he was doing something wrong, that he was missing something important - but it, too, was just a buzz, barely noticed - until he blinked. And inhaled for the first time in thirty seconds. And returned to his body, the room rushing back into place and color and full sound all around him at once, in total chaos.
"This will be a useful foundation for creating more complex systems, both in terms of pseudo-living things and more complex mechanical transfigurations," Professor Skies was saying. “You may talk quietly with your neighbours, or ask me if you need any assistance. Please begin.”
Damn it. He had missed the entire lecture. Gone out of himself and come back too late. Damn it. His neighbor glanced up and he smiled stiffly, trying to pretend nothing was wrong, hoping he could look as though he was doing something vaguely productive long enough to figure out, from watching people from the corners of his eyes, what he was supposed to be doing...and that he could remain focused on that task long enough to actually complete it.
Great start to your second chance, Nate. Really great start.
16
Nathaniel Mordue
How I hate going out in the storm.
1412
0
5
Evelyn Stones
December 26, 2019 9:47 PM
Hardly. by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn grinned at her partner, glad to have been paired up with Jessica. They hadn't had classes together the previous year and didn't talk much when they were in classes together, but the girl was clearly smart, and they'd sort of half bonded in the bathroom at the concert. Of course, that wasn't Evelyn's shining moment. Still, it was nice to see her again outside of such crappy moments. She sincerely hoped she hadn't left a poor impression on Jessica at the time, but there wasn't anything she could do about it now anyway so she shrugged the thought off. There were other, more pressing matters to consider."I forgot that you'd know a lot about glitter," Evelyn said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear with one hand as she took notes on what Jessica said with the other. She remembered the products Jessica had sent her that summer they'd talked for the first time. It had made her so happy to find that someone cared, even a little bit, about little Evelyn Stones. She'd sent her thanks back in a letter right away, but it was nice to have the chance in person. "The stuff you sent me was great, by the way. Thank you again for that."
Unfortunately, the knowledge of mica and other bits wasn't actually terribly helpful because Evelyn didn't really have a good grasp on what that was either. She pondered the whole of the snowglobe for a moment, biting her lip. "Do you think it would be easiest to make them out of little bits of glass? That way we don't have to make as many different things? Since the outside is glass too." She wasn't actually sure whether transfiguration cared about that, but it seemed like it was easier in her mind. Like planning all the recipes for a big meal, and picking ones that all used the same ingredients so the grocery list would be simpler. Maybe it would be easier to just make more glass than it would be to make glass and mica. Or whatever.
22
Evelyn Stones
Hardly.
1422
0
5
Felipe De Matteo
December 26, 2019 9:59 PM
Stupid things. by Felipe De Matteo
Felipe's mood had not improved since the Feast. Not only was he dealing with the fact that Jessica was in his House, and in all his classes, but he was weirdly angry at Jeremy for whatever he had said to Jessica that made her so upset that night, and he couldn't quite let it go either. But he had to let it go. Felipe had no feelings. Felipe was a figurehead. Felipe just needed to get through this stupid class.He didn't glare at Professor Skies but he absolutely wanted to. Who thought snowglobes was a fair assignment? Didn't she know that some people lived in places without any snow? Felipe had traveled and he'd seen snow, but what about people who couldn't afford to do that, or who could afford do that but their families didn't let them because they were non-magical and didn't have the opportunities? What about that, huh? Well clearly that wasn't the point of today's exercise. Nor, Felipe had to admit, was anger. Certainly anger served a purpose at times, but hardly in Transfiguration and that's where he was stuck now so he may as well figure out what sort of stupid thing he wanted to put in his stupid snowglobe full of stupid snow. Maybe he could do a treeglobe and make leaves instead? Or a sandglobe?
He thought of Los Jardines de Plata, both the place and the phrase. It was "The Silver Gardens," and while it wasn't a particularly literal name in the case of his home, it did bring images to mind. Los Jardines de Plata was beautiful and austere and warm, but what would it all look like in the snow? Probably a lot more silver than it did when it was named by someone who clearly had metaphors or irony in mind.
His musing - and fuming - was interrupted by a girl in the next year, which was a bit interesting. He hadn't exactly expected to talk to anyone in years ahead of him, although he knew many of their names and faces because that was only proper to do. Katerina Vorontsov - or was this one Vorontsova? - was interested in what he was making, even if she didn't qutie have the words down for it yet. That was fine; English was stupid. Unfortunately, Russian was not in his repertoire, so he replied in the only stupid language he knew they shared.
"I don't have enough ideas," he admitted, noticing with a grimace that she had already begun sketching hers out. He saw what looked like maybe a person and he wondered whether it was due to a misunderstanding of the directions, or just her own artistic interpretation of it. It sure would be nice to have the freedom to have artistic interpretations of simple directions. "But I'm going to do the miniature scene in my snowglobe." He had, from experience, discovered that repetition was helpful to language acquisition, so he repeated the words Professor Skies had used, and he modeled the correct pronunciation of the subject of the lesson. He couldn't help it; he'd helped Leonor with her languages enough times that it was ingrained into him to help.
Awesome, he really needed another stupid habit that he didn't think about and just did because acting was apparently easier than thinking.
"I haven't seen very much snow, so I was thinking maybe I would do a tree with falling leaves or something instead. But I don't know if that's what she's asking for." At least hadn't gotten better at admitting when he didn't have all the answers. That in itself was an answer to the dilemma of not having an answer. "What do you think?"
22
Felipe De Matteo
Stupid things.
1434
0
5
Katerina Vorontsov
December 27, 2019 8:42 AM
I do not think so. by Katerina Vorontsov
He had not seen much snow before. Katya’s eyes widened slightly in surprise at the very notion. She knew, of course, that the world had many different climates. She had studied that with her tutors at home. She also knew that the weather at Sonora was very different from the weather at home - during the summer, it got dark much earlier than it did in Volshebnaya Derevnya, but in the winter, it seemed absolutely flooded with light. The days went on forever and ever, compared to the window of sunshine on a typical winter day at home. It was still, though, strange to really see a real person who seemed unfamiliar with snow. Snow was as much a part of life as air at home.“I think it is the beautiful idea,” she said with a smile. “Leaves also are pretty in the air.” She mimicked then fluttering through the air with her small fingers. “And probably, nobody else has this idea,” she added. “It is all yours. Professor Skies will like this.”
She slid her scratch paper over. “This is Snegurochka,” she said. “To us...she is...” she fumbled for a word. “Part of winter,” she gave up at last. “It means ‘snow-girl’. It is not a good name,” she admitted with another smile. “But we have so much snow. It is funny to think that snow is not...there in other places. Where do you come from?” she asked.
16
Katerina Vorontsov
I do not think so.
1418
0
5
Felipe De Matteo
December 27, 2019 9:16 AM
You're probably wrong. by Felipe De Matteo
Katerina was nice, even if she was a bit naive. Perhaps that was too harsh a judgment, but she just seemed too happy and too light for Felipe's mood, and he felt sure that his mood stemmed from having finally seen the truth about people in his life, which meant Katerina must be naive. Just like he had been. He had no interest in ruining that for her though, and merely nodded, offering a polite smile, when she said leaves would be a good idea."Thank you," he added, because simply looking grateful was hardly enough to show proper gratitude.
He wasn't sure where Katerina lived exactly, although he would have guessed Siberia or Russia. Or was Siberia part of Russia? That wasn't a big part of his education, and geography tended to get muddled up when half of it came from actual geography lessons and the other half came from old literature. Either way, she obviously lived someplace with snow to look so surprised by his admission that he did not.
"I am from Mexico," he said, not offering the city name since it sounded a little pompous and no one would know where it was anyway. "But I have traveled a lot. Where do you live when you're not at Sonora?"
22
Felipe De Matteo
You're probably wrong.
1434
0
5
Katerina Vorontsov
December 27, 2019 11:11 AM
And I think you are. by Katerina Vorontsov
“I komme from Alyaska,” said Katya, automatically pronouncing the word the way they said it at home - ahl-i-yas-ka. “They tell me that...the land, it belongs to Amerika now, but we...in my village, it is still very Russian,” she explained, aware that most people at Sonora thought she and her sister were actually Russian. The fact that Tatiana actually referred to herself as Russkaya without clarifying the situation no doubt increased this impression in the upper years, but she has no doubt that the lower years around her assumed the same thing. “Which makes good sense,” she admitted. She began to sketch again. “Here is Russia. Here is a little water. Here is home.” She made a wavy line to represent the coast of Alaska, then put a dot on a protrusion near the center to represent Volshebnaya Derevnya, as close to Russia as it could get without falling in the water. She added another line further in. “And here is Kanada,” she concluded. “You see what is not there, yes? Amerika is not close to us.”She shrugged slightly at the oddity. Muggle politics, she had gathered, were a mess all the time, but it was especially inconvenient when they impinged on wizards. She didn’t know why they left Muggleborns with their families so long, allowing contact between the worlds. It seemed to her like it would be better for the parents to be Obliviated and the children raised as wizards, so the two worlds didn’t run into these problems, but nobody was going to ask a fourteen-year-old girl about politics or policy.
“My mama is born in Russia, but Papa is one from the village,” she added. “I have gone to Russia before. It snows there also - where Mama was from. Maybe not everywhere. Russia is very big.
“So - you take the hard task,” she said. “Though you have only three years. You like Transfigurations?”
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Katerina Vorontsov
And I think you are.
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Jessica Hayles
December 27, 2019 11:59 AM
Trust me, things that suck less are hard to find lately. by Jessica Hayles
Jessica smiled, too, glad Evelyn remembered that long-ago (or so it seemed now) passing interaction, too. It made Jessica feel less pathetic for having such a limited social life now that she also remembered that encounter in her first year.“I’m glad you liked them,” she said. “And the look you have i today looks great, by the way. Love those berry tones against your skin and hair.”
Aside from ice blue and a few shades of lighter grey, Jessica tended to think very fair complexions like Evelyn’s looked best in rich colors, rather than pastels or outright dark colors. It was one of the things Jessica disliked about her own appearance - between her light red, but distinctly not blonde, hair and her inexplicably brown eyes, she felt that nothing really flattered her. She just had to work for an aesthetic more than anything - when, of course, it was a rare-ish occasion where she had full control over her wardrobe - and hope for the best. Gosh, what she would do for naturally light blonde hair and blue eyes...she had thought about dying her hair when she was older, but brown eyes would just look odd in that context, she thought, and make even the best dye job look fake, and she doubted colored contacts would fix the problem even if she could bear sticking her fingers in her eyes. It would be like bleaching really dark hair; it just wouldn’t work.
All this, however, was rather beside the point right now. Unlike, of all things, glitter. Jessica mulled over Evelyn’s point.
“That could be a good idea,” said Jessica, “I’d be worried they would scratch the scene if you try to make one of those, but little bits of glass just in an orb...plus, well, they probably won’t last long enough for that to be a problem, so never mind,” she said. “That sounds like it could work.”
She looked over her notes again. “I was thinking about it - we have probably done Transfigurations with more than one part before. Anything decorative we’ve done, like cups and plates - and I’m pretty sure that even needles, when we turned toothpicks into needles? I’m pretty sure needles are usually made from an alloy instead of just one metal. It seems less...huge and brain-breaking when I think about it like this. It’s just one remove to making separate parts instead of fused ones, right?”
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Jessica Hayles
Trust me, things that suck less are hard to find lately.
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Evelyn Stones
December 27, 2019 1:27 PM
I thought that too, but they're looking up for me. by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn blinked, surprised by the compliment. People didn't normally comment on her makeup at all, let alone to compliment it. Usually, any comments that did come up were things like "why are you wearing that weird color," but most often it was just people staring and sometimes commenting under their breath."Thank you," she smiled, feeling good about herself in a way that she didn't usually. "I've been trying to find good colors that are a little more . . . conventional. I'm glad to know I'm on the right track! If anyone would know best, I think it would be you."
Jessica made a good point about glass and previous transfiguration assignments they'd done. It was difficult to say exactly how much they had done before though, without some sort of scientific tests. Perhaps needles were usually made of an alloy, but they only transfigured things into single metals. "That's a good point about other stuff we've transfigured," she agreed, although she wasn't sure how often she'd successfully transfigured anything anyway. "Wouldn't it be cool if we could do labs for some of these classes? Learn about the chemistry of potions, or do lab work about what we're transfiguring or charming?"
She thought of her lessons with Professor Wright and their conversations about magic theory. She'd been reading more about it since then, but only time would tell whether it helped with the practical application. Either way, it was interesting. The lessons themselves, though, seemed too private to share with Jessica just yet. Great to see you again! My life is a mess and I need remedial magic lessons. That wouldn't be the best way to make a friend.
Is that what she wanted? A friend? She'd been feeling a lot more content recently, which was weird all things considered, and hadn't been looking for a friend. At the same time, friends were nice. It was good to have friends. And with Kir graduated, Evelyn didn't have another makeup-oriented friend. Maybe it would be nice.
"Are you going to try to do one with a figurine? I don't think I'll be able to do that, so I'm not worried about scratching it up. Maybe welcomed try different materials and see what works best?"
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Evelyn Stones
I thought that too, but they're looking up for me.
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Jessica Hayles
December 27, 2019 2:07 PM
Hopefully you'll start a trend. by Jessica Hayles
Jessica smiled, pleased, when Evelyn remarked that she was well-placed to know if colors were working well on someone. She should hope so; even just listening to her mom picking out clothes from each year's collections and making comments on other women's inadequate assembles should have given her a decent education in that even had she not been, well, a Hayles. Mommy had strong feelings when it came to fashion. Very strong feelings."Honestly, almost any colors would look good on you," she said. "You have great coloring, and features. You might have trouble with...like, some light pinks and some of the light nudes - they might make you look washed out - but there are so many other fish in the sea," she said. She had always found nude lipsticks a bit dull, if she was to be honest, at least on women who weren't blessed with naturally very pink lips. "But you're definitely on the right track for autumn."
Jessica tilted her head slightly, intrigued, as Evelyn suggested that it would be cool to do labs on their assignments. "You know, I had never really thought about that before," she said, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. "It does sound like that could be cool. Why it does what it does." She certainly could have taken some of her lessons more seriously under those circumstances. "I was thinking about whether something really changes - like, if we made a teacup, is it really china and paint and glaze on it, or does it just...look like that? Everything is chemistry - that I know about, anyway - but this magic stuff, it's different, isn't it? So is it just an illusion, or would it look the same under an x-ray or a microscope? If you could get a Transfiguration to last long enough to study it, anyway." Jessica's hair slipped from behind her ear again, so she tucked it back again. "I'm...guessing there are ways to make it last longer? It seems kind of...pointless to spend so much time studying this, if it just creates stuff for a few minutes and that's it."
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Jessica Hayles
Hopefully you'll start a trend.
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Felipe De Matteo
December 28, 2019 11:03 PM
Everyone does these days. by Felipe De Matteo
Felipe nodded in understanding as Katerina explained a whole bunch of stuff he didn't actually care that much about. He had asked, and it was polite to listen even if she used way more words than necessary to get to the point that she lived in Alaska, in a Russian village there. Her charades were fairly entertaining - and helpful, however unlikely he was to admit it - but that was it. Felipe could not agree that she was not from America, because she was, and he wasn't, and that seemed important. It was important. It was important because he was Felipe De Matteo and people thought that mattered even though it didn't matter at all. Her comment did spark some interest in him when it came to politics, arbitrary country borders, and Muggle decisions impacting the wizarding world, but those topics all served to underscore Felipe's role in his family and he didn't want to dwell on that right now."It sounds like you really love where you live," he said, doing his best to summarise from her tone since he'd mostly checked out of what she was actually saying.
As far as transfiguration, the answer was harder. No, he didn't particularly like transfiguration one way or another. He didn't dislike it, but it was certainly less useful to him than charms. Charms could aid the growth of crops, help with animals, conjure water, and more. Transfiguration could turn a ball into a snowglobe, arguably a downgrade. This conversation just kept coming back to expectations and he was really sick of those.
"Just figured I'd give it my all and see where it goes," he mumbled, not sure how else to answer that sort of question. What else was there to say in any direction? But it was rude to just stop talking to her, and she had been helpful. "Professor Skies is my Head of House, so I have a vested interest in performing well in this class," he added.
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Felipe De Matteo
Everyone does these days.
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Evelyn Stones
December 28, 2019 11:12 PM
I'll do my best. by Evelyn Stones
Evelyn blushed, surprised by the compliment. She was aware that Jessica probably wasn't trying to compliment her but a pretty girl had said something nice and that wasn't something to be brushed aside. "Thanks," she said, smiling. "I think you'd look great in this color, too. Although honestly, I'd just kill to have hair like yours." On the whole, Evelyn didn't mind her hair. She generally liked it well enough, but she also didn't care too much one way or the other. Still, she'd be a lot more exciting if she had explicitly pretty hair. Makeup could only serve to compensate so far.Evelyn considered Jessica's points with as much knowledge as she could. She didn't really know whether transfigurations were permanent or not. She knew some were not, and she knew others lasted long enough that they seemed permanent to most people who saw them, but she couldn't actually think of any that were really permanent. "I think that the things we transfigure really are the thing we turn them into," she decided, not entirely sure why she believed that except that maybe all her senses seemed to agree. "But maybe it's not quite the same as a thing that wasn't transfigured? Like a regular teacup would be china with glaze and paint, but a transfigured teacup is china with glaze and paint and magic on it? Maybe that stuff is always sort of real, too. What about Animagi? I'd love to become one of those." She said the last bit with the tone of a daydream. She was far from skilled enough to go through those steps, and she wasn't even sure whether she'd be allowed to anyway. "I bet if we could transfigure ourselves into animals, we'd have a better sense of what it meant to be a transfigured thing."
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Evelyn Stones
I'll do my best.
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Katerina Vorontsov
December 29, 2019 9:39 AM
Have you noticed a possible common denominator there? by Katerina Vorontsov
"This is so," said Katya, nodding with a slight, genuine smile, when Felipe concluded that she loved where she lived. "It is beautiful place, and my family is there." That was really the simplest explanation, and she could not see that elaboration would really help. Those were, after all, the main reasons why she loved the place. She could elaborate, especially in her own language, but those were really only details, not the focal point of the story."Do you love the place where you live?" she asked. "In Mexico?"
Her expression went blank with confusion when he said he had a 'vested' interest in doing well in this class. Vest? Wasn't that an item of clothing? She thought back through what he had said. He was going to work hard and see what happened. Professor Skies was his Head of House, so he...something...doing well in the class....
No, context wasn't helping her out here. She didn't understand that one word. However, she thought she had gotten the rest of it, and it seemed like that one word could probably be completely overlooked. It made enough sense without one word, which meant the word presumably had some meaning which would make sense if only she knew it. Maybe later she would look it up in her Anglo-Russian dictionary, but right now, she thought she could manage without that word.
"Good luck," she told him. "It is always good to try hard," she added encouragingly.
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Katerina Vorontsov
Have you noticed a possible common denominator there?
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Jessica Hayles
December 29, 2019 10:21 AM
That's all anyone can really ask. by Jessica Hayles
"Really?" asked Jessica, with a slightly uncertain smile, toying with the ends of her hair. "I've never really liked the color that much - it always feels harder to make colors work with it," she admitted. "Thank you, though," she added, appreciating the compliment.She did not add that she could not really try the color out, though, because her parents would not allow it. They wouldn't even allow her to wear real lipstick at all, only tinted balms. They said she was too young for it still, but had never actually said when she would be old enough. She somehow doubted that pointing out that one girl at school was allowed would move them on that point, though she wished it would. She loved how flawless her mother always looked in full make-up. It made her seem perfect.
"No doubt," she said when Evelyn said they would know more about the nature of Transfigured objects if they could become, temporarily, Transfigured objects. "I'm not sure I want to try it out, though - what if someone didn't turn me back?" She said it lightly, like a joke, but the thought was genuinely upsetting to her. To totally hand control over to someone else like that, to be completely at someone else's mercy...ugh. No. Not her thing at all. "It's always weird to think about seeing the world - literally from someone - or something - else's point of view, isn't it?" she mused. "It seems like it would be interesting, but also like it might break your brain," she laughed.
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Jessica Hayles
That's all anyone can really ask.
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Allegra Brockert
December 31, 2019 3:20 PM
Continuing that song would be super super awkward by Allegra Brockert
Allegra was generally pretty nervous about being back at school even though she was happy to have Esme not only there but in Crotalus with her. It was just...after the events of last year, there were people she needed to avoid, besides Topaz. Allegra was fully convinced the people from her Challenge team blamed her for their abysmal failure and had nothing but contempt for her and her lack of physical abilities.And she couldn't even plan a good party to make up for it which meant she was going to be an awful failure as a socialite too! Which meant nobody would ever want to marry her and she had no future. Allegra was going to be an old maid.
Plus, aside from Gary, her former teammates were hard to avoid. Connor was in her house and a distant relation, Teo was in her classes, and Felipe was in her house and her classes! Every time she saw them, she was reminded of her inadequacies and, the fourth year was certain, that every time they saw her, they felt nothing but contempt. So Allegra tried hard, so very hard, to avoid them. Almost as hard she tried to avoid Topaz.
And obviously, her cousin had made things worse, taunting her. Though the Aladren was primarily trying to torment Ruby who'd beaten her. Beating Topaz was even worse than being beaten by her. Ruby had not been her sister's primary victim choice before, at least since she gave up on having pets, but over the summer she had been in the line of fire. Which somewhat took Allegra out of it. Of course, now that they were back at school, Topaz would probably go after her roommate instead whom the other fourth year found more deserving of her torment than anyone else. Especially after the graffiti incident. Whether or not Ness actually did it, Topaz thought she did and that....would be enough reason in Topaz's mind for her to do what she did. Especially as she'd done terrible things to people-such as Allegra herself-for far less reasons.
Anyway, now it was time for Transfiguration, which was an area where the Crotalus felt a little confident. She was actually pretty good at it. She didn't like to be too up herself about things-she had no reason to be normally-but it was the truth that Allegra did well in this particular class.
Professor Skies began talking about mechanical transfiguration which was a fairly interesting topic. Anywhere else, aside from quilting or crochet, Allegra might have felt intimidated by the complexity but Transfiguration was a place where she didn't feel like a total failure.
She took a rubber ball. First, the fourth year would do Task A and make sure she had that down. Allegra did not want to fail at this. When there was something she was not atrocious at, she had to succeed because it would be worse to fail and think she wasn't that good at that thing either. She envisioned the ball turning into glass and filling with "snow". Allegra had never bothered to give thought to what the "snow" inside a snow globe was made out of but that's what she pictured. "Globus Nivalus " The glass ball was ideal though the white stuff inside wasn't exactly floating. Allegra tried again, this time getting it right.
Now she had to picture a scene. She tended to associate snow globes as either holiday or vacation themed. She tried to think of places she'd been, being fairly well travelled. It was hard to pick though. Or picture things she'd seen in the past without the pictures in front of her.
That's when the Crotalus made eye contact with Nathaniel Mordue. He smiled stiffly at her, and she looked down. Should Allegra initiate a conversation? She wasn't great at that. But now, they'd locked eyes, she felt obligated. It might be rude not to and the fourth year didn't want to offend Sylvia's cousin. Nathaniel and Sylvia weren't like her and Topaz. They were close. She certainly didn't want it getting back to the older Crotalus how awkward she was. Plus, she needed to practice socializing with boys now that she was getting older. "How is your assignment going?" Allegra asked the Teppenpaw, smiling shyly at him.
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Allegra Brockert
Continuing that song would be super super awkward
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Nathaniel Mordue
December 31, 2019 6:27 PM
Yes. That would be extremely awkward. by Nathaniel Mordue
There was one thing which made Nathaniel think that he might survive the class period, and that was that he was sitting next to one of the Brockerts. The Brockerts all seemed to do well in Transfiguration, which meant he could likely puzzle out what he was supposed to be doing just by watching her. After a moment, he realized that the specific one was also preferable to some of her presumed cousins, as this was Sylvia's quiet, respectable Brockert friend, not the other one, whom he suspected she didn't actually like that much. The other one was an Aladren, but Crotali were not the types to say anything about his screwups even if they happened to notice. Not to him, anyway. Not to a Mordue.It was still such an odd feeling, he thought, wishing he could be almost anyone else, and yet still having that reasonable corner of his mind which was aware of the remaining advantages to being him.
He pretended to take notes as she began her work, actually trying to write down the incantation she used. Globus...globus nivalus? Nivea - that was Latin for 'snow,' he thought. And...yes. There. She had made what looked like a snowglobe. He felt a rush of relief, adding this as a serious point in her favor when it came to the Ball Situation and adding a mental note to himself to inform Sylvia of this as she worked on whatever fearful mathematics it would take her to decide who he should ask to dance.
Of course, she did have other appealing attributes. Such as being strikingly pretty. He wished he could ignore that, but...of all Sylvia's friends, he had to say, this one probably came the closest to rivalling her in looks. Allegra's blue eyes and slightly more reddish hair were both striking against her fair complexion - at least, when the former weren't directed downward - and she had the features of one of the china dolls Sylvia had had when they were younger. Now she had two points in her favor, though he wasn't sure he should tell Sylvia much about this one, as she might not appreciate the implication that anyone could rival her in any way....
Not, of course, that anyone really could. Not least because he really didn't think he could muster the energy to have more emotional entanglements. He already had to fight sometimes not to allow his mind to slip toward thoughts saying that the ones he had already weren't worth it. That it wasn't fair. That they were liars. He put his hand up to his collar, feeling the thin chain hidden beneath it, reminded himself that it didn't matter - didn't matter if that was true, didn't matter if that was false. They were his family. The reasons why he had to keep going, no matter what.
"I was just...thinking through ideas," he said. "So, not as quickly as yours," he said, trying to deflect attention from himself. "It looks like you're done already. It's very good," he complimented.
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Nathaniel Mordue
Yes. That would be extremely awkward.
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Jeremy Mordue
January 01, 2020 4:50 AM
Do I have to? by Jeremy Mordue
Jeremy took a seat as far away from his brother as physically possible. On the one hand, it was sort of gratifying to be put in the same class as Nathaniel and Sylvia. They had always liked lording it over him - how they were so grown up and so much more mature than he was. They used it as an excuse to treat him like a baby or leave him out. Well now, they were all in the same class, so they could suck on that, couldn’t they? Sure, the material would be differentiated, but that wasn’t the point. They couldn’t call him a baby when they were all in the same grade.That was the one tiny silver lining to what he otherwise thought was going to be a nightmare situation. It wasn’t as if Nathaniel didn’t already always poke his nose in and try to find out what Jeremy was up to, and then pull it all to pieces all the time. This was going to make it so much easier for Nathaniel to look over his shoulder and nag at him, and it wasn’t like his brother wasn’t super skilled at that already. Or at least, he always had been. Summer had been… weird. Not that Jeremy wanted Nathaniel around or wanted him to nag, but it’d felt like he’d been on his case less than he expected. Nathaniel appeared when he was expected to, and occasionally when he wanted to stick his nose in, but he’d often not say much and then sort of drift off into his room. It applied even when Jeremy was doing the right thing, like when he had won at Quidditch, and Nathaniel had basically barely cared. Maybe Nathaniel just figured Uncle Alexander was handling it, and that he could finally stop trying to be the man of the family, and the frigging boss of Jeremy. Jeremy expected that to return full force now they were at school, and especially with Simon graduated. Nathaniel would feel the need to ‘keep an eye on him.’
The other downside was the potential comparisons to his brother, both academic and physical. It was sort of hard to escape being compared to Nathaniel when he looked like just a slightly smaller version of him, and putting them in the same room was really not likely to help that fact. Jeremy hated it. It was like his own nose and mouth and eyes weren’t his just because Nathaniel had gone in and got them first. And it wasn’t like he’d copied on purpose. It was irritating how much people made a big deal out of it. Though, he supposed on that front, thank goodness they were still officially related. It would have been very strange and very awkward to have been in the same room, being clear copies of each other, and having to pretend his brother did not exist and was nothing to do with him. At least he only had to do that on the personal level. He answered his name in roll call, taking some satisfaction that alphabetical order put him ahead of his older cousin and brother.
The assignment itself was lame. Snow globes were girly, and Jeremy didn’t want to make one. Still, he didn’t want to fail and get a lecture. He wasn’t sure if he was already going to be in trouble if his relatives had noticed the Mudblood stalking off at dinner the previous evening. He thought it was rather a point of pride to be so clearly not associated with such a person, but he wasn’t sure if Nathaniel was going to make a fuss about ‘causing scenes.’ Whatever. Jeremy was still proud of it. He clearly knew how to push Jessica’s buttons, and that wasn’t something he was going to let go to waste. If pushing Mudblood’s buttons pushed Nathaniel’s too, for whatever reason, then double win.
He turned to his notes, deciding he’d just make a globe. After all, he was a third year. That was what was expected, and was why there was an easier task, plus making cutesy little castle scenes or whatever made this activity even lamer.
”Globus Nivalus,” he cast, trying to swirl his wand. Jeremy was better at Defence than this – at decisive, abrupt motions. None of this fluttery and twirly nonsense. The ball on his desk changed, becoming transparent, and filled with little bubbles. He poked it experimentally. It seemed to be halfway between rubber and glass, and was definitely a far cry from a snow globe.
“This is such a girly spell,” he muttered irritably.
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Jeremy Mordue
Do I have to?
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Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
January 01, 2020 10:56 PM
No. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
Johana Leonie hadn't been sleeping well and it was only the beginning of the term. She was already tired, already a nervous wreck, and already sure that she was going to struggle. Still, there were things that made it all a little better, like making snowglobes in Transfiguration. Transfiguration was a difficult class - by far one of the hardest at Sonora - but it was made a little easier by the fact that so much of it was visual. Johana Leonie could see what the wandwork should look like, and what the results should be. Other courses did that too, but it wasn't the same as seeing exactly what was meant to be done and, in a way, how. How did a ball become a snowglobe? Well it needed to go from rubber to glass, and it needed to get filled up with water instead of air. Making it happen was the difficult part, but it was a whole lot easier if she knew what she was supposed to make happen.She also had the advantage of knowing Professor Skies from the extra help classes and language instruction classes. Professor Skies wasn't the only friendly, helping face at Sonora, but she was certainly one of the most consistent. It was nice to be a little less scared of the scary class.
The presence of snowglobes set Johana Leonie's mind spinning as she thought about other such pretty baubles. They made her think of the holidays and her snowy village in winter. They also made her think of fancy balls that were coming up and that she didn't want to think about because this was just the beginning of term and she had like ten months to worry about that. Or, if she was lucky, not to worry.
The student next to her - a boy - seemed about as frustrated on the outside as Johana Leonie was on the inside, but she recognized it as a common look on his face. She'd been in classes with Jeremy for the past two years, going on three years, and had become well used to the faces he made. She supposed it was the benefit of not being fluent in the language people spoke: she learned to read their faces instead.
In this case, however, Jeremy didn't seem frustrated for the same reasons. Johana Leonie reviewed what she thought she'd heard Jeremy say in her head, making sure she understood it before she built up the nerve to say something to him. "Snowglobes were made by boy first," she said quietly, searching his face as she spoke. "Muggle; he make. In Germany." There weren't many times where Johana Leonie got to use her heritage to her advantage, so it was exciting to do so now. "You can make, also."
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Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
No.
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Felipe De Matteo
January 02, 2020 11:06 PM
What are you trying to say? by Felipe De Matteo
Felipe's stomach clenched uncomfortably at the question and he was surprised by the rush of emotions that he subsequently silenced. His head was whirling with images of home, of warmth, of family, and of happiness. They were broken up by images of his father's eyes looking away from Felipe's when the younger De Matteo had done something wrong, and all the voices that had ever told him how important he was. He remembered Leonor, sitting on a bench in one hallway, her posture famously terrible. She'd watched with dark, empty eyes as Felipe was brought into his first official diplomacy meeting and she was not. Would not ever be."I love the place I live," he said, appreciating her choice of words. "It is beautiful and very warm." His tone made it clear that that was the end of that discussion and he was happy when it moved on.
Except it didn't really move very far. Katerina's face went blank for a moment and he could see confusion in her eyes. He hated that it made him feel good to know that he had the power to decide whether or not she got to be part of the conversation, just based on whether he chose words she would understand. He had worked so hard to be able to understand, to become fluent in English. There weren't many things that made him feel powerful, and the perverse enjoyment of this little moment made him feel sick. He glanced surreptitiously towards his roommate, wondering whether he'd picked up some of his traits over the years living together. It was much easier to hate Jeremy Mordue for that than to believe that it was a trait already within his own character.
"I want Professor Skies to think well of me," he said quietly, knowing that he was not supposed to hold his power over people who had less than him. That was not what a De Matteo did. "Because she is my teacher and my Head of House, my life is easier if she likes me." That wasn't precisely true, because he didn't really care whether she liked him so much as whether she thought he was worth her time. She was important enough that it did matter what she thought of him, whether he liked to admit it or not. And he did not.
When Katerina offered encouragement and Felipe just felt angry, he had to resist the urge to slam his hand down on the table and demand that the universe chill the heck out. Why was every little thing making him so angry? Why was Katerina trying to be so nice to him about making a stupid snowglobe? Did everyone think he was so incompetent that he'd need extra encouragement just to get by? Was he missing something obvious that everyone else could see? Was that it? Was he so obviously imbecilic and that's why Jessica had-- no. That was not a thought he was willing to entertain.
"Thank you," he managed sharply, his voice low. It had dropped some over the past few months, and he was sort of proud of that too. "Trying hard is important." Goodness how he hated platitudes.
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Felipe De Matteo
What are you trying to say?
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Katerina Vorontsov
January 09, 2020 3:09 PM
I think you can figure it out. by Katerina Vorontsov
"That is very nice," said Katya with an American smile when Mexico was described as beautiful and warm. She liked warmth well enough in the summer, and while she couldn't fathom the idea of it being warm during winter - it would seem strange, wrong, and also would deprive one of all the beauties which winter had to offer - but that would involve a lot of talking and he did not seem eager to pursue the subject of home any further, so she let it drop without complaint. It would seem rude to tell someone that there was something wrong with their home in any case, after all, at least since she and Felipe were not close enough to discuss beauty as an abstract concept.She needed, she thought, to find something very thoughtful for Dorian's birthday. It was an important one, an occasion for having important thoughts, and he was practically family. Since she would have to order it and have it sent to her, she also needed to get on with doing that sooner rather than later.
She nodded agreeably when he mentioned wanting Professor Skies to think well of him. "She is Deputy Headmistress. I also wish her to think well of me, and Professor Xavier," she commented.
That shared sentiment made encouragement seem appropriate, which was why Katya was startled when he spoke sharply to her. For a moment, she just looked surprised, and then her expression hardened.
"It is," she said. "So why you sound angry with me?"
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Katerina Vorontsov
I think you can figure it out.
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Felipe De Matteo
January 12, 2020 12:21 PM
And you seemed like such a nice girl. by Felipe De Matteo
Of all the people Felipe might have expected to call him out for being a jerk - Zara and Leonor tying for first place on that list - Katerina had not even made honorable mentions until now. He blinked, surprised, and flushed a little at her question. It didn't seem like the right time to give her a congratulations on being fluent enough in English to pick up on things like tone and change of mood, but he gave her a mental high five for that one.He didn't particularly like being a jerk, which was probably part of why he had so much respect for people who were willing to call him out. So far, his experience said that men were much more likely to let him continue being a jerk and women were more likely to call him out. He had a lot of respect for that, even if he also sort of hated it. Katerina calling him out was a particularly hard blow, as she was a woman and older than him, which made him think a little more of his mother than his sister. Of course, both of his relatives were sort of smallish, and so was Katerina.
"I-- uh . . . I'm sorry," he murmured. He really was, even if he was still sort of angry and sort of just wanted to break something. Like a snowglobe? Maybe he could huck his snowglobe against a wall later on. Probably not in the Common Room or dorm where anyone - particularly Professor Skies - would be able to see, though. "I thought you meant I'd have to try extra hard because you didn't think I could do it." Honesty was difficult, he would accept that. However, he had come to appreciate its value in greater measure since summer and strove to be better than all the crappy liars in his life. Well, mostly just the one. "Thank you for not letting me get away with being rude."
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Felipe De Matteo
And you seemed like such a nice girl.
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Katerina Vorontsov
January 16, 2020 2:41 PM
Are you implying I'm not? by Katerina Vorontsov
Katya had stiffened slightly with offense, but relaxed when Felipe explained the situation and - more surprising yet - thanked her for calling him out. She shook her head, feeling slightly ashamed of herself for being so snippy."No, no," she said. "I did not understand the problem. I am sorry that I gave offense. My English is not perfect." Good, yes, but not perfect. "Sometimes I think it would better...be, if I knew just English and Russian - I know some of English, Deutsch, et Francais, but not all of any," she explained apologetically. "So I make many mistake. Please forgive me."
She shook her hair back and determined to start over and recover the conversation. She went back in her head, looking for a point before it had started to wander down the path which had ended with her being prickly and defensive and inappropriately - one was not supposed to correct men whose social status was not clearly below one's own, typically an employee - proud and vocal about it. "I do not know the word in English, but it is good to - try the hard task," she said, thinking of ambition but not of the English word for it. "So. You wish to do leaves? Will you make a trees for the scenes?"
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Katerina Vorontsov
Are you implying I'm not?
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Jeremy Mordue
January 17, 2020 5:49 AM
Thank goodness for that by Jeremy Mordue
CW - xenophobiaOh great. In his eagerness to avoid his brother, Jeremy hadn’t taken nearly as much care as usual in choosing who he sat next to. And now he was stuck with one of the miscellaneous dumb foreigners who Professor Brooding felt the constant need to give special treatment to. This girl was the reason why, here in America, his potions bottles were labelled with French and Gibberish and Bull. It wasn’t fair. There was no reason for people like her to come in and squeeze him out of a space that had been rightfully his. And now she even thought he was talking to her.
He was sort of surprised by her level of understanding, given how she spent all her time with the other foreigner and needed constant pandering to by the staff. He wanted to say that he had not been talking to her but then he would look like he’d just been muttering angrily at a bouncy ball and, whilst that was true, it was probably slightly lower down the list of acceptable behaviours than talking to this girl.
“Of course I can,” he replied, with a roll of his eyes, when she stated that he too could make a snowglobe. Of course he could. He was a Mordue, not some genetic mishap who thought wands were weapons, probably because of their own ineptitude in handling one. “Who says I want to?” he challenged, “And no one just… knows the history of the snowglobe,” he added, pretty sure she had to be just making that up because it was such a mindlessly pointless thing to know.
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Jeremy Mordue
Thank goodness for that
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Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
January 18, 2020 10:09 PM
Warum sind sie nicht glücklich? by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
On the bright side, Jeremy spoke clearly. It was mostly because he was just sneering a bunch and also probably because he thought she was a moron. The latter was really annoying because she actually did benefit from him talking slowly and enunciating more clearly. His eye roll really got to her though because even rude people didn't just go around being terrible most of the time. Usually, they were thinking rude things in their head and just kept them there, or they would be sort of subtle about it. Sometimes they'd say rude stuff, but not just because it was fun. What was Jeremy being rude about?"Natürlich," she frowned. She didn't have the English words to say 'I didn't mean you're capable of it, I meant that you can get over yourself' so she just settled in a hard frown. "So what is your Problem? You need help?" She tried really hard to be sincere about it, because if he actually did need help, she wanted to offer it. At the same time, she was pretty sure he wouldn't take her help even if he did need it.
The fact that he doubted her was more insulting though because she was proud of that bit of knowledge. She shook her head, her red curls bouncing. "I know history," she said, frowning. "He was Deutsch-- German. Snowglobes are pretty things. I like know about them."
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Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
Warum sind sie nicht glücklich?
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Allegra Brockert
January 20, 2020 2:07 AM
I don't need to be more awkard by Allegra Brockert
Allegra blushed. It wasn't as if she was never complimented by anyone. Even though Topaz did her best to destroy the Crotalus' self-esteem on regular basis and assert her dominance over her, Allegra's parents often praised her for things such as her quilting, her kindness and nurturing towards her younger siblings and yes, her grades too, even though Isla had been labeled, "the smart one"(to Topaz's great annoyance, even though it was just Allegra's parents saying this about their own daughters and the Aladren wasn't even a part of it.) while Allegra was the kind nurturing one and Esme was the elegant graceful one. Of course the fourth year had to wonder if the fact that she was the nurturing one had to do with her being the oldest. Then again, Emerald was the oldest of her siblings and the Crotalus doubted anyone would apply that adjective to her.Still, being complimented by a young gentleman was very different than being complimented by one's own parents. After all, didn't most parents have nice things to say about their own children? Even Uncle Zeke had nice things to say about Topaz. Same with Grandmother about Uncle Eustace.
Not that Allegra was going after Nathaniel like that. She wouldn't be opposed to it if he was interested in her though. Not that she thought he was of course. It was more likely that Sylvia would want him with Caitlin rather than her. And much like with herself and Topaz, Nathaniel seemed like he'd do what his cousin wanted. Unlike her, the Teppenpaw seemed willing to do what Sylvia wanted because he actually liked her and they were close as opposed to Allegra who did what Topaz wanted because she was terrified of the consequences if she didn't.
Plus, if Caitlin was interested in Nathaniel, well the fourth year didn't want to stab her in the back either. Not that the older Crotalus had said anything of the kind but she was prefect and would need someone to dance with at the ball. Plus, again, it was probably what Sylvia wanted, and Sylvia, like Topaz, seemed to get what she wanted.
"Thank you." Allegra replied. "I'm not actually done though. I just decided to do task A first before going on to task B." She smiled at him. "I'm actually trying to think through ideas for the scene too. Do you, um, want to brainstorm them together?" Please don't say no She begged silently. It would be mortifying if he did. Plus, it would probably get back to Sylvia that Allegra had made a fool of herself in front of Nathaniel. "I tend to think of snow globes as something you buy on vacation as souvenirs"
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Allegra Brockert
I don't need to be more awkard
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