Taking a scientific approach. on Transfiguration

Selina Skies

May 23, 2020 12:02 AM

Beginners - Cheers! by Selina Skies

“Good morning,” Selina greeted the beginners. Usually, they looked awfully small in their first few days, both because this was the smallest size Sonora students came in and also as they adjusted to the world around them. However, as she’d spent part of the summer setting up a nursery, and spent yesterday meeting Zeus, eleven-year-olds suddenly seemed on the bigger and more capable side of things.

“Welcome to Transfiguration. In short, this class is all about turning one thing into another. There are some things which may seem like small exceptions to that. We cover switching spells – instantaneously swapping the positions of two objects,” she demonstrated with a quick flick of her wand making the photo frame and the pen pot on her desk instantly reappear in each other’s space, before switching them back, “along with vanishing and conjuring – making objects disappear and appear.

“We will also look into a number of theory elements, such as how Transfiguration works, the types of spells and how they are constructed, and why various things fall into this category of magic as opposed to charms.

“We will be starting simply today. Transfiguration can be slow to learn. It can take time to achieve results. That said, we’ve stepped things down enough that everyone should have something to show at the end of today’s lesson,” she stated. She’d heard of curriculums where they set matchsticks to needles as the first class of the year, with the result being that barely anyone got anywhere. Perhaps it hammered home how difficult the subject was, but that didn’t seem to her to be a great way to engage students in learning it.

“The goal of this lesson is for everyone to make a drinking glass. You will be starting with these,” she held up a stack of bright plastic rainbow cups, suitable for picnics or small children. She kept one on her desk, and the remainder began making their way around the room, handing themselves out to the students. “For first years, you need only to change the material to glass. Glass can, of course, be many different colours. Whilst you are welcome to aim for clear glass if that is easier for you to visualise, you can also keep the colour the same as your existing cup.

“Two key elements of Transfiguration are what similarities you can work with as well as what differences you’re having to make, and how well you can visualise your end result. I’d like you to think about how that balances out with changing or not changing the glass’s colour, and discuss your experiences with your neighbours.

“For second years, I would like you to choose a different way to stretch yourselves – perhaps alter the shape, such as making a goblet, perhaps include more intricate designs. If you get done quickly, you can look into spells for other drinking vessels and have a go at making some of those.

“The spell for this is verrus, with a gentle, curving wand motion,” she demonstrated, turning one of the plastic cups into a smart cut class tumbler with much squarer edges.

“Please raise your hand if you need help. You may talk quietly with your neighbours as you work. Please begin.”

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

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

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

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

Subthreads:

¡Arriba! ¡Abajo! ¡Al centro! .... y pa'dentro! by Leonor De Matteo with Josephine Clyde

Time for a change! by Valentine Duell with Alexander Pierce-Beales

Taking a scientific approach. by Mara Morales with Quincy Wright

What's wrong with plastic anyway? by Mab with Aelia Astley

No alibi by Sadie-Lake Chalmers with Janis Rosemary Silver

13 Selina Skies Beginners - Cheers! 26 1 5

Leonor De Matteo

May 24, 2020 9:52 PM

¡Arriba! ¡Abajo! ¡Al centro! .... y pa'dentro! by Leonor De Matteo

Leonor had told Aelia her favorite class was Transfiguration, and days like today made her think that was probably true. She didn't mean to have rude thoughts, but the glasses they were transforming were just so ugly that it was nice to be given the chance to make them a bit less so. Plus, this was a very practical sort of spell, and one that Leonor could see herself using after graduation. Why buy a new dining set ever again? Just transfigure the lot of it.

She considered the cup in front of her with some disdain, wondering whether it was the color, material, or shape that bothered her the most. Since she had been set the task of transfiguring all three, none would be an issue upon her success. However, she wasn't sure exactly what she wanted them to be instead. They were aiming for glass, per the instructions, but it didn't have to just be a glass version of this cup. In fact, for Leonor and the other second years, it ought not be.

A fancy crystal goblet she'd once seen came to mind. It was not very large, but big enough to draw the eye, and that was made all the more true by the colored gems which encrusted it: green, white, and red, for the Mexican flag. Leonor's family was Puerto Rican, Argentine, and Polish in descent, but those were identities that were less salient to her than the Mexican roots they'd set down in Ciudad De Matteo, and a Mexican flag seemed apropos. She'd have to do it all in glass probably, though.

Visualizing such things, especially with her tired mind, wasn't going to be easy for her right now. She realised this before attempting it though, which was good. Still, she retrieved a sheet of paper and began drawing out the goblet as best she could (which wasn't very good).

22 Leonor De Matteo ¡Arriba! ¡Abajo! ¡Al centro! .... y pa'dentro! 1471 0 5

Josephine Clyde

May 25, 2020 4:41 AM

Pardon? Come again? by Josephine Clyde

Transfiguration, so her greatest foe had returned. Last year’s mishap hadn’t been too terrible. It had, however, taught her that magic, though fun, wasn’t going to be a picnic in the park. Gabe had been immensely helpful, but she couldn’t rely on his wise words for every lesson. No, this time she would be successful or so help her she’ll, she’ll…she’ll do something! Today’s task was just making a cup into another cup, she could do that. But then again, Josie groaned as she remembered last year’s lesson, turning a bag into a bag had seemed easy too. She groaned again once she saw the actual cup. Of course they were rainbow colored. More salt on a still-open wound.

It bothered her that she wasn’t just good at Transfiguration like she was with Charms. Last year’s Transfiguration had taught her a hefty lesson in humility and now she approached the subject with more apprehension. She wasn’t on her guard so to say, but she was definitely more cautious, more wary. Charms was going to be easy forever, she could feel it, but Transfiguration was going to make her work for it.

She listened to Professor Skies and gnawed at her lip like a cow munching on grass. Verrus. Gentle, curving wand motion. Okay. Okay! She could do that. Definitely. For sure. Stretch yourselves? Josie’s heart sank with each successive word and peered at the example cup. The professor’s had turned into some beautiful maybe carved glass cup that was slightly square. Yup, nope, no changing shapes. That was probably too much for her to do all at once. She’d just do it in steps. It was still stretching if she got to the end result even if it took her a few tries, right?

As much as the rainbow taunted her she knew better than to try to be ambitious and change the color and material all at once. Color first. That had been an eventual success last year, so she felt more confident about it for this year. Josie held the cup in one hand and inspected the colors, what would be a funny color for a glass cup? Orange. Minnie’s favorite cup was blue, so she didn’t want to use that one. Her step-brothers each had plastic water bottles from their sports teams in their school colors, green and yellow. Her father’s favorite cup looked like the cup that Professor Skies had made, so plain old glass was out of the question. Orange seemed like it could be used for water bottles, but not for fancy glass cups, which was exactly the kind of cup she wanted to end with. If it was nice enough she wanted to take it home and if it was a ridiculous color then no one would use it when she wasn’t there.

She’d worry about the actual design and shape of the cup later, for now she was just going to try to use the same color as the orange it already had. Gentle curve!

“Verrus!”

And…Josie breathed a sigh of relief. Orange all the way around. It really had helped to only imagine one thing at a time. She’d have to thank Gabe soon for his advice. Now she needed to decide on the “stretching” part of the task. Nearby, a girl in Pecari colors had taken out a piece of paper and was drawing something. Josie leaned in for a peek. The other girl seemed to be drawing what looked like a fancy cup. That wasn’t a bad idea. It was related to the advice that Gabe had given her and maybe she’d try actually drawing it out next time to try to reduce some steps in her process.

“Hi, I’m Josie.” She leaned into the girl’s field of vision. It didn’t seem like a good idea to tap the other girl’s arm when she was drawing.
“Are you going to change your cup into that?” Josie asked as she gestured towards the drawing, “Or is it just inspiration? It looks like there’re crystals on it, how were you going to do that?”

44 Josephine Clyde Pardon? Come again? 1477 0 5

Leonor De Matteo

May 25, 2020 10:34 AM

Ugh. "Cheers." by Leonor De Matteo

Leonor was momentarily distracted when the girl next to her, someone she recognised as being one of Theo's friends, cast the spell right away, with some success. However, it was nothing to when the girl actually started talking to her and asked a whole lot of questions all at once. On the bright side, Leonor's drawing apparently looked clear enough that others could tell what it was. She was a proper Frida Kahlo. Except she wasn't sure how much the "glass" goblet had to do with her identity . . . that wasn't a comfortable thought.

"Leonor," she replied by way of introduction, dipping her head politely as she sat up straight and rolled her shoulders. "I'm going to turn my cup into that." There wasn't a thought of saying she was hoping to or she was going to try to, because that sort of humility was not in Leonor's nature. Also, she rarely considered the possibility of failure unless she had to, and Transfiguration was a good subject for her. "I was thinking glass beads." She paused, wondering how much to say. Truth be told, Leonor was lonely, and if this girl was going to be nice to her . . . "I thought maybe limiting the color just to the bead would be easier than trying to control it across part of the glass if there was no separation."

She took a moment to look at Josie's cup, leaning forward to see it from multiple angles and really take it all in. She was of the firm belief that a compliment was meaningless unless it was either sincere and grounded in real information, or intended solely to please, in which case meaningless was just fine. "That looks good," Leonor finally said, happy to have found something that was both sincere and grounded in real information to say that would also please. But Josie, she knew, was a second year, so she couldn't be done there. "What are you thinking for shape?"

22 Leonor De Matteo Ugh. "Cheers." 1471 0 5

Valentine Duell

May 25, 2020 5:21 PM

Time for a change! by Valentine Duell

Valentine was humming to herself quietly as she strolled through the halls, moving from Charms class to Transfiguration with the beginners that had chosen to take the direct route. So far it was turning out to be a great day, Charms had been a fun class and Professor Wright was as nice as he had been during orientation. Now they were going to Transfiguration, this should be a fun class as well. Papa had told her it was his best class.

She arrived and found a seat near the front of the classroom. Once there, she dutifully got out her class materials and waited for class to begin. There was just the slightest tremor of nervous anticipation in her stomach. Would she live up to Papa's legacy? Would he be disappointed if she didn't? She didn't have long to worry though. Professor Skies began addressing the class.

The first year listened intently, but not much of the information was new to her. Other than the position swapping thing, that was pretty neat and she hadn't realized that was a thing that fell under the category of transfiguration. She did however take note of the wand movement and incantation for today's project. So, by the end of the professor's talk she had a blue plastic cup setting in front of her and a task before her.

'Okay, time to turn this cup into a glass' she thought to herself. Simple. She picked up her wand, executed the gentle curve and uttered "Verrus" in a calm, confident tone. Nothing had happened. Had the cup not heard her? She swooshed her wand about a bit, maybe her movement hadn't been quite right and she needed to limber her wrist up a little bit.

"Now," she stated simply, addressing her cup, "You will turn into glass." She moved her wand in a gentle curve once more, and spoke "Verrus" so that it could not misunderstand her. Still the cup sat obstinately before her, still plastic, mocking her. She glared at the stubborn inanimate object for a moment. She really didn't want to disappoint Papa, there was only one thing left to do. She sighed and turned to her neighbor, "Excuse me, I'm not doing something right. Do you have any suggestions for me?"

2 Valentine Duell Time for a change! 1490 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

May 26, 2020 1:45 AM

That was my first year, too. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander had forgotten how hard academics were. Like . . . they were great. But Sonora was a small school and the risks of failing to achieve a certain level of education and proficiency were dire. As such, there was no slipping through the cracks or flying under the radar here, much as Alexander would normally have preferred to do. Even so, he enjoyed himself most of the time. Things were weird and he was stressed but everything was so much better than it had been a year previous that it was hard to be that upset about those things. Besides, he couldn't do anything but wait for Nathaniel to get back to him at this point.

Transfiguration was not necessarily one of Alexander's better classes, but it was one that he enjoyed more. More than any other class, this was the one that made him sure this whole magic thing was real. Charms was cool that way, too, but charms always seemed like the sort of stuff that mechanical engineering and good CGI could accomplish. Transfiguration . . . well, this was no trick of the eye. Plus, Alexander could do few things so well as make visualizations and that helped tremendously.

That wasn't to say he got it to work so well, but he was a second year now. As such, he'd gotten this spell to work before, he should be able to do it again, right? And even more than before. He thought that magic was probably a bit like learning to draw. He'd seen stuff online where people did the same sort of drawing once every year and they could compare how well they drew an eyeball or a person or a landscape or whatever over the years. He was a bit excited to see how much better he could do this year than he could before.

This was particularly evident since he took a seat next to a first year, who promptly began talking to her cup. He watched her out of the corner of his eye - seriously, were all the girls at Sonora just super pretty? - but didn't say anything until she addressed him. He'd learned his lesson with Ellie that bumbling was not a good way to get through such conversations, so he just blinked, surprised, instead.

"I'm not sure I can answer that," he said a little wryly. "Although I wish I could." He hadn't yet attempted the spell for today, and he was a little nervous that now that he'd been put on the spot, he wouldn't be able to get any success with it. What had he been doing anyway? Oh, yeah, he'd been thinking about life. That. "You were talking to your cup, right? Trying to tell it to change? I don't know very much about magic, but I think you're the one doing the changing, not the cup. Maybe you have to tell your magic to do the changing instead of the cup." He blushed a little, wondering if he sounded crazy. "Does that . . . make any sense at all?"

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales That was my first year, too. 1475 0 5

Josephine Clyde

May 26, 2020 8:15 AM

Oh, then Sláinte! by Josephine Clyde

Leonor. Hmm the name didn’t ring any bells, but she did look familiar. Josie vaguely remembered seeing her around at last year’s Orientation, so she must have been a fellow second year. Looking back at Leonor’s picture Josie felt a twist of envy at the other girl’s confidence. As much as she wanted to be ambitious and try everything at once, she knew baby steps were the key to success for her in Transfiguration. She nodded along with the glass bead explanation and pondered the picture again. It might not have been the best drawing she’d ever seen, but she could see the gist of it. Fancy with extra decorations it was definitely something out of her comfort zone.

The fellow second year was so confident, Josie bit the inside of her cheek, maybe she could ask her for help? They didn’t know each other well and Theo had been a bit of a fluke, but she was probably nice enough. Yeah, probably. She’d already met loads of new people this year! She just needed to give more people the benefit of the doubt.

“Thanks,” She laughed, “But you don’t have to be nice, I know it’s not impressive. I’m actually not great at Transfiguration. Last year I ended up making a huge mess of things and I ended up having to do each change one by one. If you have any advice I’d love to get some tips. You seem super confident.”

Josie decided to follow Leonor’s example and pulled a piece of paper from her bag. The blank page mocked her with the wide expanse of space waiting to be filled. The cup was orange, already weird enough that no one in her family would touch it, but she needed to take it a step further. After carefully picking out the ink from the front pocket and setting it down next to the paper Josie busied herself with fumbling around for her quill in another pocket, using the search to think about a crazy design. What kind of crazy would keep her step-brothers, Minnie and her father from using the cup? Quill in one hand Josie turned back to the paper and brushed it with the feather.

“I want to make some design that’s super weird cause I don’t want anyone back home using it. Any ideas? The crazier the better.”

If Leonor’s drawing was anything to go by then the other girl was plenty creative. Enough to help her come up with some weird design for sure.

44 Josephine Clyde Oh, then Sláinte! 1477 0 5

Mara Morales

May 26, 2020 4:34 PM

Taking a scientific approach. by Mara Morales

Mara did not loathe Sonora the way her sister had - after that one short, disastrous flirtation with accepting the place and the world that came with it and trying to integrate her two lives - come to, but she had to admit that in a lot of ways, the best thing about it was the degree to which she was left to her own devices. Some of the stuff she learned in her outside reading was fascinating, but her actual classes tended to be rather...there was no way around it...dull, at least once the initial shine had worn off realizing that she was doing actual magic. It seemed to be necessary dullness - if one wasn't extremely finicky and detail-oriented, bad things could happen, which made stuff like basic wand movements and pronunciation important things to do - but it was dullness just the same.

Transfiguration was, she thought, the shining example of that small problem that came with magical education. It was awesome, to think she might eventually be able to produce everything she wanted or needed, with relatively few exceptions, on the spot with the flick of her wrist - but sitting in her desk repeating a word or two over and over again while waiting for some simple object to look like some other object she was imagining in her head? Dull. Deathly dull. Nothing exciting about that, even after she had gotten to the point last year where she accomplished something on a regular basis. The stuff she read about in the library - little though she sometimes understood it - was fascinating, and she enjoyed writing her homework assignments for this class with those extra resources to draw on, but the class itself? Dull.

She still sat up and tried to look reasonably attentive, though, as Professor Skies introduced the class to the first years and demonstrated a Switching Spell, which was, admittedly, still a really cool thing to see happen. Her mouth twitched in a more or less sympathetic smile, though, when the professor actually told the first years - more or less, if not in so many words - about how dull of a time they were realistically in for. She had probably, she thought, heard the same thing last year, but had assumed it was just a warning for those who didn't work as hard as she did....

Well, she had learned quick enough that sheer stubbornness, while it did seem to help, was not all it took. However, she had always prided herself on not needing to hear the same lesson twice, and she had stuck to that ethic when it came to magic. Muscle memory was hard to entirely lose, but it could get a whole lot less useful over the summer - that was why some people thought that everyone ought to have school year-round at home, so the kindergarteners remembered how to read and the older kids remembered all their math. Mara wasn't allowed to do magic at home, but she had stolen a wooden spoon from the kitchen and tried to practice the movements she'd memorized over the course of her first year each day, so she wouldn't get too rusty, and she had dedicated the past two weeks to revision. She had spent much of the summer doing other magic-world readings, including borrowing her sister's intermediate textbooks, but it had seemed like a good idea to read up on her own books, the stuff she was definitely supposed to know, before she came back to school.

Accordingly, she felt fairly, if cautiously, confident as she sketched out a transfiguration table and began filling it in. The real item and the item-to-be were similar in that they were meant for drinking, and in that they were easily breakable, she guessed - cheap plastic cups were easy to crush, and glass was easy to smash. Plastic and glass...what was glass made of? She thought she had read once that glass was made from sand somehow, and she knew that sand was made from rock. Plastic, however, was a petroleum by-product. So the cup as it was would be a semi-organic substance, or at least derived from one - petroleum was responsible for carbon emissions, carbon was the basis of organic chemistry, therefore, plastic was at least partially organic - while the sand was not. So one difference - if, of course, she was right about all this - would be that to make plastic into glass, she'd have to jump categories entirely, stripping out the carbon and replacing it with...rock stuff....

She wrote this down, though she altered the ending to 'eroded rock particles' instead of 'rock stuff.' With any luck, the professor would pass behind her at some point in the lesson and see the amount of thought she was putting into her work, and the phrase 'rock stuff' just didn't have the same tinge of the serious or intellectual about it as 'eroded rock particles.'

The thing was, though, that she wasn't entirely sure this knowledge was actually beneficial to have. Looking at the words they used as incantations a lot, she could recognize some of the Latin roots she'd had to memorize lists of in elementary school, but when she had, out of curiosity, started looking up stuff in Latin dictionaries online, she had come to the conclusion that the grammar was a bit...sketchy, in places. Likewise, as diligently as she had read both her own and Jessica's textbooks, she hadn't run across any references to organic chemistry. She worried that trying to understand what she was doing might actually make it harder for her, but she couldn't help what she already knew....

There was nothing she could do about that, so she put it out of her mind in favor of designing a fancy glass and writing down details about it. She thought she would aim for one of those wineglass things, that was enough of a departure in shape, and to make it clear with a blue rim and blue edging around the base.

She took out her wand and firmly told it, "Verrus," mimicking the movement the deputy headmistress had made. The cup rocked back and forth on the desk; picking it up and holding it up to the light to see if any of it looked less orange than it had begun, or if the area just above the bottom of the glass looked like it had contracted inward at all.

"It's a start," she muttered to herself, putting it down again and beginning to make notes, asserting that it had rocked a little, and that she thought this was because the dimensions of the bottom had begun to change every so slightly. It was better than the first day she'd ever tried a transfiguration spell, anyway.

16 Mara Morales Taking a scientific approach. 1472 0 5

Quincy Wright

May 26, 2020 5:01 PM

SCIENCEEEE by Quincy Wright

Transfiguration blew Quincy's mind. Most stuff blew his mind here, but transfiguration really took the cake. Scientifically, it just didn't make any sense. How could one thing become another thing? Matter couldn't be made or destroyed, so where was the old matter going? Of course, the difference between one thing and another was just the elemental composition, atomic structures, etc., but that didn't seem like that was exactly what was happening. Maybe there was some balance in the universe. Enough people had been making glass cups into plastic ones and plastic ones into glass ones, that the overall total was about the same. Or perhaps it only looked like and behaved like glass, but was actually exactly the same cup as they would have started with. That was weird to think about.

The unfortunate thing about today's lesson was that he wasn't really too sure what color his cup was anyway. It did seem to have a pretty wide range of colors on it, but it did make it a bit harder to know whether or not he'd maintained or changed the colors when he got to the new one. He liked the sort of light-blueish at the bottom of the cup, though, so he thought maybe he could try for that. For all he knew, he'd actually make it blue. Or it was already blue. Whatever worked.

The girl beside him was older than he was and she was taking very detailed notes with little tables and stuff. He recognised her from his own House, so he thought that probably detailed notes with little tables was pretty par for course. It looked like it might've been helpful, and it was definitely a better approach than winging it. He tried to be subtle about craning his neck to see what she was writing, but it just wasn't working out, so he tapped her on the arm.

"Whatcha doing?" he asked, trying to sound casual. Interrupting a classmate to talk to them was not his preferred method of interacting with others. That being said, he also couldn't just not learn about this method of doing transfiguration, especially since it looked like proper labnotes or something. "What's the table for?" He pulled his own paper and quill closer to himself, prepared to take notes on what she said and hoping to show that he was really serious and did really want to learn.

22 Quincy Wright SCIENCEEEE 1495 0 5

Valentine Duell

May 26, 2020 6:11 PM

Did it work out for you? by Valentine Duell

Valentine almost thought the boy looked surprised when she had asked him for help. He wasn't at orientation, so if he is in the beginners class, he must be a second year (more people to meet! Yay!). That made him more of an expert than she was on the subject. He did look familiar though... but then he began to talk again and she tried to follow his line of reasoning.

She should be the one doing the changing, or rather her magic. As in her magic should be enacting the change upon the cup. The cup is just an inanimate object waiting to get it's molecules rearranged by her applying magic to it. That made sense, she smiled at the boy. "Yes, that makes sense." She blushed a bit, "I guess I was just trying to..." she paused for a moment trying to find the right words, "psych myself up, maybe?" Then she shrugged.

"I guess the real question I have," she continued, "is how do I summon up and direct my magic? Other than to wave the wand and say the words." She tacked on quickly. Obviously that was how you started, but it felt like there was something missing. "I was doing okay in charms class." She waved her hand around in a gesture of ambiguousness, "This just feels... different, like I'm a rogue trying to convince the scroll that I'm a wizard and the spell should work."

She sighed and looked back at her cup, gave it her best attempt at 'The Look', then turned back to the boy. "What's your methodology? Maybe I should just watch you do it and see if I can pick up on anything." Oh! He had been in the common room this morning! He was a Teppenpaw as well! That's where she recognized him from. She grinned wide, "You're one of my housemates!" Then she let out a little squeak, "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Valentine."

2 Valentine Duell Did it work out for you? 1490 0 5

Mab

May 26, 2020 6:37 PM

What's wrong with plastic anyway? by Mab

The problem with Transfiguration, like the problem with Charms, was that it used a wand. Mab didn't really like her wand very much. It never worked right. It wasn't how fey magic was supposed to work. Not even Harry Dresden used a wand. He had a staff. He had a charm bracelet. He had his mother's pentacle. He did not have a wand. Wands just looked silly. Bel had a wand, but she was just as likely to just use a gesture as to pull her wand. Wandless magic, she had explained, was a more advanced form that they'd get to later, but Mab wanted to get there now because wands were dumb.

Mab's "accidental magic" hadn't really been accidental anymore by the time she'd been picked up by Aurors for practicing underage magic on mortals. But that had been wandless, and now her magic didn't seem to know how to go through the stupid stick like they were being taught to do it here.

She picked up her wand reluctantly and scowled fiercely at the purple cup in front of her. She did the curving motion and she said, "Verrus," like she was supposed to and . . . nothing happened. Like nothing always happened. She was a second year, and she was just trying to make it turn to glass, no other flourishes of any kind, except maybe going to a clear glass instead of a purple one because glasses were supposed to be clear and that's how she could picture it easiest. And it wasn't working.

She tried three more times to no better avail. Annoyed and frustrated, she looked around to make sure nobody was watching, then she narrowed her eyes, focused, and just wished. She called on the power of the fairies the same way she'd learned to do when it was the only way she could survive.

And the cup turned to glass. She then quickly - in almost the same moment, only someone paying very close attention would notice the timing discrepancy - did the wand motion, and said the incantation and looked pleased, like she'd done it and not the fairies.

1 Mab What's wrong with plastic anyway? 1473 Mab 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

May 26, 2020 8:28 PM

Nope. But other things did. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander really wanted to have the answer. He wanted to be able to help. But he just wasn't that smart. But . . . he was a good visualizer . . . was that the sort of advice that could help this girl? He thought her image of a rogue wizard with a scroll was pretty accurate, so that was good. "I feel like that, too," he promised. "There's an artist-- uh, a muggle artist, named Michelangelo. He did sculptures and stuff. He always said that he wasn't sculpting anything into the marble, but only freeing the form that was already there. That helps me with magic sometimes. If I think of it as just . . . sort of taking off the illusion. Letting the cup be what it already is. But that's a little . . . wibbly." He probably sounded like a crazy person. Was this going to be thematic for him?

She wanted him to do the spell and while he had had some luck the year before, he wasn't sure he'd be able to make anything work in front of her. Before he could say anything, she was very excited to be recognizing him, and he actually managed a small smile. "Yes," he said. "It's good to meet you officially. I'm Alexander." Every time he introduced himself now, he sort of wondered what it would be like to introduce as Alexander Stones. That was not an appropriate thing to do though, so he did not. Her squeak sort of threw him off because he wasn't sure if she was broken. Were girls supposed to squeak? He was pretty sure Mab had never squeaked a day in her life, even as a baby if he had to guess, and she was about his only real experience with girls. Also, this girl's name was Valentine and if there wasn't a God then it was the universe with a sense of humor, and it was laughing at him.

"I can give it a shot," he mumbled, reaching for his wand. He wasn't really sure what he wanted to make the cup look like, though. Maybe just going for glass and getting it to be square would work? No, he couldn't picture a square cup that easy. Perhaps he should focus on color, not shape? Maybe he could do Teppenpaw colors. Alright, yellow cup made of glass, and maybe square. Yellow cup. Glass. Maybe square.

"Verrus," he said sharply, matching the professor's motion with some success since he'd done it before. The cup, to his pleasure, did turn yellow, and did turn into glass, but apparently it was thin glass, which did not appreciate being forced into a square shape, and it promptly shattered. His face turned a bright red at the same time.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Nope. But other things did. 1475 0 5

Leonor De Matteo

May 26, 2020 8:34 PM

Probably, sure. by Leonor De Matteo

Leonor was not a fan of false modesty. Josie had done a fine enough job with the transfiguration work she'd managed and Leonor wasn't one to give a meaningless compliment, so why was she trying to brush it off? Perhaps it was a matter of not knowing Leonor well enough. That could be rectified. "It really is good," Leonor promised, trying not to sound stiff about it. "Look around the room. Sure, you did sort of what the first years are doing, but you did it way faster than they did. That was you literally a year ago." She raised an eyebrow. "It's good."

Josie went to search through her bag and Leonor worked on cleaning up some of the lines in her drawing. It wasn't really necessary, but she didn't have anything else to do but try the spell and showing off was rarely a good way to make friends, unfortunately. Most of the time, she'd rather just go ahead and show off then, but she really was-- NOT lonely. She was fine.

She could relate to the need to keep others from using her things and she found herself nodding sympathetically. "They won't use it if it's not functional," she pointed out. "Or has a really small mouth bit so it's hard to fill up or drink from. I'm not sure what that would do for your grade though. Maybe something so long that they couldn't easily hold it to drink from?"

22 Leonor De Matteo Probably, sure. 1471 0 5

Josephine Clyde

May 27, 2020 9:10 AM

Great! Cheers then for sure! by Josephine Clyde

Josie took another look at her cup and gazed at the first years many of whom were no doubt running into the same problems she’d had last year. The horrors of that rainbow/brown nightmare might never leave her brain, but Leonor was right and that brightened her up considerably. Compared to last year’s progress she’d definitely come a long way. Hopefully the fantastic progress would keep going.

“Thank you. I guess I was just sort of traumatized by last year’s failure.”
She tilted her head to the side as she frowned at the paper, “Not functional. I hadn’t thought about that,” but the more she did the more she liked it.

If it was impossible to use then no one would use it. Josie began doodling a few ideas here and there on the page. It needed to be tall and thin, almost like a skinny flower vase. A tortured looking shape began drawing itself onto the page. Well, art had never been her forte and as much help as visualizing it was, it might help more if she had a better idea of the crazy thing she wanted. Especially since she wasn’t sure yet. She almost snorted then, maybe she ought to just do what she did last year and cast first, think later. But then again that might cause an even bigger mess to clean up and Professor Skies would definitely not be happy.

The drawing was beginning to take a general shape that she could work towards. Minnie had champagne flutes from her wedding, but they were just kept locked up in a cabinet. She’d walked past them every day in the summer, so she was definitely familiar with them. Her drawing reflected the size and general shape, but that’s where the similarities ended. The middle of the cup curved inwards like the glass soda bottles she used to drink when she was younger. Instead of the narrow mouth those bottles had, her drawing had a wider almost gaping hole. Overall, her cup blueprint looked like a flower vase ate a soda bottle and then tried to throw it back up. Oh yes, this would do just fine. But a second opinion was always nice.

Josie scooted the paper towards Leonor, “What do you think? Weird enough?”

44 Josephine Clyde Great! Cheers then for sure! 1477 Josephine Clyde 0 5

Aelia Astley

May 27, 2020 1:47 PM

Glass is prettier than plastic. by Aelia Astley

Aelia hadn’t expected to feel nerves as she walked into her first Transfiguration class at Sonora. She felt excited but her excitement was currently being drowned out by her nerves. She hadn’t really thought or maybe she’d forgotten that in classes, she would have to perform magic where other people could see. She had never performed magic in front of people other than her family and stupidly, she had forgotten that the other people in her class would see her. The only way wouldn’t would be if she didn’t perform any magic but then how would she learn anything? They’d also probably doubt that she could perform magic at all and she couldn’t have that. She couldn’t be the stupid or the non-magical Astley.

“Okay, take a deep breath, Aelia. This is a new, exciting experience and it’ll be amazing.”

She followed her own instruction, taking a deep and calming breath and exhaling slowly. If she looked a little odd to her classmates, that was okay. Odd was better than stupid or non-magical. Her breath done, she smiled and walked into the class.

Aelia found a free seat next to a girl with long brown hair which she thought was pretty and offered her a smile as she sat down and got out her things. She was going to make her first lesson go well and she was going to be the perfect student. She was going to listen and be attentive and take notes and all the things that a good student did because that’s what made a good lesson and Aelia was going to make sure that her first ever Transfiguration lesson at Sonora was going to be the best it could possibly be.

She listened quietly to Professor Skies but looked a little sour at hearing that Transfiguration could take a while to learn. Aelia had suspected as much. Even Julius had muttered annoyances about the class in the past but Julius had something that Aelia did not and that was patience. She didn’t like waiting for things to happen. Waiting to come to Sonora had been horrible and long and Aelia didn’t very much feel like waiting for things to happen anymore.

On a more positive side (because Aelia always tried to and often successfully found a positive side to everything), today’s lesson looked relatively simple. How hard could it be to turn a colourful plastic cup into a glass? It would certainly look much prettier as a glass, like the ones that she had at home. They were so delicate and had lots of lovely patterns on them. She wanted to turn a plastic cup into a glass like that. Would they be allowed to keep them at the end? She’d like a glass that reminded her of home.

She’d be given a dark blue cup and she picked it up, turning it over in her hands. It was easy to see the similarities and the differences between what she had and what she was going to aim for. Glass was far more fragile than plastic. She could throw this cup onto the floor and it wouldn’t break whereas a glass would shatter. While her cup was a dark blue, she wanted to erase all that colour and make it clear and transparent. When tapped, the plastic cup made a hollow sound whereas when a glass was tapped, it was more like a tinkle. These seemed like all good things to start off with so she wrote down her ideas in her neat and tidy cursive before picking up her wand and looking at her cup with a determined glint in her eyes.

“Verrus.” she said firmly, copying the motion that Professor Skies had done earlier. Her cup moved a little but otherwise, remained the same. Aelia pouted and tried again, with the same result. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that her neighbour had already managed to do it and bit her lip. How had she done it? Aelia wished she could’ve seen. Maybe it would’ve helped her. Aelia tried one more time but only succeeded in making the cup fall over now and sighed in frustration. Clearly, the lesson wasn’t as simple as originally thought.

She turned to the girl next to her, pointed to the girl’s glass and asked, “How did you do that so quickly? All mine wants to do is shake...”

20 Aelia Astley Glass is prettier than plastic. 1494 0 5

Mara Morales

May 27, 2020 5:56 PM

Have I blinded you with it? by Mara Morales

Mara tensed slightly when someone touched her, more out of surprise than anything. She had never been terribly touchy-feely anyway, and she had not expected someone to tap her in the middle of Transfiguration. She looked up to find herself looking at a curly-haired first year she recognized from the little flock with Professor Wright after the Opening Feast, who she thought she had also spotted talking to Morgan at said Feast.

"The table?" she asked. She pushed her notes page closer to him. It was written in a deep, green-leaning teal ink with a slight golden shimmer, one of the variety of fountain pen inks - among other things - which Dad had bought mainly for Jessica to go through, to cheer her up, but which Mara had also gotten her pick of. Since her paper was no longer with her and therefore would not be written on for at least a minute or two, she slipped the cap onto her pen, which was a slightly lighter shade of blue-green, so she didn't have to worry about the ink drying in the steel nibs. Quills were fun, plus necessary in her exams, but steel nibs and converters were more efficient and less messy for taking notes in class.

"It's something we learned last year," she volunteered. "You make a table comparing and contrasting the two things - the thing you have, and the thing you want to have after you finish the transfiguration." She pointed to the part of her notes which was about organic versus inorganic materials. "That part isn't really necessary," she said. "I just put it in because I thought of it, but I don't know if it's helpful to know or not." She smiled suddenly. "One of the things that makes me crazy around here is not knowing stuff like that," she said. "Whole new levels of only knowing what I don't know since I started here."

16 Mara Morales Have I blinded you with it? 1472 0 5

Valentine Duell

May 28, 2020 6:00 PM

That's good to hear, all is well then? by Valentine Duell

Val grinned. 'Wibbly' that was a fun word, she liked it. It felt very appropriate, to much of what was going on around here. His explanation was a good one, but she wasn't quite sure how to apply it. But then she would have her answer maybe. Alexander, that was his name and she would remember it because remembering names was important. People liked it when you remembered their names. Anyway, Alexander was going to show her how it was done. Professor Skies had as well, but that was the professor.

She watched Alexander intently as he went through the process. He took up his wand, good. The he paused and looked at the cup? He was thinking something. Something important? Finally he executed the motion as he spoke the word. Before her very eyes, Alexander's cup transformed. One moment it was a plastic cup like hers, and the next it was a yellow glass! Then it shattered and small pieces scattered across the desk.

Valentine looked at the boy wide-eyed for a moment. Then she blurted out, "That was great Alexander! You did it!" She began to use the sleeve of her robe to sweep the glass shards onto a pile, "How did you do that? I saw you pause and look at the cup a moment before casting the spell, what were you thinking? Were you summoning up power to channel into the cup?"

2 Valentine Duell That's good to hear, all is well then? 1490 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

May 28, 2020 8:26 PM

No alibi by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

Transfiguration was possibly the most Insta subject out there. Sure, a number of the COMC projects would have made cute photo ops, but this… This was surely her mom’s dream? Turn something into whatever you wanted. Restyle, recolour, reshape. But just for the moment. Create something for as long as it took to get the perfect photo. That was what they did already, only this would up the game to a whole other level. No more waiting for UPS to deliver. No searching through accessories to find the right combinations. Just whoosh, fairy-godmother it up and #GetTheLook.

Sadie wondered whether that was why she found the subject hard. People talked a lot about will-power in magic, and Sadie honestly thought she might just prefer a world where things were what they were. Then again, Professor Skies was always saying it was also difficult magic, so there was that. Maybe it was just hard and Sadie was just stupid. She had never felt like the brightest crayon in the box, although she had done generally okay, but the more exposure she had to people like Jessica the less convinced she was. There wasn’t a conversation that went by without Jessica dropping some kinda AP English vocab that Sadie didn’t understand. Luckily smiling and nodding seemed to be getting her far enough. For now…

She took a seat in Transfiguration, noting the project for the day. Her mom would have a field day with being able to instantly theme-ify glasses to go with any party, table setting or just subtly enhance the food she was photographing. Sadie took a plastic cup. To be fair, she had always hated the feel of those against her teeth and would much rather drink out of a proper glass. So… there, that was a good motivation. She continued, trying to think of all the non-Mom related reasons why changing this cup could be a good thing. They didn’t have to do the note-taking thing today cos the differences and similarities were probably clear enough, but maybe she could think about her cup and why she wanted to change it and maybe that would help.

She could make it hella ugly.

She considered whether her grade would suffer too badly if she succeeded in doing that. They often got points for ‘design’ so she guessed it mattered, but that was so, so vague. And hadn’t Professor Skies said that she just wanted it to be really really different to how it looked now?

She could make it brown. No one liked brown. It was not a good colour for anything. Okay, sometimes boots, or eye-shadow palettes, especially in fall. But like… a brown glass. She was sure she’s seen smoky brown glass in second hand stores with people trying to pass it off as ‘vintage’ or ‘retro.’ Clearly it had been in fashion at some stage, but presumably in one of those eras that taste had forgotten. It was the kind of ugly clutter that people used to bulk out those stores amongst the true gems. No one wanted brown glass. Cute champagne coupe glasses? Yes (#Roaring20s #GreatGatsby). Brown glass, no.

She checked the board for the spell. Were these words meant to like… stick in her brain? Cos they definitely didn’t. She muttered it a few times to herself, practising the wand motion and the word separately. They still felt kind of odd, but at the same time, it was a good feeling, having her wand back in her hand. She felt right, in a way she didn’t when she was being forced to strike a pose. This, at least, was her own. Was her.

She took a moment to focus, thinking how much she wanted a nasty brown glass. The clink of it against her teeth and the smooth feel against her lip instead of nasty plastic. The fact that it would bug the heck out of her mom to have her drink from something so ugly.

“Verrus,” she cast, sweeping her wand over the cup. It didn’t totally transform, not in one clean sweep. But it looked… kinda like someone had melted a brown glass down the existing cup? There were drips of brown glass running down, replacing the plastic in some parts. Like this, it looked even worse than she had imagined. And she was thrilled. She was about to try again, when her neighbour chimed in.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers No alibi 1480 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

May 28, 2020 9:04 PM

Well-ish. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander looked at Valentine with wide eyes, surprised at her excitement. It was contagious though, and he couldn't help smiling a little, despite his embarrassment. In a weird way, he also sort of believed it. Sure, his cup had shattered, but he had transformed it. "Be careful," he said, sucking in a breath of nerves through his teeth. At the same time, Professor Skies came by to replace his cup, and he thanked her quietly, flushing redder than ever.

Then Valentine had questions and Alexander was about a thousand percent sure he wasn't going to be able to provide any sort of satisfactory answer. "I was trying to think about what I wanted to make," he said, thinking hard about what he'd done. "I visualized it, and then I thought about what it was I was changing. Like I pictured a yellow, square, glass cup--" He grimaced again at the mess that had made. "--and then tried to focus on that bit? Because when I visualized it, I also think about like . . . well, glass is shiny, and cups are round, and all those other things. So I didn't wanna focus on that? I just kept thinking 'yellow, glass, square' and then it sort of worked-ish. The square bit was too hard, I think."

Desperate to get the focus off himself - after all, what could he possibly have to teach someone like Valentine about magic? - he angled himself towards her and gestured. "Do you want to try again? You can talk out loud if that helps or I can just watch. Or I can not watch if you don't want me to."

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Well-ish. 1475 0 5

Janis Rosemary Silver

May 29, 2020 12:00 PM

You only need an alibi after a crime by Janis Rosemary Silver

Janis leaned forward in her seat. Her feet tucked up under her as if she were kneeling on the chair. She was glad she did because she was better able to see the cool switching spell that the Professor did with ease and speed. Like insane ease. She didn’t even talk! Janis was mesmerized. This wasn’t something mama or dad did oh no. This was different and new. She was beginning to see why they had told her to come here. Something like that switcheroo spell could be so useful. Why didn’t everyone use it?

As the cups floated towards her she reached up to grab hers before it served it to her. She was old enough. She could get it herself, she didn’t need any fancy floating cup to come to her. She had a bright green plastic cup in her hands. She squished it a bit to make sure it was flexible and not already glass. A piece of her hoped it would be. That would make this lesson easier to be sure. He sighed as she sat back on her toes. She guessed that wasn’t much a lesson then.

Janis took a deep breath and pumped her fists slightly. Ok. You can do this! she thought to herself. She took her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at the plastic cup. Janis thought of a glass green up and waved her wand verrus. Nothing happened. The cup just sat there like, well, an empty cup.

What was it the professor had said, similarities and differences. Ok. Janis looked at the cup. They’d both be cups. They’d both be green. Difference, the new one would be glass. Glass was hard. Not squishy. Glass could shatter. Glass could have fun designs? Janis pushed her lips together. What did that even mean?

Janis turned to look at her partners cup just as the girl moved her wand and her cup… melted? No that wasn’t right. It almost looked like the glass had been pulled out of a porta john. Janis chuckled at the thought.

“Two things. One, That is an amazing ugly cup. Two, How… exactly did you do that? What were you thinking of?”

41 Janis Rosemary Silver You only need an alibi after a crime 1493 0 5

Valentine Duell

May 29, 2020 6:22 PM

You sound a bit uncertain by Valentine Duell

"You visualized it?" She thought for a moment, and then stated, "That's the part that I must be missing." She had been relying on the wand and the word to do all of the work, but that wasn't how this was supposed to work, was it? Alexander had been right, she needed to tell the magic to work for her, and how to work. This sounded like an idea that needed to get bounced off of someone. Good think Alexander seemed like a bouncy sort of boy.

"Okay, so if I'm thinking about this right," She started off a bit slowly, "The wand motion and the spell word are the generalized 'turn an object into a glass drinking object' spell, right? Maybe even more general than that..." she paused just a moment to consider what exactly the effects the spell could have on something. Did it only work on things that were already cups? Could it turn things into any sort of glass thing? She tossed the idea into the 'investigate sometime later if you think about it again bin' in her mind and moved back to the present.

"Regardless, this is the spell that will turn a plastic cup into a drinking glass of some form. According to the professor, it could be any color or shape. That means the spell itself does need much more direction than just a wand wave and a single word to work." She paused to collect her thoughts again, "I was just trying to have the wand and word do it all, but I wasn't giving the magic anything to do, I wasn't picturing how I wanted it to change, so I guess it couldn't." She looked at Alexander, "Does that make sense?"

"I'll give it another try now that you've unlocked the secret." She smiled at him and turned back to her cup. "Okay cup, I hope you like being glass." She stared at the cup for a long moment, the word 'glass' ran through her head. She tried to visualize what the cup would look like if it was just made out of glass. Just a round, blue, shiny glass cup. But, she couldn't. The words swirled around in her head, 'round, blue, glass', but she just couldn't 'see' an image of it in her mind.

"Verrus!"she called out with the wave, trying desperately to still form a picture. The cup seemed to shimmer as it very briefly shifted toward a glass state, but promptly turned back to plastic. "I... I can't do it." she voice with an edge of sad frustration. "I can't visualize it." She was going to let Papa down after all.

2 Valentine Duell You sound a bit uncertain 1490 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

May 29, 2020 8:22 PM

Or if you're u-g-l-y by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

“Oh, uh, thanks. I was going for ugly,” Sadie confirmed out loud, blushing slightly as it felt such a weird thing to admit. But her neighbour had called it that and so it seemed better to point out that she had, at least, been going for it on purpose. The girl had also said it was amazing, which was a surprising reaction to something so horrible. But then she was a first year, so maybe she was just amazed by magic. Like… ‘your cup is amazing but also ugly’. Rather than ‘your cup is amazing for its ugliness.’ She blushed a little deeper as she questioned whether the statement she’d accepted as a compliment really was one.

“I figured...like… well, she said ‘different.’ I’m a second year,” she added to clarify, although she figured the girl would know that from not seeing her at orientation. This explanation would also help answer the other question of how she had done that. “So… I figured I’d make it weird and ugly. That’s like… super different to how it was. That also gives something kind of strong to focus on?” she suggested.

“People talk a lot about focus or will-power. And visualisation, especially for transfiguration. So I thought maybe having some strong feelings might help?” she suggested, her voice hesitant as if making sure that made sense. The element of ‘I just really wanted to passive aggressively and indirectly get back at my mom in a way which has zero real consequences’ was a bit too personal to share, but hopefully the reasoning made sense even without it.

“They also say transfiguration’s super hard. It can take time to get going,” she added with an encouraging smile. This had to be the most she’d talked to anyone here like… ever. It felt super weird being asked questions about how magic worked like she was someone who knew what she was doing. It was weirder still finding that she actually had a detailed answer available.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers Or if you're u-g-l-y 1480 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

May 30, 2020 12:18 AM

Best not get too optimistic. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Valentine caught on fast, but she also sort of seemed to give up fast. Alexander always wondered at that in people. Sometimes, it meant that someone had faced too many hard things to face even one more. Sometimes, it meant they had never faced any hard things and didn't know how to persevere. Other times, it meant they were facing different hard things and really wanted to find something that it was okay to give up on. Unfortunately for Valentine, transfiguration class was not the thing to give up on.

"That's not the same thing," he told her when she said she couldn't do it, and then that she couldn't visualize. "You can do it, because it started to work. That means all that's left is to learn to visualize." He was patient but he was helpful, and he had found that being direct was usually the most helpful. "Would it help to draw it out? Or here . . . tell me what you wanted it to be. I'll see if I can visualize it, and then you can see my cup and try to make yours look the same."

He raised his wand, ready for instructions, and then looked over at her again, a little uncertain. "That sounded really bossy," he said awkwardly. "Sorry about that. I know you can do it and I'm trying to help . . . but I probably should ask you how you want to be helped first, eh?" He ran a hand through his hair, scratching the back of his head. "Or if you want my help at all. Or if I'm being helpful at all . . ." He had skipped a lot of important check-ins. "I'm sorry about that."

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Best not get too optimistic. 1475 0 5

Valentine Duell

May 30, 2020 11:10 AM

The glass appears that it might be possibly close to about half-full? by Valentine Duell

Alexander was being nice. Val had started it to change, so she supposed it was potentially possible. Could she learn to visualize things? She hadn't really ever noticed that it had been a problem before, but she also couldn't recall any time previously that she had needed to make a clear mental image of something. Was that really something that people did or could do? Was it something that she could do as well?

She gave him a weak smile at his suggestions, then nearly giggled as he went through the string of helpfulness levels. "Of course you're being helpful, thank-you." she responded before thinking about his ideas, "Drawing it out may help, but I'm not much of an artist. I was just trying to just change it into glass, keep the shape and the color. I don't know if I could draw well enough to show the difference," she admitted a bit shyly. "And I would love some more help, thank-you for offering. My dad was really good at this class, so I'd like to be really good at it as well. Or at least good enough to not make him disappointed." Her face had fallen a bit as she talked, but then it brightened up again, "Not that he would ever say anything like that, but I still want to make him proud."

"If you're willing," she gestured at his new cup, "Please, see if you can make a round, blue glass. Then I'll see if looking at that helps me do the same to mine."

OOC: Val suffers from Aphantasia

2 Valentine Duell The glass appears that it might be possibly close to about half-full? 1490 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

May 31, 2020 12:28 PM

Or only half-glass! by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander waited for the usual rush of resentment and anger that came with hearing about other people's dads, especially their magical ones, but it didn't happen. He was feeling good with his family and he was content enough not to think that he was missing out so much for not having a dad. The only one he sort of had at all sounded terrible anyway, so he was better off with a Bel than with a Mom or Dad.

"I'm sure he's proud of you," Alexander said softly. "Just because you're trying."

He nodded, happy to help and happy that he hadn't overstepped anywhere, and then readied himself to try this spell. He was a bit surprised that Valentine wanted to try for a round blue class, instead of a plastic-cup shaped, plastic-cup colored, glass glass, but that was her prerogative. he thought about it for a moment, thinking about those funny round glasses that looked like raindrops with the top cut off, and how they looked sort of clearish bluish from the side, but if you look at the edge of the glass, it looks a lot bluer. And he thought about how glass reflects light and the whole thing just looks like a perfect water droplet.

Satisfied that he knew what he wanted to do, he focused on Valentine's description again: round, blue, glass.

"Verrus," he said, more softly this time than before. He wasn't trying to force anything. This cup wanted to be that shape anyway, so he didn't have to be stern about it. Just let it happen, and make it happen, all at the same time. He grinned when the cup changed into almost exactly what he'd been thinking of. Round, it turned out, was easier than square. It was a bit taller than he'd been going for, a remnant of the plastic cup's greater height than a round cup had, but he was satisfied nonetheless.

"You don't have to do all of that," he reminded her as he moved the glass to sit where she could see it a bit more directly. "First years only have to do glass." He flicked the glass lightly with his nail, making it reverberate with glass' signature ting! sound. "Shiny, and it goes tink-tink," he told her playfully.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Or only half-glass! 1475 0 5

Valentine Duell

June 02, 2020 7:16 PM

Cautious Optimisim is the way to go then? by Valentine Duell

Val sighed at looked at Alexander, he was being very nice. She tried to smile at him, "Thanks. That is what he would say." Papa would just want her to do her best. He had told her that many times growing up, so she would. She would try her best to turn this cup into glass.

She moved her blue plastic cup so it was right next to the blue glass one that Alexander had very kindly transfigured for her. "It looks really good." She giggled when he tinked the glass. "Maybe I should make a list?" She pulled out her notebook and wrote down 'Plastic - dull, rough, thunk noise.' 'Glass - shiny, smooth, transparent, tink noise.'

"Okay, let's give this a try." She took a deep breath and tried to be calm and focused. She looked over her list and let those words swirl about head. Once she had them in place, she looked at the two drinking vessels and extended her wand. "Verrus!" she called out with just a hint of desperation in her voice as she moved the wand. The cup shimmered, and slowly transformed. It had turned to glass! For two whole seconds. Then it was instantly plastic again. Val slumped to the table.

"Well," she said a little weakly, "That is progress I guess. What are the chances my best will get better?" She could do it, she would make Papa proud. "Thanks for the encouragement," she said to Alexander, "Are those the kind of things your Dad tells you?"

2 Valentine Duell Cautious Optimisim is the way to go then? 1490 0 5

Quincy Wright

June 02, 2020 7:40 PM

Starstruck me I think. by Quincy Wright

Quincy examined the girl's notes with ravenous attention. A table for comparing and contrasting! That made so much sense. Except, it also served to underline the fact that they had no idea what they were doing because they didn't know enough about the materials or anything. He was thinking as much when the girl spoke to that and he looked up, nodding vigorously. "I want to know more," he said, almost reverently, before sliding her notes back to her with one last longing look. He tried to commit it to memory but since that definitely wasn't going to work, he started drawing it out on his own paper. "It might matter if one is organic and the other isn't. I wonder whether a non-organic glass polymer might be easier to get from plastic." He added the last more to himself than anything, and was momentarily lost in thought over the implications of being able to create organic matter from non-organic matter. That was not that far away from creating life itself. If chemical structures could be altered into completely different elements with just a wave of the wand, how many Muggle patients were dying of curable issues? Was it irresponsible to keep the two worlds separate?

He shook his head to clear it. That was not the point of this class and he wouldn't be able to find that out if he couldn't learn the spell first. "Sorry," he said automatically. For Deidre's sake, he had learned that prompt apologies for spaciness were generally appreciated, if not outright expected. Glancing over his mostly empty new table, he frowned. "What color is this?" he asked, holding up his cup. He wouldn't be able to write it down if he didn't know. "And what color is this one?" he asked, pointing to the nice blue color that was probably violet if this was in ROYGBIV order.

22 Quincy Wright Starstruck me I think. 1495 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

June 02, 2020 7:40 PM

Well when you put it like that . . . by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander would not have really thought of making a list unless he was consciously trying to come up with ideas. Words were much less helpful to him. But, they seemed to work for Valentine, so that was good enough for him. She improved tremendously very fast, and that was fun. He smiled for a real moment then, his eyes widening with excitement even when his mouth fell back to a more neutral expression. "That was great!" he told her. "One hundred percent chances," he added. "If your best tops out in your first year of school, then something is terribly wrong. Even if you didn't try at all, you'd get better. And you seem like you try really hard."

He surprised himself a bit because he don't usually talk this much or this easily. The last time he'd found someone to chat with like this, he'd gone home with her. Which sounded not like how he meant it. But he wasn't sure what to do with a new person now, and he almost thought to cut it off just for that reason. He didn't really want to, though. She was nice and easy to talk to and their conversation seemed to be good for them both. Or at least, it had been.

Blinking, surprised, Alexander shook his head. "I don't have a dad," he replied in a hollow voice. It wasn't hard to say that now, which was odd since it was sort of less true now than before. But really, he'd never had a dad. Were dads supposed to say this kind of nice stuff? It didn't sound like his said anything of the sort to Evelyn, so he doubted that would be likely even if he'd grown up with him. "Or a mom," he added before she could change her guess. "Well, I sort of have a mom now." He wrinkled his nose with some amusement, trying to imagine Bel's face if she heard him saying that. "I have a family--" man, that felt good to say "--just not a mom or dad."

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales Well when you put it like that . . . 1475 0 5

Valentine Duell

June 05, 2020 8:12 AM

Is there a better way to put it? by Valentine Duell

Valentine blushed bright red at Alexander's compliment. She was trying really hard. This was tough and she wanted to succeed at it so badly. Alexander was being really nice and supportive, "Thanks," she said a little on the quiet side, "But I couldn't have done it without your help."

She looked back at her once again plastic cup, trying to figure out her next approach when Alexander made a statement that horrified her. Her face drained completely of color and all the thoughts in her mind crashed solidly against the solid wall that his words had made. No Dad? She started to open her mouth, not quite sure what to say, but he continued. No Mom? A shiver of horror ran through every nerve in her body. What had she done?

Her eyes were wide and on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry, I didn't..." She wanted to hug him, but some corner of her mind still registered that he didn't look quite as distressed as she felt. She couldn't imagine not having parents that loved you. To not have Mama and Papa... to have no one at all... what sort of life had he led? Was it a recent thing? Was he okay?

He looked okay. He said he had a family, and Val gave a faint smile at that. "Families are important."

2 Valentine Duell Is there a better way to put it? 1490 0 5

Mara Morales

June 09, 2020 7:52 PM

Does that make me a star? by Mara Morales

"For what?" asked Mara, puzzled, when her seatmate abruptly apologized for nothing in particular, and then she remembered. "Oh. Yeah, I know what organic and inorganic matter are," she said matter-of-factly, figuring that the culture gap had been assumed where it didn't actually, for a nice change, exist. "I was thinking about that before you asked for my notes - I was trying to remember if plastic is organic or inorganic. Plastic is a petroleum product, right? That was why I was thinking it might fall under the organic umbrella, but I don't know the chemistry well enough to say for sure."

She admitted this only reluctantly. There was nothing wrong, of course, with admitting that one did not know something. It was a way to learn. However, knowing that did nothing to make her like doing so one bit better, and it was all the harder here, when she so often felt like she was completely out of her depth and like everyone knew more than she did. When they were talking about chemistry - something that was not only of her world in general, but which her own father had gone to school for - she felt even more reluctant to admit to uncertainty, even if her logical mind did know that it would be ridiculous to expect someone who had only studied science formally up until fifth grade to definitely know all that for sure.

She was puzzled again by him asking the color of his cup, but decided to roll with it. There was always that thing people said about girls seeing more nuances in colors than boys did, after all. The existence of colorblind people was something Mara knew of, but that information did not immediately rise to the top of her mind as she glanced at the cup in question. "Purple," she said. "I guess kind of a...medium light purple? Not as gray as lavender, but not as pink as your orchid shades?" This determination was made on the basis of the more purple-ish lipsticks she knew of, but did not own - partially because her parents said she was too young for real lipstick, and partially because she knew both her parents would strongly disapprove of her wearing purple lipstick. The fact that orchid flowers came in a kaleidoscope of colors that had little to nothing to do with the shade usually referred to as orchid in the beauty community was, like the existence of colorblindness, something she knew, but which did not occur to her.

16 Mara Morales Does that make me a star? 1472 0 5

Quincy Wright

June 21, 2020 4:42 PM

Absolutely. by Quincy Wright

Quincy blinked, surprised. He wasn't sure whether it was more surprising that his classmate knew what organic and inorganic meant - although he'd known that from her table already - or that she didn't seem to mind his brief mental tirade. "My sister always gets irritated when I do that," he explained. "So that's why I was apologising. It is made with petroleum usually, though, you're right. Petroleum is organic but I don't know whether plastic is either." He frowned, although it was sort of nice not knowing something like this. Googling things was arguably harder here than at home, and it wasn't that easy at home. Still, he could probably manage today's lesson without this information, as his classmate seemed to agree.

When she said the color he was pointing to was purple, Quincy halfway understood. He knew that purple was a color, after all. However, she lost him when she started comparing purple to grey and different kinds of flowers. He didn't think pink and purple were similar at all, were they? Sometimes they looked similar, but his mom said that pink was sort of like a light red, and the color he was pointing at didn't look at all like the color he thought was red. What the heck was an orchid anyway? He gaped at her for a moment; usually, he did just fine. Colors weren't that important anyway and if his dad wasn't colorblind too, they probably wouldn't have even tested him and known yet. Maybe that would've been better. But usually, people didn't go off with flower comparisons when he asked. Most flowers just looked sort of greyish anyway, so how could something be less grey but not so little grey as to be less grey?

"Purple," he repeated firmly, sticking to the only part of that that mattered. But maybe trying to get that color all over wouldn't be a good idea if he couldn't tell precisely what it was or whether he'd gotten it right. He looked down at his robe, which he knew was green even if it was the same color as oranges which were . . . well, not green. "This isn't anything like purple at all, right?" he almost demanded, wanting to greet to the point of being sure where he was going with this so he could start on the magic. Maybe he should ask Professor Skies if he could try for polka dots or something. "I'm colorblind," he added a bit sourly, hating that this was coming up as relevant so soon in his Sonora career.

22 Quincy Wright Absolutely. 1495 0 5

Mara Morales

June 22, 2020 11:51 AM

I was born to shine. by Mara Morales

Oh. Colorblindness. That would explain why he was asking her odd questions about the color of something right in front of him.

Well done, Mara, she thought, a bit sourly, thinking in retrospect she should have suspected something like this. She knew that dudes were supposed to be kinda bad with precise shades of color compared to girls – not understanding the difference between teal and turquoise and stuff like that, calling it all ‘blue’ – but that was a stereotype and not something that should have required him to solicit female assistance for the purpose of this exercise even had he known the color but not the shade….

“Definitely not anything like purple,” she said matter-of-factly. “Sorry – I know people in the makeup business, back home, and my brain went to lipsticks.” A statement she suspected even a dude might find surprising, just looking at her. Mara was dressed the same as everyone else in the room, of course, but the elements of her appearance she had some control over were just as simple: her black hair was in a severe bun, as she usually wore it during classes so she didn’t light her hair on fire somehow, and since she was more fortunate than Jessica in the department of having naturally visible brows and lashes, the only products on her face after she washed it each morning were moisturizer and a touch of lip balm – not even tinted lip balm today. “Purple is made of red and blue, and you can darken it or lighten it with blacks and whites, and so you get all these different shades that each have their own names,” she explained. “Green has a bunch of shades too, but green is…” she bit her lip, trying to remember. “I’m pretty sure green is a mix of blue and yellow, but purple still doesn’t look anything like green, even if they both have some blue in them. They went together pretty well, though, before the TV made everyone who sees them together think of a talking dinosaur. But that’s…beside the point,” she acknowledged. “For you, I guess a purple with more red base would be better than one of the cooler, more bluey ones, at least if you're trying to make it different from green…huh.” She picked up her pen again and frowned at her chart. “Do you think it’s worth writing down, ‘is one color easier to get than another if they have a base color in common’?” she asked him.

16 Mara Morales I was born to shine. 1472 Mara Morales 0 5

Quincy Wright

June 22, 2020 4:31 PM

Something like that. by Quincy Wright

It was fine. She went to lipsticks. That was weird to Quincy as he couldn't always even tell when folks were wearing lipstick, let alone what color they were, but sure. Do what you do. But then she started rambling on about different colors by comparing them to other colors and then comparing those colors to items based on their colors and none of it was remotely helpful for Quincy. He couldn't explain how mixing blue and red got purple because purple didn't look a bit like blue or red.

"I know how color works," he said grumpily, doodling on the corner of his chart. "I just can't see it. Saying two colors - that I can't see the way you do - mix to make another color - that I can't see the way you do - isn't really helpful. Quincy wasn't sure what talking dinosaurs had to do with colors so he left that comment alone. "I'm red-green colorblind," he added, feeling a bit as though his knowledge of the situation at least gave him a leg up there, where he otherwise might've been embarrassed. "A purple that's more red will look more like this." He tugged at his robe again. Describing the way he saw the world was not really so hard to do for other people because he'd been told it lots of times and his parents had explained it. He knew how other people thought he saw the world, even if he didn't really understand what it all meant.

It was good, he supposed, that she was asking his opinion still. Clearly she didn't think he was a complete moron, eve if she didn't think he understand how color theory worked. Still, he didn't really have much of an answer. "That's not a question I can help answer," he replied coolly. "But . . ." Well, he was a little curious wasn't he. Keeping it in would make him burst, he suspected, so he let out his pent up air and cocked his head, letting his curiosity replace his frustration for a moment. "I wonder whether colors that look the same to me would be easier to transfigure for me than they would be for you if they look really different to you."

22 Quincy Wright Something like that. 1495 0 5

Mara Morales

June 23, 2020 8:33 PM

...and then inevitably explode and burn out, if we go back to science. by Mara Morales

Mara struggled to get her mind around the concepts Quincy was explaining. It seemed strange to her that one would know how colors worked without knowing what they were, and that changing the concentrations involved in making secondary colors wouldn’t make any difference to how they were perceived…but then, her vision was fine.

“Oh,” she said. “Sorry, I misunderstood how it works. Thanks for explaining.”

She had a naturally somewhat muted tone of voice, which she found generally unfortunate, as it didn’t express emotion well. Admittedly, the fact that Mara herself preferred to focus on practicalities rather than thinking or talking too much about feelings probably didn’t help, but her voice could cause miscommunications. She hoped it didn’t do so now, as she didn’t want to sound passive-aggressive, as she had noticed it was really easy for…basically everyone to do when apologizing. It was one reason why she was glad that they didn’t really do that kind of thing in her family, and instead just pretended anything that happened that shouldn’t have happened, simply hadn’t happened.

“Guess that’s what I get for thinking I remember reading something once but not really remembering where I read it,” she added. “I get it mixed up and end up sounding not very smart. Gotta work on that.” Which was true, and hopefully also enough. It would be weird if she went on any more about it, right? Maybe there would have been advantages to being raised in a household where people apologized regularly….

“That’s a good question,” she said when he offered his take on the issue of how perception might affect ability to transfigure something. “Want to test it out?”

16 Mara Morales ...and then inevitably explode and burn out, if we go back to science. 1472 0 5

Quincy Wright

June 27, 2020 3:09 PM

Eh, supernovas are cool. by Quincy Wright

Quincy nodded, pleased and impressed by Mara's reaction. It was good of her to accept his response in stride and not something he'd seen many people do. Plus, he really did like talking to her and she was smart, so that was cool.

"Yes, I really do," he said, grinning his gap toothed smile at her when she asked if they'd like to test it out. "Do you want to go first?" It was the first time he would have done anything like this and he'd rather have as much information as he could before giving it a shot. "Limits the variables if I have more information," he added.

He took a moment to consider his chart and filled in a few more boxes. Then he looked at his cup a little harder. "We'll have to do it twice," he decided. "Once with colors that you would say are close or based on each other and once with colors I would." He looked around the room, figuring something that he could look at to see the colors would be easier for both of them. Then he remembered that he had a colorwheel in his bag for other homework purposes. He retrieved it and pointed to two different swatches, both of which were dark, murky yellowish. Probably. The first was labeled "lime" and the second "orange." He knew the fruits enough to know that other people did not think these were the same at all. "Those are about the same to me," he told her, wondering if there was much common between them for her. Then he pointed to the one in between, "lemon," and one further down labeled "grape." "Those aren't the same at all," he told her. Are they close for you? Or . . . you said blue and purple or green, right?" He looked closer, finding "sky" and "lime." "Those are about as dissimilar as you can get," he said, leaning towards her to show her, and looking up to confirm what his own eyes said was impossible. "What do you want to do?"

OOC - Color references found here

22 Quincy Wright Eh, supernovas are cool. 1495 0 5