Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
June 05, 2020 11:28 AM
Drink up, my pretties. [Beginners] by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
"Hello, class," Professor Brooding-Hawthorne said, greeting her students as they arrived. Mary was a short woman, just over five foot tall, but her tall pointed hat more than made up for it. Today's choice was a wide-brimmed hat of green velvet to compliment her green gown, with ivory buttons on her wrists and up the bodice, to a high neck of purple crepe fabric. The dress was floor length, as most of her clothing was, and Mary looked a bit like a doll. The effect had been stronger when her hair had also been floor length, but she'd cut it to her shoulders shortly before the adoption of Zeus, and now that she had him she was very glad she had gone short. Finding time to sleep was hard enough (albeit getting easier), as was evidenced by the fading black circles under Mary's eyes, but finding time to wash several feet of hair would've been impossible.She grinned as the students paused, taking in the scene around them. The classroom had been transformed into a maze of sorts, or an obstacle course, with several starting points placed along the side of the room nearest the students, enough for all of them to work in only pairs or triads to get through it. At each one, a table with six bottles of potion was set up and at the opposite end of the room, past a set of doors closed with spring power, a heavy wooden block the size of a bookcase, and a very tiny doorway, was another table with two bottles of potion: the antidote.
"Today's class will give you all the opportunity to try out some potions, which is important for taking notes properly. We've been studying each of these potions - Strengthening Solution, Exstimulo, and Shrinking Solution - and now it's time you get to study them firsthand. As you know, the strengthening solution will grant the drinker immense, superhuman strength, exstimulo will grant the drinker increased spell power, and the shrinking solution will shrink the drinker to just a bit larger than a mouse. I want you to pair off, we may need one group of three, and pick a starting point. You can leave your belongings in the corner, except your wand, please."
Professor Brooding-Hawthorne waited for the students to get organized before continuing. "Each obstacle will require the effects of a different potion, and you will both need to take all of them to get through. I want you to try the activity without the potion first, and then drink the potion and try again. First, use the Strengthening Solution and take turns holding open these very heavy doors for each other to get through. Then, you'll use Exstimulo to improve your levitation charms and lift the heavy block for each other. Note that you should not try lifting this because you may have increased strength but you certainly won't have increased balance and I'll not have anyone dropping a block on their classmates. Finally, you'll shrink yourself down to fit through the small door at the end. When you get there, I will pipette antidote on to each of you to clear the last of these potions and then you can drink the rest to ensure you're fully cleared. I will be checking to make sure you all do so, so don't try to go leaving the classroom under the effects of these potions."
She looked around, ready to answer questions, interested to see whether anyone would ask about safety. She had, of course, planned for the risks, and the spring loaded doors had charms to detect whether there was anyone in between them before they would close, the large block the same, and the small door was not really a risk unless Mary started flinging pipettes full of antidote on students halfway through, and that wasn't going to happen.
When she was satisfied everyone understood what was to be done, she gestured for them to begin. "Please let me know if you need anything from me. When you are all done and antidoted... antidote . . . when you have received the antidote, I want you to get together with your partner and take notes. You'll hand those in at the end of class and I'll give them back to you next time so you have them for a paper you'll be turning in in two weeks. Go ahead and get started!"
OOC - Welcome to Beginners potions! The potions described can be found here, here, and here, and you can be assured that Mary will not let anyone get terribly squished or something. She brewed them herself, so they will all work as advertised. If you need her, please tag her, and otherwise have lots of fun. Feel free to godmod Mary pipetting antidote on to your student at the end of the obstacle course. Remember that posts will be awarded points based on creativity and interactivity, not just how well students do with each task. All posts should be at least 200 words! Have lots of fun.
Subthreads: You think I'm pretty? by Bonabelle Row with Graham Osbrook
Will drink in exchange for hat feels by Theo Spurn with Mary Brooding-Hawthorne, Josephine Clyde
Somehow I don't think this is going to be my favorite class ( Tag Val) by Lavender Brockert with Valentine Duell
As long as it's not milk in the looking-glass house (question for Professor B-H). by Mara Morales with Mary Brooding-Hawthorne, Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Hat feels by Theo Spurn
22
Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Drink up, my pretties. [Beginners]
1424
Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
1
5
Bonabelle Row
June 06, 2020 5:46 PM
You think I'm pretty? by Bonabelle Row
Bonny liked potions. The professor was lovely and pretty and the topic was generally practical enough that Bonny could see how it would apply to her daily life right off the bat. Also, if she read up enough on it and did the legwork, she could usually get a pretty good brew. It was more mechanical than charms or something, and that was helpful. Of course, that wasn't to say she always got it right, but still. It was exciting, then, when the opportunity to try a properly brewed potion came up. Then, very quickly, it was not exciting.As the students set their things down, Bonny looked around, more than a bit terrified. She wanted to work with Val for this if she could, but she also knew that there were lots of students in here and the odds of getting what she wanted were small, especially when what she wanted was the company of someone who was wildly more social than she was.
Finally, everyone had a spot and Val was working with a girl from their year who was not Bonny, which was fine, but it did leave Bonny to work with someone else. She hadn't really gotten to know anybody yet, except Quincy, who was in her House, and Valentine. So she was stuck with it, but that would be fine. Right? Bonny listened to the last of the instructions with a growing sense of nausea. This was going to go horribly, she was sure of it. But she would learn a lot, that much was true for sure. Not that it was strictly encouraging. She did wonder a bit about how the magic behind shrinking solutions worked, as she was pretty sure the potion would bring her clothes - including the massive purple hairbow she wore - with her. But Bonny was bright, and brave, and tried to make herself believe it as she faced her partner.
"Hi," she said, not even getting to a smile. "I'm Bonny. You're . . . definitely not going to get me smashed to bits today, right?" she confirmed hesitantly.
22
Bonabelle Row
You think I'm pretty?
1488
0
5
Theo Spurn
June 07, 2020 1:36 AM
Will drink in exchange for hat feels by Theo Spurn
It was a good hat. Such a good hat. Professor Brooding ranked high on the softometre in spite of how yuck many of the textures in this room were. She was good about not forcing Theo to touch things he disliked and she had kept that promise for a whole year without yelling or snapping or trying to change gears without talking it through. That made potions neutral and safe, and the hats and dresses tipped it over into good. He liked the hat.This meant he was looking and listening when she started talking. Admittedly, he was thinking about the hat quite a lot but in a lot of other classes he had been thinking about how Anya was not in his class now but how Wally and Stanley were instead of listening to the lecture anyway.
Also, the classroom was different today.
He loved her hat and he missed Anya. They would playing adventures! That would be great because Wally and Stanley would love it and sad because Anya would have loved it and she was not here. They had to get to the end, using different potions. He wondered if he could touch the hat for completing the adventure? It sounded like he would be teeny tiny Mouse Theo at that point and he giggled happily at that thought. But then Professor Brooding talked about pipetting them and he frowned.
"Is it sticky?" he asked, remembering to raise his hand about halfway through his question, "Or will we be soggy? I do not want to be sticky or soggy but I do very much want to be a mouse-sized Theo that gets to run around on your hat pretending the whole world is made of velvet because I have always dreamed of a whole world made of velvet and nice feels and this might be the closest I can get for a long time and so I would like that and to not be sticky please," he requested.
13
Theo Spurn
Will drink in exchange for hat feels
1476
0
5
Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
June 07, 2020 1:08 PM
O--Oh. by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
First Mary smiled, nodding to Theo to give him the go ahead to ask his question, although he was already doing so anyway. That was just fine by Mary. It had always seemed a bit odd to her to spend years teaching kids to not talk until they were called upon and then throw them out into their adult lives and watch people laugh at them in business meetings for it. Politeness was important but students were still people.Theo's question made lots of sense and she berated herself internally for not having considered this before. However, it quickly became... Less normal? Which was still fine, but did throw her off a bit. She was used to Anya sitting on the tables and students having their quirks in general, but talking about himself in third person and wanting to be in velvet hat world was less expected. Also, she didn't think too terribly much about her hat once it was on her head, except to occasionally straighten it (although it was usually crooked anyway), and she'd forgotten it was velvet. She reached a hand up to touch it, instinctively reacting to the reminder.
"It will be a bit like water," she said first, answering the easy part of his question. "And since it will work quickly, it will mostly just feel like a drop of water on your head would now. Then you'll drink the rest, and this one doesn't taste bad."
For the span of a heartbeat, she considered the rest of his question. It was unusual, but it wasn't particularly odd, and certainly not harmful. The only reason to say no was because she was surprised and that was not a good reason. Plus, there was plenty to learn. "If you stand on it, please be careful. Dirty shoes and stomping feet aren't good for velvet brims, although I can certainly fix it up afterwards if necessary," she began, "but sure, you can touch it when you're small. Might be a good learning experience to feel familiar textures from a different size. Just let me know if that's what you'd like when I come by to give you the antidote - wave your hands or point to your head or something - and I'll put it down for you."
She considered Theo for a moment, impressed by his confidence. "And five points to Pecari, both for speaking up and advocating for yourself, and for raising your hand," she smiled.
22
Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
O--Oh.
1424
0
5
Lavender Brockert
June 08, 2020 1:12 PM
Somehow I don't think this is going to be my favorite class ( Tag Val) by Lavender Brockert
As Lavender walked into potions and saw the set-up, she grimaced. What looked to be an obstacle course was not her idea of a good time. The Crotalus had heard about the ones that her siblings and cousins had had to do for the Challenges and it was not something she was looking forward to doing herself. And now, she was going to have to probably do two during her Sonora career. One when it was her turn to do the Challenges and one now.And Lavender had not been expecting to do this so soon. She was not looking forward to doing it later, but she was unprepared to do it now . Just because she had grown up with a bunch of boys did not mean that the first year was the sort of girl who liked things that involved athletics. And obstacle courses tended to. Lavender would have to be strong and/or fast and she was not those things.
However, she felt some relief when Professor Brooding-Hawthorne explained today's activity. While the Crotalus would have preferred sitting still and brewing a potion even if it meant yucky things were involved, at least if they were taking a Strengthening Solution, it meant she'd be, well, stronger. Able to lift things. That meant Lavender wouldn't make a fool of herself. As for magical ability, she wasn't Kira, but she was just fine, thank you very much.
And at least it wasn't a competition. Competition added a more stressful element to anything. It was one thing to play a friendly game with people you knew and liked, it was quite another to be up against classmates you didn't know. One had to worry about how well they stacked up against everyone else, people would be judged as superior to others and if you were the worst....well, people might look down on you and you wouldn't have any friends. You'd be a laughingstock and possibly tormented until the day you left Sonora. Not to mention worries about if you would let any potential teammates down and them hating you for it. That would seriously impede Lavender's main goal at Sonora which was to make a really close female best friend.
Theo's question, and Professor Brooding-Hawthorne's response brought another issue to mind. He had just gotten points for his house for "advocating for himself". That was something Lavender was personally unlikely to do. She'd always had people-or house elves-to solve her problems for her. That the professor would give points for such a thing gave the Crotalus an idea of what kind of person Professor Brooding-Hawthorne liked, and Lavender was not that kind of person. Although she certainly would raise her hand if she had anything to say. Which was unlikely.
So between that and the fact that the activity today had the makings of things she normally would see as more humiliating than fun if she wasn't being given potions to make herself acceptable in areas she sucked at, Lavender didn't think Potions was going to go well for her. She felt she could handle brewing, but this Professor Brooding-Hawthorne was unlikely to vote for her for prefect, for instance. Of course, Wally was even shyer than Lavender but there was his roommate.
Now it was time to pick a partner. Today, Lavender had sat next to the Teppenpaw girl. (Teppenpaw. Girl. Friend potential-Fairly High.) She turned to her classmate and asked. "Will you work with me?"
11
Lavender Brockert
Somehow I don't think this is going to be my favorite class ( Tag Val)
1504
0
5
Valentine Duell
June 08, 2020 6:32 PM
This will be great! by Valentine Duell
Valentine's eyes went wide as she walked into the potions classroom. It looked like... well, something exciting! This apparently wasn't going to be a traditional potions class. Which was great and no-so-great at the same time. New things were always exciting and interesting to try, even if they turned out to be not great in the end. However, one of the best things about a normal potions class was working with Bonny and playing 'mad scientists' while they were brewing things. Bonny was an awesome scientist and Val was having fun adding the 'mad' part to it. Her maniacal cackle had really improved since she had started this class. She got to practice whenever the bubbly potion in the cauldron did the poofing thing.This looked a bit like an obstacle course. She moved around the room a little to see it from different angles and as such was farther away from the door when the professor started talking. Ooo... this did sound like fun, they were going to play with superpowers! She stowed her things in the corner and took her wand in hand as instructed.
She was tempted to partner with Bonny, but was convinced that she had fully instructed her friend on how to make friends and it was time to let her try. Plus, Val wanted the chance to meet some of the other girls. It seemed like she had been talking with a lot of the boys lately. It was true that the ratio favored them, but that was no excuse. So she had moved into position near the girl that had been sorted into Crotalus (Mama's house!) and was about to ask her to partner, when the other girl beat her to it!
"Yes!" Val said enthusiastically with a wide smile. "I was going to ask you the same thing. You're Lavender, right?" Although they hadn't directly interacted much, Val had tried to learn all the names she could, and she was pretty sure this girl was named Lavender. Confirmation would be good though. Just to make sure they were on equal footing, without making it look to obvious that she was feeding probably Lavender her own name she continued, "You can just call me Val. Valentine can be a lot to say all the time."
She indicated the potions and their first obstacle, "Do you want to get superpowers first?"
2
Valentine Duell
This will be great!
1490
0
5
Graham Osbrook
June 10, 2020 9:29 PM
Why wouldn't she? by Graham Osbrook
Graham had not, of course, ever been allowed to openly do magic at home. That was illegal, and his parents were respectable, law-abiding people. He had, however, spent a large portion of his childhood wandering around the offices of the company his family owned, and sometimes, to keep him occupied, he had been allowed to ‘assist’ the potioneer who blended their specialty inks – the inks that changed color as they dried, or would flash colors for a time on the page, or were instant-drying or easy-removed or permanent, or whatever else someone thought was marketable. He had been allowed to fetch ingredients from the shelves, hand them over as needed, and in the last year, had even been allowed to do a little chopping and slicing, sometimes, much to Claire’s jealous irritation.As a result of all of this, Potions was the class where Graham had instantly felt the most comfortable. Part of it was that Professor Brooding-Hawthorne simply seemed like a gentle, comforting person – he suspected it was a bit impossible to regard her as intimidating – but part of it was also that he felt he had a degree of extra-preparedness here, even though he had most certainly not read every word of every textbook before coming to school. He had read some of all, but all of none, and felt this a bit more acutely in some of his other classes. In Potions, though, he knew he had contributed in the past to brews that hadn’t gone horribly wrong, so why should he expect those he worked on now to go too wrong to fix?
His usual sense of assurance, however, went out the window as he walked into the Potions room one day and found the lab completely changed. His eyebrows lifted in an expression of polite puzzlement as he studied the layout, then glanced at Professor Brooding-Hawthorne, his brown eyes also politely puzzled, if not yet alarmed. Were they going to brew potions as they made their way through a maze, he wondered? That could be fun.
That was not, however, the fun they were going to have today. His eyebrows raised again at the revelation that instead, they would actually drink potions today – and not just any potions, either. Shrinking was something he could take or leave, but the other two - ! Especially the Exstimulo potion….
His eyes slipped out of focus for a moment as his mind wandered to daydreams. He had never, of course, seen any real displays of substantial magical power. He had never been anywhere where such things happened. He did, however, like to read, and he had read many books about the things wizards could really do, or had once been able to do. He had also read that much of that knowledge had been lost over the centuries, and the rest of those things were typically rather illegal. They did not live in an age where things like that happened anymore, which was a good thing on the whole. Still, though…to be able to do more than the little parlor tricks they learned in class, to think about maybe, if he drank that potion when he was an adult, being able to do things like those in his books, even if he didn’t actually do them….
He was drawn out of his fantasies by a girl – one of the Aladrens, he recognized, one who had been Sorted with him at the beginning of the year.
“Huh? Oh – no,” he said. “Definitely not. I’m Graham. Nice to meet you. I guess we’re going to work together, then?”
16
Graham Osbrook
Why wouldn't she?
1498
0
5
Bonabelle Row
June 10, 2020 9:53 PM
I mean . . . *gestures at self* by Bonabelle Row
Bonny stifled a grimace, feeling sure she had just interrupted her classmate thinking about something more interesting than herself. "Nice to meet you, too," she murmured back. "We don't have to if you don't want to," she added, not sure how to respond to him 'guessing' they were working together. She looked around the room to see whether there were any other immediately available options for him and frowned, finding none. "I'm not sure who else . . .?"Once partnership was decided, Bonny turned back to the course, feeling foolish. She could get a levitation charm down just fine, and she was sure the other potions would work to make each of the tasks possible, but it just felt so . . . blunt. Directness and straightforwardness were not the areas where Bonny's expertise really came out and she felt like a thinly honed blade being used to try to smash potatoes or something; she just wasn't the right tool for the job.
Which was odd, because brute force rarely worked in the real world. She wondered at the subtext of a lesson like this, then. What was she meant to be learning other than that potions brewed by expert potions-masters worked? She supposed she'd be learning about the effects of each of them, what it felt like to be under the influence of various potions, etc., but that was about it. Perhaps it would be helpful in identifying whether she'd been poisoned or something at some future date? That was a horrifying idea, and one that seemed more suited to Defence Against the Dark Arts class.
"Do you want to go first?" she asked Graham. "Or do you want me to?"
22
Bonabelle Row
I mean . . . *gestures at self*
1488
0
5
Josephine Clyde
June 11, 2020 8:27 AM
Will partner up to help with hat quest by Josephine Clyde
Potions. It wasn’t difficult and it wasn’t easy. If she had to place the classes on a scale Charms would be the easiest and Transfiguration the hardest with Potions falling somewhere in between, but definitely closer to the Charms side than the other. Josie didn’t feel one or the other about it, but maybe it was because Jezebel had been so helpful to her last year. She wished the Crotalus were here today, but now that Jezebel was a third year it meant they wouldn’t share any classes for at least another year. It was just as well, she’d just have to treat it as a chance to see if she could still do something without help from someone older. Actually, now she was the older one, but hopefully none of the first years would ask her for help. Yeah! She’d just have to hope that Professor Brooding-Hawthorne had chosen a sort of solo mission as today’s lesson. It would be a perfectly perfect opportunity to start making some progress in the class. Of course all that hope deflated once she stepped into the classroom.It looked like a huge obstacle course and as she listened to the professor’s instructions her hope deflated more. Group work, oh no. She looked around the room with quick, nervous eyes and latched onto Theo. After practically throwing her bag into the corner Josie almost ran over to Theo, but she stopped short as he asked the professor a question. A typical Theo question related to the Texture Triangle, but when Professor Brooding-Hawking responded it seemed like they’d entered into a conversation and she felt terribly out of place. When would be a good time to interrupt? No time was a good time to interrupt, but still…she needed to trap Theo before an unsuspecting and innocent first year wrongly asked her to be their partner. Their conversation continued and the despair inside of her grew.
Josie sat at the nearest desk and pondered the current situation. Maybe she could jump in with a funny remark? No, that was silly and still rude. If she waited until the end, which was the most polite thing to do, a first year might try to snag her and that was just not an option. Maybe she could just go and awkwardly stand next to him until they noticed her? No, that was so much worse than interrupting. Then Professor Brooding-Hawking was awarding Theo house points and that seemed as good a place as any to cut in. She rushed to his side and tapped his shoulder.
“Theo, hi, do you have a partner yet? Would you like to be mine?”
Please say yes. Please say yes. Please say yes.
44
Josephine Clyde
Will partner up to help with hat quest
1477
0
5
Theo Spurn
June 14, 2020 7:45 PM
Yasssss by Theo Spurn
"I want to!" Theo assured her. He could try to use the signals she was suggesting, but he did not want there to be any room for doubt here. "I will definitely want to and I will take my shoes off," -why would anyone wear shoes when they could feel the velvet grass between their toes?- "and be careful," he promised. Theo may have seemed like a bargey and chaotic person in general but that was usually down to volume, thought processes and self-organisation. Or issues such as touching without asking. However, he was usually physically very careful. He did not want to spatter ink on things he liked. He did not want to grab something that turned out to feel All Wrong. He wanted to avoid the bad feels and appreciate and preserve the soft and gentle feels.He got points! He bounced in his seat and beamed at Professor Brooding. This was turning into the best day ever! And Josie! Josie wanted to be his partner! This was going to be awesome!
"Yes!" he beamed enthusiastically, and then it caught up that she had actually asked if he had a partner. "I have yooou!" he added, throwing an arm around her. She was not as soft as the hat would be but she was his friend and that was a good texture.
"Let's go get me hat feels!" he beamed, "What do we do first?" he clarified.
13
Theo Spurn
Yasssss
1476
0
5
Graham Osbrook
June 18, 2020 7:48 PM
You look fine to me. by Graham Osbrook
Graham flushed as he realized he had probably just been rude, even if by accident. Mom said that it didn’t necessarily matter if he meant to do something or not, only that he did it. This made the thought of life really rather exhausting if one thought about it too long – how was he supposed to fathom what might come across in this way or that to any other random person who wasn’t him and whose thoughts he therefore had no possible way to know? – but the trick, he guessed, was to somehow think about it exactly the right amount: not too much, not too little.“No, it’s fine,” he said. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it that way. Let’s work together.”
And hopefully I can keep my foot out of my mouth for the rest of class, he thought dryly.
“I’m okay with going first,” he said when she offered him the choice. He tried to sound merely confident and agreeable, to hide that he was really quite eager to find out what these potions felt like. He wasn’t sure why he did this. It was just what felt natural to him, somehow: it was something like curiosity about who his mother worked for, or disagreement with his parents’ decisions. Clearly there was nothing wrong with wanting to know how potions felt, since their professor was feeding them the things, but….
“Six bottles,” he observed. “I guess if we each put one in each pocket, and we drink one now, then we won’t have to worry about them breaking while we’re transporting them. Well, worry less, anyway,” he qualified, because it was kind of impossible to be sure something wouldn’t break. He would feel more secure if he could wrap the bottles up very securely in a lot of cloth before he put them in his pockets. “Hopefully she enchanted them not to break, but I don’t want to knock them together anyway.” Accordingly, he put one of the Exstimulo bottles in his right hand robe pocket and a Shrinking Solution in the left. Then he picked up one of the Strengthening Solution bottles, uncorked it, hesitated for a few seconds, and then downed it.
He made a slight face once it was down. “It’s not too bad,” he reported. “It’s not great, but it’s not too bad. I’m not sure how I know if it worked, though.” What did strength feel like? He had never consciously thought about it, that he could recall. It was something he was usually aware of after he did something that made him feel strong or weak, not when he did it. He looked at Bonny. “Do you want me to try the door first, or you take the potion and see if you feel anything?” he asked.
16
Graham Osbrook
You look fine to me.
1498
0
5
Mara Morales
June 19, 2020 10:37 AM
As long as it's not milk in the looking-glass house (question for Professor B-H). by Mara Morales
Professor Brooding-Hawthorne was, Mara thought, kind of a hoot to have as a teacher. For one thing, even without her Rapunzel hair, there was never any telling what she would look like next: today, it was easy to imagine her as a holiday edition of one of those little Dollar Tree porcelain figurines, the ones that really were surprisingly nice for what they were. Even more interesting, though, were the changes someone (she assumed Professor Brooding-Hawthorne) had made to the room. This looked like an interesting way to pass a class period….Mara listened intently as they were given their directions. It would, she thought, have been more fun had they, like, gone out into the Labyrinth and had to figure out which potion to use for which obstacle, but maybe that would be part of their exams instead. Maybe better to start slow, especially for the first years.
In any case, it was still an interesting lesson. It was pretty rare that they got to drink potions, and even rarer that the potions they got to drink were, well, particularly interesting. The existence of Pepperup Potion was a fabulous thing, she was completely willing to admit that, but ‘cold medicine that makes your ears smoke’ was not as…cool as potions to increase strength or power, or even make a body go Alice in Wonderland and shrink.
She had taken notes on all these potions in class while they had studied them, of course, and so she nodded to the idea that this might improve their notes. She understood this idea; her dad had noticed her reading books about how to make make-up the year before last, and had told her to try making a few things, whereupon she had discovered that it was all much less straightforward than it seemed at first blush (though Dad had been impressed she had managed as well as she did; her mother criticized her for it on a regular basis, but she thought stubbornness was not necessarily an entirely negative trait). Experience added a certain sharpness to knowledge, made it stick a bit better. She was sorry, though, to hear that she couldn’t have anything but her wand. It would be better to take notes while she felt the effects of the potion; memories were just the recollection of the last time one had remembered something, not of the event itself, or so she had read once….
She raised her hand. “Should we keep our wands in our pockets when we use the shrinking potion, or throw them through the little door before we go through?” she asked, wondering. She had to assume that the potion would shrink their clothes, too, because it would be kinda bad if students were streaking around the classroom even in miniature form, or if someone didn’t grow back to normal height at the exact correct position inside their robes if the robes were too big, but robes weren’t magical objects. Wands, on the other hand, were supposed to be magic in their own right; even the wood wasn’t quite normal. She was vaguely curious what the result of mixing media might be, but not curious enough to happily risk an explosion just on the off chance that this was something so obvious to the wizard-born people that it was just assumed she should know it. Explosions were usually bad.
Once she had her answer, she looked around for a partner or pair of partners and caught someone’s eye. “Want to tackle this together?” she asked, though she wasn’t entirely sure why she needed a partner at all. If she was artificially gifted, however temporarily, with the powers needed to open the door, levitate the block, and get through the door, then it would be quicker to just do it herself. Of course, it was usually quicker to do most things herself, in her experience, so she supposed she was supposed to drag along one of the slower students, the way it had always been in school. Using the students who could get stuff done as unpaid labor to help the rest of the class get through was, it seemed, one of those customs that transcended borders, even if she hadn’t specifically been assigned someone this time.
16
Mara Morales
As long as it's not milk in the looking-glass house (question for Professor B-H).
1472
Mara Morales
0
5
Lavender Brockert
June 20, 2020 2:47 PM
I hope so. by Lavender Brockert
Lavender beamed when Valentine said yes and that she had been about to ask the Crotalus the same thing. It made her forget for now about her general worries about whether or not Professor Brooding-Hawthorne was going to like her. Having her classmates like her was more important than having professors like her, which had been more Ivy's thing. Her older sister had lamented about thinking the staff at Sonora disliked her because she hadn't gotten prefect.She just hoped Valentine actually would like her. Right now, before they'd really ever talked, the Teppenpaw might be willing to work with her but that did not mean Lavender would not screw things up. Especially if she did not do well on the set task. She did not want to be judged for not being good at something, though surely the potions would help with that. It's just that the Strengthening Solution was not starting from a great place. Lavender figured that potions would have to start from what natural ability a person had. So, even though she would have more strength than she had normally, she would still have less than people who were naturally strong because the potion would have given them extra strength as well. Ditto the one that strengthened spell power. Lavender was starting from a much better place there but it would make her exceptional. However, the same potion would make her cousin Kira, who was already more than exceptionally magically powerful, beyond what the first year could even imagine.
Then again, Valentine was a Teppenpaw so she might be more forgiving than someone in a different house. However, Lavender might still screw up and say something stupid. Either with regards to the lesson or just something socially....awkward and unacceptable. Something that would make Valentine think badly of her. That would make her not want to be friends.
"Nice to meet you, Val. I'm Lavender." She responded, using the offered nickname. The Crotalus knew her name might be a mouthful too, but she didn't want it to be shortened. She liked her name, it was like a pretty fairy princess name. The only shortened form she could think of was Lav, and that was ugly. But if Val wanted to be called by a shortened form of her name, that was her prerogative.
"Sure." Lavender replied. She supposed it would be nice to find out what it was like to be strong. She took the potion and drank.
11
Lavender Brockert
I hope so.
1504
0
5
Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
June 21, 2020 2:43 PM
Today is full of hard questions. by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Mary hadn't really thought too much of whether Shrinking Solution would shrink wands. It hadn't come up before, probably because people usually shrunk other things rather than themselves, and if they did shrink themselves, they would often drop their wand before completing the shrink and thus not get to see whether it shrank their wand. Considering the dangers of applying magic to wands, however, it wasn't something she was about to recommend they try. Besides, students probably would have had their wands in their hands, and then dropped them, so that would be no problem. Except that now it was."That is a great question, Ms. Morales," Mary said, raising her voice in that Hey, all of you need to know this bit way. "Yes, go ahead and slide your wand through before you go. Most often, people would have dropped them, but you're right, it could be a problem if your wand doesn't shrink and rips through your robes, or else if it does shrink and . . . well, I'm not quite sure what would happen if that somehow worked out. Best slide them through before you go. Take five points to Aladren for your strength of foresight."
Mary liked to give students points. It was the best. It was an easy way for her to tangibly take a stand on what mattered and what didn't. Of course, she couldn't just give them away willy nilly. She did have the advantage of a class where folks often lost points because they were being foolish and being foolish in a potions lab was dangerous. Perhaps it balanced out.
22
Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Today is full of hard questions.
1424
0
5
Bonabelle Row
June 21, 2020 3:02 PM
Oh. Thank you. by Bonabelle Row
Bonny relaxed some, comforted by her classmate's reassurance, however awkward it was to need. In any case, it meant he was either very nice and hadn't meant to make her feel bad by being honest, or very nice and hadn't meant it to come out the way it had in the first place. Either way was fine by Bonny, who had never been very good at being nice. She was relieved, almost enough to flutter about it, when Graham said he'd go first. The best way to get ready for anything was to see someone else do it. She'd copied down templates and formats from letters she'd seen other people write in order to write like an adult better, and that was just one example. Experience, unfortunately, wasn't something that could be learned from a book. It could only be learned hands-on. Of course, it could be a little bit learned by watching other people do something hands-on, and that was perfectly suited to Bonny's preferences. Not that Graham going first would mean he got far ahead, as every task required at least two people to do.She was surprised by his consideration of how best to transport the bottles. She was about to say that she assumed the professor charmed them not to break when Graham acknowledged exactly that fact. One dark eyebrow arched at him; Bonny was pleasantly surprised to find that she wasn't the only ones to think such things through, as even Quincy seemed likely to have broken the bottles and Valentine, lovely as she was, was bound to as well. "That's . . . really smart," she admitted, taking the two bottles she'd need next and pocketing them in separate pockets. She was glad the shrinking one was last, as she would hate to carry even a small vial if she was even smaller. "I hope we can get the corks out with super strength. Maybe best to use a charm then," she considered, almost more to herself than anything.
Graham took the first potion and Bonny watched anxiously, waiting to see . . . what? What should she be looking out for? It was safe to assume (probably) that these potions were made well, so that wasn't a concern. Shy of an allergic reaction, there wasn't much to be looking for, she thought. "I'll take it first," she suggested. "That way if you get stuck or if something goes wrong and you need help, I'll actually be able to help."
She had a fleeting thought that it would be sort of fun to see whether they could pick each other up, but even with massive strength, that would require a degree of closeness she wasn't sure she wanted to suggest to her classmate. Following suit, she took the potion and felt exactly the same. It was an odd feeling, and she nodded, both to show that she was done and ready, and that she agreed with Graham's assessment of the potion's taste.
Rolling her shoulders, Bonny took a step towards the closed door and realised she felt clumsy almost. Like she was moving weightlessly across the floor, with little real idea of where each little part of her body was. "Oof," she grunted, putting a hand out to stable herself and snapping one of the legs off the table where the potion had been by pushing too hard on the top of it. Well, guess it was working. She scowled. "I can see why people don't just do this all the time," she grimaced. "Let's open this door."
22
Bonabelle Row
Oh. Thank you.
1488
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
June 22, 2020 12:01 AM
Every day is by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
CW - ableist microaggressionsPotions was probably Sadie’s least favourite class. It was just gross way too often. Whilst the range of things the potions could do was impressive, she wasn’t sure she was going to be particularly keen to ever drink any of them given that she knew what went into them.
Unfortunately, that seemed to be precisely what Professor Brooding-Hawthorne had in mind for the day. And not just one. They were going to have to drink three different potions? Sadie was not the best at memorising all the weird magical words and ingredients, so on the plus side she had no idea what was in any of these. On the downside, she had no idea what was in any of these. Well, that wasn’t strictly true. It was basically guaranteed that every potion had something totally gross in it.
She was pretty sure she was not at all on the wavelength of any of this class not only from the material being set but also the questions. Theo being weird and asking about touching stuff was kind of… routine by now, even if she would never quite give it the label of ‘normal’. But Professor Brooding-Hawthorne gave him points for basically nothing, as far as Sadie could see. Or for things that were just basic things they all remembered to do like raising their hands (or would have remembered, in Sadie’s case, as she didn’t tend to answer questions in class). Mara’s points were more deserved. What she’d asked was smart. The kind of thing Sadie wouldn’t have thought of.
She was surprised when Mara caught her eye and asked about being partners. Sadie actually gave the clear non-verbal equivalent of ‘Who, me?’ by checking over her shoulder. But no, Mara really was talking to her. Presumably she’d just been… nearest, or most available. There were certainly no active qualities about Sadie that she thought someone like Mara would seek out. She was starting to wonder whether she had any particular qualities at all. Given that she never really spoke up in class, so she didn’t get house points, or labels like ‘strength of foresight.’ She got middling grades, and tended to fade into the background. Their year group had a few people like that. Her, Mab and Alexander. And then a lot of people who commanded attention in very different ways to each other. It made it easier to be overlooked. Jessica was the only person who ever really seemed to react to Sadie like she was really physically present instead of just a piece of moving wallpaper (and given that that existed here, she was even less remarkable for that quality).
“Sure, that’d be nice,” Sadie smiled, really meaning it. Mara seemed cool and confident. Admittedly, those were qualities that Sadie found a mixture of intimidating and enviable, but Mara was clearly… capable. Sadie just had to hope she didn’t mind having someone like her along for the ride. “Good job on the house points,” she added, trying to be friendly.
13
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Every day is
1480
0
5
Mara Morales
June 22, 2020 4:01 PM
My mom says the best solution is to just not ask much. by Mara Morales
Strength of foresight. That was a fun way to put it. She nodded once in acknowledgement of the House points, turning her wand over in her hand and studying it for a moment.She was, she guessed, more comfortable with the thing than she had once been. It had been a year. It was natural, now, to pick it up every morning, to reach for it when she needed to do certain tasks – both some she had been taught to do in class, and others she had taught herself out of her own and Jessica’s textbooks. It felt comfortable in her hand, now, when she waved it in classes (she blamed Professor Wright’s endless tedious beginning-of-the-year drills for this; just because something wasn’t fun didn’t, after all, mean it wasn’t useful). Still, though…even after all that, it still seemed bizarre to her that they would be expected to just…drop the thing, and not expect something bad to happen. Which made her think that on some level, she’d been regarding the thing as the equivalent of a loaded gun all this time – or at least some of the time?
Weapons were a matter of course at home; Mara thought that if anything, she and her sisters might be unusual in not having regular personal contact with them. Their father had no interest in hunting (or, more realistically, in entering politics and therefore being required to play dress-up – pretending to be a Good Ole Boy, shooting rifles at nothing in particular over the backs of pickup trucks while wearing plaid and a cowboy hat – for campaign ads in which everyone who actually knew him would think he looked very, very stupid), so the only guns around belonged to Mrs. H. and sometimes security, particularly Jessica’s driver, Robert. Those were still enough, though, that Mara had learned about how she should never, ever touch them and how they were dangerous and how if she ever did have to pick one up for some reason, to never, ever point it at someone unless she actually intended to hurt that person, no matter how sure she was that it wasn’t loaded. Dropping guns was, she had gathered, in the same category of ‘never, ever’s as touching and pointing; they were supposed to be made in a way these days that dropping wouldn’t make them do anything, but it was better to be cautious. Professor Brooding-Hawthorne, however, didn’t seem to think this was something to worry about here. Perhaps she would ask the other Professor B-H about it; she seemed like a better source for information on exactly how much emphasis should be put on the ‘knife’ bit of a wand’s function as a metaphorical Swiss Army knife.
For now, she put the issue aside in favor of getting on with the task at hand.
She wondered about the wisdom of speaking to Jessica’s little shadow a heartbeat after she actually did it, but it was too late to take it back, and she was sort of curious about the girl. Leonor was more or less their friend; Sadie Chalmers was Jessica’s – or at least Jessica’s lady-in-waiting or something. This was rather remarkable, because aside from the disastrous aberration of her brief relationship with Felipe De Matteo (alias Jerkface, alias McPukeshoes, alias Wimpy Little Word-Mara-Wasn’t-Supposed-To-Know-In-English-Or-Spanish), Jessica had never had friends of her own. Jessica had always lived in something of a cocoon of family and staff, and aforementioned disaster with Wimpy Jerkface McPukeshoes had established conclusively that it was better that Jessica not make any more attempts at playing the butterfly, at least not with anyone fluent enough in English or Spanish to get really cozy with. Her German girls were fine, and Lyssa Fitzgerald – they were working on projects together, and Jessica did fine socially if her interaction with another human had a purpose other than interaction for interaction’s own sake – but as far as Mara could tell (on the basis of admittedly limited evidence), Sadie was a native English speaker…if somewhat peculiarly surprised-looking to be spoken to.
Well, peculiar could be okay, and she started acting more normally quickly. Mara smiled slightly when congratulated on the House points. “Thanks,” she said. “That was kind of a surprise, not gonna lie.” More than once, Mara had tried to figure out the rhyme or reason to the points system, but it didn’t seem to have any – merits were passed out and demerits assigned seemingly on the whim of the teachers and prefects. Logically, this suggested she should not put any importance on the contest aspect of it, but it was hard to re-wire her brain to accept that idea when for twelve years she had been spoon-fed the conflicting idea that the purpose of her existence was to win competitions.
“So. These potions. I took all the notes and read everything in our book in the other lessons, but where I’m from, the only way to get stronger is Zumba classes or that kind of thing, and the only way to shrink involves living on lettuce and protein powder – never saw potions until I came here. Do you know anything off-the-record about them, before we drink them?” she asked, figuring that Sadie most likely did not (Mara couldn’t fathom why a second year of any background would know that, as the potions clearly weren’t trademarked and therefore were unlikely to be anyone’s family business) but also figuring that it couldn’t hurt to check to be sure.
16
Mara Morales
My mom says the best solution is to just not ask much.
1472
0
5
Valentine Duell
June 22, 2020 5:25 PM
It's all in what you make of it by Valentine Duell
Valentine's smile never relaxed for a moment. She had been right! Lavender seemed great so far. Everyone she'd met was really super nice! School was turning out to be fantastic! According to her robes, Lavender was in Crotalus, and Val couldn't restrain herself from asking, "What do you think of Crotalus so far? Mama was in Crotalus when she went here. Papa was a Teppenpaw," She gestured at her own robe's emblem. "I guess I take after him more than Mama." If she had followed in Mama's footsteps a little closer, she and Lavender would have been roommates. That would have been great! She let out a little sigh, oh well, they could still be friends! "Did any of your family go here?" the girl inquired as Lavender picked up the first potion bottle.Something tickled at the back of Val's memory as Lavender drank the potion. What was it? Something about the potions? Something the professor had said? Then it struck her! "Lavender! Stop!" She reached out to her new friend, in an effort to stop her, but it was to late. Lavender had drained the potion. Valentine looked at Lavender with wide-eyes and a look of deep concern on her face. She looked over to the professor and then back at Lavender. Had she noticed? Were they doomed?
"I'm so sorry Lavender," Val had moved close and was almost whispering while keeping a wary eye on the professor, "I distracted you. It's all my fault if we've messed up this lesson already." There was a pleading look in Val's eyes as the flicked quickly to her partner before returning to watch the professor, "Please forgive me. I don't know that Professor Brooding-Hawthorne has noticed yet, so we may still get away with it." Now her eyes narrowed a bit, and darted around the room and to their first obstacle. "Play along and follow my lead," she whispered again, under her breath.
Valentine stood up and marched up to the heavy seat of doors and in a voice, just a little louder than necessary called back to Lavender, "Okay, now it's my turn to try the doors." The statement was followed by a quick wink and Val threw herself against the doors, trying to open them. She did not even budge them. "Nope," she continued in the same, just slightly to loud voice, "I can't move them either. There may have been a bit more emphasis than necessary on some parts of her statement as well.
She moved back closer to Lavender again, "Now that we've tried the doors without the potion, you can give them a try with your super strength." She gave her partner a wink again followed by another whisper, "Hopefully that will work. I'm sorry again for distracting you from trying the doors first before drinking the potion."
2
Valentine Duell
It's all in what you make of it
1490
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
June 23, 2020 11:07 PM
Sounds like something mine might say by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
"They can seem kind of random," Sadie acknowledged, when Mara mentioned being surprised by the house points, her eyes inadvertently sliding to Theo as she said it. She thought Mara's had been well deserved though, and hoped that was obvious. She hoped Mara didn't think Sadie was lumping her in with Theo. She quickly reviewed what she'd said and thought it seemed safe enough - or at least knew from experience that any form of back-pedaling was only going to make it worse.She was startled into a slight giggle when Mara referenced such familiar topics as Zumba and diets.
"Same," she grinned, relieved to have found at least some common ground, although this faded when Mara made her next point. "So, uh, no... I don't know anything useful," she admitted. She probably didn't know as much as Mara did. It seemed like she had been pretty thorough with taking on board the class material. Sadie had tried. After all, she had vast swathes of empty time given that she neither had Instagram nor friends. She just wouldn't have been confident at recalling any of that knowledge if tested right now. She also knew considerably less than Mara about the business world, as Mara's desire for off-the-record information both surprised and confused her. If people knew things about these potions, why wouldn't they share it? The way Mara phrased it made it sound like there might be something sinister to know. On the one hand, that sounded ridiculous. On the other, big pharma was pretty corrupt (maybe? She had definitely heard a lot of people online say so) and maybe this was similar. Also, given that she already didn't really want to drink it, anything that played on that anxiety was easier to believe.
"What kind of thing?" she asked slightly nervously. "You think they might not be safe?" she asked. She didn't think Professor Brooding-Hawthorne would give them something really unsafe. But then, this school thought that a sport where metal balls flew at your head, hundreds of feet above the ground as you zipped about on something that went the same speed as a race car was 'safe' so Sadie could kind of see why there might be room for differing opinions there.
13
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Sounds like something mine might say
1480
0
5
Mara Morales
July 02, 2020 2:57 PM
I'm still not sure it's the best advice though. by Mara Morales
“Huh? Oh, no, nothing like that,” said Mara, her mind not following anything like the same line as Sadie’s. “It’s just weird to me that we’re allowed to make stuff like this, you know? That there aren’t patents, and that the ingredients aren’t trade secrets….” She shrugged. “Or maybe I just grew up around too many people who talk too much about business chemistry,” she said with a grin, playing it off as a joke. “I figured if you were related to a lot of wizards, maybe there’s an off chance you’re in…whatever business this is. Guess not though. What are your elders into?”This seemed like a completely ordinary question to her. In her old world, after all, everyone and his dog liked to brag about being related to so-and-so who held such-and-such rank in this corporation or government office – one of the reasons Mara had always felt the need to work twice as hard and twice as long as everyone else was, of course, because her face and her last name were both Obviously Not White, but also because the only parent whose career she could really refer to at home was a domestic worker. Ever since she had found out she was a witch, Mara had wondered if it had really been a coincidence, that time that Tori Dunn had been attacked by bees right after making some crack on the playground about affirmative action, implying that it was somehow the only way Mara had landed in her old school instead the cesspool that was most of APS….
If she was acting consciously, of course, Mara would never set bees on someone just for insulting her and her mother, because that was morally wrong. If she had somehow done it instinctively, though, she couldn’t say she actually felt that sorry about it. This was not, however, something she thought she ought to investigate too far, much less admit if the implication that it was her parents who talked about business chemistry didn’t sell and Sadie asked her outright what her elders were into and she had to go with the ‘my mom’s a nanny’ line.
She held up the little bottle of Strengthening Solution meant for her to the light and examined it. “I wonder if this would work on the general population?” she said, more thinking out loud than anything. “Like – I read that we’re at least harder to break than most people are, right? So if my mom or my little sister drank this, would they be as superpowered as I’m about to be, or would they just get to where I am now? Or would they get poisoned? I wouldn’t think our systems were that different, since they’re, uh, my mom and my sister, but,” she shrugged again. “I’m stalling I guess. Cheers,” she added, uncorking the bottle, raising it again slightly, and swallowing the contents. She squeezed her eyes shut as she worked to get it down her throat.
“Not too bad,” she reported once it was down. “It feels sort of weird going down, though, and – “
Unconsciously, she turned the little bottle slightly between her fingers, and adjusted her grip on it – only for the miniature neck of it to shatter between her fingers.
“…and I guess the professor was right about not being more coordinated just because we’re stronger,” she observed. She reached for her wand, hesitated, and then made sure to touch it as delicately as possible, not wanting to break it, as she drew it and waved it at the pieces. “Reparo. I’d suggest just putting it down as soon as you drink it, but that might just break it on the table,” she added to Sadie. “It’s hard to feel how much force I’m using.”
16
Mara Morales
I'm still not sure it's the best advice though.
1472
0
5
Graham Osbrook
July 02, 2020 5:30 PM
You're welcome. by Graham Osbrook
Graham couldn’t help a brief smile, pleased, when his partner said that his thought about the bottles was smart. He wouldn’t like to admit it (he could practically hear his mother’s voice in his ear, talking about how it was perfectly natural to be pleased by external validation, but that it was important to good mental health to not develop a dependence on said external validation; Mom could never just let a horklump be a horklump, she had to make it into something, or at least give it to the potential to become something), but he couldn’t deny that it was kind of nice, being told he had said something smart.“Thank you,” he said. Mom was also very keen on good manners, and said that it was actually bad manners to make a show of modesty when complimented – the correct response, she said, was ‘thank you’, and to think of something to compliment the other person back with…. “Super strength could definitely help with corks,” he said, and made a mental note to find a better compliment later.
He jumped back instinctively, eyes widening in surprise, when Bonny put out a hand and the forces involved in catching her balance proved enough to snap the table. His movement was fairly minimal, but he felt as though the floor shook more than it should from this, something that made him wince even though it didn’t damage anything.
“Definitely,” he said fervently when Bonny noted that she could tell why everyone didn’t use this potion all the time. “You’d destroy your own house before you ever got used to it.” Plus, well, how many things did one need that much physical strength for? Wandwork didn’t take that kind of effort, and…well, he supposed it could be good for Quidditch? Except that performance-enhancing potions were banned in all sports and it would be pretty obvious that something was up, if just missing a shot involved the Quaffle moving so fast it knocked over one of the goal posts and fractured the skull of the opposing Keeper….
“Let’s do it,” he agreed again about the door. He walked forward and pushed against the door, which…seemed decidedly normal-door-like to him. He could feel some resistance – the spring was presumably to make the door close itself after him, and thus automatically seek out the closed position – but it was not impossible to overcome it. However, not having the door spring back on him as he went through it as he moved off-center…would that happen? Or were they both currently powerful enough to simply push it open like an ordinary door and walk through? Or were they supposed to each take the door separately? He hadn’t thought of it at the time, but wasn’t sure what Professor Brooding-Hawthorne had meant now that he had the problem in front of him. “What do you think?” he asked Bonny, forgetting to fill in that he meant about what the best strategy would be.
16
Graham Osbrook
You're welcome.
1498
0
5
Theo Spurn
July 04, 2020 7:59 AM
Hat feels by Theo Spurn
Theo was not into super strength. It felt big and rough and punchy which were things he had never seen the appeal of. Although it did feel good to throw the doors open and stride through like he was a dramatic scene in a novel. Being magically powerful was similarly eh. In life, he aspired to build blanket forts and have snuggles. These things did not help with that goal. He supposed maybe throwing a sofa around would be occasionally helpful but it was mostly pretty fine without.But then he got to be tiny! That was hilarious. He dropped his wand as directed but didn’t post it through the door before shrinking himself. That was slightly problematic because wow was it awkward to move once he was super small! It wasn’t too heavy but maybe that was because he was still somewhat strong but rolling it seemed easiest and then it just went where it wanted. He gave up pretty quickly, ducking through the door, trusting that he wouldn’t need it whilst he was tiny and that no harm would come to it in the meantime. His patience for the problem solving was admittedly somewhat diminished by what was on the other side, although he had tried hard to do the class part well because he wanted Professor Brooding-Hat-thorne to be pleased with him.
“Hi! It’s me! It’s Theo! Don’t dropper me!” he squeaked, jumping up and down and flailing at her with obvious excitement, trying to remember what she’d said in case she couldn’t hear him. He triangled his hands above his head, hoping that was a clear ‘hat’ motion and could not be mistaken for requesting potion on his head and then continued to jump and squeak because he was so excited, and if the professor was listening carefully she would possibly hear that the squeaks had fallen into a clear repetitive rhythm discenable as “Hat! Hat! Hat!”
Theo beamed as she pulled it off her head, setting it down on the table next to her and reached down to pick him up off the floor. That definitely seemed safer than where the recently rembiggened people were tromping about. He pulled off his tiny shoes and socks and stepped onto the brim of the hat.
It was softer than dreams.
He had, admittedly, sort of done this before. He had got a big piece of velvet and spread it out as far as it would go and stood on it and rolled on it and tried to pretend it was everywhere but this was so much more everywhere than than had ever been. And his feet were smaller too, so it felt deeper against them - a better velvet-to-foot ratio. He skimmed his feet along its surface, going with the pile of the fabric, and began taking steps like this, like it was a special kind of skating. He had never been ice skating. It was cold and wet and hard. This was what skating would have been like if he had designed it. You could glide about on pure loveliness.
He… he could not climb over or onto anything. The hat had the rim, which was good for lying on or running on and the… hat wall. It was too steep to climb but he could lean up against it and bury his face in it. He was clean and he would not hurt the hat. He was just appreciating it. He ran laps around the brim. It was like he was in a field and he could just run and run in happy almost-dizzying circles, the velvet beneath his toes, and one hand trailing along the wall of the hat. He lay in the velvet grass, sleeves rolled up and swooshing his arms back and forth to make velvet angles - not that he left a mark, other than brushing its texture back and forth - but he swished his bare arms against it to enjoy how it felt.
It felt like perfect days happened sometimes.
13
Theo Spurn
Hat feels
1476
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
July 06, 2020 3:54 AM
It works quite well for me by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
“Oh. Yeah,” Sadie observed super astutely when Mara commented on the lack of patents and stuff. That was something that made sense once she thought about it but that she would never have thought of on her own. At least she understood what Mara was saying though. Most things you bought were made by people who knew what they were doing, which was not them. But then, potions was a bit like cooking and there wasn’t like… a patent for chocolate cake (right??). Maybe there had been but it expired, like copyright. Chocolate cake had definitely been around a while. Also her thoughts were probably too stupid to share, so she didn’t.“That’s cool,” she commented about Mara’s parents. Those sounded like real jobs. Like they did something important that you needed brain cells and qualifications for, even if Sadie wasn’t sure what a real chemist did. She supposed potions was a bit like chemistry might be, only she wasn’t sure what you did in chemistry except make chemicals do stuff, and here you made stuff. Her mental picture of a chemist was someone with a frothing beaker laughing maniacally. Did they just… like, do science class stuff all day but somehow get paid for it? She knew the stuff she learnt in school about forces and everything was supposed to be useful but she’d never seen how any of it applied to real life. Still, she wasn’t keen to either expose her own ignorance or go into further details about parental lines of work, so she didn’t press the point. It was bad enough that Mara had even asked her. “Oh, um… tech stuff?” she stated, it coming out as a question, accompanied by a slight blush.
After they tried the doors, which unsurprisingly did not shift in response to Sadie’s noodle like arms exerting their full might and fury against them, they went to take the first potion. Mara asked a lot of questions about it which luckily she didn’t seem to want to answers to, before taking some.
At first, the report from Mara was postive-ish. The potion hadn’t made her gag, although she had now put the idea in Sadie’s head that it was ‘weird’ to swallow which wasn’t going to help her achieve that at all. And Mara was all.. smashy. It wasn’t really something Sadie wanted to be. Sure, she wasn’t particularly strong, but her lack of physical strength had never really been a barrier in life. Plus crashing around and breaking everything sounded like something she didn’t want to do.
Her eyes rested on Mara for a moment longer, plainly displaying apprehension about the task at hand, and then she tipped the potion into her mouth, trying her best not to think about what was in it. For a moment she felt like she’d forgotten how to swallow, but the alternative of spitting it out was way grosser and more humiliating, so she forced it down. It didn’t taste like rancid bugs, so it was better than expected.
She lowered the vial cautiously, letting it go a centimetre above the table - not far enough that it would break on impact, but sparing it being placed down with her clumsy hands. It landed neatly on its base.
“Okay,” she nodded. “So far...okay,” she shrugged, unable to find a more enthusiastic word for the fact that this exceeded her very low bar of not having caused her to vomit. “Doors again?” she stated, following Mara over. It was weird how easy it was to push them back, and she did so almost too forcefully, the way your hand would jerk an empty cup too strongly away from a surface when expecting it still to be full. Her brain still looked at the doors and thought there was no way she could do that, and when she pushed hard, that meant harder than she was used to as well.
“It’s kinda like they’re made of polystyrene or something,” she tilted her head, “I mean, like… you look at them and they still look too heavy but they don’t feel like it.”
13
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
It works quite well for me
1480
0
5
Josephine Clyde
July 07, 2020 12:53 AM
Away we go! by Josephine Clyde
Her heart relaxed when Theo enthusiastically said yes, but she hadn’t expected the enthusiasm to spill over into half-hugs. If they hadn’t been friends she would have stiffened a lot more than she already had. When was the last time a boy had hugged her? Her brain told her ‘Never!’ for her step-brothers and ‘Not recently!’ for her father. Other than those two she didn’t have a lot of interactions with boys, though technically her father was a man. At Sonora there were a lot of boy students, but she mostly stuck to two. Theo and Gabe. The end. Theo was her friend and Gabe was her housemate and friend. Josie knew, deep down she knew, that she couldn’t actually go the rest of Sonora without talking to more boys, but if she could avoid it then she would. She’d done well so far. At least she felt comfortable around Theo, but, she eased out from under his arm, not that comfortable yet.“I think the professor wanted us to try the course without the potion first and then use the potions after that.”
What had been first? Josie looked to the other students and concluded that it must be the doors. She flapped a hand at Theo to get his attention and pointed over to that area. Judging by the looks on other people’s face the doors didn’t look heavy, but they definitely were.
“Do you want to go first and I’ll try to hold the door for you?”
44
Josephine Clyde
Away we go!
1477
0
5
Lavender Brockert
July 07, 2020 11:34 PM
That's very profound by Lavender Brockert
"It seems pretty nice." Lavender replied. "I wanted to be in Teppenpaw at first because my brother is there and my sister was before she graduated. Plus, my mom used to be Teppenpaw Head of House when she worked here and Tepps are nice. However, Crotalus isn't bad, either. I wish I had a roommate but at least my cousin Wally is there with me." She nodded in Wally's general direction.She continued."Pretty much all my family has gone here, at least on my dad's side. Some on my mom's too. I still have relatives here now too even besides my brother and Wally. There's Wally's brother Stanley-he's the really loud Pecari-of course as well as my cousin Gabriel." Lavender gestured towards them. "And my cousin Peyton is a seventh year, in Crotalus too. Then there's a bunch of distant cousins." Technically, Martin was the same relation to her that Wally and Stanley were-a child of her first cousin-but he certainly felt more distant than them.
"Jasper-in your house-is one of them and so is Esme, but I don't know either all that well."She added, remembering the other two people in her class who had the same last name as her though Val was likely perfectly capable of making the logical deduction that all three Brockerts in the class were probably related somehow. It wasn't that common of a last name outside of her own family. Lavender smiled apologetically. "Sorry, my family is big and complex. Learning my geneaology was not fun because of it." The drawbacks of being a pureblood.
Though, the Crotalus figured as problems went, she probably got off easy. Her cousin Ryan had been mistreated by his mother and Aunt Jillian had placed unrealistic expectations on her daughters, Amity and Chaslyn, the former of whom did her best to ignore her mother had family functions. Ryan was also a social worker who saw kids every day who went through terrible thing and kids who didn't have any family at all. It all made Lavender grateful that her parents were warm and loving, that she had so much family that cared about her. Even if her family tree was so extensive and confusing that she didn't remember exactly how Jasper and Esme were related to her.
As Lavender drank the potion, Val cried out. The Crotalus felt her face burn. She should have remembered that Professor Brooding-Hawthorne had said to test the doors first. How could she have been so careless? Lavender was generally a cautious person who followed rules. That was why she was sorted into Crotalus rather than Teppenpaw. Was she going to get in trouble now? That was the last thing Lavender wanted. Well, okay, the last thing she wanted was to end up with no friends aside from the cousins she grew up with. Or get stung by a bee and have a severe allergic reaction. But getting in trouble was definitely on the list of things she didn't want.
However, Val was blaming herself and Lavender felt even worse. She might not have been in Teppenpaw but she still didn't like to see people feel bad. "No, no. It's not your fault. I should have listened better. Besides, when I get on the subject of my family and Sonora, I get long-winded. I should apologize to you for that. " Lavender could feel her heart pounding, because she was afraid the professor was going to yell at them and fail them. The first year was already concerned that Professor Brooding-Hawthorne wasn't going to like her because she wasn't bold enough to advocate for herself. As for the strength of foresight thing that Mara had....well, Lavender wasn't sure if she had that at all but that was more likely than being bold in any way.
Which, along with the fact that she wanted to be friends with the other first year, was why she was more than willing to follow Val's lead. She watched as the Teppenpaw tried to cover Lavender's mistake and smiled gratefully at her. Honestly, the other first year's idea was quite clever and she really hoped Professor Brooding-Hawthorne bought it. Or wasn't paying attention. Not being well liked by the professor because she wasn't noticed enough to form an opinion on at all was one thing, but drawing negative attention would have been worse! Lavender didn't have much experience with getting in trouble and she didn't want to gain any. She'd probably start crying if Professor Brooding-Hawthorne yelled at her. And then she'd be humilated because everyone would see and think she was a crybaby, because she wouldn't be able to help it. And then Val might not like her and neither would Aelia-whom Lavender also wanted to be friends with- or anyone else other than her cousins.
Still, right now, she had to do the assignment. "Again, it's not a problem. I sort of was more interested in talking to you anyway." Lavender looked at the Teppenpaw. "Thanks, though. It was really kind of you to cover for my mistake." She walked over to the door and tried it. It opened. "Wow. That was cool. I grew up with magic but I've never had a need for this particular potion before. "
11
Lavender Brockert
That's very profound
1504
0
5
Valentine Duell
July 09, 2020 6:34 PM
Profound is my middle name... wait, that's not right. by Valentine Duell
Lavender had a lot to say about her family. Valentine did her best to follow along, but she got lost somewhere along the way. She was also incredibly jealous of her new friend. Lavender had so much family and she had two sets of grandparents, Mama and Papa. That was it... oh right, Aunt Paige and Aunt Jhonice as well, but that was it. "That sounds fantastic." She said smiling in response to Lavender's oration. "My family tree is... boring. I'm jealous." Then a thought struck her, "I guess your Mom wasn't head of Teppenpaw when Papa was here, was she?" That could be a fun thing to write home about!Once catastrophe struck, Lavender was blaming herself and trying to convince Val not to feel bad while she was trying to do the same for Lavender. She couldn't help it, she giggled. "Alright, we both messed up." she whispered to Lavender. "Live and learn, right? Now we'd better not fall to far behind or we'll draw the professor's attention." She acknowledged Lavender's thanks with a minor blush. "Don't worry about it, we're a team. That is what teammates do."
After watching Lavender open those doors with relative ease, Val was a bit shocked. "I haven't see this one in action like that either." She picked up her bottle of the strength potion and drank it down in one gulp. Then she walked over to the doors and easily moved them aside. "That's great!" She said as the doors closed behind them. "What's next?"
2
Valentine Duell
Profound is my middle name... wait, that's not right.
1490
0
5