Lawrence Marsh
June 19, 2020 7:55 AM
Jack of All Lessons [Beginners] by Lawrence Marsh
Lawrence had now done the Beginners Classes multiple times. His first beginners were now Intermediates, and the idea was a bit shocking. Thus far, each time he’d wanted to do the beginner hands on lessons of CoMC, he'd used Puffskeins. There were a good way to teach the little animals how to actually care for other little animals, cause, well, what kid didn’t seem to like them? They were cute balls of fur basically. Even the weird offshoots the Pygmy Puffs seemed to have their charms with kids, though Lawrence couldn't see it. The wizard or witch who created those creatures was probably fairly wealthy by this point, thought Lawrence. Still, Puffskeins were only interesting up to a point, Lawrence needed something new, if not for himself, then possibly for the school. Puffskeins were prodigious multipliers and had short gestation periods. Though it had not happened yet, Lawrence could imagine something of a mess of Puffskeins overtaking the school or having to start selling Puffskeins just to get them off the grounds. Another aspect was that besides being cute, there wasn’t really much else the creatures could do or be used for. Thus, this year, though he still kept a few Puffskeins on the school grounds, he’d gone a more local route for choosing an animal to take care of.Puffskeins were from Europe. And though Sonora had been built by those coming from Europe and dreaming of their sometimes dreary, but always green environment, Sonora was not in Europe. Sonora was in the Americas, and as such Lawrence had decided that Sonorans needed to learn about an American animal. Lawrence smiled to himself. He was quite pleased with what he’d turned up. It was an added bonus that he could, he hoped, milk the animals at some point for Mary to use.
The first and second years were now well into the first term and Lawrence was hoping this class, a favorite when it was with Puffskiens, would once again excite the young students. He took a deep breath and held it as the last of the students walked in. Letting it out before starting, he could feel a bit of his nerves settle, though not all. Even if this was his flock, he still didn’t feel totally comfortable in his role in it. For a brief second he wondered if he ever would.
“Hello my young scientists. It is a pleasure to see you all today. Now,” Lawrence said as he walked out from behind his desk to sit on the top of it, piles of quilts, matting, straw and other materials in boxes at his feet “We’ve gone over the classification of animals, we’ve gone over why caring is in the title of the class, and lastly we’ve discussed why Care is one of the classes that continues throughout your whole time here at Sonora, if you choose,” Lawrence let a small smile escape his lips. He always hoped that he might spark something in his students to want to continue. Maybe it would be Theo, maybe it would be Mab, maybe it would be Mara or one of the Brockerts, but he hoped one of them would want to move to working with creatures and “beasts” as their profession.
“Today we start actually caring for a creature. In the past we’ve had Puffskeins, which though cute and fluffy are little more than pets. This year we will be taking care of a different fluffy animal,” Lawrence waved his wand and a medium sized Hare creature floated out of the box behind him and into his hands. The hare was distinct in the fact that it had two small antlers on its head. He held up the gray animal by the scruff of its neck.
“For those who don't know, I'd like you all to meet the jackelop. The Jackelop is one of the few magical creatures from the Western United States that still exists in the wild. It is considered a magical creature because of its ability to mimic human song and speech. It is thought that it can speak with other animals and creatures, though it’s never been proven. Its antlers, when dropped in winter, have been used for wands, and the milk can also be used in potions that heal broken bones.” Lawrence brought the hare down so it would rest in the crook of his left arm as he waved his wand again. This time 25 cages floated from behind the wall behind his desk, each one, except the last one, had a Jackelop in them.
“Today will be the start of a year-long project. You will feed and house these uniquely American animals here in the class. Before or after each lesson, you will be taking care to clean out their cages and making sure they have enough to eat. You will also work on socializing with them, building trust. You will be graded on how well you maintain the changes, how well fed they are, and at the end of the year, how well you personally have socialized with your creature. You can name yours if you'd like, and if you are bold enough, you can try to teach it to say it's name or your own. Now, though not as mean as the bowtruckle, the jackalope is shy with new humans, especially at first. So you may need to build trust. That brings us to today's activities I’d like you to do three things. 1) Find the Jackelop that will be your animal, 2) Use the materials you find here in the front of class to create an environment that your Jackelop will like. And 3) There are different things for the Jackelop to eat up front.” Lawrence indicated the front of the classroom which had boxes containing, Lettuce, grass, daffodil heads, food pellets, carrots, old bread, and other food scraps.
“I’d like you each to take at least two and no more than five different foods and see which ones your Jackelops enjoy more. Food and housing being the best way to gain trust of any animal, even us lowly humans. Now, as always, if you have questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I’ll be walking around.”
OOC:
Enjoy the beginners class.
You can find out more on Jackalopes here:
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Jackalope
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackalope
https://new-cryptozoology.fandom.com/wiki/Jackalope
Subthreads: Bah, idioms. by Leonor De Matteo
This is Incredible by Philippe Delachene with Valentine Duell
41
Lawrence Marsh
Jack of All Lessons [Beginners]
1462
Lawrence Marsh
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Leonor De Matteo
June 21, 2020 5:09 PM
Bah, idioms. by Leonor De Matteo
Normally, Leonor would refuse to care about an "American" - why did people say that when they meant United States? - animal on principle. At least the professor acknowledged that it was from the United States first, but Leonor was irritated by the whole country most of the time and didn't care a bit about this thing. Until she saw it. It was . . . real cute. And it could talk? Which meant she could teach it enough Spanish to be interesting and ironic. Professor Marsh was one of the more tolerable professors at Sonora, even for all that Leonor said Transfiguration was her favorite subject, and she appreciated that he talked about uses for this class in the future because even on the worst days, she could absolutely see herself turning Los Jardines de Plata into Los Establos de Plata and opening up some stables. They wouldn't probably be very silver, but whatever. Magic. In any case, classes like this one made Leonor more sure that livestock and working with animals would be a good choice for her future. An animal rescue would be a just cause and she wouldn't have to spend so much time around the Muggles in town.Moving quickly, because no one was going to leave her stuck with the least desirable jackalope, Leonor meandered between the cages until one in particular caught her eye. It was smaller than some of the others but not tiny. It looked strong, like it was capable, but still sleek and graceful. And fluffy. So fluffy. "Plateado," Leonor whispered naming the jackalope x crouching beside the animal's cage, putting her fingers up to it. The silver bunny deer thing was, she decided, perfect. Possibly the only thing in the world that was perfect. "You don't have to say anything," she murmured in Spanish. "I don't like talking to people either." She decided right then that this may be a year long project, but if Professor Marsh was going to try to take it from her after that, he had another thing coming. Plateado's nose twitched in what seemed to Leonor to be a contented way and she smiled. It felt very very good to smile.
OOC - Los Establos de Plata is "the silver stables" instead of Los Jardines de Plata, "the silver gardens."
22
Leonor De Matteo
Bah, idioms.
1471
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5
Philippe Delachene
June 24, 2020 1:52 PM
This is Incredible by Philippe Delachene
Philippe liked Care of Magical Creatures. He lived on a Flying Horse Ranch, and it was the only class Jasmine had done better than an A in for her CATS, so he figured he had a good shot at pulling Os on a regular basis. Upon arrival at Sonora, he'd thought he'd be glad to be freed from all the chores associated with the ranch, but as the weeks had passed, he realized he missed the chance to feed and brush and ride the horses, if only as an excuse to procrastinate doing his homework.Nothing could make him miss mucking the stalls though.
As this class began, he sat up a little straighter at the idea of actually taking care of an animal. This was still beginners so it couldn't be anything as difficult as horses, especially when puffskiens were the baseline for this project. When he saw the animal Professor Marsh summoned to himself, Philippe grinned. Jackalopes! He'd seen one or two running wild on the ranch. They were native to his area, and the ranch was big and undeveloped enough that they sometimes ventured out near the riding trails.
Despite these personal if brief encounters in the wild, it was still the Pixar short that had come as a bonus feature on one of the Incredibles DVDs that he thought of first as Professor Marsh confirmed his identification and said the name of the animal.
Philippe was mildly disappointed that the animals would need to stay in the class and not come back to the dorms with them, but he guessed that was probably a safety concern. Jackalopes were not exactly as harmless as puffskiens, especially now when none of them had yet developed any trust with the witch or wizard taking care of them.
When the instructions were completed and their tasks laid out before them, Philippe moved among the cages, looking for the one that most closely resembled the one from the DVD. That had been animated, and made by muggles who thought jackalopes were mythological and not real, so there were obviously no perfect matches, of course, but he found one that was almost the right tan color with white feet, and a bit overweight compared to its peers, and Philippe picked that one. The jackalope in the short didn't have a name, but Philippe remembered the line 'it doesn't matter what color you are: Pink, purple, or heliotrope.' He had no idea what color heliotrope was, or even if it was a color at all (it sounded like it was some science-y word that applied to the sun somehow), but he decided it would work for his jackalope's name. Plus, it was only in the film at all because it rhymed with jackalope, so his critter was Heliotrope the Jackalope and that just sounded cool.
Having placed his claim on Heliotrope's cage, Philippe went to fetch some materials to make a suitable environment for his jackalope to live in.
"All right, Heliotrope," Philippe said when he returned, feeling no shame in talking out loud to the animal. It was common practice at the Ranch, talking to the horses like they were human companions, and he saw no reason not to extend the same courtesy to his jackalope. "I'm gonna make you a better place to live than that terrible cage they've got you in now. Unfortunately, we don't have a super lot of space for you, like you'd probably prefer, but it can at least look less like a prison and bit more like the habitat where you're from." With that he began laying out some dirt to cover the bottom of the cage. It was thin and granular, so it would drain well when the jackalope peed (not that desert animals often peed much), and shouldn't be too much harder than cat litter to clean up more solid wastes. "Once we get you some dirt flooring, we can work on making the walls look less imposing. Maybe dress them up like tumbleweeds? Think that would look good?"
1
Philippe Delachene
This is Incredible
1489
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5
Valentine Duell
June 26, 2020 4:21 PM
They're so cute! by Valentine Duell
Care of magical creatures was one of the classes that Valentine liked. She suspected that some of this may be because she was still a first year student. The creatures they had been dealing with in class so far had been fairly cute and benign. She suspected at the higher class levels, this class could get downright scary. There were a lot of magical creatures that were not cute and cuddly. So for now she had decided to enjoy the class.Val started up from her notebook as the professor started talking and then sat up a little straighter in her chair when the professor addressed them as scientists. She glanced around for Bonabelle and saw her a few seats away. As far as Val was concerned, Bonabelle was an actual scientist. Apparently she had gotten deeper into her project and hadn't notice anyone else come in. She quickly put that notebook away and pulled out her class one.
Her eyes went wide as a bunny floated into the professor's hands. She barely suppressed a giggle thinking that he should have used a black silk top hat. It wasn't a bunny though, it was a jackelop, and it could talk? Cool! They were going to each get one to take care of for the whole year? Fantastic!
She went to the front to pick out her jackelop with the other students. There were a bunch of them, how do you choose which one was the right one? They all looked a little sad in their cages. There! That one. It was one of the smaller ones, and looked properly scared. She could do her best to fix that. She claimed the cage and thought about her next step. They needed to make a good environment for her jackelop. Not being in a cage would probably be an improvement, but she suspected that isn't what the professor had in mind.
Before that though, she needed a name for the little cutey. As she thought about this, Philippe came back to the cage next to hers and started talking to his new fuzzy friend. She giggled lightly, "Heliotrope? That's a fun name, I'm still trying to think of one for mine. Do you have any suggestions?"
2
Valentine Duell
They're so cute!
1490
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5
Philippe Delachene
July 08, 2020 8:53 AM
Incredibly cute by Philippe Delachene
Philippe was interrupted from his musing of interior cage design when Val commented on Heliotrope's name and asked for suggestions naming her own. He looked down at the jackalope she had chosen, hoping the creature's appearance might spark some inspiration. Hers was smaller than his in basically every dimension, but that made sense because he'd intentionally gone for a big guy. Still, hers seemed small even compared to the norm.So maybe play on 'small' somehow? "Little Bunny Foo-Foo?" he threw out there, "Little John?" Oh, Little John was named ironically. Maybe throw that back the other way? "Big Bad John? Big Bad Wolf? Um," there were more. There had to be more. "Andre the Giant?" She probably got the idea by now, he should go back to small things. "Little Bit?" What was just plain small without specified it was small? "Peanut? Bug? Bun-Bun? Bon-Bon? Teeny-Tiny-Huggly-Puff?" Okay, that was what he named his stuffed bear when he was three, but . . . maybe she'd like it. He just wouldn't bring up Light-On-Light-Off or her brother Light-Off-Light-On (neither of which lit up or were the same species; they were adopted siblings). "Are any of these even close to good, or should I try a new tack?"
He turned back to his own work and used his wand to spread out the last of his dirt so it fully covered the bottom of the cage, using a spell he'd seen Mom use so many time with the hay in the horse stalls that it was like he'd been born knowing it. The results were a little more clumpy and not quite as evenly spread as when Mom did it, but not bad given he was still new to this whole using a wand thing. "There you go, Heliotrope. Is that better on your feet, buddy?" The jackalope did seem to like it as he bounded about the small space much more cheerfully than he'd been sitting in it before. "Maybe I can make that a little bigger for you?" he suggested. "Do you know the spell for making things bigger? That's a beginner charm, right?" they hadn't covered it in class yet, but he was pretty sure he'd seen it that one in the syllabus at some point this year. Or maybe he hadn't. He couldn't remember for sure anymore. But he thought it had been there when he looked it over the first day they'd been handed out.
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Philippe Delachene
Incredibly cute
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Valentine Duell
July 12, 2020 6:20 PM
Agreed! by Valentine Duell
Philippe sure was trying. His naming advice seemed to range all over the spectrum. She giggled as his list continued on and on. They were mostly terrible names as well, but she wouldn't dare tell him that. Then one of them struck something inside her. Bun-bun? No... that wasn't it. But it reminded her of... something. "Almost," she replied to his question, trying to remember something. "Bun....hair? Bun... hop?" She looked at her new critter friend cowering in it's cage. The fur, the antlers, it looked so much like.... what? Not antlers... horns. "Bunhorn!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands and smiling from ear to ear."Mrs. Bunhorn!" She looked at her jackelope, "I'm not sure if you're a Mrs. though, maybe just Bunhorn for now." She glanced at Philippe again, "You're good with animals," she noted as she looked into his cage and marveled at it's transformation. "Do you know if they are boys or girls? Mrs. Bunhorn was a stuffed jackelope I had when I was really little and we lived in Greece." She paused a moment, "I wonder what ever happened to her?"
Shaking her head in dismissal of the thought she very briefly pondered his question, "You're asking the wrong girl, sorry." She answered a little sheepishly. "Bonabelle would probably know it though. Maybe we can ask her?" She again looked at his Heliotrope's cage and compared it to Bunhorn's. "Bunhorn is going to be jealous soon. I'd better get some of the stuff to spruce up the cage."
She went up to the front and collected some things. Mostly the things that she had noticed that Philippe had gotten for Heliotrope's cage. Upon returning she began to arrange them in the cage. They looked okay, but Bunhorn still cowered in the back. "I don't think Bunhorn likes me very much." She commented.
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Valentine Duell
Agreed!
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5