Grayson Wright
August 07, 2020 7:44 PM
Stop it in its tracks, Beginners. by Grayson Wright
The Charms room, the first and second years were sure to notice upon entry, looked a bit different from usual. Normally, the desks were arranged in rows facing the front blackboard, a fairly standard classroom arrangement. Today, however, the desks themselves seemed to have vanished, replaced by larger rectangular tables with three chairs placed around them. One side of each table was empty, allowing everyone to still see the front of the room – and for the front of the room to see them.Entering the room also involved an extra step which was not part of the normal routine: they were met at the door by their professor, who gave each of them some small object. In most of the cases, these objects were more or less picked at random from one of two boxes of such things: small stuffed animals, representing members of both the mundane and magical beast communities, a few spinning tops and cloth-covered, palm-sized books. In a few cases, however, Professor Wright had chosen specific items for specific students: Theo Spurn’s had been selected to fit his textural preferences, and Quincy Wright received a largish starfish toy, its size and unusual shape making it easy to distinguish from other items even if the colors did not register properly for him. Even among the non-specific objects, though, no two were identical, courtesy of some color-changing charms and other such novelties, and a night when it had amused the professor to spend a very long time focusing on small, mundane activities to keep his mind occupied.
Once everyone was seated, he began his lesson. “As I’m sure you’ve all realized by now,” he said, “a wide knowledge of incantations and a decent understanding of magical theory will greatly increase your effectiveness as a witch or wizard. However, you have your whole life long to study spellbooks. One of the reasons you come to school is to learn enough spells to live a comfortable life, yes, but another reason is to give you the tools you need to continue your journeys into magic for the rest of your lives. One of those tools is technique – being able to cast spells quickly and accurately.”
He was aware that he most likely sounded like Tabitha Brooding-Hawthorne had stolen his body, a bizarre contrast to the colorful toys. Life, however, was absurd that way, sometimes. He continued.
“In our last class, we studied the immobulus charm, and you were told to practice it for homework. Today, you’re going to be practicing it more, with the items in front of you,” he said, with a nod to the nearest random object. “Your task is to immobilize your object – and only your object. If it escapes, pursue it. Each time you succeed, your object will remain frozen for about thirty seconds before it starts trying to escape again, and will be a little more difficult to re-freeze each time. Any questions?”
He gave them an appropriate moment in which to ask questions if they had any, and then raised his own wand. “In that case…let’s begin.”
He gave his wand a flick, and items began to move. Some, assigned to second years, began to fly; others began to scuttle, twirl, crawl, leap, or bounce.
The next forty-five minutes were going to be utter chaos, but nothing had enough sharp edges to put anyone’s eye out, and he could probably cast cushioning charms fast enough if anyone started to fall to prevent an excessive number of chipped teeth and black eyes – injuries minor enough that Katey could handle them easily, and for which he wouldn’t get fired. Learning magic was, after all, a dangerous business; bumps and scratches were to be expected. Possibly also minor duels breaking out, but, well, he could break up any duel held by Beginners anyway, as he indulged for once in the stereotypes of his subject.
OOC: welcome to Beginner Charms! You may make up your object and what it does as you will. For interaction, you might work together to corner objects, start to freeze your object only for someone else’s spell to hit it, or anything else reasonable you might think of. Points awarded for creativity and detail. Have fun!
Subthreads: *Cracks knuckles* Let me at it. by Valentine Duell with Alexander Pierce-Beales
Do I have to kill you? (Tag Mara) by Bertie Jackson with Mara Morales
Hopping Hare (Tag Theo) by Josephine Clyde with Theo Spurn
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Grayson Wright
Stop it in its tracks, Beginners.
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Valentine Duell
August 08, 2020 12:01 PM
*Cracks knuckles* Let me at it. by Valentine Duell
Valentine made it to class early as usual. Her game last term had gone well enough, but running a game for that many people was a lot different than running one for Mama, Papa and a friend or two of theirs. She needed a good idea for her next adventure, and she hadn't really gotten a lot of extra time to think about it lately. Between whatever was going on with Aunt Giselle over break and then readjusting to school again, and then her birthday, things had been just a little bit crazy. But now they needed to settle back down so she could figure out some stuff.So, a little planning time before one of Professor Wright's nice calm, normal charms lessons sounded good. Unfortunately, apparently that was not the plan for today. As she entered the room Professor Wright met her at the door and handed her a small spinning top toy that was a bright purple color. The room had been all changed around as well. This did not bode well for her planning. However, it did mean something interesting might be taking place, and that was always good!
She found a seat at one of the tables and got out her notebook. Maybe she could still get in a little planning before class started. Not really, her mind kept fixating on the top in front of her and what may be happening today to allow her to focus on game plans. In the end, she put the still mostly empty notebook away and listened to Professor Wright as he explained things. She had practiced a little bit... tossing her new dice and then trying to stop them, they were small and hard to aim at though. She had a little more success in tossing Ms. Bunhorn around and stopping her.
When the Professor flicked his wand, her top began to spin and make little circles on the table in front of her. She smiled, this wasn't going to be so hard. "Immobulus!" she commanded and the top stopped in it's place. She grinned at her classmate, "Easy! This isn't so hard..." At that moment her top began to spin again and made a larger circle that carried it off the table and onto the floor! It bounced and careened wildly around her. "Hey!" She called after it, "Get back here!"
She waved her wand again in it's general direction, "Immobulus!"
2
Valentine Duell
*Cracks knuckles* Let me at it.
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
August 09, 2020 8:25 AM
Yeah, let her at it! by Alexander Pierce-Beales
Alexander's start of term had been pretty normal, which was weird in itself. Was anything normal in this world? He supposed it was becoming more and more that way. Today, Professor Wright handed him a brightly colored rainbow plush frog, which was sort of funny because the professor looked a bit like a plush frog himself. When the activity for the day was explained, Alexander found himself gearing up excitedly. This was just like laser tag, except not at all. But it did make him wonder what wizard laser tag would be like.He peered at his little frog for a moment while it was on his desk, wondering whether Barnabas would be jealous. The horse and his owner had been at odds recently, as Alexander hadn't been taking him everywhere with him any more. Still, they hung out when Alexander was in his own dorm room so Barnabas had very little room to complain. When the professor waved his wand, the frog gave a very real-to-life leap from the table and then . . . it began to leap all directions? He supposed that was a feature of himself being a second year, where things might not be so easy as a straight leaping frog, but it was odd to say the least to watch a frog leap sideways and backwards, especially a rainbow plush frog.
Alexander retrieved his wand and followed his frog, hoping to Merlin - because apparently that was what wizards hoped to - that he wasn't about to be hit by one of the charms flying around him. "Immobulus!" he said, shouting after his frog as it leapt into the air over another toy. The spell worked! As the frog fell through the air to land on the floor, it took out a spinning top that had been underneath it. Alexander raised his eyes to apologise for interrupting another student's practice when he saw Valentine Duell, her wand up, the spell having already left her mouth. Had her own toy still been there, it would have been a perfect hit. As it was . . .
He felt his body slow to a stop with a jolt and it felt a bit like he'd been electrocuted, not because of any shock behind the spell but because very suddenly his body was stiff and he had not decided to make it be that way. It wore off quickly and he blinked, feeling twitchy.
"Good shot," he told her, grimacing before he managed to replace it with his usual neutral expression. "I mean it though. That was good!"
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
Yeah, let her at it!
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Valentine Duell
August 09, 2020 10:53 AM
Sorry! Sorry! Umm.. duck? by Valentine Duell
Valentine watched in horror as her spell struck Alexander. He hadn't been there, and then there had been a frog toy and it hit her top and then he was there and... she raced to his side apologizing, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" By the time she reached him, the effects of the spell seemed to be wearing off. She was immensely relieved, and at the same time mildly irritated.Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that if Alexander had been a terrible monster trying to kill her, that spell would not have held him long enough to give her a chance to do anything else about it. He wasn't, which was very good. But still that dark corner of her mind nagged at her. She didn't like it.
Alexander looked like he was recovering, and being a little snarky in the process? Well, he had the right she supposed. She was about to apologize again when he reiterated his statement. Had he really meant it? "Thanks..." she responded a little cautiously, "But I don't know about that... I certainly didn't hit what I was aiming at." She gave him another very apologetic look. "You are okay, right?"
An odd noise caught her attention from where the toys had landed in a pile. Her top was flipping through the air! It landed again and took off spinning in crazy, looping, off-balance circles. Alexander's frog had gotten impaled on the top's handle and kicked at the ground sending the two toys hurling and spinning erratically through the air once more before crashing to the ground and repeating the chaotic movements again.
"Oh dear," Valentine almost whispered as she watched the conglomeration careen wild around the room. "We may have created a monster."
2
Valentine Duell
Sorry! Sorry! Umm.. duck?
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
August 09, 2020 1:12 PM
Goose! No wait, that's not what I meant. by Alexander Pierce-Beales
"I'm alright," Alexander promised. He was honestly sort of glad she'd gotten him because the last time he tried to talk to her, he could only think pretty girl and there weren't any words that he could manage very well.She seemed hesitant to accept his compliment and Alexander shook his head, dismissing her self-deprecation. "No, no, you totally would have if I hadn't smushed it," he said. He even managed a little smile. He did hope that that would become a more natural expression some day, but at least it was a possible one now. "And it was pretty strong, especially since you weren't actually trying to hit a human and it still worked on one." He did smile a bit then. Complimenting people on solid, tangible things that had evidence was easy because it wasn't risky. Usually, the compliments that came to Alexander's mind were looks-based because that's what he saw first because that's how he drew people. Except, that wasn't quite true. It wasn't that he just saw faces and shapes, it was that he saw all the little things that made up someone's expression, and all the lines that people have on their body. It sounded much creepier than it was, so he just mostly kept his nice words to himself. He was a terrible Teppenpaw.
Alexander turned his attention with Val to the . . . oh gosh. The Frankenstein's nightmare that was their toys. It was sort of hilarious actually. It was the sort of thing that he would have imagined whilst playing with those toys as a kid, but never actually gotten to see for real. What do you get when you mix a frog and a top? Except the punchline was the monster, as Val called it, spinning and leaping in front of them. "Do you want to get it?" he asked. "Or shall I?"
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
Goose! No wait, that's not what I meant.
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Valentine Duell
August 09, 2020 5:43 PM
*Eyes suspciously* What did you mean then? by Valentine Duell
Alexander always looked... not exactly sad, but he never really looked happy either. It made Valentine feel a little sad as well. She often wondered if there was anything she could do to help him smile. Everyone was happier when they were... happy. Well, she was glad that statement had stayed in her head. Alexander was claiming that he was fine, which was good, but she still looked him over with a critical eye. It looked like all of his parts were moving again, that was a good sign.He smiled a little bit! He was trying to assure her that he had messed up her shot and that was sweet of him, but... she didn't think she should have cast it in the first place if she had notice he was nearby. She had just gotten to focused on her top. Maybe that was another part of the lesson that the Professor wanted to make sure they learned. She smiled as he smiled, mainly because he had actually smiled! That was better. "Thanks, but I should have been more careful. Do you think that's some of the point of the lesson today?"
She also wanted to tell him to smile more often, he looks better when he was smiling. But, that might be considered rude, so she held her tongue and considered the monstrosity that now faced them. "I'm not sure," she considered as the thing continued its random antics about the room. "We were instructed to immobilized our own objects and only our own objects. I don't think I'm good enough at aiming to just hit the top. If you can stop the frog though, that may give me the opportunity to hit the top. Then we'll have a few moments to try and separate them again." She held up her wand and gave him an encouraging smile, "What do you think?"
2
Valentine Duell
*Eyes suspciously* What did you mean then?
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
August 14, 2020 3:21 PM
Like we were going to chase each other around a circle and try to sit down before getting caught. by Alexander Pierce-Beales
Alexander considered her question. He wasn't really sure if it was meant to be considered but it was an interesting question so he wanted to anyway. Val was really smart, apparently. And her smile made him want to smile more so he did exactly that when he answered. "It might be," he decided, agreeing that that made sense.Turning to the mess of toys, Alexander felt a surge of nerves when he remembered that he was the second year which meant that he was theoretically meant to be better at this than she was and he was probably going to have to go first. This proved true when Val suggested that her aim might not be up to snuff for the job anyway. "I bet you could do it," he said kindly. She had an idea though, and then she had another smile and Alexander really liked when she smiled so he probably would have gone over and offered to be her target for some aiming practice if that had been her idea. But it wasn't, so that was good. He nodded, adjusting his grip on his wand. He was sure this was going to be the moment he woke up from that coma he wasn't so sure about anymore and found out he had no magic after all, but he wouldn't find out unless he actually tried. He did have the height advantage, he supposed, which may be helpful since the frog was on top of the top anyway. "I think I'd be lucky if I could give as good as you," he told her, really hoping to ride the train of kindness into friendship territory. "Let's do it."
Stepping around the side of the two toys - he was sort of hoping to flank them, which was weird since it wasn't as if there was a lot of sentient battle-strategy going on right now - Alexander raised his wand and stood up on his tiptoes, both from nerves and for the sake of his sightline. He counted the toys move two more times, hoping to get a feel for the rhythm of their movement, before raising his wand, aiming at the frog, and casting the charm again. He could almost not bear to see whether it worked.
22
Alexander Pierce-Beales
Like we were going to chase each other around a circle and try to sit down before getting caught.
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Valentine Duell
August 14, 2020 7:29 PM
Chasing and catching poor, innocent girls? by Valentine Duell
"Yes." She agreed with Alexander's analysis. More smiles! Much better. "The charm itself we could practice easily enough on a slowly moving object, right?" Then something else occurred to her, "Or, does the speed of the object affect the difficulty of stopping it with the spell? I mean... besides the difficulty in hitting it." She added quickly. "Does it take more magic power to stop something that is moving quickly?"She couldn't help but smile as Alexander said he thought she could do it, then blushed a bit as he continued to compliment her. She wasn't convinced though. Her magic wasn't that good... it was passable, but his was better. He had a whole extra year of learning and training backing him up. Then it was time to move. She responded to his 'Let's do it' with the best serious soldier curt nod and a simple "Yeah." Move out, off to war. Stuff like that.
He started circling around the toys, and the tactic became clear. They were going to surround the toys! That was an excellent plan, then they'd have a better chance to catch them whichever direction they bounded off to next. She got a solid grip on her wand and started circling the toys in the opposite direction. Valentine watched the toys and Alexander. He was pacing them, trying to find a pattern, ready to act as soon as the moment was right.
This was it! He raised his wand and she suddenly saw the minor flaw in her part of the plan. She was in the direct line of fire! Alexander let the spell cut loose and it flew through the air as she let out a small squeak and ducked, involuntarily covering her head with her arms.
Nothing happened. She could move fine. Valentine peeped out and saw the motionless frog still stuck upon the spinning top. He'd done it! "You did it!" She called out to Alexander smiling wide. "I knew you could!" She ran across the room to give him a congratulatory high-five. "That was a great shot!"
She turned to face her adversary now, and her face fell. The frog had twitched. Then it kicked and was off again. The color drained from Val's face as she turned back to Alexander. "Do... do you think you could do it... again?" She asked with an apologetically sheepish look on her face.
2
Valentine Duell
Chasing and catching poor, innocent girls?
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
August 15, 2020 8:41 PM
Yes. NO. No is the right answer. I don't chase. by Alexander Pierce-Beales
Alexander nodded, wondering the same thing as Valentine explained her question. "That makes sense," he agreed. "Because speed and strength are sort of related, right? A slow-moving human is still harder than a fast-moving toy, but a fast-moving toy might be harder than a slow-moving one?" After a moment, he shrugged. "I'm not sure," he admitted.His spell landed and Alexander nodded to himself, pleased with the result of his efforts. It turned into a more self-conscious pleasure when Val ran up to him grinning. He accepted the high five with another blush and a sheepish, shy smile. It was weirdly easy to smile at Val. She looked so nice when she smiled. And she was so nice. She was a much better Teppenpaw than he was; he didn't like most people that much and she seemed to like everyone at least a little.
"Thanks," he murmured, resisting the urge to pull on his collar and ask about the temperature suddenly rising in the room. Also resisting the urge to look around for Mab to make sure he wasn't losing his mind and that Val really seemed interested in talking to him.
The feeling left when Val looked appalled all of a sudden. "No no, that's fine," he promised. "I can do it again," he agreed. He wasn't at all sure he could though. He was nervous now. An idea came to him then and he smiled a little anxiously at her. "Or you can," he suggested, feeling fidgety. "Good practice. Especially now," he added as the frog-top combo flopped over onto the frog's back and twitched horribly. "We might be doing it a mercy at this point," he grimaced.
22
Alexander Pierce-Beales
Yes. NO. No is the right answer. I don't chase.
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Valentine Duell
August 16, 2020 9:13 AM
Then what do you do? by Valentine Duell
Alexander was starting to get good at smiling. Valentine considered this a good thing. She was going to have to keep encouraging him, it seemed to be working. Plus, then he might keep helping her in class. This class she seemed to be doing alright, but she was relying on him and Bonabelle and Lavender for quite a few of the other ones. He was a good Teppenpaw to help her out like this, although he was starting to look a little uncomfortable. She was messing him up, and making this difficult for him.He claimed that it was fine, and he could fix her mistake in allowing his frog to reanimate itself. Then he gave her another smile and suggested that she try. She glanced back at the toys. Alexander might be right. She nodded. "Okay.." she said slowly, considering the situation. The frog was laying there, and the top was doing its best to spin away, drilling away at the frog. She shuddered a little a the imagery. Glancing back over her shoulder at Alexander, she gave him a determined look. "Right. Let's end this."
Adjusting her grip, she aimed her wand at her top, conveniently being held in place place, with just a little wobble by Alexander's frog. The frog was kicking, but the top was keeping it pinned on its back where the motion did little good. If felt like this was the moment to make some sort of dramatic speech as she brought an ending blow to her adversary, but for the life of her, she couldn't think of a good one. So, in the end she sighed, aimed her wand and uttered the incantation.
It would have been hard to miss, and the spell did it's job. The top stopped spinning. She uttered a quick cheer and turned on Alexander grinning. "Go now! Hurry Alexander, get that frog yet!"
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Valentine Duell
Then what do you do?
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
August 18, 2020 11:57 AM
Mostly just watch. by Alexander Pierce-Beales
A yellow suit like a bumblebee and a long braid, with translucent wings and a black mask so the brightest thing in her face was her eyes. Her superpower would be something to do with pollen and flowers. A bright comic spread bloomed in Alexander's mind as Valentine looked over her shoulder at him and he indulged himself in a moment of debate over whether it was creepy to draw it later on. Let's end this was a great catchphrase. Her archnemesis could be a giant frog and his army of spinning tops.His thoughts were interrupted by Valentine's successful spell, and he followed her command to greet his frog from the monstrosity. It wriggled and tried to break away but he managed to detach it from the top and squeeze it hard enough to keep it from leaping out of his hands again. Unfortunately, the stuffing and beans were falling out a bit now. It reminded him of Barnabas when he'd accidentally ripped his little friend apart. Nathaniel had been able to fix him then and he thought that maybe he could do it now. Or he could ask Professor Wright.
Glancing at Val, he decided he could do it.
Concentrating, he waved his wand at the hole through the middle of his frog. "Reparo," he said, trying to visualize his whole frog once again. To his surprise, it mostly worked! The hole was pulled shut. It definitely didn't work well, as the fabric now pinched funny in the middle, but it worked. He smiled a little, proud of himself, before the frog jumped away again and Alexander grunted, irritated. "You'd think he'd be a little more grateful after that," he said to Val.
22
Alexander Pierce-Beales
Mostly just watch.
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Valentine Duell
August 19, 2020 1:55 PM
You could always try talking. by Valentine Duell
Valentine watched as Alexander kept into action. In no time at all he had freed his frog from her top… or maybe her top from his frog? She mentally shrugged, it wasn't that important. What was important was Alexander's success! He had done it! The toys were fixed. Almost, it looked like his frog had suffered a tragic injury at the... hands? of her top.He seemed to study the damage carefully for a moment, then he looked her way, waved his wand and the frog was as good as new again! He was good at this. She saw him smile a little at his success and she smiled warmly at him to reinforce it. She also couldn't restrain a giggle as he commented on the frog's ingratitude as it hopped away. "Well, I think you did a fantastic job." She stated trying to make up for the toy's lack of manners. "I know who I'm going to find the next time I have a broken frog."
Looking around she saw her top spinning off away from the direction his frog was going. Her heart sank a little, it had been fun chasing down the monster together. Now it looked like they were destined for separate paths. She felt a little bad about it, but kind of wished now that he hadn't been so successful. She held out her hand to him with a resigned smile, "Great job partner, with any luck our paths will cross again soon."
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Valentine Duell
You could always try talking.
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