Giselle Duell

November 06, 2020 11:01 AM
Giselle had been asked to lend her expertise to a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. This had caught her a little off guard, especially with past being what it was, but she was not about to say ‘no’ to her new boss and probably not all of the details of her past had come out. Although, not saying ‘no’ to her previous deputy-headmistress had been the thing that had led her into some of those past experiences. She was pretty certain that Deputy-Headmistress Selina Skies was nothing like Deputy-Headmistress Lia Persefoni, at least she really, really hoped. Professor Skies had been extremely nice so far, but so had Lia.

Regardless, she had said yes, she would be delighted to lend her expertise. However, then she just had to figure out what she could teach that would somehow relate to the subject of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Her specialty was Divination, the collection of knowledge, which was good to have when you were dealing with dark threats… but it tended to be more of a forethought thing when you had time for planning and were more on the offensive side of things instead of the defensive. Plus, it was DADA, she didn’t just want to teach a Divination lesson. Also the class was a beginner class, which meant at least two things. One, Valentine would be in it and two, Divinations was a tricky discipline. Eleven and twelve year olds just, in general, didn’t have the magical control and finesse for it. Many older witches and wizards didn’t either. Where had that left her? Well, it was naturally obvious so she hadn't really thought of it until after chatting with some of the other professors.

“Welcome class,” Professor Duell greeted the students as she heard them entering the room and finding their seats. Any murmuring she heard about her presence in the room she mostly ignored. However, there was one particular fairly high pitched excited squeal of delight that she recognized and gave a slight nod in acknowledgement to her niece. “Now I am assuming you all realize that we will be doing something a little bit different for class today,” she paused just a moment, mainly for effect, “However, I don’t think you will find it as different as you may think. For that, you may come see me in my normal class once you have reached your third year.” She smiled, wondering how many of these students she might actually elect to take her class next year. She knew of at least one.

She had propped herself against the teacher’s desk in the front of the room and now she stood and waved her wand not so inconspicuously over the room to get a good image of the students in her mind. “I have been asked to share some of my ‘expertise’ with you, and I have decided on something that will be practical and fitting for the subject matter.” With that, she waved her wand in a different motion and the room fell into utter, pitch blackness. At least she assumed it did from the reactions coming from the students. “Tell me now,” her voice moved as she strolled unconcerned about the room, “how do you deal with a threat that you cannot see? Feel free to put your hands up to answer.”

At one point when they had been sorting through her clothing and buying some new things for teaching, Valentine had told her that the dress she was wearing now was a very odd olive green color that didn’t match anything else in her wardrobe. However, it didn’t make much noise at all as she walked, it was also long enough to just barely touch the floor so no one could see she wasn’t wearing shoes. As such, she could move around the room in near silence. As she strolled about, she called on students to answer her question. ‘Lumos’ was the most obvious answer. To which she was prepared to point out that Lumos was an excellent way to become a target in a dark room. “Also, she added, “it may not be a lack of light at all that is the problem. I am sure that Professor Brooding-Hawthorne and Professor Carter-Xavier have plenty of examples of threats that could render your eyes unusable one way or another.”

Once she had finished taking answers, she was back in the front of the room again and turned the lights back on. Again, she assumed it worked. “Good answers all. As you probably have figured out by now, I have some experience on this subject.” She smiled gently at them while adjusting her mirrored glasses. “So, I am here to teach you about the spell I use to ‘see’. It takes the area indicated by your wand and gives you an adequate mental picture. There are no colors and transparent things appear opaque, but it is better than being blind.”

She gestured her wand in the general direction of the blackboard and set the chalk to work. “The wand motion is a simple loop defining the area you wish to observe.” She demonstrated once again, casting it again non-vocally just to refresh her picture of the room again while she was at it. “The incantation is ‘mentis imago’.” The chalk finished the notes on the board and settled back into place. “Now, I should mention that this is not a common use spell and it may not work for everyone. It is one of those spells you develop after you finish school and begin your own independent research into what it means to be a witch or wizard. In this case it was originally developed by my brother for his transfiguration work after he graduated here, and was redesigned a bit once I started at school for this purpose.”

Waving her wand about, with a few muttered incantations, a box drifted through the room with supplies for each student. “In the box are bundles of three small objects wrapped in a piece of cloth, please take one and then find a partner. You will be taking turns blindfolding yourselves with your cloth while your partner arranges the items for you to identify.” The objects were simple wooden shapes; cubes, cylinders, pyramids and such. “You may begin whenever you are ready. Please don’t hesitate to ask if you need assistance.” Giselle was quite curious to see how this experiment would play out. As far as she knew, she and Andrew were the only ones to have used this spell, would anyone else be able to make it work?


OOC: Welcome to DADA... which is being taught by the divinations professor for this one class, Professor Carter-Xavier is the normal professor for this term. As with all classes, posts will be scored on length, relevance, and creativity, along with adhering to all site rules. Have fun, and tag Professor Duell if you need her.
Subthreads:
2 Giselle Duell Attacking the Darkness [Beginners] 1517 1 5

Tommy Jamison

November 08, 2020 5:25 PM
Tommy thought it was sorta weird how there kinda just… wasn’t a Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor right now. Sometimes that happened, he figured, based on staff hiring and stuff like that, but Sonora did kinda have one, she just wasn’t here. So instead, Professor Carter-Xavier had to fill in.

But today, it was somebody else, which was even weirder. Tommy hadn’t been here very long yet, but he was starting to get the vibe that sometimes, stuff happened at school that you just kinda had to roll with. When Professor Duell explained the lesson, though, it made a lot more sense why she was here. And, also, how flippin’ cool was it that she had basically her own spell to help her get around? Tommy thought that was awesome! Although her mention of her brother did inspire a little pang of homesickness in his chest. He missed his sister. Tommy couldn’t really talk about that with Stanley and Wally, because that was their mom so it was a little weird how different the dynamic could be. But he could talk about it with Theo. Sophie was Theo’s sister too, sort of. His dad was one of Sophie’s godfathers, so that made him their god-brother. It definitely counted, so maybe he would talk to Theo about it later, if the feeling didn’t go away soon.

Tommy glanced around for a partner, but Stanley and Wally were sitting next to each other today so he figured they would probably work together. His girlfriend Rosalynn wasn’t especially close by, so he just turned good-naturedly to the neighbor seated nearest to him. “Hi, I’m Tommy,” he introduced. The school year was still pretty fresh, with people still learning names, so he figured it couldn’t hurt. “Wanna be partners?”
12 Tommy Jamison Bring it on 1518 0 5

Graham Osbrook

November 09, 2020 6:23 PM
In a way, Graham guessed it was kind of appropriate that Defense Against the Dart Arts was the class that kept turning up surprises – wasn’t the purpose of Defense Against the Dark Arts as much to teach them to be alert and respond quickly to all the problems they were supposed to have in life (he had never had noticed his parents having any personally, nor his grandparents, but he doubted his mother would use her maiden name professionally and urge him to study as hard as possible in this class if there really was no danger in the world. Mom was…not really the sort of mom who fussed and worried a lot when it didn’t make sense. If anything, she was almost painfully rational; there were times when Graham knew there was really no reason for her to be fussed about whatever was going on with him or Claire, but he kind of wished she would anyway) as it was to teach them the actual Defense part? He doubted this was really why a sub was covering for their, well, sub right now, but it did fit, kind of, even if the sub covering for the sub was…wasn’t that the same lady who had been at the Opening Feast? The new Divination teacher?

From what she said about them maybe taking her class next year, that seemed to be the case. Were they actually going to learn about how to predict danger? That would be –

His line of thought cut off as abruptly as the room plunged into pitch blackness. He didn’t think he gasped, but he definitely flinched, his shoulders rising toward his ears and his head ducking down before he caught himself. Stupid, of course – it was dark, not something being thrown at his face – but here he was. He jumped a little, too, at the unconcerned voice of Professor Duell, coming – he thought? – from a different place than before, though he was finally distracted from being unnerved by the last thing she said. They should feel free to raise their hands to answer? They were in an unnaturally pitch-black room! He put his fingers just beneath his eyebrows and pushed the skin up, just to make sure his eyes really were open, but nope, they were open, and it really was that dark.

His eyebrows rose again, this time in a more natural fashion, when the answers came. There were two interesting things there. One, this…was a thing. Two, for another, her brother had made her up a spell that worked? And was presumably approved and everything by the government (there had to be some kind of office for that, he imagined, even if it would be kinda easy to ignore if you wanted most of the time), for her to teach it to kids? That was…that was just cool. He had spent a whole year hearing about how he could blow up the building if he fiddled with spells at all, so apparently Professor Duell – and probably that Valentine girl, now that he thought about it; that had sounded kind of like her who had squealed when Professor Duell showed up – was related to someone pretty epic. Not that that was related to class, of course, but still.

He couldn’t help but notice one small problem – wouldn’t saying the incantation out loud risk drawing attention to them in a dark room just like lumos would, if maybe not quite as blindingly obviously so? – but the class was breaking up into pairs already, so he shelved the issue for now. He was sitting beside a first year, who he smiled politely at when the younger boy suggested they partner up. “Sure,” he said agreeably. “I’m Graham. Second year,” he added. “This is pretty cool stuff, huh? Do you want to go first?” he asked. “Or pick what to do first?” he corrected himself, realizing that both parties in this game would need to do something.
16 Graham Osbrook My mom would say we should try to understand it and negotiate instead of attacking. 1498 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 10, 2020 7:13 AM
Oz made his way to Defence class. It was a class that confused him a bit. Mostly in a ‘the heck was up with this world?’ kinda way. It was weird, cos on the surface of it, this world seemed safer than his old one but apparently there was a bunch of stuff ready enough to kill him that he needed lessons in not dying. It was just weird. There were a bunch of things that were bad for you back home and… well, he guessed they did kind of lectures on not smoking or getting into any of the various pitfalls that life in a less than affluent area presented, but those had only been occasional lectures in assembly or home room, not a class he had to take all the time. And it was weird because he’d been able to see those threats. They’d been visible on street corners, or were why you didn’t go out after dark, or why Mom would rather he batted in the arcade even though it cost money than using the cages at the park. So far, nothing had swooped at him here. He’d been more comfortable and more well fed and just… safer than he’d been in his life, and yet he had to take a whole class about how dangerous this world was. It didn’t really stack up.

At the moment, Ms. Carter-Xavier was mostly teaching this class, cos the regular lady was off. Someone had said she and the potions teacher were lesbians together, which was okay. It was sort of weird, because he was pretty sure teachers at his old school wouldn’t have admitted that kind of thing, but it was one of those things Mom had taught him not to be a butt about even if other people were. But anyway, she wasn’t there. And today, Ms. Carter-Xavier wasn’t there either and the mega dramatic teacher who always wore sunglasses was there instead.

That would have been like, whatever, except she started being seriously freaky right off the bat. She plunged them all into darkness and went around talking like this was a horror movie and they were all about to die. Oz had watched way too many eighteen plus things on Netflix for this not to be sending very real and visceral chills down his spine. He was really, really tempted to light his wand, and was pretty sure that wasn’t a wimpy response because being able to do magic was cool and important here, but then she pointed out that would get them attacked. What the freaking heck?! He managed, for once, to keep his narrative of swear words internal because he was pretty sure that cussing in the dark was a way to sound like you were a massive wiener who was freaking out about this – and in the dark, his voice was indistinguishable from Henry’s.

He was very relieved when Freaky Lady turned the lights back on, though he hoped there wasn’t an obvious shine of sweat on his face. The spell word and stuff sort of went over his head, because everything she was saying was still really mind-blowing. They were going to beam pictures right into their own heads? That was freaky. Was that even safe? He had time to just about wonder that before she mentioned pairing up and being fricking blind folded. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Did she not know what [redacted]s kids could be? Like heck he was being blindfolded by or in proximity to anyone. Except one.

He’d figured he and Henry would end up working together sometimes. Partly, he thought that Henry was just going to butt in far too much and not be able to leave him alone. He had figured this class might be one where it happened more though – of course, that had been because he’d assumed they’d be throwing jinxes around, and like heck he was letting anyone fricking jinx Henry. As such, he had tended to sit a little nearer to him here than he had in other classes. Not like, so he was directly with him, but so that he was close enough, if they had to pair up and do messed up stuff, that he could get to his brother before anyone else did.

“Yo,” he called over to him, “Pair up?”
13 Oz Spellman I got you, bro (tag Henry) 1514 0 5

Henry Spellman

November 10, 2020 9:47 PM
Something about Defense class was immensely validating. It was probably the fact that everything always seemed too big and too scary and now there was MAGIC so at least now they were going to learn something actually useful. He always sort of wondered why their old school hadn't taught self-defense classes or something, except it would probably just make the bullies and the jerks more aware of the best ways to hurt other kids, so maybe that was why. In the grand scheme of things, the risk of bullies being more aware of jinxes and defense spells seemed less problematic than failing to arm literal children with anything to keep them alive in a world that apparently wanted to kill them, so that was a good checks and balances sort of thing. Plus now they were in the dark and definitely going to die so that was great.

Henry watched a lot of true crime shows, and he knew enough about murdering people to know that the dark wasn't really necessary. You could kill people in broad daylight if you did it right and most of the time, that's exactly what people did. Literal darkness wasn't half so important as 'the darkness within' and what not, and sometimes the only darkness an attacker needed was whatever made sure no one else was looking. The dark also came with advantages; if he couldn't see the bad guy, the bad guy couldn't see him. Henry was smaller than most bad guys and could hide easier, so that was probably more of an advantage for him than any sorts of murderers. That was more relevant at home, because if someone was going to break in or something, he was smaller, could hide, and also knew the layout of the apartment better than a sketchy burglar dude. Or lady. He didn't want to discriminate; ladies could be crazy murderers too.

All the logic in the world couldn't really make him like the dark though, and he had the distinct feeling that he wasn't alone in that. He and Oz, for example, had always slept in the same room, sometimes even the same bed; the dark seemed much less frightening when you weren't alone in it. Unless you were supposed to be alone in it and you weren't, and then it was way worse. In this case though, the only person who could 'see' in the dark was the only one probably capable of murdering him, and also the one who was supposed to make sure that didn't happen. He figured he'd try to count on the second half, because at least if the whole class died, she'd probably get fired. That was a losing situation for her. Probably.

The lights came on and Henry was really really glad that Oz wanted to work together, because there was literally no one else he'd trust to be blindfolded with. He didn't necessarily totally trust Oz either, but it was in the sort of playful way that Oz was a butt, not like he was literally going to stab him or something. Oz might tie his shoelaces together or steal something from his backpack or something, but he wasn't going to do something more malicious than that. In the whole world, there was only one person he could trust, and he was sitting in the room with him. Even when their mom didn't show up on time, or wasn't there, or couldn't make things work, Oz always could. There was a good chance Henry literally wouldn't be around if not for Oz keeping an eye on him even in the worst of times, and vice versa. He wouldn't want the other half of every sandwich if it meant he didn't have his brother.

"Yeah," he said, nodding decisively and arranging himself so that he was more directly lined up with Oz. He lowered his voice, not wanting others to hear him; although he wasn't usually willing to share his anxieties, knowing that Oz probably expected it of him anyway meant that at least he couldn't disappoint. "This is insanity, right? Not this this. Although this too. But everything?"
22 Henry Spellman I got you too, bro. 1513 0 5

Billy Cobb

November 11, 2020 6:08 PM
Billy sauntered into class, this was by far one of his favorites. It certainly wasn't one of his best, but he liked it a lot. It felt a little more like home... no, that wasn't right. It felt more like what he wanted to do than a lot of the other classes. They were just sitting around and learning stuff and practicing stuff. This class was about doing stuff. Charms taught him how to make something float up off the ground, this class taught him when and why to do it. Occasionally they got to get up and run around and learn how to survive... that, that was why it felt a bit like home. It was like Pa teaching him how to deal with the critters in the woods or Ma making sure he knew what plants were okay to eat and such. This class also kept you on your toes.

Like now, Professor Carter-Xavier wasn't at the front of the room. It was one of the other teachers, one he hadn't had yet. He wondered what they'd be fighting today. This professor didn't really look like a dangerous beast wrangler, but you never knew... Oh. Billy sucked in a deep breath when the room went dark. It seemed like his hearing kicked up just a bit as he became more aware of the noises the other students were making around him. The professor's voice came from a different direction, she had moved? He hadn't heard that. She'd asked them to raise their hands... in this pitch blackness? He did, she called on him and he stammered out something about using his ears. How...? Did those glasses let her see in the dark?

When the lights came back on, the teacher... professor was standing back up front as though nothing had happened. She then began to explain how she did that. He was going to need to learn this one. This would be a good spell to know. He turned to the kid next to him with eager anticipation. "That's pretty great! You wanna go first, or should I?"
2 Billy Cobb That sounds tricky 1519 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 13, 2020 7:28 PM
Valentine let out a squeal of delight as she got to the DADA classroom. This was ordinarily not her favorite class. It was all about the dark and creepy things in the magical world, things she would really rather not think about. Unfortunately, not thinking about things did not make them not exist. Well, that was actually good, otherwise she wouldn't have an aunt, an aunt that was standing in front of the class which was going to make this the best class ever! She swiftly made her way to an open seat in the front of the room, unable to stop smiling from ear to ear.

She was going to have to remind Aunt Giselle that the dress she was wearing was the ugly green colored one. It was fine, but... she had nicer ones. Maybe she could help Aunt Giselle mark them somehow the next time she went to go see her. The train of thought was cut off as Professor Duell began class. Val was determined to be a perfect student and help out any way she could.

Aunt Giselle didn't talk long before she plunged the room into utter darkness. It was dark. Val could see her hand fight in front of her face. She could however hear some of the other student's reactions to the sudden darkness. She wasn't a fan of the dark, but this was coming from Aunt Giselle, so it was fine. This is what it was like for her all of the time, which was quickly confirmed as Professor Duell continued to wander about the room and talk.

When the lights came back on, she smiled with a bit of relief. It might have gotten difficult to do the whole class in the dark. Valentine started scribbling notes like a good student, then paused. This was a spell Papa had come up with? Awesome! She hasn't really thought about where Aunt Giselle had learned her 'seeing' spell. The idea that Papa had made it for his Transfigurations work worried her a little, Papa had been really good at that… she was less so.

When their supplies arrived, she looked at her partner with a bit of a nervous smile, "I hope Papa didn't link this spell to closely to transfigurations, or I'll be terrible at it." She picked up the bandana, "Would you like to go first, or should I?"
2 Valentine Duell This is great! 1490 0 5

Bertie Jackson

November 14, 2020 2:05 AM
Defence Against the Dark Arts was both Bertie’s favourite and least favourite class. On the one hand, it involved smacking things upside the head and was the closest that school got to offering an experience to rival shooting zombies on a games console. It was actually the closest life in general got that a lot of the time because Mom was annoyingly strict about not letting him play ‘inappropriate’ games. However, Defence often involved quick reactions, and he didn’t like the associated pressure that came with that.

He took a seat at the front. He wasn’t always a ‘front row’ kind of guy in spite of being an Aladren because he didn’t like to draw attention or get called on too much. Just because he knew more than most people didn’t mean he felt the need to show it off. However, most of the other open seats were next to people he felt were undesirable to sit with (either because they were potentially stuck up or because they were that new kid who ran his mouth), so the front row was the lesser of two evils. The open seat was next to Valentine Duell, who he had observed to be overly talkative. However, that had the potential advantage of not expecting him to say much. Plus she was best friends with an Aladren, so unless Bonabelle was another outlier like Josie, Valentine was presumably capable of opening her mouth (repeatedly and perhaps excessively) without being annoying. Plus she was a Teppenpaw, so she would at least probably be nice.

It also hadn’t escaped his notice that the new professor shared her last name, and was currently at the front of the room. It was unlikely that this would give Valentine many advantages but it probably wasn’t a bad time to get to know her.

The lesson got off to an atmospheric start. Rationally, there was nothing to be afraid of. And Bertie was an Aladren and therefore rational and logical and not scared. He was, however, pretty glad when the lights came back on. The lesson itself really was excellent on all fronts. It was well designed and it made sense as a defensive skill. He also liked the stealth element and could see it being very useful in spying. It was also just downright cool that Giselle’s brother had invented a spell, and he sort of very much wanted to go around to the Duells’ house and hang out with him and talk about that. There was just one flaw with working on a niche spell such as this, and that was that he had no idea what the signs for it were. Over his summer camp programs over at CASCMA he had learnt the signs for all the most common spells that would be likely to come up during his beginners courses. This was clearly an uncommon spell. His signing was nowhere near fluent enough to make educated guesses at how he could sign it - he had learnt lists by rote, not learnt to put blocks together himself. He could finger spell, and use that as a back up for things he really didn’t know and where the words got stuck, but he was mostly just going to have to stumble his way through this one, and he couldn’t see it going particularly well.

“Your d-dad sssounds c-c-c---- awesome,” Bertie stated when Valentine brought up the fact that he’d invented the spell, his feeling that he had chosen the right partner for this class solidly reaffirmed, even if it didn’t seem like she knew that much about it.

“Uhh-ladies first,” he suggested when she asked which of them ought to begin. “Do-does he invent a-a-a lot of things?” he asked, his curiosity overcoming his dislike of small talk. Inventing stuff wasn’t small talk anyway. It was big and interesting and cool talk.
13 Bertie Jackson It's pretty cool 1497 0 5

Tommy Jamison

November 14, 2020 7:37 AM
Tommy was pretty sure this kid had been pointed out to him and established as Wally’s roommate, but he didn’t remember hearing a name, so it was nice to have one to attach to the face. Graham it was. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” the younger wizard agreed. “I think I’d rather arrange first, if that’s okay,” he added. He figured a second year obviously had more experience doing magic and might have more success, so Tommy wanted to observe before attempting himself. Plus, being a little younger, he also figured he had more recent experience arranging blocks, so he was the better suited arranger.

“You go ahead and blindfold up,” he said, unwrapping the cloth and passing it over. “I’ll let you know when I’m ready.” This particular bundle of goods contained a cylinder, a long rectangle, and a pyramid. Tommy’s immediate thought based on all parts having flat bottoms was to go vertical, and he stacked them in the previously stated order. “Okay, all set,” he announced to Graham. “Go ahead and do that magic. No cheating!” he added, his tone obviously playful. “And, uh, don’t move around too much if you can help it.” The thought only then occurred to him that it was possible Graham might knock the stack over, so carefully, he scooted it back juuuuust a little on the desk, to give the older boy a little more space to move.
12 Tommy Jamison You negotiate, I'll fight 1518 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 14, 2020 12:44 PM
She was working with Bertie, neat. She hadn't gotten a good chance to get to know him yet. It was time to fix that. She flashed him a big smile as he complimented Papa. "He is," she agreed. "I like him well enough anyway." She giggled. Then at his invitation, she tied the bandana around her head, over her eyes. It was dark again, but that was hardly unexpected.

"He does…" then she paused for just a moment, "or at least he tries. He works doing magical research and development. At home he tries to combine magical and muggle things." She thought back over Papa's various experiments over the years, "Sometimes he even gets things to work right! Apparently it is quite tricky." She thought over what she knew of Bertie, sadly it wasn't much. He was in Aladren like Bonabelle. He didn't seem to like hairbows as much though. Well, may as well continue with the current subject. "Do you have more of a muggle or magical background?" She asked in a friendly tone, "I'm rather mixed even though both of my parents came here."

"Let me know when you are ready," she told Bertie as she patted around on the table blindly until she found her wand. She also located her notebook, but her notes weren't going to help her much at the moment. "The words were 'Mentis… Imago'?" She asked with a minor bit of uncertainty.
2 Valentine Duell I'm enjoying it, are you? 1490 0 5

Graham Osbrook

November 18, 2020 3:30 PM
He was to be blindfolded first. Graham could hardly say the liked the idea, but he had been the one to offer the privilege of first choice to Tommy, and so could hardly complain about what he got. “Right,” he said. “That’s fine.”

Some might have bristled at Tommy’s casual comfort with giving directions; Graham was not one of them, though he did half-smile as he took the blindfold from Tommy. On the occasions he had glimpsed this expression of his in a mirror, he had thought it looked as innocuous as any other pleasant expression, but he knew that Grandmère and Claire both found it irritating – they said they couldn’t tell what he was thinking when he had it. Usually, it was not really an expression that went with many thoughts at all, just a vague reaction to things, but explaining this had never really worked, and he therefore tried to smooth it away quickly in case it turned out it was an expression which annoyed Tommy too.

This was easy, he thought, considering what he was doing with his hands. He did not find the blindfold uncomfortable, in the physical sense, but he instantly felt ill at ease without his vision. He could hear noises all around the room but couldn’t put them into any context. He realized quickly that he was turning his head around, as if that might make his vision come back, even though he could feel the blindfold pressing his eyelids shut and touching his temples. This, he thought, was a great way to drive someone insane….

“Go ahead and do that magic. No cheating!”

The voice of his partner was close enough and distinct enough to place, and he turned his head back toward it again. The top of his face was swathed in fabric, but his mouth tipped into a grin at the teasing tone. “Yes, Professor,” he joked back, and felt his brow crease as he tried to remember the wand movement. He could remember what Professor Duell had said, a loop around the area he wanted to see…but how exactly was he supposed to figure out where he was looking? He had a specific task to do, so…he guessed he was supposed to look around the room until he found the right area? He could feel his wand under his fingers, but it felt strange and unwieldy, almost unfamiliar, there now. He knew he could make precise wand movements, he always had, but he had never thought before about how much being able to see what he could do contributed to his ability to do that.

Okay. His head was facing the direction Tommy had been in, probably. Tommy didn’t sound like he had moved much, so it stood to reason that he had arranged the things Graham was supposed to try to ‘see’ in this direction. He could do that. He could. He took a breath, bit his lip, raised his wand to what he hoped was a good height between his desktop and his face, and made a wobbly loop while reciting, “mentis imago, mentis imago.”

It felt like he was watching lights flash white against a black sheet of paper. He couldn’t make out anything sensible from it, and flinched behind his blindfold as he stopped moving his wand.

“Something happened,” he informed what he hoped was still Tommy’s general direction. “It was all – crazy, though. White and black and I couldn’t really make out…anything, not any patterns.” He meant to defer again, but then made a face and tugged off the blindfold, ruffling his brown hair in the process. “Why don’t you give it a try, then we’ll go back to me?” he suggested.
16 Graham Osbrook Division of labor, very smart. 1498 0 5

Bertie Jackson

November 18, 2020 4:40 PM
"That sssounds a b-bit like my house," Bertie stated, almost enthusiastically when Val talked about her dad trying to combine Muggle and magical things, although both her parents were magical.

"Mmmulti racial. In multiple senses," he answered with a grin that she couldn't currently see, though could possibly slightly hear. "My-my mom's non-a- My mom's a Mmmuggle," he stated, recalling the tangle he'd recently got in with those words when talking to Mara and deciding to just use that term even though he liked it less. Valentine had used it too so presumably didn't find it offensive. "Dad's a-a wizard b-but he's an-an anthropo-pologist and he studies Mmmuggle culture," he explained. "Our family has a-a whole education ce-center trying to --- teach about Muggle culture." This included running a lot of technology and trying to make it not go 'boom.' Mostly, their strategy was insulating it against magic as best they could (a little mind-bending when they mostly used magic to achieve this) and giving it long cool down periods if it looked like it was about to start smoking. It sounded like his and Valentine's dads would get along. Maybe they'd even crossed paths already. They were able to keep a lot of tech in house, granddad was pretty good with it, learning through trial and error, and now Levon was taking on that mantle, having gone to university for engineering. Still, it was a small field.

He unrolled the fabric, finding a cube, a cone, and a fairly two dimensional triangle inside, and realising that unless they swapped shapes with their neighbours between turns, that going second gave him an advantage. He considered laying no shapes out on the table, not to be mean but because it was a valid option and he enjoyed less obvious options as a rule. However, as Valentine was still learning the spell, she would have a hard time judging whether or not she was getting it right. They needed a good baseline before they started really experimenting, so he simply laid the shapes out in a row, triangle, cone, cube.

"Yes," he confirmed regarding the spell. Remembering spell words and wand movements weren't the difficult parts for him. "And ready," he confirmed.
13 Bertie Jackson So far, so good 1497 0 5

Tommy Jamison

November 19, 2020 1:47 PM
Aw man, that was just great. Despite Professor Duel specifying that the spell was difficult and might not even work for them at all, Tommy had been kinda hoping to hear a positive and successful report from his partner, but that was not the case. Instead, Graham was sending him into a danger rave in his own brain.

But Tommy would be brave in the face of danger, of course, so he obliged. “Sure,” he said with moderate confidence. “Although first, while we can both see, let’s take a moment to appreciate my cool tower, huh?” Tommy gestured to the stacked blocks with both hands, presenting it almost like a gameshow host.

“Alright, now let’s do this thing for real,” he progressed with a laugh, sitting his wand on the table so he would be able to find it when he was blindfolded. He pulled the cloth strip around his eyes and tying it as best he could backwards. It was surprisingly difficult, and had he struggled a moment or two longer he would have gladly asked for help, but he managed to secure it enough to block the light, stay in place, and be generally sufficient. Tommy reached for his wand on the desk, fumbling only slightly to locate it again. “Okay,” he said, “just let me know when you’re ready.”
12 Tommy Jamison I do what I can. 1518 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 20, 2020 6:59 PM
Valentine smiled when Bertie commented on the similarity of their houses. "Has your family ever tried working with a microwave?" She giggled, "Papa gave up on them after burning out the third one." Then she thought for a moment as he talked more about his family and what they do. "That's right!" She exclaimed, "You had a booth set up for it a the fair last year, didn't you?" She grimaced slightly as she remembered the fair. She'd spent all of her money at one booth getting a fancy quilt for Aunt Giselle, and she hadn't had any to give to the rest of the booths that had been set up. Still Aunt Giselle liked the quilt and had it on her bed in her quarters right now, so that was good, but she still felt guilty about not being able to help any of the other booths. "Are there a lot of wizards that want to learn about Muggle culture?" she asked wondering a bit what it would be like to be a complete stranger to one of the two worlds.

"Okay," She responded once Bertie indicated he was ready. "Let's see if this works." It should work, it was pretty much a family spell, right? Papa made it, Aunt Giselle had fine tuned it, she was pretty sure Mama knew it as well. No problems, right? The motion was easy enough to duplicate, she'd seen her aunt do it a lot. She hadn't really know what the incantation was though, Aunt Giselle usually cast it non-verbally. She swished her wand around a bit, loosening up, then grinned again, in Bertie's direction, "here we go! Mentis Imago."

Nothing happened. A small, disgruntled pout showed on her face. "Let me try that again. Mentis Imago!. There was a feeling? Maybe? Of something, tickling somewhere in her mind, but nothing else apart from that. She slouched back a bit in her seat and shook her head slowly. "Nothing..." Maybe if she kept trying, Bonabelle was not one for letting her give up on something, but now she wasn't sure about this one. Val pulled off the blindfold and handed it over to Bertie. "How about you try?" she said with a smile that hinted of melancholy, "Once you get it, I'll give it another go."
2 Valentine Duell What could make it better? 1490 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

November 21, 2020 2:28 PM
She screamed.

Lorena hadn’t meant to, but the lights going out had totally surprised her, and she screamed. In surprise. Not fear. Surprise. She didn’t even know that was a thing you could do with magic! Her father always got up and turned off the lights with the switch. She had very few memories of the man actually waving his wand around the house, since her mother didn’t approve of it. Lorena felt like she had so much to catch up on. Her only saving grace here was that hopefully, since the lights were off, nobody would know who it was that screamed. Her classmates wouldn’t be used to her voice that specifically yet, so she had a chance at remaining the neutral opinion of her peers.

She especially hoped at least Rosalynn and Isla would still like her. She really liked the idea of sharing a room and having best friends here at Sonora. Lorena had never really fit in at her old school, but here, she was automatically placed with people just like her, who liked books and reading and that kind of thing. In a way, that both added and lessened the pressure: added because it was more significant friendship on the line, but lessened because they were more likely to accept her. It was an odd dichotomy, for sure.

Anyway, the professor said they should still raise their hands to contribute, so even though it didn’t make sense to her, Lorena raised her hand. “You can try listening instead of using your sight,” she suggested. She was grateful for the opportunity to participate without feeling like she was going to be disliked for it.

Professor Duell was already all the way back upfront when she restored the lights, which surprised Lorena again, but not enough to scream. She just jarred a little. And then it was time to try the spell themselves! Oh, gosh. A boy next to her asked if she wanted to go first or if he should, and Lorena smiled. A partner! “You can go first,” she allowed.
12 Lorena Abernathy I'm sure you'll get it eventually. 1510 0 5

Billy Cobb

November 22, 2020 4:52 PM
Billy was pretty sure this girl next to him screamed when the lights had gone out. That didn't matter though, it'd taken him by surprise as well, just as he figured it was supposed to. She smiled back at him, awesome he wasn't gunna have to wander around the room looking for someone else. This girl though... nope, he don't think he worked with her before yet. So, he did what was right and proper, he stuck out his hand to her, and grinned. "Sure thing! I'm Billy Cobb, of the Kentucky Cobbs." He was still sticking with the introduction that sounded the most right. Rosalynn's had been kinda weird and probably an odd case.

That matter out of the way, he unbundled their supplies. A bunch of shaped blocks and the cloth that had been holding them all together. That cloth he tied around his head, covering his eyes. Just like when the lights had gone out, he could tell his hearing went up a notch. He sniffed, had his smell as well? Maybe? "Alright then," he groped about for his wand, "You jus go let me know when you've got them there blocks all set up like you want 'em." His hand finally closed on his... quill. That wasn't going to work. Still he grinned again and waved it about like it was his wand, "I'mgo Mantus! That sound 'bout right?" These magical folk had some strange ways of pronounciating words. Their words were sharper somehow, they didn't roll off the tongue as nice or easy like the way everyone talked back home. "Now where in tarnation is my wand..?" he muttered as he put his quill back down and started groping about again.
2 Billy Cobb If it can be done, I'll do it. 1519 0 5

Quincy Wright

November 22, 2020 5:06 PM
Quincy didn't like Defense Against the Dark Arts as much as some of the other classes. It was very hands on and very fast, and he preferred to take things slow, and understand the ins and outs of something before moving forward. There also wasn't much tangible about Defense Against the Dark Arts, except the creatures they studied. He did like that part, but it was also real creepy. He'd rather learn about bowtruckles than some of the horrors they talked about in here. Today, though, was focusing on a very intangible thing, and that was the darkness. Well, really they were learning to defend themselves from whatever was in the darkness, but since that was left ambiguous, the darkness itself was the topic.

He was a little bummed that the spell Professor Duell was using couldn't give an actual visual image; he wondered whether he'd be able to see the proper colors if that was the case. Still, it was an interesting concept and one that he thought would be pretty useful. Plus, if he and Bertie could get really good at it, maybe they could find a good use for it in their dorm at night somehow, sending each other messages in the dark or something. That would be pretty cool.

Quincy took a breath and looked around for a partner, not loving this part of classes at Sonora. They were very interactive, which as well and good if you liked people, but Quincy only liked them sometimes. Granted, he was pretty sure he liked them more than Bertie did, but it was mostly because Quincy was just laid back enough to figure that people were going to disappoint most of the time and he didn't get his hopes up. Plus, Bertie seemed to find people distracting, and Quincy thought they were more like an opportunity with very limited potential to come to any real fruition.

Before Quincy could find someone to work with though, someone spoke to him first.
22 Quincy Wright Meh, light is overrated. 1495 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

November 22, 2020 5:11 PM
“Nice to meet you, Billy!” Lorena grinned. His introduction was definitely different - was that a magical thing? - so she decided to try mirroring it. “I’m Lorena Abernathy. Of the Californa Abernathys.” She didn’t know of any other Abernathys, although it didn’t seem like an especially uncommon name, so there definitely had to be others. In fact, she was absolutely certain there were. Heck, there were probably more Abernathys just in California. Maybe even Newport Beach! So it wasn’t very specific. But, she rationalized to herself, sitting on both sides of her own fence, there were probably also more people named Cobb in Kentucky than just Billy’s family, so maybe the format didn’t necessarily imply that they were the only ones, or a specific one.

Billy took the initiative to get the blindfold all set up, leaving her the duty of arranging for him. Lorena took the three items and spaced them evenly apart on top of the desk, deciding to be kind and keep it simple for his first attempt at it. She laughed as he waved his quill instead of a wand, then felt bad for laughing, until he made it more clear that he didn’t mean it. With his vision taken away, though, he couldn’t seem to actually locate his real wand. “Oh, here!” Lorena said. She picked up his wand where it was sitting on the desk before him and slid it under his grasping hand, so that he could locate it more easily. “There you go. Now you can try the spell for real! I’m all set with the blocks. Go ahead when you’re ready.”
12 Lorena Abernathy I have complete faith! 1510 0 5

Graham Osbrook

November 30, 2020 5:37 PM
“Very cool tower,” agreed Graham, observing the assembled shapes he was supposed to have seen with Professor Duell’s spell. Had he seen any of these shapes in that mess and not quite processed exactly what they were in the strange, alien view of the world he had had? It was hard to tell, or at least to remember clearly. He glanced at Professor Duell, remembering again what she had said about her brother inventing this for her when she had had to go to school, and he felt genuinely sorry for her. It would be awful, having to learn to rely on this entirely…. “My weird black and white flashes didn’t do it justice at all.”

Getting into other people’s personal spaces wasn’t a thing Graham particularly enjoyed doing, but he was on the brink of offering to help Tommy with the blindfold (surely that wouldn’t count as an offense, given that he was clearly struggling with it? Would someone be offended by having the obvious acknowledged and a solution proffered? This was one of those things like the smiling thing, where it seemed all straightforward enough to him but sometimes people…disagreed with him on that point) when the other boy managed it for himself. He nodded when Tommy spoke, without thinking, though then he did think and chuckled.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “I nodded when you said that, and then I realized…there was no reason for me to do that,” he explained, not wanting Tommy to think he was laughing at his efforts to reclaim his wand or anything. “It’s funny how we just do things without thinking about it I guess,” he continued, and then began arranging objects into a star pattern before he started turning into his mother on the spot.

The different shapes of the objects made an exact shape hard to make, but he did his best and didn’t spend as much time as felt natural trying to make it perfect – making a perfect pattern wasn’t, after all, the task. When he deemed his work good enough, he looked up and said, “okay, ready. Let’s see if you can…see anything.”
16 Graham Osbrook I approve. 1498 0 5

Oz Spellman

December 03, 2020 7:22 AM
Henry's remark might not have made sense to everyone, or even to anyone else, but it made sense to Oz. This was insanity. Not just this, but also this, but just this - the crazy lady who had just plunged them into darkness, the magicness of it all, the not homeness of it all, all of it. He understood. He gave a microscopic nod, allowing a little chink in the armour. There were so many things that were not fine that he could never admit to out loud, but this collection of things, and to Henry, he could.

He wondered which of these was getting to Henry the most. Probably missing Mom. Maybe followed by the sheer magicness of everything. He thought Henry had been slower to believe that than he had.

For a second, it felt like Henry wasn't so far away. Oz felt a strange sensation, and it took him a moment to recognise it as the urge to smile. It felt odd because this didn't real feel like a happy situation, but also because it had just... been a while. He had grinned plenty since getting here. He had laughed. But it had been a while since he had had a chance for a shared smile of understanding. His face wanted to relax, his whole self wanted to relax, knowing that whatever state or expression it found itself in, it would find a mirror in the person opposite.

With a slight sigh, he reached for the blindfold. He did not like the thought of being vulnerable, but there were only two options on the table right now, and he liked the other one even less, even though he was here to be a barricade against anything truly bad happening.

"Let me know when you're ready," he stated, gripping his wand - this strange little stick that he wasn't sure he still fully trusted was his weapon against the darkness. He imagined slashing it around without being able to see how ridiculous he looked or what he was really doing. "And watch out that I don't take your eye out," he mumbled, in the tone of one who was very much questioning the sanity of the person who had them doing this.
13 Oz Spellman Yeah, sorry about that 1514 0 5

Henry Spellman

December 10, 2020 11:08 PM
Henry wouldn't have been able to explain why, but he got the urge to laugh as Oz contemplated his remark and then sighed. This was ridiculous. This was absolutely insane. This was a bad episode of a Buzzfeed prank show or something. Well, maybe not that, Buzzfeed's budget wasn't quite this big.

In the real world, students pairing up to blindfold themselves and play with blocks after the teacher made a dramatic demonstration in the dark would have been laughable. Here, it was melodramatic as heck. It was like the narrator voices on crime shows; the melodrama made sense when they were talking about the real scary stuff out there (assuming this really wasn't a prank show) but it all seemed a lot sillier when they were playing with blocks. It was Peter Thomas trying to explain the perpetrator's video game collection.

Henry was a bit surprised when Oz volunteered himself for the blindfold first, although he really shouldn't have been. Oz had always been self-sacrificing in the name of Henry-preservation. They both had been. It was the only way to get anywhere in the life they'd led before, and they knew each other well enough to know what made sense. If they were to be attacked, Oz could do more damage punching the attacker in the nose, and Henry could do more damage stepping back and seeing the whole picture. He could plan their way out of a bad situation, but he'd have to see it coming first. It felt like a grim twist on childhood toys to play this way, but play they would.

Henry nodded with pressed lips, adjusting the grip on his own wand at the same time. It felt strange to be trusting this strange little stick as any real sort of weapon against the darkness, even if it was on behalf of his brother, but it was his best bet in this world. Or at least, it was presumed to become his best beet. So far, he was pretty sure he'd do better punching the attacker in the nose too. He let a small smile cross his face, amused at Oz' warning until he decided it was actually a pretty good warning.

When his brother was solidly blindfolded, Henry retrieved the bundle of shapes. "I'm going to get these set up and I'll let you know when I'm done," he told Oz, wanting to keep the blinded one in the loop. He removed the cloth to find a cylinder, a triangular prism, and a - he counted the sides - octahedron. Basic blocks that Henry was pretty sure kids didn't actually ever learn the right words for. It was the circle and the triangle and the diamond if you were a kid. But Henry was smarter than the average demographic for such toys so he knew the real names. He organized them on the table in alphabetical order from left to right from his perspective (because it seemed reasonable to have some sort of order to it and he doubted that Oz knew the word octahedron to guess at anyway). "Ready," he said when he was satisfied.


OOC: Peter Thomas is the original narrator for Forensic Files.

Also, I googled 3D shapes and got all sorts of normal looking shapes with fun names so I decided in the moment that Henry was a nerd about that kind of thing. Because of course he is.
22 Henry Spellman I wouldn't wanna get anyone else probably. 1513 0 5