Two spades are better than one on Herbology

Nathan Xavier

June 20, 2021 1:09 PM

Intermediates: Replanting Techniques by Nathan Xavier

It was a lovely day outside in early spring, one of the first ones to be beautiful instead of a continuation of winter's bitter cold. If Nathan wanted to be outside in the fresh air, under the bright sun, feeling the wind through his hair, he imagined the youngsters in his classes wanted it even more. The advanced class had gotten a lesson on advanced spellwork that Herbologists used for shaping trees and bushes which had been practiced on shaping some of the hedges into fancy topiaries. The beginners had gotten a lesson on outdoor gardens, and had worked on planting rows of vegetables and potions ingredients which the school needed anyway but would give them a good opportunity to work on their gardening techniques.

Now it was time for the Intermediates. He met them in front of Greenhouse One, with smiles and comments about the lovely weather, and that if they wanted to drop their bags off inside, they could, but the lesson would be outside today. Also, they should please keep their wands and gloves handy.

Once everyone was assembled around him, he began. "Today we are going to be replanting some well established trees and bushes. This is quite difficult because the root systems for older and larger plants like these can be quite extensive. Third years, you will be working on some smaller bushes, fifth years, you'll get some trees, fourth years can pick which degree of difficulty in between those extremes you feel the most comfortable with. But come along this way." He led them through the Labyrinth to an area where he had started growing some saplings and bushes several years ago. They were now getting large enough that they were starting to crowd each other.

"You may work in pairs if you like, or individually if you prefer. The first thing you will need to do is pick which bush or tree you will be moving and find where you will put it. I have placed tags in numerous locations near here that would be good places to relocate any of these to. These look like this," he held up a wooden stake with a bright orange ribbon tied around the top of it. "Some are purple as well. Orange ones will take any type of plant, purple locations are appropriate only for bushes as there is already another tree too close by. "Please write your names on the ribbon and the stake, remove the ribbon from the stake, tie the ribbon prominently to your chosen plant so nobody else takes the one you want. Then start digging your hole where the stake is. We have shovels there, or you can use the dirt displacement spell we learned last fall." He pointed to a bin of shovels, that he expected most of the third years would opt for as the spell was a bit difficult for early intermediates and they hadn't had a huge amount of practice with it yet. "Holes for bushes should be at least one foot deep, those for trees at least two."

"Next, you will return to your plant and carefully dig around it to expose the roots. Once you can see a fair amount of them, you will use the retracting charm to pull as much of the roots in as you can. For anyone who does not know the retracting charm," again the third years, as it was something he covered every year so the fourth and fifth years would know it already, "it's a curling wand motion," he pulled out his wand and pointed it downward before twirling it like he was spinning spaghetti around a fork, "and the incantation is 'Glomero'. You may need to cast it a few times to bring in the farthest reaching roots. Raise your hand if you're having trouble with it. This will gather the roots in so it can be pulled out and moved more easily without cutting it off from its supply and support network. Then place it in the hole you dug and cast the rooting charm. The wand motion is like this." He again held his wand pointed down but this time he moved it counterclockwise in ever widening circles. "And you say 'Diffusus'. If you are working in pairs, you can both cast it once to encourage the roots to spread out even more. Try to hold the trunk as upright as you can while you're doing this, so it settles in straight. Then fill in the hole with fertilizer and dirt."

"If there are no questions, you may begin. If there are questions, and I know that was a lot, come speak to me individually. Again, you may work in pairs. Fourth years, you may work with a third or fifth year if you like." Third years and fifth years had different assignments, so presumably they would know they couldn't work together for this class, but he watched them pair off to make sure they were dividing up properly.

Subthreads:

Plants are nice [Tag Lavender] by Valentine Duell with Lavender Brockert

Two spades are better than one by Ellie Alperton with Gabriel Wilson

1 Nathan Xavier Intermediates: Replanting Techniques 28 1 5

Valentine Duell

June 21, 2021 5:30 PM

Plants are nice [Tag Lavender] by Valentine Duell

Valentine strolled out to the greenhouses happily. The weather was beautiful and she'd just had another wonder Divinations class with Aunt Giselle. Although, it had seemed to her that Aunt Giselle was a little upset or worried about something. She wouldn't talk about it though, so hopefully it wasn't anything bad. She'd gotten into the habit of getting to classes early so she could work on gaming stuff before class began. It was something she'd picked up as a good idea from Gary during her first year, this class was the exception. Not because she didn't like getting here early, although in some of the extreme weather times of the year it wasn't great. But generally because the greenhouse tables and the potting things weren't always conducive to working on things before class, and also because she liked to hang around after Divinations and catch up with Aunt Giselle as much as she could. Her schedule was so busy, it was rare to find enough time to just pop in to her office and say hi.

As such, there were a bunch of students already there when she arrived. She thought she hadn't spent much time at all with Lavender lately and needed to rectify that problem. So she greeted Professor Xavier, dropped off her things inside, tucked her wand into her hair (hopefully it wouldn't get stuck this time), put on her gloves, and went to stand next to Lavender.

Val followed the professor while staying close to Lavender and payed close attention to their lesson for the day. She wished she had something to note down the charms the Professor described. She shot a look at her friend, hopefully Lavender would remember any bits of those charms that she forgot. Once he finally released them to work she turned to Lavender with a bright smile and started moving towards the bushes, "Which bush do you like?"

2 Valentine Duell Plants are nice [Tag Lavender] 1490 0 5

Lavender Brockert

June 23, 2021 3:10 PM

They sure are by Lavender Brockert

Herbology was one of the classes that Lavender had sort of a soft spot for. First of all, Professor Xavier was one of the nicest, most approachable professors in the entire school. Actually, considering that Mom, Dad and Sophie were no longer on staff here and the only relative who was was her dad's crotchety old cousin whom Lavender found to be kind of scary,Professor Xavier was probably her favorite professor.

There were times though when the Crotalus wondered what it would be like if her parents still worked here. Would it be wonderful or would it be embarassing? Personally, she thought her parents were amazing but it would be awkward if like, she had to hear people complain about them. Especially considering that her mom had taught Transfiguration and it wasn't exactly Val's best subject. Of course, her dad hadn't been a teacher and people didn't really complain about groundskeepers that much. And her dad was much nicer and friendlier than Mr.Alamilla who seemed to be every bit as grumpy as Headmaster Brockert was.

And she knew that Kira in particular had enjoyed Sophie being on staff, just as Ryan and Arabella and the rest of the oldest cousins, had liked having her parents around, but Lavender was sure that would be strange for Wally and Stanley. Especially Stanley. The third year loved her cousin dearly, but she was pretty sure that if she were more like him, she probably wouldn't want her parents being at school all the time.

Another reason why Lavender was fond of Herbology was that while Transfiguration was the subject associated with Brockerts-and that her mom had also been the Transfiguration professor-she also had connection with this subject because her dad was an Herbologist more or less. He worked with plants and somehow that was connected with like Healing and developing new Healing potions. He, like, grew the plants that went into them. Ivy's boyfriend Chester was also going into an Herbology related field.

Plus, like, on her mom's side, there were lots of plant-named girls. Her name was Lavender, her sister was Ivy, and her mom was Lilac. Plus, her cousin Arnold's daughter was named Violet and Peyton's middle name was Rose. Maybe some day Lavender would have a floral named daughter too. She usually tried to listen well in Herbology for a good one.

She listened to Professor Xavier, not hearing any good names today, as they were talking about replanting bushes and Bush would be terrible name for a daughter or anything that wasn't, well, an actual bush, but at least she'd heard instructions for today's assignment.

When Val spoke, Lavender smiled brightly at her best friend. "Hmm...let's take that small one. It'll be less of a physical task." Physical tasks not being her favorite. "Besides, it's so cute."

11 Lavender Brockert They sure are 1504 0 5

Valentine Duell

June 27, 2021 3:29 PM

You know what eslse is good? by Valentine Duell

Valentine nodded and smiled in agreement. It was a cute bush. Lavender also had a point, the two of them were not exactly the biggest and strongest students in the class. Val didn't mind physical labor to much, as long as there were other people around helping out to keep her company while the work was happening. She was in the gardening club, and a Quidditch player so she kept active enough to be at least a decently strong fourteen year old girl.

As she looked at the bush a something occurred to her. "We are supposed to pick our digging spot first, aren't we? Then we use that to tag our bush." She glanced at the other students milling around and the place where the stakes were placed. "We need to find a location and get a tag before someone else can claim our bush!" Arguably she knew it really wasn't such a dire circumstance, but sometimes it was fun to add some extra drama to the situation just to make thing seem more interesting.

Val gave Lavender a playful smile, "Maybe one of us should find a location while the other stands guard over our new ward here." She looked around at their fellow classmates with narrowed eyes as if looking for traitorous ambushers, "Then no one can bushnap our bush while we aren't paying attention." She giggled lightly and then returned to a more normal tone of voice. "Or we can just go find a stake, write our names on it and bring it back to tag the bush like normal people."

2 Valentine Duell You know what eslse is good? 1490 0 5

Lavender Brockert

June 29, 2021 8:41 PM

Using one's imagination? by Lavender Brockert

Lavender smiled back at Val. She was glad that the other third year had agreed with her suggestion. Honestly, the Teppenpaw was a great friend, she was so nice and while Val was probably physically stronger than Lavender because she played Quidditch and stuff, she didn't put the Crotalus down for not being stronger that way the way some people might have.

It was just that the stuff that would have made one physically strong had never appealed to Lavender. She really didn't like sports or exercise or anything strenuous like that much at all and she wasn't very good at them either. The third year wasn't a fast runner and didn't have much for upper body strength. She really hadn't liked flying much either. The Crotalus was more interested in playing the oboe and doing crafts and, growing up,she was mostly interested in her dolls and stuffed animals.

Actually, she still was but at thirteen she didn't play with them as much as collect them, a hobby that Lavender shared with some of her older cousins, Kira and Amity in particular. The latter hadn't had much of a childhood because of her mom's penchant for forcing her daughters into nearly every single activity out there and expecting perfection in every single one, therefore, now Amity wanted to make up for it. As for Kira, she just liked that sort of thing and was the owner of the most magnificent dollhouse that Lavender had ever seen. Her own had been quite nice but Kira's was possibly the most amazing one in the entire world.

And besides, some of those in the doll collecting world were closer in age to her grandmother or great-grandmother, so she felt she was not too old for dolls at all. And she would never ever be able to resist the cuteness and cuddliness of stuffed animals.

Anyway,Lavender had gardened some too, with her dad, but she mostly stuck to the smaller things like flowers and herbs. She avoided anything that was large and heavy or anything that was dangerous.

The Crotalus giggled. The game Val suggested sounded like a more...fun way to do things but their classmates might judge (and mock) them for it. Well, more accurately, they might judge and mock Lavender for doing so. Her friend was more popular than her and might be able to get away with such things. She sighed. "I suppose we should act like normal people." She was less than excited about this idea. Honestly, one of the hardest things about growing up, possibly harder than even the yucky stuff, was giving up playing and having to act mature and boring rather than being creative and using one's imagination. "I'd suggest getting one of the orange tags too, so we have more options."

11 Lavender Brockert Using one's imagination? 1504 0 5

Valentine Duell

June 30, 2021 9:55 PM

I was thinking friends, but that works as well. by Valentine Duell

Valentine sighed quietly at Lavender's decision, even if it sounded almost as though Lavender didn't like it either. Especially after the giggle the girl had let out initially. She was quickly debating whether she should encourage her friend into being a bit more adventurous, and came to the conclusion that there may be more ways to do that than just the ones directly in front of her.

She flashed a smile to Lavender, "That may be more fun anyway," she responded, "then we get to go bush site shopping together instead of splitting up." Valentine moved to loop her arm through Lavender's so that they could set off in search of the perfect spot for their cute little bush together. Though she certainly wasn't going to force the contact if Lavender didn't want it. "What sort of spot do you think would suit our bush well," the Teppenpaw asked the Crotalus as she moved towards the place where the stakes were set into the ground.

There were a fair amount of the scattered about and she had to assume there were enough places to accommodate all of the plants. Lavender did have a point that the orange tags did give more options, but she really didn't want to be the person that planted a bush into the last place that could take a tree when there were more bush options around and therefore someone with a tree had no place to put it. As they inspected some of the various locations she asked her friend, "See any place that would be just perfect for our bush?"

2 Valentine Duell I was thinking friends, but that works as well. 1490 0 5

Lavender Brockert

July 03, 2021 9:04 PM

Friends are great! by Lavender Brockert

Val seemed a little disappointed and Lavender felt kind of bad. The last thing she ever wanted was to hurt her friend or let her down. Even though she was a Crotalus and not a Teppenpaw, friendship was very important to her and the other third year was the one friend she had outside of her family.

Sometimes, Lavender wished she had more friends, a group of them like in books she read, but her options were lacking. Well, technically, she had a group but they were all male and all her cousins (or her cousins' cousins). She wanted a group of female friends to do girly things with. Not that the boys weren't great and only Stanley was the really masculine sporty type and they had never done anything themselves to make her feel like she didn't belong. However, Lavender was still different than them when it came right down to it, which was becoming more obvious all the time. In all honesty, she sort of felt like she really didn't fit into her family. Not only was she was too much of a girl for Wally, Stanley and Gabriel, but she was too young for her brother, sister and Peyton and too old for Piper and Charlotte. And everyone else was an adult-and actually Ivy, Vlad and Peyton were adults now too- or a baby like her cousin Marcus' kids, Nadia and Dylan.

So now, Lavender craved the companionship of female friends her age but her year group was one of those weird ones that popped up now and then, that had more boys than girls instead of the opposite which was usually the case. It seemed to be the Crotalus's lot in life to be surrounded by men. She could only hope that trend continued when it was time to look for a husband-and that she would then be around ones that were husband material as in pureblood and not related to her. Also, Lavender hoped to find a kind man with a good heart who loved her unconditionally and that she felt the same way about.

However, for the moment,she wanted other girls to hang out with and they were in short supply. She wouldn't have minded being friends with Bonabelle, and she was certain that would make Val happy but she wasn't entirely sure the Aladren was interested. Plus, three was a terrible dynamic. Maybe one of the fourth or second year girls could join them although the second year girls were all roommates and seemed to be a trio.

Anyway, Val fortunately didn't seem bothered by Lavender's- reluctant-decision to act "like normal people." The other girl linked her arm with the Crotalus and came up with another suggestion. "That sounds like a plan." Lavender replied. "After all, we want our bush to grow and thrive and be comfortable and make friends with other bushes." She giggled and looked around for a space. She didn't see anything at first but then she spotted it. An excellent site.

"What about there?" Lavender pointed. "It's a purple but look how the two tree branches look like a little arch over it and there's a place next to it for someone to plant a similar bush so ours won't be lonely."

11 Lavender Brockert Friends are great! 1504 0 5

Valentine Duell

July 04, 2021 8:34 PM

Imagination is fantastic as well! by Valentine Duell

Valentine was glad to see Lavender perk back up as they took arms and went in search of a good spot for their bush. She knew that she didn't spend near enough time with the Crotalus girl and that made her feel a little sad. Val thought that maybe Lavender felt a little left out sometimes and she didn't want that to be the case. Lavender was one of her best friends, and she wanted to spend more time with her, maybe they would have to schedule something specific sometime. Ugh. That made Val think about her schedule again. It didn't need more appointments crammed into it, but she really needed to make some time for Lavender.

Actually, a good portion of her schedule at this point was taken by Bonabelle, now that they were 'dating'. She wondered a bit if Lavender knew about that and what she did or would think of it. Valentine herself still wasn't quite sure what to think about it. She loved Bonabelle, but she also loved Lavender and Philippe, and Alexander and... so many people. She was glad that she didn't have to have things figured out yet, because she didn't. The only thing she knew was that she didn't like letting people important to her feel like she wasn't doing all she could for them.

She wasn't paying much attention to the locations around them as she tried to sort out some solution to the dilemma. As such she was caught off guard by Lavender's discovery. She shook herself from her reverie and looked at the location that her friend had found. "Oh?" she looked at the spot where her friend was pointing and smiled. "It's wonderful Lavender! You've got a great eye!"

Valentine took the ribbon from the stake as they had been instructed and wrote their names upon it and the stake. She handed the ribbon to Lavender, "Here, do you want to tie this to the bush? I'll grab some shovels and we'll meet back here to make a hole for our bush."

2 Valentine Duell Imagination is fantastic as well! 1490 0 5

Lavender Brockert

July 06, 2021 11:06 PM

I think mine is alive and well by Lavender Brockert

OOC: CW-Talks about psychological abuse BIC:

Lavender beamed. She was glad that Val liked the spot that she'd picked. It made her happy to get approval from her friend on anything even something small like this. Generally speaking, the Crotalus liked to be complimented by anyone. After all, who didn't want to be told positive things about themselves?"Thanks." She replied.

However, it was a tad worrisome that Val had seemed a little surprised. Not surprised that Lavender apparently had a good eye for a nice place to put their bush-the Crotalus honestly had had lots of practice doing things like this with her dad-but that Val seemed like her mind had been a million miles away. The Crotalus had been focused on finding the right spot for the bush, that being part of the lesson and all,but now she wondered if she should have been paying attention to her friend's feelings. "Are you all right?" Lavender asked. "You seem like you were deep in thought about something before I pointed out the spot."

And she honestly hadn't even noticed until she had noted the surprise in Val's voice. Which of course, the Crotalus felt bad about now. As much as she wanted decent grades, friends were more important. What people felt in general, people in general, were what truly mattered, much more than grades and achievement. Lavender knew very well what happened when someone thought it was the other way around. Look at her aunt and cousins. Aunt Jillian's pushing her daughters had led to Amity hating her and Chaslyn having some definite issues. Actually, Amity also had some issues too really.

Not that this situation was the same as that at all but the point was that Lavender should have noticed how much Val had been thinking. And maybe she had done something wrong to make her friend be so quiet like that. She desperately hoped that wasn't the case, she would have hated to have upset Val or anyone else.

Or maybe it was something else. Thinking of Amity and Chaslyn had made Lavender remember how much Val was involved in things. Not to the level that they had been but still enough that it was a lot. Maybe she was tired from that. The Crotalus really hoped that her friend didn't run herself too ragged. She didn't want Val to be like people-mainly Dad and Amity-said Chaslyn had been, in a perpetual state of exhaustion because she was doing too much.

And Lavender especially hoped that neither of Val's parents were like Aunt Jillian and expected too much of her. Fortunately, the Crotalus had never gotten that impression but if her friend was being abused-for that was what it was, psychological abuse-Lavender wanted to help her anyway she could. After all, abuse wasn't always obvious especially psychological or emotional abuse.

Of course, Lavender was pretty sure it was something else entirely, at least as far as potential abuse went. Or at least she sincerely hoped so. She just couldn't bear to think of that happening to her friend. She knew how it had messed up her cousins. However, Lavender still thought Val doing too much was a possible problem,she hoped that it was because the Teppenpaw had chosen it.

Granted part of the problem was that the two of them didn't really get to spend as much time together as Lavender would have liked although she noticed Val spent plenty of time with Bonabelle. She couldn't help but feel a tad jealous and resentful of the Aladren occasionally since she seemed to monopolize Val's time even more than the clubs did.

Lavender took the ribbon from Val and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

11 Lavender Brockert I think mine is alive and well 1504 0 5

Ellie Alperton

July 07, 2021 8:18 AM

Two spades are better than one by Ellie Alperton

Ellie was quite pleased to hear that today’s Herbology lesson would be outside. It was a lovely day, and even though she generally enjoyed being in class, it felt like one of the first such days in a long while. She didn’t even think the ‘having class outside’ thing was likely to be compromising the quality of the lesson, given that herbology was a very outdoorsy subject.

She listened carefully to the directions, not quite sure how she felt about her ability to move a tree, albeit a small one, whether by physical efforts or by magic. Technically, she knew that physical and magical strength weren’t correlated, but that didn’t mean it was actually easy to lift something that heavy by magic. It was quite likely to be a bit unwieldy, whatever method she used. It was for this reason that she decided to find a partner. As far as partner work went, she could take it or leave it. She had a decent streak of Aladren independence and perfectionism when it came to her schoolwork, which meant she didn’t always want someone else involved if she thought she could do a better job by herself. However, she was also fairly sociable, and did believe in being kind—so long as offering help didn’t slow her down or compromise her own grade, she was very willing to give it. It also made it a fairer exchange in a situation like this, where she was maybe the one bringing a little less to the table.

She glanced around, looking for someone to pair with. They didn’t necessarily have to be any stronger than her, it was just about halving the workload of both digging and carrying. Searching for a partner was a task that was made a little challenging by being one of the shorter people in her yeargroup, though at least she was at the top end of the age bracket in the class. And hopefully by next year, she would be on hormones instead of blockers and might actually start to catch up…

“Hi,” she smiled at someone who still seemed to be at a loose end. “Want to work together?”

13 Ellie Alperton Two spades are better than one 1456 0 5

Valentine Duell

July 07, 2021 9:18 PM

Friend or imagination? by Valentine Duell

Valentine was delighted that Lavender looked so happy. "You're welcome," the Teppenpaw responded. If she could just go on making people happy all the time, that would just be the best thing ever. Then Lavender turned the tables on her and she wasn't quite ready for her friend's question. "All right? Me? I'm..." her gut reaction was naturally to respond with 'I'm fine', but was she? If she wasn't, did she want to worry Lavender? Could she lie to Lavender? No, no... neither of those were good. She couldn't do those, so she should be fine, right? That would be for the best. Yeah. Was she though? Realizing she was still standing in front of Lavender without having answered yet she flushed a bit, "I'm not sure," she stammered out with a weak smile. "But, you'd better get our bush tagged before someone else does. I'll be right back with the shovels." Val gave Lavender the most apologetic look she could manage. It was a terrible thing to give an answer like that and the run away, but she needed a few moments to think and this was a perfect excuse. "Hurry back," she encouraged her friend as she ran off towards the shovels.

Was she alright? No. Val was startled at how easily that answer had come when there wasn't any other pressure. She was tired, she had to many things going on, she had to much homework, she needed more time. A brief memory of Gary flashed through her mind, he had been ruminating about something called 'Time Turners' and had been convinced that the librarian had a stash of them in his back room. Fantastical theories aside though, what could she tell Lavender? She really didn't want her friend to worry about her, which made her think that perhaps her situation warranted some level of worry? Well, she had been worrying about it most of the year now and it wasn't getting better.

Arriving at her destination, Valentine picked a shovel and began to make her way back. She figured that it might be better if they took turns rather than both trying to dig the same hole at the same time. Plus, then they would have an excuse to take breaks... she needed to take a break. But from what? She had already talked to a few people about this through out the year, but she just hadn't been able to make any decisions.

As she returned to their stake Valentine gave Lavender something that resembled a smile. "I got a shovel." She held up the implement to show her friend as if it wasn't plainly obvious. "And to answer your question," she hesitated a moment, "No.." she sighed, "Not really, and I'm not really sure what to do about it." Then she did her best to give her normal playful smile, but it fell a bit short. "How are you doing?"

2 Valentine Duell Friend or imagination? 1490 0 5

Gabriel Wilson

July 07, 2021 10:58 PM

Or two dirt displacement spells? by Gabriel Wilson

Gabriel had really never been especially outdoorsy. He was all for looking up facts about nature, there were many about plants and animals, both of which were fascinating and he didn't even hate being around. However, when the choice was between playing outside or reading a good book, the book won every time.

Maybe the reason that Gabriel preferred to be indoors was because he associated spending time outdoors with a type of person he wasn't. The rougher, tougher more traditionally masculine and athletic sort. The sort that enjoyed camping and hiking, which were not his favorite things. Honestly, if left to his own devices, the Aladren was never sure what to do outside.

Plus he knew about all the plants and animals out in nature that were harmful and that he could run into and be killed by. Take bears for example. Bears could run up to forty miles per hour and that happened to be faster than the fastest human out there who could only run twenty-seven miles per hour. That fastest human was definitely not Gabriel. He wasn't sure how many miles he could run per hour but he doubted it was very many given that he was not much of a runner at all. Which meant that if Gabriel was outside in the wild and there were bears around, he could likely get eaten by a bear. He'd stay inside where the only bears about were teddy bears.

However, Gabriel wasn't too upset about being outside since they were still learning about Herbology-and because there were no bears or other people-eating types of animals in this area. Besides, he tried his best to be easy-going as long as there was no actual danger. Like sleeping next to a Tatzlwyrm. Even the Tatzlwyrm didn't understand why they didn't kill it outright. And the whole thing had gotten Gabriel into the sort of discussion he tried to avoid.

Professor Xavier began the lesson. The fourth year was glad to know that they could use a dirt displacement spell. He did not especially want to dig the muggle way. It seemed harder and definitely more...physically taxing. Gabriel was not completely weak, and he was sure he was stronger than some people but his magical strength was definitely superior to his physical strength. And for the rest of it, it seemed as if they were supposed to use a spell.

He supposed that was basically who he was, preferring magical solutions. Just like in Gaming.

Gabriel was looking around for a partner, when Ellie approached him and asked. "Sure, that would be great." He replied. Part of him had wanted to replant a bush just so it wouldn't be as heavy, but he didn't mind. Plus it would be cool to work with his fellow Aladren. He didn't know her well, but there was nothing saying that he couldn't change that. "See any trees that you like?" He asked.

11 Gabriel Wilson Or two dirt displacement spells? 1481 0 5

Ellie Alperton

July 08, 2021 9:58 AM

Yup, or those by Ellie Alperton

Did she see any trees she liked? That was a surprisingly tricky question. On the one hand, she didn’t exactly see any trees she actively disliked, because trees were really broadly good. There was a possibility for Trees With Attitude in the magical world, and in some superhero movies, but they didn’t seem to have any of those today—either the endearing anthropomorphised kind or ones that straight up wanted to murder them, which meant that she was pretty much levelly and equally good with all the trees.

In terms of class value, she eyed them for potential difficulty, wondering if there were any that needed highly specific planting arrangements, but she hadn’t read anything that indicated there was likely to be one tree that was substantially fussier than the others, and on top of that, Professor Xavier had already picked out the planting spots. If there were ways to get extra credit in this assignment, she either couldn’t see them, or it really did just come down to bigger being better, though she still didn’t want to pick a particularly big tree. Perhaps having a fourth year was a good excuse on that front. Beyond that, she knew relatively little about Gabriel, though he seemed to be quite chatty from what she’d observed, and she trusted him to be a solid work partner given he was her housemate.

“A medium-ish one?” she suggested, not wanting to sound like she was taking the easy road out, but not particularly wanting to lug and mishandle a huge tree around the gardens. “Any preferences?”

13 Ellie Alperton Yup, or those 1456 0 5

Lavender Brockert

July 10, 2021 1:13 AM

Hopefully both by Lavender Brockert

Lavender held her breath as she waited for Val to answer her question. She was starting to worry and when her friend finally answered, it did literally nothing to put her fears at rest. As the Teppenpaw left, Lavender tagged the bush as instructed both because she really did want it and thought it was adorable and would be easier to replant and because there was no reason to stand there doing nothing while Val was getting the shovels but she now felt a distinct pit in her stomach. She didn't want anything bad to be happening to her friend.

Now there were terrible situations running through her mind. Granted, not many of them because Lavender was generally not inclined to think of terrible things because they scared her or made her sad and most of the ones she'd been able to come up with were ones that had happened to other people she knew. However, those were pretty terrible considering what they entailed and the other scenarios,such as someone in Val's family having some horrible, life-threatening illness were pretty awful too.

The other third year returned with the shovels.....and things took a turn for the worse. No, no, no, this was not good, not good at all Lavender's heart sank when her friend mentioned that she really wasn't okay. It was all the Crotalus's worst fears of that particular moment realized.

However, this was not about her. She needed to focus on Val now. Val was the one who was not okay and Lavender needed to be there for her no matter what. "I'm fine." She assured her friend. Honestly, aside from wishing she could spend more time with the Teppenpaw and her immediate worries, because, to be honest, she could not really be okay if everyone she cared about was also okay.

Another thought occured to the third year. What if this was about Stanley? She had thought Val was over him but maybe he had gone and done something dumb, which was a very real possibility. Still, he was her family and she felt somewhat loyal to him too. People didn't always have to be loyal to family if they did something wrong-look at Aunt Pearl, all of their family had supported Uncle Jeffrey in the divorce- but Stanley was not his biological grandmother and he and Lavender got along fine.

Although, she still wasn't going to support him doing something dumb that hurt her friend. And she was definitely not going to be too happy if he'd done something that put her in the middle or hurt her own friendship with Val. Of course, the Teppenpaw didn't seem mad at her at all so she probably didn't have to worry about the latter being the case. "This is about you right now." Lavender added. "What's wrong? Is there anything I can do to help?" Please don't let this be about Stanley. She really would prefer not to fight with her cousin, even about something that was totally and completely his fault.

Then she remembered her earlier thoughts about potential things that could be wrong. And please don't let it be something worse .

11 Lavender Brockert Hopefully both 1504 0 5

Valentine Duell

July 10, 2021 8:56 AM

That would be best by Valentine Duell

Lavender looked worried, and Valentine couldn't blame her. She hadn't exactly done anything to allay her friend's fears. "I'm sorry if I worried you," She apologized to Lavender, "It's nothing really that disastrous in the grand scheme of things." Valentine took the shovel and jammed it into the ground near the stake they had selected. "I just have to much stuff to do; clubs, schoolwork, friends..." she pulled back and forth on the shovel a bit, physically working out a little bit of her frustration at the situation.

"I don't want to give any of it up," she said pulling out a small clump of dirt and then going back for more. "But I can't keep it all." She twisted the shovel again, sighed and then leaned against the handle. Lavender wanted to help, which was wonderful, but the only thing she could think for Lavender to do that might help with the problem was to never want to see her again and that would be horrible. Then she would have other problems that she really didn't want. She wanted to be with Lavender and she wanted Lavender to want to be with her as well. She wanted to see everyone and do all of the things with all of the people. Was that so much to ask?

"How are you at time management?" Valentine asked her friend with a hopeful look and some eagerness in her voice.

OOC: Continuing over on the Fast and Furious board.

2 Valentine Duell That would be best 1490 0 5

Gabriel Wilson

July 11, 2021 11:44 PM

Trees. Are. AWESOME. by Gabriel Wilson

"Medium sounds good." Gabriel agreed. He was glad to Ellie hadn't chosen a big tree, given that he doubted he would be able to carry one at all or even levitate one for very long. Plus, the bigger the tree the more unwieldy and awkward to carry regardless of how much it weighed. Honestly, he would have been fine with a small tree since before Ellie approached him, he'd been considering a bush. The Aladren was never going to be a rugged alpha male and he was fine with that. He preferred using magic and his brain.

However, now that his partner wanted a medium tree, that was what they were going to do. First of all, because when Gabriel was working with someone else, it was best to cooperate and secondly, even though he didn't need to prove anything by taking a huge tree, he still didn't especially want Ellie to think he was wimpy. Actually, a medium tree might be perfect. If they took a small one (or if he'd gone with a bush) people might think he was weak or not challenging himself with regards to school work-the latter of which actually sort of bothered him more, come to think of it-and if they bit off more than they could chew and took one that was too big and then had trouble handling it, that wouldn't look good either.

"That one looks good." Gabriel pointed to one that wasn't too tall and didn't have too big of a trunk. "I think it's a dogwood. Did you know that dogwoods are one of the first trees to bloom in spring?" He asked. "They grow to be about fifteen to twenty-five feet tall and prefer moist soil but soil that's too soggy will kill them, so it needs to be soil that's well draining.Also, they can handle a partially shaded site." He felt this was actually important to mention. Of course, Gabriel found all trivia important (and interesting), but if Ellie liked this tree and they ended up choosing it, it was knowledge that they would actually need for this lesson.

However, that did not mean that Gabriel was going to stop mentioning things he knew about trees. "And did you know that trees are the longest living organisms on Earth and never die of old age? There are trees in California that are between four thousand and five thousand years old. Trees can also communicate and defend themselves against attacking insects. They release chemicals called phenolics when insects attack and can also tell other trees to get their defenses ready."

He went on. "Trees can also help reduce stress." Gabriel thought this was an especially cool and surprising fact about trees. "And being around them can even make us kinder to others." Which, actually, was interesting. Had the Teppenpaws spent more time around trees prior to coming to Sonora? The fourth year lived in Nebraska which was flat and brown all over and surprisingly devoid of trees or anything other than corn. "It's because of another chemical they have called phytoncides which can reduce blood pressure, lower anxiety and increase pain threshold." It never occurred to him that Ellie would be bored by his long spiel because he found this topic fascinating and also, she was an Aladren so it followed that she might enjoy learning something new.

11 Gabriel Wilson Trees. Are. AWESOME. 1481 0 5

Ellie Alperton

July 15, 2021 7:04 AM

Yeah, they're pretty cool by Ellie Alperton

“Good to know,” Ellie nodded, when Gabriel ran through the characteristics of the dogwood. It seemed like they would have to choose their planting place pretty carefully, at least in terms of soil. In terms of light, the dogwood seemed less fussy. Ellie wasn’t sure whether that meant it would get a higher grade if well planted, or whether all trees had their foibles—things that made them easy on the one hand but challenging on the other. She also wasn’t sure ‘well-drained’ soil was really that fussy, as most things preferred places that weren’t too extreme.

And then there was more. All of it quite interesting—she had never thought about whether or not trees could die of old age, though she thought she might have been able to work that one out, seeing as she had never heard of such a thing, but it was good to know nonetheless. Even though that, and everything else Gabriel was saying had decreasing levels of relevance.

“You seem to know a lot about them,” she smiled. She didn’t want to be discouraging, and most of it was interesting. And still a lot less off-topic and tangential than most of the interactions she’d overheard Theo having with other people. “Let’s get looking?” she suggested, quite happy if he wanted to fill the walk with more facts, but wanting to make sure they actually got on with hunting for a proper place to put their tree.

“I suppose we can look at the neighbouring plants to identify the soil type, though a lot of things prefer well-drained soil. We’ll also need to be careful about what we plant it near—it’ll have to be something that can cope with being shaded, seeing as it’s going to have a tree growing near it. Though I suppose that’s kind of covered by Professor Xavier having chosen the spots, as all the trees will cast shade. Seems like it’s mostly a soil investigation,” she reasoned out loud, offering Gabriel a cheerful smile.

13 Ellie Alperton Yeah, they're pretty cool 1456 0 5

Gabriel Wilson

July 18, 2021 8:37 AM

Yup by Gabriel Wilson

When Ellie told Gabriel that he knew a lot about trees, he absolutely beamed. "Thank you!" There was no higher compliment to the fourth year than being told he knew a lot about something. He assumed that was the case with most Aladrens. Maybe not Amity, who just seemed to care about relaxing and not having to do anything, but most Aladrens. And he was much more like most Aladrens than his cousin was. Not that there was anything wrong with how she was, because she was a really nice, kind hearted person, which was really more important than being smart-which she also was- and knowing things. Plus, Amity was like she was regarding doing things because of what her mother was like and how she'd treated Amity and her sister when they were younger.

However, even if being nice and being a good a person was more important than knowing things, Gabriel still really liked knowing things. "I like to look up trivia about lots of different topics. Trees are just one of the many things I've found out interesting facts about. Is there a particular subject you find interesting? " Okay, so there were a few subjects that Gabriel was not all that knowledgeable about, mostly stuff in involving muggle stuff and sports, the latter of which was a subject that honestly bored the utter crap out of him. Muggle stuff, on the other hand, wasn't necessarily boring, it was just that Gabriel had been raised completely in the magical world so he hadn't been exposed to anything that didn't specifically pertain to things in Gaming Club.

Still, Gabriel figured he'd ask what Ellie was interested in as a way of making conversation. It was also a nice thing to do, to allow other people to discuss their interests. And he could prattle on and on about just about anything so if she gave him a topic, he could almost certainly tell her interesting trivia about it. "All right." He agreed with regards to looking for a spot. Obviously, they had to keep looking for a place for the tree they'd selected.

"We don't want soil that's too sandy because it will be too dry and we don't want soil that's clay or compacted because it won't drain properly." The fourth year added. "Although, unfortunately, soil testing is lengthy procedure. First, we have to dig a hole, then fill it with water, letting it drain completely. Then we have to fill it again and measure the water and do that every hour for two to three hours. Which is longer than the class will last."Gabriel replied. "Of course, there's a spell, but I don't actually know how to do it. I suppose the thing to do is look for other plants that are already planted in well-draining soil and put our tree next to it." The Aladren boy looked around and pointed. "Over there. Those are also plants that like well-draining soil, and so, therefore, our tree should also do well there."

11 Gabriel Wilson Yup 1481 0 5