Grayson Wright
October 11, 2021 2:26 PM
Try to play nicely together, hm? (Intermediate Charms) by Grayson Wright
Professor Wright entered the Intermediate classroom looking much as he always did: tall, dark, and slightly distracted. He arranged his face quickly into a smile, though, lest his expression worry them unduly about the contents of the notes on the stack of exam papers in his hands."Hello, everyone," he said, pointing his wand at the papers so they began distributing themselves to their owners. "Overall, good work on your tests, take a few minutes to look over them and see me after class if you have any questions about your results."
He had written notes on the paper wherever he thought an explanation for how points had been distributed might be helpful. He gave them what he deemed enough time to look over those notes while still calling the group back to order before the fast readers and the less-than-interested students could get too chatty. "Just a reminder as usual, keep these papers for review sessions. For now, though, let's move on to today's subject."
There was a rustle of papers being put away and then he began to speak again.
"One of the skills you may find especially useful as adults isn't actually something that's tested for on the CATS," he explained. "That's the ability to work together while charming. Coordinating your efforts with another witch or wizard's. It's easy enough to point your wand and cast a charm on your own, once you've otten the hang of that particular charm, but it's much more difficult to plan out and charm with someone else who's working on the same items.
"Today, I want you all to form groups of at least three, with representation from multiple years in each. Get together and decide on a sculpture idea - nothing too complicated, of course, the task isn't to necessarily prove artistic genius - and get supplies from the cabinet there." He pointed to the relevant cabinet. "The catch is that you'll need to perform each step with magic. If you need to bend metal or shape clay into a frame, do that with a charm. Then someone else uses a levitation charm to move a piece into position, and the third fixes it to the frame with a sticking charm, or trying to fold it around, or...whatever seems good to you. Clear enough? Very good, get to work."
OOC: Welcome to class! All the usual rules apply. Feel free to make up charms, come up with strange (if plausible) uses for charms, etc - and, of course, have fun!
Subthreads: That is not my skill set. [tag: Graham] by Mab with Graham Osbrook
No problem! by Valentine Duell with Sadie-Lake Chalmers, Ian Malone
Like always! by Billy Cobb with Morgan Garrett
I...might need to be picky here (tag Bertie) by Mara Morales with Bertie Jackson
16
Grayson Wright
Try to play nicely together, hm? (Intermediate Charms)
113
1
5
Mara Morales
October 25, 2021 9:36 PM
I...might need to be picky here (tag Bertie) by Mara Morales
Mara had adapted, not least because she'd had no choice and had after all had plenty of practice before Sonora, too, but she still sometimes had trouble believing just how collaborative classes at Sonora were often expected to be. In a way, this made today's lesson in Charms kind of welcome, since it did make the emphasis on getting along kind of make sense as more than just a device for once. Mara had never been quite able to figure out what caused differences in skill between people when it came to using magic, if it really was all about Professor Wright's beloved concentration and precision and practice or if it was also at least partially something innate, but it made sense that working together could be a common thing in the real world anyway, though she was glad to hear it wasn't going to come up on the CATS. Loss of control over her grades was Mara's least favorite part of group work, and always had been.On the other hand, though, there was still the usual desire to just do what needed doing so she could get it done and move on. Especially since this particular exercise didn't just have them charming one object while someone else did something else to it. Oh, no. They had to design a thing together, too. It was imperative to snatch up people she thought she could deal with without - well, at least with only a low probability of those people making her want to either tear out her hair or, to address the problem more directly, strangle the offending parties.
Professor Wright's wording was just exactly ambiguous enough that she figured she could, if she needed to, get away with only representing two years in a group of three or more, but she supposed it would be better to at least try to do things the way they had probably been intended to be done. She glanced around, looking over the younger years with a critical eye, and then smiled briefly when she landed on a candidate she felt reasonably sure of, despite said candidate also being a fairly forceful personality. In some ways, she thought, it was easier for her to deal with that in someoe than it was to deal with pushovers; with someone like herself, they could just put it on the table and analyze it, whereas pushovers and manipulators and people like that were untrustworthy. Especially the pushovers, who she couldn't trust to perform to an acceptable level if they didn't even have the pluck to argue their points.
"Hey, Bertie," she said, moving to join the candidate. "Want to do art class with me and some unsuspecting third year?"
16
Mara Morales
I...might need to be picky here (tag Bertie)
1472
0
5
Bertie Jackson
October 28, 2021 6:36 PM
That requires there being things to pick from by Bertie Jackson
Since talking to Philippe, Bertie had developed a plan. Step one involved engaging Mara in a perfectly every day activity but somehow reframing it as a date. He had, so far, achieved the first half of that first step, several times over. He took a seat close-ish to her in Charms but not so close as to be creeping. He wanted to maximise the time he spent with her outside of class, which probably meant easing off on in class interactions a little. Even though they were both Aladrens, he suspected that class had very limited potential to become date-like, even when one of the permissable definitions was just doing what they always did.Luck, however, was on his side. This was a surprisingly pleasant twist, given that the assignment involved two things he really wasn't a fan of, namely artsy feelingsy projects (there were so many more accurately scientific ways they could have examined this subject) and working with other people. The saving grace was the mixed age element, and the fact that Mara was walking over to him. Out of the entire intermediate class, he was the one she chose. He felt his chest swelling with pride at that fact.
Bertie smirked in response to Mara's question, glad that initially silent responses to questions were perfectly normal for him. It gave him thinking time. The real answer to her question was 'no' because of both the art project and third year elements. He didn't want to make her think he didn't want to work with her though, or to express unAladrenish sentiments which might negatively impact her opinion of him.
"We'll have to choose our victim carefully," he said, playing off her tone. "Though, I counted, and there's more fourth years than any other. Though I suppose that's where his 'at least' comes in." He grimaced, wondering whether it was worth having to work in a four to get to work with an additional person that he liked. It probably wasn't. Unfortunately, the only third year he had a positive opinion of had been co-opted. Henry hadn't been his favourite person when he had joined the gaming group, but that was entirely a product of new people being, by default, bad. Once he had settled in a bit, Bertie had gradually dialled down his ranking. Also, compared to every other third year, he was both positively tame and familiar.
"They all suck," he muttered with a look at the remaining options. "Shall we stick with Aladren as a way of hedging our bets?" he asked.
13
Bertie Jackson
That requires there being things to pick from
1497
0
5