What does it take to please a dude? on Herbology

Nathan Xavier

November 20, 2021 12:00 PM

Intermediate Class: Fanged Geraniums by Nathan Xavier

"Hello class," Nathan greeted the intermediates once they had all settled into their seats in Greenhouse One. The winter chill had solidly settled in over Arizona and some white remained on the garden paths from when it had snowed over midterm. He had greeted everyone from inside the warmth of the greenhouse today, and he was not looking forward to the walk back to the school after this class. It would probably be dark by then and even colder than it was now. Fortunately, the greenhouse itself was comfortably warm, though it was just about as cool as it ever got right now. Today, it was a welcome relief to walk into the temperate greenhouse from the frigid outside, even if it probably clouded up the eyeglasses of anyone who was wearing them when they first walked in.

"I was quite pleased with the responses of the homework essay I just handed back, but do look over any notes I might have left for you. Today, we will be looking at some young Fanged Geraniums." He used his wand to deliver a potted sprout in front of each of the students. "Fifth years, these will be covered on your CATS exam this year." They were a bit more dangerous than he liked to expose the third years to, but at this early stage of development, the buds were still teething and couldn't break skin, though they would greatly enjoy gnawing on any fingers that got close enough, not unlike Otto and Dora had when they'd been teething. Honestly, Nathan thought the little buds were kind of adorable and tickled a little bit when they chewed on him.

"These are magical flowers, and they do grow to have quite sharp teeth. The teeth are frequently harvested as a potion ingredient that is used in brews such as Skele-Gro and Strengthening Solutions. Fifth years, we'll have a lesson in Greenhouse Two later in the year about harvesting those teeth without being bitten, but for right now, these buds are fairly harmless. The species is considered carnivorous, as they enjoy a nice snack on small insects once they are a bit bigger, but they are not rated as a threat to people. If properly cared for they shouldn't even bite us. They are a bit temperamental though, so if they are getting too much or too little sun or water, they might get snippy, and that can hurt, though it is almost never a serious wound."

"Today, we will be watering and fertilizing these sprouts. Fertilizer is, as always, in the bins over there. Fanged Geraniums are not picky, so you can used whichever kind of fertilizer you like best. When you water them, add only a little bit at a time. When they stop trying to bite you, you know you have given them enough, though at this age, it's a bit hard to tell, because they are teething, and they like chewing on things even when they aren't upset. Just try to watch for the happy gnawing instead of the angry biting. If you want to let them chew on you, that's fine. They can't hurt you right now. If you don't want to let them chew on you, you can give them a stick or your glove to bite at. Nothing too hard like rocks though, that's not good for them."

"Alright, go ahead and start taking care of your sprouts. Raise your hands if you have any questions."

Subthreads:

Fanged what? by Billy Cobb with Ian Malone

What kind of Geraniums? by Valentine Duell with Jasper Brockert

What does it take to please a dude? by Oz Spellman

1 Nathan Xavier Intermediate Class: Fanged Geraniums 28 1 5

Billy Cobb

November 20, 2021 1:24 PM

Fanged what? by Billy Cobb

Herbology class was almost like being outside. Almost. That made it so much better than most of the other classes at the school. In this case though, he was glad that it was only 'almost' like being outside 'cause it was really, really cold out there! Inside the greenhouse felt much warmer, which was great. He returned the professor's greeting at the entrance and took his paper. After finding a random seat somewhere he examined it for a few moments until the professor began class when he crammed it unceremoniously into his bag. He couldn't say there was anything terribly surprising on the paper.

Once the professor began explaining class, he began to shake his head. Flowers with teeth now? What was next? A giant tree that beat you up? The task ahead of them of watering and fertilizing the geraniums would have sounded horribly dull, but if they were going to be biting him the whole time, that'd be fun! He wondered what the bigger ones were like, to bad they were only working with baby biting flowers. Well, he supposed it was time to get to work.

Naturally the first thing one should do in a situation like this, was to test the danger. Billy therefore promptly poked at his flower bud with his exposed finger and in an instant the plant was gnawing away trying desperately to tear apart his extended digit. He chuckled. "It kinda tickles," he said to his neighbor. "I wonder how vicious they actually get when they get bigger."

2 Billy Cobb Fanged what? 1519 0 5

Valentine Duell

November 26, 2021 1:42 PM

What kind of Geraniums? by Valentine Duell

Valentine greeted her head of house and Herbology professor warmly at the door of the greenhouse. Warm things were very good right now, it was downright chilly outside. She found a seat and looked over the homework essay she'd gotten back until class started. Her results were good, and she hadn't even spent a lot of extra time studying on this subject. Herbology was not transfigurations, which was very good. Learning about plants was not nearly as difficult as picturing objects in her head.

Professor Xavier started class and she did her best to pay attention. However, at the term 'fanged geraniums' she had to stop and reprocess the words. By the time she was done there was a small plant setting in front of her and Professor Xavier was bringing up CATS again for the fifth years. She wasn't one yet, but she would be next year and she wasn't sure how much she liked that idea. Getting bitten by a pretty flower was something else that fell into that category.

On the other hand, the professor claimed they were just baby biting flowers. Awwww... they were like Ramona! True the baby hadn't really been much for biting or gnawing, but still a baby was a baby. "Who's a cute little baby flower?" Val asked her geranium in a cute, baby-talking voice. It snapped at her in response. "Okay little one, I'll be right back with some nice fertilizer for you, stay out of trouble now." She was gone and back in a few minutes with the nicest fertilizer she could find in the bins and a full watering can. She found that adding the fertilizer was a bit difficult due to the flower's continuing attempts to bite her hands during the process. There seemed to be only one solution to this. She offered her gloved left index finger for it to chew on while she added fertilizer with her right hand. "This seems to work okay," she commented to her neighbor, "How are you doing?"

2 Valentine Duell What kind of Geraniums? 1490 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 26, 2021 9:01 PM

What does it take to please a dude? by Oz Spellman

OOC: CW - homophobia (unintentional/immaturirty) BIC:

Did you stop to think at all?

It was a very familiar question. One that had been asked often enough to Oz that it now habitually resurfaced in his brain, in various weary and disapproving voices, when he belatedly realised the stupidity of his actions.

Part of him didn’t regret getting into a pillow fight with Xavier in the middle of the common room. It had been fun. That was possibly one of the signs he should start looking out for that he was doing something bad for himself, because so often bad things were really enjoyable. It was what made them so hard to avoid. The thing was, he hadn’t even gotten in trouble for it, and he didn’t actually expect to. The prefect-head-student had seen and joined in. Pecari was just kinda like that, and he was far from the only person who got loud and let off steam. It wasn’t any of that was the problem. It was the realisation that getting into a pillow fight with A Known Gay possibly looked A Certain Way, and wasn’t exactly the straightest thing he could do for his reputation. Xavier was just his friend, and he wanted that friendship, but people were bound to Say Stuff about them both being boys and Xavier liking boys Like That. He sort of hated people.

He stepped into the greenhouse, relieved to find it a pleasant temperature compared to the world outside. He didn’t have a million layers to strip off cos he wasn’t enough of a wuss to wear a coat for the short distance he had to walk outside, but he relaxed into the cosy feel of the greenhouse, deciding that - in winter at least - herbology was his favourite subject. He frigging hated the stupid non-Arizona weather. Who wanted to be cold?

Well, he actually knew the answer to that one. Xav, apparently. They had hung out since their common room skirmish (that sounded way less gay than ‘pillow fight’). Oz was trying not to worry about doing one on one stuff, and whether other people would call it a date. They had gone skating, and the fact that he was kind of a bad-ass on rollerblades was like, the least gay things about Xavier. So, that should have been all good, except Xavier had wanted to make the room freezing, and when Oz had objected, it had somehow come up that no, he hadn’t ever been outside of his home state - rarely ever outside of the city he grew up, and no, given that, he definitely didn’t have a passport. What would be the point? Xavier had, in his typical, annoying posh boy way, seemed to find this all incredibly hard to process, like Oz was somehow a bad person for not wanting to explore. Oz had swallowed down the differentiation between not wanting to and not being able to, but it left a bad taste in his mouth.

To top it all off, Xavier was now in a snit with him, in spite of being the one who’d been a jerk first. Oz had gone over the conversation a dozen times, and he still didn’t get it…

”What the heck is that?” he asked, as Xavier pulled out a little tube and started putting stuff on his lips.

“Chapstick. Want some?” Xavier asked.

“Isn’t it for girls?” Oz asked.

“It’s for dry lips. Which you have, by the way,” Xavier said. He reached for Oz with the little pink stick, and he was probably only teasing, but Oz swatted his hand away quickly and firmly, with a suggestion that Xavier ‘duck out’ or at least, words to that effect.

“Is it cos you’re gay?” Oz asked, wondering how Xavier felt comfortable doing such girly stuff without worrying what anyone else would think. Xavier huffed and rolled his eyes.

“It’s because I have dry lips,” he repeated, sounding annoyed. “You can be such a butt sometimes, you know that?” he added, swinging his skate bag over his shoulder with a glare and striding out.

Oz did know that. He had been a butt frequently and with intent to Henry. But he had known he was doing it, and had known why. He wasn’t actually meaning to be a butt to Xavier. And Xav was actually gay, so it wasn’t like Oz was using it to mean rubbish, like he’d been told not to. And Xavier was just as much of a butt too, about posh boy things, so he had no ground to stand on. Boys were complicated. At least, Xavier was. And apparently wondering whether it was a gay thing wasn’t allowed. Oz sort of thought it was, but then all his interactions with his roommates were a mess too, so maybe it was just people. Maybe it was just him.

Now it was time to interact with plants, not people, and Herbology gained even more bonus points for that fact, because maybe he had a hope of not screwing that up, even if they wanted to decapitate him or something. Maybe he should let them. Apparently, he’d be easier to get on with without his stupid head and its stupid mouth. And no one would be able to mistake him for Henry if Oz was just a headless corpse. Henry could have their face all to himself.

The plants they were looking at seemed like they were a little less vicious than that, and the worst they were gonna do was drool on him. Or like… plant drool. So, he had to be nibbled, and use fertilizer, which stank, because it turned out it was mostly poop, and that had been sort of funny for a bit, but then the realisation that they constantly had to deal with it really took the humour out of it. This was probably still better than attempting human interaction. Given his current track record, it had a fifty-fifty chance of getting weirdly gay or being unintentionally homophobic. He didn’t really want to be either of those things. He just sort of wanted to be comfortably in the middle.

Still, he was a people person, and a chatterbox, and he couldn’t stand only plant-based company for long. He wasn’t talking to his plant, cos it was a plant, and that was weird. He poked it and let it bite him, curious to see how it felt. Some of his friends had had puppies, and it reminded him a little bit of the way they would bite your finger without it really hurting. He remembered being really, really scared of letting them bite him on purpose, but of course he’d had to swallow it down and pretend like he wanted to stick his hands near their mouths. And then it hadn’t hurt anyway, so it had been stupid to be scared. Why was it that whatever he felt, it was always stupid and wrong?

“Doesn’t really hurt,” he commented to his neighbour, smiling.

13 Oz Spellman What does it take to please a dude? 1514 0 5

Jasper Brockert

December 15, 2021 10:01 PM

Fanged by Jasper Brockert

Like the rest of his siblings and cousins, Jasper had been horrified that his aunt had had a girl because of how he knew his uncle would act about it. He was absolutely worried for his new cousin, just as everyone else was. Everything he'd predicted before Honora was born-with regards to this particular scenario of his aunt's baby being a girl-and once he'd found out that the new baby was indeed female had come true.

And Jasper hadn't even needed any Divination methods to figure it out either, just a knowledge of how his relatives predictably would behave. If he was a different kind of person, he would have faked using some sort of form of the discipline, to claim he'd predicted it that way, and been one hundred percent accurate and get a good grade but that would be cheating. Jasper had too much respect for his professors to do that

Of course, just because the Teppenpaw had seen it coming, didn't make it any easier. Uncle Eustace had made the holidays utterly miserable, more so than usual. It was really a shame that one (or two) bad people in a family could really spoil what should be a happy occasion. And it was a bigger shame when someone didn't automatically love and accept their child. There was no reason that should ever happen. After all, his own parents still loved Topaz! Of course, they didn't really know what she was, but still. Maybe Grandmother still loving Uncle Eustace, knowing full well what he was like was a better example. If she could love him, despite him being a misogynistic bully, he should be able to love Honora, who was too young to have such glaring personality flaws.

Besides, his own parents, who also wanted a boy, and kept trying until they got him, still treated his sisters the same way as they did him, for the most part. Father loved them all the same, and Mother, whom for from what Jasper gathered had been the one who wanted to give Father an heir, was equally negligent with all of them,and possibly more so with the fourth year than his sisters as she liked doing girly things with them like shopping and going to the spa. As Mother found shopping for boys' clothing to be "boring" Jasper ended up being taken by someone else, usually Aunt Amanda when she had to take Chris.

Still, for all their flaws-which included not noticing one child having epilepsy and one being a psychopath-his parents, even Mother, were better parents than Uncle Eustace. Which was both completely sad and completly unsurprising. Oddly enough though, his uncle's reaction to having a daughter, made Jasper, who'd occasionally-okay quite often-wished his parents were more like his other aunts and uncles were, sort of appreciate his own parents.

That did not mean he wanted to be like them though. He'd really rather be a parent like Uncle Ben. His uncle was one of those weird Aladrens, who did things like deliberately have five kids in order to do a vowel theme, but he was an amazing dad. Jasper hoped to be one someday too, although he did worry that no matter how much he loved his kids and how well he raised them, they could still turn out terrible. Uncle Eustace was a prime example of that. His grandparents were good people although Jasper supposed Grandfather was a tad prickly though he was less so with his grandchildren. Still, even if Grandfather was a total grouch, nothing about that explained why Uncle Eustace was so vile in the particular way that he was so. Nothing about the environment he'd been raised in would predict him turning into a Quidditch obsessed jerk. Unless he was rebelling against his bookish father and discovered he had a talent for the sport. Still didn't justify his behavior.

Of course, even Mother's....hands off parenting didn't necessarily explain Topaz either. Topaz just was. She was a psychopath and that was that. However, that sort of randomness was quite scary. He could end up with a Topaz, especially if genetics came into play.

Jasper also wondered if bad people could end up with good children. He supposed he could just watch Honora and see how she turned out. Of course, she'd have her mother's influence too and he could already tell how devoted Aunt Helena was to her daughter. Still, he was certain that his cousin would develop some sort of complex thanks to her father.

The fourth year sighed to himself as Professor Xavier started class and he switched his focus to the lesson, pushing his thoughts about his family and their...psychological make-ups to the much less complex baby fanged geraniums. It was kind of a relief, honestly.

He got some fertilizer and a geranium. "Here you go." He said, fertilizing the plant, which was naturally trying to bite him. Jasper gave it a stick to gnaw on as he started to water it.

Then Val spoke to him and he replied. "Pretty good. It hasn't bitten me yet. So how are you? Did you have a good break?"

11 Jasper Brockert Fanged 1496 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 16, 2021 10:09 AM

That's what I thought I heard. by Valentine Duell

Valentine looked at Jasper's plant chewing away on a stick, and then back at her own trying to munch on her gloved finger. That did look like the smarter route to go, as Jasper had both of his hands free to work with the fertilizer and watering. Still her flower was cute as it was gnawing away at her finger. She decided she liked it. "Mine is trying, but I can't even really feel it through the glove." The plant's biting still seemed a bit like 'angry biting' and not quite 'happy gnawing' yet. "I think I might need a some more fertilizer though.

She added a little more fertilizer and water while she answered Jasper's other questions. "I'm doing great!" This was her normal response to the question, but things were going well regardless. "Break was nice as well. It was a pretty standard Christmas, but New Year's was really exciting!" She was smiling ear to ear at this point. "My aunt just had a baby and they came over to celebrate! She's so little and cute! The baby," she quickly added just in case clarification was needed, "not my aunt. Anyway, I got to hold her for a little bit, but then she started crying and fussing. Mama said that was normal though. From what Papa was saying babies are a lot of work." Papa had been a bit oddly talkative on that point, she assumed it was to help dissuade her from going out and making her own at this point. True Ramona was cute, but Papa really didn't need to worry about that... yet.

Naturally, Val turned the question around on Jasper. "How about you? How are you doing and did anything exciting or interesting happen over your break?"

2 Valentine Duell That's what I thought I heard. 1490 0 5

Ian Malone

December 17, 2021 12:40 AM

Geraniums by Ian Malone

Ian was never thrilled to return to school. It was always difficult to leave Mom and Olivia, though not as much as the first time he'd had to. He was getting more used to it regardless of the fact that he much preferred being with them. It might be better though if the Teppenpaw had more friends. He really only knew a few people who were distantly related to him and his roommate, who was related to some of them. However, Ian wasn't especially close to anyone at school.

Honestly, he was quite lonely here and perhaps that was why he so preferred being at home. Obviously, his attachment to his mother and sister was a factor, but it would be so much easier if he had more than academics to come back to. Maybe that was also part of the problem. Ian's studies were important to him and he couldn't sacrifice them as he needed to become a Healer and help people with bad immune systems. However, he wasn't making many friends this way, being so into it.

And honestly, Ian wasn't sure he knew how to make friends anyway. He thought of himself as a nice person, he was in Teppenpaw after all. However, he was not even remotely outgoing and he wasn't ever sure what to say to people. Plus, he wasn't sure that any of his classmates (or any of the second years) wanted to be friends with him. Ian was quiet, shy, studious, nerdy and had what were probably hugely unpopular views about Quidditch, although he knew Iris at least wasn't fond of the sport, albeit for possibly different reasons. He'd gotten the impression that she just didn't care for it, whereas Ian objected to the potential for injury it posed. The third year was so cautious that he was basically a Teppalus, as in a Tepp with a lot of Crotalus traits. Of course, Ian was incredibly studious, which was an Aladren thing. Was he a Teppadrenus then? Or simply a Notpecari?

The Sorting Potion, of course, could only pick one house for him and that was Teppenpaw, meaning he had more Tepp traits than anything else, meaning he was nice and cared about other people. The thing was though, if Ian had traits of three different houses, shouldn't he be able to find common ground with like, seventy-five percent of the school? Of course, some of them were like way older, a seventh year wasn't going to want to befriend a third year,except maybe a relative. Besides, Ian was pretty intimidated by the older students anyway, aside from Wally, Stanley, Lavender and Gabriel. He supposed Theo was pretty non-intimidating too, given he was...well, actually less mature than Ian was. And Val was pretty nice and friendly too.

Still, he wasn't all that close to anyone at school and he wished he had a best friend like the way his mom had Aunt Brianna. She wasn't a biological aunt like Aunt Melanie or even a biological distant cousin that happened to be close to his mom like Uncle Ryan, she was his mom's BFF. A not even distantly related person who Mom bonded with. Who liked and cared about his mom, even though she wasn't required to by blood. Although, come to think of it, how distant did a relative have to be before it didn't matter? Was Ian required by blood to care about Isla Brockert,whom he didn't really know? He actually didn't remember their exact relation. Still, Uncle Ryan's biological mother-also known as She Who Must Not Be Named Or Discussed-was Grandpa Charles' first cousin which made Uncle Ryan Ian's...second cousin once removed? Or wait, was he Mom's second cousin once removed which made him the third year's....yeah, this was confusing.

Fanged geraniums,on the other hand, were not. Although they would probably try to bite him which Ian did not really want. At least these were babies though. He set right to work on fertilizing and watering. However, while he was doing so, Billy spoke to him. Somehow, Ian had found himself next to the Pecari, who was someone he was generally wary of. Nothing personal, but Ian was a Notpecari, meaning that they were the twenty-five percent of Sonora's population he was unlikely to connect with, especially given that he hadn't managed to connect with anyone in the other seventy-five percent and Billy didn't have that blood requirement thing that Stanley had with him. Mostly Ian viewed Pecaris to be a tad....boisterous and into danger.

On the other hand, Billy had never come across as mean . He and Ian might not find much in common, but at least he probably wouldn't be judgemental about the Teppenpaw being a shy nerdy pureblood. Which even more than the rough and tumble nature of Pecaris, was what Ian worried about. "I'm not sure they're actually vicious towards humans, but they eat bugs, which is not a bad thing. Also, their teeth get bigger and sharper and can break human skin and draw blood. I don't think they want to hurt us though. They just do when we get in the way."

11 Ian Malone Geraniums 1522 0 5

Jasper Brockert

December 17, 2021 9:02 PM

And I just heard something more interesting by Jasper Brockert

OOC: CW-*sighs* Implied homophobia and toxic masculinity. BIC:

"I decided to just use a stick for it to gnaw on. " Jasper replied. Honestly, he'd never really been the sort who sought things that were dangerous or painful.While he supposed the fanged geraniums weren't really that right now,it was just sort of instinctual to go that route, rather than sticking his fingers to the mouths of others, even if the other was a plant with teeth rather than a human being. Jasper hadn't really even though about letting it chew on him.

He listened as his classmate began to tell about her break. He too supposed that he had had a fairly standard holiday, as in Uncle Eustace made it tense and miserable just like he always did, just on a more intense level. The fourth year wondered what it would be like to have a "standard holiday" mean that it festive and cheerful and happy and all that good stuff. To not have a relative- or actually two relatives-that prevented it from being so. His uncle and, to a lesser extent, his sister had taken it from them all. Uncle Eustace and his sexist attitudes, his bullying, his general toxicity, seemed to always end up sucking all the joy out of everything, but Jasper knew that Sapphire felt like she couldn't breathe around Topaz.

And he suspected Allegra felt the same way. His cousin had more or less clung on to her boyfriend Josh like he was a life preserver or something else that would keep her alive in among the sharks that were Topaz and Uncle Eustace. The Tepp wondered exactly how much Josh knew with regards to Jasper's sister, though he was probably perfectly aware of what their uncle was like. The man didn't exactly try and hide it, probably because that would qualify as "acting" or something, and he usually had....a very dim sort of view the sort of men who became actors.

Also, he didn't think anything was wrong with the way he behaved. Unlike Topaz who might have some inkling of how her behavior was wrong, at least some of the time, and just didn't care, Uncle Eustace thought the way he was,was the right and superior way to be a man.

None of this was going to be anything that Jasper told anyone but it did make him wonder for how many people a "standard holiday" was not the pleasant ideal that was portrayed by society and the media. It was actually quite terrifying to think about. Some people might even have it worse than him. Honora would have it worse than him. "Yeah, I had a pretty standard holiday too." It wasn't a lie, it just wasn't the full truth.

Something else caught his attention. "You have a new baby cousin?" Jasper couldn't help but smile despite all that was wrong with the situation. "So do I! She was born in late November and so this was the first time we got to meet her, well those of us at school anyway. Her name is Honora. I guess she'll be in the same year at Sonora as your cousin."

11 Jasper Brockert And I just heard something more interesting 1496 0 5

Billy Cobb

December 18, 2021 7:26 AM

Geraniums? by Billy Cobb

Billy nodded sagely to Ian's response... or at least it was the best attempt he could make along those lines. "That's like lots 'o things in nature. Most things won't bother ya much iff'n you just stay clear and let it alone." Billy knew he had lots of experience with interacting with nature. It was one of the reasons this was tolerable class. One thing he had come to realize though was the stuff in nature had what it had was 'cause it needed it. Now he wondered a bit at his flower.

"Why do ya think it's got teeth like that?" He asked Ian as he watched the geranium continue to gnaw away at his bare finger. "The teeth it's got now sure is good enough for bugs and the like. Why do you think it grows teeth big enough to bite us? Maybe to bite and scare off smaller critters like chipmunks and rabbits that might be lookin' fer a snack?"

He dumped some more fertilizer around his flower and added a bit of water. He'd been forced to work the gardens enough to know better than to add a lot at once. He'd never really liked gardening, it was more of an Iris thing. "When I would go out trappin' rabbits, sometimes I'd look for a patch of wild flowers like these things. They like to snack on 'em and made a great place to hide a snare. Usually they'd been half eaten, I bet them flowers would love for a chance to bite back."

2 Billy Cobb Geraniums? 1519 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 18, 2021 12:02 PM

You did? by Valentine Duell

"Oh yeah?" Valentine reacted with enthusiasm. "That'll be wonderful!" She was attempting to do some quick math in her head, "Ramona was born in the middle of December, so yeah they should be together. Maybe they'll be roommates!" That would be neat, she really hoped Ramona got a roommate if she wanted one, Val still wished she had one. Nothing to do about that now though. She had made it this long, and had friends, but a roommate still would have been fun. It was pretty much a given that Ramona would come to Sonora, both Aunt Jhonice and.. Mr. Nic? had gone here. She still wasn't quite sure how she was supposed to address her cousin's father since he wasn't married to Aunt Jhonice. Was he an uncle because he was the father of her cousin? Or wasn't he because he wasn't married to her aunt?

This was where things could get confusing with relationships that got involved. It was one of the reasons she wasn't about to get to far along in involvement without making things official. She had the feeling things may still get confusing enough even if she did, and not following that ideal would only make things much worse.

"Honora is a pretty name," Val observed, "I don't think I've heard of that one before, is it a family name?" Aunt Jhonice would know, she knew all about the big important families. Papa had told her stories of Aunt Jhonice at school. She had on occasion followed around the Brockerts and the Pierces and such of the day. It had sounded a little creepy at times and she really hoped Ramona wouldn't follow suit... especially if she got a Brockart as a roommate.

2 Valentine Duell You did? 1490 0 5

Ian Malone

December 19, 2021 1:24 AM

Yup, that's what he said by Ian Malone

"Basically, yes." This was one reason Ian didn't spend too much time with nature, outside of the somewhat controlled environments of COMC and Herbology. There were too many things that would attack you. The third year was a pureblood and he had grown up in the magical world, knowing there were dark creatures and dangerous plants.

Therefore, Ian knew that he should avoid such things. He'd always been incredibly safety conscious and oriented towards not wanting to get hurt. It was more than just growing up completely in the magical world. He'd always wanted to be a Healer so therefore he'd wanted to know how to treat injuries and illnesses and as a consequence of that he had learned about more of the dangers that were out there lurking everywhere.

Of course, the largest threats were also the tiniest ones. Nothing was more dangerous than a virus or bacteria. These minute organisms could wreak more havoc than an entire school of Pecaris could ever dream of doing. Ian lived in terror of catching something and bringing it home to his mother, who had less ability to fight such ailments off.

Still, it wasn't just diseases that he worried about. As a result of his chosen future career path Ian could not help but see the worst case scenario, could not help but to see danger everywhere. It actually baffled him when people seemed to actively choose to take these sorts of risks. Honestly, the Teppenpaw really wasn't judging them, he just genuinely did not understand. Did these sorts not see all the ways they could be maimed or killed or did they just not care? He knew that his own knowledge of this sort of thing was probably unusual so the former was entirely possible. Perhaps he should ask Stanley some time.

Although,Ian realized, sometimes he supposed there were good reasons for people to do dangerous things. Like Aurors, who had to fight dark wizards and other criminals. Of course, he also didn't understand why people committed crimes and became dark wizards in the first place but it was good that there were people out there willing to go up against them. Or, perhaps more relevant to his own future plans, someone who went out and got dangerous wild plants (and animals) to be used as potion ingredients in medicinal potions. The one Mom took had such ingredients.

So, Ian guessed the world did need people like Billy and Stanley.A small part of him even admired their bravery. He was sure that Stanley was going to be so much better at protecting Charlotte and intimidating her future suitors than he would be with Olivia.

However, he was never going to understand the appeal of Quidditch. That just seemed like a frivolous reason to risk injury. Although, that didn't make them bad people, they just did something that he found puzzling. However, the Teppenpaw did worry they were going to look down on him.

"That's a good question."Ian replied. "I'm not really sure why they get bigger teeth aside from them just...getting bigger. Like how we have baby teeth and adult teeth. I mean,like Professor Xavier said, their teeth are used for potions but that's not really...something that speaks to any sort of natural evolution." Natural evolution? Ian, you are such a nerd. He berated himself. "Like wizards did that. They didn't get bigger teeth so we could use them in potions we created. I actually think your theory might be better." He replied sincerely.

The mention of trapping rabbits though, took him a bit by surprise."Why would you trap rabbits?" Ian asked. He'd never really thought of the Pecari as the sort to be cruel to animals.
"Do you keep them as pets?"

11 Ian Malone Yup, that's what he said 1522 0 5

Jasper Brockert

December 20, 2021 3:28 AM

Yup by Jasper Brockert

OOC: CW-*sighs* More implied homophobia. I hate Eustace sooo much. BIC:

Jasper nodded and smiled. "That would be awesome!" He needed to focus on the positives in this situation, even though it was incredibly difficult when so much was wrong. Honora might end up being a good person despite her father but he could just imagine what sort of psychological issues that she would probably end up with because of Uncle Eustace. After all, Jasper and Chris had some problems because of him and they were just his nephews, Honora was his daughter.

However, at least for right now, she was an adorable healthy beautiful baby. And even if her father didn't love her-and probably wouldn't really if she were a boy either, since Uncle Eustace was a narcissistic piece of crap who could only love himself, no better than Topaz, possibly worse in some ways-her mother was completely devoted to her,and she had the rest of them too. Well, except Topaz, of course.

On the other hand,Miles seemed completely thrilled with his baby cousin. Like, he was excited about there being someone smaller and younger for him to protect and take care of. He was so gentle towards her and it was super adorable. Of course, Uncle Eustace had opinions on that too, about how a boy being soft and gentle made him a sissy, which was one of the nicer words he used. Also, Miles was sort of developing the same sort of defense mechanism that Chris had with their uncle, i.e. run away and hide. While also claiming to be allergic to him. Which was admittedly mildly amusing.

"I hope if they are roommates, they're the kind that get on and are good friends like Amethyst and Isla are with theirs." Jasper added. He got on well with Phillipe but he didn't know that they were close. Phillipe mostly had his boyfriend. "One of my older sisters had a really bad experience with hers and another isn't exactly close with hers." He was probably closer to Phillipe than Sapphire was to Jezebel, whom the sixth year claimed never seemed interested in her.

"Even if they aren't roommates, I do hope they're good friends, I want that for my cousins." The Teppenpaw remembered hearing how hard things were for Angelique when she didn't fit in and had no friends. On the other hand, Olaf would probably be satisfied with a library full of books and Alma, Libby, Uriah and Miles would have each other, but it was good to have friends outside your family.

Jasper continued. "Yeah, it's pretty. It's not a family name for my family but it might be in my aunt's. Her full name is Honora Alexis. I'm not sure her middle name is anything but something that sounds good together. It's usually like that in my family where people just pick a name they like for the first name and a relative's name for the middle name but there are exceptions." His own middle name was one of those. His parents had not only done a gemstone theme for their first names but all their middle names started with the letter V. Emerald's middle name was Vivien for their grandmother, but the rest of them were just done for the sake of a theme, Ruby Vanessa, Topaz Veronica, Sapphire Victoria, Jasper Vincent and Amethyst Verity.

He wasn't going to tell Val that though. She didn't need to know his parents were even weirder than what was completely obvious. Of course,Uncle Ben was obviously weirder but arguably that theme was harder to spot especially with only Esme and Isla here. "Ramona is a nice name too." He added.

11 Jasper Brockert Yup 1496 0 5

Billy Cobb

December 20, 2021 12:31 PM

Sure, why not? by Billy Cobb

Billy half listened as Ian talked. After all, it only sounded to Billy like Ian was half talking to him so he figured it was fine. "You could be right though, wizards might have done it." He replied to Ian's suggestion that wizards made flowers with teeth so that they would have flower teeth to harvest for potions. That sounded about right to him. How else did you get these magical plants and such? "If some wizard figgured he needed flower teeth to make his potion work, why not just make a flower grow some teeth?'

He pulled his own finger free of the snapping geranium and investigated it. As usual, Professor Xavier had been right, no real damage had happened there. Now he had to wait a bit to let the water soak in through the fertilizer and see if it was enough. So with nothing better to do he turned his full attention back to Ian as he was asking about the rabbits.

"Pets? Nah." He replied. Why would anyone want to actually keep a rabbit as a pet? He could think of some worse choices, but they didn't do nothing but hop around, eat and mate. Dogs at least could go hunting with you, and cats caught mice, they were useful. "Mostly they're fer vittles. Ma made a great rabbit stew. The fur's real useful as well to line cold weather clothes."

2 Billy Cobb Sure, why not? 1519 0 5

Valentine Duell

December 21, 2021 10:22 AM

What, if I may ask, is that? by Valentine Duell

Valentine sighed longingly at Jasper's talk of roommates. "I hope so as well. I always wanted a roommate. Even if it wasn't perfect, it would be nice at times." She thought it would have been such fun to have someone to chatter and giggle with into the night like a sleepover on occasion. Or maybe someone to make doubly sure she looked alright before heading out for the day. Oh well, it wasn't to be. Such was life she supposed.

"That would be nice," Val was reminded a bit of her meeting with Lavender at Tumbleweed earlier in the year. She was trying to be Lavender's friend, and she thought they were doing much better since that meeting, but still she got the feeling that Lavender wanted more. Between schoolwork, extra studying, the few clubs she had remaining, and spending time with all of her other friends, Val just wasn't sure how much she had to give. It was a problem for another day. "Everyone should have good friends that they can count on."

She listened to Jasper's explanation of Honora's name. "Ramona is her great-grandmother's name." Val was pretty sure she had that right. "It's her dad's grandmother's name, and that seemed to please her well enough." Val giggled a little bit. There was some sort of a story about Aunt Jhonice and Mr. (Uncle?) Sawyer and his family. From the sounds of it the Sawyer's were a bigger family, and there were some concessions or something about the two of them not being married, she really wasn't sure of all the details and wasn't about to try and explain them to Jasper.

2 Valentine Duell What, if I may ask, is that? 1490 0 5

Ian Malone

December 25, 2021 4:09 PM

Indeed by Ian Malone

As Billy replied to him, Ian wondered if the other boy had actually listened to what he'd said or if the Teppenpaw just didn't explain himself very well. What he'd actually said was that he didn't think that fanged geraniums got bigger teeth solely to put in potions as a natural thing. He meant that the wizards had come up with the potions that the fangs went into.

Of course, that actually didn't preclude what Billy had said either, come to think of it. That did sound like something people would do, manipulate nature for their own gain. Although that sounded terrible there were times that Ian could see it being justified. Like when people's lives were at stake. If something in nature could be used to keep someone from dying, then by all means, do whatever you can to make that happen.

Still, good ideas were not something that he tended to associate with Pecaris. Not that he thought that they were stupid , Aunt Sophie certainly wasn't as she was an amazing potioneer. It was more that they liked doing dangerous risky things that could get them killed or permanently maimed for no good reason at all, which literally was something that Ian did not even remotely understand. As far as he was concerned that was the definition of a bad idea.

And, to be honest, Billy had never struck him as especially brilliant either. It was not because of the way the Pecari talked, he couldn't help it if he was from a particular place and had an accent, and that really was not an indicator of intelligence but more because...well, it just wasn't what came to mind when Ian thought of him, not that he did all that much as he rarely had reason to.

Besides, while the Teppenpaw himself was very bookish and focused on his studies-he rather had to be, he felt that he had to help people with bad immune systems, like his mom-in all honesty Ian strongly felt that being nice and helping others and generally caring about them, was more important than being intelligent and into school.

He actually felt bad, had he been judgmental about some of his classmates? The third year did generally avoid the Pecaris, other than Stanley. While it was mostly due to fearing that they would judge him for being nerdy, shy and unathletic and the possible-indeed probable- lack of common ground, part of it was that Ian just plain did not want to risk getting in trouble or the possibility of being in close proximity to an explosion which they seemed to think was a fun thing to do.

And he definitely did not want to partner them in something like dueling in DADA because they were more athletic than he was and he'd get crushed.

Still, on this particular subject, Billy actually had good insights." That also makes a lot of sense." Ian replied.

He was mildly surprised by his classmate's response regarding the rabbits though. He'd known that other people cooked and Muggles didn't have house elves to do it for them, but he'd never considered eating rabbits before-and certainly not having to go out and trap them himself. Ian could never do it. Not because of any sort of squeamishness-Healers could not be squeamish-or moral objection as he did eat meat. It was just something he didn't think he'd be very capable of physically- and he honestly didn't think he could bring himself to actually kill anything."Are vittles the same thing as rabbit stew?" He asked, not knowing the term.

Another thought occurred to him. "Why don't you guys breed them instead of going out and trapping them? You get a male and female and then there are lots of babies. Which you can eat and use the fur to line winter clothing." It was now apparent to him that his classmate led a very different life than he did. Ian would never occur to do that kind of stuff that Billy seemed to think was a natural part of life.

11 Ian Malone Indeed 1522 0 5

Billy Cobb

December 27, 2021 12:35 PM

Does seem a little odd by Billy Cobb

Billy grinned at Ian when the boy agreed that what he'd said made a lot of sense. Ian was a smart one which meant he must be right. He'd have to tell Iris the next time he saw her, for some reason she always seemed to think he was wrong about stuff.

He chuckled lightly at Ian's next question though. "Naw," he responded, "Vittles is just another word for 'food' where I come from." The then paused as he processed some information. "Well, I guess you are right though. Rabbit stew is food so, yeah rabbit stew is vittles." It didn't quite work though, "but other stuff is as well." He shrugged then, it didn't really matter all that much to him. It was one of them picky, strict word definition things that some folk got hung up about. Like the Potions, Charms and Transfig professors.

"Pa says he tried that a bunch o' years ago." Billy responded to Ian's inquiry about breeding rabbits. "He said it was more work. He had to build pens to keep 'em, keep feed and waterin' them. Then he had ta clean out the pens as well." The Pecari shook his head. "He decided it was to much work to do all the stuff that the forest already does for him already. They breed plenty well out in the wild and it was easier to just go grab a few when they were needed." Billy thoroughly agreed with Pa on this account. The thought of caring for a bunch of rabbits penned up near the house was so much more boring than wandering out through the woods to hunt and trap them.

Ian's question did make him wonder a bit though, "Do you breed any sort of critters?"

2 Billy Cobb Does seem a little odd 1519 0 5