Nathan Xavier
December 23, 2022 6:37 PM
Beginners: Welcome to Herbology by Nathan Xavier
It was the first Herbology lesson of the school year, and Professor Nathan Xavier stood just outside Greenhouse One, to welcome the new first years and welcome back the returning second years, and also to prevent anyone from going inside the swelteringly hot greenhouse where they were nominally supposed to hold their class today.Once it looked like he had the full class, he smiled at them and started with an introduction. "Hello, I am Professor Xavier, sometimes called Professor X," mostly that was Phil Carson, but he wasn't the first to make the X-Men reference and Nathan doubted he would be the last. He trusted nobody would confuse him with the fictional Charles, given Nathan still had a full head of hair, did not have a wheelchair, and didn't know any Legilimency. "And this is Herbology. Normally, we meet in there, which is Greenhouse One. Greenhouse Two is a little further down this path, you can just about see it over the hedge there," he pointed along the main path they would have continued to go down if they hadn't stopped when they saw him. "Greenhouse Two is for Advanced students, so until you pass your CATS, you'll primarily be meeting me right here." He gestured again at Greenhouse One.
"Unfortunately, it is very hot in there right now, so we generally have the first couple of lessons out in the Gardens here, where we have plenty of other plants to look at and learn about. For this first class of the year, I'm going to take you all on a tour of our labyrinth. Everyone, please take a handout," he waved his wand to distribute the day's assignment among the group. "What you should have just received is a hand out with the names of fifteen plants we have growing in our Labyrinth, and pictures of them to help you find them in the wild, as it were. Your job today is to find those fifteen plants as we walk around. Go ahead and call it out when you spot one, and you'll earn your House a point for each plant you identify before anyone else. But before we do that, let me just take attendance and make sure we have everyone." He would periodically need to do a headcount to make sure he hadn't lost anybody as they walked, and it would be good to have an accurate number to compare it to. "Say here when I say your name. Arcadius, Quillan!"
Once he had confirmed he had a list of everyone who was present, he stepped closer to the door of the Greenhouse, and opened it. "We're going to make a big circle through the Labyrinth and visit several of the larger landmarks in our Gardens. We should get back here in plenty of time for you to get to your next class. You may leave your bags and robes here in the Greenhouse, if you like, or you can take them with you."
After everyone who wanted to leave robes and bags behind had deposited them just inside the door, he started along the path toward Greenhouse Two. "Follow me please, and don't wander off or fall behind. You may talk amongst yourselves, but do remember to look for the plants, and listen when I'm talking."
He had already talked about Greenhouse Two, so he didn't say much for the first couple of minutes, but when a student spotted one of the plants on their list, he marked it off on his own copy and noted which student (or students, if there was a tie) had identified it and gave a little information about each of those plants. He also noted landmarks and when they reach a crossroad of paths, he described whether the routes they weren't taking would lead them deeper into the labyrinth or back toward the school, and some of the handy clues that would help them figure that out themselves if they got lost, such as that some paths leading toward the school had honking daffodils planted there to help draw attention to them, while fanged geraniums were often a warning that taking that path would lead you farther from the safety of the school.
It was a good day for a walk. Very warm, of course - this was still technically summer - but not horrendously so, though he had decided to leave his own robes in the Greenhouse, so that helped. He was wearing his wide brimmed wizard's hat to protect his eyes from the sun - which was very bright today, without a cloud in the sky - and wondered belatedly if he should have made that recommendation to the students as well.
He tried to set a pace that was easy for everyone to keep up with, and enjoyed eavesdropping on the conversations going on around him as he tried to get a sense of his newest students. He was also happy to answer any questions the students posed as they walked along.
OOC: Hello, and welcome to Sonora and to Herbology. This is a pretty loose lesson, so you can post about the walk, finding a plant, asking the professor questions, or just talking to your classmates.
Subthreads: I feel very welcome! by Quillan Arcadius with Nausicaa Scapetello
If you chat with your neighbor, does that make this a walkie-talkie? by Lyla Holland with Charlotte O'Malley
Questions for the professor by Leo Lyons
Plants, got it. by Ida Stanford with Donovan Peters
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Nathan Xavier
Beginners: Welcome to Herbology
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Quillan Arcadius
December 23, 2022 8:04 PM
I feel very welcome! by Quillan Arcadius
So far, Quillan was surviving his classes. It was early days yet, and there were probably several conversations he needed to have with Professor Wright to make sure things continued working out for him, but so far nothing that called an unpleasant amount of the wrong type of attention to him had happened.As he listened to the introductory speech for their first herbology lesson, that trend looked set to continue. The day’s class sounded very practical, and that whatever little element of writing that was going to be involved could be forgiven for being done incredibly badly, given that they would be doing it on the go. It was one of Quillan’s go to defence mechanisms when he was required to write by hand in front of others to just make it as scrawling and illegible as possible so they wouldn’t see the spelling mistakes. Whilst poor handwriting was mildly scandalous in and of itself, it was a far lesser crime than being a poor speller. Besides, he had mastered the art of making his writing look calligraphic and impressive—on occasion, it had the nature of being impossible to read because it was so refined.
He opted to leave his bag and his robes. He suspected they wouldn’t be doing too much digging through rough patches, otherwise the Professor would have forewarned them, and thus he wouldn’t really need his robes to protect him. It was a pleasant day out, and much nicer to walk without the uniform weighing him down.
He stayed near the front of the group, both to better hear Professor Xavier, and also to increase his chances of being the first to spot something on their list. He made mental notes about the paths, but didn’t seem to need to do much more than tick off the plants when they reached them. He kept an eye on his neighbours and on Professor Xavier, making sure he made comparable notes as he didn’t want to look like a slacker, though he was fairly sure that retracing their steps through the garden would do more to jog his memory than any of his own written notes. It was a good way to learn, moving about, attaching the mental notes to a physical space… He didn’t suppose all their classes would be like this, but it was definitely a good start.
“Sir? There’s some knotgrass,” he pointed out, when they passed a patch of it growing around the base of a tree.
Once it had been marked off, he felt he could relax a little, having contributed to the class.
“It’s good to be outdoors for a bit,” he smiled at his neighbour.
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Quillan Arcadius
I feel very welcome!
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Nausicaa Scapetello
December 24, 2022 10:01 AM
That's lovely. by Nausicaa Scapetello
Nausicaa steeled herself against the impending nonsense that was 'herbology'. In her opinion, this was one of the most useless classes. It was also one of the dirtiest. The only redeeming aspect was that it was ridiculously easy and gave her more time to focus on the more proper and difficult classes without hurting her academic record.The professor was waiting for them outside. Thank Merlin the man had at least that much sense. She didn't care to try and imagine how hot it must be inside the greenhouse. Fortunately she wasn't early so she did not need to wait around long before he started.
Nausicaa mostly ignored his opening introduction. She did her best to look bored and check her nails. Being in a class with first years was annoying. However, she did still need to recruit minions and that would be harder next year. When he finally got around to the day's lesson, she was terribly conflicted. A good part of her wanted to be insulted by the inane task of following him around the garden and pointing out plants they had studied all last year. The rest of her was delighted at the fact that she wouldn't need to touch dirt today, or find someone else to do it for her.
"Present," Nausicaa responded to the roll call without any enthusiasm. As if she would lower her standards to say something as colloquial as 'here'. Once everyone was accounted for, the professor's next statement raised him up in her opinion. Not much, but he could use all he could get. He was allowing them to shed the horrific school robes again! It wasn't the first time he had done so, but last year it had only been at the beginning and end of the year.
Nausicaa quickly removed her robe, and neatly placed her things inside where they shouldn't get more dirty than absolutely necessary. Then she took a moment to fix her poor dress that had been mercilessly smothered beneath that horrid green mass of fabric. It was a dark purple and cut in the latest fashion. The short, gauzy sleeves made it much better for this sort of weather than the school's required attire.
She would have preferred to stay in the back of the group, but she was a leader not a follower. The idea of taking notes on this subject matter was beyond absurd. They had learned this last year, did he assume she had just forgotten all of it over the summer? What sort of dunce would allow that to happen? She acknowledged that perhaps it was the first time some of the first years were hearing it, but then why not allow them to go on this 'nature walk' while those that didn't need it went to the library to do something useful? So to make it at least appear that she was participating, she had her notebook out and was writing in it whenever the professor stopped to talk about things she already knew about. A careful observer might notice that she was actually working on their charms assignment from earlier in the day.
At one point Nausicaa's ever alert and keen eye, which was only paying half-attention to the area around her, spotted one of the plants before anyone else and she felt the necessity of pointing it out. "There are some Puffapods." The walk was not entirely unpleasant, but it would have been nice to have been warned. Her long dark skirts were getting a bit warm and a nice wide brimmed hat for the sun would have been nice. She noticed that the professor had his. Apparently they were meant to suffer.
One of the first year boys had the audacity to speak to her, as if she were some commoner. "Quite." She replied back a bit stiffly. She knew that alienating a potential asset wasn't the smart move, so she forced a return smile. "You seem to have a good eye for these plants," she complimented blithely. Then moved on to more important matters, was he someone worthwhile? "I'm Nausicaa Scapetello of the Ravenna Scapetellos." He had been the first one called and to respond to the roll call, so she knew his name. But what else might he tell her about himself?
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Nausicaa Scapetello
That's lovely.
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Quillan Arcadius
December 26, 2022 6:11 PM
It is by Quillan Arcadius
His neighbour turned out to be one of his fellow Aladrens. Quillan had noticed her already, both because they were housemates and also because she was very pretty. He had an academic understanding of the fact that girls were a thing he would take an interest in, and he could see they were pretty in the same way paintings were, which he confused for understanding what it was that grown-up people must feel that compelled them to get married. He therefore felt rather good about the fact that his class for the day involved walking an attractive young lady through the gardens, even if it was with everyone else along. He was also keen to talk to girls because they were, in his experience, gentler and kinder than boys, and whilst he wanted to be friends with Alexander, Nicholas and Desmond, that kind of friendship involved joining Quidditch together for the sportsmanship and beating each other at chess. He wasn’t convinced it would involve much caring about each other’s feelings, but girls were naturally nurturing and one could have a very different sort of interaction with them.“Thank you,” he smiled, when she complimented him. “As do you,” he added, as she had also pointed out one of the items on the worksheet. He hadn’t recognised her name during roll call, but she reintroduced herself with the format that indicated she was society, and the accent and the unfamiliarity of the place she listed offered an explanation as to why he didn’t know it. Maybe she was… Spanish? Or Spanish-speaking—there were a number of countries with that as their dominant language nearby. Still, he wasn’t going to guess. He tried to make a mental note of the place name, though who knew whether he’d be able to spell it accurately enough to look it up. It would probably be easier to watch her for further clues.
“Quillan Arcadius of the Illinois Aracdiuses,” he replied, tilting his head in what would have to pass for a bow as they were walking. “You’re in your second year?” he observed. “How did you find the first?”
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Quillan Arcadius
It is
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Nausicaa Scapetello
December 27, 2022 11:49 AM
Wonderful by Nausicaa Scapetello
Nausicaa gave Quillan a small 'I acknowledge your statement' nod and smile, that came from the colder end of 'friendly' on it's way towards 'icy'. Somewhere in the response was the additional, unspoken question, 'Is that the best you can do?' So far Nausicaa was unimpressed with this Quillan. If he had been looking to return a compliment of whatever quality to the one she had given, reflecting it back with 'you too' was not her idea of a job well done. He would need to do better than that if he wanted to gain her favor, a lot better.She did return his head tilt/bow with a slightly better acknowledgement than she had done with his 'compliment'. In her study of 'proper' American families (as much as the term 'proper' can be applied to anyone coming from the Americas), the Arcadiuses had shown up, as most of them had. It didn't really matter, but at least they, along with some of the others, actually tried to be respectable. The boy might do for an acceptable minion.
However, after he asked a foolish question she wondered if he had been placed into the right house. She hadn't been at the orientation with him this year, and she hadn't be sorted along with him. Yet, she was here in the ridiculous 'beginners' class with what might as well have been a coloring page of flower. Of course she was in second year. She gave him just a hint of a scornful look as he transitioned into his second question. Perhaps he had just been using that first question to lead into the one he actually wanted answered. For now she would assume that was so and her face quickly returned to her practiced neutral expression while she thought about how to answer.
Many words came to her mind, few of them she wanted to say in earshot of the professor. Perhaps she could use this as an opportunity though if he was listening. "To be perfectly honest, it was a bit dull. Most of the material we learned, I had already learned from my tutor before starting here." She should be a bit careful though, "The actual practical practice in most classes was beneficial as it had only been theory at home." Because actually practicing magic before being old enough and in school would have been wrong and illegal. Something that never could have happened. Nope. This class was the exception for 'practical work being nice'. "Often in these classes the second years have slightly different and harder tasks along the same lines as the first years. I hope that is true again this year." Not that it was today in this class.
"Are there any particular classes or activities you are looking forward to here?" That may get her some more information from him. Anything could be useful.
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Nausicaa Scapetello
Wonderful
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Quillan Arcadius
December 27, 2022 6:37 PM
I'm not convinced you mean that by Quillan Arcadius
As they conversed, several small expressions flittered over Nausicaa’s face. She smiled without using her eyes. She almost scowled. Quillan reviewed the conversation, not finding anything he had said so far as being possibly offensive. Perhaps she took time to warm to people. Perhaps the sun was bothering her eyes… Still, he was reminded of the way his mother talked about society parties. Of course, she didn’t say anything outright, but you could see it in her eyes or Well, when they went to get dessert from the buffet, her body language said it all! He had never been able to quite imagine before how one could help oneself to dessert in a passive aggressive way that allowed a transgressor to know they had fallen from favour. He had thought that his mother might be exaggerating. Now, watching Nausicaa’s face, he could start to imagine it.Still, it could have been the sun. He had no reason to think his manners weren’t up to scratch, and they were housemates, so it would do well to continue making an effort. And, much like the snubbings over coffee his mother had described, it was nothing he could call out without seeming petty or unreasonable. She had done nothing to push him out of the interaction, which meant it was rude to leave. He considered it like a game of chess… Sometimes, you could figure out your opponent’s agenda. Sometimes, you couldn’t. There were basics he could do, like making sure all his pieces were safe, seeing whether she was making forcing moves or in a position to threaten or capture… Or, equally, whether she could perceive any of the moves he’d made as doing so, leading to her defending in the way she was. It was a lot easier to analyse in chess, where that was clearly the purpose… In conversation, he supposed there were double meanings, trick questions—the types where regardless of your answer you landed in hot water—but he couldn’t see any of those in what either of them had said so far. Although, as her answer dived a little deeper than the basic pleasantries, he wondered if she might have seen it that way… It was always complicated to criticise, and she took a risk in doing so.
“That’s interesting to know, thank you,” he stated, regarding the class information. Finding himself repeating things he already knew didn’t sound like the worst… At least, not whilst he was getting his footing under him with new teachers and how they did things here. It would be a relief if he found he already knew a lot of the background information. Though, as an Aladren, he would rather die a painful death than admit these things, especially with someone who already seemed to be weighing his every word and finding them wanting. “My own curriculum focussed a lot on history, which as I understand it, isn’t taught here—other than how it comes up in the theory of each branch of magic. I did magical theory too, of course, and a lot of the background information is just… generally familiar from life,” he gestured vaguely at their worksheet. It wasn’t his first experience seeing a puffapod. He hadn’t considered that it might be some people’s—he had known that, academically, but it was odd to think about all this being brand new. He supposed that was why they were going slowly. “Do they ever split classes in other ways?” he asked, wondering if students with a magical background were ever given more advanced tasks, but not wanting to say something quite so direct and vulgar out loud.
“I think I’ll try to get a round of classes in before I decide which ones I’m looking forward to. I think it depends a lot on the teacher and how they’re taught. Charms being with the head of Aladren bodes well—I imagine we’ll actually get into some of the deeper stuff. I’m hoping for debating and chess in my free time. I’ve heard there’s a club for the former, and I already found another player for the latter in my year group. How about you?”
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Quillan Arcadius
I'm not convinced you mean that
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