Two can play at this game (Hans) on Library

Tarquin Fox-Reynolds

January 06, 2023 7:11 PM

Intermediate Study Hall - try it out by Tarquin Fox-Reynolds

It was Tarquin’s turn to supervise the students for study hall. Whilst he generally favoured a ‘do your own work quietly and don’t disturb others’ approach, there were times when he had to be a little more active. The start and end of the year were usually those times, as students either didn’t have enough independent work to keep themselves busy yet, or were drowning in exam stress and needed more adult input.

Today, it was the third years who would have the majority of his focus. Though most of them had chosen their electives already, there were a few weeks of grace and wiggle room, and study hall was a good chance to check in and have those conversations.

“Third years, please sit together at the large table. The rest of you, you can either do homework assignments or a scavenger hunt.” Scavenger hunts were one of his staples for anyone who complained of having nothing to do. They consisted of twenty questions whose answers could be found within the library. Questions ranged from the factual (’What form of peaceful protest was the goblin rebellion leader Sneernub best known for?’) to the library based (‘What topic can be found in section 107.85?’) to the whimsical (’Find a fiction book with a colour in the title.).

Once the fourth and fifth years seemed reasonably on task, and the third years were gathered, he addressed the latter group.

“We have a few tasks available to you today to help you explore elective options. Firstly, there are a number of brochures about independent study courses, which you are welcome to look through.” These had been available at the end of their second year. They would continue to be available during their third and fourth years, as correspondence courses were sometimes more flexible. “As you know, we also have in-house courses on astronomy, divination, and non-magical societies. A sample task has been provided for each of those so that you can see what a typical class assignment would look like. They’re shortened versions, which should take around ten minutes to complete each. You’re expected to try them all and turn them in.” This was operating on the ‘don’t knock it til you’ve tried it’ principle. Especially for divination and non-magical societies, there was a lot of prejudice and preconceptions around those topics. Students needed to make informed decisions about what they wanted to study, and it was harder for them to do that if they had never tried the subject out. Equally, for students from non-magical families, they might have only just got a grip on their existing subjects, and taking on more would seem daunting without knowing what they were getting themselves into.

For divination, there was a simple numerology exercise for them to complete, identifying key numbers based on their birthday and filling out some prompt questions about how they interpreted the associated descriptions. For astrology, there was a star globe, and they had to find the same five constellations with it set to two different dates in the year. For non-magical societies, there was a large book of different art prints. They simply had to find one they liked and answer some factual based questions, for example the period it was painted in and its characteristics, and some opinion based questions, which pushed them to find something they enjoyed about the picture, as well as anything they didn’t. And yes, there were tasks in non-magical-societies that were a lot more fun and hands-on, like making spoon catapults and flinging paper balls across the room, but that sort of thing was probably preaching to the choir. For some students, this would be the only exposure they ever got to the non-magical world, and teaching them that it was as complex and sophisticated and artistic as their own was probably a better shot to take than firing paper balls around—especially as most would ignore the physics that was trying to teach and just take it as representative of what non-magical schools did.

Tarquin talked them briefly through the tasks.

“After that, you’re free to do homework or scavenger hunts as per usual. Let me know if you have any questions,” he stated.

OOC: Some basic info on numerology - you can skip past the history blurb and down to the instructions if you want.

Third years, if you have someone from a different year that you especially want to talk to (or fourth and fifth years, if you have a third year you want to talk to), you can set your thread after their tasks are completed, as there would be time for both.

Subthreads:

Two can play at this game (Hans) by Liesl Brockert with Hansel Hexenmeister

We'll see about that by Iris Cobb

Trying to be a jack of all trades by Cole Pierce

Feeling awful by Lydia Priory with Phil Carson

13 Tarquin Fox-Reynolds Intermediate Study Hall - try it out 1464 1 5

Liesl Brockert

January 08, 2023 8:42 PM

Two can play at this game (Hans) by Liesl Brockert

Last year, the Challenges had given Liesl a moment of triumph. True, they’d only gotten second but second place was honestly pretty good. Uncle Cory was absolutely proud of her and Father actually seemed to be a little bit too. This made her feel good because while her uncle was always proud of Liesl, her parents being so was much less common, so while her uncle’s pride meant a lot to her, because he was one of her two favorite people ever, her father’s meant a lot because she felt it was rare.

Also, what made the whole thing really special, was her own contributions to the final Challenge. For once, Liesl had been able to put her only special skill to good use by designing the haunted house, not that the others hadn’t contributed. After all, Jasper and Mab had obviously had more advanced magical skills than she did.

But that had been her one special moment. And now that Desmond was here, Liesl would likely never have another. Her brother was the golden boy and the smart one and she was the oddball. That was that. He would likely be a super high achiever and would probably achieve the highest grades in his class. And then he’d lead a Challenge team, and if he finished in the top three, her parents would be much prouder of him than they had been of her-and Liesl still had no indication that Mother even had been. Even if Desmond’s team ended up third which was lower than hers, they’d probably be prouder of him than they had been of her, because he was the Team Leader and he was Desmond and she was the weirdo that they were ashamed of,

Honestly, sometimes, a small, mean, not entirely Teppish part of Liesl wished her brother would screw up. Just so her parents would be disappointed in someone else for a change. Although she never wished that on Krisalyn. Liesl honestly would not want her little sister to feel like she did. Maybe because her sister was nice and sweet to her and her brother tended to take his cues from their parents, Mother in particular, that she was someone to be ashamed of.

At least Liesl had Hans. And Uncle Cory, of course. However, it felt really good to have a friend who understood her-and no offense to Lydia, who was sweet, if a bit afraid of Liesl, but she was so happy that her best friend got prefect.

She hoped next year that she would as well but naturally, the Teppenpaw had her doubts. After all, she wasn’t unopposed, Patience was also in the running. And Liesl firmly believed that the only way she’d win anything was if she was the only option. Head Student was definitely not happening and would not even if they still had her running against the other girls. Nobody other than perhaps Uncle Cory and Hans would pick Liesl if they had options. And neither got a vote because her uncle wasn’t a staff member-although Uncle Mortimer was and he actually seemed to like her, which was odd because he didn’t seem to like much of anyone-and Hans would not be among those voting on her year group for Head Student as he was a year older than her.

Granted, her Challenge team had been second place, but that wasn’t exactly based on the same thing. That involved teamwork and skills including the one thing she was apparently good at more than anyone else. It was not based on the staff liking you the way prefect was. And Head Student was a popularity contest among students, and as Hans would not be in the group voting for her, the only person who’d vote for Liesl would be herself and maybe Christopher. And she couldn’t really count on him either because he’d probably vote for Verdillia and himself.

And her brother would probably get both badges.

Liesl sighed to herself. She wished she could just stay with her uncle or on Hans’ dad’s snake ranch. She felt a sense of belonging there, snakes seemed to like her more than people did.Honestly, it was one of the best parts of her summer, the other best parts being when she was with Uncle Cory, of course.

Now she was back in school. It was just terribly unfortunate that Desmond was here too. At least though she could hang out with Hans again every day. Liesl took a seat next to her best friend and listened to what Mr. Fox-Reynolds was planning for them today. Apparently the third years were to look into electives but the fourth and fifth years could do a scavenger hunt. That sounded fun.

Liesl turned to Hans. “Do you want to work on the scavenger hunt with me?” She asked her friend.

11 Liesl Brockert Two can play at this game (Hans) 1537 0 5

Iris Cobb

January 09, 2023 2:50 PM

We'll see about that by Iris Cobb

Iris sat and glared at the back of Liesl's head. She hadn't timed her own arrival to Study Hall correctly and now the little fourth year Brocket girl was sitting with Hans. Again. That forced her to go find a seat elsewhere in the library. Iris was beginning to have some unkind thoughts about Liesl.

It just wasn't fair in the end. Liesl was a Brockert and could pretty much get any wizardry boy in the world that she wanted. She was limited to the boys here at school, which for the most part wouldn't even look twice at a poor, mountain farm girl like her; or Dwane, her thirdish something or other cousin back home that had already been picked out for her unless she found another option. Stupid Aunt Emily.

Hans was different then all of the other boys at school, he knew what it was like to live away from all of the more civilized places. He could relate to not having everything you could possibly want available at his fingertips. He knew what it was like to work for what you needed and wanted. He was also nice, friendly, smart and not bad to look at.

She let out a despairing sigh. Maybe that was why he liked Liesl, maybe he didn't want that sort of life anymore. Maybe he wanted to live a life of Brockert ease. It wasn't like she had a lot to offer him. Would it be better for him if she just gave up and settled down with … ugh Dwane? Nope. That wasn't going to happen, and Liesl wasn't going to make it happen. She glared extra hard at the back of the Teppenpaw's head before she began unpacking.

She didn't have any schoolwork to work on, but she had her other project. She was going to get it done. She was going to have something to offer Hansel.

2 Iris Cobb We'll see about that 1526 0 5

Cole Pierce

January 23, 2023 5:58 PM

Trying to be a jack of all trades by Cole Pierce

Cole had already signed up for two of the three electives taught in person at Sonora. He'd gone with Muggle studies because he was sure it would be an easy O to boost his average since he'd grown up attending a muggle primary school. Also, he figured that would touch lightly on a wide variety of different topics and never really get boring. He'd also gone with Astronomy because he liked looking at the stars and he wanted to know what he was talking about if he ever convinced a girl to go star gazing with him at night. He would have taken Divinations, too, but he didn't want to take every subject there was and that was the one he'd eventually decided he wanted to do the least. Besides, Lenny was taking it, so he figured he could pick some of the concepts up through proximity to his roommate's studies. As Lenny was prone to dramatically reading his textbooks out loud as a form of studying for his tests, this was more likely to work than one might expect.

He had also debated picking up an independent study, but decided he just didn't have room for that in his schedule either.

So it was with some initial interest that he joined the other third years with Mr. Fox-Reynolds for their own special Study Hall session, but it soon popped with dismay as he realized the library intended to make him second guess his already difficult decisions to not take everything possible.

He really wasn't an Aladren, honest. He just needed to remind himself of that a few more times. He wanted to know a little bit about a lot of things, but he definitely didn't need to take all of these things to RATS level. He just wanted the beginner basics. Well, Intermediate Introductions, he guessed, since he was done with Beginners now. Maybe next year he could drop Astronomy and then start picking up a new Independent Study every year, just to get his feet wet in the possible correspondence courses. That could be interesting.

He started by picking up one of the independent study brochures and flipping through it, since he was already either taking or having Lenny take the school offered options. He flipped through the pages that made History of Magic sound like the most interesting subject ever (which surely had to be false advertising) but really, there some very cool facts being dangled tantalizingly across the parchment. "Ugh, I really don't have any room left in my schedule for a History course," he groaned out loud.

He grinned suddenly at his neighbor and offered the brochure temptingly. "I don't suppose you want to take it and just tell me the good parts?" he asked, encouragingly

1 Cole Pierce Trying to be a jack of all trades 1546 0 5

Hansel Hexenmeister

January 24, 2023 7:19 PM

Which game? Scavenger Hunts? by Hansel Hexenmeister

Hansel had brought something to work on for study hall, but when Mr. Fox-Reynolds called the third years to him for an exploration of the electives, and gave the rest of them the choice of doing a scavenger hunt, Hansel was glad to turn back to Liesl and agree, "That sounds fun!" He didn't have a lot of classwork to do yet, and what he had brought along was neither urgent nor something he couldn't easily do another time.

"I'll go get a sheet, be right back!" he promised and headed over to collect one of the parchments. He looked over the questions as he walked back, not really looking where he was going, but managing through a combination of luck and peripheral vision not to walk into anyone or anything.

He dropped back into his seat beside Liesl, and set the page on the table between them. He pointed at question five, "How many stomachs does a Antipodean Opaleye dragon have? Isn't one enough on a dragon?" he asked. "If it's being asked, I assume it has to be more than one, right? Snakes only have one, and they're both reptiles, but I think alligators might have more?" Maybe dragons had a secondary stomach that collected the gases produced during digestion and that was what they used to power their flame breath. Actually, that might be an interesting thing to learn, how dragons could breath fire.

OOC: I have seen no evidence that Antipodean Opaleyes have more than one stomach, so it's either a trick question, or we make stuff up because there's very little information about the Antipodean Opaleye's physiology on the internet.

1 Hansel Hexenmeister Which game? Scavenger Hunts? 1524 0 5

Lydia Priory

February 17, 2023 10:43 PM

Feeling awful by Lydia Priory

Every single moment since Lydia had become a fifth year, she’d been painfully aware of the
impending doom that was CATS. Well, actually, it had started to be a thing that she worried about from time to time in her third year, when she got to Intermediate classes with the current seventh years, who were then fifth years, and had to hear constant reminders directed at them about the exams.

However, back then, CATS were just something that Lydia would worry a bit about when they were mentioned as she always could find something more immediate to worry about. Last year, even though she’d been closer to taking them than the previous year, she had barely thought about them at all because of the Challenges, which had actually been more terrifying and stressful and overall anxiety inducing than even CATS were. Lydia had spent all last year worrying that she’d be bullied by Leonor, that she’d be utterly useless, that she wasn’t contributing enough because she was afraid to express any idea because she was worried that they’d get shot down and mocked, that everyone else on her team hated her for being weak and useless, and that they blamed her for their poor placement. Not to mention wandering through a maze on her own and having to perform in front of the entire school . Both of these would have been bad enough on their own but they had also involved facing a boggart and doing something that Lydia did not know how to do in front of the whole school.

She was glad they were over. Although, unlike Gwendolyn, who had bonded with her teammates, and went to visit one of them on the other girl’s birthday, the Teppenpaw was sort of avoiding hers. Even though Connor had assured her that they probably didn’t hate her because one of his own Challenge teammates, Allegra, had felt similarly to Lydia after the whole thing ended, and her brother hadn’t felt that way about Allegra at all. He didn’t blame her or hate her. Or even care that much about how they’d done. Eventually, he’d even told Allegra that he did not hold anything against her and that she had done just fine.

But others weren’t like Connor. Although Leonor had graduated, and Lydia would never have to see her again-hopefully-she would never have been able to picture her being kind and empathetic and reassuring the Teppenpaw that she’d done fine. Val, on the other hand…well, she actually looked up to the seventh year who’d come to greet her when she was a first year. Who was nice and compassionate. Lydia was incredibly anxious that she had let the older girl down last year and that Val, like Iris, like Sophia, didn’t think much of her now.

Admittedly, CATS wasn’t quite as bad.as the Challenges. As Gwendolyn had pointed out to her, the fifth year was probably not going to need specific scores in order to have a career-the idea of having one filled Lydia with tremendous anxiety-and had always done well enough in classes. Still, people kept stressing how important they were which, in turn, made Lydia stressed. Besides, both Connor and Sophia had done well on them, and Lydia didn’t want…to feel inferior to them, like she so often did, or disappoint their parents. Or herself.

The whole thing was beginning to take a toll on her health too. She was getting terrible headaches and was and this morning she had woken up with a horrible cough, which seemed to be getting worse as the day went on. And now Lydia was freezing, to the point where she was starting to shiver and she was pretty sure she was running a fever. Nobody else seemed to be cold. Plus, she had fevers often enough that she knew what they felt like.

All she wanted was to crawl back into bed, but she knew she needed to go to class. Plus, she’d only just started feeling feverish anyway, this morning she’d only had a bad cough. Also, Lydia really wasn’t sure she could get to the Hospital Wing-where she really should be-on her own.

Truth be told, she was feeling worse by the second, her heart was beating really fast and she was feeling sharp pains in her chest. Maybe she had pneumonia again? The Teppenpaw had had it twice before, once when she was three and once the year before she came to Sonora.

A violent coughing fit seized her. When it finally ended a few moments later, Lydia turned to the person next to her. “I think I need to go to the Hospital Wing. Can you help me?” Her voice was weak and breathless.

11 Lydia Priory Feeling awful 1533 0 5

Phil Carson

February 18, 2023 11:49 AM

Oh no! by Phil Carson

Phil had reached the middle year of his Sonora career. Three full years completed behind him, three full years, two major tests, and graduation still ahead of him. He was not part of the librarian's invitation to get an overview of the electives, as he had already decided on his last year. He could do a scavenger hunt, but he was leaning toward just doing whatever. He had a book he wanted to read and some homework already that he could work on, and that just sounded much more appealing and/or productive than doing the busy work the librarian could find for them to occupy their time with if they were bored.

He'd been an only child up until Loki came into the picture (which hadn't happened until he was nine and even then she hadn't been nearly old enough to be a companion - she was only just barely starting to reach that point now, when he was at school 75% of the year, and half of the remaining 25% he spent with his mom where he was still an only child, and even when they were together, he was fourteen and she was five so their range of overlapping interests was . . . limited), so he'd learned to entertain himself quite well on his own a while ago. Boredom was not a problem he suffered often. There were always books to read, shows and movies to watch (Disney+ was his best friend during in the summer, though that was much less an option here at school), lessons to delve deeper into, spells to practice (at school only, because he didn't want to get expelled for underage magic use at home), or backup characters to roll up (in case something tragic happened to Doombringer).

He was still deciding between those options - and leaning toward spell practice because he'd had 3 months to get rusty and he'd not gotten fully back into the swing of casting magic again yet, and Study Hall was one of the places where that was most encouraged as there was an adult present if something went wrong - when one of the girls sitting nearby started coughing up a lung.

Phil looked over in concern. It was one of the Teppenpaws in the year above his, and she looked awful. Not, like, in an ugly way, but in a she-is-definitely-sick kind of way. He was about to ask if she was okay when she made it very clear she was not by asking assistance to the Hospital Wing.

"Oh, yeah, definitely," he agreed, standing up and hurrying over to her. "Do you, um, do you want me help you walk?" he asked awkwardly, his arms starting to move toward her, but then pulling back, definitely sure that touching her without explicit permission was not okay, but she looked ready to keel over any second. "You can put an arm around my shoulder if you want?" he offered. "Or do you just want me to carry your stuff? Or we can leave it here for now, and I can bring it to Professor Xavier after I get you to the Hospital Wing if that would be better?"

1 Phil Carson Oh no! 1536 0 5