Intermediates- Cat Scratch Fever on Care of Magical Creatures

Maisy Wigglington

August 29, 2023 12:02 PM

Intermediates- Cat Scratch Fever by Maisy Wigglington

By the time their first semester had finished, Maisy had managed to get her stuff together enough to feel like a real teacher. She almost never swore in front of the students anymore, and surprisingly (to her), all of her students were passing. She looked forward to the start of the new term and fresh lessons, and she had arranged something special for their first week back.

“Alright, class, listen up,” she said as the last of her intermediates got settled, “I’ve gotten us a new class pet, and today, you’ll be learning how to care for him.”

She reached under her desk and pulled out a medium-sized cardboard box. It had holes punched in the side, and it rocked under the shifting weight of its contents. Melody had hand-selected this beast over the holidays, getting the proper licensure from the government and permission from the school.

“This,” she said, opening the box and pulling out a small ball of fluff, “Is Magnus, and he is a half-Kneazle.” Magnus’s orange fur matched her own hair, and his tufted ears were as soft as baby’s breath. Maisy could say that she had chosen him, but the reality was that he’d chosen her, batting at her shoelaces. She had gone ahead pretreated his fur with a dander-eliminator, to ward off any allergies her students might have.

“Kneazles are notoriously scrupulous when it comes to their owners. They don’t like shifty people. They are also incredibly intelligent creatures, and need plenty of mental stimulation. We have three tasks today, divided into years. Fifth years, you will be designing his enclosure. As much as he and I would both like for him to free-roam, it simply isn’t safe. His enclosure will need plenty of room for him to move around, a place for him to sleep, and anything else you might think would be nice. I've got an empty kennel in the back corner.” The kennel was more of a tower, with multiple levels all caged in.

“Fourth years, I’m tasking you with making interesting toys with these bits and bobs right here. Be creative, you can transfigure or glue or whatever. He likes most things that a cat would like, and some things that a dog would like. Feel free to test them out on him as you work through your ideas.”

“Thirds, you guys are looking at what sort of things he can eat, both daily and as special treats. I have some Kneazle-safe ingredients over there,” Maisy pointed out a basketful of a variety of fruits and vegetables and meats, “Use your textbooks to research it before you feed him, please.”

Pleased that everyone was looking engaged (except the Scapetello girl, but she was never exactly enthusiastic), Maisy clapped her hands together. “Let’s get started!”

Subthreads:

Here kitty kitty by Xarryn Bavol with Robyn Lundstrom

A little better educated by Leviosa Scurlock with Piper Wilson

Chase, Magnus! Chase! by Cole Pierce with Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

Toys huh? by Fortune Ardovini

Stranglehold by Olaf Brockert with Magnus

64 Maisy Wigglington Intermediates- Cat Scratch Fever 1583 1 5

Xarryn Bavol

September 01, 2023 9:02 PM

Here kitty kitty by Xarryn Bavol

One of Xarryn's favorite classes was Care of Magical Creatures. The wand waving ones were all fun, too, of course (except that Professor Wright could get long winded, and the Transfiguration theories confused him, but he like doing the spell work), but there was definitely something to be said for a class that was all about taking care of animals.

"Aww," he joined in when the professor pulled the little ball of orange fluff out of its box. Magnus was adorable.

He waited for his year's assignment and was mildly dissapointed that they just had food when the other yeargroups got to make things that would last, but little baby kneazles did need to eat, and he knew food was a good way to get any animal to like you, so he joined the other third years around the basket of foodstuffs.

He was 90% sure cats were primarily carnivores, so he picked up a piece of fish. A closer look showed there were no bones and no scales, so it was probably safe to eat as is. The teacher had said to check the textbook first, though, so he turned to one of his yearmates who had brought theirs with them, and asked, "Fish is good right? I can't imagine a cat who doesn't like fish."

1 Xarryn Bavol Here kitty kitty 1560 0 5

Leviosa Scurlock

September 01, 2023 9:45 PM

A little better educated by Leviosa Scurlock

Levi had had an… interesting Christmas break. She was in two minds about the upcoming ball. She wasn’t totally sure it was her kind of thing, but at the same time, it would be fun to get all dressed up and hang out with her friends. If that was an option… Cole kept spending all this time one-on-one with Yarielis, and it didn’t really take an Aladren to figure out what that most likely meant. Which meant their neatly balanced group of four was now down to three. Unless any of the others got dates and left her…

Levi hadn’t been sure what the fuss was about with dates. Okay, if you had no friends, then you needed a date, but surely all the things a date could offer, a friend could offer too. They could dance together, and with the added bonus that they knew they liked each other’s company. And yes, when they’d all gone swimming, she’d become cheek-flushingly aware that Cole had a body below the neckline, and that was… interesting, but he was out, and she couldn’t think anyone she’d rather spend time with than her friends.

Still, she’d felt she ought to get into ball research mode, and had gone looking for books in her mother’s room. Technically, she wasn’t supposed to do that, but whilst some of her childhood books featured balls and dances, she couldn’t see in them anything that made something a date rather than hanging out with friends. She knew mama had a lot of books with people in swooshy dresses being held in the arms of dashing suitors, and she’d wondered if they might go into more detail about what a date actually was.

They certainly had.

It was a good thing, in some ways, that she knew she wasn’t meant to be seen with them, because it would have been very awkward to have mama see her reading such a thing, knowing what was in it. She was trying to ignore the fact that mama knew what was in these books and read them with apparent interest and enjoyment. But paging through them by lamplight in her room after she was supposed to be sleeping had been… educational.

And if that was what people did on dates, she could sort of see why people wanted them, though she doubted they’d get up to much of that at school. But she still couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather go with than her friends.

It was all a bit confusing. She was hoping to catch Lenny and ask him if he’d read any kissing books. Not that these had stopped at kissing, but that was a good starting point, and maybe they could giggle over them. He seemed the least likely person to judge or for it to be weird with. The books had also given her plenty of dress inspiration. She liked a lot of the descriptions of silky fabrics and tight corsets clinging to women’s bodies and emphasising their shapes. Not that she had much shape to emphasise, but it was fun to imagine…

Except, right now, it was time for Care of Magical Creatures, and challenging though it was, she had to get her mind away from manly embraces and heaving bosoms, and all the rest of the words that she was still too embarrassed to even think when she was in the middle of school…

They had a half-kneazle today, which was cute, but potentially not distracting enough… But making something… That took planning, and crafting skills, and if she really concentrated on making something thoughtful rather than just glueing feathers to string, maybe she could distract herself.

“Kneazles are pretty smart, right?” she asked, turning to a peer. “My grandparents have this cat toy where the cat has to solve little puzzles to get its treats. Only it doesn’t work, because their cat isn’t the brightest and then they just feel bad for him and give him the treats anyway. But for her, it might be a good option. Do you want to work on that together, or do you have other ideas?”

13 Leviosa Scurlock A little better educated 1545 0 5

Robyn Lundstrom

September 01, 2023 9:45 PM

Are you talking to me? by Robyn Lundstrom

Care of Magical Creatures was being weird again. Their assignment was literally ‘make cat food’ like that wasn’t something you could just buy. Or like, if you wanted to be super healthy and organic, you could just give your cat… fish or chicken or whatever. Okay, did Robyn know the exact amounts and quantities and nutrient balance you should feed a cat? No. But she knew that you could google that.

Well, obviously wizards couldn’t, but this didn’t feel like an essential life skill. Especially as she was more of a dog person.

She preferred wandwork classes. They gave her more to think about, and she had to push all the stresses of her regular life to the sides in order to not blow things up. She was really good at not blowing things up. Always had been. She’d gotten consistent results, unlike Xavier, and never hit a weird phase of overdoing it and having to be removed for other people’s safety. She prided herself on that, and on every opportunity she had to prove that she was in control, if only of the tiny little world on her desk.

They were working in grade levels, and she took a space next to Xarryn. He was one of those people that she liked but seemed to find it hard to get into his orbit properly. She hoped that coming to support him at the Quidditch day had counted for something, even though she hadn’t got onto the pitch, for fear of being the odd one out with Samara and Lyla. But she needed more people, so that she wasn’t just constantly leaning on Lyla, and maybe making cat food together would be the thing that bonded her Xarryn as proper buds, unlikely as that seemed.

“Sounds good,” she agreed, regarding the fish, not bothering to consult the textbook tucked under her arm for the question. “I guess we should work out portion size,” she said, adjusting the book so she could flick through. “And… I dunno. Do we need to do anything more for flavour? Or like you say, cats like fish, so fish flavour seems good enough?”

13 Robyn Lundstrom Are you talking to me? 1558 0 5

Cole Pierce

September 01, 2023 9:56 PM

Chase, Magnus! Chase! by Cole Pierce

Oh, this was going to be a fun lesson, Cole was sure about that as soon as he saw the little half-kneazle. And the assignment for the fourth years was easily the best one. Making cat toys was absolutely the best classwork assignment he had ever been given in his life, including when his dad was his teacher in first grade. Sorry, dad.

Cole had never had a cat, but Gramelia had one, so he knew they loved things that were shiny, things that moved, things that jingled, and laser pointers. Laser pointers did not seem to be available, and he didn't know any spells to replicate the effect, but he could handle the other three.

He picked up a what might have started life as a disco ball keychain, but was now just a slightly tarnished disco ball. He used a cleaning charm on it to get it extra shiny, and then picked up a little stuffed bear. A couple of sticking charms got the bear to hold the disco ball. Most of Gramelia's cat toys were shaped like prey animals, so a bear probably wasn't something a kitten would want to chase. A transfiguration spell changed it to a chipmunk. (It looked remarkably like Dale.) He then tied a small jingle bell to Dale's tail so the toy would jingle as it ran around.

Making it run around was going to be the trickiest of the spells he planned for this, but he was pretty good at charms, so with a few tries, he did get Dale scampering about with a jingly tail and a shiny disco ball. Satisfied that his toy was working as expected, he headed over to where Magnus was contained while the fifth years worked on his enclosure.

"Hey, Magnus. Look what I got for you." He put Dale down, and set the chipmunk off. "Magnus, chase it!" he encouraged, though he didn't really need to. The kitten was already happily stalking its new toy.

Cole grinned brightly as another student came over. "Hey! What did you make?" He pointed at Magnus and Dale - or rather, Magnus and what had been Dale. Magnus had caught the chipmunk and killed it. Cole's smile faded. "Oh. I guess I didn't make a toy that lasts very long."

1 Cole Pierce Chase, Magnus! Chase! 1546 0 5

Piper Wilson

September 26, 2023 3:32 AM

Education is good by Piper Wilson

As the year wore on, Piper was thinking about the ball quite often. Probably because she was on the planning committee and was thinking about things like food and decorations. Obviously, they could have the kitchen elves do the cooking but it honestly might be more fun to have an outside caterer come in. Also, what types of food being served was just as important. Did they want to just serve appetizers and desserts or a full meal?

Honestly, Piper didn’t think it was fair to make dinner be part of the ball, because there were people who for one reason or another wanted to skip it. If dinner was part of the ball, like a sit down dinner followed by dancing, then it made it pretty much mandatory for people to attend or they didn’t get to eat. Both forcing people to go to the ball and denying them food were totally wrong. Obviously, she personally did want to go to the ball, as if nothing else, she wanted to see the results of the hard work that she and the rest of the committee had done. They were all really trying to make it nice.

However, she knew that there was sometimes tremendous drama for people surrounding the ball. LIke if someone’s friends all had dates and they didn’t, leaving them with nobody to talk to. Piper had heard tales of Ball related woes from some of her relatives. In Amity’s case, when that happened to her, she had gotten lucky enough to make a new friend, but the Teppenpaw knew that at the last Ball, there weren’t a lot of people left to talk to. Piper sincerely hoped she would not end up in that position, but she would be totally okay with making friends with someone else who didn’t have a date.

Still, she couldn’t imagine how hard that would be for someone who was shy or thought that everyone hated them (which had been the case with her cousin, something about being voted Most Likely to Be A Criminal, which Piper both thought was mean and tremendously inaccurate, since Amity was both too nice and too lazy to commit a crime.) She could definitely see how someone like that might prefer to skip the Ball altogether.

So far though, Piper was not all that worried about having nobody to talk to. None of her friends had dates yet either. Ideally the four of them (or even the four of them plus Yarielis)would hang out but she certainly did not want to deny her friends dates. She knew that Lenny in particular wanted one, and while she was not entirely sure that was likely, she did hope he was successful since she wanted him to be happy.

And of course, Piper was not against having a date herself. However, she didn’t really see anyone asking her. Maybe Phil? Or Eben? Still, hanging out with her friends and just not standing around by herself was good. She was sure that hanging out with the other fourth year Teppenpaws would be the most fun.

However, now she was in COMC and needed to pay attention. Fortunately, today’s lesson sounded like a lot of fun. Making toys for a half-kneazle actually sounded like a way they could be creative as well as getting to play with a really cute animal.

Levi turned to her and asked her a question. “Generally speaking, yes. I mean an animal who can detect shifty people has to be at least somewhat intelligent. I wonder about that, actually. Do bad people give off a certain…scent that is only detectable to kneazles? Like, maybe they don’t stink to humans, but they do to kneazles?”

Piper smiled at the story of Levi’s grandparents’ cat. “That’s nice that they give him treats anyway.. What kind of pet would you want to have? I kind of would like a guinea pig.” She continued “And of course I want to work together!”

11 Piper Wilson Education is good 1556 0 5

Leviosa Scurlock

September 26, 2023 8:12 AM

On some things by Leviosa Scurlock

It was Piper, piping up with an ‘of course’ which warmed Levi’s heart. Admittedly, this was just a class assignment, not the ball, but it was feeling more and more like ‘of course’ couldn’t be taken for granted, even when it came to their friends. Levi hated the fracturing-apart feeling of Cole leaving them. The weirdest part was, he hadn’t even told them he was dating someone. They were his friends. They’d be happy for him.

…at least, outwardly, where he could see, even if there were tiny little, bitter nasty bits deep down inside that didn’t want him to go off with someone else. Levi knew that was mean, and it wasn’t like she’d have let it show if Cole wanted to talk to them. But he didn’t.

Still, right now was no time to obsess over Cole or the ball. There was a bored little kitty, and Levi had a great partner. She could imagine the smell of Piper’s shampoo as they sat down to work, and had to resist the urge to bury her head on her friend’s shoulder to get a proper breathful of it. The scent, even imagined, reminded her of stretching out on either of their beds, whispering to each other. It was a comfortable, more-homely-than-home smell.

“Maybe,” she acknowledged, as Piper pondered whether Kneazles could smell lies. It was as good a guess as any other. “I’ve never really thought about it,” Levi admitted. It was one of those things that just worked, like magic in general, or divination for Seers—it was just a gift that wibbled through the ether doing its thing because that’s how it was.

“Hmm, that’s a tough one,” she said, when Piper asked about pets. There were so many appealing things in the world. How was anyone supposed to choose just one? “Puppies are super cute and cuddly.” Plus she’d get to take it for walks. The idea of a daily stroll across wild, untamed countryside with her hair blowing wild and a scrappy little dog at her heels, both of them getting all covered in mud, was very appealing. As with so many things, she wasn’t sure whether it was appealing on purpose precisely because it was everything her mother didn’t want her to be, or whether they were just naturally opposites. “But a bright, colourful bird sounds good too. Preferably one that can talk or do tricks.” Between that and duelling, maybe her life goal was just to be a pirate? Perhaps she should spend more time with Xarryn…

“So, the toy my grandparents have, it has these little covers, and the cat has to slide them back to find the treats, and on some of them it has to move something to be able to open the cover to make it harder and—you don’t think we’ll be considered untrustworthy if we hide treats, do you? Maybe that will seem like awfully sneaky, mean behaviour… But he’ll will know that we’re doing it for fun, to let him play a little game, right?”

13 Leviosa Scurlock On some things 1545 0 5

Piper Wilson

September 29, 2023 8:55 AM

There are some subjects that are less interesting by Piper Wilson

When it came to friends, Piper felt very lucky. First of all, to have friends at all, because some people really struggled to make them at all, for various reasons, such as being shy or just being a little (or even a lot) different.Which was sad because sometimes-often, in all the examples of that the fourth year could think of- those people had a lot to offer and just weren’t appreciated by others. Even if they were super kind or-in the specific case of her brother-someone that she learned a lot from.Most of her close relatives that fell into these categories-such as Ryan and Kira- thankfully had done all right though.

Secondly, Piper was glad that her relationships with her friends were so far uncomplicated. They all were friends with each other and liked each other and even though Cole was also friends with Yarielis and Christopher, she at least personally felt they liked her well enough and she liked them. And if there was any animosity towards Lenny from Yarielis, that didn’t really affect her too much. Of course, Piper wanted everyone to get along but it wasn’t a situation where the Crotalus was basically hogging their friend and not giving them a chance to spend time with him.

Although to be fair, sometimes it did seem like Piper did more stuff with Lenny and Levi than with Cole. Like, obviously, Levi was her roommate so they got roommate time–which was another thing that Piper felt grateful for, a roommate that she not only got on with but was a ready made best friend, not that she didn’t also consider the other two Teppenpaws her best friends-and then their interests tended to end up more in line with each other. Like all doing Performing Arts-which Cole did occasionally attend- and Divinations. Piper also did both the Ball planning committee and Visual Arts with Lenny ( the latter of which Cole also sometimes went to). She and Cole did both take Astronomy and Muggle Studies though.

So, yes, she did feel that sometimes the interests of the rest of them diverged with Cole’s. And obviously, Piper hoped he didn’t feel left out. Maybe it was good that he had Yarielis to do sporty things with. Still, it wasn’t as if she felt Yarielis was pulling him away. It wasn’t like Lavender thinking Bonabelle was a time sucking blackhole-that was a direct quote from the Crotalus alumna-that took away all of Val’s attention. Even though Piper believed that was possibly only partially accurate, and that Val was partially to blame. But certainly it made sense for Lavender to put on a person who from what the fourth year gathered, never really wanted them to all be a group of friends like Piper and her friends were.

That wasn’t Yarielis though. She never seemed to interfere with the fourth year Teppenpaws. And she seemed receptive enough to hang out with them all like at the Bonfire. According to Lavender, Bonabelle hadn’t been and this was part of the reason that the Teppenpaw felt lucky.

“Honestly?Neither have I until now.” Piper replied. How magic worked had not ever really been a topic that really interested her and that applied to why magical creatures behaved as they did. Not that she was without any intellectual curiosity whatsoever but when it came to magic, she just took for granted that it was there and that it worked and that was how things were. It was not something that Piper really felt the need to dissect. “I really only am thinking about it now because it came up in the lesson.”

“Ooh, puppies are so cute!” She replied. “It’s so unfortunate that we can’t have them here at Sonora. When my cousin got his, he had to leave him at home. Of course, that was a really long time ago, but I don’t think they’ve changed the rule since then. I don’t think they allow guinea pigs or birds aside from owls either. I mean, I don’t know why you couldn’t have a colorful bird but can have an owl. That seems illogical.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” Piper thought for a second. “Hm. Yeah, maybe. I mean,I’ve always thought that they just detected people who were all over untrustworthy. That’s not us.”

11 Piper Wilson There are some subjects that are less interesting 1556 0 5

Leviosa Scurlock

September 29, 2023 10:42 PM

But more appropriate by Leviosa Scurlock

“Yeah,” Levi sighed, when Piper bemoaned the lack of puppies at school. It was another reason why her mum would frown on her having one. It wasn’t traditional or magical enough. That was probably why they couldn’t have other birds either. Yes, owls were practical in that they carried the post, but given that people could also bring cats or rats, ‘post carrying’ wasn’t a prerequisite for a pet. “I guess none of those is ‘traditional.’” She rolled her eyes, then remembered who she was talking to. “Not that traditions are all bad. It’s good to have some of them.” Not that Piper had ever been really forceful about that belief. She was friends with Lenny, after all, who was about as far from traditional as could be. Maybe she wouldn’t mind. Levi just didn’t want Piper to think she was trashing the whole idea of history or tradition or the way the school was run, because all of those were personal and important to Piper, even if she didn’t force them on other people.

Kneazles were able to detect general untrustworthiness. Which wasn’t them. Except… sneaking books you weren’t meant to look at, full of dirty things wasn’t a very trustworthy act, was it? Going against everything her mother wanted her to be… It wasn’t exactly ‘untrustworthy’ but it wasn’t good or nice. How many bad things did you have to do before you were a bad person? Both in the eyes of society and of kneazles?

“Yeah, I’m sure we’ll be fine,” Levi agreed, feeling like Piper more likely would be than her. Levi just… wasn’t as good as other people. She was kind, but she wasn’t obedient… Not that that mattered for making a cat toy. That thought could go back in its box for another day. “Okay, so I think we need a board about this big,” she indicated a roughly dinner-plate sized area with her hands. “It can be any shape, but it needs to be deep enough that we can make little wells and tracks in it. We can magic that up out of something else if there’s not a good starting material.”

13 Leviosa Scurlock But more appropriate 1545 0 5

Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

September 30, 2023 12:05 PM

Magnus: 1, Dale: 0 by Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

Care of Magical Creatures was easily the class in which Lazarus felt the most comfortable. As if his own house didn’t sometimes feel like a zoo, he had spent most of his childhood literally at a zoo. Both of his parents were magical zookeepers, so it was around even the most frightening of magical creatures that Laz felt like he knew his way around pretty easily. Of course, he knew what creatures to be cautious around, but they hardly scared him. Pretty much anything could be dealt with if you knew how to do it.

And of those more dangerous animals, Kneazles were definitely not one. Especially a half-Kneazle. Professor Wigglington was right to call it a class pet. It was little more than a house cat with some extra judgmental opinions, as far as the Aladren was concerned.

Making cat toys felt a bit below their level, in his opinion, but he wasn’t complaining about an easier lesson. Lazarus grabbed what was approximately two-thirds of a broken crayon and inspected it for ideas. After a moment of thought, he flicked his wrist, and a light from the tip of his wand turned the crayon into a plastic-like stick with a dangling string off the end of it. The whole thing stayed purple like the crayon had been, which wasn’t really his intent, but that was sufficient, he supposed.

Beside him, Cole Pierce asked what he had made, and Lazarus held it where the other student could see. Cole’s toy - a chipmunk or something - had already been defeated by Magnus, which wasn’t entirely unexpected. Lazlo dangled the end of his toy before the cat to distract him and take back Cole’s toy. Sitting it on the table and picking his wand back up, he mouthed Reparo to see if the toy would come back to life. Maybe it could just be reset.

OOC: Up to you if Dale can be brought back to life like this.

12 Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher Magnus: 1, Dale: 0 1548 0 5

Cole Pierce

October 01, 2023 2:24 PM

I don't think Dale's got a chance by Cole Pierce

"Thanks," Cole said gratefully as Lazarus used his own cat toy to distract Magnus and rescue Dale's remains. Laz even tried to fix Dale, and it worked about as well as magically repairing a toy made out of broken things could work. The pros were that the disco ball was shinier than ever and its missing mirror plates had even been restored, the chipmunk was recognizably a chimpmunk again (or a close cartoonish equvilant) instead of murdered plush toy with its stuffing bleeding all over the table (having kept its new form as transfigurations were a very solid form of magic until the spell wore off), and the jingle bell on its tail was once more attached. The cons were that the hardest spell - the locomotion one - had been dispersed and a simple reparo could only restore the physical object and not its enchantments, and also putting Dale back down with Magnus would result in basically the same thing happening again in just as short a time.

"I think it probably needs something to make it tougher to stand up to being pounced on," he mused, frowing at Dale thoughtfully.

"Yours seems to be keeping him entertained quite well," he added with impressed congratulations in his tone, nodding to the swipes and jumps Magnus was making at Lazarus' dangling string toy. It maybe wasn't quite as complicated as what Cole had made, but it seemed to be doing the job better and for longer, so there was a lot to be said for simplicity in cat toys. Cole's might get bonus Charms points, but this was Care of Magical Creatures, not Charms, and Laz's was definitely scoring higher on the feline survivability scale.

Cole took a little time to pull out his charms book and look up durability charms, because he was having trouble remembering how to do those off the top of his head, but re-reading the page the index directed him to brought it all back. He cast that on poor Dale, not sure it would be quite enough, but it would be better than nothing at all. Then he recast his locomotion charms and put the toy back down into Magnus' space, letting Dale scamper off.

OOC: You are welcome to have Dale die another stuffing-y death if you like.

1 Cole Pierce I don't think Dale's got a chance 1546 0 5

Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

October 01, 2023 9:59 PM

Everybody likes an underdog story. by Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

Laz was a bit disappointed his attempt had not fully fixed Cole’s toy, but admittedly, it still did better than he realistically would have anticipated. The pieces/parts of the accessorized rodent looked arguably better than they had before, but the key aspect of the toy - its movement - had unfortunately ceased. That seemed like something Cole would have to redo. Lazarus nodded in agreement as his classmate commented on needing to strengthen the toy up if it was going to be able to withstand Magnus’s pounces. Cole’s concept was fun, but realistically, even a normal cat would probably beat it up.

“Yours seems to be keeping him entertained quite well.” Lazlo gave a small shrug in recognition of the compliment as he was still, as Cole noted, spending some energy to entertain Magnus. It wasn’t like that was super hard, though. Part Kneazle or not, a cat was a cat. Lazarus had seen similar behavior even at the zoo. If you gave a leopard or a tiger a ball, it was just as excited as a housecat.

Laz paused to see what Cole was doing when he didn’t hear anything else from him for a bit. Looking over, he saw that Cole had pulled out his textbook. From the spell he used, Lazarus took it to be the fortifying spell he had mentioned earlier. As the chipmunk guy began to head back to the terrifying grasps of the fluffy beast, Lazarus smiled at Cole and held up one hand. He crossed his fingers and hoped for the best.

OOC: I'll leave it up to you, lol

12 Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher Everybody likes an underdog story. 1548 0 5

Piper Wilson

October 02, 2023 9:48 PM

Well, there could be a happy medium. by Piper Wilson

Piper nodded. “Tradition can be both good and bad, I guess.” She hadn’t been offended at all by Levi’s complaint. She knew what her roommate’s mom was like., that she seemed very into magical tradition which the other Teppenpaw did not seem as into "Like, it’s nice to have, like, things your family does at holidays that give you a sense of comfort and happiness. Like making a certain food that is only served then or even the practice of exchanging gifts.I mean I love both giving and receiving them.” Honestly she sort of liked giving more. It was nice to get something that you want but she liked making someone happy when they got something they liked from her even more.

“However,” Piper continued “it shouldn’t be a barrier to someone doing something they like, whether it’s getting a pet you really want or dressing in a way that’s different like how Lenny does. You shouldn’t have to conform to a narrow set of expectations. Especially if they aren’t even accurate. My cousin is a wizard, from a completely magical background and he is also a dog person.” In more ways than one, as Ryan was also a St. Bernard animagus. “And has a dog.”

She went on.”I’m not even that sure if that’s why we can’t have dogs here. Although considering the pets we can have, it might be part of it. LIke we can have rats and puffskiens but what about hamsters, gerbils and other small pets? Or like why can’t we have other birds besides owls? And Hans has a snake which I didn’t think was on the list of approved pets.” Piper had honestly not thought about this before. It actually seemed kind of unfair. Okay, they weren’t letting people have pets that were similar to dogs but then, what pet was similar to a dog? Animals that were like dogs included things like wolves and coyotes and people didn’t keep those as pets. But other birds and small animals? Why would they be any different than owls or rats?

“I mean, it can’t be because of people with allergies since cats are allowed and there are people who are allergic to them. And it can’t be because they’re worried other pets would be in danger as rats and puffskiens are in danger from the cats. And the snake.” Piper mused. She wasn’t necessarily against Hans being allowed a (non-poisonous) snake, even though some people were probably afraid of them, she just thought that others should be allowed them too. Special treatment was wrong, unless it was like when there was a blind girl with a seeing eye dog.

“Of course we will.” Piper agreed. When she thought about someone who was untrustworthy she generally pictured someone who was more…malicious. Like a con-artist or someone who would tell someone’s secrets. Someone whose lies hurt others. Or someone who did so most of the time. That was different from someone who did so to avoid hurting someone’s feelings or being hurt themself. Piper would definitely trust her friend and Levi could definitely trust her with anything.

“All right.” She agreed. “Let’s get some wood. Or should we figure out a design first? “ She was going to let the other Teppenpaw take the lead on this since it was her idea.

11 Piper Wilson Well, there could be a happy medium. 1556 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

October 06, 2023 9:55 PM

Toys huh? by Fortune Ardovini

Fortune wasn't entirely sure which class was his favorite, but Care of Magical Creatures was fairly high up on the list. He wasn't sure he was enough of an 'animal person' to pursue some animal based career, but they were fun enough to have around. He had a cat back home, but it was a rather lazy thing that didn't do much other than eat and sleep. That was the primary reason why his parents tolerated it. They weren't really animal people either, but having some sort of pet was tradition.

As such, he was rather interested when Professor Wigglington brought out a box with a critter in it. New creatures were always interesting. The Kneazle... or half-Kneazle didn't disappoint. As the professor listed off the assignments, he was a bit disappointed. Toys were alright to make, but putting together the enclosure sounded more fun for some reason. Unfortunately he wasn't a fifth year yet. On the plus side, that meant he didn't need to worry about CATS yet.

He needed to make a toy for the.. for Magnus. His cat at home didn't really have any toys. There had been some a long time ago, but the cat just ignored them. He hadn't had any interest in them. So, Fortune wasn't really sure what sorts of toys a cat would like. He was also equally ignorant of dog toys. Dogs liked to fetch things? Right? Chase after stuff that was thrown? They liked to chew on bones? Neither of those seemed like great toys, or particularly challenging things to make. You could throw anything for a dog to chase.

Fortune turned to one of the other students, "I'm not really sure what sort of toy to make for him. Got any good ideas?"

2 Fortune Ardovini Toys huh? 1549 0 5

Olaf Brockert

October 16, 2023 2:44 PM

Stranglehold by Olaf Brockert

He hadn’t been back from Midterm all that long, and Olaf was already more than ready for the year to be over. Honestly, while the Challenges had taken up far more time as they actually required his participation-something that he had been less than enthused about given that he had no interest whatsoever in participating in school activities that involved interaction with other people-even they were less vile than the stupid Ball.

It was so hard to understand the appeal. Like, Olaf did not especially understand the appeal of most of the Midsummer events, but nobody seemed to work themselves into such a frenzy over the other three unless they had to participate when they did not want to like having to do a Concert act because your Challenge team won an event where the “prize” was to perform. Olaf still didn’t know how they had managed that honestly since none of his team had had any musical skills while not doing so well in the last event since their museum exhibit was pretty good or for that matter, how Liesl’s haunted house hadn’t taken first, but it was two years so it didn’t really matter now. He hopefully could avoid participating in the next one.

Also Olaf supposed he didn’t know if people would get all worked up about the Fair, since that was an event that had yet to occur while he was attending school here but he imagined it was similar to the Concert in that nobody got worked up unless they were being forced to participate when they didn’t want to.

Of course, he supposed that people worried about things like making sure their acts or booths were ready or in the case of the Concert, that their family would embarrass him. Since Olaf had to put up with his family all the time, that was either always an issue or never. Currently, while they all annoyed him at various times-they were other people after all-the people here that he was closely related to were Isla, Amethyst, Christopher, Alma, Liesl and Desmond and none of them were that embarrassing, regardless of what Desmond thought about his older sister. Honestly, the fifth year bothered him less than her brother did, mostly because the younger Aladren was more inclined to want to spend time with him. Olaf was thankful every day for the fact that Desmond had friends just so he wouldn’t try to hang out with the third year and Olaf could do his own thing.

As for the Bonfire, well, he supposed people got bent out of shape or anxious about the whole tent situation. Like if they had nobody to share a tent with-even though single tents had very much appealed to Olaf, despite that he’d ended up sharing with Phil and Eben as they needed a third person, maybe next time he’d be able to just have his own-or like really prissy girls who didn’t want to sleep in tents because they only wanted to sleep in the most luxurious accommodations. He was a pureblood so he knew the type. Actually, Amethyst had taken that surprisingly well.

Of course, there was the absolutely valid complaint regarding the Bonfire that would be an issue for Miles, the fact that it wasn’t a very allergy friendly event. First off, it was outside. (Actually, so was the Fair) Then there was the smoke coming from the fire(s) which was another allergen, and also not great for Miles’ asthma. Then there was the risk of cross contamination from food allergens. So, if his cousin was worried about the Bonfire, Olaf would actually understand and tolerate it. To a degree, given his lack of capacity for tolerating other people in general.

The Ball though, oh dear Merlin was it ever ridiculous. First of all, there were the inane conversations about clothing. Fashion was among the most banal topics out there. Then there was the-ugh-social aspect. There were those who were worried about not having anyone to hang out with, when obviously Olaf could not relate to wanting to spend time with people. Isla had apparently been traumatized by this last time but now kept going back and forth between being glad that Lorena was dateless and could hang out with her and feeling bad for being glad about it.

Worse than that though were people who seemed to think it was the most romantic thing ever. Which was beyond nauseating. The thought of having to deal with this again four years from now constantly made Olaf wish that he could have been born just a few months earlier. Anything was better than this.

Even making cat food. While the Aladren decidedly had no use for this particular skill-after all, he could buy premade cat food if he ever got a cat for some reason, he was not the make your own organic healthy stuff type-he had to appreciate that Professor Wigglington took the “Care of” part of her class to heart. Even though Olaf would prefer to know about the biology of magical creatures then how to care for a pet.

Still, he appreciated the actual class title and that the professor had to fill up the time. Most of all, he appreciated that he could work alone and it wasn’t…Ball related, though, some of the fourth years might be making balls for Magnus to play with. Olaf got his supplies, rolled up his sleeves and got to work.

11 Olaf Brockert Stranglehold 1564 0 5

Magnus

October 18, 2023 2:58 PM

Mrrroow! by Magnus

Magnus was making his rounds through the classroom, hopping across desks and batting around new toys, when he came upon Olaf. The boy had a *sniff* smell about him, like the parchment and ink that Maisy liked to play with. And something else...food?

Magnus plopped his behind down on the desk in front of Olaf and looked expectantly at him. He could smell the food. The boy had the food.

"Mrow!" Magnus demanded, his tail twitching when nothing was forthcoming. Impatient, he stood back up and bumped into the boy's chin with the top of his head a couple of times before staring at him again. He would settle for a few scritches, but it was past his snack time.

Magnus *sniffed* again, this time in the boy's face. Yep, parchment. Not food. Magnus bumped the boys hands, dipping his head underneath one and lifting it up so he was wearing it like a hat. The hands smelled like food...like salmon treats and tasty things. Magnus licked the fingers that draped over his eyes, salty and savory flavors mixing together on his rough tongue.

"Mrow!" he complained again. Can't eat a human. Need tasty treats. Tasty salmon treats.

64 Magnus Mrrroow! 0 Magnus 0 5

Olaf Brockert

October 20, 2023 3:46 PM

Well looks like someone has good taste by Olaf Brockert

Olaf was working away on his cat food, happily enjoying the solitude regardless of his task. Honestly, while of course he’d prefer to be reading, at least he didn’t have to put up with inane conversation with his classmates about the Ball. He still thought that it was not only uninteresting but ridiculous. Like, both the way everyone acted over it and the Ball itself.

When it came to the former, Olaf supposed he should not have been surprised over how stupid everyone was being. His expectations of human behavior were pretty low and always had been, He was not entirely sure why it was that way. Normally one would blame the usual subjects-Topaz and Uncle Eustace-but all of his siblings and cousins had been exposed to them and didn’t feel that way. Ruby was an especially optimistic person. Which was probably pretty naive of her….given her exposure to terrible people from a young age.

Still, Olaf supposed it was just how he was wired as opposed to how Ruby was. Honestly, human behavior and psychology really were interesting subjects, despite how little he actually wanted to interact with them. Reading books on the topic was obviously the way to go, books were, of course, always the answer.

However, the reason this subject was interesting to the third year was how baffling other people were. It was not just because of how people who grew up in the same environment could be so different which Topaz and her siblings, especially Ruby were proof of not to mention his dad and other uncles versus Uncle Eustace. Or even Olaf and his own siblings. Arguably, they were all nicer people than him. (Okay, with the possible exception of Esme, there wasn’t really any argument about it). He didn’t discount trauma either, as something that, for example, made Allegra more anxious than the rest of them.

Mostly the subject was mostly because they behaved in a way that to him was ridiculous and nonsensical. They thought a school Ball was something romantic and special and fun while Olaf completely didn’t get it. The rest of the Midsummer Events he could understand to a degree, someone enjoying but this?

Maybe it was that he’d grown up in an environment where people going to balls was a regular occurrence and he knew from what he’d heard from his relatives that they were mostly a gigantic pain in the backside. Like, of his three older sisters, only Esme enjoyed them at all, though she had seemingly taken-from what Olaf remembered-a sensibly indifferent attitude toward Sonora’s Ball. It had been Isla who had dealt with drama and trauma over it. She also didn’t enjoy society balls much.

The older Aladren’s experience with this particular event might also have been why it left a bad taste in his mouth. While he didn’t like to admit to feelings out loud or caring about people or any of that emotional stuff, Olaf really didn’t like seeing people delighting over things that had been awful in the past for people that he actually did care about. It had been the same with the Challenges and Allegra’s traumatic experience.

Also, he hadn’t wanted to do them. Just like he’d rather not go to the Ball. Which was way less interesting than the Challenges and possibly less so than sitting though the Concert. Though in the case of that event, Olaf would take not participate in it as a win.

He was fairly lost in thought and apparently in a zone with today’s task when all of a sudden, something furry was bumping against his chin. “What the?!?” Olaf exclaimed. Apparently Magnus had decided to come…to what? Get food from him? That was the most logical guess since the Aladren was deep into making it and probably smelled like it even though there were six other third years doing the same thing. Although he supposed that he couldn’t blame Magnus for preferring his company to theirs.

Also, a half-kneazle wanting to be around him probably proved that he wasn’t a shifty type as it did not seem hostile. So, that was nice, he supposed. Olaf had never seen himself as dishonest. In fact,sometimes it was just the opposite. He was way too much so.

The cat then decided to lick his fingers, which he quickly moved . ““Not now, it’s not done yet.” Olaf replied. He was unsure it was even safe to eat at this point and he did not especially want to poison the class pet. Hurting animals had never really been something he found appealing, He was not Topaz. Also, he was pretty sure that killing the class pet would get him in trouble.

He looked around quickly to make sure nobody was watching and gave Magnus a quick pet. At least the half-Kneazle wouldn't talk about how exciting the Ball was.

11 Olaf Brockert Well looks like someone has good taste 1564 0 5