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
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Maisy Wigglington
Intermediates- Cat Scratch Fever
1583
1
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
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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
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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
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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.”
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Leviosa Scurlock
But more appropriate
1545
0
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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
