It's for me on Cascade Hall

Selina Skies

April 28, 2024 3:51 AM

Passion Project Fair by Selina Skies

Selina was pleased with how the passion projects had turned out. There were a wide range of topics, and different presentation styles—from practical projects which had ended in models or prototypes, to more information-based displays. The students had been guided by the staff in order to keep their goals manageable, and help them stick to the time frame, and although there had—of course—been some things that didn’t work out or some mad last minute scrambles, the whole thing had come together when it was supposed to, as these things had a way of doing.

The projects were all set up in the hall on the morning of the fair. The students had been divided into groups so that they had time to present their projects and view other people’s. At the back of the hall was a large table with various small snacks like cookies and fruit. Later in the morning, sandwiches, french fries and other items would be added so that it could turn into a casual indoor picnic once the presentations were done. There were various small tables and beanbags around the side of the room for those who wanted to take a break.

Before they started mingling, Selina called their attention, standing at the front of the room with her voice magically magnified.

“Welcome to our Passion Project Presentations! I’m impressed with the hard work and the range of talents and interests we have on display here today. Please take time to visit your peers’ stations and talk to them about their projects. The purpose of this is that we can learn a lot from others, even about subjects we ourselves wouldn’t pursue. Enjoy!”

OOC: Feel free to post interacting with whoever you want - don't worry about a strict 'group schedule.' If anyone has a project that wouldn't work to be demonstrated in this way, let me know via chatzy and we can add alternative arrangements.

Subthreads:

I like painting by Wesley Wu

I have cake (and vegan cake) by Yaniel Ayala Velez

Not board here! Only excited! by Lyla Holland with Robyn Lundstrom

It's for me by Summer Collindale

13 Selina Skies Passion Project Fair 26 1 5

Wesley Wu

May 10, 2024 9:39 PM

I like painting by Wesley Wu

Wesley wasn’t sure how exciting his passion project was, even to him. He had sort of enjoyed doing it, but he wasn’t sure other people would want to look at it. It was about painting, because that was both something he enjoyed and was something where the magical element of it was so obvious that even he was aware of it, in spite of only having been part of this world for a few months.

The trouble was, making an actual magical, talking painting was quite clearly beyond him. He’d suspected that when he started out, but had been content with knowing about it for knowing’s sake. He had researched some facts about magical paintings which all the wizard children probably already knew, and had a neatly produced list of spells complete with illustrations of their effects. Some of the illustrations even demonstrated the effect, where it was very simple animation charms.

When he’d run out of basic facts to write and still had space on his trifold board, he’d gone and interviewed a few of the paintings, and he’d produced a nice watercolour of the gardening club’s flower garden which moved like it was in a breeze and was annotated with all the notes about what he could do if he knew more magic, for example make a painting that changed and grew to demonstrate the cycle of the seasons.

When it was his turn, he went to stand by his board, wishing that hiding behind it was a valid option.

13 Wesley Wu I like painting 1592 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

May 11, 2024 9:11 PM

I have cake (and vegan cake) by Yaniel Ayala Velez

There were a few things Yaniel cared a lot about and wanted to know more about or spend more time on. For starters, he wanted to know as much as possible about the magical options for transitioning. He’d been eyeing up fancy chest binders with in built compression and illusion charms. Hopefully if he just asked for money for his birthday, and worked hard at the bakery over the summer, he could save enough for one. The cheap Muggle one he had did something but unfortunately he had a lot of chest to flatten. The first time he’d put it on, it had felt amazing, seeing so much disappear, but it felt like it was having diminishing returns. He was starting to see all the things it didn’t do… However, deeply interesting though all of that was to him, it wasn’t something he wanted to share with his classmates.

He obviously also cared about Quidditch, and being back on the team this year had been amazing. But that was more something he wanted to do than make a project out of. Even though the projects were allowed to be practical, setting himself some kind of Quidditch goal didn’t feel like anything he wasn’t already doing.

Which left baking. He was more than happy with that, as it was something important to him but not a part of himself that got much development at school. He’d considered long and hard how to expand it in a meaningful way, and was pretty sure he’d given his parents a bigger heart attack than when he’d announced he was trans when he’d written home for help.

He had assured them he was NOT turning vegan, he just needed a way of stretching himself for a school project.

They’d helped, being able to google various recipes, and even tried a couple out to make sure they weren’t complete flops. It had taken him a while to get used to using a vinegar milk thing and letting it slightly curdle on purpose to replace eggs, but… weirdly it worked. Eventually. It had been a bit flat the first time, and he’d had to ask Lenny what he was doing wrong. Which worked out. Making his baking Lenny-inclusive was the main motivation behind his project, both because Lenny was his best friend’s de facto brother, and because Yaniel felt he owed him some thanks, though he still mostly felt quite awkward around him. The baking project giving them something to talk to him about had made interacting with Lenny a whole lot easier.

Replacing the milks was actually surprisingly easy because there were a tonne of vegan milks out there. The whip on top was coconut based, which added a new element to the flavour, but not a bad one.

For his final project, he’d baked both an original and a vegan version. He hadn’t done much writing up, because it wasn’t required, though he’d made a little sign explaining that he had challenged himself to make a vegan tres leches cake, and it had worked, and what the recipe was, just so he didn’t have to say it fifty times. He cut both cakes into small pieces so people could sample one or both, making sure there was one big slice of the vegan one which he put to one side for Lenny.

OOC: Making some assumptions about Lenny's willingness to help. Correct me if needed.

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez I have cake (and vegan cake) 1554 0 5

Lyla Holland

May 12, 2024 2:54 AM

Not board here! Only excited! by Lyla Holland

Lyla’s year had been mainly uneventful. She and Samara were as fast of friends as ever, and Samara and Robyn were becoming friends, too, which was a relief. Lyla loved them both dearly and didn’t want to think about what would have happened if they didn’t get along. She would’ve felt like she was being torn in two. Robyn was admittedly at a disadvantage quality-time-wise, since Lyla and Samara were roommates, so Lyla had taken to sitting with her at mealtimes (except for Very Important Feasts like the Welcoming Feast where she wanted to greet the new Crotali) to make up for it. She hoped it was enough that Robyn didn’t feel left out.

Kerri had ended up sorted into Aladren, so Lyla rarely saw her. She hadn’t really thought about it before, but interacting with the other class groups wasn’t something she did often, except for the Challenges. And she supposed Gwendolyn would always be a step ahead of her when it came to moving up a class. Generally speaking, though, Lyla had little reason to seek Kerri out, and it seemed Kerri felt the same since she hadn’t approached.

Lyla was clueless what to do for a passion project, so she’d been glad when Samara had suggested a board game. Robyn seemed to be on board, so the trio worked diligently on creating a game. Lyla pulled inspiration from the Wicked Plants book she’d sent Olaf over the summer, and together the three crafted a cooperative multi-level escape-type game where you had to work your way through a deadly garden. Lyla had felt particularly clever when she’d suggested they make the board into a book, with each page a different level. They’d documented their process on a trifold poster, to add to the “academic” side of things, detailing the charms they’d used to make the pop-up plants move and how they came up with the rules, and what sorts of things make a good board game.

Setting up for the fair was quickly done between the three of them, and Lyla had agreed to play the first game with whomever was interested. They’d agreed to go through a rotation, to make it fair. As she sat to wait for her first player, her foot nudged the satchel she’d stashed under the tablecloth. She’d almost forgotten about the surprise she’d brought for her friends.

“Hey,” she said, opening the satchel and showing Robyn and Samara the contents, “Fish party!”
Swedish Fish gummy candy, Goldfish crackers, and Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans- the first snacks they’d shared as a trio. Bertie Bott’s didn’t seem like a fish snack, but Lyla had been unfortunate enough to get a fish flavored one the first time, making it a true fish party.

“It’s someone else’s turn for the sardine one,” she said with a smile. As gross as that bean had been, it had cemented her friend group together in a way that she was eternally grateful for.

“Oh!” she exclaimed as someone behind her cleared their throat. She turned to flash a smile at them.

“Welcome, our first customer! I promise not to feed you a sardine bean!”

OOC: Robyn/Samara- please feel free to embellish/change/add as needed. I can edit to adjust as necessary- just wanted to get Lyla a post.
Kerri is mine, so no godmodding.

64 Lyla Holland Not board here! Only excited! 1559 0 5

Summer Collindale

May 17, 2024 1:33 AM

It's for me by Summer Collindale

Summer had been told to make something that interested her, so she had. She wasn't sure why she had to show it to anyone else, seeing as they wouldn't understand.

Sonora was better than her local library in terms of accessibility. She guessed that having had a blind student related to a staff member, a blind staff member, and a decent amount of money helped get things moving. But the world having been built the first time around without people like her meant there was always a lot to improve. Although the shelves were labelled in Braille, she didn't like having to explore her way across all of them to find the section she was looking for (or, worse still, ask for help). So, she had made something to make it easier.

The scale was most likely off because she didn't know how to calculate that properly, but she'd paid attention to which shelves were the same size as each other, and made sure to make them so in her model. It showed the whole library, in raised relief, labelled with Braille.

They had been encouraged to write things about their project, so she had produced a neat sheet of punched Braille writing, which she suspected no one except Professor Duell would be able to read. But she doubted many of them had considered her when making their projects or displays, so they'd get a bonus lesson in knowing what that felt like if they stopped by.

OOC: Made some assumptions about what Sonora would have done in the past while leaving space for it to need adding to. Hope that's okay.

13 Summer Collindale It's for me 1589 0 5

Robyn Lundstrom

May 17, 2024 2:38 AM

I see what you did there by Robyn Lundstrom

Board games could be really, really complicated. That was the main thing Robyn had learnt from the Passion Project. Prior to that, she'd been no stranger to a furious game of Uno with her siblings or a family game of Clue. Apparently, there was a lot more out there.

She wasn't sure she could truly claim it as a passion, or that she would be getting further into them after this, but she had enjoyed making it. Her favourite bits had been spending time with her friends and making cute little pieces. She couldn't deny that a lot of cool artwork and creativity went into this stuff. She also liked that they had an end product, and one they could keep and use as a friend group.

"Awww, that's so cute!" she beamed as Lyla opened up the fish snacks. "What a tradition!" She laughed, then grimaced as she realised she was probably overdue a sardine bean. "I think it's up to fate," she said, covering her eyes with with one hand and dipping in with the other. "Aha!" She smiled as she opened her eyes and found herself holding a green, definitely not sardine bean, and not the warning colour of bogeys either. Though when she popped it in her mouth, she discovered it definitely wasn't green apple. "Some kind of vegetable? Not unpleasant, just weird..." She took a more reliable Swedish fish to take the taste away.

Just then, someone came up to view the game. Lyla greeted them. "Don't worry, the beans aren't part of it," Robyn reassured them.

13 Robyn Lundstrom I see what you did there 1558 0 5