Professor Skies

January 18, 2013 11:55 AM
Selina was pleased to be back for a second year of teaching. Teaching in a proper school was much more preferable, in her mind, than taking on individual tutees, many of whom were spoilt little brats. Plus you saw more change in a school. Her first year of RATS students had graduated, a new set of first years had moved in and in this, the intermediate class, the familiar faces had grown a little older, some beginners had moved up and some older students moved on. It was nice to watch them all progressing.

“Good morning, class,” she called, bringing them to order once the bulk of the class seemed to have arrived. “Welcome or welcome back to Intermediate Transfiguration. For those who were here last year, some of this may sound familiar but I hope you don't begrudge your new classmates the overview.

“This is the block of your studies where you will work on animate transfiguration, that is those involving living things. Many people find this a daunting prospect. Mistakes happen but accidents rarely do, in that the creatures with which you are working are not often caused pain and are almost never permanently harmed by your actions. Imagine you are Transfiguring something into a stick insect, as we will be doing today,” she had deliberately chosen this not only as a relatively easy task but also because people got a lot less sentimental about insects than mammals and thus it might ease them into the idea of working on living things, “You must imagine that a hypothetical, fully formed stick insect exists elsewhere. When you transfigure, you are bringing forth elements of that creature but they still remain connected to the original whole. This is why part transfigured animals do not bleed to death or immediately go into shock. I am happy to discuss the theory further with anyone who is interested, or to address any ethical concerns that may remain.

“Now, to today's class,” she stated crisply, in order to bring back any of the older years who had let their attention wander during that familiar part of the lecture, “In my classes, there will always be a fifth year assignment and a third year assignment. Fourth years will usually be welcome to choose between them depending on their comfort level, although there may be times when I encourage you to move on, or set you a different task. That is not to say that third years may not attempt to explore the more advanced material. If you successfully complete your own assignment, you may begin to work on the harder task for the day. Or, if they will have you, observe and ask questions of those in the older years working on it.” The end of term feedback forms she had given to students last year had suggested that some of them were frustrated by having their class content capped, and thus – although she still firmly believed in differentiating the curriculum for the different years – she had decided not to impose such limitations this year.

“Today, the third and forth year task will be transfiguring sticks into stick insects. As the box comes around for you to choose a stick, consider how this choice will make your task easier or harder and choose accordingly,” there were more sticks than people, and so hopefully even those who received the box last would have a choice. “The forth and fifth year task,” (she had thought long and hard about how to label these tasks and although this name did not reflect her invitation that third years were welcome to try it, she had felt 'stage 1 and stage 2' or 'beginner and advanced' were both demeaning to those not doing the harder task, especially those forth years who wished to break themselves in gently, which was a perfectly valid approach), “is to transfigure a pot plant into a stick insect. There is some debate in Tranfiguration over whether living to living is harder or easier than non-living to living. Some hold that working with two complex organisms increases the work load, whilst others site the shared feature of animacy as reducing it. The middle path suggests the similarity of the life forms in question is what determines which of these is true and thus varies for any given pair. I am of the opinion that it makes it harder, in this case, although even if I am wrong, the pot plants are less physically similar to stick insects than the sticks, so should still give you an adequate challenge.

“The homework task for all of you will be to summarise that debate and the evidence for it, along with exploring any other features which determine the difficulty level of animate transfiguration,” she explained. Behind her, the chalk scribbled the details on the board, including a brief summary of the debate in question, for any third years who had stopped paying attention whilst she discussed the other task.

“The incantation for today is insecare, with the emphasis on the second syllable. You will need to use a short wand flick which runs parallel to your stick – for those using plants, obviously this will be vertical,” she explained, moving her wand up and down through the air, starting at her shoulder and dropping, “Those using sticks, I suggest using a horizontal movement,” she flicked left to right, “although if you find it easier to do it vertically – the other kind of vertically,” she added, to indicate that she meant away from their body, rather than balancing the stick on end, “then that should work just as well. It's whichever is most comfortable and natural for you, so have a play around first. Your desks are charmed to prevent the insects escaping should you be successful. Off you go,” she smiled, assuming that they knew to call on her or their neighbours if they needed help.

OOC – usual rules apply. Minimum 10 sentences, 200 words. Selina would stop any accidents before they get out of hand. Tag her in the subject line if you need her.
Subthreads:
0 Professor Skies Intermediate Transfiguration - a sticky situation 26 Professor Skies 1 5


Valerie Lennox, Crotalus

January 25, 2013 3:26 AM
Valerie had had the best summer of her life. She hadn't been sick in months! The last time had been at the beginning of the summer when she'd had a sinus infection. Which she normally would have had her whole vacation. However, at that point, she hadn't really started her new medication yet. Which the Crotalus loved, even though it made her kind of tired and didn't taste too great. It beat feeling bad.

Not that Valerie was allowed to do normal things much. Though her parents had taken advantage of her improved health to have her spend more time with her betrothed. He seemed nice enough, fortunately. The Crotalus hoped that they would get along. She was still a bit nervous though about him liking her at all. Valerie knew she was deficient but she was better now, even though she was terrified of getting sick at all and having to leave school.

However, she was really worried about Brianna, and actually more so than she was about how things would be with Jasper. The other Crotalus was one of Valerie's closest friends, one of the few people at Sonora she felt comfortable with, and she'd been in a terrible accident. Truthfully, Valerie could probably relate to what Brianna was feeling right now, sort of. Obviously, the blonde had never been the victim of such awful hatred. She didn't know how she would cope with it if she was. Probably not very well, and she'd probably end up getting sick.

But she did know what it was like to have physical issues. To be in pain, even if it wasn't the exact sort of pain her friend was in and in the exact same way. To be limited in some way. It wasn't something Valerie had ever been able to hide. Her issues had been as obvious as Brianna's crutches. And truthfully, they were still there, lurking in the background, threatening to destroy everything at any given moment. The potion was not going to cure her completely, just make it so she didn't get sick quite as often as before. If something bad enough came along, Valerie would probably still get it.

She really wanted to help her friend, but she didn't quite know how. She couldn't help Brianna if she fell or with her therapy the way Josh or Linus could. Valerie hadn't even been able to visit her in the hospital because of her own problems. Hospitals were breeding grounds for infections and given that her family had money, the Crotalus was always cared for at home. Valerie felt useless, and if there was anything she could do to help Brianna in any way, she would.

Fortunately, Transfiguration was one of Valerie's better subjects. Actually, other than the physical parts of Defense, which she'd always gotten out of, she wasn't really bad at anything. Her grades weren't as good as they otherwise would be, because she'd been sick so much. Hopefully, Valerie would do better this year, and pass all her CATS. She didn't expect better than an A in Defense though, even though she'd never done poorly on any of her essays. She wanted to get Es in everything else and maybe pull off an O in Transfiguration. Transfiguration was a big deal in Grandmother Lennox's family and they were the ones at Sonora. Being actually good at something made her feel a bit better.

The fifth year gave the professor her full attention, even if part of the lesson was repeated for the third years, Valerie still might have missed something last year. She thought she had gone to the first Transfiguration lesson last year, but she was never too sure on these things. It sounded reasonably familiar but she really didn't want to take a chance on missing anything, especially when the professor started the new stuff. Part of her wished she could have done the easier lesson. Valerie never thought she had done enough and wanted to get it right before moving on, but she didn't want to embarass herself by being the only fifth year with a stick either.

And she really didn't like bugs much so she wasn't exactly thrilled about the lesson in general. The Crotalus had always been taught that bugs were filthy, icky, carriers of disease waiting to infect her at every turn. Except, of course, the ones used in potions. Which were apparently sterilized or something. Other than that, Valerie had a mild phobia of bugs. Was a bug transfigured from something else somehow different? She was too afraid to ask and draw attention to herself about it. She'd really had enough of that over the years. Valerie really hated being different from everyone else.

So she took a potted plant-probably not the most sterile of things to begin with-and took out her wand. She practiced the motions and said the spell to herself a couple of times both because she wanted to get it right on the first try, or at least have it do something the first time, and because she really wasn't too eager to have a stick insect around, though the classroom would be crawling with them soon. Though nobody else's could escape their desk fortunately. "Insecare" Valerie said, when she was finally satisfied with her own progress-and had worked up the nerve and the plant leaves vanished, leaving her with stick in a pot, with one little leg.

She must not have wanted it to change badly enough.
11 Valerie Lennox, Crotalus It sure is. 204 Valerie Lennox, Crotalus 0 5


Brianna Japos, Crotalus

January 26, 2013 1:44 PM
It was only the second class of the day and already Brianna was feeling the effects of it all. The walk from the common room to the hall for breakfast had been rough. The walk from the hall to her first class had been a struggle. The chairs didn’t help with her discomfort at all and the longer she stayed upright with no support, the pain increased. By the time she had managed to make it to Transfiguration, Brianna was in near tears. Her Healer and Therapist told her that her first few weeks would be the worst for her in every sense because she would be putting her body under a lot of stress while it becomes accustomed to all the movement that she had to do. All of her physical therapy did not prepare her for this. She had spent most of the summer in the water, the water created a barrier of comfort for her, taking much of the stress from her body. She had only really walked out of the water the last couple of weeks and it had been limited amounts of movement with long periods of rest.

Her body shook uncontrollably when she took her seat at a desk close to the door (it was easier for her to sit there instead of walking around the room, plus there was a greater chance of her crutches catching something if she attempted to walk through the aisles). She felt her back tightening and was worried that if she didn’t find someplace comfortable to relax for a bit, she was going to have a spasm. But right now, she had to take her mind off her back and focus on the lesson before her. This was not easy for her to do, all things considered, and ended up closing her eyes and keeping a tight grip on her desk to the point where her knuckles were white.

She took deep breaths to try to relax and deeply regretted not bringing her heating pad with her. She had been naïve to think that this wouldn’t be difficult. She thought that the long period of lessons would be enough to relax her and keep her from over-extending herself, but she did not take into account the hard seats and the uncomfortable posture she would have to endure. Nor did she take into account the length of the school and the amount of stairs that she would have to climb. She didn’t want to have to take the pain reliever potion, but she felt that she might have to see the medic for it after all.

She would have to ask for help even though she really didn’t want to. She was grateful to Josh and Linus for offering and knew that Josh would bend over backwards to make sure that he did even if she didn’t take him up on the offer. It was already too much to ask for him to be in the water with her, she didn’t want to keep him from his classes. And, Brianna liked Linus, not at first way back in their first year together, but over time, he had become someone she felt comfortable around. Now that they were on a team together, he was already probably going to have to help her there, so she did not want to ask him for additional help if she could help it. Which meant, she had to figure this out on her own considering she had no one else left to ask as Valerie wouldn’t be able to assist with anything physical.

Brianna lost herself in her thoughts, but it helped her to relax somewhat. She could go back to her room for the break instead of lunch and get her heating pad and possibly lay down. That could work. Because of her thoughts, Brianna missed the lecture and opened her eyes to find that everyone had an object and a box was sitting in front of her. Valerie had a plant, so Brianna took on too and passed the box on. Movement reminded her of the pain again, but Brianna pushed it away, trying to focus on the task at hand. Turning to Valerie, who was already attempting the spell, Brianna asked for help. “I’m sorry, Valerie, I was having hard time listening. What should we be doing?”
0 Brianna Japos, Crotalus I missed the point of this. 0 Brianna Japos, Crotalus 0 5


Valerie

January 31, 2013 12:00 AM
Valerie had always sat close to the door because of her own issues, because she tried to exert herself as little as possible even on something small like that. Plus, in previous years, sometimes she'd just not felt up to taking a seat further away. She usually tried to get to class early in order to get the seat she liked too. Now, apparently, Brianna was having similar problems naturally, and Valerie made a mental note to always save a seat nearby for her friend. Any little thing she could do to help she wanted to do.

Besides, she really wanted to sit by the other Crotalus anyway. Valerie knew she could have sat with Melanie now that they were in the same class, and normally she might have occasionally, but right now she wanted to be around Brianna and show her friend that she was there for her even if she couldn't help her with anything physical. At the very least Valerie wanted to be there if Brianna needed someone to talk to or something. Not during Transfiguration of course, but in general. It was about the only thing she could do.

She hated being so useless, though she should have been used to it. The Crotalus was worried about the challenges this year. If they were too physically demanding, she was not going to be much of an asset and her teammates wouldn't want her. She wouldn't blame them. Valerie was worried that if they didn't do well, it would be all her fault for slowing them down though if there was an intellectual or spellwork task, she thought she would be okay. She wasn't quite as smart as Melanie-her sister was really brilliant- or as good at Transfiguration as Ryan but she wasn't bad in that respect.

Plus, Valerie was worried that anything that was physically taxing would put her health in jeopardy. She'd never been allowed to, of course, and now she was more afraid than ever of getting sick at all. Staying at Sonora was very important to her, to be with her friends and her sister. Melanie might choose to be homeschooled too if that was the case, but Valerie wouldn't want her to. Her sister deserved a normal life with friends rather than being shut up in their house, the way that the Crotalus always was. The fifth year wanted some semblance of a normal life herself.

"Oh, we're supposed to turn these plants into stick bugs" Valerie replied, unable to keep from wrinkling her nose. In addition to insects being carriers of all the germs that were coming to get her, she was something of a girly girl, a real proper lady and she really wasn't too thrilled about this lesson. Of course, she could understand why she had to do it though, they were some of the simplest forms of life. A stick bug was similar to a stick, hence the name, and potted plants were sticks with leaves. Valerie still didn't really want to do it though. "We also have an essay to do for homework. Would you like to work on it together?" Not that she didn't think Brianna couldn't do it by herself or think that she herself couldn't, now that she wasn't behind in schoolwork. She just wanted to do something with her friend. "Oh, and the incantation is Insecare " Valerie added, demonstrating the wand motion for Brianna.
11 Valerie I'm not entirely sure there is one. 204 Valerie 0 5


Brianna

February 05, 2013 9:47 PM
Brianna took another breath as she focused on Valerie. Charms was right after Transfiguration, so Brianna wouldn’t have time to go back to the dorm them in the fifteen minutes they had between classes to walk through the building to whatever section they needed to go into next. She was barely making it as it was. Last year, fifteen minutes would have meant an easy jog to the common room before and easy jog back to whatever side of the building she needed to be on with minutes to spare. Now, it meant huffing and puffing all of ten feet before she felt like her legs would give out on her. She felt so useless. It might not have been so terrible if it weren’t for the constant shooting pain that throbbed up her back at a constant pulse. If she were pain free and just dealing with her legs not working right, she thought she could be fine, but the pain distorted her and made everything so unbearable. She kept being told that she would get used to it, that eventually the pain will go away or at least, her body will learn to tolerate it and so it won’t be as painful any longer, but Brianna didn’t think that day would come. It was too overwhelming to think about.

“Really?” She asked her roommate rhetorically. Brianna’s brown eyes turned to the plant in front of her as she looked at it closely. Her large lips turned downward as she worked out how exactly she was supposed to turn a plant into a bug and why. She at least knew what a stick bug looked like having read books on nature and gone to Central Park enough times to discover all sorts of bugs. Brianna sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping when Valerie mentioned the essay. This shouldn’t have surprised her really because all they ever did was essays and on a good day, Brianna could handle the essay without any issue, but she felt like she wouldn’t be able to keep up with it all anymore.

“Oh, that would be nice.” Brianna stated, feeling somewhat relieved. If she had a partner than it would force herself to focus and not give in to the temptation to crawl into a hole and hide away for awhile. She was confident in her abilities in theory to manage the essay without problem when it came to the content, but her concentration was lax considering how often she faded out and lost herself in her own head. This was not something that happened in the past but her mind was foggy most of the time from the potions and when it wasn’t , it was distracted with the pain.

Insecare” Brianna repeated, feeling the word on her tongue. Brianna straightened up, winced at the movement, but continued on and looked at the plant in front of her one more time. She thought about the stick bugs and how they were shaped. She let her mind take over for a moment, watching them move, blending them with that of a plant. Their looks were ridiculously similar that Brianna thought it wouldn’t take long to handle this transfiguration. Taking another breath, Brianna grabbed her wand and tried the spell. She knew her first attempt wouldn’t be her best since she was still trying to get herself level again, but watching the plant shrink and brown and begin to wiggle, she didn’t think she had done too bad. “How was your attempt?” Brianna asked Valerie.
0 Brianna Oh, wonderful. 0 Brianna 0 5


Valerie

February 10, 2013 1:16 PM
Valerie smiled, pleased that Brianna had agreed to work with her. She enjoyed spending time with her friend and it might make doing the essay more enjoyable. Plus, the Crotalus always worried about whether or not someone would want to spend time with her or fear catching something from her. She didn't think she was all that well liked and the only people who did like her were Melanie, Ryan, Michael and Brianna. Sully Quincy was also okay, she liked him too, but they weren't necessarily close, though for somebody not a proper pureblood, Valerie thought he was real gentleman.

Unfortunately, none of these people were on her challenge team. Paul Bennett was, but she didn't know where she stood with him or Topher and the rest were younger students. What if they lost because of her? Valerie knew she was obsessing about this a bit and stressing about it which she really shouldn't, because it wasn't good for her health, but she couldn't help it. Whenever she thought about it, she felt so anxious that her stomach would hurt. They'd lose because of her and they'd all hate her. The fifth year found this to be a very troubling thought.

She wondered how Brianna was handling it. In addition to being concerned for herself, she was concerned for her friend. Valerie knew the whole thing would be difficult for both of them and given what Brianna had went through with those awful boys, she didn't want people to turn against her. Though at least the Crotalus had Derry Pierce on her team, and he seemed awfully nice. Valerie figured the Teppenpaw would look out for Brianna. That was a luxury she didn't have. The best she could do was that if someone was mean to her, maybe Ryan would be capable of transfiguring them into something, but she didn't think he had him in it to do something like that, nor did Valerie really want him to.

"It went all right." She replied, showing Brianna how far she'd gotten. Valerie didn't think she'd done too good, really, not nearly what she was capable of. Which was pretty much the story of her life as far as school work went but usually she had the excuse of having been sick and having a lot of make up work to do. The Crotalus was hoping this wouldn't be a problem this year quite so much and maybe she could have more of a life too, spend more time with her friends. Brianna at least, since Michael had a new girlfriend he was busy with. She'd never thought she was quite as important to him as his other friends anyway.


"I don't think I wanted it to change badly enough." Valerie admitted. "I don't really like bugs very much." She looked at the stick critically. "That one little leg sticking out looks awfully pathetic though." The fifth year sighed. "I suppose I should try again. Insecare !" This time the stick shrunk and sprouted more legs. The pot thinned and turned brown. "Well, it's...better." She hoped she could get it down to the appropriate size. The last thing she wanted was for it to become a giant stick bug.

Valerie turned to Brianna. "Hey, do you want to eat lunch together?" What she really wanted to do was tell the other Crotalus that she was here for her any time she wanted to talk. She wanted to do anything she could, though she didn't feel she could do much at all.
11 Valerie I can't imagine why anyone would want a stick bug. 204 Valerie 0 5


Brianna

February 15, 2013 9:58 PM
Brianna smiled at Valerie and gave a small laugh. It was a very honest admittance to say that she hadn’t wanted to change it because it was a bug. Bugs didn’t bother Brianna at all. Not even spiders. She had grown up used to them in some ways, living on the lowest floor of the condominium, so bugs were rather normal for her. She had a fondness for lady bugs and butterflies to the point where her father called her Bug. It was a cute pet name that never bothered her whenever he said it, but she was sure that if anyone else heard it, they would twist it into something sour. They always twisted everything. It was a special name between her and her father and she never wanted anyone to ruin that.

“Really?” She asked her. “I don’ t mind them so much.” Brianna admitted. She supposed even if she had been scared of bugs at one point, she had learned that there are far worse things to be afraid of in life than something barely the size of her finger. “I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily enjoy having one crawl on me when I’m not expecting it, but they don’t offend me in any way.” That was fair enough of an explanation. She felt that a phobia against bugs seemed silly. They were so small and, in most cases, rather harmless. They were probably more confused by the giants wandering around than anything else. But she kept those thoughts to herself. People might find her strange if she spoke like that.

“It does look better.” Brianna commented. The talking helped keep her mind off of the pain so that she could concentrate better. She tried the spell again and watched the plant transform some more. This was much better than her first try. She was able to focus more and the results seemed to show that.

“Hm..?” Brianna mumbled looking away from her bug to Valerie, taking the moment for her words to sink in. “Oh, sure.” Brianna stated after she figured it out. “I’ll have to head back to the dorm quick though since I forgot my heating pad and my back really hurts, but I can eat with you after that.” She hoped it wouldn’t take her too long to get to the dorms from class and back to the hall, but she figured if she did it all before lunch, she could just go straight to class when she was done eating.
0 Brianna It seems like a strange thing to want. 0 Brianna 0 5