Here at last on Mirage Chamber

Professor Fawcett

June 17, 2011 10:40 PM

Beginners Lesson I, Part II by Professor Fawcett

Feeling not unlike an over-tall, angular nanny, John didn’t so much lead the first and second years to the corridor outside of the Cascade Hall as he shepherded them. Walking behind them was not, after all, precisely an option when he wasn’t sure if even the second years knew where they were going, but walking in front of a group of eleven and twelve year olds, especially when the former were likely to be in an exploratory mood, was suicide, so he was forced to move much more than they did to keep everyone in his sights and moving in the same direction at the same time.

Finally, however, they reached the portrait of another old professor, this one with a quill in hand and a large book open in front of him, in which he kept up with the points. John nodded to him. “Good afternoon, Professor Mims,” he said. Even if he had been inclined to call the painting, which had been old when he was a student, ‘Tavarius,’ there were the students and their perceptions to consider. “I believe we have an appointment.”

Behind the portrait was a colorful vortex, normally hidden from student view. “Do not be alarmed by this,” he said. “Simply walk through it as though it were a door.”

Another complication of this was wondering whether he should lead the students in, to ensure they did not get into trouble on the other side, or hang back to make sure they all went through. “Take it in groups,” he added, to hurry them up, and, today, waited a bit, as there was no actual danger. Muggle teachers he knew would have sold him pieces of their souls to have a way to simulate reality without any danger so well. “Please gather quietly in the clearing, and don’t wander.”

He followed on the heels of the last ones and did a quick head count. “Very good,” he said once he was done and had called back one boy who hadn’t been quite in line. It was possible, however, that some of the students agreed about just how good it was.

They were all standing in the middle of a clearing in the woods – or so it seemed. He gestured to the environment and said, “We are not, despite what your eyes tell you, outside the school. This is the Mirage Chamber. Nothing here is real, and you cannot be harmed. Not even by the poison ivy.” He thought it might be possible to tweak the charms a bit and make them feel something if they touched it, at least within the duration of the spell, but had seen no need for that; it was a purely academic interest that made him ponder the point. He held out another set of papers to one student. “Take one and pass the stack,” he instructed.

On each sheet was a row of pictures, mostly of plants – asphodel, several varieties of tree, rosemary, and so on – but also of flobberworms and glumbumbles. “Your assignment for the day is a sort of scavenger hunt,” he said. “You will travel this area and locate an example of each item on your lists, identify it, and note where you found it. Your homework is to look up and write down the names of at least three potions which use the item or a derivive of it. Feel free to work together. A tone will sound when I wish for you to come back together here before the end of class, and a path will light up for you to follow back. You may begin.”

OOC: And now you have Part II. Feel free to fill in the ‘varieties of tree’ and ‘so on’ spaces in addition to what I gave you. The site posting rules – a post length of at least two hundred words, with good spelling and grammar – must be followed for posts to receive credit. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Virtual reality meet Magical reality. by David Kim [Aladren] with Valerie Lennox, Crotalus, David Kim

Into the delightful unknown by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren with Linus Macaulay, Kitty

I'll try not to let my disappointment show. by Perdita Rothens with Mellie Goodwin, Perdita

Now what do I do? by Brianna Japos, Crotalus with Paul Bennett, Crotalus, Brianna

Re: Beginners Lesson I, Part II by Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw with Russell Layne, Aladren

Yay, games! by Regina Parker, Teppenpaw with Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus

I prefer the city. by Attoria Covington, Crotalus with Michael Grosvenor, Attoria

Oh good, a real class. by Nora Dobson, Aladren with Arthur Carey, Arthur

Even fake, I still hate nature. by Fae Sinclair, Crotalus with Josephine Owen, Fae

Here at last by Arnold Carey with Jhonice Trevear

This is way cool by Derry Four with Topher Calhoun

A real forest? by Cherry Bosko with Madeline Parry

0 Professor Fawcett Beginners Lesson I, Part II 0 Professor Fawcett 1 5

David Kim [Aladren]

June 18, 2011 10:08 AM

Virtual reality meet Magical reality. by David Kim [Aladren]

David picked at the mixed vegetables on his plate, having not quite mastered the revealing charm he'd been introduced to earlier in the week. The charm, a quite convenient one found in a thin book labeled The Charming Cookbook: A Magical Guide to Culinary Mastery had contained a chapter dedicated to various spells that would reveal the ingredients used in a final product. The spells had been crafted with a purpose differing from David's own, but the end result would serve him just fine. The last thing he wanted was to have to spend his post-mealtimes with a swollen face and itchy mouth.

Especially when those post-mealtimes meant classtime, in particular his next class: Potions.

David had eased some of his general discomfort with the class titles at Sonora by attempting to equate them to subjects he was more familiar with. His attempts had met with almost immediate failure, but at the very least, Potions sounded enough like a mixture of chemistry and cooking that he felt that surely there he would not make a mistake or blunder that would so obviously show off his ignorance. He was slowly learning that there was yet another thing to mark him as different from his peers, that his lack of magical parentage was a trait that some of his classmates found as a fault in his person.

It was some strange form of racism, but without the construct of race. David intended on researching the matter thoroughly-- on his own though. He wasn't about to go and turn to one of them for help. He lifted a frowning visage from his plate to consider the entirety of the Cascade Hall. The tables were emptying; he should go.

The journey from those places he was better familiar with now (Cascade Hall, the Aladren Common Room, and the Hospital Wing) to his classes was becoming easier to traverse. He had a feel for direction, an inner compass that somehow always found north. He was quietly pleased that he managed to find the Potions classroom without once considering his school map, a rectangular piece of parchment he kept tucked in his back pocket, hidden under his robes. He took his seat directly and listened guardedly as his Head of House and apparent Potions Professor John Fawcett began with his introduction. He was growing more accustomed to the presence of a syllabus; Professor Fawcett's wasn't David's first to receive. The syllabus contained a thorough guide of the term's assignments and topics of study; David's frown deepened.

He loathed homework. He never understood the point. He wished teachers would give two options when teaching a class: a grade built exclusively on the exams or a grade built on exams augmented by credits from homework assignments. David would opt for the former in a heartbeat.

He was surprised and a little suspicious when directed to leave his books and bag behind. His apprehension grew once his class arrived outside of a portrait (the fact that the many pieces of art that adorned the school were able to speak was still terribly disconcerting) that gave entrance to a kaleidoscopic array. Professor Fawcett identified the odd rectangular rainbow as a door, and, feeling very much like he was about to enter some story book alternate reality, David held his breath and crossed through, his elbows jostled by those who crowded beside him.

His feet landed on earth far more spongy than the solid terracotta of hallway. David's dark brown eyes widened as he put more distance between himself and the doorway: they had crossed into a wood, flush with trees and plants and an air humming with the sound of insects. David couldn't help but open his hand, the feel of sunlight on it both warm and puzzling. His fascination was at once overwhelming, a small bubble of genuine interest forcing him to drop his usual guise of defensiveness as he turned in a tight circle, his neck angled back so that he might consider the skyline that coasted over the treetops.

Someone handed him a pile of papers, a copy of which he took distractedly before passing it along, almost missing the out-stretched hand. David distantly took in the instructions; he was to survey the area and find the plants and bugs described on the paper. But his wonder was complete. This place was--

Intoned lowly and most certainly without conscious thought, David marveled out loud. "It's like a real life hologram. . ."

0 David Kim [Aladren] Virtual reality meet Magical reality. 0 David Kim [Aladren] 0 5

Valerie Lennox, Crotalus

June 18, 2011 9:46 PM

Too exhausted to come up with a clever title. by Valerie Lennox, Crotalus

If there was anything about Valerie Lennox that could be considered healthy, it was her respect for those in the field of Potions. She didn't really care much to do them herself, Mother said it wasn't proper for young ladies, but she felt that if it weren't for the various medicinal potions out there, she would have died from infections a long time ago.

The Crotalus walked into Potions and sat down, tiredly. Valerie was used to napping after lunch. Her mother would insist upon it and a good portion of the time Valerie tended not to mind. She usually felt the need for one and today was no exception. If the first year didn't get enough rest, she would put stress on her already weak immune system, and end up very ill.

Instead she was attending Potions. Valerie wasn't too thrilled when Professor Fawcett instructed them to leave their stuff behind and follow him to another part of the school. The first year had barely had been able to rest at all.

After they entered through a doorway, they found themselves in a wooded area and Valerie began to tense up despite herself, it was not good for her to worry but she couldn't help it, they appeared to be outside . Valerie wasn't really allowed to be outside with the dirt and germs and other things that could make her sick. She could hear insects humming, what if one bit Valerie and she got an infection from it?

She sighed with relief when Professor Fawcett told them it was just an illusion. Nothing could hurt them there. It was safe, though the actual assignment seemed like it might be exhausting for Valerie. She was not meant to run about all over the place. It wasn't good for her.

The first year took one of the papers that was handed out and found herself next to a boy. He spoke and Valerie turned to him. "A what?" She asked, coughing slightly. She had been doing that more and more over the past few days, she probably needed to visit the Hospital Wing as soon as possible. Perhaps she should go directly after class. Valerie knew well enough that a cough was probably a sign of something.

11 Valerie Lennox, Crotalus Too exhausted to come up with a clever title. 204 Valerie Lennox, Crotalus 0 5

David Kim

June 19, 2011 12:14 AM

There wasn't much room for expansion, was there? by David Kim

David's neck straightened immediately, his gaze returning to its normal pane of sight with a slight jar. He hadn't expected a response to his observation and found himself slightly unsettled. The fact that the question had come from a girl made the feeling doubly so; his experience with girls was rather limited. His private school had been exclusively for boys, and while his various music lessons had occasionally been held on a group level, they were hardly opportunities to socialize. There had been one nurse, a pretty woman with a slight over-bite who had been blindingly cheerful with him whenever his visits corresponded with her schedule. He supposed he might consider her a girl, kind of.

She seemed to find him humorous, calling him a grumble-bumble and other bits of odd gibberish. David would never admit it out loud, but he had found those doctors visits, when under her care, far more tolerable than the rest of the time.

But this girl was not a grown-up. She was like him, a first year. And she was certainly not bustling with the same sort of energy that his smiling nurse had always seemed to have in abundance. This girl was rather pale, and there was something oddly familiar about her. An air or impression that he couldn't quite place, yet still lingered in the field of the known. David mentally shrugged the thought away. He would revisit it later, if he still felt it interesting.

"A hologram," he repeated after a good patch of silence. His free hand knocked at his bangs, an unconscious gesture that belied some of his discomfort. "It's a type of virtual reality, where digital images are projected and can be interacted with in real time." The words sounded misplaced and terribly formal coming from an eleven-year-old's mouth. But he spoke from memory, some misplaced line of explanation having possibly been read ages ago in an unnamed book.

He seemed to realize the artificial quality of his explanation and so tried to clarify. "Like a 3-D movie, but without the glasses, yeah?" His fingers picked more nervously through the black strands of hair that covered his forehead, and he gripped his clipboard more tightly. "And I'm David Kim, just so you know. In Aladren."

0 David Kim There wasn't much room for expansion, was there? 0 David Kim 0 5

Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

June 19, 2011 12:51 PM

Into the delightful unknown by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

Getting to potions had been a bit trickier than Kitty expected. The young Asian boy that Kitty had tagged in her mind as Directionally Competent had managed to get out of sight for a moment leaving the tiny girl lost. She’d taken to following him because she noticed he didn’t get turned around. Kitty was sure he wasn’t aware of her shadowing him, nobody ever really noticed her when she followed because she kept back a fair distance. Though, in this case that had backfired because now he was gone.

After wandering around for a bit and feeling slightly exasperated with the whole situation she thought she saw someone else from her year group and quickly ran after them. She followed them into a classroom where her head of house was standing. Kitty had made it just as he began going through the role call and couldn’t keep the pleased smile from her lips. Being late was an annoying side effect of her poor sense of direction so when she was on time it pleased the young girl greatly.

Potions. The word inspired extreme excitement and equal dread in Kitty. She loved cooking, unfortunately cooking did not love her. After nearly burning down the house attempting to make a surprise dinner Kitty had been banned from the kitchen. This did not inspire much confidence in her that potions would be her strong suit. Then Professor Fawcett gave his long string of warnings that even made the normally adventurous girl feel nervous. If she messed up a potion it wouldn’t just taste bad, or be burnt, it could really hurt some one. That didn’t sit well with Kitty, but she didn’t know how to make it better. I’ll just have to try my very best. She promised to herself as they were directed to follow the Professor.

Kitty’s eyes widened with delight as the portrait moved out of the way. The portraits themselves were something Kitty found absolutely fascinating and she had already spend a few hours just wandering around talking to which ever one caught her fancy. But, that wasn’t what captured her attention now, it was the colorful vortex that had been revealed. Cornflower blue eyes danced with delight as she stared at it, it was just like one of those science fiction movies where a portal led to a different dimension.

With out fear she stepped into the whirling colors. Her breathless laughter rang out as she did a quick little spin in a vain attempt to look at everything at once. She was so enthralled that she didn’t notice someone trying to get her attention to give her some papers.

0 Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren Into the delightful unknown 0 Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren 0 5

Linus Macaulay

June 19, 2011 3:46 PM

Pay attention, would you? by Linus Macaulay

Having read the introductory chapters (and perhaps a little further) of his potions textbooks already, Linus thought the subject sounded deliciously similar to the brewing of foul concoctions detailed in the fantasy books he still scretly read. He was dismayed, therefore, to learn that they would not be brewing up a storm - proverbial or otherwise - in their first class. The professor seemed orgainzed and efficient, if a little stuffy, at first, but then asked students to abandon their belongings and follow him back out of the classroom. Not wanting to cause a fuss, Linus left his school bag behind, pleased that it didn't hold anything of great value on this occasion, and took with him a pencil - he hadn't got the hang of quills just yet, and his handwriting was apparently difficult to read at the best of times.

No soon er had the speaking portrait swung forward to reveal an honest-to-God vortex within the building, it would be accurate to say that the Crotalus student had more or less forgotten about brewing potions. He was standing in a concealed forest within his school, which was soon revealled to be a mirage, rather than a real forest; Linus wasn't sure which of these would have been more impressive. He decided that he forgave the professor for with-holding their opportunity to mix up a cure for boils, as the class he proposed as an alternative was promising to be stimulating. Linus had already begun to look at the items on the scavenger list even as he passed the stack of papers on. Or, at least he attempted to pass the papers on. When they were not removed from his grasp, Linus tore his eyes from the hand-out to look at the girl who wasn't paying sufficient attention. "Hey," he said, mild irritation present in his voice. "Take one and pass them on."

He shook his head in disapproval. He could understand her rapture at taking in the impossible (by standard physics, at any rate) surroundings, but they were all here to learn, and it had only been a few short minutes since Professor Fawcett had been very clear about accidents in his class not being tolerated.

0 Linus Macaulay Pay attention, would you? 205 Linus Macaulay 0 5

Kitty

June 19, 2011 4:27 PM

But, but there’s just so much to see! by Kitty

Kitty’s amazement was broken by an irritated male voice saying “Hay, take one and pass them on.” Her nose wrinkled a bit at his tone but the expression quickly melted into a friendly smile as she reached out and took the stack in one small hand. With quick energetic movements she took the top one and handed the rest off to the next person. “Hi, my name’s Kitty McLevy we should work together.” She gave him a bright smile, large blue eyes scanning over the page.

“Isn’t this amazing? I had no idea that magic could do such cool stuff. Well the dining room was pretty cool too, but fountains can be made without magic. I don’t think our technology has gotten this good yet. I did get to go to an IMax theater that did 3D shows once. It was almost as cool as this but it still needed the glasses and wasn’t nearly as realistic as all this.” She said with a slight bounce as she waved her hands around to indicate the fantastic surroundings that looked real enough to touch.

Kitty’s words were fast and expressive, often accompanied by various hand gestures. She was what her mother called an expressive talker. Though Anita usually sounded exasperated when talking about her youngest child and only girl. “So is your family magic? Mines not, I’m the only one who’s magic. I still can’t really believe it you know? It’s like a Disney movie, and I keep expecting to wake up and find out it had all just been a dream.” Again Kitty looked down at the sheet of paper, and thought she saw one of the designated plants a short ways off. “I think that’s one over there!” she said as she pointed to her left.

0 Kitty But, but there’s just so much to see! 0 Kitty 0 5

Perdita Rothens

June 19, 2011 4:59 PM

I'll try not to let my disappointment show. by Perdita Rothens

Alright, well, so it wasn't exactly brewing. But it was potions class. Perdita clutched her potion's text book close to her, with a quill and parchment in hand. Her lips were pursed and she tried her best to be elated, or excited but, well, she wasn't. Perdita had been looking forward to chopping ingredients, throwing them in a cauldron and making something.. something well, magical. But that wasn't what they were tasked with.

A scavenger hunt. Well, it was a bit like finding Easter Eggs at church at an Easter Egg hunt, but much more... exciting. And she could be much more involved, too, considering. Perdita hadn't been well liked at church, by the children or the adults. It was a part of tradition though, a part that seemed to keep her mother alive for both Perdita and her father, which was why they always went. But, now she wouldn't be.

Her gut churned at the thought of her father. His name was Howard. He was a lawyer and a very big fan of Shakespeare and operas and plays. He had always been supportive of her, no matter what, and despite her peculiar quirks, such as magic. It had been so hard to let him go to come to Sonora, but they had both agreed it was the smart, and right, decision. Education was very important, be it magical or no.

Perdita took a deep breath. She would think on those things later. Back to the scavenger hunt. Well, it was an important part of the lesson. If she could identify the items on the list, she could obviously learn more about them and their magical properties, and more importantly, their uses in potions. Nodding to herself, Perdita took a longer look at the list.

"Do you have any idea where to find these things?" Perdita asked the nearest person. "Flobber worms can be found under rocks, no? Or was that beetles..."

0 Perdita Rothens I'll try not to let my disappointment show. 0 Perdita Rothens 0 5

Mellie Goodwin

June 20, 2011 4:34 PM

Aw, come on. This will be fun! by Mellie Goodwin

Potions wasn’t one of the classes Mellie had been looking forward to especially. Her dad liked to fiddle with them in his spare time, so she knew that success in the subject required a nature which was meticulous and exacting – a mentality that came easy enough to an Obliviator like Arnold Goodwin, but which didn’t come quite as easily to her. She didn’t know if she had the patience for Potions.

Her optimism about the class wasn’t helped much by the professor, either. The strictness didn’t bother her, Dad was strict, too, and Mom in her own way, and Mrs. Ballard didn’t tolerate any foolishness when she was giving lessons either, but the list of warnings did. Maybe he was just goofing them up, telling big stories to scare them straight, the way adults did sometimes, but since she didn’t know him like she did the adults at home, it was impossible for her to tell if that was what was going on here without testing it, which didn’t seem like a smart thing to do considering how bad those consequences of him being spot-on accurate in his assessment of his subject sounded. She noticed, as the lecture itself seemed to end, that she was sitting up very straight on her chair, her knees pressed together and her hands folded in her lap, the way she did when she was trying very hard to be good.

When they were told to get certain things and follow Professor Fawcett, Mellie didn’t know what to think, but did as she was told anyway, even though she wasn’t too happy about finding herself in front of that one portrait outside the Cascade Hall. Its inhabitant always seemed grumpy at best. Being told to go through the thing behind it, though, made her forget about that, since it looked totally cool and she could only imagine what might be behind it for them. Maybe Fawcett and this class could be cool after all.

Stepping through a little unsteadily, she found herself in the woods. “Wow,” she said quietly, looking around and wandering a little toward the trees, only to be called back, blushing furiously, when Professor Fawcett came in and began the real lesson for the day. When the papers were passed to her, Mellie fumbled with them for a few seconds, feeling the pressure to hurry up and move them along, before managing to pull off the top one and pass along the rest to the next person.

Looking over the list, she saw things she kind of recognized, and some she didn’t at all. She looked up when another girl, and another first year she thought, spoke to her. “Um, one time I was in a park, and I turned over this rock and there were bugs or something under it,” she said uncertainly, tugging on the end of one of her two plain brown, slightly sloppy braids. “But Dad said not to do that again, because it might be something dangerous under it. I don’t think so, though, because we’re, like, city people. I don’t really know much about this stuff. I guess we just walk around and see what we can find. It shouldn’t be too hard, you know, since it was set up for us to find.” She smiled at the other girl. “I’m Mellie, by the way. What’s your name?”

16 Mellie Goodwin Aw, come on. This will be fun! 206 Mellie Goodwin 0 5

Brianna Japos, Crotalus

June 20, 2011 8:17 PM

Now what do I do? by Brianna Japos, Crotalus

Brianna wasn’t quite sure what to think of her classes. From her reading, she knew that Transfiguration was likely to be the most difficult because she was changing the molecules of one object and transforming it into something completely different. Brianna watched her parents do it often, so even though it was difficult, she knew it wasn’t impossible. Charms was more likely to be one of the easier courses. Maybe not everything would be easy in the class, but Charms tended to be more skill of wand movement than concentration. Defense was iffy though. It could be the mental concentration needed like Transfiguration along with the wand skill needed in Charms. She didn’t know, but she hoped that what she learned in it would help her keep the bullies at bay.

Potions though, Potions could be difficult. She had no idea what it would be like. Her parents ordered the potions they needed, so she hadn’t been able to watch through them. The book was so precise and restrictive. One wrong move and everything wrong that could happen would happen. It made Brianna nervous just thinking about it.

Of course, meeting Professor Fawcett didn’t really help ease her nerves as he was explaining exactly what she feared. But, he was her very first real instructor, so she would do exactly as he said in hopes that she was atrocious as school as she was at everything else. Although, this lesson was actually sounding a bit fun. Especially since he had taken them to a room that transformed into woods. Brianna had never been in the wilderness. She had only ever known the city-life, but this… this was beautiful! She didn’t know the world could look like this. She only saw the ugliness of the city. Now she loved Sonora even more.

Brianna looked over the paper that the professor passed out and was surprised to find that they were going to be doing a hunt! Brianna wasn’t really ever invited to play games with the other kids in the building, so she had no experience in how this was supposed to work. She felt really lame, watching the other kids break off and start the lesson while she just stood there looking at the paper and sucking in her lips to avoid people staring at them. She felt completely lost with the assignment. “Um, excuse me…” Brianna tabbed the person on the shoulder, “I’ve never done a scavenger hunt before, what should I be doing?”

0 Brianna Japos, Crotalus Now what do I do? 0 Brianna Japos, Crotalus 0 5

Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

June 20, 2011 9:07 PM

Re: Beginners Lesson I, Part II by Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

After a lovely summer with her family, Hope was happy to be back at school for a second year. Her first year had gone great and she was sure her second year would be even better. She was so happy to no longer probably be the youngest student in school. Now there were all the first years that Hope could help out. Maybe she would even be prefect some day like Kaylie and Nina. Not that the Teppenpaw didn't think any of her year and housemates would make a wonderful prefect as well.

But that was so far off in the future. Hope was only a second year, it was much too soon to be worrying about something that would be happening three years from now. She wasn't what one would call especially ambitious, she could have cared less about glory and honor. Hope simply wanted to help people.

In fact, she had spent most of the summer helping out Harmony while Marshall was working. Or rather helping the house-elves take care of her and keeping her company. It hadn't always been great, in fact, Hope had come over one day to find her cousin's wife pale and shaking and gasping for breath. The second year had had to go get her mother right away and her mother had taken Harmony to the hospital while Hope had stayed home with her brothers and Nina.

Which had also been nice. Hope was closer to Evan than to her other siblings because they were closer in age and she had wanted to spend time with Adam before he moved out for good. Her older brother was planning to move to Colorado soon and Hope would miss him. Just like she missed Kaylie and Marshall and even Chelsea.

Speaking of which, Kaylie was also getting married. Hope was so happy for her oldest sister. This was what Kaylie had always wanted and she'd graduated from college quite awhile ago. It had just taken Ian some time to get up the nerve to ask her. Ian was a very nervous person.

The second year followed Professor Fawcett and the rest of her classmates to the portrait of Tavarius Mims, who from what Hope gathered was a grouchy old man who used to teach Arithmancy at Sonora. Which wasn't even taught here anymore and hadn't been offered in any of the years since Kaylie's first.

She stepped into the colorful vortex and found herself in the woods. Hope knew then that they must have been in the legendary Mirage Chamber. How amazing! Of course, being a pureblood, Hope had always known such things existed and had heard about the room but she never thought she would get to see it firsthand, none of her siblings ever had.

The Teppenpaw listened to Professor Fawcett's instructions and was thrilled to hear that they would be doing a scavenger hunt. That sounded way better to Hope then brewing some potion. More fun. As wonderful as she thought Potions were when they helped someone, she wasn't interested in that aspect of healing. Hope would prefer to be nurse and take care of the people themselves.

She turned to the person next to her. "Hey, will you work with me on this?" Hope asked, giving them a friendly grin.

11 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw Re: Beginners Lesson I, Part II 186 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Regina Parker, Teppenpaw

June 20, 2011 9:30 PM

Yay, games! by Regina Parker, Teppenpaw

Reggie’s first couple of days back to Sonora have not been the most fulfilling. She had a very weird conversation with Derry during the opening feast and then had very little time to get reacquainted with Maddie and Jessie or any of her other roommates. And now, the first lesson of the year was beginning. Potions. Reggie’s absolute favorite class. The one she had the most experience with because Potions was exactly what her father did for a living. Potions was a game they did together and it was a passion that she could share with him.

She had waltzed into Potions with a large smile on her face, excited to begin brewing again. She loved everything about Potions. The delicate ways that each and every potion needed to be handled. The ingredients. The smells. The colors the potions. Everything. She wasn’t sure if it was her own passion or if it was just excess passion from her father. Either way, Reggie could feel the adrenaline of excitement running through her at the prospect of making magic.

Reggie listened quietly as Professor Fawcett went over the rules of classroom. She already knew all of this because her father was constantly reminding her of the dangers, but Reggie respected it enough to be quiet and listen. Besides, there were others in the class who may have never made a potion in their life.

When the moment came where the potion they would be making would be announced, Reggie held her breath… and then let it out in a puff of confusion. They were going on a field trip? That was not a very potion-like thing at all. Maybe Defense or Care of Magical Creatures. But not Potions.

A rather confused Reggie followed the rest of the class through the school to the portrait that took care of the points. Her confusion only grew worse as they stepped through a portal and into a foresty place. But as soon as she saw where they were, her confusion became one of absolute glee. She grinned from ear to ear and rocked on her toes out of excitement.

She almost squealed when she received her parchment and discovered they would be doing a scavenger hunt! Awesome! “Oh wow! Who knew that we could actually play a game like this for Potions!” Reggie exclaimed to the person nearest to her. “Do you want to partner up? I think I’m pretty good at finding things. I always kick my Popsicle at Where’s Waldo.”

6 Regina Parker, Teppenpaw Yay, games! 187 Regina Parker, Teppenpaw 0 5

Attoria Covington, Crotalus

June 21, 2011 1:51 AM

I prefer the city. by Attoria Covington, Crotalus

Some students might have been nervous about starting classes, but not Attoria. No, she was more nervous about what she would be wearing in those classes. She had to match outfits to forest green robes. Forest green was an okay color on her, but it was certainly not the best. With her dark hair, fair skin, and bright blue eyes, purples and blues were more favored than earth tones. So, finding something that went with the forest green robes proved to be a bit of a challenge. White was the obvious choice, but it made her look washed out. Blue was her favorite color, but didn’t look right with the green. She had finally settled on a lavender chiffon dress with a floral print. It was perfect for the first day. She had no idea what she was going to wear the rest of the year, but for one day, she was going to be perfect with forest green robes.

Thankfully, her flawlessness had occurred through the rest of the day, even through lunch. She only hoped it lasted through the rest of the day including potentially messy potions. Upon entering the potions classroom, Attoria frowned. Decisions, decisions. Where should she sit? Having had a tutor, there had never really been a question of where to sit. Now, all she had to rely on was what she had read in books. When she was younger, she read the Little Blue Witch series. In the one, she had been worried about where to sit when she had been new. She had worried about the other kids she would meet and what they would think of her. Attoria was having similar feelings. She wondered what others would think of her. If she sat in the front, would she be deemed to be smart? If so, then she would have to put up appearances that she was. But if she sat in the back, she was worried that others would fail to notice her at all. The last thing she wanted to be was invisible when she wanted to shine the brightest.

Finally, she picked a seat that was in the very middle. She figured this was the best spot for being able to view anything going on, paying attention to the professor, meeting the most people, and most importantly, she was the center of attention. When she obtained the syllabus, she flipped through it and her eyes widened slightly. Was he serious? Did he really expect them to do this much work? And if things couldn’t get any worse, he talked about how failure in this class could lead to death. Was this class really necessary? Was there any way to petition out of the class? She highly doubted it, but maybe there was a way when it involved her safety. Though, that would require her parents to actually be seriously involved and that just wasn’t their strong suit. Plus, it would actually entail that they remember that she was away at school.

Though, it seemed things were getting better since Professor Fawcett just announced they would be leaving the room, which in her mind meant they wouldn’t be working on potions today. At least, not directly, but she didn’t really see what else they could be doing if they weren’t making potions. Following the professor, she was brought before a vortex. It was certainly a surprise. Taking a deep breath, she stepped through the vortex to be surrounded by a forest of sorts. She didn’t care if it was real or not. She did not approve of being in the middle of a forest. She was a city girl through and through. She loved that she didn’t have to worry about animals coming out or gross insects or anything like that. Sure, a lot of apartments had cockroaches and such, but hers didn’t. It was what the benefit of having money. Of course, this was a fake forest. She just had to remember that.

Okay, so they were to be doing a scavenger hunt. She could handle that. Growing up, her friends’ parties had included things like scavenger hunts. They had been lots of fun. Her glossed lips turned downward. However, they had been more interesting than finding some plants. At least, they would be able to work with someone. Turning to the nearest person, she introduced herself, “Hello. I’m Attoria Covington of the New York Covingtons. Would you like to work together?” She assumed that by introducing herself as someone important, the person would think she was important and would want to work with her.

0 Attoria Covington, Crotalus I prefer the city. 0 Attoria Covington, Crotalus 0 5

Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus

June 21, 2011 1:44 PM

Yay, forest hunt! by Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus

Potions was certainly not a class that Phoenix was looking forward to by any means. He had proved last year that he was absolutely dreadful at making them. It didn’t seem to be the theory that prevented him, however, since he seemed to understand it well enough. No, it was probably due to the fact that they were stuck in a classroom with material that required a great deal of patience. As a result, his attention became unfocused. It wasn’t that he couldn’t be patient. He really could. There were times when he would sit up in a tree for hours and observe all of the miraculous things that were going on around him. No, he didn’t think that it was for lack of patience, but rather that he was dying to be outside. He wanted to surround his senses with the bright colors and sweet scents. Instead, Potions was like an assault on his senses, dulling them, making him distracted and longing for the outdoors.

So, it was with this that he dragged his feet to the class. Though, it almost seemed to have a certain grace to it. Over the summer, changes had begun to occur. Like most of his peers, he had grown a little bit taller and such, but it was more than that. His parents had ended up having a talk with him, which had been rather embarrassing to say the least, but it had served to let him know what could possibly happen. He had always assumed he would take after his wizard father and when he had received his acceptance letter, it had seemed assured. The wizard in him would be stronger. Now, it seemed as though the veela side wanted to show itself as well. He had noticed that some of the girls around his neighborhood had seemed to be staring at him. He had just assumed that he had somehow offended them. This was of course before the talk.

Having taken his time getting to class, Phoenix ended up in one of the last seats, which he didn’t really mind. It was his hope that by being in the back of the class, he would go unnoticed. He didn’t really want attention drawn to himself in this class, where he was guaranteed to do horribly. At least, a minimum amount of damage will be done as opposed to if he were sitting in the middle of the room. Settled in, all the boring began. Syllabus, lecture on not blowing up the entire school, and so on. Then, he was expecting what potion they would be working on to come up, but no, instead, they were going somewhere else. Well, this was new. His spirits rose ever so slightly at the thought of not having to be in this classroom.

Eagerly, Phoenix followed the other students. The lightness in his step was more prevalent. Arriving at the vortex, he hesitated only a second before entering. He couldn’t say that some swirling thing before him wasn’t a bit overwhelming, but he was not disappointed in the least by what was on the other side. He was home. The forest was amazing. Peaceful. Beautiful. The only disappointment was when it was pointed out that it wasn’t real. The best thing in the school and it wasn’t real. He gave a heavy sigh as he took the assignment paper. Though, the more he heard and the more he looked at the paper, the more enthused he became. A scavenger hunt of looking for plants would actually be fun. Suddenly, the girl next to him squealed and asked him to partner her. “Uh, sure. What’s Where’s Waldo and what does a popsicle have to do with it?” He was a bit confused as to what any of she was talking about had to do with the hunt.

0 Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus Yay, forest hunt! 0 Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus 0 5

Valerie

June 21, 2011 5:40 PM

I guess not by Valerie

Valerie blinked. His explanation had only made her more confused. "I'm...sorry. What's a movie?" The Crotalus asked. Valerie was pretty sheltered, in order to keep her away from germs and such (though it never worked completely and she kept getting sick anyway) but she read a lot given she couldn't do much else and she had never read about movies before.

The first part of his explanation had made more sense to her though. From what Valerie gathered it was similar to when illusions were made through magic, like this room. Holograms must be a muggle thing, what they used instead, since they did not have magic. This boy must be a muggleborn.

This was confirmed when Valerie did not recognize his last name immediately. "It's nice to meet you, David." Her parents had never told her not to speak to muggleborns at all and really, Valerie just wanted to make friends with people and get along with them. Conflict was bad for her. She could make herself sick that way.

"I am Valerie Lennox, of the St. Louis Lennoxes." It was how she had always been taught to introduce herself, even though she never really got to do so much at home. "And I'm in Crotalus." She paused before asking. "Are movies a muggle thing?"

A coughing fit seized Valerie then and she covered her mouth. Oh, Merlin, she was definitely coming down with something. She'd been coughing for a few days now and trying to treat it with the potions she had for it and it only seemed to be getting worse. This was the second fit that Valerie had had like this today, the first one being at breakfast, not that she'd had much of an appetite.

She would go to the Hospital Wing and get checked out immediately after class. Valerie just hoped she could make it to the end.

11 Valerie I guess not 204 Valerie 0 5

Russell Layne, Aladren

June 21, 2011 8:45 PM

Beginning the hunt in the Beginners' Lesson, Part II by Russell Layne, Aladren

Potions was one of Russell’s favorite classes, if not his actual favorite. This wasn’t so much because of the actual work, though he did enjoy it, as because of the atmosphere. There was just the right balance of calm, that sense that things were under control and were going to be okay, and energy, with everyone working on their potions, sometimes against the clock, and knowing that one mistake would ruin all the work that had gone into it. He guessed it helped that he wasn’t really one of the ones who made a lot of mistakes.

Whatever the reason for his success in it last year, Russell was excited for the new year of Potions, though this would have been hard to tell by looking at him. His usual expression was amiable, good-natured, and it varied very little. He was by nature a little subdued, not really that fond of expressing his emotions, and he’d discovered that the best way to get through life with that quality was to seem good-natured and mildly happy instead of neutral. People reacted better to that. He was smiling slightly as he sat in the second row of the classroom, and had his notebook out and quill sharpened and ink pot open, but that was as far as it went.

He was surprised to hear that they weren’t going to be staying in the classroom, but packed up and accompanied the group back toward the Cascade Hall feeling sure that whatever was going on, it was going to be something awesome. Professor Fawcett tried to keep class interesting, and an expedition out of the room did seem likely to be that if it was nothing else. Leaving the usual class areas wasn’t common in any subject. He watched the portrait of Professor Mims warily when they reached it, though, because he didn’t want to risk drawing the portrait’s attention even more than he didn’t want to risk drawing most people’s. Professor Mims was someone he expected would have been a little terrifying to have in front of a classroom when he was still alive. He had an impressive superior look even as a painting.

He was distracted from the portrait, though, by the vortex behind it. “Cool,” he said, just loudly enough to be heard if anyone was close by, and joined the line to go through, passing through with a few others as instructed and then walking a little way around the clearing – though not far enough, he was sure, to be considered wandering – to see where it was he’d ended up, hurrying back and smiling at the person he was standing next to when Professor Fawcett appeared and promptly made his exercise irrelevant by explaining where they were. This got another word said aloud: “Awesome.”

The assignment looked straightforward, but he knew it was really going to be a little tricky. Russell thought too highly of Professor Fawcett to think he would have really just given them one where everything just appeared within five feet of where they started out and didn’t require any effort on their parts at all. He was about to look around to decide if he should try to team up with someone or just go for it when the girl he’d hastily smiled at as he joined the group spoke to him first, settling the matter. He liked it when things worked out like that.

“Sure, that’s cool,” he said. “You’re Hope, right? I’m Russell.” He realized, belatedly, that it might seem insulting to make a guess at her name, then assume she didn’t know his. “Since we haven’t really talked before,” he added.

16 Russell Layne, Aladren Beginning the hunt in the Beginners' Lesson, Part II 183 Russell Layne, Aladren 0 5

Paul Bennett, Crotalus

June 21, 2011 11:42 PM

Don't panic by Paul Bennett, Crotalus

Professor Fawcett was one of the things Eliza had told Paul about over the summer, with an eye toward giving him useful information instead of just talking about her school life the way she had over two midterms and the previous summer. In light of that, he thought it was a little strange that he was going into Potions with no idea what to think of the teacher.

He spent most of the introductory speech paying more attention to the man than he did to what the man was saying, especially since most of it was pretty standard stuff – Potions was dangerous, don’t be an idiot. Since Paul didn’t intend to be an idiot, he thought he was okay there. That was as usual, and as it was supposed to be. Paul was good at following directions, which seemed to be about all that was required of him. The hard part, always, was working out whether he should try to figure out what would win an adult’s favor or how to become completely invisible in that adult’s sight.

By the time they left the room, he was leaning toward the first option. Fawcett looked like one of the involved ones, the kind who wouldn’t handle an invisible boy very well, so Paul’s best shot was to try to win favor. Not too much favor, being a pet would draw the wrong kind of attention from his classmates, but enough to keep him comfortable in these classes.

If there was such a thing as comfort in these classes, anyway. This field trip wasn’t something predictable or routine-feeling.

He got well away from where other people would be entering, as instructed, but then stood still, looking around but not moving to explore more. He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but it clearly involved a lot of magic, which meant it should be regarded with caution and respect. When the professor explained it a little, Paul raised his eyebrows, impressed. That was a neat trick, and not something he’d seen before.

To his surprise, someone tapped him on the shoulder when the group began to break up into smaller groups, but he was a little less surprised when he saw who it was. He hadn’t talked to her before, but he knew she was one of Attoria’s roommates, one of the girls in his year and House. That gave them common ground…sort of, anyway. “I haven’t, either,” he said. “But it seems we’re supposed to walk around in here together and find things on the papers.” He waved his handout to demonstrate what he meant. “Not actually scavenge,” he added, then realized that most likely didn’t work as a joke. He thought he’d been going for a pun, but…no. “I’m Paul Bennett, of the Ca – Illinois Bennetts.” For a second, he felt unsettled, wondering what had made him almost say ‘California’ when he hadn’t been to California in almost four years. Weird. He wasn’t with it today. “Shall we try to figure it out together?”

0 Paul Bennett, Crotalus Don't panic 201 Paul Bennett, Crotalus 0 5

Linus

June 22, 2011 8:03 AM

All in good time by Linus

The girl finally began paying attention and passed the papers on. Then, instead of apologising to him for the hold-up or anything like that, she turned back to him and introduced herself as Kitty, and then suggested that they work together. Linus was going to tell her that he had no intention of working with her, considering she had already failed in coarrying out the simplest of instructions, but then he bit his tongue. He didn't have any friends here, yet, and she probably didn't either. The professor had recommended they work together, and she didn't seem altogether disagreeable. So Linus said, "I'm Linus Macaulay, and okay, I'll work with you."

Kitty was very excitable. She talked a lot, but then girls tended to do that, anyway. It was actually the things that she said that interested Linus, indicating to him quite clearly that this magic concept was as new to Kitty as it was to him, and that was unusual here. A lot of the other first years Linus had spoken to already knew all about mgaic, had magical parents, and some had even been schooled already. Linus and Kitty were the other sort - those to whom magic was a relatively new accepted truth. "It is pretty cool," Linus agreed, with none of Kitty's enthusiasm, but he had at least dropped his disapproving attitude.

"My family isn't magic, either," Linus replied to her question once she'd finished going on about Disney movies. Please, Linus was too old for Disney now. He sometimes looked after Daphne was she was watching a movie, but he'd never sit and just watch them himself. Maybe the Diseny movie that weren't really Disney, like Pirates of the Caribbean, but certainly none of that animated princess-y garbage. "I don't think you're going to wake up and discover it's all a dream," he said.

Kitty thought she'd found one of the items on their list already. Linus walked in the direction she had indicated, and checked the shrub against his own list. "Yes, I think that's the asphodel," he said, identifying the plant by its white flowers. "How would you describe this area?" he asked his partner; Professor Fawcett had asked them to record where it was they'd found each of the items (presumably to prove a student hadn't simply marked it off without really hvaing found it).

0 Linus All in good time 0 Linus 0 5

Kitty

June 22, 2011 4:06 PM

Said the tortoise to the hare by Kitty

Kitty had already stood up and was looking for the next item on the list when Linus spoke again. “How would you describe this area?” Forcing her attention back to the rather pretty asphodel Kitty looked the area over for a moment as she tried to find something to mark it as different from the rest of the forest. Sky blue eyes fell on a large half broken rock a bit to the left of the plant, there was grass growing out of the large crack down the middle of the stone.

“Hmm, how about asphodel located next to the broken bolder?” Kitty said as her eyes again began scanning for the next item on the list. “So you’re new to all this too? That’s cool, I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't know whats going on. How did you’re family react to the news? Mine totally didn’t believe it until the wizard turned our couch into a dog. My dad almost had a heart attack.” She said with a laugh. “My brother thought we were all under some sort of mass hypnosis, it took the poor guy like three hours to convince them he wasn’t just some big fraud trying to scam us. I’m glad they agreed to let me go though, this is way better than regular school!”

She shifted impatiently, wanting to be off to find the next thing. Stuff like this had always been great fun for Kitty and she was sure that they would be able to find everything on the list. The worry she’d felt beginning the class had vanished, potions was turning out to be a lot more fun then it had first sounded. Hopefully all their classes would be as exciting.

0 Kitty Said the tortoise to the hare 0 Kitty 0 5

Michael Grosvenor

June 22, 2011 5:25 PM

But this is so pretty! by Michael Grosvenor

So far, this magic stuff was pretty alright. Flying had been fun and his roommates were nice (not that that was magic so much as a fresh chance to make a first impression). Whereas Michael knew very well to look forward to science and dread P.E. he had no idea how he should feel about any of the subjects here. He might be dreadful at them all. He might be years behind the kids from magical families. But as there was nothing he knew for sure he was bad at here, he had decided that (until he got any evidence to the contrary) there was nothing to be afraid of. His spirits were slightly dampened by the less than comforting speech of the Potions professor. But, he told himself, science teachers did that too. Don't mess around with the chemicals, don't play with the Bunsen Burners, you'll all die horribly and then your parents will sue the school...

He followed his professor and his peers as the were led out of the classroom, wondering what to expect. After a morning flying (an experience incompatible with hearing anything) he'd been quite looking forward to a regular classroom-based class, which he knew how to cope with. He hesitated only slightly before stepping through the crazy swirling vortex. People tended to only consider what was safe for normal people. For all he knew an intense magical field – or whatever this was – would short circuit his hearing aids. However, he still seemed able to hear once he reached the other side, and he blinked away his slight trepidation as his eyes soaked up the incredibly sight of the indoor forest. Or pretend indoor forest, as it transpired.

Michael took a sheet and scanned down the list. He wasn't super hot on different varieties of norm- Mugg- non-magical plants and insects so he couldn't really tell whether these were different. Could magical people have entirely their own flora and fauna? He remembered the Professor had mentioned poisonous ivy, so there had to be some cross-over. However, he had no idea which of these species were “new” to him.

He looked up at the sound of someone speaking. A girl. Again. The first one had been a pleasant surprise but he wasn't sure he could cope with speaking to two girls in one day. And this one seemed incredibly formal.

“I'm Michael,” he said, “Grosvenor,” he added because it seemed that she thought full-names were necessary and he'd learnt long ago that the best way to get through a conversation where you weren't entirely sure what was going on was to just mirror the other person as best you could. Of course, the reason he was out of depth wasn't usually because of some weird 18th Century etiquette way of speaking. Perhaps she was really into the idea of the ball and was just practising? “I'm from Oregon,” he added, not entirely confident enough of what she'd really meant to try to match her introduction entirely. “And yes, we could work together if you'd like to,” he finished. Unlike Cherry, who only needed to continue to think there was nothing wrong with him for them to get along, he felt that he didn't quite fit in with this girl. He hadn't done it consciously but he'd phrased his acceptance of her offer in such a way as to let her change her mind, now that she'd discovered he wasn't... whatever it was that he wasn't and she was.

13 Michael Grosvenor But this is so pretty! 199 Michael Grosvenor 0 5

Reggie

June 22, 2011 10:35 PM

Yay, adventure! by Reggie

When Reggie realized it was Phoenix she was speaking to (their class was small enough to at last know of one another even without speaking to each other) because he had faced her after she started talking. She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t find her voice or look away and felt herself blushing due to her incapacity to do anything.

And then it was gone as though it had never happened at all.

There would come a time in Reggie’s life where she will become quite frustrated with constantly having to explain herself to people. She thought her phrasing of things was quite clear. She had plenty of conversations with people back in Nebraska without any of them looking at her funny, but there seemed to be a large gap between Nebraska people and the students of Sonora.

Of course, that time would not be coming around any time soon.

Instead, Reggie just laughed and waved Phoenix off. “Popsicle is what I call my dad. It’s really just a joke for us to share and I guess I just say it around others without thinking too much about it.” Reggie explained to the boy. “Where’s Waldo is a book series… I think it might have been a television series too…” Reggie mumbled, lost in thought for a moment before shaking her head and returning to the conversation. “Anyway, in the books, there are crazy sceneries, like the beach or Arabia, and a whole lot of people and animals. The object of the game is to find Waldo amongst the chaos.” She really wished she had a book to show him. “Waldo is this tall skinny guy who wears a beanie hat and a white and red striped shirt. Sometimes you have to find his dog too. I have some books back home, I’ll show them to you some time. It can really addicting.” She warned him with a smile and a sparkle in her hazel eyes. She was really excited today.

Reggie looked back down at her paper and then at the fake forest around her. “I’m Reggie, by the way.” She introduced, looking back at him. “Dad says it’s rude to assume someone knows your name. I know yours though because it’s so different to me. Phoenix. Very cool.” Reggie complimented. “Where do you want to start?” She asked him. “This will be like finding a needle in a haystack… or a four leaf clover in a field of three leaf clovers.” She joked, but already started to move towards the woods to begin the adventure.

6 Reggie Yay, adventure! 187 Reggie 0 5

Hope

June 23, 2011 2:16 AM

And continuing it by Hope

Hope nodded, confirming to Russell that her name was indeed Hope. "That's right." He hadn't really needed to introduce himself to her either, since she knew his name, but as he said, they hadn't actually talked before so maybe Russell was unsure about that.

And given that she already knew his name, Hope didn't have to worry about the proper pureblood greeting. Her parents were rather liberal, they didn't care about it at all, but her great-grandfather had recently taken more of an interest in her and Evan, as well as Adam. Clifford Brockert had apparently decided that his descendents had gone a bit off track. From what Adam said, the family patriarch was irritated that his younger brother Hugo had more proper descendants than he did.

The second year wasn't quite sure how she felt about it, Hope didn't want to disappoint him or anyone, she was all about making others happy, because she didn't like seeing anyone upset. On the other hand, what could this mean for her future? A betrothal? Hope didn't really think she wanted that. She didn't want to end up like Aunt Rosemary. She didn't want her children to go through what Marshall had.

The Teppenpaw honestly didn't see why it would be necessary. Aside from a distant cousin who was currently getting divorced-and everything Hope had heard about said cousin suggested she was not a nice person-most of the non-arranged marriages in her family had seemed to gone rather well, while Aunt Rosemary's marriage to Uncle Liam was a disaster.

She shook her head as if to clear her mind of such thoughts. It was unlikely Hope would ever have to marry a man like her uncle. There was no way that her father or brother would ever let that happen to her.

Hope turned back to Russell, still smiling. She looked at the list. "The first item is a bubotuber. Do you see any anywhere?" She asked the Aladren.

11 Hope And continuing it 186 Hope 0 5

Linus

June 23, 2011 8:34 AM

This isn't a race by Linus

Kitty's response about the broken boulder seemed adequate to Linus, so he made a note of it. The professor hadn't been specific in his directions of exactly how they should record their information, which Linus would undoubtedly point out if anyone found a problem with the way he was working. Being a good scholar was simply a matter of following instructions well, and reading around to make sure you understoof the subject matter. this technique had worked just fine for Linus in his previous schools, and he didn't interpret magic as having such an affect on his schooling at Sonora as to make this rule inapplicable.

Kitty seemed eager to move on to look for the next item, and Linus approved on her determination to get the work done without dawdling, so he walked with her as he answered her questions. "I didn't have too much difficulty believeing it," he replied, finding some amusement in the story about her family's own reluctance to believe. "I stopped a really heavy trapdoor from falling on my sister once, and though I liked to think it was my strength at the time, the fact that I haven't been able to lift it again since makes magic the more plausible explanation. Look, there's a toadstool," he pointed to another item on their list, with barely a distinguishable difference in the tones he used when speaking.

Reading the description they'd been provided with, Linus read, "Fermenting fungus. Lovely. And that's... by the base of a huge tree." He noted the location - vague as it was he was convinced it was sufficient - and then looked up at the immense tree to see whether it, too, was one of the items on their list. "Where do you live, then?" Linus asked Kitty without looking at her (it was obvious he wasn't talking to the tree and she was the only other person round him, so it was obvious to whom he was speaking). He was curious about the radius of so-called Muggleborn students that got invited to attend the school. Was it just from surrounding states, or the country more generally, or even International, he wondered. "I'm from Las Vegas."

0 Linus This isn't a race 0 Linus 0 5

Perdita

June 23, 2011 8:52 AM

If you say so, I'm sure it will be. by Perdita

Perdita listened intently to the girl and nodded in understanding. She then looked up from her list and smiled brightly, always glad to meet someone new. And to not let her nervousness show. Chatting with new people was always something difficult for her. She never knew how they would react, if they were annoyed with her, or the other many possibilities of emotions one might feel when meeting a new person. Perdita always felt one, nervous, and it was what largely hindered her from making new friends. She wasn't quite sure what to say or how to act.

"Perdita, a pleasure to meet you," she greeted. "Well, I suppose you are right. I hardly think we're in any danger of something though, considering it's all fake."

Perdita nibbled on her lip as she glanced around. Many students had just left the clearing. It was time they started on the scavenger hunt as well, so Perdita moved along with the girl, taking their surroundings in and glancing back every minute or so at the list.

"Well... alright, we need a good amount of items, so... there is Aconite, Angel's Trumpet, Asphodel, and Baneberries. Well, there are more but I suppose we can look for them first and check them off as we find them. Going alphabetically would probably be more beneficial, so we have an idea of how much we have and how much we have to go." Perdita blushed as she realized her babbling, and the more than swotty tone in her voice. She'd been estranged from her muggle classmates for her authoritative ways. It wasn't that she tried to be that way, but it was just how she came across.

"Erm, sorry. Do you have any suggestions how we could do this? I don't mean to be rude- I'm sorry if I came across that way," Perdita apologized, her cheeks burning in embarrassment.

0 Perdita If you say so, I'm sure it will be. 0 Perdita 0 5

Kitty

June 23, 2011 11:09 PM

But we could still win by Kitty

“Wow, that’s not too far from me. I’m from Reno, well…not really. We live in Cold Springs, which is just a little valley outside of Reno. It’s pretty cool, our house is in the last row of houses before the mountains start and I love exploring them. Though, they’re mostly dirt, and rocks and sagebrush, nothing like this.” She said as she made a large sweep of her small hands to encompass the sounding fake forest. Kitty’s voice was a startling contrast to Linus’s near monotone. Hers rose and fell with her excitement, and was flavored with whatever she felt at the moment.

Kitty looked down at the sheet of paper, and noticed something interesting. “Hay, if we’re suppose to mark where we found something, what about the bugs? I mean it’s not like they’re just gunna stay where we saw them. Well, maybe they will. Seems this is just an illusion or whatever it’s not like they really have little bug lives to live.”

A large smile flashed across her face as she kneeled down next to a rock about as large as her two hands. Getting her fingers under the edge she carefully pulled it up towards her. Even though this wasn’t real, Kitty hadn’t forgotten her dad’s warning to always use a rock you’re lifting as a shield. The desert was full of poisonous things, such as snakes and scorpions. She peaked under the rock to see if there were any flobberworms as they sounded sort of like earthworms so it seemed like a good place to look for such things.

Frowning at the lack of creepy crawlies Kitty let the rock fall back into place. As she stood up a small grey bug flew past her face. Kitty looked down at her sheet then up again at the bug. “Hay isn’t that a Glumbumble?” She asked as she bounced a bit trying to get a better look without scaring it away. Can illusions even get scared? Kitty thought as she waited for Linus's response.

0 Kitty But we could still win 0 Kitty 0 5

Nora Dobson, Aladren

June 24, 2011 5:05 AM

Oh good, a real class. by Nora Dobson, Aladren

Generally speaking, Nora was not a hyper person. She didn't usually show it when she got excited. Didn't jump around or bounce. However, she was very enthusiastic about her first Potions class. It wasn't her favorite subject in the world, which was human psychology, but Potions would be a fascinating class nonetheless. Finally, they would be learning something where they had to use their minds rather than that useless flying nonsense.

Besides, Potions had their uses in psychology. A potion could be used either to make a sane person go crazy or to treat the symptoms of a crazy one. Though, it wasn't always possible to help someone become sane again. From what Nora understood, her grandmother was beyond help. The Aladren didn't know exactly what the problem was, but from what she gathered, it was Grandfather's fault.

Much like most things. Nora didn't know her grandfather, had never met him as her mother had little to do with her parents these days, though she was in touch with her brothers and cousins, one of whom, Hope was a second year. How it seemed though was that almost everything bad in their family was blamed on her grandfather. He was built up as some sort boegyman in Nora's mind and a lot of her and Portia's games had revolved around having to escape from Grandfather's evil clutches. Even though she had largely outgrown the sort of games that involved running around pretending, Nora still played them with her sister sometimes.

Now the eleven year old was more interested in the nature of evil. What caused it? Was it nurture or nature? If it was the latter, why hadn't Grandfather's evil shown up in her, her sister, her mother, her uncles or her cousin?(Though Nora maintained that Little Oliver could still very well turn out that way.)Was there a potion that could cure or subdue it? Or one that caused it in an unborn child if it was taken when a woman was pregnant.

Of course, that wouldn't explain evil muggles. And Nora was sure that while not all muggles were evil, some were. Some had to be. Like the ones that had persecuted magical people a long time ago. A time when being a witch was considered a bad thing. How insulting!

As she heard the instructions for them to get up and take a paper and quill, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Nora followed Professor Fawcett and her classmates to a portrait of an old professor anyway though. The portrait opened to reveal a swirling vortex. She walked through the portal with the others, completely not worried about where it would lead. Nora figured that Professor Fawcett couldn't lead them into any place where they would face certain death, that would be foolish. He might get fired that way and Sonora could get sued.

Nora grabbed a piece of paper from the stack, and passed them on. She looked over the list intently, looking up in surprise when someone spoke to her. "Excuse me, I missed what you said. Would you like to work with me?"

11 Nora Dobson, Aladren Oh good, a real class. 197 Nora Dobson, Aladren 0 5

Linus

June 24, 2011 1:56 PM

What're your criteria for winning? by Linus

Linus wondered what strange concept Kitty had employed to make her state that Reno wasn't far from Las vegas; it was about the furthest you could get and still be in the same state. Of course in terms of global or even continental geography he supposed the two places weren't as far apart as all that, and her answer at least supported his theory that Sonora accepted so-called Muggleborn students from neighbouring states. Naturally his train of thought was interupted as Kitty squarked on about bugs staying still or not. "Is Kitty your real name?" he asked her as she bent down to examine a rock, already feeling he knew the answer. "Or is it short for something?"

Kitty didn't find whatever it was she was looking for under the rock - Linus didn't ask her what it was - but she had apparently seen a gum... a blugbub... or something. Linus tried to get a look at the insect, but it was flying to its own agenda and wasn't especially co-operative in affording him a good view. "Did it look like the picture on our list?" he asked Kitty to clarify. If she said 'yes' then that would be good enough for him. He had plenty of time before the next potions class to fully research the creature, not to mention how to say it.

"I think that might be one of our trees over there," he said, pointing a little way off from where they were standing. "So let's mark that bumblebug down if you saw it and then go over there." He wasn't anticipating any argument, partly because Kitty didn't seem the disagreeable sort, and partly because it was a good plan, so she wouldn't have any reason to disagree with it, anyway. Professor Fawcett hadn't stipulated the first group to find all their ingredients and make it back would be held in any greater esteem than any other, but Linus didn't think it would hurt to make a good impression. He and Kitty seemed to be doing okay thus far, they just couldn't allow themselves to be distracted.

0 Linus What're your criteria for winning? 0 Linus 0 5

Attoria

June 25, 2011 12:11 AM

City views have their moments. by Attoria

Attoria didn’t know much about prominent families from the west so she couldn’t say for certain if Grosvenor was among them. Honestly, she wouldn’t have been able to tell if it was one of importance in the east either. While her parents came from long purity lines, they were rather eccentric and tended to keep to themselves. However, the lines were still significant and ties with family were open so they were still invited to all the events of any matter. Though, they never went. She always wanted to go. She begged even to be able to go. Sometimes, her parents said they would, but then they forgot, apologized, and said they would go the next time, but they never did.

If she had would she have met Michael Grosvenor? Maybe, maybe not. There were too many factors to know for sure. She supposed for now it didn’t really matter. She didn’t know what all the rules were going to end up being. Her goal was to be popular. Was purity going to play a large factor in that? In her building, all the kids were from magical families so it was more about how much money one had that determined popularity more than anything else. Would that help her? Ugh. There was just so much to consider. So, there was a possibility that he would become one of the popular ones and if so, she wanted to be among them, thus it would be important to be nice to him.

“Sure,” Attoria answered with a smile that showed she was clearly confident about working together. Besides, if it turned out later that he ended up being one of the undesirables, then she could claim that she felt sorry for him or something. After all, everyone had to work with someone and she was just being gracious. Yes, that would be it. She was a real humanitarian. She could spin that if absolutely necessary, but she wouldn’t worry too much for now. Looking at her sheet, she was a little overwhelmed as to where to begin. Some of the names she recognized as being common plants in the wizarding world, but she never thought of them as being used in potions.

Of course, there had never been a reason for her to think about the ingredients that came in the potions in their home. She just knew that certain potions did certain things and that was that. She didn’t really need to know more than that. And judging by just looking at this list, she doubted that she would ever pursue a career in the field. However, that wasn’t going to help her right now. “I guess we should move around and just see what we can find. Honestly, I don’t know how much help I’m going to be. I know what some of them are, but all of this,” she gestured with her hand to indicate the forest, “looks the same. I’m more of a city person.” She gave a lopsided smile. It was true though. She could navigate her way to any store in the city faster than she would ever be able to find these plants.

0 Attoria City views have their moments. 0 Attoria 0 5

Kitty

June 25, 2011 1:17 AM

Finding everything first by Kitty

“Yup! It’s short for Katrina. Ever sense I was born daddy always called me Kitten, so everyone else started calling me Kitty. The only one who ever calls me Katrina is mom, and only when she’s mad at me.” Kitty chirped as she looked from the picture to the flying bug and back again. “That’s definitely a Glumbumble.” She stated as the little bug flew off.

With a little bounce Kitty looked in the direction Linus pointed. Glancing down at her paper then back up again she grinned back at him and skipped in the direction he indicated. Kitty stopped in front of a large Alder tree. She looked up, and up at the magnificent tree and wistfully wished it wasn’t just an illusion. That would have been a fantastic climbing tree.

“So you really live in Las Vegas? Do you go see all the shows? My cousin got married there a few years ago and I got to go and be the flower girl. It was so much fun. We went to see the lions in MGM, and then to the Rainforest Café. I think that might be my favorite restaurant ever.” Kitty said excitedly as she turned away from the large tree, bright laughing blue eyes looking for the next item on the list.

0 Kitty Finding everything first 0 Kitty 0 5

Michael

June 25, 2011 6:58 AM

True, but this isn't going to bite you... by Michael

The girl (had she said 'Attoria'? He wasn't 100% he'd heard that right as he'd never heard that as a name, though he was starting to gather from the roll-calls that wizards called their children all kinds of odd things) seemed to loosen up a bit after her very formal introduction. She was happy to work with him and seemed to be friendly enough.

“I like the outdoors,” he replied to her comment about being a city person. His family spent lots of time hiking so he was more than comfortable being outside, “And I'm pretty good at spotting things. Though I'm not much of a plant geek and when it's green on green, I don't know how well I'll do,” he shrugged. “This one has purple flowers though,” he pointed to an item on the list, “And this bug thing has blue stripes, so I guess we could look for them first, as they'll stand out. Then we might hopefully find some of the other things as we go.” Michael wasn't really used to taking any kind of leader role on a task. He usually sat back and tried to be invisible when working in a group, which was how most other people seemed happy to treat him. Although he felt fairly in the dark about the actual plants and what they might be, Attoria was a self-confessed concrete dweller and seemed to be in need of a little bit of nudging in the right direction, and he felt fairly confident of his ability to match objects to pictures. One thing was for sure, they weren't likely to find anything by standing around the clearing, so Michael began to head towards a bit of the forest that wasn't over-crowded with other scavengers.

“At least you know it's all safe,” he smiled at Attoria, “So it's a nice gentle introduction to nature.”

13 Michael True, but this isn't going to bite you... 199 Michael 0 5

Brianna

June 25, 2011 3:14 PM

That might be easier said then done. by Brianna

When the boy looked at Brianna, she realized he was the one that Attoria was speaking with during the Opening Feast. This realization made Brianna extremely nervous. Either Attoria wanted him to be on her good side, which meant Brianna had to be very careful around him so as to not make him think differently of Attoria, or Attoria didn’t care about him in the least, which would mean that either Brianna would have to be rude to him or it wouldn’t matter how Brianna interacted with him (all depending on how Attoria felt about him).

But Attoria hadn’t said anything about him, so Brianna had no idea how to react.

Of course, he introduced himself in the proper Pureblood way, so Brianna was safe to assume he had passed Attoria’s test. “Hello Paul, I’m Brianna Japos of the New York City Japos.” She knew that her name meant nothing. It still had some pull in the Philippines, but they had been unsuccessful in making a name for themselves in America. Sometimes Brianna wished her father had gone back to the Philippines. Maybe then life would be a little easier and possibly even better for Brianna. Or, at least, maybe her parents wouldn’t hate one another so much. “I would be extremely relieved if you helped me with this assignment.” Brianna stated with a large smile.

Brianna looked down at the paperwork that the Professor had provided. “I suppose for our first real lesson, this one isn’t too terrible.” Brianna commented as she looked over all the items. She wasn’t so sure that potions was going to be a strong suit for Brianna. It was far too restrictive and precise. Brianna was clumsy and impatient most of the time that she was bound to just screw everything up and probably cause some damage in class. But just looking for ingredients didn’t seem so horrible.

She looked around at the forest again and was immediately grateful that she had a partner to help her with all of this. “I’m not sure where to start though.” Brianna commented. “I live in the city, so I do not see much plant life. And, as far as I can tell, everything looks exactly the same.” How were they supposed to find some of these things? “Where should we start first? The ones with flowers or maybe some of the bugs?” Brinna suggested. She sort of wished the kids in the building had let her play hide and seek with them more, maybe then she would feel better about this assignment. Finding kids in a large building was very difficult and those who could find them were observant and talented in Brianna’s mind.

0 Brianna That might be easier said then done. 0 Brianna 0 5

Arthur Carey

June 27, 2011 4:54 PM

'Real' doesn't seem like the word to use in here by Arthur Carey

Potions could, depending on the day, be the best or worst part of Arthur’s schedule, and though it tended toward the former, the times when it was the latter were still pretty bad. Periodically, he found himself, instead of focusing on what he was doing so intently that he forgot about other things going on around him or just didn’t notice them in the first place, unable to concentrate in the room full of dizzying vapors, conversations, the endless rows of instructions and little compartments in his potions kit…Then he would shake himself, remind himself that he was not Brandon, or even Arnold, he was the best, he had to work, but his head would still feel full of cotton wool while the rest of him felt too energetic, and he would only just pull out a potion he found acceptable. Twice, last year, he hadn’t accomplished that goal.

He had felt the warning signs of a bad day at breakfast, and though his first few classes had, through grim effort, gone fairly well, he was not sure how Potions would go, or how to take the move from the usual classroom setting. Especially since the location was far more interesting than the assignment. He could identify more than half of these things with his eyes closed.

At least the room was fascinating. He tried to focus on that. Someday, he was going to have to work out how to make something like this, figure out how it related to MARS, if it did; he could see a lot of things you could test in this environment that wouldn’t be exactly safe outside, at least on the first try, if it could be adjusted to mirror reality a little better, and…and, well, he could play with it, sometimes, not to learn, just to fiddle with it. It would be the most fun he’d had with a toy since he became disgusted with the fare provided for five year old pureblood boys and had taken up with books. He didn’t think that was a good thing to do, but surely it couldn’t do much harm as long as no one found out he wasn’t doing something serious, could it?

No, it could not. But first, he had to get through this lesson. He began to look over the list more closely to make sure he wasn’t being too hubristic to begin with and soon found himself frowning at it.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” he said, because it didn’t. These things weren’t all found in the same places. Just looking at the beginners’ Potions and Care of Magical Creatures textbooks would be enough to let someone know that, and he had looked at some herbology texts last year because of the very thing he thought this lesson was based on. Were there different zones outside of this one that mimicked other environments, or was it all just a mess, a – an anachronism wasn’t right, that was historical mix-ups, but something like that, a botanical anachronism-equivalent….

He looked up over the small, round, still slightly uncomfortable silver-framed reading glasses he had on when the first year girl he happened to be standing by spoke to him, saying she had missed what he said, and he only then realized he had expressed his frustration with the lack of logic out loud. Oh, well, at least she hadn’t picked up on that. He started to say that it was all right, he could manage the task on his own, but then he remembered what Jay had said at the Reunion and changed his mind. The future, after all, was important. “If you like,” he said. “I am Arthur Carey, of the South Carolina Careys.” He considered the difficulty of gracefully inserting the next piece of information and then gave up on it. The best he could do was informative and with a connective word in there. “I’m also a second year Aladren.”

0 Arthur Carey 'Real' doesn't seem like the word to use in here 182 Arthur Carey 0 5

Paul

June 27, 2011 6:19 PM

Yes, but the rewards of doing so are substantial by Paul

Japos wasn’t a name he knew, but then, Paul had never spent much time in New York, state or city. Great-Grandfather had sent Great-Uncle Porter there, and Grandfather lived very nearby, comparatively speaking, in Connecticut, but Father only occasionally visited even Grandfather, never mind Grandfather’s younger brother. They saw everyone a little more often now that they were in Illinois instead of on the West Coast, but not that much, and Paul had never claimed to be one of those people who knew every family in the country.

“I’ll do my best,” he said cheerfully, hoping he hadn’t just put his foot in it, when Brianna said that she’d be relieved if he’d help her. “I don’t go out in the country much, either, but I’m good at seeing details, so I think I can pick some things out if the pictures here are any good.” His grandparents lived on an estate with woods, and when they did go to Connecticut, he liked to ramble around sometimes for a little while, but never went far, and the place he was living now, Uncle Vic’s place in Illinois, was not an expansive estate; he could see another prosperous house from his bedroom window.

They were not an old family, his – though they would never admit to as much in public if they could help it, allowing instead people to believe what they would from their manner, he and Eliza and their siblings and cousins were only fifth generation pureblood on the Bennett side; Great-Grandfather was, if he was feeling seditious enough to think it, little more than a half-blood con who’d married up in the world and had his sons and grandsons do likewise – nor were they exorbitantly rich enough to buy their way into some of the highest circles despite their unfortunately brief lineage. They had nice homes, but not vast, ancient halls; land, but not so much that they could essentially withdraw from the world if they chose to do so. Changing these things seemed to be the main goal of the family at this point, a slow, gradual process.

“I guess we should pick a direction first,” he suggested when Brianna asked about what to start with. “And see what we find. It looks like there’s more plants, so we can either knock out all of the – other things first or try to get them out of the way, but I think it must be mixed up, so we should keep our eyes open for everything. Have you looked over the whole list?”

0 Paul Yes, but the rewards of doing so are substantial 0 Paul 0 5

Brianna

June 27, 2011 9:08 PM

Oh, awards? by Brianna

Brianna was most definitely relieved when Paul agreed to be her partner. He was not that much of a Country Boy to make Brianna feel completely at ease with this assignment, but he was willing to help and apparently he was a pretty good observer, so she would take that in the positive light. Especially since she wasn’t sure she really had much to offer.

What she was really hoping for was that she didn’t trip and fall on anything. The Professor had said that the poisonous plants couldn’t hurt her, but he never said that tripping over a root and falling onto the floor couldn’t hurt her. No matter how fake these things were, the floor was still a floor. The last thing she wanted was to make a total fool of herself in front of everyone. It would be bad for her in multiple ways. For one, who would want to be friends with the class klutz? For another, Attoria would hate her forever if she did anything to embarrass her friend. And another reason would be because once she fell and possibly hurt herself, people would laugh at her. The kids in her building did, so there was no doubt in her mind that her classmates would too.

Brianna was going to do the best that she could in this school so that no one could talk badly to her or behind her back. There was nothing that she could do to change the size her lips, the color of her skin, or the shape of her eyes. But she could change her behavior and that was exactly what she was going to try to do.

“Well, to be honest, the ones with flowers caught my attention first.” Brianna said, her cheeks flushing because she knew that made her sound rather girly. “They’re the only things that aren’t green in color really, so my eyes are drawn directly too them.” Brianna explained in hopes that made her sound a bit better. “The rest sort of blurred together.” Now that they were heading somewhere, Brianna took a moment to look over the plants again. Her eyes still went to the flowers first, but she actually forced herself to take in all of the physical description of the plants to help in the search of them.

There were purple ones called Aconite, she liked how they looked. And then there were white flowers that looked a bit like stars. Those were called Asphodel. Some plants, like wormwood, simply looked like a bush. That was likely to be the hardest. Suddenly her eyes fell onto the Bubotuber, “Ew, this one looks disgusting!” She said, showing it to him. It seriously looked like a nasty slug. “Probably not too hard to find at all.”

0 Brianna Oh, awards? 0 Brianna 0 5

Fae Sinclair, Crotalus

June 27, 2011 9:50 PM

Even fake, I still hate nature. by Fae Sinclair, Crotalus

Fae was slowly discovering that she was pretty decent with her wand. Not perfect, of course, but decent. Perfection would come with lots of practice. Or, at least, that was what Shelby had told her. And Shelby was perfect. Although, when Fae had spoken to her sister over summer break, Shelby had said she was far from perfect. She made mistakes. She was human. But she simply put a smile on her face and laughed it off and so people forgot her mistakes and focused on what she wanted them to see in her. Eventually, Shelby said that such things became second nature to her. And, with practice, the same will come of Fae. Fae didn’t really believe it, but Shelby had been willing to give her advice, so Fae had sat quietly and taken it all in.

Anyway, the point was that with everything, practice made perfection. At least it would when it came to Fae’s wand. She wasn’t so sure she could apply that philosophy to her potions capabilities. One actually had to be perfect at all times when making a potion. If they weren’t perfect, the potion would fail. Fae knew that this would be her worst class by far.

Of course, her opinion of the class went drastically downhill when Professor Fawcett decided to take them on a class trip, have them go through a swirling weird vortex, and into the very thing that Fae was having the most trouble with.

Nature.

Fae almost burst into tears right then and there. It was like the world was laughing at her. Grinning from ear to ear at her phobia. She couldn’t handle nature. Anything about it. She had tried, Merlin, she had tried. But instead she had ended up only hurting herself and getting lost. Kitty had been nice, but Fae had been so embarrassed about the whole ordeal. And now here she was standing in the middle of some forest with the rest of her class shaking slightly from anxiety. Even his explanation of the fact that all of this was fake was not helping to ease her at all. She was totally going to fail this.

Taking the assignment, Fae bought the paper up to her face to block out her expression from anyone who make be looking in her direction, closed her eyes and took as deep of a breath as she could. It caught momentarily in her throat and Fae felt herself gasp as she forced the air through. Lovely. “Can this seriously get any worse?” Fae mumbled to herself as she began to walk. Of course it can. A large tree root was hidden underneath all the plant-life, Fae’s kitten heal struck it causing her to lose her balance and land against a Bubotuber which resulted in the sacks of pus to explode on her face and chest. Fae let out a squeal of disgust when she finally caught her balance. Even knowing this wasn’t real wasn’t enough to keep her from frantically wiping her face and front clean and gagging on the smell of gas that the plant was exuding.

“Really? Why me?” She asked the not really there sky in frustation.

0 Fae Sinclair, Crotalus Even fake, I still hate nature. 0 Fae Sinclair, Crotalus 0 5

Linus

June 28, 2011 6:23 AM

We're on the right track by Linus

Linus was at least vindicated by his correct guess at Kitty being a shortened version of her name, but this menial victory was quashed relentlessly by the continuation of her explanation. Her father called her Kitten? Linus wrinkled his nose. That was about the most distasteful thing he'd heard all day, and he was in a potions class. "Don't you think Kitty is a little babyish?" he asked her as they marked down the Glumbug. "Katrina is a perfectly adequate name," he reasoned. He wouldn't go as far as to say it was a nice name, but it was immeasurably preferable to Kitty.

They arrived at the tree, which, according to Linus' notes, was Alder. He noted it down while Katrina peered up its trunk. He was beginning to find her constant curiosity wearing; yes, he too was amazed by the capabilities of magic, but inspecting every inch of bark in wonderment was positively trying. "No, I don't see the shows," he replied to her question with a hint of contempt in his voice. He was too young and too respectable to have even contemplated it. "I don't live right in the city," he clarified, though he thought that much should be obvious. Only show girls and high rollers lived in the city itself, and Linus was clearly neither. He had, however, been to the Rainforest Café fairly recently for a family treat, and he would grudgingly admit that to Katrina in favor of continuing the conversation.

"I like it at the Rainforest Café," he agreed, though he wouldn't go as far as to say it was his favorite restaurant ever. It was fun, but it was expensive, and Daphne got upset when all the lights went out for the thunderstorm. That was about as close as Muggles got to simulating the outdoors within an indoor environment, Linus thought. In some ways it was just as impressive as this chamber, because it had been accomplished without magic. Or so he presumed, anyway. Since discovering he could buy magic supplies in Vegas if he knew where to look was making him question a lot more things that he'd previously taken for granted.

0 Linus We're on the right track 0 Linus 0 5

Josephine Owen

June 28, 2011 7:12 AM

I'll capture this moment forever by Josephine Owen

Potions class wasn't usually a highlight on Josephine's agenda. She didn't like to handle the ingredients, she didn't like the smells the potions made from time to time, and she got the impression that Professor Fawcett didn't like her very much. She had that trouble with teachers - they always met James first, and whatever he did to them, he left a legacy that she wasn't keen to follow. As if she was anything like her brother. Thankfully, they didn't have a lot of classes together this year, with James being in third year and moving into intermediate classes. Like today, while it was still a potions class, James wasn't there doing better than Josephine, so the Pecari was in a better mood than she might otherwise have been.

Her high spirits soared yet further once she realized they wouldn't have to brew potions today, after all. Any potions class where they weren't actually brewing, no matter how dull it felt, was certainly better than their concoction-mixing ones. This class even included a trip into a hidden room behind a portrait. James had once indicated that such things might exist, but Josephine hadn't been sure whether or not to believe him. She couldn't recall James saying he'd actually been into one of these rooms, and so felt initially very smug at accomplishing this small feat before him.

The class itself wasn't taxing, either, and the homework would take a little time but wasn't too difficult. Josephine took a sheet and passed the rest on as instructed, and glanced at the prizes she would be seeking. No spiders. Thank Merlin for that. Josephine hated spiders. She could just about work up the nerve to empty a dead one from a box into a cauldron if necessary, but she couldn't watch it, couldn't touch it, and would gag if she contemplated drinking the potion afterwards. No spiders today - yet another good point. All in all, this class was proving to be much better than expected.

As she started off on her search, Josephine hadn't expected the class to improve any further, but she had been wrong: as if the scene had been esepcially written to please her, Josephine watched in surprised delight as Fae Sinclair tripped her ridiculous shoes on a root, fell to the ground, and was instantly covered in grotesque smelling pus. Taking a couple of steps closer (she didn't want to get too close to the smell, but she wanted to enjoy the moment), Jospehine looked at her classmate on the floor. "You've got something on your face," she said, the makings of a cruel smile affecting her features.

Josephine wasn't even sure she'd ever spoken to Fae, but that didn't stop her from knowing that she hated the other girl with a furious passion. Fae was one of those purebloods who thought that they were everything, that the world revolved around them. They thought Muggles were stupid, and Muggleborns were scum. They thought just because they had money they could tell other pureblood families, like Jospehine's, what to do. The Owens might be poor, but Josephine knew her family was much nicer than any stupid Sinclair family. She knew it, but it had still hurt when Fae held a huge party and invited practically everyone in the world except Jospehine and her family. That's just what she'd needed as a first year: a good solid reason to be singled out from her peers.

Momentarily thankful for her flat shoes - they were old, scuffed and ugly, but they were sensible - that wouldn't have put Josephine in a similar situation, she took a moment to appreciate seeing Fae Sinclair, Miss Perfect herself, covered in pus.

0 Josephine Owen I'll capture this moment forever 196 Josephine Owen 0 5

David Kim

June 28, 2011 8:47 PM

Scavenging ahead! by David Kim

David frowned, unsure of how to explain something so mundane as a film. He had yet to learn enough about the purely magical world to dream up an equivalent to relate it to. His dark eyes considered the ground first, and then toward the sky-- well, the simulated sky-- where mimicked clouds took on the easily interpreted shapes of various animals. His thoughts skipped twice, and then his gaze returned to consider his classmate.

"You know books, yeah? Imagine if instead of reading a story, it was acted out in front of you. Those are movies. Stories you can watch instead of reading." He decided not to go into the nitty-gritty of how movies were made, the film used, or how images were captured on said film. His ability to find analogies went only so far.

The girl introduced herself much as Preston had, and David felt a small part of himself pull away, his arms crossing over his chest. Valerie Lennox of the St. Louis Lennoxes. . . she would be another of those Purebloods. David still hadn't quite wrapped his mind around the fact that such thoughts still existed. That whole 'one-drop' mentality, he had thought, was no longer tolerated-- not to mention, generally found ignorant. At least that's what his fifth grade teacher had taught, a whole two weeks devoted to learning about different classmate's ethnic cultures. 'Celebration Diversity' his teacher had called the event; David hadn't much enjoyed it. Most of his classmates' presentations had involved placards about England or Germany, while his powerpoint presentation showcasing his Korean heritage had stood out like a sore thumb. Still, at least his classmates hadn't made disparaging comments, their ignorance simply due to lack of knowledge and not seeming racial superiority.

This whole Pureblood thing, though-- it positively stank of elitism, and David couldn't help but bristle when facing it. Every insecurity he had bubbled to the surface, and even now, despite recognizing that Valerie of the St. Louis Lennoxes hadn't been anything but friendly, he couldn't help but want to lash out.

"Yes," he said shortly. "They're a normal thing." He purposely avoided using 'Muggle' in his answer; he was rapidly coming to loathe the word. "And there's nothing--" but he was cut off, interrupted by a rush of coughing. David paused, unduly annoyed by the sound; his irritation faded, though, as the coughing persisted, and inspite of himself, he became slightly concerned. He opened his mouth to ask after her--

And then stopped. If Valerie of the St. Louis Lennoxes was so special and Pureblooded, surely she could manage a cough or two. Pointedly, he bent to consider his clipboard, one thin finger poised against the paper. "That's sneezewort," he said. "They're bright red, should be easy to spot. Think you can manage that, yeah?"

OOC- Sorry about that delay. Managed to finish my exams, though, so it should be good from here!

0 David Kim Scavenging ahead! 0 David Kim 0 5

Kitty

June 29, 2011 12:06 AM

That’s because we’re awesome by Kitty

“It’s not babyish,” hurt showed in her voice and face as she spoke. Kitty didn’t like it when people made fun of her name and having heard some of the odd names that magical people named their children she didn’t know what was so wrong with being known as Kitty. After all who named their son Linus anyway, so it wasn’t like he had any room to speak. “What kind of name is Linus?” she asked, her voice a bit sharp, which seemed surprising from the normally bubbly girl.

“You haven’t seen any of the shows? But, you live right there, maybe not in downtown, but still a heck of a lot closer than Reno any way. Well, the shows are expensive. We went and saw the Blue Man Group. You know, for guys who don’t talk, they were amazingly funny. They also had a lot of interesting information in the show too, so it wasn’t just mindless humor like a lot of comedy shows are. Did you know that our mind doesn’t actually see movement? It takes a bunch of pictures and then like a cartoon plays them for us and fills in the blanks with what we expect to be there. Imagine all the stuff we that we never actually see that our mind constructs for us.” Kitty chirped happily, her earlier vexation forgotten.

Kitty gave him a grin when he admitted that he liked the Rainforest Café too. It was such a neat place, she loved how there were fish tanks all around. It was just so pretty. That and the storms. That was her favorite part.

0 Kitty That’s because we’re awesome 0 Kitty 0 5

Phoenix

June 29, 2011 12:38 AM

Yay, fun! by Phoenix

When Reggie explained what Popsicle referred to, Phoenix smiled as the full connection dawned on him. “Like Pop only more so.” He had never really thought to call his father anything other than Dad. Maybe he had called him Daddy, like Ephanie still did when she wanted something, or whatever when he was very young, but he couldn’t remember. He tilted his slightly as a thought occurred to him. “Do you call your mom something different too?” He couldn’t imagine what she might possibly call her mom. Mom-entum? He could see something like that if her mom was a force to be reckoned with. If she was anything like his mom, then she was certain to be.

The books sounded a little odd, but he guessed it was good practice for kids. He wasn’t sure that he would be able to sit there that long and stare at a book in an attempt to find Waldo though. Or maybe he would be able to? Maybe he would help to develop the patience required to be able to sit in a classroom? He had never had a class that was in a building before coming to Sonora. At home, all of his classes had been held outdoors. He had gone to a kind of alternative school. It wasn’t really a school since he had more of a tutor, but it hadn’t been a private tutor. He had shared the teacher with other students so it was sort of a class. The other kids hadn’t been wizards though, but veelas who thought him lower cause he was half. At least, they had mostly left him alone.

“Maybe you can show me the books another time?” He said in an attempt to be friendly. He didn’t really want people shunning him again. Honestly, he didn’t care that much about it except that it did tend to be annoying at social events. There was a ball coming up and while he wasn’t planning on asking anyone, he didn’t think it would be much fun to be there completely alone either. He was hoping that he would make a couple of friends that he could hang out with at the dance so as to not be the complete loser standing against the wall. Besides, he did like to dance and was hoping to be able to. Dancing was like flying. It was a part of life. Dance was natural, instinctual.

“Thanks,” Phoenix responded about his name. He had never really thought of his name as being cool or interesting. “I think Reggie is cool.” He had never heard the name Reggie before. It was different. Okay, so the assignment. “Yeah, uh, it probably will be pretty difficult. Maybe we should start with the obvious stuff and then go from there? Like maybe creatures that are moving? Maybe we can find slugs?” He asked this while beginning to walk with her towards the woods. He thought that would be something they could find fairly easily since it wouldn’t be a plant that looked like everything else. Though, really, they didn’t look all that alike to him. They looked fairly different. Maybe he would do okay with this assignment. Maybe.

0 Phoenix Yay, fun! 0 Phoenix 0 5

Fae

June 29, 2011 7:18 PM

A camera would have been helpful for that by Fae

Fae should have known that this year would be more difficult than the last, most especially because she had resolved to not follow the words of her Great Grandfather but to try to follow her own with the guidance of her siblings and parents. So far… this was not working out for her benefit at all.

She always prepared herself for each lesson. For flying lessons and Care of Magical Creatures, it was always slacks and mary-janes. But Fae had never thought she would be trekking through a not-real forest in Potions class. If she had been warned ahead of time, she would have worn proper clothing and then, this situation would have never had happened. She really hated her mother right now for making her always be so prim and proper. Her mother said to always look her best because that was what was expected of a Lady. These days, Fae wanted to shove the whole ‘Lady’ thing completely down the toilet.

This. Was. Too. Hard.

Trying to get the pus out of her eyes, Fae blinked towards the voice and squinted to see that it was Josephine who was speaking to her. It took her a moment to realize that the look on Josephine’s face was anything but sincere. It was so intense that Fae looked away as though shunned for having done something.

“Yes, thank you.” Fae said politely if not quietly, trying her best to rid the pus from at least her face. She would have to deal with the smell until the class was over and could only hope that she didn’t make anyone loose their lunch during class. Unable to see if she got it all off her face, Fae gave up. She would just have to resign to the fact that if nothing else, it wasn’t actually real and would disappear once the glass was over.

“At least I found the Bubotuber.” Fae joked, only glancing quickly back to Josephine out of fear of seeing the look again. Searching her pockets, Fae grabbed her self-inking quill and marked the plant off of her list. Fae would have to ask Alice later if she had ever done something to the Pecari. As far as Fae could remember, the two girls had never spoken. Fae was actually surprised Josephine was looking at her right now. Not just the look itself but the fact that she was just looking at her.

“I’m not allowed outside much when I’m home, so I’m still getting used to all this” Fae said, gesturing to their current surrounding. “I’m finding myself in a losing battle though.” She gave a small smile and a half shrug, pulling herself away from the plant and moving back into the forest to look for the next. “I just have to learn to stop knocking into everything. Are you good with all of this?” She asked her classmate.

0 Fae A camera would have been helpful for that 0 Fae 0 5

Nora

June 29, 2011 11:20 PM

In the sense of it being an actual academic subject by Nora

Ahh so the person who'd spoken to her was a Carey, which meant he'd probably be interesting. And he was an Aladren, which meant he was probably smart. The latter quality was a always a good quality in a partner. Plus, he was a second year, which meant he might actually know more than her. Might. Hope was a second year too and Nora thought she knew more than Hope did about some things.

"Nora Dobson, of the South Dakota Dobsons." There were a lot of Dobsons spread over the northern states, just as there were lots of different branches of Arthur's family spread over the south. South Dakota was second only to Wisconsin as far as being the "best" branch as far as blood purity-meaning the longest without marrying a "new" pureblood- and respectability.

For those that cared about such things. Nora really didn't that much-Perdita was muggleborn and she liked the other Aladren pretty well- but some did and she was more than pleased to be able to hold her own against them. Nora's lineage was as good as anyone's. "Pleased to meet you, Arthur."

And, unlike sometimes, when Nora was just being polite, she actually meant it-so far anyway. Arthur could very well turn out to be completely unpleasant, but even if he was, it might be in an interesting way, like her grandfather. He was a Carey after all, and they had...a fascinating reputation. Not that Arthur was necessarily evil. From what Nora understood the South Carolina Careys were the most respectable branch anyway.

It wasn't like Nora could ask him either. Her mother had always told her it was rude to ask people personal stuff about their families. It was especially wrong to be rude to another pureblood. Nora's mother always said that she wouldn't want anyone asking about their family secrets and it wasn't other people's business.

Still, for now, she could talk to Arthur and work with him and maybe get to know him a little better. Nora looked at the list again. She would be happy to talk with Arthur while they worked, but it would have to be secondary to the task at hand. "I think I can see some scurvy grass." Nora told the older boy, walking over to it.

11 Nora In the sense of it being an actual academic subject 197 Nora 0 5

Linus

June 30, 2011 8:35 AM

At least one of us is. by Linus

Linus would have argued that yes, it was babyish, and if she considered it not to be so then at best that was her opinion, and probably contrasted to the general opinion of the masses. However she seemed upset by the notion, and Linus was never keen to upset people. He grudgingly accepted to himself that everyone was entitled to his or her own opinion, no matter how ill-informed. "I like my name," Linus replied instead, confident that it did sound a great deal more sensible than Kitty, at any rate. "And if you like Kitty then I suppose that's a valid choice."

Luckily for them both, perhaps, Kitty was distracted into talking at length about Las Vegas shows. He supposed that on occasion it might have been acceptable for him to see a properly cultural show, but then he might have been too young to fully appreciate the experience while his father had still been around to take thenm, and his siblings would definitely have been too young; Daphne still was. She definitely wouldn't understand anything about whether or not the human mind could understand movement.

"Are you interested in biology, then?" Linus asked Katrina, his assumption based on her interest in how the human brain worked. "I don't think that's one of our subjects here," he commented (though admittedly this potions class was somewhat akin to a wildlife biology class he'd had at his last school). "It's another adjustment we have to make, coming to magic school," he commented to her, curious to discover what her reaction would be to this - she would undoubtedly react; she had commented on just about everything else so far.

0 Linus At least one of us is. 0 Linus 0 5

Josephine

June 30, 2011 9:06 AM

I don't happen to own one by Josephine

Josephine was surprised that her classmate hadn't returned with some cutting remark or other, but then maybe she just hadn't been able to think of something suitably hurtful so spur of the moment. In fact she just claimed to have found the bubotuber, and while it could be interpreted as pointing out that fae had found something on the list while Josephine had yet to begin, the Pecari didn't think it sounded like that. Maybe she was in pain from the fall, and that had stopped her from focusing on retorting (in which case Josephine couldn't even quite feel sorry for her - she shouldn't be wearing such stupid shoes).

Josephine was sort of disappointed that she hadn't wound Miss Perfect up, because getting some sort of reaction out of her would at least clue her in to Josephine's existence. Not that she even wanted to be acknowledged, anyway.

Regardless, Josephine had seen the bubotuber, too, and she rummaged through her own bag to locate her charcoal pencil. It would be easier than opening up a jar of ink with no desk to rest on... oh, and of course Fae had a self-inking quill. Scowling at the injustice, Josephine was preparing to just walk off, when Fae's comments rooted her to the spot in surprise.

"Why are you talking to me?" Josephine asked, her tone simply curious. Fae Sinclair was speaking to her, and she wasn't even being mean. At least it didn't sound like it - though maybe it was just a ruse to lure Josephine into a flase sense of security. She didn't actually know the other girl well enough to figure her out.

0 Josephine I don't happen to own one 0 Josephine 0 5

Russell

June 30, 2011 11:32 AM

Onward we go. by Russell

He had felt sure of his guess, but Russell was still a little relieved to hear that yes, the girl he was talking to was Hope. Maybe it wouldn’t have meant anything if he’d gotten it wrong, but he would have felt bad about it. The Teppenpaws in their year seemed a little separate, somehow, all friends amongst themselves, but they were still his classmates, the people he’d be spending more of the next half decade with than he did his own family. It wasn’t right to not really know their names at least.

And the first item was a bubotuber. Not, from what he remembered of his great-uncle’s shop and the greenhouse behind it, a particularly pleasant plant to have around, but it had a few uses, and probably more uses than the ones he could think of, too. He looked around, but didn’t see one in their immediate vicinity. “Not just right where I can see it,” he said. “It must be hidden somewhere out there.”

Russell really did find the physics of all this interesting. How big was the fake environment? How big, then, was the room it was in? He knew things could be bigger on the inside than on the outside, his house was that way, and there was that one hallway Great-Grandfather had done…something to, so it sometimes wasn’t in the same place and occasionally had bits of architecture that didn’t exactly work, but he thought there were limits to it. It was possible he was wrong, though. He didn’t know if he could understand architecture books now, but he thought it might be something cool to read about when he was older if that proved to be the case.

“Though I think that might be nightshade over there, see?” He pointed at a plant off to their right. “It could just be window dressing, though, I haven’t gone through the full list.” He flipped the page and found he was right. “No, it’s there, see? I guess we can go ahead and mark that down.” He realized he was talking too much and too fast. “Sorry,” he said, with a nervous laugh. “My great-uncle’s got a few apothecaries back home. You get to know a little about plants.”

OOC: Sorry for the delay!

16 Russell Onward we go. 183 Russell 0 5

Mellie

June 30, 2011 1:11 PM

For I am wise and perceptive and...yeah. by Mellie

Perdita. Just the sound called up images of things she’d never seen in real life – pale blue dresses, roses on a trellis (though in truth, she wasn’t too sure what a trellis was, either), teas in cups thinner than paper, pearls. None of which were in evidence, but Mellie liked to imagine it. “Yeah, that makes sense,” she agreed to Perdita’s assessment of the danger of the exercise. “It’s, um, pleasure to meet you, too. A pleasure, I mean.”

She got a little swept under by the flow of Perdita’s strategizing for the task, and though she had vaguely expected to end up there once she’d confirmed she was coming to Sonora, Mellie was now glad she wasn’t in Aladren. There was no way she could possible measure up to these people. She wasn’t dumb, she knew that, but she didn’t think like that, either. She just sort of did things and hoped for the best and, in her opinion, got lucky more than was really polite, but that was how luck was she guessed.

She felt bad for what she was sure was a very blank look on her face, though, when she saw Perdita blushing and apologizing. “No,” she said quickly. “It’s all right. I mean, someone’s got to take charge, yeah?” She fidgeted now with a bit of her robe before she forced herself to stop. Fidgeting was just…well, she shouldn’t do it, anyway. It was just something that meant she ought not. “I didn’t think you were being rude. Alphabetically works for me.” She looked around. “There’s a lot of green stuff out here, isn’t there? Wow, I don’t know if I’m any good at this.”

OOC: Sorry for the delay!

16 Mellie For I am wise and perceptive and...yeah. 206 Mellie 0 5

Reggie

June 30, 2011 7:12 PM

Yay, gross things! by Reggie

Reggie’s smile broadened when Phoenix understood what Reggie meant. That was a good thing because Reggie wasn’t sure if she could explain it in any other way to get another person. “Right.” She agreed. She liked it when they weren’t giving her odd looks anymore with the words or phrases that she spoke. Whenever they still gave her the look, Reggie realized that either she never explained it properly or her Dad and her had a weird saying that only meant something to them.

“No, I don’t see my mom as much as Pop, so she’s just Mom to me.” Reggie explain, no sadness showing in her voice. She had spent a couple of weeks with her mother over the summer, so Reggie felt she had a stronger relationship to her mother than she had a year ago. Hopefully, her mother would still try to get more time off so that they can continue down this path of a relationship.

“I’ll have my Dad send a couple of books from the series and show you sometime.” Reggie happily agreed. She would have to seek him out though once she obtained them because they did not share a common room. “They’re sort of easy after awhile and once you find him, you don’t lose him in the pictures.” She shrugged. It would be better if she could reuse the page, which is probably why they started having people look for other things too.

Reggie laughed, “You’d be the only one.” She said through her laughter. Most people looked at her funny when she told them her name because, to them, Reggie was only a boy’s name and couldn’t possibly be suited for a girl. Reggie liked it though and she thought it was way better than Gina. Her name was very old school and she knew it, but she thought her nickname gave her some fun youthfulness to her. Honestly, who could make Regina Sybil Parker work out well for them?

She agreed that it would probably be best to look for the more obvious of things. Bugs would probably be the easiest to find so long as one knew where to look. “My Popsicle says the best place to look for the most disgusting thing is right under a rock, so I’m sure we can just start flipping over rocks and find what we can underneath them. And, we might get lucky and find some plants as we go.” Reggie hopped away towards a large tree that had a few larger rocks and attempted to try to flip it but she could only lift it so far before it toppled back down. “Um…maybe a smaller rock?”

6 Reggie Yay, gross things! 187 Reggie 0 5

Fae

June 30, 2011 9:43 PM

I don't either, but my roommate does. by Fae

At Josephine’s question, Fae stopped walking to stare at her unsure as to how to answer that. She must have done something to Josephine to get a reaction like that, but Fae could not remember for the life of her what she had done. Fae was certain she had never offended anyone in her first year and she never spoke to Josephine before. Had Fae accidentally snubbed her in class? Fae thought hard to remember if she had, but she couldn’t think of any time where that happened. Usually she just worked with whoever spoke to her first.

“I’m sorry.” Fae apologized, not sure what else she was supposed to say because no one had ever asked her that before. “I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to.” She said that with genuine confusion over the whole conversation. Was there some rule about talking to certain people that she didn’t know about? Everyone else spoke to her. Well, so far anyway. Maybe Josephine just really hated her? Although, why? Fae kept to herself, didn’t speak out of line, smiled at everyone, tried her best in classes, even handled Alice’s weird camera obsession with gracefulness. What had she done to make someone hate her?

“Is there a reason why you don’t want me to talk to you?” Fae asked her. If she knew the reason for it, Fae could correct whatever error she had done to the other girl. Unless Josephine just hated people in general… which didn’t seem very Pecari-like. “Did I do something to make you not like me? My sister told me that me being quiet might put people off. I’m trying not to be so quiet this year…”

0 Fae I don't either, but my roommate does. 0 Fae 0 5

Kitty

June 30, 2011 10:41 PM

Yeah…Me by Kitty

“Hmm…Well I’m interested in all sorts of things. Biology is neat because of how it can affect how people think and act.” Kitty said happily as she began scanning the false forest for the next item on the list. “I haven’t decided what I’m interested in most yet. And now that that there’s a whole new world full of unknown stuff to learn I have to start from scratch.” She said with a little pout. It was difficult enough to try and figure out what she wanted to do when she grew up when there were only normal jobs to consider. Now she would have to find out all the different magical jobs that were accessible to her.

“There probably won’t be biology, but I bet that magic means medicine is totally different. Seems we’re in potions right now I bet there are all sorts of healing potions and whatever. Also, I just don’t see wizards using scalpels and anesthesia. It'll be neat to see what sort of diseases that magic has cured. I have no idea what kind of classes we'll have, I mean we gotta learn all about the whole magical world. So, there could be an equivalent of biology, I wonder if anyone’s figured out what causes magic? Do you think it was a mutation?” she asked curiously as she crouched down to get a better look at some mushrooms.

0 Kitty Yeah…Me 0 Kitty 0 5

Valerie

June 30, 2011 11:52 PM

If I can manage by Valerie

"Wow, movies sound...nice." Valerie replied, smiling slightly. They really did. Like wireless programs with pictures instead. Sometimes Valerie felt way too tired and weak to even read and Melanie would read to her. If she had movies, she could just lie there and watch until she fell asleep. Not use up any energy at all. Valerie didn't have much in general and sometimes it took a lot of effort to do the slightest things.

The Crotalus looked at David in confusion. She didn't get how they could be a normal thing. Valerie had never heard of them before. Was he suggesting she was strange? She knew she was different, she couldn't really help that, but Melanie was normal and she doubted Melanie knew what one was either because Melanie would have told her, especially as they seemed like something Valerie would enjoy.

She felt a little hurt. The first year girl never thought anyone would flat out tell her she wasn't normal. And David seemed a little...angry at her. Valerie wasn't used to people being angry with her, but then she was only ever around her parents and sister who avoided trying to stress her out or upset her in any way.

Valerie had never really interacted socially before. What had she done wrong? All she had done was introduce herself exactly as she'd been taught and ask him a few questions about something she didn't understand. Did David think Valerie was stupid? The Crotalus knew she was incapable of an awful lot, but she had never thought herself dumb. Valerie read an awful lot so she knew quite a bit.

Maybe he didn't like being asked questions because he seemed annoyed. And his next question about asking Valerie if she could manage finding the bright red sneezewort suggested exactly that. That he did view her as weak, incapable and stupid. Valerie just wasn't sure if it was because of her questions about holograms and movies or because of her coughing fit. She was sort of used to the latter but hadn't really been judged harshly about it before.

"I think so." Valerie assured the Aladren boy. She walked over to get the sneezewort but was struck once again by another terrible bout of coughing, as intensely painful as the last. She just hoped that nothing would come up. Valerie hated when that happened. It would be so embarassing. Especially when David already seemed irritated at her.

11 Valerie If I can manage 204 Valerie 0 5

Arthur

July 01, 2011 8:09 PM

It is somewhat skill-based as well by Arthur

Arthur smiled, as he did when he was being polite. It was much easier than meaning it. He wasn’t displeased to meet Nora, but nor was he so pleased that it felt like a real emotion, so it was all right to smile. Showing what he was really feeling was…was different. He had trouble doing it even with people he trusted, who were not many in number.

“I’m sure the pleasure’s mine, Miss Nora,” he said, bowing slightly to her as he recalled his manners. Tried to remember his genealogies. Things got complicated, but he thought her family was a bit like his, spread out, though he didn’t think they feuded as much as the Careys had. Though that was supposed to be over now. They were such a happy family that the first reaction one of his distant cousins had to seeing him in an unexpected circumstance was to ask if he was an adult on Polyjuice sent to kill her. Though admittedly, he was twelve and he knew it was inevitable that someone was going to try eventually, so that could be constructed as more of a commentary on her than on the family as a whole.

Still, though, for her to think such a complicated plan could occur to someone, she had to be capable of coming up with such a complicated plan herself. It implied fascinating things about her mind. It was a pity he couldn’t get to know her.

He followed Miss Nora to what she believed to be scurvy grass and looked down at it solemnly. “I believe you’re right,” he said. “You have a good eye.” He glanced at her robes quickly. Aladren, too. “Mine aren’t as sharp,” he apologized in advance, half-truthfully, gesturing slightly to the glasses despite them not being part of the specific problem. He had never been the best at picking things out of a picture, which was more or less the nature of this, observation of minutiae was something he had to drill himself in very strictly, but he was also curious about what she’d do. “I expect you’ll make most of the identifications, though I can confirm them, and know things you’d use most of them for.” That was the homework assignment, part of it. “Though I think I can assume that willow bark is attached to that willow tree there,” he added, nodding toward a tree a distance away. “It’s interesting to me how this is set up. Many of these things wouldn’t occur in the same environment.”

0 Arthur It is somewhat skill-based as well 0 Arthur 0 5

David Kim

July 01, 2011 10:52 PM

Uh, maybe you should have that cough looked at? by David Kim

The latest turn of coughing sounded painful enough-- and lasted long enough-- to give David pause. He had spent enough time in doctors' waiting rooms and outside of hospital exam rooms to have grown accustomed to the sounds that follow those sick or ailing. While his own symptoms had never been present enough for David to notice (although his mother assured him continuously of his weakness and frailty), he could recognize the signs in others. An unhealthy lack of color to the skin and a tentative way of walking, as if unsure of the Earth's gravity, were two such signs, and as David watched Valerie walk toward the sneezewort, he realized that she had that same air to her.

She was sick.

The coughing persisted.

Really sick.

David's frown lost some of its edge, his dark eyes softening as something in his posture seemed to unwind. He still felt that stone of dislike in his stomach from her introduction, but that dislike was tempered by a feeling of connection. He knew he ought to ask after her, after the coughing, but he kept silent. He could remember the many times when, after climbing a staircase or waking suddenly from a bad dream in the library, how he hated the worried questions that came his way. Are you all right, David? Is it your heart, David? Perhaps you should see the nurse. . . Adults always felt that they knew better; it was his heart and his body. If he needed help, he would ask.

If she needed help, surely she would ask.

"Good," he said, his voice still clipped but the anger absent. He checked off the plant from the paper, filling in the name with his slightly crooked script. "And I think," he crouched beside her, his eyes falling level with her knees. He reached out to the stems separating the sneezewort's red blossoms, pulling them apart to draw notice to the evenly stretched yellow arachnid nestled across them. "This must be a flower spider then. Do you figure?"

0 David Kim Uh, maybe you should have that cough looked at? 0 David Kim 0 5

Paul

July 02, 2011 9:42 PM

Many of them by Paul

Paul nodded when Brianna explained her logic. “We’re thinking nearly the same thing, then,” he said. “See what we can, then look for the hard stuff.” It was faster than going in order, anyway. He thought. He also thought that a problem of his father actively trying to teach him to think in strategy was that he sometimes thought he was better at it than he was and messed things up. His perspective wasn’t strange as often as Gemma’s was, but he was still wrong often enough to remember it.

He hated it when he got things wrong like that. It wasn’t central to him any more than, well, anything was, really, but Paul wanted to do well. Be good enough for everyone to accept – and for Father to be pleased with. Having Mother’s full and undivided approval was a distant dream, the kind of thing he expected even Gemma to give up very soon, but Father was an attainable ambition. Father loved them, which meant he had a weak spot they could all exploit. Not too much of one, but more than Mother, never mind everyone else, did.

There was the sake of the thing, too. Maybe it was just coming from a large and growing family, with four siblings and a large number of cousins through Grandfather’s brothers and even two of Father’s, and hearing about being the eldest son all of his life and how he would be responsible for Eliza and Gemma and Leo and Richard pretty much from the day Richard turned seventeen, but he felt compared, somehow, to all the others, and like he had to at least break even with everyone else and try to pass them where they could. Since he was by nature inclined to hang back, blend in, and mind his own business, it caused a certain amount of discomfort.

He blinked at the bubotuber when Brianna pointed it out to him. “That is disgusting,” he said, skipping the ‘looks’ she’d put in there. “Goodness. What do you think they do with that?”

A potential downside of Potions, namely knowing what the things that went into things he was drinking looked like, occurred to him for the first time. He really wished it hadn’t done so. His life had been much better before it had.

0 Paul Many of them 0 Paul 0 5

Arnold Carey

July 02, 2011 10:14 PM

Here at last by Arnold Carey

After the Stork Presentation Incident very early in his school career, Arnold had never been quite sure what Professor Fawcett thought of him, and had never been too sure what he thought of Professor Fawcett. Though obviously much younger, the professor reminded him a little of the Fourth: a smiling, slightly absent-minded enigma who appeared basically friendly, either as a harmless little old man or as a harmless academic, but could turn on you at any time. The analogy even fit in neatly with the way the Houses were supposed to be their families while they were at school, only slightly complicated by Arnold having actual family outside of Aladren. Jane was, after all, only very distantly related, and they hadn’t been brought up together the way she and Edmond had. He didn’t think he’d ever even spoken to her, really. Arthur had delivered their condolences on her mother’s death.

So far, though, Fawcett had proven to be a benign dictator. Sometimes the class was more academic than he liked, but he found ways to have fun with it, and sometimes, they even did things that were pretty good in and of themselves. When he told them they were leaving the classroom, though, Arnold regarded it with caution. On one hand, they could be about to do something interesting, but on the other, they could be going to the library. He had no hatred of the library, he thought it was a blood incapability of even errant Aladrens like him, but nor did he love it with the passion he’d seen in so many of his Housemates, including his own brother.

Ending up in front of Professor Mims confused him, since he couldn’t see what a dead Arithmancy teacher had to do with anything, but then the picture swung away from the wall. He had to admit that was cool. Going through just behind Arthur, he was even more impressed to end up in what looked an awful lot more like the sort of woods you’d find back home than anywhere near Arizona. The Gardens were the same way, but he was willing to bet, now, that they were still inside, since there was no point in having a secret door to the outside behind Professor Mims when, well, there were plenty of normal doors out.

He resisted, though, the temptation to wander and soon had things explained to him. The homework conjured up images of lots of time flipping through at least one book if he couldn’t get Arthur to do it for him, which he almost never could, but what they were doing was okay.

He began to look for Fae, thinking this would fall more or less under his obligations when class took them outdoors, but she was walking off on her own for some reason. He blinked, a little…confused, he guessed, though that wasn’t the exact word, and then looked for Kitty, who was talking to another first year. Arthur was talking to one, too. It looked like he was on his own.

His jaw set. Well, fine, then. He could manage without them. No problem. He walked off into the trees, passing two of the things he was supposed to be looking for before he began to pay attention to his surroundings and found some asphodel.

0 Arnold Carey Here at last 181 Arnold Carey 0 5

Jhonice Trevear

July 04, 2011 11:32 AM

as am I, following closely by Jhonice Trevear

Jhonice was excited for her first potions class. Not because it was potions, but for the same reason she was excited for all of her classes, to see who would be in it with her. She arrived early and picked a sear near to the back of the classroom, this was simply so she'd have a better view of the door, or rather the people walking though the door, and then the places they sat and who they sat with and what they were doing while in class... etc. Classes were a great learning experience. If she was lucky, she may even pick up something about making potions as well.

The professor started talking and passed out papers once everyone had been seated, she glanced at the papers very briefly then went back to her people watching. There were definitely some interesting people to watch in this class. Suddenly everyone starting standing up and walking for the door, the professor seemed to be herding them that direction, so they weren't dismissed already. That would have been a short class. She decided she'd better get up and follow suit, this may be an excellent time to 'mingle.' Unfortunately she got caught walking near to some of her less 'interesting' classmates, and by the time she had worked her way though the crowd they were standing in the Cascade Hall. What in the world were they doing here? They just had lunch not long ago.. now what?

Once the portal behind the portrait of the really old guy was revealed, her attention was riveted. What was that? Where did it go? The professor started sending the students through, claiming it was safe. Excellent, she would find out. Andrew never said anything about a portal in the Hall, did he even know about it? Ha! She'd know something about the school that he didn't! Awesome!

She hopped though and looked around the forest setting. This was cool, she had also landed next to someone 'interesting.' One of the Carey boys. Excellent. She wasn't sure which was which yet, was this one Arnold or Arthur? She would find out. She was handed a piece of paper and didn't bother to look at it. The professor had said something about wandering around now, a scavenger hunt? Hmm... people spread out, forest setting, this could be perfect. She waited just a few moments. The Carey boy looked around at a few of the other classmates, then seemed to set off on his own. Awesome! Jhonice pulled out her note book and started taking notes as she followed the boy, attempting to be discrete.

[Blank] Carey (she'd have to fill in the first name once she figured out which one he was)
Independent - he headed out on his own to complete the class assignment
Perceptive - he spotted the an item on his list of the class assignment very quickly (will have to be careful)

2 Jhonice Trevear as am I, following closely 209 Jhonice Trevear 0 5

Derry Four

July 04, 2011 12:46 PM

This is way cool by Derry Four

Derry arrived at the potions classroom just in time to not be considered 'late'. Time management was not his strongest skill and even after a year of walking from the Teppenpaw Commons to the Potions Classroom, Derry still wasn't entirely sure how long it took to get from the one to the other. He thought he'd given himself plenty of time to get there early, but he'd evidently been wrong. Of course, if he hadn't stopped to say hello to the portrait of the blond witch in the yellow Quidditch robes, and then gotten caught up in a discussion about Teppenpaw's chances this year, he might not have cut the timing so close.

He took the nearest empty seat to the front of the room, and hadn't gotten much further than taking out his parchment for note-taking, a quill, his favorite inkwell with the green ink, and his freshly restocked ingredient kit when Professor Fawcett called his name in the roll. Derry startled a little, as he always did when someone said 'Derwent' instead of 'Derry', but he raised a hand and called out, "Here!"

Professor Fawcett finished the last of the names that came after 'Pierce' and handed out the new syllabi for the year. When Derry got his, he skipped right to the page that said what they'd be doing today (the rest, he guessed, wouldn't have changed much since last year) so he'd know what page to turn to in his book. Strangely, though, there was no potion name or page number given. He took out his text book anyway.

While he tried to look up 'ingredient recognition' in the index, he gave half an ear to the Professor's introduction and rules (again, not much different from last year's). He did look up when the Professor got to the part about being safe and not doing stupid dangerous things, to prove he was actually paying attention and taking that part seriously. He might have found out a few days ago that his brother hadn't actually died in a potions accident, but Derry Three could have and Derry Four had believed for most of the twelve years of his life that Three had died that way, so potions still freaked him out a little bit.

He was more than a little relieved to find out that they were neither going to be brewing anything or getting lectured about how to tell ingredients apart. There was a fair possibility that they were being marched to the library for another research project, like the one he and Arnold had done last year, but that had been scary in its own right, and he really hoped not. He now knew far far too much about how his cousin Thaddeus came into being and what his Aunt went through than he thought any twelve year old boy should. Also, he'd discovered Storks were way crazier than any creature that took care of babies should be.

He cheerfully grabbed his quill, parchment, textbook, and inkwell and followed his classmates out of the potions room. Twice, he started to talk to portraits along the way, but then he had to say good-bye to them really quickly, when Professor Fawcett steered him away and made him keep walking with the rest of the class. He was more than a little surprised that there was a swirly portal behind Professor Mims. Derry had chatted with Professor Mims on several occassions over the past year and the old point keeper had never once mentioned he guarded the entrance to an enchanted forest. Derry thought that was kind of mean of him.

Walking around the unfamiliar place, Derry started to wander away to try to get a better look at something he thought was a flutterby bush, but then Professor Fawcett called him back to the rest of the group so he didn't get a very good look at it after all. By the time Professor Fawcett explained what they were doing today, he'd largely forgotten about the bush, and he looked over his new list of things to find with eager excitement. This was the best potions class ever.

Not wanting to work by himself, Derry looked around for a classmate to pair up with. "Hey. You have a partner yet?" he asked, grinning and bouncing on his feet a little. "I promise I'm better at finding stuff than brewing."

1 Derry Four This is way cool 189 Derry Four 0 5

Arnold

July 04, 2011 3:30 PM

I see that by Arnold

It didn't take Arnold very long to realize that going off on his own was perhaps not the best idea he'd ever had. He was completely surrounded by green stuff, most of which didn't look the same to him, he could see, but didn't look particularly like anything, either, and was abundant enough that his eyes kept slipping from one thing to the next without taking in everything in the middle. That wasn't too good when he was supposed to be looking for specific green things for the hardest professor in the school.

He should have interrupted Arthur and the first year, was what he should have done. There had been no rule saying they couldn't go as three instead of two, and the girl, not Arnold, would have quickly become the tagalong. Sure, he would have arrived to the arrangement third, but he and Arthur were twins. Half their cousins mistook a good grasp of each other's expressions and a mutual shorthand and set of phrases they didn't much use with others, combined with Arthur's habit of beginning conversations in the middle after following some line of thought not immediately apparent to others for a while and Arnold's habit of just going along with him when he did this, for some kind of telepathic bond. The only problems would have been...

...Would have been that Arthur could be insufferable, irritable and prone to lecturing, when he thought Arnold was using him to get out of work, of course, and that he wouldn't have wanted people thinking he had no choice but to always tag along with his brother, an odd fellow whose clothes were always perfectly - in contrast with Arnold's loosened tie, lack of a jacket, and, under the robes, unfastened and rolled back shirtsleeves; he had been writing earlier, and had a way of ending up with ink on his sleeves if he didn't do that - proper and in order, and whose glasses, now that Mother forced him to wear them, were the little, old-fashioned kind, and who was a second year who'd already claimed a library table as his own, where he forced Arnold to join him for hours every Saturday to do all their homework, even things over lessons they hadn't had yet if they knew they were coming. He'd look stupid and unsociable following Arthur with some first year girl in tow. Better to fail with a little dignity and make it up on the homework.

Once the asphodel was recorded as well as he could manage, Arnold looked around, wondering which way he was supposed to go next, and spotted a girl a little way behind him, writing something. Behind his position, in a spot, if he hadn't totally lost his sense of direction in here, he'd already passed. Typical. "I missed something, didn't I?" he asked. "Asphodel's here if you haven't seen it somewhere else yet."

0 Arnold I see that 181 Arnold 0 5

Hope

July 04, 2011 10:06 PM

Going on (I'm not coming up with good titles here) by Hope

Hope smiled and marked down the nightshade. "That sounds interesting, I don't really know anything about most of what my relatives do." It was true, Hope wasn't very business minded and didn't really understand the different things her male relatives did to increase the family fortune and of course, the women in her family, other than her second cousin Lily who was an Auror, didn't work at all.

The Teppenpaw doubted she would ever have a job. Wealthy pureblood ladies didn't work and her great-grandfather was really pushing for a return to these values. So, she just had to make sure to do well enough in classes and on spells to be a competent and reasonably intelligent witch so a man would want to be betrothed to her. At least, from what Hope gathered, that was how things were going to be now.

And it was a fairly recent plan. As a small child, the second year had never expected this. She had expected to marry for love,choose who she wanted but never thought about that much. Hope had been occupied with things like playing with her dolls, like normal little girls. Now, Merlin only knew what would become of her someday. She just hoped that if she did end up betrothed it would be to someone that she liked.

But right now, she had to focus on Potions."My grandfather has a magical creature ranch," Hope continued, "and my brother is apprenticing with a wandmaker. He wants to make his own wands someday." Adam was hoping to have his own shop, where he would make the wands, while someone else handled both the business end and the actual selling and dealing with the public, something Adam was reluctant to do. Hope's older brother was quite anxious about people.

And bitter about past experiences. Hope was slowly losing the innocence of her childhood and realizing all the problems people in her family had. She didn't like it, she wanted to believe that the world was a good place and that people were mostly good and nice, and people like Uncle Liam were rare. That it wasn't an ugly horrible place like Adam seemed to think. " No bubertubors yet, but I think I see belladonna over there." Hope said, pointing. "But you would know better than me."

11 Hope Going on (I'm not coming up with good titles here) 186 Hope 0 5

Russell

July 05, 2011 10:16 AM

Me, either (WotW). by Russell

Russell nodded when Hope admitted to not really knowing what most of her relatives did. His family was, he’d figured out, a little odd with the way everyone met up at someone’s house most nights for supper, where all the adults talked about work. They used technical terminology because most of the family was just going to sympathize whether they understood what had been said or not, but Russell asked questions when terms came up he didn’t understand and he thought he could get away with it, so he’d picked up a lot of information about the things they did over the years. Most of the other kids at Mrs. Ballard’s, however, had never really bothered with that kind of thing even when they had the resources to do it.

“That’s cool,” Russell said when she explained what she did know, about her grandfather’s ranch and her brother wanting to be a wandmaker. He didn’t think they had one of those in the family, and he knew very little about it, but what he’d picked up from novels was enough for him to feel a deep respect for the field. “I’m an only child, so I guess I’ll get the antiques shop from Dad when he retires. Granddad got bored with it and wandered off to paint and open a bookshop.” He wasn’t sure what was going to happen with that, unless he got it, too. That would be cool. He liked it there a lot.

“And there’s some others, they do…other stuff. We’re – “ he smiled – “just a happy merchant family.” That one was a quote from his cousin Tessa, though without the sarcastic edge she’d given it on one of her mardier days. As far as he knew, they were mostly happy.

He looked to where Hope thought she saw belladonna. Beautiful Lady, he thought that meant; he seemed to remember one of the pieces from the historical fiction section having the horribly anachronistic heroine denouncing the practice of using it to make skin look paler and eyes look bigger in order to let the audience know that was what it had been used for. In addition to being poisonous. That was kind of the downside. He thought they must not have quite caught on to that part back then, because he thought even medicines with poisons in them were only used when they had to be because of that.

Of course, to listen to Great-Uncle Philip talk, everything was poisonous, or at least every medicine. Anything that helped one thing hurt another….

“Yeah, I think it is,” he said. “It looks like what’s in that section of my potions kit except for not being dried, anyway.” Admittedly, being dried could have a fairly profound effect on the appearance of a thing, but flowers were usually at least recognizable.

He took that down, then looked around as carefully as he could. “I don’t really see anything else right here,” he said, “so unless you see something…” He tilted his head away from the area they were in. “Into the woods we go?”

16 Russell Me, either (WotW). 183 Russell 0 5

Josephine

July 05, 2011 11:29 AM

Would she let me borrow it? by Josephine

If this was a ruse leading to insult, then it was certainly continuing on to the point of being ridiculous. Josephine was forced to conclude that Fae really was being genuine in her confusion, which just made matters all the worse, really - it simply meant that she hadn't purposefully been acting like Josephine didn't exist, she just hadn't acknowledged Josephine's exist because she really hadn't been aware of it. That didn't make the Pecari feel any better, but at least it indicated that Fae hadn't been intentionally mean.

"No, you didn't do anything," Josephine replied, unsure now out of the two of them which was the most confused. She had fully intended to walk off in a huff, or maybe make an attempt at being insulting to Miss Perfect, but, given the circumstances, adopting a mardy attitude right now would only make her into the guilty party, and Josephine was sure she was the victim here. "But, I mean, that's the point, isn't it?" She tossed her unkempt ponytail of long, chestnnut brown hair over her shoulder and out of her way. "You've never talked to me before. You've never even looked at me before," she assumed; why would Fae Sinclair bother to notice Josephine Owen? "I'm just surprised you're not, I don't know, throwing some of that stinky gunge at me."

Josephine then took a small step back, wary of having given the enemy an idea to act upon. Then again, it probably wouldn't be very ladylike of Fae to do something like that, and that's what these girls were all about, wasn't it? Then again, they did seem to bend and break their own rules when it suited them. To families like Fae's, the Owens weren't usually considered much better than Muggleborns or worse (which, essentially, Josephine didn't have a problem with, because she rather liked Muggleborns, actually, it just the way those snobby pureblood types looked at her - or completely ignored her, which was somehow less comforting - that caused her to wonder on what foundations they formed their prejudices). As for the quesion about doing something to make Josephine not like her... everything Fae did made Josephine not like her. Again, it didn't seem like the right thing to say when the girl had pus at close range.

0 Josephine Would she let me borrow it? 0 Josephine 0 5

Jhonice

July 06, 2011 7:20 PM

You do? Uh-oh by Jhonice

Who was he talking to? Jhonice looked around, but didn't see anyone other than him in the area. Was he talking to himself? She had heard that really smart people do that; she had also heard that crazy people do it as well, but he was a Carey so that couldn't be true. From her research she had found out that the Careys were a very traditional pureblood family, so naturally he must have been taught how to behave properly in social situations. She was fairly certain that 'crazy' was not proper social behavior. So it only logically followed that he must be really smart. She made a note in her notebook to that effect.

She looked up from her notes to see what he was doing next, it was strange, he seemed to be looking her direction. That was strange, was his brother behind her? No, she had looked just moments ago. Peculiar, what was he looking at? A sudden thought struck her, could it be? Was he? No... She fumbled around just a moment for that paper that the professor had handed out after they arrived in the forest. He had said something about Asphodel, and there it was on the list. She didn't have to scan the rest of the list to far to find Bubotubers, and she was standing in a small patch of them. That was what he was after, and now he might be on to her, she should get out of here now, flee, run! This was becoming to risky, but... she glanced around her feet again. How had she gotten in here without setting any of them off? These things were filled with horrible smelling puss. She was trapped!

2 Jhonice You do? Uh-oh 209 Jhonice 0 5

Arnold

July 06, 2011 8:46 PM

'Uh-oh' sounds about right by Arnold

How he’d missed a nest of bubotubers, Arnold didn’t know, but a closer look back in the direction he’d come from revealed that he’d done just that. Stupid walking off on his own, without someone who paid attention and pretty much listed school as their main life interest around to make sure he didn’t do stupid things, like completely overlook what was right in front of him…He rubbed his eye irritably, then realized that not only had he overlooked the bubotubers themselves, he’d failed to notice that they had a girl in the middle of them.

Well, that wasn’t good.

He went back, half wanting to just record their location and get out of there before she set the things off – it was comforting, in a way, to think that he could never be quite at the bottom as long as there were non-Aladren firsties running around; they could beat him for not knowing quite what was going on or how to avoid pitfalls on any day – but knowing he really couldn’t. Maybe some people didn’t do it right, they did things they weren’t supposed to, but there were Rules.

“Look on the bright side,” he suggested when he drew level with her. Yes, definitely a first year. “You found one of the things on the list.” Easier said, he’d discovered, than done. Fawcett could have been from one of the disreputable lines of the family, to make it look like he was giving them an easy day because they’d just come back from their holidays and then it really turn out to be this. “Do you need a hand out?” he offered. It might be just possible for her to step back out the way she’d gotten in, whatever that was, but it would be least likely to set off the stupid things with a long step, which might require such assistance.

0 Arnold 'Uh-oh' sounds about right 181 Arnold 0 5

Valerie

July 07, 2011 1:03 AM

I will by Valerie

She didn't know why, but David seemed less angry now. That was good because Valerie had no idea why he'd seemed so in the first place. The Crotalus didn't know what she'd done wrong and she was very concerned about it. Was he annoyed because she was coughing? Valerie couldn't help that.

It wasn't as if Valerie wanted to be sick. In fact, she wished she wasn't. She never really got to do anything. The only times she had ever left her house prior to attending Sonora were the times she'd been hospitalized. Valerie had been sick with one infection after another since pretty much the time she was born.

In fact, the first year had contracted an ear infection before her parents even brought her home from the hospital as a baby. Frequent ailments had eventually led to her being diagnosed with an immune deficiency. Now Valerie had to take potions every day to strengthen her immune system to the point where she wouldn't, well, die but she still got sick all the time.

Like right now.

But anyway, David didn't seem mad anymore. Maybe she had imagined it and he'd never been angry with Valerie to begin with. It was possible. Nobody had ever been angry at her before, at least they hadn't let her know that they were. Most people tended to be very patient with Valerie. Her parents and sisters and the house-elves treated her like she would break.

Valerie leaned down to look at the flower spider. "I...think so." She had never seen a spider up close before. Her room was kept free of things like that and this was as close to nature as she'd ever been. Spiders could bite and the bites could get infected. Not to mention the poisonous spiders that were lethal to everyone, not just her.

But this was safe, just an illusion. She would be just fine. Valerie stood back up, feeling slightly dizzy. She sneezed "Sorry." She apologized. If David was mad at her before, she didn't want him to get mad at him. Valerie rubbed her head, which was starting to ache. "Do you see anything else we need over here? " She asked, then covered her mouth as she coughed again.

11 Valerie I will 204 Valerie 0 5

Jhonice

July 07, 2011 8:15 PM

You have no idea by Jhonice

Jhonice had to face facts, she was going to have to change tactics. The Carey boy had come right up to her and spoke to her directly, not only that, he had even offered to help her. Her stealth approach wasn't working. He had spotted her. She was going to have to try something else. She would have to interact directly with him. She was a little unsure in this approach, her previous attempts at it with some of the other interesting people in the school hadn't gone very well. She had little choice at this point.

On the plus side, he had actually offered to help her. He was very nice, and brave and heroic, she'd have to write that down.... once he wasn't looking. She had noticed that the interesting people didn't seem to like her scribbling notes about them in her journal while they were around. That was another reason the stealth approach worked so well. She didn't have to remember as many things, she could just write them down. Maybe she could work out some system of making those notes while working on the class assignment. First things first though.

She smiled widely at the Carey boy. "Thank-you so much!" she said as she accepted his help and cautiously stepped out of the bubotuber patch. She only jostled one in the process, she held her breath but it only swayed gently then calmed down again. Now, he was a Carey, they were brought up with all sorts of manners and such, if she was to talk to him, she'd have to 'speak the lingo' so to say. She bowed slightly to him once she was clear of the patch, "I'm sorry to be a bother. Thank-you so much for your assistance, I don't know what I would have done." Now what information could she get using this tactic... "Oh, my name is Jhonice, Jhonice Trevear."

2 Jhonice You have no idea 209 Jhonice 0 5

Arnold

July 07, 2011 9:25 PM

I might have if you'd stepped on that by Arnold

For a minute, it looked like they were going to be in trouble when her foot grazed one of the bubotubers, but then it worked out anyway. Arnold felt almost as relieved as he imagined the girl did at the escape. He could have jumped further out of the way of the mess than she could have because he was further from it, but it still wouldn’t be pleasant to land on his back, possibly on rocks, definitely on something hard. Just because he voluntarily played Seeker and caught a lot of Bludgers, accepting the pain, didn’t mean he liked crashing into things.

He thought, anyway. It was rational to not like crashing into things. And while it could be a little exhilarating in the moment…well, that didn’t account for the after-the-moment, and he was spending way too much time talking to Coach Pierce at school. That wasn’t good.

“It’s not a bother,” Arnold assured her. It wasn’t really. Professor Fawcett would no doubt have used a cleaning spell before sending them back into the school, or something, but it might not have taken out all of the smell. That would be bad. “It was bad to be stuck there.”

She said her name, an unusual one. He kind of liked it. It sounded, especially the last name, like something out of one of those old books – medieval stuff and all – that Arthur sometimes asked him to read aloud while Arthur was sick. “Pleased to meet you,” he said. “I’m Arnold Carey.”

He glanced back at the bubotubers. “Now, writing this down…I guess I just walked right past it the first time.” He scribbled a few notes onto his worksheet. “Did you get anything else going back that way?” he asked, waving his hand in the direction from which he knew he had and was pretty sure she had come. “I walked right past these, guess I wasn’t paying attention.”

0 Arnold I might have if you'd stepped on that 181 Arnold 0 5

Topher Calhoun

July 07, 2011 11:41 PM

It is very, very cool. by Topher Calhoun

"Okay, okay," Topher said under his breath to no one in particular. "I'll admit this is cool."

It was one thing for there to be strong plant life in the desert. That had been something in the beginning, he'd spent a lot of his first few weeks at Sonora outside looking around and memorizing as much as he could, but over the past year, Topher had gotten used to that. It helped that he saw it every day, without fail; the Labyrinth just was. It was also outside, which was a logical place for plant life to be. This was inside, and not real, but it only took a second to step over to one of the trees and touch it and realize it even felt real.

Definitely very cool. Awesome cool. He was gonna have to hand Professor Fawcett this one. He had succeeded in producing something introductory but interesting. Maybe it would be mainly for the novelty value, but that was still pretty good. This wasn't something you saw every day; he was pretty sure this was kind of a special occasion thing, though he didn't know. Sonora did have a lot of rich people students, so maybe they could whip out the fancy stuff more often.

"I'll take your word for it," Topher said when Derry Pierce offered to work together. Then, on a whim, he closed his eyes and turned around, pointing at random. "Want to start by going that way?" he suggested.

0 Topher Calhoun It is very, very cool. 192 Topher Calhoun 0 5

Nora

July 08, 2011 3:34 AM

Yes but its an intellectual based skill by Nora

"Why thank you, Mr. Carey." Nora responded. Some people used formality, especially purebloods and while the first year had a tendency to like to be more casual around people she knew well, she knew that proper protocol was to call each other Mr and Miss. Like little adults. As he'd called her Miss Nora, she supposed Mr. Carey was a bit more formal, but Mr. Arthur sounded weird.

Nora was not entirely sure why etiquette rules were the way they were. It something that most pureblood children never questioned. Portia didn't really and her mother's cousins had been raised a bit differently. Nora, however, was curious as to why pureblood children referred to each other in such a way. What was it about the culture that they had to act that way? Perhaps she should ask Professor Fawcett who had been a magisocialist. Sociology wasn't quite as cool as psychology, but it was still pretty interesting.

She supposed she was glad that Arthur had jumped right to calling her Miss Nora rather than Miss Dobson. She had a first name and she preferred people to use that. Plus, what if there were multiple people with the same last name in the same place? There were at least four girls here with the last name Brockert and there were at least two Mr. Careys, as Edmond Carey was one of Aladren's prefects. Nora wasn't exactly sure how he was related to Arthur because she didn't know the ins and outs of other families. Edmond could be anything from Arthur's older brother to his first cousin to something way more distant.

Still, Nora would wait until she got the older Aladren's permission to call him by his first name. "That sounds like a good plan." Nora agreed. This was a benefit to working in pairs, they could balance out each other's strength and weaknesses. Not that Nora would admit that she had weaknesses, at least not where anything academic was concerned. Purebloods were not allowed to show weakness.

"I know." Nora replied. "It seems this was set up this way solely for the purpose of this lesson. Interesting. I wonder how this room might be used for other topics. I mean, is it like this all the time or do they have other lessons here? What is the purpose of building this room in the first place? I assume its for educational purposes, like teaching things that a student can't learn in the normal classroom setting."

11 Nora Yes but its an intellectual based skill 197 Nora 0 5

Arthur

July 08, 2011 7:56 PM

Item searches are difficult and occasionally engaging by Arthur

Arthur realized he’d made a faux pas as soon as Nora Dobson called him Mr. Carey. He had thought he was doing better than Arnold because he was able to switch back to being perfectly formal as soon as he got home, but it seemed that he’d just gotten used to locations. One thing was the only acceptable way at home, another was generally – generally, but not universally – accepted at Sonora, and he was going with the majority of each. He was practically a discredit to his ideal. A traitor to the cause. It was absolutely terrible. He was going to have to work on this most severely.

Still, it was too late, now, to fix it, and she hadn’t stormed off in an offended huff, so he guessed that he hadn’t stumbled too badly. He hadn’t just called her by her first name, as though they were long-standing friends. He could salvage this one, or at least not have to call it a total loss. A draw, maybe, but that would be better than nothing.

“Of course,” he said, still smiling, at her thanks. “You may call me Arthur, if you like, since I – er – took a liberty with your given name.” He managed a passably Arnold-like expression. “I’m afraid things here are more casual than they are at home, I suppose it rubs off on me sometimes. I really do apologize.”

He watched her with interest as she began to extrapolate about the room’s other possible uses and other questions that could be asked about it. “A very practical idea,” he agreed with her last point. “If the scenery is mutable, then one could have controlled Care of Magical Creatures lessons here that wouldn’t be possible otherwise, reconstruct historical scenarios…Even this is bringing a wider variety of plant life here than the grounds are charmed to support. The possibilities are…” Without realizing it, he had relaxed slightly, his posture becoming more natural. “I won’t say endless, because there’s most likely a formula for how the size of the enchantment relates to the size of the room and the extent of any internal extension charms used on that, but there are a lot of them, aren’t there? If you could – “ he realized a second too late that he was speaking just a hair too rapidly, right on the brink of a ramble, but he went on since he’d already started – “do anything with it, what would it be?”

0 Arthur Item searches are difficult and occasionally engaging 0 Arthur 0 5

Jhonice

July 09, 2011 4:25 PM

Living on the edge has its price by Jhonice

Arnold! This one was Arnold, which meant the other one had to be Arthur... unless there were actually triplets, and not just twins. She knew there was some sort of strife around the 'twins.' It messed up their lineage or something, she'd have to look into it more. Her mother would know about it. If that were true however, the family would probably have tried to cover it up. Lineage was everything, therefore it was only logical to assume that if the family claimed that there were twins, it was because there already was a cover up going on. The only logical thing was that instead there had actually been triplets. Where was the third one though? Maybe he was in hiding... maybe they all rotated in and out, taking turns, swapping names just to try and keep things looking 'normal.' She would have to investigate.

She would have to start here with 'Arnold'. Then she would have to talk with 'Arthur' later. Yes. First, 'Arnold'. She kept smiling at the boy. "It was a rather bad spot, I'm not even sure how I got into that patch." She should probably scribble down a few notes for class as well. That would make her look more inconspicuous. She tucked away the notebook she had been writing in and began to scribble in her class notes. "I didn't see anything else as I walked over here. Maybe we should try out that direction a little farther." She pointed out away from the rest of the class. If she was going to test her theory she would have to separate 'Arnold' and 'Arthur' as much as possible.

2 Jhonice Living on the edge has its price 209 Jhonice 0 5

Brianna

July 11, 2011 9:25 PM

What sort of awards? by Brianna

It was good that they decided on a game plan. Well, as much of a game plan as they could possibly get in a situation like this. She wasn’t sure how well she would end up working with Paul, but if she could get through this lesson and not have him hate her than she felt she was going in the right direction.

When she first brought up the idea of going to Sonora instead of to a school closer to home, her parents hadn’t been very happy. For one, they were worried about the tuition. And, for another, they worried about who Brianna would be spending all of her time with. They disliked Attoria. They felt that she was the reason Brianna was constantly picked on and getting into trouble. Even though Brianna kept telling them that Attoria was her friend, her parents did not like her mixing with the residents and being with Attoria meant being in trouble. And if Brianna was here at Sonora where they couldn’t keep on eye on her, than she was bound to do something that was likely to get them fired from their jobs. And if they were fired, they were likely to have to move to her father’s family home in the Philippines.

So, if Brianna wanted to make everything work out for herself and her parents… she needed to really do good and not make things horribly worse for anyone.

Brianna gave a nervous laugh at Paul’s question. “Er… I’m not so sure if I want to know.” She said after a moment. “If I know what it goes in, I might not want to take the potion even if I really need it.” Brianna grinned shyly before deciding to move on from the subject and spotted a flower, “Oh, a Daisy!” She exclaimed, bending down to look at it. “I only see these in paintings or if Momma lets me go to the park, but that’s rare.”

0 Brianna What sort of awards? 0 Brianna 0 5

Arnold

July 12, 2011 5:44 PM

Very true by Arnold

“Sometimes things just happen,” Arnold said when Miss Trevear said she didn’t even know how she’d ended up where she was. “And this is school magic, so…” He searched for a way to end that sentence, since it had begun without him knowing all the way where it was going. “Maybe, if you miss something, it appears around you.”

His guess didn’t quite work, since he had been as oblivious to the bubotubers as Jhonice, but maybe she would miss that part. Merlin knew most potions ingredients weren’t things the average person would want to step in, so maybe that happened at random with some of the worse ones, to give them a little start if they weren’t paying close enough attention. He hoped he could remember that long enough to pay attention and not end up in the middle of something through the rest of the game.

Or whatever it was. Now that he thought about it, Professor Fawcett hadn’t mentioned any prizes for winning, or even the idea of winning in the first place. It might just be an activity. Either way, though, he was going to pay attention. It all sounded really complicated, like the papers would have to be charmed to know which ones they’d seen if there was more than one of anything so they didn’t get attacked by something they’d already seen, but who knew. Maybe Fawcett was feeling complicated today.

He was momentarily curious about why she put one notebook away and started in another, but was then distracted by her suggestion that they go out farther in search of items on the list. “All right,” he said, guessing they were working together now.

“You’re a first year, right?” he asked, since it was awkward to just walk along with someone without saying anything, as he looked around for things that looked familiar. “I’m second. Dandelion.” He realized this last word sounded a little out of place. “Sorry – I mean, I think that’s a dandelion. Grandmother rants about them….” Grandmother was very particular about her gardens. No dandelions allowed in the public sections. “Sorry to interrupt you.”

0 Arnold Very true 181 Arnold 0 5

Fae

July 12, 2011 7:40 PM

I'm not sure, it's attached to her. by Fae

Fae was in very unfamiliar territory. She had never had anyone dislike her or give her any sort of attitude for no reason. Her sister gave her attitude, but her sister gave attitude to everyone when she was in a mood. Fae never took it personally because Shelby was just …Shelby. Although, part of that attitude could be because Jaiden messed with her so often that Shelby became the butt of the jokes and that could be frustrating. Still, Fae never took what her siblings did personally. It was their job to make things difficult for her.

Josephine’s attitude seemed very personal to Fae. Personal to the point where Fae was feeling guilty for something she doesn’t even remember doing. For something that Josephine declared that Fae hadn’t done. So then, if Fae hadn’t done anything why was Josephine acting the way she was? Was it a bad day? Fae knew sometimes she could be unpleasant on a bad day. Was it something more personal than that?

Fae blinked.

Josephine was angry at Fae for having never spoken to her before? Fae hadn’t spoken to a lot of people in their class. The majority of the class, really. She spoke to the Carey twins by chance, but other than them, her social skills was limited to Alice and, on occasion, Topher. That was it. Did everyone else hate her for her lack of communicating? That seemed unfair. It wasn’t like any one else was jumping at the chance to talk with her.

Fae looked down at her robes when Josephine mentioned the pus. “I wouldn’t even wish this mess on my sister.” She mumbled with a small smile, but kept her blue eyes on the ground to keep her from stumbling again. Josephine already received enjoyment out of Fae’s last fall, Fae didn’t want to make another fool of herself.

“I have trouble communicating.” Fae told Josephine. “I was only ever on our property back home and the only people I was around was my family. I don’t really know how to talk to people, so I just stay quiet unless someone speaks to me.” Fae explained. “My parents said it’s always better to be quiet that way, I won’t say anything to embarrass the family. I didn’t mean to seem like I was ignoring you or anything, I’m just not very good with other people, I guess.” She didn’t know if that made any sense or not, but it was how Fae felt. The more she was around people, the more she wanted to run and hide. She was terrified of doing or saying something wrong. And now it seemed that even staying quiet looked badly towards her. She would never get this right.

0 Fae I'm not sure, it's attached to her. 0 Fae 0 5

Paul

July 13, 2011 5:13 PM

A good grade for the day, first of all by Paul

Paul smiled back at Brianna good-naturedly. “That’s a good point,” he said. “I think this class is going to be bad for all of us when we have to go to the Healers.” He didn’t get sick often, just the usual things everyone got at some time, but he was definitely starting to consider the benefits of just ignoring his next cold.

Not that he’d really do it. He didn’t like pain and fatigue, and he’d been taking potions all his life so he didn’t have to put up with them. If it hadn’t hurt him before, it wasn’t going to start hurting him now just because he knew what was in it now. Thinking otherwise was just stupid. It was the kind of thing he called Gemma out on all the time, even if she had done a very good job of getting him to stop eating meat with her logic on that subject. That wasn’t the point.

He looked at the daisy with Brianna. “Mother’s taken us – my sisters and me – to parks before,” he said. “More since we moved to Illinois, not as much when we lived in California. I guess my brothers will start going soon.” He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. That had been the main activity which concerned him, Mother, and Eliza, instead of the standard set-up of him, Father, Eliza and Gemma, Leo, Mother. It didn’t really matter, though. Mother would do what she wanted.

“I didn’t really think of flowers being in potions, though,” he admitted. “But everything in the potions kit is more…processed than this. Do you think many people get their ingredients this way, instead of from the apothecary?”

0 Paul A good grade for the day, first of all 0 Paul 0 5

Hope

July 13, 2011 7:25 PM

And I'm still not. by Hope

Hope smiled at Russell. "Really? I have five siblings, three older sisters, one older brother and a younger one. I couldn't imagine being an only child." She really couldn't because she was the second youngest of the six and as Evan was only two years younger, Hope couldn't remember a time when her siblings weren't around, but she figured it would be lonely.

Of course, it was getting to be that way at home. Kaylie, Adam and Chelsea had all moved out, as had her cousin Marshall. Hope knew logically that stuff like that happened. They were older and that was what people did when they got older. Of course, much of her childhood they had been at school but at least they'd been there during the summer.

She thought her mother was sad about it too and Hope didn't like for her mother to be sad. The Teppenpaw hated for anyone to feel bad but especially people she cared about like her family.

"That's really interesting. Antiques are kind of neat." Of course, her family didn't sell their antiques, they kept them as heirlooms for their children. Hope's home was full of stuff, furniture and other things, that were really old. Some of it was even older than Great-Great-Grandmother, and she was the oldest person Hope knew. In fact, it was Great-Great-Grandmother's wedding dress that Kaylie was going to wear when she got married to Ian.

"Do the antiques have magical enchantments?" Hope asked. Some of theirs did, of course and Great-Great-Grandmother insisted her dress would bring Kaylie a long and happy marriage. Hope and her older sister had both eaten that up. "A book shop sounds neat too." The second year added.

Hope looked around and shook her head. "No." She smiled at the Aladren's suggestion of going into the woods. "Let's go!" She very much doubted her mother, who was a bit overworried about the safety of her children would ever let her go play in a forest but this was a room where nothing bad could ever hurt her.

OOC-Sorry for the wait.

11 Hope And I'm still not. 186 Hope 0 5

Cherry Bosko

July 13, 2011 10:48 PM

A real forest? by Cherry Bosko

The potions professor was very tall, Cherry decided as she walked at his ankles on the way to whereever it was they were going. As it turned out, it was through a passage covered over by a portrait. Cherry hiked up her broomstick skirt and climbed through, feeling not a little like Alice. She half expected a white rabbit to be waiting on the other side, chittering about the time. She was half right. It was some kind of forest. No rabbit. Instructions not to wander off floated through the vortex after them.

After the professor joined them again, he explained about the Mirage Chamber, which was, Cherry had to admit, pretty cool. She thumbed through her packet about the plants and wished she'd brought her colored pencils with her, but alas they were in her bag back in the potions classroom--had she been supposed to bring that with her? No, Professor Fawcett had said to leave things there. Hadn't he?

At least she had a pencil and a notebook and she was able to jot down the assignment and the homework, so she was set for now.

Cherry looked around for another student to work with. It seemed like a lot of the other kids were paired up already. She thought of jumping in on a pair to make a trio when she spotted another unpaired student and managed to make eye contact and wave. Claimed!

She dodged between some other groups to reach her new (half-suspecting?) partner before someone else did and greeted him/her with a cheery, "Hi! We're working together, okay? Okay! Where should we start?"

Cherry had some ideas, but she was from a Wisconsin city just north of Chicago and didn't have a lot of experience with wild plants. She was pretty sure, for example, that they should go into the woods and maybe look around the bases of the trees. Plants grew taller at tree bottoms because mowers didn't want to nick their blades on the tree's roots. Of course, this looked a little more... uh... wildernessy than the local park, and Cherry had to admit, she really didn't know didly about wilderness.

0 Cherry Bosko A real forest? 0 Cherry Bosko 0 5

Madeline Parry

July 14, 2011 8:02 PM

Close enough by Madeline Parry

Madeline was tanned after a summer in Georgia, and her hair faded out enough by the sun to look almost true blond, nearly untouched by the usual hint of red. She had also, she’d been dismayed to notice when they visited her grandmother right at the end of the holidays, started to pick up a little bit of the local accent, a harsh one not too evocative of the pretty southern accents from Gone With the Wind, full of sharp vowel sounds, but her parents assured her it wasn’t too bad, and she could tell it wasn’t as bad as theirs, so she was sure that would fade out even before the tan did. As far as she knew, the only southerners in her year were the Carey twins, who made a big deal out of being from South Carolina but who she didn’t know very well, so there wasn’t really anyone to reinforce the speech pattern.

Life at Sonora was predictable that way, nice and stable, so it was a surprise when, as soon as his speech to terrify the new first years was over, Professor Fawcett got the Potions class up and led them out of the classroom. Curious, Madeline followed along with everyone else, trying not to laugh at Derry’s abortive attempts to have conversations with the portraits before they had to keep going down the hall, and felt her eyes widen at the sight of the vortex behind the picture of the grumpy old points man.

She felt a split second of hesitation about going through it, but then reminded herself that they were taken care of that far by the staff and took the plunge. On the other side, she found….

A forest. Well, that was new. She looked around as they all waited for Professor Fawcett to explain where they were. When he did, she didn’t think it said good things, necessarily, about her mental health that she was a little disappointed that all the danger had been taken out, but since she was glad that most of it was gone, she wasn’t too worried about that. The woods around Dad’s college were full of thin, close-set pine trees with no paths, and going out there was considering asking for a snakebite, so this was a little better just by virtue of having somewhere to walk.

There was all the usual madness when people began pairing off, and Madeline smiled and waved back when a girl she didn’t know caught her eye and smiled and waved at her. She was also a little surprised when the girl just took charge all at once, but decided to just go along with it.

“Go straight and only take turns in one direction?” she asked, thinking that was actually paper mazes, but whatever. This was something someone had made up, so it was going to be more logical than the real wilderness, right? “I’m Madeline, by the way,” she added, since it was weird to work with someone without even knowing their name, in her opinion anyway.

0 Madeline Parry Close enough 188 Madeline Parry 0 5

Cherry Bosko

July 14, 2011 9:27 PM

Close as I'm likely to get. by Cherry Bosko

Cherry was pretty sure Madeline's comment was a joke, so she grinned a half-laugh and hoped Madeline didn't notice that it went a little over her head. What did turning in only one direction have to do with finding plants?

"I'm Cherry," Cherry introduced herself, pleased that Madeline had only given a first name. She wondered if Madeline had gotten tired of all the family associations as quickly as she had. Maybe she had also resolved only to give her first name in social situations in protest?... or, maybe Madeline was a second year and therefore her family name was already well established. Actually, Cherry considered, this second option was pretty likely. She didn't remember seeing her new partner or hearing the name Madeline in some of her other classes.

Madeline probably was a second year. Oops. Cherry hoped she hadn't been too bold in her introduction in her desperation to not be the odd one out.

But Madeline didn't seem to have taken offense.

Cherry took Madeline's joking advice and led the way straight toward the planty area--the fake forest. There seemed to be a lot of plants right at the treeline where they could get more sun than they could in the woods.

"Let's try here," Cherry suggested and knelt down beside a vine with three shiny leaves. "Hey, I actually know this one. Is poison ivy on the list?" She couldn't resist touching it. "Check this out: it almost feels real... but not." The 'but not' came in when her fingers passed through the leaf allowing it to spring back into its original position. Apparently, you could only pull them so far. "Neat."

There were other plants here as well: a fuzzy one, one with green spikey things, one clover-like one. Lots of them. Cherry looked down at her packet and wondering if they should go one-by-one through the packet plant-by-plant through the forest.

0 Cherry Bosko Close as I'm likely to get. 0 Cherry Bosko 0 5

Brianna

July 15, 2011 6:26 PM

Oh, I didn't even think about that. by Brianna

Brianna laughed, a real laugh that lit up her features when Paul made his comment. It was true. Potions would definitely change how they all felt about taking their next potion and might make things worse for the Muggleborns who have never had to take a potion other than the Opening Feast one.

But, Brianna knew that no matter how disgusting the ingredients were, they cured a person of almost all ailments. If one actually took the time to think about it, potions and the ingredients in them were quite fantastic… if one could get away from the complete repulsiveness of them. “I suppose we’ll just have to close our eyes and plug our noses before we take a potion from now on.” Brianna joked. “Still, I can’t imagine what this is like for those who never had magic in their lives before. To not only know we take potions, but the stuff that we put in them too? I think I’d have nightmares.”

It was strange for Brianna to hear him discuss his family. Not because she found it strange that he was talking<./i> about them, but rather, that he had siblings. Brianna was an only child and so was Attoria. Actually, there were only a few families that had more than one child. Well, at least the ones that Brianna knew. “You have siblings? That’s nice. I don’t have any. Are they nice?” She asked, curious to know if he got on well with them.

Brianna looked at him incredulously at his question, “Merlin, I hope not. That would take forever for someone to find their ingredients this way.” Brianna commented. “Besides, there are so many Apothecary shops, it would seem silly that people wouldn’t use them.”

Of course, Brianna could just be lazy about it all. Or her parents for that matter. They just bought the potions already made; they never made the potions themselves. Brianna had just assumed that was how it always had been. It never really occurred to her that there were regular people who brewed their own potion. Probably cheaper that way. “Plus you still have the animal parts and bug parts that go in potions too, so unless they enjoy catching things and killing them, they probably go to Apothecary shops for all of that.”

Brianna really didn’t want to think about animals and bugs in potions anymore than she did with weird looking plants, but she had read some of the chapters over the summer, so she knew what to expect with some of these potions.

0 Brianna Oh, I didn't even think about that. 0 Brianna 0 5

Russell
July 18, 2011 2:23 PM

Russell
Alumnus
House: Aladren
Written by: Grayson Wright

Age in Post: 12

We'll make it through anyway. by Russell
“I guess not,” Russell said, a little amazed, when Hope said she couldn’t imagine being an only child because she was the second youngest of six. How on earth did her parents get by with that many kids? He’d sort of gathered the Brockerts were well-off, but unless the family had been dying out and her father and mother had all those kids to prevent that, then there were cousins and cross-cousins, too, so they were clearly even richer than he’d thought. No one he knew could have that many kids and maintain much of a standard of living. Some he doubted would even be able to cover the basics.

“Some do,” he answered about the things in the shop. “Mom and Dad have to be careful with those, sometimes. And everything has to be tested when it comes in, just in case.” They had a pretty strict policy regarding items someone had tainted with dark magic, but even some of the things that weren’t dark were dangerous anyway. “But some aren’t. There’s different sections for that, since people are looking for different things.”

And the customer wasn’t always right, but he was close enough. If the customer didn’t want enchantments, then it was best to have everything sorted so he or she didn’t have to go through stacks of enchanted merchandise to find what was desired. That kind of service – the charmingly disordered shop look, the postcard look – wasn’t really good for business, at least the relatively high end kind of business Russell’s parents usually went in for. There were some less expensive items, but the bulk of the money came from working with good stuff.

“So’s wandmaking,” he said when she complimented the bookshop as well. “I’ve thought that since I met the local wandmaker. He makes it sound really – “ mysterious, but he didn’t know how that would be taken – “cool,” he finished instead, though he thought he’d already used that word once in this conversation.

“Okay, then,” Russell said, a little amused by the Teppenpaw girl’s enthusiasm for the venture. “Let’s go.”

He was a little uncertain walking into a forest, since he’d never even seen one quite like this in real life, but decided not to show that. It wasn’t like it was real, anyway, so he didn’t have to worry about bears coming out to eat him or anything like that. Looking around in trees and bushes for stuff wasn’t easy, but he thought it still easily beat fighting off a bear, even though he’d never really done either before and never planned to do the second. “I think there’s some oleander,” he said, pointing. “Does it look like it to you?”

OOC: No problem

16 Russell We'll make it through anyway. 183 Russell 0 5

Madeline Parry
July 18, 2011 4:34 PM

Madeline Parry
Alumnus
House: Teppenpaw
Written by:

Age in Post: 12

Me, too by Madeline Parry
Cherry. Cool name, though Madeline found herself thinking more about Kool-Aid than fruit for some reason. She had no idea what was up with that. Though it did make her wonder what, if any, strange associations people made when they heard her first name, thought she thought Madeline was really kind of un-associationable. Her middle name was different, since it called up either the Roald Dahl character or – among history nuts, one of whom was the actual source of it – the medieval woman who’d tried ruling England independently a few generations before that worked, but she didn’t think too much of the idea of advertising Matilda and having people make those associations.

It could have been worse, though. Mom could have died in childbirth or something, and then Dad would have gotten away with naming her after Julian of Norwich, which would mean spending the rest of her life either correcting spellings or pronunciations or assumptions about her sex and gender or all those things. That really didn’t sound like fun.

“I think it is,” she said when Cherry asked about poison ivy, flipping pages. “Oh, crap, what am I drinking with poison ivy in it? I really do not want to look that up for the homework assignment.” She was distracted, though, by Cherry’s playing with the leaves, and bent down to see them for herself. “That is neat,” she said, when a second experiment produced the same results, and, as promised, no itching or redness or pain. Then she pointed to the clovers. “I think we use those sometimes,” she said. “Or something that looks kind of like them…” She flipped back through the packet. “Are you on the first page already?”

0 Madeline Parry Me, too 188 Madeline Parry 0 5

Paul
July 20, 2011 12:09 AM

Paul
Peripheral
Written by:

And that's only the beginning by Paul
Paul smiled when Brianna laughed, pleased that his comment had that effect. He liked making people laugh a lot more than making them yell, preferred to be thought of as amusing than as someone to take seriously and set up as a rival. He liked being liked, but not too noticeable, really.

Which was perfect for what the family was going to want him to do, in a way, except that part of his reason for his thoughts on the sort of high competition his father and uncles lived for was that it just seemed like too much effort to be engaged in quarrels and paranoia, and taking on his father’s role, being the man behind the man all the time and pulling strings. He liked that it was safer than being the one doing things in public, but just learning the tricks from him was an effort, and he used them sparingly, more to know what was going on than to control it. Actually putting every single one of them into practice and using them to try to influence or even map out events sounded like way too much effort.

“I’d never thought of that,” he admitted when she mentioned how it was most likely going for the poor Muggleborns stumbling on bubotubers. “You’re right, that does sound…bad.” He smiled again, though. “I guess we’ll just have to be glad it’s not us, and tell them it really won’t kill you if anyone asks us.”

Paul was as surprised by Brianna’s revelation that she was an only child as she was by his siblings, not least because she was a girl. His family was sort of quieter about it than a lot were, and it was patently obvious that Father didn’t really think Paul, at least, was in any material way superior to Eliza, but it was still understood that boys were usually considered necessary to be heirs. Maybe she was from a side line, and had an uncle or something who was an heir and had sons. “I guess they’re all right,” he said. “Everyone’s still pretty little, except Eliza. She’s in third year, you’ve probably seen her saying hello to people in the common room.” His sister greeted virtually everyone she made eye contact with, all as part of her campaign for popularity, status, and allies against That Female. She might have greeted Brianna at some point for all he knew. “We share tutors at home, and we’re usually the ones Father keeps with him, so we finally decided it’s just easier to get along.” They still argued plenty, but typically just moved on as though it hadn’t happened, except for maybe being politer than usual to each other for a while, afterward. Much easier that way.

“Yeah, that’s why we don’t even make our own usually,” Paul said when Brianna recapped why it was easier to buy ingredients. “I don’t really see Mother handling bubotubers and rat intestines.” He started to laugh, though, at the mental image that called up. “Sorry,” he apologized; it wasn’t polite to have a joke his company couldn’t get, and she didn’t know his mother. “I just had this picture of her stalking rats with spears. It’s very wrong.”

0 Paul And that's only the beginning 0 Paul 0 5

Josephine
July 20, 2011 6:53 AM

Josephine
Peripheral
Written by:

It's okay; the moment has passed. by Josephine
"I don’t really know how to talk to people, so I just stay quiet unless someone speaks to me," Fae was explaining. The more Josephine listened, the more she actually started to believe her yearmate. That was... unexpected. Maybe, just maybe, she wasn't as bad as all Josephine had been expecting? But there was still that party she reminded herself, as she wasn't likely to overlook years of prejudice against her family just because one Sinclair girl seemed to be be less poisonous than usual today.

"You're not very good with other people," Josephine agreed, though her insult lacked bite. She took a couple of hesitatnt steps towards Fae, and wrinkled her nose at the odour, which was fading, but still quite noticeable. Deciding that it was her own interests to remedy that, Josephine took out her wand and aimed it at the sticky gunk. "Parfumo," she cast, hoping to replace the smell with something less offensive. She would have just cleaned the slime away, but she didn't really know any cleaning spells that would work on a person, and she wasn't cruel enough to cast a cauldron-cleaning charm on a girl her own age. Taking another couple of tentative steps towards fae, Josephine still eyed the other girl warily.

"I'm an Owen," she said, as if she were reminding Fae with whom she was speaking. It did then occur to her that maybe Sinclairs didn't even know who the Owens were, but after two years in classes together, Fae should have some idea about who Josephine was. Maybe. Just in case her identity was a mystery, the Pecari added, "Both my parents work. I share a room with my sister. All my stuff is second hand. I'm in Pecari," the last point was added almost as an after-thought, because there were lots of purebloods in Pecari, but she knew they didn't often want to be there. Anyway, Fae knew who she was, now. She might understand why Josephine hadn't immediately rushed over to help her when she tripped.

0 Josephine It's okay; the moment has passed. 0 Josephine 0 5

Fae
July 24, 2011 8:50 PM

Fae
Peripheral
Written by:

There may come another. by Fae
Fae didn’t know how to respond to Josephine’s agreement to her comment. She was trying her hardest to be a better person. She was working very hard to try to do everything that everyone wanted her to do, but she knew that she was making mistakes. She must have because Josephine disliked her and if Fae couldn’t remember anything she did outright that would make the other girl dislike her, it must have been something she had unintentionally not done. Most of what Fae did or didn’t do seemed to always be wrong. “Yes, you’re probably right.” Fae said quietly. She must have been right. It wasn’t as though Fae had a ton of friends. She had Alice and her roommate was probably a friend by default. Fae still didn’t know what to consider Arnold, but eventually that would work itself out. That could also be held true for Topher. But that was the extent to people who were close enough to be her friends.

The sight of Josephine’s wand pointing at her had Fae instinctually taking a step back and fighting the urge to run. It was never a good thing to have another person aiming their wand at you. But the spell was not a terrible one and it would probably help Fae in the long run when it came to the rest of this lesson. Although the stench was still there, it was much less noticeable. “Thank you.” She said politely to Josephine as she started her trek through the forest again.

She wasn’t really sure why Josephine was explaining herself to Fae. Fae knew enough about her to understand where she was coming from and Fae was tired of people just making assumptions of her. She’d like to make a name for herself on her own terms, but how was she going to do that if everyone else was making one for her? “Look, my Great Grandfather gave me a list of approved names to associate with already and I’m aware that Owens is not on it.” Fae said matter-of-factly with a little hint of anger in her voice. “But I am not my Great Grandfather.” Fae spoke this with certainty. “I make my own choices. I’m tired of being told what to do and then somehow always doing it wrong. I just want to get through school without too much trouble.”

Fae took a deep breath. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say all that.”

0 Fae There may come another. 0 Fae 0 5

Jhonice
July 26, 2011 11:17 AM

Jhonice
Alumnus
House: Pecari
Written by: Gami

Age in Post: 11

It really is. by Jhonice
Jhonice thought about Arnold's suggestion for a moment. "You may be right there. Whatever this area actually is, we are still inside the school, so all of this," she gestured around at their surroundings with her hands, "is magically generated. That means it could just change whenever. The professor could be doing it as well I guess. I wonder how much control there is over this area?"

"Yup, first year." She smiled at him as they walked, "but I've got an older cousin here who's been telling me all about it." Okay, that was a slight exaggeration. Andrew didn't really talk much about school when she got to see him, despite her efforts to get information out of him. She had learned some from him, and it sounded better than just being a know-nothing firstie. It did however give her the chance to ask plenty of questions. She was about ready to let loose with them, when he brought up family. Oooo... there she had some real questions.

Start subtle, don't lose him now. She looked at the flower he had indicated, "Yeah, that looks like a dandelion to me. Your grandmother rants about them? Is that because she likes them or because she doesn't? What is she like? My only grandparents are over in Europe and I don't get to see them very much."

2 Jhonice It really is. 209 Jhonice 0 5

Arnold
July 26, 2011 8:39 PM

Arnold
Alumnus
House: Aladren
Written by:

Age in Post: 12

It seems to be working at the moment, though by Arnold
Arnold smiled automatically, almost fondly, when Miss Trevear began to speculate about their surroundings and how much control Professor Fawcett had over the room because of how her manner reminded him of his mother. “It’s probably all in some old book somewhere in the library,” he said, thinking that Arthur had probably read that book, too. Both of their parents were well-read, too, though Arnold thought Arthur got it more from Mother than from Father. Mother had often said many things in her life would have been more comfortable if she were not so very curious about so many things. Father had once joked that she’d only married into the Careys in order to study them.

He nodded when Jhonice said she had a cousin who told her about Sonora. “That must have been helpful,” he said. Edmond and Jane had both been here years before Arnold and Arthur, but they weren’t close kin, and he didn’t even really know Jane in passing, as he did Edmond. Edmond’s real sister had turned up at their letter party, but even Arthur wasn’t crazy enough to corner Morgaine Carey just to ask her things about a school she’d left three or four years before that day. There hadn’t been, as there was for his cousins, someone to interrogate about the workings of the school.

He was pleased to discover he was right about it being a dandelion, though he hoped he hadn’t lost all credibility by admitting to knowing about a flower….looking thing. “Grandmother’s all right,” he said in response to her question. “She’s the heir’s wife, so she’s very busy, but she says it’s important to keep an eye on your own house, and dandelions don’t go in the formal gardens.” His tone betrayed some of his lack of comprehension of the world of women and the mysterious rites and customs they had, but also his acceptance that his grandmother was, of course, right about this, even if he didn’t grasp the particulars or details or whys of the situation. Things simply were what they were, and if his grandparents didn’t think that dandelions belonged in the formal gardens, then they didn’t belong in the formal gardens. “Where in Europe are your grandparents?” he asked, thinking it was interesting that all four would be. His family had been in this country so long, no one, even the Fourth, remembered anything else.

0 Arnold It seems to be working at the moment, though 181 Arnold 0 5

Brianna
July 26, 2011 8:53 PM

Brianna
Peripheral
Written by:

This is looking up by Brianna
Brianna giggled again, but not so much because of what Paul was agreeing with her on but rather because she was actually having fun doing this assignment. Paul was nice and he didn’t seem offended by her in any way, which was definitely a good thing for Brianna. She didn’t expected to be friends with everyone, but she didn’t want to be an enemy to someone either. She had enough enemies at home. School was supposed to be her sanctuary. So, if she just kept cool about everything, she could keep this school as her safety zone. Well, she could so long as Attoria didn’t decide to change things on her.

“Well, some of the potions might kill them. Depending on how experienced the brewer is and exactly what type of potion it is.” Brianna corrected. Although, she doubted any of the staff would do anything to put them in harms way, she could not say the same for the students. She had been a victim to much cruelty from the peers in her building, both older than her and around her own age. She was aware that there was a possibility that there were vicious people in her class. But, she was not going to dwell on that and she didn’t want to say anything outright because then Paul might think her odd.

She listened with interest as Paul told her about his older sister. He didn’t say much about the others except that that they were much younger. Brianna couldn’t exactly recall anyone saying hello to her in the commons, but she had been so overwhelmed with things that she might have just missed it. Hopefully, his sister didn’t think she was rude if she had unintentionally missed her greeting. “I’ll look for her the next time I am in the common room.” Brianna commented with what she hoped looked to be a friendly smile, but sometimes her large lips and her excitement gave her a slightly crazed look to her. “I wish I had siblings. It can be lonely sometimes when you’re alone.” She knew that sounded dumb, but she had no other way of explaining it.

“It’s alright.” Brianna said, leaning over to study a plant. “I think this is hellebore.” Brianna stated as she studied it. She knew this plant was big in potions. “Anyway, if I ever saw my parents trudge around in a place like this, I’d die of absolute shock. Still, this is sort of fun.”

0 Brianna This is looking up 0 Brianna 0 5

Paul
July 29, 2011 3:46 PM

Paul
Peripheral
Written by:

I'm glad to hear it by Paul
Paul was startled by Brianna’s comment about how some potions could kill them, and guessed that showed a little. He seldom got it right when he wanted to convey or hide a specific expression beyond basic smiling and glaring. He knew, in the abstract, that bungled potions could kill, and that people sometimes poisoned each other, but it wasn’t something he thought about that routinely.

“Those can,” he agreed. “I was thinking of potions from the medic.” Would the medic try to poison them? Surely not. If students started falling over dead from poison, there would be a rush on the school from terrified parents, and then Sonora would shut down, and then the medic would have no job. He guessed she might not want to have her current job, or not care about that in favor of getting revenge against the Headmaster for something, but there were better ways to deal with it than getting the whole school shut down and killing people who had nothing to do with anything.

He nodded when Brianna said she would look for Eliza, thinking she looked a little enthusiastic about it, but maybe she didn’t really have anyone here. “She looks a lot like me,” he said. “People say she does, anyway. But she’s taller, really thin, with long hair. It’s a little darker than mine, and she’s a little paler and sits sort of off to the side of the stairs up to the dorms a lot.” This, he thought, was an adequate enough sketch of Eliza for their purposes, though he didn’t think the family resemblance between them was as striking as everyone else seemed to. If she chopped all her hair off and got a tan, he thought she would still not be able to pass for him, even if you squinted.

He nodded again to it being lonely alone. The two did seem to logically follow each other to him. “They can be annoying, though,” he allowed. “Leo always follows me around, and you should hear Eliza yell when Gemma gets in her things.”

Paul was relieved when his faux pas of laughing at that mental image of Mother was excused. “It looks enough like it for me,” he agreed about the hellebore. Wasn’t that the stuff that could make you crazy? It didn’t matter in here, since he guessed he could chew on monkshood without anything happening, but he didn’t like not being sure if he remembered what he had read. “It’s more fun than I would have expected, yes. But I really don’t think Mother would agree. She doesn’t even really like walking in the garden at home, and that’s much…tamer than this. She says the sun isn’t ladylike.” Only his mother, he thought.

0 Paul I'm glad to hear it 0 Paul 0 5

Josephine
August 01, 2011 12:07 PM

Josephine
Peripheral
Written by:

Then maybe I'll look into getting a camera of my own by Josephine
The second year Pecari wasn't sure exactly why she was following Fae, but they both had the assignment to do, and since anyone else who was looking for a partner must have long since found one, it made logical sense for them to tackle the task together. Besides... maybe Fae wasn't as bad as Josephine had been expecting. A little crazy, maybe, but not all bad. "I make my own choices. I’m tired of being told what to do and then somehow always doing it wrong. I just want to get through school without too much trouble," Fae said, before apologizing.

"That's okay," Josephine said, not so taken aback by the short outburst as she might have been if she didn't have two siblings with unpredictable tempers. "So, let me just ctach myself up," she said, falling into stride alongside Fae. "You just haven't talked to me because you're shy, and you just didn't invite me to your party because your Great grandfather didn't put my name on some list?" She wanted to be sure - if Fae then corrected her on wither of those points then Josephine could happily go off and work on her own, but if the past year had simply been a misunderstanding on both their parts, well then she could possibly overlook that, as well as the fact that her assignment partner was still covered in some icky-smelling gunk (though it really was much better now it was wearing off, and better still since Josephine had cast the spell).

In fact, if Fae was only supposed to be friends with people on the list, then Josephine felt it was all a bit silly. She knew what these pureblood types were like, and that was precisely why she didn't exactly go out of her way to associate with them, but if Fae wanted to be friends with someone who wasn't a pureblood, then surely that should be her choise, not her grandfather's? At least Josephine's parents, while strict in most other senses of the term, would let her befriend whomever she chose. "Oh," another thought occured to the brunette girl. "Do you want me to go away? I mean, if you're not allowed to talk to me or whatever, I don't want you to get into trouble." She hadn't gotten as far as liking Fae yet, by any means, but if the two girls weren't actually supposed to interact then enforcing her company might not really be a genius idea.

0 Josephine Then maybe I'll look into getting a camera of my own 0 Josephine 0 5

Fae
August 07, 2011 5:32 PM

Fae
Peripheral
Written by:

There are a lot of choices. by Fae
Fae walked carefully through the forest, afraid to catch herself on something again and land in something far worse than she already had. She wasn’t sure what could possibly be worse, but with her luck, she was sure she’d end up finding out if she wasn’t careful. She would never tell Shelby of this because she knew her sister would never let her live it down. But, Fae learned from experience, so, going forward, she was not going to wear these shoes during lessons ever again.

Josephine summed up the last year of Fae’s life relatively quickly. Fae didn’t know if that was a good thing. Plus, Fae was quiet in nature, but that can’t be all put on her shoulders. Josephine never went out of her way before to chat with her. In fact, if Fae hadn’t fallen into the plant, she was certain that Josephine wouldn’t have spoken to her at all. Not that Fae was going to use that against her or anything. Some people were drawn to others while some never spoke at all. Fae had an understanding of that from watching her family interact with others.

“I didn’t really have anything to do with the party. That was completely my parents.” Fae explained. “My family decided to branch off into America to really grow and expand, unfortunately, that made myself and my siblings their excuses to meet knew families.” Shelby was still a bit upset that she hadn’t had a party when she started schooling, but she went to an all girl school and her parents were already friends with most of the other families. Sonora was broaching on new territory for them. Of course, Shelby can’t complain too much considering she met Victor through the party and those two have been dating since summer. “I didn’t even know about the party until after the invitations went out.”

Fae marked off another plant and then looked at Josephine with a thoughtful look. “No, you don’t have to go away.” Fae said after a moment. “I’ve been associating with people who weren’t on the list before there even was a list. Besides, you’re a female, so they aren’t likely to mind me associating with you as they would with someone who was male. You know, betrothals and all.” Fae rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway.

0 Fae There are a lot of choices. 0 Fae 0 5

Brianna
August 09, 2011 9:30 PM

Brianna
Peripheral
Written by:

So am I! by Brianna
“Oh…” A blush formed across her freckled nose as embarrassment rushed through her. She had jumped the gun in talking about poisons in potions rather than staying on topic about medical potions. “Right…sorry.” She mumbled, willing the blush to go away and her heart to stop thumping so hard in her chest.

She hated looking stupid, but it happened so much. She was clumsy, ugly, and dumb. It seemed like she would always do something to make herself look like an idiot. “I would hope the Medic doesn’t give someone a potion that could kill them. That would go against everything they stand for, wouldn’t it?”

She took in his looks as he spoke of his sister. She just hoped he really meant what he said about her looking like him because Brianna was going to look for someone who looked just liked Paul but just with long hair. Actually, that was an odd thought and Brianna had to try too keep herself from chuckling.

“That’s cute. Your brother must really like you.” Brianna commented with little smile. “I don’t really have anyone around my age in my family. My extended family lives in the Philippines, so I do not get to see them often. My cousins are either much older than me or really little.”

Brianna blinked her eyes at him out of confusion and then suddenly started to giggle. “I’m… sorry…” She said between the giggles, trying to catch her breath so that she didn’t look like a babbling giggling fool. “I just, I don’t understand why your mother would think that about the sun!” Brianna exclaimed. The sun was wonderful! Brianna often hung out on the roof of their condominium building just so she could be out in the sun. Her parents never let her go outside of the building without them and since they never left the building, she was stuck in it. She found her own solace by spending time on the roof.

“I just love the sun. How can it be considered unladylike?” She asked, honestly curious about this. The sun wasn’t a sport, it wasn’t a job, it wasn’t anything that would remotely be negative towards a lady as far a Brianna could see.

0 Brianna So am I! 0 Brianna 0 5

Paul
August 12, 2011 1:32 AM

Paul
Peripheral
Written by:

Excellent! by Paul
Paul was surprised by Brianna’s reaction to the misunderstanding about poison. She thought more widely than he did. That wasn’t a bad thing. Well, maybe it was for him, but not for her. “’Sall right,” he said, and nodded about the medic’s codes going against killing people. “I don’t think they have to take the oath the way Healers do, but yeah, they’re supposed to still be about doing no harm.”

He had to shrug, though, at the idea of Leo really liking him. “Maybe he does,” he said, though he thought it was really just confusion over Mother not having time for him anymore since Richard was born and Gemma got old enough to treat like a daughter, then Eliza being gone. Leo was most likely trailing after Gemma now.

He thought about Gemma for a second. Or maybe not. He didn’t really see Leo sitting down to play endlessly with dolls and tea sets and collections of costume jewelry, which were the objects his younger sister’s life seemed to revolve around. Eliza, another girl, even made fun of her for it, though he thought the edge of Lize’s distaste might have come more from it too often being her closet instead of the dress-up chests that Gemma took advantage of instead of just thinking Gem was a little too girly for her own good.

“I don’t see very much of my extended family, either,” he said. “They’re all just scattered out around this country, though. Grandfather’s brothers and their families, and my two uncles.” He technically had an aunt in Vancouver, but Aunt Katherine was only mentioned slightly more often than Uncle Victor. She had never married, and now lived with her best friend, and had been only just short of half mad not very long ago. Mother said his grandparents had not known what to do with a girl, especially one so unlike they were, and had just let her go her own way and that hadn’t worked, either.

He laughed, too, at his mother’s silliness. “You really don’t have to apologize,” he said before he thought. “It is stupid of her. I know she’s a blonde, but Eliza tells me they make potions to keep you from burning even then.” He shrugged. “Mother takes it all too seriously, if you ask me. Especially since we moved. She thinks she has to prove something to other families.”

0 Paul Excellent! 0 Paul 0 5

Professor Fawcett

Beginners Lesson I, Part II by Professor Fawcett

David Kim [Aladren]

Virtual reality meet Magical reality. by David Kim [Aladren]

Valerie Lennox, Crotalus

Too exhausted to come up with a clever title. by Valerie Lennox, Crotalus

David Kim

There wasn't much room for expansion, was there? by David Kim

Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

Into the delightful unknown by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

Linus Macaulay

Pay attention, would you? by Linus Macaulay

Kitty

But, but there’s just so much to see! by Kitty

Perdita Rothens

I'll try not to let my disappointment show. by Perdita Rothens

Mellie Goodwin

Aw, come on. This will be fun! by Mellie Goodwin

Brianna Japos, Crotalus

Now what do I do? by Brianna Japos, Crotalus

Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

Re: Beginners Lesson I, Part II by Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

Regina Parker, Teppenpaw

Yay, games! by Regina Parker, Teppenpaw

Attoria Covington, Crotalus

I prefer the city. by Attoria Covington, Crotalus

Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus

Yay, forest hunt! by Phoenix Lucore, Crotalus

Valerie

I guess not by Valerie

Russell Layne, Aladren

Beginning the hunt in the Beginners' Lesson, Part II by Russell Layne, Aladren

Paul Bennett, Crotalus

Don't panic by Paul Bennett, Crotalus

Linus

All in good time by Linus

Kitty

Said the tortoise to the hare by Kitty

Michael Grosvenor

But this is so pretty! by Michael Grosvenor

Reggie

Yay, adventure! by Reggie

Hope

And continuing it by Hope

Linus

This isn't a race by Linus

Perdita

If you say so, I'm sure it will be. by Perdita

Kitty

But we could still win by Kitty

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Oh good, a <i> real </i> class. by Nora Dobson, Aladren

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What're your criteria for winning? by Linus

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City views have their moments. by Attoria

Kitty

Finding everything first by Kitty

Michael

True, but this isn't going to bite you... by Michael

Brianna

That might be easier said then done. by Brianna

Arthur Carey

'Real' doesn't seem like the word to use in here by Arthur Carey

Paul

Yes, but the rewards of doing so are substantial by Paul

Brianna

Oh, awards? by Brianna

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Even fake, I still hate nature. by Fae Sinclair, Crotalus

Linus

We're on the right track by Linus

Josephine Owen

I'll capture this moment forever by Josephine Owen

David Kim

Scavenging ahead! by David Kim

Kitty

That’s because we’re awesome by Kitty

Phoenix

Yay, fun! by Phoenix