I hate you. I like you. [Bridget] on Elective Hall

Killian Row

June 19, 2020 10:07 PM

Yolo. [Intermediates] by Killian Row

Killian had things on his mind that the professional part of him suspected he ought not to have on his mind. But what could he say? He was a sucker for a nice tweed jacket. It didn't at all help that he didn't know what to think about basically anything these days. Students' lives seemed to be in greater disarray than usual and there was a friendly smile in the Hospital Wing - one who did not belong to an intern, to make that clear - who was a pleasant sight as well. Of course, that tweed jacket owner had a friendly smile, too. Everything was a pain.

Which is why Killian thought it best to prepare his students for this because he sure as heck wasn't ready. And teenagers loved talked about love and romance with nearly middle-aged men who assigned them homework on it at times. It would be great. Not uncomfortable at all.

When the students arrived for study hall, they found tables set up as usual - although he technically wasn't "teaching a class" and thus the students didn't have to do what he asked of me, he liked to give them a bit more structure than "here's some books, yolo," especially since his sessions with age groups had moved from the library to the Elective Hall and things were a bit more class-like than they'd been before - but there was an additional desk full of pamphlets, brochures, and paper quizzes. The students sat and Killian waved his wand, sending materials to each student. They all had been given folders especially for this time so that they could keep their things organized - resumes, letters, internship information, pamphlets, notes, whatever - and he trusted that they could figure out what to do with these things.

"Hello, everyone," Killian smiled easily, putting aside his nerves about ~~everything~~ today in favor of setting a light, positive tone for the students. "Today, you'll have the chance to learn about interpersonal communication and relationships. One of the pamphlets going around is about relationships in your person lives, be they friendships, romantic or sexual relationships, acquaintanceships, or any other such thing. We are around people every day for various reasons, and it's important that we understand a bit about what that means. There's some information about LGBTQ+ identities in here, as well as tips and suggestions for getting along with folks of different personalities. You've all taken the personality tests I've given out, so that shouldn't be too overwhelming." He set this down and took the next one in the stack. "Then there's information about Muggle-wizard relations. Most of you will interact with Muggles from time to time and this pamphlet has some great information about the history of those relations, as well as ideas for blending in, important notes about things that some of us don't realise are foreign to Muggles, etc." Then the last pamphlet. "This one is about professional relationships, such as at work or in future schooling. This will largely be review for you since we've done some mock interviews and things, but it's a good summary of what we've talked about before."

Those aside, he moved to the paper quiz and flicked his wand at the chalkboard:

5 Love Languages:
1) Touch
2) Quality Time
3) Words of Assurance
4) Gifts
5) Acts of Service

"With this one, I want to be very clear that the science and psychology behind it is a bit . . . wibbly." He wrinkled his nose. "It's hard to say anything for sure in these fields, so this quiz is meant to give us a starting place and not say anything in a cut and dry way, just like the personality tests that we did. The idea behind this one is that there are five 'love languages' and that everyone responds to each of those differently, some preferring one to another, and that everyone shows love differently. Just to address the hormonal hippogriff in the room, this is not just about romance love. Think about the time you spend with your friends or family and what means the most to you."

He looked around at everyone, checking to see whether there were any immediate questions. "You've all been keeping journals over the past few years--" It was their primary homework since Killian didn't quite feel it was his job to actually assign anything and since students didn't get grades for study hall, although they could lose house points for bad behavior and gain some for going above and beyond. Journals were his way of balancing the benefits of tangible work outside of class and self-reflection, without actually putting anything on them. It also made it worlds easier for him to go back and review stuff with students during individual meetings. "--and this is a great topic to brainstorm. If you really love giving people gifts but your friend feels the most loved through acts of service, how can you change your approach? Or how can you express your needs? In any case, go ahead and get started, and let me know if you have any questions. As always, if you need anything with this or with another subject, I'm happy to help. We can talk now or you can make an appointment, or drop by my office hours."

OOC - Hello! The 5LoveLanguages quiz can be found here and you can assume that Killian's doesn't include the demographic part, so anything about gender or age would be taken off, and that it's wizard-friendly. I love taking these sorts of things in character, so feel free to do so to inform your post, but you can definitely also just guess at it and don't need the quiz. That being said, you can also talk about one of the other pamphlets, or about something else! Have a fabulous time, y'all.

22 Killian Row Yolo. [Intermediates] 1450 Killian Row 1 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

June 21, 2020 3:36 PM

I hate you. I like you. [Bridget] by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel's jaw practically dropped when Mr. Row began class, and she could probably have stabbed him by the time he was done. This was not at all something she wanted to be thinking about, especially as she was well on her way to ~~pretending~~ knowing none of this would have any impact on her future anyway. It didn't help when her results were exactly the sort of things that her mother would be disappointed in her for. It was hard to believe Mr. Row that all of these were equally valid options. She grimaced at her paper. In order, words of affirmation, quality time, and gifts were her top three. Touch was fourth and acts of service was fifth. The last of those made sense, as Jezebel generally did not appreciate people doing things for her - it felt like an affront to her ability to do it on her own - but she was surprised by touch. She supposed it made some sense as her family wasn't particularly touchy. Sure, it meant a lot, but it was more weird and out of place than anything else. But words of affirmation . . . did she really need to hear that she was valuable to believe it? Considering everything that was absolutely not going on at all and she was fine, she thought it might be true.

So she was frowning when she looked up at Bridget. Initially, she'd been excited to sit with her friend because it meant they could chat a bit more than they could in most classes, and they could talk about jobs and careers and interests and she could get to know her better. Now, she was sort of regretting it. Although, maybe she could learn a bit more about her anyway. Jezebel scratched at the corner of the pamphlet that included information on LGBTQ identities, trying to decide whether she wanted to pick it up. Remembering that that wasn't all it contained, even if that was really the only bit she was absolutely not interested in at all, she gave in and opened it.

"What do you think?" Jezebel asked casually when Bridget looked like she had had a moment to take her quiz, think, and soak it all in for a minute. "I got words of affirmation," she added, hoping her face didn't show exactly how much she hated that answer. "So interpersonal communication sounds like a good place to start. What do you think of all this stuff?" She gestured a bit broadly, where maybe she meant the whole of today's class and wouldn't be seen as pushing Bridget to talk about more hot button topics, but maybe she meant the pamphlet that was open in her hand to reveal a Pride flag and warnings about microagressions.

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer I hate you. I like you. [Bridget] 1454 Jezebel Reed-Fischer 0 5

Bridget Ferguson

July 02, 2020 4:10 PM

You hate me? Oh no! by Bridget Ferguson

Sometimes, Mr. Row's study hall sessions just seemed so pointless, but then sometimes, so did everything else. Nothing was ever going to change for Bridget. Mama was always going to be sick and Dad was always going to drink. And she didn't really blame him either. She knew , thanks to the fact that Dad had no filter when he was drinking-which basically meant he never had one-and stories from Aunt Lucy, what her father's life had been like and it wasn't exactly perfect now either what with being married to someone chronically ill.

Life was like that, an endless soul sucking loop of the same crap over and over again. Things didn't get better for her parents and they probably weren't going to for Bridget either. Why would they?

And with regards to Study Hall in particular, there were some exercises that were specifically career-oriented and the Teppenpaw was probably not going to have a career. As bizarre as her family situation was, she was still a wealthy pureblood girl, Clifford Brockert's direct descendent. Therefore, it was a waste of time. Bridget liked it better when she got to do other homework-which also sometimes seemed pointless but she still excelled at both Transfig and Potions-or read. Especially read because it meant she could escape into another world for awhile.

In Professor Row's defense, there were other things in her classes that Bridget did not see herself needing either. Like, DADA. She didn't see herself getting in dangerous situations the way Professor Brooding-Hawthorne seemed to think everyone was going to. She was not inclined towards that sort of thing. Nor was the fourth year going to be doing anything that combined magic with muggle science. Honestly, Bridget was glad that was only one lesson compared to what her aunts had had at their school. She was happy to go to school at Sonora instead. Not that she'd had much trouble conjuring a bridge from a picture though.

However, today's Study Hall exercise was a little more interesting than usual. Personality quizzes could be fun....or terrible depending on what they told you about yourself. Bridget was pretty sure there were those among her classmates that would not enjoy the results of one. Unless they were like this one classmate of her mother's whom Mama had said seemed to just revel in her own evil. And as far as everyone could tell, Grandfather was just as equally unrepentant.

And knowing what sort of "love language" Bridget had beat knowing what career she was suited for as was learning about how to communicate with others. Which she wasn't that good at anyway. She was too weird. Her family was weird and that made her weird. Although, most of the pamphlets did not seem to be things she needed as she wasn't gay, she wasn't going to have a career and she wasn't going to interact with any Muggles other than her step-grandpa Clayton and step-cousin Ben. Tips and suggestions for getting along with people of different personalities might be helpful though Sophia might need that one more than her. Bridget's way of doing things was just not to argue and avoid conflict as much as possible.

She had just finished filling out the love language quiz when Jezebel spoke up next to her. "Me too." The Teppenpaw replied. "So we should just....compliment each other?" Bridget wasn't all that surprised that was what she'd gotten for number one. She often felt she needed reassurance to know she was all right, though to be fair, her parents, despite all their issues, did get that one right.

It was also not that surprising that "acts of service" was last. Bridget hadn't really....experienced them much. She had learned to be fairly self-sufficient early on.

"I think it's...more interesting than usual, but to be honest, I'm still not sure how much I'm going to use some of this stuff. However, I guess everyone needs to communicate with others and I'm not terribly great at it so learning how to do so better would be beneficial to me. But I'd still sort of rather be doing Potions or practical Transfiguration. You?"

11 Bridget Ferguson You hate me? Oh no! 1448 0 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

July 03, 2020 1:42 PM

Not a bit. by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel laughed at the idea of walking around complimenting each other all the time. It wasn't the worst solution but it would probably get tiresome at some point. "I think you'll use it," Jezebel offered, thinking about the fact that they were using it right now in some ways. "Even if you're doing practical, hands-on stuff, you're still working with people." She smiled a little more softly at Bridget's self-deprecating comment. "I think you're great at it," she said.

She paused to consider whether she'd rather be doing something hands-on herself. On the one hand, those things were helpful for preparing her for the future, which was important to her. She also liked to be able to do things right and to learn the answers to things, so that was good. At the same time, most of the questions in her head recently had been on exactly this topic, so what was she to do? Just push them aside? That wouldn't work. "I think I like this because it puts the social, communication stuff into terms that make more sense to me," she decided. "Like it makes soft skills seem like a hard science to some extent, like other classes usually seem. Today we're studying magic theory, puffapods, and interpersonal communication. Makes me feel a little better to think I have a shot at learning to do this stuff better I think."

Keeping her eyes on her own paper as she thought about this and gave Bridget room to do the same, or to respond, she looked at the older girl out of the corner of her eye. Did Bridget really not think she was good at communication? She seemed like a genuinely cool human. Did that mean she thought Jezebel was even worse at it? Or that both of their perspectives were skewed? "I'm actually a little surprised," she smirked, looking at her friend more directly now. "This seems like the hallmark of a Teppenpaw's interests. Guess that makes you special?"

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer Not a bit. 1454 0 5