I see... on Charms

Grayson Wright

September 04, 2020 7:59 PM

Making Use of Invisibility (Advanced) by Grayson Wright

To an extent, Gray had his reservations about the usefulness of the Charms RATS. Many of the most advanced bits of charmswork were, after all, next to impossible to evaluate under exam conditions – how, for example, were they to tell exactly how much range a student’s charms could cover? An undetectable extension charm could allow the space to put the student a mile away from an object, but this was still different than actually operating from a mile away in natural space. Perhaps a student could correct artificial weather conditions on a scale model, but this – though difficult enough – was much different from working with weather even on the scale of a complete room, never mind outside. He vividly recalled one of his university exams, where he had been sitting on a hill with one examiner, under directions to make it start raining in a town several miles away, which he had never visited before and only knew about because of a map. Another examiner had been in that town to see what happened, so he hadn’t even known if he passed or failed for hours afterward….

Of course, it made more sense if one simply regarded the RATS exam as an indicator that one had the aptitude to pursue further training, rather than as an indicator of mastery. A passing CATS score indicated a student could live comfortably in their world, had enough practical skills to get by with. RATS indicated talent. It was the world beyond where the ones with the RATS would really find out what they could do, if they had the need, or were even just so inclined.

Most likely, of course, few ever would. He had hardly used most of the things he’d learned to do, after all, in the years since, and certainly hadn’t advanced many of those skills. He used charms and charms theory to make a living now, more or less, and still was not entirely sure of the exact extent of his abilities – something that did sometimes jab at the pride of one corner of the Aladren in him, though he had never been one of the ambitious ones. There was something about being in some company, though, that made it curiously easy to forget that, and a number of members of such company had been at Anne’s birthday party. Seeing how some of them had turned out, seeing how he was seen, stacking that beside the other time he had left campus this semester…It was like having a lash in one’s eye, the thought of things could be much better, if.

That, however, was a dangerous thought. Very dangerous. There were some people who only wanted power for its own sake, but far more who set out to do some good and it all just…came unstuck, somewhere along the way. He had read enough history, both for pleasure and as background research for his various lines of work, to know that, and while he didn’t think he was capable of anything like that…better, far better, to immerse himself in his work. It was not as if he lacked for it, after all, or if there was no reason why he had gone into noveling under a pseudonym. There were advantages of invisibility.

“Invisibility,” he announced to the class. “You should all know a basic invisibility charm, aufugio, though some of you may not have been able to complete it by the end of your fifth years. Today, we’re going to incorporate it into our ongoing unit on magical fields.”

Recently, their lessons had revolved around the theme of magical fields – the sphere of influence a spell could have. They would only study the theory of truly massive spells, like the Trace, or whole areas concealed against Muggle penetration, but there were some spells where it should be possible for them to apply the magic on a small scale, one that affected very little in the end.

“Each of you should have a small board on your desk,” he said, holding up an example. These were simple straight pieces of wood, each a little more than a foot long, with three figures not unlike inanimate chess pawns positioned on each end and one in the middle. The spaces between them were marked off in one-inch intervals. “By the time we’re done, I want you to be able to cast the charm sepio aufugus - which has the same right-facing crescent moon wand movement as aufugio - on any of the three tall markers and have the field cover all three items. If you aren’t successful by the end of class, practice more for homework - you'll need the practice to reach a RATS-standard perimeter anyway - and, ah, so, do that along with finishing those books assigned last week, just a reminder that your reports on those are due Friday, thank you…”

That, he thought, covered the essential points. Now to watch their attempts, correct any blatant errors, ignore anything he was reasonably sure was a string of profanities in another language. Simple, satisfying, honest, uncomplicated (well, for the most part) work.

Subthreads:

I see... by Gary Harper with Beau Tate

Now you see me (tag Ruby) by Dorian Montoir with Ruby Brockert

16 Grayson Wright Making Use of Invisibility (Advanced) 113 1 5

Gary Harper

September 04, 2020 8:48 PM

I see... by Gary Harper

Gary found his seat early once again. It was an old habit by this point, get to class early, work on game until the Professor started talking, then quickly switch over to class notes. There was only one problem with that right now. He didn't have a game to work on. He had some adventures he could tweak and such, but his plan was sort of working. For the most he wasn't running all of the games now. He had a 'grande finale' planned and put together for the last few weeks of the term, but that was it. Then he was done. That thought left a very odd hollow spot in his stomach.

Thankfully Professor Wright started the class. Nice, invisibility fields. This could get fun. He examined the game board that sat before him as Professor Wright explained the task before them for today. It was just a matter of making a large enough field to cover all the pieces, right? While keeping it stable as well, but there wasn't anything more to it? Perhaps that would be enough to start with though. He wondered if was possible to create a field to include the two outer figures while missing the one in the middle. As far as he'd learned, the fields were spheres, but... did they have to be? Or, could a smaller field be placed withing a larger field to null out the effects? He'd have to experiment, once he'd accomplished the lesson.

Gary took up his wand and started off simply, casting the base level invisibility on each of the pieces independently, just to make sure that worked first. No problems. Alright, next was to expand things out a bit. "sepio aufugus!" Just the center one vanished. Hmm... this may be trickier than he'd originally thought...

2 Gary Harper I see... 1404 0 5

Beau Tate

September 05, 2020 5:09 PM

I think that means you're doing it wrong by Beau Tate

CW-Mentions alcohol and nudity. Some age and weight shaming.

Beau was at that point in the year where he was so incredibly sick of school as a whole. He was tired of seeing the same people day in and day out. Nothing personal against any of them, he just liked variety and his year group was particularly small. This summer he would get to attend parties and socialize with people he didn't see very often.

He'd also get to, well, have fun . One last summer before people tried to force responsibilities on him....athough he might have to listen to his father lecture him about careers and future plans and all that other stuff that Beau could not be more sick of hearing about. Father was just not getting the message. Still, he'd get to go visit the nude beach-although unfortunately, not everyone who went to that should be there, honestly, the Pecari felt like there should be a maximum age and weight allowed as well as the minimum one - and get drunk and stuff.

Honestly, Beau could not have been more bored at the moment. Things just got so monotonous at Sonora. He just wished something would happen to liven things up a bit. Even the midsummer event sounded dull this year. Beau had had a great time the last time the fair had happened. It had coincided with the Magical State Fair with rides and games and fun food. This time they were stuck with some charity fair. Yawn. Not that he didn't care about people, but the Pecari had no interest in like, sitting around learning about how much people were suffering. That sounded depressing, not festive. Not to mention that Beau was sure that some charities were going to try to make people like him feel guilty for being who he was, because there were people who wanted him to feel that way.

Plus they didn't even get to leave school grounds for the event like last time!

Midsummer events were supposed to be fun. They were supposed to be like, a celebration of the end of the school year. In reality, that wasn't the case. Beau could really only see the enjoyment in two of them, the fair and the bonfire, in theory and then it depended on what one was doing at them. School balls were not that fun, because while one didn't have to behave quite so properly as with society balls, it was still the same people one saw all the time. The concert wasn't fun because it was basically students putting on a show for their families rather than say, a music festival or something. The sixth year saw no real enjoyment in watching his classmates perform and he certainly wasn't going to be putting in the work of perfoming himself.

Obviously though, the thing Beau was the most tired of and bored with was classes. He was simply not the studious type. It was hard enough to deal with theory work at the beginning of the year when his mind was more fresh, it was nearly impossible towards the end of the year when Beau had had to deal with this uninteresting crap for several months, with only a short midterm break.

And why did professors think they all cared how magic worked? They could learn a whole bunch more practical spells and be all around better wizards and witches if they just cut out all of the theoretical lessons.

Thank Merlin that today's Charms lesson was a practical one! Beau had never really had a desire to be invisible himself-why would he?-but it wasn't some dry theory lesson and that was what mattered though he groaned inwardly at the mention of the report that was due. Those were another thing he would like to have seen done away with.

He looked at the piece of wood and figures in front of him. "Sepio Aufugus " . Beau said. The middle and far left pieces vanished. The sixth year turned to Gary Harper, who was sitting next to him, "How's yours going?" The lesson would go faster if he talked to someone while working.

11 Beau Tate I think that means you're doing it wrong 1416 0 5

Gary Harper

September 06, 2020 2:12 PM

You might be on to something there by Gary Harper

Gary was trying to figure the best way to analyze the AoE range of his Sepio Afugus, and the most efficient way to increase it when Beau decided to talk to him. "Huh? Umm.. Alright I guess." He responded. Beau was not one of the people he talked to regularly, since he was a year behind Gary, Beau had oscillated in and out of his classes for the most part. To be fair, so had Heinrich, but Heinrich had joined the gaming club. Gary knew next to nothing about Beau, other than he had a rather lackadaisical approach to his classes.

Or... maybe not. Glancing at Beau's setup, two of the figures were gone. He'd gotten his field big enough to include the middle and left piece. "I'm not quite as far along as you are though." He considered the younger boy's work. "How did you overcome the inherent instability in the magical field with the increase in power necessary for the field's expansion?" He looked back to his own pieces, furrowed his brow and continued rambling, "The extra power necessitates that some of it go to field stabilization while the rest goes to expansion, but those two factors are not linear with one another, so that ratio changes with the input of power. If the field becomes unstable, it collapses and the spell fails, however if to much is put toward the stabilization the field becomes rigid and can't expand. A certain level of instability is necessary for the field to reach the correct size, right?" The question was only somewhat aimed in Beau's direction.

He cast the spell again, aiming for the midpoint between the center and left figures. Both seemed to become transparent before snapping back solid as the spell collapsed again. "Still to unstable for a field that size, but better." He turned back to Beau, "How much did you channel into expansion versus stability for your spell?"

2 Gary Harper You might be on to something there 1404 0 5

Dorian Montoir

September 12, 2020 8:49 PM

Now you see me (tag Ruby) by Dorian Montoir

Perhaps it was just the impending effect of graduation that put Dorian in a reflective mood and made everything seem so deeply significant. A dose of it certainly came from his personality, and being the type to think on things in that way. But yet again, as the lesson started, he found himself feeling like it had a particular meaning for him.

He remembered being good at aufugio when it had come up in fifth year. Certain theories went that you did well with charms that suited your personality, or that you could see direct applications of. Dorian had had both. Back in fifth year, he had only just been dipping a toe in the water of self-expression and openly embracing who he was. He had signed up for the concert and admitted to a meeting full if Teppenpaws that he liked to make to things pretty. His work and his effects, including all his inclination to sparkle, had been put on stage for all the world to see, but he himself had still been hiding. He had practically died when Kir dragged the stage crew on for a bow. At that time hadn't been out to anyone except Professor Brooding. He hadn't started dating Jean-Loup. The concert had been a turning point in feeling like who he was could be valued, his parents had been so proud of his work, but he had still been being crushed under the fear that he was going to disappoint them. Plus the concert had come after his CATS. So, it had been easy to do well on aufugio.

By that logic, he might be worse at it now, after all, he could scarcely claim that he was trying to be invisible any more. He had kissed his boyfriend in the street, where any of his classmates could see. He had taken him to the ball. He was fairly sure that almost everyone knew at least something about who he was and what he stood for. He considered Professor Brooding-Hawthorne's invitation to Pride, which sounded like the complete opposite of being invisible. He wanted to go. He was not sure how much he wanted to dress up or be ridiculous or feel like he was on display, but he wanted to go.

Maybe he sucked at invisibility now.

Still, it had been useful enough for the concert that he thought he might have had more practise than most people. Concealing objects and then making them appear when necessary was easier than producing them on cue. Invisible set pieces could also produce effects such as dancers appearing to float in the air, and as they'd had a whole number literally called 'Invisible' those types of effect had been in high demand. Of course, he had had the older students to help. Jozua had been there, and because almost all the invisibility had been prepared in advance, people like Kir and Georgia had been able to help even though they were on stage during the actual show. Still, he thought he had maybe flexed this particular muscle more often than some of his classmates.

"Sepia aufugio," he cast, aiming at the middle pawn. He figured that was the least challenging, seeing as his field would only have to stretch half the length of the board on either side, rather than all of it. Maybe it didn't work like that. Maybe it was covering thirty centimetres of board either way, but he pictured the point where he had cast it as the strongest, and the effect radiating out from there, getting weaker as it went. He was pretty sure he had read something about aiming for the centre, and that being the most effective method. Though, as the entire board promptly disappeared entirely, he thought he should probably challenge himself by trying from the further end.

"Finite incantatum," he cast, causing it to reappear.

He glanced at his neighbour's work, trying to get an appraisal of how it was going. It was one of the standard in-class greetings to ask about that, but he thought it might be considered show-offy to raise that subject when his own answer was 'basically flawlessly.' There was being visible, and proud of his achievements, and then there was boasting, and he had no wish to do the latter. He had chosen to sit with Ruby so they could have a chance to chat, so he wanted to be able to do that.

"It's strange to think about leaving, isn't it?" he asked instead, given that that was the other topic currently on all the seventh years' minds.

13 Dorian Montoir Now you see me (tag Ruby) 1401 0 5

Beau Tate

September 13, 2020 7:23 PM

Possibly by Beau Tate

Beau nodded at Gary's response. The older boy was not someone he'd really spoken to much before. They didn't really seem to have much in common. Not that that meant that the Pecari disliked the other boy. Beau tended to be fairly accepting of most types of people, contrary to what most people would have assumed about him. Okay, yeah, he wasn't going to be marrying a non-pureblood but other than that, he really only took issue with bossy control freaks like his older sister. People who were critical of him or told others how to live their lives. He did not really see Gary doing this, even though they were very different people.

However, Beau realized quickly the reason why he'd possibly never talked to the seventh year much as Gary started to spout off in some language that the sixth year was not entirely sure was English. Or at least not any dialect that he was personally familiar with. Maybe this was some subtype of English known as "Aladren." And he definitely did not speak it.

This did not , however, mean that Arianna was at all right when she said Beau was stupid. Not speaking a language did not mean one was stupid even if that language was someone talking in a person's native tongue on a subject one was unfamiliar with. Like if someone was talking about Muggle things, Beau would not understand it. In fact, there were theory things-which was what he really assumed the Aladren was talking about as they were the sort that actually found that sort of thing interesting. Which was fine but it didn't mean he liked when professors inflicted it on him-that sounded like a foreign tongue to him.

However, lack of ability was not the same as lack of interest. Granted, sometimes the two went hand in hand. Like someone who was bad at something probably was not going to feel encouraged to do it. Who wanted to keep doing something if they weren't going to be successful?

At the same time, Beau was sure he was capable of getting these higher thought concepts. But they were a lot of effort and he really didn't care. He had never been a fan of doing things that weren't easy. He was an underachiever, and perfectly fine with that regardless of what Father, Arianna or society at large thought. He almost wished Father would see him as less capable. Maybe then he'd leave Beau alone to do what he wanted.

And then Gary asked him a question. Oh crap . Expansion vs stability....what? Was he asking Beau how he'd managed to get the results he'd gotten? "I....did not put that much thought into it." Which he was certain would not shock the older boy. Surely, while the Pecari wasn't stupid, he was hardly going to be thought of as one of Sonora's great thinkers.

Then again, their professors had this weird idea that theory was necessary and fascinating and Gary was an Aladren so he might assume everyone thought about this stuff. Which wasn't fair, because Beau didn't naturally assume everyone was into activity and danger just because he was a Pecari. "I just...pictured them disappearing.....and two of them....did. Maybe you're overthinking things?" Beau suggested, not as a way of insulting Gary but in a way that he hoped would help the seventh year. Sometimes you just needed to relax and do, even though those things were sometimes mutually exclusive.

11 Beau Tate Possibly 1416 0 5

Gary Harper

September 14, 2020 5:13 PM

So... I see nothing? by Gary Harper

Beau looked a little confused and Gary felt a little twinge of guilt. This wasn't Ness he was discussing theory with, they could go on for hours trying to balance out the equations. Beau did not strike Gary as that type of a person. Confirmation was soon verbally given and Gary nodded along semi-apologetically and gave the boy a sheepish grin.

As the sixth year explained, Gary was a little dumb-struck. "Overthinking..." the word came out as almost a quiet whisper. Was it that simple? Maybe? He looked at evidence before him. Gary had nothing against Beau at all. He wasn't the must studious of students, but everyone had their own way of doing things. He had accomplished something that Gary had not with all of his formulations and critical analysis. Beau had two missing from his board, he at best had one.

Gary smiled at the Pecari, "You're probably on to something there." He finite incantiumed his own spell clear. "So," he began talking out loud mostly to himself, but slightly to Beau as well. "The theory we have to practice here is to see if instead of trying to control the levels of force manually, we can simply guide the magic into doing what we want it to do by imagining it." It sounded crazy, but it was magic, it was a force of will, and he was pretty sure some of the professors had also included that in some of their lessons, so... allow that will to act instead of trying to control each aspect of it. He'd heard that programmers wished computers worked in such a way.

"Alright, let's give this a go." He gave his playing board a good look over to get a decent picture of it locked into his mind. Then he pictured what he wanted to happen, all of the pieces to vanish. Finally he waved his wand, said the words and allowed the spell to do whatever it wanted to do.

It turned out that was harder than it should have been. Gary discovered that he may have become something of a control freak on this front. He'd never really figured out where that magical power was coming from, how many spells slots were being used for any given spell and how many he actually had to work with, all of those things. He now had to will himself to allow the magic to draw what it wanted from wherever it came from and do whatever it wanted to do.

All three of the figures vanished. "Huh." was all he could say as he looked at his seemingly empty board.

2 Gary Harper So... I see nothing? 1404 0 5

Ruby Brockert

September 19, 2020 5:52 PM

Hopefully, that won't stop completely? by Ruby Brockert

Ruby could not believe that before too long, she would no longer be a student at Sonora. She was unsure whether or not to be excited. On the one hand, she had a lot of things that she was looking forward to. The seventh year was sure that a proposal from Dean would be forthcoming soon after graduation. They'd always talked about a future together but had so far not become engaged because it would have been rude to steal Emerald and Winston's-or Owen and Jemima's-thunder. The wedding of the former had been over midterm, which was when Dean would have most likely proposed, but Ruby would not have wanted to take away from her sister and her boyfriend knew that.

Anyway, after a proposal came a wedding and a marriage and babies! All things Ruby was supremely excited for. Unlike Emerald or Topaz, she was the sort of girl who started planning her wedding when she was eight. The flowers-which she supposed would now have to be fake because otherwise they'd trigger Miles' allergies-the food-again, would need to now include allergy friendly options-the dress, the color scheme, the bridesmaids.

Ruby was also looking forward to being married to a man she loved and having babies. Unlike Emerald, who was hoping to give Winston an heir on the first or second try-as opposed to the fifth like their parents who weren't even the main family heirs-Ruby wanted to have lots of children. Although she hoped to space them out better than her parents had. She was certain that Mother was how she was because she'd been stressed out from having babies every two years.

On the other hand, well, Ruby couldn't help but feel somewhat...nostalgic about her time at Sonora. Okay, so she wasn't prefect or Head Girl and she hadn't made a lot of friends, just Dorian and Jasmine and the latter hadn't been until they were fifth years despite having a lot in common. However, two friends, even ones who had other, closer, friends, was better than none. Angelique had assured her of that.

The sad thing was, the Teppenpaw wasn't entirely sure how often, if ever, she would get to see either of them. Jasmine....did not travel in the same social circles in the outside world as Ruby did and Dorian...might not be doing so anymore. Still, she valued both those friendships and hoped she could keep in touch with them at least somewhat.

One thing that the seventh year was not going to miss though was RATS level magical theory. Another way that she was quite different from both Emerald and Topaz was that, while not stupid, she had never been particularly interested in academics. However, she was happy to learn more difficult spells, especially ones that would help her in the future.

Fortunately, today seemed to be practical spellcasting day. Ruby was not entirely sure that this was the sort of spell that was going to help her with childcare duties or running a household, but she knew that there were certainly times that one of her siblings or cousins wanted to be invisible to help them hide from either Topaz or Uncle Eustace. Of course, Emerald had always wanted to make Topaz disappear, but really what Ruby's older sister had wanted was for the fifth year to be somewhere else that was very far away rather than an invisible Topaz which would surely be worse. Topaz herself was in favor of becoming invisible for that very reason.

Once Professor Wright finished talking, Ruby looked over her chess pieces. "Sepio aufugus" She cast it over the middle piece, which disappeared while the other two had a nice chunk taken out of them.

She was about to give it another go when Dorian spoke up next to her. "I know. We've been here for so long now that it's just going to be...weird not being so, you know?"

11 Ruby Brockert Hopefully, that won't stop completely? 1405 0 5

Beau Tate

September 20, 2020 6:29 PM

Good job by Beau Tate

"Well, yes, but, to be honest, I tend to ignore the theory and just cast ." Beau replied. This appeared to be a profound difference between himself and Gary that explained their respective sortings. Beau was a Pecari. They didn't look before they leaped. Gary, on the other hand, was an Aladren. Which meant he thought too much.

It was actually kind of weird when he thought about it because his mom was an Aladren too. She had been Professor Wright's year and housemate-and had sincerely resented him for getting prefect over her. The thing was, Mother was nothing like Gary or Professor Wright at all and it puzzled Beau that she'd been in Aladren when she was definitely not a nerd who over thought things. Though he supposed she was methodical, but that might have been more of a Crotalus thing.

Of course Aunt Holly-his mother's friend, not an actual biological aunt-had been in Pecari and she was....nothing like him or Aunt Nina-who was an actual biological aunt-or her daughter Anya. Mother was more like Arianna-minus the part where she didn't hate him like his sister did- and Aunt Holly was more like Jasmine, who were both Crotali. And Arianna and Jasmine weren't completely alike either because the latter was a lot nicer. Beau would swear his sister was the second most evil person he could think of after Bridget's grandpa.

And then, neither Arianna or Jasmine was much like Uncle Adam, his mom's actual brother, either. His uncle was smarter and less....bubbly than Jasmine was and while he was sort of grouchy and bitter and well on his way to becoming a good family patriarch, he was also a good person, unlike Arianna. And his cousin, Connor was different than Arianna as well. He was definitely nicer, but then again, Beau didn't know anyone who was meaner than Arianna. However, Connor was a better person than Beau's sister was. Not that that took much, but Connor was going to be a Healer. And Connor's girlfriend, Peyton, was also a good person obviously, because she wanted to eradicate child abuse.

Actually, come to think of it, Uncle Evan, also his mom's brother, who'd also been an Aladren wasn't much like Mother either. And not exactly like Gary or Professor Wright either. Though he was probably more like them than like Mother. Of course, Beau didn't think anyone out there was much like his uncle. Uncle Evan was weird . And Sophia probably was closer to the Gary and Professor Wright side of things than she was Mother's. Because Mother was practically a Crotalus. Except that Crotalus had an extremely wide variety of personalities because Uncle Adam was on one side-quiet, shy, introverted-and Arianna was the other kind-evil and snotty. Jasmine and Connor were somewhere in between. Peyton was closer to Uncle Adam's kind of Crotalus.

And while he was at it, he might as well contemplate Tepps too. Beau supposed Aunt Kaylie and Aunt Hope were somewhat similar. They were both nice which was the defining feature of their house. Aunt Hope was probably less neurotic though. However, he didn't think that was a Tepp trait, though it seemed to fit Nathaniel Mordue. Actually, Beau would have attributed being neurotic more to some Crotali although not his sister or cousin. It fit his uncle however.

Anyway, it looked like Gary was giving it another shot. And all three pieces vanished. Beau smiled approvingly. "Good job." It looked like the Pecari's way had worked. He had to admit, he felt slightly smug, though that smugness wasn't directed at Gary. No, it was for his sister, who thought he was an idiot. All Gary's over thinking hadn't gotten very far, while Beau's way had succeeded.

"I suppose I should give mine another try." Beau turned back to his own board. "sepio aufugus" . He grinned, satisfied as they all disappeared.

11 Beau Tate Good job 1416 0 5

Gary Harper

September 21, 2020 4:32 PM

Excellent, what next? by Gary Harper

If Gary was being really, truly honest with himself, he'd have to admit that he was minorly annoyed with Beau. Well, not really Beau himself, but Beau's results despite his carefree, indifferent attitude towards the whole thing. He'd been diligently learning formulas, figuring equations, trying to match together conflicting theories and not getting anywhere. Beau on the other hand was just languishing in the first-year lesson of 'imagine it and wish' and getting better results!

Maybe Beau and his results weren't really what he was annoyed with, maybe he was just annoyed at his own incompetence. He'd dismissed the thought of allowing the magic, to act on it's own volition through his vision a few years ago. Once the teachers had really started getting into the theory, it felt more like the game had rules. Rules that could be used and exploited, ruled that would allow for better control and more deliberate magic. Maybe they did, maybe he just wasn't up to that level yet. Would he need to be to pass RATS?

Fortunately, Gary had put no ranks whatsoever into his 'being really, truly honest with himself' skill. "Nice," he grinned at Beau. "Now, what else do you think we can do with it?" He cleared away his own spell and the pieces reappeared. He contemplated them for a moment. "Before we got started here I was wondering if there was a way to cast the field to make the two outside pieces invisible, while not affecting the middle one."

"I'm going to try something…" Gary pulled up his mental image again of all three vanishing and cast the spell once more. This time however, he tried to do his best to 'observe' what the magical forces were doing, how they were acting, where they were going. It was weird and not easy, but he was pretty sure he got a vague sense of what they were doing. Whether or not he could do anything with that information yet... well, that was a different story. He gave Beau a grin while bringing his pieces back again, "Okay, let's try it your way first and we'll see what happens. The spherical nature of the fields should make this... interesting. Got any guesses as to how this'll work?"

2 Gary Harper Excellent, what next? 1404 0 5

Dorian Montoir

September 26, 2020 9:50 PM

Hopefully by Dorian Montoir

"Yes!" Dorian agreed emphatically, offering Ruby a slightly sad smile. It was comforting to hear his own exact sentiments mirrored back to him but bittersweet when it was something so sad, and which meant that a friend was sad too. Still, it reminded him of why he liked to talk to Ruby. They weren't super close but he felt like she understood. He supposed empathy and understanding were what you would expect to find in a Teppenpaw, but it easily went beyond that with her. She seemed to see the world how he did, and whenever something important came up, it felt like they were on the same page.

He wondered yet again what the other side of graduation looked like... In some ways, it was scarier to say goodbye to people like Ruby and Parker than it was his close friends. Because with his close friends, he knew it wasn't really goodbye. He was a little afraid (okay, more than a little) of the effects of time and distance, of their conflicting priorities, but he knew that Tatya and Professor Brooding-Hawthorne would absolutely fight to keep seeing him. They wouldn't let him go. Vlad... that was a bit of a question mark right now, but for different reasons. What about the people who liked him, but had no reason to fight for the friendship, or to keep seeing him? It felt sad to think of not knowing them any more.

"Do you think you'll keep in touch with many people?" he asked, avoiding her eye and hoping that didn't sound quite as needy and as like he was fishing as it might do, given that he was absolutely being and doing both of things right now.

13 Dorian Montoir Hopefully 1401 0 5

Ruby Brockert

September 30, 2020 11:10 PM

I will if you will by Ruby Brockert

"Many people?" Ruby replied. "I don't know about many ." Two was not many, not at all. Although she supposed she'd see Vlad around since they were distantly related and would attend the same parties what with both being purebloods. Caitlin Pierce's brother was married to her sister and she'd also probably see the Mordue cousins at parties as well. And of course, she'd see her siblings, Allegra and Esme.

Still, the truth was, she hadn't spent all that much time with most of her classmates to begin with. Ruby hadn't even made friends with Jasmine until fifth year. She might regret not getting to know them better and feel guilty about it, but that was how things were and now it was way too late.

The thing was that the Teppenpaw didn't quite know why things had never happened. It wasn't as if she were the sort who was afraid to socialize, to make the first move the way Allegra or Sapphire would be. Nor had Ruby seen anything objectionable in her classmates, like, that they weren't nice people or anything like that. They definitely were even if she might not have had much in common with Gary or Parker, for example.

Which meant Ruby had no excuse and she'd feel guilty about that for awhile. Particularly with Vlad based on the facts that they were in the same year and house and, oh yeah, distantly related. She supposed she could still try to make an effort with him from now on.

And true, they could have tried harder to make friends with her as well. The Teppenpaw had to admit, nobody had particularly shown interest in her much. It was a two way street. However, it truly hurt to think that way. That there was something about her that wasn't appealing or interesting to them. And, in fact, if she was a different sort of person, she might have even thought Dorian hadn't seemed all that interested in her and had a lot of gall asking if she was going to keep in touch with people.

However, Ruby wasn't like that. And anyway, she'd rather feel guilty for a little while, which would surely fade in time as she directed her energies towards marriage and raising children-she was definitely going to be a more hands on mother than her own had been and also, not overwhelm herself by having so many children in so short a time span-than think there was something about herself that had made her classmates think of her as not worth getting to know. It wasn't like with Angelique or Sapphire where she was completely different than all of them.

Although, to be fair, Ruby honestly didn't think that was the case with her younger sister. True, she didn't know the people around the third year's age very well- after all,if she didn't know her own classmates that well, she certainly wouldn't know people three to five years younger-but as far as she knew the two ways Sapphire was "different" than her classmates were being a pureblood and being epileptic, the latter of which people didn't really know about. However, if they didn't want to be friends with her because she was a pureblood and they weren't that was on them .

Of course, the Crotalus was incredibly shy and quiet. Which meant odds were that her classmates were more outgoing than she was and that meant it was also on them to get to know her. Or on them if they looked down on her for being shy and quiet. Still, that didn't make it any easier for Sapphire.

Ruby continued. "I mean, I didn't become friends with many people but the ones I did get to know at all, I'll try to keep in touch with some." Hopefully, they'd want to keep in touch with her too.

11 Ruby Brockert I will if you will 1405 0 5

Dorian Montoir

October 01, 2020 1:26 AM

I will by Dorian Montoir

Ruby's response seemed a little pointed, and Dorian wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Did Ruby not think many of their year group was worth keeping in touch with? That was fairly at odds with how Dorian saw them, and with Ruby's usual personality. And okay, he wasn't sure whether she'd ever had much interaction with, say, Parker. He honestly wasn't exactly sure how he had come to regard him as friendly... A small collection of accidents, he supposed. They hadn't spoken often but they had somehow managed to cross paths in ways that had left impressions. Maybe it just didn't take much for Dorian to form good impressions of people. He wasn't sure how true that was... For a while, it had taken him the longest time not to assume default badness, or to not feel a little anxious outside of his familiar circle - but perhaps the flip side of that was small kindnesses were capable of surprising him. His scale might have been heavily weighted towards worrying, but maybe it also tipped fairly easily... Or at least took on counterweights.

Ruby, it seemed, didn't feel like she had got to know many people. That surprised him a little. She was a very sociable person. But maybe there was a difference between being friendly and making friends. For all that she was pleasant and he liked her company, he felt like he had never got a lot of it. He suspected he would be in for even less after they graduated, and their lives went down very, very different paths. He wondered what her summer plans were. Home, Dean, family, probably. Part of him knew it would be polite to ask. But his own plans were being away, Jean-Loup, maybe attending Pride with his teacher... A thing he still didn't feel like he knew fully how to explain. And he thought he might like to pretend for just a little longer that not too much was changing, even if he was looking forward to all of those things.

"I hope that includes me then?" he asked, not able to see any way other than being quite direct about it. Nothing Ruby had said seemed to preclude him. It hadn't been any kind of veiled comment about moving in proper circles or keeping the right company. It had been about keeping the people she had got to know. "I will write to you," he promised.

13 Dorian Montoir I will 1401 0 5