Grayson Wright
April 02, 2021 8:26 PM
Freeze! (Beginners) by Grayson Wright
Of necessity, Professor Wright had in his life owned enough kitchenware for, at least, his own use, but it had to be said: even when he had lived alone, he had owned far more books than he had bowls. Fortunately for the purposes of his beginner lesson, however, he currently lived in a school, which had kitchens organized and administered by other people, meaning he could just ask one of the prairie elves when he needed a decently large supply of cereal bowls. He was fairly sure his helper had looked at him a bit strangely after this request, but it had nevertheless been met, and so, as the first and second years came into the classroom, it involved the sight of stacks of bowls teetering precariously beside the professor.“Hello, everyone,” he greeted them. “Hope you enjoyed your weekend without homework, but now it’s time to get back to work. As you can probably guess – “ he gestured to the stacks of bowls – “today will mostly be a practical lesson, one that I hope will help clear up any misconceptions about one of the basic principles of Charms – specifically, what we mean when we say we’re going to change what something does without changing what it is.”
The students, fortunate little humans that they were, probably for the most part were unaware of exactly how much ink had been spilled over the centuries on this topic. Indeed, arguments over it had allegedly resulted in at least one person being stabbed in the eye with a quill in an Irish monastery in the sixth century. It was also part of the running feud between certain specialists in Charms and Transfiguration – he’d been to a cross-disciplinary conference after his second year of teaching where any discussion of Golden Snitches was banned, on pain of being physically ejected from the premises for your own safety, before someone who had had that argument one too many times performed an entrail-expelling curse on you. However, even the students (after having multiple reading and a couple writing assignments about it in the first weeks of school) knew it was a statement that looked very simple but was actually sometimes quite the headache to work with practically at all. What, after all, was chairiness? Teapotitude? Were there degrees to which something was or wasn’t a table? And so on….
He flicked his wand, causing the bowls to distribute themselves, one in front of each student. The curious or highly observant might have noticed that they seemed to have been recently washed and not very well dried; the insides of them were noticeably damp.
“This is also the beginning of our study of charms of motion,” he informed them. “Eventually, you’ll learn how to make things fly, and how to stop them flying; for now, we’re going to work on a smaller problem – a much, much smaller problem. The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus was possibly the first to understand – more or less – that everything is made up of many smaller parts, which join together or separate apart to create different arrangements of matter, and the reason we constantly see change around us in the universe is because once you split things down until you reach the point where they cannot be split any further, those tiniest particles – he called them atomos - constantly move, every second of every day, bouncing off each other and having interactions with each other. Since then, we’ve discovered that there’s some truth to this idea, and also that things can change based on the speed of those tiny particles. Therefore – “
He muttered a refilling charm, and the bowls all went from damp to about half-full of water. “We talk about water, ice, and steam as though they were three separate things, but they’re made of the same particles,” he explained. “The particles just move very fast in steam, very slowly in ice, and somewhere in the middle in liquid water like that in front of you now. Today, your job is to use the charm glacius to make the particles slow down – in other words, you’re going to freeze the water. This spell has a wide variety of practical uses also, so even those of you who haven’t been paying much attention to me talking about ancient Greece should get something of value out of the lesson,” he added, with a smile and without changing his tone in the slightest, just to see who was awake if nothing else.
“Ideally, you want all the water frozen by the end of class, and I’ll especially look for that from you, second years.” The second years were often not much better than the first years in the very first fortnight or so of school, but picking something back up was quicker than learning it the first time. “If you think you’ve finished by the end of class, bring your bowl up and we’ll test it – otherwise, I’ll check them all after class and offer feedback from there. Freeze something, though, and you pass today. Clear enough? Very good. You may begin.”
OOC: Welcome to Charms! Remember all posting rules apply. If you, as an author, have a question, you can either find me in Chatzy or post the question on the OOC board. If your character has a question, please include “tag Professor Wright” in the title of your post and I will steer Gray your way. Happy posting everyone!
Additional notes: Gray's summary of Democritus is accurate as far as I know, though it stops short of modern understandings of atoms and elements. His description of particles moving fast or slow is based on my recollections of how the idea was explained in my middle school science class. The rest of the theory stuff, I made up.
Subthreads: Cold! by Iris Cobb with Rosalynn Tellerman, Grayson Wright
I didn't do it! Oh, I mean.. umm... [Gus and/or Oz] by Billy Cobb with Oz Spellman
Red light? by Henry Spellman with Tommy Jamison
*holds very still* by Hansel Hexenmeister with Ian Malone
I'm going nowhere fast by Xavier Lundstrom with Winston Randall
Time to slam the door on this one (Billy, Iris) by Grayson Wright with Billy Cobb, Iris Cobb
16
Grayson Wright
Freeze! (Beginners)
113
1
5
Xavier Lundstrom
April 21, 2021 5:07 AM
I'm going nowhere fast by Xavier Lundstrom
Xavier took a seat in charms. It was a new week, and a fresh start, and he'd had a fun and relaxing weekend. He had taken his rollerblades to MARS and found that it was totally capable of conjuring up an awesome skate park. Skating was something he'd done a lot of with his brother, so it had made putting pen to paper a little easier. He was still getting used to having to write letters to communicate, but he guessed all those imaginary letters to fictional characters or whatever that they'd done in school, or all those forced 'thank you' notes to relatives had paid off. It wasn't like he didn't know how to write a letter, it was just unfamiliar.Just cos his first wandwork classes hadn't gone great didn't mean it would continue to be the case. Just because he'd gotten his migraine after charms and transfiguration didn't make them actually responsible. He knew he was hanging on to a bit of resentment over that, and that it was totally unreasonable. He had survived the rest of the lessons without ill-effects. Or any other effects. But it was a new week, and he couldn't just be unable to do all of this, or he wouldn't be here, and it would just click at some point.
He took a seat, paying careful attention. Listening respectfully to adults was a habit that had not so much been drilled into him as just absorbed via osmosis, as the standard and expected behaviour. Professor Wright's class presentation wasn't as long as some he'd heard, and was definitely shorter than a sermon. It wasn't even that complicated. Ice was water, steam was water. Even the parts about molecules weren't totally unfamiliar, as Joel often talked about what he was learning at school, meaning Xavier was frequently exposed to material above his own grade level. It wasn't hard, and he wasn't stupid. He could understand it all... Then they turned over to the practical part, and understanding stopped being the main measure of success.
He stared at the bowl of water in front of him. On the one hand, it didn't exactly seem like an insurmountable ostacle. Like, who got psyched out by a bowl of water? Maybe a goldish. Or would they be happy? Or could they not get psyched out cos they only had three second memories? Maybe an ant. Anyway, the point was, he shouldn't be. Except, he'd just been told to turn it into ice, which was something he was still having trouble wrapping his head around being real and possible. And which, after last week, seemed much less personally possible for him than other people.
He swished his wand through the movement, still feeling clunky and awkward. He knew from skating that that was just how things felt at first. It seemed like something you'd never be able to do, until suddenly you did it. And after a while, you forgot how you'd ever felt shaky doing it because it just felt natural, and the unsteady feeling had moved onto something else. Much like skating, fear was also the mind-killer.
He tried to believe in his own ability to do this.
"Glacius," he said it calmly, confidently, moving his wand through the motion. He could feel it. It was like something deep inside his chest was uncoiling itself, trying to wake up and rise. But it couldn't get there. The water in his bowl remained exactly the same, and the energy was released only as a frustrated sigh.
13
Xavier Lundstrom
I'm going nowhere fast
1529
0
5
Winston Randall
April 21, 2021 3:55 PM
Are we the same person? by Winston Randall
So basically, Winston was a failure. Playing by the rules? Check. Getting his homework in on time? Check. Memorizing the facts he was meant to memorize and reading up on everything he was supposed to read up on? Check check. But making friends? Succeeding at what was apparently supposed to be basic magic? No checks anywhere to be found. He'd even tried doodling small images of wand movements and stuff, both to keep himself occupied and to remind himself how to do some of this stuff. And it wasn't like he was doodling so much that he couldn't make friends, it was just like no one wanted to be friends with him. He'd been trying to keep his head down to avoid 'big brother' but that wasn't exactly hard since they weren't in the same classes anyway.Whatever. The point was that Winston was doing terrible and he was going to fail out and no one wanted to be his friend and everything was awful. And now he had a bowl of water that would only ever be a bowl of water and would never be anything more and he was pretty sure he'd never related to a bowl of water so much in his entire life.
His own frustrated sigh came nearly at the same time as his classmate's and he glanced up in time to find that the other boy's sigh was due to a failed attempt at the spell too. Which was just great because it meant that not only did Winston basically suck but also he was slow and behind. Great. He did sort of wonder if they could bond over this at least though . . . he pushed his notes towards the other boy, pointing at the drawing he'd made of the professor's wand movements.
"Is that right?" he asked, pretty sure it was but now he was doubting everything. "I haven't tried it yet . . ." he added, which was stupid because obviously he hadn't tried it yet because he'd been sitting right stinking here the whole time and obviously hadn't tried it yet.
22
Winston Randall
Are we the same person?
1527
0
5
Xavier Lundstrom
April 21, 2021 7:55 PM
I don't think so by Xavier Lundstrom
Is that right?Xavier's neck prickled at the comment, but then he glanced up and saw that the boy was pushing a paper towards him. He was asking about his own notes, not critiquing Xavier's performance. He looked over the paper, appraising the strange squiggle. At first, he mistook it for a bored doodle, but then he realised it was an attempt to get the wand movement down in visual form. He had seen those on the board or in textbooks, but he rarely tried drawing them out himself, figuring the ones he found in the books would be way more accurate than anything he could produce.
"I think so?" He underlined his doubt with a shrug. It was more at his own ability to be any kind of authority on the subject than at the quality of the boy's work. He almost added that - something along the lines of 'But what would I know?' - but he didn't exactly want to draw attention to his own failure, although he was pretty sure his eyes had gone to his own bowl and made that point for him.
"I'm kinda new to all this," he admitted instead. He wasn't really sure if that was a good excuse. He was pretty sure he wasn't the only Muggleborn in their year, but whenever he looked around the room, it felt like he was the only one having this much difficulty. It wasn't his background - it was him.
13
Xavier Lundstrom
I don't think so
1529
0
5
Winston Randall
April 24, 2021 10:27 PM
Oh. Right. Of course not. by Winston Randall
The boy shrugged and Winston immediately regretted showing him his drawing. It wasn't half bad as a drawing, it was just the accuracy that he was worried about, and the boy didn't seem to care either way. Which was fine. Winston didn't really care either way either. It just . . . sort of sucked. That no one cared. He couldn't blame people for not caring about him when he didn't really care that much about himself, but he had hoped that someone who didn't even know him yet might care a little. Or at least try."Oh," was all he said, his voice quiet as he withdrew the drawing, keeping his eyes focused downward as if appraising his own work instead of just desperately wishing he hadn't started this interaction at all. Apparently he couldn't quite get out of it though now because the boy continued to speak. Winston wasn't sure if he was trying to make him feel better or what but he thought it was a weird thing to say since they were both first years; of course he was new to this. "Yeah, same," he replied, mimicking the boy's original shrug, although he did look up at him then. That's when it crossed his mind that maybe the boy meant all of this was new to him. Oops. "I mean I'm not like a Muggle-born or anything like that, but I've never done my own magic," he said quickly, trying to clarify. "Not that I'm racist. I'm not racist. Muggle-borns are great. I don't know any, but they're probably great . . . I just mean that I'm not one. Which would be fine if I was. Or if you are. That's fine if you are. You're probably great too. Or not. I don't know. It's fine."
22
Winston Randall
Oh. Right. Of course not.
1527
0
5
Xavier Lundstrom
April 25, 2021 5:45 PM
I mean, that's just not how people work by Xavier Lundstrom
Oh.The word was small and sad, and the boy immediately curled in on himself. Xavier could recognise that his confidence had been knocked, even if he wasn't totally sure what he'd said or done to knock it.
The guy then replied to his other statement with a whole slew of babbling - one which quickly destroyed the idea that Xavier had found someone just like him, but definitely confirmed that this guy was wound up. He couldn't help a slight smile that appeared at just how over the top this boy was in trying to just say... he wasn't even sure what.
"Chill," Xavier advised. He wasn't sure whether it was helpful advice, but he didn't feel like this guy needed to be so jittery about talking to him. He was definitely not scary. It felt sort of weird being called something unusual, someone who was strange to meet. As a white, suburban boy, he'd never been the outsider, and his shoulders had hunched and his skin prickled just a little bit at the unfamiliar feeling. But he'd also been taught to take a deep breath and count to ten when he felt mad, and to have grace and patience with other people. It was kinder to give the benefit of the doubt than to start a fight.
"I feel definitely less than great," he admitted, poking his bowl so the water sloshed. "I am Muggleborn," he confirmed. "But I guess it's true then, what they said about that not making a difference? It's not that, it's..." he trailed off, the words 'just me' hanging in the silence even though he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud right now.
13
Xavier Lundstrom
I mean, that's just not how people work
1529
0
5
Winston Randall
May 06, 2021 9:19 AM
Yeah, I don't know how much about that. by Winston Randall
Winston clamped his mouth shut hard when the other boy told him to chill. It was the sort of thing Tissena would say to him because he never did it and it was the sort of thing that didn't really make him want to do it, it just made him want to curl up in a ball and hide until everything else went away.It did help some that the other boy didn't exactly seem like he was exuding confidence either. Winston was pretty sure that even below-average people were more confident than he was, but maybe it depended on the setting. Some people were generally confident people but then not so sure about themselves once you got them on a broom or something. He and this guy both seemed a little less than sure about themselves when they had a wand in their hand. Or maybe Winston was just projecting? Winston was probably projecting. He did that a lot because it was easier to think that other people felt the same way he did about things even if he could only make himself believe it for a minute and then they went on and were actually confident people and Winston was all alone, sitting on the floor of his room with some toys that Tissena had left when she'd gotten sick of him like everyone always did.
He took a big deep breath as subtly as he could because his train of thought was quickly getting off track and he didn't want to be aboard anymore. He looked at his classmate a little sideways, pretty sure this was the first Muggle-born he'd met that he knew was a Muggle-born. It was kind of weird to think about because Winston was completely unremarkable but a lot of people thought he was better than this guy just because of who his parents were. He'd be the first one to acknowledge that who your parents were didn't necessarily make a difference, because he was pretty sure his 'big brother' was unremarkable too. Or at least, he hoped that was the case. Maybe he was amazing. That would be depressing.
"I don't know if it makes a difference," Winston admitted quietly. "But it doesn't seem to so far," he added, poking at his own sloshy bowl. Which was when he realized he hadn't tried the spell yet. He'd gone off trying to comfort someone with words that might not even be true. Ugh! Coughing and spluttering as he tried to sit up straight and find his words, his eyes rounding with the social horror of being an idiot so blatantly in front of someone, Winston waved his wand in the best approximation of the doodle he'd drawn (and of what the professor had shown them) and muttered the incantation. The end of his wand seemed to maybe release a little poof, like the cloud that comes out when you breathe softly on a winter day, but it was hard to tell for sure and certainly nothing happened to the water. Winston grimaced. "No, I don't think it makes a difference."
22
Winston Randall
Yeah, I don't know how much about that.
1527
0
5