Selina Skies
May 25, 2021 1:01 AM
Intermediates - Detect Magic by Selina Skies
“Good morning,” Selina greeted the intermediate group. “Today we’ll be taking a practical look at one of the most popular written questions on the CATS papers – that is, we’ll be doing some hands on, practical investigation to help you know what sort of information you need to provide in your answer.” As well as being more accessible to students who were different learner types, and reducing the language load for EAL students, it was just a more fun, practical way to access the information.“A common CATS type question is this,” she gestured to the board behind her, reading out the question that appeared there. “For his birthday, Demonious receives a toy from his grandmother. It is a top hat, which when turned in a particular way, causes a rabbit plushie to appear inside the hat. The plushie can be made to vanish again by repeating the movements in reverse. State what spells are likely to be acting on the toy, being as specific as possible. “ Underneath this was a helpful animated picture depicted the effect described.
“Firstly, does anyone want to suggest what they think is the answer to this?” It was quite a straightforward question, as compared to some of the longer essay-based questions. She called on anyone who felt brave enough to suggest an answer, until they’d cracked it.
“Today’s lesson will have three parts. You can choose to do them in any order, depending on what you think will be most helpful for you, but you should complete all three of them by the time class is over.
“On this table, we have some worksheets with a page of questions similar to the one on the board. Task one is to complete them, task two is to set two questions of your own using a similar format and test them on your classmates. On the other table, we have some objects similar to the ones mentioned, made by the advanced class during term one. I would like you to examine the objects, and state what spells you think are in action on them. Remember, this is transfiguration, so they all use at least one transfiguration spell. They were allowed to use charms as well if it helped achieve the effects they wanted.” As with all of transfiguration, there really were only four broad categories – changing, switching, vanishing, and conjuring – though the more specific they could get in explaining exactly what type of spell or how it had been used, the better. They would also have to name any charms they thought were present for full credit.
Specialis revelio might have come in handy, but she had checked with Grayson, and, whilst some of the fifth years might have been capable, it was typically only taught in advanced classes. In the interests of giving a level playing field, and not having them firing an unfamiliar charm at the advance class’s hard work from last term, she wasn’t going to suggest it. Their eyes and brains would have to do the work, which was what they’d have available to them in their exams after all.
OOC: Mentions of class levels approved by Gray's author.
As usual, points are awarded based on relevance, length, realism and creativity. You are free to invent objects that may have been created by the advanced class, so long as they are fairly mainstream in nature (i.e. fit the idea that 'anyone could have made that'). If you are stuck for object ideas, feel free to ask other authors what their character would have made but then credit them in the OOC notes. You will get more points for coming up with your own objects.
Subthreads: I like it! by Theo Spurn with Jezebel Reed-Fischer
I know that spell! by Valentine Duell with Sadie-Lake Chalmers
I kind of feel like this doesn't apply to me? by Philippe Delachene with Alexander Pierce-Beales
Alright! by Quincy Wright with Ellie Alperton
*rocks back and forth* by Sapphire Brockert
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Selina Skies
Intermediates - Detect Magic
26
1
5
Valentine Duell
May 26, 2021 6:18 PM
I know that spell! by Valentine Duell
Valentine sat in class early as usual. Unfortunately for her, this was transfigurations. As such, instead of having her gaming notebook open, and plotting out terrible things to do to her bestest friends, she was staring at her transfiguration notes and book. This class was hard, and despite everything that Professor Skies, Bonabelle, Alexander, and everyone else was doing to help her (for which she was eternally grateful)... she was barely scraping by. She was determined not to let all of those people down by not doing everything she could do to pass. She still found this studying thing worked better when she could study with someone though.When Professor Skies started class, Val looked up at her a bit bleary eyed from staring at the book. She shook it off to pay attention and take good notes. There was a crushing feeling somewhere in her soul when Professor Skies said the word 'practical'. That usually meant it was not going to be a good class for her. As the professor went on though, she thought it might not be to bad... maybe? Not daring to venture any answers to the Professor's question, she did note down the question and the answers the other students were giving as well as the professor's comments about those answers. Hopefully they would shed some light on how this worked.
Of the three options set before her, Valentine was torn. She really wanted to make up questions so she could interact with someone else. But, before doing that she thought she should do the worksheet to get a better idea on what a wider variety of these questions could look like. But... she wasn't sure she could stand to do more paperwork by herself anymore. The object would give her some ideas and let her look at something that wasn't paper for a bit. But... if she picked up the worksheet, her and her partner could discuss the types of questions while they formulated their own to ask each other... she did like that idea.
Going to the front of the room, Val acquired the worksheet and glanced at the table of objects while she was in the neighborhood. They certainly looked interesting. Well, she would have to get to them eventually. First things first, get worksheet, check. Next, find someone to partner with, easy. With a smooth, gliding motion she moved up to one of her classmates. "Hi! Do you want to work on making up some questions?" She asked cheerily while holding up the worksheet, "I've got lots of examples we can work from."
2
Valentine Duell
I know that spell!
1490
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
May 28, 2021 9:05 PM
I don't by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Sadie took a seat in Transfiguration. It seemed that CATS were going to be the subject of the day, as they so often were right now, and she shot Dathan a sympathetic look. Her only thoughts on the puzzle that Professor Skies presented were that wizard names were often seriously hecking weird, in a whole other way than the particular brand of awful her own mother had gone with. Still, luckily for Demonious, he was presumably entirely fictional, whereas she had to live with her mother’s choices.The class sounded kind of hard, and like one of those where she felt like her background would count against her. She was getting more and more used to thinking like a witch (like when she was at home and she had to actually move her whole entire body to put something back in its place instead of just flicking her wand, or had to wait for flowers to dry by hanging them up or pressing them in heavy books – she missed magic at those times). But that was with spells that she already knew. She still didn’t think she could look at the magical world and see what was happening rather than just seeing magic as a whole, unexplainable, sometimes wondrous, sometimes baffling thing. Unfortunately, that appeared to be the task for the day.
She might have gravitated towards the toys first – seeing a thing was usually clearer than reading an explanation of a thing, at least for her, and anyway, they hadn’t been promised any explanations, only further questions. However, Theo was at the toys, and Valentine was heading to the papers. She didn’t know either of them well, but in the case of Theo, that had been a conscious choice on her part. He was weird, loud, and constantly attracted awkward attention, none of which were high on her list of things to get involved with. Valentine had been nice to her previously, and even though she often attracted a lot of attention too, most of it seemed positive. Things worked out well, when Valentine seemed to have the same idea, and slid over to where Sadie was hovering. She wasn’t sure whether Valentine had noticed and understood her hovering with intent, or whether it was just a happy coincidence.
“Sure,” she agreed, settling into the seat next to her. Immediately jumping into posing each other theory questions wasn’t exactly top of her wish list, but obviously it was bound to come up because that was what they were here for. And she was the older student. Eep. Hopefully Valentine wasn’t going to expect her to know how to guide them, was she? Sadie was pretty sure the other girl knew that she knew more about magic than Sadie did. “Did you have any ideas?” she asked.
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Sadie-Lake Chalmers
I don't
1480
0
5
Valentine Duell
June 04, 2021 6:13 PM
It should be a cantrip, but sometimes it isn't. by Valentine Duell
This was one of the best things about being in the intermediate classes, she got to work with her old friends again from her first year at the school! Another was the fact that she could take her aunt's class finally. Also they were learning bigger and more fun magic. Intermediates also... okay, there were a bunch of things that were the best about being in the intermediate class. It should also be noted that Valentine considered everyone her friend, unless they specifically stated otherwise. Even in that one case, they still technically wanted to be 'friends'. She hadn't done so well on that front though, and despite all of the nice, sensible, rational, logical things that Bonabelle had said... she really felt like she should try to be 'friends' again at least.But now she got to work with Sadie again! Valentine's ever-present smile increased a notch or two as the older girl agreed to work with her. This was going to be great! She splayed out the papers on the table in front of them and bobbled her head in a non-committal way to Sadie's question. "Maybe," she responded cheerfully. "I'm terrible at the practical parts of this class, I just can't see the things in my head that we are supposed to be doing." She grinned and winked at her partner, "However, to help make up for that Professor Skies, Bonabelle, and some others have been helping to pound as much theory into my head as possible. Some of it even sticks!" Val giggled.
Pulling one of the worksheets in front of her Val glanced over it, "I'm hoping that should help makes some sense of this." She paused for a moment the jabbed her finger at one of the questions. "Like this for instance, 'Sihnion is a clumsy witch and has made a pot that changes into a mouse when she spills something solid and a tiny elephant when she spills a liquid. The creature finds the spill, ingests it and returns to pot form. At which point she can examine the spilled material to see if it is yet salvageable.'"
"We were doing the mouse transformation earlier, remember?" That has to be one of the spells that..." Val paused and looked back at the sheet, "Sihnion had used, right?" She passed the sheet over to Sadie, "Do you know anything about a tiny elephant?"
2
Valentine Duell
It should be a cantrip, but sometimes it isn't.
1490
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
June 12, 2021 2:17 AM
Right. Glad we cleared that up... by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Sadie smiled as Val… was Val. She once again demonstrated her complete ease with just about everything in life, even laughing off the fact that classes were difficult like it was no big deal. For Val, it probably wasn’t. Sadie both could and couldn’t understand it. On the one hand, she was absolutely not going to laugh at or think less of someone for being bad at a class, except maybe if it was their own fault because they were messing around or something. However, a large part of that was because she was in no position to judge. Those who were… well, they might judge. That was sort of the problem with them being in a position to. Whilst Val might be able to laugh it off without a care, Sadie absolutely couldn’t. Speaking of examples of being able to understand the theory but not complete the practical – she just couldn’t adopt Val’s easy air about the possibility of looking like an idiot.She tried to listen carefully as Val read the question, but it was challenging when it was so utterly ridiculous. She would have been convinced she was hearing things, if it wasn’t for the magical world so frequently throwing such bizarre things at her. She nodded vaguely as Val mentioned the mouse spell. That was familiar. But a tiny elephant? And the way Val asked, she couldn’t help it, she let out a tiny giggle.
“Innocent of all such knowledge,” she promised. “Are you sure you haven’t started the exercise about making them up? Does it really say that?” she asked.
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Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Right. Glad we cleared that up...
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0
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Valentine Duell
June 12, 2021 1:09 PM
Everything is clear now? by Valentine Duell
Valentine liked it when Sadie smiled. Alright, she liked it when people in general smiled. Smiling was usually better that most other expressions. There were exceptions of course, there always were to every rule, but she thought smiling in general was a good thing. At least genuine smiles, fake smiles or mean ones were really terrible. Val wasn't sure that Sadie got enough smiles and was really happy to be able to give her one.Then Val even got a giggle!! This was one of the best classes ever! Valentine giggled as well as she passed Sadie the question sheet. "Take a look yourself." She thought out loud then, "Can you transfigure something say the size of a pot, into something the size of oh say an elephant directly? Most of the transfiguration things I've seen so far have been between similarly sized things. If you did have a spell that would turn a pot into an elephant, would you need a separate spell to make it tiny, or would it be pot-sized by default? Would you need an enlarging spell to make a pot into a normal-sized elephant?"
Valentine flipped through the pages of her book to see if the answer was in there somewhere. "I guess if we don't know, we'll just have to find out." She replied simply to Sadie's claiming to not know about elephant transformation spells. "I guess we'll just need to do some research." Research was not her most favorite thing in the world, but sometimes it just had to be done. "Oh, we could have some fun, make a game out of it." She flashed Sadie a friendly, challenging smile. "I'll start at the front of the book and you start at the back. We'll see who can find something about elephants first!"
2
Valentine Duell
Everything is clear now?
1490
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
June 15, 2021 6:39 PM
Yes? by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
"Sure," Sadie agreed to the competition with a smile. Though as she opened the book, she was faced with an immediate problem - the index pages. That seemed like an unfair advantage. Of course, they also needed to get this done... Would Valentine be more annoyed by her cheating at the proposed game and cutting it short, or by making this task last longer than necessary? That was the trouble with... basically everything in life. It was so easy to be wrong, and then annoy people. She supposed she could look up elephants, and check whether Val would get the result in a few pages, or whether this was going to take forever, especially if she didn't pull her weight. But then she would have still looked up the answer...The disadvantage to finishing fast was that they would then have to move onto another question, which was just as likely to be baffling and overwhelming. At least Val had known half the answer to this one. She wished there was an option that didn't make her look stupid, but of course that was very unlikely with transfiguration theory.
She sat with the index page open, glancing across to Val to try to see if she looked excited or like she was dying of boredom.
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Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Yes?
1480
0
5
Valentine Duell
June 17, 2021 6:14 PM
Excellent! by Valentine Duell
Valentine began flipping through the book scanning the pages for the word 'elephant'. Unsurprisingly it didn't come up often. A few pages in she glanced up at Sadie to see how her partner was doing. Because, unlike some people she knew, she happened to like people more than books. While Bonabelle had worked wonders on her, she still found it quite difficult to look at a book for any terribly extended period of time.Sadie, in her estimation, looked uncertain about something and was glancing her way as well. She was also only a few pages into the back section of the book. Valentine gave Sadie a smile, "What's up? Did you find it already?" That would be great she thought. The sooner they got this assignment stuff done, the more time they would have to just talk and hang out.
She'd never really gotten to hang out much with Sadie or get to know her all that well. If she could fix that, things would be fantastic. "Once we get this done, we'll just need to come up with our own questions then check out the toys over there." A thought struck her suddenly and she cringed just a bit, "Oh. I'm sorry, we could do the things in a different order if you'd like. I just kind of pulled you into this." Val gave an apologetic smile to Sadie and hoped the older girl didn't think she had been being to bossy or anything.
2
Valentine Duell
Excellent!
1490
0
5