Isis Carter-Xavier
May 29, 2021 5:47 AM
Let the sparks and ear plugs fly! [Beginners] by Isis Carter-Xavier
“Welcome, students,” Isis greeted as the beginners filtered by her into the classroom. “Essays, please!” She held out her hand and offered a smile. When it was up to her, she tried not to assign too many essays to the younger years, but this one was short, anyway, and the research they had done for it would hopefully have prepared them for the day’s lesson. “If you need to sit down to get it out of a bag, that’s fine, just make sure it gets my way before we begin.”Once it seemed like she had all the students and essays she was likely to be getting today, Isis tapped her wand on the board, and the words red sparks appeared in an appropriately colored font and underlined itself.”Hopefully you all did your research and can easily identify the differences between the three red sparks charmed: Vermillious Uno, Vermillius Duo, and Vermillious Tria.” Similarly, the incantations appeared underneath their category on the board. “Can anyone tell me what is the purpose of this vein of magic?” Isis called on raised hands in the order she saw them, awarding points for answers that were close enough. Primarily, the spells were for signaling help, but they also made pretty decent minor defensive spells in a duel.
“Great job, guys. So obviously, the three vary in terms of strength and incantations. Today, I want you to assess which spell your partner is using based only on what you see.” Isis picked up a few packets of foam ear plugs and tossed one at Oz Spellman and one at another student farther back who looked sleepy and inattentive. “You’ll all need a pair of ear plugs so that you don’t hear the words your partner says, so come on up and get those.” There were a few options for size and color. While shopping for supplies, Isis discovered that ear plugs were apparently yet another needlessly gendered item, so she took the liberty of charming a few into other color options and repackaging.
“Try not to lip-read, if you can help it,” she added as the students returned to their seats. “I want you to primarily judge based on the strength of the spell and the wand movement. Take turns for a while, and in twenty minutes or so we’ll reconvene to discuss our findings.”
OOC: Hi gang! Info can be found on the HP wiki for all 3 spells:
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Red_Sparks
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Vermillious_Duo
and https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Vermillious_Tria
One important note: the wiki shows sort of a zig-zag wand movement for Uno and says Tria has a "downward slash" but does not provide info on Duo. For our purposes, let's assume it is a horizontal slash. Let me know if there are any questions!
Subthreads: That sounds incompatible with lying down by Oz Spellman with Henry Spellman
If that is what you want... by Iris Cobb with Lydia Priory
Magic Roman candles, got it. by Augustine Reed-Fischer with Rosalynn Tellerman
Anything worth doing . . . by Reighleigh Mae Thorn with Billy Cobb
*sighs* by Amethyst Brockert with Alexei Vorontsov
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Isis Carter-Xavier
Let the sparks and ear plugs fly! [Beginners]
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Oz Spellman
June 01, 2021 4:21 PM
That sounds incompatible with lying down by Oz Spellman
Oz absolutely did not want to be here. He was also pretty sure he shouldn’t be here, or at least that he was sick enough that Mom would have let him stay home if he’d been at home. Or rather, if he’d been at home and not been able to hide how sick he was. It wasn’t the first time he’d forced down some Ibuprofen and tried to pretend like nothing was wrong. If he stayed off school, it was a pain for Mom – she either had to call off work, ask someone to watch him, or pull Henry from school to do that. None of those were good options. The same problem didn’t exist here, and when he’d woken up feeling so off, he’d sunk into his pillows, appreciating for a split second the silver lining of being both sick and away from home.Then he’d remembered about DADA.
Whilst he’d come to believe over the past year that the school, as a whole, was not out to get people, and that everyone here was way better behaved than his old school, DADA was a class in which they were specifically set upon each other. Or rather, in which other people set upon each other, and in which Oz partnered Henry any time it was direct combat, with all of his shots somehow going wide even though he normally had no trouble with aim when they practiced on the mannequins. He couldn't skip it.
As DADA wasn't until later in the day, he had allowed himself to sleep through his early periods, mumbling to his roommates to tell the teachers he wasn't well. He had received a note telling him to go to the school healer, or ask a prarie elf to call her to him if he was too sick to go himself. An elf had appeared part way through the day to check on him. He suspected it was reporting back to Professor Skies, so he'd promised he was feeling better and would make it to his last class of the day. He hadn't been to the healer, obviously. It wasn't an emergency. Anyway, what was she gonna do about it except take his temperature (which he could tell by himself was elevated), declare it to be a virus and therefore just something he needed to ride out, and prescribe him something he could have gotten as an OTC without all the hassle and expense?
He was still feeling decidedly not great by the time he dragged himself out of bed for class. His temperature was down to a point where he wasn't shivering, just feeling awful, and he was still snuffling a lot, needing a tissue or a big sniff or the back of his hand about every ten seconds. He was almost late to class, just because everything that was normally straightforward suddenly required extra effort.
But he made it. He slumped gratefully into his seat, glad to be sitting, even if he felt more like lying down right now, propping his head on one of his hands.
Class started. With the word 'essays.' He groaned. He had done it. She knew he had done it. He had written it sitting in her office, where he did a lot of his homework. He dug through his bag but it wasn't there. He hoped she'd accept it later. Without punishing him, or being mad at him, or taking off marks - he had tried so hard. She knew he had.
The class started, and it sounded like they probably weren't duelling, though he couldn't totally rule it out. It was-thunk. He started slightly, fumbling for whatever had been thrown his way. He was usually a pretty good catch. He was usually paying attention in Professor Carter-Xavier's class. He had been listening, just the effort of doing so had meant he was slumping, propping himself up on one hand. Had that been intended as a wake up call? Whatever it was had dropoed to the floor, and he bent to retrieve it, noticing as he did so the lack if sarcastic cheers and claps from his classmates.
He half caught what they were doing. Spells and wearing ear plugs. Why? It didn't sound like they were firing them at each other though. Which meant he had dragged himself out of bed for nothing. He could still partner Henry, or he could go to Professor Carter-Xavier and ask to be given the class off (and explain about the essay, if he needed to...). As with getting up, moving through making this decision was like swimming in syrup, and his brain was still clunking along unco-operatively when the matter was taken out of his hands by someone approaching.
OOC: As I write for DH Skies, I am allowed to mention the actions she would have taken, re checking up on him.
This post is open to anyone (including Henry or Prof C-X - I sense Oz is not paying much attention to his surroundings/who is approaching).
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Oz Spellman
That sounds incompatible with lying down
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Henry Spellman
June 02, 2021 11:25 PM
But no lying, k? by Henry Spellman
Oz hadn't been in classes all morning. Oz hadn't been anywhere all morning. Henry wasn't about to start asking classmates if they'd seen him and didn't know his brother's roommates well enough to gauge if they looked worried, so he couldn't do anything other than blindly panic to himself all day as he made sure to take extra thorough notes. He would have preferred to ask someone what was up but that might reveal a weakness, either because something was wrong with Oz or because it would be an acknowledgement of the fact that Henry didn't know what was going on with his own brother. As such, he also tried not to let his demeanor reveal too much, neither looking worried nor totally settled so that whichever way things went, he could act like he'd been in on it if necessary.But Oz was in class now! And looking mildly terrible. Being identical (mostly, since genes only got you as far as personal choices at some point) gave Henry an advantage at spotting signs of his brother being unwell since they were mostly all the same signs as he showed as well. Of course, Henry almost never showed inattention in class, so it wasn't a one-to-one comparison, but it didn't seem like inattention was Oz's main problem this afternoon; he looked like he felt like crap.
Not about to let anyone make his brother feel bad for being dazed today, Henry approached, resolved to make his mouthing and movements as clear as possible if it seemed like Oz needed the help. Academic achievement always made Henry feel better and he hoped it may help Oz too, even if that seemed a bit unlikely.
"Hey," he said as he closed the space between them. Keeping his voice low so no one could overhear his next inquiry, he continued: "You good? Partners?"
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Henry Spellman
But no lying, k?
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Iris Cobb
June 03, 2021 5:44 PM
If that is what you want... by Iris Cobb
Defense against the Dark Arts was not one of Iris' favorite classes. She could see why it was important, apparently there was quite a bit of dangerous stuff out there in the world. Still, that didn't mean she had to like it. A fair amount of it reminded her of growing up with Billy and his friends. She'd had generally harmless critters dropped on her, tossed in her direction and show up in all sorts of places that she was sure to find them. So, her reactions to surprises along those lines had been honed to the point where she was fairly good at quite a bit of the things they covered in this class. That still didn't mean she liked it.Essays were another thing that she wasn't all that fond of. Of course she had done it, she had followed the instructions and it wasn't a bit longer than it absolutely had to be. Iris fished the paper out of her bag and handed it to the Professor. Another practical lesson today, she thought as she listened to the professor begin class. Oh well. She stood and went up front to collect a set of earplugs, there was a lovely greenish-blue set that she selected. Now she just had to find a partner somewhere so that they could shoot each other with varying degrees of fire. Terrific. Iris very briefly toyed with the idea of seeing if Billy wanted to partner with her, just because she had no doubt that he would only use the biggest spell and that would make her task so much easier. However, she decided it wasn't worth it and soon spotted someone else.
"Hi!" She said to the cheerily, usually happiness got the best responses. "Ya wanna partner up for this?"
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Iris Cobb
If that is what you want...
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Lydia Priory
June 04, 2021 9:25 AM
Nothing about DADA is anything I want, but I do want to work with you. by Lydia Priory
Lydia had had a really good midterm. She had been delighted to see Mommy and Daddy and Connor and Gwendolyn and Misty and everyone else in her family again. Plus, she'd gotten really nice presents including a new American Witch doll and a cuddly teddy bear along with really pretty dresses.She wished that she was there now. It wasn't as if school overall was terrible but right now was Defense Against the Dark Arts which, aside from Flying, was Lydia's absolute least favorite class. It discussed terrifying subject material and sometimes involved dueling and having hexes being hurled at you. And dueling was not something the Teppenpaw was at all good at. She did not tend to be quick on her feet and was likely to get hit with something awful. Plus, it hurt her grade. Much like in flying, it was a class geared towards what Lydia wasn't and it was also the source of endless nightmares about being hit with a terrible hex and being humiliated in front of her peers or a dark creature or dark wizard-often Bridget's grandfather, since he was a dark wizard that she specifically knew about- coming after her.
However, it wasn't just the nightmares. It was the potential humiliation both from not being an athletic sort which was needed for certain lessons and the very real possibility that Lydia would end up breaking down and crying because either she was hit with something awful or because she simply couldn't keep up with certain lessons or she was legitmately scared. And if that happened, her classmates might bully her. For the next seven years.
So just being in Defense made Lydia extremely anxious and edgy, not knowing if they were going to learn something terrifying or do something humiliating today. As always, she felt mildly like throwing up as Professor Carter-Xavier introduced today's lesson. She relaxed slightly when it turned out to be about red sparks spells and also, not dueling. A spell that was used for signaling help was one Lydia was more likely to put to use if she was ever in a situation that called for it rather than actually fighting back herself. Assuming she even was capable of doing even that rather than being completely paralyzed with fear. Of course, the best way to go was to never be in such situations in the first place.
Now she had to go and find a partner, preferably none of the....rougher people. The Teppenpaw could maybe handle those people in a different class but in DADA, it was completely out of the question. Fortunately, Iris spoke to her first. "Absolutely!" Lydia replied in a mixture of happiness and relief.
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Lydia Priory
Nothing about DADA is anything I want, but I do want to work with you.
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Iris Cobb
June 05, 2021 3:55 PM
Well, You can get one thing that you want then. by Iris Cobb
If Iris had to guess, she didn't think Lydia much liked this class. She did sympathize, but at the same time, Iris herself would much rather learn about this sort of stuff in class rather than out in the wild. Plus, it wasn't like they had a choice in the matter. The class was a requirement and so they had to do it whether they liked it or not. Might as well make the best of it."Didja get your earplugs?" Iris asked Lydia merrily while showing off the pair she had picked up. "We should figure out a good systematic way of doing this if we won't be able to hear each other." She thought for a moment, "We'll need to figure out who is going when, and maybe do some sort of countdown?" Naturally there wouldn't be any such thing happening if they got themselves into an actual dual, but this was practice. She liked having all of the ground rules figured out before hand, and she thought they might help Lydia feel better as well.
"How 'bout you cast first, and I'll guess first?" Iris stuck one of her earplugs in while she talked. "Then I can hold up one, two or three fingers to indicate my guess. You can nod or shake your head to let me know if I was right and then we swap roles." She thought that made sense, "Sound good?"
Once things were settled, Iris stuck her second earplug in and watched her partner's movements. Now that she was the essays had gone over some of what she should look for, so hopefully this would work out okay.
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Iris Cobb
Well, You can get one thing that you want then.
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Augustine Reed-Fischer
June 08, 2021 4:56 AM
Magic Roman candles, got it. by Augustine Reed-Fischer
Gus had already known that magic was basically super awesome but lessons like today's always made him think about just how awesome they were. He literally had a firework stick on him all the time these days! The essay had been a bit boring because they hadn't even really got to talk about all the cool ways you could use the spell for like magic capture the flag or magic tag (he did briefly wonder if people who grew up with magic just played tag that way all the time) but he'd gotten it done and turned it in so he didn't have to worry anymore. Now it was time for the fun part. He grinned when the teacher said they'd be wearing ear plugs too because now it was even more like fireworks; you never knew when exactly or what exactly would be exploding next.Hurrying to the front as much as he ever hurried anywhere, Gus collected ear plugs and only barely remembered not to shove them in his ears before finding a partner. One was already squished in there and the other was rolling around in his hand as he looked around to see who was available. Oz was partnered with his brother, which made sense because they usually partnered up in this class, so Gus looked for Billy or someone else to work with. He was social enough that he was pretty much down for whoever was available, although he hoped that whoever it was would be as excited about exploding stuff as he was. As it turned out, he didn't have to be the one to make the decision because someone approached him before he could.
"Hi," he grinned. "You like stuff that blows up?"
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Augustine Reed-Fischer
Magic Roman candles, got it.
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Oz Spellman
June 08, 2021 5:13 AM
So long as I can take the fifth by Oz Spellman
“Yeah, great.” The words sounded bitter and sarcastic, and Oz let them stand as the answer to both questions. Now that he knew there wasn’t any danger, he didn’t really want to work with Henry. He didn’t really want to work with anyone though, he just wished he’d stayed in bed. Psychic powers or like, a lesson plan would have been really helpful. Still, he was here now, so he sort of had to.He also sort of had to stop Henry wondering why he’d dragged himself here. Stopping Henry wondering ‘why’ was kind of like trying to keep a pet snowball in Arizona. Obviously, at home, Oz had dragged himself to school when he was sick so as not to inconvenience Mom. Maybe Henry would assume… something. Oz found it hard to guess how Henry would think about things, which was why he so often wound up in trouble. The best he could come up with was that maybe Henry would think he, Oz, was too stupid to realise he didn’t have to do this, which wasn’t exactly encouraging.
“Why do we need earplugs?” he asked, trying to kill two birds with one stone—namely distracting Henry and filling in a blank. He had been too busy fumbling for the pack to really pay attention. Were they causing explosions? Normally that would be cause for celebration, but today he was pretty sure it would only give him a headache. Unless he couldn’t get one cos he wouldn’t be able to hear… Logic was hard at the best of times. Today it was extra sticky.
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Oz Spellman
So long as I can take the fifth
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Henry Spellman
June 08, 2021 5:22 AM
Better than perjury I guess. by Henry Spellman
It wasn't that Henry didn't take it to heart when Oz clearly didn't want to interact with him, it was that he had learned to dump such moments into the vault of things he refused to take to heart. Years of getting the feeling he was probably the most annoying gnat of a human to some people, even if clever enough to be reasonably helpful in many situations, was enough to make anyone feel bad about themselves and Henry just didn't have time to go around feeling bad about himself. At the end of the day, it didn't matter much if Oz thought Henry was annoying; they were all each other had here. Sure, Oz had friends and roommates and stuff too probably but Henry thought he probably wasn't far off the mark in thinking that Oz hadn't exactly opened up to them. Vulnerability was not a Spellman trait and the only people who ever got let in were the people who'd already been there. At Sonora, that meant Henry had Oz and Oz had Henry and sarcasm didn't get to hurt because there was no use for hurting.So Henry settled into a place where he could best work with his brother and started ripping open his pack of earplugs. "So we can't hear which spell the other person is using," he explained, his voice even. It didn't bother him to repeat things and he didn't even really think it was odd to be asked about what they'd just done, so he had no disappointment to express there. Making sure they were both on track was just part of being Henry. "We're not supposed to lipread either. We have to try to figure it out based on the wand movement and what comes out. Do you want to go first or do you want me to?"
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Henry Spellman
Better than perjury I guess.
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
June 08, 2021 10:09 AM
Anything worth doing . . . by Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Ray appreciated Defense Against the Dark Arts in part because wow was that a crazy thing to be teaching eleven-year-olds but also because wow was that cool. It was basically Ray's entire aesthetic, wrapped up in creepy drawings and diagrams on old yellow parchment and spells that could do some real damage. The spells they read about weren't usually good for pranks (even Ray had limits) but most of the ones they actually practiced in class could be worked into something creative. Some were more limited because they were just used for a specific creature but some, like today's bounty on a silver platter, were more widely applicable.Collecting a pair of black earplugs to go with the rest of her outfit (well, the outfit she wore under her robe and the accessorizing black fishnet choker necklace that peeped above her collar), Ray took a moment to see who was around to work with. It was tempting to work with someone equally mischief-minded for the sake of having some fun together, but there was also the possibility of having some fun at someone if she chose someone who was either more naive or more annoying. She wasn't about to fire a ball of sparks into someone's face but a well aimed shot into a backpack could maybe be fun, or between someone's legs if their robes weren't in the way.
Approaching the first person who didn't seem totally awful - no pastels or bows or hair gel - Ray smiled a little too sweetly to be really sweet. "This should be fun," she said, not bothering to hide the mischief in her voice. "Lots of ways to use a spell like this. Who goes first?"
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Anything worth doing . . .
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Billy Cobb
June 11, 2021 7:23 PM
...is probably a lot of fun? by Billy Cobb
Defense Against the Dark Arts wasn't the worst class in the school. It was probably Billy's third favorite after Care of Magical Creatures and fell very closely behind Herbology. Sometimes they swapped around, but Herbology usually won out because it usually took place somewhere resembling outside. However, unlike Herbology, this class could get 'exciting'. For instance, this one was pretty good. They were going to get to shoot fire at each other. Dope! Except there had been an essay due for the class, hadn't there? Whoops. He vaguely remembered something about that, well... he'll just have to do something about that later maybe. It's not like he was in the habit of not doing work, this one just seemed to have slipped his mind somehow. Oh well, no big deal.He wandered up to the front and grabbed the first pair of earplugs he saw. Well, the first pair that weren't pink. Or purple. Or yellow. That minor task accomplished, now he had to find a partner. Now who did he want to shoot fire at? His gaze drifted briefly over his sister, but decided against it as she'd probably complain to the professor or Ma or somebody 'cause he lit her on fire or something like that.
A voice came from behind him and he couldn't help but to grin. Oh... this might be really fun after all. He turned to face Ray's very, super sweet smile with his own mischievous grin. "Yer not wrong, I can think of a few interestin' uses." Ray almost always made classes more interesting. Plus she wasn't one to go crying when things went a little bit off the lesson plan. "Ma raised me right," Billy responded to her question, "But, since I don't know that we have any ladies 'round here," he made sure to vocalize that word just right to indicate his opinions on prim and proper womenfolk, "Well, we'll just have to figgure out some other way of decidin.'"
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Billy Cobb
...is probably a lot of fun?
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
June 11, 2021 8:08 PM
And probably going to get us in trouble. by Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Ray grinned mischievously, happy not to be considered a lady in this case. Billy was already pretty high in her estimation but he was going up rapidly. "I'll have you know, I was in pageants for a long time," she said with mock indignation before devolving into a snicker. "And I did my best to make a mess of all of them. Let's do this thing. Rock paper scissors?" she suggested, holding out her hand. When he obliged, she began counting, but made a fist and threw a punch into Billy's arm on two. "Rock! You first," she grinned.Normally, she would have loved to go first for something like this. It was the chance to show off how dastardly she could be at best and at worst it was the chance to blow the end of her wand up and that was awesome. Plus the sparks sort of looked like what she imagined fairy trails looked like and that was really cool, but she wasn't about to admit it. Still, she'd been the first one to plot something dastardly the last time she'd worked closely with Billy and she wanted to let him flaunt his creative streak too. Also, this was way more likely to get them in trouble with the whole class if they did something crazy, not just a stern warning from the teacher if they went through with it; best to let Billy set the bar and try to clear it.
She squared up and pulled a face as she put her earplugs in. "Light me on fire and I'll get you back," she warned, although the threat sounded more like a promise, giddy as she was to be doing something fun in class (friggin' finally). When her earplugs were in solidly, she nodded at Billy. "Alright. Do your worst."
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
And probably going to get us in trouble.
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Billy Cobb
June 12, 2021 12:11 PM
Well, that's the point ain't it? by Billy Cobb
Billy's grin continued as Ray mentioned her 'pageants' and her attempts to make a mess of them. While he wasn't entirely sure what pageants were, he had little doubt that Ray would have done what she could to make them more 'fun'. Rock, paper, scissors seemed like a perfectly reasonable way to resolve the situation. He was going to throw scissors but was interrupted! She had tricked him! That was a good one, he'd have to remember it. He rubbed his arm in an exaggerated fashion to make it seem like that totally hadn't hurt at all. It actually smarted quite a bit, but he couldn't let that on, she had a good punch to her."Owww..." he exclaimed also in an exaggerated fashion just to complete the ruse, "Alright, if you insist." Now he just had to think of something to do to make this fun. Oh maybe he could light Ray's hair or something on... Then his train of thought was interrupted by Ray warning him to not catch her on fire. He returned the statement with his most innocent look that he could muster. "What?" He asked, his voice simply steeped in sweet innocence, "Me? Never." Now he wondered if she could read minds. He'd heard legends of strange people that could do such things.
Anyway, he continued thinking while sticking his own earplugs in his ears. What could he do that would be fun and still mildly along the lines with what they were supposed to be doing? Apparently setting Ray on fire was out.... well, unless he wanted to be set on fire in return. Hmm...
She said something more, he assumed it was something along the lines of 'I'm ready' or 'Light me on fire now', or something like that. He took his stance and was still thinking when it finally struck him. He went over to his bag and pulled something out of it and gestured for Ray to hold out her hand, when she did he placed a stick he had picked up outside in it. Then, upon the stick he jammed two of the marshmallows he had grabbed from the Hall and had been intending to toast in potions class. He hadn't gotten the chance, but now seemed like a good time!
Retaking his position, he grinned at Ray and with a downward slash fired off a rather intense burst of red sparks towards his fluffy white targets.
OOC: OOC: I'm assuming Ray is okay with accepting Billy's targets, can edit if necessary.
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Billy Cobb
Well, that's the point ain't it?
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Lydia Priory
June 12, 2021 1:42 PM
Good enough by Lydia Priory
Oh, right, earplugs. Lydia flushed slightly. "I better do that."Regardless of color preferences, ultimately, earplus were earplugs. It was much more important to her to procure a decent partner, particularly someone she was comfortable with than anything else. Unfortunately, the list of people that the Teppenpaw was comfortable with was very short and only consisted of one person who was available at this moment, which was Iris so fortunately, that was who she was partnered with. The only other people were Val, Bridget and sort of Sophia.It was deeply sad that her older sister was only a person she felt "sort of" comfortable with. She knew the sixth year wouldn't deliberately hurt her,both because Sophia cared about consequences and because she was just not evil like that, but at the same time, the Aladren wasn't a terribly patient person-and in DADA, Lydia needed someone patient-and besides the younger girl always felt like Sophia was irritated with her. Or just plain irritated about something. The sixth year often seemed like she just slightly less grouchy than Headmaster Brockert was.
However, this was not the time to worry about that because Lydia... had DADA stuff to worry about. And DADA was much more scary than her sister or the school's headmaster. Although she needed to focus on the positive. She was working with Iris-the literally only person in the room she was at all comfortable with-and that the lesson could be far far worse. This lesson was actually...not that scary. They were not dueling, they were not throwing hexes at each other.
"Those are a pretty color." She said about her friend's earplugs. She walked up and picked out a pink pair of her own. Iris's were nice but she didn't want to be a copycat. Besides, pink was Lydia's favorite color anyway.
The Teppenpaw nodded. "Sounds like a plan." She put her earplugs in and got into the correct position. "Ready? One, two, three. Vermillious Tria !' Obviously, if she was in a situation where she needed to signal for help, she was going to use the strongest spell but she made sure to point the spell away from the other first year since Lydia didn't want to take a chance on hurting anyone, especially not someone who didn't pose a threat to her and was someone she considered her friend. To be honest, the thought of hurting anyone or anything was deeply upsetting.
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Lydia Priory
Good enough
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
June 13, 2021 6:07 AM
Naturally. by Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Ray rolled her eyes over a grin at Billy's assurance that he would never light her on fire but couldn't help wondering a bit what she'd do if he actually did. She didn't want to get him in trouble but she wasn't sure she could keep her cool if she caught fire. Hoping she wouldn't have to figure that out, she got herself ready. Her face wrinkled up in confusion when Billy didn't start shooting off spells and instead ran to his bag.Anyone who carried marshmallows and a stick ready to go was cool in Ray's book and she accepted the items with a determined nod, holding them in front of her and away from her body. She was pretty sure the professor had said not to actually cast the spells directly at each other so there must be some amount of danger involved in this game they were playing but it was worth it for a good magical smore. Still, a small tingle of doubt in Ray's stomach reminded her that this was probably really dangerous and very stupid; she pushed it away. Yelping, flinching, or jumping would not be alright so she locked her jaw, determined to play this off.
She hadn't expected Billy to go full force though. She definitely wouldn't have been able to identify it from the spell herself, partly because when red sparks were flying at you they always seemed pretty intense, but the slash and the blatant lipreading she was relying on did help. She wasn't supposed to do that but how often was she ever going to need to do this kind of thing anyway? It wasn't the spell identifying part that she was proud of herself for; she didn't jump!
The marshmallows were engulfed in sparks and she blew on them to get them out, waiving the stick around gently to help get more air without launching them onto the floor or something. She grinned at Billy. "You did it!" she said, pulling one earplug out with her free hand. The sparks around the marshmallows disappeared then, revealing . . . completely normal, white, untoasted marshmallows. "Oh . . . you didn't do it," she retreated, surprised. "You know, I don't like them burnt, but these are a little underdone," she told him, raising an eyebrow as a challenge as she made a show of pinching one of the marshmallows as if to confirm its un-done-ness
OOC: The result of Billy's spell approved by his author.
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Naturally.
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Rosalynn Tellerman
June 13, 2021 7:12 PM
Exactly! by Rosalynn Tellerman
Rosalynn liked Defense Against the Dark Arts. It wasn't her most favorite class - she hadn't quite narrowed that down between Transfiguration and Charms - but it was definitely up there. Though, to be honest, they all were. It was going to be tough choosing a few to drop come RATS level. Fortunately, though, she had quite some time yet before that became an issue. Next year was going to make it worse though, as she intended to add, well, all of the electives to her schedule, at least at first. If that was too much, she could always drop something. It was better to abandon something she didn't like rather than never try it, in her opinion.She arrived to the day's class and took a seat. She set out all of her class supplies - her inkwell and quill, some parchment, her book, and her completed essay. She did not take out her wand yet. It was safer in her arm holster, than on the desk where it might roll away or get knocked off. She could also draw it faster from there.
When Professor Carter-Xavier called for the essay, Rosalynn cheerfully turned it in, feeling she had been quite insightful on the subject, and just humorous enough to make it an enjoyable read without taking away from the facts and academic conclusions she had discovered during her research.
The substitute then began a short lecture on the Vermillius family of spells. She raised her hand to answer that their purpose was to draw attention. As a stage magician, her father used the same principle - bright colorful lights - to draw the eye away from the slight of hand he was doing right there in front of thousands of people, but it would also work as a cry for help. Sadly, other people got called on and stole most of her answers and Professor Carter-Xavier moved on before noting it's usefulness on the stage. The theatric value of many spells was sadly underemphasized in this school.
The professor explained the day's practical task, and when she was done, Rosalynn went to the front to collect a set of ear plugs. She grabbed a blue pair in honor of Aladren, then went to find a partner.
Someone found her first, and Rosalynn laughed at his question. "Who doesn't?" she asked with a smile, assuming that he was referencing the sparks' similarity to fireworks. She did love a good fireworks display. "But we should probably keep the property damage to a minimum," she added with a wink, like it was a joke, but necessary because his phrasing was slightly alarming given that he was a Pecari.
1
Rosalynn Tellerman
Exactly!
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Amethyst Brockert
June 14, 2021 2:48 PM
*sighs* by Amethyst Brockert
Every time Amethyst went to DADA, she hated Topaz even more. The Crotalus considered herself to be a lady and this was a very unladylike subject that sometimes included athletic things like dueling and lessons like the one some of her sisters and cousin had had that had a simulation of dangerous things coming after them in a forest and everyone had been allowed to use spells on each other. For both Allegra and Sapphire, it had been a terrible experience and to Amethyst, while it was unlikely to traumatize her the way it had her sister and cousin, it did not sound like something she would enjoy either.And she would love to be able to write this class off as something she wouldn't need. She was not the sort who sought dangerous and uncomfortable situations. However, the existence of Topaz made this loathesome class into something that she could see a use for, even though Amethyst found most of the activities utterly detestable and still was probably dropping it after CATS. And that all made her despise her sister even more because she had to sort of take somewhat seriously a class that included activities that the first year found most unladylike.
Still, after this year, Topaz would graduate Sonora and probably get married. Maybe they'd all get lucky and the Aladren would end up with someone foreign and live far far away. Like in outer Mongolia or one of those countries that ended with -stan. Although Amethyst herself hoped to end up in New York or Paris or something glamorous like that, those places were still far away from the Stans.
She sighed as she took a seat in DADA and Professor Carter-Xavier-honestly, what was with all bloody hyphens around here, they just made someone's name ridiculously long. And some people already had ridiculously long names, Amethyst couldn't imagine if Jemima had decided to hyphenate her name with Owen's-began the lesson.
Which was fortunately...not terrible. She would not be forced into unladylike athletic feats today. The Crotalus went and got a purple pair of earplugs and looked around for a suitable partner. Unfortunately, Iris was already partnered with Lydia Priory, which took the Teppenpaw out of the running as well. Amethyst wasn't sure she'd want to partner with the other first year anyway, since Lydia seemed very...fragile. Sort of like Sapphire or Allegra. Which meant Amethyst had a soft spot for her and wouldn't want to risk hurting someone like that.
Of course, if she had been working with Lydia, she could make sure the other girl didn't get hurt because she wouldn't be too rough with her (which also would allow her to maintain ladylike integrity). However, the Crotalus was sure she'd be fine with Iris.
Still, it left Amethyst to look for another partner. She looked around the room for someone who was....acceptable. Spotting such a person, she approached. "Would you like to pair up?"She asked.
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Amethyst Brockert
*sighs*
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Iris Cobb
June 14, 2021 6:05 PM
Now on to the fun part? by Iris Cobb
"Thanks," Iris replied to Lydia's complement to her earplugs, "They're almost the same color as the pond back home." At least, she thought, when it was nice and quiet and some people weren't making a ruckus. It was one of her favorite places. "Yours are nice too." she commented back. Pink was a nice color as well, but it wasn't super high on her list of favorites.As Lydia got into position Iris tried to recall what all she had written in that essay about these spells. She had done it, but now that she actually had to recall the information she couldn't remember which motions went with with spell. One was zig-zaggy, one was a vertical slash and one was a horizontal slash. That sounded right, but which was which? She did her best to watch Lydia's wand and not her mouth, because they weren't supposed to and that would be cheating.
Her partner made a downward slash and a significant amount of sparks burst forth from the wand. That was a bunch of sparks, was it the three version, Tria? Or was that only the Duo version and the Tria might be even bigger? The zig-zag motion was the most complicated one, was that for Tria? No! She remembered now, she had thought that was a bit odd when she was writing the paper, the complicated gesture one was the weakest one. So it wasn't Uno... that didn't help her much, she didn't think it had been.
She held up two fingers to guess at Duo with an uncertain expression on her face. Right or wrong, once she had the answer, she'd know what they all were by wand motion. If she was right, vertical was Duo and horizontal was Tria, if she was wrong they were the other way around.
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Iris Cobb
Now on to the fun part?
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Oz Spellman
June 14, 2021 9:53 PM
*zips lips* by Oz Spellman
Henry wasn’t being a jerk about Oz not paying attention. He rarely was, of course. About that, or about anything in general. Oz was the horrible one.“I’ll guess first,” Oz offered. This was largely based on not really feeling like casting spells himself would be particularly effective right now. As he put his earplugs in, he was reminded of the other time they’d lost one of their senses in this class. This was way less vulnerable than the feeling that had come with being blindfolded, but it still involved being less alert to the world. He was glad he had paired with Henry, and that he’d taken the hit first. That was what he was meant to do, even if it wasn’t a very big threat.
He stayed in his seat, swivelling around to watch Henry with a slightly glazed expression. He’d caught enough of the lecture to know they were doing sparks of different sizes. One, two and three, as he was calling them in his head. His eyes briefly glanced at the clock to see how much more of this there was before he could crawl into bed. The answer was ‘far too much.’
“Ready when you are,” he offered, returning his gaze to Henry.
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Oz Spellman
*zips lips*
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Augustine Reed-Fischer
June 15, 2021 7:31 PM
Time to duel then! by Augustine Reed-Fischer
Gus grinned, satisfied that he'd stumbled into a partner who was also stoked about explodey things. He returned her wink; they should totally not do damage to property and stuff. Well . . . actually for the sake of avoiding detention, they probably really shouldn't. Bummer. Eh, 'minimum' didn't mean 'none' so maybe they could find something to destroy in a small way. Maybe."We definitely should avoid people damage though," he added a little more seriously, eyeing up his classmate who was probably better at this than he was because he only half paid attention most of the time and she was an Aladren. He knew that didn't necessarily mean anything - he, Oz, and Billy all had really smart siblings in Crotalus - but the blue house definitely had a reputation for being brainy. Plus, Rosalynn had answered one of the professor's questions. He wasn't really sure what the answer was still but he knew she'd been one of the people who raised her hand so she apparently did.
This was the sort of spell that could be great for pranks and he was pretty excited to find a way to surprise Patience with it since she wouldn't know the spell yet. Jazz was harder to trick with stuff like that since she already knew the spells but Patience was a clean slate. He wasn't sure if Rosalynn liked pranks but everyone should like pranks and giving someone a good laugh was a good way to find out whether they did or not.
"I'll go first," he said with a mischievous grin, a plan set in place in his head for just how to get Rosalynn laughing. When her earplugs were in and they were squared up, he screwed up his face in concentration and cast . . . Rictusempra. The tickling charm didn't have a movement anything like the spells they were casting today and obviously the mouth movement was different but he was pretty sure the professor had said not to lipread. What better way to get someone laughing than a tickle charm? The spell fired off with a streak of silver straight towards Rosalynn.
OOC: Ricutsempra being a spell within Gus' ability level based on the HP wiki. https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Charms_(class)#Curriculum
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Augustine Reed-Fischer
Time to duel then!
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Lydia Priory
June 16, 2021 2:02 PM
Sorry, we have to do DADA stuff before we can have fun by Lydia Priory
"Thanks." Lydia responded. Briefly, she wondered if maybe Iris was a tad homesick and that was why she picked earplugs that reminded her of something at home. The Teppenpaw hoped her friend wasn't feeling that way, but it was something she could certainly relate to. Which might be one reason that she wouldn't want Iris to feel that way.She waited for the other girl to guess which of the three spells that she had done. Iris held up two fingers and Lydia shook her head, feeling bad. First of all, because she didn't want her friend to feel bad if she got something wrong. Although not everyone would, the Teppenpaw knew that she would personally. Not that Iris should but Lydia herself was the sort who was embarassed if she got something wrong . The Teppenpaw knew what it was to feel inadequate and weak and like you couldn't do things for yourself. The other first year wasn't necessarily feeling that way, but Lydia didn't want her to.
And was it somehow her fault that Iris got it wrong? Was her display of sparks not strong enough? Lydia had thought they were plenty bright but maybe she should have made her wand movements a bit clearer. Or maybe her magic was not that strong although regardless of whether or not she was strong in other ways there never had been any indication that that was the case. Still, the Teppenpaw could have mixed up the movements and done the wrong one though she thought she had done a downward slash. After all, had Lydia done the wrong combination then it would have failed completely, either nothing would have happened at all or there would have been a disaster.
Thankfully, neither of those things were the case. The mere thought of disaster made the first year a bit queasy, she would hate to get hurt or hurt Iris. Or anyone else for that matter. Plus, she might have gotten in trouble had something gone awry and her classmates would have noticed both the disaster and her getting yelled at. And nothing happening wouldn't have been much better because it would have meant she wasn't that good at magic.
Anyway, she supposed that she must not have made a mistake and the Crotalus simply had guessed wrong. And now Lydia had to tell her that. Which in some cases was also a scary prospect because some people didn't take that well, though Iris had never given any indication of being that sort of person. The Teppenpaw was going to go on assuming it would be fine, since she didn't have a choice at this point. She held up three fingers, indicating Tria .
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Lydia Priory
Sorry, we have to do DADA stuff before we can have fun
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Henry Spellman
June 16, 2021 5:22 PM
Something something free speech something something. by Henry Spellman
Henry nodded resolutely, glad that Oz was going to guess first. Henry had a lot more control over how this was going to go and how much he could take care of his brother if he was the one casting first and he decided right away that he was going to do the least powerful one. Just in case. Oz was looking at him with glazed eyes and the last thing Henry wanted to do was startle him awake by throwing a butt ton of sparks at him; a fistful of sparks was much better.Not sure that either of them was really 'ready' at all, Henry squared up, took a breath, and waved his wand in the zig-zag pattern required for the spell, enunciating extra clearly as he shot off red sparks. It was still seriously crazy that that was a thing he could do with a stick but it was becoming a little more normal somehow and this was way less whacky than some of the stuff they'd learned to do. Transfiguration class was basically just a mind trip.
When it was done, he cocked his head some as he waited for Oz to take the earplugs out. "So?" he asked. "What do you think?"
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Henry Spellman
Something something free speech something something.
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Billy Cobb
June 17, 2021 5:57 PM
Great! Let's get to work then. by Billy Cobb
Ray didn't give him any sort of uncertain look or anything as he handed her the stick. Not that he really expected her to after some of the other classes they'd had together, but it was yet another indication that she was the kind of person he liked to hang out with. The way she just held out the stick and marshmallows while he lined up the shot spoke volumes to him. She was alright.The sheer amount of sparks that blasted out from his wand with the trio spell surprised even him. Those marshmallows were engulfed. That was a shame they wouldn't have been nice toasted just perfectly. Now they'd be all black and ruined. Well, maybe Iris would want them. She liked horrible burnt marshmallows. Once more to her credit, Ray didn't even flinch as the blast rushed past her. Thankfully none of it hit her. She was tough. Dope.
"Wha...?" He asked a bit dumbly in response to her comment as he pulled out an earplug as well. "Whaddya mean?" Taking a few strides to reach her and the marshmallow stick he inspected the results as well. "Goshdarnit," he muttered. Well, there was certainly only one thing to do. He returned her challenge with a challenging gaze of his own. "Alright then, how 'bout you show me what you got then?" He took the stick, gestured for her to take his previous position and held the stick out to the side as she had done. Now he just had to play it just as cool as she had. "I don't like mine burnt neither." He commented as he put his earplug back in and waited for her.
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Billy Cobb
Great! Let's get to work then.
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Iris Cobb
June 17, 2021 6:25 PM
Can we make this fun? by Iris Cobb
Iris thought Lydia looked a little uncertain as she held up three finger to indicate that she had done the strongest of the spells. Was she unsure of which she had cast? That seemed unlikely. Anyway, Iris now knew which wand motions went with each spell. Great! She smiled back at Lydia and gave her a thumbs-up sign that she understood. Uno was the complicated one, Duo was the horizontal slash and Tria was the vertical slash. That should make the rest of this task easy enough now.She thought about which one of the spells she was going to cast for Lydia to identify. If she had just cast the Tria, she'd easily figure that one out. So if they were testing each other, she should do one of the other two. Well, why not do the complicated simple one? She gestured to her partner that she was ready to cast and took up a proper spell casting stance.
"Vermillius Uno!" Iris called out as she waved her wand around in the zig-zag motion that had caught her attention in the essay. A small shower of red sparks erupted from the end of her wand. It was a rather feeble showing when compared to the Tria level spell that Lydia had preformed. Iris was forced to wonder when the different levels of the spell would be useful. In what situation would you want to use Uno over Tria? If you wanted attention, the more sparks the better, right?
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Iris Cobb
Can we make this fun?
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Lydia Priory
June 20, 2021 3:39 PM
We can try by Lydia Priory
It looked like Iris was not bothered by getting it wrong, which was good. Lydia actually smiled. Which was something that rarely happened in DADA of course. This class was an endless source of misery for her as was Flying. Still, she liked that Iris was pleased. It made her happy when people she liked were happy even if she didn't quite understand why the Crotalus had made the thumbs up sign when she'd guessed wrong. Lydia assumed that it just meant things were all good and that they could move on.Which now meant it was her turn to guess. Okay, that sounded like something she could handle. She hadn't really had any problem with her essay and she was sure she remembered which motion went with which version of the spell. The Teppenpaw always tried to do her best with everything, but especially parts of DADA were less awful and terrifying and/or athletically demanding, such as essays to make up for the scary and/or athletic parts that Lydia knew full well she wasn't going to do well at.
Although, to be honest, the scary stuff, at least when theoretical was incredibly easy for her to remember. In fact, it was pretty much impossible to forget, thinking about dark creatures and dark magic. She could even perform the defensive spells when it was simply just performing them. The problem came when Lydia had to actually face these things practically. When there were spells being fired at her or if they somehow had a simulation of creatures coming after her. That was when she got too scared to handle it. Everyone and everything was bigger and stronger than her and she was helpless in these situations.
Also, remembering how to do a spell, the right combination of words and wand motions was part of magic, regardless of which discipline and it was just as simple to remember words that were part of protecting yourself in DADA-even if you found it hard to apply them practically- as it was to remember a charm or transfiguration. Lydia watched as Iris did a zig-zag motion and red sparks shot out of the other girl's wand. The Teppenpaw held up one finger for Uno.
She hoped she was right and not just because generally speaking, she preferred to be right just as most people did but also because, if the Crotalus had done a stronger spell and Lydia thought it was a weaker one, then it might be seen as an insult to Iris's magical strength. Then again, Iris had guessed that the Teppenpaw had done Duo when she'd done Trio and Lydia hadn't been offended, so maybe Iris wouldn't be either. Or maybe Lydia had guessed correctly, she waited to see whether or not she had.
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Lydia Priory
We can try
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Alexei Vorontsov
June 20, 2021 8:09 PM
Think of it as observation practice. Very useful skill in Polite Society. by Alexei Vorontsov
He was confident, he thought, that he had broadly gotten the hang of it all now, but Alexei still felt a flash of anxiety whenever he handed in an essay. It was foolish, he knew - after seeing the troubles Tatya and Katya had both had in their first years here, Papa had decided Alexei should learn to write English at the same time he learned to write Russian, and so he doubted that he was even really at much of a disadvantage next to his classmates at all - but ideas, he had found, were funny like that: once the slightest possibility of embarrassment was detected, it became nigh impossible to ignore it ever after. He knew how to write English script, but on most of his assignments, he used printed English letters - a commonality between Russian and English was that printed letters were much easier to read. He didn't know enough about far eastern languages to be sure, but he suspected that might be a sort of universal constant of writing.Once he had American-smiled at his Head of House and handed over his paper, he went as usual to one of the front seats, the better to minimize the number of things that might distract him from the lesson, or at least, from the spoken part of it. He had never, he thought, really paid attention to how different the casual spoken Russian of his home life was from the more formal Russian of lessons until this midterm, after several months of working through the differences between the formal English of the schoolroom and the casual English of his peers, and sometimes even his teachers. Professors were less troublesome in that area than, say, his roommate (he was often half-convinced that he and Xavier were having different conversations at the same time, though it seemed to work out well enough for them, so that was all right), but Alexei would not have been surprised to learn that bets were laid over how many times he'd raise his hand to ask for clarification in a complex lesson, or that people rolled their eyes about this behind his back.
Today's lesson, though, between things he had picked up over the first half of the year, the brevity of the lesson itself, and things he'd already known, wasn't too bad. 'Ear plugs' as a word pair might have fallen oddly on his ears on its own, but since it was accompanied with an object, he was able to figure it out. The only thing he tripped over was the idea of reading lips (he imagined someone making predictions from the little lines and creases in someone's lips, like performing palmistry, but...weirder) and he thought he could let that one pass. He didn't really watch people's mouths with any particular attention anyway, so he doubted he would do it by mistake, especially since the lesson was about looking at hand movements and sparks.
He wondered if this was something where he might have an actual advantage - and something his sisters might have had even more of an advantage of. Alexei sometimes fell back on non-verbal cues and clues when he was uncertain of something being said, but Tatiana and Katerina both must have both relied on it. They might well have had to watch the teachers' wand movements during demonstrations carefully to do their work properly, as they might have had trouble understanding the verbal directions for a while. They both had naturally good eyes for detail, he thought - Tatiana could tell very similar-looking jewels apart at a distance and could comment on details, and Katya was a talented artist in several formats - but that kind of thing would have helped them hone it, if he was right. He made a mental note to ask Katya about it.
For the moment, he had a lesson to get on with. He smiled politely at the girl who approached him and asked if he would like to pair up with her. "This would be very nice," he said. "You wish to cast your spell first?"
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Alexei Vorontsov
Think of it as observation practice. Very useful skill in Polite Society.
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Amethyst Brockert
June 22, 2021 4:45 PM
Well, if it'll help me in Polite Society by Amethyst Brockert
Generally speaking, Amethyst had a Crotalus-like caution about Pecaris. After all, prior to coming to Sonora, the only one she'd been truly exposed to was Uncle Eustace, who was second only to Topaz in terms of being vile and horrid. Plus, they had the reputation for being rough, loud, uncouth and completely unconcerned about proper manners.Still, Esme had a similar attitude about them to Amethyst's own and she'd been able to find one that was acceptable. Therefore, the younger Crotalus had- cautiously, of course-decided to not completely automatically write them all off and observe carefully instead of making snap judgements based off their sortings.
Of course, for the most part, they were...pretty much what Amethyst expected albeit not nearly as bad as her uncle . Granted, she'd had a preexisting opinion of Billy Cobb, because of what Iris had said about him being irresponsible and her loyalty lied with her roommate. And Ray seemed to be a rude obnoxious troublemaker who would probably take that assessment of her character as a compliment. However, Alexei Vorontsov seemed...all right.
That was admittedly probably because he'd been raised in the sort of family where he was taught good manners and proper behavior and therefore had an advantage. Of course, people couldn't help what sorts of families they were born into and there were Muggleborns and half-bloods, such as Iris, who were perfectly pleasant and lovely. And there were despicable people, such as Topaz-who wasn't even a Pecari, but because of other Aladren that Amethyst knew before her sister had been sorted into that house that weren't terrible people like Emerald and Grandfather and Uncle Ben,although her uncle was odd and her sister and grandfather weren't warm fuzzy types-and Uncle Eustace had been raised with those lessons in proper manners. How they'd gone so horribly wrong when they'd had siblings who were completely well-mannered and polite was anyone's guess. Probably because they were basically both psychopaths.
Still, Alexei was a proper pureblood boy who would be good for Amethyst to get to know. If nothing else, because there weren't very many purebloods around here in general, in particular ones that weren't already somehow related to the Crotalus, while there were those who sought to vilify them. They needed to stick together. She smiled at her classmate. "Certainly."
She put in her earplugs, took her stance and did the appropriate wand motion. " Vermillious Duo " She called. A decent amount of sparks flew out. It was not as many as if she'd done the more powerful Trio spell but more than the less powerful Uno. Amethyst was unable to gauge exactly how precise she'd gotten it, but she saw it was definitely...somewhere in the middle.
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Amethyst Brockert
Well, if it'll help me in Polite Society
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
June 24, 2021 5:57 PM
I already did. by Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Ray gave up the stick as Billy took it, grinning at his reaction to failure. Mom always said that men couldn't handle failure, especially in front of a woman, and that that's why dad left - he was too big a failure to stick around where mom could see. Ray agreed that he'd left because of a failure but she was pretty sure it wasn't dad's career or something that was the problem. Still, Billy seemed a better type of guy than the ones she'd known at school and stuff and having fun with a classmate was definitely a refreshing change of pace from her life before Sonora. Almost a full year into the program here and she hadn't yet found a reason to think that it was not the right place for her, even if she'd gotten herself pretty close to detention a few times."Charred," she said, making a face of mock disapproval when Billy said he didn't like his marshmallows burnt, "is the only way. Then you can pull off the outside in layers and eat the gooey inside separate." Perfect. Now she'd set herself up for success whether she horribly burnt the marshmallows or not. Not like she wouldn't play it off either way but still, it was best to give reasons for such things so they didn't look like excuses. Besides, she really did prefer her marshmallows black on the outside.
Taking up the same stance Billy had done but leaving her earplugs out since she was the one casting now, she decided on the lowest version of the spell. Billy's hadn't done it at top tier, but perhaps this was a good way to at least make sure she didn't go setting too much on fire if she did mange it. She paused a moment to concentrate before waving her wand in a zig-zag formation, letting out a smaller burst of sparks than Billy had. The marshmallow was once again engulfed and she strode forward to Billy as they waited for the sparks to clear enough to see the results.
"Marshmallows aren't magic resistant right? And you don't have magically fire resistant ones?" she confirmed, fearing she hadn't managed a smore either.
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
I already did.
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Alexei Vorontsov
July 02, 2021 8:19 PM
Plus, you never know when you'll need rescuing from a bear. by Alexei Vorontsov
Alexei put in the earplugs, making a small face at the sensation of the foam expanding inside his ears, filling them closely enough that it felt as though the plugs were pushing the flesh outward in every direction at once. It wasn't forceful enough to hurt, exactly, but...almost. It stopped just short of being painful, short enough that he could just about see the dividing line between 'painful' and 'not painful,' which was a line that was supposed to usually be obscured to some degree. He shook his head slightly back and forth a few times, trying to get used to the feeling."Ok, I have them," he said finally, adding the new strangeness of feeling himself speak more than hearing himself do so. Belatedly, he realized he had already seen Amethyst put her earplugs in, too, so she probably couldn't hear him at all. He smiled and nodded instead, then, hoping this could convey the same message he had tried to convey verbally, and he fixed his eyes on her wand to see what she would do with it.
It produced a good quantity of red sparks, and Alexei smiled broadly and nodded vigorously in approval of her work as the sparkles streamed around them. There were enough in the air that the basic spell seemed out of the rumming, but were there enough there for version three? He flipped his textbook open to the correct page, glad for the existence of illustrations in spellbooks. Reading was all well and good, and he was proud of the number of languages he could do it in, but when it came to gauging how large a cloud of sparks a spell should produce, there really was nothing to beat an illustration in any language.
He looked between the illustrations, then, and then back up at Amethyst and the sparks, his eyes narrowed with thought as he compared the visuals. Finally, he raised two fingers to make his guess and his eyebrows to hopefully communicate that this was meant to be a question, so that they could be spared the fuss and bother of taking earplugs out and putting them back in again over and over when non-verbal communication seemed adequate enough to him to manage.
When it was his own turn, he took up his wand, adjusting his grip on it until it felt like it was natural for it to rest in his hand. This was still something that took him a few seconds most times, but he thought it really did produce better results, enough to justify taking the few seconds before attempting to cast "vermillious tria."
A substantial number of sparks streamed out into the air, and Alexei smiled at them, pleased with his results. It was not, he thought, the largest number the spell would be capable of producing, but it was not a bad effort at all, though it did make him wonder what would happen if he tried saying vermillious quattuor sometime, if the range really did begin at the low end of the base spell and conclude at the high end of the three range....
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Alexei Vorontsov
Plus, you never know when you'll need rescuing from a bear.
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Amethyst Brockert
July 04, 2021 10:12 PM
I hope to never be in that situation but yes, that's a good reason as well by Amethyst Brockert
Amethyst couldn't help but smile back when Alexei smiled at her and nodded vigorously. He seemed to be complimenting her spell work and level of magical talent. So, therefore, she absolutely beamed . She adored being complimented in general, especially given her upbringing of being somewhat emotionally neglected-albeit somewhat less than her older siblings being that she admittedly manipulated things in order to be noticed although never in a trouble making manner and the fact that her older siblings had done things like go to school and get married, meaning there were fewer children at home-but to get one from a young pureblood gentleman, even a non-verbal, non-explicit one, absolutely made Amethyst's day.Although it was honestly a shame that they were wearing earplugs. Beyond just the fact that they so weren't her idea of a suitable fashion accessory, they couldn't hear each other. How were they supposed to talk and get to know each other and become friends (or possibly more) when they couldn't hear each other? In theory, there was some way because there were deaf people and surely deaf people were able to make friends but not being so,Amethyst had no idea how that worked and this made the lesson all business and much as she liked using magic, something being all business made it quite boring.
While Alexei looked something up in a book, she waited as patiently as she could, patience being a virtue that the Crotalus was generally lacking in, but she had just been complimented by a young man and that had delighted her enough to be more tolerant, especially with that young man.When Alexei found what he was looking for and held up two fingers, Amethyst nodded and smiled, to let him know he was correct.
Now it was her turn to guess and his turn to cast. She watched his hands, knowing the best way to tell the difference between the three levels of the spell was to watch the wand motion. After all, there were people who weren't especially good at magic who might under perform or someone who was very good at it might actually over perform.Or someone who didn't have very good control might go overboard as well.
Anyway, Amethyst was pretty sure that Alexei had done the tria spell, not because of the decent level of sparks that had been shot out but because she'd seen him do a downward slash. She confidently held up three fingers while smiling and nodding her approval as he'd done with her earlier, figuring it never hurt anything to return a compliment.
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Amethyst Brockert
I hope to never be in that situation but yes, that's a good reason as well
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Alexei Vorontsov
July 30, 2021 6:10 PM
Avoiding bears is usually a good idea. by Alexei Vorontsov
It was odd, this sort of communication through nods and smiles and hand gestures instead of words. It reminded Alexei of some of his earliest language lessons - when he had learned numbers in different languages, he'd always held up the proper number of fingers when chanting an entry to the list, to help him sort words into the box he mostly thought of as tri, but which could also be three, trois, drei....It was, it turned out, apparently a reasonably effective means of communication, but only for very simple messages. Luckily, it didn't take a lot of complex ideas to communicate on the level they needed to right now and make guesses about which of three things was going on.
He nodded and smiled back when Amethyst Brockert guessed correctly in her turn, pleased both that the exercise had gone well for both of them and because it meant he had done well. It was a kind of rush, he discovered, to do something well enough for someone else to know what it was without hearing the incantation. It made him feel...powerful, he supposed, which on one hand was silly, because he was still just a slight, not particularly strong eleven-year-old, but on the other hand, he had used the most difficult version of the spell....
He was fairly sure, though, that they had currently reached the limit of their abilities to communicate without either speaking or writing, so he reached up to take out his earplugs. "Very good," he praised her recent performance more directly than before. "Should we do this thing again? Use different numbers?"
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Alexei Vorontsov
Avoiding bears is usually a good idea.
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Amethyst Brockert
August 01, 2021 3:27 PM
Thanks, I certainly thought so. by Amethyst Brockert
Amethyst smiled as Alexei nodded, implying that she had guessed correctly. She was quite pleased with herself for getting things right so far. The trick was showing just the right amount of pride. It was okay to be confident and take pride in herself for doing well, but it was not okay to be arrogant or smug.And sometimes, the first year had difficulty with the particular nuances of where the metaphorical line regarding that situation was. Unlike some of her siblings-mainly Sapphire-and cousins who seemed to be incredibly humble to the point of actual self-loathing, Amethyst had always been confident in herself and her abilities. Maybe it was because there was enough of an age difference between herself and Topaz, that while the Aladren still bothered her some, it was still less than the older girl had tormented Sapphire and Allegra who were closer to her in age.
Of course, another explanation would be that Amethyst was just plain of a different temperament than her sister or cousin. She was inherently more confident and stronger emotionally and mentally than they were. Not that she thought she was an overall better person than they were. In fact, when it came down to it, she honestly thought quite the opposite. They were much kinder than she was, even though Amethyst really tried to be nice in most cases. However, some people made it incredibly difficult for her to do so and at the end of the day, she just didn't want to associate with them. They had nothing in common and weren't her kind of people.
Anyway, Topaz had quite a high opinion of herself as did Uncle Eustace and it made them incredibly obnoxious and unbearable to be around. Granted, both of them also had other repulsive personality traits that made her and most others feel that way as well but still, Amethyst would not want Alexei Vorontsov to think she was obnoxious and avoid her. She did not want to alienate the only other proper pureblood here around her age that she wasn't related to regardless of where he'd been sorted.
The other first year removed his earplugs and she did likewise, figuring he probably wanted to say something that couldn't be communicated non-verbally. Amethyst smiled again and said "Thank you and very good yourself." She figured that complimenting him on his spell work was a good idea.
Considering his suggestion, she replied."All right" and put her earplugs back in, expecting Alexei to do likewise. " Vermillious Uno " A smaller amount of sparks flew out of her wand than her previous attempt, but still a substantial amount for this level of the spell.
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Amethyst Brockert
Thanks, I certainly thought so.
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