Quillan Arcadius
February 09, 2023 3:20 PM
Let's call it.... multitasking by Quillan Arcadius
Quillan weaved in and out of a tight range of poles on his broom. Below him, a soft, female voice called out Two scoops of finely shredded dried nettles.Before leaving for school, Ms. Faulk had enchanted all his textbooks to be able to read themselves to him with a tap of his wand. The main issue had been finding a place to listen to them. The library was right out, as was any public space with a large number of people - both out of his need for privacy, and their need to not have a textbook read at them against their will, which he thought would be ill-form, even in Aladren. MARS was proving to be a good spot for it. So long as he didn't engage in exercise that made a lot of noise or took him a long distance from his book. He'd gone running a couple of times, with the room accommodating his need to move yet stay in a single place, with the path sliding back underneath him. He wondered how Muggles could cope - here was he with the capabilities of multiple adult magic users and a whole enchanted room at his disposal, and yet he could only just co-ordinate going for a run and listening to something at the same time. He was thinking how it would be quite impossible for them, but then remembered that they wouldn't have enchanted books which read themselves out loud in the first place.
Alongside running, he could do drill practice of shooting Quaffles, or small obstacle courses for his agility, so long as he practised both close to the ground.
He was currently previewing potions for the upcoming week. He did a better job of following the written instructions if he knew what they already said. As predicted, potions was the most challenging on that front, as most other subjects just set reading the theory for homework. Even if they let early finishers get started on it in class, Quillan could either opt for extra practical practise or sit and flick through the pages at the same approximate rate as a neighbour. Aside from the occasional pesky worksheet, potions was the class that demanded the most live reading - the kind where you read and immediately acted upon it.
He took a pole too close, catching it with the back of his broom, which resulted in a thunk from the wood and a 'whoa!' from him as he was knocked slightly off balance. Which drowned out just how many times he was meant to stir. He turned, planning to make the book go back a bit, but before he got there someone opened the door. Quillan landed and hastily stopped the book instead.
"Good afternoon. Were you wanting to use the room?" he asked.
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Quillan Arcadius
Let's call it.... multitasking
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Xarryn Bavol
February 09, 2023 6:29 PM
It's a great idea! by Xarryn Bavol
The best thing about Sonora was the Garden. Xarryn had spent a lot of roaming around in there, getting lost, exploring, finding his way back. Or not finding his way back, on occasion. One night he'd even slept out there because he'd gotten so lost he figured he'd rather get in trouble for camping out than for coming in after curfew.The second best thing about Sonora was the MARS rooms. The water room was obviously his favorite. He could go in there and sail when he was missing home. The ship even looked like the Wind Harness, even if it didn't have all the people on it that were supposed to be there. Today, though, he walked into the Sports room, not really having anything in particular in mind. He didn't have Leviosa with him to go sword fighting, but he was feeling antsy and he just wanted something different.
It looked like it was maybe a small obstacle course? But it hadn't been born of his own imagination. There was somebody else here. One of the first years, flying on a broom. Or had recently been flying. Now he was landing and closing the . . . book . . . that had been talking when Xarryn walked in. That's a neat trick. He wished all books just talked their words at the people trying to read them. It would make reading the homework assignments tons easier.
"Yeah," he shrugged, his plan to use the room fairly obvious given that he was there. "But I can go to the water room if you want to be alone. Or we can share. I don't mind. What're you doing? Looks fun!"
He moved closer and recognized that the book was their potions text. He knew there were spells and enchantments for saying words and a quill writing them down for you - he was given permission to use those sometimes because his handwriting was very hard to read - so it made sense there would be spells and enchantments that worked the other way, too. Pity nobody had taught him that yet. "Was that a spell you cast to make it read to you, or does it have an enchantment? And if so, how do I get one?"
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Xarryn Bavol
It's a great idea!
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Quillan Arcadius
February 15, 2023 3:39 AM
Oh. Thanks. by Quillan Arcadius
The person who had interrupted him was Xarryn. Of all the people to catch him doing something odd and potentially a little undignified, Xarryn wasn't the worst option, seeing as that was a description of how the other boy seemed to conduct himself at all times. Not that he was necessarily a bad person... He was just... exuberant, and a long way down Quillan's list of desirable class partners. However, this wasn't class. Xarryn seemed both easy going about how they used the room and the fact that Quillan's book had been talking. In fact, he seemed downright impressed about the latter. Quillan recalled his earlier notion that speaking books would be a fantastical concept to those who had not grown up with magic, and he wondered if that applied to Xarryn."I'm working on agility drills for Quidditch," he answered the question of what he was doing first. "Though I could switch up to passing too, or anything else really." He didn't specify the need for it to be quiet, as he wasn't sure whether they'd continue to use the textbook - if they did, hopefully Xarryn could figure out that need for himself. "You're welcome to stay," he added. He usually liked company, and he didn't want to get a reputation as a brute.
"I can't cast that spell yet, though I'm definitely going to work on it. My tutor enchanted all my books so that I'd have the option of listening. I'm much more of an auditory learner, and it allows me to move around at the same time or multitask." All of which sounded much better than 'The letters just don't stay still and I can barely make sense of them.' "Uh, I'm not sure how you get them. Maybe ask Professor Skies?" he suggested. She seemed to be in charge of that sort of thing. "We can also listen to mine while we play, if you want. I tend to preview the recipes that are likely to be coming up."
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Quillan Arcadius
Oh. Thanks.
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