Maisy Wigglington
August 29, 2023 12:02 PM
Intermediates- Cat Scratch Fever by Maisy Wigglington
By the time their first semester had finished, Maisy had managed to get her stuff together enough to feel like a real teacher. She almost never swore in front of the students anymore, and surprisingly (to her), all of her students were passing. She looked forward to the start of the new term and fresh lessons, and she had arranged something special for their first week back.“Alright, class, listen up,” she said as the last of her intermediates got settled, “I’ve gotten us a new class pet, and today, you’ll be learning how to care for him.”
She reached under her desk and pulled out a medium-sized cardboard box. It had holes punched in the side, and it rocked under the shifting weight of its contents. Melody had hand-selected this beast over the holidays, getting the proper licensure from the government and permission from the school.
“This,” she said, opening the box and pulling out a small ball of fluff, “Is Magnus, and he is a half-Kneazle.” Magnus’s orange fur matched her own hair, and his tufted ears were as soft as baby’s breath. Maisy could say that she had chosen him, but the reality was that he’d chosen her, batting at her shoelaces. She had gone ahead pretreated his fur with a dander-eliminator, to ward off any allergies her students might have.
“Kneazles are notoriously scrupulous when it comes to their owners. They don’t like shifty people. They are also incredibly intelligent creatures, and need plenty of mental stimulation. We have three tasks today, divided into years. Fifth years, you will be designing his enclosure. As much as he and I would both like for him to free-roam, it simply isn’t safe. His enclosure will need plenty of room for him to move around, a place for him to sleep, and anything else you might think would be nice. I've got an empty kennel in the back corner.” The kennel was more of a tower, with multiple levels all caged in.
“Fourth years, I’m tasking you with making interesting toys with these bits and bobs right here. Be creative, you can transfigure or glue or whatever. He likes most things that a cat would like, and some things that a dog would like. Feel free to test them out on him as you work through your ideas.”
“Thirds, you guys are looking at what sort of things he can eat, both daily and as special treats. I have some Kneazle-safe ingredients over there,” Maisy pointed out a basketful of a variety of fruits and vegetables and meats, “Use your textbooks to research it before you feed him, please.”
Pleased that everyone was looking engaged (except the Scapetello girl, but she was never exactly enthusiastic), Maisy clapped her hands together. “Let’s get started!”
Subthreads: Here kitty kitty by Xarryn Bavol with Robyn Lundstrom
A little better educated by Leviosa Scurlock with Piper Wilson
Chase, Magnus! Chase! by Cole Pierce with Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher
Toys huh? by Fortune Ardovini
Stranglehold by Olaf Brockert with Magnus
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Maisy Wigglington
Intermediates- Cat Scratch Fever
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Cole Pierce
September 01, 2023 9:56 PM
Chase, Magnus! Chase! by Cole Pierce
Oh, this was going to be a fun lesson, Cole was sure about that as soon as he saw the little half-kneazle. And the assignment for the fourth years was easily the best one. Making cat toys was absolutely the best classwork assignment he had ever been given in his life, including when his dad was his teacher in first grade. Sorry, dad.Cole had never had a cat, but Gramelia had one, so he knew they loved things that were shiny, things that moved, things that jingled, and laser pointers. Laser pointers did not seem to be available, and he didn't know any spells to replicate the effect, but he could handle the other three.
He picked up a what might have started life as a disco ball keychain, but was now just a slightly tarnished disco ball. He used a cleaning charm on it to get it extra shiny, and then picked up a little stuffed bear. A couple of sticking charms got the bear to hold the disco ball. Most of Gramelia's cat toys were shaped like prey animals, so a bear probably wasn't something a kitten would want to chase. A transfiguration spell changed it to a chipmunk. (It looked remarkably like Dale.) He then tied a small jingle bell to Dale's tail so the toy would jingle as it ran around.
Making it run around was going to be the trickiest of the spells he planned for this, but he was pretty good at charms, so with a few tries, he did get Dale scampering about with a jingly tail and a shiny disco ball. Satisfied that his toy was working as expected, he headed over to where Magnus was contained while the fifth years worked on his enclosure.
"Hey, Magnus. Look what I got for you." He put Dale down, and set the chipmunk off. "Magnus, chase it!" he encouraged, though he didn't really need to. The kitten was already happily stalking its new toy.
Cole grinned brightly as another student came over. "Hey! What did you make?" He pointed at Magnus and Dale - or rather, Magnus and what had been Dale. Magnus had caught the chipmunk and killed it. Cole's smile faded. "Oh. I guess I didn't make a toy that lasts very long."
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Cole Pierce
Chase, Magnus! Chase!
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Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher
September 30, 2023 12:05 PM
Magnus: 1, Dale: 0 by Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher
Care of Magical Creatures was easily the class in which Lazarus felt the most comfortable. As if his own house didn’t sometimes feel like a zoo, he had spent most of his childhood literally at a zoo. Both of his parents were magical zookeepers, so it was around even the most frightening of magical creatures that Laz felt like he knew his way around pretty easily. Of course, he knew what creatures to be cautious around, but they hardly scared him. Pretty much anything could be dealt with if you knew how to do it.And of those more dangerous animals, Kneazles were definitely not one. Especially a half-Kneazle. Professor Wigglington was right to call it a class pet. It was little more than a house cat with some extra judgmental opinions, as far as the Aladren was concerned.
Making cat toys felt a bit below their level, in his opinion, but he wasn’t complaining about an easier lesson. Lazarus grabbed what was approximately two-thirds of a broken crayon and inspected it for ideas. After a moment of thought, he flicked his wrist, and a light from the tip of his wand turned the crayon into a plastic-like stick with a dangling string off the end of it. The whole thing stayed purple like the crayon had been, which wasn’t really his intent, but that was sufficient, he supposed.
Beside him, Cole Pierce asked what he had made, and Lazarus held it where the other student could see. Cole’s toy - a chipmunk or something - had already been defeated by Magnus, which wasn’t entirely unexpected. Lazlo dangled the end of his toy before the cat to distract him and take back Cole’s toy. Sitting it on the table and picking his wand back up, he mouthed Reparo to see if the toy would come back to life. Maybe it could just be reset.
OOC: Up to you if Dale can be brought back to life like this.
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Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher
Magnus: 1, Dale: 0
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Cole Pierce
October 01, 2023 2:24 PM
I don't think Dale's got a chance by Cole Pierce
"Thanks," Cole said gratefully as Lazarus used his own cat toy to distract Magnus and rescue Dale's remains. Laz even tried to fix Dale, and it worked about as well as magically repairing a toy made out of broken things could work. The pros were that the disco ball was shinier than ever and its missing mirror plates had even been restored, the chipmunk was recognizably a chimpmunk again (or a close cartoonish equvilant) instead of murdered plush toy with its stuffing bleeding all over the table (having kept its new form as transfigurations were a very solid form of magic until the spell wore off), and the jingle bell on its tail was once more attached. The cons were that the hardest spell - the locomotion one - had been dispersed and a simple reparo could only restore the physical object and not its enchantments, and also putting Dale back down with Magnus would result in basically the same thing happening again in just as short a time."I think it probably needs something to make it tougher to stand up to being pounced on," he mused, frowing at Dale thoughtfully.
"Yours seems to be keeping him entertained quite well," he added with impressed congratulations in his tone, nodding to the swipes and jumps Magnus was making at Lazarus' dangling string toy. It maybe wasn't quite as complicated as what Cole had made, but it seemed to be doing the job better and for longer, so there was a lot to be said for simplicity in cat toys. Cole's might get bonus Charms points, but this was Care of Magical Creatures, not Charms, and Laz's was definitely scoring higher on the feline survivability scale.
Cole took a little time to pull out his charms book and look up durability charms, because he was having trouble remembering how to do those off the top of his head, but re-reading the page the index directed him to brought it all back. He cast that on poor Dale, not sure it would be quite enough, but it would be better than nothing at all. Then he recast his locomotion charms and put the toy back down into Magnus' space, letting Dale scamper off.
OOC: You are welcome to have Dale die another stuffing-y death if you like.
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Cole Pierce
I don't think Dale's got a chance
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Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher
October 01, 2023 9:59 PM
Everybody likes an underdog story. by Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher
Laz was a bit disappointed his attempt had not fully fixed Cole’s toy, but admittedly, it still did better than he realistically would have anticipated. The pieces/parts of the accessorized rodent looked arguably better than they had before, but the key aspect of the toy - its movement - had unfortunately ceased. That seemed like something Cole would have to redo. Lazarus nodded in agreement as his classmate commented on needing to strengthen the toy up if it was going to be able to withstand Magnus’s pounces. Cole’s concept was fun, but realistically, even a normal cat would probably beat it up.“Yours seems to be keeping him entertained quite well.” Lazlo gave a small shrug in recognition of the compliment as he was still, as Cole noted, spending some energy to entertain Magnus. It wasn’t like that was super hard, though. Part Kneazle or not, a cat was a cat. Lazarus had seen similar behavior even at the zoo. If you gave a leopard or a tiger a ball, it was just as excited as a housecat.
Laz paused to see what Cole was doing when he didn’t hear anything else from him for a bit. Looking over, he saw that Cole had pulled out his textbook. From the spell he used, Lazarus took it to be the fortifying spell he had mentioned earlier. As the chipmunk guy began to head back to the terrifying grasps of the fluffy beast, Lazarus smiled at Cole and held up one hand. He crossed his fingers and hoped for the best.
OOC: I'll leave it up to you, lol
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Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher
Everybody likes an underdog story.
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