fandomhigh | Care for Magical Creatures; Monday, Period One; September 15.

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magical creatures

Care for Magical Creatures; Monday, Period One; September 15.

It might have been expected, three weeks into the class, that the Danger Shop was once again made out in the same way, with the pillows scattered around for the students to sit on and their eggs resting in the nests they'd built last week. There were no signs of any desks at all by this point, though there was a much less subtle change to the room as well.

The place was just crawling with animals. All sorts of critters. Kittens, puppies, rabbits, ponies, birds, bats, spiders spinning webs in corners, colourful fish turning circles in glass bowls. Camels and chinchillas, monkeys and slugs, moose and squirrel. It was a veritable menagerie, although they were all programed to stay out of the way unless otherwise approached.

Minsc sure hoped no one was allergic.

"Good morning, my intrepid creature loving class!" Minsc greeted the class today brightly, although by himself, because Boo appeared to have found his way to the little tubing structure to play with other, normal hamsters. He was so magnanimous like that. "Today, as you can see, we are talking about critters that might not seem magical but, in certain ways, they really can be. You see, my students, there is magic in every creature, even if they aren't spewing fire out of their mouth or rainbows out of their butts. Every person, even! It's just a matter of trying to find it. Let me explain."

He glanced around a moment until he found what he was looking for, a very fluffy and adorable kitten. He made a few little sounds at it, wagging his fingers on the floor to catch its attention. When it came near, he smile and started to stritch behind its ears, immediately inspiring a purr. "Now, see, this is one of the most simple and beautiful magics out there," Minsc said. "The simple affection of a small critter like this. You can have all the spells and potions and glitter in the world, but nothing is quite as effective as getting rid of a bad day or a gloomy moment as this."

"Not quite convinced? Other examples, then! Birds! A dove," he marked the path of one flying over head, "can be a symbol of hope and inspire a feeling as strong as any sanctuary spell. A parrot has the magic of imitating our voices. Or a spider, perhaps. Usually, a magical spider is a bad spider because they are bad and big and hard to kill, but just the average spider," he carefully held out his hand to let one on his hand, allowing it to dance on the gnarled knots of his knuckles, "in how delicately he weaves a web to catch flies that, were it not for the spider, would overwhelm us and pester us to no end. A camel, who retains his water in his humps so that we may have a trusty mount through desert climes or a dog, loyal to a degree that there has to be something special about it."

"Now," he leveled a glance across the classroom, at all the students' faces. "I know some of you might be thinking, 'but that is not real magic, Professor Minsc!' To which I propose the question to you: what is real magic, then? Why should it not be these things? And what sort of magic like this do you suppose you might have as well?"

He gave them all a small and tranquil smile, and then broke it with a loud clap of his hands together.

"Now! What I would like you to do today. We have so many wonderful animals around us; I want you to work on finding what could possibly be magical about this silly little rabbit. Or this big grumpy bear. Or this beetle that I almost just stepped on. Do not be afraid to work together, and if you need help, I am here!"

And he would be there, snuggling with this wolf here.

[[ slow ocd is slow. ~~Please wait for it~~ But now it is up! ]]

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...animalisticly?

Jo Harvelle

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There are all sorts of ~~moddable~~ critters to distract you from Minsc's lecture, but he is likely not to mind. He cannot blame anyone for that!

Jan was nervous. Very nervous. He stood, hooves as close together as he could get them, nose low to the floor, while he listened to the lecture, and did not move.

He was not going to squash one of these oh so very small creatures.

Sadly, a unicorn holding very still with his nose low to ground was obviously trying to approach the very smallest of creatures. It was practically an invitation.

A group of guinea pigs were busily sniffing his front hooves while a kindle of kittens batted at his tail, and Jan sighed while continuing to hold extremely still.

Edited 2008-09-15 08:53 (UTC)

Ella grinned at the parrots when they passed into her field of view, but thought Pento was prettier.

Harry approved of this philosophy about magic and animals. He might even have been smiling.

Molly may have been trying to figure out how to fit a kitten into her pocket, completely missing the four spiders that scurried into her backpack.

The kitten was adorable, but it did not fit. She teased it with her hair instead.

Pick an animal, any animal. They're entirely moddable as long as they are completely normal, unmagical animals. Work with each other, work in groups, discuss what might make them more magical than they appear.

Or just cuddle the kittens lots, if you want.

And that would be Jo playing with the kittens, yes.

Edmund was doing his best to find out what exactly was magical about a bear cub. He knew logically that the hide was useful for keeping warm, the flesh edible, the teeth and bones valuable in some places, but he couldn't figure out what was magical about it unless it was a Talking Bear or a bear under a spell.

This looked an awful lot like sitting and staring at the bear cub, who was more interested in its own hind paws than anything else.

Having extricated himself from the small animals, Jan found himself under the fixed gaze of a small, colourful bird.

It was perched on the tip of his horn, watching him, and Jan kept his head bent so as not to dislodge it.

"Hello?" he ventured. It was right at the very edge of his vision.

It cocked its head, turning it this way and that, then whistled and chirped, "Who's a pretty boy?"

Jan's ears shot forward. "You can talk?"

The budgie started to shuffle down Jan's horn, chirping, "Who's a pretty boy?" and jumped on his head.

Jan sidled sideways, skin twitching, because now he couldn't see it. "What are you doing?"

It chirped again, then started grooming Jan's ears, which, he was forced to admit, was rather pleasant. "I don't think that is magic."

Edited 2008-09-15 09:04 (UTC)

Chris knew about magical spiders and what he knew wasn't pleasant. So he was giving the spiders wide berth.

Helen was experimenting on just what animals she could call to her. Which meant she was surrounded by quite a few. Spiders, of course, but also, chinchillas, birds, bats, squirrels... She was playing with the smaller ones at the moment, but then planned to go see about the larger ones.

Robin supposed that the amphibians were rather magical, being able to breathe in both air, and water.

Sam went straight to the puppies, hoping Scout wouldn't be offended when he came home smelling like other dogs. At least this week he didn't have to worry about ending up with an animal in his hair. Hopefully.

Ella decided that she had a parrot at home, so she spent the class time playing with a puppy.

Surprisingly, Marco was not much of an animal person, so he just sat in a corner, petting a cat.

Mac found herself a nice colourful fish to watch as it swam around in ever decreasing circles. It kind of made her miss Melvin... or was it Mervin?

Anyway, it'd been cute while she had it.

Molly was cuddling the kittens, yes.

Cuddling the kittens, while not very good for a wizard's street cred, was still something that had to be done. Harry liked cats.

He also spent some time poking at a turtle, because turtles could hide themselves inside their shells and that was pretty cool and close enough to magic, right?

Then he returned to the kittens.

Alec was crouched, staring at a platypus with a very bemused expression. "What's magic is that you exist and somehow manage to continue surviving," he murmured to it. The platypus kicked water in his direction and kept paddling around its little pond

Minsc doesn't have a specific task for caring for your egg today, since they still should be fine, but it wouldn't hurt to check up on them if you'd like!

Jan definitely wanted to check on his egg, and he spent some time staring at it before turning it carefully with his horn. Once he'd done that, he nosed straw over it so it was completely covered.

Winter was coming, after all. He wanted his egg to be warm.