Creature languages, 1/16, period 4

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

There is no spider or other animal in view today as Dream stands to address the class.

"Hello. I hope you all enjoyed speaking with Aunt Nancy last week. That was an attempt to acclimate you to the kind of experiences you will have in class.

She told me, by the way, that she quite enjoyed your questions. And she thanks Mr. Gavin for the coffee.

Today, I want you to take a step back from this subject and recognize something you already know: humans can speak Creature languages, at least on a primitive level. Think about the near-telepathy you might have experienced with a pet, for example. Or a time when you knew an anumal was dangerous. Even if it did not say "I would like to bite you," odds are you could tell what it was thinking.

Creature languages is really just about taking that intuitive communication and expanding it a level, so you can converse as readily with, say, a garden slug as you can with your pet cat, and so you can communicate more complex messages across the species barrier. It is physical and emotional as well as vocal, and I trust you will keep that in mind.

In class today, I want you to write a paragraph discussing a time when you feel you communicated with an animal."

Comments

Re: Classwork, 1/16

[http://users.livejournal.com/___lily_evans_/]

In my world, communication with animals is not uncommon. There are proper etiquette rules for communicating and interacting with many animals, like unicorns and hyppogriffs, but the most common communication is one almost every witch or wizard engages in on a daily basis. We talk to our delivery owls. It is common to exchange greetings with the owls, who are generally affectionate when they deliver mail and packages, often nipping gently at your finger and asking for food treats. They communicate when they are not happy with the weight or distance of the delivery, and they can get disgruntled if you go long periods of time with paying attention or visiting them in the owlery. The owls that deliver subscriptions effectively communicate the fact that they expect payment in return for your paper. And when sending mail out, we communicate through body language and tone of voice the seriousness or urgency of the outgoing parcels.