fandomhigh | Creature languages, 1/16, period 4

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."

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Ask Dream questions, chatter (discreetly), pass notes, whatever.

Turn in your paragraph.

Dream is ready to chat with you.

Pippi signs in.

Mr Neilson leaves his pawprint.

Paige signs in

Blair signs in.

"Um, if a dog is growling and showing it's teeth, then I think it's going to bite me, but that's more visual cues that some sort of telepathy, right?"

"The pets thing is like an established mental connection, right? Like how a couple can communicate without speaking after spending a lot of time together?"

"Just the growling would be enought to make you think he at least wasn;t happy though right? So that's an understanding of verbal clues isn't it?" she suggests

Lily signs in.

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.

I suppose you could chat with Mr. Neilson all you like about the many ways I try to communicate with him and he understands but ignores me. Not all animals do however, and I generally find them very playful. Like the time I went on a picnic with my friends Tommy and Annika (they are people you know); Mr. Neilson wandered off (of course, because I told him not to) and we split up to look for him. Tommy met a bull who wanted to play, but bulls play rough and Tommy was wearing his good white suit. So I had a chat with the bull and gave him some fashion advise, but all he wanted to do was play (http://www.livejournal.com/users/strongestgirl/8271.htm). You wouldn't believe how that bull could tickle! Then he indicated that it was his naptime, so I left him alone after that.

Pippi has a folded bit of paper in her hand and looks around for Molly.

[[OOC: Grrr! Make that

"...all he wanted to do was play." (http://www.livejournal.com/users/strongestgirl/8271.html)

"Exactly. A growl, generically, is Dog for something like, "Get out of my way" or "You have angered me." What I hope we will do in this class is learn to understand the nuances within the growls." He turns to Blair.

"And languages can be visual as well as auditory. Spider, for example, is largely visual, as you saw Thursday. You are correct about the mental component, though."

Lily looked up from writing her essay and glanced around the room. She smiled and waved at Pippi.

Pippi is chewing on her pencil while trying to think what to write about. She smiles and waves back.

Jake signs in.

Xander signs in.

Xander glaned around, remembered that Cordy was in this class too, and mentally edited what he was going to say. "I... kind of speak a little hyena, I guess," he said, shifting in his seat. "Which I forgot to mention when we were listing out languages because I don't, uh. Remember it that well. There was this possession thing. But I do remember that a lot of it was visual cues - and smell. Someone smelled scared, or moved their head a certain way, or looked you straight in the eyes or not, and it sent a different message. Like, 'don't mess with me; I can kick your ass' or 'please don't eat me!'"

There was the incident where I made my frog a crash helmet, I guess. Purely out of concern for his safety! Well, also out of the end of a Twinkie. They're soft and spongey and tasty, so I figured if he didn't like wearing it, at least he'd have a nifty snack. Jeremiah's fashion sense does not match up with mine, apparently, and I misinterpreted all the ~~completely obvious to anyone not a moron~~ verbal and visual clues, like the loud croaking, rolling of his eyes, and the really disgusted expression. It was kind of hard to misunderstand the message when he peed on my hand, though.

Molly signs in.

Molly grinned as she waved to Pippi. Maybe if Cam made her get up early before Math class, she would actually see her roommate before classes every day.

Pippi grins back and waves to Molly, who probably notices that Pippi is palming a scrap of paper. She slips Molly the note in the most clandestine way possible.

The note says:

"Nadia's after 6th period."

[[ooc: Nadia will put up a post around 6:00pm EST fyi.

Molly read the note and grinned. Then, glancing around quickly to see if anyone was looking, gave Pippi a small nod.

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Creature languages, 1/16, period 4

Sign in, 1/16

Sit in class, 1/16

Classwork, 1/16

Dream's office hours, 1/16

Re: Sign in, 1/16

Re: Sign in, 1/16

Re: Sign in, 1/16

Re: Sit in class, 1/16

Re: Sit in class, 1/16

Re: Sign in, 1/16

Re: Classwork, 1/16

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Re: Sit in class, 1/16

Re: Classwork, 1/16

Re: Sit in class, 1/16

Re: Sit in class, 1/16

Re: Sit in class, 1/16

Re: Sign in, 1/16

Re: Sign in, 1/16

Re: Sit in class, 1/16

Re: Classwork, 1/16

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Re: Sit in class, 1/16

Pippi passing a note to Molly

Re: Pippi passing a note to Molly