fandomhigh | Creature Languages, 03/02, Period 3

"I hope you are all prepared for your midterm. The test is on your desks; you have until the end of the class period to complete it. After you have handed it in, you may leave."

Creature Languages Midterm

Part One: Essay

Answer two of the following three questions.

1. We have learned Spider, Dragon, Rat and Cat. Which did you prefer and why?

2. Have you attempted to apply your lessons in this class in your dealings with animals in the world? Briefly discuss what you did and the results. If you have not, explain a situation in which it might be beneficial.

3. How do creature languages reflect the culture of the beings who speak them? Give an example.

Part Two: Translation
Translate these sentences into creature languages to the best of your ability:
a. SPIDER -- "A stitch in time saves nine.”
b. DRAGON -- "Necessity is the mother of all invention."
c. RAT -- "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."
d. CAT -- "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

Extra Credit
Write a dialogue (three to five exchanges) in the creature tongue of your choice.

[OOC: This is really a test of creativity, obviously. Handwave it if you have to, but it's 25 percent of your grade, and I need something by the end of Spring break.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Fine. I'm fine. Nothing wrong with me at all." Blair was trying hard not to focus on how nice and delicate Molly's voice sounded. Or what she looked like...because he was currently staring at the front of the classroom and nothing else.

Molly frowned more. "Blair," she said, keeping her voice low, "what's wrong?"

Low voice so not helping with the 'happy' problem. "Geez, why don't you just strip in front of me or something?!" Blair turned a bright red and looked at Molly. "Oh my god, Molly. Did I say that out loud?"

"You define 'out loud' as 'where everybody in the class and possibly the people outside in the hall can year you,' right?" Xander asked, blinking. "Dude, no stripping your girlfriend in the classroom; that's what we have utility closets for."

Xander got his very own glare from Molly.

"Which you are not nearly old enough to know about," Xander added when it caught up with him that said girlfriend was Molly. Who was, like, 12, right? "No utility closets for you. If you need a ladder or some duct tape, ask a friend."

Blair would have glared at Xander but he was nervous about the twinkie issues 'popping' up again.

He glared at the ceiling instead. Maybe it bounce off.

Molly jerked back in shock, face also turning bright red. She turned to face the front of the class. "Yes, you did," she whispered, glaring at him out of the corner of her eye. "And the likelihood of that happening EVER are... well, you'll never know." Shocked didn't even begin to cover how she was feeling right now.

Blair groaned and thumped his head on the desk and mumbled quietly. "Okay, I'm just going to, you know, sit here quietly and wait for the earth to take pity on me and swallow me whole. I've got good karma saved up, shouldn't take it long."

"Trust me, that never works," Xander said, shaking his head. "And I grew up over a hellmouth; I know whereof I speak."

Blair just continued to thump his head on the desk. Where the earth may fail...massive head injuries could succeed.

If Xander could read Blair's mind -- actually if Xander could read Blair's mind he'd kind of be snickering right now, but, you know, sympathetically. But if he only caught the part about the head injuries he'd point out that really, no, those tend to make you do even stupider shit. Really, trust him.

But since that wasn't his wacky power of the week, all Xander could do was watch and wince. Still a little sympathetically, because see icon, he really did know wherefrom he spoke.

"If my powers weren't AWOL right now, I punch a hole for you," she muttered.

Blair groaned and muttered into the desktop.

"So so sorry, Molly."

"Why would you even say anything like that when I was only asking if you were okay?" Confused, mad, hurt, they were all there in the question.

She'd been kind of hoping that she could talk to him about her missing powers today and he'd said that with no provocation.

Blair took a deep breath and focused on rotting leaves for a moment. He lifted his head off the desk but still didn't look at Molly.

"Look, Molly, I would never say anything like that normally. There's something...weird going on with me today and I'm so sorry I hurt you, okay?"

Molly turned slightly to give him an accusatory glare. "You get a weird power that forces you to ask people to strip in the middle of class? Loudly?" she muttered.

"Yes?" Blair decided that lying, while handy, was not going to help him here.

"Actually I've got this extra springy hair weird power thing going on."

Molly was still sitting facing forward, but she tilted her head sideways and looked at him like he might be insane. Okay, yeah, extra springy hair didn't sound too weird with what else was going around, but that didn't explain why he said what he said.

"That still doesn't explain why you said what you said."

"I'm an idiot?"

"Fine," Molly said, standing up and hefting her backpack onto her shoulder with more effort than normal, "you're an idiot." She held the strap of the pack up on her shoulder with her right hand, the scabs on her knuckles rather obvious to anyone looking. "If, as you say, it isn't normal, talk to me when it goes away. Until then, I have my own problems to deal with."

She didn't care if class was actually over. She was done with her test and didn't feel like staying any longer.

Blair went to stand up to stop her from leaving and realized that standing wasn't a good idea right now.

"That went swimmingly." Swimming...in bikinis... Blair groaned and thumped his head back onto the desk.

Creature Languages, 03/02, Period 3

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