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Hogwarts RPG Name:
Charlie Upstead
Gryffindor Fifth Year
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Aurelio Kaiser
Slytherin Third Year
Diagon Alley Proprietor:
Ezekiel Ransom-Kruus
Ollivanders  x12  x12
|  Lovely™ | Captain Hurted | Ariana's Bane | Resident Antagonist | Unparalleled Delight
SPOILER!!: Individual Responses SPOILER!!: Remy Quote:
Originally Posted by Emzily  Still smiling from her first achievement, Remy started to prepare herself for another go, but the class was already moving on. That was fine, she had already NAILED IT. Kinda. Professor Kazmi asked a question about what went wrong/right with their practise round, and she had an answer for both of those. “I moved my broom down a little too fast at first, and I kinda… jolted it back upright. It really scared me for a second but I decided to move on from that and tried again much slower.” And it had worked! Learning from her mistakes, see.
As for the next question, Remy wasn’t so sure. Still, she raised her hand and had a go. “Maybe to avoid obstacles.” Maybe to avoid a bird flying, or another broomstick?
“Professor Kazmi… are there speed limits when flying?” As in… were there certain areas where you had to limit yourself? The latest question sparked this idea in her head. Hopefully it didn’t come across stupid. Learning from mistakes was one of the best ways too learn, if you asked Kamran. "Good. Making abrupt movements when trying to control the broom is a common issue, especially with beginners," Kamran replied with a nod. He'd seen it plenty in this lesson alone. "It's a natural reflex to react quickly, especially if we start to feel unsafe. Eventually you'll become more and more confident that you'll remain in control of the broom, and this will become less of an issue." They usually got there.
As to her other answer. "Yes, Miss Gaeltheos. Applicable whether dodging around or stopping to avoid completely." Kamran was about to move on, but the question drew his attention back to the Gryffindor. "Not generally, but sometimes in areas of high traffic." Which were not frequently found, more the exception than the rule. SPOILER!!: Atlas Quote:
Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie Legs dangling over either side of the broom and his toes pushing into his shoes while he coasted in a lazy circle around the professor. Quite keen to hear what the man had to say in response to it all, Atlas had given the man his complete undivided attention - which was really something special so the man ought to feel, uh, special about it. And, for the record, he wasn't really trying to derail on purpose. Ish.
Anyway, consider the Gryffindor a bit crestfallen that brooms were not sentient enough to actually pick their riders - that would have made them way more appealing than just being another enchanted object that could only do what its initial function was. But it did make him wonder about if you COULD turn them a little more sentient. "Oh...I see." Was there a frown? Perhaps a little bit of one but it was not meant to last very long. His forget-me-not blue eyes shifted over to Ollie as she spoke about herself. He opened his mouth, ready to tell her that it was obvious she didn't know what she was doing but that was to be expected from inexperienced flyers like themselves, bit the professor thankfully spared everyone involved when the man gave him a proper ultimatum to get the Gryffindor going.
"Okay!"
That sounded like a promise to him, as long as he did the thing he would get answers. Seemed fair. And with a little whistle and a firm tug of the handle of his broom upwards, Atlas went zipping (and zagging) up in the air and decided to follow Ollie since she was in his immediate line of sight as well as mind. Though his ascension was not marked by frustration. "Hey! You wanna go down together? Aim for the cones?" he offered with a grin while swinging his legs a bit more. Leveling out his flight a bit, Atlas peered over his shoulder at the ground and then glanced back at the younger Slytherin. "On three!" Though if she didn't follow him on three he wouldn't exactly be mad either. "One...two...three!" And then the second year was pushing down on the broom handle, strongly on instinct since he had been very much the aim for the ground and hope for the best variety, and sent himself basically into a nose dive. Which, well, it took him about a second to remember that this was NOT the way he was meant to go about this.
Mouth open and eyes wide, he couldn't really tell you what all he did from that moment until he had landed on the ground. And, well, by landed it was more of a leap and release off the broom with a couple of half somersaults ending in a belly flop. He didn't exactly knock the wind out of himself, but he did swallow a couple of bugs on the way down since his mouth had been hanging open the way it was.
Coughing and spitting, Atlas crawled a bit to retrieve the school broom that had skidded to a stop several yards in front of him. Not...the worse landing in the world...and hopefully not the worst in the class either. Atlas would like to fly at an underwhelming middle ground here.
...and no where near the cones at that.
As the lecture portion resumed, Atlas was not AS present as he had been a little bit ago...and was very confused as to why now they were talking about breaking and it being useful. Since he was still busy getting bugs off his tongue, the Gryffindor remained quiet for now. "Professor Kazmi? Can I have some water, please? I swallowed a couple of bugs on the way down."
Flamsteed's landing had been... something. At least he was in one piece - though he was being uncharacteristically quiet now, and Kamran had half a mind to check on him before they moved on - and also hadn't asked another question yet. Did that landing warrant another answer? Hm. Hard to say.
Kamran drew his wand and conjured up a small cup and filled it with water. He was about to levitate it towards him but thought better of it, and took the few steps to just hand it over. "Something to bear in mind next time. Bugs tend to share the sky with you." The kid wouldn't eat Healer Poppy's excellent bread, but he'd swallow bugs. Honestly. SPOILER!!: Ash Quote:
Originally Posted by astrocat Ash was going to be in an objectively good mood for the WHOLE ENTIRE DAY. She promised herself that this good mood would continue for the rest of the day. Promise. Was this what other people felt like? No wonder they were so infuriatingly optimistic. Woah.
She couldn't help but smile as they talked about what went well and what didn't- it wasn't even something to smile over, and yet she smiled. And it was her rare smile, genuine instead of empty. "When you try to land from higher up at a faster speed, it gets a lot harder. But if you find the right angle, it's easier. So I tried to start descending from farther back so that my angle wouldn't be too steep." She was pretty sure that was how it worked. like, 80% sure.
"When you're moving fast, it's harder to avoid stuff. So if I was about to hit someone on my broom, I'd brake so that I could be going slow enough to avoid them or stop entirely. Just like a car." See? She wasn't even gonna be gruesome and talk about what happened when you didn't brake. She was in that good of a mood. "Very true. It becomes more of a dive when the angle is steep. It can be useful to learn how to land out of a dive, but that can be a new challenge for you to work on in the future." She had the right of it, in terms of correcting the issue for a regular landing. Kamran was sure. 100% sure.
"Good. Safety-conscious. Having a decent command of braking is one way to respect those you share the sky with." Kamran... had actually seen plenty of people who missed the memo on that, way back in the day. SPOILER!!: Alfie Quote:
Originally Posted by littledhampir As soon as Alfie heard the words 'mount your brooms' he scrambled to do so as quickly as he could. He was just really excited to get in the air. It mean that he was so focused on mounting his broom that he missed a portion of the instructions, but he thought he had it down. Fly around, then land. Got it.
He flew up, up, up. He was fairly comfortable with going pretty high. He hadn't fallen off his broom in a while now so he wasn't concerned about that. Besides, if he fell off he had full confidence in Professor Kazmi to save him. He flew around for a bit, and then headed to the landing patch. He didn't think he was quite advanced enough for the challenge of a smaller landing area. Alfie tilted the handle of his broom down, pointing at the ground. It was a bit steep, causing him to speed toward the ground. But at the last minute he pulled back, just barely remembering something about bending his knees and distributing his weight on his feet. It wasn't the smoothest landing, but he was on the ground with no injuries so he was going to consider it a success.
Before he could go back up and try again they were being called back, so Alfie moved away from the circle of cones and turned his attention to Professor Kazmi. He raised his hand. "There's lots to remember. Point down and then pull back and bend your knees and distribute your weight, I have to think about all of them or I might forget." And there was another question about braking. "You might have to stop really quickly so you don't run into someone else." "You'll get there, Mr Ramsey." Kamran had caught sight of his earlier landing, and thought he'd done rather well. "It's a lot to think about at first, but after a while it becomes a habit, enough for you to focus more on other input." It was true that they should never really stop thinking about what they were doing when flying, but a happy medium was good. Kamran was plenty guilty of employing flying techniques without much conscious thought, but he had several decades on these kids. He'd earned the right to be a hypocrite from time to time.
"Exactly. As a matter of fact, stopping quickly is something we'll get back to in a moment." Please hold. SPOILER!!: Mamie Quote:
Originally Posted by Waddles Margaret definitely thought the extra practice helped. Only her first landing on the platform was a little off-balance. She didn't really see why landing in a smaller space was useful, especially in her "all Quidditch all the time" mindset, but it was still fun to be good at something. And Ashley looked like she had gotten really good too! Mamie would have to see if her friend would come fly with her and maybe help with Quidditch training sometime. Ashley could throw quaffles at to her or something.
But they were moving on, and Mamie of course knew the answer to all these questions. She definitely thought she knew more about flying than she really did. She raised her hand. "If you need to change directions really quickly, or weave in and out of something, braking gives you the, uh, force to change momentum," she said. Was that physics right?? She'd have to ask her Ma in her next letter. Or Pa, he'd probably written about something like that. "Like in Quidditch, if you're trying to fake out the other team's chasers, you might go right, and then brake and go left instead." Merlin. Physics again. Speaking of changing directions quickly, Kamran swerved around the specifics of that topic, grateful that Turov had not lingered on it.
Instead he nodded. "Certain manoeuvres can be very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve while going at a high speed, and require slowing down even if just ever so slightly to keep them effective." The things he'd seen. They didn't need to go there right now. "Sometimes, the braking can even be part of the manoeuvre itself. Thank you, Miss Turov." SPOILER!!: Emm Quote:
Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo Warming up for something?
Emm put a stop to her stretches, looking attentive once more. “Just warming up to pay attention, Sir! Gotta get my head in the game to learn all the super important things about flying and falling and breaking all your bones and dying in a freak accident involving no brakes and a ton of speed and a fast approaching ground and a flash of lights that you shouldn’t fly toward but it’s the light or the ground and you already know what one’ll be like.”
What were they talking about again? Oh, they were moving on to difficulties and brakes. So maybe her tangent hadn’t been all that off afterall.
“I had difficulty giving constructive criticism. BUT then I saw Kizzy and she was A M A Z I N G, and her form was spectacular and basically, Sir, I wouldn’t change a thing about her flying and landing because it was perfection.” And a chef’s kiss blown at her best friend to cement that.
See? She’d been paying attention. She knew how to give compliments. She knew how to give Kizzy compliments.
As to braking. You brake when you don’t want your insides being inside someone else about impact.” It really was hard to tell, sometimes, if Cambridge was trying to test him on purpose. Some of this stuff she came out with... he had to wonder. He nodded through most of it, and actually couldn't technically pull her up on that part about the constructive criticism. She had found difficulty with it. And James had landed very well. So, the next answer.
Kamran-...
...
... "You're not wrong, Miss Cambridge." There. SPOILER!!: Violet Quote:
Originally Posted by MadAlice Violet was glad she was better at spells than she was at flying, for her Arresto momentum had slowed her down enough to make a bumpy and ungraceful, but safe, landing. Well, if you don't count scrapes and bruises as unsafe.
Difficulties? Did the ground count as a difficulty? Violet was just not ready to admit her incompetence on a broom in front of half the school, so she let the matter stand and said nothing.
"Well, I would think that if you suddenly encountered a lot of obstacles--like, maybe trying to fly through a forest or around some mountains or high buildings, that you'd want to brake in order to slow down and have a better chance at maneuvering around them." There, at least she could think, if not fly. "I would agree. As well as the practical side of manoeuvring, it would give you a little more time to think, and take note of new obstacles, especially if you're the kind of person who does better when they have time to process your environment." Some weren't, Kamran could accept that. He was naturally the kind of person who liked to know what was around him before reacting to it, though back when he'd started training for racing had taught himself to react quickly and trust in his reflexes. "Thank you, Miss Blackthorne." SPOILER!!: Claudine Quote:
Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19 After that initial successful attempt to land in a specified amount of space, Claudine had continued to practice. She wasn’t often successful as she misaveraged her speed which resulted in stumbling, and once even falling. But hey, at least she could land properly for the most parts. Hearing the shrill blast of the whistle, the sixth year dismounted to make her way back to Kazmi.
The professor’s encouraging words made her feel a tad more accomplished though Claudine had Aguilar’s teaching to thank for that. Yes, she wasn’t over Aguilar leaving. So what? Anyway. Yes, she could think of an issue she faced: when angling her broom downwards, sometimes the speed at which she was heading for the ground was misjudged. Meaning, she zoomed for land too quickly. Figuring that a few of the other students had encountered the same issue, she chose to remain silent on that aspect but not the one about braking.
“If you happen to get caught in a thunderstorm and want to avoid the lightning, Professor.’’ Creative answer, yes? "Certainly very helpful." Kamran... could make a joke here about lightning fast reflexes, but he wouldn't. That would not only be slightly embarrassing for all involved, but probably a little insensitive.
So he would just think it. Nothing wrong with that.
"This is a good opportunity to make it clear that, if possible, it's best to avoid flying in certain, ah... more treacherous conditions. Sometimes it's unavoidable, and even certain sports events are not postponed for something like thunderstorms, but otherwise best to keep these things in mind." SPOILER!!: Lisa Quote:
Originally Posted by Watson The Professor's words of encouragement after her successful landing with the improved feedback got her smiling and feeling more comfortable. Maybe she could do this flying thing, yeah?
And that perspective all changed after she heard a few comments from her fellow students. Oh hard pass.
Hearing students discuss avoiding lightning made Lisa very, very fearful of getting back up in the air again. Yeah, she was not going to fly long distance. She did NOT want to be caught up in a storm or learn how to navigate it. She was pretty much planning on using it for this class and that was it. She had no dreams of being a Quidditch player. She much preferred having her two feet on solid ground. Thank you VERY much.
She raised her hand. "I wanted to get on the ground so quickly that I angled my broom too steeply and I went quicker. In theory, it makes sense... but when I was up there, I blanked and just wanted to get to the ground.... I hate heights.... But being slow, careful, and methodical got me to the ground safer and quicker with ... less bumps." Learning. Always learning. Again, that tended to happen quicker after a few mistakes. Usually their own mistakes, but sometimes kids could benefit from seeing how others hit problems and overcame them.
"Sometimes fear has us acting a little drastically, even though the logic does make sense. In your case, the trade off for getting to the ground quicker was having less control in doing so." She was a smart kid, she didn't need him to help her make that conclusion. "Very good, Miss Nam. Even with a fear of heights, it's very beneficial to know how to fly, what will work, and what won't."
He wasn't going to promise her she'd stop fearing heights. Kamran couldn't do that for her, but he could at least teach her some practical skills that might make her feel safer up there in the eventuality she needed to fly. SPOILER!!: Kinsay Quote:
Originally Posted by ArianaBlack Kinsay was looking for Emm, of course, but catching Mr. Kazmi give her a thumbs up was the second best thing. She could feel her face warm up as she stood on the platform, suddenly feeling suuuuper bashful. If her hair wasn't pulled up in a ponytail, she would've hidden behind it. Instead, she mounted her broom properly again to try again, this time on the higher platform.
But before she had the chance, they were called to a stop by the very LOUD whistle. O__________O Kinsay GASPED, nearly falling backwards off the platform. But UM. Thankfully, she managed to keep her balance. It was a close one though, it really was. She'd never get used to it. Never ever. Even though being a jumpy person was kind of new to her.
So it took Kiz a minute to recover, but once she did, she flew down (AND ~ LANDED ~) to join the rest of the class. Though she wanted to be reaaaaaal subtle about it, she managed to move to a spot right next to Emm again. Which maybe wasn't so subtle now that her best friend was complimenting her in front of EVERYONE. Kinz appreciated the praise (she really did), but it made her WHOLE face go red (redder than it had when Mr. Kazmi saw her landing). She expertly looked down at her feet the whole time so she wouldn't feel quite as embarrassed (and then made sure to give Emm a squish after when it was Violet's turn to share an answer). But omg Emm WHY!!!
When it came to her turn, all the good answers were already taken so Kinz had to be a liiiittle creative. Not that it'd be a problem, but she did want everyone to know that she had thought of the other stuff too! That was important. "If you're flying and you drop something, like... an earring! Oooor a shoe! You might need to brake real fast so you can proper look around before you dive to go get it!" Especially if it was something small and hard to find. Kinz wasn't speaking from her own experience, but there were thousands of wizards who lived on the planet. So. Someone had to have experienced this at some point.
But also, going back to what Claudine said. "What happens if you get struck by lighting? ..... Would your broom catch on fire?" And also. Would you die? "I would applaud whoever could retrieve an earring in that manner," Kamran replied, and meant it. Really. He knew the hazards of getting in the way of someone who was searching for an earring. "But yes, exactly. Using Accio to retrieve what was dropped may be better, but braking would still be very useful in that scenario."
Okay, time to move on. Or... no, no it was not. He should have known.
"It depends how far from the ground you are. If you're close enough for the lightning to also hit the ground and complete the circuit, you could be in trouble." Like dying, yes. Maybe. "Way up in the air, you're nowhere close to being grounded. If lightning did somehow hit you, it's unlikely to do anything, but it wouldn't exactly be good for your health - or your broom - even if there's no immediately observable effect." SPOILER!!: V Quote:
Originally Posted by kayquilz HE HAD SEEN.
V was ecstatic. HE HAD SEEN HER DO A GOOD THING. SHE DID SOMETHING GOOD. Flying was so FUN though. So FREEING. And you didn't need to know anything beforehand or whatnot...no homework required necessarily. And like, you could learn to be a good flyer. It wasn't like Potions or Charms or whatever, where V had found she was already abysmal at it.
She didn't think she should contribute to the conversation at all since she was only a first year, and new to flying. So like, why would anyone want her advice? V stayed quiet, listening carefully to other answers.
She had begun to notice, too, that Lisa was very smart. It made sense she was in Ravenclaw. A part of her felt really icky thinking about how smart Lisa was. It wasn't fair, was it, that you were either born smart or not. Lisa just seemed to get things.
And V never just got things. It was why she gave up on being good at any subject that required a lot of work. Kamran scanned the faces of the rest of the class, mostly looking for anyone who seemed like they might want to answer but didn't want to call attention to themselves on their own steam. None that he could see right now.
His eyes did pass over Gellar though, and was content to see that, even though she didn't speak up, she was evidently still paying attention. Kamran gave her a very small nod of approval, and left it at that. Now it was time to move on. "You should all know how to stop by now. Basic braking involves pulling the handle of the broom back towards you until you come to a stop. If you're moving backwards, the opposite: push it away from you." Different contexts required different methods of braking, but Kamran was decidedly not going into those today. They'd delve into the topic more in a future lesson.
"Today, we'll finish by focusing on straightforward emergency stops. Similar principle, but it's a more sudden, decisive action; a sharp, controlled pull - try not to smack yourself in the face with the broom - and a quick lean back. Pulling the broom off to the side at the same time can give you a quicker stop, but if the motion isn't sharp enough, or you don't yet know how to use your weight to counteract the motion, you could spin away instead." Which... was not a stop. Kamran wasn't going to tell them not to attempt it, however; this was the best time to feel out such a manoeuvre. "Now, everyone follow me." He grabbed his own broom, and strode off. To the next activity.
_____
They weren't going far, only to one end of the Training Area. As he led them there, Kamran flicked his wand at their destination, and removed the enchantment concealing a set-up of large crash mats. One giant mat stretched across the ground, and two more stood vertically up against the boundary of the area. "You'll be practicing the emergency stop until the end of the lesson. On this side," Kamran pointed to the left. "It's all completely stationary. Starting from at least halfway down the Training Area, I want you to fly at this mat as fast as you can, and perform an emergency stop. Aim to get as close as you can to the standing mat without hitting it. You can do this alone, or pair up with someone and race, see who wins, see who can get closest and still stop in time." Speed and control, see? "I have no doubt there will be a few spills or late reactions, but these things are designed to cushion impact, and you're flying relatively low for now. You'll be fine, so will your brooms." Kamran had also made sure the space between the mats was charmed to prevent a dangerous collision with the boundary of the area, but he left out that little detail to prevent anyone getting lazy with where they were flying.
He pointed to the set-up on the right hand side now. "Same deal over here, but more moving parts, so a bit more difficult. Sections of the mats may rush out or spring up to meet you early, but there's no particular pattern. Stop before you hit them, but again, I'm looking for a last second stop, and I want the approach to be fast. You can pair up to race to this one too."
And that was it. Nothing as thrilling as some of them were probably after, but such was life. "Up to you which of the mats you chose to work on. Before you fly at either, however, please take a moment to get familiar with the sensitivity of your broom's braking mechanism. Factor this in when you attempt the activity. And don't go slamming into the mats for fun. The point is to stop. Without crashing." Kids were kids, though, and Kamran half expected it anyway. Still, he'd pull up anyone who was too obvious about it. "Have as many attempts as you like, but I want to see everyone try at least once. Any questions, ask me now. Otherwise, get going." He blew the whistle, just because he could.
Of course, now he had to figure out what to do with Cambridge. OOC: Final activity time. Apologies for being a little late with this; things stopped loading when I was posting last night so I paused. Additional notes on the activity:- The crash mat set-up looks something like this. I tried. The vertical mats are a little wider than this to accommodate for two flyers at once
- It's not super high off the ground, 25-30 feet at the highest
- The students are flying as fast as they can at the vertical mats and making an emergency stop at the last possible second
- The set-up on the left is stationary, but the right has moving parts that will force an earlier stop (I won't be RPing for this; you can decide what they do within the established parameters)
- The mats are thick and have a lot of give, colliding with them shouldn't cause an injury; the mat on the ground covers a large surface; the space between the two standing mats is charmed to bounce people off if they accidentally miss the target; the biggest hazard will probably be flying into each other or smacking themselves in the face with their brooms
- Don't worry about waiting until the mats are free; just post like it's your character's turn
- You can do this activity in as many or as few posts as you like; be as successful or have as many spills as makes sense for your character Please do ask for clarification if anything is unclear. Again I'll be posting throughout, and Kamran will be responding and answering questions and giving feedback. You'll have about 72 hours for this (I'll be wrapping up around 5pm BST on 4th June).
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