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SPOILER!!: playing catch up Haddie was way too frozen to answer Professor Flamsteed's first question. Which was probably for the best because the only answer she had was Because we're required to. The subject just didn't interest her, more so in that it was a subject that was taught at muggle schools and Hogwarts was supposed to not teach Muggle subjects. Salvation arrived. Penny handed her a blanket and the little blonde first year looked up at the Ravenclaw Prefect, eyes filled with more gratitude than words could express. Certainly more than the simple, chattering "T-th-thank y-you!" was able too at least. She wrapped the new blanket around the space blanket the Professor had provided and almost instantly, now shielded from the cold, began to stop shaking. After a minute she'd stop shivering completely. By that point Penny had already moved back to her seat, so Haddie caught the older girl's eye and mouthed another Thank you. She turned to Rachel, who had been looking at her with concern and nodded. "I'm okay. Now." Haddie made a point, however, to only ever come to Astronomy Class in full winter robes and with extra blankets just in case. Now that she was warm, Haddie took a moment to reposition the blanket Penny gave her so it was also wrapped over the top of her head like a hood. She did not open her book or write on any parchment. That would require breaking her cocoon open and letting the cold in. And that was not happening. "Bonfire!" Prof. Flamsteed had asked for a single word answer about how he could improve conditions in the classroom. And that was hers. |
Apart from apparently giving a decent answer, he had a bit of trouble understanding some other things that were being mentioned. Like, osculation. What even... He didn't suppose that'd be a word he could look up in his astronomy textbook would it? Aside from that... Despite his shivering cold body, the professor's speech was rather inspiring. YES he was descended from astronomers! YES he wanted to look at the stars! YES he wanted to learn it ALL! All that motivation and inspiration... was probably going to be gone by the time homework came around, so might as well soak it all in while he had the chance. Plus, FIELD TRIP. That was the cherry on top. He wiggled a little more in his seat from the excitement. The guy who mentioned hot chocolate was on the right track. The girl who mentioned making it colder though... So not. |
Scarlett decided that she LIKED this guy. He was enthusiastic about astronomy, and Scarlett was usually enthusiastic about EVERYTHING, so she figured they would get along pretty well. She was ready to LEARN! Although - first he brought up that AWFUL smell. Scarlett didn't really have a sensitive nose, so she had SMELLED it, yes, but it wasn't that distracting to her. She just opened her mouth and breathed in that way. But it would be nice to be able to breath without thinking about keeping her mouth open and actively avoiding using her nose. She had wrapped herself in a blanket as well, so that didn't bother her. Still, she raised her hand to contribute - even though SHE wasn't THAT uncomfortable, she knew others were. "You could help us first years out and cast the Bubble Head Charm FOR us," she suggested with a grin. |
Well the smell was PRETTY bad. But Dante had smelled worse. Just don't ask. Plus he knew it had to do with the class somehow. This was Professor Airey. So he would just deal with it. Bubble Head Charms were nice. But they did kind of make you look like an astronut. No offense Professor.Joint Lessons. Dante was never a big fan. Though he did remember a memorable one with Bellaire and Quigley. Now that one was awesome. But having a joint with Professor Paul did sound fun. Huh Dante had to think about this some more. "You could make it colder than it would feel like Professor Draper's office" Not really answering the question. But it could always get worse. So sometimes you should not ask for things to improve. Maybe. |
Yes, the classroom was uncomfortable. Thanks, Flamsteed, for pointing that out as if it was not obvious to everyone. As if it was not Flamsteed himself who had made the conditions of the room so undesirable. Olly thought he had liked the man, despite their adverse interactions the previous year, but this was one thing he did not appreciate. Why would he make his students suffer so much? Sure blankets had been provided and Olly might be a tad dramatic, but he still did not appreciate it. He raised his hand. "It's cold," he stated like that was not obvious. "So it would be nice if we could do something to warm it up. Like start a fire. I know a spell, I could start one if you wish." Something told him Flamsteed would not take him up on that offer, but there was no harm in mentioning it. |
@.@ I'm behiiiind When Jaemin had arrived at the class, he'd found himself extremely confused and cold. He didn't really know what the rule about the hand thingy was supposed to mean, because he had no idea what a Vulcan was or why the professor made it one of his rules, and he didn't understand why the classroom was so cold and stinky. Still, he had placed himself as close to the professor as possible so he wouldn't have to fight to see over old students, wrapped himself up in the blanket thingy, and stuffed his face into it to hide from the smell. It had taken him a good long minute to get the nametag thing sorted out because he hadn't wanted to let his face out off the blanket long enough, but he'd managed it. The mention of joint lessons with Herbology and Muggle Studies caught the absolute entirety of his attention though, because YES. Those were two things he planned to be very good at in addition to this, so that would be the most fantastic lesson to ever exist. One little hand went up at the question about making the classroom more comfortable. Jaemin didn't know any spells, but... "Mom uses special warming lamps to keep some of her plants from getting all wilty..." And facemasks to avoid the smell of the fertilizer, but he could keep his face stuffed in the blanket if necessary. "Maybe this is what it feels like on Neptune," the boy murmured to himself very quietly, curling into the blanket a bit more. Cold and stinky. |
Text Cut: sweetpinkpixie AWESOME! A correct answer! She didn't get any extra points like some students did, but that was cool. She knew her time would come! Plus, she was overly amused by some girl's question about snails, and as it turns out, there ARE snails in space! Who would have thought? OHHH, a joint field trip with Herbology! Ariadne loved Herbology, but Muggle Studies? She wasn't sure about that one yet. Speaking of cold temperatures, it WAS still pretty chilly in here. Freezing, maybe? Yes...freezing. Ariadne had an answer, though! "We could be closer to the SUN in here!" she suggested, raising her hand. "But not too close, because we'd be TOO HOT." She paused and thought about what she was saying. "Do you know how to do something like that, Professor? Put a magical Sun in a classroom?" Another pause. "ALSO, can I float in the air like that girl?" she asked, looking up at Charlotte Kettleburn. It looked pretty awesome to be spending class just soaring around up there. This was the girl who'd asked about space snails, too! NEW FRIEND ALERT. |
As Professor Flamsteed spoke, Esme continued to take notes. She could understand what he was saying, and that was good because he sometimes got rather long-winded in his lectures. She liked the man, but it was true. Her hand was going numb. The blanket helped most of her, but her poor hand was left exposed as was her head. Not very nice at all. At the next question, she raised her freezing hand to reply. "I think the Insulating Charm would really help." You know...to go with the heating charms and fires that her classmates were suggesting. That way the warmth would actually STAY inside and no more cold would get in. Win win in her book. But what to do about those tornadoes that he had obviously created? Too bad she only had one suggestion she could give. |
SPOILER!!: Sorry Prof, Ailsa can be a bit, er, literal, at times. Ailsa watched the professor's smile fade as she continued her answer. It wasn't terribly surprising. Adults did that a lot with her answers. But really, he did ask why the class was required, and she'd given the correct answer. Had he asked why it was important, or even whether she agreed with the adults' assessment that the class was too important to leave it up to the students' discretion, the girl's response would have been different, but he hadn't asked those things and she stood by her answer, professorial blinking notwithstanding. The prospect of a joint field trip amongst Astronomy, Herbology, and Muggle Studies was certainly interesting; moreso as nothing linking the three classes sprang immediately to the young girl's mind. There was something she didn't know and she looked forward to finding out. As for the professor's question, she listened to the other students' comments, including requests for bubble charms as the professor wore. Those confused her a little since giving people bubble-head charms wouldn't change the conditions in the classroom one bit, they'd just isolate students from it. "The cold we can live with, but maybe the smell could be changed to lilacs?" It wasn't one word, but it was one 'thing' and she'd hang her hat on that technicality. The smell wasn't really that much worse than the barns in summer, if she were honest, but she definitely wouldn't mind an improvement either. |
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Elliot had sat relatively quiet in his corner of the semi-circle taking notes and listening to the other students. He had been silently thanking his one muggle in-law, as she was the only reason he had ever heard the term 'Vulcan'. His little ears perked when he heard the question about making the classroom more comfortable. He set his quill down next to his wand and raised his hand chewing his lip in thought before speaking. "When I was younger and we lived in Romania it would get pretty cold in our house. Our parents would gather us all to tell stories or play a game where we learned something. Anything to keep our minds off the cold and it helped a lot." He thought again for a moment and continued as his nose wrinkled, "My older sister also uses a lot of perfume. Maybe that would help." |
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He jotted down notes of everything his classmates said as well as everything else the professor was saying, all brown nosing comments left out of course. And when the next question came, Oliver came close to making a comment about the professor and the spell, just to get back at him...but then he decided against it. The first class was not the time to get points taken away, especially not since they were already down some points. Instead, he kept his mouth shut and wrote down what all the other students had to say. |
Text Cut: Carl Samantha was not particularly interested in answering the last question. After all, Space wasn't really her thing, or at least not studying it. She'd rather be watching movies about the stars, not actually learning about them. She spent her time poking at the interesting name thing on her desk, as she listened to the others answer But that did catch her attention. They were going on a field-trip? awesome!! Not like classes here were super boring like her old school had been. After all, they were just having their first lessons and all, but trips were always fun. And then her Head of House asked a very good question. Except Ice haired Carl's answer made her frown. She raised her hand. "No, I think the floaty stuff is fun, I like it. You should make the boys put their shoes on or take baths or something because it smells funny in here." And she was used to what normal people would think smelled... bad. And well obviously the boys were the reason it smelled. |
Cal had been quietly shielded under the blanket. From the cold, from the smell, from the corny jokes the professor was dropping. "Dude--Professor, maybe some flowers or something could help." IT SMELLS SOOOO BAD. It smells like that time Vin cut the cheese after eating twenty pumpkin pasties. "Or just open a window, that could work, too." |
Norah grinned at Professor Flamsteed, a little surprised that he hadn't jumped on anybody's desks yet, and picked up a quill to record his explanation. Alright. Hand back in the cocoon now, yeah? It was AWFULLY cold, and as hard as she was trying, she wasn't getting used to it. What a life. It did make the next question fitting, though, so with a slightly wrinkled nose she held a hand over her head. He really should've told them to bring gloves. "You could fill the room with loads and loads and loads of FLOWERS! The lovely smelling kind, not the other ones." Y'know, 'cause the smell was only getting more and more dreadful. It'd stink for anybody who had allergies, though, which was unfair. She didn't even like to think about what her life would be if she couldn't smell FLOWERS. |
Sweet. Kaycee would gladly accept points for that. Plus, that was kind of amusing to witness. The professor just liked to point, didn't he? Excitedly. What could make the class better? Besides the smell? Or getting out early? "A bed maybe?" she offered after half-heartedly raising her hand. She then yawned dramatically to prove her point. It was lateish, okay? |
Points weren't going to make up for all the professor's misdeeds, but Dot took 'em. She wasn't stupid. Even when she was feeling wrathful, she still wasn't stupid. She tucked her hair into her blanket cape and gave the man a solemn nod. "The tornadoes keeping blowing up my robes and that's just rude. I'd like to teach them manners, but at the very least, I'd like wooly socks and a pair of sweatpants to keep out the rude wind things." |
She couldn’t help smiling as Professor Flamsteed accepted her answer, complimenting it, even though she was vaguely aware another student might have touched on it as well from across the room. Oh well. Olivia would certainly take it as well as some of the other answers that the man agreed with, the Ravenclaw taking note of them though not writing anything down. Keeping track of person and belongings was chancy enough. And then her attention perked up at the mention of a join field trip. Majorly cool!! Olivia shivered slightly as if in response to Flamsteed’s further inquiry. Hospitable….maybe. But not the most comfortable would be her answer. And her fellow students were already touching on ways to deal with the two most prevalent issues; the cold and the smells. Not to mention her roommate cousins seemed to be in disagreement about which was more important, with Olivia tending to side with Ailsa at the moment. “Protection around us to block the cold and smell might be nice.” Two birds...one stone. |
Katherine had truly not consciously felt the stench when she first entered, because 1. new class, 2. new professor, 3. lots of opportunities to learn. However, as soon as she answered, she smelled it and almost couldn't focus on the professor's answer (though she DID hear the 'Excellent,' and smiled to herself proudly). She hadn't got her notebook and quill out yet and now she doubted she should. Was... astronomy tower always windy and stinking like this? She listened to some answers first again. It was striking how many mentioned the temperature, but not the quality of air. So she raised her hand as she involuntarily wrinkled her nose. "I think there's something rotting in here," she said, "or a source of this smell, at least. Because the winds ought to clear the air if it wasn't here." She looked around. "We should locate it and get rid of it." Unless... this was a trick of the professor to teach them yet something again. |
Text Cut: Flammy, Char, Davie Callum was very satisfied with his paragraph, and as he looked up, he caught the smile and nod the professor gave him. It seemed that Airey was happy with him for writing so diligently, but the first year was confused. The man had not even seen what he had written, so his seemingly small sign of approval did not make sense to him. Was he just humoring him, then? Was the professor just an encourager by nature? Did he not care about the content or quality of what Callum was writing down? He was unsure, but he made up his mind that he would show the professor what he had written later and prove that it was worth being proud of him for. In fact, he folded the parchment right up, pocketed it, and pulled out another sheet of parchment to resume note-taking on. Then his Head of House would see later. As the lesson progressed, Callum was engrossed in what the professor had to say, taking in every word, and the most prominent thing that happened was, of course, the professor telling Char that there were snastronauts, and up into the air his sister went with Davie interjecting for Airey to keep Char from floating away in a very humorous little spiel. Callum's attention span had sufficiently taken him away from the scientific matters at hand and instead made him smile and giggle from over in his little space blanket cocoon. Best. Class. Ever. |
*rearranges* SPOILER!!: the silent For whatever their reasons, those that had elected to remain silent were each given an approving nod. Mr. Prince, however, received a little more than that as the professor was going to write this off as a small victory over teenage rebellion. Blue eyes passing over each of them in turn, the astronomer did not linger long before moving on to the next raised hand. Quote:
"Well, thank you," he chuckled, glancing over his shoulder at Pebbles with an amused expression. "I shall keep that in mind for future lessons." Only not really, but assuming the boy was humoring the man then he would humor back. Quote:
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A small distinction, but a significant one. SPOILER!!: THE COLD! With the sun having gone down hours prior, they would need to wait until morning for its rays to warm the classroom - although those responses did receive small nods as he made his way around the raised hands. "Temperature," he agreed as he removed his wand from his enchanted breast pocket once again and raised it in preparation. "Thankfully, I did not go to such extremes as to simulate a planetwide -55 degrees Celsius, but raising and regulating the temperature of the classroom would certainly make for a more comfortable." Then, with a small flick of his wand, the enchantments in place to make the room feel like an invisible snow storm was in place were removed. Gradually, the temperature began to rise and soon the blankets were no longer necessary. Quote:
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Sweet solstice. Clearing his throat at the first part of Mr. David's answer, the astronomer DID take the latter half into consideration and looked over in the direction the second year indicated... Quote:
Still, to be absolutely sure, he did bound over and grab Miss Kettleburn by the leg to gently drag her back down to her seat. SPOILER!!: THE SMELL! Nodding his head, the professor gave another flick of the wand to banish the horrendous odor that had plagued the classroom until that moment. Once he was sure the smell had dissipated - meaning he counted to 10 Mississippi-ly - he removed his own Bubble Head Charm. He was unsure if he was impressed or disappointed that no one had taken the initiative to perform the spell on themselves or offer one to a classmate. Perhaps Miss Swynford was on to something with the mention of body odor? Was this general just used to bad smells? Intriguing. "A change in the atmosphere," he nodded to those who had answered with regards to the smell. "Excellent." Quote:
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SPOILER!!: THE GRAVITY "Indeed," he nodded. "However, we will be utilizing this in just a moment. But fret not, what goes up must come down still very much applies." It was not as though he had enchanted the room to simulate zero gravity - not this time at least. Quote:
Airey merely stared at the fifth year before responding with a single word. "No." Quote:
It would make sense in a moment. Probably. Hopefully? SPOILER!!: THE SPINNING THINGS "Consider them gone," he chuckled, giving the room another wave of his wand to make it so. Quote:
Which really was the perfect lead in to the next portion of the lesson. "In theory, what you all just did now with your suggestions is precisely what planetary engineering is all about. More specifically, what terraforming is - the science of transforming a planet to support human life. I simply took a few liberties with the simulation to ensure that no one was at any real risk." Because, as he had already confirmed, he was NOT in fact trying to kill anyone. Simply illustrate a fact or two. "The term itself was first coined in science fiction back in 1942 in a story written by Jack Williamson, but has since then gained momentum in the scientific community. So much so that NASA has held various terraforming conferences and debates over the last century. Of the eight planets in our solar system, Mars is thought to be the most likely candidate to be turned into another Earth and, in fact, the methodology necessary to do so may humanity's technological capabilities. However, as is explained on page 579 of your textbook, there are some very large obstacles in the way of achieving this." He paused for a moment to move back to the middle of the semi circle of desks. "The process would take centuries to achieve and we only saw out first manned orbit to Mars in the early 2040's, so even before a plan could be put in place there is a dispute among scientific minds as to whether or not we, the human race, should terraform Mars at all. What are your thoughts on the subject? Colonization, terraforming, or none of the above? You may refer to your textbooks for further information should the need arise." There was no right or wrong answer, he was merely curious what the future generation felt when approached with this topic. OOC: this will be the final question before we get into the main activity. Please feel free to engage with each other and debate, you do not need to wait for me to post again. Instructions for the main activity will be posted approximately 20 hours from the time of this post. |
Dancing daisies, he could feel his fingers again. His toes on the other hand, needed some more time to warm up, but the shivers running throughout his body began to decrease as the temperature in the tower rose. Plus, it was less smelly, but he was kinda used to smelly things by now. Wasn't a real problem. Having not read anything in his textbook apart from what was necessary, this was kinda new information for him. Kinda, as in completely. But it was a cool subject, there was no denying that. They could CHANGE a PLANET! Like... did people realize how cool that was?! "We should totally do it!" he said after eagerly thrusting his hand into the air. "My gram says there are too many people on earth, so we should totally go live on Mars. Leg room and all that. Personal space boundaries." Space boundaries. Getit? "Unless, Mars has already been claimed by... someone else..." Or something else. Aliens existed. Totally. |
As the air around the room warmed up and the blanket wasn't needed anymore Hady found herself still not removing it from over her lap. Oddly enough she found it comfortable so there the space blanket remained. It wasn't like the item was in her way or anything, anyhow. Being able to breath fresh non smelly area was good as well. It was enough to have made her nose crinkle but nothing that would've made her sick to her stomach thankfully. Both changes in the room were a quiet blessing however and now she sat much more comfortable as Admiral Airey went on with his lesson. The question asked this time was enough to stop her for a few moments and cause her to really think. Honestly Hady never gave it much thought before but now was as good a time as any to do so. "I think it's at least worth testing out. If we're able to fully live there without any major faults from the land then it should at least be given a chance" she answered, hand raised into the air. Surely many many things would have to be tested a number of times and it would likely be a very long time before this could ever happen but why shouldn't it? |
So putting life on other planets. Well now this was all beginning to sound like a science fiction book. What's next loading all the prisoners in a space ship and have them orbit a planet? Wait that actually would sound awesome if possible. Maybe eventually see if their is Aliens. The odds are are there actually are since the universe is a very very very big place. So much space. HeHe. "It sounds cool but like you said we would be dead by the time anything is achieved. But why not. If scientists can make Mars habitable to humans then why not at least try" He would not be alive to see the results. |
Totally missed the stink so here's an excuse XD okay so Mister Professor Flamsteed was throwing them for a loop. The room was cold, and apparently stinky...which he hadn't noticed due to the blanket covering his face occasionally and having a stuffy nose from a lingering cold. AND HE WASN'T GIVING HIM HOT COCOA HERE!? Rude Torrance tried to wrap his head around this Terraforming business and he thought he got the most of it even from turning his text book to the said page....but there was still something on his mind. "Didn't some Astronaut grow plants on Mars though?" Yeah, wasn't there like an old documentary about it...or a movie based on a true story about a book that it came from? |
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