Tristan watched as the students figured out who was doing what for this activity. Some had even already figured it out and were attempting to lure a Bowtruckle. It was great to see them interacting and being active. Amazingly, even Zoryn was trying!

He was surprised to see that Jessa had actually decided to help out the younger girls. He hadn't expected her to do that. He figured she would just work on her own, which would have been fine with him, but he was glad to see she was working with the younger girls. The could learn a lot from her.


"Make sure you wear your goggles!" Tristan called out, standing near the group of trees. This was turning out to be a great lesson. He hoped the students were enjoying it as well.


OOC: You're doing great everyone!! Just a reminder you have until the 25th at 10 pm EST!

Meh. This just seemed like TOO MUCH WORK. So hopefully Lucas will pull the weight on this one.

When the red head came back with their supplies, Zac shook his head, "Nah, and I honestly don't want to deal with them even right now, they seem very ... exhausting" he said, as he grabbed some wood lice. "But I'll try do the luring?" Either sounded annoying anyway.

Sighing lightly, he slowly approached one of the tree trunks and tried to offer some of the woodlice on his palm to one of the curious eyes hidden nearby. What an idiot he must look like.

Neat-o, goggles that were magical! Hanna listened to the instructions Professor Wayland was giving, and then turned as Jessa approached them. Seeing Kaitlynn already agreeing was perfectly fine, and Hanna nodded as well. Huh. So they would be working with a wild branch, then. Hanna pulled the goggles over her eyes securely, glad that she would at least be certain of seeing when class was finished.

Hanna wasn't really worried about the Bowtruckles poking her. At least they couldn't get to her eyes. But perhaps they could get to her brain through her nose... best not think about that. "Well... I'd like to practice my summoning charm. I haven't had much time to do that." Only a few times, with very mixed success. "But I'm okay to do whatever if either of you prefer to do that bit," She said, looking between Jessa and Kaitlynn.

Not gonna lie, her last hope had been both girls telling her to buzz off. The agreeing had been almost as jarring as the Professor's initial suggestion. Outwardly, none of this showed. The Head Girl offered them both a smile before reaching for and pulling on her goggles.

"I'm not fussed so I'll take whatever role's left. Sounds like you wanna be in charge of the woodlice, Hanna, so Kaitlyn you pick if you wanna coax the bowtruckle or you wanna get the wood once the thing's no longer a threat. You could take turns summoning the lice if that'd work out better for you."

She could easily fall into either remaining responsibility and didn't find one more appealing than the other. Jessa looked between the pair again before moving toward a bowtruckle in its tree. For now, she wouldn't get too close, just picking this one so they'd know which bowtruckle to begin whatever they were doing on. It seemed wary of her and she didn't blame it. They were, afterall, trying to take from the tree it thought it was protecting.

It was....... weird to have everyone suddenly partner up all around you, and look around for your mates and people of interest only to see that they were.... already partnered up with other people. Well. That was okay, she supposed, but it would be nice to one day have a best friend type person who always wanted to work with her. Like... her specifically, not..... just.... her in general or... okay, there didn't even seem to be anyone even just in general today. Was there anyone left to approach?

Bel grabbed a supply kit anyway, and put the goggles on, and then tried to discreetly look around to see if anyone hadn't been partnered up yet. She didn't want to interrupt anyone by hollering out that she was partnerless. Yep. She had snoozed, so now she... lose-d.

Seemed like they already had a plan without even trying too hard to figure it out which meant that this was definitely a good group. "Okay then, I agree with Jessa," she turned to Hanna, "You can summon out the wood lice to refill the container."

Kaitlynn looked at the wood lice she was currently holding. It was a hard decision. Risk getting poked or risk doing some not so great wand work and remove some wood. "I guess...I'll coax the bowtruckle out." She reached back into the box and pulled out the fairy eggs and pocketed them so that they would be close by.

Following the oldest Ravenclaw in the group she moved towards the bowtruckle that had been picked. Dumping the wood lice into her hand she mimicked her Professors earlier motions and moved her hand toward the bowtruckle slowly as to not scare it. She waited to see if her offering would be accepted a small smile on her lips.

Patrick had somehow missed getting paired up with his usual suspects. And he found himself in an odd position. He was partnerless and needed one otherwise how on earth was he going to be able to lure a bowtruckle and get the stuff harvested he needed? Looking around he watched Bel sneak off and grab a kit of supplies. He watched her look around, he knew that look he had been making the same exact look himself. Now was his chance.

With a quick walk he got over to her, "hey Bel, want to be partners?" he was hopeful that he wasn't misreading the look in her eyes as she had scanned their classmates for another partnerless person, "I missed the boat on picking up a partner..." he sheepishly noted before bracing himself to start the activity.

Rolling his eyes at Beth, he turned and put on his goggles. Always concerned with house points and not losing any. “Sheesh Annabeth, you need to chill a little”. Turning around to face her now, he couldn’t help but grin at her, the goggles making his face look rather stupid. Throwing her a pair of goggles now, he turned and walked towards a tree, a hand full of wood lice. “Hey do you want to do this or uh, do you want to diffindo the wood from the tree?”, forgetting that she may want to feed the Bowtruckle herself.

"You can call me Tasha if you want." she smiled as she took the second pair of goggles and put them on. Perfect fit and that gave her a bit of confidence. "I wonder what you have to do to get permission to have one as a pet here at school...." she really liked them so far and wanted a Bowtruckle of her own. "I will harvest a piece of wood, I'm much better at the severing charm."

It went over his head. Honestly, why did she have any faith in boys at all? They were literally all idiots. His nice hair helped. But Max, alas, was still an idiot.

"Riiiiiiight," she gave him an encouraging smile before taking the wood lice and fairy eggs, then turning around. Such an idiot. He was still on her list though. Even idiots could be nice kissers.

The Gryffindor took a handful of the lice, GUH-ROHSS, and walked over to the tree, holding them up as high as she could in her hand. Of course she had to choose one of the lower hanging branches, seeing as she wasn't as vertically endowed as others in the class.

But oh? OH? OH? She DEFINITELY saw some eyes!! And soon enough before she knew it, a little twig thing was eating up wood lice. "GOT ONE--" before she could say anything else, however, she was being SCRATCHED. And it HURT????

"YOU PESKY LITTLE--" Zoryn closed her fist immediately, hoping to capture the annoying creature within her clutch. Fortunately for the Bowtruckle, it had managed to beeline back up the tree before Zoryn got ahold of it.

That's it.

She was over it.

Walking back to Max with the few remains of woodlice still in her palm, she held them out to him. "You're up, Carden," so yes technically they had already decided that she'd do the luring, but that was stupid and she didn't want to do it anymore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Granger Danger

Stella looked at the girl and smiled politely at her. " Thanks, wasn't sure I was going to get a partner, not many people want to work with a first year. " she said shrugging. Although she was a first year didn't mean she was dumb, she was actually very bright and clever.

" Nice to meet you Nettie I'm Stella." she said with a smile.

"Well, I'm only a second year...not THAT much higher on the totem pole," Nettie joked with a smile. She remembered what it was like to feel like you were at the absolute bottom because of your age. She still felt that way a lot of the time due to her height, to be honest.

"I'll go get the stuff..." she said before turning and heading up to Wayland and picking up the box of wood lice, fairy eggs, and protective goggles. She then headed back to Stella and grabbed one of the pairs of goggles herself as Wayland started to go over instructions.

Seemed simple enough - and honestly, how much could their little fingers REALLY hurt if they got her? "I can lure them," she volunteered, because she wasn't all that afraid of them. She didn't want to make her younger partner do all the work, either. "Unless you want to," she added. Maybe this girl was super daring or something? Or maybe she had a huge phobia of wood lice?

As Professor Wayland explained exactly what it was they would be doing, Abra looked over all of their supplies once again, taking stock of everything. While the professor was still talking, he wasted no time in picking up a pair of protective goggles and putting them on, because safety first! Or something.

When it was time for them to get started, Abra turned to look at Madison again, and considered her question. In truth, he had been about to ask her what she preferred to do, but, seeing as she had beaten him to it... "Uhhhhh... I'll try luring, if that's okay?" He really, really wanted to see how well he'd do with the wilder bowtruckles, and if he'd have any success.

Well... hopefully he would have success, seeing as they were in a class, doing an activity and all. And given that his success would also impact on the success of another student, well, uh... yeah. Failure wasn't really an option.

Scrunching his nose up slightly, Abra picked up the container of woodlice and tipped a good amount out into the palm of his hand, all the better to offer up to the creatures. After scooping up the jar of fairy eggs and propping it inside the crook of his elbow for easy access, he looked to Madison. "Ready?" Just checking, you know, so they could approach one of the trees together. United front, and everything.

Stella laughed at her joke, it made her feel a bit better about people not picking first years like her. " Hey being a second year is better then being a first year!" she said. She was short and a first year, alot of people were taller then her for Pete's Sakes! Was she ever going to get taller?


Stella nodded and smiled. "Ok great, thanks!" she said waiting for her to come back. Putting on the other pair of goggles she giggled at how silly they must look right now, but better safe then sorry right?

" Sure that'll be great, I really don't know what to do." she said biting her lip. Although she didn't want her to do all the work, that would've be fair. " What can I do to help?" she asked.

Wait.

WAIT.

Lucas gasped. "You were SHORT?!" Okay, it..... wasn't that bid of a deal but it was a HUGE deal to Lucas. See, this meant that there was hope for him. It meant that maybe he could grow up to be as tall as Gryffindor tower one day. He would just have to stick out these few years until it happened. "So you...... didn't use Stretching Charms?" He had to know.

He let Théo grab the supply kit and walked back with him. It made him feel a bit useless because he was just the small kid following the tall kid who was carrying the things they needed. And he was just..... trying not to swing his arms too much.

But then Wayland started speaking, which was a nice distraction...... or so he thought. Did he just give a warning? About being HARMED?! He..... wasn't sure if they should start to worry or not so he started paying close attention to the demonstration. He craned his neck to try and see as much as he could and was a little glad to see that there was....... just a poke. A small poke. Phew because, uh, he was partnered up with a cool older kid and he didn't want to seem scared in front of him.

This was like Zoryn all over again but with less dramatic acting.

The first year turned to Théo and frowned in thought at the question. It wasn't hard, was it? He couldn't do the charm they needed to do so unless Wayland had a chainsaw, Lucas wasn't going to do any harvesting. And these fingers weren't made for scratching.

"I can do the luring and you can do the harvesting? I mean..... I have an innocent face." He even smiled to try and prove it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angel of Music

"You can call me Tasha if you want." she smiled as she took the second pair of goggles and put them on. Perfect fit and that gave her a bit of confidence. "I wonder what you have to do to get permission to have one as a pet here at school...." she really liked them so far and wanted a Bowtruckle of her own. "I will harvest a piece of wood, I'm much better at the severing charm."

Oh so she didn’t even have to ask about a nickname. She grinned at the younger girl. ”Tasha. Okay. Everyone calls me Juni.” She nodded and continued to listen to everything that was going on, mostly the professors instructions. Watching Wayland show how to lure a bowtruckle. Wood lice, that’s why they were in the box too.

”You should talk to Professor Wayland about.” That would be the person to talk to about something like that. Just like the professor had done. ”Okay that sounds good.” She put a hand full of the wood lice. Slowly the ravenclaw moved toward the tree. Taking the jar of droxy eggs and placing them within reach. Raising her hand up to one of branches, then waited for a bowtruckle to come be her friend, and Tasha’s friend of course.

Oh look! There two tiny eyes looking at her. Did Tasha see it? Oh was it accepting her gift of wood lice. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Juni nodded at the bowtruckle, "It's okay." Encouraging the little guy... or gal. Oh no the bowtruckle just poked her hand. Time to change branches.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Granger Danger

Stella laughed at her joke, it made her feel a bit better about people not picking first years like her. " Hey being a second year is better then being a first year!" she said. She was short and a first year, alot of people were taller then her for Pete's Sakes! Was she ever going to get taller?


Stella nodded and smiled. "Ok great, thanks!" she said waiting for her to come back. Putting on the other pair of goggles she giggled at how silly they must look right now, but better safe then sorry right?

" Sure that'll be great, I really don't know what to do." she said biting her lip. Although she didn't want her to do all the work, that would've be fair. " What can I do to help?" she asked.

Nettie smiled. "Well, I'll lure one out, and then when it takes the wood lice from me, you can take the wood from the branch under the bowtruckle," she explained. Seemed easy enough. Hopefully they'd like her offering...otherwise this was going to be a LOT more complicated.

Goggles in place, she took a handful of the wood lice and approached the tree. "Heeeere, little bowtruckles!" she called out to them. She held out her hand, and after a few moments, one of them poked it's head out from the depth of the branches and inspected her wood lice carefully. Then, it poked her finger with a little squeak. Nettie remembered Wayland saying that was a sign to back off, so she quickly drew her hand away.

Alright. So THAT one had no interest in her.

She moved on to the next branch, hoping that ONE of them would want her offering. After a few more minutes, a tiny bowtruckle, smaller than the one before, inspected her offering and then picked up some of the wood lice, nibbling at it. Nettie smiled and then handed it a fairy egg, like Wayland had done. The bowtruckle let out a happy squeak (she assumed it was happy?) and then started to munch away on the egg.

Looked like it was all clear for Stella...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

As Professor Wayland explained exactly what it was they would be doing, Abra looked over all of their supplies once again, taking stock of everything. While the professor was still talking, he wasted no time in picking up a pair of protective goggles and putting them on, because safety first! Or something.

When it was time for them to get started, Abra turned to look at Madison again, and considered her question. In truth, he had been about to ask her what she preferred to do, but, seeing as she had beaten him to it... "Uhhhhh... I'll try luring, if that's okay?" He really, really wanted to see how well he'd do with the wilder bowtruckles, and if he'd have any success.

Well... hopefully he would have success, seeing as they were in a class, doing an activity and all. And given that his success would also impact on the success of another student, well, uh... yeah. Failure wasn't really an option.

Scrunching his nose up slightly, Abra picked up the container of woodlice and tipped a good amount out into the palm of his hand, all the better to offer up to the creatures. After scooping up the jar of fairy eggs and propping it inside the crook of his elbow for easy access, he looked to Madison. "Ready?" Just checking, you know, so they could approach one of the trees together. United front, and everything.

If Abra wanted to do the luring, that was more than okay with Madison. Obviously if she had a preference, she would have mentioned it previously. As it was, she gave him a thumbs up before putting the goggles on. "Sounds good to me." Hopefully there wouldn't be any incidents, but if they were careful - which they would be - nothing should go wrong.

Her eyes looked around at all the trees, and any of them seemed to be good enough to harvest from. She was going to try and go after the wood, as opposed to the wood lice. And figured that it wouldn't be too hard to get what the professor required of them. "Ready." And it shouldn't be too hard to get one of them to eat the offered food. That was unless Professor Wayland made it look A LOT easier...

Tristan watched on as the students progressed through their tasks. Most were still trying to lure a Bowtruckle, and he hoped they were able to. The wild Bowtruckles were a little more difficult to work with than those in captivity.

He was about to call out Zoryn, but saw that she handed over the task of luring the creature to her partner. Tristan sighed with relief. He didn't want to have to dock points for her harming a creature or taking it against its will.

"Remember, if you need more food come and get it from me. You have about 20 minutes to lure and harvest!" Tristan said as he checked his watch. He hoped they all had a chance to complete this activity.


OOC: Y'all are doing great! Keep it up! You have about 42 hours to complete the task!! Good luck and have fun!

Hanna nodded to Jessa, and pulled out her wand, goggles already firmly in place. She first needed to practice, both incantation and wand movement, otherwise... well, she didn't want to fail miserably in front of everyone. At least hopefully Jessa would be there to cast it if she did fail.

"Okay," she said, and followed the others towards a tree. Whilst she waited for Kaitlynn to lure out a bowtruckle, Hanna was saying "AK-key-oh, AK-key-oh, AK-key-oh," moving her mouth around to get the sound right. "AK-key-oh." And again, again, again. Merlin, she didn't want to make a fool of herself. Performance anxiety. She raised her wand, not really pointing it at anything, and practiced the wand movement. One side, arching to the other side.

Right. She was ready. Accio wood lice. In her non-wand hand she had the container ready to store the wood lice that she hoped she could summon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sarahlooo

His encouragement was helpful, of course, since Derf knew what had to be done and because he knew Natalie so well. So, if Derf believed in her, then she believed that she could do it too. And it WAS true that she had "put up" with Picketta, but that wording made it sound like Natalie didn't like her, which wasn't true. Natalie liked Picketta because she was so protective and possessive of Derf. She was like his personal little guardian.

Look non-threatening. "Right," she replied, trying to look relaxed and.. pleasant. She kept her movements slow and watched the little creature look curiously into her palm. "It's okay," she said softly, her voice in a higher pitch than usual, like she was talking to a baby or a puppy, hoping that they would find it soothing.

At that point, she wasn't even paying attention to Derf anymore, because this was close as she had ever been to a Bowtruckle that wasn't out to slice her open with their sharp little fingers. In fact, it looked like it was okay with her. She watched it step closer to her fingers... and then reach down to grab some treats. Natalie beamed, but contained her excitement enough so she wouldn't startle the little creature.

"There you go. Is that yummy?" Wood lice... delicious snack, right? She caught Derf out of the corner of her eye and hoped that he was doing well, but she didn't want to look away just in case it made the bowtruckle.. worry. Or something.

Fair enough, and he would gladly retract the phrase 'put up with' later. But really, he was glad that Picketta's initial...aversion to Natalie had not pushed her away. He had had his fair share of talks with the bowtruckle about many of his girl friends and how she should and should not behave around them. And, well, to the bowtruckle's benefit, she was doing better. Less snippy and trigger happy with her fingers for the most part.

And what lessons his own bowtruckle had to offer, the brunette had certainly taken on board because she was doing amazing right now. Mesmerized watching her and the creature interact, he truly DID forget that he had a task to perform as well and was only reminded of it when he caught her gaze flicker in his direction and his spine straightened a bit.

RIGHT!

Smiling at her, he offered a quick nod that she...may or may not have noticed ...Derf quickly and quietly sidestepped his way around the pair and over to the tree from whence the bowtruckle had come from. Carefully retrieving his wand and pointing it at the underside of the thick branch and caaaaarefully administered a Severing Charm to slice a thin sheet off and gingerly collected it. Clicking and chattering his teeth, Derf muttered a thank you of sorts in bowtruckle to the tree and any other lingering creatures that may still be hidden within the leaves and branches.

Sidestepping more quickly back, he hurried over to the container by the barn and deposited it as instructed.

Well, that was pretty easy. When Derf had seen the noticed about needing to wear more casual clothing and not their robes, he had honestly been expecting something a bit more, well, active than the gentle luring of bowtruckles with woodlice.

Wood deposited, Derf cautiously approached Natalie and reached to grab a bit of woodlice for himself and held the pile spread out between both his hands as he quite literally went to lay down on the ground beside her. "...you're doing brilliantly," he whispered to her, laying his hands on the ground before him in case the bowtruckle wanted some more woodlice.

It was lucky he didn’t have the power of telepathy or legilimency because if he knew what was going on in Zoryn’s mind …….. well, to say he’d be flustered would’ve been an understatement. Honestly. He knew more about bowtruckles than he did about girls and that was saying something.

Speaking of bowtruckles.

He followed Zoryn, careful not to get too close and watched anxiously as she got to work on her luring. If you could really call it that. It didn’t look like there was much luring going on…… from here it looked more like she was just outright trying to grab one of the little buggers. Her method didn’t seem to be working though, and Max flinched. Uhhhhh.

“You what? What do you mean I’m up?” That wasn’t the agreement! He accepted the woodlice but pulled a face because EWWWW, he wasn’t even wearing any gloves! “Are you giving up already? C'mon we've got twenty minutes..... Maybe try one of the fairy eggs instead??? You're not a quitter, are you?”

Anything that meant he didn’t have to get closer to the tree, please.

Jessa nodded when Kaitlyn made her choice, resigned to supervising for now. Unlike Hanna, she wasn't in need of spell practice and there was nothing to be done until Kaitlyn made the bowtruckle more friendly. Technically there were quite a few things she could do and with the right spells, she could take what they needed without injury but while she would risk that on her own, she wasn't about to put her housemates in the line of fire with her.

It was one thing to make a conscious decision to break rules on your own and an entirely different thing to drag others who somewhat followed you into that rule breaking.

On her own, she'd feel bad if they got in trouble because she wanted to think outside the box. Add the title of Head Girl and she'd be wallowing in guilt.

So yeah, she would put her ideas aside and patiently wait for Kaitlyn to do her thing. If the bowtruckle got out of hand and the girl needed help, she'd step in but otherwise she was apparently just....watching....

Kaitlynn watched trying not to breathe too loud so that she didn't scare away the bowtruckle that walked out upon the branch to take a sniff at the wood lice she offering. She shifted her hand ever so slightly, moving it a little closer...that wasn't the right move. A quick poke to her finger caused the girl she squeak and the little creature running back into the shadows. She switched the wood lice into her other hand. At least it didn't hurt as bad as anticipated and she still had all her body parts.

Looking for another branch she saw a pair of beady eyes staring her down. She moved slowly to the bowtruckle hidden in the shadows and held out her hand waiting. Slowly the bowtruckle came out of the shadows. It was about three inches and pretty tiny. She gave it a smile and with some hesitation the little bowtruckle made its way into her hand eating some of the wood lice.

"Hey, little one," she said smiling. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a fairy egg offering it out to it. Without a sound, it took the egg and made its way to her shoulder where it sat while it ate. "I guess that means we're in the clear," she said to her partners. She passed up a few more wood lice to the bowtruckle on her shoulder and smiled as she watched it eat.

........ Zoryn FROWNED. She knew what he was doing.

UUGHHHHHHHHHH.

And okay, admittedly, it was working.

"Fiiiine," she side, taking a fairy egg and walking back up to the tree. Here goes absolutely nothing. Zoryn didn't even TRY to find a bowtruckle before sticking her hand up to a branch. And when one started to take the bait, she hardly even flinched.

It was soon enough that the bowtruckle was happy and eatin' right on her palm. Oh.

Zoryn turned to Max, "easy as cake." He was going to start snipping away some wood now, right? Because Zoryn didn't want this thing to be sitting on her hand any longer than it had to. Uh, like, no offense.

Natasha took note of her classmates nickname for the future. She followed Juni to the tree, and saw the little eyes. She wanted to squeal in delight at how adorable the little creature was, but refrained, not wanting to startle him. "If you change your mind, just come find us." she told the Bowtruckle with a soft time when he poked Juni's finger. "I could have sworn I saw some eyes peeking out from this branch." she pointed to the left of where Juni was standing.