SnitchSeeker.com - Arithmancy 2: Introduction to Elemental Arithmancy

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- Term 52: May - August 2019 (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-52-may-august-2019/)

- - Arithmancy 2: Introduction to Elemental Arithmancy (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-52-may-august-2019/arithmancy-2-introduction-to-elemental-arithmancy-112713/)

Ok Professor she was more talking about Humans than the tomato but since it didn't really matter either way to her. She just shrugged and let it be. She was more interested in Nina actually answering a question which sounded perfect to her and Archer immediately disagreeing with her and being wrong. Which made Eloise burst out laughing.

The one time Nina nina nina speaks in class.

Oh how great is that

Oh she was having a great time in this lesson...anyway Emfanizou Arithmou again. Stil sounded like a failed magician which only helped her remember it. Good right?

"Emfanizou Arithmou"

aiming it at the clouds...Hmm...this did seem right

6942069

Or was it right?

Talking about water properties was one thing. Maeve was one hundred percent OKAY with that, but the second numbers got involved with it ... the sixth year just stared and listened. Or tried to listen. So if double eights meant that it was themselves, since they were alive .... a waterfall might have a six? Since waterfalls could be chaotic? Or because it was a controlled waterfall, it made it less chaotic.

Water was dangerous? Then why was everyone always saying to hydrate and drink more water??? Heck, even her aunt was on her about drinking water and now... well, Professor Sissay was saying something about the Dead Sea and Merlin, the sixth year was even more kinds of confusing. But Number Revealing Charm. She knew that one if only because it was a charm. When the numbers appeared and she would have to interpret, that was where she was lost. She would try though.

"Emfanizou Arithmou," she cast, on the waterfall, because she was curious as to if it would have a six in it being how it may have been chaotic. Or not. Who knew?

6697928

Huh. So did that make it chaotic??? Two sixes ought to mean something.

It was safe to say that at this point, Lucas was overthinking. He might've been quiet and looked like the quiet type but his brain was L O U D and he didn't know what to do about it. Everything Sissay was saying was registering up there and it was....... a lot.

And then she was talking about DEATH?! Death and water and the Dead Sea?!

Oh merlin oh merlin oh merlin.

It...... took a while for him to realise that people were moving and doing something and he was just..... sitting there. Doing nothing. A small pink tinge appeared on his cheeks as he grabbed another piece of parchment and wrote the word 'numbers' on there. It seemed as though everyone else was just casting the number spell at some of the different water objects around the room so..... he'd do the same. Yeah. That was it.

Taking out his wand, he pointed it up at the clouds above him and said, "Emfanizou Arithmou!" A spell that took a while to practice around the safety of random rooms and his dorm room was now a spell he didn't have a lot of trouble with. The only thing he'd have trouble with now was interpreting the numbers they produce.

3 7 3 7 7 3 2

...........

??

Yeah, Lucas was confused.

Ayana waited a few minutes for everyone to get started, then she began walking around the room, correcting techniques and arm movements for those students who still haven't managed to perfect the charm. It was important to unlearn bad habits as quickly as possible, as they had mostly performed the charm during their time away from her classroom.

"This discovery dates quite far back," they were short on time, and there was much to teach, so Ayana spoke as they practiced their spell. Numbers appeared and disappeared quickly around her as she walked, and she examined each with much enthusiasm. "What you're all doing has been done before, by very confused Arithmancers. How was this possible? Does water exhibit all properties? Does it exhibit none? Is there something wrong with the spell, does it not work when it comes to water? Why is it so special?"

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Ayana's first stop was at Archer's desk. "A lot of repetition in that second one, not so common to see even when testing on water," she nodded, humming slightly, and breezed past her with a smile.

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Were Trinetta and Nina close friends? It certainly seemed so, upon this very public display of defense. Ayana appreciated the slew of good thinking that came with the argument, though she gave Trinetta a look to signal that enough was enough. "Double zeros on that first one, very unlikely," Ayana noted. Maybe Nettie had hit a patch of dead bacteria. That's the wonderful thing about water, and the rest of the elements, which she will get into in a few minutes.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie (Post 12417052)

About that smirk Nina was hoping to wipe off his face? Yeah, about THAT. It only widened as she, somewhat, predictably played right into his hand and spoke THE most she had in any class to date. Not only that, but she full on revealed her antics to anyone who was paying attention. Speaking methodically and passionately in one instances and then doing that insufferably hair twirl the next with that terrible 'like, um, maybe?' that absolutely no one should but. It was, in a word, perfect.

And totally worth the disapproving look that Professor Sissay gave him yet again. Whatever.

It did seem as though at least one person was paying attention to what others were answering, which felt rare here at Hogwarts sometimes, but the fourth year found himself rolling his eyes a bit because honestly? Anyone who knew Eiji knew he had no problem calling out stupidity - looking at you, Trinetta - and while he was usually all for it this was not the case and his eyes briefly narrowed on the Hufflepuff prefect. Briefly. He attuned this sort of blatant ridicule as someone merely trying to stir the pot and provoke a reaction - which was why he provided no other and instead rested his hazel-green eyes back on Nine with a warm smile of approval. The sort he would give Rebecca when she finally mastered a concept she had been struggling with and, setting his ego aside, mouthed a 'You got me' in her direction before lifting a piece of paper he had turned into a score card for the lesson.
Two for Nina because she had given the better answer and therefore won the round and one for him because he had to give himself some credit for aiding the victory. It was only fair.

Setting the paper down when the professor moved things along, the Slytherin readied his wand and debated which to give it a go on...though he ultimately decided to go with the clouds. "Emfanizou Arithmou," he commanded somewhat lazily, he would rather be doing this on potions ingredients, and waited for the number sequence to reveal itself. "....7443815."

.......hmmmm. He supposed he ought to interpret those before trying the spell again, but he instead wrote them down on his parchment and gave his wand another flourish. "....3991841."

Repeated numbers in the same place in the sequence. That was interesting.

Ayana found it remarkable how little she missed being a teenager, and how much she took pleasure in not understanding their antics in the slightest. Nina's play, while frustrating, was fairly obvious even to her but Eiji's paper and the rest of eluded her entirely. Excellent. Maybe they could discuss Arithmancy now? She peered down at Eiji's parchment. "Combinations of one's and eight's are always terribly exciting aren't they? An innate singular life, usually, but no so fitting here.. Very interesting," Ayana smiled, encouraging him to turn on those thinking wheels.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ArianaBlack (Post 12417113)

Nina Castillo was VERY nervous all of the sudden. Though she had made the conscious decision to arise to Eiji’s challenge, she hadn’t given the action ample thought. Meaning that she had only realized the consequences of such an action once it was too late to backtrack. She did try, however, to backtrack, that is. The like um maybe was meant to do just that.

And despite Professor Sissay’s encouragement, Nina Castillo was very upset. Because the Hufflepuff Prefect who had answered after Nettie gave an answer that not only challenged her own, but did so with malice. Despite the fact that Archer had come after her answer, Nina took it very personally. She may not have looked it, but the fourth year was incredibly sensitive. And hearing the words ‘Nina has it completely wrong,’ followed by ‘she hasn’t even accounted for’ just about did it. It made the Slytherin feel small and insignificant. The one time she had actually spoken in class with insight to offer, she was immediately shut down. And despite Patrick’s attempt at peacekeeping and Trinetta’s counter-argument in Nina’s defense, the light had still drained from the fourth year’s eyes.

Nina could think of a million arguments as to why Archer was wrong to say any of what she did. Of course water has a consistent chemical formula, but that was simply one component and couldn’t possibly be used as a generalization. Fructose, mannose, and glucose all had the same molecular formula. But they were most certainly not the same. They each had different tastes, different impacts on one’s blood sugar, found in different sources… She could go on and on. Chemical formulas also negated the possibility of an enantiomer. Formulas could be similar, but the molecule could have completely different biological effects dependent on the chirality. A chemical formula certainly meant something, but it couldn't be made the entire basis of systematization. So no. Archer’s argument was completely two-dimensional and insufficient and Nina…. Wasn’t going to verbalize any of these thoughts.

Because her feelings were hurt. And this was the last time she would ever speak up in class. She had firmly decided.

Eiji’s warm smile and score card, while sweet, didn’t help much either. She gave him a half-baked smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, before turning her attention to a spot just beyond their Professor. She didn’t want to engage in the rest of the lesson…. When they were given the go ahead to cast the number revealing spell, Nina distractedly picked up her wand. With very little conviction, she looked up at the clouds above, ”Emfanizou Arithmou” and tried the spell. But unfortunately nothing happened. Again she tried, ”Emfanizou Arithmou,” this time a stream of numbers revealed themselves before quickly disappearing. Though she didn’t have enough time to jot them down before they had disappeared, she did have a chance to glaze her eyes over them. 6993633. ”Emfanizou Arithmou,” again due to the lack of focus the numbers quickly disappeared, but she remembered enough of the last set to know that the numbers had slight variation. 9766843.

One did not have to be a teenage specialist to understand the situation at hand with Nina. It irritated Ayana, to see the girl back down so quickly, and sincerely hoped Trinetta would give her friend here a stern talking to about standing up for your opinions. It started with Arithmancy, but it was an important lesson in life. Ayana had half a mind to drill it into the girl herself, after the lesson. "Where are your numbers Nina?" she asked, looking down at her parchment.

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"Eloise, care to share with the class what it is you're finding so amusing over there?" Ayana asked with slight raise of her brow, truly failing to see what would make the girl burst out laughing like that. And there weren't enough numbers around her head, which meant the girl needed to practice some more. "Spotted anything interesting in the numbers?"

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Ah, Maeve. She didn't seem to be involved in any of the current classroom commotion, a fact Ayana greatly appreciated. "Good form on that cast Maeve. Interesting set of numbers too, very.. unruly result. Double six's and double nine's, that's not a sight you see every day," Ayana noted with an amused smile. The numbers were messing with her students, it seemed. Sneaky little things.

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Oh, very sneaky numbers. And Lucas here just as appropriately confused as he should be, that many sevens in any number was highly irregular. "This is quite the peculiar result, correct? Three repetitions of seven's and three's, very irregular. Why don't you try one more time?" to see if he could get something even more outrageous of course. Ayana did like this little exercise. Though, there was a reason why none of this made much sense.

Perhaps it was time to let them in on the secret.

"I promised you in the beginning of our lesson, that we would be leaving any further analyses to our lessons after the break. As we have just seen, there really is nothing to analyse. How can water be all powerful, all chaotic, all structured, all singular, a collective, all of these and more at the same time? Is each section of water different? We would be wasting hours of analysis on something that would likely turn out to be wrong," Ayana looked around the room, making sure she had everyone's attention. "This is because, as the ancients found out a long time ago, elements cannot be analysed. They simply aren't things. They're not spells, they're not singularly occurring. Water does not have a beginning and an end. Neither does air.

Water and air together are known in arithmancy as arithmaturgically pure. The clouds above our heads are an excellent example of the two pures together. You were targeting the water, but the same result would have happened had you had air in your mind as well," Ayana spoke slowly, and made sure they were all still with her. "There is a spell, a variation on our Number Revealing charm, that incorporates intent into your casting. We will learn it when we return in January." As a preface to the Number Altering Charm, which would take up the bulk of their studies, and probably require a lot of practice.

But, that is for future them to worry about. In the spirit of the holidays, she'd prepared a fun little exercise. It ought to be fun. She hoped it would be fun. Water is fun right? Time to raise the temperature in here. With a flick of her wrist, the room gradually began to get warmer, and the ice sculpture quickly started to lose all semblance of an elephant.

"The other two elements, fire and earth, complete the list of traditional elements that were singled out by the ancient Greeks, precisely because of their strange Arithmaturgical properties. Water and aether," Ayana transitioned to the traditional word with emphasis, "are the pures. Earth is the base, and fire is the energy. This ties into alchemy a little bit, but please try and remove those associations from your mind."

Okay.

Here we go.

"These properties make the elements uniquely malleable to manipulation. The elements are the very basis of this world, and Arithmancers have found a way to shape them into their needs. We will go into the theory of this around February, but for now I thought a fun little demonstration will spike your interests in the topic." Ayana took out her wand, her lips twitching, and moved to stand at the centre of the classroom.

The events happened in very quick succession. Was she showing off to her students? Absolutely not, that is highly unprofessional (yes, yes of course, awe-filled faces were the best). As the room continued to get warmer and warmer, she cast a swift Incendio into the air, followed by a string of murmurs. The fire turned into a ball, which in turn separated into half a dozen smaller balls of fire. A sharp eyed student might notice that some of these balls, no, all of them, appear to be.. smiling? Was that a hint of a face? Or were those tiny smokey numbers, forming the shape of a mouth?

Twisting her free hand at the clouds above their heads, the water droplets that made up the thick colombuses suddenly dived down, straight into the smiling fireballs. Ayana added the water from the waterfall too, and siphoned the ice from the scupture, creating a big - warm! - globule of water. The numbers resembled a slot machine, constantly switching as the twisting globule of water broke off into smaller balls, again about half a dozen, in varying sizes.

Finally, with twists of her wand, the swirling water began to morph. Each ball seemed to grow limbs, two arms, two legs, the edges appearing like waterfalls as the looped in on themselves to keep the water tight within the formation.

There they were. Her little water demons, now animated like little watery humanoids. Anyone ever heard tales of golems? This was the process, more or less. "The aim is to not to get wet. Freeze them using glacius, vaporise using well aimed heat charms - that means no fire, we don't want anyone to get burned - or stop them in any other way you see fit." The water humanoids, seeming to conspire amongst themselves already, started making a circle around the desks, moving much much quicker than a human person would be able to. They're made of water after all.

"The students left dry at the end of our little activity can submit their next essay a foot shorter than what is requested," Ayana grinned, and took several large steps back. The demons knew not to get to her - it was all in the numbers - but Hypatia only knew what the students had planned.

The mission? Drench the students! The plan? Run at them real quick! The two largest demons, seemingly the head of the little pack, haphazardly stomped their way towards the nearest students with glee. As much as water can stomp, you know

SPLISH SPLASH SPLISH SPLASH

OOC: final activity! Run from the super speedy water demons, ~~gaze at Sissay in wonder bc Arithmancy is COOL~~, the aim is not to get wet! Thanks for coming to the lesson, I'll be posting for the little demons as much as I can until we wrap up

Where were her numbers? ”I didn’t have a chance to write them down,” she shrugged. She had lost any enthusiasm for the lesson after the whole debacle. Nina Castillo wanted to go back to the dormitory. ~~TO CRY.~~ Despite her tendency to feign disinterest whilst actually paying absolute attention to her Professor, Nina wasn’t faking it this time around. Her eyes still followed her Professor as she spoke, but they were almost looking at a point just past Professor Sissay.

…… Um.

She had only tuned in at the very end when she heard they may be getting wet. Nina wasn’t wearing waterproof mascara. And her hair looked incredibly nICE today. She did NOT want to leave the lesson a soaking mess. And to think, she had really admired Professor Sissay. But this? This was such a cruel way to end what was already the worst lesson of her entire life.

So naturally, Nina began SQUEALING as the demons began charging. And she immediately ran to the corner of the room, knocking down a desk to take cover behind it. She wanted no part in this game.

WHAT WAS HAPPENING!??!?!

:whaa:

Anahera had, admittedly, zoned out a little during the past ten minutes. It had got a bit too academic for her taste and she was going to blame her lack of concentration on the fact that it was still FREEZING in here (had Professor Sissay not read about how temperature could affect one's ability to focus? had she???). It was definitely impacting Anahera's brain.

Mhm, that.

Which was when she literally jumped in her seat slightly when all of a sudden the professor not only warmed up the classroom but had conjured up small balls of FIRE. With faces. And then there was water...with faces. And hands. And feet. And just...a lot was happening.

Instinctively, Anahera dove under her desk to get away from the water things. At least she was already holding her wand. From this lower vantage point, she cast a Glacius in the direction of the nearest water droplet she could see from down here. Hopefully that hadn't just been a student taking a sip of water and missing their mouth.

Sorry (not sorry) if that was the case.

Text Cut: Mini activity catchup

Tina felt a surge of respect for Professor Sissay when she told off that mouthy prefect (Archer). It was about time somebody took her down a peg! Exactly how did that one get a badge again? Was being loud a requirement for leadership in this school? Never mind, Tina had more important things to think about, like the activity for example.

Tina paid careful attention to Professor Sissay's explanation/ demonstration. At first things seemed pretty straightforward, but the second number revealing demonstration had her all confused. How were there two different number sequences for the same object? And if there were multiple number combinations for the same thing, how were they supposed to know which was the correct one? She was glad they weren't doing number analysis today… because how would that work with different number sequences for the same thing?

Tina shook her head to stop herself from going down the rabbit hole of overthinking. She needed to focus on what she knew, which in this case was the number revealing. It was a shame that the tomatoes and cucumbers weren't included in the items they were allowed to use for practice, as Tina had a more solid theory for those number sequences than for the other items'. Since that wasn't an option, she decided to practice on the waterfall instead. "Emfanizou Arithmou!" she said, aiming her wand at the waterfall.

A series of numbers emerged from the smoke at the tip of Tina's wand: 0995731. Whatever else happened this class, at least she could count on getting the wandwork right on the first try. She quickly jotted the number sequence down in her notes before it could disappear. So now she supposed she should check it again. She moved to an area on the opposite side of the waterfall and again cast, "Emfanizou Arithmou!" This time it was a completely different number sequence. 1795563… Tina hurriedly copied down the numbers, comparing the two sequences she had. Hmm… both had repeating numbers and contained 9, 5, and 3 - and there was a 9 and 5 in the same spot each time. That must mean something, right?

Tina was still wondering how one could analyze something with different number sequences when the lesson moved on. Oh, so the simple answer was you couldn't. That made sense… well, sort of. Tina had to admit she was rather curious about the variation of the number revealing charm and the way Arithmancers had found to shape the elements to their needs, but she was even more curious about the fire Professor Sissay had just cast. Why fire? She thought they were talking about water! Her eyes widened as the fire separated into balls and - were those fireballs smiling? Before she knew what was happening, there were droplets from the clouds and water from the waterfall and ice from the sculpture and balls of water with limbs forming - water demons. Wow, those things were creepy!

So the next activity was basically a water war, only with water demons instead of wands or squirters. Tina wasn't sure what to make of that. She was glad it wasn't number analysis, and she was skilled in wandwork so she could probably hold her own to the creepy critters. The problem was if she didn't hold her own, she'd be wet and embarrassed in front of everybody. The part about a foot off the essay went in one ear and out the other. Tina didn't care about having less homework; she was more concerned with not humiliating herself at the moment.

Tina needed a strategy - and fast! Otherwise, she was a sitting duck. Okay, Tina, think… she thought frantically. She had it! Alternate hitting the demons with everything she had and hiding. "Glacius!" she cried, aiming at the nearest demon. "Glacius! Glacius!" She may have thrown a Glacius Duo in there somewhere too, just in case the original version wasn't strong enough. Once she finished her initial barrage of spells, she cast a shield charm on herself. Would a shield charm even work to keep out water? She had no idea; she'd never tried it before. Just in case, she crouched behind her desk for cover, her eyes peering over the top to search for the demons. She wasn't about to let her guard down!

Ayana watched with great pleasure (sorry) as the students suddenly sprung into fight or flight mode, and a glance at the clock told her that quite many of them might have that foot shaved off from their essay lengths. It seemed that in her excitement, she'd allowed the lesson to run on for a bit too long.

Stepping up to the board, she quickly wrote down her expectations for the holidays - mostly that they all return safe and sound and rested for the new year of learning, and opened the classroom door with a wave of her hand. "Happy holidays class! We'll be seeing a lot of number altering arithmancy work when we return." She'll be seeing them in 2099, and she sincerely hoped her little demonstration had at the very least sparked an interest in the subject.

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The biggest splasher heard the squeal, and made directly for it, stomping and dousing several students along its way. SPLISH SPLASH, ball of water to the face? YES!

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The two smallest water humanoids danced around each with glee, flicking water! everywhere! they! could! YOU get water and YOU get water and YOU, under the table, you ALSO get wat- Uh oh

Text Cut: MadMadamMalfoy

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy (Post 12417369)

Text Cut: Mini activity catchup

The tallest of the water formations, noting he could splish splash people's desks, set out to do just that! Oh another desk there! A ruined parchment, all wet! Droplets shot out of its head as it seemed to GIGGLE with GLEE. Oh another desk, but with a person! TWO prizes! JUST as it was about to step down on the desk, it- didn't :O THE STUDENT TRICKED HIM!

OOC: hey guys! This ran a little longer than I had planned for (telling dates is really hard, did you know?) Thank you to every single one of you who attended the lesson! You're all the best!