Comprehend Languages - Troll (+10% wisdom)

Life does not always go entirely the way one has planned...
It was certainly an understatement for Jessica's current predicament. Here she sat on a few rocks somewhere in the Austrian mountains surrounded by Mountain Trolls. She'd only wandered from the group a little bit, looking for a more private spot to relieve herself when she'd been snatched by one of the brutes. Jessica was certain she was going to die but instead the troll had simply dropped her at the camp. The others inspected her for a good hour before going back to their standard routines. It seemed they were oddly content to let her be. Or keep her as a pet. Or something.

That was several weeks ago, maybe over a month. Jessica had lost track of the days.

Whenever she made to leave, the trolls got angry and agitated. They'd calm down if she returned to camp. Whenever another human got close to the camp, the trolls also got agitated. Jessica was sure that a few rescue attempts had been made, sure that people were aware of where she was, relatively unharmed too. But it seemed the darn trolls had thwarted every attempt. How?! It couldn't be that hard to outwit them! They were notoriously dumb!

But still, the more time Jessica spent here, the more she noticed things about the gigantic creatures. They were dumb, absolutely, but they weren't animals. They used tools. They wore clothing. They communicated with one another. It wasn't just animistic roars, there was a method to their grunts, pointing and motions. The way one slumped their shoulders displayed their mood and intent. The speed of a point would dictate the urgency. Now that any sense of immediate danger was gone, she had more awareness of the creatures.

"GLUUURK," a loud grumble came from behind. Jessica spun around to see a troll face to face with another slightly shorter troll. The taller one was poking the other's knee with his wooden club.

"REEEH?" Came the response. It was a question... She could tell from the way the smaller troll tilted his head.

"BRRR MUH." The first replied and pointed to... her. Jessica went pale. Even now it was one thing to simply exist around uncaring trolls. It was another when they were clearly speaking about her.

The smaller troll began to stomp off somewhere as the first troll locked eyes with Jessica. Instinctively, Jessica threw the creature the most awkwardly terrified smile she could manage. It took a moment but the sides of the troll's lips slowly turned upwards. Was it a smile? Then the creature stomped at a brisk pace in her direction.

Oh no.

Had she just invited it over? They hadn't harmed her so far but trolls were strange, violent and unpredictable beings. The troll had reached her by now. His arm extended outwards but Jessica was frozen in fear. The troll then... patted her head. Roughly.

"Ah!" The girl yelped.

"HUR HUR." The troll... laughed? The goofy look on his face, exposing all his rotted and missing teeth, seemed to suggest so.

Then the smaller troll from earlier returned, clutching a bundle of furs. He dropped them with a heavy 'flump' sound before Jessica's feet. "BRRR." The troll simply growled. The other troll nodded his head slightly as though his companion had made a wise comment befitting of a sage.

They both looked at her expectantly. Jessica looked at the bundle of fur. She looked back at the trolls. They looked back at her. There was some kind of communication supposed to be happening here... How did trolls ask questions? They tilted their heads!

"BRRR?" Jessica repeated as best she could, tilting her head for good measure. Both trolls rose up, had she surprised them?

"BRRR!" The taller troll picked at the grubby jacket her wore of his torso then shook his body slightly.

"Cold." It hit Jessica as a revelation. The European mountains were freezing at night. The trolls had brought her... warmer clothes? Well they all wore something. Did that mean there was a troll tailor? She glanced around at the rest of the camp. It was hard to picture which of these lumbering, drooling creatures was making clothes for the others. Cautiously, she picked up the fabric in front of her. It was much smaller than a troll's clothing but still much too big for an eleven year old girl. Nonetheless, she wrapped herself in it. This would certainly help in the nights, despite the smell... She wanted to thank the trolls but she got the impression that pleases and thank yous weren't a thing in troll speak. Trollish? Trollan? Trollese?

She was shaken from her thought by a large, long finger nail poking at her chest. "GUH UH MUH?" The troll asked with the tell tale tilt of the head.

There was a long moment's pause as Jessica tried to work out what to do. It didn't seem to bother the trolls. They took a long time to think about anything. But eventually the smaller troll motioned to himself. "PERRGUH" the troll groaned then pointed at the other troll. "DEBUH." He repeated this several times then pointed at Jessica, head tilted.

Slowly she began to understand... "Perrguh..." She pointed at the smaller troll who gave a single slow nod. "Debuh..." she pointed at the taller troll who repeated the same slow nod motion. Then she pointed at herself. "Jessica."

The trolls drew their heads back again. "JER-GER-JET..." they appeared to be stumbling over the sounds.

"Jessica." She repeated louder.

"JER-KA. JEHD... EH..." The trolls seemed to be working themselves up. The smaller troll almost blasted Jessica with troll spit trying to get the sounds out. The girl awkwardly shuffled herself away slightly.

Could they not make the same sounds? A sudden thought came to her. When she accidentally bit her tongue when she was 7 years old, it had swollen up. She was hardly able to speak. Is that what this was? Did troll communicate in such a basic way because their tongues were so big? Whatever the truth was, the image helped in her mind. If she thought about how to speak with that swollen tongue...

Jessica pointed at herself again. "Jehka."

"JEHKA."

"JEHKA."

She couldn't help but smile. They got it. The trolls gave those strange goofy smiles back. They were getting somewhere...

Little did poor Jessica know rescue was still some way off. Her communication with the trolls would deepen as her primary way to survive...

(Word count: 1085 I got a little carried away )

There were an abundance of snakes in the Faux house. Whether it was due to a surplus of school spirit dwelling inside of his Slytherin parents, wanting to use the venom of the snakes for magical potions, or just for some other ulterior, unknown motive, there were just an absurd amount of snakes around Calvon growing up. As a toddler, most young children are attracted to bright flashing colors, regular toys, and finding excuses to make messes and bounce off the walls with energy. Calvon, however, wasn't anything along those lines. The green-eyed boy was quiet and observant right from his cute, cuddly beginnings. And the first entities that caught the slick, emerald green eyes of the boy were snakes. Once taken out of the his crib, Calvon would crawl with awe toward the cages that held the otherworldly, majestic creatures and just listen. Squishing his chubby face against the walls of the cage, Calvon would take in every slither and flicker of the these reptiles and what seemed to be just an abnormal interest in the snakes soon revealed itself to be an abnormal connection between boy and snake.

Most reasonable parents would fear for their child's future after learning of their connection to snakes. However, Calvon's parents didn't display that response. Instead, they were overcome with joy and happiness at their creation. Yes, Calvon was birthed with plan of harboring this type of connection to the reptilian world. Both of his Slytherin parents spontaneously possessed this ability despite their close relatives lacking it. And due to its rarity, his parents had both respectively decided that at a young age, they would marry another wizard who had the ability in an attempt to increase the chances of their offspring obtaining the talent. Calvon was the result of that eugenic marriage and birth, and it seemed like, for now, that he was on the right track toward realizing his parents' dreams. But only time would tell.

And tell it did. Whenever playing outdoors with his classmates as a younger child, Calvon would almost always find himself encountering snakes. Calvon was unsure whether or not he was attracting the snakes or if he was unconsciously following the sounds of their hisses, but he did not something for certain. He found it extremely easy to emulate their hissing, or at least a variant of it. For a long time, he never knew what he was saying or communicating, but due to his observation skills, he soon realized that some hisses and shrills got across to his cold-blooded companions better than others, and before long, he found that not only was he able to talk to the creatures, but they to him.

Due to these events, Calvon would find himself making friends and acquaintances of all the snakes in his house. The once abnormal setting had begun to not only naturalize in setting but had also appeared to strengthen the ability of Calvon's practice. It has gotten to the point to where, now at age 11, Calvon can confidently talk to and understand the language and his slithering friends. It helped that he had parents that could also speak the language, but his parents seemed to care more about Calvon hiding his ability in public than actually teaching him! Their rules were always short and general, but the message was clear. "Never reveal your ability to anyone preemptively. When it's time for you to reveal it. You will know." And now, Calvon spends most of his day speaking to whatever snakes he can find in isolation. He was never the type to care about other people's praises, and bragging wasn't in his nature. So till this day, his talent is kept a secret--waiting to grow in power as Calvon grows in development.

WC: 629

Stats:

Wisdom: 10 | Accuracy - 6 | Evasion - 5 | Stamina - 5 | Strength - 2 | Arcane Power - 2

30/30

Lucille Williams

Ever since she could remember, Lucille had the odd ability to hide in plain sight. In fact, her most memorable attempt at using this ability was when she was six years old. Lucille had been playing hide and seek with her cousin Tori in her small suburban backyard in beautiful Los Angeles, California. The day was already turning into night, and Lucille’s aunt and uncle would soon call both of them to the house for bedtime. With darkness falling quickly, Lucille and Tori made the smart decision to continue their game anyway. With Lucille being the one to hide while Tori being the one to seek, Lucille looked around for a good place to hide while Tori had already begun to count. Finally, Lucille decided to hide behind a small black-berry bush with her head barely sticking out from the top of the plant."Oh Lucille..where are you?" her cousin called out.
The small girl had to hold in her giggles, but still, Lucille stayed quiet and remained hidden."Shut up." she told herself as she giggled behind the bush. Just as Tori began to walk by the bush again, she felt her shoe go through a twig. Except, there was no sound.No sound at all to alert Tori of her hiding spot.”How odd.” Lucille thought to herself. Later on in the night,just as Tori was to admit (sweet) defeat, both girls heard Lucille’s uncle telling them to come inside for bed. When the girls groaned as they went up the stairs of Tori’s bedroom, Lucille laid down in her sleeping bag.But instead of going into dream-land she had developed a plan,a plan that would put this new ability to use.
Operation C.J.(cookie jar) was put into use after Lucille heard the faint snoring of her aunt Margo.As she began to walk down the usually creaky stairway it seemed that the plan would go accordingly,but of course, it had many problems.The first thing that went wrong was when Tori's new kitten Mika caught sight of Lucille.The damn cat started to meow like mad."Thanks a bunch Mika."Lucille muttered to the cat silently.As the cat was still meowing like no tomorrow,Lucille's aunt had heard and walked down the once again creaky stairs to see what was going on."What in the world are you talking about Mika?"Her aunt asked quite annoyed.Before her aunt had came down the stairs Lucille bolted to hide under the small coffee table in the Living room, and Thankfully her aunt was completely oblivious to where Lucille was hiding.As she heard more creaks up the stairs, Lucille ran by Mika and into the kitchen where another challenge awaited her.The cookie jar awaited to be rescued but for now it was stuck atop of the fridge.With Mika out of the way this time Lucille would not have to worry about the extroverted cat as she made her accent to the top of the fridge while climbing on the counter-tops. Thankfully Lucille was met with no further problems as she accomplished the mission successfully.Later that night as she awoke her cousin,the two girls feasted on chocolate chip cookies, never once questioning Lucille's cat-like grace.

wc:547

Updated Stats :
| Stamina: 7
| Evasion: 8
| Strength: 5
| Wisdom: 8
| Arcane Power: 6
| Accuracy: 6

---

I didn't come this far just to come this damn far.
| Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 7| Strength: 6| Wisdom: 8| Arc Power: 7| Accuracy: 6|
's Grace | shop | club |
trunk |

Status: Approved

Dear Galbatrox

It's Merek again. I was able to find more during my latest expedition. I'm not too great at identifying potions, or clarity spells, so I'm unable to determine the species of origin, but if the rumours around here are to be believed, it is not good news. A wild chinese fireball this far west? Hoping to hear back from you, soon.

Sincerely,
Merek

P.S. It was 'bring your daughter to work day'. Something my dear nephews and nieces celebrate so I brought my precious little daughter. Actually, she was the one who found the dragon scales while daddy was working. She's so talented! The world shines just a bit brighter every time she speaks. Sometimes, it seems her hair even glows along with it. Little Erika is already casting magic, such talent. Enclosed is a picture of her to brighten your office!

Dear Merek

Thank you so much for the scales. I have a potion brewing to hopefully tell with certainty the origin of them. Be careful out on the field. I know your history, but your daughter will not be able to handle herself against a DRAGON, and it may be difficult to protect her, IN CASE YOu'VE FORGOTTEN!

Sincerely,
Galbatrox

Dear Galbatrox

I know, I know. We're both safe. I forgot to mention we found them outside of Bathgate. I questioned some of the nomajs around but not dragon sightings. I did have to erase some memories. I didn't let Erika see how I did that part, though, even if she was cause. It was a strange thing, really. It wasn't like any underage magic I've heard about. I thought it was just her glowing personality, but maybe she got into some hair dye? I had no idea it worked so quickly. I sure hope Erika asked politely to take some from the Nomajs.

Sincerely,
Merek

Dear Merek

I love hearing about your daughter, I really do, but these letters are supposed to be purely for work. What was so drastic that it needed a memory charm? That can leave a mark of curiosity muggles. Do you even have authorization to use it? You are still a foreigner after all.

Sincerely,
Galbatrox

Dear Galbatrox

Yes! I am so glad you asked! I don't think it's hair dye at all. It happened again since my last letter, only a lot differently. I'm sure you remember how dark Erika's hair is, who could forget something like that about her. It matched mine. Now it shifts to a blond colour when she's alone. I hear hair colour can change as someone gets older, but back and forth? Well, apparently the local nomajs noticed, and it smelled pretty magic to me, so I wiped their memories. We're leaving tomorrow morning to avoid the charms from breaking. More importantly, we had no luck finding anything else.

Sincerely,
Merek

Dear Merek

I knew that was a mistake. Try east, maybe the dragon is making its way back home. If so, our window is closing soon. If it is a chinese fireball, and it escapes Scotland we can't pursue outside of the Ministries jurisdiction. Careful out there.

Sincerely,
Galbatrox

P.S. I looked into it, Either she's got that muggle hair dye stuff, or maybe it is something a bit more proper. It's rare, but could there be a chance your little Erika could be a metamorphogus?

Dear Merek

Haven't heard from you, so I'm sending another owl. I'm on my way. Hope I won't have to scrape your ashes into a sauce cup. My potion just finished brewing. It was a chinese fireball, be careful.

Sincerely,
Galbatrox

Dear Galbatrox

I deeply apologize. I picked up the trail, but it's cold. It must've caught my scent and fled. Hope you didn't get too far. See you soon, regardless.

Sincerely,
Merek

P.S.
I think you're right about Erika. She just might be one of them metamorphs. Maybe she got it from Elizabeth's side?

Link to your encyclopedia thread: Maya Galim, Professor of Muggle Studies
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for: Wandless Magic
Describe why this fits your character (not why you the player want it):

Maya Galim was born October 7th of 1988 in Safed, northeast city of Israel. She, being a muggle-born, was heavily accustomed to both Arabic and Israeli cultures and was raised spiritual. She grew up in a city where spirituality was often depicted through artistic mediums such as paintings, candle-making and more.

Maya grew up in a very large family circle. She was the oldest of six siblings (Maya, 32; Yishai, 30; Goldie, 28; Reuven, 25; Batya, 25; and Dov, 21) making her childhood primarily filled with helping her parents care for them on a regular basis. Her father, Yair, was a candle-maker who often spent his days in the candle shop half a mile away from home. Her mother, Levana, was a stay-at-home mother who worked hard cleaning her home and raising her children.

Maya did not know that she was magical until she received a dream from Uagadou School of Magic when she was eleven years old. It was a shock to her as it was definitely not in her custom--both religion and spirituality--to be "magical." Little did she know that Uagadou was a school of prestige in which they teach their students how to cast spells without the use of wands as their culture hides their ways. Aside from wandless magic, Uagadou was a school that had high benchmarks in astronomy, alchemy and self-transfiguration. Maya was not as interested in these three subjects and was much more fascinated on the cultures that were around her as well as the culture of the magical world. Her focus was primarily in magic history from around the world as well as charms.

Although she did have a wand (24.4 cm chestnut wood and dragon heartstring), it was hardly used. Only during her first through third years did she practice secretly with the wand in school. Wands were permitted during the beginning of their learning to help those understand the properties of magic--especially those who were muggle-born like she. The only rule was that she was to not However, within her third to seventh years, she was told to work on wandless magic as it was safer and much more effective in the area.

But within her third year and on, there were a lot of practice and learning to cast spells without the wand. It was a lot of work and it was one that Maya succeeded by her sixth year. She was not at all a prodigy like others as some got the hang of it a year prior, but she worked hard so that she could be at the same level as her peers. While most of her peers were on the verge of becoming skilled animagus, Maya focused primarily on wandless magic to get on the same high foundation as her classmates.

Although Maya does have wandless magic as one of her abilities, she hardly uses it because she would rather focus on the muggle half of herself than just the magic. Back when she was a child, there was a man who was a retired professor from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Professor Baruch Schine, who told her to never forget her muggle half when delving into the magical realm. She took this to heart and always remembered her roots.

WORD COUNT: 542

Link to your encyclopedia thread: Maya Galim, Professor of Muggle Studies
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for: The Muggle Condition
Describe why this fits your character (not why you the player want it):

Maya Galim was born October 7th of 1988 in Safed, northeast city of Israel. She, being a muggle-born, was heavily accustomed to both Arabic and Israeli cultures and was raised spiritual. She grew up in a city where spirituality was often depicted through artistic mediums such as paintings, candle-making and more.

Maya grew up in a very large family circle. She was the oldest of six siblings (Maya, 32; Yishai, 30; Goldie, 28; Reuven, 25; Batya, 25; and Dov, 21) making her childhood primarily filled with helping her parents care for them on a regular basis. Her father, Yair, was a candle-maker who often spent his days in the candle shop half a mile away from home. Her mother, Levana, was a stay-at-home mother who worked hard cleaning her home and raising her children.

Throughout her childhood, Maya did not attend school regularly. Her parents needed as much help as they could with their family dynamic and her father strongly believed that whatever she learned in school would not benefit their lifestyle. Her mother, on the other hand, made sure that Maya was able to read both in Hebrew and English, as it was important for her spiritually and communicably.

Maya felt left out in the educational world. Whenever she had to do the shopping for their household, she would always stop by a nearby neighbor, Baruch Schine, who always taught her something new. He was an older man who was a retired professor of Hebrew University of Jerusalem who wanted to spend his ending days in the beauty of Sefad. They had met when she was eight-years-old at the nearby grocery store and she was carrying a book about Israel. It had caught Professor Schine's attention and after talking about anything pop culture, and later learning that she hardly in school because of her family, he realized that Maya had potential to learn more. He took it upon himself to teach her everything he knew: geography, math, literacy, the use of tools and building, and most importantly: culture. It perhaps what sparked her love of muggle culture later on in her life. It had made her much more serious about life and the world that she was brought into.

It was July of 2000 and Maya had to share the news with those around her that she was going to be leaving for Uagadou School of Magic in just a short month. She was still too frightened to let her family know, who she believed would not approve of her. Maya felt that it was best to start sharing her news with Professor Schine. Maya, pretending to go to the grocery store, stopped by Professor Schine's home with several books about Japanese culture in hand to return to him. This was the moment of truth. She was going to let him know of what she was and see how he would take it. The problem is, no matter how much she trusted him, it was incredibly difficult. How would she be able to tell her family later on if she couldn't say it to Professor Schine now? Maya, feeling the pressure, had finally told Professor Schine of her experience the night she received a letter and what it had said. She ended it saying that she was most likely a witch. Professor Schine shouted with joy, an emotion that Maya was not at all expecting. He then shared that he was a wizard himself and he had a feeling that Maya was one, too. He believed that she had potential to be magical which was why he wanted her to explore the muggle world and its cultures as much as possible before delving head-first into the magical world. Before she left, she gave him a big hug and thanked him for all he did for her.

Fast-tracking seven years later, Maya graduated from Uagadou School of Magic. She was now eighteen years old and she was going to make the most difficult transition of her life: go back home after seven years. She did not keep in touch with her family knowing that they would not understand and accept her new life. But she, a muggle-born Israeli, had a duty to her country to join the army (Israeli Defense Force - IDF) and if she was coming back to Israel, she found a need to visit her family. (To see how her family reacted, please read her full encyclopedia!)

Ballpoint pen in hand, Maya signed away her name to the IDF. She had the option to choose what field to be in and the only field she signed up for was "combat." After rigorous physical and mental training, Maya was accepted into the combat field and stationed north. A gun strapped across her chest, she was ready for combat and just in time as it was the Lebanon War. Although she could try to to use magic during her combative situations, she focused primarily on muggle-based fights. She would either use muggle weapons or even her own hands when combating the enemy. Maya believed that it was only fair to use the muggle side of herself when fighting and only resort to magic if necessary.

WORD COUNT: 865

Please list out your stats using the 6-point stat system:

Stamina: 11
Evasion: 7
Strength: 7
Wisdom: 20
ArcPower: 10
Accuracy: 10

Link to your encyclopedia thread: Zahid's Encyclopedia
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for:
The Muggle Condition, Comprehend Language (Gobbledegook), Comprehend Language (Mermish), Perfectionist, Wandless Magic, Non-Verbal Magic, Apparition
Describe why this fits your character (not why you the player want it):

1.) The Muggle Condition

Reducio

As the only magical child in a Muggle family, Zahid grew up mostly Muggle. While he was told about magic in the stories his family told – stories they'd passed down (and probably altered) for several generations in the family by the time he was born – he did not have much interaction with magic until he reached schooling age.

What or rather who he did have interactions with, however, were his cousins. Pregnancies had been difficult for his mother and he had been the only child she carried to term but a price of her life. His father – while loving – did not have the time to always look after his son, as he needed to work and so Zahid spent a big part of his childhood at Aunt Maryam's place. After all, what was a fourth kid to look after to the three she herself had? (Ironically, this obviously faulty assumption on how rearing worked was the reason Maryam agreed to watch her nephew. If her brother thought it so easy he could not be trusted to raise the boy on his own – besides she saw it as her duty as family to help out.)

But his aunt had three children already – Ammar, Aqil and Ayishah – so she had little time to devote to her nephew. When he was a baby, his cousins wanted to help out with watching him, but as he grew older he also grew less interesting to them. Their age difference made playing with him awkward or boring to them, at times. And even the youngest soon grew out of the story times that Zahid so liked. While Aqil could be persuaded to re-tell the family stories to his young cousin, he left for Tripoli and its university when Zahid was 5.

Fortunately for Zahid, the little boy had learned to read by then. To read, not to write. Reading he had learned by insisting to read along whenever someone read actual books to him and practising by himself – he loved stories and if he could learn to read by himself that equalled more stories in his young mind. Of course, he was not a particularly fast reader but the young boy could spend hours curled up in a corner with a book, taking his time to decipher the words.

However, as much as he loved to read, having essentially three older siblings also meant a lot of mischief. They were older but not always old enough to remember that a small child might be a bit more fragile or simply not tall enough for some of the mischief they dragged him into – let alone the couple of times when he followed them out of curiosity without them noticing. They were quite a few scrapes they got into – more so when Aqil was at university. He might have been the second son but Aqil was far more of an adult at 19 when he left, than Ammar was by the time Zahid turned 25, even. Ammar could fake being the responsible older brother with the best of them, but as soon as the scrutiny was off him, he turned into a giant child. Aunt Maryam often despaired of her firstborn ever growing up.

Ayishah was a bit cleverer about it than her older brother. She could play the dutiful daughter whenever there were adults around and she used being the youngest child and the only girl to her advantage, resulting in her always coming out of things smelling like roses – somehow the blame was always shifted to her brothers, and Zahid to a lesser degree because he was far too young to conceivably convince his cousins to go along with such schemes. Still, however the mischief came about, Zahid learned to use their surroundings to their advantage. He was still small back then, so he could easily hide behind furniture or trash cans and the like if outside.

Ammar was very creative in repurposing everyday items for more fun purposes and little games – or also in finding hiding places for the most random items. None of them will ever forget the time Ammar hid all the cutlery in the fireplace beneath the firewood... and the fact that it was only noticed when they were about to eat dinner two hours after his uncle had started a fire. Needless to say, they had an interesting dinner. Through his cousin's antics Zahid was forced to learn a lot creative uses for almost anything in his vicinity. (Books were not for building stairs up to the balcony, Ammar! No. Just. No.)

It was not an ability he particularly nurtured – in fact he sometimes did not think about such things for years, there was no need to repurpose three or four chairs into a make-shift bed if you had an actual bed (or a cot at least), nor did he have any reason to look for possible improvised weapons in case he got mugged (just because it happened to his father once) after he got his own wand and started learning magic – not that they could not serve as a distraction. However, he was far more interested in reading books and learning more stories – history.

Still, from the time he began learning magic until today, he always had a foot in both worlds, standing mostly in the Muggle world until he started teaching at Hogwarts and it always boggled his mind how stumped Wizards often could be by the simplest Muggle contraptions.

WC: 930

2.) Comprehend Languages: Gobbledegook

Reducio

His love for stories and history led him to try and learn Gobbledegook. Whenever he could away with it and whenever his cousins didn't drag him off, Zahid sneaked off to read. But it did not stop with what books they had at home or the local library, he was a curious child and as soon as he started attending the tiny wizarding 'school' outside Benghazi on weekends, he asked about borrowing their books, too. He wasn't allowed to take any books home with him, but his teacher thought him a curious child and agreed to let him read the school's books to his hearts contents during the breaks. Naturally, he preferred the history books over the book on the theory behind transfiguration, for example.

He had read some wizarding accounts about Human-Goblin relations and their history and even at his young age it struck him as odd how 'evil' the Goblins' actions were portrayed. He loved stories, you see, but he also grew interested in the whys and hows of those stories – there were only so many times even a child could hear a variant of the same story over and over without wanting to know more. So he began to realise that some stories were told very... biased. Ever since he first read the proverb “Until the lion has his or her own storyteller, the hunter will always have the best part of the story.”, it became his favourite quote. And he found it particularly true in the case of this account of a small battle – it described Goblins as these cartoon-y villains that just attacked solely for the sake of attacking.

The book in question also had a short written account supposedly by a Goblin activist or Goblin historian or something along those lines, but it was written in Gobbledegook. So naturally, the next logical step in young Zahid's mind was to attempt to learn the language. After all, he had already grown up so far learning snippets of English and Italian apart from his native tongue.

It was not so easy to find a way to learn the language without a proper teacher so it took him over a year to learn enough Gobbledegook to decipher that account. Finding that it did in fact explain the Goblin's motivations, even if he did paint wizards in a similarly dark light as they did Goblins, only made him determined to learn more languages so that he could read their histories in their own words.

He taught himself to read and write Gobbledegook with the help of a dictionary and one or two translated works. While he in theory also learned how to speak the language, it was only years later that he really got the chance to properly speak and converse in the language.

WC:468 (-20; proverb)

3.) Comprehend Languages: Mermish

Reducio

After teaching himself all he could about Gobbledegook with what means he had, Zahid decided to try and brave learning another language. Trying to decide what language to turn to next, he ended up going with trying to learn Mermish. After all, they were close to the sea and there might be Merpeople living in the sea, right? It only made sense to his still young mind that the language of their (potential) neighbours was a good choice. Besides, wasn't it also because of other (former) neighbours that he'd learned what snippets of Italian he had learned from his cousins¹? (Snippets he took advantage of similar to his learning of Gobbledegook he wanted to hear about the colonisation and the exodus from both points of view – not that he could really find any Italian account on the exodus until he was well into his late twenties.)

It was a decision he quickly came to regret. Not that really regretted learning a language, even one as exotic as Mermish, but it was even harder to learn than Gobbledegook. It had even less in common with any of the languages he already knew – Arabic, his native tongue, Gobbledegook and said snippets of Italian as well as some snippets of English or even French². His Italian was nowhere near conversational, frankly it would not have even been considered basic knowledge, and his knowledge of English and French was far behind that in turn. But he knew enough of these five languages to recognize that Mermish had little to nothing to do with any of them. It's written form was beyond weird to him, but he refused to give up.

Whenever they were at the beach – which was not exactly often – he would try to dive underwater and speak Mermish in the hopes of finding a Merperson. Whether it was because there are no Merpeople living in salt water or merely because none of them lived this close to a Muggle settlement, he never actually met a Merperson he could converse with. It would have been enough to make him drop the language at that point if he had not found the way the language changed so riveting. So he kept at it, trying to figure out how water affected the language. He never did. He did experiment a bit with how submersion affected the speech but he never reached any workable conclusions. So he contented himself with mastering the language to the best of his ability – And since he had no one to speak it with and no real guide on how things were pronounced, he probably had a horrible accent.

In the end, while he stuck it out and learned the language, it left him with little ambition to learn another magical/non-human language. He had enough work still cut out for him with trying to keep practising and deepen his knowledge of languages. To this day, he tries to actively keep his knowledge of all the languages³ he learned over the years, especially during his travels, and to use them whenever he can so that his knowledge does not atrophy.

WC: 525

¹Benghazi used to be among the Libyan places with a significant Italian (descended) population, as Italy won Libya as a colony in 1911 and many of them settled down there until the beginning of the Second World War. They were expelled from the country in 1970, so two years before Zahid was born. However, his cousins had had Italian-Libyan friends.
²After the Second World War, Libya was under British and French Control until 1951, Benghazi fell into the British controlled part.
³Arabic & English (fluent); Gobbledegook, Mermish & Italian (proficient); German (conversational); Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and some others (but only enough to ask for directions, buy food and greet people)

4.) Perfectionist

Reducio

Not much of note happened during the next year. Zahid spent ample time trying to perfect both his Gobbledegook and his Mermish the best he could. While he got the chance to try to speak with another wizard that spoke Gobbledegook, as one of his 'school' mates was betrothed to the man, the twenty year old had little interest in speaking to a fourteen year old in a language they both spoke only brokenly. Never mind the fact that the man was there to meet with his fiancée. Still, that 20 minutes was the first and only opportunity to converse in one of the magical languages he learned for years.

But more so than his language practice, his time was consumed with spell practice, trying to perfect his casting in preparation for the next year when he would be considered old enough by their teachers to really get started on learning wandless magic. Casting spells wandless was supposed to be much harder than casting them normally and so he had to perfect his wand-casting before he attempted wandless casting. His teachers' were very good at drilling precise wand-movements and clear enunciations into their heads. Pronunciation is key. Wand-movement is key. He has not forgotten these lessons.

He has seen what can go wrong, if someone willy-nilly attempts to cast a spell without paying attention – one of his school mates had nearly blown their 'school' up by idly waving his wand around and muttering his way through incantations while trying to remember the right one for the spell he wished to cast. Zahid might not be that talented at spells nor was he particularly powerful, but he was meticulous and he swore to himself that he would not make such silly mistakes. Spell casting demanded attention. Maybe if you were well used to certain spells you need not pay as close attention to detail but until one found a spell so familiar that it was instinct to cast it... attention to detail it was.

That is not to say that Zahid was never distracted during lessons or annoyed by it. He still much preferred stories and history over dull, repetitive spell practice even if he saw the point in it. However, he did hold to the never slacking off. If he attempted a spell, he concentrated on that. He just may practice a little less to have more time to do other things, like reading books. Still, his practising less but at full attention seemed more productive than some of his classmates long-winded but half-hearted practice stints.

WC: 427

5.) Wandless magic

Reducio

Not being a proper Magic school, the little 'school' he attended didn't have proper classes, depending on how many people actually attended, the students were taught in one or more mixed-aged groups. The student number oscillated somewhere between 20 and 40 students total, the smallest group Zahid heard of being only 13 but that was several years before he began. The largest he heard of during his tenure at the University was a group of 45 attending at the same time. During his time at the school, however, the student number varied from 26 to 32.

There was no real set curriculum or syllabus. Sure, the more difficult spells were taught to older or at least more experienced students, while the younger, newer ones were taught the entry-level basics, but there was also a lot of overlap. Some spells were taught indiscriminately of student age, some were taught as they came up – like a healing spell after an injury.

Wandless magic was considered more natural magic and from what he knows, there are (many) places that do not teach wand magic at all in Africa, but his school deemed a wand to be an adequate training wheel for learning magic.

Fifteen was generally considered an age to properly learn wandless magic if so inclined. It would not be the first time a student would attempt a wandless cast, as the teachers encouraged them to attempt some of the easier spells wandlessly from the very beginning as a test. Few were successful. Some managed to cast a simple wand-lighting charm more or less consistently even without touching their wands. Zahid managed it twice, so his teachers were moderately hopeful that he would be able to master wandless magic over time. (He had also managed to extinguish another's wand instead, once. Most of the time, nothing had happened at all and so he was taught with a wand until he was deemed old enough to properly train in wandless magic.)

Learning to cast spells wandlessly after using a wand for several years was hard. On the one hand, Zahid loved the challenge, on the other, he was aware that he was hardly the most talented spell caster so part of him wondered if it was really necessary to go through all the hassle – if it would be worth it. (Judging by the encounter with the Hag last October, it did turn out to be worth it, if only much later.) Still, no matter his misgivings, he prevailed. It was not easy and there are still quite a few spells that he has never succeeded in casting wandlessly.

WC: 437

6.) Non-Verbal Magic

Reducio

After learning how to cast Wandless Magic, Non-Verbal Magic was so much easier. The first time Zahid cast a spell silently, he did not even notice – one of his teachers had to point out that he packed his school things back into his bag with a silent flick of his wand. Of course, instinctively succeeding once because casting a spell at the end of the day had become habitual, did not mean that he could instantly replicate that success. No. It took him several days of actively trying to manage the feat again.

For almost two years, a Pack Charm was the only spell he could silently cast (and later, it would also be the first spell he managed to cast silently and wandlessly). He had no particular ambition to master casting magic silently as he had no interest in duelling; the only time he could think of where it would be advantageous, and so he did not even attempt to learn to cast another spell until his teachers insisted on it. Wandless Magic, at least, was useful to not draw attention if he were to ever have the need to cast anything around Muggles. Sure, silent and wandless would be even better there, but as he also doubted he would have much reason to, it mattered little to him. He grew up Muggle and had no real need for magic to ease every day life, and his family all knew about magic already anyway.

However, learning at least the basics of silent / non-verbal magic was something his school expected him to do, so he did his best to learn yet another way of casting magic. To his surprise – and also not once he thought about it – it came much easier to him than wandless magic did. After all he was still thinking the incantations and by now he was experienced enough in meticulously enunciating a spell and that almost-laser-focus was still there even if he did not actually say it out loud, he still repeated the precise incantation in his mind.

Still, there were some mishaps as he tried to cast without speaking an incantation and ended up saying half an incantation. For example, he managed to turn his bag into a yellow-pink mesh coloured bag instead of making it float. Or one time, instead of turning a tea kettle into a raven he instead turned it first into some kind of phoenix statuette and then into little calico kitten – not his finest hour, especially as the kitten ran off and he had to spend 20 minutes to catch it before he could reverse his mishap to make another (more successful) attempt.

In the end, like almost all of the others, he did learn how to consistently cast (some) magic silently.

WC: 467

7.) Apparition

Reducio

Unlike in Britain, back home he had not needed a license to apparate. Apparition was taught to those interested once they were deemed mature enough and skilled enough to be trusted with such a skill. Zahid had had to apply for a license at the Ministry on his first visit to the British Isles. After having known how to apparate for several long years already, the Apparition Test / Exam was rather easy to pass. His ears were nevertheless ringing from the instructor's repeated appeal to “remember the Three D's: Destination, Determination and Deliberation”.

But that was many years later. His own teacher did not have such a mantra. While their instructions naturally boiled down to the same principle, there was no such alliteration that helped with memorization (supposedly). Still they impressed the need to concentrate on where they wanted to apparate to and how strongly they wanted to go there and not to get distracted.
The first time Zahid successfully apparated, he broke his leg. While he hadn't actually splinched himself that time, he had either not concentrated enough or misjudged his landing, as he landed half on top of a staircase instead of the main room of the top floor that he was supposed to land in. He appeared with only one foot actually on the stairs and promptly took a tumble.

His second successful attempt went much better, though he still did not land inside the room but rather in front of the doorway. While he found it a tad frustrating, this inability to appear where he was supposed to, he much preferred it to splinching. Luckily, he hadn't witnessed any really bad splinching during his years at the 'school' but there were some horror stories about what happened to one of the students in 1978. Apparently it was a miracle that boy survived after nearly splitting himself in half – Zahid didn't know how much of that story was truth and how much was exaggeration, but it drove home the need to do it properly or not at all.

Out of their group of four that learned apparition that year, Zahid was the last to properly 'master' the ability. He would always be careful not to attempt to travel too far or to a place he did not know enough. In reality, Zahid rarely used this ability. Growing up and living the way he did, he mostly used Muggle modes of transportation. He apparated maybe once in a blue moon.

While in some countries with an Apparition license, he could apparate without taking their exam, he just wasn't insured, so to speak, other countries, like Britain, required him to take their exam to get a license if he wanted to be able to apparate (legally) inside their borders at all.

Those exams were easy enough, after knowing how to apparate for many years, but their requiring to apparate to a place he was not particularly familiar with still made him uneasy. Apparating half-blind, after all, made it far more difficult than going some place one knew well. But despite his apprehension, the practice seemed to win out as he managed to take the British exam without any trouble.

WC: 532

A1.) [on Hold – will be applied for when Animagus applications open]

Total WC: 3766

Please list out your stats using the 6-point stat system:
Stamina 14 ♦ Evasion 8 ♦ Strength 4 ♦ Wisdom 25 ♦ Arcane Power 7 ♦ Accuracy 12

Link to your encyclopedia thread: https://www.hogwarts.io/viewtopic.php?f=169&t=5466
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for: Chaser's Interception
Describe why this fits your character:

Lavinia Cloven had a knack for quidditch and whenever she played she felt as though she was being pulled towards the quaffle. Her father, Caleb Cloven, was one of the Appleby Arrows starting chasers and had taught Lavinia everything he knew about quidditch. The two of them shared a bond over a large red ball and a set of hoops. As soon as she could ride a broom her quidditch training started, she started doing drills in the yard most of which were grabbing the quaffle once her dad had dropped it from many yards away. Her favorite game to play was when her sister Opal and her dad were tossing the quaffle back and forth Lavinia had to try to catch the quaffle midair, I think it’s what some muggles call monkey in the middle. Lavinia would stop at nothing to catch that quaffle and that is what has made her such a good quidditch player today.

When Lavinia was just 7 years old she went to her first quidditch World Cup and found it amazing. When she arrived it was breathtaking all of the magical people who were there and the fact that they all had so much gear from the 2 teams. Once they got to their seats in the stands Lavinia felt honored to be there sitting next to her father whose team didn’t make it to the World Cup. As the players zoomed onto the field Lavinia felt like she was in a daze they were going so fast that they were like flashes of light and all of this was amazing to a 7 year old. There was one chaser is particular who seemed to be the best of the best, everyone cheered or booed louder for them then anyone else. Lavinia understood why that was happening a little while later, that chaser seemed to always have the quaffle and always score for her team. Whenever the quaffle was dropped or passed she always had snuck in just in time to take it away. She scored 180 for her team and once the game was over she was giving out plenty of autographs. Right after the match she told her dad ”I want to be just like her”From that day forth Lavinia practiced her chaser skills and her quaffle grabs, she did all she could do to get that quaffle and soon enough there was nothing anyone else could do to stop her.

Word count: 409
6-point stat system:
Stamina: 7
Evasion: 6
Strength: 7
Wisdom: 6
ArcPower: 5
Accuracy: 10

Link to your encyclopedia thread: Serena J. Towers
Name of Ability or Race/Talent that you Are Applying for: Evasive Maneuvers
Describe why this fits your character (not why you the player want it):

If there was one thing Hogwarts taught her in her first year, it was that you needed a strategy to survive. The desire to live was not always enough. Sometimes, you needed to be the strongest in the room. Other times, you had to be the most skilled spellcaster. Serena was not really either of those. Whilst she had a good chance of casting spells, they lacked power. She was physically and magically considered rather weak.

But she had one thing on her side. She was small. She was quick on her feet and nimble. Her agility quickly became her survival strategy. Running away might have be considered cowardice to some but for her, it was smart. She wanted to live when danger approached, she wanted to get out of there and live to fight another day.

The Hufflepuff Camp Out changed her life in her first year. That night, Serena stood against a large shadowy creature that wasted no time in attacking her. She had always been fast but that night, she was not fast enough. Within moments, it damaged her internal organs and prevented her from being able to move as quickly. Left on the ground, coughing up blood from the injuries her lungs had suffered, Serena could not run away. She tried to dodge the next attack. She was too slow. Her weakness, her inability to cast a spell, her slowness... They almost cost her the most expensive thing: her life.

It was that day that Serena knew what she had to do. She had to be better. She had to do whatever she could to survive. The Hufflepuff started exercising, training and studying harder than she had before. Her entire second year was dedicated to improving herself. Her arms were noodles, she lacked the strength or muscles in them. But within time, her stamina started to build up. Her legs started to gain a little bit of muscle. She learned how to sidestep incoming attacks quickly, or 'duck and roll'.

It was a survival tactic - getting out of danger at the last second. It would spare her life. Whilst she avoided danger for the year and avoided getting hurt, she automatically started to translate this ability to other parts of her life. During her quidditch training sessions, she spent a lot of her time learning how to dodge incoming bludgers whilst on a broom - given how many times she was attacked by one.

She was not born fast. She became faster. It was not a natural trait that she had, it was born out of necessity and mostly fear. Her fear makes the adrenaline kick in and the instinct to 'get the heck out of the way' combined with her ability to move quickly, be light on her feet, be agile all helps her to evade a little better than she could before.

WC: 479

Please list out your stats using the 6-point stat system:

Stamina: 7
Evasion: 10
Strength: 1
Wisdom: 11
Arcane Power: 4
Accuracy: 10