Carsyn was hungry. Why lessons had to be scheduled BEFORE lunch was definitely not her idea. She also had a million and one things on her mind; like the fact that there was a BALL coming up super soon and she still had no idea who she was going with. She was a fourth year; Carys might not agree but she wasn't about to show up alone .... how pathetic would that be?? And although being a twin meant she was never technically alone, she wanted a proper date for the ball which could maybe include a first kiss if she played her cards right. She was also annoyed still about the canceling of quidditch, but even moreso though was the fact that even though they escaped the chaos in Scotland, it seemed as if the chaos found them. What did that mean?

Oh. Furniture, well building it more precisely. Yea, the fourth year definitely didn't remember what furniture she ordered, but she didn't think it was too complicated. So building furniture - with partners - meant she could casually bring up the date conversation to her sister while they worked.

But first things first. How did muggles put things together? The usual instruction manuals and the internet were mentioned, but Carsyn was sure there was more to it ... "Carefully." She said quickly but then continued on. "I just mean, they make these things very confusing. So you need to make sure you're paying attention to what you're doing and which pieces fit where. It's like a puzzle. You can't possibly expect to solve the puzzle if you're not actually looking."

Alexandre was here. Had been the whole time. Yup. Definitely. Anyway.

He was thinking about how he would go about putting together furniture if he was at home. The answer was, of course, that one of his parents would just wave their wands and it would be all together in, like, a second. Or his sister. He was positive that Nova would be able to do something like that too because she was so very smart and talented. To be completely honest he would rather be learning how to do a spell like that because it seemed much more useful. Why would he ever need to put something together this way without using magic? But this was muggle studies, he supposed, and it could be fun. Oh! Oh! He knew the answer! Alexandre raised his hand. "You could ask someone for help. Maybe someone who has put something like it together before. Or just someone who's really smart and knows how to do things." Like how he would just ask his parents or his sister for help if he had to build something.

Fiona raised her hand. "Well, in a slightly similar vein to Bernadette's answer, Muggles have what's known as erm...handymen that can construct flat-pack furniture for an hourly fee. Any time and effort not wasted by you trying in vain to construct something has ta be good, right?"

Here was where he tuned everything out. He really did not NEED Muggle Studies, he hadn't been raised in a pureblood environment and his dad wasn't the sort to embarrassingly ask people the use of a rubber duck or anything of that sort. He was focused on one thing and one thing only right now - construction.

How did he usually go about that? Kits always came with instruction manuals, but he rarely ever looked at them. He preferred to figure things out on his own, visualize how piece fit together and then construct. A three dimensional puzzle that had a practical use.

So...could they just cut the chit chat and get too it? He wanted his desk.

Also...could that first year and his housemate just...not?

Her eyes stared at all the random boxes. It looked like Christmas presents only with bland gift wrapping since the boxes are not wrapped. Jillian figured they might be doing that since the holidays are coming close and that is such a muggle thing to do, or, errr, well at least that's what how one of her uncles like doing. That'd be cool...

Until...

Professor Schmoe mentions something about furniture and assembling them.

What?

Well there goes her hunch about wrapping gifts in boxes. She took a deep sigh and looked at the professor as he continued his lesson. The upside with all of this is that they chose the furniture from the previous class. The downside is that some of the furniture they picked might not be the easiest to assemble or build or whatever... Jillian knows for sure because she remembers picking some random chandelier with an intricate design.

As for the first question, how do muggles know how to assemble their furniture? Jillian can't stop but making her uncle as a reference. He was a peculiar man-- to her at least. He has this fascination with the internet and he even showed her some of it. Jillian found it cool too but meh at the same time. She doesn't really find it that interesting. Shooting her hand up to answer "Uhmmm.... they watch a Youtube tutorial video for these DIY stuff i guess...?" she said. It's that red thingy button on the internet, or something like that.

It was as Kaiser had suspected then, a lesson on assembling the furniture they had ordered. Shouldn't be too difficult for him, as he'd only picked out the one bed. Questions first though, as always. Because it was apparently criminal to jump right into a practical lesson at Hogwarts.

Assembling furniture, right. Kaiser raised his hand.

"If you take something apart you can learn how it fits together, and then you can re-assemble it." He understood that that didn't apply with furniture that arrived already in all of its separate components, but Schmoe had only asked the general question of how muggles knew how to assemble their furniture. He had not specified that it needed to be the same furniture that arrived unassembled.

Also, that pun from Schmoe? Went straight over Kaiser's head, as most of them did.

Were there any other raised hands? Anyone? Bueller.....? Bueller....? Bueller?

Schmoe took center stage grassy area again to address the class. "As you can see, assembling furniture is an art form. There's no right answer! Errrrrrr... Well, there is a provided instruction manual, so that would be recommended. And many times, the instructions will come in SEVERAL languages." Ah, languages. So fun. "But in addition to our handy-dandy instructions... Ingenuity, logic, and personal intuition will serve as very helpful, er, tools today," he gave the class an awkward smile.

"Anyway, anyway, anyway," he gestured to the space. "I want everyone to assemble," hehehe... "into groups of no more than three. Then you can pick one of the furniture pieces that you will be assembling today. There are pictures on the boxes so that you errrr, know which item it contains." This all made sense? Yes? "Once you've formed your group and found what you will work on, you may begin unboxing." Good???? "There are scissors in the toolboxes up front."

He paused before frantically adding, "No magic!!"

He undid his whole bowtie now. It wasn't working for him. It needed to be retied, C L E A R L Y. "Be mindful of the pieces you unpack, each set contains bags of small screws and other bits. You'll need those, so errrrrr don't misplace them." Which would be a difficult task. With all of this grass. "You can also work on your own... But I don't recommend it."

Okay. That was it, he was done talking now, thank MERLIN. Among the various boxes were some of the items they had picked out during class. He had specifically ordered the shelf, two chairs, the play set, the bed frame, the desk, and dining table. Though there were other pieces also included. How!! Fun!! "We won't be starting assembly yet, so er, please pause once you've taken out all the pieces."

OOC: henlo sweatys. This is the MINI-ACTIVITY. You will have at LEAST 48 hours to do this. Most likely more.

1. Join a group of no more than 3 students, can also work in pairs or alone if needed
2. Pick a box / furniture piece to work on
3. Using scissors from the toolboxes provided, unbox the pieces

Keep in mind that the examples I linked above are strictly for the purpose of visualizing. We won't need to look at their actual instructions during the lesson because we'll be using our ~~~IMAGINATIONS~~~. love that. SO you don't have to be working with something I linked. Find something else. Make something up. I don't care!!! The world is our collective furniture.

Oh Merlin. Schmoe was FAR too into these puns today. Nettie had been ignoring them, just scribbling along in her notes. Now they had to actually put furniture together? SIGH. She highly doubted this was going to be on her Muggle Studies OWL, but ok.

Glaring a bit at the two students who were bickering - Schmoe had taken a break from puns to settle that, thankfully - she turned around in her chair and looked at Eiji with a smile. "Wanna group up?" she asked. This seemed like the kind of thing he'd want to get over with quickly, which was perfect because she ALSO wanted to get on with it and be done with the lesson.

"okay. So when you are in a muggle super market and need something from a high shelf, juet say acio and get sent to the loony bin," Austin glared back ignoring what the professor said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

Oh Merlin. Schmoe was FAR too into these puns today. Nettie had been ignoring them, just scribbling along in her notes. Now they had to actually put furniture together? SIGH. She highly doubted this was going to be on her Muggle Studies OWL, but ok.

Glaring a bit at the two students who were bickering - Schmoe had taken a break from puns to settle that, thankfully - she turned around in her chair and looked at Eiji with a smile. "Wanna group up?" she asked. This seemed like the kind of thing he'd want to get over with quickly, which was perfect because she ALSO wanted to get on with it and be done with the lesson.

Either the puns were simply going over Eiji's head or he was choosing to only acknowledge the good ones - the world may never know which it was. But no awful sense of humor could spoil the delightful mood that had taken over the fifth year. This was something right up his alley and he was beyond pleased that the theoretical portion was over.

And his housemate just needed to stop because that Gryffindor first year was going to shriek at him or something and Eiji would rather not have this lesson go to chaos in any way shape or form.

But Trinetta would be wrong in her thinking - not unusual for her and he did enjoy pointing this out when it happened. He did not want to rush this and he would painstakingly take his time and really examine all the pieces.

"Sure," nods with a small shrug. "We're doing the desk." For her information.

Claudine wasn’t quite certain that her answer would be a good one because… who really knew what Muggles did in their time of need? So, it was for this reason that she was surprised that Schmoe thought her answer was a good one. She just nodded at him to acknowledge his words of encouragement. Perhaps Schmoe wasn’t a bad one after all.

The Snakette nearly snorted. Assembling furniture was being compared to art? She doubted that that kind of assembling was as fun as actual art. The snort actually came out as a small groan. Really? Group work? AGAIN? Schmoe got a glare from her; just when he was making a good impression on her, he went and announced ‘GROUP’ work.

Claudine didn’t bother to look for a group. She grabbed a pair of scissors and moved for a box with a picture of a table on it. Yes, she would work on assembling one of those by herself… or if anyone joined her.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

Either the puns were simply going over Eiji's head or he was choosing to only acknowledge the good ones - the world may never know which it was. But no awful sense of humor could spoil the delightful mood that had taken over the fifth year. This was something right up his alley and he was beyond pleased that the theoretical portion was over.

And his housemate just needed to stop because that Gryffindor first year was going to shriek at him or something and Eiji would rather not have this lesson go to chaos in any way shape or form.

But Trinetta would be wrong in her thinking - not unusual for her and he did enjoy pointing this out when it happened. He did not want to rush this and he would painstakingly take his time and really examine all the pieces.

"Sure," nods with a small shrug. "We're doing the desk." For her information.

Trinetta? Wrong about Eiji's line of thinking? WHO'D HAVE THUNK IT.

Someone had this all figured out, didn't he? Maybe Trinetta had made a mistake - she should have known he'd have enjoyed a building lesson. She had assumed the muggle aspect of it all would have turned him off from him. It was nice seeing him in his element, actually. Maybe that meant she could sit back and relax a bit!

"Sounds good," she told him, because it really didn't matter to her. Even if it did, there would have been no winning for her in that conversation.

Anyone else care to join them?

It was absolutely possible that Eiji wanted private time with Nettie. What did Phoebe know about that, really? Teenage hormone FEELINGS were still off in the future. But she knew that Eiji was her room planning partner and there was no way he was shaking her now.

"EIJI." Phoebe flung herself at him with her scissors already in hand. Pointy first year on ATTACK. "I'm working with you. That's our desk. Hi, Nettie. I'm in this group now." PERIOD. "Let's get to opening our box."

Avalon noticed a quiet Slytherin girl gathering materials already.....her name was Claudine, right? She'd seen her in a few of their seminar classes this term. Well, she might as well join her. She got the feeling that the girl didn't really want to be bothered, but to be perfectly honest, Avalon didn't know if she could manage putting one of those strange contraptions together all by herself. "Hi, did you want to work together?" Avalon at the picture of the table on the box. Okay, it didn't look too tricky. But after reaching inside the box and pulling out the bag of weird looking metal pointy things, she thought differently. This might be a little tricky. "Maybe between the two of us we can figure this out," she said with a laugh.

Fiona spotted Claudine and Avalon beginning to remove the contents of what seemed to be a dining table from its box. She headed over to them. "Hey there. Can I work with the two of you?"

So everyone was quickly pairing up/going alone. Austin glanced around and saw that rhere was one that hadn't been started yet so he headed over there.

NOPE. N o p e. Nope.

This was unacceptable behavior and Schmoe couldn't let it slide in his classroom. "That's quite enough, Austin." Errrrrrrrrrrrrrr. He hated confrontation, it made him uncomfy. "We show respect for our peers in this class." Finneas blinked several times, still fiddling with his bowtie. "I suggest you get to work unless you'd like a detention."

Cool. Okay. He did that.

OOC: To answer your question, it really doesn't matter which items have or haven't been claimed! The links were just an idea / starting point. If you'd like to put together one of the items that have already been claimed, you can just pretend as if a duplicate had been ordered. Or simply use your imagination for another item, so long as it's something that actually would be sold at a muggle furniture store ^^

SPOILER!!: Avalon & Fiona! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fireheart

Avalon noticed a quiet Slytherin girl gathering materials already.....her name was Claudine, right? She'd seen her in a few of their seminar classes this term. Well, she might as well join her. She got the feeling that the girl didn't really want to be bothered, but to be perfectly honest, Avalon didn't know if she could manage putting one of those strange contraptions together all by herself. "Hi, did you want to work together?" Avalon at the picture of the table on the box. Okay, it didn't look too tricky. But after reaching inside the box and pulling out the bag of weird looking metal pointy things, she thought differently. This might be a little tricky. "Maybe between the two of us we can figure this out," she said with a laugh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ginevra

Fiona spotted Claudine and Avalon beginning to remove the contents of what seemed to be a dining table from its box. She headed over to them. "Hey there. Can I work with the two of you?"

Claudine easily opened the box using the scissors and was already carefully unloading the contents when Avalon joined her. What she really wanted to reply and say was ‘No, I would like to work on my own, thank you very much.’ Not because she was rude but because she liked to work by herself. Then again, she could use some help getting this table assembled. “Hi. Why not?” And she continued emptying the box. After a moment, her housemate joined them. “Hi, Fiona. You can.’’ Surely Avalon didn’t mind. This also meant that their group was full; no more members, thank goodness.

The introvert looked down at all they had unpacked. Her expression was a blank and uncertain one and remained that way as she looked to the other two girls. “I guess we start with attaching the legs to those thinner strips of wood. Afterwards, we would attach the table top?” If either of them had other ideas, she was all ears but for now, Claudine grabbed a leg and a wood strip. “Screws and bolts to hold them together. I guess?”

She was doing a lot of guessing here.

Um....no. Putting together furniture was most definitely not akin to art. It was frustrating. Painful even, if you managed to use the tools wrong. Art, meanwhile, was relaxing.

Schmoe hadn't ordered her suggestions, not that she had been expecting him to anyway. So, Dalia did the next best thing, which was whichever looked easiest of the ones that were left. Which just happened to be the bed frame. How could anyone mess that up? They all looked basically the same! She grabbed a pair of scissors and cut along the tape sealing the box, carefully putting the scissors down and pulling out the pieces once it was open. When all the pieces were out of the box, she went one step farther and organized them by which part of the bed they seemed to be (leg, headboard, etc.), placing the bag of screws and things (hey, was that an allen wrench...?) in the center.

Now what, Smore Schmoe?

Sighhhhh.

It was time.

Lucas got up from his seat and wandered over towards the boxes. There were a lot of choices, weren’t there? Desks and beds and even an entire dining table? That...... sounded like a lot. But he was working with a first year who might want something about more exciting than a simple desk. And even if he didn’t like this, at least he could make it fun for her, right?

With this thought in mind, he picked out the most colourful option: an armchair. One with bright cushions and vibrant designs that would be perfect for their game room. Because game rooms couldn’t be dull. Besides, after the sofa she had picked out in their other lesson, he had a feeling that Cece might like this. Maybe.

Grabbing a pair of scissors from the toolbox, Lucas wandered back over to Cece, trying his best to smile. "What do you think?" he asked, holding the box up with the image facing her. This was cool, right?

And did she want to do the honours with the unboxing?

Cece was too busy looking at ALL the choices to even notice that Lucas had gone off to choose, so she looked a bit surprised when she realized he was standing there with a box in hand. What did she think? "You're speedy." That and other things. Cecelia was ALWAYS thinking a lot. "Also I LOVE that chair! It's so cool! Bet it'll look AWESOME when we're finished!" She was REAL confident about it, she was.

Holding out her hand for the scissors, the first year waited to be given them before going AT the box to get it open. She was by NO means being gentle, but she was definitely getting the job done and quickly. When she'd finished cutting the top open, she gave the box a bit of a nudge and it fell to the side, letting all the pieces cascade onto the ground by their feet. OOPS!

Heh...

"Guess this means we're ready to start?" Uh...HE could have the instructions, even! She picked them up and handed them over to him, a smile on her face. HERE!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

Trinetta? Wrong about Eiji's line of thinking? WHO'D HAVE THUNK IT.

Someone had this all figured out, didn't he? Maybe Trinetta had made a mistake - she should have known he'd have enjoyed a building lesson. She had assumed the muggle aspect of it all would have turned him off from him. It was nice seeing him in his element, actually. Maybe that meant she could sit back and relax a bit!

"Sounds good," she told him, because it really didn't matter to her. Even if it did, there would have been no winning for her in that conversation.

Anyone else care to join them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

It was absolutely possible that Eiji wanted private time with Nettie. What did Phoebe know about that, really? Teenage hormone FEELINGS were still off in the future. But she knew that Eiji was her room planning partner and there was no way he was shaking her now.

"EIJI." Phoebe flung herself at him with her scissors already in hand. Pointy first year on ATTACK. "I'm working with you. That's our desk. Hi, Nettie. I'm in this group now." PERIOD. "Let's get to opening our box."

Eiji would be very perturbed to learn that Trinetta had a very purebloodist opinion of him, that doing things the "muggle" way was something he considered below him. Or perhaps she was simply not observant. Probably the latter.

So it was a good thing she did not say anything.

"So w----FUDGESTICKS, PHEOBE! Watch it with those, will you?" Eiji scolded with an almost paternal tone rather than one of pure irritation, catching the first year's glomp attack out of the corner of his eyes just in time to avoid himself being STABBED by the pointy end of those scissors. Gryffindors. Honestly. "Can I trust you not to slice your finger off if I let you open the box?"

He was sure that Auntie Vivian would not take lightly to severed fingers.

But he was skeptical, so he turned to Trinetta for some preemptive strategic planning.

"Once the box is open, we should lay everything down in front of us so we can see what we are working with."

It was alright. They were enjoying some natural and environmental lesson... about assembling furniture like Muggles. From IKEA? She'd heard from that store, but her mother would ask for particular pieces of furniture made by hand, like carpentry handy made, not like this.

Were they going to use tools to do it? Did they need safety gloves like they used in Herbology to like, not get stitches and possible accidents? Nora looked around and hoped some precaution was taken in that matter, safety.

She listened to the instructions from the professor...and definitely saw the tool box with the scissors. Now, who'd she pair or team up with? While she spotted someone to work with, Nora looked at the furniture they could assemble. Maybe the shelf? Or the bed frame? They looked kind of easy...she hoped.

Excellent point? Kaiser tried hard not to look too surprised at that.

Yes, excellent point. He did make them occasionally. Unintentionally, sure, but still.

Kaiser didn't initially make any attempt to form a group, though he wouldn't have turned away anyone who wanted to join him. Instead, he went straight for the boxes, looking for something to build. Imagine his surprise when he saw that the very bed he had picked out in that lesson a while back was one of the ones Schmoe had ordered. Well, that was as good a sign as any. Kaiser grabbed the box and hauled it off somewhere that he'd have a bit of space to work.

Oh. Right. Scissors. Tool boxes. Kaiser went up to get what he needed, before returning to his box. Holding the scissors all the way open so they were more like one long... scissor? ... he jammed the blade into one of the seams and dragged it towards him, opening up the box in one quick movement. Then he upended it, none too gently, and unceremoniously dumped everything onto the ground with a mild clangour.

Okay, ready.

Avalon smiled as another young Slytherin joined the group. At least they might have a better chance of figuring this out with another helper. She reached out to grab the bag of metal things, presuming that they were what Claudine called 'screws and bolts.' Gingerly picking up the scissors, she snipped the bag open and dumped the little things out on the floor with a clink.

She stared blankly at the materials, unsure of where to begin. "Aren't there supposed to be instructions in here?" she asked, shaking the box upside down. A packet of paper floated out, landing on top of the wood. "Oh! There it is." Flipping through the papers, she raised an eyebrow. There were only pictures in here. No words. Avalon peered at the first step, trying to decipher the illustrations. "So I think we need to put the frame of the table together first, and then attach the legs last. Does anyone know what tool we need for the screws?" She rummaged through the toolbox, pulling out some odd-looking contraptions. "Maybe this one?" she asked, holding up a pointy metal thing.