Open Phoenix Scouts: Petting Zoo

[Kauri Morales-Tipene]

Kauri had been a little apprehensive about taking on a volunteeer who was on probation, especially one he had warned about being on a bad path, but Lysander had proven so far to be a hard worker, and extra hands were always welcome. Today's event in particular was one he would have had a much harder time arranging without the former Gryffindor. He had spent the last few sessions in the scout hall teaching the youngest scouts about how to care for magical pets, and today was going to be their chance to meet some. They had worked with the Menagerie to put together a little petting zoo where the kids could meet the animals up close. He had put together little information sheets for the kids to fill in as they explored, and now it was time to get started.

Assembling the kids outside the barn they were using for today's outing, Kauri smiled brightly. "Kia ora everyone! We've spent the last few meetings talking about how to look after a pet, and now it's time to put that to the test! We've got a selection of magical pets in this shed, and you're gonna get to play with as many of them as you like. In order to earn your Animal Care badge though, you'll have to fill in these worksheets. For each animal I want you to write down one thing it eats, and one thing it needs in its environment to be healthy - does it need lots of space or to live in a house? Does it need toys to keep it entertained? Does it need a special kind of enclosure? Just think of one thing you would need to have to make that pet happy at home. You've got an hour and a half to see all the animals and fill in your worksheets, then I'll be collecting them before we go home." He smiled, opening the door behind him. "Alright, if you need anything just find one of the grown ups. Have fun!" Kauri handed out worksheets to the kids as they entered the barn, filled with different enclosures safely separating the many magical creatures that had been selected for the kids to meet and learn about.

Out of Character:

This thread is completely open to any characters who are members of the Puffskein or Niffler scouts! The group is completely open for any characters based in NZ who fit the age requirements (5-8 for Puffskein Scouts, 8-11 for Niffler Scouts), so just jump right in if you're keen! For more information on the organisation, read the thread here!

The barn contains a selection of non-dangerous pets from The Menagerie. Please use your creativity within reason - Kauri isn't going to be exposing children to Fire Crabs or Streelers!

 

[Amortentia Layton-King]

Ten was very excited when she'd first become a Puffskein scout, because it meant she could finally be introduced to the magical side of her upbringing, instead of being forced to play with normal toys. She had very little interest in "normal" toys, or at least for their intended purpose. It wasn't unusual for Ten to convert it into something new that would better suit her interests and needs, and the majority of toys the red head owned as a result were now either ruined or broken, scattered around her room at home. Despite this, she still wouldn't let her dad throw them out, they were important after all.

Of course it was very strange for Ten to go anywhere without Ned, and the Petting Zoo event that was taking place with the scouts was without exception. Ned was more than just family, she was her best friend too and they had grown up together, often being allowed play dates or to spend the afternoon together. Sometimes Ten would tell people that Ned was her sister, and she was always a little sad whenever Leda or Mervyn came to collect Ned and take her home.

Ten stood with Eluned now, waiting excitedly to be introduced to some of the magical animals. These were special animals, ones that only important children like them would ever see. Ten never could quite understand why her mum had chosen to have Nugget around the house, when she could have chosen something interesting like a Flobberworm. Ten, dressed in a little checker dress and cardigan, gently took the worksheet that was handed out and began to look through it slowly. Reading was not a strong point yet for the seven year old, but she could more or less just look at the pictures if she got too stuck. ​

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

Eluned was literally bouncing with excitement. She hadn't been this excited since, like, yesterday, when Mervyn had announced there was mint chocolate chip ice cream for pudding. Of course, escaping her family's supervision for a few hours was inherently thrilling, but today she was meeting the magical animals Kauri had been teaching the Scouts about, and most excitingly of all, she got to do it with her best friend Ten.

With a cursory glance over the worksheet (nothing with the word 'work' in it deserved attention), Eluned clipped it to her board and linked arms with Ten. All of this animal talk was reminding her of a song. She couldn't remember where she'd first heard it, but that didn't stop her singing it loudly and clearly as she marched into the barn: "Dogs go woof and cats go mew, rats go squeak and owls go hoo, puffskeins hum and yes it's true, they will eat your boogers too!"

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

Vanity wasn't sure if scouts was for her. She joined because she asked her parents if she could join, after Emery did, but she didn't really look forward to the meetings anymore now that her brother had gone to Hogwarts. She wasn't as outdoorsy as either of her siblings, and scouts seemed to involve a lot of... outdoor stuff. Still, it was something to pass the time. And today's event at least involved adorable animals, which Vanity could get behind. She really wanted a pet, but no amount of pleading had let her parents get her one. They insisted they were too busy to take care of it, and Vanity's assurances that she would take care of it fell on deaf ears. Not even the knowledge about pets she had gotten at scouts had helped. She listened to Kauri's explanation, brushing her hair out of her face as he spoke. Then she grabbed a worksheet and looked around for where to begin. She shot an annoyed look at the girl who started singing. "That's not true." She snapped as she walked past the two younger girls. She stopped at a nearby enclosure, wrinkling her nose when she saw the toads inside. "Oh, gross." She muttered.

@Eluned Strangewayes

 

[Amortentia Layton-King]

Ten began beating her chest with excitement when the barn doors opened and they were finally allowed to go inside, before sliding one arm through Ned's as she started singing. She was always very proud of Loony who seemed to be able to just make up a masterpiece on the spot, and Ten would hum the best she could alongside her even though she didn't know the words that were coming out of her mouth. Suddenly another girl approached them and told Ned that what she was singing wasn't true, and Ten gave a small snort, "Of course it is, the song said it is true, not it isn't true," she gave Ned a look as though the girl was just being dumb and not listening properly. As they moved on further towards the barn, she heard the girl once more being rude to the frogs. The frogs were just sitting their minding their own business, what was she talking about? "She can't talk. A prince would be more likely to kiss the frog instead of her," she muttered to Ned, but incapable of whispering, Ten's loud voice still carried through the room for which she tried to hide it with a giggle.​

 

[Sybil St. James]

Sybil had questioned her father’s judgment when he signed her up for Phoenix Scouts without even asking her about it first. But he always knew best and she was willing to try it out before she made up her mind about it. She was a bit nervous to be around so many kids her age. She had a private tutor, no siblings, and no cousins so she hadn’t had much experience with kids her own age. But how different could they really be from the adults she talked with all the time. When the leader started to instruct them she gave him her full attention. She was excited to earn a badge even though her writing wasn’t nearly as good as her reading. She had been reading for ages now and eagerly grabbed a worksheet. Sybil had to go on her tiptoes to see into some of the enclosures and looked up when she heard some older girls talking. “I heard it’s actually a bad idea to kiss frogs. They carry diseases and you can get warts on your face.” she said seriously and hoped no one was going to try that or she would have to go tell the scout leader right away. @Vanity Mettlestone @Amortentia Layton-King @Eluned Strangewayes

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

Eluned blew a raspberry. It was true. Thank Merlin she had Ten for a best friend, and not that horrible girl standing by the frogs. Ten was smart, and super funny. Mervyn said she needed to work on volume control, but for all the trouble her booming voice got her into, Eluned secretly hoped she would never learn to whisper; roasting people in full earshot made her look kind of badass.

"Why would anyone kiss a frog?" Ned asked, shaking her head. "Even I wouldn't do that." And Ten would know that that was really saying something. She moved over to the edge of the enclosure and peered in at the various frogs sitting in rock pools and hopping about on damp soil. "Actually, that one's cute. I'd probably kiss that one. What are we meant to write on our worksheets? I wasn't listening."

 

[Elise Ito]

Elise was excited to go to a Phoenix Scout event. She had hoped they'd be doing some kind of arts and crafts project, so she was a little disappointed when they arrived to a large barn and found out they'd be learning about animals instead. She didn't pay much attention to the instructions they were given and instead looked up to the sky until the brightness made her eyes water. She took one of the worksheets as they entered the barn but she quickly gave it to her brother to hold. Avoiding the more crowded area, she instead made her way to the rodent enclosure and wiggled her finger at white rabbit who seemed to twitch it's nose back at her. Elise tugged on the hem of her brother's shirt, "Did you see that?" she asked excitedly. @Ezra Ito

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

It was easy enough to ignore the annoying babies when they simply insisted the song was true, but Vanity couldn't let the redhead's other comment slide. She gasped and whirled on her, eyes wide. Then she turned to their leader, waving her hand to get his attention. "Kauri! Armentia is being really mean to me!" She called. She was fairly sure she had the girl's name wrong, but it was something dumb like that. Leaving the frog and the annoying girls, she headed over to Kauri to make her complaint clear. She was not going to let herself be bullied by some six year olds.

@Kauri Tipene

 

[Amortentia Layton-King]

"Tell that to the prince," Ten shrugged when one of the other girls told them kissing frogs was nasty. Why would she care? She wasn't the one kissing it. The red head had crossed over and followed Ned to peer into the tank of frogs, trying to decide whether or not her friend was being sarcastic. "I don't know, but we don't have time to look at animals and do homework," she commented, taking her own worksheet and laying it down on top of a bin in the corner of the room. As she did so, she turned to hear that the older girl was running to Kauri about her, and she had to stifle a giggle at the idea she was in trouble. Heck, Ten hadn't even been talking to her. "Who's Armentia? Did someone new join?" Ten's eyes lit up as she pretended not to have any idea what was actually going on.​

 

[Briony Mettlestone]

Briony loved learning about animals at Scouts. As much as she liked being left to her own devices, wandering around the house, being signed up for scouts had meant a lot more opportunity for fun adventures, even if Briony was making up most of them in her head. She liked to imagine the animals they'd been learning about were all her friends and lived in her pockets, which would be easier if they were learning more about bugs than furry and feather-y things. Not that she disliked birds and mammals, but they tended to be so boring. Bugs had so many legs and wings and they were such fun colours.

Arriving at the barn so they could actually see animals today, Briony had made a beeline for the insect terrarium. It was tempting to try and chat with the fairies, but they had fairies at home, so Briony had instead sat herself down in front of the glumbumbles, tracing the bouncing paths they made through the air with her finger and humming along with them. "You can come sit by me," she called idly over her shoulder when she heard the familiar sound of Vanity's voice, upset about someone saying something they shouldn't have. The glumbumbles wouldn't be rude to her sister. Maybe Vanity could help her smuggle a few into her pockets too. @Vanity Mettlestone

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

"I think she means you," Ned said helpfully. "Oh. I mean - Armentia? Yeah, who's that? I don't know any Armentia's! So, anyway..." Eluned pretended to be very interested in the frogs again, though she couldn't help glancing across the barn at Kauri and the tattletale. People who ran to adults were so annoying. Vanity had probably goaded Ned and Ten into saying something mean just so she could snitch on them. "Yeah, but I want my badge," Ned said, turning her attention to Ten. "Tell me what we need to do!"

 

[Kauri Morales-Tipene]

Kauri knew he was going to have to be more on his guard than usual today, with so many animals around the kids, and he was more glad than ever to have a few extra sets of hands. The kids had barely arrived when he saw a kerfuffle emerging, though thankfully it didn't seem to have anything to do with the animals themselves. He crouched down as Vanity approached, face falling. "What happened?" He asked gently, though the way he could hear Amortentia and Eluned jeering gave him a pretty good idea.
@Vanity Mettlestone

 

[Finley Mackintosh Baros]

Finley wasn't even going to go only someone had managed to convince his daddy to let him come. He liked animals, but whenever he went anywhere with Ned and Ten, they had a knack for forgetting about him and he tended to spend a lot of time on his own. He wasn't sure, but he was pretty well the youngest person here, given everyone else was taller than him. He had only turned five a little earlier so he hadn't been in the Scouts all that long either. He hoped this wasn't going to be something he regretted. He watched Ned and Ten talking, yawning a little as he watched them. Nothing interesting had happened yet, but he hoped something should. Maybe they would remember him eventually.​

 

[Amortentia Layton-King]

"If you want the badge you have to just, write about the animals." Ten pointed at the "gross" creature that the older girl insulted a few moments ago, "What does it eat?" she asked aloud and glanced up towards an information board next to the enclosure. Ten didn't really care too much about having a badge though, she was just here to have fun and look at all the animals. That was, until she heard Kauri talking to the older girl about what she thought had happened. Well, she would have liked to see her try and get them in trouble. Glancing over to Fin and hoping he hadn't wandered off (Zennon had been very clear not to lose him) Ten saw that he was just lurking around the edges, not really interacting with anything or anyone. "Come on, frogs are boring," Ten sighed to Eluned, you could find a million frogs in a muggle pond, and turned to offer Fin her hand for him to hold. "We need to find the Flobberworms!" That was where the party really started.​

 

[Ezra Ito]

Ezra quite liked scouts, usually. This event seemed pretty fun too, though he knew Elise was a bit disappointed it wasn't something with arts and crafts. Ezra was kind of glad about that, it was always embarrassing when his little sister did better than him with that stuff. He followed Elise, glancing around the barn curiously. He blinked at her question. "What, the rabbit? Yeah it's cute." He said distractedly. Where were the really cool animals?

@Elise Ito

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

Vanity was glad to be away from these awful girls, and she glanced at Briony as she invited her over. Vanity hoped the mean girls wouldn't try to make fun of her sister, she would probably push them into the frog enclosure. She turned to Kauri, thinking of what to say. "I said their stupid song was wrong because pygmy puffs don't eat boogers." She said, pulling a face. "And then she said a prince would rather kiss a frog than me." She sighed, glancing their way resentfully. "I don't care, but it's not a very good example for the younger kids, is it?" She asked. "I'll go help my sister now." She added quickly.

@Kauri Tipene

 

[Elise Ito]

Elise sighed. Ezra seemed distracted and hardly seemed to realize what she was asking in the first place. Sometimes she wondered why it was so hard for him to keep up. “Do you think it understood me?” she asked him with a serious voice before she turned back to the rabbit to wiggle her fingers some more. The rabbit just stared at her this time and she frowned. “Do you think I insulted it?” she asked gravely. What if she had accidentally said something horribly mean and it was now ignoring her? “I’m sorry.” she whispered and hoped it would be able to pick up on her intentions. @Ezra Ito

 

[Sybil St. James]

Sybil kept her distance from the older girls as they got Kauri involved. With him there she decided everything was under control and she could get back to their assignment. She looked at the sign on the enclosure in front of her and did her best to sound out the words and write down all the information about toads she needed. When she looked up again she noticed a younger boy who seemed closer to her age than the rest of the other kids. He seemed to be watching the older girls and she waved at him. "Do you know them?" she asked curiously. "Are they always like that?" @Finley Mackintosh Baros

 

[Finley Mackintosh Baros]

Finley looked at the girl that spoke to him and nodded. “Yeah, that’s Ten and Ned, they’re…” what we’re they actually? They weren’t related as far as he knew but they were sort of like family. They were the closest to family he had here anyway and he saw them very often. “I think they’re my cousins, but… I don’t really know. I spend time with them like they’re cousins.” maybe there would be more insight later. “I’m sorry I have to go,” he added as Ten held her hand out to him. He couldn’t say no to her, his dad had told him always to do what they told him.​

 

[Eluned Strangewayes]

Eluned looked down at her worksheet, only to discover that it had told her exactly what she needed to do all along. “Insects?” she said, scribbling away with her pencil. “And they like everything damp. Or moist. Done!”

What was that? Oh, right, Finley. Ned supposed they ought to start being nicer to him. He was getting to the age where he was liable to tell Zennon if they weren’t. She didn’t see why he had to come in the first place; he was still just a baby, and Ten and Ned weren’t his babysitters. They could have been his babysitters, but Ned had made it clear they required compensation. “Finley, don’t wander off. We can’t keep an eye on you if you’re not in our eyesight, can we?” she said, shaking her head. “Okay! All aboard the flobberworm train! Who’s coming? Hey, you! Sybil? With us! Choo choo!”

 

[Amortentia Layton-King]

Ten didn’t know why so many of the girls had their knickers in a twist. Ten and Ned were the most interesting people here and they should have been glad to have people as fun as them around on a trip like this. Not that the animals weren’t cute too of course, but it would have been more of a boring day if there were only boring children here, so they were doing everyone a favour really.

The redhead nodded at Finley and Eluned covered the ground rules with him again; there was only so much they could get away with these days and the older he got, the more likely they were to get caught by Zennon. She glanced up as Sibil, the girl who’d told them kissing frogs was gross, seemed to be lingering around. “Yes, you can stand near the back and if those girls try to join, tell them to go away.” She smiled at the girl, before hurriedly moving to the front of the Flobberworm train, Fin in hand, and began the quest for the more interesting animals, “Magical animals this way!” She called out behind her. Surely not everyone was here just to look at muggle pets.​

 

[Jupiter Ascot]

Jupiter gripped a hand around his worksheet, the other hand fumbling with his glasses as he looked around the little petting zoo. Honestly, the boy didn't care much for Scouts. He was only doing it because his parents wanted him to. Apparently, it was a good way to make new friends and learn life skills. "But they do eat boogers," he did have to offer quietly to no one in particular as some of the younger girls started arguing about it. Not that it was really an argument, more of a disagreement. But he did pick up on when the loud younger girls started shouting about seeing the magical animals. "Flobberworms aren't that interesting," he piped up again, gripping his worksheet a little tighter as he chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment. "They don't really do much." Not that he was the expert, but his mum's vegetable patch had been overrun by them a little while back and he remembered helping her throw all the worms into buckets.

 

[Tullia Whitlock]

Tullia had signed up for the scouts and it had seemed like a good idea, but now as there were lots of kids both of her age and about her age she was feeling a little nervous about it. She was still learning about New Zealand, and her one friend at these things had already gone off to Hogwarts. She didn't know any of these people that well and she wasn't a massive fan of animals. They appeared cool, but only ever from a distance. Now they were here and she was supposed to pet them. Tullia moved to sit on a log where a few of the less interesting creatures were. She went into her rucksack and pulled out the overly large physics book that she had borrowed from the local muggle library and used it to lean on to write about the creatures that were in front of her. She'd do what she needed to for this badge. ​

 

[Mercury Ascot]

Honestly, Mercury wasn't totally sure why he was here. He knew that his parents wanted both of them to join the scouts, as it supposedly was a way for him to make friends, especially since Mercury slightly struggled to make friends due to how introverted he was. However, Mercury was excited about what they were going to do for the scouts today. He loved animals, but as the event had started, the young boy began to be quite shy, especially since there were a lot of children around. Even though Mercury loved animals and wanted to have a closer look at the animals and touch them, he was quite shy to be close to them and hung around closely to Jupiter since his brother was the only person he knew around here, having a tight and nervous grip on his worksheet while trying his best to fill it out, not really paying attention to the conversation that was happening around him.