#1 The smoky room experiment
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@Olivia Cuthburt
@Robin Lockett
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━sta 06|eva 05| str 03| wis 08| arc 07| acc 06━━━━━━Prodigal Astronomy Learner━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Admittedly she wasn't too sure why she decided to do this. Perhaps its cause it was towards the end of the term and she was bored out of her mind but conducting social experiments seemed to be a good use of time. She had spent most of her free time this last week in the library researching and preparing for these ecperiments. She was finally ready to conduct them. 8 experiments over the course of the next week or so. Granted she had no idea how many people would show up for it but she had nothing to loose in doing this anyways.
Fawkes walked down to the grounds with stacks of parchment in hand. She had stayed up last night writting out questionnaires for today's social experiment. The smoky room experiment. The original experiment wanted to test a person's flight or fight response. The original had a group of people answer a questionnaire one by one in a room. Mid way through the room would fill with smoke. The experiment measured whether or not the people answering would stop to inform the researcher or not.
That was what she set out to do today. The questionnaire she prepared wasn't complicated. It was around 15 questions ranging from people's names to their favourite colours and such. It wasn't meant to be complicated since the experiment wasn't about the questionnaire in the first place. She reached the area of the grounds she had decided on for the experiment. It had a large amount of people passing by the area but also had a small secluded space that they could sit and answer the questionnaire.
Her plan was to hand it out one by one. After a few minutes she would cast fumos into the area. Thanks to the wind it would only last as long as the person was answering the questionnaire which made it perfect for the next victim person to come. She stood with a small foldable chair and desk she had found. She opened them out, placing the parchment, ink and quills she brought on the table before sitting in the chair waiting for people to come up.
OOC instructions
- All are welcome to perform in the experiment!
- To participate all you need to do is put one post mentioning you answered the questionnaire and what you did with the smoke started.
- For godmodding Fawkes: You can state she handed you the questionnaire and gave you the instuctions to fill it out in the secluded area.
- Note for the questionnaire feel free to mention whatever questions you would like but simple stuff such as favourite colour, favourite animal etc.
- There's a two week deadline for this. After the two weeks are up i'll post a conclusion post based on the results of the experiment and update the experiment index.
- The link to the experiment index
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#1 The smoky room experiment
Word count: 296
@Fawkes Chaos
Olivia was wondering the grounds enjoying the fresh air and the soft breeze. She could often could be found outdoors since being stuck inside was never her thing, she hated the idea of missing out on what the world has to offer.
As she walked she spotted a first year Ravenclaw with long dark brown hair sat on a chair next to a table. What on earth was she up to? She thought as she made her way over. As she got closer she instantly recognised the girl, Fawkes Chaos, she had always loved her surname.
Once she apprached Fawkes she was infomed that she was conducting a simple questionnaire and was asked if she wanted to participate. Olivia wasn't one to normally entertain Ravenclaws and their reasearch but Fawkes had never irratated her and her surname inticied her more. "I'll do it," she said confidently as she took the questionnaire and got comfortable in the secluded area she was guided to. Now this isn't dogey at all, she thought as she glanced at the questionnaire.
The questions were quite straightforward, her name, her age, her favourite food and what not, she couldn't figure out the purpose of the study. Regardless she quickly began filling in the answers not having to think much at all as she knew herself quite well.
All of a sudden smoke began to fill the area. She began coughing a little and instantly got up looking for the source of the so called fire. She frantically looked around for about 5 seconds before running out, "Are you trying to hurt me?" she asked as she handed Fawkes the unfinished questionnaire. "The area is filling with smoke," she added unimpressed. "You might want to find another location," she advised before walking away.
#1 The smoky room experiment
Word count: 289
Interacting with: @Fawkes Chaos
I had been walking across the grounds when I noticed a girl sitting behind a small desk with a huge pile of parchment next to her. Curious, I walked up to her and asked her what she was doing. She explained that she was conducting a questionnaire. It sounded harmless enough, and I wasn't in a hurry to be anywhere, so I agreed to participate.
After taking the parchment and quill, I moved over to the secluded area she had pointed out and sat down.
The questions were simple. My name, favorite color, favorite animal and a few other questions, I found myself smiling as I filled them in. It almost reminded me of those little getting-to-know-you activities teachers sometimes used at school.
I was halfway through answering another question when something caught my attention. A thin trail of smoke drifted into the area. At first I frowned and glanced around. Maybe someone nearby had cast a spell. Hogwarts students were always practicing something.
I returned to the questionnaire and answered another question before noticing the smoke was getting thicker. This time I lowered my quill completely. "That's odd," I muttered,
For a moment I considered getting up, but the smoke didn't seem dangerous. It wasn't burning my eyes and I couldn't smell anything unusual. I looked back toward the girl running the questionnaire. "Um, excuse me?" I called. "I don't know if you noticed, but there's a lot of smoke here."
Still holding the parchment, I stood up and brushed off my robe, wondering if someone nearby had managed to set something on fire. Whatever the cause was, I was fairly certain it wasn't supposed to be there.
I quickly handed in the unfinished questionnaire before running out.
Last edited by Lize Nieuwhof on 9 Jul 2026, 22:47, edited 2 times in total.
#1 The smoky room experiment
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She took her seat, brushing the parchment. The questions were ones she could answer with ease: her name, favourite colour (pink was the response, hands poised over letters and written without a thought), favourite animal (cats, cows, goats and dragons), and other trivial details. It was almost like filling out a diary page, comforting.
Halfway through, the air shifted. A thin mist coiled in the corners of the room, smoke blooming like gentle petals. Denisse stopped writing, with her quill still above the parchment. But then instinct kicked in: was this dangerous? Was it real? She sniffed still and caught a slight whiff of magic, not smoke.
And her cautious side told her to wait, see if anyone else noticed. Denisse gulped, stood up, ran back to Fawkes. She pushed her head down, the parchment pressed close to her chest. “Sorry, but there’s smoke in the room.” Her voice wasn’t high pitched, but it was deliberate.
She didn’t run, didn’t panic. After calmly reporting it, she retook her seat and completed the last question with measured strokes of her quill.
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#1 The smoky room experiment
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Mentions: @Fawkes Chaos
Word Count: 458
Today had been very kind to her, Ellaine mused, crouching down amongst the grasses to pick up a stray flower.
It had started off nicely— she’d woken up fairly early, yet well-rested; the bathroom had been empty when she’d gone through her morning routines; the weather had been fairly nice, and sunny. Perfect, she had thought, for she had been in want of a long, relaxing walk on the grounds… preferably alone with her thoughts. (She was moody, sometimes, like that.) No time was wasted, and so she was soon strolling along the green-grass lawns, stopping here and there to pick up trinkets.
It was during one of these stops that a pretty, dark-haired girl had stopped her to politely hand her a questionnaire. Ellaine accepted it, murmuring, “…Okay?”
Sure, it was a bizarre thing to do on a Sunday, but— why not?
Having been led to the small secluded space, Ellaine decided to go through it as she’d do her homework. That was, to say, with the words still floating around in her mind, flood the page, to clean up in later drafts… only this time, there was no other scrolls. Not that she’d need it, Ellaine supposed, revising her opinions after going over the questions. They were all fairly innocuous— favourite animal, favourite colour, favourite music, favourite class, and the like, fifteen questions in total— and so she started the survey without more delay.
She had been only about a third of the way – answering these questions seemed easy, until she realised that she didn’t really have a favourite among them – when a literal fog crept up on her. She was lost for a moment, panic running at her from down the street, that was, until she processed the fact that the characteristics of the smoke reminded her of the Smokescreen Spell they’d been taught at DADA class, just a few lessons ago. It was hard not to notice the similarities, having practised it herself many times close to the lake.
Another second of contemplation, wherein she considered the fact that it wasn’t really that harmful. In its small quantity, it would only trouble her vision, which… would slow down her writing. She really should finish the questionnaire. (As long as it didn’t start choking her, she really couldn’t care less.) Scrawling her answers with just a little more haste than before, she finished the rest of the questions without much thought, half an eye still on the smoke enshrouding her.
Approaching the student, she returned the paper to her. For half a second, she debated asking her about the smoke, but… it seemed pointless, at this stage. “Have a nice day,” she said, a small nod and a small smile acting as her wave goodbye.
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#1 The smoky room experiment
Nicole was thinking of the silence on the grounds when she saw Ellaine, a classmate, squatting down in the grass. It was a tranquil scene, Ellaine's hair shining in the sunlight as she tossed a flower about. But out across the lawn there began to curl a disquieting little whiff of smoke, an ominous note in the tranquil scene, an omen of destruction to come. Nicole was more cautious. This was not smoke of the natural kind. She'd used the Smokescreen Spell enough to know its telltale signs. To her it sounded as if cast by somebody near, but she could not tell who cast it.
In contrast, Ellaine seemed to be little bothered by the smoke. She looked a little annoyed and kept filling out a parchment that looked like a questionnaire. This struck Nicole as odd, particularly on a Sunday, and she wondered what Ellaine was doing now.
Nicole watched as Ellaine completed her writing in silence, her movements measured even in the mist that surrounded her. Ellaine finished, got to her feet, and went over to another student who looked like he had dark hair and more papers. Ellaine offered a kind, “Have a nice day,” with a quiet nod to the student, demonstrating her friendly nature.
There was a quiet admiration in her poise as she set about an unusual task. She was a picture of gentle certainty in a world of drifting smoke. She was being herself, strong and graceful in odd situations.
In contrast, Ellaine seemed to be little bothered by the smoke. She looked a little annoyed and kept filling out a parchment that looked like a questionnaire. This struck Nicole as odd, particularly on a Sunday, and she wondered what Ellaine was doing now.
Nicole watched as Ellaine completed her writing in silence, her movements measured even in the mist that surrounded her. Ellaine finished, got to her feet, and went over to another student who looked like he had dark hair and more papers. Ellaine offered a kind, “Have a nice day,” with a quiet nod to the student, demonstrating her friendly nature.
There was a quiet admiration in her poise as she set about an unusual task. She was a picture of gentle certainty in a world of drifting smoke. She was being herself, strong and graceful in odd situations.