Professor Fawcett
June 12, 2010 12:56 PM
Intermediate Potions II (3rd and 4th Years) by Professor Fawcett
There was always a briskness, which sometimes lapsed into uncontrolled urgency, about the second half of the year, but it was too soon after Christmas break for it to have fully kicked in. In that situation, there was nothing for John to do but hope that enough were focused for lessons to be somewhat meaningful and that the others would quiet down quickly and without incident. The Sonora students were a well-behaved lot in general, but he liked to always accept the worst as a probable outcome and plan accordingly.“Good afternoon,” he said, hoping to draw the intermediates away from discussions of break, other classes, each other, and whatever else teenagers these days talked about and into the academic. “I hope you all had a pleasant vacation, and are well-rested and prepared to get back to work. We’re going to be working with something tricky today, and you will need to give it your full attention.” With beginners, it was possible to present something a little easier right after a break, but the intermediates needed challenge. For one thing, it better prepared them for the upper levels, where coddling simply didn’t happen. For another, it was more likely to keep them too busy to get bored.
“Some of you may be aware of the properties of re’em blood,” he began, slipping into lecture tone without conscious thought, “the consumption of which will give the drinker immense strength. The same ones of you will also likely be aware that it is extremely rare on the open market, both because of the difficulty of procurement and the ramifications of its use.” John preferred not to dwell on the thought of large numbers of wizards with super-strength, or of the unpleasant things he imagined would happen to their normal bodies as the effects wore off. “Restoring someone to normal levels of strength, or merely increasing endurance, is sufficient in most situations, which is why we have the much less powerful Strengthening Solution.
“It is, of course, at most a temporary ‘fix,’” he added, “and there are consequences to long-term use. These can be almost severe as the consequences for making potions outside of school policy.” It never hurt to remind students that their cauldron-work was not supposed to leave this room. “Or of not taking care with the ingredients. Do not add the pomegranate juice before the salamander blood; I suggest you don’t even leave them close together at your stations. The heat must also be kept very even for the entire procedure, and the stirring orders observed precisely. This requires a few days to mature, so you’ll have to wait until our next session to know the degree of your success, but your potion looking orange at the end of the period is a good indication that you’re on the right path. A smell of burned rubber is not. You may work together, or alone, on this – “ he was planning to make them work alone quite a bit later in the semester, as their syllabus indicated, so he thought he’d give them a reprieve for the day – “and begin.”
Subthreads: The Triumph of Lists by Edmond Carey with Daniel Nash II, Edmond
Passive Resistance by Jose Hernandez with Dmitry
Paying attention is usually considered a good thing... by Alison Sinclair
Being practical. by Marissa Stephenson with Quentin Melcher
Re: Intermediate Potions II (3rd and 4th Years) by Pippa Brockert with Juri Dahlgren
Potions. Wonderful. by Cassy Brooks, Pecari with Charlotte Abbott (Crotalus)
Establishing my dominance by Tawny Brockert
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Professor Fawcett
Intermediate Potions II (3rd and 4th Years)
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Professor Fawcett
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Edmond Carey
June 13, 2010 12:12 AM
The Triumph of Lists by Edmond Carey
After a stressful breakfast, during which he and his foster-sister did not acknowledge each other in any way, Edmond arrived early to class and politely asked after Professor Fawcett's health before taking his seat and opening his notebook. Instead of consulting the syllabus in the front and beginning to set up a notes page, though, he sat looking at the parchment, his quill suspended over it as the ink dried, until someone took the seat beside him and half-seeing the movement startled him just enough to restore his awareness of his surroundings.They had changed while he'd been off in his head; the room was nearly full. After a thoughtful look around it, Edmond dipped his quill back into the ink and began to write.
1. I am the most important person in this room.
He wasn't sure he'd meant to shape this as a list, but it didn't surprise him to see that he'd done so. Edmond felt making lists helped him order his thoughts, keep them all under control. Order and self-control were very important for everyone who wanted to live a successful life. All of his tutors said so.
He looked back around the room, his eyes briefly lingering on Cassie, and then wrote again.
2. This is not a state of affairs which I like.
3. There is also nothing I can do about it.
4. It is wrong to not want to serve my family to the best of my ability, in the manner in which I am ordered to.
5. Therefore, steps must be taken to correct this error.
Feeling slightly better, if still not totally content, he put down his quill and folded his hands atop the list. It did not solve all of his problems - he still had no idea, really, how to deal with Jane, and she was just the first difficult situation he was going to have to navigate here this semester - but acknowledging his impropriety in half-resenting his new place in the world put him closer to an answer to them all.
Acceptance. That was the key. He had to accept that he had no control over this and find a way to work within it and not keep looking for ways around it. It wasn't unlike what Morgaine dealt with as a Healer. If she only treated a few symptoms without looking for the underlying reason for the problem, her patient would not get well. He could not focus on minor problems and ignore the underlying issue of his improper reluctance to do as he had to do.
When it came to school, though, there was no such problem to contend with. He had always enjoyed his lessons, maybe even too much; apparently, the first time anyone had ever heard him express any kind of ambition, it had been to be like his first Latin tutor. Since then, he'd come to know that all he really wanted to do was remain what he was, a student forever. Both were, of course, impossible, but he had heard that some family heads were able to pursue some scholarly interests. Some were. He took down the notes in short, precise bullet points.
It was a day with options, so Edmond turned to the person next to him. There was no one he truly disliked, so there was seldom a problem in partnerships, but only someone he had to hand-hold and look after excessively to prevent an utter disaster or who could give him a challenge in skill level could inspire Edmond to feel anything beyond polite indifference to the proscribed work arrangements. Since a majority of his classmates had strong feelings one way or the other, though, he had to lean toward the 'polite' far more than the 'indifferent' and at least make an offer on days like this. "Good day," he said. Politely. "Would you like to work together today, or work separately?"
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The Triumph of Lists
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Daniel Nash II
June 14, 2010 2:51 PM
Lists are great by Daniel Nash II
Professor Fawcett was one of the better professors at keeping to the syllabus handed out at the beginning of the year. As such, Daniel was always conscientious about checking it before heading into Potions and reading ahead. When he'd been doing that last night, he was glad he wasn't going to be going into this lesson blind. The Aladren Head of House wasn't kidding when he said it was 'tricky'.There was enough going on during the creation of this potion that, despite his normal preference to work alone, he was glad of the option to be allowed to work with a partner this time. He chose his nearest neighbor carefully.
Another Aladren was best. Daniel didn't want to carry the responsibility of making sure some Pecari stayed on task. He just wanted a competent potions partner, to help make sure everything happened as it should at the proper time. Crotali were a good second choice, but there were sufficient Aladrens in the third and fourth years that he didn't think he needed to resort to working with anyone not House-sanctioned as being academically oriented. He considered his options.
1. James was out. Daniel didn't precisely dislike his roommate, but James Anthony was his greatest rival in almost all arenas, and it caused some tension that was best not mixed with potion making.
2. Quentin was also not an option. Daniel favored a form of speech that included a few too many metaphors and figurative expressions, which made working with Quentin in this class unwise at best and downright dangerous at worst. This particular potion was going to require enough concentration that Daniel may not have enough to spare for effectively communicating with very literal roommate.
3. Juri was the least objectionable of his roommates, but even there, Daniel had sensed a bit of tension between them, though he couldn't say for sure what its cause was. It could be anything from resentment over Daniel's hair and skin products taking up too much space in the bathroom to the fact that both of their mothers had gotten re-married over the summer and they were both irrationally holding this unwelcome circumstance against the other (or maybe Daniel was imagining the whole thing, which wasn't impossible, either). In any case, Daniel was inclined to avoid him as well, on the off chance that whatever issue stood between them chose this lesson to explode.
4 & 5. Either Euna or Taylor would be acceptable partners, but one was already seated next to somebody and the other hadn't arrived yet.
6. Instead, he looked toward the third year Aladrens. The first one he spotted was Edmond Carey. Jackpot.
Carey was reasonably good at potions, one of the better third years in the subject. Daniel could trust him to do his part without needing to babysit him. Plus, they were on the same team for Quidditch, so he knew they could work together without any potential fall-out, despite the muggleborn-pureblood thing. Whether that was because Daniel was respectable enough due to his upper-class upbringing, Edmond just didn't care, or because the pureblooded kid thought their common goal (winning) surpassed any blood differences, Daniel chose to believe that whatever the root cause was, it would extend to academic pursuits like earning as close to a perfect grade as they could get.
Without further delay, Daniel sat down next to the younger Aladren before someone else did.
Shortly thereafter, Professor Fawcett began the lecture, Daniel took meticulous notes, and then they were allowed to find partners if they so chose, and begin. Surely enough, as Daniel had expected, Edmond didn't look further than the seat beside his own. Nodding, and hiding his own satisfaction at arranging things to his own design, Daniel agreed, "Normally, I'd work alone, but this one's complex. I'd appreciate the second pair of hands."
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Daniel Nash II
Lists are great
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Edmond
June 20, 2010 1:02 AM
As is not being the leader just now. by Edmond
He kept his expression to a mild, polite smile, but Edmond felt something like profound relief when Daniel called him an extra set of hands. The implication - and how often did he hear that implications were often more important than a conversation's content - was that Daniel saw Edmond as his subordinate in this arrangement. He had been afraid, given the way gossip seemed to spread among wizards, that coming back would lead to everyone deferring to him to the same uncomfortable degree that Jane kept trying to, which, he was quite sure, would drive him mad. It seemed, though, that Morgaine and Julia greatly overestimated how much the average student either knew or cared about Carey politics.Of course, there was also some evidence suggesting Daniel was a half-blood or Muggleborn - Julia had apparently done research on the Quidditch team, just to make sure that he was not associating with anyone too unsavory and thus set to be the second coming of Gwenhwyfar Carey, and found no Nash family to exist - so maybe this didn't mean anything at all.
Edmond decided not to think about it. On the few occasions she hadn't been either frantically reworking her schedules or dealing with financial paperwork over midterm, Morgaine had become fond of trying to talk out all the conspiracies that might have been forming for the past few years, which had formed in the past few weeks, what all of the goals in all of them might be, and how many of them were now trying to kill her. The result was that his suspicion that he did not like circular thinking had been confirmed. Even trying to follow her was enough to make his brain go numb, and he did not need to start doing that without assistance, least of all here. Going catatonic from sheer paranoia overloads was a very bad idea in school.
"Very well, then," he said amicably. "I think we will do well." That was a logical conclusion, given their House. Crotali were exact more frequently enough to use it as a House trait, but many lacked the drive required to fully exploit the advantage. Where they had details, Aladrens, officially speaking, had determination. And intelligence and social awkwardness, which Edmond suspected was a far larger component of why he was an Aladren, but those did not necessarily make getting what he wanted in this case more difficult. The former even made it easier.
"I know it is not uncommon to take out all necessary items before beginning a potion," he said, reviewing the list on his page for things he didn't have, "but do you think we'd do well to only measure out the pomegranate juice after we use the salamander blood? Just to avoid confusion." He was happy to take a subordinate role, but simply following any orders that Daniel cared to give without offering a single contribution would be...frowned on, and, he suspected, not only by the family.
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Edmond
As is not being the leader just now.
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