Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
November 30, 2020 10:14 PM
Smell you later, kiddos! [Intermediates, III-V] by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Studies of psychology had long noted that smell was linked closely to emotion and memory, among other things. Mary had never known this to be so true as upon the departure and later return of her dear wife. When Tabitha appeared in their shared quarters, travel-worn and smelly in all the right ways, Mary was sure she'd never experienced anything so perfect in her life. She wasn't the only one who was interested in such things, as Killian had shown her a jar he'd been gifted by someone he was all sorts of goo goo over. He didn't say who and she didn't ask; he didn't offer to let her smell the jar and she didn't ask. It was a personal thing, smell, especially from a loved one. Luckily, she doubted any of the intermediate students would be going so far as to try to capture the essence of a cherished memory with their life partner for today's class.She greeted everyone as usual, although her usual was more usual than usual today; since Tabitha's return to campus (although not yet to teaching), Mary had been outright perky. Part of that was that she was getting more sleep (most of the time) and more time to relax, but it extended beyond that into a contentment that came to Mary in the scent of roses, whiskey, and tea. Those weren't even any of the things she liked that much but they smelled like love so she liked them more now.
"Hello, class," she said, smiling at her students as they took their places. Today's classroom was organized in the usual arrangement of small tables set up around the area, but they were pushed to the outside so that students could stand and work at them facing the center or else sit on the floor facing the center. There, boxes of dried herbs and fruits, teas, candies, woods, and other aromatics were displayed like the sort of garden only a potion master could love. It was beautiful. It was also magically charmed to only be smellable from a few inches from each item so as to avoid the whole classroom smelling like the candle aisle at a Bats and Brewing Works.
"The term is coming to a swift end and I know that this is a time of year that can be hard for all of us for different reasons. Whether it be the homesickness that makes you miss the smell of the library and your own dorm room, or the homesickness that makes you miss the smell of your grown-ups' perfume or cologne, there is something that sticks with us all a little bit. Perhaps you especially love the scent of the holidays, whatever those look like for you. Today, I want your next great adventure to inspire ours. We will be working with essences and concentrations more and more as we move into more advanced potions and we will be learning how to capture those even better than we've been doing so far, but today we will be working with the most ethereal essence of all: aroma."
Professor Brooding-Hawthorne smiled at the class again and retrieved a jar from the desk where she was leaning. Taking the lid off and taking a deep inhale, she smiled a bit more dazedly at the happy smell of roses inside. Charmed not to come out of the jar entirely, Mary walked around the room and let anyone sniff who was interested. "This sort of charmwork is far too advanced for us in this class and certainly at this level, but we will be looking at the step beforehand: how do you collect a scent to preserve? You've all been working with ingredients and essences and oils and things for several years now. Tell me: what are ways that you can extract stronger smells - or other essences - from ingredients?"
The professor returned to the front of the class and waved her wand to take notes of answers like crushing them in a mortar, burning them, steaming them, scrapping them, boiling them, drying them, etc. Any sort of answer that got students a little bit closer to collecting some sort of essence from an ingredient went up on the board.
"Very good," Professor Brooding-Hawthorne smiled. "Today, we are going to be focusing on discovering which of these methods work best for extracting aromas - smells, scents, odors - from ingredients. Methods may vary by the ingredient you choose, and you'll note that not all of the things available to you today are traditional ingredients, although all of them can be used for one brew or another. I'd like for you to work in partners if possible, so you can brainstorm together and see some other methods that work on different ingredients than your own. Don't worry about collecting the aroma, but you should definitely be able to smell it when you've done it, and you can try more than one way. Go ahead and fill out your lab notes as we've been doing and you'll turn those in before you leave for the day. Happy brewing!"
OOC: This is largely up to your own imagination and creativity, but I am happy to help brainstorm if you'd like, or Mary is if your character needs some ideas. Generally, straight up torching something isn't going to give you much of a smell beyond the smell of charcoal, but your character is welcome to try whatever they'd like. Enjoy!
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Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Smell you later, kiddos! [Intermediates, III-V]
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