Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
March 20, 2021 9:28 PM
The antidote to summer break [Intermedites] by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Mary greeted her intermediate class for their first class of the new year with her signature beaming smile. Intermediates were always fun (although Mary liked something about each of her classes) because the students who were no longer present weren't all the way gone yet and the students who were joining weren't quite new. Everyone was settled and everyone was familiar with how things worked for the most part. Of course, they were also young teenagers and puberty made everything unsettled and unfamiliar, but that was part of the nature of growing up and Mary loved to watch her sweet students grow up. It made her have way too many emotions though, so she tried not to think too much about it and instead focused on how proud she was of all of them as she greeted them all, exchanging brief pleasantries as they took their seats around the room. Desks were set up for two to three students to comfortably share and although there were tall stools set at each one, they were a reasonable height for most students to stand if they preferred and some students had historically preferred to sit on the desk. That was fine with Mary so long as they took precautions against catching fire or knocking anything over and understood that safety was necessarily the priority."Hello," Mary said simply, beaming at her students when they'd taken their places. She rocked up on her toes, bringing her to almost average height for a moment before she returned to a regular standing position. The whole time, of course, her feet were hidden beneath the hems of her long skirts which were today the color of soft lavender skies. "It is absolutely wonderful to see you all again and I'm excited to get started! As those of you who are returning to intermediate lessons know, these years focus primarily on two things: preparing you to make the decision to pursue potions into your advanced years and possibly your careers, if you want, and preparing you for life after Sonora if you don't continue potions into your advanced years. Beginner years focus on the nature of potions, what potions are, and how they are used. Now, we'll start looking more deeply at their practical application and a more in depth look at the theory behind them."
With that, she waved her wand, floating a recipe page to each student. Each was in English, but additional copies in other languages were available in books around the room, with that information available at the bottom of the page. Students in potions classes kept binders - which were occasionally graded on proper organization - and the recipe pages were punched to allow easy insertion into the binders. At the top of this particular page, the words Antidote to Common Poisons were written in neat lettering. Neatness was, after all, important for the safety and accuracy of potion-making.
"Those of you who were in intermediates last year will be familiar with this potion but there is benefit to starting with a quick refresher and getting us back in the habit of best practice potion-making. Additionally, this is one potion you may find you need to know for domestic and professional life after graduation." Hopefully no one would ever be poisoned or need to save a friend or family member from poisoning, but there was always the possibility. Most people tended to just purchase such remedies but that wasn't always possible either.
Waving her wand again, Mary then floated process sheets to each student, one blank one for each third year and a blank one and used ones for the older students. "Third years, you'll be filling this out the same as you've done in beginner classes, simply taking notes and answering the lab questions as you go so you can do a proper write up for me for next class. Fourth and fifth years, you'll be doing the same thing but part of your homework will also include an analysis of how your work and process has changed or remained the same based on your notes from previous years. You can put those in your bags for now to review later, you won't need them during class. Please note that they are copies so you can keep them for your own learning if you'd like and there's no point in trying to change them; I'll know what your previous work looked like."
Satisfied that she'd laid the groundwork for class, Mary took a breath and smiled at the room again. "Any questions?" she offered, ready to answer any that applied to the class as a whole and letting students know she'd come by their desk or they should come visit her at the front of the room if the question was more individual. "Go ahead and get started! Although your work is individual, I encourage you to talk with whomever is at your desk with you so that you can compare notes and brainstorm ideas together."
Subthreads: Hi, new Intermediate here (tag Freddie) by Philippe Delachene with Freddie Zauberhexen
This seems like a good thing to know [Alexander & Mab] by Valentine Duell with Mab, Alexander Pierce-Beales
A scientific approach by Bertie Jackson with Mara Morales
Hey, stupid. [Stanley] by Bonabelle Row with Stanley O'Malley
Here I am, responsibly sitting on my table. by Anya Delachene with Theo Spurn
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Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
The antidote to summer break [Intermedites]
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Bonabelle Row
March 26, 2021 11:43 AM
Hey, stupid. [Stanley] by Bonabelle Row
OOC: CW: Bonabelle has some not-nice words happening in her head. Possibly out loud. BIC:
Bonabelle didn't know what she wanted to say to Stanley. Well, she did. She didn't know what she wanted to say and would be acceptable to say to Stanley. But when she got to class and saw him sitting alone, Bonabelle took the seat beside him without a word or a glance. Class was filling quickly; he wouldn't be able to run away. Although apparently he was good at running away and making a fool of himself and abandoning people. He'd firmly added himself to Bonabelle's list of Untrustworthies and she didn't think she could count on him as far as she could throw him. Just for science though, it would be nice to throw him.
Class began and Bonabelle took notes, scrabbling fiercely because she wasn't really focusing as well as she should've been and she knew she'd want to review these later. She tried to keep her expression neutral because Valentine was sitting with a much nicer boy than Stanley and if she looked this way, Bonabelle didn't want to make her worry. She also didn't necessarily want Valentine to date that other boy, but she was mostly just hoping for Valentine's happiness and wellbeing at this point.
The lecture finished and Bonabelle turned to Stanley, since they were going to be working together today. If she couldn't actively give him a reason to need his antidote, then maybe she could scare him into doing a terrible job and getting a terrible grade. Not that he probably needed help failing.
"So," she said in a quiet, albeit sharp voice. "Poison. Got much experience?" She left out her offer to help provide some.
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Bonabelle Row
Hey, stupid. [Stanley]
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Stanley O'Malley
April 05, 2021 4:26 PM
Yep, that's me. by Stanley O'Malley
Stanley Jacob O’Malley was not, by most stretches of the imagination, the most perceptive person alive. It was in fact one of his special Stanley skills to remain oblivious to and unaware of things most people might see and utter a firm, “well duh”. However, this young man was a bit too thick-headed to perceive these obvious states of being, these undeniable truths.But one truth was pretty darn undeniable: Stanley kinda had a feeling that Bonabelle Row did not much care for him.
He was pretty surprised when she took the seat next to him, mere days after the fact of his unceremonious dumping of her best friend had started making the rounds of Sonora’s gossip mill. At least she didn’t say anything, though, so maybe she wouldn’t, like, assault him directly between now and class ending.
Stanley was even more surprised when Bonabelle actually spoke to him. Like on purpose and everything. He was afraid to start another thought with “at least” since the other one had gone right out the window now, but at least she was talking about school and not, like, carrying his head on a spike through the town and presenting it to his weeping mother. And speaking of: “Uh, yeah,” he replied a bit nervously, “my mom’s a potioneer.” He wasn’t amazing at it and often didn’t pay attention when Mom talked about that stuff, but it made him at least vaguely useful to Bonabelle, who was admittedly kinda scary with her sharp but quiet tone. “I know a little bit,” he added humbly.
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Stanley O'Malley
Yep, that's me.
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Bonabelle Row
April 07, 2021 10:54 AM
Self-deprecation won't save you. by Bonabelle Row
"So you don't know much then," Bonabelle said, flipping her textbook open with a whack and looking down at it to make it clear that this comment was not a question; she knew he didn't know much. She didn't know whether he knew enough to know that it wasn't just poisons she was speaking of but that was hardly important. She took a breath, knowing that Valentine would want her to be nice. Knowing she should be nice. Knowing she didn't want to be nice.Fairly often these days, she heard a voice in her head that she would have been tempted to call her conscience if not for the fact that it always sounded like either Uncle Killian or Valentine. Nice people lodging themselves in her head were very irritating because there had once been a time when she could do the self-preserving things without thinking about whether or not it mattered to other people. That was what she had once thought everyone did, but then she'd met Uncle Killian and Valentine and they were both annoyingly good people.
Her eyes were scrolling over the words on the page that Professor Brooding-Hawthorne had sent around the room, since she didn't actually need the textbook right now and had mostly opened it for something to do. She took another breath.
"Isn't it interesting?" she asked, not looking at her classmate. "How some words on a page hold everything necessary to literally kill you?" She paused, then held up the antidote recipe and finally looked at Stanley again. "Or cure you."
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Bonabelle Row
Self-deprecation won't save you.
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Stanley O'Malley
April 11, 2021 1:21 PM
Who needs saving? by Stanley O'Malley
Looking back on things gave Stanley a little more clarity than he was ever able to achieve in the moment, and now looking back, he wasn’t really sure why he had dated Valentine. She was really nice and pretty cute, so he supposed he figured that just sort of the thing you did when you saw a cute girl: you made her yours. Not in like a creepy or possessive way, but just in a way that showed that somebody liked you and you guys were a thing. But he hadn’t really known her that well, which was probably part of the reason it didn’t really work out. They were pretty different people, honestly. Valentine was sweet and gentle, kind of like Wally.But her friend Bonabelle, well, that was another story. She slammed her book shut and cut him with a sharp accusation of his own stupidity: a probably warranted act, all things together, but still sharp and a little startling. Bonabelle was fiery and strong, and actually kind of scary. Like, she was just casually pointing out to him that the words in front of them contained information that could kill him, which was more than a little
It was definitely the most Aladren kind of intimidating possible, and Stanley had to respect that. Bonabelle knew more things than he did, things that could really mess him up probably. Stanley’s best form of intimidation was, like, “hey-nerd-give-me-your-lunch-money”-esque stuff. Not that he’d ever take somebody’s lunch money - he was far more a champion of the meek than a bruiser - but that was more his potential range.
“Why do I get the distinct feeling you’re more interested in one of those over the other?” he asked playfully. “If you poison me, I’m gonna be pretty miffed,” he added, though his tone did not especially reflect the sentiment. It was almost like a dare. Was Stanley an idiot? Yeah, probably.
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Stanley O'Malley
Who needs saving?
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Bonabelle Row
April 21, 2021 4:28 PM
Ugh. You might just be a lost cause. by Bonabelle Row
Bonabelle raised an eyebrow. Stanley was either too stupid to be intimidated or too . . . something. Into it? Did he think she was joking? She should've known subtlety wasn't going to work; she should've punched him in the face after all. At least he seemed to understand what she was saying, even if he didn't understand the sincere risk to his livelihood. Was that . . . almost admirable? There was something to be respected in someone who couldn't be pushed over, although she did not appreciate her anger being laughed at. There was something mildly amusing about the idea of Stanley being 'miffed' about being poisoned though, so her eyebrow came back down and her glower turned into a more flat expression."Good way to test the antidote," she pointed out dryly, not entirely sure why she was going along with it. "Although you'd probably have to do some graveling to get that from me," she added with a sour turn of her mouth, more than a bit disappointed he hadn't already started that. Valentine was in the same room and he hadn't even gone over there to apologize, to explain himself, nothing. Where was the groveling?! Where was the show of consternation?! Boys were stupid.
She sighed and looked at him a bit more fully in the face. "So you know you're stupid," she confirmed, "and you know that I haven't been convinced not to poison you for being stupid and hurting Valentine. Why'd you do it then?"
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Bonabelle Row
Ugh. You might just be a lost cause.
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