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
22
Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
The antidote to summer break [Intermedites]
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Valentine Duell
March 21, 2021 12:26 PM
This seems like a good thing to know [Alexander & Mab] by Valentine Duell
Valentine was having a pretty day so far. The best part so far was coming from Aunt Giselle's class, that had been fantastic! She was terribly confused about what the class had actually been about, but it had been great! Now they were onto the last class of the day, Potions! Potions was a fun class, Professor Brooding-Hawthorne was wonderful and she was doing alright in the class itself. She also got to play 'mad scientist' with Bonabelle! Usually. Being in intermediate classes was exciting as well, she was back with the people she had classes with her first year here! That meant she could sit with Morgan, or Alexander, or Sadie, or Esme again!Ordinarily she liked to get to classes early, so she could work on gaming stuff before class started. However, she hadn't gotten a chance to connect with Ness yet to see what plans were in store for the gaming club this year. She had gotten some initial plans together for a game the first half of the summer, but then with the traveling she hadn't looked over them recently. However, with the new class level... and maybe hanging around after Divinations to chat with the Professor a bit, she wasn't exactly 'early' to Potions class today.
Upon entering the room she immediately returned the Professor's beaming smile and then took in the classroom. The first thing she noticed was the Bonabelle had already found a partner, Stanley. That was a little odd, Bonabelle had asked about working with him after... after... but it was fine. She was probably planning on finding out some more about Wally. That would be nice. She could be happy perhaps, she remembered their talks last year about her feelings of loneliness and boys and such. Maybe if she got to know Wally better..? She smiled at the thought and continued to scan the room for a seat.
There! She walked over and took the empty seat next to Alexander! He was already sitting next to Mab, but that would be alright. Hanging out with Mab would be fun as well. She hadn't gotten to much during her first year, and last year they hadn't been in the same classes. Now she could fix that! She got out her class things and set them in place, all ready to go while greeting them both with a bright smile. This would be great, Alexander had agreed to help her out get adjusted to these intermediate classes. Unfortunately, due to her lack of earliness of arrival, they didn't have much time to talk before Professor Brooding-Hawthorne began class.
Valentine took her recipe page as it arrived and clipped it into her binder at the appropriate location. She glanced over it quickly while the professor talked about it. She was pretty sure she had helped Mama had made some of this, just to have around. It sounded like it was something you wanted to have around when you needed it. You probably didn't want to be stuck trying to brew it when you needed it. That probably wouldn't turn out well.
The second sheet that came her way was the normal blank process sheet they'd been doing. She was glad to see that they were still around. She liked them, they helped her keep everything straight with what she was doing. Even if she did add the occasional 'Maniacal Laughter' step here and there on them. She noticed that Alexander and Mab had gotten two sheets though, but the professor quickly explained why that was. Uh-oh. She was going to have to do this neatly and properly if she was going to have to look at it again next year.
Val did have a question or two, but nothing really important. Maybe Alexander or Mab, being more experienced, knew the answer. She'd ask them. So, once they were released to begin working (and encouraged to talk to each other), she turned to her tablemates. "Hi!" She opened cheerily. "How are you guys doing? Anything new or exciting?" Wait... class stuff. She should probably do some class stuff. She began to prep some of the equipment she would need, but couldn't resist. "Thanks again for offering to help me Alexander." That was class related, right? "Got any tips for a new intermediate?" She tossed that question out to either of them. They both had sheets that may give them some insights to answering that question.
OOC: Bonablle, Mab, Alexander and Stanley bits approved by their authors.
2
Valentine Duell
This seems like a good thing to know [Alexander & Mab]
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Mab
March 21, 2021 2:14 PM
My summer break does not need an antidote. by Mab
Mab was trying very hard to keep a low profile. She had made a scene at the concert last year, and while that hadn't bothered her at the time, the closer she got to returning to school, the more mortified she became of what she'd done in front of witnesses. She had shouted - shouted, when there were people in the school who must have thought she was at least selectively mute given how little she voluntarily talked at all - and not only had she shouted but the shout had very specifically drawn attention to the fact that her mom and Bel (who was very clearly a woman) were newly married. And then she'd attacked Bel.And that told everyone that (a) Mom used to be a single mom, (b) Mom slept with women, and (c) Mab was probably a violent sociopath with bad martial form. And while all of these conclusions had at least some grain of truth to them, if not the whole story, and while none of them particularly bothered Mab (except for how sloppy her form had been during her attack; she deeply wished she'd at least looked a little more competent while making a scene), none of them were things she wanted to be held as common knowledge at her school because there were loads of people who would be bothered by some or all of those things.
So she was trying to keep a low profile. She'd been sitting close to Alexander all day because she was nervous that anyone else might make a comment about it, and then she'd have to either punch them or run away.
(Explaining was completely out of the question. She wouldn't know where to begin, even if she had been so inclined, which she wasn't. The wedding, the fact that Mab had worn a dress and carried flowers, the trauma of seeing Mom and Bel kiss, the adoptions that were still in progress, the new apartment, those were all private. Even Sadie had only gotten the briefest of updates - "My custody arrangement got worked out and I'm with my mom again. It's good." - on what had happened this summer.)
She had almost made it through the first day of classes without getting into a fight when Valentine Duell joined her and Alexander at their potions table. Mab scowled at her but it seemed to roll right off the girl. Go away, you're not welcome, Mab thought at her, but either the girl was an obstinate mind reader or she didn't hear the command because she didn't leave.
The class started then, and Mab tried to ignore her. The lesson was one they'd had before, which was a kind of nice way to ease back into school.
But Mab had made a snap decision at the beginning of her second year and spent the last two years actively avoiding Valentine Duell, and as soon as the lecture was over, she felt entirely justified in doing so. She'd been right. Valentine Duell talked too much.
She looked at Alexander and tried telepathy again: She's your Housemate. You deal with her.
1
Mab
My summer break does not need an antidote.
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0
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
March 26, 2021 11:25 AM
I do feel a bit poisoned though. by Alexander Pierce-Beales
Alexander was still riding the high of summer but it was becoming more normal. Life was becoming more normal, as school resumed and spending time with Mab in their usual places - often class of course - resumed. It was nice. It was easy. And then all of a sudden it was harder.Had Valentine always smelled pretty?
He was determined not to be an absolute weirdo even though Mab looked like she might be perfectly happy to poison the newcomer whether or not Alexander had an antidote ready. He widened his eyes a bit at her when she looked at him, hoping he could somehow convey please help me look cool even though he was pretty sure it wasn't going to get communicated clearly. Also, he wasn't sure that Mab would be able to help him look cool; she knew too much about him and was way more likely to be able to blackmail him than anything else. Although she wouldn't do that. Probably.
"Happy to help," Alexander replied, his expression pleasant if not outright smiling. The question about their summer was one he was completely sure Mab didn't want him to go off answering in detail so he skipped that altogether. Besides, this was class time. "Mab's better at this stuff than me," he added when Valentine asked about whether they had any tips. He pretty much immediately regretted tossing the ball into his fos-- adopted sister's court because she . . . did not look like sharing. "Being meticulous is the biggest thing that's helped me," he added, stumbling a bit over himself because of course he couldn't just be cool for one stupid second.
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
I do feel a bit poisoned though.
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Valentine Duell
March 26, 2021 8:26 PM
Well, we'll just need to fix that up. by Valentine Duell
Mab wasn't saying anything, but that was alright. Valentine knew that Mab wasn't a very talkative person, and it looked like the other girl may have been having a rough first day back at school. While she hadn't seen the scene that had taken place at the concert, Val had heard rumors of it. She dismissed them naturally, while she enjoyed talking with people and spending time with them, she did not like idle gossip. It was much better to talk to people directly than talk about them. That was what those rumors sounded like to her. Even if they were somehow true, and Mab had really nearly killed an Auror in the middle of the school only to be nearly killed by them, it wasn't really her place to comment on it. Also that may even be more reason that Mab needed friends right now. So she gave Mab a friendly and understanding smile. Mab could be quiet, that was okay. Bonabelle liked quiet as well sometimes.Alexander on the other hand looked much happier. Things must be going better for him, he was practically smiling! She felt some extra bubble of happiness in her because of that. He was still willing, no, happy to help her! He was really nice and seemed anxious to move onto the classwork, which was probably safer. She glanced around to see where the Professor's attention was at the moment before turning her attention back to her tablemates. Maybe she could catch up wither summer news and stuff later. "Then I did sit at the right place!" Valentine stated happily when Alexander mentioned Mab's excellence at the subject matter. Then she nodded along as Alexander gave his advise. "I'm not doing to... well, I wasn't doing to terrible in this class last year." She corrected herself as she moved from the upper tier of beginners to the lowest tier of intermediates. Although, to be fair, she wasn't doing to bad so far. She had her recipe and some of her equipment out. She couldn't be to far behind everyone else yet, right?
"That is one part I'm trying to get better at." She held up the blank process sheet, "These have been really helpful to make sure I get everything done properly." She gave it a look, "And now that I know I'm going to see it again, I'm going to have to be extra good with filling it out." She looked between Mab and Alexander, "So, where do we start? Filling the cauldron?"
2
Valentine Duell
Well, we'll just need to fix that up.
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Mab
March 27, 2021 6:57 PM
Did she do it? Should I get rid of her? by Mab
Mab was pretty sure Alexander was trying to use telepathy back at her, but beyond something that might have been a plea for help - maybe he thought Val talked too much, too? was Mab supposed to get rid of the younger girl? - she was no better at understanding him than he was at understanding her. But then he did turn to Valentine and talk to her . . . by throwing Mab under the bus.After frowning in disagreement to Valentine's assertion that she had sat at the right table, Mab gave Alexander a Look. What part of anything he knew about her made him think she'd want to give a talkative young Teppenpaw potions advice? Then he thankfully remembered himself - and who Mab was - and offered his own potions advice to the third year instead. She was mildly surprised that Alexander seemed . . . well, she wasn't sure how he seemed, but he didn't seem like he wanted Mab to scare the younger girl away, anyway.
Instead, Mab started writing on her new process sheet, more or less ignoring both of them. She glanced from time to time between the book and the one from last year, to make sure she hadn't been a total ignoramus a year ago, but her previous year's sheet seemed to be largely fine, though she added a few more clarifying details to the one for this year, details that she hadn't thought had been particularly important last time but which now seemed more significant after a year of intermediate study.
Her attention was drawn back to the other two when Valentine started waving around her own blank sheet and asked where to start. "Process sheet," Mab said shortly, almost against her own will, but there was an order to things, and Valentine apparently didn't know it, and Mab didn't want a potion exploding right next to her. "Make your plan. Follow it." Then she returned her attention to doing just that for herself, having said as much as she ever intended to say to Valentine Duell.
1
Mab
Did she do it? Should I get rid of her?
1473
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
April 07, 2021 11:02 AM
Yes to you, no to you. by Alexander Pierce-Beales
Alexander had heard of people who went up to the mountains in the snow and spent time in hot tubs, where the cold snowy air could lick at them on one side while the warm water jawed them from the other. He'd thought it was weird. Why would anyone want to be between something so cold and so hot-- uh, warm? Well, standing here with Mab and Valentine respectively, he thought he understood what it felt like. Now he thought it was really weird that people did that and he solidly added Mab to the list of people to never ask to attend a double date with him or to chaperone him anywhere. Bel might be more friendly about it than Mab was, and Mab was at least Valentine's age. He tried to be considerate of what he knew of his sister and the fact that she was making choices the same way Alexander did: by doing what seemed the safest given all known circumstances.But still. She could be a little more helpful.
He tried both to ignore the Look Mab shot him and also not to shoot her his own look at her advice to Valentine, but nodded in agreement. "It does help to have an idea where you're going before you start," he agreed. "But filling the cauldron takes a minute sometimes. Sometimes I'll do that while I start my sheet." He didn't actually ever do that; he followed Mab's lead and Mab's lead was cautious and methodical, but he didn't want Valentine to feel like her idea straight sucked.
Trying not to notice if Mab gave him another Look, he nodded at the sheet he'd previously filled out, pointing to where he'd annotated it afterwards in cramped, albeit still neat, handwriting. "It helps to leave yourself some space to add notes and reminders for next time," he added.
22
Alexander Pierce-Beales
Yes to you, no to you.
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Valentine Duell
April 07, 2021 5:48 PM
Wait, I'm getting confused by Valentine Duell
Alexander was right. Mab was good at this, she was focused, she was 'in the zone'. Valentine Thought she caught some looks passing between Mab and Alexander, and if she wasn't mistaken, Mab was a little bit annoyed by something. She couldn't see Alexander's 'looks' very well as he was facing away from her to look at Mab on his other side. Perhaps they were discussing things to loudly an disrupting Mab's focus. Alexander was probably visually apologizing to her.When he began talking to her again, he wasn't being much quieter though. She hadn't been very clear with her statement, so it wasn't their fault that they had misunderstood. Val had been asking what they thought the first step to put on the process sheet was, based off of their previous experience. Usually 'filling the cauldron' had been at least one of the first steps on her sheets in the beginners class, did that hold true here in intermediates? She hadn't seen anything that looked like it would come first from her initial look over the instructions, but you never knew.
As it was, apparently she had sown a bit of discord here. She'd like to clear that up, but do so without causing more problems would be ideal. Unfortunately, she didn't have much experience with Mab, she didn't know how best to do that with the older girl. She may need to remedy that this year if they were going to share classes for a little while. It may be easier to get to know Mab by herself though, she would need to find some time when Alexander wasn't around maybe.
In the meantime, she had a mischievous idea for Alexander and she did her best not to grin. He'd tried to agree with both of them and that was really sweet of him. He was a good Teppenpaw. However, that had left her an excellent opportunity that she was loath to miss. She smiled at him super sweetly, poised her quill over the sheet, hesitated and then looked at him in worried confusion. "How do I put on the sheet to start filling the cauldron before working on the sheet without working on the sheet first?"
She held the expression for just a moment or two, then she couldn't help it. It cracked into a playful smile with a quite giggle. Mab was still trying to concentrate after all.
2
Valentine Duell
Wait, I'm getting confused
1490
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