Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
October 17, 2021 10:43 PM
Something something something RATS. [Advanced] by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Professor Brooding-Hawthorne wasn't sure she'd ever been so tired in her life. She wasn't even sure she could properly say why she was so exhausted; Zeus slept through the night now, Tabitha was present most of the time and helped keep their shared bed warm enough for Mary to feel snuggly and such, and she was caught up on grades. Still, her state of exhaustion had not improved since earlier in the term and possibly only gotten worse. Her droopy eyes were full of love despite the dark circles that hung beneath them as she gazed at her gathered students. After having met with Dorian in Tumbleweed, she couldn't help thinking of how she was about to lose another group soon; it was a fact that weighed harder on her with each passing year at Sonora and she tried to pay attention to each student as she passed back their papers."Most of you succeeded in creating a potent Essence of Insanity potion - no, I didn't drink them to test them - and all of you wrote sufficient papers exploring the problematic naming conventions found in older, standardized recipes. We're going to be continuing our unit on mind-altering potions and moving into those related to healing. Next term, we'll be working with the memory potion but studies have suggested that there is a massive link between memory and sleep, so for this unit, we'll be working with sleeping potions and part of your homework will be to read that study." She waved a wand, sending handouts of the article she had in mind around the room. "You've already learned to concoct a regular sleeping potion so now we'll be turning our attention to dreamless sleep. Today's class will be focused on brewing this recipe with a partner. Take the opportunity to discuss your dreams, their impacts on your life, why you think they're important, etc. You'll be writing a paper on that topic, summarizing the article I passed around, and beginning work on a sleep journal and reflection exercise based on taking this potion every night for a week as homework. I have vials for you all, you won't risk taking your own brews, but I will be grading them, as usual. In those reflections, please pay special attention to the impact of dreamless sleep on your memory, if you notice any such impact, and whether you feel more or less rested, or if you feel the same as usual."
With that, Mary made a few more gestures, putting the homework up on the board, making note of where the recipe could be found in their textbook, and sending vials around the room for students to bottle their potion when they were done for the day for her to grade.
"As always, please turn in your lab notes with your potion and let me know if you have any questions. I would encourage folks to work with people in the same year group as themselves, but it's certainly not required. Seventh years, I can tell you that the theory behind sleep and dreaming features fairly prominently on the RATS, both as its own subject and as a feature of other topics, such as memory, illness, and more." With that, Mary sat down at her desk, took out some chocolate covered espresso beans from a drawer, and began munching as she watched her students get started.
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Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Something something something RATS. [Advanced]
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