Potions class

[degeneratewolfe]

Valentine waited until what he'd judged was the last straggler to make their way in and shut the door. The dungeon classroom was, for the moment, brightly lit and students were paired up in front of cauldrons. There were a number of beanbags shoved off against one wall. "Why, hello," he said, waiting for whatever chatter was in the air to die

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[senorcyborg]

Victor had barely finished making the potion when crackling threads of electricity began to crawl up his arms and sparked between them, and a few items on his table began to levitate, just hovering in the air without going anywhere. He'd continued to occasionally have problems with the Hogwarts anti-technology field despite all the magic workarounds he'd found, so he wasn't very surprised when this happened, but did mutter an embarrassed string of curses in Spanish. He quickly tried to diagnose and repair the latest problem before he caused any accidents.

((OOC- Jasper'll be stepping in to take care of it.))

[j_whitlock]

((Since Vic and Jasper won't be too affected by the drugs, they may as well be paired up so they can laugh at everyone else. :p))

Upon noticing Victor's not so little problem Jasper reacted on instinct, gesturing with a hand while muttering the same spell that had nullified the electricity when Victor had accidentally started to electrify the lake before. The spell worked-for the moment-and he reached out and deftly caught any of the now falling items that looked like they might spill or break.

He moved to stand next to Victor, offering a sympathetic smile as he returned the items to their rightful places. He couldn't help but empathise with his problems-if Victor lost control, he could electrocute everyone. If Jasper lost control, he could rip everyone apart and eat them. Neither were very ideal situations. "Hey Victor," he said quietly. "Still having issues?"

[senorcyborg]

((OOC- Yes XD))

Victor looked up, embarrassed but grateful for Jasper's help. "Um. A little. And thanks... again. Don't know if it was the field this time, or..." He ducked his head and mumbled, "I'm starting to think sometimes it's a reaction to the people here."

He didn't elaborate on that theory as he drank his potion, frowning a little at the taste, and feeling disappointed when there wasn't a noticeable change in his thoughts--just as clear as they ever were--or perceptions. Maybe it didn't work on people who weren't entirely organic, he thought with a touch of bitterness.

[j_whitlock]

"Has someone been bothering you?" Jasper wasn't one to pry too much, but he was perfectly willing to offer a sympathetic ear if Victor wanted one. He opted to use the station next to Victor's, methodically preparing his potion ingredients, triple checking everything before brewing the potion itself, and then cautiously sipping it.

He experienced the same disappointment when it failed to enhance his mind in any noticeable way-though it did influence some of his other senses in strange, almost uncomfortable ways, considering how keen they were even under normal circumstances. It was a bit like the effects of the Spice that Vladimir had shared with him. And speaking of. He briefly glanced toward where the Baron was lounging, not even having to wonder why he'd be there as an observer. He was a bit surprised by what he could sense whenever the Baron was looking at the Potions professor, though, since Valentine didn't seem like Vladimir's usual type. But Vladimir's (not so?) secret crush was safe with him.

[i_am_an_hero]

A wit-sharpeningg potion sounded quite excellent to A, and he set to preparing the ingredients. The second part of the lesson sounded more intimidating, but interesting.

[righteous_pen]

"I wasn't aware that that was what he meant by 'non-traditional'," Mikami complained, grinding beetles irritatedly at the table beside A. The only reason he wasn't saying this to Valentine directly was that salvia divinorum was in fact legal in the UK, even outside the wizarding world with its inconsistent policies on mind-altering substances, which meant that the only thing he'd be protesting was the fact that the class was exactly as advertised.

(Actually, that wasn't the only reason. He would have said something to Valentine anyway, except... spiritual insight. He didn't necessarily believe there would be any more to the 'visions' than hallucinations, but - well - he still had a god he wanted to commune with. Even if he wasn't really a god at all. Probably he should have paid more attention to the warning about mental state.)

He looked up at A. "I - ah, I wanted to congratulate you on becoming prefect, by the way."

[i_am_an_hero]

"The last Potions class he, he, he had something similar. 'Non-traditional', I mean." A laughed nervously. He still felt conflicted about Mikami. "And thank you. I, I know you were running as well. You would have made a good prefect."

[righteous_pen]

Mikami was silent for a moment, pausing in smashing the beetles. "...thank you," he said, quietly. "I'm glad someone thought so."

[charlesofdensen]

Ofdensen, nerd that he is, studiously prepared his ingredients. He could see why the others would be interested in this class. A legal chance to do drugs? Sign them up!

[needsanewliver]

Nathan was unsurprisingly making a mess of his potion ingredients as he tried to prepare them. This wizarding crap was too much work, in his opinion. He just wanted to get to the good part. Noticing that Ofdensen apparently knew what he was doing, Nathan leant closer and spoke in an undertone, "Hey, do mine next."

[charlesofdensen]

Ofdensen nodded, finished the potions, then handed them over to Nathan, starting again for his own. "I'll write this stuff down before drinking it, but you should too, if you want to use this potion again."

He had no doubt Pickles would write it down.

[needsanewliver]

He was clearly surprised Ofdensen had agreed so easily, and even without any ridiculous threats of firing him. Awesome. Doubly awesome because Nathan probably would have ended up in the hospital wing after drinking anything he'd prepared himself.

"Yeah... That's a good idea," he said, jotting down the instructions on some parchment before taking the wit-sharpening potion. He usually preferred simpler stuff like pot and beer, but wasn't about to turn down easy (and legal!) wizarding drugs. "Heh, we should've planned a band practise today so we could all do it high. That'd be interesting. Maybe Murderface and Toki wouldn't suck as much as usual."

[cockneysplosive]

"You're kidding!" Basher said with barely concealed excitement. While he had only done drugs a couple times (and nothing stronger than shrooms), this was sanctioned by the bloody professor!

[precisely_split]

Chiri decided that, despite this being a school, as long as the teacher is able to tie the drugs into the lesson (as Valentine had) then there is no reason to complain. It may not be proper for a normal school, but a magic school does get some leeway in Chiri's ultimate standards.

"Please do not get ahead of yourself," Chiri says to her partner. "We must properly prepare the wit-sharpening potion's ingredients first."

As she says that Chiri begins to grind the beetles she will use.

[cockneysplosive]

Basher looked at Chiri with some amusement. This kid was telling him what to do? He noticed the hat. He's seen the one that one queer prefect was wearing. He wondered if she was one as well.

"What's with the hat?" he asked as he prepped his own beetles.

[precisely_split]

Chiri pauses her preparation to seriously look at her partner and introduce herself, "This is the hat I received when I became prefect to Bitchiwitch. My name is Chiri."

Chiri doesn't believe her prefect crab hat should take too much attention away from their task, so she waits for Basher to reply and hopes that he doesn't spend too much time on this insignificant detail.

[best_guitarist]

Skwisgaar was faring only slightly better than Nathan had with his potion ingredients, but hadn't yet tried to foist the work off on someone else, since he wasn't aware it was an option. The instructions weren't that complicated, anyway... but that didn't explain why he was somehow utterly failing to grind the beetles the right way. They were just kind of getting smashed up and were even more gross looking now, but not what could pass for 'ground'. Maybe it required more wrist action or something. Who knew making potions could be so similar to giving a handjob.

Glancing over to check on Toki's progress or lack thereof, he raised an eyebrow. "Yous even starteds yet?"

[isnotabumblebee]

Toki had not really started yet. His beetle-grinding attempt was extremely slow going, as, he wasn't very keen on touching the things, so it took him a while to even get the beetles into the mortar, and he looked disgusted the whole time. "Tryings to start. . .just, I don't likes insects. But at least they're not frozen." Somehow, growing up in Norway had caused Toki to have an aversion to insects, because there, they were frozen. He started trying to grind the beetles, but had about as much trouble as Skwisgaar- there was nothing 'ground- about the mess of smashed bug in his mortar. "But maybes they shoulds be frozen. . .might grinds up then. But maybe ground insects are just squisheds." He turned his deddy bear, which he'd actually brought to class and had sitting on the table, so that it wasn't facing the gross mess, and hesitantly went back to trying to smash them some more.

[shoggies]

((Edited for typo))

Toki and Skwisgaar's efforts were splendid compared to those of their 'eyesball throw-up childrens'. The Shoggies that had accompanied them were actually trying to do their best, but, Shoggy 10 had eaten half its beetles, and Shoggy 18 had drank most of their armadillo bile. They also weren't sure what half the directions meant, so Shoggy 4.6 presumed "ground beetles" were beetles that had been smashed flat on the ground. Mostly, they were just making a mess.

[best_guitarist]

"You means likes de freeze bugs?" Skwisgaar asked, snickering under his breath. He hadn't ever encountered the frozen insects Toki had once described, so found the thought pretty amusing. Considering Toki's upbringing, what he thought were mere 'frozen bugs' quite possibly could have been something worse...

Skwisgaar tried switching hands, wondering if maybe potion making was like using a wand, where the dominant hand is supposed to be used (Odin only knew why he remembered such an inconsequential detail -- he barely ever used his wand). This of course produced the exact same ineffective results, since his obsessive guitar playing had turned him ambidextrous and he didn't have a dominant hand anymore