12 Dec 2024, 06:13
Double Bubble, Flame, and Trouble
Brewing a potion with: Reuben Garcia @Mellani Miller
Hogwarts was putting Della through the wringer at the beginning of her fourth year. A week before the fall ball and the first big broom racing game of the season, the tired captain found herself in the Great Hall attempting to brew a potion. She was pretty adept at potions actually, so she wasn't too worried how this one would turn out. But she was nervous that they were strongly encouraged to work in groups and that the task this was all leading to could be more strenuous and dangerous than she had originally thought. She had scrambled at the last minute to find a partner. A kid from Uagadou was free and also scrambling, so they made a quick alliance. Della didn't know much about the boy except that he was a year younger and very very outgoing. She didn't know anything about the academics at his school, so she hoped he had some flair for potionmaking.
She laid out her supplies on a table in the Great Hall, quickly surveying the other teams their age. She hoped they had made the right decision on what potions to brew. It wasn't obvious which potions other people had chosen, so she focused in on her own work.
Della turned to Reuben, "Are you ready? I'll start." He seemed like he could be one for chitchat, but Della would only be half-listening while she brewed the first half of the potion. She didn't want to come off as rude—Reuben did seem cool and sporty, and she made a mental note to talk about their interests once the potion brewing was done—but now she had to concentrate to ensure they'd survive the task.
She carefully took three sprigs of mint, enjoying the aroma that came off them as she pulverized them into a paste with a mortar and pestle. She added a small teaspoon of that to the cauldron. Next, she grabbed two bursting mushrooms and sliced them carefully and equally, and added them to the cauldron. She stirred this mixture three times, ensuring that she was moving the same way a clock did.
"So far, so good," she said more to herself than to Reuben. She waved her wand over the cauldron, turning the heat to high and setting a timer for ten minutes.
Turning to her partner, she asked "So you're a duelist, right? How has that been going?" She hoped that was the perfect amount of conversion for the allotted time before the next step. Once the timer went off, Della would lower the heat to a light simmer and pass the brewing to Reuben.
WC: 435/400
sta 8 - eva 16 - str 5 - wis 11 - arc 5 - accuracy 13 |||| Parselmouth - Evasive Maneuvers - Beast Master
also Ruckus Weems | Quentin Gagné
12 Dec 2024, 16:01
Double Bubble, Flame, and Trouble
|
|
Sometime before the ball | English | Arabic | Spanish |
Reuben was quite excited for the potions breqing championship. It was his first time participating in something like this and he was determined to give his best. He knew that they were encouraged to work in teams, and under any other circumstances, he would have gone with Lorelai, but it did not seem like she was going to participate in this competition, besides the fact that she seemed pretty elusive this time. Maybe that was what happened when you only met your girlfriend thrice an year.
Reuebn was worried that he would not find a partner, but it turned out to be pretty easy. All he did was go around and ask everyone who seemed alone and around his age if they were in need of a partner, and soon enough he found someone just like that. Plenty of the other people he asked just stared at him or politely said no, but it did not affect Reuben in the least. Those who wanted to stare could stare.
Reuben soon learnt that his teammate's name was Della, and she was an year older to him. She seemed pretty quiet, but Reuben was sure he could encourage her to talk. He had made Zophyr talk, after all. However, he was not going to do it while she was in the preocess of preparing the potion. He was well aware how much concentration that required.
"I'm definitely ready! Go ahead!" he replied when she asked whether he was ready. As she started doing her part, Reuben silently looked at the recipe, just to make sure nothing was going wrong. Having nothing to do, he kept removing his gloves and wearing them or just fiddling with them.
Finally, Della seemed to have completed her part, and had kept the potion to heat for 10 minutes. Enough time to have a good conversation. "Yeah, I'm a duelist! More my parents than me, since they have this thing that every pure-blood should be a duelist or something? Never made much sense to me, but they aren't going to change their minds so I might as well have some fun while at it, I guess. As for duels, I've won a few, lost a few, but all I care about is participating. Aslo I speak a lot, so if it's too much, just say so, I'll totally understand. You're captain of Broom racing, right? How's that going? I heard something about Slytherin always losing and some curse or something? Is that true?" He knew he was asking too many questions, so he shut up, waiting for Della to reply.
When Della gave him the cauldron, he added an ounce of salamander blood to it, trying not to think too much about how it had been obtained. He then stirred the solution exactly 8 times counter-clockwise. After that was done, he added 2 wartcaps to the mortar and crushed them into a fine powder, before adding the powder to the cauldron. He was tempted to stir it, but he forced himself not to, turning on the timer for 20 seconds and leaving the cauldron on low heat. He did not trust himself to count to 20 accurately, which was why he used the timer, turning off the heat the second the timer rang. He then stirred the potion 7 times clockwise, wore his gloves, waved his wand and poured it into two vials. "Hopefully we haven't messed up and this will work", he said, really hoping he was right.
Mentioning: Lorelai @Violeta Roux, Zoph @Mahlioz Evethisawe
Calming Presence | Evasive ManeuversReducioOOC: Calming presence in effect
iNPC: Reuben Garcia