fandomhigh | Basics of Alchemy - Period 5

Today, perhaps finally there was some minor lab equipment set up at the desks. Today, they were starting practical work, and Abby Irene herself couldn't be happier. The theory was all well and good, but you didn't really understand anything until you got your hands into it, deep down and dirty into it, got it under your fingernails and up in your hair.

There were no bad hair days like those experienced by alchemy students.

As the assembled made their way in, she smiled at them.

"Today, we start with the practical work."

"A Spagyric tincture will be our first lesson, and if you haven't smelled it already, you'll be working with peppermint today, as it is a Monday. If you look on the handout next to your equipment, you'll see a few species of herbs and their associated astrological bodies. It doesn't take much of a genius to figure out that Monday is the day of the Moon, but I've also included another handout with a chart for the astrological bodies and their associated days.

"Traditionally, we would try to start the work during the hour of the day associated with the planet that rules this plant, but we only have so many options with a class schedule, so the day will have to suffice. A quick prayer would not be amiss here, nor would an invocation of the plant but as these are more magical and personal than alchemical, I will leave them to your discretion.

"We then begin grinding the plant in the mortar and pestle provided in small quantities so as not to do a sloppy job, while concentrating on the work of bringing the plants qualities into fuller bloom. Alchemy is not an art where one might dawdle with the mind as the body works; true alchemy involves transformation in the physical, mental, and spiritual realms.

"When you've made a true powder of it, you would place it in the jars provided and start, very slowly, to pour in the grain alcohol. Only put so much as twice as it would take to cover all of the powder as room is needed for expansion as the contents heat during the maceration process. Place some of the plastic wrapping between the jar lip and the cover and close it tightly.

"This will take a couple of weeks, and so I will ask you all to take your jars home with you and tend to them once a day with a couple of shakes and perhaps a bit of contemplation. Your results will be all the better for the attention you give to this jar, and the respect you give to your own work."

[ocd up!]

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"I would be delighted to be your partner," Andrew replied. "Should we start with a, um, prayer?"

"To protect us from ourselves?" Tony grinned. "I'm not into praying, though, so you'll have to do it."

"I'm not really sure I know who to pray to," he said. "Maybe we should just skip that step and get right to the grinding."

That's what he said.

"Sure, sounds good to me," Tony said with a straight face. He sprinkled a small amount of herb into their mortar. Or was it the pestle? "Which one's the mortar and which is the pestle?"

"This," Andrew picked up the heavy stick, "is a pestle, and this," he tapped it to the bowl, "is the mortar." He grinned, happy to share what he knows.

"Do you want me to show you the proper technique for making this into a paste?"

"Please," Tony said, pushing the mortar towards Andrew. "Have you done a lot of this stuff?"

He nodded. "This is pretty basic stuff in summoning," he said. "And it's one of those things you need to know when you work at a magic store. People ask for all kinds of interesting concoctions."

"What kind of stuff have you summoned?" Tony asked.

"Nothing too scary," he lied. "I summoned some flying monkeys last years. They were really cute." No they weren't.

"Wow, cool! Did you control them somehow?"

Andrew added a little more of the spice. "That's kind of the key to summoning. You have to be careful not to call forth something you can't control, so research is really important. It helps if you can be really menacing."

Edited 2008-09-30 02:16 (UTC)

Tony watched what Andrew was doing. "Menacing?"

"Yeah, make them fear you, show them who's boss." He nodded.

"How intelligent are they?" Tony asked.

"Most of the things I've summoned aren't very bright," he said. "But some of them can be as smart as us -- smarter, even."

"Demons," Tony guessed, not able to suppress a shudder. That's how he'd met Henry - badly hurt and in need of blood after fighting a demon someone had summoned.

Andrew noticed the shudder. "Are you okay?" he asked, pausing the grinding.

Tony nodded. "I've seen the results of a demon summoning," he said. "You don't do that kind of thing, do you?"

Andrew tossed in more of the peppermint, much more than he should have, and started to pound it. He seemed very intent in his work.

"Not anymore," he said after a pause.

Tony noticed the pause. "Did you used to?"

He thought about his brother, the rows of Hellhounds, how proud he had been to help Tucker summon them.

He nodded. "But not anymore."

"Why would you do it at all?" Tony exclaimed. He couldn't see demon summoning as anything but evil and he couldn't imagine Andrew as evil.

Andrew gulped and stopped grinding. He started to say something, but stopped, unsure of how to answer. What was he going to say?

"I, um... My parents..." No, he didn't want to get into that now. "I grew up next to the Hellmouth," he said. "In Sunnydale, you either knew about the things that went bump in the night or you ended up a victim. I thought it was wise to, you know, study the enemy, learn how to control it."

That was, at least in part, truthful.

Edited 2008-09-30 03:17 (UTC)

"Oh," Tony said, deflated by this explanation. "That does make sense. Sorry. Where I come from, demons are usually there because someone invited them over from another dimension. I'm kinda against that."

He was curious what Andrew's parents had to do with demon summoning, but Andrew clearly didn't want to talk about that.

Andrew breathed a tiny sigh of relief. "But, like I said, I've given it up." Granted, it wasn't by choice, but it was what was required for him to stay in Fandom.

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