Paranormal Activity 101, Tuesday, January 11th

[nojackassfile.livejournal.com]

When the students came into the room on Tuesday they might have noticed that it smelled strongly of old lady (or like a bunch of dried out flowers, rather), but Alaric was acting like he didn't notice anything. If you thought it smelled like old lady now, just wait until later.

"Okay, guys, today we're going to be covering vampires. I'm sure you all know what vampires are, but we're gonna go over the basics anyway for sake of easy test questions when the final comes," Alaric said with a smile. "I realize there are a few vampires in the room, but I promise to be as unbiased as possible. I know you're good people."

You know, when you're not killing innocent carnival workers or biting your golden retriever-like boyfriend, Caroline.



"Right, so, the word vampire usually refers to anything that gains it's life essence through the drinking of blood," Alaric said. "The word vampire wasn't really used until the early 18th century, but many cultures have had myths referring to human-like creatures that drank blood to live for hundreds of years before that. It's a popular myth to fall back on when you want to scare your kids, I think."

Now that the lame attempt of humor was done, Alaric quickly launched into a lecture about vampires, first going over the historical background of vampires in popular culture and then ditching the whole "myth" aspect and talking about the more scientific facts. What they looked like, where you're most likely to find them and the special abilities some of them possessed, such as mind control and (at least from what his research in Fandom's library told him) flying. When he got to weaknesses and how to kill a vampire he tried to cover all the ways you could kill a vampire in every universe he researched, making a point to tell everyone that your mileage may vary depending on what universe's vampire you were dealing with. But chopping off someone's head is usually a sure thing.

Then, yes, he talked about how some vampires were good and you should make sure that they were really trying to kill you and not just getting fuzz out of your hair before throwing holy water on them.

"Sorry if your wrists hurt from all that writing," Alaric said when he was finally finished. "The activity today will be relaxing. Or you'll burn yourself. Then you can relax after class."

He pointed to the tables in the back where there were tea kettles, hot plates, cups and that dried out purple flowers spread out among them. "Today we're all going to be making tea out of vervain. If you were paying attention in lecture you'll recall that where I'm from vervain and vampires don't mix well. Their skin'll start burning off if they touch it and if they ingest it they get quite sick. Humans that ingest vervain will be protected from vampires since one sip of your blood will have them on the ground wishing they were dead in the more traditional sense. If you choose to wear vervain on you, you'll also be protected from vampiric mind control."

"So today we're going to be making tea from vervain. It's not the tastiest thing in the world, but it's better than dying, right? I recommend you add a lot of sugar," Alaric said. "And, of course, vampires are exempt from the activity. Or if you just don't like tea. Then you don't have to do it either."



[OCD up]

Comments

Make Tea

[nojackassfile.livejournal.com]

Try not to catch anything on fire, even if it would be impressive considering you're using hot plates.

Re: Make Tea

[therewaslife]

Bod had burned soup before so he wouldn't be too surprised if he set something on fire while making tea. Still, he went about making tea, going through the steps carefully and wincing a few times at the rather pungent aroma.

Still, it would be helpful to know so he kept at it despite wondering if this particular set of clothes would smell forever.

Re: Make Tea

[trigons_child]

Raven knew how to make tea, and the prospect of a tea that made her unappealing to vampires was very intriguing. The taste was terrible, but tolerable with sugar and honey.

Re: Make Tea

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully was looking at it thoughtfully. "Do you think this would effect that Jessica girl at the bar?"

Do you think that an experiment was in order to find out?

Re: Make Tea

[trigons_child]

"Sookie has never mentioned such a thing about vampires in her own world," Raven said, "but it would certainly be good to know if it did or not."

Re: Make Tea

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"I could ask her." If she wanted to get near the redhead again. "Although I can't see her trying it or even sniffing it if there wasn't something in it for her." She gave Raven a small smile. "I forgot to ask her what her reaction to crosses was as well."

Re: Make Tea

[trigons_child]

Raven nodded. "I do not think she would be willing to share a weakness with you," she said. "I would not put it past her to pretend that it affects her in order to give you a false sense of confidence in the power of the vervain."

Re: Make Tea

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully sighed, not having thought of this. "The only way to be sure would be to spike a drink with it, but if it works, the results could be deadly." She shook her head at the restrictions of medical ethics. "Hanging a necklace of garlic around someone's neck would probably only elicit laughter, too. And most of the usual weaknesses I've heard of for vampires in my world don't work. Unless the vampire is also an old movie fan."

Re: Make Tea

[awakestheghosts]

Due to some influence since she had been in Fandom, Chloe was quite adept at making tea.

Ugh. Needs sugar.

A lot of sugar.

Re: Make Tea

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

Caroline would not be catching anything on fire. She intended to just boil water and not actually touch the vervain if she could manage it. Drinking it was clearly beyond her level of participation here.

Re: Make Tea

[therewaslife]

If Bod noticed that she wasn't really touching the vervain, he didn't say anything. He really didn't mind one way or the other either. He had something else he wanted to bring to her attention.

"Hullo, Caroline," he greeted, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a folded up piece of paper. "I've made a list of reasons why I'm not scarily sweet as you seemed to find me a few days ago. Do you mind if I tell you?"

Look, Bod remembered strange things about conversations and that had just been one of them. He remembered everything else too but this was something he could clarify.

Re: Make Tea

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

Caroline was totally taken aback. Her mood about the vervain shifted and she nearly snorted in amusement. "You made a list?"

She probably wasn't supposed to find this concept hilarious.

Re: Make Tea

[therewaslife]

"Well, you seemed very adamant," Bod replied, shrugging, "so I thought I'd try to change your mind. I like lists."

Hey, people usually found him hilarious for a variety of reasons. He didn't much mind. He knew he was different.

Re: Make Tea

[puppywithatutu.livejournal.com]

"So what is on this list exactly?" Caroline asked. Her interest was taken with this concept, strange as it might seem.

Shut up, she was not going to bite him just because he was kind of like that golden retriever boyfriend.

Re: Make Tea

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

Helen had taken careful notes throughout the lecture and had no difficulties making the tea. Nor in drinking it really. She'd had far worse on other worlds. Still, it would not be high on her list of things she wanted to drink.

Re: Make Tea

[notlikejack.livejournal.com]

Bobby was thinking hard as he waiting for his water to boil. If a normal person was allergic to something like vervain, wouldn't that make it unfair to wear it around them? So...why was it different with vampires. Or was it. It was a lot to think about.

Re: Make Tea

[vanillajello]

Kate hesitated for a moment before deciding to make some tea. What the hell, couldn't hurt, even if the smell was... not good.

She looked like she desperately wanted to be somewhere else the entire time, but that just went with how bad the tea smelled, right?

Re: Make Tea

[brat-intraining.livejournal.com]

Please, Kennedy could make tea. How hard was it? She wasn't that much of a stranger in the kitchen that she could burn water.

Although after getting a whiff of that vervain, ew, she kind of wished she could beg off on account of not being allowed near a stove of any kind. She could totally live with this not being a workable thing in her world, if it smelled like that.

Re: Make Tea

[awesomebigsis.livejournal.com]

Ellie had made plenty of tea, so this was no problem for her. Making tea that smelled terrible was new, though. She wasn't sure anything could make the taste less awful.

Re: Make Tea

[notmyownage]

Claudia was pretty skilled at setting things on fire, but she refrained, today. The tea came out kinda weak, considering Claudia wasn't the best at patience with these sorts of things, but she gave it a test sip.

"Oh, that's disgusting."

Re: Make Tea

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Maybe with some honey? Or lemon? Unless that would deactivate the vervain..." Scully took a sip and then tried not to gag. "Or in coffee. I wonder if that would work."

Re: Make Tea

[notmyownage]

"I dunno, I think coffee would just make it worse."

Re: Make Tea

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully scraped the underside of her tongue against her teeth, and gave the drink a cock-eyed look. "Somehow I doubt this works on vampires in my world. Or I would have heard about it before. Or Mulder would have, given his OCD."

Re: Make Tea

[notmyownage]

"I thought you weren't sure there actually were vampires in your world."

Re: Make Tea

[onapalebicycle.livejournal.com]

George was brewing the tea, but she had no intention of drinking it.

She wasn't a vampire, and she was sure the vervain wouldn't do anything bad to her. But it smelled like ass and she wasn't really in any danger from vampires, so ... fuck that.