History of Poisons, Thursday Per 2

[glacial_queen]

Word had been sent around for students to meet in a Danger Shop, as well as a note taped to the classroom door (along with a handy map for the newbies), for those students who hadn't yet figured out email. Inside, the Danger Shop had been programmed to look like an elegant dining room, with enough chairs for each person to sit. On the table sat six pewter serving trays of different foods, a carafe of a deep purplish-red liquid, and a vase filled with lilies of the valley, but none of the chairs had plates in front of them. Their teacher sat at the head of the table, drinking a mug of coffee.

Hey, it was the Danger Shop. which mean it didn't count. If she wasn't supposed to be a role-model right now, her cup would likely have been filled with something a lot stronger.

"Welcome," she said, waving people in and gesturing for them to take a seat. "This is History of Poisons and I'm your teacher, Karla DiGlacia. Feel free to just call me Karla, I don't like standing on ceremony when I visit the island. I get enough of that at home. Anyway, welcome to our first class and, since it's Thursday, you probably all know what we're going to do today. You're probably all tired of introductions by now, but it's tradition." She shrugged then savored another mouthful of coffee. Oh, that was good stuff.

"Now, when it comes to history, poison has been around since our various ancestors first started poking at various fruits, vegetables, and berries they were able to gather. Not long after people discovered that eating the berries on that bush could kill you, poison has been used as a method of murder, execution, suicide, pest-control, sabotage, and even medicine, of a sort. Whether ingested, inhaled, or injected, all poisons effect the body in some harmful manner. That is, however, pretty much the only similarity among them. There are household poisons, industrial poisons, medical poisons, ...in other words, there's far more to the poisoner's art and its history than we can possibly go into in a single semester. We are going to focus mainly on plant-based poisons, both because they're the ones I am most familiar with and also the most likely to be universal, which is saying something when we're talking about all the different multiverses that touch here. It's not a guarantee, of course, but then again, nothing is."

Especially in a place like Fandom. "Since I'll be asking you all a few questions to learn more about you, it's only fair that I give you some information about me. Firstly, I'm not from this world, though I attended Fandom from my freshman year through graduation. My home is the Realm of Kaeleer, where I am the Queen of a Territory called Glacia. My people are called the Blood and we all have Craft, though most people around here call it magic. I'm what is known as a triply-aspected witch; I belong to the three different inborn castes. As I mentioned before, I'm a Queen, but that's not really relevant to this class, a Healer, which gives me a background in medicinal herbs and plants, as well as the Craft to Heal physical ailments, and a Black Widow, which is the caste of dreams, illusions, prophecy, mind-Healing and poisons." She was going to leave out the part where Black Widows naturally produced their own potent venom in a sac under their right ring finger nails. People could be so weird about that.

"But enough about me, back to the stuff that's really useful. Poisons surround us every day, moreso if you're from worlds or countries or times that are not as developed as America in 2015. It's not just the wrong unknown berry that can kill you, even foods you eat every day can be lethal if you eat them at the wrong time of year, or eat the wrong parts, or eat them when they haven't been prepared properly." She gestured to the items in front of them. "Several of these are poisonous, others are not. I'd like to go around the table and have each of you give me your name, class, and your best guess to what is the most poisonous thing on the table is. I'll tell you now, no poisons have been added, that's not something you have to worry about. These are all poisons you could stumble over in the wild. And don't worry if you can't tell apples from arsenic, just give me your best guess."

Comments

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

"Probably," Karla said. "Maybe Zoe? Or Anakin? I don't really know. Last time we had to deal with losing a student, we had a teacher with us."

Anakin had handled whatever official stuff there had been after Raven's death. Which was for the best, because Darkness knew, no one else had been in any shape to take care of it.

"She...she didn't go alone," Karla said, hoping that would give Jono a measure of comfort. "Saetan was with her. They were talking. A good talk, he said."

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

Hell no. Jonothon had been busy staring at walls for quite some time, after that.

//That's good to know,// he replied, after another moment's silence. //Most people can only hope for a peaceful end in good company.//

He was silent a moment more, and then he added, //Are you okay?//

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

"I'm...not grieving, exactly," Karla said, trying to sort through her muddled mess of emotions to figure out exactly what she was feeling. "I'm saddened. It hurts to lose her and it hurts knowing what she will go through before Caius finds her again. But knowing that she will be back and much the same as I knew her--it's a comfort. But a cold one."

She eyed him. "I don't think a hug will go amiss, though." For either of them.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

//A hug, then,// Jono agreed, nodding faintly and stepping toward her with open arms. //For all that it's a tragedy... the tragedy belongs to her, and to Caius. I don't think she'd want us to grieve for long.//

... Actually, he didn't think she'd understand why they were bothering to grieve in the first place. But, so help him, he was going to miss her steadfast, silent calm.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

"Can I share with you?" Karla asked, opening her mind to him. "What we saw, when Caius brought her to the water? It might help, some."

It had for Karla.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

Jono hesitated again, this time because he was tentatively toeing at the mental landscape that Karla had opened to him. It took him a moment before he was comfortable just stepping in.

He was extra touchy about mindscapes, these days.

//Please,// he replied, softly. //Do.//

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

Karla noticed the uncharacteristic hesitation Jono showed and sent a questioning thought his way--only to have it blocked by an immense wall that practically screamed 'NONE SHALL PASS.'

Confused, Karla thought about asking, then decided that it would be better to wait until after the memory she had promised.

She stepped out onto a beach in a new world--Valhalla, her mind supplied to Jono--It was a gloomy place, with a temple at the center of an abandoned city and a beach that was beat upon by blue waves that, under the eerie half-light of the world, almost seemed to glow at times. Carrying Yeul's body, Caius walked into the ocean, stopping only when he was up to his waist in the water. He studied Yeul's calm face and then gently lowered her into the ocean.

For a heartbeat, and then another, nothing happened. Then, all at once, her body disappeared into trails of golden streams of light that sparkled faintly as they spiralled into nothingness. The last vestige of light curled around his fingers and before it faded away.

Caius breathed out and straightened his shoulders and, in silence, slowly made his way back to shore.

Now Karla understood what Caius had meant when he said he gave her to the water, that Yeul was never interred but reborn. She followed the streams of light until they disappeared from view, feeling something close to wonderment.

"That was beautiful," she murmured softly in the memory. "Fitting." She asked a few more questions about Yeul, about the possibility of them ever seeing her again, and then Saetan led her away, through the portal that Caius had created, leaving him alone on the beach in a gray and misty world.

[OOC: Link leads to the post with an IC character death.]

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

Once again, Jono was silent, watching the scene as it unfolded before them in Karla's mind's eye. The golden wisps... those were something altogether new to him, which he found almost surprising, considering the amount of death that he'd seen in his lifetime already.

It made it... less immediate. It dulled the sting, somehow. She would be back. Maybe not for them, but she would be back. Yeul always was.

//Thank you,// he said softly, gently pulling away from the link between them and turning his gaze back toward Karla. //It was fitting.//

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

"I was hoping it might help," Karla said, some of the peace she'd found at the time settling back into her with the memory. "That's why I don't know if the accurate word for how I feel right now is grief. Mourning her loss doesn't entirely make sense in the face of that."

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

//No, I suppose it doesn't,// Jono agreed, thoughtfully. //Perhaps it's more like the feeling you get when you part ways with a friend. She isn't gone. This is just the next chapter, for her. One that likely won't involve us.//

So, for that, they could grieve.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

Karla reached over to cover Jono's hands with hers. "Maybe not," she agreed. "But it may. She will remember us. Perhaps she'll wish to visit, sometime, when she's older. And even if she doesn't, we were able to touch her life. Perhaps make her future ones a little bit better for it."

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

Jonothon nodded again, and then, on a whim...

//Hey, Karla? One... two...//

This really did call for another hug.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

Like Hell she was going move. Karla clung to him tightly, unwilling to let go until he did.

"You know, between this and the student who thinks I'm going to become possessed by demons, I think this is probably the worst first day of teaching ever," she said with an uneven laugh. "I should probably be grateful that I'm taking the next two weeks off."

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

Jono projected something that was more or less on par with an amused snort at that.

//I might even know who that one is,// he noted, shaking his head and giving her another good squeeze before easing back again. //Honestly, this island. The school is out to keep us on our toes this semester, I think.//

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

"As opposed to every other semester?" Karla asked, laughing a little. "How do you know the delightful Cassandra Pentaghast? Picnic? Or--that's right, you drove the bus this semester, didn't you?"

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

//I drove the bus,// Jono agreed, shaking his head a bit. //I met her charming self at swordpoint. I don't think she's terribly pleased with me. After all, I told her to sit her arse on the bus and if she raised that sword at any of my students, I would be more than happy to relieve her of it. Charming lass, she is.//

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

"Lucky you," Karla sighed. "I had to explain to her that I don't care who or what she was back home, if she even thinks about returning home and taking another student with her against his will, we were going to have a serious problem."

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

//Anders? I spoke with him on the weekend,// Jono noted with a small nod. //Told him that if she ever gave him trouble, he was to get in touch with me immediately. I won't have anybody running around threatening people here on the basis of their having powers. Lost or not, there's no excuse for that sort of behaviour, here.//

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

Karla's mouth kicked up in a wry smile. "I told him the same thing today," Karla said, likely to Jono's complete non-surprise. That smile faded. "We're not going to allow any student of our get brought home and possibly broken."

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

The corner of Jono's left eye twitched.

//I shouldn't be surprised that every world with powers has some bloody equivalent,// he murmured. //And yet here I was hoping there would be at least one without.//

It hit a little too close to home, for him.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

Karla, too.

"They call it the 'Rite of Tranquility,'" she sneered. "It's only supposed to be used on those unwilling to live with powers and those who have proven that they cannot be trusted not to hurt others for their magic, but..."

Yeah.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

//But if there's a way to strip a person with powers of what they can do...//

Of course people were going to do it.

//They might as well just bloody well cut off our hands...//

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

Karla channeled Cassandra made a disgusted nose, resting against the back of her chair. "I keep telling myself that we can't go and fix every world; that what we're doing in Glacia is enough..."

One day it might even work!

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[furnaceface]

//Well,// Jono murmured, //let's actually make certain Glacia is fixed before we start poking at other worlds. Our work's still cut out for us, there.//

Trust him on this one, Karla. He knew.

Re: Talk to the Teacher - NFB from here, please!

[glacial_queen]

"I know, I know," Karla said, rubbing her temples. "And trust me, I don't have any faith in this...unnatural calm...we have going on right now will last. I never understood what anyone meant by 'a little too quiet' before these past few months."