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sweetpinkpixie · 05-21-2026, 09:53 PM

Professor Cox continued his slow prowl between the workstations, hands buried deep in the pockets of his coat as if restraining himself from physically intervening. The air had thickened into a potent blend of warmed resin, honey, crushed herbs, and the faint metallic sting that always rose from overheated Billywig powder. Underneath it lingered the sharper scent of singed mooncalf tendon shavings — which meant at least one student had already ignored direct instructions. Shocking.

Predictably, the classroom had separated itself into its usual categories. There were the students brewing with genuine competence, earning the occasional low, approving 'Good' or subtle nod from Cox as he passed their stations — about the closest thing to praise most of them were likely to get from him. Then there were the students muddling through with varying degrees of success, making mistakes that were irritating rather than catastrophic. And finally, the largest group: the ones surviving almost entirely on luck, willpower, and an honestly impressive ability to keep going despite every sign their potion should have given up on them fifteen minutes ago.

Text Cut: the one who is miraculously avoiding an exploding cauldron

Quote:

Originally Posted by renmarie

Wesley was trying very hard to pay attention. Unfortunately, Potions felt specifically designed to make his brain short-circuit. He winced at the professor's words and tried to give a confident smile, but it felt more like a grimace.

His eyes bounced constantly between the blackboard, the ingredients, and the bubbling cauldron while the noise of the classroom kept dragging his attention elsewhere. By the time he added the Flobberworm mucus, he was already second-guessing which direction he was supposed to stir.

Clockwise first. No, counterclockwise.

Wait.

That was after the Billywig powder. Right?

"That is revolting," he muttered while stirring carefully.

The potion developed a faint golden sheen before Wesley began adding the Billywig powder. Pale sparks crackled across the surface. Then orange. Wesley immediately winced and lowered the heat.

"Brilliant start," he muttered under his breath.

Trying to recover, he added the gum arabic and essence of reed grass before staring directly into the cauldron. Three minutes without stirring.

Easy. Without thinking, Wesley grabbed the spoon and absentmindedly gave the potion one quick swirl.

He froze. "...You have got to be kidding me." Trying to pretend that hadn’t happened, Wesley hurried onward with the aloe vera gel and mooncalf tendon shavings before beginning the figure-eight stirring. "Row, row, row your boat..."

Halfway through, he realized the tendon shavings were still sitting untouched beside him. "Oh, come on..."

He tossed them in quickly, and the potion immediately thickened hard against the spoon. Encouraged, Wesley carefully added the syrup of hellebore drop by drop, until he lost count after another cauldron hissed nearby.

The potion suddenly lurched upward in a long silver-blue strand. Wesley recoiled instantly. "Absolutely not."

Quickly throwing in the knotgrass, he watched the potion settle again before sprinkling the Jobberknoll feather ash carefully across the surface. At least it still vaguely resembled an Elasticity Elixir. That felt close enough to success for him.

Unfortunately, Mr. Blackwell appeared deeply committed to testing the outer limits of the third category.

Cox arrived beside Mr. Blackwell's cauldron just as the potion lurched upward. There was a long pause. He paused. Not because the mistake itself surprised him, but because of the boy’s reaction to it. Or lack thereof. Which meant either the Gryffindor had lost in his internal battle to panic, or had cotton in his ears and not heard the clear instructions.

"Mr. Blackwell," he said at last, studying the climbing ribbon of silver-blue potion with the tired resignation of a man who had, unfortunately, expected this exact outcome from someone today, "What did I say to do when the potion attempt to vacate the cauldron?"

The answer, naturally, had not been continue stirring, adding ingredients, and hope for the best.

With a flick of his hand, Cox lowered the flame beneath the cauldron until only the faintest glow remained beneath it.

"You also stirred during the reed grass steeping phase," he observed. "Which disrupted the suspension settling process. Then you forgot the tendon shavings until halfway through the figure-eight integration, meaning your potion began developing elasticity before establishing structural rebound." A brief glance into the cauldron followed, along with a heavy sigh and the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "But, still may be salvageable if you add another 100 mL of honeywater infusion and then perform three slow clockwise stirs to encourage the structural agents to redistribute evenly. Slow, Mr. Blackwell. This is a potion and not a quidditch match."

He straightened, casting one final look at the cauldron.

"After that, leave it completely untouched for two minutes before reassessing the consistency."

Text Cut: the one in need of being transfigured into an egg timer

Quote:

Originally Posted by natekka

Step one. Begin with a medium heat. Medium was subjective to say the least, no? Both extremes she could understand, so she got it going to something that didn't look too low or too high. Middling. Probably, possibly medium. It would do. She poured the honeywater infusion into the cauldron, after very briefly bobbing down to beaker level to do her due diligence in ensuring it was actually 500ml. Two spoonfuls of Flobberworm mucus - disgusting, by the way - were added to the honeywater infusion, one level, one slightly heaped. Then seven CLOCKWISE stirs were completed. "One, two, three, four, f-ive, six, seven, ei-" She muttered under her breathe. Seven and one-billionth stirs completed. No one would know. What difference would a fraction of a stir make anyway?

In answer, the potion coughed, which it was probably supposed to do. Meinir narrowed her eyes. Hmm. That was a golden sheen, right? Step one complete! This was a piece of cake. Or... hmm, she'd have to think of potions-related pun another time. No one wanted her honeywater-mucus mix to bubble away while she was thinking of puns. Moving onto step two!

Add powdered Billywig wing gradually while continuously stirring counterclockwise. Guess that meant all of the powdered Billywig wing? One and a half teaspoons of the powder were roughly shaken into the potion, some missing the cauldron eeeeeeeever so slightly, while she stirred and stirred and stirred. COUNTER-clockwise, she remembered! Just. When did she need to stop stirring? When it- OH, LOOK! Sparks, barely perceptible, rose from the surface of the liquid, alternating between pale and pale orange. Very pretty, she must admit. Her eyes skimmed over the instructions again, almost missing the part about the sparks turning orange. Oops. That would've been bad, huh? She turned the heat down a touch. Then a touch more, just to be safe.

Step three! Oh, she needed the heat to be low now anyway? Well, wasn't that just perfect! She happily sprinkled (read: dropped) the gum arabic into the mix, feeling pretty proud of herself. Nothing had blown up yet! This step didn't mention stirring, though, so did she need to? She hadn't been stirring at any rate, not since the pretty sparks had caught her eye and she'd needed to lower the heat. Not stirring it would thicken it, though, she reckoned. It was looking goldish and syrupish, though she had no real clue what the texture of warmed syrup was. It was probably this, she decided.

Mei then read step four, which mentioned not stirring the potion for three minutes. To steep. So did that include the time she already hadn't been stirring it for, or...? Throwing caution to the wind, she tossed in the essence of reed grass and waited. For approximately three minutes, give or take two minutes.

The surface was decidedly dull, not even slightly reflective, no matter how much she squinted at it.

"Uhh..."

Cox stopped beside Miss Ellis' workstation next and regarded the potion in silence for several long seconds before regarding the low temperature of her burner. Well. Look at that. A student who had actually listened to his warning. Miracles apparently did happen within these dungeon walls. She was a fine representation of the second category.

"Ah,” he said at last, folding his arms loosely as he examined the potion’s dull surface. "You appear to have produced a mixture consistent with overstimulation."

Which explained why the potion currently looked about as inspired as a rainy Monday morning and without any of the pleasant petrichor.

"'Exactly three minutes' does not generally translate to 'approximately one to five depending upon personal intuition.' Potions are tragically literal disciplines."

He leaned slightly over the cauldron, eyes narrowing thoughtfully as he assessed the suspension.

"Fortunately," he said, snapping his fingers before lifting one hand beside the burner as the flame responded with a subtle increase "the suspension has not fully collapsed yet." He gestured toward her phials of ingredients. "Mix a tablespoon of honeywater infusion and pinch of gum arabic together separately first, then add it to the cauldron while stirring counterclockwise twice. Gently. After that, leave it alone for a full three minutes.[/B]"

Cox rubbed a hand along the back of his neck before straightening again.

"If the surface develops reflectivity afterward, you may proceed. If not, your potion has unfortunately committed itself to structural collapse and you'll need to dispose of it and scrub your cauldron clean."

He started to move on, only to pause and pivot back at the last second.

"But you caught the temperature issue," he said, offering the smallest nod toward her cauldron. "That's good attention to detail. Keep doing that."

Text Cut: the one in need of a nice cool compress for the digits

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

It was true, his wrist did hurt a tad from the writing. Not to mention the stirring of the cauldron. It didn’t bother Levi that badly to make him want to complain. Or worse, give up being an ardent Potions student. When Cox paused at his workstation, he held his breath, eyes anxiously flicking toward the cauldron then back to the man’s face. The potion looked right… at least in his opinion.

Then the nod happened and the caged breath made its way out of Levi’s mouth with a soft whoosh! He positively beamed at the grumpy professor. What a relief to be doing all the things correctly so far! The Hufflepuff would be quite devastated if he made one mistake.

His ears pricked up as further advice was given to the class on resistance. You know what Levi did! Make quick jottings, of course! Not to mention the information was mentally stored for brewing the current - and future - potions.

Refusing to let any destruction from his classmates distract him, Levi determinedly pushed on with the new instructions.

The heat was turnt up, and the mooncalf tendon shavings added. At the same time, the thought occurred to him how helpful creatures were when it came to humans using their body parts as potion ingredients. He knew that Hogwarts professors tended to use ingredients that were humanely secured but his thought still felt bittersweet.

For the figure-eight stirring, Levi opted to actually keep his eyes on the clock for thirty seconds to pass because… what if he repeated the ‘Row, row, row your boat’ rhyme too speedily or too slowly? This new thought made him slightly anxious so he stuck to what felt like a safer route for him. Towards the end of that thirty seconds, his arms did detect that resistance that was mentioned on the board. It didn’t feel like much to him, however.

Given that the Syrup of Hellebore was three-quarter of a cup, adding it one drop at a time required a lot of patience. By the Universe’s good grace, Levi had a lot of that. One drop… three seconds; two drops… three seconds; three drops… three seconds; a whole lot of drops and seconds later until all the syrup was gone. Next up, one pinch of knotgrass, Salt Bae style!

Levi squinted as the potion seemed to tighten, it all seeming to pull together while darkening. Then it seemed to loosen and remain as it was before. Fascinating! In Salt Bae fashion once again, Jobberknoll feather ash was sprinkled over the top of the mixture. Once again, he opted for the safest method of waiting for the time to elapse - keeping an eye on the clock. Also, it was such a lovely site to watch the ash disappear and the colour go to pale silverblue.

Once the heat was removed, Levi moved on with life, leaving the potion to settle while he tidied the workstation and added to his notes. Fingers crossed that those threads would form soon!

And then there was Mr. Singh-Phora, taking up what appeared to be a permanent residence in the first category of students.

Which meant Cox's attention lingered at the Hufflepuff’s station not out of concern, but because the boy's potion was currently the standard for which the rest of the class needed to strive for. And, perhaps, the one he would turn to should those with failed brews require external assistance for their own consumption. A rare achievement in a classroom full of adolescents handling hellebore and rare ingredients like mooncalf tendon.

"Good," he said at last, which from Cox carried approximately the same emotional weight as enthusiastic applause from most people.

His eyes flicked briefly toward the notebook still accumulating commentary beside the cauldron and offered another curt nod and then continued his sweep of the classroom.

▶▼◀▲▶▼◀▲▶▼◀▲▶▼◀▲▶▼◀▲▶▼◀▲

"General reminder," he said, voice carrying easily across the dungeon as he paused near the center aisle. One hand folded behind his back while the other adjusted the cuff of his sleeve. "Elasticity Elixir rewards patience considerably more than improvisation or hurried movements. If the consistency resembles unset cement or curdled milk, I would strongly advise against ingesting it when the time comes for that."

Reaching the front of the room once again, the professor folded his arms across his chest and leaned against his desk.

"You have approximately fifteen minutes remaining before we begin the testing portion of the lesson." That earned another measured sweep of his gaze across the room. "If you suspect your potion has destabilized beyond recovery, do not simply hope for the best and poison yourself out of misplaced pride. I will inspect questionable brews before testing begins and, where necessary, permit you to borrow from a successful cauldron instead."

His eyes narrowed faintly and, try as he might, could not quite help resist flicking his gaze towards a few specific students.

"Contrary to rumor, I am not going to allow you to drink your own catastrophic brewing decisions just so it can become a valuable life lesson about following instructions. I gain no enrichment from watching you liquefy your connective tissues or escorting anyone hospital wing as a repercussion of a poorly brewed elixir."

OOC: everyone still knocking on wood?

We've got about another 24 hours before I shift us from brewing chaos into the testing phase. As always, catchup posts are absolutely welcome and encouraged, so jump in if you need to!

05-21-2026, 09:53 PM	#21 (permalink)
sweetpinkpixie SSRPG Admin Gladrags Mod Quibbler Mod Minister for Magic Alley Proprietor Sea Serpent Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: The Paths Posts: 41,462 Hogwarts RPG Name: Professor Cox Ravenclaw Graduated Hogwarts RPG Name: CJ Miller Gryffindor Third Year Hogwarts RPG Name: Nyle Harden Hufflepuff Sixth Year Hogwarts RPG Name: Iris Harden Ravenclaw Sixth Year Hogwarts RPG Name: Calliope Barrington Slytherin Fifth Year Ministry Department Head: Charles Hollingberry Minister's Office Ministry Department Head: Airey Flamsteed Mysteries Diagon Alley Proprietor: Victor García Massey Ollivanders x12 x12	astronomizzle ♧ gryffinDORK \| & the rest is drag ♣ #badluckDerf Professor Cox continued his slow prowl between the workstations, hands buried deep in the pockets of his coat as if restraining himself from physically intervening. The air had thickened into a potent blend of warmed resin, honey, crushed herbs, and the faint metallic sting that always rose from overheated Billywig powder. Underneath it lingered the sharper scent of singed mooncalf tendon shavings — which meant at least one student had already ignored direct instructions. Shocking. Predictably, the classroom had separated itself into its usual categories. There were the students brewing with genuine competence, earning the occasional low, approving 'Good' or subtle nod from Cox as he passed their stations — about the closest thing to praise most of them were likely to get from him. Then there were the students muddling through with varying degrees of success, making mistakes that were irritating rather than catastrophic. And finally, the largest group: the ones surviving almost entirely on luck, willpower, and an honestly impressive ability to keep going despite every sign their potion should have given up on them fifteen minutes ago. Text Cut: the one who is miraculously avoiding an exploding cauldron Quote: Originally Posted by renmarie Wesley was trying very hard to pay attention. Unfortunately, Potions felt specifically designed to make his brain short-circuit. He winced at the professor's words and tried to give a confident smile, but it felt more like a grimace. His eyes bounced constantly between the blackboard, the ingredients, and the bubbling cauldron while the noise of the classroom kept dragging his attention elsewhere. By the time he added the Flobberworm mucus, he was already second-guessing which direction he was supposed to stir. Clockwise first. No, counterclockwise. Wait. That was after the Billywig powder. Right? "That is revolting," he muttered while stirring carefully. The potion developed a faint golden sheen before Wesley began adding the Billywig powder. Pale sparks crackled across the surface. Then orange. Wesley immediately winced and lowered the heat. "Brilliant start," he muttered under his breath. Trying to recover, he added the gum arabic and essence of reed grass before staring directly into the cauldron. Three minutes without stirring. Easy. Without thinking, Wesley grabbed the spoon and absentmindedly gave the potion one quick swirl. He froze. "...You have got to be kidding me." Trying to pretend that hadn’t happened, Wesley hurried onward with the aloe vera gel and mooncalf tendon shavings before beginning the figure-eight stirring. "Row, row, row your boat..." Halfway through, he realized the tendon shavings were still sitting untouched beside him. "Oh, come on..." He tossed them in quickly, and the potion immediately thickened hard against the spoon. Encouraged, Wesley carefully added the syrup of hellebore drop by drop, until he lost count after another cauldron hissed nearby. The potion suddenly lurched upward in a long silver-blue strand. Wesley recoiled instantly. "Absolutely not." Quickly throwing in the knotgrass, he watched the potion settle again before sprinkling the Jobberknoll feather ash carefully across the surface. At least it still vaguely resembled an Elasticity Elixir. That felt close enough to success for him. Unfortunately, Mr. Blackwell appeared deeply committed to testing the outer limits of the third category. Cox arrived beside Mr. Blackwell's cauldron just as the potion lurched upward. There was a long pause. He paused. Not because the mistake itself surprised him, but because of the boy’s reaction to it. Or lack thereof. Which meant either the Gryffindor had lost in his internal battle to panic, or had cotton in his ears and not heard the clear instructions. "Mr. Blackwell," he said at last, studying the climbing ribbon of silver-blue potion with the tired resignation of a man who had, unfortunately, expected this exact outcome from someone today, "What did I say to do when the potion attempt to vacate the cauldron?" The answer, naturally, had not been continue stirring, adding ingredients, and hope for the best. With a flick of his hand, Cox lowered the flame beneath the cauldron until only the faintest glow remained beneath it. "You also stirred during the reed grass steeping phase," he observed. "Which disrupted the suspension settling process. Then you forgot the tendon shavings until halfway through the figure-eight integration, meaning your potion began developing elasticity before establishing structural rebound." A brief glance into the cauldron followed, along with a heavy sigh and the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "But, still may be salvageable if you add another 100 mL of honeywater infusion and then perform three slow clockwise stirs to encourage the structural agents to redistribute evenly. Slow, Mr. Blackwell. This is a potion and not a quidditch match." He straightened, casting one final look at the cauldron. "*After that, leave it completely untouched* for two minutes before reassessing the consistency." Text Cut*: the one in need of being transfigured into an egg timer* Quote: Originally Posted by natekka Step one. Begin with a medium heat. Medium was subjective to say the least, no? Both extremes she could understand, so she got it going to something that didn't look too low or too high. Middling. Probably, possibly medium. It would do. She poured the honeywater infusion into the cauldron, after very briefly bobbing down to beaker level to do her due diligence in ensuring it was actually 500ml. Two spoonfuls of Flobberworm mucus - disgusting, by the way - were added to the honeywater infusion, one level, one slightly heaped. Then seven CLOCKWISE stirs were completed. "One, two, three, four, f-ive, six, seven, ei-" She muttered under her breathe. Seven and one-billionth stirs completed. No one would know. What difference would a fraction of a stir make anyway? In answer, the potion coughed, which it was probably supposed to do. Meinir narrowed her eyes. Hmm. That was a golden sheen, right? Step one complete! This was a piece of cake. Or... hmm, she'd have to think of potions-related pun another time. No one wanted her honeywater-mucus mix to bubble away while she was thinking of puns. Moving onto step two! Add powdered Billywig wing gradually while continuously stirring counterclockwise. Guess that meant all of the powdered Billywig wing? One and a half teaspoons of the powder were roughly shaken into the potion, some missing the cauldron eeeeeeeever so slightly, while she stirred and stirred and stirred. COUNTER-clockwise, she remembered! Just. When did she need to stop stirring? When it- OH, LOOK! Sparks, barely perceptible, rose from the surface of the liquid, alternating between pale and pale orange. Very pretty, she must admit. Her eyes skimmed over the instructions again, almost missing the part about the sparks turning orange. Oops. That would've been bad, huh? She turned the heat down a touch. Then a touch more, just to be safe. Step three! Oh, she needed the heat to be low now anyway? Well, wasn't that just perfect! She happily sprinkled (read: dropped) the gum arabic into the mix, feeling pretty proud of herself. Nothing had blown up yet! This step didn't mention stirring, though, so did she need to? She hadn't been stirring at any rate, not since the pretty sparks had caught her eye and she'd needed to lower the heat. Not stirring it would thicken it, though, she reckoned. It was looking goldish and syrupish, though she had no real clue what the texture of warmed syrup was. It was probably this, she decided. Mei then read step four, which mentioned not stirring the potion for three minutes. To steep. So did that include the time she already hadn't been stirring it for, or...? Throwing caution to the wind, she tossed in the essence of reed grass and waited. For approximately three minutes, give or take two minutes. The surface was decidedly dull, not even slightly reflective, no matter how much she squinted at it. "Uhh..." Cox stopped beside Miss Ellis' workstation next and regarded the potion in silence for several long seconds before regarding the low temperature of her burner. Well. Look at that. A student who had actually listened to his warning. Miracles apparently did happen within these dungeon walls. She was a fine representation of the second category. "Ah,” he said at last, folding his arms loosely as he examined the potion’s dull surface. "You appear to have produced a mixture consistent with overstimulation." Which explained why the potion currently looked about as inspired as a rainy Monday morning and without any of the pleasant petrichor. "'Exactly three minutes' does not generally translate to 'approximately one to five depending upon personal intuition.' Potions are tragically literal disciplines." He leaned slightly over the cauldron, eyes narrowing thoughtfully as he assessed the suspension. "Fortunately," he said, snapping his fingers before lifting one hand beside the burner as the flame responded with a subtle increase "the suspension has not fully collapsed yet." He gestured toward her phials of ingredients. "Mix a tablespoon of honeywater infusion and pinch of gum arabic together separately first, then add it to the cauldron while stirring counterclockwise twice. Gently. After that, leave it alone for a full three minutes.[/B]" Cox rubbed a hand along the back of his neck before straightening again. "If the surface develops reflectivity afterward, you may proceed. If not, your potion has unfortunately committed itself to structural collapse and you'll need to dispose of it and scrub your cauldron clean." He started to move on, only to pause and pivot back at the last second. "But you caught the temperature issue," he said, offering the smallest nod toward her cauldron. "That's good attention to detail. Keep doing that." Text Cut: the one in need of a nice cool compress for the digits Quote: Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19 It was true, his wrist did hurt a tad from the writing. Not to mention the stirring of the cauldron. It didn’t bother Levi that badly to make him want to complain. Or worse, give up being an ardent Potions student. When Cox paused at his workstation, he held his breath, eyes anxiously flicking toward the cauldron then back to the man’s face. The potion looked right… at least in his opinion. Then the nod happened and the caged breath made its way out of Levi’s mouth with a soft whoosh! He positively beamed at the grumpy professor. What a relief to be doing all the things correctly so far! The Hufflepuff would be quite devastated if he made one mistake. His ears pricked up as further advice was given to the class on resistance. You know what Levi did! Make quick jottings, of course! Not to mention the information was mentally stored for brewing the current - and future - potions. Refusing to let any destruction from his classmates distract him, Levi determinedly pushed on with the new instructions. The heat was turnt up, and the mooncalf tendon shavings added. At the same time, the thought occurred to him how helpful creatures were when it came to humans using their body parts as potion ingredients. He knew that Hogwarts professors tended to use ingredients that were humanely secured but his thought still felt bittersweet. For the figure-eight stirring, Levi opted to actually keep his eyes on the clock for thirty seconds to pass because… what if he repeated the ‘Row, row, row your boat’ rhyme too speedily or too slowly? This new thought made him slightly anxious so he stuck to what felt like a safer route for him. Towards the end of that thirty seconds, his arms did detect that resistance that was mentioned on the board. It didn’t feel like much to him, however. Given that the Syrup of Hellebore was three-quarter of a cup, adding it one drop at a time required a lot of patience. By the Universe’s good grace, Levi had a lot of that. One drop… three seconds; two drops… three seconds; three drops… three seconds; a whole lot of drops and seconds later until all the syrup was gone. Next up, one pinch of knotgrass, Salt Bae style! Levi squinted as the potion seemed to tighten, it all seeming to pull together while darkening. Then it seemed to loosen and remain as it was before. Fascinating! In Salt Bae fashion once again, Jobberknoll feather ash was sprinkled over the top of the mixture. Once again, he opted for the safest method of waiting for the time to elapse - keeping an eye on the clock. Also, it was such a lovely site to watch the ash disappear and the colour go to pale silverblue. Once the heat was removed, Levi moved on with life, leaving the potion to settle while he tidied the workstation and added to his notes. Fingers crossed that those threads would form soon! And then there was Mr. Singh-Phora, taking up what appeared to be a permanent residence in the first category of students. Which meant Cox's attention lingered at the Hufflepuff’s station not out of concern, but because the boy's potion was currently the standard for which the rest of the class needed to strive for. And, perhaps, the one he would turn to should those with failed brews require external assistance for their own consumption. A rare achievement in a classroom full of adolescents handling hellebore and rare ingredients like mooncalf tendon. "Good," he said at last, which from Cox carried approximately the same emotional weight as enthusiastic applause from most people. His eyes flicked briefly toward the notebook still accumulating commentary beside the cauldron and offered another curt nod and then continued his sweep of the classroom. ▶▼◀▲▶▼◀▲▶▼◀▲▶▼◀▲▶▼◀▲▶▼◀▲ "General reminder," he said, voice carrying easily across the dungeon as he paused near the center aisle. One hand folded behind his back while the other adjusted the cuff of his sleeve. "Elasticity Elixir rewards patience considerably more than improvisation or hurried movements. If the consistency resembles unset cement or curdled milk, I would strongly advise against ingesting it when the time comes for that." Reaching the front of the room once again, the professor folded his arms across his chest and leaned against his desk. "You have approximately fifteen minutes remaining before we begin the testing portion of the lesson." That earned another measured sweep of his gaze across the room. "If you suspect your potion has destabilized beyond recovery, do not simply hope for the best and poison yourself out of misplaced pride. I will inspect questionable brews before testing begins and, where necessary, permit you to borrow from a successful cauldron instead." His eyes narrowed faintly and, try as he might, could not quite help resist flicking his gaze towards a few specific students. "Contrary to rumor, I am not going to allow you to drink your own catastrophic brewing decisions just so it can become a valuable life lesson about following instructions. I gain no enrichment from watching you liquefy your connective tissues or escorting anyone hospital wing as a repercussion of a poorly brewed elixir." OOC: everyone still knocking on wood? We've got about another 24 hours before I shift us from brewing chaos into the testing phase. As always, catchup posts are absolutely welcome and encouraged, so jump in if you need to! __________________ We broke into a million pieces, and we can't go back......................................... But now we're seeing all the beauty in the broken glass..................................... The scars are part of me, darkness and harmony My voice without the lies, this is what it sounds like