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Shanners · 05-10-2020, 07:43 PM

For a class held at 1pm, the walk to the greenhouses from the castle was rather dark and wet. The rain was expected for a date in October, but the sky was a shade or two darker than expected with the wet weather. Professor Rainwater had left a bucket outside of greenhouse five for any umbrellas the students had used to sit in. If one was to come into his class, he was already known to use it as a prop in his teaching and for it to accidentally get broken. Speaking from experience. Luckily, today’s Herbology lesson was just after lunch so the students had had ample time to get a warm drink down them before the short walk. As always, the water station is set up outside Greenhouse Five for students to grab a quick drink before class starts, but they are not permitted to enter the greenhouse with those drinks. So drink up, and get inside! Because it’s definitely warmer in here than it is out there.

Upon entering Greenhouse Five, you’ll notice immediately that Professor Rainwater is not present but there is a message written in his handwriting on the whiteboard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiteboard

I’M WATCHING !!

DON’T GET TOO CLOSE TO MY FRIENDS!!

In front of Professor Rainwater’s workstation where he is usually standing to greet you is a stool with two very different toads on top of it. One of the toads is more of a yellow colour and the other has a few suspicious red spots on it’s head. They don't look friendly, which is probably why your Professor has suggested not to get too close.

FOLLOW ALONG:
- 12th May - Greetings and Q1 : What do you know about toadstools?
- 13th May - Q2 : What do you know about crossbreeding?
- 14th May - Mini Activity : Brainstorm a toadstool hybrid
- 16th May - Mini Activity : Professor Rainwater discussing with groups

RESOURCES:
-

OOC: HI. Welcome to the first OOC Herbology thing this term but it’s October IC so obviously this isn’t the first time your character will have interacted with Professor Rainwater in a classroom situation this school year, so he expects that they know the rules and expectations that he has of them.

Any questions, please feel free to contact me!

~~Class will begin roughly 28 hours from this post <3~~ Class has STARTED, please jump in and pretend your character has been here all along!

Shanners · 05-16-2020, 12:24 PM

SPOILER!!: Claudine

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Claudine didn’t hold anything against the professor for his not-so-interest in berries. That was his choice and truth be told, she herself had never thought much about berries in particular. But they were going to have the chance to experience crossbreeding? Exciting. The Snakette was looking forward to this.

The entertainment was back. Claudine found herself grinning again at the new antics of Gus Rainwater. Merlin. The man was so dramatic but so fun. She got serious again when she heard that they were to work in groups, however. {Ugh. Group work was always her dread.} But then a breath of relief was let out when Rainwater added that they could work alone. Perfect.

It was time to get creative.

What would she like to see in a hybrid toadstool?

For this, a sheet of new parchment was retrieved {it would be added to her binder of Herbology notes later} and the girl set to work.

SPOILER!!: Notes

These were what she came up with so far and she may extend the options shortly. Claudine was really loving this activity so far. All those creative juices were flowing, even if her toadstool options sounded nonsensical.

No limits, after all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Claudine, now chewing on the tip of her quill, was pondering on what else to add to her notes while ignoring all the babble around her. It was something she had mastered over the years: being able to zone out from unnecessary chatter and distractions when she needed to focus on a task. Also, why is it that extroverts were so loud?

A lot of ideas floated around in her brain but they were all over the place. Meaning, she wasn’t focusing on just the potential smells or the behaviours of her toadstool but rather everything at once. Merlin. Her thoughts were louder than the babble around her.

Finally, she added some more notes to the parchment. One thing was certain: that caramelatte flavour was sticking; there would be no argument about that.

SPOILER!!: Notes

The Snakette arched an eyebrow, questioning her thoughts. Might she be able to crossbreed something that would benefit introverts?

Gus had given the students a few minutes to get into groups and begin their discussions before he started walking around and listening in. He noticed first off that Claudine had decided to work on her own and spared a glance across the greenhouse to who he thought she would have gone to work. Not friends anymore? Different ideas in toadstools? Teenage girls were confusing and he didn’t know how to keep up. So he was going to ignore it all and focus on teaching. He pulled up a stool at Claudine’s workstation and read over the notes she had already. ”Impressive, Miss Blaze. Would you have all of these things in one? My fear would be sensory overload if so.. How about… we focus on one? Which is your favourite option?”

SPOILER!!: Ewan and Noah

Quote:

Originally Posted by GD2204

Ewan was pleased with the respone to his answer despite not knowing much. The look on Profossor Rainwater’s face at Flora’s answer though was priceless! Ewan scoffed and covered his mouth for a moment, doing his best to hold back giggles as the Professor scuttled away from Flora’s table. Doing his best to he continued to listen and not bust out laughing, he simply continued to listen to the Professors next set of instructions.

The way that the professor talked made it sound like they would be doing some cross breeding but…

Huh. Great. Just what he needed. A long, complicated project that would most likely last them all year. What did he want them to do, breed a mandrake that didn’t cry?

WOW. Okay, Rainwater, calm down. Why don’t you get off the stool before you fall and hurt yourself?

With a shake of his head, the prefect turned to whoever was sitting next to him and smiled a little, sure that the whole ‘no limits’ thing would come back to bite the Professor before the end of the lesson. ”So…What do we want our toadstools to do? What a weird question that was and yet, it was completely valid. ”I mean, if there’s no limits, why not develop one that could…protect you from poisoning? Cross it with the properties of a bezoar maybe?”. If he was going to cross-breed something, why not make something that could be useful?Sure, it wasn’t exactly something fun or bold but it could always come in handy. Then again, why not just use a bezoar then?

”Or…Imagine something that could make you fly? Or apparate the distance of a portkey?”, his smile a little wider now at the thought of those ideas.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watson

Noah loved the compliment. He felt much more comfortable in his knowledge after he had heard it. Wow... This Professor was really something else... To be honest, all the Professor's all had very different personalities now that he came to reflect on it. He listened to the Professor interact with various other students before he stood on a work station and told him to let their imagination run wild. Yes, Professor Rainwater had Noah Nam's vote.

Think and discuss? So this was a brainstorming session? He loved BRAINSTORMING. Time to get the creative juices flowing NOW. Noah happened to be sitting near the Ravenclaw Prefect when he began talking excitedly. He nodded and continued nodding. He liked ALL of those ideas especially the flying one. "What if it enables you to talk in different languages or turn invisible or read people's minds?" Maybe this toadstool acted like the radioactive spider that bit Peter Pan giving him the amazing powers he needed to be Spider Man and save his hometown of New York.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GD2204

Oh, sweet! He’d be brainstorming with his pancake eating friend from Gryffindor. That he could handle. Despite the fact that their toadstools seemed to be turning the person who eat it into some kind of muggle superhero, he couldn’t help but laugh a little. The professor did say no limits after all so…why not? ”I love the invisible idea although the mind reading one? Errr…no thank you” because you know, who wants to know someone who can reach into your mind and take whatever they wanted? No thank you.

SPOILER!!: ”Braaaaiiinstooooorm”

The Ravenclaw quickly jotted all of their ideas down on a piece of scrap parchment as they brainstormed ideas, just so that they didn’t forget before he ventured forward with a few more ideas. ”What about some kind of mushroom that can fill you with one bite? Or maybe tastes differently depending on what time of day you eat it?” grinning a little now. ”Like, breakfast time you eat it and it’s breakfast. Midday, oh it’s whatever you wanted for midday…” and so on and so forth. Noah would get the picture. A mushroom that could feed you what you want for each meal of the day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watson

Aboli's look didn't go unnoticed. WHAT. She was trying to be his partner? Oof.. sorry friend! They'd have to partner another time but if looks could kill, Aboli's one could. He was starting to make a list of things for boys like himself to watch out for when it comes to Aboli (1) elbows that were unusually pointy and (2) looks that froze your heart. Yep, he had two causes of death now. Mhmm..

What? He didn't want the ability to read minds? Noah wondered why and then began thinking through the idea more. He supposed he would only want to read minds if he could be selective. "Maybe selective mind reading?" he joked.

Noah listened to Ewan's thoughts, intrigued by a mushroom that could fill you in one bite. Could prove handy on a journey. "Now that would be very useful on a trip or whatnot," nodded Noah, trying to wrack his brain for a few other ideas on what could be helpful. "Mushroom being food seemed natural. What if it gave you all the vitamins that you needed for the day?"

He wouldn’t lie, he’d been pleased when he saw Ewan and Noah pair up. Gus was impressed with their contributions in class already today and he didn’t doubt they’d consider many a thing when it came to their project ideas. As he worked his way over to them, he overheard the part of their chat about something that satisfied all hunger and provided the nutrients and vitamins for the entire day. ”I love that idea, lads. How do you think you could guarantee all of the vitamins were in there?”

SPOILER!!: Phoebe

Ah, Miss James. Working alone? Gus sidled up onto a stool at her workstation and gave her a little elbow nudge. ”Whatcha thinking, Phoebe? What magnificent ideas are swirling around in that brain of yours? Let me help.”

SPOILER!!: Valencia, Alexandre and Aboli

Obviously this trio had only just got to their discussion, but Gus stopped by anyway. ”Are we thinking cool guy cool or temperature cool, Aboli? You could consider it being used as a cooling agent or a heat pad. If you choose to go down that route.”

SPOILER!!: Isla and Blake

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

Huh. She'd gotten it right. She'd have never guessed it. Anyway, the class's coolness factor gained a few extra points when Rainwater mentioned the whole Hybrids in Herbology experiment. She had to admit that even she, who'd been previously unamused by toadstools, was intrigued by this. Not to mention the fact that Rainwater was now screamin' and hollerin' over the possibilities, so something exciting must be coming up, right?

There were so many things going on at once (all of them surrounding Rainwater and his excitement), but she did manage to pick up on mention of her hair. She spent the next several seconds getting distracted by picturing the professor with long, semi-curly brown hair. Heh. Anyway, group work time! "Anybody need a partner? A group?" she asked. She couldn't promise to be as excited over this as Rainwater was, but she could toss out a good idea or two!

Quote:

Originally Posted by love-for-HP

Blake noticed Isla looking for a partner so he walked over to her right away. "Hey Wife, need a partner still?" They had a great time working together last year with Schmoe's project mind as well continue that work this year. "Thinking like a Slytherin wouldn't it be cool if they had such a poison it could kill you instantly ... kind of like the cry of a mandrake." Blake wasn't sure were that more morbid idea came from, but Rainwater had said the options are limitless ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

WIFE.

That could only mean one person was nearby asking her for a partnership, and that was the BEST PARTNER EVERRRR, aka Blake! She spun around toward him. "Well, of course, husband. You're only the best partner everrr," she replied. After all, they'd raised a child together at only twelve and thirteen years old, and after that experience, they could probably tackle [i]anything[/i[ together. "Just warning you, though. I don't know much about crossbreeding." That is, to say, she knew next to nothing.

Her eyes grew wide at his idea. "Yeah, and it could be sort of a defense mechanism. People could use it to protect themselves if they thing they might be in danger," she added. She took out a piece of parchment and wrote:

Ideas:

- A plant with poison or some other substance that could be used as a defense mechanism.

”When I said think outside the box, I didn’t mean to think people into coffins, Blake. We’re not going to kill anyone.” And by golly was he going to be passing this onto Piers later. WHY were these kids giving him so many concerns this lesson? Were they okay? Had the rain given them a bit of a problem? Taking his own pen, he added the words ‘MILD DISCOMFORT. NO DEATH’ on their parchment. ”No death.” Not on his watch.

SPOILER!!: Jina, Jillian and Missa

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunflower

Jina beamed when the professor awarded her a point for her answer. She was still smiling happily when she took the parchment with the list of notes. Creating hybrids sounded like what only really advanced herbologists would be able to do, so she was pleasantly surprised that they would also be giving it a go later in the year. She was amused by how much (dramatic) emphasis Rainwater was placing on imagination. She was eager to learn more about the actual science and magic involved in the crossbreeding, but she guessed that would come later. For now, she had to exercise her imagination!

She turned to Jillian next to her. “Would you like to work together?”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samia

Missa could not believe it. TWO MORE POINTS??? She was now sure she probably looked like a tomato, thanks to Professor Rainwater. Trying to stay humble, she merely smiled and diligently listened as the professor spoke more.

She actually felt a little nervous as he elaborated more on what the eventual lesson course would be for this term. It was easy to remember things you have read, but it was not always easy to apply them.

Nonetheless, as the next part of the lesson rolled on, she turned around to see who she could go with. Noticing Jina and Jillian pairing up, she approached the two too, “mind if I join you guys?” she asked.

“I was thinking of the poisonous toadstools - and how we are never really sure which ones can be deadly to us, especially when we are out in the wild, and I was thinking if a toadstool can be bred which can counter the poisonous ones - she stopped, laughing nervously and looking at the two. “Am I making .. sense?”

She didn’t want to think of changing colours, she wanted to know if a more ambitious approach can be taken - and the hybrid toadstools they eventually make could be more useful than just something pretty in the wild.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hjhm

Man all this talk about crossbreeding makes her want to do it. For real. She is interested in the subject of crossbreading but at the same time she knows it will take time, mostly years of research and studies. They can't all just sit in class and then create awesome hybrids from 2 parent plants for the next 30 mins or so. That seems unrealistic but she's hopeful. Professor Gus explains it well. And with that, she does agree with the imagination they will be doing for today.

It didn't take her 2 seconds to reply to Jina's question. In fact she would have asked her anyway. "Yes!!" she replied with glee. She headed towards the work table and then looked at Jina, humming as she looked at the empty parchment she readied for the two of them- kind of like a blueprint? Or notes. Yeah, mainly notes so that they can jot down whatever creative ideas they have for this activity.

Hmmmm..... she tapped the end of her pencil softly on the table.

"What do you have in mind for this?" Professor Rainwater did say dare to dream so all the cards are on the table. "There are no limits for this imagination." she added "Ooooooh, what if you eat the toadstool you either become really big or really small?" that's a start.

Some of his favourite answers this class had came from this little group that had formed and Gus gave the three girls a smile as he sat down with them. ”We did study a spell last year that helps to identify poisonous things growing. But having some sort of universal antidote could be a good shout. How do you think you could achieve that?”

SPOILER!!: Yoyo and Morgan

This was the conversation he had been most excited to listen in on. Morgan was probably going to have a magnificent knack for this stuff, a talent, it was going to be his THING. Right? So when Gus took a seat with him and Yolanda, he was immediately interested by the fascination being on the blazing button toadstools. ”Would you want to eat something that screamed as it set on fire, though?” Because……..he wouldn’t. That would seem a little bit wrong to him. But perhaps it was just him!

SPOILER!!: Bernie, Cecelia and Avalon

Quote:

Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

”..............................”

Well, yes, Bernie was used to that response from adults, but hey, she wasn't the only one stumping Rainwater today. Flora the first year's answer was ALSO a good guess, this Gryffindor thought, andddd she was certain Louise's banana that actually looked like a kiwi inside had to be real. She didn't typically take notes in Herbo because why would she when Rainwater the real expert gave them everything they needed?!??! But she did make a note, on her notes, to send the professor some grapermelon gum; hopefully she could get her hands on that by Christmas. AND she made another note to bother him after class about who exactly would make the decision to create a leaping toadstool park.

HOooooohohoo, anywho, moving on to the CREATE YOUR OWN SHROOM assignment! She clapped a bit at Rainwater's leaps and hops (no one could EVER accuse him of being boring) and then buckled down, scribbling away all the ideas she could think of on her parchment.

Text Cut: MY TOADSTOOL

She pstpssssssst'd to whomever was nearby her and not currently occupied with a partner.

"Wanna swap ideas?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

Apology so accepted, Professor. Cecelia's pouting was put to a stop pretty quickly when she saw the lemon sweet and she smiled a little, pocketing it so no one else would see. Sweets were one of the many ways to her heart and she was appreciative of this one, 'specially 'cause she'd thought only moments before that the man had been disappointed in her. Disappointed adults were the worst. What wasn't the worst? Knowing her second answer had been correct. Her smile grew a little more after hearing that and it was like the soul crushing moment before had never happened at all.

"I'll share ideas with you, Bernie!" Cecelia was willing to bet that Bernie was the type to encourage ALL her wildest thoughts on this subject and she was all about that kind of encouragement, so she moved closer to her fellow third year and offered up her own list.

"I don't know why I like the idea of glowing so much, but I really do," She admitted with a sheepish smile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

Woooohoo! "Hiya, Cece," Bernie greeted her roommate, scooching closer to her so she could see her list and vice versa. Of course Bernie had to let out a big gasp of approval when she saw that Cece had GLOW IN THE DARK on her list. AND it smelled good. AND it could make people glow TOO.

Bernie needed to steal a few of those ideas, ahem.

"I LOVE your toadstool. I would LOVE to taste-test it for you." If they actually got to make these toadstools a reality, of course. Bernie tapped the first idea on Cece's list, too. "What if the toadstool ALSO made the people who ate it good singers? Since it can sing?" JUST A THOUGHT!

She hurried up to add the other GLOWING idea she was borrowing from Cece to her own list.

Text Cut: MY TOADSTOOL 2.0

"What do you think my toadstool would smell like, Cece?" She LOVED the idea of her friend's smelling like chocolate, but maybe Bernie's smelled different, since it ate bugs and all???

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fireheart

Uhhh, wait. An apple was a plant, was it not? Maybe Professor Rainwater meant that he wanted to know about the actual plant itself, not just the fruit? Oh well. At least he didn't hate her answer. And at least he was always nice enough when she didn't answer totally correctly, instead of making her feel stupid about it.

Avalon's eyes widened as the professor leapt up to stand on his workstation. She couldn't help but smile when he yelled about daring to dream and having no limits. Had Professor Rainwater ever been into theater? He certainly would make a good performer. He was quite charismatic and dramatic. And a generally likable guy. She could see him being on stage in one of those big theaters in New York.

Text Cut: Bernie & Cecelia

Turning to the people next to her, Avalon decided to crash the lion party and join Bernie and Cecelia. Leave it up to the Gryffindors to have the craziest ideas for a crossbred mushroom. If there really were no limits, this had to be the coolest, trendiest, and most useful toadstool ever. Avalon wanted to give it at least one quality for each of the five senses. And then a couple more magical properties, too. "Ooohhh, I love the idea of a glow-in-the-dark mushroom! That would be really cool." She passed over her own parchment with her ideas.

Her list covered the five senses thing, but she wanted to add some more unique properties to her toadstool as well. "The toadstool should definitely taste good and not be poisonous. I'm tired of those gross mushrooms that my mum always serves with dinner." Who really wanted to eat a soggy, gross fungus that tasted like dirt? Now a candy-flavored mushroom was something Avalon could get behind. "And what if we made it have some special power? If it can really be anything, we might as well make it useful!" Perhaps it should have healing properties? Or she could definitely get behind Bernie's idea of having it eat bugs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

SPOILER!!: Bernie and Avalon

"I'd let you be the second to taste-test it, since I'd want to be the first!" But it was real reassuring knowing her toadstool seemed appetizing. That meant she was on to something, surely. "Hey, yeah! Maybe that can be a whole THING. Like the person who eats some of my toadstool takes on ALL of its traits!" She liked where Bernie's head was at, she did.

SPOILER!!: Toadstool Ideas with updates!

"I super like that yours eats bugs 'cause it's no fun walking through the forest with a bunch of bugs flying around your head," She commented when she was done updating her list, offering a smile to the Bernster. As for what hers should smell like, Cecelia tapped her chin. "Well, bugs like sugary stuff, right? Fruit can be sugary. Maybe your toadstool can smell fruity and trick the bugs into coming over to it!" She was kiiiiiind of a toadstool idea master at this point.

"Oh, hey, Avalon has the sweet smelling idea, too." The third year offered Avalon a smile, taking a longer look at her list. "I haven't thought about what colors mine should be yet, but I'm open to ideas." Since she noticed the other two already had theirs picked out. "Well, I think eating bugs is useful and Bernie's can do that. Mine could be considered useful IF you had to enter some kind of talent contest or something 'cause it can help you sing AND glow, which is a double talent." And who wouldn't be impressed by a glowing singer? "Maybe yours can help someone's appearance? Like making their hair shiny and smooth since that's what the appearance of the toadstool is!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

Text Cut: fwiends!!

Taste.... taste was definitely important, Bernie was thinking, especially as she looked over Avalon's list. "Ooh, I agree with Cece, I like that, yes." She nodded confidently. "Yours should taste like candy floss, Avalon," she added. It was just what the Ravenclaw's description made her hunger for when she read it a second time. Must've been the colours in Avalon's description that triggered her.

She smiled happily at Cece's offer to let her taste-test the shroom second. "Okay!" Deal. "You can try mine second you, both of you," BOTH of her partners could. They could set up a charcuterie board of everyone's mushrooms after they made them!!!!! IF they were really making them. Bernie was going to be sorely disappointed in Rainwater if this was all a hypothetical exercise.

Anyway, she added the other ideas from her partners to her list. "So if mine smells like fruits, should it TASTE like fruits too?" She tapped her chin.

Text Cut: MY TOADSTOOL 3.0

Bernie nodded some more to Cece's ideas; she really WAS a toadstool master at this point. Her eye landed on another girl's parchment near by them; she was in their year, er, around their year, wasn't she? She was like, the quietest kid ever, but that had never stopped Bernie from peeping her parchment.

Text Cut: Catherine :3

"LOOK," Bernie tapppppppppped Catherine's parchment with her own quill, maybe flicking a bit of ink all over the place as she did. She couldn't help it, she was excited, and Gryffindors just....happened....when they got excited. "Cath's toadstool has FEELINGS." Oops, had she shouted that?

Awwwwwwwwwwww. No one was gonna wanna eat THAT one on their charcuterie board though! "What if it SCREAMS when you eat it?!" Bernie positively LOVED this idea, and beamed at the shy Ravenclaw. She was welcome to join their group, c'mon, duhhhhhhhhh.

Gus gave Bernie a LOOK when she interrupted Catherine working on her own and leant between them so that Catherine could continue on her own work and he’d go speak to her in a minute. But back to the trio of Bernie, Cecelia and Avalon. Were they all working on their own ideas? Discussing amongst a group and deciding alone? Interesting tactic, but Gus didn’t mind it. He gave all of their lists and ideas a look over and a listen to. ”I like Bernie’s idea of bug eating and glowing up, you know. The glowing could be lovely to line a garden path with.” If you were into garden landscaping at all.

SPOILER!!: Catherine

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hey Ju

Catherine had never been a huge fan of group work - because there were always those lazy ones who just piggybacked off the ones who truly did the work, aka herself - and she was not into it at all.

Especially not when they could be creating something pretty useful out of those crossbreed ideas. Not that she believed they would be able to develop weird and wonderful things when they were all just children - weird maybe, but definitely not wonderful -, but the experiment and just the fact they were given the opportunity to think about it was interesting enough. At least their ~~obnoxiously loud and annoying~~ professor came up with something to make his ~~mad show~~ class interesting.

Although working on her own had been wholly her choice, Catherine had to use all of her might not to send ~~jealous~~ side-eyes to Cecelia who had so promptly partnered with her roommate instead of Catherine. She had seen it coming even before she herself came to Hogwarts, but the sting didn't feel any less brutal to the Ravenclaw when her best friend picked someone else before even looking at her.

Whatever. Catherine didn't care ~~she really did~~. Besides, not partnering with a Gryffindor was the best thing she could do, like she had decided a few months ago. Especially when the subject could become hazardous and the red people believed to have a license to be stupid. Yeah, Catherine was way better off on her own for this and anything else, thank you.

The second-year only got a piece of parchment out to write on when she considered the fact professor Rainwater would come over and tell her to write her ideas down. She didn't need to write them down. Catherine had an excellent memory and everything she did choose to do had a reason, so there was no need to write it down. Only people who chose random and pointless things needed to write them down because they were, well, pointless.

Catherine had to admit the idea she overheard of having the toadstool speak in different languages did appeal to her, but she didn't see a reason for that, so that wasn't going on her list.

Text Cut: List

As she wrote, she grew prouder and prouder of her creation. Although she didn't think she'd be able to develop that sort of toadstool within this term, maybe it could be a long term project or even something she could discuss with her grandmother. Admittedly, she didn't know how or what exactly to crossbreed to be able to generate that kind of useful plant, but it was probably something she would be interested in looking into.

Just imagine having a single plant that could provide you with so many options in Potions!? Fascinating. And, as a matter of fact, very useful indeed.

Miss Mordaunt was one that went under the radar, but her ideas were big. Her ideas were good, despite what Bernie had done in drawing attention to one of them. He gave the Ravenclaw a smile as he joined her and looked over her list. ”Take a point for the thought in your answers, Catherine. I’d be honoured to work on that last idea with you. We could even talk to Professor Noble, too. Get his ideas on the benefits for potions.”

SPOILER!!: Islay and Stella

Gus was oblivious to any issues over in this area and when he sat down at their workstation, he looked between both of the girls. ”Right. What ideas do you have?” He was taking Herbology away from no one. Knowing your stuff was fine, if you could put it into your own words. No exam board would give grades out for answers that were straight out of someone elses work. That was a fact and no matter how impressed Gus could be with someones work, he was also now going to have to triple check work handed in just in case.

It was his job. He wasn’t being unfair. He had expectations of his pupils.

SPOILER!!: Carys

Gus noticed Carys was working alone right now and headed over to her after a little while. ”How are you getting on, Prefect Rose? What ideas do you have?”

OOC: Figured I’d give you guys a little over 24 hours to get settled into the activity before I threw Gus to come talk with the kids! But here he is, available for any questions and the like. You’ve got about another 36 hours left on this!

Any questions, drop me a message! <3

Destiny · 05-16-2020, 02:02 PM

That's right, Professor. Keep on walking right by.

Flora KNEW that the only reason Professor Rainwater HADN'T acknowledged her answer to the previous question was because it was such a PERFECT answer, he didn't want anyone else in the greenhouse to get JEALOUS. Although, she would've like to see the jealous faces of her classmates.

Ehh. Class wasn't over yet. She figured she still had plenty of time for that to happen.

Still, she BEAMED at the man as he walked right on by, and even enthusiastically chanted no limits right along with him and a few fist bumps were thrown up into the air. This class was awesome.

Awesome-er now that they got to design their very own HYBRID TOADSTOOL!

And she didn't waste any time in pulling out her notebook to get to work. By herself. Because of jealous classmates.

SPOILER!!: toadstool!

Was she allowed to draw a picture of it? She was doing it anyway.

littledhampir · 05-16-2020, 03:09 PM

SPOILER!!: teammates

Oh, there was Aboli. He smiled and waved when she joined their group. "Yeah, you can!" Or, wait. He shouldn't be the sole decider of that. He glanced at Valencia, but he supposed it was really too late now even if she hadn't wanted to work with the other girl.

Moving on! Working! He did have some ideas, yes. Some that were just funny and some that actually made sense. She wanted to make them cool? "Like make tiny sunglasses for them?" He asked with a laugh. That would certainly make them look cooler. Professor Rainwater was suggesting something with the temperature. Oh, cool like cold. That could work too. "It could be cold as ice so if someone gets hurt you could use it like an ice pack." See? He had some ideas. "We could make it so it stinks." He laughed a little at this. This was one of his funny ideas. "I think sometimes plants stink so that animals won't eat them. But actually ACTUALLY even though it stinks it really tastes good."

He looked to Valencia to see if she had any ideas. She was like... the smartest person he knew (besides his sister of course of course) so he was sure she had lots of really smart ideas.

Daydreamer11 · 05-16-2020, 04:13 PM

So Naya was working solo on this activity. That was cool because she wasn’t exactly sure about her ideas. She was thinking about maybe cross breeding toadstools with different herbs. That wasn’t exactly a very outside the box idea, but it was all she had at the moment. First she needed some way to make sure that the toadstools weren’t poisonous. Then she would cross breed them with basil, oregano, cilantro......things like that. If she could make the toadstools edible, then people could use them in their food without having to use the seasonings. The toadstools would already have the seasonings in them.

Naya was about to start overthinking her plan. This was always a problem for her. Who would actually want to eat a toadstool? How would she make sure that they wouldn’t poison anyone? Were you allowed to combine more than two things when you were cross breeding? If so, maybe there was something she could add to the toadstools and herbs that would neutralize any possible poison. At this point, she had more questions than answers. Naya wrote her thoughts down in her notes. She would have to think about this some more. A lot more.

SPOILER!!: Naya’s notes

kayquilz · 05-16-2020, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Watson

Aboli's look didn't go unnoticed. WHAT. She was trying to be his partner? Oof.. sorry friend! They'd have to partner another time but if looks could kill, Aboli's one could. He was starting to make a list of things for boys like himself to watch out for when it comes to Aboli (1) elbows that were unusually pointy and (2) looks that froze your heart. Yep, he had two causes of death now. Mhmm..

If looks COULD KILL, Noah was right. Aboli's KILLER LOOKS could be deadly. HMPH. She would be speeding out of class without talking to him. And then, tomorrow, she'd probably be over it and be normal. Perhaps.

Beware her pointy elbows!

SPOILER!!: Professor and Alexandre

As Professor Rainwater neared, though, Aboli glanced up. "Um...I more meant cool guy cool but I guess the other cool could work, too!" she said with a nod before looking back at her group. TINY SUNGLASSES for the toadstools? The idea made Aboli laugh into her hands juuuust a bit.

"I think your idea exists in durian fruit - the stinky fruit! They smell like dead bodies," she said, knowledgeably and worryingly. "But they taste delicious!" Ish. Depended on the person's taste buds. Ice pack toadstools...Aboli....crinkled her nose.

She was trying to be nice. Don't be mean don't be meaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

aRogueOne · 05-16-2020, 06:35 PM

Ewan just looked up at the Professor and grinned, happy that at least one of their ideas had struck home. ”Do you think we could somehow crossbreed some of the plants with the most vitamins?”, his question aimed at Noah now as he started to write down some plants that contained a lot of vitamins.

”I mean, I’ve heard kiwifruit and Asparagus is supposed to be really good for you although, I’m not sure how it would all taste if we just mashed it all together”. Sure, it would be good for you but no one would want it if it tasted disgusting. ”and I know the lesson is on toadstools but they don’t exactly look appetizing, do they?” casting a glance over at the Professor now as he said this.

”I guess the first thing we should do is just decide which things we’d want to cross breed and what parts we’d ideally want from them?”.

nicole black · 05-16-2020, 07:38 PM

SPOILER!!: Professor and partner

"Great! This'll be fun." Yoyo gratefully smiled, cleaning up the table just a bit- a tiny bit- and settling down her things. "I love hot cinnamon candies." the third year added, peeking at Morgan's empty notebook pages. Without asking first she wrote cross-breeding ideas at the top, underlined thrice, before penning down Morgan's words. It wasn't an idea she was totally sure of but it deserved to be properly considered. "Why would it yell? what would be the point of it?" She genuinely asked, standing upright with her hand on her hip. "Maybe it could yell when it detects someone other than the grower.. " Cross-breeding had to be done with reason otherwise what was the point? Yoyo didn't believe in just doing something for the sake of it.

"Well no, but neither would anyone else!" Yoyo chirped, her shoulders tensing up as Professor Rainwater sat with them. She liked him a lot, what she didn't like? Having him so close while she worked. The Hufflepuff nibbled the end of her pen. "So it would be a deterrent against thieves or any magical creatures looking for food." Yoyo looked at Morgan for his approval.

*PhoenixRising* · 05-16-2020, 07:39 PM

So Carsyn had pretty much no idea what the toads had to do with toadstools? Because it had toad in the name? That was a weird correlation and Carsyn spent the next couple questions thinking (and overthinking) about toads and toadstools, as a distraction to the fact that she had no idea about crossbreeding plants, but the one Gryffindor first year talking about mamma and papa plants loving each other did elicit a smile from the gryffindor prefect. Did the girl have older siblings? Did her parents talk to her before sending her off to boarding school? Carsyn was curious....

Her reverie and internal thoughts were broken by a boomerous clap and loud ”DARE. TO. DREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!” Okay that was dangerous because 25% of the class was gryffindors who were notoriously reckless, so asking them to dream? Did he really want wild ideas about crossbreeding toadstools? Wait they were still talking about crossbreeding toadstools, right? Not toads? Because the latter could lead to some very interesting creature developments.

She was about to ask Islay to partner with her, but she was partnering up with Stella ... oh, she could always partner with her sister, considering she was definitely way better than herself at Herbology. But would it mess with Professor Rainwater seeing them working side-by-side? Then again, seeing them working beside each other would no doubt reveal the subtle differences all twins possessed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daydreamer11

So Naya was working solo on this activity. That was cool because she wasn’t exactly sure about her ideas. She was thinking about maybe cross breeding toadstools with different herbs. That wasn’t exactly a very outside the box idea, but it was all she had at the moment. First she needed some way to make sure that the toadstools weren’t poisonous. Then she would cross breed them with basil, oregano, cilantro......things like that. If she could make the toadstools edible, then people could use them in their food without having to use the seasonings. The toadstools would already have the seasonings in them.

Naya was about to start overthinking her plan. This was always a problem for her. Who would actually want to eat a toadstool? How would she make sure that they wouldn’t poison anyone? Were you allowed to combine more than two things when you were cross breeding? If so, maybe there was something she could add to the toadstools and herbs that would neutralize any possible poison. At this point, she had more questions than answers. Naya wrote her thoughts down in her notes. She would have to think about this some more. A lot more.

SPOILER!!: Naya’s notes

Before she could ask her sister or Islay/Stella about joining their group, her eyes fell onto Naya and she had picked up her things to sit by her other dormmate. They have worked together before, and it seemed like Naya did alright with the subject.

"May I work with you, Naya?" She asked, peering at her parchment. If nothing else, she'd at least get inspiration from the girl.

FearlessLeader19 · 05-16-2020, 11:15 PM

SPOILER!!: <3

Claudine had been back to chewing on the end of her quill and zoned out all over again. The result? Rainwater wasn’t noticed until he had spoken. “Oh, hello again, Professor.’’ She said quietly. “Thank you.’’ She peered down at the notes. “I was thinking the same but there are so many possibilities, you know? But I think I have something that I’m leaning towards.’’ Claudine pointed the quill’s tip under the part that spoke of introverts. “No offense, Professor but you extroverts wear us out sometimes.’’ It was a fact about introverts that their social batteries often ran out but she hoped that Rainwater wouldn’t take offense.

Anyway. She’d work to refine her list.

SPOILER!!: Notes

love-for-HP · 05-17-2020, 12:10 AM

SPOILER!!: Isla and the Professor

Isla was on board with the poison ... but then Professor Spoiler Sport had to rain on their parade ... Rainwater rain ... ugh.. "How about moderate discomfort as a compromise Professor." Blake added hoping that he would get his compromise, he kept the death part off for the sake of Rainwater, but if it was up to Blake ...

"Might be cool to be able to eat a mushroom and levitate to. Kind of like Wingardium Leviosa but with people and a mushroom." Blake added to Isla to put on their list ...at least that's if she thought it was a good idea.

Watson · 05-17-2020, 12:14 AM

He stole another glance at Aboli, figuring that she wouldn't talk to him for the rest of the day... Fickle calico cat... he thought, deciding that her new nickname would be Calico.

Before he could ask Ewan what he thought about the Slytherin giving them - well him looks, the Professor had swung by and offered a question to the two lads. "Good question... Let me think on that, Professor," he said as he began to brainstorm further. Hmm.... Ewan's question prompted Noah to think more. What plants had the most vitamins? He continued to think as Ewan began scribbling and was about to open his mouth when Ewan offered two suggestions that were on his mind. "That's what I was going to say! Maybe there's something we can do when we crossbreed to put a particular flavour as a stronger 'gene' so that it eliminates the other flavour?" he offered.

Noah nodded, agreeing with Ewan's comment about the toadstools not looking the most appetizing. Perhaps they could breed that out of them? He imagined that it would take several iterations to accomplish it but surely it was possible, right? "I think we may be able to... It may just take many attempts at crossbreeding to ensure we have the desirable genes for our crossbred plant."

"I think so... I also think we need to determine which traits or parts are more dominant versus recessive.. So for instance... the kiwi flavour could be more dominant than the asparagus flavour... "

Cassirin · 05-17-2020, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shanners

Ah, Miss James. Working alone? Gus sidled up onto a stool at her workstation and gave her a little elbow nudge. ”Whatcha thinking, Phoebe? What magnificent ideas are swirling around in that brain of yours? Let me help.”

Phoebe grinned hugely at the professor and pulled her piece of parchment over so she could sketch her ideas out for him. She wasn't much of an artist, but she could draw the top of a toadstool with some squiggly lines around it.

"I think it would be funny if it was rubbery on top and could catapault anything that jumped onto it like a trampoline. Bah-boing! And maybe something sweet smelling to attract flies, which would attract frogs, so there's something to bah-boiiiing off the top of it. What do you think?"

TakemetotheBurrow · 05-17-2020, 12:59 AM

SPOILER!!: beeernie

Quote:

Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

Taste.... taste was definitely important, Bernie was thinking, especially as she looked over Avalon's list. "Ooh, I agree with Cece, I like that, yes." She nodded confidently. "Yours should taste like candy floss, Avalon," she added. It was just what the Ravenclaw's description made her hunger for when she read it a second time. Must've been the colours in Avalon's description that triggered her.

She smiled happily at Cece's offer to let her taste-test the shroom second. "Okay!" Deal. "You can try mine second you, both of you," BOTH of her partners could. They could set up a charcuterie board of everyone's mushrooms after they made them!!!!! IF they were really making them. Bernie was going to be sorely disappointed in Rainwater if this was all a hypothetical exercise.

Anyway, she added the other ideas from her partners to her list. "So if mine smells like fruits, should it TASTE like fruits too?" She tapped her chin.

Text Cut: MY TOADSTOOL 3.0

Bernie nodded some more to Cece's ideas; she really WAS a toadstool master at this point. Her eye landed on another girl's parchment near by them; she was in their year, er, around their year, wasn't she? She was like, the quietest kid ever, but that had never stopped Bernie from peeping her parchment.

Text Cut: Catherine :3

"LOOK," Bernie tapppppppppped Catherine's parchment with her own quill, maybe flicking a bit of ink all over the place as she did. She couldn't help it, she was excited, and Gryffindors just....happened....when they got excited. "Cath's toadstool has FEELINGS." Oops, had she shouted that?

Awwwwwwwwwwww. No one was gonna wanna eat THAT one on their charcuterie board though! "What if it SCREAMS when you eat it?!" Bernie positively LOVED this idea, and beamed at the shy Ravenclaw. She was welcome to join their group, c'mon, duhhhhhhhhh.

"Yeah! Bernie is on to something. Candy floss flavor goes really well with your toadstool, Avalon!" Cecelia smiled encouragingly, thinking SHE wouldn't mind finding herself such a toadstool, though certainly NOT in the forbidden forest. Never there. Obviously.

"I like this plan best of all plans because it involves eating," The third year decided, tapping her parchment excitedly. Everything was better when food was involved. A happy tummy meant a happy gryffindor. "I think it'd be nice if it tasted like fruit. Plus-" PLUS "Fruit can grow on trees and toadstools can grow on trees, so it makes perfect sense." Was Professor R getting a load of this sense making going on over here? Oop, yes, yes he was. Hi!

"Hey that garden glowing idea is excellent. Nice one, Professor!" If Bernie wasn't going to use the idea, could she?

Glancing over at Catherine, Cecelia offered an apologetic smile because A) She knew how much she was going to be bothered by Bernie's antics and B) because she knew she probably didn't want her ideas broadcast to the entire class and C) she hadn't partnered with her because she knew she wouldn't like ANY of her ideas and it would only make her cross, which she didn't want to be.

...Catherine wasn't going to be upset with her about this, right?

aRogueOne · 05-17-2020, 01:57 AM

Ewan had to agree with Noah. He didn’t mind the taste of asparagus but would people really want to eat that and get full? No. If they were eating one thing for a meal, it would have to taste amazing! Unless, it was just for practical use in which case it wouldn’t matter too much what the taste was. But where was the fun in that? ”I like the idea of it being kiwi flavoured! That’s a lot nicer than asparagus although why not just go for different flavours all together?”. If they were going to cross breed this much, why not take different flavours like orange or apple and just breed that into the toadstools once they have all the vitamins?

”I’ll be honest though, this sounds like so much work. All of this cross breeding. It would be easier if we only had to take things from a few plants” otherwise it would take them like 20 years or something. Sure, they had magic but still. It would take waaaaay too long for this prefect. He wanted to finish before he left school.

Anna Banana · 05-17-2020, 03:03 AM

Text Cut: Professor and Blake

Isla couldn't help but laugh a little as the professor responded to their ideas. She knew he was basically saying, 'I don't like your idea, so try again,' but it was still funny the way he worded it. She watched as he made some corrections on their parchment before wandering away to the next person. "Thanks, Professor," she called after him.

"Ya know, Blake, Rainwater's cool. What other professor will take notes for us, and then when we do manage to take our own, he corrects them for us," she pointed out. She listen to Blake hammer out some more ideas. Perking up in excitement, she added, "Yeah, that way when we levitate, pretty much everybody knows that they're up to no good!" You could basically frame criminals this way! It was awesome!

She added more to their small set of notes.

Ideas:

- A plant ~~with poison or some other substance~~ that could be used as a defense mechanism.
- ‘MILD DISCOMFORT. NO DEATH’ <---Rainwater's notes
- Levitation

Felixir · 05-17-2020, 04:30 AM

Another point. Nem didn't follow this up with another witty one-liner, but just grinned and saluted Rainwater with great fervous. Castillo might have got a bit battered with his pointy elbow in the process, but these things happen.

Intricate, detailed, stressful, takes a lot of work. None of those things troubled Nem in the slightest... when it was to do with something he actually liked. Plants? Were not on that (very short) list. So, hearing they would be doing their own herbological crossbreeding experiments later was not something that inspired a whole lot of enthusiasm.

... Nor was the creative-sounding activity. For a split second, Nem's face was like thunder and his entire demeanour darkened, but in the next moment he had sat up in his seat again, chipper once more. And look, a readymade partner in Castillo. How lucky. "I've got one I think you'll like." He said to her, nudging her with that elbow again. "A Snargaluff-slash-Whomping-Willow-slash-Bubotuber toadstool. Looks like a regular old amanita muscaria, but if you get too close to it, thorny vines come out and punch you up, maybe strangle you a bit, and douse you with Bubotuber-ish pus on contact." Did she love it? Of course she did. "Nothing says 'stay off my land' quite like a full fungi assault, don't you think?"

ArianaBlack · 05-17-2020, 05:00 AM

SPOILER!!: murder child

"Ow!" The seventh year whipped her head over to give nemesis a(n unironic) pointed look in response to the assault from their pointy elbow. Nemesis was doing this on pURPOSE!!! If she didn't think she would draw too much attention to herself, Nina would have moved right then and there. She should have moved to a different workstation immediately after Nemesis took their seat next to her. This was all so unfortunately timed. Especially because the younger Slytherin was distracting her from getting any of her work done.

Currently, she was diligently working on plans for her own "imaginary" cross-hybrid. Not that she was at all interested in the activity, but she didn't want to get into any trouble. Obviously. She could overhear some of the ideas being shared around her and they all sounded as useless and ridiculous as the next. Her immediate thought had gone to strengthening the original toadstool. Perhaps by isolating traits from another plant to make it more extreme-weather resistant or something? She jotted the idea down right before she was yet again prodded by Nemesis' elbow.

Honestly, had they ever heard of personal space? How about social distancing?

"..............." It was what was shared that made Nina's eyes grow big though (she already had really big pretty eyes, Calyx told her so all the time but they grew even BIGGER in shock, to clarify). Strangle?? Full fungi assault???? "Professor Rainwater will think you're a psychopath." And honestly? Maybe he'd be right. Nina was most definitely scooting herself a little further away from them. "Why go through all of that trouble AND potential maim someone??? when you could just invest in an alarm system!?" This wasn't a question, actually. It was most definitely a statement. Any normal!!! person would agree with her. This was a test.

itsjustjesse · 05-17-2020, 05:47 AM

Islay smiled over to Stella as she collected her things and sat with her at her table. SEE this could be fun, they could make this work – besides, Stella’d always been nice to her. “okay, we could do tricks...but what kind?” she said as she thought aloud, her pen poised and ready to take notes when professor Rainwater asked what they had.

“Not much sir,” Islay answered, “but going by the fact that it is mostly water based I’d think that whatever you graft to it would need to be hydrophilic versus having it be hydrophobic” she said as she tapped her pen against the notepad.

“if we combine it with something that’s a hydrophyte like a waterlily you could vastly change the amount of areas the toadstool could grow – making it survive in lower oxygen areas like deep in wet watery caves” see she had ideas. She didn’t know what she would combine it with yet but she had ideas.

BRAINSTORM
do tricks??

hydrophyte – like waterlily

low oxygen space growing???

hydrophillic vs hydrophobic plant trains

"What would you think Stella?...i mean...i was thinking that could be an idea waterlilly - toadstool mix...but like what kind?" she paused for a second, "another idea is...we could find one that would combine the plant-based potion into one plant...like make a highly poisonous mushroom for the most potent of poisons?"

LilFox06 · 05-17-2020, 06:08 AM

SPOILER!!: All of you

Quote:

Originally Posted by littledhampir

Ooooh they were going to do some of their own crossbreeding? The actual doing the work part sounded hard. But the imagining part sounded very fun! Alexandre liked imagining. He was pretty good at it, he thought. But, how could you not be good at imagining? He already had lots of ideas. But it looked like they were picking partners. Alexandre looked around quickly. Which of his friends were even there? He spotted Valencia and moved to her side. "Hi Valencia! Do you want to be partners?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayquilz

SPOILER!!: Valencia and Alexandre

Aboli was ABOUT to ask Noah if he wanted to be her partner when he went and asked Ewan instead. She shot her Gryffindor friend a LEWK before huffing and turning to see that her NEWEST PAL Valencia needed someone - and look, it was Alexandre, too. "Hey - Can I work with you guys?" she asked as she pulled her bookbag with her. "DO either of you have ideas?" Because Aboli sure didn't.

And everyone seemed to be going all GUNGHO with their ideas already. "What could make toadstools cooler?" she asked them both. "Since...they're already pretty cool if you ask me," she smirked to show she was kinda joking. Not that toadstools weren't cool, but were they the COOLEST? Heh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by littledhampir

Oh, there was Aboli. He smiled and waved when she joined their group. "Yeah, you can!" Or, wait. He shouldn't be the sole decider of that. He glanced at Valencia, but he supposed it was really too late now even if she hadn't wanted to work with the other girl.

Moving on! Working! He did have some ideas, yes. Some that were just funny and some that actually made sense. She wanted to make them cool? "Like make tiny sunglasses for them?" He asked with a laugh. That would certainly make them look cooler. Professor Rainwater was suggesting something with the temperature. Oh, cool like cold. That could work too. "It could be cold as ice so if someone gets hurt you could use it like an ice pack." See? He had some ideas. "We could make it so it stinks." He laughed a little at this. This was one of his funny ideas. "I think sometimes plants stink so that animals won't eat them. But actually ACTUALLY even though it stinks it really tastes good."

He looked to Valencia to see if she had any ideas. She was like... the smartest person he knew (besides his sister of course of course) so he was sure she had lots of really smart ideas.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kayquilz

If looks COULD KILL, Noah was right. Aboli's KILLER LOOKS could be deadly. HMPH. She would be speeding out of class without talking to him. And then, tomorrow, she'd probably be over it and be normal. Perhaps.

Beware her pointy elbows!

As Professor Rainwater neared, though, Aboli glanced up. "Um...I more meant cool guy cool but I guess the other cool could work, too!" she said with a nod before looking back at her group. TINY SUNGLASSES for the toadstools? The idea made Aboli laugh into her hands juuuust a bit.

"I think your idea exists in durian fruit - the stinky fruit! They smell like dead bodies," she said, knowledgeably and worryingly. "But they taste delicious!" Ish. Depended on the person's taste buds. Ice pack toadstools...Aboli....crinkled her nose.

She was trying to be nice. Don't be mean don't be meaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

Valencia nodded. Yes. She didn't mind working with people at all. It could even be fun.

She nodded along. "Yes. Poisons and smells are quite common in nature." she said with a nod. "So if we were going to use that, it would have to be matched with something quite different."

"I agree though. Figuratively cool. Nobody has need of a leaping ice pack." That would make caring for injures more difficult, in fact.

"Maybe we could mix something with a bursting toadstool? she suggested.

Samia · 05-17-2020, 10:52 AM

Laughing softly at Jina’s suggestion, she nodded, because she was right - mandrakes could bring in a very important trait if they used it. Before she could respond however, the professor was joining them. Unconsciously, Missa sat up straighter.

The professor’s presence at their table brought about a new kind of nervousness for Missa. It was just kind of scary brainstorming with him right there. What if she ended up suggesting something stupid?

Upon his question, however, she instinctively turned to look at Eiji, as if he’d have the answer. It was so silly.

“If we dissect the poisonous toadstool’s properties and figure out which part makes the poison tick, do you think we can separate it and breed it with one with restorative properties - like Jina said, mandrakes, can that work?"

Felixir · 05-17-2020, 12:03 PM

SPOILER!!: so hurtful

That was roughly the reaction Nem had been expecting, and more or less confirmation of a good idea. But just one moment; please hold.

"Careful, Nee-naw, don't hurt my feelings." Did she see this? The slight pout? The look of hurt? All very genuine. All very suited to that angelic face of his. "But I don't mind if he thinks that, it won't make it true. And anyway, Rainwater's the one who wants us to hypothetically go through the trouble, I just figure it may as well be for something useful." She was getting a little hung up on the maiming thing too, and the scooting away was entirely unnecessary. Fleeing was awfully rude. "Alarm systems are dull and predictable. Easily disabled. Better something totally unexpected." This was all hypothetical of course; Nem really could think of dozens of better security measures, but that wasn't really in the spirit of the activity. If he was seriously thinking about making these toadstools to use them for this purpose, he'd hardly broadcast his ideas. The debate was just a way to pass the time; it was a useful skill, knowing how to argue a point you didn't necessarily agree with.

Nem looked thoughtfully at Castillo for a moment, head tilted. "Maybe I'll switch out 'Whomping Willow' for 'Devil's Snare'. That's a little less violent." Overtly, sure. "I suppose your ideas are all prim and proper?" The 'boring' was implied.

Daydreamer11 · 05-17-2020, 12:12 PM

SPOILER!!: Carsyn

Naya was lost in her thoughts, trying to come up with a way to make her idea better. She heard a familiar voice through her brain fog. It was her dorm mate and boy was Naya glad to see her. “Hey Carsyn. Of course you can work with me. I’ve been trying to come up with a fantastic outside the box idea. So far, all I’ve come up with is cross breeding toadstools with herbs.......’cause you know, flavored toadstools.” It sounded kind of stupid when she said it out loud.

Looking at her new partner, Naya said, “Got any bright ideas?” Any? Huh? Please. Help.

Hey Ju · 05-17-2020, 12:38 PM

Cecelia's new best friend got a glare from a red-faced Catherine when she started shouting about the Ravenclaw's work. She wasn't sure if her face was red because of the fact there was shouting about her work, or because of what the girl was saying about her work, or because Cecelia was obviously more interested in her new best friend than to even have the decency to talk to Catherine at all - smiles meant nothing to her -, or because that loud girl was just so obnoxious and had called her 'Cath'.

No one called her Cath. No one who didn't have permission, at least. And that Gryffindor didn't.

Before she could correct Bernadette and tell her she wasn't welcome to give her opinion regarding Catherine's work, professor Rainwater blocked their view of each other, giving the Ravenclaw time to pull herself together and take a deep breath to help her face go back to its normal colour.

She tried to get back in the zone to work, but wasn't able to come up with anything new before the professor turned around to look at her list. Catherine didn't look up at him until he spoke his last sentence.

That was the moment this girl got closest to having twinkling eyes. Of course, they weren't really twinkling, but her surprise and even awe at the prospective of working with both men might've been seen in her eyes, and one didn't even need to look too close to see it. It would be doing proper, useful work. And her favourite professor ever was going to be involved! "Okay." Was her reply to the man as she nodded her head almost imperceptibly.

Catherine didn't want to get too excited at the idea because it might not happen - she knew adults were busy all the time and sometimes just said things to make them feel better - but just the fact professor Rainwater seemed interested enough to both give her an extra point and offer to work with her and professor Noble on the experiment surely meant something.

Never mind Cecelia and Bernadette. Catherine's day had just been made!

Granger Danger · 05-17-2020, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Optimist.Prime

Islay smiled over to Stella as she collected her things and sat with her at her table. SEE this could be fun, they could make this work – besides, Stella’d always been nice to her. “okay, we could do tricks...but what kind?” she said as she thought aloud, her pen poised and ready to take notes when professor Rainwater asked what they had.

“Not much sir,” Islay answered, “but going by the fact that it is mostly water based I’d think that whatever you graft to it would need to be hydrophilic versus having it be hydrophobic” she said as she tapped her pen against the notepad.

“if we combine it with something that’s a hydrophyte like a waterlily you could vastly change the amount of areas the toadstool could grow – making it survive in lower oxygen areas like deep in wet watery caves” see she had ideas. She didn’t know what she would combine it with yet but she had ideas.

BRAINSTORM
do tricks??

hydrophyte – like waterlily

low oxygen space growing???

hydrophillic vs hydrophobic plant trains

"What would you think Stella?...i mean...i was thinking that could be an idea waterlilly - toadstool mix...but like what kind?" she paused for a second, "another idea is...we could find one that would combine the plant-based potion into one plant...like make a highly poisonous mushroom for the most potent of poisons?"

Tapping on her notepad she written down all the ideas the Islay told her. Hm... what kind of tricks did they want their toadstool to do, she had tons of ideas on what it could do. " Maybe do some flips or so and stand on it's cap?" Gigging as she said that cause that would look cute and funny looking.

"Not much sir." Looking at Islay she nodded. "Also they don't survive in the darkness well, like all plants gotta have sunshine. " Biting her lip she tapped her pen on her notepad coming up with ideas. Writing down the word Nyctophobia, she giggled at it, can a mushroom be afraid of darkness? Although she was scared of the dark, although it wasn't of the dark, but what was in it.

" Well... we could use Euryale ferox also known as the prickly water lily." There's was others but she thought this one suited this subject. As a matter of fact, she thought it was perfect, so perfect that they should use it. Writing down her ideas on her note pad she smiled happily at herself, rather pleased with herself.

Biting her lip she thought for a second,before her face lit up with an idea. "Amanita virosa, also known as the destroying angel one of Amanita's many geniuses. " She liked both ideas all too well, decisions... decisions. "A Toadstool Euryale ferox hybrid we could have water shoot out from it's spots and heal you seeing how Euryale ferox has healing properties for sore throat and stuff? Biting her lip she added, "It can feel emotions, which is why it'll know if it has to heal you. "As for the Amanita virosa, what about the same effect but it can kill you by it squirting you?"

MadMadamMalfoy · 05-17-2020, 06:31 PM

Heath visibly tensed when he saw Professor Rainwater coming his way. He had no idea how the man was going to react, but he was prepared for anything… laughter, ridicule, another reprimand, this time not so backhanded. The one thing he wasn't prepared for was praise, which was exactly the reaction he got! Just when he thought he couldn't be any more confused by this professor… only this time, it wasn't a bad kind of confusion. Not wanting to say the wrong thing after finally doing something right, he simply nodded in gratitude, smiling ever so slightly.

Oh, so they were crossbreeding toadstools! Well, they would be eventually; right now they were just brainstorming. For a moment, the thought crossed Heath's mind to ask Claudine if she wanted to work together, but when he looked, she was already working on her own. That was fine too. He already had some ideas of his own, and working alone meant he wouldn't have to waste time fighting for his ideas! He took out a piece of parchment and jotted down what he already had.

He knew how he wanted it to look - black with red veins like Kylo Ren's mask - but what else could it do? That would be pretty to look at, but it wasn't very useful, at least not by itself. He absentmindedly tapped his quill against the desk, lost in thought. Ooh, he had an idea! What if it glowed like a lightsaber? Then it could be used as a light source. What color would it glow, though? Red or black? Hmm… what if only the red part glows? He imagined walking through a dark field or forest and randomly coming across a wild pattern of glowing red veins. Now that would be cool! He was definitely using that!

Heath looked at his list. Okay, that was good so far, but he still needed to think of some magical qualities. He couldn't come up with anything off the top of his head, so he looked to the movie that had inspired the rest of the toadstool for more ideas. For some reason, his thoughts turned to force healing. What if the toadstools did something like that? And for that matter… what if they had their own dyad… with each other? Like they always grew in pairs or something? Yeah, that was nice, but could there be a use for it too? Ooh! What if you had to pick both toadstools for maximum effect?

Heath was on a roll! Now all he had left to figure out was the smell and taste. He'd purposely left those for last because he had no idea! Again, his thoughts turned to the character that inspired the rest of his toadstool. Hmm… Kylo Ren was a rather fragmented figure, all anger and aggression outside, but he had a softer side too. So… maybe the toadstool could start out sour and turn sweet? But how would it smell?

Heath was still thinking about that when he overheard Claudine voice exactly what he thought of Rainwater. Now that was funny! It took everything he had to stop himself from laughing out loud. If there was one thing he'd learned in years of muggle school, it was that being the object of laughter was not fun! He didn't want Claudine to think he was laughing at her… or the professor either, for that matter.

Oh, no! The professor! He'd be coming to him too! In his creative streak, Heath had completely forgotten about that. What was he going to think when he saw Heath's ideas? What if he didn't figure out the one thing that tied them together and he thought Heath's train of thought was too chaotic? Or worse, what if he did get the connection and he thought a Star Wars-inspired toadstool was the funniest thing ever? Either way, Heath was worried!

Text Cut: Toadstool

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