| Granian
Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Bikini Bottom
Posts: 21,185
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Roman Gellar
Slytherin First Year
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Arden Toros
Gryffindor Sixth Year  x4  x1
|  A Poop * k8 *
SPOILER!!: Nicky Quote:
Originally Posted by lemon  Unlike everyone else, Nicholas was done attempting to secure these silly tears from the willow's branches. No, his one drop would suffice.
"If drinking the tears neat causes such severe sadness, sir," the Hufflepuff mused, hand in the air, "and it's so hard to reverse... maybe you could use it as a potion on its own. Like a poison, but with lethal mental effects as opposed to physiological ones? Could it kind of render someone useless?"
Hm. Bottled pain. And insanity.
Sounded like it caused the same results as OWLs did.
Well, that was far more disturbing than Paul expected to hear, but he supposed it was….creative???? At least??? “Remind me to never get into a disagreement with you, m’boy,” he teased good-naturedly. SPOILER!!: Olivia Quote:
Originally Posted by Govoni COME ON, WEEPING WILLOW....Where the tears at?!
It had been TWENTY minutes, and Olivia hadn't managed to do anything other than upset herself. No difficult task these days, but it felt unnecessary at this point. Was she...doing something wrong? True, she'd felt the effects of casting, that was a newly developed tell for her, but...what if she'd misread? The incantation was being pronounced correctly; the wand motion, performed tightly... Man, Professor Paul. What was up?
Having to take a breather, as her head was beginning to pound, the Gryffindor took an unceremonious seat in the middle of the floor. They were being asked a question, anyway. And yah, she had ideas. So...she was just going to focus on that for a few moments. "I could see them being diluted and used as a sedative." Considering all her recent health issues, Liv was kinda an expert. "...since sedatives are actually called depressants in the muggle world. If you were to possibly mix the tears with a substance that would basically water it down, it could lessen the more extreme effects." Oh, idea! "Like adding a drop or two to someone's pumpkin juice, etc."
.....Urgh, right. Back to this tree.
Interesting take! Paul smiled. “I could see that working. It’d have to be VERY diluted Im sure. And I don’t fancy being the one trying to make that work.” He felt the tears were probably VERY hard to deal with. ”Good job, Liv!” He gave her a thumbs up. SPOILER!!: Isa Quote:
Originally Posted by griffin Wow, she had asked a question that even Professor Myers didn’t know the answer to, and she wasn’t even sure if anyone knew the answer to it. By Isa’s standards that made it a good question. Professor Myers had said this was a recent discovery, so maybe nobody had researched the tear producing mechanism in the tree yet. She would have to talk to Professor Myers later to see if he found out where they were produced from. If he couldn’t find out, she was going to find a way to find out for herself. There was still a lot to be studied about this tree, so Isa was making it her goal to research this tree. Maybe she would discover new magical properties of the tears or something. That would be so cool!
Yeah, the tears probably weren’t the same stuff as human tears. Human tears did not share the same magical properties, and trees had their own ways of producing things. It definitely wasn’t just water either. Normal water also did not have special magical properties. The tears were clear, like water, but a lot of non-water substances looked deceivingly like water. It was dangerous to assume that a clear liquid was water. For all you knew it could be poisonous or otherwise harmful. In the case of the tears they probably weren’t poison, but they weren’t pure water either.
Even after casting Maeroro six times, Isa only had two tears in her vial. The young hufflepuff was determined to prove her herbology skills by filling her vial to 3/4 of the way full like Professor Myers had asked them to. This was a difficult task, but Isa believed that it was achievable; Professor Myers wouldn’t have asked them to do something impossible. She could do this. You can do this, Isa. The mental pep talk encouraged her to keep trying. ”Maeroro. Maeroro. Maeroro. Maeroro. Maeroro. Maeroro. Maeroro.” Isa repeated the spell several times to get a few more tears in her vial. This might take a while. Making a tree cry was actually more difficult than it sounded. Then again, most people would have thought it was impossible to make a tree cry, so making the weeping willow cry at all was an astounding accomplishment. Collecting only two tears sounded a lot more impressive when you thought about it that way. Fortunately, a few more tears had dripped from the branch into the vial as Isa cast the sadness charm on the tree a few more times. Eventually after what seemed like a hundred times casting the spell, Isa had filled her vial to about 3/4 of the way full.
When she was done collecting weeping willow tears in her vial, Isa put the cork back in the vial. She put her free hand on the trunk of the tree, leaned in closer to the tree to the point that she was almost touching the tree with her forehead, closed her eyes, and whispered to the tree. ”I’m sorry we had to make you sad. Thank you for your tears. I hope you can feel happy later when we’re done collecting the tears.” Yes, Isa Wright was talking to a tree and she didn’t think there was anything weird about that. Just your usual conversation with a tree that you made feel sad so it could cry. Nothing at all unusual to see here.
Oooh, now was the interesting part where they got to learn all about the tears! Her questions might finally be answered! Isa listened intently as Professor Myer explained what was known about the tears. A deep loss in your heart if you ingested the tears? That was so sad. Isa tried to imagine what it would feel like if someone in her family died. The feeling was so heartbreaking that Isa couldn’t imagine what it would be like, but she felt sad and her eyes were getting all red and watery. Thankfully she hadn’t tried to taste any of the tears, because she didn’t want the depressing heartache that the tears could induce. Isa knew better than to go around sticking things in her mouth without knowing what they were. There were a lot of plants and parts of plants that weren’t safe to eat. ”Do the tears have any effect on you if you touch them?” Like, what would happen if she got some on her fingers? For the first time Isa started to think about how potentially dangerous these tears could be if not used properly. Ingesting pure tears could seriously mess up your mental health, and mental health was important. The wrong use of the tears could have grave consequences. ”If the tears could make people so heartbroken if they aren’t used in the right way, is it ethical to be experimenting with them?” Isa was curious about finding new uses for the tears, but she didn’t want to accidentally make people feel depressed either.
So, what use for the tears would she try to come up with? Suggesting using it in a potion to make people feel sad seemed unoriginal given that Professor Myers had just said that the tears could be used in mood-altering potions, so Isa thought about what other applications the tears might have. ”Maybe other plants might respond to the tears, like a sort of way to communicate with other plants.” She wasn’t quite sure what the implications of that would be if that were true or if that would even be significant, but it was an interesting idea to think about. Was the grass under weeping willow trees always sad? ”I think I would want to research more about what conditions naturally make the weeping willow weep, to better understand more about the function of the tears and how people might be able to find new uses for the tears based off of what they do in nature.” Really this topic seemed like something that needed more research. Maybe one day Isa would get a chance to do more work with the weeping willow. If she knew more about what the weeping willow used its tears for, she would have a better understanding of how people could use them. The tears must serve some purpose to the tree, because trees didn’t develop some way of being sad and crying just for fun. There was always an evolutionary advantageous reason for plants developing in a certain way. ”Is it known why the weeping willow cries or how that might be an advantage for the willow? Maybe it defends itself by making everything that wants to hurt it sad or something?” Like how thorns on a rosebush deterred animals from eating the roses? Or maybe something entirely different that she hadn’t thought of yet? This was turning out to be a very interesting lesson indeed. Isa’s attention was completely focused on her thoughts about why the tree cried, why that was important, and how she might find a use for the tears based off of that.
Isa was full of questions today! Rather than finding it exhausting, Paul found it refreshing. It was nice to have someone seeking your knowledge or even opinion on something. He puffed up a little bit. “Touching them will have no affect on you at all.” He responded. “And well...as long as you aren’t experimenting with people or without their knowledge, of course, it’s ethical. Just don’t slip it to your enemies to “test” it. That would….be very bad.” And Paul shouldn’t have given them the idea, granted, Nicholas Tate already had that covered. SPOILER!!: Kitty Quote:
Originally Posted by Goblinfrog Kitty continued trying to extract tears form the Weeping Willow. "Maeroro!!!" And still nothing happened. "Gaa this is hard," she muttered a little impatiently.
It was an interesting question. Huh. What WOULD they use these tears for anyway? "I think I agree with Olivia," she said, since it sounded like the most reasonable answer. "Most medicines are extremely diluted, so maybe tears can be too?" “Mhmm, perhaps. And keep going, Kitty. You’ve almost got it!” he encouraged gently. SPOILER!!: Mel Quote:
Originally Posted by Optimist.Prime Melbourne glanced over to Isa when she heard the young hufflepuff apologizing to the weeping willow…was there an option to just go over there and hug her? Seriously, she had to be the most precious girl E V E R , it was also the fact that her question about the tears causing heartbreak that made Melbourne really think of a use for the potion.
Weren’t there people out there that…well, that didn’t have emotions? Or well, never really knew how to cry? Maybe, maybe there was something along the lines of a psychological benefit to the willow tears?...or was it, was that ethical?
Pointing her wand at the willow branch in front of her Melbourne let her finger trail along the edge of her now empty phial. ”Maeroro” she cast the frown like wand movement and intent of the spell caused a tear to drip from the end of the willow’s branch. ”Thank you for this,” she carefully moved the phial in place and watched as the phial began to slowly fill. Glancing over to Kirk, she felt a little nervous really saying this here. It wasn’t something she had even shared with him before, but…really, it wasn’t like it was a secret. Raising her hand, she glanced at Professor Meyers – ”Professor Meyers? Would it be reasonable to use them in somewhat of a cosmetic potion? I know many muggles, witches, and wizards alike have a hard time producing natural tears and even having honest emotions?” she paused, before glancing down at the phial and let her eyes trail around the people in the room.
”I don’t mean…like for acting purposes, I mean for…when people honestly can’t feel hurt or sad at funerals and the like?...s-so like you could use them as a substitute for tears when you should feel sad like at your parents funeral…or…just when your eyes feel like they are about to crack open like the surface of a desert?” Melbourne offered and bit the edge of her lip. No, she didn’t have chronic dry eyes. It was something that only few people really knew about.
Mel’s theory was interesting. “Without getting into the debate about using potions to force your emotions, I’ll just say...that is an interesting use for sure, Melbourne.” He smiled. “Creative.” Outside the box. He dug it, okay? SPOILER!!: Rula Quote:
Originally Posted by AlwaysSnapesGirl Rula was actually quite interested in this lesson even when she'd first reached the area before class began. They might not be studying flowers, but she did think the weeping willow was a very lovely tree. And the supposed origin of it, even though it probably wasn't at all true, totally captured her imagination. And it was even more intriguing that a weeping willow did, apparently, weep.
And they were going to be doing that today? Hmm...she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about the idea of making something be sad, but she'd set that aside for now. Time to practice the spell, which seemed simple enough.
"My-ro-ro," she said slowly, feeling like it wasn't too hard to say. "Maeroro." Yep, simple enough.
And the wand movement, just an upside down U...also pretty simple.
But when she put them together - "Maeroro," with her wand moving in a frown shape and then pointing at the tree - it didn't seem to do much. Apparently the intent part was a little harder than it seemed? Or the tree was particularly stubborn. Who knew?
She continued to cast it a few more times, though she paused when Professor Myers began talking more about the properties of the tears. Hm...interesting. And honestly, pretty terrifying. Rula couldn't imagine what that would feel like, ingesting the tears and feeling such a deep sorrow for...ever apparently or just about. That was...awful.
She really didn't want to think about that - especially not the idea of it being used as a poison, Merlin's beard - so she raised her hand to instead ask a somewhat-related question that she'd thought of earlier. "Professor, would it be possible to get these tears by making the tree really happy too? Because sometimes humans cry from being really, intensely happy too, not just from sadness. Has that been tested on the weeping willows yet?"
Awwww. Rula’s idea was something Paul had also thought of, honestly. “I think….it could be done with the right intent, and the right spellwork, and the right performer of the magic. Or perhaps it would just take very many of us to do it. It hasn’t be tried yet….but……..I’ll have the tree here for a few days before I send it off to a very loving willow lover,” he said with a soft smile. “You’re welcome to come and try, Miss Botros. That goes for all of you!” SPOILER!!: Emmeline Quote:
Originally Posted by NifflerFan The possible Dark professor continued his lecture while most of the class was still collecting tears, and Emmeline felt her heart pounding and her palms turn more and more clammy with every word the man spoke. So the tears weren't used for anything good at all! In fact, they could make people feel so horrible that it was hard to come back from the crushing sadness the tears forced on its victims. This was...worse than the first year had thought it would be.
She was starting to feel like a bad person for collecting these tears. She didn't see how something that made people so sad could possibly be used for good more than it could for evil, and the many uses that a potential Dark wizard could put these tears to made the Gryffindor shudder. Completely ignoring the glass vial that she'd worked on and was currently sitting beside her on the floor, the first year drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them -- essentially forming a brown ball. She felt like she was going to throw up, and maybe she deserved to throw up for collecting something so evil.
When the professor asked about possible uses for the tears, Emmeline answered quietly: "Maybe we should just leave the trees alone." With that, the eleven year old gripped her legs more tightly and curled up into an even smaller ball. She felt like she was a worm or or a dementor. Dementors made people super sad and miserable and that's exactly what these tears did too. Emmeline was more than half way tempted to throw her stupid vial of tears out, 'cept she was afraid that a person or creature would somehow swallow the evil liquid if she did. So she simply went back to staring dully at the tree in front of her and mentally counting down the minutes until the lesson would end and she could go visit her cruppy in the nursery barn.
…...Paul turned to Emmeline and just….sighed. “Well, we can’t, and I’ll explain why in just a moment,” he said verrrrrry gently, because Emmeline looked...uncomfortable, and he didn’t know why. “Are you feeling okay, m’dear? Do you need to step out for a drink of water?” SPOILER!!: Skylar Quote:
Originally Posted by PhoenixRising Okay, so Skylar was going to be ready this time with her vial to actually collect some tears. Although she was sort of unsure about what they were going to be doing with the tears, but she supposed that would come as the lesson progressed. For now though, the objective was to collect the tears, only ... her thoughts were interrupted as she heard Isa Wright apologizing to the tree. She knew the girl had quite the heart, but for the love of Merlin, it was a PLANT. And while that might have been a tad heartless of Skylar to think, considering Myers and some of the other hardcore Herbology fiends would say 'well plants were living things too', but if that was the case, then why did Isa think it okay to eat vegetables? Vegetables grew on plants, which were living things ... and yes, okay so maybe she really was being heartless and not comprehending this, but she was also being realistic.
Uh, right then Myers talking about how ingesting the tears in the purest form, you feel this mourning loss and Skylar wondered for a moment if she was out of time to practice or collect her tears. Holding the empty vial in her hand, she just listened to him lecture for a moment and then posed a question ... a scenario. While they finish up, which she had yet to do, even though she'd made the tree cry, she hadn't collected any tears.
Oh, Rula was brilliant! Making the tree so happy it cried!? That was an amazing suggestion and honestly, Skylar wasn't sure she could think of anything to top that so she instead focused on collecting her tears.
"maeroro!" she exclaimed again, flourishing her wand as before. This time she was ready with her uncapped vial and held it up the tree, to which she managed to collect several drops of tears. But if only one drop was powerful enough to induce that mourning, perhaps she had enough? Unless she wanted to experiment some more, which she half wanted to. Leading the fourth year to another wand flourish and "Maeroro," in which a few more tears fell into her vial and it looked almost half full.
Now onto the question posed. "I think, like phoenix tears are useful in potions, I'd want to explore using these weeping willow tears in potions. Maybe as an antidote for the euphoria potion, but also, as Olivia suggested, even just similar to a sedative, or a calming draught. Stress, especially around exam time, runs high in the castle walls. So maybe it has usefulness in anti-stress? or even anti-inflammatory properties?" actually, the second suggestion was far-fetched, but it was possible, right? Maybe? “I’ve had similiar thoughts, Miss Diggory! About the antidote...very good idea!” She got a thumbs up, too! They were all so creative. And….well, some of them were SCARY but Paul, at least, had the pleasure of knowing them as teenagers. As they grew older, they could….you know, not contact Paul every again LOLOLOLOL @ all of you crazy ones. SPOILER!!: Oliver Quote:
Originally Posted by littledhampir Oops. Olly hadn't meant for Professor Myers to overhear him talking to Noelle. He felt kind of bad that he was sort of insulting his lesson. Luckily he didn't take it that way and thought it was actually a valid concern. Actually, it seemed like several other students shared the same concern. OH NO HAD HE MADE PROFESSOR MYERS CRY?!
Maybe he had accidentally been hit by a sadness charm. Olly was going to choose that was the case because he didn't know what he could have done to make him sad. PLEASE DON'T BE SAD.
He held off on doing the spell for a moment as he waited for some more explanation on why this was a necessary evil. He would decide if he agreed that it was a necessary evil. The tears made people really sad? A deep mourning loss seemed pretty terrible. Olly regarded the tree apprehensively. He definitely was not going to be drinking any of that. So far it didn't really seem like there were any good uses for that. Why would they want to make people sad? What kind of potion would he want to make out of this?
"Would it be possible to put it in a potion and somehow reverse its effects? Make a cheering potion with it somehow? Or if you add it to another potion you could feel whatever those effects are and also be...sad?" He still didn't see why this was super useful. “I was wondering that!” he cried suddenly, right at Oliver. “I would love for a potioneer to perhaps explore that theory a little more….it’d certainly be...difficult, I’m sure.” Good job, Oliver! SPOILER!!: Levi Quote:
Originally Posted by Oesed My-ro-ro.
MY-RO-RO.
He'd repeated the spell out loud several times. So many that Levi thought if he told someone it was his middle name, he'd sound convincing enough. But when the time came to try it out in the tree very little other than his own frustration came pouring out. Which translated on spark, which he was quick to direct at the floor.
No need to do any sort of damage, however minor and unconsciously done, to Myers' latest treasure.
"Maeroro."
Nope.
"Maeroro."
Try again.
"MAERORO!"
........A leaf stirred and surely that ought to count for something.
"Interrogation." If frustration leaked a little bit into his voice, well--there was nothing to be done about it now that it was out. "Some wizards are strong enough to resist vertiaserum and repel attempts at legilimens from others. From law enforcement officials." He lowered his wand momentarily to look at the Herbology professor. "It's impressive, really, how strong our minds can be. But the tears of the Weeping Willow are stronger, surely. And if the person is given a dose of them, even a very minor one, then--" a shrug, perhaps to lighten his own words. "--the criminal in question would be too busy drowning in their own sorrows to resist much else."
……..Levi’s answer was by far Paul’s LEAST favorite, not for its lack of creativity but for…..just…..IT. “Um.” How to reply to THAT? “Another one of you I...do not want to cross,” he chuckled...a bit, uncomfortably. “But that….might be effective for some people.” AKA, Paul, depending on what he was interrogated about. SPOILER!!: Mel again Quote:
Originally Posted by Optimist.Prime Melbourne glanced over to Tenacius as she watched him trying to cast the spell…well, hold his wand and sort of stare at the trees. Mel got it, really, Tenacius was a soft hearted thing much like she herself was. That was one of the main reasons she had stayed so close to the curly haired boy for all of these years. ”Hey,” she gave him a soft smile as he walked over to where she was standing.
”I don’t what to do this” she told her friend only to turn upon hearing Emmeline Sparkes’ comment. Here here girly. Here here. ”Professor Meyers…I really second where Emmeline is coming from – while there may be uses for the tears I wouldn’t want to make these trees feel grief…sorrow or sadness or anything really like what heartbreak feels like,” that…that was cruel.
Mel's eyes flitted over to Kirk...yes, yes he was doing the work and brilliantly. Still, she couldn't stomach it...what they were doing was hurting the trees spirit and Weeping Willows were the strongest trees in her opinion...they had that unflinching ability to bend and not snap. There was beauty in that...and she, she wasn't going to be the one to make them snap.
Melbourne spoke again, and Paul could understand the concerns, he really could. Did they think he, a plant lover, would do all of this just to be mean to a tree? Of course not. Paul smiled a little, very gently, and said, “In JUUUUSt a moemnt you will see… I promise. This is not all for nought.” SPOILER!!: Etta Quote:
Originally Posted by Lady of Light Well, this is going GREAT. Simply great. Why was this so much effort again? Etta sighed and looked around for a bit, a little glad that her fellow classmates and friends seemed to be facing the same problem too. So she wasn't the only one.. well, that was a relief. She turned towards the tree again and cast the spell again, with the inverted U wand movement and.. something happened.
She could see the tears.. with the vial held ready, she managed to collect a few more drops and that was it. Would this be enough? She held the vial up to her eye-level and stared. Yeah, no. Pretty sure that this wouldn't be enough at all. She took a break and raised a hand to answer the professor's question. "Well.. probably add them to an existing potion, professor? Like Olivia mentioned, it'll probably help lessen the extreme effects of certain potions.. perhaps?
.. Now, back to the tree. Etta sighed with frustration this time, wishing the professor would just move on to the next activity already. Or maybe her patience level was running a bit low today. “Good idea, yes. I think that’d bring interesting results depending on the potions. The problem is...who would want to be tested on? Certainly not me!” That sounded like a steaming cup of nope to Paul. “Since EVERYONE is concerned--” that was a gross exaggeration, but Paul didn’t care, “These tears have at least ONE good purpose. They….allow our Willow friend to reproduce,” he smiled and held up his vial. “Once a droplet dries, it hardens into amber,” he grinned. Did they remember back to the story? “SO...if you wanted to plant a new Weeping Willow, all you’d have to do is….harvest the tears from the tree, which is what we just did, using that nifty sadness charm. Collect them in one of this vials….use a droplet to suck up some of the tears, squeeze ONE single droplet on your hand...and...use a drying spell to harden it into amber. Once the amber-seedling is all firm, you may plant it! In a pot...or in the ground! Whatever works!“ He grinned. “So…...let us try out hand at creating these seeds! I won’t have you plant them today, but you may keep the little amber seedlings if you like. If you were unsuccessful at collecting the tears---” They all had O+ effort, though! “Then simple take a droplet from a friend’s vial. Place a single droplet on your hand...and use the drying spell. It will harden into the amber. Once you have finished, let me collect your vials and you are dismissed! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!” OOC: Thanks for attending, guys! I'll be leaving this open for, at the most, TWO more days! Feel free to bug us/chitter/make your amber seedling babies/whatever else! <3 I'll be around!
__________________ "You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough."
Roman Gellar ● 1st Year ● Slytherin |