--- Kat ---
Kat had no idea how Appoline had managed to light up the backyard. After they finished their als, Appoline had pulled Kat, Lily and Tweedle into the backyard, with Furen deciding to tag along and Tanisha following the other elf. Once in the backyard, Appoline set up the cauldron and then quickly threw in a few handfuls of ingredients. A mont later, she was throwing globs of water out of the cauldron and they were floating around lighting up the area. It was all over so fast Kat didn’t even know what ingredients were used.
"Alright, so let go over so things for this first attempt. Tweedle, I want you to watch because you’ll be in charge of the second attempt. We have enough for five doses of the potion so ruining one or two is fine, but after the second failure I’ll be taking over. If you succeed, I might allow Lily an attempt as well," stated Appoline.
Tweedle looked very unsure about a cat being able to perform alchemy but everyone else seed to think this was reasonable. Lily looked a little smug at the accepting nods from the group at large. Though Kat had a question. "What did you use to make the lights... and why the lights?"
"They might not seem too bright but they are actually quite useful for this potion. They act as a diluted form of sunlight for things, from a magical sense anyway. I also need moonlight. You can either bottle it ahead of ti, or brew during the night. Its one of the annoying things about this potion, it can only be brewed at certain tis without taking extra precautions. Hence, the lights because teaching this to Tweedle would take longer then the short window we have.
"As for what they are? Just a simple potion, arguably not even a true one. I threw in a few firefly butts, sunflower seeds and leaves, a dash of lamp oil and a single coffee bean. The coffee bean is actually to help with the duration. If you’re ok with the lights only lasting around half an hour then you don’t need to add it, but it changes the way things mix together." Appoline paused and ran over to the corner of the house where... there was a blackboard? When did that get there?
"So, now that it’s been brought up, I realise this is a good teaching mont for everyone. Tweedle you likely already realise so of this but allow to explain using this light potion as an example. I already outlined all of the ingredients, and I listed them in the order you add them... except for the coffee bean. Now, can anyone tell where it should be added with no extra info?"
Lily ford her shadows into the various ingredients, adding the bean between the sunflower seeds and the leaves. "Hmm... ok, are you willing to explain why you think that?"
[Shit... I want to say it.]
Go ahead. I know I could just relay things back and forth AND that having so many people here ans you’re secret is likely to get out... but frankly the fact the secret hasn’t spread already is a bit surprising. With Lin knowing its best to just assu that enemies know.
[Fair.]
Lily hopped off Kat’s shoulder and transford, shocking Tanisha and... nobody else. Well, Tweedle seed scared by the sudden woman appearing, but not actually surprised once she recovered from the jumpscare. "I think it goes in the middle for a few reasons. The first is that its in the middle, and its ant to increase duration so there’s a sort of balance there. Additionally, the firefly buts HAVE to go first because I assu they form the core of the potion.
"In the sa way, I think the lamp oil has to remain last... I don’t know if I can quite put it into words but my best guess, and wording, is that the lamp oil helps ensure that the light doesn’t just explode out all at once and instead it acts as a slow burning thing. I’m not sure why the coffee bean extends the duration so much because I’d think the lamp oil would do that... but then again, I suppose it is if my guess is correct.
"I’m not certain about interrupting the leaves and the seeds with the bean, but considering that coffee beans ARE seeds then it can conceptually slot in between them using that factor. I’d also say that having it before the sunflower seeds is possible as well, but it feels wrong for reasons I can’t quite determine,"
"Anyone else want to chi in? Tweedle if so, don’t start imdiately I’ll make you go last," Appoline queried. Tanisha and Furen shook their heads. Tweedle seed to consider answering for a few monts before also shaking her head. "Nothing Tweedle?"
Tweedle winced at being called out. "Um... er... I don’t know the recipe but what... um... Lily? What Lily said seems correct."
Appoline clapped her hands. "Alright fine, Lily’s guess was mostly correct. Good intuition Lily and Tweedle I’d have preferred a more confident answer if you thought she was correct along with a tweak or two next ti. Even if it’s wrong, I want to know what you were thinking before she said anything. Still... it was a bit of a dirty question in truth because the correct steps have you crushing the coffee bean into a fine powder and adding it before and after the sunflower ingredients in two halves," admits Appoline.
"How does that affect the core of things?" asked Tweedle. "Do you still just mix everything at once?"
Appoline shook her head, "No, this is one of those weird potions where you form the core and then slowly mix everything else in. You add them in order, but you essentially just keep the ingredients circling without adding the entirety of them. Instead you have to keep them spinning and mixing only slightly around the edges as they eventually fuse into the core... until the lamp oil. That caps things up and you sort of... use that almost as a net to push everything into the centre."
"And you’re using sothing that complicated for a set of lights!" hissed Tweedle in shock.
"It’s not JUST as a set of lights Tweedle, I already explained these will be helping at the ’sunlight’ aspects to the potion we’re making for the anti-scarring. Sure the ingredients are cheap and the potion doesn’t take long to brew but I never said it was easy. Simple sure, but not easy. You don’t have to do anything different with each ingredient, or use any truly advanced techniques.
"You just have to form the core, and then keep the rest of the ingredients circling before the oil wraps it all up. I could do that in my sleep. In fact, I think I did once upon a ti when I was half asleep and needed a light to see by, though I don’t think I added the coffee to that one..." explained Appoline.
Tweedle still seed shocked, and before Kat or Lily could ask WHY she was, Tweedle voiced her complaints verbally. "Appoline... I get that you’re a genius but sothing like that isn’t easy! Keeping the ingredients moving while also breaking things down AND making sure they don’t add to the core in an uneven way is really difficult. Also... also, the oil ’net’ might sound easy at the end but making sothing like that as a combination of mana and an ingredient isn’t sothing I know how to do... so I have no idea how difficult it would be but I’m not guessing easy.
"Then there’s the fact that you seem to be implying that the ’net’ needs to grab EVERYTHING else and shove it all into the core at once compacting it down or sothing? That’s a LOT of essence that needs to move at the sa ti, and I’m assuming the standard ’don’t give essence too much mana or it will trigger’ rules apply and just... balancing that would be a nightmare..." Tweedle finished with a groan, pulling her hands down her face as she imagined making the attempt.
Appoline tilted her head in confusion. Looking a bit like an owl with the way her neck was moving. "Really? I would consider all that quite basic... now I worry a bit about if the potion I’m trying to teach you is going to be sothing you can learn in a session... hmmm... this... is it really that difficult?"
"Yes!" insisted Tweedle. "Most alchemists can, at best, move all of their mana into a blender formation. You seem to think that controlling your mana, outside of your body I might add, with enough finesse to guide multiple streams of essence into the core without overloading it and THEN forming a sufficient net to catch it all... without pushing too much mana into the cauldron? That’s really hard."
"Huh," Appoline intoned. "Do people not practice that sort of thing?"
Tweedle sighed, "Sort of? It’s not like we don’t practice that sort of thing at all just that we don’t always practice it because we don’t NEED to and its hard, barely used."
Appoline huffed, "Barely used? Rediculous. Why I know plenty of recipes that require such things, or worse. In fact..."
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