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Character(s): Christine
Status: Open
Location(s): In libraries in Krimnos and the City of Whatever it's Name is This Week
Date(s) April 1-17
About: Christine's idea led to a research compling mission, and a strange sight in Idan's libraries and bookstores.
Warnings: Only if you don't like reading about metal wasps.

The idea was one she thought probably wasn't feasible, else someone would have thought of it before. But it turns out the project is not only possible, but bigger than she could have imagined. Helping people in the future have access to more knowledge at their fingertips is a noble goal, but she has to admit that she's doing this for herself too. Not only will she hopefully get to use this book in her own lifetime, but she's getting paid for doing the legwork too.

{ krimnos }
She starts in the city of the Tinkers after they test their knowledge-gathering wasps on their own Academy's library first. Then she's set loose with a box containing the metal wasps and sent on her way. The project can be done at her own pace, but she's so excited that she heads to another library in Krimnos straight away.

She can be found sitting at a desk, thumbing through a book and giving someone a look, eyebrows raised. "Please don't swat at my wasps. They aren't going to sting you."

{ city of free peoples, aka freeps }
Her work in Krimnos is far from done. Gathering all the information in all the books will take time, but she wants to move on to other things. After a brief stop at home, she journeys southwest to the city of so much conflict recently, to see if King Ardis' soldiers have been in anymore scraps with werewolves, Defenders, or both and need her healing services. While in the area, she heads into the city to visit a library and sets a box on one of the tables. Opening the lid, the two metal wasps go flying out to scan as many books as they can. A patron looks at the wasps, looks at Christine, and looks at the falcon now sitting on the table before quickly clutching a book to their chest and scurrying to the front desk. Christine sighs and looks at her animas.

"I guess we'll have to get the information out of that particular book next time, hm?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Six is not naturally a bookish person - that was never her forte, and the world had known it - but after years of being dead and then being brought back... She thinks she ought to do something to try and see what she has missed. She wants to see if there are any mentions of temples for Seyra, somewhere she can go to pledge herself again, bending the knee to the God she had been so happy to cherish for her entire life.

She only pauses when she sees Christine, hesitating for a moment before she smiles softly.

"If I have your word then I will not feel threatened."

Christine returns the smile and closes the book in front of her.

"They're part of a research gathering project," she explains. "Metal golems that can absorb information and put it magically into a source book. I'm very excited about it." And it shows on her face.

"How have you been?"

None of that seems to register on Six's face for a moment, but she nods her head anyway. Golems that can learn information and place them in a book... A magical marvel, surely, even if the mechanics of it are beyond her.

All the same, she moves closer and nods her head, awkwardly shaped with her height in the midst of a library. If she's not careful she might touch the roof.

"Well enough, thank you. And yourself?"

"I'm doing very well. These last few months I've been traveling between the major cities, but I've finally found a place to live." An unconventional house, to be sure, but one she feels suits her somehow.

The book lying before her is on the subject of gardening and she gestures to the cover. "I'm going to plant a garden soon. Mainly alchemy ingredients, but I may as well do food too."

"I am glad for you. Having a place to return to must be a wonderful anchor to have." It's not something that Six has much experience with herself; she had never felt at home where she was born and since then travel had been more comfortable for her.

Leaning forward, Six glances at the book.

"Is there much that might work for healing? I may be able to help with that."

"Oh, there's a great deal! Aloe vera for burns, chamomile for insomnia, alfalfa for nausea. I could go on and on. Once you break the herbs down into their base parts, they can be used in a great deal of alchemy potions." And Christine is missing her alchemist days when she ran her own shop. As of late she's used magic to heal, but it's good to have potions on hand for people to take home with them.

"I would like to learn a little, if you have the time." There's a small, curious smile on her face. She can heal with her hands, true enough, but there is something to be said about making things people can have when she goes. It might please Seyra. "I would not bother you if you don't."

"Oh, I have the time. All I'm doing is waiting for the wasps to gather as much as they can, and I think they won't have finished by the time the library closes anyway." Christine waves her closer and opens up her book.

"Let's find a good herb to start with."

Six hesitates for a moment, awkward before she goes over and settles herself down, sitting across from Christine with a small, awkward smile on her head. She wasn't sure she was ever capable of being a good student in something that wasn't fighting, but she would try, very hard.

"Something simple, maybe?"

"Oh, of course. It's never wise to dive into something complicated. It'll only serve to give you a headache, and then you'll need to make a potion even more." But she smiles and flips through the book, settling on a page on aloe vera. She points to the etching of the plant and describes the best way to grow it for medicinal use.

"It's an easy one to start with, because all you need to do is cut off a leaf and squeeze the gel inside onto the skin. There's no need to boil the leaves, or distill the chemicals from it."

"That sounds like something I would like to avoid," Six agrees, nodding her head with a thin, wry smile. This is not her area of expertise and she hopes it's not too hideously obvious; studying was always easier when it was a sword, not a book.

Leaning forward, she puts her hand on the book as she looks closer. "It's as simple as cutting it open?"

"Yes. The gel inside is very cooling and soothing. It doesn't heal burns, but makes it so a person's pain is reduced so they'll stop messing with the wound." And sometimes that's the only thing you can do if you're out in the wilderness without magical healing at your fingertips.

"As you can see, it's a pretty simple plant to identify. That makes it easy to know you've found the right one."

It seems a simple enough thing, and Six is committed to remembering it. She might have healing magic, enough to keep herself and someone else alive, but if she somehow lost it, or was too weak... Knowledge of herbs would be more than just a little useful.

"Are they found often in the wild?"

"Often enough. You won't be tripping over them, but anywhere warm enough to grow most plants will have them." It's a good starter plant to familiarize people with because it doesn't require extensive medical or magical training to use.

"Warm enough, I see." If the place is warm enough to burn then it is likely this plant might come here - unless someone finds themselves stumbling into a fire. "Is there anything for poisons?"

"Oh, yes, but that's usually where alchemy comes into play. Very few plants in their raw forms are natural antidotes." Christine begins flipping through the book, mumbling to herself under her breath.

"Hmm, oh, here we are: alexipharmics." She turns the book towards Six. "Basically studies are still ongoing, but in the last one hundred years it seems some of what I was taught was proven false. The best cures for poisons are emetics, which are things that make you throw up, thereby expelling the poison. Of course, this only works for ingested poisons."

With a shrug, she adds, "For poison put in through the skin, the same rule applies: take it out the same way it got in."

"Emetics..." So vomiting. Even if they do not have the plant for such a thing, surely there is a way to make a person lose their stomach. A swift hit, perhaps, or some kind of pressure. It's something to keep in mind, even if it isn't something she doesn't particularly want to imagine doing.

Frowning, Six leans back.

"So - sucking out the venom."

"Exactly. It needs to be done before the body can absorb it." Discussing this makes Christine realize she still has a ways to go familiarizing herself with alchemy again. New methods may have been established, and new creations that she should know as well.

"I have quite a bit of reading ahead of me. A lot may have changed."

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krimnos.

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