open RP: office hours for Potions

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

The Calming Draught having worn off, Stephen resumed his normal routine, which largely involves researching potions, testing potions, and dissecting things.

However, he did feel a bit negligent of his professorial duties. Perhaps holding office hours would be helpful, as Crowley had done before. Some of Stephen's students did not have as easy a time making bruise balm in the most recently held class as he had hoped. Also, there were new students who had arrived at the school since the class had been held.

So he directed his house-elf to post a notice in the Great Hall and the common rooms, and posted it on his office door himself:

Office hours for Potions are being held. Current and potential students are welcome to drop by Professor Maturin's office to discuss any issue of interest to them.

He thought that putting it in the way Crowley had ("Come by to chat if you have a question about class, your homework assignment, or if you're just really fucking bored, too") was perhaps less than professional, but he did want to make it clear that he was available to discuss anything that a student felt it necessary to discuss, even if it were not related to potions. After all, the recent owl from Dib concerning the Gryffindor boy's run-in with Ichimaru Gin suggested to him that more attention to extracurricular problems might be a good thing.

(( OOC: Whoever stops by Stephen's office will be offered tea, as is his habit. This does not need to be problematic -- so far everyone who's drunk tea in his office has done so without incident. But the potential exists for the clumsy house-elf to have spilled something in your tea, and you're welcome to take advantage of that fact. Available potions include anything in the HP Lexicon that isn't overly perilous, as well as mpreg potion, virility potion, gender-change potion, and a potion that can turn you into a fish or turn a fish into a human.))

Comments

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Ah, yes. Don't worry, I'm sure that with your knack for potions, perhaps someday you'll manage to get the hang of a simple thing like tea," Gin smiled, alluding to their earlier conversation at Claire's sorting. "And then you can avoid the need for clumsy house elves." He blew lightly across the surface of the tea before taking a sip to at least make it less likely to spill.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"If only I had the time to master the fine art of tea-brewing, you would be its first beneficiary, rest assured," said Stephen, sipping his own (safe) tea, which had been at his desk for quite some time.

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Not that I really care one way or the other," Gin said pleasantly, continuing to sip his tea. It had an odd sweetness, but it tasted good. And the warmth, he felt, was very relaxing.

"So how have you been doing, cooped up in your little office, Professor? Have you heard anything interesting about me?"

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen chuckled. "Ah, Mr Ichimaru, I am afraid you are not quite the ubiquitous topic of discussion that you seem to fear you are. Why do you ask?"

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I like to see how my reputation around the school is doing, Professor," Gin said, unaware of who exactly might have been talking about him with Stephen, but sure there must have been someone. "I rather enjoy being feared, but the oblivious are easier to take advantage of," he smiled, rather oblivious himself, unaware of exactly what he was saying. The tea was definitely pleasant, and he sipped a little more, happily.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Long habit kept Stephen from showing any surprise at Gin's ... unusual candor ... but if he had been less practised in dissembling, he might have wound up with tea up his nose. "It can be useful to inspire fear in one's colleagues," he agreed, warily. "Though there is something to be said for cultivating friendships rather than frightening people unnecessarily, is there not?"

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"That's never been too useful in my experience," Gin was still smiling, still seemed cheery, but there was an almost indiscernable flatness to his voice heard within the slightly mocking lilt that usually accompanied his words. "If I'm to play the part of the obviously suspicious character, I should do it properly, don't you think?" He drank some more tea.

There was a little nagging voice that was trying to inform Gin of something, but he felt pleasantly warm and relaxed, and ignored it, making his usual idle chit-chat, or so he thought. "I don't really have much reason to visit you today, but since I suggested it at Claire's sorting, I thought it best to follow through," he said amiably.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen listened and watched carefully. The ever-present smile was infinitesimally slackened, the voice carried that telltale flatness -- he would wager either that the shinigami had had a mild stroke, or that he had been dosed with a truth potion, a relatively mild truth potion --

Oh, Aloysius, you have done me a good turn for once.

"So many suggestions you made at Claire's sorting," Stephen said, careful to give away nothing in his own manner. "You really do speak about the Kuchiki siblings very often, you know."

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Do I? If so, only because you bring them up first. Or because I think I can get you in some trouble that way. Byakuya is notorious for lacking a sense of humor," Gin smiled lazily, well into his cup of tea and completely within the grasp of the potion's magic. "And I do believe that if he thought you were even pretending to be in pursuit of Rukia, death may not be possible here, but it would certainly be an unpleasant result."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"Sure that is as it should be," said Stephen, sipping his own tea. "A brother should be protective. What I wonder about is your own interest in the two of them."

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Oh, well. Rukia isn't really of any serious interest now that we have the Hougyoku," Gin said blithely, although his brow furrowed a little at that. Something about what he said wasn't right. Was it? "But I can still enjoy tormenting her all the same."

"Her brother, too." His expression relaxed again. Surely there wasn't anything wrong with the conversation. Maturin simply liked to bug him about Byakuya for some unfathomable reason. It was something he hadn't quite figured out, and was not about to let on. Gin thought he was making some vague comment about Byakuya being amusing, when he actually said, "Although in completely different ways. Byakuya is quite an attractive man, isn't he?"

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"Oh, the Hougyoku, quite," said Stephen blithely, as though he had the faintest idea what that was. Gin's expression seemed to warn against asking further about it -- unless he wanted the other man to realize what he had said, and that would not do.

"So that is your taste, is it? I had begun to worry that you had developed something of an interest in my fiancee, given your repeated invitations to meet with her." Stephen kept his tone light.

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Well how else would I be expected to get at you, Professor?" Gin smiled.

Normally if he were to say anything like the following intentionally, he would be visibly enjoying the malicious nature of it. As it was, his words held a completely different kind of ominous tone, being delivered with such a pleasant voice.

"I do enjoy our little meaningless chats, but I think it would also be interesting to find out what would cause you some distress. Best to check out all possible avenues."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"And why would you ever want to do a thing like that?" chuckled Stephen.

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

Gin smiled, but was silent a moment. He felt uneasy, even through the warm fuzzy haze of relaxation. The magic was making his words flow freely, trying to get at the root of the truth, but some things were shut away far too deeply for the strength of this potion, diluted in his tea as it was. The more superficial, though also true, answer came out after a moment.

"I'd simply like to watch you squirm."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Well, that was unsurprising; Stephen had suggested as much to Susan, in their most recent discussion of Gin. "Such a bore it must be to trifle with the likes of a dull professor, though, when there are more appealing targets to be found. Miss Sto Helit, for example?"

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Hmmmm." Gin took along long sip of tea, finishing the cup and setting it down. "One case where I almost wish she wasn't so easily disturbed. Ah, but I guess there's no helping it, is there?" Gin chuckled, seeming amused by the recollection of his conversation with Susan.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen nodded. "Indeed, I understand how you might be disappointed at her declining your kind invitation. Where did you plan to take her, anyhow?"

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Hueco Mundo." Gin had mentioned it to Urahara when they had talked some time ago, so surely there was nothing wrong with talking about it, at least in guarded terms, right? So he continued on.

"I think she would have survived the trip, although it's difficult to say, isn't it? She's quite curious. It makes me wonder if being related to an incarnation of death makes one anything like a shinigami."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Hueco Mundo. Fluent in Spanish -- in several dialects thereof -- Stephen recognized the meaning of the words, though the syntax was obviously ungrammatical. Hueco meant hollow, and Stephen remembered what Gin had told him of hollows. So he intended to take Susan to the world of hollows? and had been unsure whether she would survive it?

"Oh, I am sure she would have survived it," said Stephen noncommittally. "Whatever would you two have done upon arrival, though? It seems an odd place to take a holiday."

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"I think Aizen might be interested in her. Or perhaps not. It's hard to be sure with him," Gin smiled.

"But she obviously has some power. It would be worth experimenting with. I think she'd make a most interesting Arrancar, myself." Wait. What did he just say? Surely, Gin thought, he couldn't have brought that up. That would be troublesome. He looked slightly puzzled, not quite sure what was going on.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

And the game is up, thought Stephen, seeing bafflement cross Gin's face. Arrancar as a noun rather than a verb gave him pause; to pull out, tear off, uproot ... whatever it meant, it could bode no good for Susan, and Stephen was very glad she had declined Gin's invitation.

"I have been performing some experiments myself," Stephen said, casually guiding the conversation away. "For example, I have been able to make a potion that will transform a human into a fish, or a fish into a human. Do you not think that extraordinary?"

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Why would you ever want to turn a person ino a fish? Or vice versa?" Gin asked, easily led away from their previous topic of conversation in his pleasantly relaxed haze. It still bothered him a little, he'd said something... but it soon passed.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"Oh, a silly child had gotten himself trapped in the wrong form, and I was called upon to devise some remedy. What surprises me is that the recipe for such a potion should have existed beforehand. Really, you should not scorn the intricacies of potions research."

[perpetual-smile.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps you should have simply eaten the fish and declared the problem solved," Gin said, leaning back further in his chair, unaware that the problem was a fish being turned into a human, and not the other way around.