Completed Business As Usual (Valerius, Inoadar)

[Valerius Nitrozian]

Valerius noticed that Inoadar who he only knew as „Nolan Parnell“ entered the room where he currently was, but decided to ignore him. Cleaning everything was much more important. If Inoadar wanted to know where Amolina had gone, he should just look for her in his opinion.

Spraying everything with his homemade disinfectant seemed to take forever. After what felt like a whole bell the bottle was finally empty, and the whole room smelled of vinegar. The smell was so intense, that Valerius had to open a window. He just hoped that the fresh air wouldn’t affect his disinfectant negatively. He didn’t feel like making another bottle of the stuff and spraying everything again.

Somehow the intense smell of vinegar had given him a headache. Or maybe the headache was a part of whatever illness he currently suffered from. Either way, he decided that it needed to go away. Valerius absolutely didn’t feel like having a headache on top of all the other unpleasant things.

He started looking through all the cupboards until he had found what he thought would be the right herbs. As part of his work at the KRI Doctor Alzelin occasionally made him prepare various herbal remedies. He put two tablespoons of dried valerian, chamomille, skullcap, peppermint and rosemary into a bowl and started grinding the herbs until he had a fine powder left.

Then he added honey to it until he had a somewhat solid mass and broke it into small pieces.

He put two pieces into his mouth. The rest of the hopefully helpful headache medicine went into a cupboard.

He wouldn’t offer Inoadar and Amolina any of his medicine unless they asked – politely.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar - Noose Vine Tea

The tea tasted as disgusting as he'd anticipated. His eyes rolled as he wondered if medicine ever tasted good. He turned the valve on the burner to as low a setting as he could contrive, but enough to keep it reasonably hot. If his partners were suffering from the same symptoms he was, he would let them help themselves to it, though he only had enough for one day...or enough for himself alone for three days...

By the time Amolina returned with her basket of goods, he was breathing normally and his stomach was no longer threatening to heave. The taste of the tea was nearly enough to counter that benefit though. And he'd not relieved his sore throat...or the fever...or the aches and pains. He started to feel sick again thinking about it.

He started to run through his mind some of the other herbs he'd collected and it suddenly broke across his mind that he had samples of some of these same herbs back at the shop. He'd bought them at The Peoples Market and completely forgotten. Well, he could share his tea then. Maybe one of them had something for a sore throat in exchange. Then maybe he'd get some sleep. He had herbs for that back at the shop as well. Maybe he could persuade Valerius to send his messenger, "Shy", back to the shop.

x

[Amolina]

The stench in the location was insufferable. It smelled like vinegar that had been spiced up with something more in order to maximize the stink effect. Amolina had arrived just in time to see Valerius put something in a drawer in a manner like he was quickly hiding something he didn’t want her to see. She acted like she hadn’t noticed, but made a mental note to check the drawer out later.

She had lots of plans now ! First she was going to try out if the steeped lilypad root tea was the miracle medicine against chills and colds the seller had made it sound like. Luckily she didn’t need to know a thing about some complicated herbalist procedures, because she was going for the quick and easy method, cooking. Anybody could boil water, no rocket science there.

She went to the cooking place with her full basket and put the herbs, the spices and the dried vegetables to the side. She was going to save them in the lab for later use, if not somebody else nicked them and used them. Right now she was going to cook tea of steeped lilypad root, tomatoe omelette, hot vegetable soup, and roasted bread. She felt hungry. Or her stomach felt empty, and upset. Amolina was convinced food would make her feel much better.

She started with the tea. Once again she poured water into a kettle, put it over fire and waited for it to boil. Then she moved it slightly to the side, but still on low heat, added a generous amount of steeped lilypad root and let it simmer slowly.

While she waited for it to brew, she noticed another conconction nearby. A new foul smell rivaled the repulsive stench of “vinegar & more”, and she was starting to get angry at her colleagues. She had been out for a while, and just look what they had accomplished meanwhile ! She ranted a bit at them without caring about their reactions … but after a somewhat aggressive information about how the badly smelling brew had medical properties she shut up.

She returned to her cooking project and took the simmering lilypad brew off of the heat and filtered it. She would try it later when it wasn’t so hot…she didn’t want to burn her tongue one more time today ! Instead she decided to try “that brew” Parnell had made, despite the smell. It didn't occur to her to ask first, she just took some of it like she took it for granted that the creator of the stuff would be happy to get rid of it.

Oh, well, the taste was even worse than the smell ! “Tastes like poison” she said, nearly unable to speak. “What is it made from?" She didn't wait for an answer..."I'm making lilypad root tea, it's said to help a lot against colds. I'm going to add honey to it too, for even more effect. I heard there's a disease spreading in the city and this could be a good opportunity to sell medicines. At least if the medicines taste reasonably well ! "

But for now the disgusting brew actually seemed to work- she felt a little bit happier.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar - Share and Share Alike

Inoadar grit his teeth at the news. Some kind of root that served to specifically counter colds! Roots were one of the first fields of poison he'd learned about, yet somehow he'd never heard of this one. The Lily Pad Farms were fairly new to Ravok. Lily pads themselves had been floating around the edges of the lake for Rhysol only knew how long. But as a marketed business, they were quite recent.

Well, they had no poison application, so he reasoned he'd had no real reason to learn about them before. So he smeared a smile back across his face and offered Amolina a trade. He was about to go back into town to pick up a few more items. "You found my tonic effective, I trust? Perhaps we can see if your tea is even more effective. In the meantime I am going to get some fresh air. Maybe I'll get some sugar to help the taste of this stuff while I'm at it."

He saw eggs in Amolina's basket. This gave him all the motivation he needed to leave. As if the smell of their various tonics and serums weren't bad enough. Now she was going to add the smell of eggs to the mix! Normally, he enjoyed eggs as much as anyone. But not with his stomach so unsteady. He left the front door ajar in the hope that the smell might dissipate by the time he returned.

He got to 'Ino Vations' and grabbed up the herbs he'd recently acquired. The Brinetooth paste, the Batonal, the Tolm root and the Jile berries, though he held held half of the Jile back to do some work with in a poison capacity. They were a general anti-toxin and he wanted to see if he could find away to make his toxins resistant to this benefit. He continued on to the Market to ask about medicinal herbs for teas and tonics.

"Well, you certainly came to the right place!" the middle aged woman said brightly, her eyes lifting to bring Inoadar's focus on the sign over her booth: 'Teas and Tonics'. She advised several purchases, including Mandrake, which she said could be made into a tonic for sore throat. She warned strongly against excessive use, due to its innate toxic nature.

Inoadar suppressed a scoff at this, feeling himself to be the expert in toxins. The woman also recommended Rugberry Tea and Iskynyn Tea. She started giving advice about the brewing process, but Inoadar was not paying attention, assuming the process of making tea was always the same. Lastly, she suggested Sweetblossom to make a tincture of. She seemed embarrassed about what ailment it was used to combat, But Inoadar had had diarrhea before and was familiar with Sweetblossom, though he'd never made it.

He bought enough for 5 doses of Mandrake for a gold miza, enough Rugberry and Iskyny to make 4 doses of each tea for another 12 gold, and 4 dose's worth of Sweetblossom for six silver. The he made one last stop at The Spicy Lass to get a pound of sugar for one more gold. "Easy come, easy go..." he sighed as he made his way back the NMSS.

x

[Amolina]

Amolina - Omelette Moletta

Amolina had told Nolan Parnell that his tonic seemed to help but had the drawback of awful taste. And he was of course welcome to try her tea when it was ready. If this brew turned out to taste nice and be as good against colds as she had been told she would teach him how to make it...but he had seemed irritated for some reason she wasn't able to even guess at, and then he had rushed away to buy something.

She offered Valerius to taste the tea too. She even told him she had tasted Parnell tonic, but she considered her own medicine much more pleasant. She was actually convinced she had made the best medicine produced in this project so far. It was so good that they could likley sell it and make a nice little profit on the cold she had heard was spreading on the city. It remained to see if Valerius would try the tea.

After a whle she had poured a cup of steeped lilypad tea with a spoonfull of honey for herself and was drinking it slowly while she started to prepare for cooking the tomato omelette.

First she took the dried tomatoes, cut them in smaller pieces and put them in water. This was easy, just like the vegetable seller at the people's market had told her. After this she waited again.

The lilypad tea wasn't half-bad...it was quite alright, though the honey was needed. She was under the impression the tea made her feel less tired and dizzy, though it didn't help agains her hungry yet not so hungry stomach. She wasn't sure she really wanted to eat, but she was going to make the omelette regardless. If it turned out she wasn't able to eat much, she would expect her colleagues to finish it - they were men after all, even if it seldom showed, and she took it for granted they would eat all food that came their way.

[Amolina]

Amolina - Omelette Moletta

She cracked the dozen of eggs carefully and put them in a bowl. This went nearly well, bar an egg or two that didn't want to be cracked neatly, but crashed in a disgusting way, leaving her fingers smeared. The smeary feeling made her feel somewhat nauseated, but she suppressed it. She wasn't goint to be squeamish. It was only eggs.

After washing her hands and drinking more lilypay tea she felt ready to return to the cooking. She followed the instructions she had been given at the market and just mixed the eggs a bit with a fork, added a little salt, a little tocuh of the hot spice mix and finally the dried tomato pieces.

The kitchen wasn't too well equipped. But she managed to find a frying pan. She put it over fire, added a lump of golden butter and watched it melt. The smell of it ought to have been delicious, but again she felt slightly ill. But she was convinced she would be better once she got something to eat. She had been working too hard and was starved, simply. That was why her stomach was troublesome.

[Amolina]

Amolina - Omelette Moletta

The butter war ready and she poured the yellow egg mix with the red tomato pieces into the pan and started to fry the omelette. She had been adviced to not try to turn it, as she was a beginner at omelettes it could easily end with scrambled eggs instead. She let it fry in the pan until the fried side was golden and the upside had coagulated. Then she sprinkle a bit more salt and spices over it, and it's ready to eat...like she had been told.

The omelette was ready. She would leave it in the pan and let people cut pieces of it. And yes, of course she would eat some of it herself, but not yet. Later ! Besides, it would be rude to start first, when she was the one that had been cooking ! She would be polite and make the others start first !

It felt unusually good to think this well-behaved way.

The cooking seemed to have been done just in time. She heard the door open and saw Parnell return. He was looking determined. Amolina smiled nicely at him and told him the honeyed lilypad tea was ready - and there was also tomato omelette and toast.

She sliced some of the bread and started roasting it in the pan.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar - Share and Share Alike

Inoadar had stopped at 'Ino Vations' and boiled water through his steam cycling apparatus. The steam collected and condensed in an upper coil with rows of tiny drip funnels. Inoadar placed some of the Batonal in the chamber which received the drips from the coil. It worked largely the same as an infusion loop beaker set-up. He detached the chamber after several chimes, when the hot liquid pouring over the leaves no longer had any color to them.

It was surprising how mild the infusion was. The spicy aroma associated with Batonal did not come through in any large degree. Inoadar could only assume that the leaves themselves, and not the sticky outer surface, were what contained the element that held the aroma.

It settled his stomach so well that the smell of tomato omelets did not sicken him. He decided that eating was as important to good health as concoctions and infusions, serums and tonics. So he helped himself to the plate Amolina set out for him. It was actually quite good. He'd felt sick for a few days and had hardly eaten. He had to hold himself back so as not to eat too fast. But he was also eager to get more medicinal teas ready.

He chopped up some of the Rugberry and Iskyny, thinking it could be brewed the same as any other, but the smell dissipated as quickly as it rose from the boiling water where it steeped in the tea infuser. And after several chimes, the liquid was a complete wash-out, lacking any flavor or medicinal benefit whatsoever.

Inoadar cursed himself, recalling that the woman at the 'Teas and Tonics' booth had been telling him something about how to brew it. He hadn't listened. He had been too busy checking off the various flu symptoms for which he was collecting remedies. He sighed and regathered his Noose Vine concoction. This time though, he had quite a bit of fresh Batonal, as well as Mandrake and Sweetblossom to add.

As he infused the Batonal and boiled and pressed the Sweetblossom, repeating the process until it was a thick syrup, he wracked his brain, trying to remember what it was that made brewing Rugberry and Iskyny tea different than others. In the meantime, he went to several of the sickbeds, letting them take turns inhaling the anti-inflammatory fumes from the boiling Noose Vine anti-toxin fluid.

For the first time in several days, he didn't feel like he needed to make an effort to keep his breakfast down.

x

[Inoadar]

Inoadar - Proposition

But it almost did anyway when he saw the second "elbow" in the forearm of the boy sitting in the waiting room. It was a grim rainbow of colors and strangely swollen, yet flattened, at the same time. The woman with him, logic suggested the mother, was in a desperate state. Eyes nearly as colored and swollen as the boys arm from tears, her voice raw, probably from screaming all the way to the NMSS. Inoadar wondered if she had gone to the Healing Hand already, or if the NMSS had been closer.

He asked her, in an attitude of sincerely thinking it would be best to go there. She broke down, choking out that they were not citizens, and she was afraid that simply turning them away was the worst thing that they could do. 'It's not the worst that I could do, either' he thought in annoyed resignation. This was one of the points of this enterprise, was the belief that they would get those that could not go to The Healing Hand.

She went on to explain the freak accident that had resulted in the obvious broken arm. The boy himself was admirably calm, while clearly in pain. He corrected certain elements of the story through gritted teeth until Inoadar waved them both quiet. Such irrelevant details were wasting time. He explained that he would have to cut and clean where the arm was swollen so he could get a feel for the break before trying to set the bone.

They both paled as he described what needed to be done, and now the boy joined his mother in tears, gasping in fear of the extreme pain looming on the horizon. Inoadar waited them out, the germ of an idea forming when the mother wailed that "if only it could be me, instead!"

Once again, the 'sleep aid' function of Pillowsap poison came to mind. If the boy could be drugged asleep, Inoadar felt sure he could do this. And if the mother saw the boy resting quietly, with no more than a twitch or two as if having a bad dream, she would be greatly relieved. But could they afford Pillowsap? There were painkillers as well, that over the long term would add up to just as much. She was looking at a good two hundred gold mizas.

Her face ran the gamut of emotions as Inoadar built up dread with the mention of the procedure, hope as he mentioned the Pillowsap and drugs, despair as he added up the costs, and disgust, with a flare of anger, as he offered that "...there may be another way you could pay."

x

[Amolina]

Amolina was still in the lab. She had noticed that Parnell had eaten part of the omelette without complaining at it. She concluded it seemed to be a reasonably successful cooking result. She ate a piece of it too. Her stomach still felt unstable.

Valerius was around but seemed half undead, and was clearly ill, but pretending to be okay. He didn’t say much when she took the stinking disinfection spray and started to investigate what it was made of. By smelling at it she figured out that one of the ingredients must be vinegar, that much was obvious. The other ingredient was something Valerius reluctantly told her was named “teetree” or something similar, though it came out as “deedree”. She investigated on by asking him more detailed questions and found out it seemed to be an oil made from a tree.

“Good, then we have a new product to see from NMSS “ se said.
She took small slip of paper and a quill, dipped the quill in a small bottle of black ink, and wrote :

“Tee - Whiney Disinfector”.

There was some kind of simple glue in one of the small boxes the previous owner had left behind and that they hadn’t care to get rid of. She took a small amount of it on a with a small wooden stick and smeared it on the paper slip, then glued it on the bottle.

She was going to organize the products this way. It didn’t matter how simple they were at the moment. Everything would count, for a start. Later on she was going to make a product ledger, she thought.