A New World: Potions

[aldersprig]

First: A New World
Previous: History is in the Eye of the Beholder

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“All right, all right.”  Halsey sighed.  “Let’s go on.  I think we have enough for the paper - I mean, we can’t write a paper on this place for Mr. Catalon, anyway.  He’s going to blow his top.”

“We at least have to see the rest of the museum.  Come on, maybe they’ll show us something interesting like where all the tools were or something.  And then we can work out what we’re going to write for class.  I mean.  We could do something on the conflicts between the displays and the book?  And then say, since we weren’t there, we can’t tell?”

read on…

Comments

[kelkyag]

Kael's list of wasting diseases is probably different from Halsey and Caron's ...

Curiouser and curiouser!

[clare_dragonfly]

I wonder how much Kael's potion would cost, though. It has that one tricky herb--it's probably expensive!

[aldersprig]

Ah, but Kael, she doesn’t think about costs.

[sauergeek]

Kael is getting a scattered but useful education, though mostly it's leaving her with lots of questions. I hope she gets a chance to go exploring without Mr. Vibius or anyone else interfering with her. And without being recognized or picked out as unusual, though with the set of people she's seeing, current clothing will probably help a lot with that. Her lack of certain modern concepts may trip her up, though.

I wonder which wasting disease(s?) Kael had in mind? Cancer isn't the only one, and even that one has a large variety. She could also mean parasitic diseases (malaria, Chagas), non-cancerous diseases (multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis), bacterial (syphilis), prion (Creutzfelt-Jakob), or flat-out unknown (Guillain–Barré). (There are probably more; I'm not a doctor, I just have the dubious superpower "head full of crap".) Potions that would hold any of those in check would be quite welcome.

I expect that Pfixer would be quite interested in a discussion with Kael. I wonder if the magic that she's infusing into her potions is something that can be handled in a factory, or if that's something that can be taught. If it's intrinsic, and you either have it or don't, Pfixer may be out of luck — or they may develop a screening procedure for it. Perhaps Kael knows one already.

[kelkyag]

Tuberculosis is one of the classic wasting diseases, IIRC. And while most strains of it are still vulnerable to antibiotics, it digs in hard and requires a long treatment, which can be difficult to get patients to adhere to, especially if their circumstances are trying. An article on attempting this via telemedicine instead of in person, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

[sauergeek]

And now I'm wondering how Kael would handle some of the ones she's likely never seen. HIV/AIDS is a quite new disease in our world. If this world has a similar one, Kael would never have encountered it. Maybe she can develop something new? Pfixer probably would make her a senior research scientist straight off.

[kelkyag]

Maybe she can develop something new?
Which does lead to the fascinating question of how much of her potion recipe collection is her work, and how much was handed down or traded for or ...

I want to know more about now and about then, and about what "magic" actually means in this world. "Sufficiently advanced technology"? Or in the case of potions, insufficently understood chemistry? Translation, nevermind meta-translation, is beyond the scope of what I here/now think of as chemistry ...

[aldersprig]

how much of her potion recipe collection is her work, and how much was handed down or traded for or …

Like from that woman in the tower next city over?
And what did THEY think of her just going to sleep.

And me, too, re. magic.

[kelkyag]

Yes! And also an excellent question.

I shall attempt to wait patiently for you to figure out the answers. :)

[aldersprig]

Yeah, Kael’s education is being a lot of fun.

I had been thinking cancer at first, but things like TB are also there.

… Now I wonder how much magic the factories use and how much they’re missing.