"Active ingredient?" wonders Old Neil. "The leaves are the ingredients," he says, reasonably enough. The hemlock is also from a vial that was in the silver box. At least he uses a different pipette for it. "This isn't something you should drink randomly, by the way; it can cause your entire body to go numb to the point of death," he explains, cheerfully.

Adding the hemlock noticeably changes the smell of the concoction. Previously it had been sweet, but now it's a strangely cool and bracing smell, one that seems to almost make one more alert.

"I am aware that the hemlock named for being poisonous is poisonous and will kill me," she says, drily. "9 grams of dragon blood grass powder, the first measurement that is not terrible! Good for it! It should instead be measured in milligrams to be safe, but I still appreciate the effort. You tried, little dragon blood grass powder."

Another vial from the silver box, this one filled with a deep black powder inside. He measures 9 grams of it with a beaker and scale, pours it into the cauldron, then starts to stir it all together with a darkwood ladle. "It does not matter overmuch," he explain, "because these materials are all supplemental. Their exact amounts don't affect the final outcome. They are here to serve as mystical stabilisers for the real occult ingredients," he says, nodding at the wooden box from Backlund.

"Oh. ... That doesn't get them off the hook, supplemental ingredients should be precise, too." The next things on the list are very reasonably measured, thankfully! "10 milliliters of lavos squid's blood, and 50 grams of star crystal." (Still should be broken down more precisely on the grams, but she's very happy about actual milliliters being used!)

Wait a minute.

"So the recipe writer knew what milliliters was the entire time and just didn't use them at all until now?!" she says, offended.

"They did say 100 milliliters of purified water," he reminds her, opening the wooden box. "Ah, yes. This kind of squid is an extraordinary species. It is clearly mutated, and its blood will rapidly break down if exposed to sunlight and lose its mystical qualities. It has to be stored in an opaque material," he says, and his tone is somewhat less relaxed now. The bottle he fetches from the box is indeed painted pitch black, and he's much more careful and precise in measuring the blood.

The blood is sky blue, and from time to time, it produces illusory bubbles that seem real until you blink. As soon as it makes contact with the liquid in the cauldron, it produces bubbling sounds, and the lighting in the entire room is swiftly tinted blue.

The feeling in Elaine's heart shifts, from clarity to familiarity, like she's somewhere safe and warm, like she could rest...

She is quiet for the measuring process, shushing her grousing to allow for maximum precision. She looks at the blood in fascination as it's added, and only after it's in does she ask:

"... It doesn't need to be stored at colder temperatures? And it doesn't separate into - er, the. Yellow kind and the dark red kind? If it's kept from the sun, there's no shelf life?"

She absolutely stopped herself from using different terms there. The potion might be getting to her before she even drinks it...

Hmm.

"It doesn't, no, it keeps forever, thanks to the spirituality embedded in it." Now for the star crystal.

That's! So! Weird!!!!

She stares at the squid blood like she can interrogate it for its secrets by gaze alone.

(She is of course quiet for the Star Crystal measurement.)

It appears almost gelatinous, like it could be reshaped in one's hand, and under the blue light, it reflects specks and sparkles forming an illusion of a void of stars within.

Neil uses a silver blade to extract the right quantity of the crystal. "You must never increase the amount of the mystical ingredients. If you don't include enough of them, your enhancement can fail, but if you add too much, you could die immediately." He goes for 49.9 grams of the crystal. "This is an excellent material for the creation of divination crystals, by the way," he observes, and gently drops the chunk of crystal into the cauldron.

The mixture sizzles, immediately dissolving the crystal, and the room is suddenly filled with illusory fog filled with stars.

It feels like there's... someone, or something... watching her, hidden amongst those stars.

Elaine gives a solemn nod, and will clearly remember this. She's tempted to ask if the potion is done, but. ... She thinks she knows. It's doing a Thing. That seems like the Thing It Should Be Doing.

"Any last minute tips before I just, uh. Play roulette?"

The illusory fog dissipates as quickly as it appeared, and the potion coalesces into a dark-blue gelatinous fluid that seems to stick together more insistently than regular liquids do.

Neil uses the ladle to scoop out the liquid and pour it into a cup, and not a single droplet is left in the cauldron after he does. "You could get a cup of Intis Aurmir grape wine, maybe have a cigar and whistle a little tune. Do a tap dance then play a round of Gwent cards..."

"Ha. No. Not what I meant. Fine, keep your secrets."

She takes the cup, a deep breath, and without further thought or hesitation - a drink.

It does not behave like liquid, exactly. Especially not once it's past her mouth and properly in her throat. At first, it's smooth, but insistently together in a way that she perhaps should have expected by its earlier behavior. It's strangely lighter than liquid should be? Like she's swallowing something between liquid and gas.

But then once it's properly inside her - it seems to come alive. It feels like little tendrils stretching out to every part of her body from the inside out, turning it all the same cold that the potion had. Like something slithering inside her and taking deep root, merging with her to become one being. She gives an involuntary full body shudder, and stumbles a little, catching herself on the table. She'd closed her eyes to drink the potion, but opens one to make sure she's not about to fall into anything important, and her vision's brightened and doubled. Not wanting anything to do with any of that, she firmly shuts the eye again.

She is taking in something new to become part of her, but because she meant to, and it's odd, but that's not the same as unpleasant. She doesn't see a reason to fight it.

Doesn't see a reason to give it ground, either, though.

She takes another deep breath, and - still herself, still feeling perfectly sane and at least human shaped, if not, precisely, human anymore. But that's what she planned. This is fine, actually.

Elaine tentatively opens her eyes again, and she's not seeing double anymore.

Hornacis... Flegrea... Hornacis... Flegrea...

This causes her to make a face.

"Oh, hello to you too, creepy whispers, kindly fuck off," she mutters, a little mulishly.

All colours look more vivid. The reds are redder, the blues bluer, the blacks blacker. Sounds are sharper, too, such as—