Work Text:
Earthflax (noun): an antiquated term for Amianthus. Amianthus is a term for high-quality, fine, silky, and flexible fibrous asbestos. It is known for its heat-resistant properties, often found in serpentine or marble rocks. Historically, it was used to create fire-resistant cloth, and its name stems from the Greek for "undefiled" or "pure". (Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
---
While asbestos was regarded for millennia as a fire retardant and even as sacred for the use of Roman cremations, it was now a known cause of lung disease and cancer.
While radiation was regarded for decades as a safe novelty, it was now used for bombs and was, as well, a known carcinogen.
Foxglove was a deadly flower; in the wrong dosage and for the wrong disease, it could easily kill.
Asbestos had saved millions from fires before its side effects were found. Radiation helped fight cancer, find injuries and diseases, and power homes. Foxglove is used to this day to treat heart disease.
Every poison was a cure, if one was careful about it.
Sam Manson was many things- and careful was one of them.
On a relatively ordinary Wednesday, Danny Fenton went missing. That same Wednesday, she, Tucker, and Jazz Fenton met up- completely ordinary, with the exception of Danny being absent.
On a completely ordinary Friday, agent O vomited without warning in the middle of a patrol.
(He might've recovered had the GIW trusted local hospitals, had they not threatened the doctors and nurses enough to hear they might abandon their Hippocratic oaths.)
On a Saturday, a completely ordinary one, during which people walked their dogs and watched TV, agent O died. That same day, thirty-seven of the forty Amity Park based GIW agents started vomiting.
Castor oil is used even today in skin and hair care, to help laboring mothers induce, and to treat chronic constipation.
Castor beans, though.
Pamela Manson, Sam's mother, had always been disgusted by the blood red and deep maroon plants- couldn't Sam plant pretty, girlish flowers?
They were kept safely away from the Living; ghosts, including half ghosts like Danny, liked to use the beans as a pick-me-up snack.
On a completely ordinary Monday, the CDC was called, and coincidentally, there was an empty section in Sam's greenhouse, with fresh seeds of wolfsbane and foxglove in the soil.
Coincidentally, wrapped in cellophane and airtight, castor bean plants were buried in the depths of the basement her parents had probably forgotten about long ago.
"Food poisoning," was the official story as federal agents pulled Danny and several others, ghost and human alike, from the depths of the GIW base.
She supposed it was true enough- the castor beans, crushed and slid into the tanks used by GIW agents and staff, were technically food. If one was fond of ricin.
Castor oil to bring new life. Castor beans to kill life and leave little to no trace.
Every poison is medicine, in the right amounts.