Subject: Re: Although...
Author:
Posted on: 2008-07-25 09:59:00 UTC
yeah, I seem to have made bit of a cock up there, living in a large black elderberry area I naturally assumed that the elderberries mentioned were harmless tasty black elderberries....mmmmmmmm elderberries
Agents Sedri and Iza have taken on their second mission! A pathetic Stardust Mary-Sue, and an agent who can't bring herself to make the kill. Thanks to Trojie, Ciri and Artic for beta-reading.
Mission has been subtitled "The End of Hope" due to lack of creativity on my part. It's actually rather fitting.
Ummmm.....i noticed in your 'fic you used elderberries as a poison, unless Sues are allergic to elderberrries then I think you may need to revise some basic horticulture- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus- apart from that BRILLIANT 'fic, keep 'em coming ;)
ps. If Sues are alergic to elderberries then please ignore this post
mmmmmmmm.....elderberries
All green parts of the plant are poisonous, containing cyanogenic glycosides (Vedel & Lange 1960). The berries are also used in the St-Germain Liquor.[1] The seeds of red elderberries are toxic and must be removed before eating red elderberries or food products from red elderberries.
From the same link.
hS
yeah, I seem to have made bit of a cock up there, living in a large black elderberry area I naturally assumed that the elderberries mentioned were harmless tasty black elderberries....mmmmmmmm elderberries
Ah, well.
According to my books, cooked elderberries are safe to eat, but "the leaves, shoots, bark, roots and raw berries are poisonous. The poison is cyanogenic glycoside."
The book goes on to say that it takes six to twelve hours for the symptoms to first appear, let alone take final effect.
Randomly, the book in question is "Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons" which Acacia carried around in the Original Series. I was quite gleeful the first time I realised that. It's not as thick or heavy as she implied, though.
Anyway, thanks for checking, cga, and I'm glad you liked the fic!
... hers was the revised, expanded PPC edition, with footnotes concerning notable uses of the contents, and probably scrawled marginal comments from all the previous owners. :P
But yes, you would be best to clarify the colour -- black elderberries can be eaten straight off the tree (or if they can't, I died ten years ago, and I can't say I'd noticed...)
hS
“Where did you send him?” asked Iza, pulling out a bottle of small, shiny red berries.
That's the only mention, though, so I can understand that it might have been overlooked.
But that's half the fun, distracting you so you don't realise. The cat is out of the bag now, anyone got a Flashy Memory device?