Swamped

Well, getting caught might be manageable if you can make a convincing cover story. You're not quite old enough to pass yourself off as feebleminded - your hair is only mostly graying. But you're probably old enough to get away with forgetting about the chamber pot near your bed.

And the records are a mess. If you said you were looking to see if there was any general information on where they kept the chamber pots, well... there's definitely no obvious place it would be in all this clutter.

Still, you don't want to be too obvious about what you're doing. You opt to start by just looking around. Even if you end up getting sent back to bed, you might get another chance and have a better idea where to focus your search.

Although, the main thing you catch on your first glance isn't anything in any of the papers strewn about, but the two bins of swampleaf lying out in the open. They're even marked "Lazy" and "Normal" to make it clear which one is which. Good thing too, because you certainly can't tell at a glance.

But you can tell at a glance that whoever was here didn't finish their tea. Which suggests they're not planning to be gone long, or they wouldn't give it a chance to get cold.

Well. Maybe you can get them out of action for a while. For a moment you worry about knocking a health professional unconscious... but then you realize that if someone had needed any sort of treatment during the night, there would be a record of that. And you specifically recall the nurse commenting on how there hadn't been any the previous night when she explained that system to you on your second day.

So it seems to be safe. You grab a leaf from the "Lazy" bin, crumble it up, and slip it into the tea. Just in time - you hear footsteps approaching.

You wonder if it's better to be caught, or to hide and wait for them to drink the tea. But before you can make up your mind, you happen to glance at a piece of paper and see something unusual written on it.