Room 313 [midafternoon]

[like_a_sponge]

Greg quietly sat in room 313, his chemistry set before him, reflecting on the events of the past few days.

Comments

[lilpunkinbelly]

Dawn saw the glow from within and poked her head in. In her experience, glowing wasn't usually a good thing. "Er, hi? If you're radioactive, you should really put a sign on your door or something."

[like_a_sponge]

Greg started and looked up, carefully setting the beaker down again as the glow subsided. "Um, I'm not glowing. It's the fluorescein. Like if you've ever seen one of those glow stick things?"

[lilpunkinbelly]

"Oh, okay," she said, walking in, completely ignoring that she'd never met him before. "What're you doing?"

[like_a_sponge]

"There was a guy in the common room last night who had some kind of combustion thing going on with his hand. Or, well, there was fire and glowing anf stuff," Greg explained. "Trying to figure out how he did it."

He started in on mixing another solution, and as an afterthought, added, "I'm Greg, by the way."

[lilpunkinbelly]

"Dawn," she said, a little concerned. "Combustion? With his hand? How do you go about figuring out how he did it?"

[like_a_sponge]

"I'm trying to decide which chemicals he soaked his hand in," Greg explained. "Because it's not like his hand was all aflame. It was like...a ball of fire. Which is weird."

He added some phenolphthalein, and the solution glowed pinkish. "Pretty, but wrong. Damn."

[lilpunkinbelly]

"His hand was a ball of fire?" Dawn asked, feeling a little like a parrot. It sounded demonic to her, but it's not like they'd let a demon go to school there, would they? "Very pretty," she agreed, "can I help at all?"

[like_a_sponge]

"It was like he was holding a ball of fire," he clarified. "And...hmm."

He looked around at his supplies, and a thought occurred. "You know, it's been awhile since I've done this, but maybe it was methyl salicylate crystals. That might've looked kinda fiery."

Greg raised a brow, and reached into his pocket, pulling out a pack of Life Savers. "Ever bite down on one of these?" he asked, holding them up.

[lilpunkinbelly]

She looked at the Life Savers, not quite sure where this was going. "Uh huh."

[like_a_sponge]

"Did you know they spark?" he asked. "Except it's not really fire or any kind of combustion. It just emits glowing light."

He offered her the candy, and looked around for his mortar and pestle. "It's really only noticable in a darkish room, 'cause they're small, but maybe if Bel came up with a way to get a bunch of methyl salicylate together in his hand and smushed it at once, that could've looked right."

[lilpunkinbelly]

Dawn took a candy and popped one into her mouth. "I did know that, actually." She handed back the roll.

"Is he strong enough to smush all the methyl salicylate together? Did he look like he was exerting a lot of effort to crunch his hand? Did you hear crunching?"

[like_a_sponge]

"Wasn't paying attention," Greg confessed, sighing. "And then he teleported, so I'm at a loss as far as that goes, too. I'm thinking there were mirrors involved somehow."

[lilpunkinbelly]

"He teleported???" Dawn asked, perhaps a bit stridently, "and he had fire in his hands and didn't burn?"

"You're not looking for mirrors, Greg," she sighed, somehow unsurprised. "I think you're looking for a demon."

[like_a_sponge]

"See, that's what he said, too!" Greg said. "But he looked human and demons aren't real and there's got to be a scientific explanation."

He snorted. "Aliens I can buy. Psychics, I'm apparently forced to believe in. But demons?"

[lilpunkinbelly]

Dawn's mouth fell open. "He told you he was a demon and you didn't believe him? How thick are you?"

"They exist," she said, hands on her hips, "I've seen them, I've known them, I've killed them."

[like_a_sponge]

He stared.

"Really?" Greg asked incredulously. "Because everything I've ever known tells me they're fictional."