baby, you're fireworks

Poppy

Poppy

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Mar 18, 2015
3,930
Lei was pretty sure he looked like a criminal here. He was outside under a tree with his hair up, wearing a huge dark blue hoodie and jeans and carrying a huge backpack, which, fine, would be commonplace if it wasn't one in the goddamn morning.

The night guard gave him a funny look and Lei gave him a funny look back. He was ready to pull out the Check my records, I'm an Honor Student, punk argument when needed, but it seemed like he looked decent enough that he walked past.


After making it clear to Sid that he was very much not single anymore, they began texting again as friends. Lei didn't know what to expect at first. He formerly saw Sid as a romantic interest and worked under the assumption that it would be weird. Turns out, it wasn't weird at all. Sid proved easy to talk to, and there were even a few times they would do something silly like visit each other just to talk shit about movies or text until the sun rises. As far as friendships went, they were surprisingly compatible.

The topic of fireworks came up.

It was a hobby he didn't care explaining, or hell, even revealing it in fear of getting judged. He already had a reputation of destroying property and being difficult to handle. His fascination with fireworks and explosives would just aggravate the image, so he kept the hobby a secret.

Talking to Sid meant none of his secrets stayed secrets for long. When he told Sid about it, he shared his enthusiasm (because he was amazing) and told him a funny story about burning his hair. He felt like a kindred spirit. Maybe his odd hobby wouldn't be so odd anymore.

Speaking of Sid. He checked his phone. Where was Sid?

He didn't like waiting in the College area of the school. It felt like... uncharted territory, but Sid said they didn't have to break in the College because he was a Chemistry major, which made Lei giddy because he wanted to pursue Chemistry too and the idea of having access to the lab all the time was an amazing concept. Think of all they could do there. They weren't just going to make sheep-shaped fireworks. They can make several sheep, jumping over a fence.

He was so hyped.
 
Zell

Zell

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Dec 28, 2014
1,677
It was with a loathsome groan that the drow rolled out of bed and onto the floor with an ugly "whump!" noise.

Normally he would be out partying at this time in the morning, but he'd partied too hard the night before and hadn't slept at all. Which was fine--he was a drow and had the ability to meditate to a much more restful result than just sleeping, but he--and he couldn't believe this once his eyes opened and he saw the time--he'd fallen asleep before he could properly meditate. He didn't even know that was possible. So here he was, on the floor.

He yawned and easily pushed himself up from the floor, scratching his face and unlocking his phone with a swipe. Immediately the phone opened to his last used window--the text window--and he peered at it. It was from Lei, as many of his texts seemed to be.

The drow had known that he and Lei were compatible as far as being friends were. They talked to each other easily, and found that they both enjoyed talking shit and being sarcastic. He hadn't really had the chance to experience that side of the cutie before, so it was a mostly pleasant surprise. And having another person who didn't pester him about when his next party would be or when his roommate would be leaving for the night was a welcome change of pace.

And then he realized he was supposed to be meeting him.

Fuck.

Sid was a flurry of movement then, not even caring that his roommate was awake now and glaring at him. He took off his pants and then put on some new, more comfortable pants.

Looking presentable, he popped a breath mint or three before running out, sliding his fingers through his hair to make it look presentable. He saw Lei and flagged him down.

"You ready?" He asked, presenting a ring of keys to the high schooler.

The chem lab wasn't hard to find. Sid first tried the handle to see if it was open--it wasn't--and then used his key to open the door, flipping on a light. It was an almost overstocked affair, with long black tables heavy with beakers and tools. Some of the small chemical hubs had their lights on and notes taped to them about how it was being used for an experiment and not to touch.

"Welcome to the Chem Lab." The drow handed over an heavy lab coat, which he proceeded to put on over his bare chest.
 
Poppy

Poppy

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Mar 18, 2015
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"Yep!" Lei reached out to hold onto Sid's arm lightly, attempting to keep up with his walk with strides because the Mountain God was kind enough to bestow him with powers but not with a decent height. When the lights turned on the reveal the whole of the Chem lab...

...Lei felt like a kid in a candy store.

It was so much nicer than the High School Chem lab! They didn't let them with too much chemicals, just the basic ones for basic lab safety. He'd heard legends about the College Chem lab but he just thought it was overhyped... but no, everything was here, from most scientific substances to alchemical solutions. There was a poster on alchemy. Lei put on one of the available lab coats and goggles.

"Sid, this lab is amazing." Lei settled his bag on one of the counters and pulled the zipper open, revealing... a bunch of innocuous looking objects, like candy canes, cans of soda and brown boxes. He grinned. "I've got a few surprises for you too, but show me around first. You told me you work on things here?"
 
Zell

Zell

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Dec 28, 2014
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"Yep," He answered as he go himself situated. He pushed up his sleeves and looked around for the heavy duty disposable gloves and goggles before walking over to the table he used the most often. It looked no different from the others except there was a web of phone numbers written in sharpie. He was supposed to clean that up, whoops.

But now he had to show Lei around.

"Alright so, down here is the tools," he said, nudging his toe against the bottom of the lab table. He gestured to the chemical hubs. "That's the sterile environment that people use for longer reactions...."

Then, he pointed to a wall of cabinets. "These are salts, these over here are the liquids that can be stored safely at room temp, over there--" he pointed to a line of what looked like stacked square refrigerators. "--are the salts that need to be colder, and the liquids that evaporate at room temp. Not in the same fridge, obviously."

He rubbed his hands together. "In here I mostly do drug work, though I did dabble in fireworks and almost melt a hole in the white board over there."​
 
Poppy

Poppy

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Mar 18, 2015
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Lei followed Sid around, pulling on the heavy duty gloves as he walked. He mentally checked for all the lab equipment he knew, categorizing what they did and didn't have (more of the former than the latter), and getting more and more excited as he saw all the different equipment here. Compared to this, the High School looked like it was made for stupid babies who couldn't tell Barium from Bohrium.

Lei lingered a bit next to Sid's table, snorting at the phone numbers (and wondering just a little bit if his number was there). Oh, Sid. "Drugs? What, like the LSD you made at your last rave?" He made his own drugs. Unbelievable. What a menace.

Lei rubbed his hands together. He pulled out three soda cans (Rootbeer, Fanta and Coke) from his backpack, hit the off switch and placed them on the table, shaking them one by one. The room was dark, illuminated only by the moonlight peeking through the wide windows nearby, and the cans were gently vibrating from atop the counter. Perfect.

"Watch this, all right? Just... watch."

Lei opened three of the cans and ran over to Sid, pushing him a little away from the cans while his laughter rang around the large room. The three cans began spewing three different fountains of color: one was yellow that had little beams explode into flowers, the next was bright red with little hearts, and the last one — the last one that had the audacity to topple over and shoot blue beams of diamonds against some poor schmuck's table. The room lit up with three bright colors before they eventually died down, filling the room with darkness again.

"I have more where that came from but it's just so damn hard looking for ingredients, you know? Every time I go into an alchemy shop they keep asking me what I need these for and I'm like, none of your damn business, bud, so I can't get anything."
 
Zell

Zell

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Dec 28, 2014
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Sid laughed. "Exactly. Do you have any idea how expensive it would be to buy a literal gallon of LSD? More than I would be willing to pay for it I'll tell you that much."

The drow leaned back and watched Lei set up the cans, shake them, and then open them under the cover of darkness. They then explodes into patterns and colors like he'd never seen before, and he frankly had to give Lei props for that. Like, that definitely wasn't something he expected.

When the light show disappeared, Sid clapped. "Nice! That's totally awesome. All my attempts blew up in my face, so you're already better than me, but--"

Sid slid another key on his key ring and opened a small cabinet that had his name in peeling tape. Inside was a cylindrical looking cardboard tube.

"--I made this. Wanna test it with me?"

Without waiting he pulled it out and propped it in such a way that it was pointed out the window. Lighting a match--probably a bad plan in a chem lab but yolo--he lit the fuse and held it to keep it aimed as it fired off, knocking him back and covering his lab coat in scorch marks.

A few moments later there was a large explosion of rainbow sparks, spreading in every direction and engulfing the entire air into a sphere of fiery color.​
 
Poppy

Poppy

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Mar 18, 2015
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"Yeah!" Lei said rather gleefully, running up to Sid and clinging to his arm but getting the hell out of dodge when he lit the firework. The huge idiot was then knocked back. Lei ran to his side with a worried are you okay but that died after the first word when he saw...

He saw...

Wow. That was — absolutely breathtaking. It brought him back to the time when he, his mentor and the Starlight recruiter were traveling out of Beijing. At the time, everyone was gathered at the plaza to watch the fireworks show and he couldn't remember seeing anything so amazing, so breathtaking, which filled his chest not with self-loathing but with so much bright, sweet bursting happiness —

His eyes briefly traveled back to Sid before going back to the splash of color in the night sky, face flushed, smile filled nothing but unbridled joy. He stood up to take a better look. "Dude, you're..." Amazing, incredible, absolutely perfect. The best person I've ever known. Lei considered the words again. "...kind of brilliant." He walked over to Sid and offered both his hands so he could pull him up. "Hey, I'm so hype to collaborate with you!"
 
Zell

Zell

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Dec 28, 2014
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Sid had lungs full of smoke as he coughed and pushed ash off his lab coat, opening his eyes just in time to see the firework go off too soon and engulf them in in the middle of a colorful explosion.

"It went off too soon but--" Sid groaned as he stood up, helping Lei up with him. "Its not a flaw, its a feature."

Sid ran over to his cubby and pulled out another small collection of chemicals and cardboard, giving Lei a wink. "Hows about it? I have the ingredients if you have the skills."

About an hour later, they were outside. Sid had a firework under one arm, bursting it salts and a small amount of gunpowder, and a small sheep-person under the other.

"Do you wanna do the honors?"
 
Poppy

Poppy

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Mar 18, 2015
3,930
Lei took the firework and grinned. "Yeah, totes!"

He stuck the stand into the ground and lit the wick up with a lighter. Immediately, the rocket flew into the air with a violent whoosh knocking Lei onto his ass. He didn't give a care to the pain of the impact when he watched their creation do zigzags into the air before exploding into...

A flock of sheep. Lei squealed in delight as the sheep broke into two and multiplied, and when they were done multiplying, started jumping around with a faint baa noise in the distance, taking him home when he was a thousand miles away from it. He was absolutely giddy with excitement from where he sat, with his hands covering his cheeks.

And then the light show died down. He would insert a sad monologue about how sad the juxtaposition of the dark night sky was to the bright lights of the fireworks, but it seemed like one of their new product's features included descending onto the ground in a white mass of fire.

"What the everloving fuck..."

A nearby car started wailing.

UM.

THAT WAS PROBABLY BAD.

Lei tried to stand up, panicking, looking at Sid with wide, confused eyes.
 
Zell

Zell

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Dec 28, 2014
1,677
Sid watched with visible excitement as Lei stuck their newest creation into the ground in preparation for its first run. They'd several tests.... okay they'd done no tests at all but this was legit come on it was probably going to be fine. I mean. They were smart kids they knew what they were doing.

The firework climbed into the air before it hung for a fraction of a second, before bursting into bright white light and color. The sky became a herd of sheep, all baa-ing and bouncing and playing. Sid couldn't help but look down to see how Lei was enjoying the show. His hands were on his cheeks, and the drow could swear he was hearing a faint squee over the sounds of the sheep.

This is what made it all worthwhile, he thought.

Or, that's what he was in the process of thinking before the sheep turned into a blanket of white hot flames and descended on the street like demonic Valkyries of burning destruction, causing someone's probably expensive care to start SCREAMING.

Sid locked eyes with Lei, then scooped him up, turned around, and booked it.

"We were never here," he said through pants as his legs carried them as far away from the burning blanket as possible. "We were never here and we've never seen that firework casing in our lives."
 
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