#fun science times

[legendsgalore]

The Catalyst

You're an exchange student at a Japanese high school, and are doing catch up work in the lab after hours. But, you can't understand what you're supposed to do, how are you to stop from blowing up the lab! Senku and Reader centric, just over 7k words

The hardest part about studying abroad was not that you couldn’t speak the language but…it was that you couldn’t speak the language. And in the case of Japanese, read it too. Sure you could converse with your classmates easily, and reading and writing and history and surprisingly math classes were easy-peasy, but when it came to science, where every other word was an unknown mystery that context clues gave no help in, that’s where you struggled.

You were okay at chemistry back in the U.S., but you could scarcely keep up with the lecture here at the Japanese high school you were studying at. With literature and history you could use context for the words and kanji you couldn’t read, math they use a surprising amount of the same symbols, but chemistry?

With your utter inability to parse the directions for a simple lab, it was even a miracle you were allowed to be here! Not that you were studying abroad for your academic prowess, but still, you feel like it would be a safety hazard to have someone who couldn't read chemical labels in the lab.

You were here to train with some of the best competition rock climbers in the world, and figured it would be best to continue your education at a local high school rather than do it online or something annoying like that.

But here you are, at the school, after hours (with special permission from your teacher) ready to tear your hair out over this lab assignment.

You, just, could not, read this sentence???? You could grasp the gist of what it was saying--and that level of comprehension is usually fine for reading and writing--you needed to pour one chemical into this compound to see a reaction, you think it’s supposed to simply change color, but you were struggling with the amounts and percentages and which ones, and how did you get the compound and -

“Ahhhhgggggg!” You cried out, running your hands through your hair for the umpteenth time.

You were hunched over your instruction sheet, elbows on the cold metallic lab table, head in hands. Your loosely pulled back hair has strands and bangs sticking out, but is all pushed back by your safety goggles, and you have an oversized lab coat on over your school uniform. The room was empty, just another science lab. It was a nice day, sunny, a pleasant floral scent from the cherry blossoms wafting through one of the open windows…and you really wished you were at the climbing gym right now instead, working on some fun moves.

No, instead you are at school, after hours, because you could not accomplish this lab in the allotted time during class yesterday. Usually you could get by with relying on your lab partners to read the instructions and you do the work for them, but apparently this was such an easy lab that the teacher finally picked up on your problem. And his approach was to have you do the lab by yourself. Brilliant, that'll definitely teach you.

Another moment of you stewing in your misery passes, with you debating just giving up and using Google Translate. Then you literally jump as the door slams open, someone walking in.

Your hand is clutching your chest in fright as you watch a skinny Japanese boy with a quite outrageous hairstyle, like a leek, stroll into the room. He’s looking around the classroom, and starts opening cabinets and rummaging through them, presumably looking for something.

He’s muttering under his breath, “No, not potassium hydroxide, not magnesium…where is it?”

You blink a couple times, watching the other student shuffle around the classroom. Has…he even noticed you?

“Uh..” You hazard, but trail off, unsure what to say.

The boy startles, whipping his head around to stare at you. His startling red eyes blink owlishly at you, and you’re taken aback by how much they gleam like a gemstone in the light from the windows. You guess he definitely did not even realize you were in the room.

Your head tilts to the side, and you ask “Can I help you?”

The guy’s ruby eyes narrow, likely noting your accent, before he shakes his head dismissively and turns around to keep rummaging through the cabinet.

“You know where the Calcium Hydroxide is? We ran out down in Lab 1, and it’s not where it should be here.”

His voice is deeper than you expect, but not super deep, rough, and he drags some of his syllables out as he talks. As if the words are sliding out of him rather than being spoken with deliberateness, but somehow you don’t get the impression of him being lazy.

You purse your lips, before looking down at the materials on your station.

Peering at one of the labels of the flasks, you slowly read to yourself, ‘ka ru shi u mu.’ Oh…wait…

“I think I have it right here.”

The guy looks at you again, lips stuck out a little, and making a weird expression that you can only think of to describe as slightly perplexed.

“You think?”

Sighing, you explain, “Japanese isn’t my first language, obviously, “ You gesture to yourself at that; you did not look Japanese. “And I think I may have grabbed the wrong thing here, but I think this says Calcium Hydroxide.”

He walks over, his footsteps loud in the room. Picking up the bottle, he glances at the label and says “Yeah, this is Calcium Hydroxide. What did you mean to grab?”

Your head hangs low, and you brace yourself for ridicule as you admit, “Hydrogen Peroxide..”

“Haaah?”

You feel your cheeks burn as the green and white haired guy peers at you in bafflement.

“What are you even trying to do here?”

You look at your instruction sheet again, and read out loud “Briggs-Rauscher Reaction Lab.”

He nods, his bangs bobbing as he does so. “That’s a decent lab, good for showing how chemical reactions happen in real time, and practicing mixing solutions.”

Leaning forward, he takes your sheet from your hands and glances it over. “Ahh I see, your challenge is to actually create the solutions, so it’s testing your ability to read instructions.”

Then he looks up at the clock, and back at the sheet, then at you. This guy stares at you for a solid moment, you feel yourself blushing from how intently he examines you. Your brain rushes to try and figure out what this guy is doing, why is he staring at you. Eventually he nods at you, his bangs bobbing with the motion, as if he gleamed some information from the staring contest.

Wordlessly, he walks back over to the cabinets and starts gathering supplies.

You watch, perplexed, as he comes back to your table a minute later, arms loaded with chemicals, including, corn starch? He sets them down, the bottles clinking as he does so, and clears the station of what you had before, setting your attempts at some solutions near the disposal sink.

“Hey wait, I was using those!” You protest, moving to stop him, but he laughs at you.

“Yeah you definitely did not want to continue using those, unless you want to clean up a huge mess later on. Nothing toxic, but it would have been a huge reaction that would have a ten billion percent chance of being a pain in the ass to clean up later here.”

“O-oh.”

You close your mouth and lower your hand, unable to deny that in your inability to read kanji and apparently even katakana, you could have caused an accident.

“Anyways, this experiment is easy and doable within a short amount of time, so let’s do it.”

“Let’s? What do you mean?”

The teen levels a look at you, you squirm under his ruby gaze, and he grins, the expression bringing a light to his eyes.

“Well I’m not gonna leave you to do this by yourself! You freaking mixed up Hydrogen Peroxide and Calcium Hydroxide because you can’t read, so I might as well help prevent you from blowing up this place!”

Feeling embarrassed, you fold your arms and retort “I can read thank you very much! I just...can’t use context clues here to help me, and-and I would not have blown up the lab! No way they keep stuff here that would create that sort of accident!” You eye the guy just for good measure.

This guy just laughs again, and despite it being at your expense, you can’t help but grin back.

Raising one eyebrow he tells you, “Wanna bet? They have some craaazy stuff here, and it’s all thanks to me! But I know my way around a lab, so you’ll be safe while we do this little experiment here!”

You laugh, thinking he was making a joke. But then as the crazy-haired guy continues looking at you with his arms casually crossed and a smug grin on his face your smile drops as you realize he is serious. What is in this lab? Do you even want to know?

Remembering that he had walked in looking for something, you can’t help but ask,

“Weren’t you looking for something for your own experiment?”

Inwardly you punch yourself. You really didn’t want your sudden helper to go away, but you would probably feel bad if his own stuff got messed up because he was distracted helping you.

He shakes his head. “Nah, I have to wait overnight for my solution to react, I was just trying to prep the next step, it can hold on a little longer though.”

He looks sincere, so you accept that and shrug and grin once more at your sudden helper with determination.

“All right! Let’s do this then!”

He nods back at you. “Okay, well first of all do you you know what we’re doing here?”

“Well I’m assuming that when we mix three solutions here, they change color, but I was struggling to figure out what ones I was supposed to use.”

The green haired guy nods, “Yeah, that’s because you are supposed to mix them yourself.”

Your eyes widen, “For real?” He had said something about that earlier, but you weren’t sure. Exasperatedly you run your hands through your hair, “No wonder I couldn’t figure out what to do!”

Your lab partner chuckles at your expense, “If you read the instructions it tells you that, and how to mix them as well, and like I said that’s the purpose of this lab.”

Sighing, you look over the mysterious list of chemicals you were struggling to read earlier, putting together that the reason you were so confused by the list is that the random vocabulary and verbs you didn't know were actually important to what you were doing, and could not just be skimmed to "get the gist of" as per your usual tactics.

As you were trying to read the labels, your lab partner shoves an open, round, plastic container at you, with a small piece in it.

“Add a liter of water to this.”

You go to turn on the sink, and your lab partner reaches out and grabs your wrist, stopping you.

He makes a face at you and scolds you, “What are you doing? Use the distilled water here dummy!”

“You said water so I just figured any water is fine!” You defend yourself, but you do grab the distilled water as he said.

“Why does it matter?”

Calming down as you use the right water, the green haired guy explains, “The chloride ions in the tap water will ruin our reaction here.”

You nod again, not really getting it but not knowing what else to do. He seems to see that and snickers at you, which you stick your tongue out at him in response.

From underneath your lab station, he heaves a device of some sort, that looked kind of like a scale with some extra knobs on it. Putting it on the table, he places your container with water on it and gives you an expectant look.

“All right, turn the stirring on.”

Feeling your eyes widen, you exclaim, “What?”

“The stir bar, we need to stir this so turn the knob on the machine so it goes.”

Looking at the scale-like machine you see that one of the knobs has a little design like something spinning, and it goes from 1 to 10.

“No way that this thing makes the water spin?!”

Your lab partner laughs, the sound pleasantly filling the space. “Have you never used one of these before? Geez, your country needs to step up their public education game!”

Spluttering, you try to defend your country, but the green haired guy just talks over you, “All right then, I can show you the beauty of a magnetic stir device!”

“That little stick there is our stir bar, it’s coated in Teflon so that it doesn’t dissolve into anything, and it’s a magnet that will couple with another one inside this device.”

Your lab partner points to the little piece that was initially inside the container, and you ooh at it.

“The internal magnet is attached to a spinning motor, and when that’s turned on…”

Here he adjusts the numbered knob, and you gasp as the magnet starts spinning in the water.

“..the external magnet will spin as well!” Your lab partner grins at you, seemingly finding amusement in your clear amazement for something simple.

“That’s so cool! Wait, so why are we not just mixing by hand?”

Rather than responding, your lab partner hands you a small white label and says, “After we add 43g of this potassium iodate..." And you stare at him, waiting for him to finish his sentence… until he raises a sharp eyebrow and you feel heat creep onto your face as you realize he was waiting for you to do as he instructed.

After the powder is poured into the spinning water, he continues, answering your earlier question “Even with strong stirring, this is going to take several minutes to fully dissolve, so imagine doing that by hand!”

“Ahh, no thank you!” You laugh. “Glad we’re in the modern age where we can just have magnets do the hard work for us!”

You watch the powder slowly become more uniform with the water, and look up at your lab partner.

He’s watching the reaction, so you take a moment to do some scientific observation on the guy. He’s a little taller than you, even if he didn’t have that crazy hair. How did he do it, and how did he not get dress coded here in Japan…? The lab coat suits him, but you think without it he might look a little too skinny, which is probably appropriate for him being a nerd.

You blink, as you realize that you didn’t even know his name.

“Oh hold on, you’re here helping me and I don’t even know your name!”

He looks up at you through his surprisingly long eyelashes from where he’s peering at the mixture, his ruby eyes catching some of the afternoon light and glinting pleasantly.

“The name’s Senku.”

“Is that your first or last name?” You ask, not wanting to be impolite, knowing the naming customs in Japan.

He chuckles, “Just call me Senku.”

You agree, and introduce yourself in turn.

The conversation ends there as Senku raises a hand and says, “All right, this should be good enough. Now we are to add the sulfuric acid, so grab that.”

“Uhh..” You hesitate, “Sulfuric sounds like it’s way above my pay grade here, are you sure it’s safe?”

Senku just rolls his eyes at you and looks up to the ceiling with closed eyes and casually says, “Just don’t touch it or get it in your eyes or inhale the fumes or spill it and you’ll be fine.”

Your jaw drops and you stare at him in astonishment, until he raises an eyebrow and cracks one eye open to peer at you and smirks.

You scoff, “Oh yeah, so just don’t have a single accident and we’re fine!”

“Exactly!” You swear if this guy was any bit more of a silly person he would be clapping.

He points to a clear container with a liquid inside, and it’s appropriately labeled as Sulfuric Acid. “We just need 43 mL of the stuff, so measure some out!”

You fold your arms, and huff, but then move to grab a glass test tube and funnel, and measure out the chemical. You look at Senku, and he just nods, so you add it to the solution and watch as the clear liquid becomes indistinguishable from the rest of the clear solution.

After about thirty seconds, Senku turns the knob off, and says, “That should be good now!”

“Are we done?” You ask.

Your lab partner grins at you, and you swear a mischievous glint shone in his eyes right then. “Not even close! This is just Solution 1 out of 3!”

You groan as he cackles at you, labeling your container ‘Solution A,’ putting a lid on it and setting it aside.

You bemoan your fate, allowing yourself a longing glance out the window, and once you look back, Senku has another identical container to the previous on the stirring plate.

“All right,” You sigh. “What’s our next step?”

Senku grabs the corn starch from the chemical pile and places it in front of you.

“Now we need to make a starch solution!”

Scratching your chin, you say “I’m assuming it’ll be like the potassium iodate and water thing again, where we just mix and wait for it to stir together?”

“Nah. Well, you can do that if you have a year to wait for the result! I’ve got more important things to do besides wait for a beginner to learn how to make a cornstarch solution.”

You glare at him, as he smirks at you. You wait for him to elaborate, and then roll your eyes and smile despite yourself, when you realize he is just waiting for you to ask the question.

'How silly, and surprisingly dramatic' you think. Sighing, you ask, “So how DO we make a starch solution?”

Senku’s grin doesn’t falter, and it feels like he can read your mind as he snickers, “The corn starch won’t dissolve unless we add heat, but luckily we have something that can easily do that for us!”

Your curiosity piques and you question, “Oh, what is it?” He hasn’t brought out a new device, so you look around questioningly.

Senku just slaps your stir device, and goes “This here doubles as a stirrer, and a hot plate!”

“Ooooh, that’s convenient!” You quip, watching Senku fiddle with the other knob on the device, presumably to heat up the starch solution.

“Yeah, it definitely speeds up our process here. We just need this to come to a boil for a moment…” He trails off as you both watch for the boiling, and once it does boil, Senku leaves the container on for about ten seconds, before taking it off. Here he actually grabs a glass stir stick and mixes the solution around, as you watch in silence, trying to see what he is observing.

“It’s still a bit cloudy, but that’s fine. Now let’s move on to the second part of this solution.”

You hum in acknowledgement and yet again, Senku grabs another container and sets it on the stir device.

“Let me guess, we start with distilled water?” You venture with a teasing tone.

Senku smirks, “Ten billion points for my lab assistant! Now pour 650 mL of the stuff!”

As you do, Senku tells you to also add 3.4g of manganese sulfate monohydrate, and when you give him a blank stare at that name, he just pushes one of the white, opaque bottles in your direction. You add the powdered chemical, and start stirring it.

“Now we gotta wait until it’s clear to add the malonic acid.”

“You know, I feel kinda bad that I don’t know what any of these things are, I feel like I'm missing the point of the lab.” You admit, watching the stirring solution.

“You’re not supposed to. The point of the lab is to test your capability to read and follow directions, despite not knowing what is going on.” Senku explains.

His defense of you warms your heart a little, but you rebuke, “Still, you know all of this stuff, and I’m already 17, almost finished with high school here. I feel like I should have actually learned this.”

Senku shrugs, “Don’t compare yourself to me, I’m a unique case. Plus, I’m assuming chemistry is not your focus in life, you have other strengths you’re working on.”

You shrug, suddenly uncomfortable with the attention. “Uh, yeah, I suppose. I am here in Japan to train for a sport, but that’s not an academic strength.”

Senku shakes his head, “Doesn’t mean it’s any lesser. People like me come up with the equations, and physically strong brutes like you help us make it happen!”

“Hey!” You cry out at the ‘brute’ comment, but you start giggling at the sudden insult, your discomfort washed away at the easy banter, that somehow compliments you. Senku grins at you, his eyes crinkling at the edges, he looks like he'll have crow's feet in a couple of years. The observation makes your hear skip a beat.

Your lab partner then looks out the window to the sky, and languidly says, “Don’t discount what you do. Science is ten billion percent the way of the future, but it couldn’t do what it does without all the support from everyone else. Plus, you don’t need to be a genius to work hard to get where you want to be. Science doesn’t happen overnight, it happens as a result of the culmination of human effort.”

Your mouth opens in awe of the statement, but before you can say anything, Senku seems to shake himself out of his sudden philosophical mood and nudges you.

“Now add that malonic acid!”

You panic as you try to avoid anything spilling from your test tube, glare at Senku, and pour in the chemical to your swirling solution.

He just smirks at you, and looks at the solution.

“Now that everything has more or less dissolved, add our starch solution.”

“Okay!” You do as he says. It takes a few seconds, and now your clear solution is stirring once more and you look at Senku expectantly.

He shrugs, and says, “The unfortunate thing about chemistry experiments is sometimes you need to wait for things to mix or react. There’s more downtime than you think. It’s fine for a classroom experiment, but less so when you’re doing your own thing.”

You hum, and ask, “So what do you usually do when waiting?”

Senku grins and shrugs, “Oh this and that.”

He nudges you with his bony elbow as he says that and gestures with his head at your solution, and you take it off the stir device and label it as ‘Solution B.’

You scoff, “Oh come on, you can’t just bait the question and leave me hanging!”

“All right, all right, well I usually just have other calculations to do, and if not that then I read a book.”

Your mouth tugs into a frown, “Huh, that’s surprisingly mundane.”

Senku raises an eyebrow at you, “What, were you expecting me to say that I always have a billion experiments going on in tandem?”

You blush and stutter, “Well, yeah!”

His eyebrow raises higher and you explain, “You seem like the type to always have some sort of side project going on, and I can easily picture you in a mad scientist type of lab, cackling as you create Frankenstein’s monster or something.”

Senku throws his head back and cackles at that, and you giggle at the mental image of mad-scientist Senku being solidified further.

“Hah! Not in a million years! For one, a full-fledged home lab is way too expensive, and two, you gotta pay attention to your experiments, so doing multiple at the same time is just like asking for one to go wrong! Also it’s Frankenstein’s monster not…”

Senku trails off, snapping his head forward and peers at you. Your smirk triumphantly and mockingly tuck a strand of hair behind your ear.

“What can I say~? I’m just well read~”

Senku laughs at you, and folds his arms, “Surprising, considering you can’t even read your lab instructions!”

You scoff in mock-betrayal, “Woooow okay. Woooow. Mock the foreigner struggling to read the kanji for chemicals, I see how it is.”

Snickering, muttering noncommittally "It was literally katakana, " Senku hands you a semi-opaque bottle, and you recognize it as Hydrogen Peroxide.

“Starting with Hydrogen Peroxide, NOT, Calcium.” He gives you a look which you respond by sticking your tongue at him. “Pour 400 mL into this container.”

Somehow, without you noticing, Senku produced ANOTHER fresh container onto your stir device. As you’re measuring out the Hydrogen Peroxide, Senku comments.

“So I’m guessing you missed the explanation on your sheet where it says that you need 30% Hydrogen Peroxide, which this stuff is seriously dangerous for an average student like you.”

You huff at the ‘average student’ comment, but he isn’t wrong so you don’t say anything.

Senku continues, explaining “This stuff could cause some rough burns, and if mixed with the wrong chemical, could cause an exothermic explosive reaction, which is why I tossed your solutions.”

You pause, watching the number on the scale even out to 401.2 mL, and make a face before responding.

“Why would this be involved in such a basic lab then?”

“Because typically you can read the instructions, which have the warnings, and there is an instructor there to watch you and hand out the chemicals so you use the right ones. Now add 600 mL of distilled water to that.”

You open and close your mouth like a fish, questioning the fact that you were told to do this lab by yourself.

Senku nudges you, and you measure and add the distilled water, and he nods at the stir knob, so you turn it on and the solution starts mixing.

He’s standing pretty close to you, just behind you on your right, and you catch a faint scent from him, like a combination of plain soap and sterilized lab. It’s unobtrusive and wouldn’t be noticeable if he weren’t so close to you. Considering that he’s working with chemicals often, you reason that a strong perfume or cologne would likely not be good for that. It's an oddly pleasant smell, and seems so Senku.

Senku speaks up, “All right, that should be enough.” Bringing you back from your musings, and you blush as you realize you had started daydreaming about your lab partner’s scent after having only met this guy like half an hour ago.

The taller teen raises an eyebrow at your sudden jumpiness, but just moves on, saying “Okay, now that Solution C is done, get excited, as we are ready for the main reaction!”

You feel your heart start beating faster at Senku’s words, and you grin up at him, and he’s wearing a matching smirk.

He sets up a large, empty, glass beaker on your lab station.

“We add equal amounts of each solution, but it’s important to do Solution A and B first!” You watch Senku, and after a moment of him doing nothing he nudges you.

“Go on.”

“Ah, I’m doing it!? Okay!” You flail.

He laughs, “Yeah, it’s your assignment after all, dummy.”

“Okay, okay I get it smartass!” You mock sneer at him, and he just folds his arms and levels a look at you, and you laugh and fill a third of the beaker with Solution A, another third with B, and turn on the stirring.

“So nothing is goin to visibly occur until we add Solution C, because this one has the catalyst, the Peroxide, that’s going to make the fun stuff happen.” Senku explains, passing you Solution C.

You bite your lip in excitement, and make a silly expression at Senku, who scoffs and leans back against the counter with his arms folded, and just nods his head at your A and B solution.

“Go on!”

You add Solution C, and immediately the clear solution changes to yellow, and you smile and look to Senku, who points back to your solution with one arm.

“Keep looking!”

You turn back in time to watch the yellow liquid suddenly transform into a dark navy, almost black color. You gasp, adrenaline flushing through your veins, and bounce up and down.

“Senku!! It did it!! It changed color!”

He laughs, more at your reaction than the actual reaction, and just says again, “Keep looking dummy!”

You stop bouncing and look back at the navy solution, it’s still spinning, and it seems like nothing is happening…wait..is it a lighter blue now…? As soon as you notice the new color change, the solution flashes back to clear for a moment and then back to yellow, and then darker into the navy solution again. You swear your mouth has dropped to the floor and you can’t help but bounce in excitement again.

You look at Senku, who’s still laughing at you, his cheeks shining with his joy, “So that’s why it’s called the Oscillating reaction!! Because it keeps going back and forth!”

Your lab partner nods, “Yeah, it’s one of the few we are aware of, that will keep going back and forth.”

Distracted by the changing colors, you murmur casually, “...wonder how this happens…” Not understanding what you just did by asking for an explanation.

Senku’s eyes light up as he turns to you and explains, “The biggest influencer on the color here is the concentration of iodine, and the reaction going on is what influences it.”

You turn to look at him, but start to panic about five more words into his explanation.

“Our manganese was the catalyst for the iodate ion, the malonic acid, and the hydrogen peroxide to react to turn into iodomalonic acid and water and O2, but that’s just the overall equation. What really happens is a slew of intermediate equations, the first of which is the just the iodate ion and and hydrogen peroxide, with again, manganese as the catalyst, turning into hypoiodous acid, which then reacts with the third element of the first trio, the malonic acid, and forms iodomalonic acid and water. This first reaction is either occurring via a radical or nonradical pathway, and if it’s the former, then the hypoiodous acid reacts, creating the color we see. When the negative iodate ion is the principle ion present, the solution is clear, but then as the hypoiodous acid reacts, the iodine starts to increase and then when both the iodide and iodine are present, they combine to form a pentaiodide ion complex, which seeks out the starch in the solution and inserts itself into the helical structure of the amylose portion of the starch molecule. This results in a blue-black color, as the iodine concentration increases from the reaction of hypoiodous acid and iodide. Eventually the iodide disappears and there is iodine, 3 which gives the amber color. The reaction continues to oscillate between the colors until the iodate or malonic acid is used up. “

“Uhhhhh, Senku…” You trail off, eyes glazed over at the literal wall of information thrown at you.

You lab partner looks at you, somehow masking his exact emotions but still with a smirk painted across his face.

“Yes?”

“I literally do not know like a fourth of the words you just used, like I have literally never heard them before in this language, I probably haven't even heard them in my native one, and do not know what you just said.”

Senku just cackles at that, the jerk.

“No different than my usual companions who listen to me! Japanese may be their first language, but for all they know, I’m speaking a foreign one!”

You shake your head, smiling, and look at the oscillating color in the container in front of you.

“...so what do we do now?”

Senku looks at your lab instructions once again, and tells you, “It looks your professor left a note to say you’re supposed to take a video of the reaction, with you in it-as proof it’s not stolen from a Youtube video.”

You nod, and hold your phone out to him, “Help me then?”

He takes the video of you, and hands your phone back.

You frown, “How do we dispose of this?” You gesture with your hands loosely at all of your chemicals, tools, and solutions strewn about you.

“Hah!” Senku laughs, and you look at him funnily, he shrugs at you. “So typically your teacher would handle this, as this isn’t as simple as pouring things down the drain. We need to do a few things more to this solution to bring it to a state where we can do that.”

“Oh.” You frown, really considering why your teacher told you to do this on your own.

“Don’t worry though, I’ll handle it.”

You tilt your head, “What?”

Senku shrugs again, looking out the window, “I’ll take care of it, not like you would be able to. You’re done here.”

You furrow your eyebrows and fold your arms, “Now why do you think I would leave you at this point? Even if I don’t know how to do the cleanup on my own, it’s not like it would be any different than doing the actual lab, which I also didn't know how to do. You can just tell me what to do! I won’t leave you to clean my mess because it’s more convenient. More hands are useful, right? Like you said, it’s all us brute strength people are good for!”

You grin at Senku, and he stares at you for a moment, the intensity of his ruby eyes making your heart pound and a blush unwillingly dust your ears, before matching your grin.

“Alrighty then!”

He reaches over and grabs one of the containers he had first brought over, and holds it in front of you.

“Sodium thiosulfate, this will neutralize this solution, which has finished reacting, as you see?”

Looking at where Senku was pointing, you notice how the solution had stopped oscillating, and was now just a brown color, with a solid looking lump at the bottom.

“That’s solid iodine, which it and the hydrogen peroxide will get neutralized by this.” Senku punctuates his sentence with pouring an amount of the…sodium thiosulfate was it? Into the solution.

You both watch as after adding the chemical and stirring with the glass stir rod, the solution turns clear. You make an appropriate “Ooooh,” but Senku shakes his head and points back to the solution with a “Watch.”

You do so, and frown as the solution turns back to a dark purple color. Whipping your head back to Senku, he grins and explains to you,

“Now we just gotta add more of this stuff until the solution stays clear.” He holds the container out to you.

“Ladies first?”

You bark out a laugh, “Ha! You already went first dummy!”

But you take the solution, and keep adding some, eventually needing a bigger glass container. At some point, the solution stays colorless, and you grin at Senku.

“We did it!” You cheer

“Yeah!” Senku mockingly matches your tone, even throwing his hands in the air. “We’re not done!”

Your hands come down. “Oh.”

“We gotta remove the manganese from the solution now, which we will do with a saturated sodium carbonate solution!”

You swear that these things shouldn’t be in a high school chemistry lab, but well, if Senku was the one regularly using these, you couldn’t be too surprised at the setup. Maybe the school hoped he would bring them fame once he inevitably became a famous scientist.

You hop onto the lab counter to watch as he slowly adds more to the solution, backing off when it heats up, but continuing.

“So see here, now that it’s turned opaque?” Senku says, leaning in close to you, still keeping his eyes on the solution, but pointing with one long, callused finger.

You lean towards him, instinctively matching his movements and hum an affirmative.

His voice is rough as he says to you, quietly as you're next to him, just speaking for you to hear, “That’s the sign that the manganese is precipitating enough that in a minute, we will be able to filter it out.”

“And then what?” You quietly say.

Senku turns to you at the same time you turn to him, and you both pause as you realize how close you have gotten. With you sitting on the counter, you were just about eye level, only a hand's length between your faces and bodies.

He breathes out as you stare at each other, and you can feel the heat from his breath on your nose.

Then your lab partner blinks, and the spell is broken as he says, “And then we have the manganese separated, which we will give to a teacher to take to the school’s solid waste disposal, and the rest can be poured down the drain with a generous amount of water.”

He turns quickly to peer intensely at the solution, and you’re left feeling like you had just dropped a glass and everyone in the room was pretending you hadn’t for politeness’ sake.

You shake your head, dismissing the prior moment, and hop off the lab table.

Senku comments, “You really shouldn’t sit up there you know.”

“Nahh, what’s the harm in it here?” You easily dismiss, and Senku frowns at you.

“Lab safety isn’t something to joke about.”

You roll your eyes and stick your tongue out at him and retort, “Yes Sensei~” In a drawling tone, and for extra measure, you wink at Senku when he gives you an unamused stare.

He backs off and rolls his eyes, muttering something about ‘brutes’ under his breath, but seems to understand your icebreaker as it is and smirks good-naturedly at you.

You watch in amiable silence as Senku filters the solution into a beaker filled with cold water, and then puts the filter with manganese bits into a container labeled “solid waste,” and then pours the solution down the lab station drain.

He hands the solid waste container to you, and says,. “Now hand this to your teacher, or just set it up by the front desk and whoever is the first teacher in tomorrow will handle it.”

“Oh! So, we’re done?” You hazard, and this time Senku actually nods.

“Yeah, you did your reaction, you have your video, and can show your teacher tomorrow.”

“Oh!” At his words, you’re struck with disappointment, and you watch as Senku looks at his watch and starts gathering up some of the beakers in his arms.

Wanting to say something to fill the silence, you gasp out “So what are you doing with those dishes?”

Senku responds, “The lab I was in has less beakers than this one, so I’m moving them over there.”

You watch as he huffs at the strain of balancing all the delicate glassware, “Want me to help carry them?” You ask.

The green-haired man opens his mouth, but as he does so, one of the tubes on top of the pile in his arms topples off and you lunge to grab it, barely managing to nab the labware before it breaks on the floor.

“I suppose it couldn’t hurt.” You hear Senku drawl out above you, his raspy voice betraying his amusement.

Standing up straight, you smile widely at Senku, outright squeezing your eyes shut with the exuberance of it, and hear him chuckle lightly. Then there’s delicate glassware shoved into your arms and you find that now you’re the one steadying yourself before you have to drop and pay for broken labware.

“C’mon.” Senku’s at the door, and you hurry after him.

The other lab is literally just down the hall and you’re still feeling that weird apprehension at the thought of saying goodbye to your spontaneous lab partner. You acknowledge that the two of you literally met like an hour ago, but you still wanted to stay around Senku longer.

It was like he was the sun, and you couldn’t help being drawn in by his gravitational orbit.

So that was your explanation for why, when the two of you got to the classroom entrance, as Senku turns to you to presumably thank you, just as he opens his mouth, you blurt out;

“Want me to help clean them?”

Senku’s mouth shuts with a click, and he gives you a look, which makes you realize he hadn’t looked directly at you since that moment in the other room. His brow furrows, and his ruby eyes are piercing as he gives you a long stare.

You feel an odd sense of awkward heat wash over you, and you can’t help but try to explain yourself, “Well I feel bad making you wash everything because it was my project and all and-”

“Nah, I don’t need the help here.” Senku cuts in, and you then can’t help but deflate.

“Oh.” Another beat of awkward silence and you try to fill in the blank again, “Well that’s fine I guess, you’re definitely capable of washing dishe-” But then Senku interrupts you again.

“But I could use a lab partner tomorrow after school if you aren’t too busy doing regular brute things.”

Your jaw drops and you stare at Senku, who is aloofishly looking to the side, like he doesn’t care much about your response. But his presence is still, and you can tell he is waiting on your response.

You break into a huge smile, and exuberantly chirp, “Okay! I’ll be here after school tomorrow!”

You see the minute relief wash over Senku’s face, though outwardly it looks like a cocky smirk, and he drawls out, “Ahh, well you better be ready for some grueling grunt work! It’s gonna be tedious and you’ll need to read my instructions properly!” His ruby eyes glint in the light at you, and you feel an overwhelming mirth bubble up in your chest.

“I can’t wait for it, Senku!”

[puppyeared]

good morning sifloop nation

[the-meme-monarch]

been rewatching hlvrai and drawing along :]

edit i fixed the last one (drew his gun on the wrong arm and it Ate At Me (yes i just flipped the drawing what are you a cop))

[chickenchirps27]

hello denizens of tumblr i come with humble offerings

they wish to romance you

[this-vs-that]

This question was sent to our inbox. If you’d like for us to post a This or That poll for you, send the 2 things you want to see against each other to our inbox and we’ll let the people decide which one they prefer. Everything will be anonymous.

[demaparbat-hp]

YOOOO DEMA YOU LIKE ARCANE???!! omg who's your favorite character??? and favorite moment(s) from s1??? (and fav ship too 👀 👀) will you draw for Arcane in the future???? (peak show with peak art =perfection, just saying)

Anon, you have the. Best. Timing. Ever. I literally just finished an Arcane artstyle study with Katara of the Undercity as a subject!

My favorite Arcane character is and forever shall be Ekko (best boy). Other faves are Viktor (chronic illness baby) and Jinx (trauma gremlin).

As for the S1 scene... Besides the finale and that breathtaking Guns for Hire sequence? The Ekko/Jinx fight from ep 7. It broke me. (And turned me into a Timebomb shipper. Which was arguably worse.)

[fentoaster]

Ectoberhaunt Day 18: Unravel

Jack sat at his dining table, feeling pleased with his new invention. He scanned the room, waving around his prototype Fenton Ghoul-Glass, searching for spectral activity (albeit not expecting much.)

Danny walked into the kitchen, sending his dad a questioning glance. Jack beamed at him, launching right into an explanation.

As he pointed the glass to look at Danny, though, the words died in his throat.

For where his son should have been, stood the Phantom of Amity Park.

[gaycrittercentral]

BEHOLD!! I made an entry to Skunkape's 2023 Holiday Contest! :'Dc I worked so fuckin hard on it hhhrhrhrhgdhsjglshgjdjfh and let me tell you, I do not at all hope to win but I do hope it makes Steve snicker. Just the thought that he'll be seeing it is wild. Hope it makes y'all snicker too ehehehe!!

[yangjeongin]

HYUNJIN BIRTHDAY COUNTDOWN (2024):  ↘ D-DAY | HAPPY BIRTHDAY HWANG HYUNJIN❣️

[mariadia-bonsoir]

To anyone with the loop plushie, you must know this important fact!

The phenomenon that makes it glow in the dark is called phosphorescence! However after many years this effect will eventually wear down and your loop plushie will glow less or not at all in the dark...

You know what this mean? Your loop has only so many years before their menopause hits. Thank you for your time.

[trashfactorysstuff]

Since days ago was the eclipse,,,,Agni and Yue ☀️🌑

[swiftpolls]

this is currently a hot topic at my work so

[companion-showdown]

Who is the best TARDIS team?

TOURNAMENT MASTERPOST

propaganda under the cut

12, Clara, Missy

Imagine the 3 worst people you know, who are simultaneously exactly the same and completely different. The epitome of the "Wow These People Are So Weird, Thank God I'm the Normal One" meme. Now imagine putting them together in a box and shaking it around. It's so funny, I love them

[marlynnofmany]

Preferred Speed

(Related side project: Prank War!)

~~~

The cargo bay was full of people and packages. This was, they told me, how things used to be in the old days.

“Only four deliveries to the same location is simplistic,” Zhee declared with a flick of his antennae. “There were days when we had six or seven, and Sunlight or Mimi would be sent out too.” He flicked his antennae in a different direction at the missing honorific. “She wasn’t the captain then.”

“Sounds busy,” I said. “Was that Pockap’s idea?” I’d only spent a short time under the previous captain’s leadership, but I didn’t have much positive to say about it.

“Among other things,” Zhee agreed.

“Hey Zhee, we’ll get back to the ship first!” announced Blip with a wide grin on her fishy face. Blop did stretches behind her, next to a hovercart carrying a heavy-looking crate.

“You will not,” Zhee said with serene confidence. “I will be here well-rested long before you appear.”

“You say that now!” Blip bantered back. “But I think you’ll find us lounging on the ramp when you return.”

Blop finished his stretch and threw a mischievous glance at Paint. “We definitely won’t be the last to arrive.”

“No fair,” Paint complained, clutching her own small box to her chest like a scaly child. “You all have longer legs than me.”

I said, “I could give you a ride if you want. I have the hoverbike.” (I did. I was looking forward to it.)

Paint regarded the old-but-serviceable machine like an untamed horse. “Maybe?”

I brought up the map on the handlebar screen. “Your spot is along the main road, right? That’s an easy stop on the way to the observatory. And your package is small enough to carry while you hold on.”

“Isn’t there room in the storage compartment?” Paint asked hopefully.

I didn’t even have to look. “Nope. Mine barely fit. If we could get both in there, Captain Sunlight probably would have just had me deliver both.”

“Both what?” asked the captain from the doorway, hearing her name.

I explained, “I’m going to give Paint a ride to deliver that package, since she can carry it while it won’t fit in the bin.”

“I see,” said Captain Sunlight. “Very resourceful. And very brave of you, Paint.”

Paint sighed unhappily. “It sure is.”

Mur followed the captain in, chuckling. “Better you than me. Enjoy the speed.”

“I can drive slowly if you want,” I told Paint.

Paint stood as tall as she could, which wasn’t very. “No, I don’t want to hold you up. Regular speed is fine.”

“Great to hear,” said Captain Sunlight with a clap of her scaly hands. “Everyone take your places; we’re about to land.”

We all got ready. Blip and Blop maneuvered their hovercart to be near the front; Zhee shouldered in next to them with his bundle worn like a backpack; I got onto the hoverbike and Paint reluctantly climbed up behind me.

“Have fun!” Mur called with a wave of a blue-black tentacle. “I’ll be doing meal prep with Eggskin, thinking of you.”

I could hear the scowl in Paint’s voice. “I hope it’s something stinky.”

The intercom chimed with the landing tone, just in case we were distracted by bickering or something. A subtle change in engine tone, and we were there.

Captain Sunlight opened the bay door. Blip and Blop scrambled out, yelling cheerfully after Zhee when he used their hovercart like a springboard to jump ahead.

While they all ignored the captain’s reminders to be careful, I drove down the ramp at a sedate pace with Paint’s hands clutching my shirt, and we were out into the alien city.

This was a nice-looking one. Very sunny and clean. The spaceport was right next to a public thoroughfare, which felt weirdly trusting after the tight security at some other places we’d visited. Apparently all the screening for ne-er-do-wells was handled before landing here, or they just didn’t expect any trouble. Either way, it looked safe and pretty, with single-story architecture that reminded me of sandcastles made of porcelain. Everywhere were rounded walls with domed tops, tapering from the bottom like someone scooped the material together. Then turned it glossy white with lots of intricate patterns, and translucent bits where it got thin enough for the sun to show through. Most of the pedestrians were either Strongarms or Waterwills, and I wondered whose culture had come up with the design. Maybe both together.

I was maneuvering the hoverbike onto the convenient skyroad that passed over those pedestrians, and thinking idly about whether there was a different word for people who walked without proper feet, when I noticed how tight Paint’s grip had become.

“Should I slow down?” I asked over the wind. “Or would you rather walk after all? I can pull over.”

“I’m okay,” Paint said, a little tense. “Pretending we’re on the ground. I don’t have to look. Enjoy your crazy human death wish.”

I laughed and shook my head, but didn’t bother to argue. She wasn’t going to enjoy speed or heights no matter how eloquent I was about it.

So I did enjoy the ride, on the nice wide skyroad made of a transparent material that was probably a Waterwill design. Most of the single-person scooters and bigger buses hummed along slowly, though there was plenty of room to weave past them and admire the view of the city while I did. Those porcelain walls got really colorful farther out, and most of the walkways were tiled in colorful squares.

Much too soon, the map showed Paint’s destination up ahead, and I took an off-ramp down to a lovely little public park. There was even something like grass, though the vegetative lumps that passed for trees didn’t cast much shade.

“We’re here,” I told Paint. “Your location is right over there.”

After a pause that was probably Paint prying her eyes open and taking in the surroundings, she let go and said, “Oh good. Thank you.”

“Package okay?” I asked. Hopefully it hadn’t gotten squashed.

“Yes, it’s fine. I’ll meet you back here, right?” She slid shakily off.

“Sure thing,” I agreed. “Shouldn’t take me too long. Enjoy the sun after you drop that off!”

Paint smiled the honest smile of a cold-blooded lizardperson under a warm sun. “I will!” She trotted off with a wave, and I zoomed up the onramp back into the sky.

I drove much faster this time, and it was great. The road got even emptier as I reached the edge of the city, which, for our purposes, was conveniently close. The observatory rested on a hill outside of town. I wondered if the telescopes and whatnot inside had trouble with the city glow, but when I looked for streetlights, I only saw little downward-facing things that I’d taken for security cameras. Maybe this city didn’t glow much at night, at least not in an upward direction. Pity we were doing the delivery now and I wouldn’t get to see it. Though, I reflected, I’d likely enjoy this skyroad less in the dark.

The road sloped down to meet the ground when it ran out of buildings, and I zipped past more tree-lumps on the way up to the observatory. It was built out of porcelain too, looking extra thick and sturdy.

An Earth-style doorbell seemed very out of place, but it was at knee height on me, so that tracked. I rang it and got the package out of the storage bin.

A thick chunk of wall pulled inward then slid to the side with a thud. “Hello!” said the client, a Strongarm with vivid red coloring and a pointy squid head like Mur. I glimpsed another in the background that was a roundheaded coral pink, and much less chatty than this one. “Thank you so much for the delivery! I hope the drive went well? No traffic or accidents or whatnot?”

I handed her the box, which was large but lightweight. “No, it was nice and easy. Nothing to slow things down, and the view was lovely.” This delivery didn’t require a signature the way most of them did, so I wasn’t sure how much conversation I was in for now that my job was technically done.

“Good, good,” she said, juggling the box with a random assortment of tentacles. “Oh, is that one of those really fast vehicles? I could never! I hope they pay you enough for the risk.”

I smiled. “The pay’s just fine, and it goes at a good speed for me.”

“So bold and daring. Here! Take this for your troubles.” She set the box inside, then grabbed a little bag that looked like commercial snack food. “These are the best, and I just cannot stop eating them. You’ll do me a favor by taking a bagful.”

From inside the room, the other Strongarm yelled, “Give two.”

“Yes, quite right. Have two.” A second bag joined the first.

“Thank you,” I said, accepting them graciously. The label held a posing Strongarm that suggested I check with Eggskin’s species database before trying any. Their food was usually pretty compatible, but I wouldn’t want to be wrong.

“My pleasure! Have a lovely day, and a safe drive back!” She waved three tentacles and fairly pranced back inside before slapping the door close button. Even after it shut with a thud, I could make out her excited voice talking about the package.

I put the crunchy snack food into the now-empty storage bin, and sped off down the hill.

There was nobody out there, so I upped my speed from “reasonable” to “enjoyable,” and made it back to the park in no time flat.

“That was fast!” Paint said as she scampered over. She’d actually been lying on one of the lower tree-lumps like a fence lizard soaking up the sun, which was adorable and not something I was going to comment on.

“Yup, and I even got food as a tip.” I opened the bin and showed her a bag.

She grabbed it in delight. “These are the best! Pockap used to get them, and he’d never share!”

“Help yourself,” I said. “I got two.”

Paint made delighted noises and opened the bag to crunch a mouthful happily before folding it into the storage bin and settling into place.

I caught a whiff of seafood, like low tide during the peak of summer. Maybe I wouldn’t bother asking Eggskin if I could eat it.

“All set?” I asked.

“Yes,” Paint said decisively, getting a solid grip.

I scooted the bike gently toward the ramp. “You can have both bags. If Mur likes them too, you could bribe him to trade with you on the next delivery.”

“Ooh,” Paint said. “Thank you. I might do that. Or I might just eat them.”

“Your choice,” I said, then zoomed up onto the skyroad. I tried to go slowly, but I was pretty sure Paint closed her eyes anyway.

~~~

Did I mention the Prank War?

~~~

These are the ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book.

Shared early on Patreon! There’s even a free tier to get them on the same day as the rest of the world.

The sequel novel is in progress (and will include characters from these stories. I hadn’t thought all of them up when I wrote the first book, but they’re too much fun to leave out of the second).

[ultimateinferno]

I know the Zelda Timeline is hardly the most popular thing out there, but for me, it's always been endlessly fascinating. Everything is the same. It's all different. It's linear. It's cyclical. It branches and twists and comes back together. It disregards its predecessors. It can't let them go. It thrashes against change. It can't stay the same.

Every game is a reboot.

But they're also not.

I think the story of The Legend of Zelda is the epitome of narrative doublethink. In order to truly buy in, you must accept the simultaneous facets that none of the games matter to one another and that they all do. They're the same story. They're absolutely not.

The thing about the timeline, to me, by being both codified and nebulous, is what ties this cow tools of a narrative together. It's a puzzle without a box. It's total fucking nonsense, but so is reality. Things won't ever truly make sense, but what if they did. What if we took it from a new angle and... hmm. No. That won't work

Or maybe...

Ultimately, the Zelda Timeline is quite simply a farcical creative writing prompt. A dare. A challenge. To take these pieces not designed to fit together and give them order. Do the writers themselves care? Absolutely not. I do, though. So fuck it.