The Magic Box, Friday

[livingartifact]

There was a sharp *bang!* from the Magic Box sometime Friday afternoon, and a cloud of green smoke blew out through the door into the street. It smelled like coconut.

"Well," Jenkins said, holding a green-smoking beaker at arm's length and waving the smoke away from his face. "That did not do what I thought it was going to." He set the beaker down on the counter and pulled a small notebook from his inside jacket pocket. "Addition of young coconut water makes solution volatile," he muttered as he wrote. "Note to self: check shop regularly over the break for suspicious growths."

[open!]

Comments

[2_old_for_this]

Peter caught the smell and followed it, expecting to end up at his own shop.

Well, at least there was a silver lining.

He poked his head in. "Jenkins? Everything okay?"

[livingartifact]

"Perfectly fine, Mr. Octavian," Jenkins said, glancing only briefly up from his notes. "Mere testing out a recipe."

[2_old_for_this]

"A recipe for green smoke?" Peter asked. "I think you've got it."

He relented a bit. "Want some help with a light breeze, or would that interfere with anything?"

He figured it was best to ask for even simple magics around all this stuff.

[livingartifact]

"I suppose it isn't too likely to damage any of the stock," Jenkins mused. "It is rather a lovely shade of green, isn't it. Just barely not chartreuse."

[2_old_for_this]

"Very pretty," Peter said. He gestured and muttered a few words in Hellish language, and the promised light breeze sprang up, wafting the smoke out the door.

"But I'm guessing it's not actually what you were going for. Chemistry or alchemy?"

[livingartifact]

"What would you consider to be the difference?"

[2_old_for_this]

"If magic's involved," Peter said, "then I'd call it alchemy. Chemistry if it's just science."

[livingartifact]

"'Just' he says. As though science is 'just' anything." Jenkins shook his head. "There is magic involved, yes. But I'm investigating it scientifically. Applying . . . mathemagics, if you will."

[2_old_for_this]

Peter grinned. "Just science as opposed to science and magic together. Nothing bad about science." He eyed Jenkin's experiment (or its remnants) curiously. "Huh. Never thought about doing that. Though I've never been really..." He searched for a way to put it. "Academically inclined, I guess?"

[livingartifact]

"The scientific method is one of humanity's most useful innovations," Jenkins said. "I suppose you may not have noticed it, spending so much time in Hell."

[2_old_for_this]

"Demons aren't really big on science, no, but I did live through the last few centuries on Earth," Peter said. "I know science is useful, it's just never been a big interest for me."

[livingartifact]

None of this was improving your stature in Jenkins' estimation, Peter.

"A tremendous loss to the scientific community, I'm sure."

[2_old_for_this]

Sorry, Jenkins. Not every immortal was good at that stuff. And there weren't a lot of night classes prior to the nineteenth century.

"The world may never know." Peter nodded at the beaker. "What are you trying to figure out?"

Hey, he hadn't said he wasn't curious.

[livingartifact]

"I was attempting to improve the flavor of a werewolf antidote I developed a few years ago. I'm told the original taste is . . . unpleasant."

[2_old_for_this]

"And I don't suppose just adding it to beer or wine or something would work?" Peter asked.

[livingartifact]

"Only if the patient is looking forward to suffering an acute case of hirsutism every time the moon is full."

[2_old_for_this]

"Wrecks the whole thing?" Peter guessed. "So you need to find something that'll make it taste better without breaking it down. And you tried...something coconut?"

[livingartifact]

"Your wit never ceases to amaze," Jenkins said, dry as a bone. "You must have been a delight in Hell."

[2_old_for_this]

"I was fighting for my life in Hell," Peter answered flatly. "And I wasn't joking, I was guessing. I've never actually eaten coconut."

[livingartifact]

"I suppose you've never smelled one before, either. Why on earth did you suggest it?"

[2_old_for_this]

"I have smelled them," Peter said. "Not too often, but a few times. Enough I thought that's what it was, but I wasn't sure."

He'd had a few minutes to wrack his brain over it.

[livingartifact]

"And yet you maintain that asking me if I'd attempted to use it was not meant to be a joke," Jenkins observed. "Suffice to say, coconut is not the ingredient of choice."

[2_old_for_this]

Because he hadn't been sure, Jenkins; keep up. It wasn't worth arguing, though, even if Jenkins seemed to want to.

"I guess not. Have you tried mint yet? That seems to be in everything people want to cover the taste of," Peter noted. "I've got some plants that seem to take over everything, if you need some."