And it's the stars, the stars that lie to you.

[neverheardofhim]

[This week, Varric opted to take a page from Vanille’s book. Gathering everyone together after the roller-coaster that the first trial had been proved to be somewhat cathartic for himself. He hoped that it would prove to do the same for the others.]

[He wasn’t alone, of course, having found himself blessed with the most ragtag team of chefs and party-planners. He might have had words for and thoughts on Elda and Kimbley, Mikazuki was welcome company, and he wasn’t about to turn away potential allies, even in a fight as simple as cooking dinner.]

[Once everyone’s set to a task, baking a cake, brewing tea, or stirring stew (the only task Varric could think to assign Elda to), Varric excused himself to his room. His first task was writing up cards, each personally titled and signed by Varric.]

Food in the Library. 5 p.m. Don’t spend the night alone.

[Each note was slid under a door and accompanied by a single rap on the wood.]

[With his tasks completed, Varric returned to the kitchen to put out any potential fires and, with luck, set the food out. A table in the library would be adorned with plenty of tea, cake, pancakes courtesy of Viktor, and stew thanks mostly to Varric (sorry, Elda).]

Comments

[alchemicals]

Go right ahead, it's not like I'm one to mind odd and irrelevant.

[...says the guy who decided to announce to the room at large that he's totally down with Elda biting him.]

[avoidcomplications]

[kimbley please]

...What is that on your hands?

[alchemicals]

They're my arrays.

[This is a normal thing to have on one's hands.]

They're how I do my alchemy; they're designed to help me create those fireworks I was telling you about.

[He brings his hands together with a sharp snap.]

Complete the arrays like that, touch whatever I want, cause a reaction. I can do some things one-handed, too, but they aren't as impressive.

[avoidcomplications]

...Alchemy. Really.

[As skeptical as that sounded, he was definitely watching Kimbley's hands carefully.]

And here I thought that you only meant you had a fondness for grenades.

[alchemicals]

Well, yeah, who doesn't?

[...Kimbley.]

But I was a State Alchemist for a while. Hired by the military and everything. My own alchemy is based around chemistry, they found that pretty useful, apparently.

[avoidcomplications]

[i mean, not wrong]

The more I learn about everyone here, the stranger they become.

[says the guy with an apparent interest in those arrays]

But that does sound like useful knowledge, for a world where alchemy both exists and has military application.

[alchemicals]

If I didn't know any better, I'd say you sound like you doubt such a world exists.

It doesn't matter to me whether you believe me or not, but that's more or less the truth of the matter either way.

[avoidcomplications]

At this point, I don't doubt it in the slightest. It's just not a concept I'm familiar with as more than fiction in my own.

Do most people have similar markings like yours?

[asking for science]

[alchemicals]

Most people put their arrays on something else - gloves or gauntlets or something - though I knew a guy back in the military who had way more extensive markings than I did, his covered most of his hands as opposed to just the palms.

[THERE'S PREPARED, AND THEN THERE'S MAJOR COMANCHE]

Most people consider actually getting your arrays placed on your body in ways that they can't be taken off to be a little extreme, though.

[avoidcomplications]

Is that so? I'm surprised it isn't more common, sounding like such a simple approach. After all, you almost made it sound like you could make anything you touch simply explode on the spot.

[BUT THAT WOULD BE RIDICULOUS, RIGHT. RIGHT?]

[alchemicals]

If I only "almost" made it sound that way, I've misrepresented something.

[avoidcomplications]

...

[It was probably a very good thing Kira wasn't drinking anything at the moment. Because he would have choked on it, judging by how he turned the color of liquid paper in a matter of seconds.]

...You're joking.

[alchemicals]

I'm not.

[And from the sound of it, he really, really isn't.]

Of course, that isn't the only thing I can do, because that bores me after a while - I can also set timed chemical reactions that will go off several minutes after I start them, and I can centralize them as well; why take out the whole thing when I can do individual parts? It makes it last longer for everyone, and it's decidedly more fun for me.

I'm the only one in the country with the knowledge and the power to do all that; it's my particular field of study, unique to me only. The military liked me, for a while.

[avoidcomplications]

...

[THIS IS FINE. EVERYTHING IS FINE. OH MY GOD IS IT FINE.]

That...is quite a unique talent.

[alchemicals]

At least you believe me on it. I've been called a fraud before.

[GUESS HOW WELL THAT ENDED.]

[avoidcomplications]

[he can imagine this far more vividly than you think, kimbley]

How unfortunate for them. Given everything else, that seems entirely possible. Not to mention it explains the title.

[alchemicals]

...I really like creating nitroglycerin, let's put it that way.

[he actually told chiyuki how he does it last week, he just gave her the less-horrifying version]

[avoidcomplications]

Is that right? I can scarcely imagine.

[you know, like a liar.]

I'm afraid I had less than perfect grades in high school science--what makes up nitroglycerin?

[alchemicals]

Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen - three-five-three-nine. Respectively.

[C₃H₅N₃O₉, in other words. On the one hand, who the fuck notates it like that; on the other, he's entirely correct.]

[avoidcomplications]

Fascinating.

[Which wasn't sarcasm; apart from the occasional glance back to those arrays, Kira seemed to take an honest interest in what Kimbley was saying.]

And you can just do that to anything?

[alchemicals]

I have a few things I like doing it to, moreso than others.

[He pauses for a moment before continuing; you know what, Kira hasn't responded badly to anything he's said so far, so...]

Water and iron is ideal for getting the sort of explosions I want out of it. It leaves an excess of hydrogen in the container, so it builds up pressure instead of just sitting there. It's pretty volatile, just requires being kicked into something.

[...If you get his drift.]

[avoidcomplications]

[...yep this is officially the most interested kira has looked in anything since they got here]

I take it you've been doing this for quite some time, to have that kind of experience.

[alchemicals]

When I was seventeen I was a prodigy in my field, with more chemical knowledge at my disposal than I actually knew what to do with and orders that ensured I was sent to the front lines of a civil war where nobody cared about the number of casualties.

[let's put it that way.]

[avoidcomplications]

[hot]

No wonder you were liked by the military. I'm sure a one-man army would be more than useful.

[alchemicals]

They liked me until they really suddenly didn't. But it's not like it's my fault they're picky about things.