strangetrip | Water Explosion Experiments (OTA)

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Water Explosion Experiments (OTA)

Out on a patch a grass, far enough away from the Inn to be safe, but close enough so she wouldn't get any surprises - hopefully - from wildlife that might like her for a snack, Liz had set up an experiment. There were several large containers, some glass, other plastic, all with water inside of them and spaced out from one another. She had a big bag of salt and a small portable stove that she had, with the help of Alec and his strength, enclosed to create more of an oven. She wore gloves, had an apron on, and she had safety goggles on too. She sat near the oven waiting for the salt to melt - the temperature it needed to get to was high.

After some time, she took a long pair of tongs and pulled out a red hot cup. Carefully she walked over to the first basin of water and poured the liquid salt into it. The water exploded and she jumped back a little, then she laughed.

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She nodded and put the goggles back on, then carefully took the liquid salt - she didn't want it to start cooling off otherwise the effect would be much less impressive. She wondered just how hot Jag had been able to get it compared to the oven - she suspected the answer might be 'a lot'.

Liz moved to one of the still-full tanks and from the farthest possible spot, she poured the salt into the water. It erupted like the other one, bursting the glass and shooting upwards as well. The blast was bigger this time, confirming Liz's suspicions that Jag had been able to heat the material to a higher degree.

A wide smile spread across her face and there was laughter in her eyes.

Jag's laughter wasn't just in his eyes, but echoing in the wake of what, apparently, didn't qualify as an explosion. It had still made him take a startled step back, even though he'd been expecting it. But once it turned out no harm had been done (well, the tank would disagree), laughter it was. "That was brilliant!"

His laughter brought a big smile on Liz's face. When she could show people how fun science could be, she really enjoyed herself. Maria was one of those people, especially, because she often sighed or rolled her eyes, professing it was boring.

"My science teacher back home did a sort of smaller version and since the ingredients for it are easy to find here, I wanted to see how it would work on a bigger scale." And she was glad she had.

"Reckon we could make a geyser out of the pool," Jag said, still smiling brighter than anyone had probably seen on him recently (save for Coby).

His smile was a little contagious. It was nice to see, too, since she often still felt awkward around Jag from what had happened many months ago. Still, she was glad he liked the experiement.

"Do you think we'd get in trouble?" She paused. "I mean... the pool would probably repair itself, right?" Or maybe it wouldn't be destroyed at all - the ratio could work for it to be an geyser without damage to the pool itself.

"Everything does," Jag confirmed. He wasn't too worried about getting into trouble; as long as they kept people a safe distance away, it would all be fine. "I don't mind risking it if you don't."

Liz didn't normally agree to wanton destruction, but the need to let off steam was relatively high. She nodded. "Alright, sure." She smiled. I can probably calculate the right about of salt to make it go high. We'd probably need to throw the liquid salt into the pool somehow." She didn't think her arm thing would be long enough.

Jag frowned. "Oh. Yeah. Maybe ask someone with telekinesis?" He wondered whether Lilith would help.

"Maybe." Her might was already trying to think of solutions. "Oh! Maybe we could put a string on either end of a container. Could you heat something up from far away? We could set it up so that when it's hot enough, we just pull the string and the liquid would fall into the pool."

"Better find some tough metal cable, given the heat I'm bringing," Jag pointed out. A string would just catch fire and snap in no time. Distance was no issue, though.

She thought about it for another moment. "How about copper? I saw some in one of the maintenance sheds probably meant to fix wiring. The melting point for Copper is 1983 degrees Fahrenheit so it would definitely stay solid long enough for the salt to melt."

"You're the brains here," Jag agreed with a nod. He was just here to supply heat.

And enjoy the geyser.

Liz told Jag she'd meet him by the pool with the bag of salt. She headed for the inn and in fifteen minutes re-emerged with metal wires and some other material. She set to work backing a contraption where salt could hang in the middle and if you pulled the wire, it would release the liquid into the middle of the pool. The container for the melted salt was larger too, so that they could get more 'bang for their buck'.

Once everything was set up, she stood back and looked at Jag. "Ready?" She held out the wire. "When I say go, you can pull too, if you like."

Jag watched her work, and helped out where he could, with a pang of longing for Ernesto and his magic tricks. Not that this was anything as discreet as his tricks had to be, but it was still ingenious.

"I'm all right," he assured her at her offer, not really needing any extra role in this. She could pull on the wire. He was happy handling the fire side of things.

He moved his hands in a wide circle in front of him (always the performer), and sent a long lick of flame to curl up under the container and become a hot plate hanging in mid-air, and licking up the sides of the container.

Liz watched with silent amazement as Jag produced flame and then heated up the salt. Since Liz couldn't see the material or use a thermometer to make sure it was hot enough, she had to go off time. When she was pretty sure that the salt was melted and hot enough for it to be worthwhile, she pulled on the chord. The liquid dropped into the pool and there was a sudden, violent spurt of water that rose from the water which caused a lot of water to splash onto the sides of the pool as well. Some of the mist sprayed in the direction of Jag and Liz. Once it was done, Liz began laughing.

Jag instinctively took a step back, looking up to see how high the water reached. He was already laughing by the time the water splashed back down, raising an instinctive hand to (ineffectively) ward off the splashes that came their way. He wiped his hand over his now wet face, grinning. "That was a success."

She nodded in agreement. "Thank you." Her eyes eventually moved away from the pool to Jag. "I'd have never thought to make such a big version of this experiment, and I'm glad I did!"

"Everything is better with the odd geyser," Jag replied with a smirk. He looked back towards the pool. "So we've got salt water for the day, haven't we? Reckon it's safe to swim in?" He didn't know anything about all those chemical reactions, and he'd trust her word for it, but yeah. Now he was wet, he might as well get into the pool, was his thinking.

Liz's smile widened. "Yeah, it's totally fine now. You're exactly right. The water will have absorbed the salt. It's completely harmless now." Which was one reason science was so cool, clearly.

"Well I don't know about you, but I fancy a swim," he answered with a smile, as he toed off his shoes.

"I think I'll let you have that fun. I should probably go clean up all my mess back out before it gets to late." She gestured to where they came from.

"Your loss," Jag answered, pulling off his socks.

This was probably true, but Liz was one of those 'party poopers' who thought about responsibility before fun most of the time. Still, she continued to smile. "Enjoy your swim"

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Water Explosion Experiments (OTA)

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