our real estate is a great investment

[cross_and_bow]

"Welcome to Sunshine," says Juliet. "And to my front porch and whatever you do don't hit the light, it'll set Sherlock on fire."

Comments

[cross_and_bow]

It really really does.

[she_sells_seashells]

...

The next day, when the gang's all hanging out at the brick building and Juliet has gone on another quick masked demon-busting excursion in L.A. to show off that "she can teleport", Shell Bell says:

"The critters you fight are nasty. I think... I had better leave you my fire wand, Juliet. And teach you to use it."

[cross_and_bow]

"How long did it take you?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"About a year, but I could only practice at odd hours - I was holding down a job and sometimes showing up to school and poaching on the side and while there was plenty of beach there wasn't plenty of deserted beach. I can just teleport us all to the nearest - nighttime - beach with nobody around to watch you play with fire for hours," says Shell Bell, "and I'll help, too, I got instructions ahead of time but no in-the-moment teaching. And before you ask: no, it won't break, it can't, and you have to know something about how it works to use it at all so even a random demon who suspects it's a fire wand and gets it away from you won't be able to make even an uncontrolled fire with it unless it knows how to concentrate on it."

[eversomuchfun]

"Exciting," says Sherlock.

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell winks at him. "Very," she murmurs. "I'm going to duplicate the power the next time I have my hands on a hex."

[cross_and_bow]

This doesn't go unnoticed. "Oh, is that why he's coming along," Juliet snorts. "I don't know if it'll be so much fun when I'm fumbling around with the fire and periodically stop-drop-rolling in the surf, but whatever floats your boat."

[eversomuchfun]

"Failure is cute. Success is sexy. Either way, I am pleased to be a spectator."

[she_sells_seashells]

"My Sherlock was nearly only interested in people who could beat her up, and then she watched me burn down a train station," says Shell Bell merrily. "The Memorial Dome a bit later didn't hurt either."

[cross_and_bow]

"I think I've cleared that barrier already, but sure, spectate away," snorts Juliet.

[eversomuchfun]

He laughs.

[she_sells_seashells]

Before even finding them a beach, Shell Bell gives Juliet a rundown on how to control the wand:

"You're in control of a bunch of things. Shape, location, temperature, how fast it consumes available fuel - it doesn't need fuel at all, you could have a floating fireball in a sealed chamber and it wouldn't take your oxygen if you didn't want it to let alone die for lack of stuff to oxidize, but it'll take anything you do want to feed it. If you lose attention on any of those things, the fire will be out of control on all counts and go on according to the laws of physics. You can get it back as long as it's contiguous. But you can't control more than one piece of fire at a time, so until you really have the hang of it and never lose your fire before you're ready, don't let it spread too far where it'll burn out intermediate patches."

[cross_and_bow]

"If it doesn't need fuel, can it burn in places where you wouldn't expect it to be able to?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yeah. I used to practice cooking minnows from the inside - I couldn't do anything out where the bigger fish swim, but you can put fire inside of a demon if you want, it'd look funny on an autopsy but it'll add to your aura of mysterious power."

[eversomuchfun]

Sherlock giggles.

[cross_and_bow]

"Kickass," says Juliet. "I always wanted an aura of mysterious power. What else do I have to know?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"You probably want to learn the usual temperatures of fires that burn on various substances. You don't have to know it in degrees or anything, which is good because this comes from a world that doesn't use degrees I recognize and I sure don't know if they match yours, but if you've been near something burning it'll be easier to refer to it."

[cross_and_bow]

"I've been around wood fires, but not, like, thermite," says Juliet.

[eversomuchfun]

"If you want to have a thorough knowledge of the behaviour of all kinds of accelerants and explosives, talk to Tony," suggests Sherlock. "When he is less busy."

[she_sells_seashells]

"It won't be necessary to start with anyway, holding the temperature constant at wood-fire levels will be good for initial practice," Shell Bell says.

[cross_and_bow]

"Okay," says Juliet. "Should we just start now, then? Find a beach in this time zone for me to throw fire at?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"I think so," says Shell Bell, and she teleports all three of them to the largest unobserved beach on the west coast of the United States.

[eversomuchfun]

Sherlock claps his hands.

[cross_and_bow]

Juliet accepts the wand from Shell Bell, and... composes... a fire in her head. She would like it to be over there - yea big - woodfire hot - not consuming fuel.

It takes her a minute, but eventually she holds all these parameters in her head in the right sort of stack, and it appears, and she grins.

[eversomuchfun]

"Ooh. Pretty."