"Yeah!"

"Okay! I got a variety of things, and since it's not as hot in there I can just give you the box and explain the contents as you look at them!" He retrieves one of the boxes out of the pile, and carefully places it next to the invisible barrier that covers the door. Then he steps back, frowns at something on the doorframe, then draws some kind of symbol on it with his finger.

"All right, barrier by the door's back here-ish now," he says, patting a bit of air that encounters a silvery barrier of light a little further back than it had earlier been. "So you can just grab the box and pull it further into the room and then I can put the barrier back where it was and explain things!"

Box: grab.

It's reasonably weighty but not impossible to carry, made out of stone, and has a top that can be removed!

Quael puts the barrier back after the box has been grabbed, then sits down next to the barrier.

"Okay so, I got a variety of things to burn, because you've just been burning air and magic, and I'm not a pyromancer but I hear that air isn't actually a fuel source, so like. Your magic is doing about ninety percent of the work? Maybe ninety-five-ish? Which is great and all but maybe not just what you want to do? So. There's wood and alcohol and charcoal and a bit of some chemicals that'll burn different colors, in little pouches in there, because that seemed like it'd be fun."

...oooooooh. He's gonna play with all of those. He is also going to pay attention to what exactly is going on at each of those to see if he can replicate their effects sans fuel, especially the colours.

At first the flame from wood tastes wet, earthly and a strange sort of rich and hearty, mixed with his more familiar spiced fruit flavor. It's easier to ignite than air, and continues burning after he stops pushing, which the air certainly didn't do. After he removes his direct magical pressure and tastes the flame with magic, the fire transitions subtly from wet and earthy to something else. Soon it tastes more like smoke and wood, with barely a hint of his spiced fruit thing. It's not a bad taste, but also not as delicious as his own pure flame.

The alcohol burns stronger than the wood, and the ensuing flame tastes strangely bitter and acrid. It tingles his senses and has a pleasant sort of burn to it, mixing well with his magic's flavor to make something that reminds him faintly of a strong and exotic wine. The alcohol burns even after he lets up direct pressure, but not for very long; the fuel is swallowed up rather quickly, leaving only a faintly stinging aftertaste.

Charcoal tastes like wood, but cleaner, and less wet. It burns hotter, gives off less smoke, and yet tastes more like a very savory kind of smoke and wood. It burns slow, and like the others it continues burning after he stops pushing it. Instead of his magic's flavor disappearing, it deepens and subtly changes and becomes richer, hanging in and around the charcoal as it slowly burns.

One of the pouches of chemicals tastes a little bit like copper, and also very much not. It's strangely dry, metallic, and a little bit unnatural, and the fire it produces burns green.

The next tastes spicy and strong, and ignites easily and brightly in a brilliant crimson.

Another tastes like sea salt and bitter chemicals, with a coppery metallic flavor that is almost like the first flavor of chemicals, but distinctly not. It burns blue.

The last is subtle and quiet, easily overpowered by the taste of his magic. It's closest to tasting like salt, but greatly diluted, and mixed with an interesting and exotic unearthly taste. It burns faintly violet, but quietly.

Seriously who needs food this is so much better. He watches and tastes and feels in a daze, Quael completely forgotten as he dissects and analyses the fire, figuring out which part does what, how he can mimic various effects. The different fire intensities are also interesting, and make him also try to figure out if he can alter stuff like how hot the fire is and how much light it emits. Invisible fire and cold light would both be super awesome things to have.

This all feels like it should be within his reach. It's just a matter of figuring out how.

Hotter fire is practically trivial. Once he's seen the trick of efficiency that the alcohol burns with, it's just a matter of pushing his magic with purpose in the same sort of way. Efficient, to the point, almost utilitarian. He made it this hot when he was trying before, but he's doing it with less work and more leverage.

Invisible fire is the next easiest, a matter of picking out the taste of the color and quieting it, smothering the right sorts of flavors with efficiency of burning. It tastes like pure spring water, or perhaps like burning alcohol, or a mix of the two. Heat, and nothing else, only the faint waver of the air to give itself away.

Once he figures out fire without any light or color, adding colors becomes more obvious. He's a chef with a spice cabinet and the ability to replicate fire flavors, or perhaps a conductor for a flavor orchestra. From the pure and invisible flame, he can tease brightness out of the shy and otherworldly violet, or quiet the loud and spicy red to something a bit more subtle. From there, he can work out nuance between the colors he has, and catch the (sweet bread) flavor of the white hot flame on the edge of his own flame, and replicate them all in a gorgeous fiery rainbow.

Cold light is the trickiest of them all. Heat, heat is simple, but light without heat is trickier. It likes to tag along with heat instead of taking center stage on its own, to cower and quiet and shift to heat when put on the spot. With a bit of patience and stubbornness and finesse, he can gently, gently, tease light without heat out into the spotlight, flickering nervously and shyly. It tastes... sweet. Innocent. For some reason, it reminds him a little like a kiss.

Meanwhile, Quael reads a book.

A kiss. That's something he hadn't remembered existed before. It's half-remembered, more than anything. He feels he'd need to practise it, there's something in him that hasn't ever done it, but there's something that has. He puts his fire out and raises his gaze up to Quael again, now seeing him under a new light.

...huh.

Quael has no idea that he's being stared at, because he's happily reading his book. He is an adorable and well meaning nerd.

Yeah. Yeah he is. The memory of the kiss awakens in him the memory of things related to kisses. He remembers that gender is a thing, for one, and that some people are different undressed than he is, anatomically speaking. Quael is probably the same as him, though.

He has no objections to that fact.

His lack of objections starts becoming apparent.

Quael glances up from his book to check to make sure that his charge has definitely still not exploded, and promptly chokes.

"Oh, I am so sorry I didn't realize that, um, things to burn might, um, don't worry it happens to all of us it's perfectly normal and this is part of why clothes are such a thing, because bodies are weird and don't pay attention to, uh, not, uh, that, I'm, uh, really sorry and can-give-you-alone-time-ifyou'dlikeit?"

"—no, this wasn't the fire."

He definitely has a look. His look is directed at Quael.

Squeak.

For a few seconds Quael has no idea how to reply.

"..... I'm flattered but I really feel like you should remember more life experience and, uh, people, before, um, and also the power dynamic here is kinda," he wobbles his hand awkwardly, "since you're without clothes and trapped in a fireproof room and I'm not and I'm also currently your only, like, tie to the outside world at all and you should really have, uh, support options and recalled life experience before things and I'm pretty sure that even if I didn't lose my job over sleeping with a person I was supposed to take care of, I maybe should, and if I feel like I should then I will because guilt's the most awful emotion of them all and, and, um."

He tilts his head. "I don't remember much but I do remember sex is very enjoyable. Why would you lose your job over it? What's the power dynamic got to do with anything?"

"Aaaaaaaaa I am far too flustered to explain this I'm going to flee and write you an essay on sexual ethics and power dynamics and slide it over to you through the barrier and then maybe hyperventilate for a bit because you are way too pretty to be hitting on me okaybye!"

And then he flees.

He blinks.

Alright.

.......he still has some anatomical changes here, though. Maybe if he—oh, oh yeah okay, that's nice, he can do that for a while, that definitely feels good.

..............and then maybe he can burn the evidence so as not to leave a mess? He feels like people would not like it if there were body fluids randomly around the room.

Yep, the evidence can be so thoroughly burned. No one will know.

He doesn't much care if people know. Sexual taboos: still not remembered.

He resumes playing with fire.

Fire is so fun to play with! He can make multicolored pictures out of it!

It's not unlikely that by the time someone comes to check on him again he'll have a forest made of fire around himself, concentrating hard to keep the colours and shapes mostly right to picture a remembered meadow from Before.

"Oh, wow," breathes Quael, when he finally (shyly) returns, essay and bundle of clothes in hand. "Also, um, hi, sorry for running off I couldn't deal. Um. I brought clothes. And the essay. And finished hyperventilating. Sorry if I left you alone for too long, I hope you weren't, um, bored?"

The forest disappears when he loses concentration and blinks at Quael again. His (ahem) twitches a little bit at the sight of the cute nerd and the memory he invokes, but that's all that happens. "It was fine, don't worry about it. I am sorry I made you uncomfortable."

"It's fine, I'm sorry if I made you, um, feel awkward about yourself? You're kinda in a vulnerable position right now and I don't want that to um, bite you in a bad way, I want you to be okay." Pause. "Also do you want the clothes and essay, because I couldn't find anything else nicely flammable, I could find lots of flammable things but nothing that was, like, really obviously different than what I already got? Probably because I was flustered and not looking properly, but, um, sorry."

"It's fine, unless there is some other dimension to fire I can alter than position, heat, efficiency, light intensity, and colour I can probably deal. The essay and the clothing would be useful, yeah."