That is a weird rock! It looks like wood, if wood were dark green with golden rings, and shaped like a cartoon sun missing one of its rays. Seiji isn't normally a Weird Rock liker, but he picks this one up.

It's extremely smooth - not slippery, he can pick it up without issue - and neither cool nor warm to the touch.

Huh, it feels like if air was solid. He turns it over in his hand - it looks like a star that used to have seven points, one of which broke off - and feels for any sign of past breakage.

Nope! It's completely unblemished - no rough edges to speak of. It's also extremely flat - if Seiji expected it to bulge out in the center or taper to points near the edges, his expectation will be bucked. (The edges aren't flat, though, they're rounded.)

Huh, weird. He turns it over a couple more times, then, when this activity hits the limit of his (short) attention span, slips it into his pocket and returns to his actual task, which is checking the mail.

He gets reminded of it and takes it out of his pocket to examine a couple times before bed, but does not uncover any secrets.

The next day:

"Hey, Sylas, check out this weird rock I found yesterday."

"Huh, that is a weird rock. You sure it's a rock and not… I dunno, dyed glass?"

"I guess it feels smooth like glass, yeah, but it isn't - I dunno, clear?"

He holds it up to the sunny window to demonstrate that it does not let light through.

"Yeah, I see what you mean. And it's weirdly matte, too, I'd expect glass to be shinier… plastic, maybe?"

"Yeah, maybe. Wouldn't plastic be shiny too?"

"Well, I dunno, there's kinds of plastic. I guess what I mean is that it looks like it was made."

"Yeah. I mean, it'd be really weird if it was natural, wouldn't it? What with how straight and even the shape is."

"Yeah, and the bit right here…"

He runs a finger over the shortest edge.

"Yeah! Maybe it's part of something? I just dunno what it could be, especially 'cause it's really pretty."

"Well, was there anything else that looked like it nearby when you found it? Where did you find it, anyway?"

"Nnnnnno, I don't think so? I found it by the mailbox. I think it probably woulda looked less interesting if it was - I dunno, obviously a missing piece or whatever? But I don't remember seeing anything else that was this color, or anything like that."

"Weird!"

Sylas doesn't have any other angles at this time, so he lets the topic drop and starts complaining about something that happened in class yesterday.

Later:

He's looking at the rock again. He isn't entirely sure why, at first - he's never had a particular head for mysteries. But it bothers him. It's not just the texture, or the shape, or the way that he can't seem to leave fingerprints on it…

Maybe it's stupid of him, but - maybe the thing that bothers him is that this feels like something from a movie, or Harry Potter. An ordinary person finds something Other and opens up a new world of possibilities. Something that just doesn't happen in real life, even though he wishes it would–

The rock vanishes from out of his hands.

Maybe stuff like that does just happen in real life?????

Maybe it does!

Seiji may notice a new sense! Then again, he may not, since there isn't currently anything to sense.

There might be something, at the edges of his perception, but he might just be imagining it. He's pretty sure he wasn't just imagining the rock, though, he showed Sylas and everything. He resists the temptation to immediately text Sylas for confirmation, just in case… well, he isn't sure what might happen but what if it's bad.

Nothing happens.

Nothing happened yet. He's going to continue to be antsy for… well, not that long, he's still not winning any awards for attention span. But it'll be itchy, as a sort of background radiation thing.