#Merrick's taller than Sparrow but he's a scrawny nerd so he absolutely also fell over lol =w=

[merrickals]

starter for @aestasetbruma​~

Plfffff - pop!  pop! ...BOOM!!!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooohhhhhhhhh! weeeeeeeeeooooooohhhhhh!

“...Oops.”

Merrick hadn’t meant to cause another explosion.  He really hadn’t.  But he must’ve miscalculated the pressure in the beaker, for there he was, knocked back to the floor by the blast and slowly being drenched by the sprinklers set off by the resulting smoke.  Hoooooo, boy.  I've REALLY done it this time, he thought, his sheepish smile slowly fading as he met the professor’s baleful gaze.  She glared at him for a moment, but must have decided that there were more pressing matters than scolding the symphoric student;  the professor merely gave a long-suffering sigh and picked up the phone to speak over the building’s loudspeaker.

“Attention students and staff.  There has been a chemical complication in Chemistry Lab 203b.  Please evacuate the building in a calm and orderly fashion while we wait for the situation to be settled.”

As they quickly filed out of the room, down the stairs, and out through the doors, students snickered, scowled, or exasperatedly rolled their eyes.  This was not the first time they’d had to evacuate that semester, nor did they expect it to be the last with Merrick “borderline (albeit accidentally so) arsonist” Reever in their class.  Merrick, for his part, was a little embarrassed, though not entirely remorseful for his actions.

“Hey, at least the explosion was pretty cool!  Did you hear that ‘BOOM’?!  Really exciting!  I bet all the people stuck in lectures appreciated it~” he jabbered to his lab partner, who had her head in his hands and was wishing she’d been stuck with literally anyone else.

“...From now on, you aren’t allowed to handle anything remotely unstable,” she growled, and stalked off to rant to a friend.

“Hey, wait!  What about volatile stuff?  If it’s just going to evaporate, I shouldn’t be able to blow that – oof!” In his distraction, Merrick hadn’t noticed the petite girl before him, and collided with her shoulder, sending both sprawling.  “Awww yikes... um, are you alright?  I’m really sorry, I didn’t see you there!” He sprang up, offering a hand to the victim of his clumsiness.