[i]Alex, is that mixture there supposed to be smoking?[/i] Kasai's voice was familiar in Alex's mind by this point, a fact that Alex would never have believed when he first made his contract with the daemon. The Kitsune's voice had originally seemed so strange, an alien presence in his thoughts that seemed to resonate with tones that Alex had no words for, but after a few years of almost constant communication between them, the voice was practically a part of his own mind.

"Is what supposed to be smoking?" Alex responded, absentmindedly turning a page of the book he was rereading, a very worn copy of Plato's work "The Last Days if Socrates". He was focusing mainly on the story of the cave, as he had been enthralled by the concept of the existence of truly perfect forms. It was a subject that he, Kas, and Acentia had been debating for the past month while staying mostly hidden away in his dorm room, which was littered with books of all kinds, save for a small corner which was kept completely clear and tidy, where he kept a tea pot, a chemistry set... which he had liberally borrowed from the chem lab, as well as carefully ordered jars, pots, baggies, and containers with dried leaves and beans of all kinds. On the windowsill grew an assortment of tealeaves and some spices and herbs, though most he had to scrounge around for, seeing as the climate of Aluani academy only allowed for certain plants.

The only time he hadn't been reading Plato or the subsequent philosophical texts, which had at one point lead to an interesting discussion about the philosophy of mind, a separate theory in it's own right, not belonging to Plato, but interesting when looked at through the lens of Plato's theory of forms, especially in relation to the concept of the web of knowledge model that had formed in recent years, was to get food, start making candies, or drinks, using his stockpile of beans, tea leaves, spices, and sugars.
He had been working on making a new blend of coffee and tea, what he like to call cofftea, made from arabica beans, ground with oolong tea leaves, with a touch of mint leaves. He had just started them on a low simmer over a Bunsen burner from the aforementioned liberated chemistry set, when he had sat down for a moment to read while the mix heated. He looked up from the book, and was confident to see that it was only twelve thirty, he had only been sitting for ten minuets. 

Alex then looked to the ruined blend of grounds and tealeaves, now not much more than smoking charred matter, they had somehow been completely destroyed in less then ten minuets! Alex rushed to turn off the burner and grabbed a hot pad, quickly smothering the smoldering concoction then sitting back on his haunches staring dejectedly at the mess trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

He turned and noticed that there was still light in the room, even though Alex had started reading in the low light from the burner, sunlight was streaming in through the window. "But I started working at midnight." He spoke slowly, realizing that it must be half passed noon, not half passed midnight as he had first believed. "Well that happened." He said laughing shaking his head.

[i]You should take that to the dumpster, and possibly investigate why the fire alarm didn't go off earlier.[/i] Kas sounded amused. He had probably noticed the tea and coffee smoldering hours ago, but had decided to see how long it would take Alex to come out of lala land in order to notice for himself.

"That might be a good plan." Alex said, digging around for a plastic bag in one of his drawers, he found one and scooped the no longer smoldering remains of what had been a promising blend. He tied the bags shut tightly and headed out the door, trying to not look overly suspicious with his bag he headed down the corridor and out into the main entrance way, heading towards the kitchens, where he could hopefully ditch the bag into the dumpster without anyone asking him too many questions about how he had managed to burn the contents in his room.