fandomhigh | How to Blow Things Up: Period 2; Week 5

The class met back in the Danger Shop today per the ~~handwavy~~ note Aly sent out to her class.

She was waiting impatiently as they filed in. When everyone was present, she punched up a sequence so that two tall buildings stood at the far end of the Danger Shop. Another quickly keyed in sequence and a countdown could be heard through a speaker. 6-5-4-3-2-1... And the buildings imploded, one after another in a perfectly timed maneuver.

Once the dust had settled, Aly turned back to the class. "So that was a building implosion. It's a very cool use of tnt especially in highly populated areas where you want to bring a structure down in its original footprint to keep other buildings - or people - from getting hurt." She grinned. "And my knowledge of how to do it ends right about there. I'm much more on the quick and dirty end of explosives. However, I have a bunch of papers up here about it. If anyone wants to give it a try and design an implosion to try next class, I'll give extra credit."

She picked up a plasticy white block off the desk and held it up for the students to see. "This? Is C-4. It's a high explosive designed for military use. It's a very powerful plastic explosive, but it's also remarkably stable."

She set the block of C-4 on the floor and, striking a match, set it on fire. The block simply started burning slowly.

"It needs a detonator or blasting cap to actually explode. Fire's not enough. Even if you shot a brick of C-4 with a shotgun, it wouldn't be enough of a shock to set it off. You can also mold it into whatever shape you need to direct the explosion or press the explosive into cracks in a wall or voids in a bridge or machinery."

Aly grinned and gestured to the rows of detonator caps and bricks of C4. "Luckily we have both C-4 and detonators and a ~~moddable~~ environment that you can experiment with directing charges and the amount needed to blow up trucks, bridges, walls, etc. Let me say that less is not considered more when you try to blow something up. A halfway collapsed bridge does no one any good."

"Second we have some dynamite to try out. Dynamite is a lot less stable than C-4 and in recent years, it's been phased out especially on the battlefield as more accurate and less dangerous explosives have been created. One note, dynamite is not the same as TNT nor is it made up of TNT. Two totally different explosives - dynamite's sawdust or some other absorbent material soaked in nitroglycerin while TNT is a specific chemical compound - Trinitrotoluene."

"So for today, I want you to discuss tactics for uses both these types of explosives - why C-4's become so popular over the past twenty or so years on this world and what characteristics you would look for in a high grade explosive. Then try both out, try to bring down a bridge or a building using both explosives and see which you like best."

"Finally, next week we're going to look at explosives that aren't quite so...chemical. Magical or explosives from other worlds so if you are familiar with other types of explosives or a magical or other talent that you've been not using per my request, let me know. Next week's when we get to look at those and show them off. Oh! And Rikku, if I could see you after class."

[OOC: Errr...apologies for the tl;dr. Let me or Aly know if you have other explodey goodies for next week and ~~please wait for the~~ OCD is up!]

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Ronan considered the explosives in question, and looked for someone with whom he could discuss them.

"Hey," Gavin said, wandering over. "Need a partner?"

"Hi! Sure, that would be good." Ronan is now less manic than he was this morning. Mind, that's not exactly difficult. "You have any experience with these? I'm kind of interested in the C-4."

"Not really," Gavin admitted. "Not from this planet."

"Oh, really? That's cool," Ronan said. He'd been to other planets, that was nothing new for him. "I am from here -- a version of here -- but I've never used chemical explosives outside of this class, so it's all new to me." He grinned. "Okay, so. Thoughts? The C-4 definitely seems more versatile. And stable is good."

"Stability is what I liked," Gavin agreed. "Nothing says fun like having an explosive not blow up in your face. It might not be good for spontaneous situations where you need something like dynamite but I prefer the C-4."

Ronan nodded. "If you need something spontaneous, you're not planning properly. C-4 is definitely the way to go." And, hey, if he needed to, he could always just tell it to blow up. Yay, wizardry. "... Now I really, really want to try this stuff."

"I'm not usually in situations where I suddenly need explosives anyway," Gavin agreed. "Most of the time, any use of bombs and detonation devices are planned out beforehand."

"Which is exactly how it should be," Ronan said. "These aren't something to mess around with."

"Agreed." Gavin nodded. "Is there any situation you would use the dynamite instead of the C-4?"

Ronan considered this. "Personally? Not really. If I needed to, I could recreate a similar effect with a more stable explosive like C-4, through the use of wizardry."

"Wizardry?" Gavin asked. "Magic?"

Ronan shook his head. "Not exactly? Well, we don't call it magic. Other people might, though. It's not quite the same thing, anyway, from what I understand. Where I come from, though, it's not about waving a magic wand and getting what you want, it's... kinda hard to explain really quickly."

"No problem," Gavin said, nodding. "We've got that sort of thing where I'm from. People don't wave sticks around...well, they do sometimes but those are weapons."

"... okay, yeah, we get kind of the same thing," Ronan said. "There are wands we use, but it's not like what you see in the movies. They're tools, and sometimes store power for us, but they're not... magic." He grinned. "Do you want to go try some of the C-4?"

"Yes," Gavin said, nodding. "Yes, I would."

Ronan grinned. "Then shall we?"

How to Blow Things Up: Period 2; Week 5

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