fandomhigh | Chemistry for Anarchists, Thursday, Period 4

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anarchist chemistry

Chemistry for Anarchists, Thursday, Period 4

The first class met in a dead standard laboratory classroom, with Bunsen burners before each student and running water at each of the long tables. The teacher leaned against his desk, face unreadable as his eyes evaluated each student.

After the students were assembled, Tyler began to talk.

"So this is Chemistry for Anarchists, where you guys will learn 15 ways to blow up a 7-Eleven using only what's in the store. I'm not going to tell you to blow up a 7-Eleven; I'm also not here to shake my finger at you and tell you not to. This class is for your information.

"My name is Tyler Durden. Call me Tyler, call me Mr. Durden, whatever works. Looks like about five of you would know me from when I was here as a student." And here he glanced at Jamie first, then at Dean, Katara, Rikku, Sokka ~~assuming they're all there and I didn't forget anyone~~. "That's fine, it's great to be back. Just remember I'm not one this time.

"Your mission this week is making soap. It's a basic project -- rendered fat, lye, cold water and that's it. You can add scents or color if you want to. Supplies and directions are at the workstations. Lye's nothing to screw around with." He held up one hand, showed a mottled roundish scar on the back. "This is what happens if you get lye on your wet skin.

"And the reason we start with soap? Because one of the byproducts of soap-making is glycerin." He held up a container of the clear, slippery stuff. "You can mix it back in. Makes nicer soap, makes your skin soft. Or you can add nitric acid and get nitroglycerin. That is the kind of fact we love in this class.

"But before we start on the soap, we have to do that introductions thing. Name, age, why you took the class, and" -- he smiled for the first time -- "who you would fight out of anyone, living or dead. Fictional figures included."

He left unspoken his need for a TA. He figured the introductions would let him know who he wanted.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Either about the TA job, or just because.

Rikku hesitated. "Are you ... the Tyler that was a minion? One of Deadpool's, I mean."

"Yep," Tyler said, quirking an eyebrow. "Has he been passing on my legend to the youth?"

Granted, he was fairly sure Rikku would have been in his class if not for time travel weirdness. He just felt like teasing her.

Rikku grinned. "Sorry, not that I can remember. I thought I was gonna be the only one left here, Peter graduated and Setsuna took off last summer. I mean, he kinda adopted Ponytail, but it's different. Did you ever see the cagematch he drew up?"

Because seriously, that thing was awesome.

Tyler shook his head regretfully. "Sounds like maybe I should have."

"He might still have the picture," she said, mulling it over. "I'm so sad it didn't happen. There was like barbed wire and grenades and the four of us in stick figures just beating the crap out of each other. It was great."

"Who on?" Tyler had to know.

That was clearly the important question a decade later, yes.

Aly made her wy to the back of the classroom during the class to watch and see what this new Tyler was all about. For some reason, she wasn't surprised that the student she remembered was teaching explosives.

Tyler gave Aly an abbreviated wave and smile, then turned his attention back to his students. But when they all seemed occupied with the soap project, he made his way to her side. "So what do you think?"

"I'm holding out judgment," she said with a wink. "What do you think?"

"I think it could have gone a lot worse," Tyler answered honestly. "They seem like a good bunch of kids."

Aly looked over the students. "Probably not too shocking that I've taught most of them. They'll do you well. Just keep an eye on Sokka. He's not so into thinking before he acts."

"Sokka already threatened me," Tyler said, shaking his head. "I mean, it was a figure of speech thing, but even never having taught before I'm pretty sure he's not supposed to do that."

"I'll keep an eye on him when the heavy artillery comes out. On the other end, do you know Evey Hammond?"

"He threw a Molotov cocktail at me once," Aly said, amused at Tyler. "He's lucky we were in the Danger Shop. But he's learned since."

"Evey? She's in my workshop this term, but I don't know much more of her."

"She had interesting things to say during introductions." He watched the brown-haired girl work a moment more before turning his attention to Aly. "So what is your class about this time? I think I told you this then, but I did like the Revolutions one."

"It's a compliment you remember it," Aly said honestly. "You're making me wonder if it ever came in handy."

She grinned. "Well, someone took my topic from last summer," she teased. "So I'm teaching a class on fitting into the background, escaping notice, that type of thing."

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"You wanted to see me, sir?" Evey asked, trying not to look nervous.

"I did," Tyler nodded, then lowered his voice. "Look, this is kind of a beginner's class, and it sounds like you're past that level if you've already made fertilizer bombs. But I think we have things to teach each other, and I think you could be a help to me. How would you feel about being a TA?"

Evey's brows shot up. "Ooh. I...wouldn't mind that at all, sir. I was Professor Mal Doran's TA last semester, and it worked out well. And yeah, I kind of figured it was a beginning class, but my education in this area has been kind of...sketchy at best. A lot of what I do is self-taught, since V died before he could do more than show me the ropes."

"I'm all either self-taught or Internet," Tyler told her. "A couple of more formal classes, but nothing at first. Getting to the bomb level on your own shows serious skill and nerve."

"Weird coincidence that your mentor was called V," he said, frowning.

"Is it?" she wondered, her mind starting to put some pieces together, but she wasn't going to hope in that direction until he confirmed it.

"I had a teacher called that myself once," Tyler explained. "Weird guy. Wore a mask." He raised an eyebrow at Evey; he might have only been back in Fandom a week, but he knew there weren't a while lot of coincidences here. "Couldn't be the same guy, could it?"

She grinned. "A Guy Fawkes mask? That's the same V. I knew he was here, but I've never met any of his students."

"Guy Fawkes, right. I had him for criminal justice," Tyler nodded. "It's been 11 years for me -- time travel thing -- but I know we designed lairs and something about a witch hunt. It must have been an honor to work so closely with someone like that."

"It was...yeah, an honor is a way to put it," she said, thinking it was so many other things.