fandomhigh | Chemistry for Anarchists, Thursday, Period 4

Entry tags:

anarchist chemistry

Chemistry for Anarchists, Thursday, Period 4

Someone had a headache today, and was wishing he'd found something to teach that involved fewer loud noises.

Maybe he could teach very, very quiet explosions next term.

"Hey," he greeted the class. "This is the week we study C-4." He held up an illustrative block of the stuff. "It's a bit more complex than most of what we make, but may as well do it while we have the set-up. Neat thing about it is, a little goes a very long way." As he spoke, he broke off a wad of C-4 about the size of a gumball. "This is about all you need to blow up a car. The whole block would take down a skyscraper."

"C-4 is military; it's made of made up of explosive, plastic binder, plasticizer and, if it's commercial, marker or taggant chemicals such as 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane to help detect the explosive and identify its source. That's where making your own comes in handy -- no marker. If it's too much for you, at least have the brains to buy from a big wholesaler who doesn't track orders."

"To make it, we're combining RDX with water to get a slurry, then mixing it with a binding solution. You need to let it sit so the water evaporates -- in the shop we have a doodad that does that for you so it's finished during this session -- and then you take the powder and add a plasticizer. The most common ones are lignosulfonates."

"When you're done it will look and feel like modeling clay. It's stable unless you get it hot or light it on fire. And it is much more powerful than TNT."

He waved a hand at the lab tables. "Wear safety equipment, work in pairs, and please try not to blow anything up too loudly this week. I'll be around."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You know the drill.

Jamie Madrox

Alex Drake

Rikku

Jo Harvelle

Yamanaka Ino

Sokka

Eve Levine

Dean Winchester

Katara

Evey Hammond

Deidara

Chat, pass notes, ask questions during the lecture, etc.

C4. If there was a way to make it more temperature-stable, she'd keep some in her leg pouch. Bad idea when you came from a world that cast Fire spells at you sometimes.

Still. Writing a lot of notes.

There were many many notes being taken on Ino's part. And many ponderings about how to carry some of this stuff back home when people could easily fling an explosive note at you.

Yeah. Ino had no wish to be blown up.

Sokka took notes. LOTS of notes. And wondered where to get the ingredients from.

Eve was of the opinion that C4 was awesome. If used properly, of course.

C4 was something Deidara was familiar with, but not this kind of C4. He was in a certain mild shock as he scribbled down quick notes.

Mix it up (in pairs or alone), test it out. The back of the danger shop is a large display of Barbie Dolls, for ultimate C-4 testing.

Jamie had made his C-4... and then modeled it into a certain mutant who always wore a visor.

The explosion was quite satisfactory.

Rikku kinda wished the Barbie dolls had long, silvery-blueish hair. No reason.

Ooooh, they blew up nicely, though.

Carefully mixing up the C4, Jo looked disturbingly gleeful at the idea of blowing up Barbies.

Ino hummed as she mixed up the C4. Seriously, this was the best class ever.

And getting to blow up dolls made it just that much better. Ino laughed as they exploded.

Sokka mixed his up very, very carefully, and then rolled it out into a long, very very thin snake. Ignoring the dolls, he arranged it carefully across a large section of the floor, and then detonated it.

The craters spelled out "SOKKA WAS HERF". Yeah, he'd run out on that last letter.

Eve had way too much fun molding a teensy tiny little C4 barrette for a Barbie.

Deidara was wearing a grin of pure, unholy glee as he made C4 completely without chakra. And still got a satisfactory explosion out of it.

Best. Class. Ever.

He'll be the one gulping his water and rubbing his forehead, yes.

Rikku hesitated, not wanting to bug the teacher if he wasn't feeling well.

"Are you okay?"

Rikku. He liked Rikku, so she got a little smile. "Headache," he explained. "I might have stayed out too late last night." Or it might have been stress or the dosage on his don't-go-crazy-pills might be awry, or it might just be a fucking headache with no cause behind it.

"Anyhow, I'm fine. What's up?"

"Oh, okay," she said. "I, uh, don't want to bother you if you're not feeling okay. It was just ... what you said, last week, about anger being energy. I've been trying to use it. That's all."

Tyler looked invigorated by this. "You listened, huh?" he sked. "What have you been doing with it?"

If she was blowing shit up, he hoped at least she was doing it in a squirrel-free location.

She blushed, scuffing her toes. "Not much yet," she said, hoping he wouldn't stare at her like she was crazy for this. "Uh. It's kinda ... they're far away, and everything's scattered, so ... thus far I've just been sending out letters. To anyone and everyone, back home -- are we really gonna let them do this? And if you're as mad as I am, then let's do something about it instead of all sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves. We have power, we have numbers, let's figure out how to use it."

She shrugged. "It's ... it sounds lame like that but it's ... I had to start somewhere."

It took Tyler a moment, but a smile spread over his face. Someone was actually taking his bullshit and doing something real and helpful with it and, christ, he understood why people taught as a career.

"Not lame," he told her. "Good luck, and thanks for letting me know. Anything I could do to help?"

Rikku's eyes lit up. "Really? It's ...

Well. Writing letters wasn't as anarchy-oriented as blowing things up and taking out the system, but it was something, right?

She shrugged, laughing a little. "It feels lame, like, hey, you can't ... change the world just by asking people nicely. But we're ... organizing. I'm not gonna just sit and watch it happen. And ... I will. If there is. And ... thanks."

Tyler shrugged. "I started by pounding the crap out of people" -- okay, himself, but he was a people -- "in bar parking lots. Letters are a little more of a practical vehicle for change than that. And hey, you might even get what you ask for."

"We might," she said, smiling faintly. "It's not gonna happen overnight, I know that, and lots of people are scared right now. But it ... it feels better doing something instead of sitting and cursing and moping around. You know?"

After she pings in.

Inspiration for this class came from

thegunsmithcats's great session during MercCon. Any mistakes are mine.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Chemistry for Anarchists, Thursday, Period 4

Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

Re: Sign in [6/12]

General Class Stuff [6/12]

Re: General Class Stuff [6/12]

Re: General Class Stuff [6/12]

Re: General Class Stuff [6/12]

Re: General Class Stuff [6/12]

Re: General Class Stuff [6/12]

Make + Test C-4! [6/12]

Re: Make + Test C-4! [6/12]

Re: Make + Test C-4! [6/12]

Re: Make + Test C-4! [6/12]

Re: Make + Test C-4! [6/12]

Re: Make + Test C-4! [6/12]

Re: Make + Test C-4! [6/12]

Re: Make + Test C-4! [6/12]

Talk to Tyler [6/12]

Re: Talk to Tyler [6/12]

Re: Talk to Tyler [6/12]

Re: Talk to Tyler [6/12]

Re: Talk to Tyler [6/12]

Re: Talk to Tyler [6/12]

Re: Talk to Tyler [6/12]

Re: Talk to Tyler [6/12]

Re: Talk to Tyler [6/12]

Re: Talk to Tyler [6/12]

Talk to the TA [6/12]

OOC [6/12]