fandomhigh | 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."

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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?"

Chemistry for Anarchists, Thursday, Period 4

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