Applied Science, 12/14, Period 1

[tyler_gone]

There was a platter of Christmas cookies with coffee, hot chocolate, and milk on the side on a table at the back of the lab. The lab tables were covered with less savory supplies.

"Welcome to your final," Tyler said. "I am sure those of you who have taken a class with me before will be astounded to hear that our last lab is making soap. Technically" -- he grinned -- "we are creating the alkali salt of a fatty acid." He went through a thumbnail lecture on the science of that. "If you've done it before, try to do it better, or add scents or herbs this time."

"Before you start on the soap process, please write 150 words or so on what you learned from this class. Thanks. You guys were a good group."

Comments

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"We went bungee-jumping!" That was a big yes. "Once I explained about all the different kinds of crazy here, and he got over being weirded out about it, we were good. It really has been a quiet semester, hasn't it? Aside from last weekend, I mean. And the vegetable attack."

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

"Dinah!" Priestly hissed. "You're just asking for an attack of evil Santas or something!"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah's eyes got wide, and she bit her lip, looking woeful. "I didn't mean it!" she hissed to the Island at large. "Really! It's been crazy enough especially since you made up for it last week! You're plenty crazy!" She waited hopefully, then checked with Priestly. "Think it's good now?"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

"As good as it could be?" He shrugged. "Hey, do your sisters have to go crime fighting on Christmas Eve, or do the bad guys usually take the night off?" Slightly random, yes, but he'd been thinking about it.

Mostly about Helena in her lovely tight black clothing and a Santa hat leaping from building to building. Priestly's imagination could be a slightly terrifying place.

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Well, there was one year there was a ring of Santa-burglars robbing stores, and that went up to Christmas Eve," Dinah said thoughtfully, stirring her goop. "Helena ended up catching up to them and hanging them from fire escapes. Ho ho ho." She grinned. "So yeah, sometimes. If it snows though, forget it. Minus twenty windchill in Gotham, and the crooks stay indoors." She gave him a curious look, knowing his take on Helena a little too well. "Whyyyy?"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

Priestly shuddered a little at the "minus twenty windchill" and wondered for the billionth time why someone would want to live somewhere where such a thing might be a regular occurrence. He shrugged. "I dunno, just, you know, wondering. It can't be very Christmas-cheery if you're chasing down bad guys."

Oo, maybe in reindeer antlers. That'd be cute.

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Uh-hunh." Not totally buying it, she said, "Alfred usually makes really good cocoa and dim sum for afterward, if there's a case over the holidays. And there's a New Year's ball for the police that we went to last year, that was fun. Uncle Jim got another award." Said with total pride. "One year there was a breakout at Arkham, but I think that was after Christmas itself. And not hard to track down, when someone was encasing all the ice rinks in glaciers." The Penguin was so weird.

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

Priestly blinked at that. The only Christmas excitement they got in Santa Cruz was the year one of the art students decided to do sand paintings on the beach with food coloring. "Your world is kind of weird."

Priestly's mental!Helena was now on skis.

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Well, yeah," Dinah admitted. "At least New Gotham. The rest of the country is-- mostly normal?" Okay, exaggeration. "Metropolis and Star City and a few others have their own weird sometimes too, but Gotham has a rep for the crazy super people." She spread her arms in pride. "Go hometown, woooooo."

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

"I guess without crazy super villains, you wouldn't need any crazy super heroes. And then how would you and your sisters get your adrenalin fixes?"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"More BASE jumping? Car racing?... nahhh, cliches." Dinah grinned wickedly. "We'd have to invent something even more crazy to make up for it." She might be working for the day ther was no crime in New Gotham, but wow, would she be bored if it ever happened. "How about you? Heading home to the land of no-snow and no-crazy?"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

"That's the plan. Mom even admitted that I probably wouldn't come to horrible harm if I helped out Trucker at the sub shop while I was home." Man, his life sounded so dull in comparison. "So, uh. Are the super powers, like, required for fighting evil where you're from? I mean, if the bad guys can set up glaciers, you've gotta have a little mojo yourself, right?"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah tilted her head. "Not really. I mean, there's some who don't have them, and just design weapons or do really good martial arts to make up for no superpowers. Barbara never had any, while she was on the streets. Just awesome fighting skills and a utility belt and body armor. She can still beat me at eskrima from her chair. It's so annoying." And awesome. "Another guy did the freezing thing a few years back with some kind of ray gun that blew out the city grid. A lot of the bad guys are just really smart, too, no powers. Like Scarecrow. Yeeeeee."

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

Priestly had the mental image of a cheerful, country-crafty, straw-stuffed scarecrow. He was pretty sure that wasn't right. ". . . What's eskrima?"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Filipino fighting sticks. I think I showed you once, the long ones? Barbara always carries a couple in her wheelchair, in case someone tries to mug someone else on the street. They never expect the handicapped chick sneak up and kneecap them." She grinned. "She's a really good shot, too, but less chance of permanent damage with the sticks. She does all the tech stuff so Helena can find things and people easily, but she's still no slouch in the fighting department."

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

"Dude. That's . . . totally hardcore." And non-lethal, which Priestly definitely approved of. "So are the gimmicks required? The whole 'scarecrow' or 'huntress' deal with the spooky names and stuff?"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah couldn't help giggling. "You know, I think it just got started as a way to hold off the police? And scare people? And now, at least in New Gotham, it's like this whole... culture. If you're not with organized crime, and you want to intimidate people, you get this secret identity. And if you're not a cop and you want to fight scary bad guys, you get one too." She made a face. "At least once you're not the junior-sidekick type."

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

"You don't have a super-secret gimmick, yet? Can I help you make one?"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Nope, not yet. And sure!" Dinah brightened, then looked thoughtful. "I don't want to be Tweety forever, sheesh."

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

Priestly didn't really listen to the radio. He made a face? ". . . Tweety?"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Miss Mode stuck me with the name last summer in Superhero Costumes, and Arthur and Katchoo won't let it die. Emma calls me that all the time too." Dinah huffed strand of hair out of her face, carefully pouring more ingredients into her soap mix. "Tony thinks it's cute, but he's not stuck with it."

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

"That's a terrible superhero name. It wouldn't strike fear into anyone except maybe a black cat villain named Sylvester."

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I know!" At least Priestly got it. And at least Tweety always won. "I was thinking of using Mom's, Black Canary, but... I dunno. She had that one because of her superpower. It wouldn't make as much sense for me."

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[lovemykilt]

Priestly tried to come up with a superpower that would make being named after a small song bird make sense. He failed.

"What was her power?"

Re: Make Soap [12/14]

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Sonic scream." Dinah smiled a little wistfully. Which was weird, given the subject matter. "She could knock out bad guys at about a hundred paces with it. Or destroy buildings. Melt concrete. She was a martial artist first, a really, really good one, but if she was facing off with another meta, she could pull that out to use."