Ask Dromund Kaas Chemical Kaas-cade

[Soleil Altan]

Chemistry class was one that Soleil usually enjoyed well enough. The professor for it usually spoke in a kind of vaguely sinister monotone that implied to the Wrean's imagination a prior career as a saboteur, but they did plenty of actual lab work. He memorized formulas and things well but was still challenged by practical usage and application. Plus he had a window seat and lab partners could talk as much as they want without getting interrupted so long as they didn't blow anything up. Win-win overall.

Class was going to start soon and Sol was copying the board notes down along with time and date. He'd just finished and was doodling a shark on his paper when the professor spoke up from the front. He looked up and immediately noticed an unfamiliar face. Well, not unfamiliar as in like he'd never seen it before. Just not in this class or, in fact, on Drommund Kaas. Sol blinked at least a half-dozen times, as if to make sure he wasn't hallucinating and straightened a little in his chair.

"This is Ailis Drast. She's recently transferred to the Drommund Kaas academy from Taris," the professor announced in dead-even tones. That was awesome, good for her on getting out of Taris' entry program! Then Sol recalled in vivid detail the last time they'd met, cringing internally.

Last he'd seen Ailis he'd been watching to make sure she didn't fall off a skyscraper's scaffolding right after she'd yelled at him, followed by him skimboarding away. He was pretty sure he'd made things uncomfortable by not taking the situation seriously enough, put shortly. Not to mention a poor choice of words he'd only noticed was kinda horrible mid-rant. He'd felt really bad about it. Point was that he figured he'd fucked up and, even if he hadn't been planning anything weird, he should apologize for being enough of a jackass for her to think he had.

Somehow without also making it worse by ambushing her at a totally different school from his own. Sol was luckily not that dense. The problem was how to handle the talking part. Well, at least he'd have the entire class period to think of something now that they share a class!

Not. It was lab time fifteen minutes into class. Given Sol's note-taking, his low incidences of problem-causing, and Ailis' file including sign language, guess where she got assigned to on her first day? Next to Soleil, who was not prepared. Silently he pondered sinkholes and wistfully wondered if one would be so kind as to open up beneath his chair. None of which showed on his face, expression approaching true tranquility despite being hyperaware of their proximity this time around.

It cracked with sheepishness as Sol signed a halting <Hello>, keeping his chair an arm's length away from hers. Being shoved together in chem class was not his ideal solution.

@Arcangel

 

[Ailis Drast]

Ailis hadn't been at the Dromund Kaas academy for long until she was issued her class schedule and she was elated to see chemistry on her class list. At least until she walked into the classroom and saw a familiar face.

Her eyes narrowed a little bit on him for a moment before she looked anywhere in the room but him as she stood in front of the class. At least they had gotten her name right this time. That would have been embarrassing if the teacher deadnamed her in front of the class on her first day. It was bad enough that none of her stuff had arrived from Taris yet and she was stuck rotating a few sets of academy uniforms.

Ailis almost groaned out loud as the teacher pointed out her seat. His imperious tone gave him a scary demeanor and Ailis wasn't about to argue with him and get in trouble on her first day at this new academy however. No more fucking up, no more fucking off. She was serious about this Sith thing now.

Though she wanted to scream as she approached the table and took her seat next to Sol. She didn't look at him as she pulled out her datapad and pulled up the information for the days class. She was only a few days late to the start of this new season of classes so she wasn't so far behind as to be left in a crippling situation like when she first started at the Taris academy, but the information that they had lab 15 minutes into class sent her brain into a bit of a spiral.

Shit.

She didn't know anything about what they were working.

Her eye's caught a movement in her peripheral and she saw Sol's hand's awkwardly sign a hello. She rolled her eyes for a moment and sighed before looking at the space between them pointedly before returning her eyes to the class information, trying to find a clue of what they would be working on in the lab today. "What do you want." She said, her tone icy as her eyes stayed on the limited class notes she had been provided from the previous lessons.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Soleil Altan]

Seeing Ailis in a uniform would've normally been a little odd if it wasn't overshadowed by her being there at all and also the fact everyone wore one here. Sol was reminded distinctly of what she'd said about not just being a cute party girl. He tried not to cringe 'out loud' on his face, remembering her angry face after his response.

She didn't immediately respond so Sol's eyes at first returned to his notebook. He was then a little surprised she responded at all after a couple of moments, even coldly. Yeah, she was definitely still mad. His hand awkwardly rubbed at his neck while hazel eyes glanced down at Ailis' generic, barebones notes handout. Instead of signing something he looked away and flipped a couple of pages back in his notebook, erasing a small doodle and scribbling something down in its place before sliding it halfway over the table toward Ailis.

The top page and the next were dedicated to notes from the prior class session, some chemical diagrams he'd copied, and the occasional nature-based doodle in the margins. It looked like they'd been working to purify a more volatile mixture of things to create something stable, concentrated, and actually useful in future labs. There was a little note in a corner margin where a drawn fish used to be.

Congrats on changing schools.
I want to say I'm sorry for before.
But, get through this lab first?
If that's ok.

Sol didn't want to dump an involved, if silent, apology on her in the middle of class. Unless she wanted that, he supposed. Dark brows rose a little and he carried on. <How are you at chem?> he asked, cautiously curious while still offering an out from discussing prior things during class. It was also a normal and relevant question. If she'd gotten out of the entry program she must be working hard, right? He wasn't about to mess with her GPA because she was mad at him, but he also wasn't going to pretend she wasn't mad.

@Arcangel

 

[Ailis Drast]

Ailis put on her glasses and studied the sparse notes she had been provided by the teacher as Sol did... whatever Sol did. Though sparse, they did hold some key information. The chemical structure of the end product, another element that would apparently be used for later assignments. She flipped through the notes, a few names of chemicals that they would be playing with today sticking out to her that she tried to ignore.

Her eyes caught the motion of paper sliding across the table and she glanced down at the pages that Sol had slid to her. She could vaguely make out what he had written before catching his hand sign. Her hand moved over to the notes, settling on them for a moment before sliding them forwards, off of the table.

<Good enough to not need your notes.> She signed with the hand before raising her middle finger at him before getting up to grab lab supplies and chemical agents from the storeroom.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Soleil Altan]

Ailis tossing his notes and flipping him off wasn't a great sign and Sol's lips curled downward. Sighing softly he floated the notes off the floor and back in front of him, brushing off the front and looking down at his added note. Sol wasn't sure whether she'd read it or not. Well, he'd need it out for the experiment anyway.

He glanced up when Ailis went off to get stuff and got to work on his half of setup. Rather than following her, he meticulously set up the needed tools and sockets built into each lab table the same way he'd done plenty of times before, thinking to himself. Wait. Had she been wearing glasses? For whatever reason, seeing those on top of the new academy uniform got him thinking, putting puzzle pieces together in his head. Ways she'd acted between that party and the arcade, some stuff she'd said or signed those times. Sol quietly questioned his life choices.

When she'd exit the storeroom among other students with what they needed, having to deal with everyone else trying to get the same things, Sol would just be finishing the setup. The last step was adjusting burner strength with a small dial. He looked up again when Ailis returned. Sol would help move things into place if she didn't just do it herself.

It looked like she'd brought all the right bits. <Which part do you want?> he asked once he was within her sightline. It was a two-part process that needed monitoring and adjustment. <I'm less good at this once it needs close watching.> he admitted, looking slightly sheepish. Namely things like intuiting variance in reactions that require compensating for. Memorizing formulas or steps didn't help much with that.

@Arcangel

 

[Ailis Drast]

Ailis was one of the first students into the storeroom, grabbing one of the rolling trays that she began stacking glass beakers and trays of flutes onto. Bottles of assorted chemicals went on the tray and she hit the ones she knew everyone would be going for first, skipping a few that were being crowded around and grabbing a few alternatives instead. Not really a coincidence that the chemicals she avoided grabbing were also ones she could technically use to make crude.

First in, first out, Ailis returned to the table where Sol had set up all the burners, sockets, and other assorted tools.

"Just keep your hands to yourself and stay out of my way." Ailis said with a quick and short glare as she examined his setup, tweaking a few things and turning the burner up a few degrees. She started to unload the trays, setting up beakers and graduated cylinders, tubes and trays. If Sol knew his stuff he might notice that some of the ingredients that Ailis grabbed were off list, and that she had left off some of the listed ingredients.

Pouring a base liquid into the flask over the burner, she started that heating while setting up a tube drip of chemical compound. On the side she started mixing another liquid with powder she poured from a small packet as she lamented her luck. Of course on her first day of her first class she had been paired with this creep. She almost hoped he would try something, just so she could knock that smug look off his face.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Soleil Altan]

Sol looked a little hurt after Ailis' response, brows lowering. Did Ailis seriously think he would try something weird in the middle of class? This was worse than he'd thought. His mouth curled into a half grimace and his eyes left her face, signing <Won't be a problem.> mostly to himself since he didn't expect she was paying attention.

He watched what Ailis was doing instead, noting how she tweaked the prior settings. Dark brows rose with curiosity in spite of himself, drawn in as with any puzzle or new information. Soleil wasn't a chem master or anything but he knew some stuff. Like what the chemical list looked like and what they were for. Ailis' pile of ingredients was a little different than the list's. He didn't recognize all of the substitutes.

And Ailis was already working on them with a sense of ease and familiarity. He was wary at first but the start looked... fine? Normal? Not explosive? Either way, he didn't suppose that disagreeing would go well even if he felt the need. The professor didn't seem to have noticed, either. Or just didn't care. It was hard to tell.

Sol tore off a blank page and put it next to his open notebook. His hands moved forward along the table, not toward Ailis but in front of Sol and into her line of sight. <Why the switch? What's the difference?> he signed, hoping she'd answer if it was about the assignment. Immediately after he started noting down the list of chemicals and steps she took, comparing them to the original notes. Besides, a paper report needed to be turned in at the end of class. It was an honest question. Sol's eyes were fully off Ailis except for what her hands were doing with the gear and the experiment itself, clearly interested.

Immediately after he started noting down the list of chemicals and steps she took, comparing them to the original notes. A paper report needed to be turned in at the end of class anyway. It was a good chunk of the grade.

@Arcangel

 

[Ailis Drast]

Ailis was busy mixing the powder and liquid chemical with a metal stirring rod when she noticed Sol doing things off to the side. She glanced over to catch him asking what the difference was, why she switched. Well, she wasn't going to tell him she switched out the ingredients she knew she could make drugs with. She almost didn't say anything at all until she noticed he was taking notes. Right, the paper report.

Because showing you were competent at something wasn't enough.

She sighed as she eyed the liquid she was mixing, watching it start to fizz a little as the chemical reaction happened and a faint steam rose off it as certain elements vaporized into gas to dissipate away into the air. Raising the resulting liquid to eye level, she stared at it for a moment before deciding she was satisfied with the change in color from a greenish tinge to a light greenish tinge.

"I didn't feel like waiting for the others." She said, glancing back at the storeroom where students were still filing out with their supplies. She managed to cut the line by switching ingredients. "And I don't like the smell of the combining the Hexagensaldrose with the Heptaboffene." That was true... It would remind her of all the drug cooking she had done at home.

she upended half of the container of light green liquid into the other flask bubbling over the burner. Tweaking the drip nozzle, a steady drip of a shining silvery liquid dropped one by one into the composition. A puff of steam rose after each drop.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Soleil Altan]

Soleil hoped the sigh was for something other than his questions. It was a very small hope. Itty bitty, really. He kept scratching away at the paper portion, though, just the things he observed how long they took according to the wall clock. His eyes followed the green mixture as it moved, ending up finding Ailis' face while she was examining it. She looked very into it, so far as he could tell.

At which point Ailisanswered him, his gaze tracking hers to the storeroom. Sol's nose wrinkled a little, trying to recall that specific chemical reaction, but he wasn't really sure what it smelled like. Couldn't be good if Ailis recalled it that specifically. And she was out first with the new stuff. Made sense to him!

He paid attention and tried to add which thing substituted for what while Ailis worked. Now that the drip started there'd be a few minutes of waiting time before the next steps, the first few seconds of which Soleil took to add a couple of extra observations. He put the pencil down, glanced at Ailis. <You're really good at this.> he signed, turning to admiringly take in the falling silver droplets.

An answer wasn't expected, Sol was just stating his opinion. One that reminded him of why Ailis was angry. His fingers tapped thoughtfully in sequence against the notebook, glancing over again to make sure Ailis wasn't staring at the clock or something. <Would you feel better if you punched me?> Sol asked, staring at the experiment. His face looked like he was serious.

@Arcangel

 

[Ailis Drast]

With the drip started, there was a little bit of downtime to wait for in the reaction and Ailis eyed the clock anxiously. She saw Sol sign a compliment at her skill. Of course she was. She'd been doing it for six years, give or take. She hadn't gotten this way overnight.

She didn't respond, preferring not to give the compliment an answer though she itched to say something snarky back. She did glance over at Sol to catch him asking her if she would feel better if she punched him. She looked at his face to try to see if he was joking or not.

<Right now?> She signed back. She wasn't sure if punching him in the face in the middle of class was a great idea, but she couldn't deny that the idea sounded great in the moment. Maybe she could say it was some sort of accident or something. She wasn't sure what it was, probably the fact that he had been a total creeper to her, or the fact that he just so happened to be in her chemistry class, but whatever it was, his face looked totally punchable right now.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Soleil Altan]

Hazel eyes fully turned to notice Ailis noticing him, no smile nor grin in his expression. They flicked to her moving hands, then back up. His brows lowered slightly. <Later. Don't get detention over my dumb ass.> Sol signed. An earnest look formed behind his eyes.

<I know I fucked up, Ailis. Said stupid stuff and sketched you out. Didn't mean to, but I did.> Soleil was usually more laid back about things, wearing whatever he wanted and just doing things because he thought they'd be fun or interesting. He was also the type to dig his heels in if he didn't think he'd done something wrong. He'd also be the first to admit when he really had. <I wanna apologize and make it right. Really.> His head jerked toward the lab equipment.

<But after you've shown us how chem's done. Okay?> Because of Ailis' familiarity and substitutions, their group was farther along than anyone else. He didn't know how seriously she took what he said, but he was being genuine. Soleil didn't get the impression she was just a 'cute party girl' despite his horrible choice of words last time. Sometimes sense needed percussive maintenance, and he'd take the hit without complaint.

In the background, their professor was dryly eyeing a Feoorin and their partner. They were behind everyone else, still trying to get through the beginning steps and figure out which chemicals went in what beakers. A whispered argument was steadily increasing in volume.

@Arcangel

 

[Ailis Drast]

Ailis eyes watched Sol's hands as she listened to him with an impassive face. She was kind of listening, but mostly she was counting as stayed focus on the chemical concoction that was currently cooking away in front of her. As far as attempted pleas to make an apology went it was alright, and she half considered that maybe she had misjudged Sol.

And then she remembered the hours it took to get down from the top of the skyscraper. Walking beams and clambering down scaffolding. At one point she had even had to jump beam to beam before realizing that she could have just levitated up the ladder. Nah, fuck this guy.

Ailis said nothing as she turned her attention back to the chemistry project, turning off the valve of dripping silver and removing that vial before replacing it with another, this one a fluorescent blue. She picked up another beaker and swirled it around at eye level, analyzing its contents, a murky grey liquid. This was where things got... a little sketchy.

She glanced over at the arguing Feeorin and Ugnaught, the latter standing on a stool as he held a vial of Heptaboffene that he was about to pour into the Octazeclon base. She raised an eyebrow and glanced at Sol for a moment, trying to decide whether she should warn him or not. She huffed, annoyed as she glanced at him again. "You might want to duck." She said before ducking as the other students beaker exploded with the heat and chemical combination, sending shards of glass spraying everywhere.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Soleil Altan]

Well, he didn't get an answer, but he also didn't get another "go fuck yourself" type response so that was... something? Soleil decided to leave his offer where it was instead of insisting- they did also actually have a project to get back to- and went back to occupying his hands with note-taking. He had to pay extra attention to Ailis' process since he also had to note what substitutes she was using for what.

Which was why he was busy staring at Science instead of paying much attention to Keln and his Ugnaught partner. If it weren't for Ailis' warning he wouldn't have noticed until he went off. Sol looked at her when she spoke and then ducked a moment later as the beaker exploded, stray shards flung at the both of them a little bit but much less badly than if they hadn't ducked. And, importantly, not in the face. Technically anyway, since one bounced off Sol's lab goggles. He popped back up to check on their equipment, then glared toward the other pair.

So annoyed was he that Sol, out loud, clicked his tongue. But not as loudly as the professor did, whose book thumped down on his desk. "Acolyte Dorn, Acolyte Tigg. You fail. De-ten-tion," he spoke slowly without much inflection, staring at the two semi-injured over his glasses. By the time the two could start protesting the professor already had a detention slip written out and was walking toward the door. Feeorin and Ugnaught trudged after him, whisper-arguing the entire way until the professor slapped them upside the head with his book. He turned to stare over the class.

"Don't. Start. Trouble." And then he dragging his cowed charges to the medbay, along with the pair who'd been sitting in front of them. Soleil meanwhile had gotten up, looked concernedly at Ailis to see if she had any obvious cuts or anything, and went over to the sink and medkits before it got mobbed. He'd ducked slower and a little shard of glass caught him in the arm.

Sol pulled it out with a huffed breath and tossed it into the biohazard bin, brushed off a couple of other bits from his lab coat, and came back with a basic medkit. He still looked ticked off. <Thank you. You okay?> He offered Ailis the kit with a small smile. Rolling his sleeve up and slapping a patch over the small puncture was the limit of his own efforts, mostly so it didn't bleed everywhere while they were working.

A hand moved a bit forward, which turned into signing <Glass in your hair.> and him flicking his own approximately where the glittering little bit was.

@Arcangel

 

[Ailis Drast]

Glass sprayed everywhere as the beaker exploded and quite a few people seemed to take a knick or scratch. As far as Ailis could tell she was unharmed however. Sol came over with a first aid kit and Ailis waved him off as she grabbed a small broom to carefully brush the glass off their table and away from their workspace. Carefully, and quickly. She was keeping track of the time and she needed to get thing's going soon otherwise they might as well start over.

She glanced at Sol as he seemed to make a move towards her with his hand, before stopping and signing that she had glass in her hair. She glanced up but decided to ignore it for now as she brought the beaker back up that she had been swirling before the event. "I'll get it later." She said blankly, a bit withdrawn as she concentrated on pouring the fresh chemical into the mixture. It started to froth and bubble quite dramatically before she opened the drip line once more, this time setting it to a faster pace.

She watched the mix brew, each drop of fluorescent blue liquid calming the clearly unstable brew down to maintain a steady boil. "The Isobezide drip keeps the formula from exploding while the Tripedyde catalyzes the mix." She explained, finally moving to pluck the glass shard out of her hair and throwing it into the trash.

@Mr. Teatime

 

[Soleil Altan]

Sol passed the medkit off to the next table that wanted it and scooted around Ailis back to his chair. Hazel eyes looked up at the beaker she handled, leaning forward slightly and plucking up his pencil. With habitual wariness, he observed the initial reaction. then the blue drops fall one by one into the beaker, obviously interested. Keln and his partner must've been too busy arguing over this step.

He straightened and turned to look fully at Ailis when she spoke, brows raising slightly. Sol hadn't expected her to say anything and was just gonna keep noting down the labels when he saw them. After a moment he went back to the notes, somewhat less stiff than he'd been from the moment he'd been assigned as her partner. Sol copied down what she'd said, one corner off his lips lifting a little

<Think they added Iclulphehide instead?> he signed during a spare moment. Sol remembered it being a catalyzing agent for low-heat or cold reactions. It was a paler, cloudier blue than the Isobezide Ailis'd used and he didn't think it'd work right, but he could also be wrong.

Once this mixture was catalyzed and stable, it needed to be concentrated down and carefully poured into a glass fridge tray for later use. Anticipating this Sol noted the clock time of stabilization and got up to grab one from the back and pre-cool it in the lab's big cooling unit. As he came back and returned to his seat, a black and white crow landed on their windowsill and tapped twice on the glass with its beak. Sol gave a small grin and waved at it.

@Arcangel