Yay controversy, right? I'll just cut straight to it. In the beginning of my story, my mc violently escapes a "research lab" based in the upper middle floors in an NYC skyscraper. I need an idea for the cause of the explosion. The mc is already almost down the elevator/stairs by the time the explosion happens. The explosion is big enough to draw lots of attention, but not big enough to knock the skyscraper down. There is certain magical elements in the setting, so a magic explosion isn't out of the question. The "research lab" is a front for an organization to experiment with "curses", which are more like magic induced mutations. Don't know if any more context would be necessary. I've been trying to think of a way to get this to work for a good four hours now, any idea at all will help.
is it an explosion caused on purpose or as an accident? Gas explosions seem to be well publicised in the media, however they are usually in residences or smaller buildings and not skyscrapers as far as I'm aware.
Any humour in your tale? It's a fact that certain cleaning chemicals inadvertently mixed in a toilet pan can emit explosive fumes. Discard some magical potions down there as well, and you have an opportunity to take out a few linked toilets and down pipes perhaps across a few floors. And anyone smoking on the pan at the time...
Explosives placed years before by government agents to provide a means for provoking a false flag operation.
A lab should have some nice chemicals lying around. Maybe a fork jabbed into the side of a bottle of some such chemical, placed in a microwave and then set to cook for 30 minutes? Metal fork provides the sparks for ignition. Chemical boiling provides the accelerant and the fuel.
There's a lot of baggage with that idea, too much in my opinion. Most people are unimpressed by the 911 Truthers.
Alkali metals like pure sodium are extremely explosive when exposed to water. That last one, francium, looks like an excellent candidate for such experimenting. Also, reactions that are initially enclosed will have greater force build up when the container explodes.
Didn't sound like a joke. I reread it and it still doesn't. Edited to add: I believe you if you say so. But you didn't need to be snide.
As cliché isn't an adjective, 'snide' isn't a verb. High-horsedness will often elicit snideness. Everything can be funny if you look at it right.
They're experimenting with curses? That's enough to blow up a lab right there. Mix two of those things together the wrong way, and anything could happen - especially if they're working with dragon's blood. I mean, it's certainly effective, but DANG that stuff is unstable - not to mention the animal cruelty implications. Seriously, some one needs to start lobbying the Fairy Oversight Commission to ban the stuff. I mean - not to belabor the point - but there are SO many safer, cheaper, and more humane options. Grffin Phelgm has shown a ton more promise without the instability, and I've heard some really cool research being done with umbilical cord stem cells from fire-breathing cave trolls. But no, people want their stupid dragon blood, because that's what black market alchemists have been using accelerant for fourteen hundred friggin' years and people are so stuck in the 7th century. Idiots.
